Ellie Chowns, Green Party MP for North Herefordshire. CC image Wikipedia.
Reacting to Israel’s escalating action in Lebanon, Dr Ellie Chowns MP said:
“Israel’s escalating military campaign in Lebanon has already killed thousands of people, displaced more than a million from their homes, and destroyed vital infrastructure, displaying an indefensible disregard for civilian lives and international law.
“This cannot continue. The UK must put an end to the impunity that has enabled and emboldened the Israeli Government on the world stage. The Green Party repeats our calls for the UK Government to end all arms sales to and military cooperation with Israel, to drive independent investigations into war crimes and support justice mechanisms for victims, and to impose sanctions on Netanyahu and all other government officials responsible for breaches of international law.
“The people of Lebanon – like the people of Palestine, Iran, and Israel – deserve to live in safety and peace, not to have their human rights used as bargaining chips which can be disregarded without consequence. The UK must stand on the side of international law and justice, and act now to help prevent further atrocity.”
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The United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) are seen as they have reported that the Israeli army constructed two walls inside Lebanese territory along the border, in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, near the town of Yaroun, Nabatieh, Lebanon on November 15, 2025. [Ramiz Dallah – Anadolu Agency]
A peacekeeper serving with the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was killed and two others were wounded after mortar shells struck their position in southern Lebanon, the mission said Thursday, Anadolu reports.
In a statement, UNIFIL said the peacekeeper sustained critical injuries “when mortar shells struck his position near Marjayoun, southeastern Lebanon” late Wednesday night.
The injured peacekeeper was evacuated by air to a hospital in Beirut, where he later died from his wounds.
The mission said two other peacekeepers were also injured in the incident and are receiving treatment at a medical facility inside a UNIFIL base.
The peacekeeping force said it has launched an investigation “to ascertain the exact circumstances that led to this tragic incident.”
“UNIFIL has detected an increasingly high number of trajectories and impacts in South Lebanon. The violence must end,” the mission said.
Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry condemned the attack that targeted a UNIFIL position near Marjayoun, identifing the deceased soldier as Sgt. Milovan Jovanovic of Serbia, born in 1989, citing the Serbian Defense Ministry.
It said attacks against peacekeepers carrying out their mission to maintain international peace and security constitute a “serious violation of international law and relevant UN Security Council resolutions, particularly Resolution 1701,” which ended the war between Israel and Lebanon in 2006.
It said it was awaiting the outcome of an investigation into the attack and expressed solidarity with UNIFIL leadership, while wishing a speedy recovery to the two injured peacekeepers from El Salvador and Spain.
Lebanon and Israel agreed Wednesday to renew their fragile ceasefire and establish “pilot zones” placing the Lebanese army in exclusive territorial control, with all non-state actors excluded.
The agreement was announced in a joint statement released following a fourth round of US-mediated talks held at the State Department.
The US-sponsored talks followed weeks of near-daily Israeli strikes on Lebanon that have killed nearly 3,500 people since March 2, despite a ceasefire that took effect April 17 and later extended to early July.
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Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert. [Photo by BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images]
Former Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert warned Thursday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies could attempt to manipulate the next general elections, accusing them of using intimidation and coercion in the Knesset vote that elected a new state comptroller, Anadolu reports.
His warning came a day after the Knesset’s election of Michael Rabello, the Netanyahu family’s lawyer, as Israel’s new state comptroller.
Rabello, backed by the governing coalition, narrowly defeated opposition-backed retired Supreme Court Justice Yosef Elron, amid warnings of potential conflicts of interest.
The opposition has alleged that the vote was marred by irregularities, including warnings for lawmakers against supporting the opposition candidate.
“What happened yesterday is a preview of what will happen in the next Knesset elections,” Olmert told Israel’s 103FM radio.
The current Knesset’s term expires in October, although legislation to dissolve parliament and potentially bring forward elections has been proposed.
“They are trying to rig the elections and steal them,” Olmert said. “They will try to do at polling stations what they did yesterday at the Knesset voting station, in front of television cameras and the entire world.
“They used mechanisms of blackmail and threats in violation of the law. This criminal gang is led by the prime minister and his aides,” Olmert said.
“I am issuing a warning,” he continued. “The prime minister and the gang of thugs governing the country with him will try to steal the elections.
“They believe they can prevent voters from going to the polls and influence the results,” he said.
“What happened yesterday involved blackmail through threats, vote theft, and the use of organized-crime methods to elect the candidate the prime minister wanted.”
No strategic benefit
Turning to Lebanon, Olmert said there is a framework that could eventually lead to peace negotiations between Israel and Lebanon.
