European nations increase pressure on Israel to stop broad Gaza offensive

Israeli military vehicles deploy at Israel’s southern border with the Gaza Strip on May 20, 2025. (AFP)
Israeli military vehicles deploy at Israel’s southern border with the Gaza Strip on May 20, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 20 May 2025
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European nations increase pressure on Israel to stop broad Gaza offensive

Israeli military vehicles deploy at Israel’s southern border with the Gaza Strip on May 20, 2025. (AFP)
  • Bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said “a strong majority” of its 27 member states backed the move
  • Sweden said it would press the EU to level sanctions against Israeli ministers

GAZA CITY: European countries ramped up pressure on Israel to abandon its intensified campaign in Gaza and let more aid into the war-ravaged territory, where rescuers said fresh attacks killed dozens of people on Tuesday.

An AFP journalist saw some trucks entering the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza from the Israeli side on Tuesday, a day after the UN said it had been cleared to send aid for the first time since Israel imposed a total blockade on March 2, sparking severe shortages of food and medicine.

The dire humanitarian situation in the Strip has prompted an international outcry, with the European Union saying it would review its trade cooperation deal with Israel over alleged human rights abuses following a foreign ministers’ meeting on Tuesday.

The bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said “a strong majority” of its 27 member states backed the move, adding “the countries see that the situation in Gaza is untenable... and what we want is to unblock the humanitarian aid.”

Sweden said it would press the EU to level sanctions against Israeli ministers.

“Since we do not see a clear improvement for the civilians in Gaza, we need to raise the tone further,” said Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard.

And Britain suspended free-trade negotiations with Israel, summoned the Israeli ambassador and said it was imposing sanctions on settlers in the occupied West Bank in its toughest actions so far against Israel’s conduct of the war.

“Blocking aid, expanding the war, dismissing the concerns of your friends and partners. This is indefensible and it must stop,” Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in an impassioned speech to parliament.

Responding to Britain’s moves, Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein said “external pressure will not divert Israel from its path in defending its existence and security.”

COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry body that oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said “93 UN trucks carrying humanitarian aid, including flour for bakeries, food for babies, medical equipment, and pharmaceutical drugs were transferred” to Gaza on Tuesday.

The spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres confirmed dozens of trucks were allowed in, but spoke of difficulties receiving the deliveries.

“Today, one of our teams waited several hours for the Israeli green light to... collect the nutrition supplies. Unfortunately, they were not able to bring those supplies into our warehouse,” Stephane Dujarric said.

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said that the nine trucks cleared to enter on Monday were “a drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed.”

He told the BBC on Tuesday that 14,000 babies could die in the next 48 hours if aid did not reach them in time.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, replying to a Democrat’s comment during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting, said he understood “that it’s not in sufficient amounts, but we were pleased to see that decision was made” to restart aid shipments.

The Israeli army stepped up its offensive at the weekend, vowing to defeat Gaza’s rulers Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.

Strikes overnight and early Tuesday left “44 dead, mostly children and women, as well as dozens of wounded,” civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

Bassal said 15 people were killed when a petrol station was hit near the Nuseirat refugee camp, and eight others were killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City to the north.

The Israeli military told AFP it had “struck a Hamas terrorist who was operating from within a command and control center” inside the school compound. There was no comment on the other incidents.

At the bombarded petrol station, Nuseirat resident Mahmoud Al-Louh carried a cloth bag of body parts to a vehicle.

“They are civilians, children who were sleeping. What was their fault?” he told AFP.

In a statement on Tuesday, the military said it had carried out strikes on more than “100 terror targets” in Gaza over the past day.

On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would “take control of all the territory of the Strip” with its new campaign.

Israel resumed operations across Gaza on March 18, bringing an end to a two-month ceasefire amid deadlock over how to proceed.

Negotiators from Israel and Hamas began a new round of indirect talks in Doha over the weekend, just as the intensified campaign was getting underway.

Qatar, which has been involved in mediation efforts throughout the war, said Tuesday that Israel’s “irresponsible, aggressive behavior” had undermined the chances of a ceasefire.

Hours later, Netanyahu’s office accused Hamas of refusing to accept a deal, saying Israel was recalling its senior negotiators but leaving the “working levels” of its team in Doha.

