Saudi Unites Muslim World Against U.S | MBS Demands Explanation From Trump On 'Greater Israel'

A major political storm has erupted across the Middle East after controversial remarks by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee suggesting that Israel has a biblical claim to a much larger territory in the region. Speaking in an interview with Tucker Carlson, Huckabee referred to religious interpretations that link Jewish claims to land with biblical promises to Abraham — comments that sparked outrage across Arab and Muslim nations. Countries including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan, along with regional organizations such as the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, strongly condemned the remarks, calling them dangerous, provocative, and inconsistent with U.S. policy. The controversy has revived debate over the concept of “Greater Israel” — a religious and ideological interpretation suggesting biblical Israel extended beyond the present borders of Israel into parts of the modern Middle East.

Asian Power sends soldiers, warship to Iran after mysterious U-Turn

https://defence-industry.eu/china-expands-defence-cooperation-with-iran-through-satellite-intelligence-and-naval-deployment-in-gulf/

China is expanding its defence cooperation with Iran by providing intelligence data transmitted by satellites tracking United States military movements and by deploying its most advanced spy ship to the waters of the Persian Gulf. The report outlines a deepening strategic relationship between Beijing and Tehran in the context of heightened regional tensions.

Witkoff makes extraordinary revelation on Trump’s miscalculation on Iran

In a massive development, Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, has revealed that the US president was frustrated by Iran’s refusal to ‘capitulate’ even in the face of a huge military build-up in the region. Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi has, for the first time, spoken about what appears to be an improved air defence system of his country. Rifat Jawaid analyses both these developments.


This is not going to be a cakewalk for the US. Hopefully Trump backs down and doesn't start WW3...

This was SUPPOSED to be about peace in Gaza - watch what ACTUALLY happened

Trump's "Board of Peace" was meant to address Gaza's future. Instead, it was full of rambling tangents, threats against Iran, a nap, and a golden gavel exit to YMCA.

Gaza child dies waiting for Israeli permission to leave for treatment

A Palestinian child died on Sunday while waiting for Israel to approve his exit from Gaza for medical treatment amid an ongoing healthcare crisis in the enclave, whose medical infrastructure has been destroyed by Israel’s genocidal war.

Nidal Abu Rabeea’s family told Al Jazeera that they had medical referral documents approved to receive treatment abroad, but he was left waiting for 14 months to be allowed out of the enclave of 2.3 million Palestinians, most of whom are displaced.

“Israel closed the crossings and killed my son,” said Iman Hamdouna, his mother, adding that her son struggled with an enlarged liver and high fever for months before his death. He was two and half years old.

Hospitals in Gaza, operating with critical shortages due to curbs imposed by Israel, could not help him and cannot help thousands of other sick and wounded Palestinians who need higher levels of medical care.

According to Gaza Ministry of Health spokesperson Zaher al-Wahidi, 1,360 patients have died while waiting to travel for medical treatment since May 7, 2024, the day the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only gateway to the outside world, was closed by Israel.

Thousands of Palestinians in the Strip seek urgent medical attention through the partially reopened Rafah crossing on February 2, with limited movement through it due to Israel’s very slow and restricted approvals.

In an earlier interview with Al Jazeera, al-Wahidi said Israel “has deliberately and methodically destroyed the health system”, adding that it faced five challenges: near absence of patient evacuations, lack of medical equipment, shortage of medication, destruction of facilities, and need for medical workers.

There are 350,000 patients with chronic illnesses in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry. The devastation and lack of access to medical care have killed thousands of Palestinians, officials say. For example, there were 1,244 kidney patients in Gaza before the start of the war in October 2023. Now that number stands at 622, al-Wahidi had told Al Jazeera.

Israel designates five Palestinian news outlets as ‘terrorist’ groups

Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz has signed a military order designating five Palestinian local online media platforms as “terrorist” organisations, alleging links to Hamas, according to local Israeli media.

The order announced by Katz on Monday targets Al Asima News, Quds Plus, Alquds Albawsala, Maraj and Maydan Alquds. It said the outlets are used to incite unrest, particularly in Jerusalem. The decision comes as media monitors and rights groups continue to highlight Israel’s crackdown on freedom of speech, including in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, said the order targets vital sources of information for Palestinians, serving as their “eyes and ears, especially in Jerusalem”.