“There are some minor territorial issues that can undoubtedly be resolved,” he said.
Early Thursday, a joint Lebanese-US-Israeli statement announced that Beirut and Tel Aviv had agreed during talks in Washington to implement a ceasefire based on a complete halt to Hezbollah fire and the withdrawal of all Hezbollah members from the area south of the Litani River.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said the US would determine the timing and mechanism for implementing the ceasefire, which could begin within 24 hours of receiving approval.
“Our problem is that we (Israelis) have a government that wants war in Lebanon, a government that wants to stay there,” Olmert said.
“It is a government under pressure from a group of lunatics who believe that southern Lebanon, eastern Syria, Gaza, and perhaps Yemen in the future are all lands given to them by God.”
He argued that part of any agreement with Lebanon should involve coordinated cooperation between Israel and the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah.
The Lebanese government is already pursuing a plan to place all weapons under state control, including Hezbollah’s arms, but the group insists it is a resistance movement against Israeli occupation and has rejected disarmament.
Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem has described direct negotiations with Israel as “absurd, humiliating and disgraceful,” saying any outcome would be “completely unacceptable” to broad segments of Lebanese society.
Olmert also said that if US President Donald Trump reaches an agreement with Iran to end the war between Washington and Tehran, it could create a framework for cooperation on the Hezbollah weapons issue.
“Our ground operations in southern Lebanon continue without practical value,” he said. “Israel should not have entered there. Our ground presence has brought no strategic benefit.”
Israel occupies areas in southern Lebanon, some held for decades and others seized during the 2023–2024 conflict. During the current offensive, Israeli forces advanced more than 10 kilometers into Lebanese territory, marking their deepest incursion since 2000.
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A general view of the heavy destruction following an Israeli airstrike on a health center belonging to the Islamic Health Authority (Hayaa) in the Al-Mashouk area near the southern city of Tyre, Lebanon, on May 20, 2026. [Houssam Shbaro – Anadolu Agency]
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday said it verified 190 attacks on health care facilities and personnel in Lebanon over the past three months, warning that the country’s health system is coming under growing strain amid escalating violence, Anadolu reports.
Abdinasir Abubakar, WHO representative to Lebanon, told reporters in Geneva that more than 3,400 people have been killed and nearly 10,400 injured since the latest Israeli escalation began in March.
“These have been among the deadliest months for Lebanon since the start of the conflict in October 2023,” the representative said.
The attacks on health care have killed 128 health workers and injured 332 others, he said.
“Not only do these attacks kill and maim, they also deprive people of the health services they need, when they need them most,” Abubakar said.
According to the WHO, about 130,000 people are currently living in shelters after fleeing fighting, a figure that could rise following recent Israeli evacuation orders for parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Abubakar said 17 hospitals have been partially damaged, while three hospitals and 42 primary health care centers remain closed.
He also highlighted an attack on Jabal Amel Hospital that occurred on Monday and is still being verified. Initial information from Lebanon’s Health Ministry indicates that at least 86 people, including health workers, were injured and parts of the facility, including the emergency department and intensive care unit, were damaged.
“We need attacks to stop, and we need active protection of health care,” Abubakar said, calling for sustained funding, unhindered humanitarian access and a lasting ceasefire.
An aerial view of buildings and a parking area opposite the Jabal Amel Hospital, the largest hospital in the city of Tyre, Lebanon, on June 2, 2026, shows damage from an Israeli strike. (Photo by Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“The more Netanyahu prevents the war with Iran from ending, the more obvious it becomes that he convinced Trump to start it.”
The death toll from Israel’s assault on Lebanon continued to rise on Tuesday despite President Donald Trump’s claims of de-escalation following Monday phone calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and an intermediary for Hezbollah.
The Lebanese Ministry of Public Healthsaid Tuesday that “the cumulative toll of the aggression from March 2 to June 2 has reached 3,468 dead and 10,577 injured,” even amid a ceasefire agreed to in April. The deal stemmed from Trump and Netanyahu’s illegal war on Iran, and Israel initially claimed it did not include Lebanon.
After Iran on Monday reportedly halted talks with the US over Israel’s attacks on Lebanon, Trump said on his Truth Social platform that due to his phone calls, Israeli troops “have already been turned back” from Beirut, and Hezbollah “agreed that all shooting will stop—That Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel.”
However, Netanyahu said later Monday that “I spoke this evening with President Trump and told him that if Hezbollah does not stop attacking our cities and civilians, Israel will strike terrorist targets in Beirut. This position remains unchanged.”
According to Axios reporting contested by a senior Israeli official, one US source summarized Trump’s remarks to Netanyahu as follows: “You’re fucking crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.”
