US offers diplomatic services in West Bank settlement for first time. Critics warn it’s ‘normalizing annexation’

https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/25/middleeast/us-israel-diplomatic-services-west-bank-annexation-intl

The US embassy in Israel has announced its first-ever event offering diplomatic services in a Jewish settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The announcement on Tuesday said consular offices would provide “routine passport services” to American citizens in the settlement of Efrat, south of Jerusalem, in a one-day event on Friday. The embassy said the outreach effort was part of the “Freedom 250” initiative to reach all American citizens.

This move appears to signal further US legitimization of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which is considered by much of the international community as land for a future Palestinian state.

It breaks with decades of US foreign policy, which has held that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are an obstacle to peace. But President Donald Trump is no stranger to such dramatic shifts in American policy. During his first administration, the US reversed its longstanding position on settlements when then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said they were not inconsistent with international law.

Consular events will also be held in the Palestinian city of Ramallah and the settlement of Beitar Illit in the West Bank, as well as the cities of Jerusalem, Haifa, Netanya and Beit Shemesh, though no dates have been announced.

Israel’s foreign ministry celebrated the announcement as a “historic decision” to “extend consular services to American citizens in Judea and Samaria,” using the biblical term for the West Bank.

Xavier Abu Eid, a former spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization’s negotiations department, said on social media: “Five months after President Trump said that he is against annexation, his representatives on the ground are providing services inside Israeli settlements, effectively treating all the land as part of Israel. Normalizing annexation step by step.”

Just days ago, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told conservative commentator Tucker Carlson that it would be “fine” if Israel took over much of the Middle East. Asked if Israel should be allowed to take over land extending as far as the Euphrates River in Iraq, Huckabee said, “It would be fine if they took it all,” before adding, “I don’t think that’s what we’re talking about here today.”

Family of UN rapporteur Albanese sues Trump administration over sanctions

The family of United Nations human rights rapporteur Francesca Albanese has sued the administration of United States President Donald Trump over the sanctions it imposed upon her.

Albanese’s husband and child filed the lawsuit on Thursday. It argues that the sanctions are an effort to punish Albanese for bringing attention to rights abuses Israel has perpetuated against Palestinians.

Since 2022, Albanese, a legal scholar, has served as the special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, where she monitors human rights abuses against Palestinians. The UN Human Rights Council selected her for the position.

The Trump administration, however, sanctioned her last July, calling her “unfit” for her role and accusing her of “biased and malicious activities” against the US and its ally, Israel.

It also highlighted her work with the International Criminal Court (ICC), which — after considering the recommendations of Albanese and other experts — issued an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes in Gaza.

Albanese’s family, however, defended her comments as an expression of free speech, protected under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

“Francesca’s expression of her views about the facts as she has found them in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and about the work of the ICC is core First Amendment activity,” the lawsuit says.

A wider campaign in the US

Sanctions generally freeze the US-based assets of an individual and prevent anyone else in the US from doing business with them. Since returning for a second term, Trump has used sanctions as penalties for several critics of Israeli and US actions, even beyond Albanese.

Last June, the Trump administration sanctioned four ICC judges for taking “illegitimate and baseless actions” against the US and Israel. Then, in August, two more ICC judges, plus two prosecutors, were also slapped with sanctions. As recently as December, another pair of ICC judges were added to the list for their involvement in the investigation of alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

A growing number of scholars, rights groups and international organisations have said that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide. Israel and the US, however, have largely refuted that assessment. They have also questioned whether the ICC has jurisdiction in their countries. Though the US and Israel are not party to the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding document, both have been accused of rights abuses in countries that are members.

In Albanese’s case, the US government has accused the rapporteur of anti-Semitism and criticised her for pushing for boycotts of US companies implicated in Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.

“We will not tolerate these campaigns of political and economic warfare, which threaten our national interests and sovereignty,” the US State Department said in its sanctions announcement.

But Albanese has indicated that she remains committed to her work regardless of the disruptions to her life. “My daughter is American. I’ve been living in the US, and I have some assets there. So of course, it’s going to harm me,” Albanese said after the sanctions announcement.

“What can I do? I did everything I did in good faith, and knowing that, my commitment to justice is more important than personal interests.”