“The occupied West Bank is divided by over a thousand gates and checkpoints, while entry into occupied East Jerusalem for most Palestinians is basically impossible – certainly not without an Israeli permit,” she said. “These media outlets provide Palestinians with minute-to-minute updates of what is happening in Jerusalem, of Israeli violations, of the atmosphere.”

Odeh noted that the Israeli Ministry of Defence has not provided “any evidence” regarding the accusations against the five media outlets.

“We’ve seen Israel lodge these kinds of accusations against Palestinian journalists in the past without foundation, even accusations that were debunked. But still, journalists paid with their freedom or sometimes their lives because of them.”

BBC criticised for nixing ‘Free Palestine’ tribute from BAFTA coverage

The BBC is facing backlash for editing out a section of its coverage of the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) in which prize-winning filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr says, “Free Palestine”, even while a racial slur remained audible in the same programme.

Davies Jr, who was awarded outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer for his film My Father’s Shadow, ended his acceptance speech on Sunday with words of solidarity to “those under occupation, dictatorship, persecution and those experiencing genocide”.

“To those watching at home, archive your loved ones, archive your stories yesterday, today and forever. For Nigeria, for London, Congo, Sudan, Free Palestine,” he said.

The remarks were absent when the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) aired the event on a two-hour delay, prompting accusations of censorship from some viewers and advocacy groups.

My Father's Shadow takes home the win for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director, or Producer✨#EEBAFTAs pic.twitter.com/WzmPHjYtrF

— BAFTA (@BAFTA) February 22, 2026

US warship sent by Trump against Iran in crisis; Tehran responds to Witkoff

Donald Trump has found himself surrounded by several potential blows even before the US launches strikes against Iran. A prominent US media outlet has reported on the plight of American sailors onboard the aircraft carrier, USS Gerald Ford. Rifat Jawaid looks at the deteriorating condition onboard the US warship and why Netanyahu is now getting increasingly impatient with Trump’s flip flop.

"Ships full of shit, sent by a government full of shit."

Dr. Marandi: How Zionists CREATED Isis and Al Qaeda

Iranian analyst Dr. Marandi lays out how extremist groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda are not organic religious movements but are strategic tools used by Zionism and the "Epstein class".

Heavy rains flood displaced Palestinians’ tents in Gaza amid cold wave

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20260224-heavy-rains-flood-displaced-palestinians-tents-in-gaza-amid-cold-wave/


_{Palestinians are trying to navigate a flooded street using horse-drawn carts pulled by donkeys and mules, as well as motorcycles following heavy rains in the Al-Mawasi area of ​​Khan Yunis, Gaza on February 24}

Heavy rains flooded tents sheltering displaced Palestinians across the Gaza Strip early Tuesday in the first winter storm to hit the territory since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, worsening an already dire humanitarian crisis amid Israeli restrictions on shelter supplies, officials and witnesses said.

A weather system brought rain and falling temperatures to Gaza late Monday and was expected to ease by Tuesday evening, meteorologist Laith Al-Alami said in a post on the US social media company Facebook.

Gaza’s Civil Defense said its crews received multiple distress calls overnight reporting flooded displacement camps caused by heavy rainfall. Rescue teams saved several families after floodwaters submerged their tents in the al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the agency said.

Witnesses told Anadolu that rainwater also inundated tents west of Gaza City, particularly in the al-Rimal neighborhood and near the port area. Videos circulated on social media showed flooded tents in al-Rimal, as residents struggled to find solutions to prevent further damage.

Since December, a series of winter storms have flooded or blown away tens of thousands of tents and caused already damaged buildings, previously hit by Israeli strikes, to collapse, killing and injuring dozens of Palestinians. Some died from extreme cold.

About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents remain displaced and live in worn tents lacking basic necessities after Israel destroyed their homes during the war. Although a ceasefire agreement took effect on Oct. 10, 2025, living conditions have not significantly improved, with Israel continuing to block the entry of aid shipments and shelter materials, including tents and mobile homes.

