In a statement released on June 8, Hazem Qassem said the continued deaths place a political, moral, and legal responsibility on mediating and guarantor countries to pressure Israel and compel it to halt the systematic violations of the ceasefire agreement.

He called on the United Nations Security Council to identify the party obstructing the agreement and take action to enforce compliance.

Qassem further urged the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to take meaningful steps to stop the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza.

The Hamas spokesman also called upon the leadership of the Palestinian Authority to instruct all its ambassadors worldwide to activate the role of Palestinian diplomatic missions in support of the Gaza Strip, and to place their main priority on highlighting the sufferings of Gazans and exposing the ongoing Israeli aggression and siege of the region.

Earlier, Taher al-Nunu, media advisor to the head of the Hamas political office, emphasized in statements that international efforts to force the Israeli regime to stop the massacre in the Gaza Strip have failed.

“Despite the fact that the agreement stipulates the need for a ceasefire, the killing of residents of the Gaza Strip has not stopped,” Nunu said.

He added, “The so-called Board of Peace must identify the party that is preventing the implementation of the agreement.”

Nunu stated that consultations are underway to pave the way for a new round of negotiations to ensure implementation of the clause of the agreement.

Israeli military forces have persisted in their offensives in Gaza, which include air and artillery bombardments, demolitions, and limitations on the movement of goods, humanitarian assistance, and travel, as reported by Palestinian sources.

Data provided by Gaza’s Health Ministry reveals that since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, 2025, at least 977 Palestinians have been killed at the hands of Israeli forces and 3,063 sustained injuries.

Meanwhile, the death toll since October 7, 2023, has risen to 72,987 Palestinians killed and 173,171 injured, highlighting the severe human cost of the ongoing genocidal war. (PressTV.ir)

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“With our British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, and Norwegian partners, we are today imposing new sanctions against those responsible for intensifying colonization and violence in the West Bank,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in a post on social media.

Barrot added that France had also barred Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, three settler leaders and 21 settlers from entering the country over violence in the West Bank.

In separate statements, the six countries warned that additional measures could follow if the Israeli regime failed to adequately address the situation on the ground.

Britain simultaneously urged its citizens and businesses to avoid economic and financial activity in Israeli settlements, illegal under international law.

“I have strengthened our business risk guidance to make it clear and unambiguous: if you are a British citizen or business, you should not conduct any economic and financial activities in illegal Israeli settlements,” Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told the Parliament.

“We believe that violent settler groups should not be profiting from the land that they have seized from Palestinians,” Cooper added.

Cooper also said the Israeli regime had “condemned some settler violence, but that rings hollow when there is scant accountability.”

In a separate statement, the British government renewed its call on Israel to halt settlement expansion, curb settler violence, prosecute those responsible and remove restrictions hampering the Palestinian economy.

The announcement drew criticism from rights advocates, who said that the measures are not enough.

Kristyan Benedict, Amnesty International UK’s crisis response manager, said that “targeting settler financing networks while the ministers who run this campaign face no consequences is not meaningful accountability.”

“The UK must sanction Benjamin Netanyahu, Orit Strock and Israel Katz as well as Yoav Gallant,” he said.

Benedict also called on Britain to ban “all trade with settlements and halt cooperation and investment relations enabling unlawful occupation and apartheid.”

Christian Aid voiced similar concerns. “It is pathetic merely to ‘advise’ British businesses against activity in illegal Israeli settlements when there are no real consequences for them,” the charity said.

“The UK Government must ban all trade and investment with Israeli settlements before Palestine is erased entirely,” said Jennifer Larbie, Christian Aid’s head of UK influencing.

A United Nations inquiry has found that Israeli authorities were directly involved in settler attacks that killed, injured and displaced Palestinians in the West Bank, while Israeli forces provided protection to settlers.

Last year, Britain joined several Western allies, including France and Canada, in recognizing a Palestinian state. (PressTV.ir)

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Records from the House Ethics Committee show that AIEF has sponsored at least 15 congressional delegations involving 78 lawmakers and staff members from Democrats and Republicans.

Participants received all-expenses-paid trips that included stays at luxury hotels, meetings with senior Israeli officials, and briefings focused largely on Israel’s so-called security concerns and regional policy.

The travels took place as Israel expanded its military offensives in Gaza and elsewhere in the region, drawing criticism from human rights organizations, international institutions, and a growing number of political figures in the United States.

According to congressional filings, lawmakers met with senior Israeli politicians, including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and attended sessions with the regime’s military commanders, military contractors, and settlers advocating for settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Several delegations also visited locations in the occupied West Bank, including settlements that the international community regards as illegal.

During several of the visits, Israeli military attacks were ongoing while aid organizations warned of severe shortages of food, medicine, and essential services for Palestinian civilians.

AIEF-sponsored travel continued into 2026, including in the period immediately preceding the U.S. and Israeli military aggression against Iran.

One AIEF trip, scheduled for February 2026 and concluding less than a week before the initial attacks on Iran, included five Democratic staff members and seven Republicans.

AIEF is not the only organization sponsoring lawmakers’ travel to Israel. The Zionist group J Street has funded trips primarily for Democrats, while organizations such as the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) and the Atlantic Council have sponsored visits for members of both parties.

