Israel's Smotrich approves settlement splitting East Jerusalem from West Bank
It was not immediately clear if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backed the plan to revive the long-frozen E1 scheme, which Palestinians and world powers have said would lop the West Bank in two and will likely draw international ire.
In a statement headlined "Burying the idea of a Palestinian state," Smotrich's spokesperson said the minister would give a press conference later on Thursday about the plan to build 3,401 houses for Israeli settlers between an existing settlement in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Israel had frozen construction plans there since 2012 because of objections from the United States, European allies and other world powers who considered the project a threat to any future peace deal with the Palestinians.
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Scottish Sun
8 minutes ago
- Scottish Sun
Ukrainian troops cut Putin's two-pronged frontline breach in HALF in wake of Trump summit in major blow to Vlad
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) UKRAINE has managed to cut Russia's two-pronged frontline incursion in half in the latest major blow to Vladimir Putin. Moscow suddenly breached an area in the Donetsk region as a reported 110,000 troops advanced on the eastern front being swiftly contained and pushed back. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 7 Ukraine's armed forces prepare a Howitzer in Donetsk as they fight back against Russia's two-pronged frontline incursion Credit: Getty 7 Dozens of Russian military assets have been left up in flames as Ukraine continues to push back any advancing troops Credit: X/@NAFORaccoon 7 Soldiers of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade, known as 'Kholodnyi Yar' fire an anti-aircraft gun equipped with a thermal imaging camera in Donetsk region Credit: Getty 7 Putin's bloodthirsty forces reportedly advanced by at least 10km north in two prongs as part of his attempt to capture the entire Donetsk region. The terrifying development came just days before the Alaska summit with Donald Trump and was seen as a warmongering Putin trying to gain the upper hand ahead of the talks. Moscow currently controls over 70 per cent of the highly-contested Donetsk region. Capturing it entirely would allow Putin's forces to cause major disruption to supply lines on the eastern front and force Ukraine into submission. read more in Ukraine war PEACE PLOT Trump & Putin 'plan West Bank-style occupation of Ukraine' to secure truce Despite the Russians making an initial burst into Ukrainian territory these advances soon petered out. Ukrainian troops have since been able to drive the enemy away from positions near Rubizhne, Zolotyi Kolodiaz, Vesele, Vilne Shakhove, Nikanorivka, and Sukhotske, according to data from DeepState. Fierce battles erupted near the coal mining town Dobropillia with the 1st Corps of the Ukrainian National Guard announcing several hundred casualties for the Russians. The valiant corps also destroyed a Russian tank, took out two IFVs and managed to damage 37 light vehicles and three artillery pieces. President Volodymyr Zelensky also publicly praised the 1st Corps as well as several other units working in the Donetsk region in recent days. Speaking on X today, he said: "We are defending our positions along the entire front line. Donald Trump vows full peace deal not 'mere ceasefire' after Alaska summit as Zelensky to head to White House "For the second day in a row, we have achieved successes in some extremely difficult areas in the Donetsk region – in the direction of Dobropillia and Pokrovsk. "The destruction of the occupiers who tried to infiltrate deeper into our positions continues." Zelensky, who is now planning to meet Trump at the White House on Monday to discuss a peace deal to end the war, added: "I am grateful to all our warriors for their resilience." He also made a special shout out to the units of the 93rd Separate Mechanized Brigade 'Kholodnyi Yar' squad. Footage of the resilient forces battling on the ground and in the air in the village of Vesele shows them eliminating dozens of Putin's men. A clip shows a kamikaze drone smashing straight into two bumbling troops as they venture across a road. Another shows a missile being dropped from the sky and exploding upon impact as it hits its Russia target below. The Kholodnyi Yar unit were even responsible for capturing several soldiers and making them prisoners of war. Has the Alaska summit helped broker a peace deal? AS Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin both flew out of Alaska on Friday it appeared as though the summit was an utter failure in the eyes of Ukraine. There had been no agreements on a peace deal as Trump appeared to be hesitant to truly reveal what demands Putin was making. But a few hours after the meeting ended Trump took to social media to reveal the meeting was a success in his eyes. Trump said Russia and Ukraine both believe a full peace deal is "the best way" to end the war - rather than a short term ceasefire. Now diplomatic sources have revealed some of the initial details of the potential agreement, according to news agency AFP. The US has reportedly proposed an agreement that would see Ukraine not join Nato - but instead be offered Nato-esque protections similar to Article 5. Article 5 on Nato's founding treaty agrees collective defense - meaning allies see an attack on one as an attack on all of them. Trump reportedly floated the plan with Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders during a call after his meeting with Putin. The US President is set to discuss the terms of an agreement with Zelensky on Monday when he travels to the White House. Zelensky did not directly address any potential plan but he did say on X: "We discussed positive signals from the American side regarding participation in guaranteeing security for Ukraine." 7 A Ukrainian walks through his decimated restaurant on the frontline near Dobropillia after a Russian strike at the start of the week Credit: Getty 7 A clip shows a kamikaze drone smashing straight into two bumbling Russian troops in Vesele Credit: X/@NAFORaccoon
