The United States on Thursday spoiled a long-shot Palestinian bid for full United Nations membership, vetoing a Security Council measure despite growing international distress over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The move by Israel's key ally had been expected ahead of the vote, taking place more than six months into Israel's military offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory, in retaliation for the deadly October 7 attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel. Twelve countries voted in favor of the draft resolution recommending full Palestinian membership. Britain and Switzerland absta...
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A 16-year-old accused of stabbing a Sydney bishop during a livestreamed sermon has been charged with "committing a terrorist act", police said on Friday. It is alleged the boy travelled for about 90 minutes to reach the Assyrian Christian church in western Sydney and stabbed Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel about six times. The suspect, who was taken to hospital after the attack, is expected to attend a bedside children's court hearing later on Friday, New South Wales police commissioner Karen Webb said. Police pressed the charges after a search of electronic devices at his home and an interview in hi...
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More than six months of Israel's military offensive in Gaza has turned the Palestinian territory into a "humanitarian hellscape", UN chief António Guterres said Thursday, also warning that one wrong move could see the Middle East devolve into wider war. World powers have been watching nervously since Israel vowed to respond to Iran's retaliatory weekend attack on its arch enemy, with fears soaring that escalating tit-for-tat attacks could push the region towards broader conflict. Israel's top ally and military supplier, the United States, and Britain unveiled sweeping sanctions against Iran's ...
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ISLAMABAD (AP) — A quarter of a million Afghan children need education, food and homes after being forcibly returned from Pakistan, a nongovernmental organization said Thursday. Pakistan iscracking down on foreignersit alleges are in the country illegally, including 1.7 million Afghans. It insists the campaign is not directed against Afghans specifically, but they make up most of the foreigners in the country. More than 520,000 Afghans have left Pakistan since last October. Save the Childrensaid families are entering Afghanistan with “virtually nothing” and that nearly half of all returnees ar...
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Israeli courts have recently sided with Jewish settler groups in ruling to expel nearly three dozen Palestinians from homes in Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah. The two neighbourhoods are key areas of occupied East Jerusalem where settlers have sought to take over Palestinian properties. Israeli authorities and settlers have long wanted to strip Palestinian Muslim and Christian East Jerusalem of its ethnic and religious identity and turn it into a Jewish-Israeli area. Noam Sohlberg, a Supreme Court judge, decided last week that 15 Palestinians must leave their Silwan homes, the Israeli newspaper Haare...
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Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, suggested execution as a solution to overcrowding in Israeli jails brimming with Palestinian prisoners \- many of whom are under administrative detention without charge or trial. "The death penalty for terrorists is the right solution to the incarceration problem, until then - glad that the government approved the proposal I brought forward," he said, in reference to approved plans to build 936 additional prison cells to take in more Palestinians. The comments came just a day after Palestinians marked Palestinian Prisoners' Day du...
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Hamas is willing to disband its military wing once a Palestinian state is established with 1967 borders, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Tuesday after meeting with the Palestinian group's political bureau leader Ismail Haniyeh in Qatar. Fidan and Haniyeh met for three hours and discussed humanitarian aid to Gaza, ceasefire talks, and the future of hostages, according to Turkish reports. Fidan disclosed that some Western states had positively viewed the intensified efforts towards a permanent ceasefire in Gaza based on a two-state solution but expressed concerns about Hamas. He sta...
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London Central Mosque issued a statement on Thursday distancing itself from claims that one of its imams said it was permissible for Muslim students to combine and defer obligatory prayers in a recent legal case over a London school’s ban on prayers. Earlier this week, a UK court determined that a ban on Muslim prayer at a school was lawful after a student took action saying the policy was discriminatory and "uniquely" affected her faith. In the case between Michaela Community School in northwest London and the student, headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh claimed she had spoken with the imam of ...
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Israel is reportedly considering appropriating billions of shekels from a fund owed to Iran held by the Eilat-Ashkelon Pipeline Co (EAPC) to compensate for the material losses incurred from Iran's Saturday retaliatory attack. Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Wednesday that in recent closed sessions, high-ranking Israeli officials had suggested appropriating billions of shekels from Iran's share of the profits from EAPC to compensate for the damages. While it is not yet clear how Israel will respond to Iran's attack last Saturday, which was launched in response to Israel's flatten...
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During Israel’s deadly war in Gaza, now in its sixth month, Tel Aviv has reportedly granted 12 licences for gas exploration off the Gaza coast to six local and foreign companies, among them the Italian energy company Eni, Britain’s BP, Dana Petroleum - a subsidiary of Korea National Oil Corporation - and Israeli Ratio Petroleum. In late October, about three weeks after Israel began its military attack on Gaza, the country’s Ministry of Energy announced that it had awarded new natural gas concessions in zones that, according to international law, are deemed to fall within Palestinian maritime b...
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