Solidarity with Palestinians questioned as Indonesian troops set for Gaza

Indonesia is preparing to send 1,000 soldiers to Gaza within weeks, the first contingent of some 8,000 personnel that Jakarta has pledged to deploy to the Palestinian territory as part of an International Stabilization Force (ISF) under United States President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace.

Indonesian army spokesperson Brigadier General Donny Pramono told news media the first troops are preparing to reach the enclave by April, and the majority will be on the ground in Gaza by June.

But as the hasty deployment approaches, some Indonesians are questioning what role their armed forces will play in the mission amid Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinian territory.

Indonesia is a seasoned participant in United Nations-led peacekeeping missions, but critics fear that without oversight by the UN, Indonesian forces could be used as “pawns” by the US – Israel’s foremost ally – to control Palestinians in Gaza and formalise the occupation of the enclave.

“We are afraid that Indonesia will be used as the buffer to control the Palestinians,” Shofwan Al Banna Choiruzzad, an associate professor at the University of Indonesia, told Al Jazeera.

“Indonesia has built a reputation in Palestine as one of the most active partners on the ground. It would be very painful for both Palestinians and Indonesians if they see the Indonesian army becoming an instrument of the occupation,” Shofwan said.

“The worry is that Indonesia will only be a shock absorber,” he said. 

“Indonesia will only be an actor which is used to establish legitimacy [for Israel’s occupation], and worse.”

Complicating matters further is the fact that Indonesia does not have diplomatic relations with Israel owing to its long support for the Palestinian cause.

“Indonesia needs to make clear that it will not be in the sectors which risk confrontation with Palestinian factions, [and] it will also not be in the Israeli-controlled areas – because that will require operational coordination with the Israeli army, which means practical recognition of Israel,” Shofwan said.

‘Palestinians are seen as objects’

University of Indonesia’s Shofwan said the Board of Peace and its approach to Gaza is fundamentally “colonial”.

“It is designed to achieve negative peace without putting the rights and voices of Palestinians at the centre, and Palestinians are seen as objects,” he said. “They are seen to be something that needs to be controlled. There are no restraints towards Israel at all, so the design is very colonial,” Shofwan added.

Earlier this month, shortly after Prabowo signed on to the Board of Peace, representatives from some 40 civil society and religious groups in Indonesia met the president to discuss the Gaza mission, Indonesia’s state news agency Antara reported at the time.

Prabowo told the groups he was prepared to withdraw from the Board of Peace if it “fails to advance the goal of an independent Palestine”, Antara reported, citing Muhammad Cholil Nafis, vice chairman of Indonesia’s top Islamic advisory body.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also emphasised that the country’s troops will be in Gaza “solely to support Palestine’s recovery and its fight for independence and sovereignty”. In addition to deploying troops to Gaza, Indonesia will also focus on humanitarian assistance and send several hospital ships.

‘It’s about maintaining optics’

Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat, director of the Indonesia-MENA desk at the Centre for Economic and Law Studies in Jakarta, told Al Jazeera that he believes Prabowo has been trying to get Trump’s attention.

The US president has a track record of responding to assertive and transactional leadership, and once said he gets along better with world leaders “the tougher and meaner they are”. Courting China and Russia was one step towards Prabowo getting US attention, while signing on to the Board of Peace and deploying Indonesian troops to Gaza was another, Rakhmat said.

In the mix of motivations for joining the board, Prabowo may also have been hoping for a better trade deal with the US after Trump unleashed trade tariffs last year. The White House initially planned to levy a “reciprocal” tariff of 32 percent on Indonesian exports, which was later cut down to 19 percent.

The Indonesian president late last week signed a formal trade deal with Trump on the sidelines of the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace in Washington, DC. The deal kept tariff rates at 19 percent, while Indonesia agreed to cut tariffs on 99 percent of its US imports. It is still unclear how the deal will be impacted by a landmark ruling on Friday from the US Supreme Court striking down the legal basis for many of Trump’s tariffs.

Rakhmat fears Prabowo’s ambition makes it less likely that he will push back if something goes wrong in the Gaza operation and Palestinians are negatively impacted. He told Al Jazeera that Prabowo will likely “condemn” any operational drift in the Gaza plan, rather than withdraw completely from the Board of Peace.

