Israel ‘not being held to account over Gaza ceasefire breaches’

The international community has not been forceful enough in holding Israel to account for its repeated ceasefire violations in Gaza, says Professor Sami Al-Arian from Istanbul Zaim University.

He told Al Jazeera that the UN Gaza resolution adopted earlier this week has “a real problem”, which is that it has no mechanism by which it can bring sanctions against Israel for breaches of the truce.

“The problem with the UN resolution is that it doesn’t force Israel to do anything,” he said. Al-Arian added that there were no repercussions for Israel continuing to kill Palestinians in strikes. “If it violates [the ceasefire]? If it kills? Nothing.”

He said that the current death toll in the enclave “shouldn’t be acceptable to anyone”. The professor also noted that larger quantities of aid – promised under the ceasefire agreement – needed to be brought into the Gaza Strip.

At least 67 Palestinian children killed in Gaza since ‘ceasefire’ began: UN

At least 67 Palestinian children have been killed in the Gaza Strip since a United States-brokered ceasefire agreement came into effect last month, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says.

Speaking during a news conference in Geneva, UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires said the death toll includes a baby girl killed in an Israeli air strike on a home in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis on Thursday.

It also includes seven other children killed a day earlier as Israel carried out a wave of attacks across the enclave.

“This is during an agreed ceasefire. The pattern is staggering,” Pires told reporters. “As we have repeated many times, these are not statistics: each was a child with a family, a dream, a life – suddenly cut short by continued violence.”

UN warns of escalating violence in West Bank as Palestinian deaths rise

The UN has warned about worsening conditions in the occupied West Bank, reporting a surge in violence that has left Palestinian civilians facing mounting casualties, displacement and insecurity.

“Turning to the West Bank, our humanitarian colleagues warned that the level of violence there remains deeply concerning with casualties, property damage, displacement, loss of livelihoods and a strong sense of insecurity for Palestinian civilians,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

This week, Dujarric said the number of Palestinian children killed in 2025 reached 50 in the Israeli-occupied territory. “Overall, more than 200 Palestinians have now been killed by Israeli forces since the start of the year,” he said.

Syrians speak out against Israeli detentions in southern province

Israeli soldiers point guns at Syrians who gather to record their incursions that have become more brazen, frequent and violent.

Across Quneitra province, Israeli tanks have established checkpoints, and patrols have put up barriers. They stop and search civilians – some go missing.

Khadija Arnous says her husband was taken from his house in July, and that her brother-in-law, who was released from Sednaya prison after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, is also in Israeli custody.

“At 3am, Israeli forces took my husband and my brother-in-law. We’ve had no news from them since. Israeli soldiers ordered the men to leave the house and blindfolded them,” she says. “I have four children, and my husband was the sole provider. I urge the [Syrian] government to find a solution for us. Why are the Israelis coming and taking whoever they want?”

Israel describes them as security operations. Syrian authorities and human rights organisations call them abductions or unlawful arrests. As many as 40 people are reported to have been arrested in recent weeks.

Israeli army’s outposts on Syrian soil break ‘every international law on the books’

The Israeli military presence in a buffer zone between Israel and Syria violates “every international law on the books”, a political analyst has told Al Jazeera.

Since the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December last year, the Israeli army has established at least nine bases in the area, according to satellite images verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking unit, despite a 1974 agreement preventing such activity.

Speaking from Damascus, Ammar Khaf, from the Omran Centre for Strategic Studies, described the Israeli army outposts as “an added occupation to the Golan Heights”.

Khaf also decried Israel’s “complete destruction” of forests in the zone, as well as condemning the damage it had caused to people’s livelihoods.

The political analyst said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the area this week showed that he and his country were not being held to account.

“The Syrian government is trying to deal with it diplomatically and to exercise self-restraint,” Khaf said. “But there are people being forcibly displaced, abducted into Israeli prisons without charge.”

He argued that the UN most likely did not have any leverage over the situation in southern Syria, but that Damascus hoped to use its relations with the US, Russia and China to stop Israeli aggression on its soil.

