Israeli soldiers block the road to prevent Palestinian farmers from reaching their land during the olive harvest on October 17, 2026 in Abu Falah, West Bank. (Photo by Faiz Abu Rmeleh/Getty Images)
“European diplomats got a glimpse of everyday life for Palestinians in the West Bank.”
The Israeli military reportedly ignored repeated distress calls before masked settlers attacked a group of European diplomats with metal bars during a visit to the illegally occupied West Bank this past weekend, sparking international outrage.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that “despite the warnings, security forces were not sent to the area to prevent the attack or intervene as it unfolded.” The outlet noted that “an activist who was in the area following reports of attacks on Palestinian olive pickers sent a report of the settlers’ attack to a phone in the brigade’s operations room used to receive messages from settlement security coordinators. The soldiers in the operations room did not recognize the sender’s number, so they ignored the message and did not relay it to forces in the field.”
In the Saturday attack, settlers targeted diplomats from France, Belgium, and Poland, as well as Catholic representatives. Israeli authorities said Monday that they had arrested 10 suspects as part of an investigation into the incident, but critics expressed doubt that the Israeli government would hold the perpetrators to account given the general pattern of impunity for violent settlers.
“It was clear to me this had to come for Israel to save face,” Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst on Israel at the International Crisis Group, wrote in response to the arrests. “They probably will be released shortly.”
The attack on diplomats came a day after Israeli settlers in the West Bank brutally attacked 63-year-old Heidi Levine, a photojournalist with The Washington Post and a US citizen. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuissued a statement casting doubt on Levine’s account and news reports, and said the incident was under investigation.
Netanyahu’s office took a similar line following the Saturday attack on European diplomats, saying in a statement, “The more serious the accusation, the greater the demand for compelling evidence.”
Video of masked Israeli settlers striking European diplomats and elected officials near Taybeh, a Christian village in Palestine. The 78-year-old French mayor Bernard Baudoux was thrown to the ground and beaten with iron bars.
France’s foreign affairs ministry denounced the attacks on diplomats as “acts of terror” and called on Israeli authorities to “arrest the perpetrators of this extremely serious assault and bring them to justice.” Bernard Baudoux, a French mayor who was attacked, said he was “struck with metal bars and kicked before being thrown to the ground.”
“We were finally able to get back to our vehicles,” Baudoux added.
Breaking the Silence, an Israeli anti-occupation group, said in a statement on Sunday that “European diplomats got a glimpse of everyday life for Palestinians in the West Bank.”
The group added that the IDF “will always have a bureaucratic excuse” for not acting to prevent such attacks, “but the real reason is that backing settler terrorists is its policy.”
“This horrifying routine serves a purpose,” the group said. “Through daily terror and economic strangulation, it aims to drive Palestinians off their land. The ultimate goals: ethnic cleansing and annexation.”
The attacks also drew condemnation from lawmakers in the US, where Republicans and Democratic Sen. John Fetterman recently blocked legislation aimed at shining light on Israeli abuses in the West Bank.
“I condemn the brutal settler attacks on American photojournalist Heidi Levine, European diplomats, and Palestinian olive harvesters in the West Bank,” US Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement on Sunday. “Prime Minister Netanyahu must act now to stop settler violence, protect civilians, and ensure those responsible are brought to justice. The impunity must end.”
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Lebanese President Joseph Aoun gives a speech at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, Turkiye, on July 30, 2026. [Doğukan Keskinkılıç – Anadolu Agency]
Lebanon on Thursday asked the US to urge Israel to halt attacks that target southern Lebanese towns despite a framework deal, Anadolu reports.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun held a phone call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to discuss the latest situation in Lebanon and the region, according to a presidency statement.
Aoun asked Rubio to push Tel Aviv to abide by the provisions of the framework agreement, cease land-clearing operations, allow farmers to access their fields, and refrain from targeting them.
He informed Rubio that the Lebanese army and security forces were fully carrying out their duties in implementing decisions to prevent armed displays, seize weapons and ammunition, and combat smuggling.
The Lebanese president stressed that the judicial authorities were following up on all cases referred to them, and there would be “no leniency” toward those responsible for violations.
Israeli has continued attacks in southern Lebanon since early March, killed more than 4,300 people and displacing more than a million.
In June, Beirut and Tel Aviv signed a US-sponsored framework agreement providing for a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory, as well as the disarmament of Hezbollah, among other provisions.
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. New Labour UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham continues Labour party policy of active support and complicity in Israel’s genocide.UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.Ed Miliband says that he and the Labour Party are full of shit criminalising people holding signs as terrorists despite anything he says.
