Human Rights Glance
Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran's deputy foreign minister, has accused Israel of attempting to evade accountability after the United Nations included it on a list of parties cited over conflict-related sexual violence allegations.
Writing on X, Gharibabadi said, “Instead of responding to the inclusion of its affiliated entities on the UN list of sexual violence in conflict, the Israeli regime has targeted the UN Secretary-General for punishment, a sign of the same dangerous pattern: evading accountability by attacking international institutions.”
The Iranian official also referred to alleged abuses committed by Israeli security forces against Palestinian detainees and criticised Israel’s military operations in Gaza and Lebanon, arguing that ceasefire commitments had not been upheld.
Iran says Israel attacking UN to evade accountability over sexual violence findings
EU sanctions ‘extremist’ Israeli settlers in occupied West Bank
The European Union has sanctioned four entities and three individuals it says are “extremist Israeli settlers” responsible for “serious” human rights abuses against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
The EU said they had violated a range of rights, including the rights to physical and mental integrity, privacy and family life, freedom of religion and education.
The announcement on Thursday is part of an EU sanctions package agreed earlier this month to punish Israeli settlers and Hamas leaders.
The sanctions include the Nachala Settlement Movement and its director, Daniella Weiss. The EU says the group “encourages and facilitates coercive acts that lead to the forced displacement of Palestinians”.
Israeli NGO Regavim and its director, Meir Deutsch, are also on the sanctions list for lobbying “for the demolition of Palestinian property” in order to expand Israel’s control over the entirety of the West Bank, plus the demolition of an EU-funded Palestinian primary school.
Trump Threatened or Attacked 1 in 13 Countries, CNN Says
US President Donald Trump has threatened or used force against countries representing roughly one in 11 people worldwide, according to a CNN analysis.
The report followed Trump’s remarks during a White House Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, where he warned Oman over tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, a key global shipping route.
“Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we’ll have to blow ‘em up,” Trump said.
The Strait of Hormuz, which carries about 20% of global oil shipments, has faced growing risks amid tensions in the Middle East.
According to The Guardian, the comments came amid reports that Iran and Oman have discussed possible arrangements involving control or fees for shipping through the strait.
“The Strait is going to be open to everybody,” Trump said while discussing regional tensions. “Nobody’s going to control it.”
CNN said US forces have conducted strikes in multiple countries during Trump’s presidency, including Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.
Oman is at least the 15th country Trump has threatened, suggested he could attack, or targeted militarily during his time in office.
Haftar's forces arrest Gaza aid convoy in Libya
Forces belonging to Libyan military leader Khalifa Haftar have arrested a number of members of a Gaza aid convoy in the city of Sirte.
According to a statement published by the Global Sumud Convoy Instagram page, last contact with the activists was made at 3.22pm on Tuesday.
"The detained are civilians from Spain, Poland, the USA, Argentina, Uruguay, Portugal, Tunisia, and Italy - doctors and human rights defenders who volunteered to deliver aid and stand with the Palestinian people," said the statement.
They said the convoy had entered the 5+5 security zone - a contested area established under the Libyan ceasefire agreement signed in October 2020 - to negotiate safe passage to the Gaza Strip.
"They were detained by a security force affiliated with the Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF) and are still being held by Eastern Libyan authorities (GNS)," they added.
The group urged citizens of the listed countries to contact their embassies and demand their release.
A range of activist-led humanitarian missions have been sent to Gaza since the beginning of the genocide in October 2023, with most being intercepted at sea by Israeli forces.
A number have attempted to travel across land to the crossing at the Egyptian border, though these have also faced numerous legal and security obstacles.
Full list of Israel's ceasefire violations in Gaza, seven months on
More than seven months have passed since a US-mediated ceasefire was announced with the stated aim of ending Israel's two-year genocide in Gaza.
Yet Israel has continued to carry out near-daily strikes and violations of the agreement, albeit at a lower intensity than before the truce.
The humanitarian crisis caused by the war has also persisted, with Israel maintaining a tight siege on the Palestinian enclave.
The Israeli military has justified some of its violations by accusing Palestinian factions of breaching the ceasefire.
However, many of those killed, displaced or arbitrarily detained over the past seven months have been civilians, including children.
With the first phase of the agreement still not fully implemented by Israel, the US has so far failed to advance talks towards the next stage, which was meant to include the disarmament of Palestinian armed groups, the deployment of international stabilisation forces, reconstruction in the strip and a full Israeli withdrawal.
The lack of progress has raised fresh doubts over the future of the fragile ceasefire, as Israel continues to mass forces near Gaza and threatens a renewed assault on the strip.
Middle East Eye breaks down the main Israeli breaches of the ceasefire so far.
Israel killing Palestinians ‘like we haven't since 1967’, top commander says
Israel’s top commander in the occupied West Bank has said the army is killing Palestinians at levels “not seen since 1967”, according to Haaretz.
Avi Bluth, head of the Israeli army’s Central Command, made the remarks in a closed forum, where he also defended looser rules of engagement allowing troops to fire at unarmed Palestinians.
He acknowledged a discriminatory approach whereby Jewish Israeli stone-throwers are not targeted while Palestinians carrying out similar acts are fired at.
"In three years, we have killed 1,500 terrorists," he said, referring to Palestinians.
"So how is there no intifada? Why aren’t they taking to the streets? Why is the Palestinian public indifferent? Why are there no disturbances?" Bluth, a settler who has been the Israeli army commander in the West Bank since 2024, added.
Israel appoints settler who backs annexation to head powerful land authority
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the appointment of Yehuda Eliyahu on Monday.
A long-time associate of Smotrich, Eliyahu previously headed the Settlement Administration within the defence ministry, where he oversaw the largest Israeli land grab in the West Bank in recent memory.
His selection was approved last week by a public appointments committee, though not unanimously.
The committee’s legal adviser opposed the move, arguing that Eliyahu’s decades-long personal relationship with Smotrich posed a conflict of interest.
The Israel Land Authority oversees around 92 percent of state land - roughly 20 million dunams - and manages a budget worth billions of shekels. It plays a central role in land allocation for housing, infrastructure and development projects, and is also involved in administering land in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
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