Latest news with #BenjaminNetanyahu-led
Arab News
3 days ago
- Politics
- Arab News
Pakistan condemns Israeli bid to annex West Bank as ‘deplorable,' demands world action
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan condemns Israel's attempt to annex parts of the West Bank as a 'deplorable act' and a grave violation of international law, the Pakistani foreign office said on Friday, adding the move underscores Israel's disregard for Palestinian rights. Israel's parliament this month passed a non-binding resolution that urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu-led government to extend sovereignty over the West Bank, including the Jordan Valley. The motion, though symbolic and without legal force, reflects mounting political pressure from Israeli right-wing lawmakers to formalize annexation, a move that has drawn sharp international criticism. 'Pakistan unequivocally condemns the Israeli parliament's unlawful attempt to assert 'sovereignty' over the occupied West Bank,' the Pakistani foreign office said in a statement. 'Such deliberate and provocative actions highlight the occupying power's systematic attempts to undermine efforts for peace and entrench its illegal occupation.' The development comes amid Israel's ongoing war on Gaza that has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians since Oct. 2023, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Pakistan maintains that the only viable remedy to the Palestine dispute is the realization of the two-state solution, which includes the establishment of Palestine as a viable, secure and contiguous state on the basis of pre-1967 borders. The South Asian country is also using its presidency of the UN Security Council this month to help refocus global attention on the crisis in Gaza and the wider Israeli Palestinian conflict. 'These unilateral measures represent a dangerous escalation that jeopardizes regional stability and prospects for a just and lasting settlement,' the Pakistani foreign office said. 'Pakistan calls upon the international community to take swift and decisive action to hold Israel accountable for its violations of United Nations Security Council resolutions and international humanitarian law. These measures will neither be recognized nor alter the internationally acknowledged status of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.'
Time of India
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Iran's CHILLING Threat Amid New Offensive Against Israel, Military Says 'Leave Occupied Land'
/ Jun 16, 2025, 08:39AM IST Iran has warned Israeli citizens amid its plans to escalate attacks on Israel. Iran's military spokesperson Colonel Reza Sayyad warned Israeli settlers to "leave occupied homeland." The Iranian military dubbed Benjamin Netanyahu-led Israeli regime as "desperate, corrupt and criminal".
News18
13-06-2025
- Politics
- News18
How Israel Caught Iran Off Guard With Operation Rising Lion: Deception Tactic Decoded
Last Updated: From a vacation ploy to son's wedding and "tensions with US", over the past few days before Friday's strikes, Israel pushed Iran into inaction with several decoys. Israel's latest airstrike on Iran once again showed how the Benjamin Netanyahu-led country uses clever planning and deception to protect itself and catch its enemies off guard. Israel launched a major operation — dubbed Operation Rising Lion — striking Iranian military and nuclear infrastructure in Tehran, Natanz, and other strategic sites. Israeli strikes on Iran on Friday killed Iran's Revolutionary Guards Commander Hossein Salami, local media reported. An Israeli defence official also claimed that the Israeli strikes have 'likely eliminated" Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of the Islamic republic's armed forces, and several senior nuclear scientists. Israeli forces managed to fool Iran during this recent attack by creating a strategy that tricked Iranian defences and left them mostly ineffective. According to a senior Israeli official who spoke to The Jerusalem Post, the decoy began on Thursday night. Israel's security cabinet meeting was deliberately labeled as a discussion on hostage negotiations in Gaza. Ministers were told they would discuss stalled efforts to free Israeli captives held by Hamas. 'The aim was to put Iran to sleep," the source told the newspaper. Once inside the secure meeting, however, the cabinet unanimously approved the Iran strike, a report in The Jerusalem Post stated. All ministers signed a Shomer Sod (Guardian of the Secret) agreement—an NDA that ensured total silence. Only a small circle of officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Mossad chief David Barnea, and senior defence figures were fully briefed on the real objective. To further lower Iran's alert levels, reports were spread over the media that Netanyahu was planning a family holiday in the Galilee and would be attending his son Avner's wedding next week—giving the appearance that no major military action was imminent. Then came the diplomatic decoy. Israel announced a trip to Washington for Dermer and Barnea, supposedly to meet a US envoy in a 'sixth round" of Iran nuclear talks in Oman—talks that don't exist. In reality, both men never left Israel. Netanyahu in fact refused to deny a fabricated leak that described tensions between him and former US President Donald Trump over a potential Iran strike. Israel told the US that it did not deny claims of friction between Washington and Jerusalem, ensuring Iran would be distracted. Iranian intelligence likely picked up on tensions, expecting Israel to hesitate — which Israel intended. Meanwhile, Channel 12 journalist Amit Segal added an interesting detail – On April 12, Trump had publicly given Iran '60 days to reach a deal." The Israeli strike came exactly on day 61. Meanwhile, Iran has now launched over 100 drones in the direction of Israel in retaliation. The Art Of Deception Not New For Israel This wasn't the first time Israel relied on deception to disorient Iran. In 2020, top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in a strike reportedly involving a remote-controlled gun and artificial intelligence —carried out without alerting Iranian security. In 2018, Mossad agents stole nuclear documents from a secret warehouse in Tehran and smuggled them back to Israel — without Iran realising it had been breached until it was too late. In 2007, Israeli jets destroyed a Syrian nuclear reactor (believed to be