Defying the silence: Gaza radio station resumes broadcast from bombed ruins

During Israel's war on Gaza, 23 radio stations were destroyed, killing journalists and cutting power supplies across the Strip. Now Zaman FM has returned to the airwaves, broadcasting from salvaged equipment in a makeshift studio. The station faces severe challenges, including power outages and shortages of vital equipment, but continues to provide news and a sense of connection to displaced Palestinians living in tents and shelters where other communication networks have been repeatedly cut.

Aid groups petition Israeli court to let them keep working in Gaza after ban over new rules

https://www.wral.com/news/ap/bcf1a-aid-groups-petition-israeli-court-to-let-them-keep-working-in-gaza-after-ban-over-new-rules/

Seventeen international aid groups said Tuesday they have petitioned Israel's Supreme Court to allow them to keep working in the Gaza Strip and other Palestinian areas, where Israel is set to bar them for refusing to comply with new rules.

Israel says it will ban 37 aid groups by March 1. The rules announced last year require aid groups to register the names and contact information of employees, and to provide details about their funding and operations. The groups view the rules as invasive and arbitrary, and say the ban would hinder critical assistance to people in war-ravaged Gaza.

Aid groups that refuse to comply say they fear what Israel might do with the personal data of their employees, noting that hundreds of aid workers have been killed in Israeli strikes during the war.

They have appealed for an urgent interim order that would halt the process until a final ruling, they said in a joint statement Tuesday. The government has until Wednesday afternoon to respond, according to a court document.

The statement said that stopping the groups' activities will lead to a “humanitarian collapse and irreparable harm” for hundreds of thousands of people in need. They say the ban violates Israel's obligations as an occupying power and shows “extreme unreasonableness and lack of proportionality.”

The petition argues that the new rules violate international law, that Israel, as an occupying power, has the obligation to ensure food and medicine reach people. It also says Israel does not have the authority to shutter organizations in areas under the nominal control of the Palestinian Authority.

The banned organizations, including Doctors Without Borders, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam and Medical Aid for Palestinians, are some of the most well-known of the more than 100 independent aid groups working in Gaza.

Doctors Without Borders is the largest provider of medical supplies after U.N. agencies and the Red Cross. The group, known by its French acronym MSF, said it hasn't been able to bring in any supplies — including antibiotics, pain medication, anesthetics and wound dressings — since the start of January, shortly after the ban was announced.

MSF said it has reserves of essential supplies for up to three months. It's working with the U.N. and other aid groups to get supplies into Gaza, but Nadimpalli said there is pressure on licensed groups not to bring in materials on behalf of unregistered ones. If it's unable to get enough supplies it might have to suspend or shutter its operations, which include two Gaza field hospitals, he said.

The restrictions have also hampered the group's activities in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where it had to end one project and roll back two others.

Last year, Israel imposed a ban on the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, the largest aid provider in Gaza, that has hindered its activities. Israel accused UNRWA of having allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas, allegations denied by the agency, which says it takes extensive measures to ensure its neutrality and acts quickly to remove any known militants from its staff.

Turkish deputy FM labels Gaza crisis 'genocide' urges global action

https://www.dailysabah.com/politics/turkish-deputy-fm-labels-gaza-crisis-genocide-urges-global-action/news


_{Displaced people gather for their fast-breaking iftar meal during Ramadan amid the rubble of destroyed buildings at a refugee camp, Gaza, Palestine, Feb. 23}

The deputy foreign minister Monday urged the international community not to remain silent in the face of the genocide in Gaza continuing "in front of our eyes," warning that the global human rights system is under mounting strain amid deep geopolitical fractures.

Mehmet Kemal Bozay, Türkiye’s deputy foreign minister and head of European Union affairs, delivered a video message at the opening of the 61st session of the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC), saying the world was witnessing “an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023.

“Gaza has witnessed an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe since Oct. 7, 2023,” Bozay said. “The magnitude of civilian suffering, the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure and the continuous obstruction of humanitarian aid constitute grave violations of international human rights.”

