By Guardian - Caolán Magee - Thu 14 Aug 2025 14.31 BST

Israel’s far-right finance minister claims Netanyahu and Trump have agreed to the plan although there has been no confirmation from either leader

12.27 BST

Israeli far-right minister says Netanyahu and Trump agreed to West Bank settlement plan

Israeli far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US president Donald Trump had agreed to revive the contentious E1 settlement scheme – although there was no immediate confirmation from either leader.

It comes after we reported earlier that Smotrich announced plans to begin construction on a settlement that would divide the West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem.

Standing at the site in Ma’ale Adumim, Smotrich said:

Whoever in the world is trying to recognise a Palestinian state today will receive our answer on the ground. Not with documents nor with decisions or statements, but with facts. Facts of houses, facts of neighbourhoods.

Smotrich told Reuters the plan would go into effect on Wednesday, without specifying what would happen that day.

Most of the international community considers all settlements illegal under international law, a position backed by multiple UN Security Council resolutions calling on Israel to halt settlement activity.

In June, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand imposed sanctions on Smotrich and another far-right minister who advocates settlement expansion, accusing them of repeatedly inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

14.31 BST

Riot police at Greece’s largest port, Piraeus, cordoned off an area around a cruise ship early Thursday to prevent several hundred protesters from approaching the vessel.

The Crown Iris, carrying Israeli tourists, has faced demonstrations at Greek islands and mainland ports along its route, some of which have led to clashes with police.

At Piraeus, near Athens, demonstrators held flares and waved Palestinian flags behind a cordon formed with riot police buses.

Protest organisers, citing online posts from travellers, claimed off-duty Israeli soldiers were among the passengers.

“They are unwanted here and have no business being here,” protest organiser Markos Bekris said. “The blood of innocent people is on their hands, and we should not welcome them.”

Greece remains a popular holiday destination for Israelis, but the ongoing war on Gaza, and global attention on the widespread destruction and severe food shortages, has sparked hundreds of anti-Israel protests in Athens and other Greek cities and towns.

Opposition parties have called on the conservative government to halt commercial and military cooperation with Israel.

14.19 BST

In an act of international journalistic solidarity, the Swedish Union of Journalists (SJF) staged a demonstration in Stockholm, protesting the targeted killings of Palestinian journalists in Gaza.

The demonstration follows am Israeli airstrike on Sunday that claimed the lives of four Al Jazeera journalists and two freelance media workers sheltering near a tent outside the Al-Shifa Hospital.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 192 journalists and media workers have been killed since the onset of the war in late 2023.

In a statement shared on social media, SJF decried the ongoing violence against press freedoms as “unacceptable and must come to an end,” adding: “the message is simple – stop killing our colleagues”.

13.49 BST

Qatar, Iraq and Jordan have all issued strong condemnations of recent statements concerning the occupied West Bank.

In a statement from Doha on Thursday, Qatar’s foreign ministry said it “strongly condemns” Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich’s approval of plans to construct a settlement that would separate East Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank, calling it “a blatant violation of international legitimacy, particularly United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334”.

Iraq’s foreign ministry also “strongly condemns” remarks by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week in which he said he felt “very attached” to the vision of a so-called “Greater Israel”. The ministry described the comments as “a blatant provocation and a clear violation of the sovereignty of states, a breach of international law, and the charter of the United Nations”.

Jordan’s foreign ministry criticised Smotrich’s announcement that he intends to approve tenders to build more than 3,000 homes in the E1 area settlement project linking Jerusalem to Maale Adumim. Its spokesperson, ambassador Sufyan Qudah, said the plan and other “illegal Israeli measures” were “a blatant violation of international law”.

13.23 BST

My colleague Peter Beaumont his written a fuller report on an earlier blog post on Aid groups saying that Israel’s new registration rules “are weaponising aid”:

More than 100 aid organisations working in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have accused Israel of dangerously “weaponising aid” in its application of new rules for registering groups involved in delivering humanitarian assistance.

The letter represents the latest broadside from the international aid community against Israel after the EU, Britain and Japan on Tuesday called for urgent action to stop “famine” spreading in the Gaza Strip.