Iranian-backed) in Operation Orchard using radar jamming and low-level flying to escape detection. The Israel-Iran Conflict The conflict between Israel and Iran has persisted for decades. Israel considers Iran its most dangerous adversary, primarily due to Tehran's nuclear ambitions, calls for Israel's destruction, and ongoing support for armed groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. Israel fears that a nuclear-capable Iran would fundamentally disrupt the strategic balance in the region and pose an existential threat to the Jewish state. Conversely, Iran positions itself as a leader in the anti-Israel resistance, frequently using state media and proxy forces to challenge Israel's legitimacy. Iran finances and arms militias in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Gaza that regularly attack Israeli territory. Historically, both nations have engaged through proxies, cyberattacks, and covert operations. However, the recent shift to open, direct confrontations, including Iran's unprecedented missile strike on Israel in April and Israel's latest bombing of Iranian territory, signifies a dangerous new phase of direct state-on-state warfare with fewer restraints and heightened risks. Get breaking news, in-depth analysis, and expert perspectives on everything from geopolitics to diplomacy and global trends. Stay informed with the latest world news only on News18. Download the News18 App to stay updated! tags : Benjamin Netanyahu Iran-Israel Israel-Iran tensions Location : New Delhi, India, India First Published: June 13, 2025, 11:05 IST News world How Israel Caught Iran Off Guard With Operation Rising Lion: Deception Tactic Decoded
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First Post
05-06-2025
- Politics
- First Post
Explained: Is a genocide unfolding in Gaza?
Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack, has killed over 50,500 people, mostly civilians. While Israel maintains it has acted in 'self defence', rights groups, lawyers and some governments are describing the Benjamin Netanyahu-led country's actions as a 'genocide'. What is a genocide, and who can declare one? read more Palestinians gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis, as the Israel-Gaza conflict continues, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, December 4, 2024. File image/Reuters Rights groups, lawyers and some governments are describing the Gaza war as 'genocide' and calling for a ceasefire but Israel, created in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust of Jews, vehemently rejects the explosive term. Israel says it is seeking to wipe out Gaza's Islamist rulers and free its hostages still held in the occupied Palestinian coastal strip since the Hamas militant attack in Israel on October 7, 2023. But Israel's devastating war on Gaza – largely populated by descendants of Palestinian refugees who were expelled from or fled what became Israeli land in 1948 – has killed tens of thousands of civilians and sparked growing global outrage. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The accusation against Israel of genocide has been made with increasing force from quarters ranging from 'Schindler's List' star Ralph Fiennes to Amnesty International and some Israeli historians. What does the legal term really mean and who can decide whether it applies? What is 'genocide'? The word genocide – derived from the Greek word 'genos', for race or tribe, and 'cide', from the Latin for 'to kill' – was coined in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin. Lemkin, a Polish Jew who had fled to the United States, used it to describe the crimes committed by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. It was used for the first time within a legal framework by an international military tribunal at Nuremberg to try Nazi leaders for their crimes in 1945. However, those accused were eventually convicted on charges of crimes against humanity. Jewish children were kept alive in Germany's Auschwitz for use in medical experiments. Image courtesy: It has been recognised within international law since 1948 and the advent of the UN Genocide Convention. That text defines genocide as any of five 'acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group'. These five acts include killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births and forcibly transferring children out of the group. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Regardless of the definition, the qualification of 'genocide' has been hugely sensitive over the decades. What is happening in Gaza? Israel's military offensive on Gaza since October 2023 has killed 54,510 people, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the occupied Palestinian territory. The United Nations said on May 30 that the territory's entire population of more than two million people was at risk of famine, even if Israel said earlier that month it was partially easing the complete blockade on aid it imposed on Gaza on March 2. Palestinian people with empty bowls wait for food at a donation point in Rafah. The widespread hunger and malnutrition in Gaza is catastrophic, UN has said. (Photo: NPR) Despite international calls for an end to the war, a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas remains elusive. The latest war started after Hamas fighters attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Of the 251 hostages seized, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says, are dead. Who speaks of 'genocide' in Gaza? In December 2023, South Africa brought a case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations' highest judicial organ, alleging that Israel's Gaza offensive breached the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Israel denies the accusation. In rulings in January, March and May 2024, the ICJ told Israel to do everything possible to 'prevent' acts of genocide during its military operations in Gaza, including urgently to facilitate humanitarian aid to prevent famine. