West Bank: Israeli soldiers fire tear gas and throw stun grenades at Palestinian mourners
The service was being held for Ayman Abu Dawood who had been killed on Thursday in the Gaza Strip during an Israeli airstrike. Abu Dawood was a former detainee from the West Bank who had been exiled to Gaza several years ago.
Israeli soldiers raided the service in the Wadi al-Hariyya neighborhood of Hebron wreaking havoc inside with the tear gas and stun grenades, destroying chairs and forcibly evacuating everyone present.
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Middle East Eye
an hour ago
- Middle East Eye
Tony Blair Institute linked to Gaza plan condemned as ethnic cleansing: Report
The Tony Blair Institute (TBI) has been linked to a project widely condemned for proposing the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, involving a sweeping postwar redevelopment of the besieged Strip. Plans include a "Trump Riviera" and infrastructure named after wealthy Gulf monarchs, according to documents reviewed by the Financial Times (FT) and revealed on Sunday. The vision, outlined in a slide deck titled The Great Trust, was created by a group of Israeli businessmen with support from consultants at Boston Consulting Group (BCG). BCG's plan assumed that at least 25 percent of Palestinians would leave "voluntarily", with most never returning. It remains unclear whether Palestinians would have any choice in the matter, but the proposal has been widely condemned as ethnic cleansing of the territory's indigenous population. The project aimed to transform the enclave which has been reduced to rubble by Israel into a lucrative investment hub. Central to the proposal were blockchain-based trade schemes, special economic zones with low taxes, and artificial islands modelled on Dubai's coastline. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Although TBI insists it neither endorsed nor authored the slide, two of its staff members participated in discussions related to the initiative. The Tony Blair Institute was founded by the former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2016 to allegedly promote global policy reform and combat extremism. One internal TBI document — titled Gaza Economic Blueprint— circulated within the project group, outlined ambitious economic and infrastructural proposals. These included a deep-water port linking Gaza to the India-Middle East-Europe corridor and visions for artificial islands off the coast. This picture taken from a position on the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip, shows an Israeli vehicle returning from the besieged Palestinian territory on July 1, 2025 (AFP) Significantly, unlike the Israeli businessmen's proposal, the TBI document did not suggest relocating Palestinians — a notion backed by US President Donald Trump and condemned internationally as a plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza. While some ideas overlapped, the Blair Institute maintains it played no role in drafting or approving the BCG-backed presentation. Initially, TBI denied any involvement, with a spokesperson telling the FT: "Your story is categorically wrong... TBI was not involved in the preparation of the deck.' However, after the FT presented evidence of a 12-person message group that included TBI staff, BCG consultants, and Israeli organisers, the institute acknowledged its staff had been aware of and present during related discussions. "We have never said TBI knew nothing about what this group was working on," the spokesperson clarified. TBI claims it was in a "listening mode" and that its internal paper was one of many analyses of postwar scenarios being explored. Blair was on 'listening mode' The group behind the proposal includes high-profile Israeli tech investors such as Liran Tancman and venture capitalist Michael Eisenberg. Both reportedly played a role in setting up the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). GHF's credibility has been marred by controversy. The chaotic rollout of the programme has seen at least 700 Palestinians killed and more than 4,000 wounded by Israeli forces while trying to access aid. Phil Reilly, whom Middle East Eye previously reported served as a senior adviser at BCG for eight years and began discussing Gaza aid with Israeli civilians while still in that role in early 2024, met with Tony Blair in London earlier this year. TBI said Reilly requested the meeting and described Blair's involvement as limited: "Again, Mr Blair listened. But as you know, TBI is not part of GHF." A British charity associated with former prime minister Tony Blair displays a map on its website including the occupied Golan Heights, West Bank and Gaza Strip as part of Israel. Palestinian men carry the body of a person reportedly killed while waiting for aid delivery, outside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, on July 3, 2025 (AFP) This is not the first time Blair or his foundation has faced controversy. He serves as an honorary patron of the UK branch of Israel's Jewish National Fund (JNF), which has faced heavy criticism for its activities — including donating £1m to what it described as 'Israel's largest militia' and erasing Palestine from its official maps. TBI has also received money from a financial fraudster linked with illegal Israeli settlements and an American Islamophobic network. A source previously told the Financial Times that GHF had received a $100m pledge from an unnamed country. The 30-page deck, shared with US officials and other regional stakeholders, proposed placing Gaza's public land into a trust managed under Israeli oversight until the territory is 'demilitarised and deradicalised'. Private landowners would be offered digital tokens in exchange for their plots, with the promise of permanent housing. The proposal listed ten 'Mega Projects', including infrastructure named after Gulf leaders — the 'MBS Ring' and 'MBZ Central' — and aimed to attract major international companies such as Tesla, Amazon, and IKEA. According to BCG's projections, the initiative could raise Gaza's economic value from '$0 today' to $324 billion.
Dubai Eye
2 hours ago
- Dubai Eye
Israel sends delegation to Qatar for Gaza talks ahead of Netanyahu trip to US
An Israeli delegation left for Qatar on Sunday for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, an Israeli official said, hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to head to Washington to meet US President Donald Trump. Public pressure is mounting on Netanyahu to secure a permanent ceasefire and end the war in Gaza, a move opposed by some hardline members of his right-wing coalition. Others, including Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, have expressed support. Hamas said on Friday it had responded to a US-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal in a "positive spirit", a few days after Trump said Israel had agreed "to the necessary conditions to finalise" a 60-day truce. But in a sign of the potential challenges still facing the two sides, a Palestinian official from a group allied with Hamas said concerns remained over humanitarian aid, passage through the Rafah crossing in southern Israel to Egypt and clarity over a timetable for Israeli troop withdrawals. Netanyahu's office also said in a statement that changes sought by Hamas to the ceasefire proposal were "not acceptable to Israel". However, his office said the delegation would still fly to Qatar to "continue efforts to secure the return of our hostages based on the Qatari proposal that Israel agreed to". Netanyahu, who is due to meet Trump on Monday, has repeatedly said Hamas must be disarmed, a demand the group has so far refused to discuss. HOSTAGES On Saturday evening, crowds gathered at a public square in Tel Aviv near the defence ministry headquarters to call for a ceasefire deal and the return of around 50 hostages still held in Gaza. The demonstrators waved Israeli flags, chanted and carried posters with photos of the hostages. Some family members of those held in Gaza who had joined the protests said they were concerned that the deal might not return all the hostages immediately. The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Gaza's health ministry says Israel's retaliatory military assault on the enclave has killed over 57,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, displaced the population, mostly within Gaza, and left the territory in ruins. Around 20 of the remaining hostages are believed to be still alive. A majority of the original hostages have been freed through diplomatic negotiations, though the Israeli military has also recovered some.
Middle East Eye
4 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Two IRGC personnel killed defusing explosives in Iran
Two members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) have been killed while attempting to defuse explosives left over after Israel's attacks in June. The Tasnim news agency, citing a statement from the IRGC, said that "two members of the Guards were killed on Sunday in Khorramabad while clearing the area of explosives left by the Zionist regime's aggression". The Fars news agency also reported on Sunday the death of an Iranian soldier in Yazd, central Iran, from injuries sustained during Israel's strikes on the country. Twelve days of attacks between Israel and Iran, sparked off by an Israeli assault on 13 June, left more than 900 dead in Iran and 28 dead in Israel. A ceasefire between the two countries took effect on 24 June. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters On Saturday evening, Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, participated in a religious ceremony in Tehran, his first appearance since the truce. On Thursday, Iran announced the reopening of its airspace, including over Tehran, which had been closed on the first day of the war.
