Category: 2. World

Arab nations issued a unified call to end the violence in Gaza and the West Bank on Wednesday, reiterating their strongest endorsement yet of the Arab Peace Initiative as the only viable framework for regional peace and stability.

“What we’re seeing today in Gaza, the withdrawal of stability and security in the region, is indeed the outcome of the ongoing occupation,” said a representative of the Arab League, delivering a statement on behalf of the organization’s secretary-general, Ahmed Aboul Gheit.

“This is the price being paid by Palestinians, a price paid in blood.”

He described the toll as “an extremely high price that we are all paying for the system of apartheid and occupation to remain on this land,” adding that the League remains committed to the Arab Peace Initiative, which was initially adopted in Beirut, 23 years ago.

“This vision hasn’t, however, been reciprocated. Rather, it has been countered by arrogance and nationalism based on religious sectarian views that will lead the region to an unknown future,” he said.

The comments came at the conclusion of the “High-Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution” at the UN headquarters in New York.

Oman echoed the sentiment, with its representative reaffirming that “comprehensive and lasting peace” must be grounded in the framework of international law, as outlined in the Arab Peace Initiative.

In a position similar to that adopted by other nations during the conference, the Omani representative accused Israel of unilaterally “eroding” the prospects for peace, in what he described as “defiance of the provisions of international law and resolutions of international legitimacy.”

He continued: “The nature of the current Israeli government’s policies, as the most extreme in decades, further complicates the landscape and directly hampers all effort to relaunch the peace process.”

The Gulf Cooperation Council reiterated its position of support for a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, condemned the continuing Israeli aggression against Gaza, and demanded that it end.

The council’s representative said it also rejected Israeli settlement policies as a blatant violation, and called for full humanitarian access in Gaza and reconstruction of the territory to begin.

“True greatness is not based on power but on the ability to use power to serve justice,” he added. “It is time to turn this principle into (a) clear international position that recognizes (a) fully independent Palestinian state.”

The representative for the Organization of Islamic Cooperation joined the others in advocating for a two-state solution, and stressed the need for Israeli authorities to act in accordance with UN resolutions.

Israel is guilty of “systemic crimes including aggression, genocide, destruction, displacement, starvation and blockade on the Gaza Strip,” he added, in addition to “illegal policies of settlement expansion, annexation and ethnic cleansing.”

Moreover, Israel’s intention “to impose its so-called sovereignty over the West Bank, including the occupied city of Jerusalem … constitutes flagrant violations of international law and the relevant UN resolutions,” the representative said as he called for an end to all such actions.

The calls came as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the conflict in Gaza has reached “breaking point.” International pressure for a ceasefire agreement continues to mount but Israel has resisted calls to halt its military operations, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly moving ahead with plans to annex parts of Gaza if Hamas rejects a truce.

On Wednesday, sources said Israel had turned down the latest ceasefire proposal, citing its refusal to withdraw forces from key areas of the territory.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, described this week’s UN conference as “a political circus” against Israel.

“We’re seeing a detachment from reality, the spread of lies, and support for terrorism,” he wrote in a message posted on social media platform X.

The US special envoy to the Middle East, Steven Witkoff, was expected to arrive in Tel Aviv on Thursday for talks with Israeli officials. His visit comes as the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification warns that the “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out” in Gaza.

Iran’s representative at the UN also spoke on the final day of the conference, condemning a “policy of appeasement” from the international community toward Israel, and calling for concrete action.

“In light of its continued defiance of the UN Charter, the Israeli regime must face targeted sanctions and suspension of its UN membership to protect the integrity and credibility of the organization,” the he said.

He further urged member states to press the Security Council to admit Palestine as a full member of the UN and insisted that “this process must not be obstructed by the United States.” Palestine currently has observer status at the UN.

A follow-up summit to this week’s conference is planned to take place during the UN General Assembly in September.

Kyiv, Ukraine
 — 

Russia says its forces have captured the key town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine after nearly 18 months of fierce fighting in the area.

The Ukrainian military confirmed Thursday that Russian forces had attacked locations near Chasiv Yar, which lies several miles west of Bakhmut. But it denied the town had been lost. “Chasiv Yar remains under the control of the 11th Army Corps,” the Corps said Thursday.

The Russian Defense Ministry published drone footage showing its troops in parts of the town and said more than 4,200 buildings and structures had been cleared, with about 50 Ukrainian soldiers taken prisoner.

Chasiv Yar had a pre-war population of 12,000 but is now in ruins after two years of airstrikes and artillery attacks.

Russian forces began an assault on Chasiv Yar in April last year, after driving Ukrainian forces out of Bakhmut. Analysts estimate that they have since suffered thousands of casualties in trying to overcome Ukrainian defenses.

