Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister who led his country into the war in Iraq and whose eight-year tenure as a Middle East envoy got — at best — mixed reviews, raised eyebrows on Wednesday when he attended a White House summit on the future of Gaza.
The contents of the meeting have not been made public, although President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News ahead of the gathering that it would focus on the administration’s “comprehensive plan” for Gaza after the war ends.
To the casual observer, Blair’s presence may have been a surprise. While he is a former world leader with experience in the Middle East, his official activities in the region over the past decade have been mostly limited to private business ventures and sporadic media appearances.
Husam Zomlot, the ambassador who heads the Palestinian Mission to the UK, would not comment on Blair’s attendance at the Gaza summit, but it’s clear that the former British leader inspires little confidence among Palestinians.
After leaving Downing Street in 2007, Blair served for eight years as the Middle East Envoy for the so-called Quartet, a group of world powers seeking a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
By the time Blair resigned from the post in 2015, the Quartet was largely seen as an ineffective body with no real power.
Blair’s track record as the envoy won few plaudits. While the Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs parts of the occupied West Bank, initially welcomed his appointment, their relationship soured quickly.
Blair became unpopular figure and was close to being declared a persona non grata in the West Bank city of Ramallah, because of what the PA saw as his bias towards Israel.
Shibley Telhami, a professor at the University of Maryland and non-resident senior fellow at Brookings, told CNN that while Blair’s presence at the meeting could help Trump get the attention of wealthy donors, it will hurt public opinion in the Middle East and internationally.
“(Blair’s) legacy of backing the Iraq war and his financial and political ties to rulers in the Middle East have undermined his reputation in the Middle East and elsewhere,” Telhami said.
Palestinians are already deeply distrustful of the Trump administration and its plans for the future of Gaza and Blair’s involvement in the discussions is unlikely to ease their concerns.
In the UK, the leader of the centrist Liberal Democrat party, Ed Davey, demanded Blair briefs the UK parliament on the meeting, saying that the UK must “leverage all the information at our disposal to make (Trump) do the right thing.”
Trump has previously floated the idea of a US takeover of Gaza, which would include the removal of its residents and redevelopment of the completely devastated narrow strip of land into what has been described as a “Middle Eastern Riviera.”
Earlier this year, the president went as far as sharing an AI-generated video on social media, which promoted a transformation of Gaza into a Gulf state-like resort featuring a golden statue of himself.
One of the biggest proponents of such a plan is Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Like Blair, Kushner holds no official role. And like Blair, he was also at the meeting on Wednesday.
According to reports in Israeli media, Ron Dermer, Israel’s Minister for Strategic Affairs, who has close links to both Kushner and Blair, is also in Washington this week.
As the then ambassador to the US, Dermer played a key role in negotiating the 2020 Abraham Accords that saw Israel normalize relations with several Gulf states. The Abraham Accords deal was spearheaded by Kushner and was seen as a key success of the first Trump administration.
Dermer has worked with Blair in the past, and the two are said to know each other well.
Telhami told CNN that while Dermer has been coordinating with Blair and the Trump team on Gaza, no Arab representation was present at the meeting.
“There is no heavyweight Arab representation in the room, even though Arabs will be heavily impacted by any Gaza outcome, especially Israel’s neighbors, and wealthy Arab states will be expected to foot much of the bill,” he said.
The “Riviera” suggestion, first made by Trump during a visit of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington, has been widely condemned, with the PA calling it a “serious violation of international law.” European leaders called it “unacceptable.”
But Telhami said Blair’s presence at the meeting could lend weight to Trump’s plan.
“Blair could give the appearance of broadening Trump’ group of advisers which includes Witkoff and Kushner, given Blair’s prominence and international visibility,” Telhami said.
He said that Trump’s reconstruction plan – if it were to materialize – would require “enormous amounts” and Blair’s close financial and political ties to wealthy Gulf states could be useful to Trump.
