Iran categorically rejects involvement in alleged plot to attack Israeli embassy in UK
Press TV – May 8, 2025
Tehran has categorically rejected Western media reports about Iranian nationals being involved in an alleged plot to target the Israeli embassy in London.
In a post on his X account on Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran has not been informed of any allegations via “proper diplomatic channels”.
“Iran stands ready to engage to shed light on what has truly transpired, and we reiterate that UK authorities should afford our citizens due process,” he wrote.
The United Kingdom has arrested eight men, including seven Iranian nationals, as part of two investigations regarding alleged threats to national security.
London’s Metropolitan Police confirmed the arrests on Sunday, saying five men, including four of the Iranian nationals, were detained on suspicion of “preparation of a terrorist act” while the other three were being held under national security legislation introduced in 2023 to counter the actions of hostile states.
They were arrested as part of a “pre-planned” investigation into an alleged plot to “target specific premises,” the Metropolitan Police said, adding that the “affected site” was made aware and is being supported by police.
As part of a separate investigation led by the Met, three other Iranian men were arrested in London on Saturday.
The Met said three men — aged 39, 44 and 55 — were arrested under section 27 the National Security Act at separate addresses in north-west and west London, and had been taken into custody while searches continued.
In his post, Araghchi pointed to the stories in the media about the alleged involvement of Iranian nationals in a supposed plot to target the Israeli embassy in London and urged the UK to engage so that Tehran may assist any probe into credible allegations.
The top Iranian diplomat warned that third parties are resorting to desperate measures, including false flag operations, to derail diplomacy and provoke escalation.
“Timing and lack of engagement suggest that something is amiss,” he said.
In a post on his X social media account on Tuesday, the Iranian foreign minister called on the UK to respect the rights of Iranians arrested in Britain, underscoring Tehran’s readiness to assist investigations in the incident.
“Disturbed to learn that Iranian citizens have reportedly been arrested by UK security services,” Araghchi wrote.
UK keeps sending arms to Israel despite ban: Report
Press TV – May 7, 2025
A new report says Britain keeps exporting arms and equipment, including F-35 fighter jet parts, to Israel despite a government suspension in September 2024.
The report released by three campaign groups says parts for the jet, which has been critical for Israel’s brutal military campaign in Gaza, appear to have arrived in Israel as recently as March.
Investigation using Israeli customs data says 8,630 munitions items were sent from the UK to Israel since the suspensions.
The munitions fall under a category of import labelled “bombs, grenades, torpedoes, mines, missiles, and similar munitions of war and parts thereof.”
Most of the shipments cited in the report happened after the government’s arms suspension.
Britain had said it suspended its direct exports over concerns they might be used in serious violations of international humanitarian law.
Soon after the suspensions, Foreign Secretary David Lammy told parliament that “much of what we send is defensive in nature. It is not what we describe routinely as arms.”
“On the basis of the evidence in this report, it appears that Lammy has misled parliament and the public about arms shipments to Israel,” according to the report.
Nearly two dozen MPs have written to Lammy, calling on him to come before parliament to respond to the allegations.
They said that the public “deserves to know the full scale of the UK’s complicity in crimes against humanity.”
“We urge the government to disclose the details of all arms exports to Israel since October 2023 and to immediately halt all arms exports to Israel,” they wrote.
“This could not be more urgent given the risk that British-made weapons could be used to enact Netanyahu’s plan to annex Gaza and ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people.”
Former Labor shadow chancellor and MP John McDonnell and MP Zarah said the findings showed the government “has been lying to us about the arms it is supplying to Israel while it wages genocide in Gaza.”
“Far from ‘helmets and goggles’, the government has been sending thousands of arms and ammunition goods and [is] even still supplying components of the world’s most lethal fighter jets,” she said.
Emily Apple, media coordinator for the UK-based Campaign Against Arms Trade, said the report had shattered the claim that the UK arms export regime is transparent.
“Our arms export regime is not fit for purpose and this government is complicit in Israel’s horrific war crimes. Time and again, it has either refused to act or manufactured loopholes to prioritize arms trade profits over Palestinian lives. This has to stop,” Apple said.
