Israel and Iran Both Claim Wins as Trump-Brokered Truce Holds
A fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran that the US brokered after 12 days of fighting appeared to be holding on Wednesday, with both sides claiming victory in the war.
After US President Donald Trump's expletive-laced message condemning early violations, the two Middle Eastern nations said they would honor the truce provided their counterpart did the same. No missile launches have been reported since then. Overnight, the Israeli military said it had identified two drones approaching, most likely from Iran, and they were intercepted before entering the country's territory.
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Yahoo
19 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘My son went to get flour. He came back in a coffin': As the world focuses on Iran, Palestinians are being shot dead seeking aid
'My son went to get some flour for his family, but came back in a coffin and a death shroud.' These are the words of father-of-six Iyad Abu Darabi describing how Israeli forces killed his 25-year-old son Mussa in southern Gaza in the first few weeks of June. Desperate and starving, the young man had snuck off against his family's wishes to collect food from a specially designated distribution site backed by Israel and run by the deeply controversial US-based non-profit Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Almost all aid going into Gaza now runs through the American aid group, which started operations in May following a months-long Israeli blockade of nearly all food and aid. Food is handed out at overcrowded and deadly sites overseen by American private security contractors and the Israeli army. Gazans have described the sites as 'American death zones' because of the contractors who patrol them. The foundation has been shrouded in secrecy, with obscure sources of funding and several changes in leadership and management since its launch. Gaza's health ministry said that Israeli forces opening fire on crowds trying to reach the GHF food distribution points have killed nearly 400 Palestinians and wounded more than 3,000 since aid deliveries were reinstated in late May. Several videos from the sites show people cowering or running from gunfire, struggling to carry bags of food as they escape. Despite the carnage, the Trump administration is said to be considering funding the organisation to the tune of $500m (£370m) through the recently downsized US Agency for International Development (USAID). This week though, the world's focus has been on the growing clashes between Israel and Iran. The two sides have traded thousands of missiles, drones and bombs in a conflict that threatens to engulf the entire Middle East and draw in countries from around the world. It has overshadowed the desperate events in Gaza, where the two-million-strong population is trapped in a snare of famine, according to the United Nations. An unprecedented Israeli bombardment of the tiny 35-mile-long strip has killed over 55,000 people since Hamas militants' bloody attacks on southern Israel in October 2023. Mussa was just one of hundreds who have lost their lives in the desperate search for food. Witnesses and families of those killed say Israeli forces opened fire on the massive crowds gathered that day as hungry civilians scrambled for food in a desert wasteland. He was hit by tank fire, and killed instantly alongside women and children, Iyad says. 'The aid is a death trap for young people: in a barren land surrounded by fences, the gates are opened for tens of thousands to fight over supplies without any order. Israel leaves people fighting each other over food,' Iyad says in desperation. 'He went without my knowledge and because of extreme hunger. But this is not aid, it is an opportunity for more killing.' The Israeli military has admitted firing warning shots at people gathered for aid, but denies targeting civilians in Gaza or turning aid distribution sites into 'death traps'. It told The Independent that at least one incident is 'under review'. 'The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and operates to minimise harm as much as possible to them, while maintaining the safety of our troops,' it added. The GHF said this incident did not occur at a GHF site, and in a press release on Monday claimed it had distributed more than three million meals at its four sites 'without incident'. The latest – and deadliest – incident took place on Tuesday. The health ministry said that 59 people were killed and more than 200 wounded while waiting for United Nations and commercial trucks to enter the territory with desperately needed food. Palestinian witnesses said that Israeli forces carried out an airstrike on a nearby home before opening fire towards the crowd in the southern city of Khan Younis. While the shooting did not appear to be related to the newly launched Israeli-backed GHF network — it is an indication of the deadly struggle Palestinians face every day to get food, at a time when a kilo of sugar is now $70. Randa Youssef, 42, a single mother-of-three, says her cousin Mohammed was killed on 5 June while attempting to get food from a GHF site in Rafah. She said Mohammed was due to be married just three days later. 'He was shot in the back and fell to the ground. There was no means of transport. He bled to death for three hours amid continuous gunfire,' Randa explains. 'We can't afford the basic necessities. A kilo of sugar costs $70 today. That's why we risk our lives. My son sometimes cries. I honestly don't know what to feed him. 