While the plan was initially seen as an off-the-cuff remark by Trump, the wheels were put into motion.
A study imagining the redevelopment of Gaza, which would include paying Palestinians to leave their land, was eventually put together and presented to the Trump administration, according to a Financial Times report.
The FT later revealed that while the project was led by Israeli businessmen and used financial models developed by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), staffers from Blair’s think tank, the Tony Blair Institute For Global Change (TBI), were involved in discussions about it.
In a submission to the UK parliament, BCG confirmed that one of its senior partners, who acted in breach of the company’s rules and direct orders, assembled a team to model and analyze post-war reconstruction scenarios for Gaza and that this team “interacted during this work” with the TBI.
The institute told CNN it speaks to many different groups and organizations with post war plans for Gaza, but stressed it was not involved in creating the plan in question.
A spokesperson for the institute would not comment on Blair’s presence in the meeting, only highlighting that the institute has “always been dedicated to building a better Gaza for Gazans.”
“Tony Blair has worked for this since leaving office,” the spokesperson said. “It has never been about relocating Gazans, which is a proposal the TBI has never authored, developed or endorsed.”
As they wait to learn more about Trump’s plan for Gaza, people in the devastated territory can only hope that Blair conveyed these positions to the men assembled in the White House as plainly as his institute has.
A second woman has come forward to an inquiry investigating sexual abuse allegations against Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court (ICC), the Guardian has learned.
The woman has alleged that while working for the prominent British lawyer earlier in his career, he behaved inappropriately, subjectingher to unwanted sexual advances, abused his authority over her, and repeatedly sought to pressure her into sexual activity.
Khan, who denies sexual misconduct “of any kind”, has temporarily stepped aside as head of the ICC’s prosecution division as he awaits the outcome of the inquiry into separate abuse allegations brought by a member of his staff at the court.
Launched last year, the inquiry by a UN watchdog received the new allegations from the second woman this summer. Its investigators are understood to have conducted several interviews in order to examine her claims, which date back to 2009.
At the time, the woman was in her 20s and working as an unpaid intern for Khan. He was a leading defence lawyer at the ICC and other war crimes tribunals in The Hague, having notably represented the former Liberian president Charles Taylor.
Speaking exclusively to the Guardian, the woman said Khan abused his power and influence over her and described his behaviour as a “constant onslaught” of advances. “He shouldn’t have been doing it,” she said. “He was my employer.”
The woman spoke on condition of anonymity as she fears reprisals and adverse consequences for her and her family if publicly identified. She came forward after reading about the more recent allegations made against Khan by the ICC staffer.
The second woman’s account of Khan’s alleged mistreatment of her contains several similarities to the staffer’s allegations, details of which have been shared by people familiar with her claims. Both women have alleged that Khan would ask them to come to work at his home. There, they each allege, he would sit beside them on a couch, touch them, kiss them and try to persuade them to lie down with him.
Lawyers for Khan did not address specific details of either woman’s allegations but said: “It is wholly untrue that he has engaged in sexual misconduct of any kind.”
They said Khan “categorically denies” having “harassed or mistreated any individual, or having misused his position or authority, or engaged in any conduct that could be interpreted as coercive, exploitative, or professionally inappropriate”.
They claimed Khan had provided detailed evidence to the inquiry that “sits squarely at odds with the allegations that have been put to him” and “in a number of material respects show those allegations to be demonstrably untrue”.
Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin, who have had arrest warrants issued against them by Khan’s ICC. Photograph: Reuters
Khan, 55, was elected in 2021 to serve a nine-year term as chief prosecutor. He is in effect the public face of the ICC, a permanent court of last resort that investigates and prosecutes individuals accused of atrocities.
Since taking office, Khan has raised the court’s profile and thrust it into the crosshairs of major powers, with arrest warrants issued for suspects including Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu.