“People will expect more, but looking at his past behaviours, it is unlikely he will do something extraordinary,” Rakhmat said. The Indonesian president “wants to have a good image among major powers. It’s about maintaining optics”, he said.

Israeli attacks on police sites kill six in southern, central Gaza


_{A mosque, destroyed during Israel's more than two-year genocidal war, is surrounded by tents for displaced Palestinians, in Gaza City, on February 15}

At least six Palestinians have been killed in Israeli drone attacks targeting two police posts in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip and the al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis in the south, as Israel presses on with its more than two-year genocidal war on the devastated enclave.

The attacks overnight into Friday were condemned by Hamas as undermining mediator efforts during a “ceasefire” phase that Israel has violated almost daily since October 10.

Medical sources at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis reported the arrival of four bodies and several wounded individuals following an Israeli military strike on a police checkpoint at the al-Maslakh intersection in al-Mawasi. The sources said that the strike occurred in an area outside the Israeli military’s control, and described the condition of some of the wounded as critical.

In the central Gaza Strip, two Palestinians were killed and others were injured in a similar Israeli drone strike that targeted a police post at the entrance to the Bureij refugee camp.

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said that the rising number of deaths as a result of the ongoing Israeli bombardment across the Gaza Strip reflects “the Zionist occupation’s blatant disregard for the efforts of mediators, and its complete disregard for the Peace Council and its role”.

Qassem added, in a statement, that Israel is continuing its war of extermination against the Palestinian people, despite some changes to form and method, indicating that “the talk of the guarantor states about stopping the war lacks any real substance on the ground”.

Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said, “It has been a bloody night. Israeli forces carried out a series of deadly air strikes, this time primarily focusing on police checkpoints that have been deployed too close to areas where armed militias are operating in the eastern communities of the Gaza Strip, in particular in … Khan Younis and Bureij refugee camp.

“Six police members have been killed as a result … But also here, the timing and location are critically reshaping the whole equation between both sides. Israel has made clear that Israel will not be responsible for reorganising the remnants of life in Gaza. That’s why we can see that any kind of restoration of previous services, including police… will be thwarted,” he added.


Rafah crossings and aid still far below minimum

The Gaza Crossings and Borders Authority on Friday reported that 50 Palestinians travelled through the Rafah crossing into Egypt on Thursday including 13 patients and 37 companions., while 41 citizens returned to to Gaza.

There has been a trickle of human movement in either direction since Israel partially opened the crossing. Thousands of Palestinians require urgent medical attention outside of the devastated enclave but Israel is severely restricting their exit.

The authority also reported 286 trucks entered Gaza Thursday, including 174 commercial trucks and 112 carrying aid. That’s far below the 600 aid truck required daily to meet the needs of a population still suffering hunger, and a painful Ramadan, due to Israel’s blockade.

Aid organisations facing expulsion deadline

Meanwhile, Israel has ordered 37 aid groups to halt operations in the occupied territory unless they hand over personal details about Palestinian staff by this Sunday, March 1 – a move described as having potentially devastating consequences for Palestinians.

The organisations warn that complying could put employees at risk, compromise humanitarian neutrality and violate European data protection rules.

Seventeen international NGOs, including Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and CARE International, have challenged the order in Israel’s Supreme Court, saying they could be forced to stop operations.

Abu Azzoum said, “This could mark a major turning point for the humanitarian response system in Gaza.” Aid groups may be forced to suspend operations entirely if the order stands, he added.

Oxfam International said on Tuesday that the forced closure of aid operations in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory could begin as early as Saturday. “The effect would be immediate, extending well beyond individual organisations to the wider humanitarian system,” Oxfam warned.

“In Gaza, families remain dependent on external assistance amid continuing restrictions on aid entry and renewed strikes in densely populated areas,” it said in a statement. “In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, military incursions, demolitions, displacement, settlement expansion and settler violence are driving rising humanitarian needs,” it added.

Pressure from Israel on international humanitarian groups has been growing for years and escalated sharply after October 7, 2023.

US citizens’ support for Israel at historic low over Gaza genocide: Poll

In a report published on Friday, the polling agency said 41 percent of Americans now say they sympathise more with Palestinians, while 36 percent remain more favourable to the Israelis. By contrast, before the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel in October 2023 and the ensuing genocidal war waged by Israel in Gaza, 54 percent of Americans sympathised more with Israel and 31 percent with Palestine.