Another source said that Trump was “pissed” and at one point yelled at the prime minister, “What the fuck are you doing?”
While “the story has understandably been met with considerable skepticism,” wrote Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, there are “a few important counterexamples—particularly from Trump’s second term—that suggest the Axios story is not entirely implausible.”
“What is also plausible, however, is that Trump will once again fail to sustain the pressure and, by that, allow for Netanyahu’s potential retreat to prove temporary,” Parsi predicted.
Netanyahu’s stenographer says the @axios report that Trump scolded/swore at Netanyahu is bullshit. No idea which is accurate, but both Biden and now Trump often claim to be hard on Netanyahu in private while in practice giving him everything he wants and more. https://t.co/E904beSVhz
Republican Congressman Thomas Massie (Ky.), a libertarian who recently lost his reelection primary to a Trump-backed challenger, responded to the reporting on social media: “It’s all talk. Just withhold foreign aid to Israel for a month, and they’ll stop bombing their neighbors—instant peace, the Strait of Hormuz can be opened, and gas drops $2 a gallon. Israel has been, and continues to be, the biggest welfare recipient from American taxpayers.”
Massie also said that “the more Netanyahu prevents the war with Iran from ending, the more obvious it becomes that he convinced Trump to start it.”
Progressive Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (Minn.) similarly said late Monday: “The lesson Israel has learned, time and again, is that it can commit genocide and other atrocities with near-total impunity. Now it’s exporting the Gaza playbook to Lebanon. Israel’s war in Lebanon is killing thousands and displacing over a million. NO MORE US AID TO ISRAEL.”
Citing Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) on Tuesday, Al Jazeera cataloged Israel’s killings since Trump’s de-escalation claims:
Two Syrians were killed in an Israeli attack on a plant nursery where they were working in the town of Jebchit in the Nabatieh governorate, NNA said on Tuesday.
Israeli drone strikes hit a motorcycle on Martyr Sabra Street in Toul and a car in the Dhi’at al-Arab neighborhood of Ansar, killing two people, NNA said.
The third strike hit a car near the village of Harouf, killing one person.
Separately, an Israeli drone strike hit a car on the road linking the southern town of Marjayoun with the city of Nabatieh, killing James Karam, a dentist from the nearby Christian municipality of Qlayaa, along with his daughter and son, NNA reported.
Those deaths followed Israel’s Monday airstrike in the southern village of Marwaniyeh, which killed six members of the Hassan Abdullah family, according to the Lebanese Civil Defense. Palestine Chronicle reported that “rescue teams worked throughout the night and into Tuesday morning to recover victims trapped beneath the rubble of the destroyed building. Three additional people were pulled from the debris during the operation.”
After Trump announced a fresh ceasefire in Lebanon, Israel carried out a massacre last night against the Hassan Abdullah family from the town of Marwaniyeh by targeting their home, killing the entire family.
Also on Monday, Israel attacked the Jabal Amel Hospital in Tyre, killing at least four people and injuring dozens more.
Dr. Abdinasir Abubakar, the World Health Organization (WHO) representative in Lebanon, said Tuesday that the hospital is one of the few operating in the country’s south, and the attack “caused significant damage… to the emergency department and intensive care unit.”
“Six hospitals have not yet resumed maternity delivery services and are currently providing only emergency room care,” he noted. “For pregnant women and newborns, delays in care can mean the difference between life and death.”
WHO has verified nearly 200 attacks on healthcare facilities and workers in Lebanon over the past three months. Calling for such attacks “to stop” and “active protection for healthcare,” Abubakar stressed that “these attacks kill and maim, they also deprive people of the health services they need.”
Israeli airstrikes hit near Jabel Amel hospital in Tyre, southern Lebanon causing extensive damage to the hospital, which was still crowded with people, including women and children.
The strikes are part of Israel’s escalating military offensive in Lebanon, which has also… pic.twitter.com/pUBtWoUPVv
Israel hit Jabal Amel Hospital after a strike near Hiram Hospital the previous day, according to Doctors Without Borders, which supports both facilities. Omar Ebeid, the organization’s project coordinator in southern Lebanon, said Tuesday that “these repeated attacks reflect a grave failure to protect the medical mission and underscore the urgent need to safeguard civilians, medical staff, health facilities, and continuous access to lifesaving care.”
Faced with a rising death toll and Israeli forces’ destruction of civilian infrastructure, The Associated Press reported, “another round of talks between Israel and Lebanon began Tuesday in Washington, where Lebanese negotiators are set to seek a full ceasefire that will prevent future attacks.”
Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Strait of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won. He’s challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