White House unaware that US ambassador to Israel met with convicted spy

The White House has said it was unaware that a meeting took place earlier this year between United States ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and Jonathan Pollard, a former US Navy officer who was convicted of spying for Israel and jailed for decades.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said that while the Trump administration had no advance knowledge of the meeting, “the president stands by our ambassador, Mike Huckabee, and all that he is doing for the United States and Israel”.

Huckabee met Pollard in July at the US embassy in Jerusalem, The New York Times revealed on Thursday. The meeting was reportedly not on Huckabee’s official schedule and took place without the knowledge of US intelligence agencies, The Times reported, quoting two unnamed US officials.

NGOs sue Leonardo, Italy government over arms sales to Israel

Seven civil society groups in Italy brought a lawsuit against the government and the state-controlled defence group Leonardo in late September over arms sales to Israel. The move comes in a bid to stop weapons being exported from Italy to Israel.

Speaking on Thursday, the NGOs alleged Leonardo is still selling its products to the Israeli army. Under Italian law, arms exports are prohibited to countries waging war. “Israel carries out in the West Bank and Gaza a military occupation and systematic apartheid that are fed with weapons supplied by foreign partners,” the groups said.

In a statement, Leonardo, one of the world’s biggest weapons producers, said it has not broken any laws and pledged to defend itself in court. Any suggestion its actions are linked to Israel’s war on Gaza is “a serious distortion without legal basis”, it said.

The Italian government has yet to comment on the lawsuit.

Ah the good old "Wir haben es nicht gewußt" defense. Or rather simple denial.

Staff, students at Irish university demand cutting all ties with Israel

A coalition of staff, students and graduates at the University of Galway in Ireland plans to stage on-campus protests calling on authorities to end all links with Israeli companies and educational institutions.

The Campus Anti Genocide group said it’s demanding an immediate end to what it described as “collusion with Israeli genocide and apartheid”.

In September, the university said contractual obligations prevented it from backing out of a project with the Technion Institute of Technology in Israel. That programme, the ASTERISK research project, is looking at ways to produce hydrogen from seawater. It is co-funded by the European Union.

Red Cross to cut 2026 budget by 17%, shed 2,900 jobs

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says it’s cutting its 2026 budget by 17 percent because of declining donor contributions and will slash 2,900 staff positions.

“The ICRC remains committed to working on the front lines of conflict where few others can operate,” President Mirjana Spoljaric said in a statement. “The financial reality is forcing us to make difficult decisions to ensure we can continue to deliver critical humanitarian assistance to those who need it most.”

The ICRC has played a crucial role during the Gaza war, returning Palestinian prisoners and Israeli captives along with other humanitarian efforts.

“As defence budgets surge, states must also put more effort and resources into preventing conflicts, defending the rules of war, and providing humanitarian relief,” said Spoljaric. “Failure to do so risks a world of ever more and greater suffering.”

UN criticizes sanctions targeting International Criminal Court

The United Nations has denounced the use of sanctions against officials tied to the International Criminal Court (ICC), saying such measures undermine the global justice system and inflict significant personal harm.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, was asked to comment on an article by Le Monde that detailed the sweeping disruptions the US measures have caused to French Judge Nicolas Guillou’s work and daily life after his approval of arrest warrants for Israeli officials last year.

In August, the US sanctioned four ICC officials, including Guillou, for authorising the warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing both officials of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.

“It’s sadly he [Guillou] is not the only person linked to the International Criminal Court who has been placed under unilateral sanctions,” Dujarric said. “We don’t believe that its members should be targeted by unilateral sanctions, which, as I think, as the article says, and as we know, have a deep impact on people and their families.”

UN rapporteur denounces rising Israeli strikes on Lebanon

A UN expert has warned Israeli air strikes on Lebanon are undermining ceasefire efforts and may amount to war crimes citing repeated deadly attacks on civilians in populated areas.

Morris Tidball-Binz, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, condemned Israel’s renewed strikes, pointing to the deadly attack on the Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in Sidon on Tueaday, and other assaults across the country.

“This is not an isolated incident but part of a disturbing pattern of lethal strikes in populated areas by Israel, and of total disregard for the ceasefire and for Lebanese peace efforts,” said Tidball-Binz.