A source close to Hamas alleged that Israel’s delegation “has not held any real negotiations since last Sunday,” blaming “Netanyahu’s systematic policy of obstruction.”

The Hamas attack in October 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the military says are dead.

Gaza’s health ministry said Tuesday at least 3,427 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,573.


Petra tourist numbers plunge by 75 percent due to Iran-Israel war

Petra tourist numbers plunge by 75 percent due to Iran-Israel war
Updated 4 sec ago
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Petra tourist numbers plunge by 75 percent due to Iran-Israel war

Petra tourist numbers plunge by 75 percent due to Iran-Israel war
  • Jordan’s major attraction has 16,207 foreign visitors in June compared with 68,349 during the same month in 2023, according to tourism authority
  • Hotels in Petra say more than 90 percent of bookings canceled, leading to closures and staff layoffs

LONDON: The number of foreign visitors to the ancient city of Petra in southern Jordan fell by more than 75 percent in June compared with previous years due to the outbreak of fighting between Iran and Israel, and the conflict in Gaza.

The Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority recorded 16,207 foreign visitors in June compared with 68,349 during the same month in 2023 and 53,888 in June 2019.

The authority said on Monday that the number of foreign visitors in the first half of 2025 has fallen sharply. It recorded 259,798 visitors, including 175,510 foreign tourists, compared with 692,595 visitors, including 606,000 foreigners, in the first half of 2023.

Fares Braizat, head of the Board of Commissioners of the Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority, said that the Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip, which began in October 2023, along with hostilities between Iran and Israel in June, has significantly contributed to the sharp decline in foreign tourism to Petra.

Middle East airspace was empty of any flight traffic at times during the 12 days of war in June, as Israel launched airstrikes inside Iran, and Tehran fired missiles and combat drones toward Israeli towns. The US also targeted three nuclear sites in Iran. Although there was no travel alert for Jordan by Western countries, similar warnings were issued for Israel, Iran, and later for Qatar as tensions escalated.

Braizat said that the decline in domestic and Arab tourist numbers to Petra has added to the challenges facing tourism businesses since 2023, leading to a decline in revenue. About 85 percent of Jordan’s population depends on tourism, directly or indirectly, with entry fees to archaeological sites the authority’s primary source of income.

He said that the authority has set up plans to support the tourism sector, with hotels in Petra saying that more than 90 percent of bookings have been canceled, leading to closures and staff layoffs.

Abdullah Hasanat, president of the Petra Hotel Cooperative Association, said that 28 hotels with a total of 1,975 rooms have been forced to close, representing 56 percent of all hotel rooms in the Petra region.


Blaze at Cairo telecoms building contained

A firefighter tries to put out a fire that broke out in a telecommunications building in Cairo.
A firefighter tries to put out a fire that broke out in a telecommunications building in Cairo.
Updated 32 min 59 sec ago
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Blaze at Cairo telecoms building contained

A firefighter tries to put out a fire that broke out in a telecommunications building in Cairo.
  • A state TV reporter later said the fire, whose cause was not immediately clear, had been contained
  • A plume of smoke could be seen above the Ramses district of Cairo, Reuters witnesses said

CAIRO: A fire broke out in a telecommunications building in central Cairo, local media reported on Monday.

It led to communications disruptions across the Egyptian capital, including people being unable to make phone calls, Reuters witnesses said.

A state TV reporter later said the fire, whose cause was not immediately clear, had been contained. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

A plume of smoke could be seen above the Ramses district of Cairo, Reuters witnesses said.

Egypt’s state news agency MENA said Cairo’s Control Center for emergency services had received a report of a fire in one of the building’s top floors, without giving further detail. 


Israeli soldier describes alleged arbitrary killings of civilians in Gaza

Israeli soldier describes alleged arbitrary killings of civilians in Gaza
Updated 07 July 2025
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Israeli soldier describes alleged arbitrary killings of civilians in Gaza

Israeli soldier describes alleged arbitrary killings of civilians in Gaza
  • Speaking anonymously for fear of reprisal, the reservist claimed troops were often instructed to shoot anyone entering areas considered to be off limits

LONDON: An Israeli army reservist has claimed that civilians in Gaza were frequently shot without warning or threat during his service, describing what he called shifting and often arbitrary rules of engagement that, at times, led to the killing of unarmed people.