DeepState, a Ukrainian open-source mapping site that charts the war’s front lines, showed Kyiv’s forces still present at the western edge of the town. It added that video from the Russian Defense Ministry showed its troops planting flags in two neighborhoods, but said the Russians had no control over those areas.

If confirmed, the seizure of Chasiv Yar would provide high ground for the Russians, and threaten what is known as Ukraine’s fortress belt of cities in Donetsk region, including Slovyansk, Kramatorsk and Kostyantynivka.

These cities are periodically struck by Russian missiles and glide bombs launched by aircraft. On Thursday, one person was killed and about a dozen injured by a strike that destroyed part of a five-story building in Kramatorsk, according to the local military administration.

Across Donetsk region, Russian troops have edged forward this year despite taking heavy casualties. The strategic town of Pokrovsk is surrounded on three sides and Russian units have advanced to the border of Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk region.

Analysts say Russian forces have adapted their tactics, moving in smaller groups on foot or on motorbikes to evade Ukrainian drone defenses.

Meanwhile, Russia launched another major missile and drone attack on the capital Kyiv in the early hours of Thursday. A six-year-old boy and his mother were among at least 14 people killed, according to local officials.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said more than 50 people had been hospitalized. Nine were children, the highest number in a single night, according to Kyiv mayor Vitaliy Klitschko.

One Russian missile made a “direct hit” on an apartment building in the western district of Sviatoshynskyi, according to Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the military administration in the Ukrainian capital.

One man was rescued from the rubble after being trapped for more than three hours, while relatives of others unaccounted for waited anxiously as rescue crews tried to remove debris. One woman at the scene told CNN that her mother and sister were in the building when the missile struck.

Iryna Tsymokh, 53, said she and her family had just returned from a shelter when there was another attack. “The doors were blown out. My child was screaming so loud… We all just jumped out as we were, in night clothes,” she said.

Zoya Onishenko said her apartment had been destroyed. She was still alive only because she had spent the night at her country dacha.

Zelensky said Russian forces had launched more than 300 drones and eight missiles at the capital, describing it as an insidious attack deliberately calculated to overload the air defense system.

A massive earthquake in Russia has put over 100 volcanoes across Russia, Japan, Philippines and Indonesia at increased risk of eruption.

The 8.8 magnitude earthquake, which prompted Tsunami warnings, has produced enough energy to trigger volcanic eruptions across the Pacific’s Ring of Fire.

The Pacific’s Ring of Fire is a chain of seismologically and geologically active regions that encircle the Pacific Ocean, where many of the world’s biggest earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis occur.

According to the Daily Mail, experts have warned that the sixth largest quake in recorded history has:

• Disturbed underground pressure systems far from the epicenter
• Potentially destabilised magma chambers beneath active volcanoes along the arc

The earthquake struck Russia’s Kamchatska peninsula and volcanoes there are most likely to respond with Klyuchevskoy erupting just after the strongest strike on the entire planet in 14 years.

According to Michael Manga, a geoscientist at the University of California, Berkeley, “The volcanoes in the volcanic arcs, including Chile, the US Cascades, Japan, Indonesia and Kamachatka, are prone to erupt after earthquakes.”

He added that the tremors have raised eruption chances from 5 per cent to 12 per cent.

The intense tremors shook Russia on Wednesday, July 30, and several aftershocks have been recorded since then, as per U.S. Geological Survey.

How do earthquakes cause volcano eruptions?

Seismic waves, massive bursts of energy released by shifting tectonic plates, travel through the Earth’s crust

These waves increase stress within magma chambers which can weaken the rocks surrounding the magma reservoir opening new pathways for magma to rise.

Canada plans to recognize the State of Palestine at a meeting of the United Nations in September, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on Wednesday, ratcheting up pressure on Israel as starvation spreads in Gaza.

The announcement came after France said last week it would recognize a Palestinian state and a day after Britain said it would recognize the state at September’s UN General Assembly meeting if the fighting in Gaza, part of the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel, had not stopped by then.

Carney told reporters that the reality on the ground, including starvation of people in Gaza, meant “the prospect of a Palestinian state is literally receding before our eyes.”

“Canada condemns the fact that the Israeli government has allowed a catastrophe to unfold in Gaza,” he said.

Carney said the planned recognition was based in part on repeated assurances from the Palestinian Authority, which represents the State of Palestine at the UN, that it was reforming its governance and is willing to hold general elections in 2026 in which Hamas “can play no part.”

The announcements by some of Israel’s closest allies reflect growing international outrage over Israel’s restrictions on food and other aid to Gaza in its war against Hamas, and the dire humanitarian crisis there. A global hunger monitor has warned that a worst-case scenario of famine is unfolding in the enclave.