War in Washington
By Karen Kwiatkowski | Lew Rockwell | May 3, 2025
The President values loyalty above all, and the war on leakers and whistleblowers is weapons hot, torpedo tubes flooded. The targets seem to be the “less loyal” among the current tribe of administration appointees and selected leftovers and hangers-on from the Biden regime. The shuffling of leaker-by accident NatSec Advisor Waltz over to the UN and the firing of his deputy Mr. Wong is what Trump voters wanted. Israel, maybe not so much.
This compelling Tucker Carlson interview with Dan Caldwell – one of three accused leakers in the administration let go a few weeks ago – reveals some things we ought to think about. Caldwell, and others in the administration and the vast majority of Americans, don’t want stupid wars for even stupider reasons. Certain of Trump’s appointees, and a significant proportion of his loyal supporters, are realists on foreign policy, and this doesn’t sit well with the pro-war crowd infesting DC and inside the administration.
The recent jury trial of the federally prosecuted Uhuru activists sets the stage for understanding the long executive war against freedom of speech and association. Over 20 years ago under Bush 43 – advertised as non-interventionist at home and abroad – we saw “free speech zones” popularized and made par for the course. The charges against the Uhuru group were made up by the Biden administration and testify to not only elite requirements for our obedience in all things, but a direct contempt for an earlier Democratic Party that actually fought for freedom of speech and dissented against war.
The state demands loyalty. The loyalty construct is modeled by both major parties, all the way down to local Republican and Democratic committees, who operate in generally polite Bolshevik-mode. It is this very construct that we saw used under the Biden administration – where swearing that mostly peaceful cities burning is a national good, and under Trump – where criticizing a genocide conducted by an “ally” fueled and funded by the American taxpayer is verboten hate speech, illegal.
A Texas town is considering a non-binding resolution stating, among other things, that it no longer wishes for its State of Texas tax haul of $4.4 million being sent to Israel. Read it for yourself, nothing in the resolution is false, and it represents – we may know for sure after the May 6th Town Council meeting – the wishes of the people of San Marcos. Governor Abbott is beside himself.
DoJ’s charges against the Uhuru group had dwindled before the trial to only two: Failure to register as an agent of a foreign country, and conspiracy to fail to register as an agent of a foreign country. AIPAC did not file an amicus brief, but they sure should have. There is a long history of AIPAC being accused of advocating for a foreign government in Washington, and in all 50 states.
The sheer reactivity of the pro-Israel lobby – and their paid for, bribed up, and reputation-blackmailed politicians – to the slightest whiff of disfavor about a small, corrupt, thoroughly militarized state of 9 million people is breathtaking. This is becoming far more obvious, to far more people, far sooner than ever before. It’s starting to look frantic, desperate even. More than that, if “Princess and the Pea” is a strategy, it’s a bad one, very different than years of the behind the scenes maneuvering, cultivating and quietly placing key people in key positions in order to promote Zionist interests in Washington and to shape and leverage a sector of American Christian evangelicalism. Has the Israel lobby miscalculated what is happening in the US? Has Israel itself miscalculated what it needs to do to survive as a country?
Trump’s personality, a lingering Western recession, the common-man’s dawning recognition that DOGE has barely scratched the surface of tax-funded waste and idiocy, and emergent anti-war patriotism – none of this helps Netanyahu, or his successor.
Israel’s apologists in Washington and elsewhere are acting like addicts being nudged towards a rehab facility. The Zionist lobby here and in Israel is not just exhibiting narcissism and denial, but a growing tone-deafness.
Matt Walsh has some useful observations on America today. He told Tucker:
I don’t understand why, how do we get to a point where the dominant conversation in this country is about what’s happening in other countries…. My sense is… When I go on Twitter, go on X, and no matter what the topic is, it seems, it’s like, you know, it used to be six degrees of Kevin Bacon or whatever. Yeah. Uh, now it’s two degrees of Israel. I was like, no matter the topic, it always comes back for a lot of people to Israel one way or another. And, um, that’s not how I see it. I don’t see Israel as the centerpiece of any of these debates.
