People watch as smoke rises on the skyline after an explosion in Tehran, Iran, this morning
THE United States and Israel bombed Iran this morning in an unprovoked act of war.
An emergency demonstration has been called outside Downing Street for 3.30pm today to oppose war on Iran, which could escalate into regional or even world war.
Iranian media reported strikes nationwide, and smoke could be seen rising from the capital Tehran. US President Donald Trump announced the start of “major combat operations” and called for regime change in the country, urging Iranians to rise up in collaboration with the attackers.
A huge US armada has built up in the Middle East in recent weeks, larger than that assembled in the Caribbean before the US bombed Venezuela and kidnapped its president last month. Mr Trump suggested the war could be a bloody one, anticipating US casualties and saying “that often happens in war.”
Talks had been ongoing in Geneva over US insistence that Iran abandon uranium enrichment for its civil nuclear power programme, as Washington claims Iran is seeking a nuclear weapon, something it has always denied.
Mr Trump unilaterally tore up the previous agreement on Iranian nuclear power (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, signed in 2015) in 2018, and broke up negotiations on the issue last year by joining an unprovoked Israeli bombing spree as they were under way.
This year’s talks may also have been undertaken in bad faith by the United States, with an Israeli official briefing Reuters that the attacks had been planned for months and the launch date decided weeks ago.
Israel reported yesterday morning that retaliatory Iranian missiles had already begun to hit the country.
Tens of thousands of US troops — and about 4,000 British soldiers — are stationed on bases in the Middle East, which could be targeted by Iran in retaliation.
It is unclear if British bases have been used in any capacity by the US in the attacks. Reports in recent weeks have suggested British authorities objected to involvement in any attack, though Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has also indicated he would be prepared to join US aggression against Iran.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “The attacks on Iran by Israel and the United States are illegal, unprovoked and unjustifiable.
“Peace and diplomacy was possible. Instead, Israel and the United States chose war.
“This is the behaviour of rogue states — and they have jeopardised the safety of humankind around the world with this catastrophic act of aggression.
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Israeli tanks are seen by the border in Rafah, Gaza on May 6, 2024. (Photo by IDF – Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The number of journalists killed by Israel is remarkably high even when compared to the number of journalists killed in other conflict zones.
A new report from a major press freedom group has found that a record 129 journalists were killed in 2025, and that Israel was responsible for two-thirds of the worldwide total.
The Tuesday report from the Committee to Protect Journalists says that the Israeli military has cumulatively killed more journalists than any other government since CPJ started tracking reporter deaths in 1992, with the vast majority being Palestinian media workers in Gaza.
The report also finds an increase in the use of drones to attack journalists, with Israel accounting for more than 70% of the 39 documented instances of reporters killed by drone strikes.
The number of journalists killed by Israel is remarkably high even when compared to the number of journalists killed in other conflict zones.
Only nine journalists were killed in Sudan, for example, while just four journalists were killed in Ukraine, despite both countries being in the midst of brutal conflicts that have collectively killed hundreds of thousands of people.
A report issued in December by Reporters Without Borders similarly found that Israel was responsible for the most journalists deaths in 2025, the third consecutive year that the country had held that distinction.
The CPJ report also points the finger at governments for not taking their responsibilities to protect journalists seriously.
“The rising number of journalist deaths globally is fueled by a persistent culture of impunity,” the report states. “Very few transparent investigations have been conducted into the 47 cases of targeted killings (classified as ‘murder’ in CPJ’s longstanding methodology) documented by CPJ in 2025—the highest number of journalists deliberately killed for their work in the past decade—and no one has been held accountable in any of the cases.”
CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg said that attacks on the media are “a leading indicator of attacks on other freedoms, and much more needs to be done to prevent these killings and punish the perpetrators,” adding that “we are all at risk when journalists are killed for reporting the news.”
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir 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.
A Lockheed Martin F35B Lightning II demonstrates it’s STOVL (Short Take off Vertical Landing) function during the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford, July 2016
ANTI-ARMS campaigners have urged the government to “correct the record” and end arms sales to Israel after the country’s use of F-35 jets — worth billions to supplier Lockheed Martin — throughout the Gaza genocide was confirmed.
Tel Aviv’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, said that Israeli pilots’ flight hours on the F-35 were “greater than that of all the pilots of the other foreign countries that were partners in developing the aircraft.”
He added: “When I visited there a few weeks ago, [Lockheed Martin’s] CEO told me that Israel’s information and developments ‘are worth many billions to my company’.”
The comments completely contradict the British government’s insistence that Israel is a “minor customer” of the global F-35 programme, the Campaign Against Arms Trade (Caat) pointed out.
Britain makes 15 per cent of the warplane. Israel has 48 F-35s, with 27 more on order.