• Democrats’ sympathies haven’t changed significantly over the past year, having already flipped strongly towards the Palestinians in 2025 after first tilting that way in 2023. Currently, 65 percent of Democrats say their sympathies lie more with the Palestinians, while 17 percent say they sympathise more with the Israelis.
• Driving the shift this year, the report says, is the substantial movement among independents who have now joined Democrats in supporting Palestinians. By 41 percent to 30 percent, independents say they sympathise more with the Palestinians than the Israelis, whereas in all prior years, they were more sympathetic towards the Israelis, including by 42 percent to 34 percent last year.
• Seven in 10 Republicans say they sympathise more with the Israelis, while 13 percent go with the Palestinians. Still, the Republican support for Israel has declined by a 10-point record since 2024, to its lowest level since 2004. Support for Israel has become deeply contentious in the conservative party, including driving a wedge within the far-right conservative MAGA movement. Some of its representatives, such as former Fox news host-turned popular podcaster Tucker Carlson, have become critical of what they say is Israel’s excessive influence over US politics.
• Age gap: For the first time in Gallup’s surveys since 2001, a majority of US citizens aged between 18 and 34 are more sympathetic to the Palestinian people. Meanwhile, 23 percent of young adults say they sympathise more with the Israelis, a record low for the age group. Sympathy for Israel has dropped from 45 percent last year to 28 percent. Among adults older than 55, 49 percent sympathise more with the Israelis and 31% with the Palestinians, the first time since 2005 that less than half of older Americans have said they sympathise more with the Israelis.

While support fell at a faster rate following the war, the trend had started going downwards since 2019 due to the “cumulative effect of gradual changes in US attitudes since then”, read the report.

Trump’s Goons Struggling to Keep Their Lies Straight About War with Iran

The Trump regime is currently trying to manufacture consent for war with Iran, but they’re really struggling to keep their lies straight and settle for a single justification they can all get behind. In this video we’ll talk about why the war propaganda is lazy and laughably pathetic, and explain why there’s no good reason to start a war with Iran.

Netanyahu THREATENS U.S. To 'Get On Board' As Iran War Looms..

Netanyahu decided to openly threaten the U.S. for not giving even more support to them and starting a war with Iran. Jen Perelman and Peter Hager discuss.

Israel’s top court allows aid groups facing Gaza ban to continue working

Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled that dozens of international aid agencies can continue to operate in the Gaza Strip and other Palestinian territories, freezing an earlier government decision that barred aid groups that failed to comply with new rules.

In a ruling on Friday, Israel’s top court issued a temporary injunction to allow the NGOs to continue most of their activities while it considers a petition from 17 aid agencies against the government ban.

Israel had announced it will ban 37 aid groups from war-torn Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and occupied East Jerusalem on March 1, a move that experts warned could have potentially devastating consequences for Palestinians.

Aid agencies – including Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, Oxfam, the Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE – were notified by Israeli authorities in December that their Israeli work registrations had expired and that they had 60 days to renew them and provide lists containing personal details on their Palestinian staff.

The organisations say compliance with the Israeli orders would expose their Palestinian staff to potential retaliation, undermine the principle of humanitarian neutrality and violate European data protection law.

In a statement after Friday’s ruling, Shaina Low, communication adviser for the Norwegian Refugee Council, said the decision was welcome, but pointed to the difficulties that aid agencies continue to face in Gaza.

“The injunction pauses immediate closure. It does not restore visas, reopen access or resolve the wider restrictions that continue to affect aid delivery.

The damage is already done, temporary prevention not to make it worse, or just for optics.

Humanitarian Crisis Deepens in Gaza

Israel stepped up its airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, killing and wounding people while directly targeting police and faction-affiliated security personnel who were carrying out guard duties in central and southern areas of the enclave.

The escalation comes as humanitarian conditions continue to deteriorate, driven by stormy winter weather and compounding crises in Gaza as a result of Israeli measures and ongoing restrictions on the entry of key goods and supplies.

An Israeli reconnaissance drone carried out an airstrike shortly after midnight on Thursday-Friday, targeting three members of the “Field Control Force” affiliated with the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.