'This American aid is deliberate chaos.' The Biden administration paid lip service to trying to convince Israel to allow aid into Gaza without achieving much in the way of results, but the Trump administration has largely taken a hands-off approach. Israel cut off the supply of most food and aid to Gaza in March, causing hunger to skyrocket across the Strip. Humanitarian groups have warned that most of Gaza's 2.2 million people are at risk of starvation unless aid deliveries are ramped up. The GHF system began in May, but aid groups have warned it is wholly insufficient to meet the needs of the population. The UN and other humanitarian organisations have also warned of the risk of friction between Israeli troops and civilians seeking supplies, and continue to call for an immediate ceasefire and unrestricted aid access. Former officials from the US state department and USAID who have worked on emergency aid delivery described the new system as 'grotesque', 'dangerous' and part of a larger plan to use aid to control the movement of Palestinians. 'What is so infuriatingly tragic about this is that it's playing out exactly as any experienced humanitarian could have predicted,' said Jeremy Konyndyk, who oversaw famine relief for three years during the Obama administration and is now president of Refugees International. 'When you have an aid distribution model that is premised on forcing huge crowds of desperately hungry people to cluster directly adjacent to IDF military installations, you're going to get massacres,' he added. Mr Konyndyk said it was 'not a coincidence' that most of the distribution sites were in the south of Gaza, at a time when the Israeli army was trying to force Palestinians out of the north of the territory. 'A basic principle of humanitarian response is you move the aid as close to you can to where the people are. They're doing the opposite of that, the diametric opposite of that, which suggests that they want to draw people to the south,' he said. 'I think that is highly suggestive of the longer-term agenda here,' he added. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans last month to force Palestinians to move to southern Gaza after his security cabinet approved an expanded military operation in the northern and central parts of the territory. 'There will be a movement of the population to protect them,' he said of the operation. Stacey Gilbert, who resigned from the state department in 2024 over the Biden administration's failure to hold Israel accountable for blocking aid to Gaza, called the sites 'another stunt'. 'It's a stunt like the air drops. It's a stunt like the floating pier debacle. These are all ways that both the Biden administration, now the Trump administration, are using to try to obscure the fact that they're going to these extraordinarily dangerous and extraordinarily expensive efforts because Israel is blocking aid. There's no other way to see it,' she told The Independent. 'It is so humiliating and undignified and just dangerous, straight out dangerous for everyone involved,' she added. Ms Gilbert, too, believes the sites are located primarily in the south to draw Palestinians away from the north. 'This is trying to draw them all to one area, to get them away from the area that Israel doesn't want them in,' she said. Despite hundreds of deaths at the GHF sites and an insufficient level of aid getting into Gaza, the Trump administration appears to be leaving the door open to backing it financially. A state department spokesperson told The Independent that the GHF was 'an independent organisation. It does not receive USG funding.' 'Nevertheless, we are constantly looking for creative solutions to get aid into Gaza without it being looted by Hamas,' the spokesperson added. Israel insists the new system was necessary because aid was being diverted to Hamas under the previous long-established system, managed by the United Nations, a charge denied by the UN and by Hamas. For Salwa al-Daghma, from the southern city of Khan Younis, 'this aid is a morsel of food soaked in blood'. Her brother Khaled, a father-of-five, was shot dead by a sniper earlier this month at another GHF site in Rafah when he tried to get just a kilo of flour for his children – the youngest just over two years old. Again, Israeli forces opened fire on the massive crowds when chaos broke out. 'He was hit by a bullet directly in the head. His brain came out the other side, and he was killed instantly,' she said. 'Israel closed the crossings and banned food, and they came to us with a method to kill our children and families. 'This is a death trap, not an aid point. They don't want to help us – they are actually killing us.'
CNBC
20 minutes ago
- CNBC
NATO allies agree to higher 5% defense spending target
NATO allies on Thursday agreed to more than double their defense spending target from 2% of gross domestic product to 5%, in the most decisive move from the alliance in over a decade. In a joint declaration, the alliance said it was "united in the face of profound security threats and challenges," in particular the long- term threat posed by Russia to Euro-Atlantic security and the "persistent threat" of terrorism. "Allies commit to invest 5% of GDP annually on core defence requirements as well as defence-and security-related spending by 2035 to ensure our individual and collective obligations.," it continued. The historic move comes against a backdrop of tensions in the Middle East and ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia. Allies have been pushed to this point after years of pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, across both of his terms in office.
Yahoo
22 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump bombs Iranian nuclear facilities in major escalation. What happens next?