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.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.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres (L) stands next to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk at the opening of the 61st session of the UN Human Rights Council at the United Nations office in Geneva on February 23, 2026. (Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)
“We are living in a world where mass suffering is excused away… where humans are used as bargaining chips… where international law is treated as a mere inconvenience,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
The secretary-general of the United Nations and the body’s top human rights official did not call out world leaders by name as they warned that “impunity has become a contagion” among powerful governments at the opening of the UN Human Rights Council’s annual session in Geneva on Monday.
But their comments appeared to allude to numerous recent actions by the Trump administration, whose officials have explicitly dismissed concerns about international law regarding the White House’s foreign policy in recent months.
Secretary-General António Guterres warned global officials that “the rule of law is being out-muscled by the rule of force.”
“This assault is not coming from the shadows. Or by surprise. It is happening in plain sight—and often led by those who hold the greatest power,” said Guterres.
The leader’s comments came nearly two months after President Donald Trump ordered an invasion of Venezuela, killing dozens of people, abducting President Nicolás Maduro and his wife and charging them with narcotics trafficking, and pushing to take control of the South American country’s oil supply.
That operation as well as the United States’ bombings of dozens of boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean in recent months—also ostensibly to fight “narcoterrorism”—have been violations of international law, according to numerous legal experts, with the former violating the prohibition on the use of force in Article 2(4) of the UN Charter.
Trump officials, including Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, however, have claimed the US has the right to use military force against any country if doing so advances US interests.
“We are living in a world where mass suffering is excused away… where humans are used as bargaining chips… where international law is treated as a mere inconvenience,” said Guterres on Monday. “Conflicts are multiplying and impunity has become a contagion. That is not due to a lack of knowledge, tools, or institutions. It is the result of political choices.”
When human rights fall, everything else tumbles.
Peace. Development. Social cohesion. Trust. Solidarity.
It’s more important than ever to translate political engagement into a path towards strengthening human rights everywhere.
The UN has directly condemned other policies by the Trump administration in recent weeks, including Trump’s executive order threatening tariffs on any country that provides Cuba with oil as it baselessly accused the island nation’s communist government of harboring terrorists, and Guterres has suggested Trump’s creation of a “Board of Peace” to govern Gaza is akin to “one power calling the shots.”
Guterres mentioned just two specific conflicts: Russia’s war on Ukraine and the “blatant violations of human rights, human dignity, and international law in the occupied Palestinian territory,” where the US-backed Israel Defense Forces have been waging war on Gaza and Israeli settlers have been carrying out increased violent attacks in the West Bank as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government pushes to further illegally annex the territory and make the creation of a Palestinian state impossible.
“The current trajectory is stark, clear, and purposeful: The two-state solution is being stripped away in broad daylight,” said Guterres. “The international community cannot allow this to happen.”
Regarding Ukraine, which will enter its fifth year of war with Russia on Tuesday and where more than 15,000 civilians have been killed, Guterres said, “It is more than past time to end the bloodshed.”
Volker Türk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, added in his own remarks that “domination and supremacy are making a comeback.”
“A fierce competition for power, control, and resources is playing out on the world stage at a rate and intensity unseen for the past 80 years,” said Türk. “The use of force to resolve disputes between and within countries is becoming normalized.”
Türk highlighted how “the gears of global power are shifting”, calling for people to band together to protect rights and create “a strong counterbalance to the top-down, autocratic trends we see today”.
Some world leaders, he said, are operating as though “they are above the law, and above the UN Charter.”
“They claim exceptional status, exceptional danger, or exceptional moral judgement to pursue their own agenda at any cost,” he said. “They spread disinformation to distract, silence, and marginalize.”
Türk also warned that some leaders appear to “weaponize their economic leverage”—an apparent reference to Trump’s decision to drastically cut foreign aid funding and withdraw from dozens of UN organizations last month, putting the international body at risk of “imminent financial collapse,” as Guterres said at the time.
“Humanitarian needs are exploding while funding collapses,” said Guterres on Monday. “Inequalities are widening at staggering speed. Countries are drowning in debt and despair. Climate chaos is accelerating… Across every front, those who are already vulnerable are being pushed further to the margins. And human rights defenders are among the first to be silenced when they try to warn us.”
“In this coordinated offensive, human rights are the first casualty,” he added, urging world leaders to “not let power write a new rulebook in which the vulnerable have no rights and the powerful have no limits.”
“Let this be the place that helps end the broad and brutal assault on human rights,” said Guterres. “Because a world that protects human rights protects itself.”
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Sept. 22, 2023 at United Nations headquarters. | AP/Mary Altaffer
While many nations occasionally resort to a “state of exception” to deal with temporary crises, Israel exists in a permanent state of exception. This Israeli exceptionalism is the very essence of the instability that plagues the Middle East.