His tenure was thrown into turmoil last year when the allegations made by the ICC staffer became public. The woman, a lawyer in her 30s who worked directly for him, alleges the misconduct occurred over an extended period between 2023 and 2024.
Khan and his representatives have sought to cast the emergence of the allegations as part of a campaign by hostile external actors to discredit and put pressure on him in response to actions he has taken against Netanyahu and the former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant.
While the Guardian understands there have been attempts by pro-Israeli actors to brief journalists and leak information about the ICC staffer’s complaint, it has found no evidence to suggest either woman has raised the allegations as part of an elaborate plot against the prosecutor.
Once the UN watchdog’s investigation is completed, its findings will be reviewed by a panel of judicial experts who will advise the ICC’s governing body if any action should be taken against Khan.
If he is found to have committed “serious misconduct” or a serious breach of his duties, the prosecutor could face an unprecedented reckoning: a secret ballot in which the ICC’s 125 member states would vote on whether to remove him from office.
‘Confused and humiliated’
As the sexual abuse allegations shook the ICC last year, Khan issued a statement insisting that in 30 years of working in “diverse contexts” there had “never been any such complaint lodged against me by anyone”.
Patricia (not her real name) said that when she read about the allegations and saw Khan’s statement, her “heart sank”. She said that previously, as an intern at the start of her career, she had felt unable to make a formal complaint.
Patricia said that before going to work for Khan she had viewed the internship as an “exciting and meaningful” opportunity. “Karim was a well-connected, well-respected person who could make things happen, and someone who would put a good word in for you,” she said.
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However, she said working for Khan “came at a price it shouldn’t have come at, and the price it came at did disturb and distress me for some time afterwards”.
According to Patricia, an early experience of Khan’s alleged misconduct occurred at the court’s offices where she claimed Khan “groped” her breasts with a “prolonged” caress that was “completely unconsented”.
“It wasn’t like ‘oops, I brushed the back of my hand against you, I’m sorry’,” she said. “He was too close.”
Patricia said the incident in the office left her “confused and humiliated”, but over the following weeks she was required to work closely with Khan on preparing part of a case. During this period, she said, Khan asked her on at least six occasions to work at his home in The Hague, where they would be alone together.
The international criminal court in The Hague. Photograph: Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters
She said that when working at his apartment she had to negotiate his advances while trying to get work done. “I was trying to figure out how to stay in his good graces and get the work experience while not sleeping with him and succumbing,” she said.
This was difficult, she said, “because when we were in his house it was just like a constant onslaught”. She claimed that each time she worked at the apartment “it would be another round of [Khan] sitting next to me on the couch and touching me and kissing me and trying to convince me to sleep with him”.
Patricia said she “felt trapped” at the time. She was covering the costs of the internship and felt it was vital she received a positive letter of recommendation from Khan. Complaining was not an option, she said, and the choice she faced was to “either persevere or leave”.
“It felt critical to me to get through the experience,” she said. “I remember walking to his house and feeling like I had to amp myself up, feeling like I had to fortify myself.”
She said she refused Khan’s explicit requests to have sex. “I remember coming up with all kinds of dumb excuses for why I did not want to sleep with him, just to try and not make him angry.”
She said although she was “miserable” and depressed while working for Khan, she decided to stay. After the internship had finished, she received a glowing recommendation letter from Khan. She said it “felt like a deal with the devil”.
Patricia said she remained in touch with Khan for several years as she felt a professional need to keep on good terms with him. Over time, she said, she came to realise how Khan’s behaviour had affected her.
She said Khan would send her messages from time to time long after the internship, though she eventually stopped responding. In 2019, she received what she described as a “weird message” out of the blue. Khan said he was thinking about her. He thanked her for her “good company” and for “being a very good friend to me”.
She replied: “Karim, it does not make me happy to hear from you, that is why I do not respond. I wish you wouldn’t contact me, please don’t do it any more.” She did not hear from Khan again.