The men were on a guard and deployment mission in the al-Maslakh area, south of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, an area used by some armed gangs attempting to reach the city to carry out attacks or abduct Palestinians. The bodies of the three were transferred to Nasser Medical Complex. Two wounded men arrived with the bodies, one of them in critical condition.

The Israeli escalation comes as humanitarian conditions continue to worsen, driven by stormy winter weather and compounding crises in Gaza as a result of Israeli measures and ongoing restrictions on the entry of key goods and supplies.

For the third consecutive day, tents sheltering displaced families have been flooded by intermittent heavy rainfall, damaging belongings and forcing residents to seek alternative shelter until the rain subsides.

In the same context, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said forced displacement and aid restrictions in Gaza had led to overcrowding, deteriorating shelters and inadequate sanitation services, increasing the spread of disease. Its teams in Gaza reported a sharp rise in skin infections and waterborne illnesses.

UNRWA is working to help people through health and sanitation services, but greater access is needed to meet the enormous needs, it said.

Israel bars the entry of supplies aimed at repairing infrastructure and building hospitals and schools, further complicating the humanitarian and health situation.

US, Israel launch attack on Iran, explosions in Israel, Arab states

The United States and Israel have launched an attack on Iran, with explosions heard and seen across Tehran and in other parts of the country, as apparent retaliatory explosions are hitting northern Israel and multiple Gulf Arab states.

Several missiles struck University Street and the Jomhouri area in Tehran, the Fars news agency reported. Smoke was seen rising in the city, according to an Al Jazeera correspondent on the ground.

Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim News Agency reported that explosions also occurred in Tehran’s northern Seyyed Khandan area. Other Iranian media reported attacks nationwide, including in the western Ilam province, while Israel’s military confirmed carrying out attacks in western Iran.

An Israeli strike hit an elementary girl’s school in Minab, a city in the Hormozgan province of southern Iran, killing at least 40 people, according to according to the state-run IRNA news agency..

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the attacks targeted a range of military and defence sites, as well as civilian infrastructure, in various cities.

US President Donald Trump said the joint attacks were aimed at “eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime”.

“Short time ago, US military began major combat operation in Iran. Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating threats from the Iranian regime,” he said.

An Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran ⁠is preparing ⁠for a retaliation that is set ⁠to be ⁠”crushing”. Iran is preparing to “take revenge” on Israel and deliver a “strong response”, State TV reported.

A senior Iranian official told Al Jazeera that “all American and Israeli assets and interests in the Middle East have become a legitimate target” and that “there are no red lines after this aggression”.

Explosions in Israel, Bahrain, UAE, Kuwait

Explosions rocked northern Israel as the country worked to intercept incoming Iranian missiles shortly after it attacked Iran. The blasts echoed just after the Israeli military said it would be using its air defence systems to bring down the Iranian fire. There was no immediate word on any casualties or damage from the ongoing attack.

Blasts also occurred across numerous Gulf Arab states that host US military assets, including Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Iran’s Fars News Agency confirmed the country had carried out attacks targeting military bases in each of the states, including Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar and the headquarters of the US Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain.

Qatar’s Defence Ministry said it had “successfully thwarted a number of attacks targeting the country’s territory”, after several rounds of alerts sounded.

The UAE’s state news agency reported one person was killed in Abu Dhabi after Iranian missiles were intercepted.

Muhanad Seloom, assistant professor in Critical Security Studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera that Iran wants to “raise the cost” for countries in the region that are close to the US.

“They are trying to draw other countries in the region into this war,” said Seloom. “They want to raise the cost for these countries, with the hope probably that these countries will pressure the US administration to stop this war.”

Sirens in Israel

As sirens sounded and a state of emergency was declared in Israel, the Israeli military said it had issued a “proactive alert to prepare the public for the possibility of missiles being launched toward the state of Israel”.

The Israel Airports Authority announced its airspace had been closed to all civilian flights and urged the public not to come to the airport.

According to an Israeli defence official quoted by Reuters, the attacks had been planned for months and the ⁠launch date ⁠decided ⁠weeks ago, even as the US and Iran carried out negotiations.