I think Matt is articulating what many Americans wonder about. And the reaction to this national “wondering” is revealing the depth of the dependency, and the real fear Zionists in Israel and in America have that the Zionist project is going to be returned to them alone, no longer an experiment of interest to the United States, no longer a maximal or even existent line item on the foreign affairs and Pentagon budget. Matt suggests that if a country cannot organically survive, without significant aid and assistance from another country, maybe it isn’t a legitimate country. Maybe it doesn’t deserve the help – maybe it should demonstrate how it would manage its affairs on its own earnings, its own identity and value system. He observed,
… when I say that a country that can’t survive without us shouldn’t exist or doesn’t exist. That’s not any kind of like moral judgment. It’s just, this the way of human civilization. You have to be able to you have to be able to stand on your own two feet to be, to even qualify as a country. Right. And I think the American taxpayers have been saddled for many years now with propping up country after country after country.
Rational people, and rational Americans can’t argue with that. In fact, this kind of thinking is fundamental to the so-called “American dream.” It is how we think, and incidentally, it is also antithetical to both socialism and progressivism.
It’s time to cut the apron strings of foreign and military aid. We can’t afford it and it doesn’t work as advertised. Trump is looking to cut overseas enterprises that are obviously corrupt, deceitful, immoral and have no cards left to play. He has stated this publicly, about Ukraine.
Trump’s thinking on this topic may evolve to give Israel the same liberation. Trump’s over-the-top support for Israel allows him to safely chide Netanyahu, surprise him with direct talks with Iran, slow roll tariff relief, and tell him that he needs to allow food and water into Gaza. Without a doubt, Trump has staffed the most pro-Israel government since Lyndon Baines Johnson. I am ready for a new and inverted Nixon to China meme, where only uber pro-Zionist Trump can set Israel free.
The people advising Trump are important to him, but they are even more important to Israel. Moving Waltz out to the hinterland of UN talking points is a skirmish in a larger battle being waged in DC over personnel and policies. The last time we had this intensity of Zionists battling for power over a US President and his foreign policy, we got a violent regime change.
Official Arab alignment with Israel to eliminate the resistance
By Majeb Zebda – Palestinian Information Center – May 4, 2025
The media warning issued by the Lebanese Higher Defence Council to Hamas, accusing it of undermining Lebanese national security, not only contradicts the facts that Israel is the one undermining Lebanese national security and violating Lebanese territory through killing, bombing and occupation without deterrence or accountability, but also paves the way for the disarmament of the Palestinian camps in Lebanon and suggests that they pose a threat to Lebanon’s security and territorial integrity. I will not rule out the possibility of the camp weapons issue being used to distort the image of the Palestinian resistance and to drag Hamas’s name into any future conflicts on the ground. This desire aligns with the vision of Mahmoud Abbas, who is hostile to the Palestinian resistance in general and Hamas in particular and plans to visit Lebanon to discuss the issue of weapons in the camps in the coming days.
On the other hand, the sudden Lebanese warning comes in response to the vision of the US and Israel’s arrangements for the future of the Arab region, which is being re-engineered politically and on the ground to allow for complete and undisputed Israeli domination. It also aligns with other Arab measures, including, for example, Jordan’s criminalisation of support for the Palestinian resistance and the new Syrian regime’s efforts, under American pressure, to tighten the noose on Palestinian resistance factions and prevent their activities inside Syria under the pretext of “arms control.”
This allows us to come to the conclusion that the Lebanese warning is just one scene among several others that together form the American-Israeli vision of the region. It is a bleak future for Arab dignity, in which Israel violates Arab lands and capabilities daily in a provocative and humiliating manner, while Arab regimes undertake the task of clipping the wings of the Palestinian resistance and cutting off its supply lines under the force of American pressure. The US will implement what these regimes fail to, and the American bombing of Yemen in defence of Israel, which has been ongoing for weeks, is a prime example of this.
Unfortunately, official Arab alignment with Israeli-American goals is pushing some to treat the Palestinian resistance with arrogance and condescension, describing it as the weakest link. Therefore, there is no high political price to pay for antagonising it and distorting its positive image, even though it has the legitimate and legal right to resist military occupation and defend its land, people and holy sites. This is a chance to recall the shameless insults and obscenities uttered by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas against the Palestinian resistance, which is the opposite of the official Arab approach to the criminal occupation, which violates the dignity of Arabs, their skies and their land around the clock. Yet, no one dares to threaten it or issue warnings—even as a formality—of resisting its attacks, which have become a daily occurrence on our television screens.