ICC staffer: ‘Ceaseless’ advances
After reading about the ICC staffer’s allegations against Khan last year, Patricia contacted the Guardian. She said she was “disturbed” that something similar to her experience was alleged to have happened again so many years later.
This summer she provided formal testimony to the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), the body investigating the ICC staffer’s allegations. A source familiar with the inquiry said the watchdog had reviewed material shared by Patricia and interviewed people close to her. A spokesperson for the OIOS said it did not comment on its investigation activities.
For the past nine months, investigators have been examining the ICC staffer’s allegations. As the Guardian reported last year, her claims include allegations of coercive sexual behaviour and abuse of authority. The alleged sexual misconduct is said to have occurred in hotel rooms during work trips, in Khan’s office at the ICC and at his home.
Khan speaking to media in The Hague in January. Photograph: Piroschka Van De Wouw/Reuters
Since then, new details have emerged about the staffer’s allegations. Several ICC sources and other individuals with knowledge of the claims said there were multiple instances of alleged sexual abuse said to have occurred at Khan’s home after she was asked to go there for work reasons.
According to two sources, the staffer has alleged Khan would often bring her over to a couch in the living room where he would touch her and attempt to persuade her to engage in sexual activity. She is said to have tried to avoid his advances and attempted to make excuses to leave.
The staffer has described Khan’s advances at his home as “ceaseless”. In one record of the allegations, she said: “He would try to kiss me and I would always move my head away and move back and he would tell me to stop moving and say ‘kiss me, kiss me’.”
Khan’s position
The law firm representing Khan, Carter-Ruck, said he had an unblemished record and denied the allegations. They said he was “cooperating fully and transparently” with the ongoing inquiry but that he had “grave concerns as to whether the investigation can deliver due process”.
They claimed Khan “has been the subject of an orchestrated campaign” and said he was aware of attempts to “discredit him and destroy his personal reputation through the media, as a direct consequence of his role in issuing the arrest warrants” for Netanyahu and Gallant.
Last year the Guardian, with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call, revealed how Israel’s intelligence agencies had run a campaign against the ICC. This included a Mossad operation that attempted to intimidate and smear Khan’s predecessor Fatou Bensouda.
Against this backdrop, Khan and people acting on his behalf have sought to suggest in private and to journalists that he is the subject of a similar effort by Israeli intelligence.
In recent weeks, outlets such as Middle East Eye (MEE) and Le Monde have published reports about pressures purportedly placed on Khan. An MEE article claimed the ICC’s investigation into Israeli war crimes had been “derailed by threats, leaks and sex claims”, and raised questions about the reliability of the staffer’s allegations.
Five ICC sources familiar with Khan’s response to the claims when the allegations first surfaced told the Guardian that his team concluded it was highly unlikely the abuse claims were part of an intelligence operation. One of the sources said pro-Israeli interests “may have exploited the story but they didn’t create the story”.
The ICC staffer at the heart of the inquiry has been particularly distressed by suggestions she is part of a pro-Israeli plot, according to people who know her. They noted that she is Muslim, and was known within the prosecutor’s office to have been supportive of its investigation into senior Israeli officials’ crimes in Gaza.
Lebanese official says disarmament of Palestinian camps could pave way for new refugee rights
BEIRUT: As more Palestinian refugee camps handed over caches of weapons to the Lebanese army this week, a Lebanese government official told The Associated Press that the disarmament effort could pave the way for granting Palestinian refugees in Lebanon more legal rights.
Ramez Dimashkieh, head of the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, a government body that serves as an interlocutor between Palestinian refugees and officials, said his group is working on proposed legislation that they hope to introduce by the end of the year that could improve the situation of Lebanon’s approximately 200,000 Palestinian refugees.
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are not given citizenship, ostensibly to preserve their right to go back to the homes they fled or were forced from during the 1948 creation of the state of Israel, which now bans them from returning. They are prohibited from working in many professions, have few legal protections and can’t own property.