The Ein el-Hilweh attack followed near-daily strikes despite the ceasefire with Lebanon and Hezbollah, describing repeated attacks on civilians as “war crimes and a violation of the UN Charter”. “These incidents form part of a broader pattern of unlawful killings and violations of the ceasefire agreement by Israel,” Tidball-Binz noted.

Israeli strike kills 1 in south Lebanon as ceasefire breaches go on

One person has been killed in an Israeli air strike on southern Lebanon in the latest deadly violation of last year’s ceasefire agreement. The official National News Agency reported the attack targeted a vehicle on the outskirts of Froun in the Bint Jbeil district, without providing further details.

On Friday, the Lebanese Health Ministry said 331 people have been killed and 945 wounded by Israeli fire since the ceasefire with Hezbollah took effect on November 27, 2024. On Thursday, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said it recorded more than 10,000 air and ground violations by Israel inside Lebanese territory since the ceasefire began.

UN denounces latest Israeli ‘threats’ to peacekeepers in Lebanon

The United Nations says it is concerned about several incidents this week involving the Israeli military taking threatening actions against peacekeepers on patrol in southern Lebanon.

Israeli soldiers pointed a laser at UNIFIL peacekeeping troops and small arms fire was discharged from their positions targeting a patrol near Kfarchouba, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“We reiterate that the parties must ensure the safety and security of UNIFIL personnel, and all peacekeepers everywhere, at all times. We urge the parties to use the established liaison and coordination mechanisms of UNIFIL to avoid misunderstandings and potential accidents,” Dujarric said.

In September, Israeli drones dropped four grenades close to UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel in “of the most serious attacks on UNIFIL personnel and assets since the cessation of hostilities agreement of last November,” it said.

The UN does a lot of criticizing, denouncing and condemning, yet no actions.

Lebanon president says army ready to take over Israel-held positions

Ensuring state control over weapons and decisions of war and peace is “important and inevitable”, Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun said in a speech on the eve of the country’s independence day.

Aoun made the speech from southern Lebanon, where Israel still maintains troops in five areas it deems “strategic”.

“I confirm the army is ready to take over positions immediately after Israel ceases all attacks and violations and after Israel withdraws from positions inside Lebanon at the border,” said Aoun.

He said Lebanon is ready to entrust the truce supervisory committee – comprising the United States, France, Lebanon, Israel and United Nations peacekeepers – with “making sure that in the south Litani region, only the Lebanese army is exerting its sovereignty by its own means”.

Lebanon is ready to negotiate under US or international sponsorship “any agreement which will put a permanent end to the transborder aggressions”, he added.

More reactions to the UNSC adopting Trump's 'peace' plan

‘The Resolution from Hell’: UN Hands Gaza to Trump w/ Craig Mokhiber

Human rights lawyer Craig Mokhiber joins the show to break down the UN Security Council’s newly adopted resolution that effectively hands the U.S. control over Gaza — a move he says marks a return to 19th-century colonialism. He explains the horrific absurdity of granting governing authority to Washington, a co-perpetrator of the ongoing genocide, while stripping Palestinians of their right to self-determination. The resolution greenlights a U.S.-run administration atop an already-illegal Israeli occupation and creates a “stabilization force” aimed at containing the very population under attack. Mokhiber calls it a historic betrayal — a “day of shame” for the UN and a dangerous precedent for global human rights.

UN Votes to Authorize Trump’s Occupation Force

Drop Site's Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim discuss the UN's approval of a US-backed resolution authorizing Trump's occupation force. Scahill says the new UN resolution gives an “international stamp of legitimacy” to the U.S.–Israeli plan to privatize and occupy Gaza. The UN now “endorses Israel’s war of subjugation and apartheid,” leaving Palestinians “alone in the world as the only people who do not have the right to pursue self-determination or resist occupation.”