The Gaza health ministry reported seven more hunger-related deaths on Wednesday, including a two-year-old girl with an existing health condition. The Hamas-run government media office in Gaza said the Israeli military killed at least 50 people within three hours on Wednesday as they tried to get food from UN aid trucks coming into the northern Gaza Strip.

Israel and its closest ally, the US, both rejected Carney’s statements.

“The change in the position of the Canadian government at this time is a reward for Hamas and harms the efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and a framework for the release of the hostages,” the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made similar comments after the French and British announcements.

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said President Donald Trump also sees recognition of the State of Palestine as wrongly “rewarding Hamas.”

US Senate rejects bids to block arms sales to Israel

Two resolutions that would have blocked arms sales to Israel in response to civilian casualties in Gaza were blocked in the US Senate on Wednesday, although they garnered more support than similar measures earlier this year.

Read: UAE begins Gaza water pipeline project

The two resolutions were introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent aligned with Democrats. They failed by 73 to 24 and 70 to 27 in the 100-member chamber in voting late on Wednesday night.

Similar measures, also introduced by Sanders, failed by 82-15 and 83-15 in April.

A decades-long tradition of strong bipartisan support for Israel in the US Congress means resolutions to stop weapons sales are unlikely to pass, but backers hope raising the issue will encourage Israel’s government and the US administration to do more to protect civilians.

All of the votes for the resolutions came from Democrats, with all of President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans opposed. Sanders said in a statement he was pleased that a majority of the Democratic caucus had backed the effort.

“The tide is turning. The American people do not want to spend billions to starve children in Gaza,” Sanders said. “The Democrats are moving forward on this issue, and I look forward to Republican support in the near future.”

Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was one of the Democrats who opposed the Sanders-backed resolutions in April but voted for them this time.

Shaheen said in a statement that Israel has a right to defend its citizens, but added: “it is clear that the Government of Israel has not conducted its military operations in Gaza with the necessary care required by international humanitarian law. It is also clear that the Government of Israel has failed to allow adequate humanitarian assistance into Gaza, resulting in unbelievable suffering.”

The resolutions would have blocked the sale of $675 million in bombs and shipments of 20,000 assault rifles.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff is due to travel to Israel on Thursday to discuss Gaza. Trump said this week he expected centers to be set up to feed more people in the enclave.

The State of Palestine has been a non-member observer state of the UN General Assembly since 2012, recognized by more than three-quarters of the assembly’s 193 member states.

Jonathan Panikoff, former deputy US national intelligence officer on the Middle East, said recognition of Palestine is intended “to increase pressure on Israel to compel it to return to a two-state paradigm.” But he said Canada’s announcement is “unlikely to be anything more than symbolic and risks undermining their relationship with a longtime ally in Israel.”

French President Emmanuel Macron, who spoke with Carney before Canada’s announcement, said the recognition of Palestine will “revive a prospect of peace in the region.”

Read more: Britain warns Israel it will recognise Palestinian state as Gaza starvation spreads

Israeli security cabinet member Zeev Elkin said on Wednesday that Israel could threaten to annex parts of Gaza to increase pressure on Hamas, eroding Palestinian hopes of statehood on land Israel now occupies.

Mediation efforts to secure a 60-day ceasefire and the release of remaining hostages held by Hamas ground to a halt last week.

In Gaza, resident Saed al-Akhras said the recognition of Palestine by major powers marked a “real shift in how Western countries view the Palestinian cause.”

“Enough!” he said. “Palestinians have lived for more than 70 years under killing, destruction and occupation, while the world watches in silence.”

Families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza appealed for no recognition of a Palestinian state to come before their loved ones were returned.

“Such recognition is not a step toward peace but rather a clear violation of international law and a dangerous moral and political failure that legitimizes horrific war crimes,” the Hostages Family Forum said.

Netanyahu said this month he wanted peace with Palestinians but described any future independent state as a potential platform to destroy Israel, so control of security must remain with Israel.

His cabinet includes far-right members who openly demand the annexation of all Palestinian land. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Tuesday that reestablishing Jewish settlements in Gaza was “closer than ever,” calling Gaza “an inseparable part of the Land of Israel.”

Aid going in but not enough

A 2-year-old girl being treated for a build-up of brain fluid died overnight of hunger, her father told Reuters on Wednesday.

“Doctors said the baby has to be fed a certain type of milk,” Salah al-Gharably said by phone from Deir Al-Balah. “But there is no milk. She starved. We stood helpless.”

The deaths from starvation and malnutrition overnight raised the toll from such causes to 154, according to the Gaza health ministry, including at least 89 children, since the war’s start, most of them in recent weeks.

Israel said on Sunday it would halt military operations for 10 hours a day in parts of Gaza and designate secure routes for convoys delivering food and medicine.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the United Nations and its partners had been able to bring more food into Gaza in the first two days of pauses, but the volume was “still far from enough.”