The proposed legislation under being drafted would not confer Lebanese nationality on the refugees, Dimashkieh said, but would strengthen their labor and property rights.
“If people see a serious move forward in terms of arms delivery and they see the Palestinians here … are serious about transforming into a civil society rather than militarized camps, it will make the discourse much easier,” he said.
A first step
Last week, Palestinian factions started handing over some of the weapons held in the Burj Al-Barajneh refugee camp on the outskirts of Beirut to the Lebanese army, an initial step in implementing a plan announced by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun three months earlier for removing arms from the camps.
The step of removing weapons from the camps was widely seen as a precursor to the much more difficult step of disarming the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which last year fought a bruising war with Israel. The group has been under domestic and international pressure since then to give up its remaining arsenal, which it has so far refused to do.
Only one pickup truck loaded with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades left Burj Al-Barajneh last week, leading many to dismiss the initiative in the Palestinian camps as ineffective or purely symbolic.
Dimashkieh acknowledged that “there was a lot of cynicism about the quantity and quality of the weapons delivered,” but insisted that the government is serious about following through.
“Whatever weapons are given, they’re weapons which are now in the possession of the Lebanese Armed Forces,” he said. “So we should be happy about that.”
On Thursday, another three camps in southern Lebanon handed over weapons, including some Grad rockets as well as RPGs, machine guns and hand grenades.
A move toward civil administration
The 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon aren’t under the control of Lebanese authorities, and rival Palestinian factions have clashed inside the camps in recent years, inflicting casualties and affecting nearby areas.
In the Ein el Hilweh camp near the southern port city of Sidon, rounds of fighting between members of Abbas’s Fatah movement and rival Islamist factions in 2023 killed around 30 people, wounded hundreds and displaced thousands.
The fighting also left the schools in one of two school complexes in the camp run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees “heavily damaged to the extent that we are unable to use them,” said Dorothee Klaus, UNRWA director in Lebanon. The cash-strapped agency does “not have the resources currently to reopen the schools,” she said.
While UNRWA is not involved in the disarmament effort currently underway, Klaus said, “We very much hope that this leads to a situation of safety and security and stability with a functioning civil administration.”
Eventually, Dimashkieh said, the objective is for the camps to be patrolled by Lebanese police or internal security forces while being governed by civilian Palestinian officials, although he acknowledged that there would be “a transitional period” before that happens.
Abbas’s administration launched an overhaul of the Palestinian Authority’s leadership in Lebanon a few months ago, including the removal of the former Palestinian ambassador and many security officials and staff. Dimashkieh said that a Palestinian delegation had recently visited to pave the way for elections of new “popular committees” that serve as de facto municipal authorities in the camps.
Palestinian factions opposed to Abbas, including Hamas and its allies, have rejected the plan to hand over weapons in the camps, and even members of Abbas’ Fatah movement have sent mixed signals, with some officials saying last week that only “illegal” weapons would be handed over, not those belonging to organized factions.
However, on Thursday, Sobhi Abu Arab, the head of the Palestinian National Security Forces in
Lebanon, said, “We are doing our part as the Fatah movement and the Palestinian Liberation Organization to implement” Abbas’s decision.
Dimashkieh said his group has also had “initial talks” with Hamas and that he is “quite optimistic that we will make headway” with bringing them on board.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivers a speech during a celebration of India’s Independence Day in New Delhi, India, on August 15, 2025. Photo: VCG
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit China and attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit 2025 in Tianjin from August 31 to September 1. This will be the Indian prime minister’s first visit to China after seven years, marking a shift in China-India relations from a period of diplomatic chill toward a slow but steady cycle of recovery. India’s active participation in the SCO Tianjin Summit reflects its repositioning of the multilateral cooperation framework. In recent months, a series of developments – from soldiers along the Himalayan border exchanging sweets to the resumption of Indian pilgrims’ route to Southwest China’s Xizang Autonomous Region to the announcement that direct flights between the two countries could resume as early as possible – all signal that the two major countries are strengthening interaction on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties.