The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Pro-Palestine protesters chant ‘RAF shame on you' at air base demonstration
Pro- Palestine protesters chanted ' RAF shame on you' as they held a demonstration outside an air base calling for an embargo on selling arms to Israel. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered along the barbed wire fence of RAF High Wycombe on Saturday afternoon at the protest organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Protesters held banners that said 'end British military collaboration with Israel' and '61,000+ killed, 600 RAF spy flights'. There were chants of 'RAF you work for us, Israel is not your boss', 'RAF shame, shame – killing children in your name' and 'RAF blood on your hands'. A large Palestine flag was erected in front of a replica Second World War Hurricane fighter plane outside the entrance to the air base, with organisers bussing in protesters from High Wycombe railway station. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign said: 'On 16th August, as part of our summer of action for Gaza, we will be surrounding RAF High Wycombe, drawing on the legacy of protest at air bases like Greenham Common, and showing the strength of the public demand for an arms embargo.' A spokesperson for Thames Valley Police said: 'We are aware of a protest being planned to take place in High Wycombe today. 'We will work with the organisers, partners and the public to facilitate peaceful protest, balancing the rights of all and to keep our communities safe.' RAF High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire houses Headquarters Air Command and was originally designed to house RAF Bomber Command in the late 1930s. The station is also the headquarters of the European Air Group and the UK Space Command. Last weekend in central London, 15,000 people demonstrated peacefully in support of the Palestinian cause with only one arrest, the Metropolitan Police said, adding that 522 were arrested 'for an illegal show of support for Palestine Action on the same day'. The Metropolitan Police said on Friday that a further 60 people will be prosecuted for 'showing support for the proscribed terrorist group Palestine Action'. The force said this follows the arrest of more than 700 people since the group was banned on July 5, including 522 in central London last Saturday. More prosecutions are expected in the coming weeks and arrangements have been put in place 'that will enable us to investigate and prosecute significant numbers each week if necessary', the Met said. Last week, the Met confirmed the first three charges in England and Wales for offences against section 13 of the Terrorism Act relating to Palestine Action. Palestine Action was proscribed by the UK Government in July, with the ban meaning that membership of, or support for, the group is a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison, under the Terrorism Act 2000.
The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
Western journalists are failing to stand up for their colleagues in Gaza
For nearly two years, Israel has been systemically targeting and killing Palestinian journalists in Gaza. On Sunday night, the Israeli military brazenly killed another six journalists, who had been sheltering in a tent housing media workers in Gaza City. Among them was the 28-year-old Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif and the rest of the network's team reporting from the besieged territory. Israel is able to kill Palestinian journalists with impunity not just because of the unconditional military and political support it receives from the US and other western powers, but also the failure of many western media organizations and journalists to stand up for their Palestinian colleagues. Western outlets are often willing to publicly criticize governments and campaign for journalists who are harassed or imprisoned by US adversaries like Russia, China or Iran. But these institutions are largely silent when it comes to Israel, a US ally. This shameful hypocrisy of western, and especially US, media has been laid bare by Israel's targeting of journalists since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack. Journalists have the same protection as civilians under international law, which considers the targeted killing of journalists a war crime. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says that 192 journalists have been killed since 7 October – 184 of them Palestinians killed by Israel. Of the Palestinians killed, the CPJ found that at least 26 were deliberatively targeted for their work as journalists, but the group couldn't determine whether others were killed specifically for their work. Other organizations put the number of media workers killed in Gaza even higher, with a recent study by the Costs of War project at Brown University finding that at least 232 were killed as of late March. In one of its starkest conclusions, the report found that more journalists have been killed in Gaza than in the US civil war, both world wars, the Korean war, the Vietnam war, the wars in Yugoslavia and the US war in Afghanistan combined. You would think such shocking figures would galvanize news organizations and journalists around the world to condemn Israel's targeting of their Palestinian colleagues. But US news outlets