Gaza death toll climbs 

At least 34 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces across Gaza since dawn, including 15 people reportedly seeking aid, according to medical sources speaking to Al Jazeera Arabic.

The rising death toll comes as US special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, arrived in Israel for meetings aimed at addressing the situation in Gaza.

Citing Hebrew-language media, The Times of Israel reported that Witkoff is also expected to visit Gaza during his trip. He will reportedly inspect humanitarian aid distribution sites operated by the GHF, a group supported by both the US and Israeli governments.

US officials said Witkoff will meet Israeli officials “to discuss next steps in addressing the situation in Gaza.”

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Published On: Thu, 31 Jul 2025

11:46:22 PKT

(AFP) – After an 8.8-magnitude earthquake off the eastern Russian coast sparked tsunami warnings throughout the Pacific, millions of evacuees were allowed to return home on Wednesday, with only one total death resulting from Tuesday’s initial shock.

Tsunami warnings were lifted across the Pacific rim on Wednesday, allowing millions of temporary evacuees to return home.

After one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded rattled Russia’s sparsely populated Far East, more than a dozen nations – from Japan to the United States to Ecuador – warned citizens to stay away from coastal regions.

Storm surges of up to four metres (12 feet) were predicted for some parts of the Pacific, after the 8.8 quake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula.

The tsunamis caused widespread disruption. Peru closed 65 of its 121 Pacific ports and authorities on Maui cancelled flights to and from the Hawaiian island.

But fears of a catastrophe were not realised, with country after country lifting or downgrading warnings and telling coastal residents they could return.

In Japan, almost two million people had been ordered to higher ground, before the warnings were downgraded or rescinded.

The Fukushima nuclear plant in northeast Japan – destroyed by a huge quake and tsunami in 2011 – was temporarily evacuated.

The only reported fatality was a woman killed while driving her car off a cliff in Japan as she tried to escape, local media reported.

In Chile, authorities conducted what the Interior Ministry said was “perhaps the most massive evacuation ever carried out in our country” – with 1.4 million people ordered to high ground.

Chilean authorities reported no damage or victims and registered waves of just 60 centimeters (two feet) on the country’s north coast.

In the Galapagos Islands, where waves of up to three meters were expected, there was relief as the Ecuadoran navy’s oceanographic institute said the danger had passed.

Locals reported the sea level falling and then rising suddenly, a phenomenon which is commonly seen with the arrival of a tsunami.

But only a surge of just over a meter was reported, causing no damage.

“Everything is calm, I’m going back to work. The restaurants are reopening and the places tourists visit are also open again,” said 38-year-old Santa Cruz resident Isabel Grijalva.

Earlier national parks were closed, schools were shuttered, loudspeakers blared warnings and tourists were spirited off sightseeing boats and onto the safety of land.

The worst damage was seen in Russia, where a tsunami crashed through the port of Severo-Kurilsk and submerged the local fishing plant, officials said.

Russian state television footage showed buildings and debris swept into the sea.

The surge of water reached as far as the town’s World War II monument about 400 meters from the shoreline, said Mayor Alexander Ovsyannikov.

The initial quake also caused limited damage and only light injuries, despite being the strongest since 2011, when 15,000 people were killed in Japan.

Russian scientists reported that the Klyuchevskoy volcano erupted shortly after the earthquake.

“Red-hot lava is observed flowing down the western slope. There is a powerful glow above the volcano and explosions,” said Russia’s Geophysical Survey.

Pacific alerts

Wednesday’s quake was the strongest in the Kamchatka region since 1952, the regional seismic monitoring service said, warning of aftershocks of up to 7.5 magnitude.

The US Geological Survey said the quake was one of the 10 strongest tremors recorded since 1900.

It was followed by dozens of aftershocks that further shook the Russian Far East, including one of 6.9 magnitude.

The USGS said there was a 59 percent chance of an aftershock of more than 7.0 magnitude in the next week. 

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

Some of Britain’s most distinguished lawyers have warned the UK government that recognising a Palestinian state would breach international law.

In a letter to Lord Hermer, the attorney general, a group of 40 members of the House of Lords, many of them lawyers, write that proceeding with recognition would be “contrary to international law” because important criteria have not been met.

The BBC has not been able to obtain a full list of signatories, but according to The Times they include the prominent barrister Lord Pannick KC, the former Supreme Court judge Lord Collins of Mapesbury, the former justice minister Lord Faulks KC, and Lord Shamash, the Labour Party’s solicitor since 1990.

Part of the letter says: “Palestine does not meet the international law criteria for recognition of a state, namely, defined territory, a permanent population, an effective government and the capacity to enter into relations with other states.

“This is set out in the Montevideo Convention, has become part of customary law, and it would be unwise to depart from it at a time when international law is seen as fragile or, indeed, at any time.”