He added that the council “must not remain silent in the face of a genocide taking place in front of our eyes.”

Bozay said the international community bears responsibility to actively support recovery and reconstruction efforts in Gaza and argued that a just and lasting peace can only be achieved through the establishment of an independent, sovereign and unified Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Greater Israel: Fringe ambition to political vision

Greater Israel. A fringe idea? Conspiracy?

The idea of Greater Israel reaches back to the turn of the 20th century, rooted in the early writings of Theodor Herzl, sharpened by Ze'ev Jabotinsky’s Iron Wall, and carried forward under David Ben-Gurion and the Mapai party.

Today, under Benjamin Netanyahu, disputes over land, settlements, and sovereignty bring these ambitions back into sharp focus, and begs the question, what is Greater Israel?

CBS Host Blatantly MOCKS Iran Minister on LIVE TV

"Iran has not attacked anyone in 300 years"
  "Except their own innocent people. Shooting over 30000 people in 24 hours."
     "Propaganda, it’s interesting that all the “protesting” suddenly ended when the star Link receivers were shut down"
     "Pure fabrication because more Iranian police officers died than militants."

Meanwhile the protests continue here in Canada, manufacturing consent for bombing Iran to install a Western puppet...

Jeffrey Sachs FLAMES NYTimes over Iran War Propaganda

"Zionism is, and always has been, antisemitic. Lord Balfour, the author of the Balfour Declaration, held explicitly antisemitic views. He believed Jews were a foreign body in Europe, impossible to assimilate, a problem for Western civilization. Zionism did not challenge this premise. It accepted it. The solution was not to fight antisemitism, but to remove the Jew from the antisemite's presence.

Zionism taught that Jewish life outside Palestine was degenerate, weak, and doomed. This mirrored the very stereotypes antisemites used: that Jews were rootless, abnormal, incapable of healthy national life. The Jew had to be "normalized" by becoming a colonizer, by wielding state power, by doing to others what had been done to them.

Ben-Gurion's own words are definitive: given a choice between saving more Jewish children by sending them to England and saving fewer by sending them to Palestine, he chose the latter. The state was not a means of saving Jews. Jews were a means of saving the political project.

After nearly 80 years, Israel is not a safe haven. It is a militarized police apartheid state under permanent siege. The Palestinians who survived the initial genocide still resist against the colonizer. That resistance is the returning consequence of the original crime against humanity."

Modi begins two-day visit to Israel to strengthen bilateral ties

India’s PM is starting his two-day visit to Israel today. “We are acting to strengthen our alliances. Next week, my close friend Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, a huge global power, will visit Israel,” Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu had announced last week.

Modi visited Israel as PM in 2017 and Netanyahu made a reciprocal visit to India the following year. Under Modi’s leadership, ties between the two countries have deepened, with expanding cooperation in technology, agriculture, security and other sectors.


_{India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attend a welcome ceremony upon Modi’s arrival at Ben Gurion International Airport in Lod, near Tel Aviv, Israel, on February 25}

India has been Israel’s largest arms importer

Between 2020 and 2024, Israel was the world’s eighth-largest arms exporter, accounting for 3.1 percent of global arms exports, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

India was the largest importer of Israeli weapons during this period at 34 percent, followed by the US at 13 percent and the Philippines at 8.1 percent, the data shared by the organisation showed.

Israel and India signed investment deal in September 2025. That agreement in 2025 sought to boost trade and investment flows between the two countries. It was signed during far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s trip to the South Asian country.

According to official figures, bilateral trade stood at $3.9bn in 2024. The bulk of the trade between the two sides is in the domain of defence and security, with New Delhi being Israel’s largest weapons buyer. India has kept its close ties to Israel, even when the latter faced growing political isolation over its genocidal war on Gaza.

India joins global condemnation on Israeli expansion in occupied West Bank

India joined other UN member states and organisations in signing a statement condemning Israel’s expansion in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank. The statement read that the countries “strongly condemn unilateral Israeli decisions and measures aimed at expanding Israel’s unlawful presence in the West Bank”, Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said last week.

