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Displaced Palestinians try to survive in makeshift tents, set up on top of the rubble, in Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, Gaza on November 17, 2025. Khames Alrefi – Anadolu Agency]
The United States has informed mediating countries and states expected to contribute forces to an international security mission in Gaza that it will allow Israel to resume military operations if Hamas does not disarm, according to a report by the Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom.
The newspaper said that Washington conveyed this position explicitly during UN Security Council deliberations on the future of the Gaza Strip. US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, reportedly reaffirmed the stance in internal discussions with American representatives involved in the resolution’s negotiations.
US officials have also relayed the same message to Israeli political leaders and military commanders, including during talks with the Israel Defence Forces at the Civil-Military Coordination Centre (CMCC) in Kiryat Gat, according to the report. Washington emphasised its commitment to the full disarmament of Hamas and the dismantling of its military infrastructure in Gaza.
Israeli political sources told the newspaper that the US set two immediate priorities following the Security Council’s adoption of the Gaza resolution: the establishment of an international force to operate inside the Gaza Strip, and preventing Hamas from controlling the entry and distribution of supplies into the besieged territory.
However, the formation of such a force faces significant obstacles. So far, no country has agreed to deploy troops that could become involved in direct confrontations with Hamas.
The US position comes amid ongoing negotiations over Gaza’s post-war governance and security arrangements and reflects Washington’s insistence that any political or humanitarian framework must ensure Hamas cannot regain military control.
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Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspeding 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.
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UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese makes a speech during the meeting titled “Palestine, International Law, and Europe’s Role at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium on November 18, 2025. [Dursun Aydemir – Anadolu Agency]
The UN’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories reiterated her criticism of the European Union and its member states over policies she said are aiding the destruction of Palestine, Anadolu reports.
In remarks to reporters Tuesday at the European Parliament in Brussels, Francesca Albanese said the EU and its members failed to fulfill their international obligations on Gaza and Palestine.
“It is a very grave situation that, particularly due to the objections of Germany and Italy, the suspension of the trade agreement (with Israel) has still not gone forward,’ she said.
Citing continued relations between the EU and Israel, including sending weapons as well as Israel’s association with the bloc’s Horizon Europe research program, Albanese said the issue is not that the EU is not doing enough, rather it is that the EU, through its member states and policies, is aiding the destruction of Palestine.
“In my view, the situation is so dire that it is beyond comment,” she said.
Asked about her comments regarding a two-state solution, she said there is no point in any political debate about two states unless the dire situation of the Palestinian people is addressed.
“There is an ethnic cleansing in the West Bank that is almost unprecedented in the last 80 years, and with extraordinary violence,” she said.
Albanese said that most of the violent Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank are citizens of European countries, while many European citizens have served in the Israeli army.
“How can we talk about two states when the population is disappearing, when much of the land on which the independent State of Palestine was to be established has been destroyed or is under occupation?” she said.
“We are facing a new genocide, and we are at risk of being complicit in it,” said Albanese, adding this complicity leads not only to the destruction of Palestine but also to the collapse of the EU’s fundamental values.
Albanese also said that US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza does not comply with international law, citing last year’s ruling by the International Court of Justice that Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is unlawful.
She also said that compensation must be paid for the violence against Palestinians and the return of displaced people must be guaranteed.
In response to a question regarding the disarming of the Palestinian group Hamas and removing it from power in Gaza, Albanese said the right to self-determination means that Palestinians choose whomever they want.
“Just as Israelis can elect a criminal, Palestinians can also vote for someone the international community does not like, or not. But that is not our concern. What concerns us is that Palestinians live freely and in peace — just like Israelis,” she added.
Albanese also reiterated the need to immediately suspend the military cooperation agreement between the EU and Israel.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspeding 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.
More patients than promised in NHS England’s recovery plan are still waiting more than six weeks for an X-ray or scan. Photograph: Lankowsky/Alamy
Public accounts committee finds Labour’s progress ‘appears to have stalled’ despite billions of pounds in investment
The NHS has failed to cut waiting times as promised in its recovery plan despite billions of pounds in investment, the public accounts committee (PAC) has warned.
The influential parliamentary committee’s verdict raises serious doubts over whether Labour can fulfil its key pledge to voters to “fix the NHS” by ensuring that patients can once again get hospital care within 18 weeks by 2029.
In a scathing report, the cross-party PAC warns that improvements in providing faster tests and treatment have “stalled”. And it criticises Keir Starmer and the health secretary, Wes Streeting, for ordering a costly, unplanned reorganisation of the NHS in England. It said this could damage care and was reminiscent of the shambles surrounding the HS2 rail project.
Far more patients than promised still have to wait more than 18 weeks for non-urgent hospital care – sometimes for more than a year – and more than six weeks for an X-ray or scan, it found. “Progress in reducing waiting times appears to have stalled, with the total elective care waiting list standing at 7.4m clinical pathways,” the report says – about 220,000 fewer than when Labour took power in July 2024.
The PAC’s conclusions will alarm ministers, who are keenly aware that the public’s top priority is to see NHS waiting times fall, and that Reform UK has recently supplanted Labour as the party that voters see as having the best policies on healthcare.
Its gloomy verdict contrasts sharply with the upbeat picture of progress in the NHS during Labour’s 16 months in power that Streeting painted last week.
… Reform UK has recently supplanted Labour as the party that voters see as having the best policies on healthcare. …
??? It’s remarkable that the electorate is so poorly informed …
Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.Nigel Farage attacks the NHSNigel Farage reminds you that he’s the man that brought you Brexit and asks what could possibly go wrong.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves – the very poorest and most vulnerable.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
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Israeli settlers graze their sheep on Palestinian land under the protection of Israeli forces after an attack that left one Palestinian injured in the village of Umm al-Khair near Hebron, West Bank on November 9, 2025. [Mamoun Wazwaz – Anadolu Agency]
The Israeli army detained about 100 Palestinians in the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank, after sealing all of the town’s entrances early Wednesday, Anadolu reports.
The operation came hours after an Israeli settler was killed and three others were wounded, one critically, in a ramming and stabbing attack at the Gush Etzion junction in the southern West Bank. The attack was carried out by two Palestinians, one of them from Beit Ummar, who were shot dead by Israeli forces.
On Tuesday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said the Palestinian Civil Affairs Authority — the official liaison with Israel — notified it that Imran al-Atrash from Hebron and Walid Mohammed Sabarneh from Beit Ummar were killed by Israeli fire near Bethlehem in the southern West Bank.
Israeli forces stormed Beit Ummar early Wednesday and raided dozens of homes, including the Sabarneh family’s house, damaging its contents, witnesses told Anadolu.
They said the army launched a broad arrest campaign in the town, detaining about 100 people.
Residents said the army sealed all entrances to Beit Ummar with dirt mounds and iron gates, restricting movement in and out of the area.
The Israeli army has escalated its attacks in the West Bank since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023.
More than 1,076 Palestinians have since been killed, and 10,700 others injured in attacks by the army and illegal settlers in the occupied territory. More than 20,500 people have also been arrested.
In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
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Genocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