Mehran Kamrava, director of the Iranian studies unit at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and professor at Georgetown University in Qatar, said Israel “appears to have launched an attack designed to derail the negotiations”.

‘Joint US-Israeli action’

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacks on Iran aimed to remove an “existential threat”. Netanyahu projected that “joint action” by Israel and the US “will create the conditions for the brave Iranian people to take their fate into their own hands” and praised Trump for his “historic leadership”.

A US official told Al Jazeera earlier that the attacks were carried out as a joint military operation between Israel and the US, which has assembled a vast fleet of fighter jets and warships in the region to try to pressure Iran into a deal over its nuclear programme. A US official told Reuters that attacks were being carried out by air and sea.

One of the areas targeted in Iran’s capital was near the offices of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reported The Associated Press. Khamenei is not in Tehran and has been transferred to a secure location, according to an official quoted by Reuters.

A look at the military strikes Trump has ordered in his second term

President Donald Trump launched a new level of attacks against Iran today, but his second term — just over a year in — has been marked by a bevy of military strikes. Here’s a recap:

Israel strikes two schools in Iran, killing more than 80 people


_{This image grab taken from Iranian state television broadcasted on February 28, 2026, show what it says is the site of deadly US and Israeli strikes that hit a girls' elementary school in Minab, in the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan near the strategic sea route of the Strait of Hormuz.}

An Israeli strike has hit an elementary girls’ school in Minab, a city in the Hormozgan province of southern Iran, killing dozens of people, according to state media, as the immediate civilian cost from Israel and the United States’s huge bombardment of Iran comes into sharper focus.

Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim News Agency cited the Judiciary of Minab as saying that the death toll had risen to 85 after Saturday’s strike on the school.

Workers are continuing to clear wreckage from the site, where 63 others were injured on Saturday, said Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency. The strike is part of a wave of joint US-Israeli military attacks across Iran that has triggered an outbreak of regional violence.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi shared a photo of the attack, which he said destroyed the girls’ school and killed “innocent children”. “These crimes against the Iranian People will not go unanswered,” Araghchi wrote in a post on X.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei also slammed the “blatant crime” and urged action from the United Nations Security Council. Separately, Iran’s Mehr news agency reported that at least two students were killed by another Israeli attack that hit a school east of the capital, Tehran.

The destroyed building is a primary school for girls in the south of Iran. It was bombed in broad daylight, when packed with young pupils.

Dozens of innocent children have been murdered at this site alone.

These crimes against the Iranian People will not go unanswered. pic.twitter.com/AVqiuolgWm

— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) February 28, 2026

Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Vall said the attacks call into question US and Israeli claims that “they are targeting only military targets and they are trying to punish the regime, not the people of Iran.”

“President Trump has promised the Iranian people that aid or help is coming their way, but now we are seeing civilian casualties; that’s something that the Iranian government will stress as a case of violation of international law and an aggression against the Iranian people,” said Vall.

There was no immediate reaction from the US or Israel on Iran’s claims about the school strikes.

The last time the US and Iran waged attacks on Iran in June 2025, sparking the 12-day war, the civilian toll in Iran was also heavy. According to Iran’s Ministry of Health and Medical Education, thousands of civilians were killed or injured, and public infrastructure was damaged, during that conflict.

Iran launch missiles after Trump confirms US strikes on Islamic Republic

Donald Trump has released a video message confirming that US forces had begun a combat operation in Iran. This was followed by reports of strikes on several Iranian cities. In response, Iran has fired close to 90 missiles towards the settler colony, causing damage in Haifa and the Galilee regions. Rifat Jawaid returns with updates as he questions the double standards of the UN. More updates: New wave of Iranian missile attacks on southern Israel. Explosions are now being been reported from Tel Aviv. Israeli air defence system exposed.

• More explosions in Abu Dhabi and Dubai
• A loud explosion has been heard in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
• Explosions heard in Riyadh. One person reportedly killed in UAE. Qatar Airways suspending flights. Airspace over UAE closed.
• Video of damages causedby Iranian missiles in Haifa emerge. Please visit our telegram channel and UpScrolled page for videos.
• Aljazeera is reporting quitong AP about a new loud explosion after a US base in Bahrain’s capital -Iranian missiles have hit the US naval base in Bahrain.
• Loud explosions heard in Abu Dhabi
• Iran has hit US military bases in Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE and Bahrain.
• Explosions have now been heard in Qatar’s capital Doha.
• Bahrain confirms the headquarters of the US Navy’s 5th Fleet has been targeted by a missile attack.