In a rare on-camera interview with Sky News, the soldier, who served three tours of duty in Gaza with the Israeli military, said troops were often instructed to shoot anyone entering areas considered to be off limits, regardless of whether they posed a threat or not.

“We have a territory that we are in, and the commands are: everyone that comes inside needs to die,” he told Sky News. “If they’re inside, they’re dangerous, you need to kill them. No matter who it is.”

Speaking anonymously for fear of reprisal, the reservist from the Israeli military’s 252nd Division said he was twice stationed at the Netzarim corridor, a narrow military-controlled strip carved through central Gaza early in the war to divide the territory and tighten Israeli control.

He described how his unit marked invisible boundaries near civilian areas, sometimes while occupying homes belonging to displaced Palestinians. Local residents, he said, were expected to understand these lines without explanation or risk being shot.

“There’s an imaginary line that they tell us all the Gazan people know. But how can they know?” he said. “It might be like a teenager riding his bicycle.”

The soldier said the decision to open fire on civilians frequently depended on the “mood of the commander,” with criteria for engagement varying from day to day, adding: “They might be shot, they might be captured, it really depends on the day.”

He recalled one incident in which a man was shot for crossing the boundary, followed by another who was detained for approaching the body, only for the rules to change again hours later, with orders to shoot anyone crossing the line.

The soldier alleged that commanders were able to set their own rules of engagement, sometimes with deadly consequences.

“Every commander can choose for himself what he does. So it’s kind of like the Wild West,” he said. “Some commanders can really decide to do war crimes and bad things and don’t face the consequences of that.”

He also described a pervasive culture among troops that viewed all Gazans as legitimate targets in the aftermath of the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, which killed about 1,200 people in Israel and led to more than 250 taken hostage.

“They’d say: ‘Yeah, but these people didn’t do anything to prevent October 7, and they probably had fun when this was happening to us. So they deserve to die’,” he said.

“People don’t feel mercy for them. I think the core of it, that in their mind, these people aren’t innocent,” he added.

In Israel, where military service is a social rite of passage and the military is widely seen as a unifying national institution, public criticism of the armed forces is rare. The soldier told Sky News he feared being branded a traitor but felt compelled to speak out.

“I kind of feel like I took part in something bad, and I need to counter it with something good that I do, by speaking out,” he said. “I am very troubled about what I took and still am taking part of, as a soldier and citizen in this country.”

He added: “I think a lot of people, if they knew exactly what’s happening, it wouldn’t go down very well for them, and they wouldn’t agree with it.”

When asked about the allegations, the Israeli military told Sky News that it “operates in strict accordance with its rules of engagement and international law, taking feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm.”

According to the statement: “The IDF operates against military targets and objectives, and does not target civilians or civilian objects.”

The military said complaints or reports of alleged violations are “transferred to the relevant authorities responsible for examining exceptional incidents that occurred during the war.”

It also highlighted steps it says it takes to minimise civilian casualties, including issuing evacuation notices and regular updates about combat zones.


On the radio and online, Palestinians keep up with Israel’s West Bank roadblocks

On the radio and online, Palestinians keep up with Israel’s West Bank roadblocks
Updated 07 July 2025
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On the radio and online, Palestinians keep up with Israel’s West Bank roadblocks

On the radio and online, Palestinians keep up with Israel’s West Bank roadblocks
  • Israeli obstacles to Palestinians’ movement in the West Bank have proliferated since the 2023 start of the war in Gaza
  • In early 2025 there were 849 obstacles restricting the movement of Palestinians in the West Bank, including checkpoints, road gates, earth walls, trenches and roadblocks

RAWABI: Radio presenter Hiba Eriqat broadcasts an unusual kind of traffic reports to her Palestinian listeners grappling with ever-increasing Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks across the occupied West Bank.

“Deir Sharaf: traffic, Qalandia: open, Container: closed,” Eriqat reads out from drivers’ live reports, enumerating checkpoints to let listeners know which of the West Bank’s hundreds of checkpoints and gates are open, busy with traffic, or closed by the Israeli military.

“My mission is to help Palestinian citizens get home safely,” she told AFP in the radio studio in the city of Rawabi between her thrice-hourly broadcasts.