Aid groups say Israel’s new registration rules are ‘weaponising aid’

13.11 BST

Mossad spy chief David Barnea is visiting Qatar to revive Gaza peace talks, two Israeli officials told Reuters on Thursday.

The visit follows a reported expression of eagerness by Hamas for a swift return to Gaza ceasefire negotiations during a meeting with Egypt’s intelligence chief in Cairo.

13.00 BST

12.27 BST

Israeli far-right minister says Netanyahu and Trump agreed to West Bank settlement plan

Israeli far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US president Donald Trump had agreed to revive the contentious E1 settlement scheme – although there was no immediate confirmation from either leader.

It comes after we reported earlier that Smotrich announced plans to begin construction on a settlement that would divide the West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem.

Standing at the site in Ma’ale Adumim, Smotrich said:

Whoever in the world is trying to recognise a Palestinian state today will receive our answer on the ground. Not with documents nor with decisions or statements, but with facts. Facts of houses, facts of neighbourhoods.

Smotrich told Reuters the plan would go into effect on Wednesday, without specifying what would happen that day.

Most of the international community considers all settlements illegal under international law, a position backed by multiple UN Security Council resolutions calling on Israel to halt settlement activity.

In June, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand imposed sanctions on Smotrich and another far-right minister who advocates settlement expansion, accusing them of repeatedly inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

12.14 BST

Palestinians mourn loved ones killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza

11.59 BST

At least four killed in Idlib explosion, Syria’s state media says

Earlier we reported that Syria’s official Ekhbariya TV said an explosion had been heard in Idlib, in the north-west of the country.

Syria’s state news agency is now reporting that at least four people were killed and five injured in an explosion on the outskirts of Idlib city on Thursday.

11.50 BST

An Iranian government spokesperson has compared Israel’s war in Gaza to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In a post on X, Esmaeil Baqaei, head of Iran’s Centre for Public Diplomacy, said:

As the world marks the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, UN human rights experts have noted that Israel’s genocidal attacks evoke painful parallels with the nuclear attacks on Japan.

Quoting a statement published by the UN human rights council, Baqaei added: “Of particular concern is Israel’s perpetration of these genocidal attacks, while it remains as the sole nuclear power in the Middle East, continuing to threaten regional stability with attacks against most of its neighbouring states, including attacks against nuclear facilities in Iran.”

11.38 BST

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel has just provided some insight into the country’s post-war plans for Gaza.

She said a non-Israeli, peaceful civilian administration for Gaza was among the government’s five key principles for ending the war.

The other principles include the release of hostages still held in Gaza, the surrender of weapons by Hamas, the full demilitarization of Gaza, and Israel retaining overriding security controls, she added.

11.21 BST

Gaza health ministry says 54 killed, 831 injured in past 24 hours

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza has just issued its daily death toll.

It says 54 people have been killed and 831 injured in the past 24 hours, adding that some victims remain under the rubble or on roads that ambulance and civil defence crews are unable to reach.

According to the ministry, the death toll from Israeli military action since 7 October 2023 has risen to 61,776, with 154,906 injured.

Since 18 March 2025 when the ceasefire ended, it says 10,251 people have been killed and 42,865 injured.

The ministry said 22 of those killed in the past day died in incidents involving aid convoys, along with 269 injuries, bringing the total number of what it calls “aid victims” to 1,881 dead and more than 13,863 injured since the start of the war.

Earlier, the ministry also reported four deaths from famine and malnutrition in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 239, including 106 children.

11.02 BST

Italy’s defence ministry says it has completed the largest medical evacuation from Gaza since January last year, flying 31 children and 83 accompanying relatives  to  Ciampino, Milan  and Pisa overnight. The patients and their families have been admitted to Italian hospitals for medical care and specialist treatment.

With this mission, Italy says it has now taken in more than 180 children from Gaza, along with 580 people in total, for treatment.

The ministry said Italy is the fourth country in the world, and the first among Western nations, for the evacuation and transfer of Palestinian patients to specialised hospitals.

“In dramatic contexts like that of the Gaza Strip, solidarity is expressed through concrete actions rather than words,” defence minister Guido Crosetto said.