Why Trump REALLY Attacked Iran

Bahrain says headquarters of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet targeted

Israel closes Gaza’s Rafah crossing amid attacks on Iran

Israel has closed Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt amid the joint Israeli-United States attacks on Iran.

“Several necessary security adjustments have been implemented, including the closure of the crossings into the Gaza Strip, among them the Rafah Crossing, until further notice,” Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said in a statement.

COGAT claimed that sufficient food had entered Gaza since the start of the ceasefire to meet four times the nutritional needs of the population. However, it did not provide any evidence to back its claim.

“The substantial quantities of food that have entered since the beginning of the ceasefire amount to four times the nutritional needs of the population,” the Israeli defence body said. “Therefore, the existing stock is expected to suffice for an extended period.”

It added that “the closure of the crossings will have no impact on the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip”, saying it would remain in contact with the international community and provide updates on any developments.

COGAT is the Israeli military body responsible for overseeing civil affairs in the occupied Palestinian territory. Critics say it functions as an instrument of surveillance and control, particularly in enforcing movement restrictions and closures.



Under the shadow of the Iran war, Israel finds another way to punish Gaza

As Israel and the United States attacked Iran, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip began to panic. They remembered how crossings were closed in the past, causing famine, and rushed to markets to buy whatever they could. As a result, prices of food and basic necessities skyrocketed. Soon enough, the news came that the border crossings had been closed.

All of this happened just as the grace period set by Israel for 37 NGOs to withdraw from Gaza for not fulfilling registration requirements expired. Organisations like Doctors Without Borders (also known by its French acronym MSF), Medical Aid for Palestinians UK, Handicap International: Humanity & Inclusion, ActionAid, CARE, etc were supposed to stop operating in Gaza.

At the last moment, a ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court allowed them to continue working while it considers their appeal against the ban. But even with this court decision, these organisations cannot continue to function fully. That is because the Israeli occupation continues to prevent their supplies and foreign staff from entering Gaza.

According to these NGOs, together they are responsible for half of the food handouts in the Strip and 60 percent of services provided in field hospitals. For many families in Gaza, this means hunger – because food parcels will not be distributed and livelihoods will be lost.

We know this is not about NGOs failing to meet new registration rules, just like the closure of the border crossings is not a matter of security. They are about exacting yet another form of collective punishment on the Palestinians.

Even if the Supreme Court miraculously rules against the NGO ban, the Israeli occupation would still find another way to push these foreign organisations out of Gaza. This was made clear this month when it was revealed that World Central Kitchen, which has been running dozens of soup kitchens across the Strip and which is not on the ban list, may be suspending its activities.

According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, this was because Israel blocked most of the organisation’s supply trucks from coming in. As a result, there are not enough supplies to continue cooking. World Central Kitchen previously said it serves 1 million meals daily.

So now, amid the war with Iran, which may last weeks or months, hundreds of thousands of families will not have adequate food once again.

Two and half years of the Israeli genocide has destroyed hospitals, schools, universities, roads, sewage and potable water systems, water treatment plants, the electricity grid, and countless generators and solar panels.

The vast majority of the population lives primitive lives in tents or makeshift shelters that cannot protect people from extreme heat or cold.

Water is contaminated, food is insufficient, land has been destroyed and poisoned.

Now we will be deprived of the little international support we have been receiving.

And what is the goal of all this? To push us ever closer to despair and the ultimate surrender, to make us desire to leave our homeland on our own. Ethnic cleansing by mutual agreement.

All of the organisations that Israel is seeking to ban are foreign. Most of them are based in Western countries. Yet there has been little to no condemnation from Western governments of Israel’s actions against their own organisations. There has been no outrage that the occupation is trying to destroy international humanitarian provision so it can fully control aid distribution.

Collective punishment is a violation of international law. States are obliged to go beyond verbal condemnations and take action by imposing sanctions. Until that happens, we in Gaza will continue to be subjected to ever more brutal acts of collective punishment by our occupiers.