Arab identification with Israel’s desire to eliminate the resistance will strongly clash with the resistance’s popular support and its deep roots in the hearts of the nation’s free people. The resistance, which has persevered for 18 months against the Israeli enemies and sacrificed its best leaders and fighters without being broken, is capable of regrouping and rebuilding what the occupation has destroyed. When it does so, many of those who align with Israel’s goals today may seek to cosy up to the resistance after their strength weakens and they fail to eliminate it and uproot it from the land of Palestine and its surroundings.
Translation by MEMO
One martyred in Israeli drone strike on South Lebanon vehicle
Al Mayadeen | May 6, 2025
Al Mayadeen’s correspondent in southern Lebanon reported that an Israeli drone strike targeted a civilian vehicle in the university district of Kfar Rumman, located in Nabatieh Governorate. The attack resulted in the martyrdom of one individual.
The assassination occurred against a backdrop of intensifying Israeli aggression across Lebanon and Syria. Last night, Israeli warplanes conducted coordinated strikes targeting displacement shelters in Tayr Harfa, residential areas in Srifa, and border regions near Syria’s Serghaya.
These attacks follow Saturday’s disturbing incidents where Israeli drones dropped grenades near Marjayoun while others broadcast threats to farmers working in Wadi Khansa’s agricultural lands.
Local monitoring groups note an alarming trend in “Israel’s” violation patterns since the November 2025 ceasefire. Their latest data shows over 3,000 breaches, with a particular focus on southern Lebanon, where vehicle-targeted strikes have increased by 73%.
The cumulative toll now stands at 149 martyrs and 346 wounded, predominantly civilians caught in what human rights organizations describe as “a campaign of collective punishment.”
Shelter in your bunkers or leave our region: President of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council to Israelis
Al Mayadeen | May 6, 2025
President of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council, Mahdi al-Mashat, vowed on Tuesday that Sanaa’s response to Israeli and US aggression would be “devastating and painful,” and beyond what either party could withstand.
His remarks followed Israeli airstrikes targeting civilian infrastructure in Sanaa, including the airport, power stations, and factories.
“From now on, take shelter in your bunkers or leave our region immediately,” al-Mashat warned the Israeli occupation. “Your failed government can no longer protect you.”
He reaffirmed Yemen’s firm stance in supporting Gaza, stressing, “Our strikes are effective, and they will continue. We will not be deterred from our rightful stance in supporting our brothers in Palestine until the aggression ends and the siege on Gaza is lifted.”
Trump says aggression on Yemen suspended
The remarks came shortly after US President Donald Trump declared a halt to American airstrikes on Yemen, claiming Sanaa had promised to end Red Sea attacks on ships.
However, Ansar Allah leaders denied any formal commitment, with senior official Mohammed al-Bukhaiti stating that operations against US warships might pause if American strikes ceased, but vowed that military actions in support of Gaza and against the Israeli occupation would continue unabated.
Al-Mashat: Escalation will endanger Trump during his visits to the region
Later, al-Mashat said that authorities in Sanaa indirectly informed Washington that the continued escalation in the region will only affect the visits of “the criminal Trump” to the region. He said that Yemen did not inform the US of anything else.
“If the criminal Trump wants to stop his aggression and compensate [for the destruction] he left behind, that is up to him,” al-Mashat emphasized.
Oman’s Foreign Ministry confirmed it had brokered a ceasefire agreement aimed at de-escalation between the US and the authorities in Sanaa, with both parties agreeing not to target each other moving forward.
Yet the US State Department later clarified that the agreement applies strictly to maritime operations in the Red Sea. “If the Houthis [Ansar Allah] commit to not targeting ships, we will also reciprocate,” a spokesperson said.
‘Israel’ bewildered by Trump announcement
Meanwhile, the announcement from Trump sent shockwaves through the Israeli political establishment. According to Channel 14, the Israeli occupation leadership was blindsided by both Trump’s remarks on Yemen and his promise of a “major announcement” during his upcoming Middle East tour. The channel described the political mood as one of “confusion and disbelief.”