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD While no court has so far ruled that the ongoing conflict is a genocide, human rights groups and international law experts – including several who are Israeli – have used the term to describe it. Amnesty International has accused Israel of carrying out a 'live-streamed genocide' in Gaza, while Human Rights Watch has alleged it is responsible for 'acts of genocide'. Palestinians mourn their relatives who were killed in Israeli airstrikes on a medical center in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, on Thursday, May 15, 2025. AP A UN committee in November found Israel's warfare in Gaza was 'consistent with the characteristics of genocide'. And a UN investigation concluded in March that Israel carried out 'genocidal acts' in Gaza through the destruction of the strip's main IVF clinic and other reproductive healthcare facilities. Omer Bartov, an Israeli scholar of the Holocaust, wrote in August last year that 'Israel was engaged in systematic war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocidal actions'. Fellow Israeli historians Amos Goldberg and Daniel Blatman, in January, co-wrote an article in which they said: 'Israel is indeed committing genocide in Gaza.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Western governments have largely refrained from using the word, with France's President Emmanuel Macron saying it was not up to a 'political leader to use to term but up to historians to do so when the time comes'. But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has used it, as has Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. What does Israel say? Israel alleges it is exercising its right to security and 'self defence', an argument echoed by its staunch ally, the United States. Israel has dismissed accusations of genocide as 'blatant lies' and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the UN Human Rights Council of being 'an antisemitic, corrupt, terror-supporting and irrelevant body'. He has said UN experts should instead focus on 'crimes against humanity and the war crimes committed by the Hamas terrorist organisation in the worst massacre against the Jewish people since the Holocaust', referring to October 7. The International Criminal Court (ICC) in November issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant over allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Israel's war in Gaza – including starvation as a method of warfare. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. File image/ Reuters It also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif over allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes in the October 7 attack, but the case against him was dropped in February after confirmation of his death. ICC prosecutor Karim Khan also initially sought warrants against Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh but dropped those applications because they had been killed in Israeli attacks. Who decides and when? Thijs Bouwknegt, a genocide expert based in the Netherlands, said the Israeli policy in Gaza seemed to be 'designed to make a civilian population either perish or leave' but a court would have to decide if it was genocide. 'It bears the hallmarks of it, but we still have to wait and see whether it actually was,' he said. In the case of Rwanda, in which the United Nations said extremist Hutus killed some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994, it took a decade for an international tribunal to conclude genocide had happened. It was not until 2007 that the ICJ recognised as genocide the murder by Bosnian Serb forces of almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995 during the Bosnian war. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'The threshold for genocide is nearly impossible to meet,' Bouwknegt explained. 'You have to prove that there was an intent and that there was the only possible explanation for what happened.' Has there been an intent? French-Israeli lawyer Omer Shatz said, 'there is no doubt that war crimes, crimes against humanity are being committed' in Gaza. But he agreed intent was more difficult to prove. Israeli military patrols near the Al Shifa Hospital compound in Gaza City during ground operation against Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip on November 22, 2023. File Photo/ Reuters That is why, after the ICC issued an arrest warrant against Netanyahu and Gallant, he filed a report with the court in December arguing they were among eight Israeli officials responsible for 'incitement to genocide in Gaza'. 'If incitement is established, that establishes intent,' he told AFP. His 170-page report lists such alleged incitements, including Gallant at the start of the war saying Israel was fighting 'human animals' in Gaza and far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich urging 'total extermination' in the Palestinian territory. It cites President Isaac Herzog failing to differentiate between Palestinian militants and civilians when he spoke of 'an entire nation out there that is responsible' for the October 7 attack. Mathilde Philip-Gay, an international law expert, said it was ultimately up to a judge to decide on whether the genocide label applied. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD But, she warned: 'International law cannot stop a war.' 'The judiciary will intervene after the war. The qualification (of genocide) is very important for victims but it will come later,' she said. What now? The 1948 Genocide Convention says signatories can call on UN organs 'to take such action… for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide'. But while it implies they should act to stop any such crime from occurring, it does not detail how. Activists have called for an arms embargo and sanctions against Israel. The European Union last month ordered a review of its cooperation deal with Israel and Britain halted trade talks with the government. But the United States and Germany, two major weapons suppliers, are not likely to want to review their relationship with Israel. With inputs from AFP
Time of India
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Big Gaza Ceasefire ANNOUNCEMENT By Trump? U.S. President's Huge Update, Israel 'AGREES' TO Truce
/ May 26, 2025, 07:09PM IST Has Donald Trump finally brokered a ceasefire in Israel? A Lebanese outlet has claimed that Tel Aviv has agreed to a proposal on ceasefire-hostage agreement. The outlet Al-Madayeen, affiliated with Hezbollah, claimed that Benjamin Netanyahu-led Israel has agreed to a 70-day ceasefire in Gaza. According to the draft proposal, the ceasefire includes release of 10 hostages, five alive and five deceased. A media report claimed that Trump is expected to announce a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza in coming days. However, another report claimed that Israel had rejected the proposal.