“Today’s medical transport is a further sign of Italy’s commitment alongside the civilian population affected by a severe humanitarian emergency. Giving hope, saving a life, especially that of suffering children, means affirming the fundamental values we identify with.”

Crosetto thanked the defence, foreign and interior ministries, Italy’s civil protection department, and the healthcare personnel caring for the young patients.

10.48 BST

Palestinian foreign ministry condemns new Israeli settlement plans

Earlier we reported that Israeli far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich announced plans to advance tenders for more than 3,000 housing units in the E1 settlement project between  Jerusalem  and Ma’ale Adumim – in what advocacy groups criticised as illegal under international law.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has just issued a strong rebuke of the measures, calling the tenders as being linked to “the notion of ‘Greater Israel’” and part of a wider plan to “undermine the opportunity to establish the Palestinian state on its homeland”.

It considers the colonial construction in the E1 area a continuation of the occupation’s plans to undermine the opportunity to establish the Palestinian state on its homeland, weaken its geographical and demographic unity, entrench the division of the West Bank into isolated areas surrounded by a sea of settlements, and facilitate the completion of their annexation.

The Ministry views these tenders as an extension of the crimes of genocide, displacement, and annexation, and as an echo of Netanyahu’s statements regarding what he called ‘Greater Israel’.

It called for “genuine international intervention” and sanctions to halt the plans, end the “genocide, displacement, and annexation”.

10.33 BST

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says Israeli airstrikes on Tehran’s Evin prison in June killed scores of detainees, visitors and staff in what it has described as an “apparent war crime”.

The rights group says survivors have since been subjected to abuse, enforced disappearances and inhumane detention conditions by Iranian authorities.

Israeli airstrikes on Tehran killed inmates in ‘apparent war crime’ – reportRead more

The investigation, based on satellite imagery, videos and witness accounts, found the 23 June strikes destroyed visitation halls, prison wards, the central kitchen, the medical clinic and administrative offices.

HRW said it found no evidence of military targets in the facility, which held more than 1,500 prisoners at the time, many jailed for peaceful activism.

10.24 BST

Turning briefly to Syria, a UN investigation has found that war crimes were likely committed by both members of the interim government forces and fighters loyal to the country’s former rulers during an outbreak of sectarian violence in the coastal region in March.

The UN Syria Commission of Inquiry says around 1,400 people – mainly civilians from Alawi communities – were killed in the violence, which included torture, killings and inhumane treatment of the dead.

The coastal incidents were the worst violence to hit Syria since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad last year.

Meanwhile, fighting elsewhere in the country continues. An explosion was reported in Idlib on Thursday, with authorities working to verify its cause.

Turkey has also just signed a military cooperation accord with Syria, pledging weapons systems, logistical support and training.

The Turkish defence ministry said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – the Kurdish-led force allied with the US in the fight against ISIS – have yet to meet conditions for integration into Syria’s state apparatus under a March agreement, and urged compliance.

Despite the deal, skirmishes have continued. Syria’s state news agency SANA reported a government soldier was killed earlier this week in clashes with the SDF in Aleppo province.

10.06 BST

In a surviving upstairs room at Gaza College, its walls pocked with shrapnel and windows blown out, a boy sits for a guitar class.

His teacher, Mohammed Abu Mahadi, 32, says music can help heal the psychological wounds left by bombardment, loss and shortages.

“What I do here is make children happy from music because it is one of the best ways for expressing feelings,” he said.

The students were attending an Edward Said National Conservatory of Music lesson on 4 August, held in displacement camps and damaged buildings since Israeli strikes forced the school from its main base.

“When I play I feel like I’m flying away,” said Rifan al-Qassas, 15, who began learning the oud at nine. “Music gives me hope and eases my fear.”

Founded in the West Bank, the conservatory opened its Gaza branch 13 years ago.

But after 22 months of war, some students are now dead, including 14-year-old violinist Lubna Alyaan.

The old school building now lies in ruins, its walls collapsed and rooms littered with debris. A grand piano is gone. For many, music is now the last place of refuge.

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