Amit Segal of Channel 12 described Trump’s message as a regional signal: “If I were Iranian, I would understand it as: hit ‘Israel’ and leave us alone.”
Tsvi Yehezkeli, Arab affairs analyst for Channel 13, speculated that the US may be pursuing a quiet agreement with Yemen. “I don’t see another explanation for this declaration,” he said, warning that the US disengagement puts “Israel” in a difficult position, effectively leaving it alone to face Yemeni retaliation. “This is no longer just about Red Sea shipping; it’s now about direct fire on Israel,” he added.
However, despite Trump’s claims of a breakthrough, Ansar Allah denied that any such concession had been made. In an interview with Bloomberg, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the group’s Political Council, affirmed that military operations in the Red Sea and against “Israel” would continue until the aggression on Gaza ends and the siege on its people is lifted.
Oman brokers US-Yemen ceasefire, Israelis in dark regarding deal
Al Mayadeen | May 6, 2025
The Omani Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday that it had successfully brokered a ceasefire agreement between the United States and the authorities in Sanaa, aimed at achieving mutual de-escalation.
According to a statement from Muscat, the agreement entails a commitment by both sides, Washington and the Sanaa-based government, not to target each other in future military operations.
“The Sultanate thanks both parties for their constructive approach that led to this welcome outcome,” the statement read, emphasizing Oman’s longstanding diplomatic efforts in mediating regional conflicts.
US President Donald Trump had earlier declared an immediate halt to US airstrikes on Yemen, claiming that Yemeni authorities had promised to cease attacks on vessels in the Red Sea.
‘Trump surprised us’
The declaration appears to have caught the Israeli occupation off guard, with Axios journalist Barak Ravid quoting a senior Israeli official saying, “We didn’t know about this. Trump surprised us.”
Despite Trump’s claims of a breakthrough, Ansar Allah denied that any such concession had been made. In an interview with Bloomberg, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the group’s Political Council, affirmed that military operations in the Red Sea and against “Israel” would continue until the aggression on Gaza ends and the siege on its people is lifted.
Support for Gaza will not cease
While al-Bukhaiti indicated that attacks on US warships may pause if American strikes cease, he stressed that “we will definitely continue our operations in support of Gaza,” underscoring that the movement’s military actions are directly tied to the Israeli regime’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip.
Ansar Allah “will not stop regardless of the consequences until the end of the aggression on Gaza and blockade on its people,” al-Bukhaiti stressed.
US to halt airstrikes on Yemen
Trump announced on Tuesday that Washington will halt its airstrikes on Yemen, claiming that his administration received a “promise” from Yemeni representatives to stop attacks on vessels in the Red Sea. Trump described the move as “good news” and a step toward de-escalation in the region.
Speaking during a press conference at the White House alongside Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Trump said his administration trusts the Yemeni assurances despite the absence of a formal agreement. “The Yemenis don’t want to fight, and we’ll stop bombing them. We believe their word that they won’t target ships anymore,” he said.
He emphasized that the decision was made in light of what he described as a “genuine desire for calm” and reiterated that there is “no reason to continue the air raids as long as Yemen holds to its commitment to end naval operations.”
‘Israel’ conducts airstrikes on Yemen
Trump’s remarks came just hours after Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes on the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, resulting in several casualties and injuries.
According to The Jerusalem Post, the Israeli occupation was not informed in advance about the US decision to halt its aggression on Yemen.
Al Mayadeen’s correspondent confirmed that Sanaa International Airport was targeted by a series of Israeli airstrikes.
Footage shared on social media platforms showed scenes of Israeli airstrikes reportedly targeting Sanaa International Airport.
Released captive: I felt safer in Hamas captivity than in Israel
MEMO | May 6, 2025
A former Israeli captive has admitted that she felt more safe and protected in Gaza than in Israel, the Hebrew Maariv newspaper reported yesterday.
Mia Schem, 23, was released as part of a prisoner swap deal in November 2023.
Earlier this month, Schem identified herself as the plaintiff in a previously reported rape case against a famouse personal trainer in Tel Aviv, who is a prominent figure on social media and has several celebrity clients, including a former prime minister.