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Maccabi supporters wave yellow flags next to Israeli flags during the UEFA Europa League, League phase – Matchday 4, football match between Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel Aviv at the Johan-Cruijff stadium, in Amsterdam on November 7, 2024. [Robin van Lonkhuijsen /AFP via Getty Images]
Israel criticised the Netherlands on Monday evening over a decision to bar fans of Israeli football club Hapoel Be’er Sheva from attending their Europa League match against AZ Alkmaar, claiming the move “rewards those who threaten and incite violence”.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a statement after local authorities in Alkmaar reaffirmed the ban on the Israeli team’s supporters attending the match, scheduled for 15 October, citing security concerns.
“Two years after Israelis were hunted through the streets of Amsterdam, the Dutch answer is to ban the victims, not the attackers,” the ministry said.
It described Alkmaar’s decision as contrary to the fundamental principles and spirit of sport, claiming it “rewards those who threaten and incite violence”.
The ministry claimed that such attacks were “fuelled by anti-Israel incitement from Dutch politicians and public figures.”
It added that barring Israeli fans from the match, alongside the boycott of the Eurovision Song Contest, was “another stain on the Netherlands”. It also claimed that “the country increasingly becomes one of the world’s leading hotspots for antisemitism.”
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. New Labour UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham continues Labour party policy of active support and complicity in Israel’s genocide.UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.Ed Miliband says that he and the Labour Party are full of shit criminalising people holding signs as terrorists despite anything he says.
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Smoke rises after the Israeli army bombs a building in al-Bureij Refugee Camp in the central Gaza Strip, following an evacuation warning issued for the building, in Gaza, Palestine, on September 8, 2026. [Adam Bilal – Anadolu Agency]
Four Israeli military intelligence soldiers acknowledged they received instructions to use “heavy bombs” against inhabited buildings in the Gaza Strip without evacuating residents first, in strikes that killed and injured hundreds of Palestinians, according to a media report on Monday.
The soldiers gave their accounts to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, as Israel continues its genocide in Gaza, which began in October 2023.
The Israeli army has repeatedly claimed that it warns civilians in Gaza to evacuate before strikes, a practice Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have frequently boasted.
However, soldiers’ testimonies contradict these claims, as they revealed a complete change in open-fire regulations since the start of the war on Gaza, where approximately 2.4 million Palestinians live.
One intelligence soldier, identified only as A, who was tasked with tracking Hamas commanders in Gaza, said: “We knew almost nothing about Hamas and its military wing at the field level.
“In October 2023, we started almost from scratch to identify where their members and operatives were,” he said.
He added that the criteria for defining a target were quickly loosened, alongside “a sharp change in the concept of proportionality and the use of heavy weapons” and a significant easing of the policy governing the killing of civilians considered “collateral damage.”
Expanded targeting policy
Haaretz said the testimonies of the four soldiers portrayed “a fundamentally different concept of warfare, in which even relatively minor targets could be considered sufficient justification for attacks to harm civilians.”
The newspaper said the large number of civilians classified by the military as “collateral damage” was not simply the result of failures or mistaken identification, but stemmed from a policy of expanding the use of firepower “to the maximum extent.”
Haaretz said similar accounts had been presented during the three years of the war and that efforts to compensate for the intelligence failures of Oct. 7, 2023, “contributed to unprecedented tolerance for civilian casualties.”
The newspaper cited an Oct. 31, 2023 Israeli airstrike on a large residential complex in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza as one example. The stated target was Ibrahim Biari, a Hamas battalion commander in Jabalia.
“We knew Biari was underground, beneath large buildings, but we did not know beneath which building,” said a soldier identified only as D.
“So they chose buildings that were still inhabited and decided to destroy all the buildings above the tunnel where he was located. We did not carry out an evacuation because it was important to kill him without allowing him to escape,” he said.
Soldier A, who said he took part in the mission, said members of the targeting cell understood that the number of civilians likely to be harmed “was extremely high.”
“In the military intelligence estimates of potential collateral damage, there was talk of 250 to 300 people, so the decision was passed up for direct approval by the chief of staff,” he said.
“After the strike, as time passed, we understood that the number of dead was around 250,” he added, referring to Palestinian civilians.
“I remember being shocked when several densely populated buildings were flattened, killing hundreds, in order to kill a battalion commander who only a few weeks earlier would not even have been considered a target,” he said.
Responding to the Jabalia massacre, the Israeli army claimed that the strike had been “replanned several times to reduce harm to civilians,” saying the expected number of civilian casualties “was not in the hundreds.”
The army claimed that after the strike, “the damage was found to have exceeded its initial assessment.”
Nadav Weiman, executive director of Breaking the Silence, a left-wing Israeli organization, denounced the army’s conduct in Gaza.