Scahill highlights the response from leading Palestinian forces and factions, reading from a joint statement representing a broad cross-section of Palestinian society. The statement rejects the Security Council resolution — “deeming it a tool of Israeli control and complicity in the genocide” of the Palestinian people — and condemns the effective “trusteeship” the plan creates, saying it violates Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

Scahill says resistance leaders he interviewed this week were open to an international force, but not to Term 7, which requires that force to work with Israel to demilitarize Gaza. As he puts it: “This international force, now endorsed by the UN, is going to include the involvement of Israel in the disarmament of the very people it has been trying to annihilate from this world.”

From Libya to Palestine, The UN Security Council Betrays Arab and Muslim Peoples

On November 17, 2025, the UN Security Council betrayed the Palestinian people by adopting a resolution that endorsed Donald Trump’s criminal and fraudulent “peace plan” for Gaza.

That resolution, Resolution 2803, is by no means the first time that the UN Security Council has stabbed Arab and Muslim peoples in the back. Another notorious example of the Security Council’s contempt for the rights and interests of Arab and Muslim peoples is UNSC Resolution 1973. Adopted on March 17, 2011, Security Council Resolution 1973 approved a no-fly zone over Libya.

This led directly to NATO’s destruction of the once-prosperous, African country. Few people are as knowledgeable about NATO’s destruction of Libya, and the UN Security Council's complicity in Libya's destruction, as Canadian researcher and author, Owen Schalk. A new book by Owen examines the role of Canada – a NATO member – in the destruction of Libya. The book is titled "Targeting Libya – How Canada went from building public works to bombing an oil-rich country and creating chaos for its citizens."

New York Mayor-elect confronts Trump over US funding of Gaza genocide

Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s incoming mayor, who drew global attention to his campaign because of his strong stance against Israel’s war on Gaza, directly accused the United States of funding genocide during a meeting with President Donald Trump.

Standing alongside Trump, Mamdani told reporters he had shared with the president “the concern that many New Yorkers have of wanting their tax dollars to go towards the benefit of New Yorkers”, noting the city is “in the ninth consecutive year of more than 100,000 schoolchildren being homeless”.

“I’ve spoken about the Israeli government committing genocide and I’ve spoken about our government funding it,” Mamdani said, adding that the Trump voters he met “were tired of seeing our tax dollars fund endless wars”.

When asked if he agreed Trump worked hard for Middle East peace, Mamdani replied: “I appreciate all efforts towards peace”, but emphasised that “we have to follow through on international human rights. And I know that still today those are being violated.”

Europe’s sole TNT supplier prioritises US-Israel exports over continental defence, Polish MP claims

Europe’s only TNT manufacturer is sending much of its production to the United States for use in Israeli bombs dropped on Gaza, undermining the continent’s ability to defend itself, a Polish politician has said.

Maciej Konieczny raised the issue in parliament, claiming Poland’s Nitro-Chem has contracted to supply half its output to the US until at least 2029.

The left-wing Razem party member told The Guardian newspaper that “Polish TNT is exported entirely abroad and the bombs produced from it fall on the heads of innocent civilians in Gaza and Yemen”.

Poland now lacks sufficient TNT reserves for its own defence, with current stocks lasting only “a month in the event of a war,” Konieczny said, adding there is not enough to supply Ukraine either.

The Polish explosive is allegedly used in 2,000-pound (907kg) MK-84 bombs deployed by Israel. The US has no domestic TNT production and signed a $310m contract in April for 18,000 tonnes from Nitro-Chem through 2029.

G20 leaders highlight Palestine among world’s major conflicts

Palestine has been named as one of four critical global conflicts requiring urgent attention in a declaration adopted by G20 leaders. The statement was approved at the summit in Johannesburg, with South African officials confirming agreement among member nations.

The document emphasises using UN Charter principles to resolve disputes peacefully, singling out Palestine along with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Ukraine as regions of significant concern.

Gaza aid flotilla activist speaks at International People’s Tribunal

Saif Abukashek, a Palestinian activist and coordinator of the Global Sumud Flotilla aid mission, has spoken at the International People’s Tribunal on Palestine. He said the tribunal represents an effort by civil society to take a stand against Israel’s abuses and the “corrupt structure” that enables them.

“The voices of people who are being oppressed and criminalised have not only to be heard, but to be taken into action,” said Abukashek.