The concept of the state of exception dates back to the Roman justitium, a legal mechanism for suspending law during times of civil unrest. However, the modern understanding was shaped by the German jurist Carl Schmitt, who famously wrote that the “sovereign is he who decides on the exception.” While Schmitt’s own history as a jurist for the Third Reich serves as a chilling reminder of where such theories can lead, his work provides an undeniably accurate anatomy of raw power: it reveals how a ruler who institutes laws also holds the power to dismiss them, under the pretext that no constitution can foresee every possible crisis.
It is often argued that Israel, a self-described democracy, still lacks a formal constitution because such a document would force it to define its borders—a problematic prospect for a settler-colonial regime with an insatiable appetite for expansion. But there is another explanation: by operating on “Basic Laws” rather than a constitution, Israel avoids a comprehensive legal system that would align it with the globally accepted foundations of international law. Without a constitution, Israel exists in a legal vacuum where the “exception” is the rule. In this space, racial laws, territorial expansion, and even genocide are permitted so long as they fit the state’s immediate agenda.
Isolating specific examples to illustrate this point is a daunting task, primarily because nearly every relevant pronouncement from Israeli officials—particularly during the genocide in Gaza—is a textbook study in Israeli exceptionalism. Consider Israel’s relentless assault on UNRWA, the UN-mandated body responsible for the survival of millions of Palestinian refugees. For decades, Israel has sought the dismantling of UNRWA for one reason: it is the only global institution that prevents the total erasure of Palestinian refugee rights. These rights are not mere grievances; they are firmly anchored in international law, most notably via UN Resolution 194.
While UNRWA is not a political organization in a functional sense, its very existence is profoundly political. First, it stands as the institutional legacy of a specific political history; second, and more crucially, its presence ensures the Palestinian refugee remains a recognized political entity. By existing, UNRWA preserves the status of the refugee as a subject with the legal right to demand a return to historic Palestine—a demand that the “state of exception” seeks to permanently silence.
In October 2024, Israel unilaterally legislated the closure of UNRWA, once more asserting its “exception” over the entire framework of the United Nations. “It is time the international community…realizes that UNRWA’s mission must end,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already declared on January 31, 2024, signaling the coming erasure. This rhetoric reached its physical conclusion on January 20, when the UNRWA headquarters in occupied Jerusalem were demolished by the Israeli military in the presence of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
“A historic day!” Ben-Gvir announced on that same date. “Today these supporters of terror are being driven out.” This horrific act was met with bashful responses, mute concerns, or total silence by the very powers tasked with preventing states from positioning themselves above the law.
By allowing this Israeli “exception” to stand unchallenged, the international community has effectively sanctioned the demolition of its own legal foundations.
In the past, Israeli leaders masked their true intentions with the language of a “light unto the nations,” projecting a beacon of morality while practicing violence, ethnic cleansing, and military occupation on the ground. The genocide in Gaza, however, has stripped away these pretenses. For the first time, Israeli rhetoric fully reflects a state of exception where the law is not just ignored, but structurally suspended.
“No one in the world will let us starve two million citizens, even though it may be justified and moral until they return the hostages to us,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich admitted on August 5, 2024. This “justified and moral” stance reveals a localized morality that permits the extermination of a population as an ethically defensible act. Yet Smotrich also lied; the world has done nothing practical to dissuade Israel from its savage pulverization of Gaza.
The global community remained idle even when Smotrich declared on May 6, 2025, that Gaza would be “entirely destroyed” and the population “concentrated in a narrow strip.” Today, that vision is a reality: a genocide-fatigued population is confined to roughly 45% of the territory, while the remainder stays empty under Israeli military control.
Netanyahu himself, who has stretched the state of exception beyond any predecessor, defined this new reality during a cabinet meeting on October 26, 2025: “Israel is a sovereign state… Our security policy is in our own hands. Israel does not seek anyone’s approval for that.” Here, Netanyahu defines sovereignty as the raw power to act—genocide included—without regard for international law or human rights.
If all states adopted this, the world would fall into a lawless frenzy. In his seminal State of Exception, Giorgio Agamben diagnosed this “void”—a space where law is suspended but “force of law” remains as pure violence. While his recent stances have divided the academic community, his critique of the exception as a permanent tool of governance remains an indispensable lens for understanding the erasure of Palestinian life.
Israel has already created that void. In the hands of a genocidal settler-colonial society, the state of exception is a relentless nightmare that will not stop at the borders of Palestine. If this “exception” becomes the permanent regional rule, no nation in the Middle East will be spared. Time is of the essence.
As with all news-analysis and op-ed articles published by People’s World, the views reflected here are those of the author.
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Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir 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.
People watch as smoke rises on the skyline after an explosion in Tehran, Iran, this morning