“We cannot allow the killing of 300 civilians to assassinate a battalion commander,” he said. “Nor can we kill 20 civilians to kill every Hamas truck driver and then claim publicly that we did everything possible to prevent harm to innocent people.
“It is time for those who issued these orders to take responsibility instead of trying to get rid of the soldiers who courageously decided to tell the public the truth,” Weiman said.
In November 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
The International Court of Justice, the UN’s principal judicial organ, is also hearing a case brought by South Africa and joined by several countries accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Haaretz said another case described by the soldiers involved the Oct. 13, 2023 targeting of Hamas commander Ali Qadi.
According to the newspaper, an intelligence soldier in the Gaza Division had warned that Qadi “was behaving unusually,” but the division’s intelligence officer disregarded the warning.
“A few days after the war began, Qadi became a target and was subjected to heavy fire,” soldier A said.
“He was in the house with his family, and they decided to kill him. The army quickly announced that he had been killed, but in reality Qadi was the only person who survived the attack. Everyone who was killed had no connection to the target,” he said.
Without evacuation
Another soldier, identified as B, who served in a drone unit, said that after the war began, the division was authorized to operate under expanded parameters, meaning attacks expected to injure up to 20 noncombatants “did not require approval from a senior official outside the targeting cell.”
A third soldier, identified as C, who served in military intelligence, said that several months after the ground offensive began on Oct. 27, 2023, his unit was asked to prepare an entry zone into Gaza City for a maneuvering division.
He said several high-rise buildings in the area were considered a threat to Israeli troops and that an intelligence assessment estimated that about 25% of residents were still inside their homes.
“When we tried to ask how many residents remained and whether that was reasonable, we were told that those residents were targets for the forces on the ground. I could not understand or believe that we were talking about such numbers,” he said.
He added that the forces planning to enter the area could have waited considerably longer before approving the attack.
“So in the early stages we attacked without a full evacuation. Defending the soldiers was given priority, which is understandable, but the numbers (of civilian casualties) kept growing and became unreasonable,” he said.
The Israeli army has killed more than 74,300 Palestinians and injured over 175,400 others in a brutal war since October 2023 that has left the entire enclave in ruins.
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. New Labour UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham continues Labour party policy of active support and complicity in Israel’s genocide.UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.Ed Miliband says that he and the Labour Party are full of shit criminalising people holding signs as terrorists despite anything he says.
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A view of the vessels passing through Strait of Hormuz following the two-week temporary ceasefire reached between the United States and Iran on the condition that the strait be reopened, seen in Oman on April 08, 2026. [Shadi J. H. Alassar – Anadolu Agency]
Tehran says Washington has accepted some of its 7 conditions but must clarify unresolved issues
Iran considers Washington’s response to its seven conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz “insufficient,” a senior Iranian official said, according to the semi-official Tasnim News Agency.
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said the US had accepted some of Tehran’s conditions, while others remained unclear.
Rezaei said Washington had approached Tehran over the past two months through three channels — Pakistan, Qatar and Iraq — asking Iran to submit its proposals.
About two weeks ago, Iran conveyed seven conditions to the US, explicitly stating that the Strait of Hormuz would not reopen to Washington and no negotiations would take place until those conditions were met, he said.
Rezaei said Tehran was no longer in the process of responding to Washington because the US had already submitted its response, which Iran considered “insufficient.”
“They must clarify the issues that remain ambiguous to us,” he said.
The report did not detail all seven conditions or specify which ones Washington had accepted.
Rezaei also said the Gulf could not be secure without Iran’s management of the Strait of Hormuz, describing control over the waterway as an “immense source of national wealth and a major national asset.”
He said Iran’s interests extended beyond closing the passage and collecting transit fees.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in late September that Tehran could reopen the strategic waterway within seven days if Washington accepted a proposal conveyed through Qatari mediation.
Under the plan, the US would be expected to take agreed steps during the first four or five days, allowing normal navigation through the strait to resume on the sixth day and negotiations on a final agreement to begin on the seventh.
Tehran’s demands include an end to hostilities, the release of frozen Iranian assets, the lifting of restrictions on Iranian oil exports and an end to the US naval blockade on Iranian ports.
Iran has kept the Strait of Hormuz restricted while demanding that Washington fulfill commitments under a June memorandum of understanding.
Tehran has said the waterway will not fully reopen until its conditions are met and US commitments are implemented.
The US and Israel launched a war against Iran on Feb. 28. Tehran responded with missile and drone attacks across the region and effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, while Washington later imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports.
Washington and Tehran subsequently signed a memorandum of understanding in June concerning freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, but implementation stalled over disagreements related to security in the strategic waterway.
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