The current recovery phase of China-India relations is primarily driven by shared strategic needs. Since the Galwan Valley incident, both sides have consumed considerable resources in managing border tensions. Increasingly, both countries recognize that allocating limited resources to economic development and more pressing strategic priorities – rather than endless border disputes – is the more rational choice. This month, the two sides reached 10 points of consensus on the boundary question, and the foreign ministers’ meeting achieved 10 outcomes, maintaining communication through diplomatic and military channels and avoiding unnecessary friction. Particularly, in the context of sluggish global economic recovery, both countries need a stable surrounding environment to promote domestic reforms and economic growth. In 2024, bilateral trade reached $138.478 billion, up 1.7 percent year-on-year. Bilateral decisions to resume direct flights, streamline visa procedures, resume border trade, and other measures indicate that economic and trade cooperation is about to enter the normal trajectory.
The warming of China-India relations is also closely related to profound changes in the global geopolitical landscape. Since the beginning of 2025, international turbulence has intensified: the protracted stalemate in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, mounting crises in the Middle East, and major shifts in US domestic politics and foreign policy have all had far-reaching impacts on the global order. US foreign policy has shifted from “supporting allies” to “transactional diplomacy,” and in some cases even adopted a posture of extracting benefits at the expense of allies and partners, which has directly worsened US-India relations. In his Independence Day address, the Indian prime minister said that “Modi will stand like a wall against any policy that threatens their interests. India will never compromise when it comes to protecting the interests of our farmers.” According to Indian officials, India is also advancing a trade diversification strategy with at least 40 countries. This strategic autonomy resonates with the independent foreign policy advocated by China, and together they constitute the endogenous driving force for the improvement of relations between the two countries.
Western media are keen to hype the “warming up” of China-India relations and simplistically attribute it to US tariffs on India, speculating about a so-called “anti-US alliance.” Such narratives seriously misread the independence of foreign policies of both China and India. A CNN commentary pointed out part of the truth: “India’s recalibration of ties with China is a textbook application of its policy of strategic autonomy, which prioritizes national interests over rigid bloc allegiance.” What makes some American media outlets uneasy about the prospect of “the dragon and the elephant dancing together” is essentially a residue of Cold War mentality. When Washington criticizes India for buying Russian oil, the implication is that it wants India to “pick a side” – the same logic behind drawing India into Quad, the so-called quadrilateral partnership among the US, Japan, Australia and India. The goal is nothing more than to turn India into a pawn in Washington’s so-called “Indo-Pacific Strategy” to contain China. Facts have shown that such small political cliques do not align with New Delhi’s pursuit of full strategic autonomy.
In the current era of frequent global challenges, closer China-India ties are not only a rational choice but also a shared responsibility. Looking back at history, India was among the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China. More than 70 years ago, China, India and other countries jointly advocated the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, which remain a basic norm of international relations. Today, as the “twin engines” of Asia’s economic growth, key representatives of the Global South, and members of the SCO, BRICS, and the G20, China and India share a mission to push the international order toward greater democracy and fairness. Their interactions and cooperation within existing mechanisms are aimed at achieving mutual benefit and win-win outcomes, which is a natural phenomenon in the process of building a multipolar world, and a legitimate aspiration of emerging powers seeking a stronger voice.
Modi’s visit to China provides a rare window of opportunity for improving China-India relations. Observers note that the two major countries are now making efforts to manage their ties as “partners rather than rivals.” While challenges remain in bilateral relations, both sides’ willingness for pragmatic cooperation introduces a positive variable into global strategic balance. On the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and India, it is hoped that New Delhi will earnestly implement the important consensus of the leaders of the two countries, write a new chapter of “the dragon and the elephant dancing together” with a more open and inclusive mindset, and make due contributions as major countries to world peace, stability and prosperity.