According to The Times of India, India endorsed the statement late on Wednesday, just before the deadline to be a signatory elapsed.

Kashmir, spying, demolitions: How Modi’s India embraced ‘Israel model’

At a private event in November 2019, Sandeep Chakravorty, India’s then consul general in New York, was caught on camera calling for the Indian government to adopt an “Israeli model” in Indian-administered Kashmir.

At the time, millions in Kashmir were already reeling under a crippling military lockdown and communication blackout: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu majoritarian government had stripped the region of its semi-autonomous status months earlier, jailing thousands of people, including the region’s political leaders – even those who are pro-India.

The senior Indian diplomat was musing about Israel’s far-right settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, in reference to the resettling of thousands of Kashmiri Hindus, who had to flee their homeland in a 1989 exodus after an armed rebellion against Indian rule started in the Himalayan region.

“It has happened in the Middle East. If the Israeli people can do it, we can also do it,” Chakravorty told the gathering, adding that the Modi government was “determined” to do so.

Six years later, Chakravorty’s words ring truer than ever. As Modi prepares for his second visit to Israel starting on February 25, the two countries are bound by more than just friendship, trade and military partnerships – they are increasingly, say some analysts, also joined at the hip in certain facets of their models of governance.

Visit shows Israel ‘maintains important partners’ despite genocidal war

Israel has been “trying to diversify partnerships ” amid its genocidal war on Gaza, Nicolas Blarel, an associate professor in international relations at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, explained.

“India is an important partner, an important market. So the visit is important to reinforce these existing relationships. It also publicly shows that Israel maintains important partners in the current international environment, despite a lot of international criticism,” Blarel told Al Jazeera.

However, he explained that Modi has been careful to be seen as “not tilting or being too pro-Israel” amid the Gaza war and the tensions in Iran – with which India has good relations – despite wanting to strengthen partnerships.

“So I think the rapprochement of the full Abraham Accords that led, at one point, to the I2U2, the India, Israel, US, UAE economic partnership, is something that India wants to build further,” Blarel said.

‘India’s stand is clear, it supports Palestine’: Indian Congress MP

An MP for India’s Congress party is urging Modi to address the genocide in Gaza during his visit to Israel, stating that New Delhi’s stance is to support Palestine.

“What can Israel give to India? The [prime minister] is going there. If there is any morality, then he should talk about death of children in Gaza. [Government] of India’s stand is clear … that it supports Palestine,” MP Imran Masood was quoted as saying by the Indian ANI news agency.

India exports rockets, explosives to Israel amid Gaza war

As New Delhi attempts to walk a diplomatic tightrope, documents seen by Al Jazeera and company statements suggest Israel is receiving Indian weapons as it wages war on Gaza.

There is mounting evidence that weapon parts from India, a country that has long advocated dialogue over military action in resolving conflicts, are quietly making their way to Israel, including during the ongoing genocidal war on Gaza.

A lack of transparency on India’s transfers helps them slip under the radar, say analysts.

‘Modi’s visit is for trade and weapons – no matter the criticism’

Modi is visiting Netanyahu to cement trade agreements and to procure Israeli weapons, says Uday Chandra, a professor of comparative politics at India’s Ashoka University.

“We’ve had the premiers of France and Germany visit India in the last month or so, and Israel and Saudi are key nodes in between, in the logistics corridor that is being planned between Europe and India,” Chandra told Al Jazeera, speaking from New Delhi.

“The second reason is that India had a short-lived war with Pakistan last May, which didn’t go quite as planned, and India is in particular interested in Israeli weapons, but more importantly, air defence systems, because that’s where the main failures have been diagnosed.”

Meanwhile, Modi’s upcoming speech to the Israeli parliament is a “very public sign of solidarity with the Netanyahu government”, said Chandra. The Indian leader does not seem to be concerned with any criticism that might be levelled at him, he added.

“There’s domestic opposition in both countries, but at the same time … the relationship is anchored in a certain pragmatism, and it balances relationships elsewhere in the Gulf region with Iran. So it’s all, it’s a delicate balancing act, so to speak.”

What’s happening in Gaza and the occupied West Bank?