Israel guilty of inflicting long-lasting ecological damage on Gaza

Omar Nashabe, a criminal justice scholar and human rights researcher, says Israel has inflicted extensive, long-lasting environmental damage on Gaza in addition to the staggering civilian death toll.

Speaking at the International People’s Tribunal on Palestine in Barcelona, Nashabe described the systematic destruction of Gaza’s agricultural land and widespread contamination from Israeli munitions.

He presented satellite images showing how Gaza’s agriculture, greenhouses, and irrigation systems have been decimated since the war began, making “food production impossible at scale”.

In Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood, he said, “there is not one olive tree or green space” left. Nashabe also cited public statements from high-ranking Israeli officials demanding restrictions on resources to Gaza’s population as “evidence of intent” – a main requirement to prove the crime of ecocide.

“To starve them [Palestinians] you need tools, and one of the main tools is to destroy the environment,” he said.

The destruction of land, water systems, sanitation facilities, and essential infrastructure amounts to violations of international humanitarian law and are war crimes, said Nashabe.

Young man documents Gaza’s untold stories of Israel’s genocide in book

Amid the ongoing and unfathomable agony caused by Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, a young displaced man is writing a book to express acute Palestinian suffering and tell human stories that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Wasim Said’s book, Witness to the Hellfire of Genocide, chronicles two years of unrelenting war, as well as repeated forced displacement as a result of the relentless Israeli bombardment, ground invasion, destruction and forced starvation.

The 24-year-old shared his story with Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, describing how he mostly writes inside a tent with nothing in it, including no real protection from the scorching heat in summer or the freezing winter cold and heavy rains.

“Displacement sites and tents have become part of our lives. We’ve had to find ways to adapt to this misery – even though it’s almost impossible,” he said. Every chapter in Said’s book is named after a person, a place, or a memory he refuses to let disappear.

_{Wasim Said sits in a cemetery, looking at the rubble of buildings bombed by the Israeli military in Gaza}

Hamas slams new PA election law as exclusionary

Hamas has condemned the new elections law issued by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, saying it effectively forces municipal candidates to commit to the “PLO’s political programme”, which amounts to recognising Israel.

In a statement, Hamas said the law represents “a dangerous infringement on citizens’ right to freely choose their representatives” and an explicit attempt to exclude influential Islamic and independent political forces active in key cities across the West Bank.

It said the legislation seeks to reshape the political landscape to serve specific factions within the PA, aligning with “Israeli and US pressure”.

The law would push the West Bank further towards “fragmentation and submission to occupation demands”, instead of strengthening local councils that reflect the will of the people.

Israeli drone attack on car in southern Lebanon kills one person: Report

Lebanon’s National News Agency reports that an Israeli drone has targeted a car near the southern Lebanese town of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, killing one person.

The drone fired two guided missiles at the vehicle while it was on the road, said the agency, noting that ambulances are at the scene of the attack. A photograph shared by the agency shows several people standing near the attacked vehicle, which is charred and engulfed in flames

Israeli military claims Hezbollah member killed in yesterday’s Lebanon strike

Israel’s military has claimed responsibility for an air strike in southern Lebanon’s Froun area yesterday that killed one person. In a statement, the military said, without providing evidence, that the strike killed an unnamed Hezbollah member.

They keep saying that like it's some sort of justification. Targeted assassinations are illegal under war, not to mention there is supposed to be a ceasefire in Lebanon. It's as much a crime as killing anyone involved in the IDF, which is most Israelis. Yet US-France, the guarantors of this 'ceasefire' do nothing.

Israel carries out new aerial attack in southern Lebanon: Report

Lebanon’s National News Agency reports that Israeli planes carried out several strikes targeting a rural area near the southern village of Kafr Rumman. The Israeli raid included two air-to-ground missiles, said the agency, without mentioning casualties.

Israeli attack kills 1 in southern Lebanon

Lebanon’s Health Ministry says an Israeli air raid on a vehicle in the Wadi al-Salouqi area of Bint Jbeil district killed one person. It comes as Israeli forces continue to launch attacks on southern Lebanon despite a year old ceasefire.