Israeli forces touched down at a former air-defence base in southern Syria on Wednesday during a series of airstrikes in the area – their farthermost such operation inside Syria since Bashar al-Assad was ousted last December.
The airbase, located near the city of al-Kiswah, about 6 miles (10km) south of Damascus, was previously a strategic base for Iranian militias during Assad’s rule.
Syrian state media reported that the Israeli military had carried out strikes in the same area a day earlier, killing six Syrian soldiers who had found Israeli listening and spying devices there. The soldiers were in the process of dismantling the devices when they were killed, state media said.
Israeli warplanes and drones prevented Syrian forces from entering the area until late on Wednesday night, after Israeli forces had left the site.
It was unclear what the Israeli soldiers did at the base. The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, posted on X that forces were “operating in all combat zones day and night for the security of Israel”, but otherwise offered no explanation.
The Syrian foreign ministry condemned the strikes, calling them a violation of international law and a breach of the country’s sovereignty.
Israel carried out dozens of strikes on weapons depots and military bases after the ousting of Assad in December last year. It also pushed into the UN-patrolled buffer zone that separated the two countries and established military bases there.
Israel has warned the new Syrian government, led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former leader of Islamist rebel groups, that it will not allow it to deploy forces to southern Syria.
Israeli strikes on Syria had all but stopped after the US president, Donald Trump, warned Israel to “be reasonable” in Syria, until sectarian clashes broke out in Druze-majority areas in southern Syria in June. Israel struck the ministry of defence in Damascus and bombed Syrian troops in what it said was an effort to protect Syria’s Druze population.
Wednesday’s bombings came despite the high-level security talks taking place between Syrian and Israeli officials. Officials from both countries met in Paris, alongside the US special envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, earlier this month.
The Paris talks, in addition to meetings in Azerbaijan, are aimed at establishing a security agreement between the two countries that would stop Israeli aggression in Syria and provide security assurances to Israel. Israel has also requested that the rights of the Druze in Syria be respected.
Israeli leaders have repeatedly referred to the new government in Damascus as “jihadist” and have expressed concerns that it could pose a threat to Israelis who live close to their shared border. The new government in Syria has not attacked Israel and said it wanted regional peace, including with Israel.
Syria and Israel have technically been at war since 1948 and do not have diplomatic relations. In 1974, the two countries signed a UN agreement that created a buffer zone between the two countries.
Israel said that it considered the 1974 agreement as void once Assad had been toppled, and pushed past the buffer zone. Syrian officials have said they want to use the 1974 agreement as a starting point in negotiations between the two countries.
The US, which is mediating talks between the two countries, has said it hopes that Syria could eventually normalise relations with Israel and join the Abraham accords. Syrian officials have said this is an eventual possibility, but emphasised that current talks are solely focused on security issues.
Barrack has cautioned that reaching a security agreement will take time, saying in an interview with the US new website Axios that the two countries “have mutual intent and desire but at the moment, there is still more work to do”.
Hundreds of UN staff at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) have asked rights chief Volker Turk to explicitly describe the Gaza war as an unfolding genocide, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
The letter, sent on Wednesday, said staff believe the legal criteria for genocide in the nearly two-year Israel-Hamas war in Gaza have been met, citing the scale and scope of violations.
“OHCHR has a strong legal and moral responsibility to denounce acts of genocide,” said the letter signed by the Staff Committee on behalf of over 500 employees. “Failing to denounce an unfolding genocide undermines the credibility of the U.N. and the human rights system itself,” it added.
Read More: Israel pressures Gaza as Trump eyes post-war plan
The letter cited the UN’s perceived moral failure in the 1994 Rwanda genocide that killed more than 1 million people.
There was no immediate response from the Israeli Foreign Ministry, which has previously rejected accusations of genocide, citing its right to self-defence following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack that killed 1,200 people and resulted in 251 hostages.