“Covering traffic in the West Bank is completely different from covering traffic anywhere else in the world.”

The West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has long been dotted with checkpoints, but obstacles to Palestinians’ movement in the territory have proliferated since the 2023 start of the war in Gaza — a separate territory.

In the West Bank, a territory roughly the size of the US state of Delaware, there are hundreds of new checkpoints and gates, but Israeli authorities do not provide updates about their status.

“The army might suddenly close a checkpoint, and the traffic jam would last an hour. Or they might just show up and then withdraw seconds later, and the checkpoint is cleared,” Eriqat said.

The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in early 2025 there were 849 obstacles restricting the movement of Palestinians in the West Bank, including checkpoints, road gates, earth walls, trenches and roadblocks.

Hiba Eriqat is a host for the Palestinian radio show ‘Traffic on the road’ at the Basma Radio station headquarters in Rawabi, north of Ramallah, June 10, 2025. (AFP)

Updates on WhatsApp groups

To navigate, Palestinians often rely on minute-by-minute updates from drivers on WhatsApp and Telegram groups, some of which were created by Basma Radio to feed Eriqat’s broadcasts.

“We turned to taxi drivers, truck drivers, private companies and even ordinary people,” said Eriqat, to create the West Bank’s only traffic report of its kind.

The updates were launched in October 2023 — the same month the Gaza war broke out — and are now broadcast by other Palestinian radio stations too.

A Telegram group run by Basma Radio now has some 16,000 members.

Fatima Barqawi, who runs news programs at the station, said the team had created “contact networks with people on the roads,” also receiving regular updates from Palestinians who live near checkpoints and can see the traffic from their window.

Beyond the restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities, the traffic reports sometimes feature warnings about roads blocked by Israeli settlers, whose attacks against Palestinians have also risen throughout the war.

It is a constantly shifting roadscape, Eriqat said, complicating even what otherwise should have been a quick drive to work, home or to see family and friends.

“You might tell people the checkpoint is open now, but three minutes later, it’s jammed again. And it’s not a regular jam — it could last six or seven hours,” she said.

Safe journey ‘not guaranteed’

Maen, a 28-year-old video editor, used to tune in to Basma Radio to plan his weekly commute from Ramallah to his hometown of Bethlehem, but now prefers checking what other drivers have to say.

“I often call a friend who has Telegram while I’m on the road” and ask for updates from checkpoints, said Mazen, who asked to use his first name only for security reasons.

He has deleted Telegram from his own phone after hearing about Palestinians getting into trouble with soldiers at checkpoints over the use of the messaging app.

But in a sign of its popularity, one group in which drivers share their updates has 320,000 members — more than one-tenth of the West Bank’s population.

Rami, an NGO worker living in Ramallah who also declined to give his full name, said he listened to the radio traffic reports but mainly relied on Telegram groups.

Yet a safe journey is far from guaranteed.

Rami told AFP he recently had to stop on the way to his hometown of Nablus.

“I pulled over, checked the news and saw that 100 settlers had gathered at a settlement’s road junction and started throwing stones at Palestinian cars,” recognizable by their green license plates, he said.

And passing through a military checkpoint often “depends on the soldier’s mood,” said Eriqat.

“That’s the difficult part.”


Syria, Libya resume direct flights after 10-year halt due to political turmoil

Syria, Libya resume direct flights after 10-year halt due to political turmoil
Updated 07 July 2025
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Syria, Libya resume direct flights after 10-year halt due to political turmoil

Syria, Libya resume direct flights after 10-year halt due to political turmoil
  • Syrian Civil Aviation Authority says Syrian Airlines will operate direct flights from next week
  • Move will help Syrians return home following collapse of Assad regime late last year, authority says

LONDON: The Syrian Arab Republic announced the resumption of direct flights to Libya after a pause of more than 10 years due to security and political turmoil in both countries.

The head of the Syrian Civil Aviation Authority, Ashhad Al-Sulaibi, said that Syrian Airlines will operate direct flights starting next week from Damascus and Aleppo to the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi.

He added that the move will help to reconnect Syria with its communities abroad and help Syrians to return to their homes following the collapse of the Assad regime last December.

Commercial flights between Syria and Libya were halted over 10 years ago due to political turmoil and civil armed conflicts that engulfed both countries in 2011.