According to the paper, Schem alleged that the rape took place in her home, using a date rape drug, and that she does not remember many of the details.
Israeli media outlets reported that the suspect in Schem’s case had lied in a polygraph test, yet he was released from custody due to lack of evidence. They also accused Schem of lying in search of limelight.
A court placed a complete gag order on the investigation including the identities of the parties involved.
According to official reports, while thousands of sexual harassment and assault cases are reported each year, almost nine out of ten rape cases are closed without charges.
A report by the Association of Rape Crisis Centres, Israel Police opened 6,405 investigations into rape cases in 2023, however, 81 per cent of them were closed without an indictment while charges were filed in only 16 per cent of cases. Two per cent of the remaining cases ended in a conditional settlement.
Norway sovereign wealth fund urged by largest union to divest from companies aiding Israel
Press TV – May 6, 2025
Norway’s largest trade union has urged the Scandinavian country’s sovereign wealth fund to divest from companies aiding the Israeli regime, which has been waging a genocidal war on the besieged Gaza Strip since 2023.
The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) called on the country’s $1.8 trillion sovereign wealth fund on Monday to divest from firms operating in Israel’s occupied Palestinian territories.
“We want the fund to pull out of the companies that have activities in the occupied Palestinian territories,” Steinar Krogstad, deputy leader at LO, said in an interview, speaking on the margins of the union’s congress, where the Palestinian flag flew alongside those of the United Nations and Norway.
LO, which is closely aligned with the ruling Labour Party, argues that such investments may implicate Norway in violations of international law, with Krogstad emphasizing that the urgency of this issue is in light of Israel’s recent military aggression in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
He also stressed that under LO’s general policy, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, which is the world’s largest, should not invest in companies that violate international law.
“This question is more on the agenda now … because of Israel’s policy, attacks and war in Gaza and in the West Bank,” Krogstad said.
LO, along with 47 other civil society organizations, has also sent a letter to Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg, urging a reassessment of the fund’s investment guidelines to ensure alignment with international legal standards.
The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, known for its ethical investment policies, has previously divested from Israel’s largest telecommunications company, Bezeq, due to its services in West Bank settlements.
Although the fund has cleared most companies in its recent ethical reviews, the ongoing genocidal war in Gaza and international scrutiny have increased calls for more comprehensive divestment.
As of the end of 2024, the fund held approximately $2.12 billion in 65 companies listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, representing about 0.1 percent of its portfolio.
LO’s recent move is in line with a broader trend among European financial institutions re-examining their investments related to Israeli settlements.
For instance, Storebrand Asset Management, a major Norwegian investor, divested from Palantir Technologies over concerns about its work in the Israeli occupied territories.
Such moves reflect mounting pressure on financial entities to ensure their investments do not contribute to activities considered illegal under international law.
Last year, the UN’s highest court ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and settlements there were illegal and must end as soon as possible.
Trump’s remarks on Gaza aid meant to justify Israeli policy of starvation: Hamas
Press TV – May 6, 2025
Hamas has rejected the accusation by US President Donald Trump that the Palestinian resistance group makes it impossible for aid to reach Palestinians in Gaza, saying the remarks are meant to justify Israel’s policy of starvation in the besieged territory.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Hamas said the remarks by Trump were “nothing more than a surprising parroting of the lies propagated by Netanyahu’s terrorist regime, which seeks to justify the systematic starvation it is inflicting upon innocent civilians.”
President Trump said on Monday that the US would help provide some food to the people of Gaza, where famine is currently being observed. He accused Hamas of taking all the aid that is brought into the besieged territory.
“We’re gonna help the people of Gaza get some food. People are starving, and we’re gonna help them get some food,” Trump said.
Hamas said the remarks by the US president contradict testimonies from humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza.
“These accusations blatantly contradict United Nations reports, testimonies from humanitarian organizations operating in the Strip, and all on-the-ground evidence, while aligning perfectly with the occupation’s policy of using starvation as a weapon, in clear violation of international law and humanitarian norms.”
The Palestinian movement also urged the Trump administration “to correct its position, cease providing cover for the genocide and starvation policies pursued by the occupation in the Gaza Strip.”