The Gaza Health Ministry says nearly 63,000 people have been killed since then, while a global hunger monitor says parts of Gaza face famine.
The appeal to Turk, an Austrian lawyer with decades of UN service, was backed by around a quarter of OHCHR’s 2,000 staff. Rights groups like Amnesty International have already accused Israel of genocide, while an independent UN expert has also used the term.
UN officials have said it is up to international courts to determine genocide. South Africa has brought a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, though it has yet to be heard on its merits.
“The situation in Gaza has shaken us all to our core,” OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said, noting difficult circumstances as the office documents violations.
Turk acknowledged the concerns in his response, seen by Reuters: “I know we all share a feeling of moral indignation at the horrors we are witnessing … I call on you to remain united as an Office in the face of such adversity.”
16 more Gazans killed
Israeli forces killed at least 16 Palestinians across Gaza on Thursday and wounded dozens in the south, local health officials said, as residents reported intensified bombardment in Gaza City’s suburbs.
The military is preparing to take Gaza City, the enclave’s largest urban centre, despite international concerns that such an operation would cause significant casualties and displace around one million Palestinians sheltering there.
Residents said families were fleeing homes, heading towards the coast as Israeli forces struck Shejaia, Zeitoun and Sabra districts. The Gaza Health Ministry said Thursday’s deaths brought the 24-hour toll to 71.
Israel describes Gaza City as Hamas’ last stronghold, following its Oct. 2023 cross-border attack that killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage. The military said it continues to target “terrorist organisations” and infrastructure, adding that three militants were killed in the past day.
Four dead, dozens wounded in Southern Gaza
An International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) spokesperson told Reuters that 31 patients with gunshot wounds were admitted to the Red Cross Field Hospital in Rafah, four of whom died on arrival.
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Patients said they were shot while trying to reach food distribution sites. Since May 27, the hospital has treated over 5,000 such patients.
Dozens more were admitted to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. A doctor said the military opened fire near an aid site, with most patients suffering upper-body gunshot wounds, many in critical condition.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
The war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel’s military campaign has since killed over 62,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials. The Gaza Health Ministry said on Thursday that four more people, including two children, died of malnutrition, bringing such deaths to 317.
Israel disputes the ministry’s figures and has asked a global hunger monitor to retract an assessment that Gaza is experiencing famine.
The UK, France and Germany have begun the process of restoring major UN sanctions on Iran – lifted under a 2015 deal – as tensions once again escalate over Iran’s nuclear programme.
The move will trigger a so-called snapback mechanism, which could result in the return of sanctions in 30 days.
The three countries, participants in the 2015 deal, warned two weeks ago that they were ready to do this unless Iran agreed to a “diplomatic solution” by the end of August.
Talks between Iran and the US over its nuclear programme have not resumed since June when the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites and Iran barred UN-backed inspectors from accessing its facilities.
The snapback provision was built into the 2015 accord and allows for a participant to initiate the process to bring back sanctions if they believe Iran has significantly failed to fulfil its nuclear commitments by notifying the UN Security Council.
The UK, France and Germany, known as the E3, took the step in a letter to the Security Council. The council now has 30 days in which to decide whether to extend the sanctions relief or allow it to lapse.
Iran had warned of repercussions if the snapback was triggered.
Years-long crippling economic sanctions were lifted in exchange for curbs to Iran’s nuclear programme under the UN-backed deal between Iran and the US, UK, France, Germany, China and the EU.
But the deal unravelled after Donald Trump pulled the US out and reimposed nuclear-related sanctions in 2018 during his first term. Iran stepped up its nuclear activities in response, fuelling a renewed crisis.
Western powers and the global nuclear body the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) say they are not convinced that Iran’s nuclear programme has purely peaceful purposes. Iran strongly insists it is not seeking nuclear weapons, and that its nuclear programme is solely a civilian one.