President Donald Trump has claimed to have 'completely, totally obliterated' Iran's nuclear program in a series of missile strikes and bombings, marking explicit U.S. intervention into Israel's war that risks a wider international crisis. The true extent of the damage is unclear. Retaliatory strikes are expected, as are efforts to revive already-fractured negotiations and diplomatic efforts to lower temperatures. But the United States is now embroiled in a war between two well-armed nations that could spill out far beyond their borders with untold casualties, experts have warned. 'Remember, there are many targets left,' Trump said in a brief address to the nation on June 21, roughly two hours after announcing a 'very successful' series of strikes on nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan. 'If peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill. Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes.' The world is watching to see what will happen, as experts and analysts consider how current conditions, history and a volatile political environment could inform what's next. A 'dangerous escalation' Trump had campaigned on a promise to end all wars, including Israel's war in Gaza and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, yet the president has so far failed to negotiate an end to either. Israel sought American military support for its campaign against Iran after receiving virtual permission for its devastating war in Gaza in the wake of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks — 'undermining Trump's claim to be a peacemaker and his assertion that wars would never have started under his leadership,' according to Brookings Institution senior fellow Sharan Grewal at the Center for Middle East Policy. He now risks exploding a wider crisis across the Middle East that could endanger U.S. installations abroad and embolden Iran's allies to retaliate, following a legacy of U.S. intervention and destabilization in the Middle East dovetailing with U.S. support for Israel's ongoing devastation in Gaza and in occupied territories. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said late Saturday that he was 'gravely alarmed' by Trump's decision to bomb Iran, calling it 'a dangerous escalation' and 'a direct threat to international peace and security.' 'There is a growing risk that this conflict could rapidly get out of control — with catastrophic consequences for civilians, the region, and the world,' he said. Iran could also retaliate by blocking the strategically important Strait of Hormuz or attacking the energy infrastructure of the Arab Gulf — dramatically driving up global oil prices. Within hours after Saturday's attacks, roughly 50 oil tankers were seen scrambling to leave the Strait of Hormuz. Iran-backed Houthis have warned that Trump 'must bear the consequences,' Houthi political bureau member Hizam al-Assad posted on X. The Houthi-controlled Yemeni Armed Forces also said the group was prepared to target U.S. Navy warships in the Red Sea 'in the event that the American enemy launches an aggression in support' of Israel. Houthi rebels had previously attacked ships linked to Israel's war in Gaza, and the United States retaliated with a series of airstrikes in Yemen earlier this year. Hardening Iran's resolve — or doing enough damage to force negotiations? Saturday's attack marks an 'unprecedented event that may prove to be transformational for Iran, the Middle East, U.S. foreign policy, global non-proliferation, and potentially even the global order,' according to Karim Sadjadpour, an Iranian-American policy analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.' 'Its impact will be measured for decades to come,' he wrote. 'It could entrench the regime — or hasten its demise. It could prevent a nuclear Iran — or accelerate one. ' Iranian officials have stressed for years that its nuclear programs are for civilian and peaceful purposes only, but Israel has claimed that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, a claim central to the long and now accelerating conflict between the two nations. Following Saturday's bombings, Iran's atomic agency vowed 'never' to stop its nuclear program, according to Iranian media. The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said the three targeted nuclear sites came under 'savage assault,' seen as 'blatant violation of international law, particularly the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.' The agency also accused the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog of 'complicity' in the effort as it urged the international community to condemn the strikes and 'never allow the progress of this national industry … to be halted.' Aerial bombardment alone would not be enough to conclusively stop any nuclear ambitions because 'neither Israel nor the U.S. can kill all the nuclear scientists,' former U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker told Politico. Targeted strikes that significantly damage operations could convince Iran to negotiate, according to former U.S. special envoy Dennis Ross. But a wider assault — fueled by demands from Israeli officials and Iran hawks in the United States — could be seen by Iran as seeing that 'they have little to lose and their best bet is to show they can make us pay a heavy price,' he told Politico. When Israel struck nuclear programs in Iraq in 1981 and Syria in 2007, 'the long-term results were diametrically different,' according to Mara Karlin, former assistant secretary of defense for strategy, plans, and capabilities under Joe Biden. 'Tehran could conceivably choose either path,' she said. 'And, as long as the uranium enrichment complex at Fordow remains largely intact, it does not need to decide.' Blowback in Washington — and across America Trump's attacks risk deepening a growing divide between his allies and anti-interventionist Republicans now tenuously aligned with a wider anti-war movement and the majority of Americans who do not want the United States involved with Israel's campaign at all. Several members of Congress have questioned whether the president's actions are even legal, amounting to an unconstitutional attempt to escape congressional authorization. At least two congressional Republicans — Rep. Warren Davidson and Thomas Massie — joined Democrats to immediately condemn the bombings as unconstitutional. 'The only entity that can take this country to war is the U.S. Congress,' Sen. Bernie Sanders said in remarks in Oklahoma as the crowd learned about the bombings in real time. 'The president does not have the right.' 'The President's disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers,' said Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 'He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations.' The New York congresswoman said the attack is 'clearly grounds for impeachment.' Top Democrats on congressional intelligence committees were also not briefed in advance of the attacks. 'The American public is overwhelmingly opposed to the U.S. waging war on Iran,' said Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, who has urged Congress to pass legislation that would require Trump to go to Congress before attacking Iran. He noted that Israeli officials said its bombs have already set Iran's nuclear capability back by two to three years. 'So what made Trump recklessly decide to rush and bomb today?' he said. 'Horrible judgment. I will push for all Senators to vote on whether they are for this third idiotic Middle East war.' While Trump touts what he claims are unequivocal military successes, he has also spent his first few months in office developing plans to crush dissent domestically. The deployment of the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles to respond to protests against his anti-immigration agenda could be seen as a 'dress rehearsal' for far more expansive emergency powers to impose federal control of America's cities, according to The Atlantic's David Frum. More demonstrations against further military action in Iran are expected, adding to a steady rhythm of protests and unrest against the Trump administration that exploded across American streets in recent weeks.