Hamas said it was not enough for Trump to ask Netanyahu to “send some food.”
It also called on the US to pressure Israel to “halt its aggression and open the crossings to allow the entry of all essential life-saving supplies.”
“What is required is a responsible stance that respects international humanitarian law, demands the immediate opening of crossings, ensures the uninterrupted flow of aid and relief, and puts an end to the use of food as a tool of blackmail and pressure in this war.”
Separately, Hamas said Israel’s plans to expand the operation in Gaza meant sacrificing Israeli captives and repeating past failures.
Hamas said the plan showed that the Israeli prime minister was determined to commit further war crimes against civilians in Gaza.
The Palestinian group urged the international community to intensify popular pressure to end the war against Gaza.
In March, after two months of ceasefire, Israel resumed its brutal military offensive in Gaza.
Furthermore, the regime imposed a blockade on all aid supplies, refusing to allow even a single truck carrying humanitarian or commercial goods to enter.
Israeli Forces Carry Out Large-Scale Demolitions Across West Bank
IMEMC | May 6, 2025
Israeli occupation forces have demolished an entire Palestinian village, Khirbet Khallet ad-Dabe’ in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, in addition to demolishing many homes and structures in villages near Ramallah, Qalqilia, and the northern Jordan Valley.
The demolitions, carried out under the pretext of “unauthorized construction,” mark one of the largest waves of destruction in recent months.
Mass Displacement in Masafer Yatta
In Khirbet Khallet ad-Dabe’, Israeli soldiers razed 25 structures, including homes, water wells, caves, agricultural rooms, livestock pens, and solar panels, most of which belonged to the Dababsa family.
Residents were forcibly evicted, prevented from retrieving their belongings, and left without shelter.
The village, home to 120 Palestinians, has been under constant threat of displacement since 2022, as Israel seeks to seize the land for colonial expansion by designating it a military firing zone.
Local activist Osama Makhamra stated that Israeli forces forced residents to evacuate at gunpoint, leaving them stranded in harsh conditions. He noted that only a school and two homes remain standing after the demolitions.
Expanding Colonial Control
The destruction in Masafer Yatta is part of a broader Israeli policy aimed at erasing Palestinian communities and replacing them with Jewish colonizers.
According to Nidal Younis, head of the local village council, Israel’s actions reflect a long-standing strategy of forced displacement, involving land confiscation, demolitions, and expansion of illegal Israeli colonies, built in direct violation of international law.
“Nearly 90% of the homes in Khirbet Khallet ad-Dabe’ have been destroyed, leaving families and livestock without shelter. This is a deliberate effort to wipe out Palestinian presence in the area,” Younis said.
Younis warned that all villages in Masafer Yatta are under threat, with Israel systematically declaring Palestinian lands as closed military zones to facilitate colonial expansion.
Over the past two years, Israel has established eight new colonies in the area, alongside colonizer-run livestock farms that encroach on Palestinian land.
Widespread Demolitions Across the West Bank
Israeli forces also demolished homes and structures in multiple locations, including:
– Al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah – A 150-square-meter home housing five people was destroyed, with another home marked for demolition.
– Al-Funduq, east of Qalqilya – A 200-square-meter home belonging to Firas Bleyya was razed.
– Northern Jordan Valley – Several residential structures and livestock pens were demolished in Khirbet al-Deir.
– Jisr al-Zarqa, near Haifa – A Palestinian home, occupied for three decades, was destroyed under the pretext of unauthorized construction.
Colonizers’ Attacks and Illegal Land Seizures
Israeli paramilitary colonizers have intensified attacks on Palestinian communities, including:
– Al-Mughayyir – Colonizers cut down 200 olive trees belonging to Mohammad and Samir Hamayel.
– Al-Mu’arrajat, northwest of Jericho – Colonizers attempted to burn a Palestinian home and set fire to a tractor, while Israeli forces stood by without intervention.
Escalating Demolition and Colonial Expansion
A recent report by the Wall & Colonization Resistance Commission documented 1,693 Israeli violations in April 2025, including:
– 152 demolitions, affecting 96 homes and 34 agricultural structures.
– 46 demolition orders issued.
– 54 dunams of Palestinian land seized.
– 1,168 olive trees uprooted.