have been largely quiet, compared, for example, with the crusade many of them supported to free the Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich after he was arrested and accused of espionage by Russia in March 2023. Major news organizations framed their reporting around the idea that Gershkovich had been wrongfully detained by Russia and convicted in a sham trial on fabricated charges. Yet these same news organizations are often unwilling to view Palestinian journalists as worthy of the same benefit of the doubt, and protection, against Israeli threats and smears. The Israeli military began threatening al-Sharif, the Al Jazeera correspondent killed on Sunday, in November 2023, when he reported receiving multiple calls from Israeli military officials telling him to stop his work and leave Gaza. A month later, al-Sharif's 90-year-old father was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the family's home. Israel then deployed its well-worn playbook, accusing al-Sharif of being a 'terrorist', as it has done with other Palestinian journalists that it later killed, without providing credible evidence. In October 2024, the Israeli military claimed that al-Sharif was among six Al Jazeera journalists, all reporting from Gaza at the time, who were current or former members of either Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Al Jazeera, along with press advocacy groups, viewed the accusations as a potential death sentence against the six journalists, one of whom was killed by Israel in March. The Israeli military's smear campaign against al-Sharif intensified last month, after his harrowing reporting on Israel's siege and starvation of Gaza went viral, including one broadcast where he cried on air as a woman walking behind him collapsed from hunger. (I recently spent six weeks in my home country, Lebanon, often watching Al Jazeera's coverage, and it was clear to me that al-Sharif had become the face of the Gaza war for millions of viewers in the Arab world.) In fact, the CPJ was so alarmed by the Israeli threats against al-Sharif that it issued a statement last month saying it was 'gravely worried' about his safety and urging his protection. But those pleas did not resonate in most US or other western newsrooms. There have been few media campaigns or statements of solidarity with Palestinian journalists – compared with similar efforts around Gershkovich and other western correspondents targeted by US adversaries. Major US news organizations have not published open letters in their newspapers calling attention to journalists who are being persecuted for doing their job, as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post had done for Gershkovich in May 2024 to mark World Press Freedom Day. Press freedom and protection from persecution, it seems, are limited to western journalists. In 2022, Shireen Abu Akleh, one of Al Jazeera's most prominent correspondents and a Palestinian-American, was killed by an Israeli soldier while reporting in the West Bank. Yet Joe Biden's administration refused to hold Israel accountable for Abu Akleh's killing. Biden's impotence sharpened Israel's sense of impunity. Once Israeli leaders realized that they would face no consequences for killing one of the Arab world's most prominent journalists, who also happened to be a US citizen, is it surprising they would later conclude that they could get away with killing many more Palestinian journalists in Gaza? Western media outlets have made one consistent demand of Israel: to allow foreign reporters into Gaza, which the Israeli government has refused to do since October 2023, except for a few cases where journalists entered the territory while embedded with Israel troops. That's an admirable campaign for news organizations to take on, but it has also been framed in a problematic way. Some western outlets and journalists seem to think that only foreign reporters can provide full and impartial news coverage out of Gaza. A longtime BBC journalist, John Simpson, recently echoed this argument, writing on X: 'The world needs honest, unbiased eyewitness reporting to help people make up their minds about the major issues of our time. This has so far been impossible in Gaza.' That's hogwash, and it reinforces the worst colonial traditions of legacy media, which view western (often meaning white) journalists as the sole arbiters of truth. This debate reminds me of Evelyn Waugh's Scoop, in which the British novelist mercilessly skewered foreign correspondents and sensationalist journalism in the 1930s. Unfortunately, Waugh's satire still resonates today. One of the main problems with this conception of western journalists as the ultimate mediators of unbiased reporting is that it belittles the professionalism and courage of hundreds of Palestinian journalists, many of whom have given their lives covering Israel's assault on Gaza. The irony, of course, is that once foreign reporters are allowed into Gaza, most of them will rely heavily on Palestinian journalists, translators and other 'fixers' who often do the brunt of work for western correspondents. That's one secret of foreign coverage in much of the legacy western media: it's built on the unseen, and largely uncredited, work of local journalists and fixers. With no foreign reporters allowed into Gaza, Palestinian journalists like Anas al-Sharif have been able to tell their own people's story directly to the world. And Israel is methodically killing them for it, while many of their western colleagues and international journalistic institutions remain shamefully silent. Mohamad Bazzi is director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies and a journalism professor at New York University. He is the former Middle East bureau chief at Newsday