– Plans for 10 new colonial outposts, mostly agricultural and pastoral.
– 27 expansion projects for illegal colonies are under review to seize more Palestinian land.
New PCHR Report Reveals Israeli Destruction of Gaza’s Agricultural Sector and Food Systems
IMEMC | May 6, 2025
In a new report issued Monday, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) confirms that the ongoing Israeli military assault on the Gaza Strip, which began in October 2023, has deliberately and extensively targeted Gaza’s agricultural sector and food production systems. This assault has resulted in the near-total collapse of a sector essential for the survival of the population. PCHR reveals that this destruction is part of a longstanding and systematic strategy by the IOF to exterminate the Palestinian people and uproot their existence. This objective has become a central policy of the current Israeli government, which uses destruction and starvation as weapons of war within the broader framework of the crime of genocide—seeking to eliminate Palestinians and strip them of the basic means of survival.
The report, titled “We Will Leave Them Nothing: The Israeli Systematic Destruction of the Agricultural Sector and Food Production Systems in Gaza”, meticulously documents the deliberate and large-scale destruction by the IOF of Gaza’s agricultural infrastructure. Nearly 75% of farmlands and orchards have been bulldozed and obliterated. The vast majority of agricultural facilities—including greenhouses, storage warehouses, farming equipment, irrigation systems, and power supplies—have been destroyed. In addition, livestock and fishery facilities, which are vital pillars of Gaza’s food security system, have also been decimated.
The report highlights that IOF has seized more than 130 km² of land across Gaza, much of it agricultural, and converted it into military buffer zones. This has deprived Palestinians of vast areas essential for food production—an explicit violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention’s protections for civilian property during wartime and the prohibition against seizing the land of occupied populations. The report also stresses that these unprecedented attacks on Gaza’s food sources have been compounded by an intensified blockade, the denial of humanitarian aid and food supplies, and the systematic use of starvation as a weapon of war. These acts have had catastrophic consequences for food security, triggering a severe hunger crisis and soaring levels of malnutrition.
PCHR warns that the destruction of Gaza’s food systems not only threatens the current survival of the population but also constitutes an assault on the future of Palestinian existence in the Strip. It entrenches a devastating reality of hunger and dependency by eliminating the foundations of recovery and forcing Gaza’s population into total reliance on external aid. This reflects Israel’s long-term colonial objective: to depopulate the land, seize control of its resources, and suppress any possibility of Palestinian self-sufficiency or resilience. Such conduct, the report asserts, directly violates Article II of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which criminalizes the imposition of living conditions calculated to destroy a group physically and psychologically.
The report further affirms that these acts constitute grave violations of international law, particularly the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, especially Article 11, which guarantees the right to adequate food and a dignified life. It also violates Article 54 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, which prohibits targeting “objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population.” According to Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, these acts constitute a full-fledged war crime.
In its recommendations, PCHR calls on the international community to break its silence and to uphold its legal and moral responsibilities in confronting these crimes against Palestinian civilians and their sources of sustenance. It urges effective measures to hold Israel accountable, stop the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and ensure urgent international support for the rehabilitation of the agricultural sector. PCHR also emphasizes the necessity of restoring Palestinian sovereignty over their food systems and land, and demands an end to the culture of impunity that enables the repetition of Israeli crimes and undermines the foundations of international justice.
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From the Archives
Should Europeans ‘Thank’ the Americans for Destroying Nord Stream?
By Robert Bridge | Strategic Culture Foundation | September 29, 2022
With an investigation continuing into the destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline that provided energy supplies to Europe from Russia, there appears to be just one prime suspect, and that should surprise nobody.
Following the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, former Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski already seemed to know the identity of the perpetrator when he tweeted out: “Thank you, USA.”
At first glance, it seemed that Sikorski was speaking sarcastically, berating Washington for carrying out an attack that will have severe repercussions for the people of Europe. After all, how could anyone see any good coming from the termination of Europe’s primary source of gas reserves with winter just around the corner? It was Sikorski’s homeland of Poland, after all, that urged its citizens to collect firewood in the face of dwindling gas reserves.
In fact, the Polish diplomat was speaking one-hundred percent literally… continue
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