AIEF, however, has maintained a steady schedule of congressional trips to occupied Palestine despite growing international criticism of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Israel’s genocide in Gaza has killed approximately 72,938 Palestinians and wounded over 172,919, the majority of them women and children.

According to figures released by the Palestinian Health Ministry, 935 Palestinians have been killed and 2,860 injured since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, 2025. (PressTV.ir)

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“Every day the danger of military aggression against Cuba grows,” Josefina Vidal said at a legislative hearing at the National Capitol on May 28.

Condemning U.S. sanctions on Cuban oil imports, Vidal noted that Washington is fabricating pretexts to portray Cuba as a threat to U.S. national security to justify the aggression.

Cuba has long been a target of illegal U.S. sanctions, blockades, and destabilization efforts aimed at undermining its sovereignty and revolutionary principles.

Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. has effectively imposed a blockade on the country by threatening sanctions on countries supplying it with fuel, triggering power outages and exacerbating its worst crisis in decades.

Since March, the two nations have been engaged in dialogue, but Cuban authorities decried the U.S. for a lack of good faith and stressed that they will not allow interference in their country’s internal affairs.

“A channel of exchange between the two governments remains open, but there has not been much progress. We have reason to doubt the seriousness and responsibility of the United States government,” Vidal said.

“We hope that the path of dialogue will prevail at this time, when the aggressive actions that the U.S. government is taking against Cuba cast doubt on the seriousness and responsibility with which it is approaching this process,” she added.

Vidal reaffirmed Cuba’s keenness to pursue dialogue, but “not so that the U.S. can try to control Cuba’s destiny through pressure, coercion and the threat of military aggression.”

She emphasized that if Cuba is forced into a war, “we will face it decisively.”

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez has warned that any military action would lead to a “bloodbath” in which thousands of Cubans and Americans would die.

He has urged the international community to prevent a disaster on the island during a speech before the United Nations Security Council on May 26.

This follows a pattern of U.S. imperialism, where Washington routinely invents pretexts to target independent nations resisting its hegemony. (PressTV.ir)

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The U.S. Treasury Department wrote on its website on May 27 that it had reimposed its financial sanctions on Francesca Albanese. The Treasury Department notice came after U.S. Federal Judge Richard Leon suspended the sanctions against Albanese in mid‑May.

Albanese, who is Italian, has been at the forefront of criticizing the Israeli regime for its genocide in Gaza since October 2023, as well as for other atrocities in the West Bank. She has strongly criticized Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinians in her role as independent UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories.

Albanese has urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to pursue investigations into Israeli and U.S. officials, prosecuting the individuals accountable for the genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

The U.S. State Department has accused Albanese of pursuing “illegitimate and baseless” investigations into Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza and U.S. military conduct.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, announcing sanctions against her in July last year, said Albanese has “spewed unabashed anti-Semitism, expressed support for terrorism and open contempt for the United States, Israel and the West.”

The sanctions bar Albanese from entering the U.S. and carrying out banking transactions.

Albanese’s husband, Massimiliano Cali, has sued the U.S. government on behalf of their child, a U.S. citizen who is still a minor, asserting that the U.S. sanctions are “effectively debanking her and making it nearly impossible to meet the needs of her daily life.”

Judge Leon said in his ruling earlier this month that the sanctions slapped on Albanese violated her rights. He pointed out that the paralyzing sanctions slapped on her by the U.S. government were based entirely on her calls for ICC accountability.

“Albanese has done nothing more than speak,” he wrote, stressing that her recommendations have no binding effect on the ICC.

The Hague‑based court issued arrest warrants in November 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Minister of Military Affairs Yoav Gallant. (PressTV.ir)

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Speaking at a news conference on May 19, Smotrich said he had been informed that the ICC had requested a warrant for his arrest.

He did not specify who had informed him, noting that the process of seeking warrants is confidential.

He claimed the arrest warrants against Israeli officials are “a declaration of war,” adding, “In the face of a declaration of war, we will fight back with a vengeance.”

Announcing that he would go “on the attack” after learning of the arrest warrant, Smotrich said he “will sign an order to evacuate Khan al-Ahmar,” forcibly transferring the Palestinian community from this occupied West Bank village that has endured a years-long legal battle with Israeli authorities for its survival.

He also attacked Palestinian humanitarian organizations, reflecting the Israeli authorities’ anger at Palestinians for seeking international legal action over Israel’s genocidal campaign in the Gaza Strip, which began on October 7, 2023, and has killed more than 72,800 Palestinians and wounded at least 172,700 others.

In November 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of  War Yoav Gallant for “crimes against humanity and war crimes” committed during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

Judges and prosecutors at the ICC have since been sanctioned by banks, credit card companies, and tech giants such as Amazon as a result of sanctions imposed by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The ICC’s request for an arrest warrant centers on Smotrich’s forced displacement orders targeting Palestinians, his support for moving Israeli settlers into occupied territory, and his claim that it may be “justified and moral” to starve Palestinians in Gaza.

If approved, it would make Smotrich the third Israeli official targeted by the court, after Netanyahu and Gallant.

The United Kingdom and four other countries have imposed sanctions on Smotrich and another Israeli minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, for repeatedly inciting violence against Palestinians.

Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have called for the permanent occupation of Gaza and the re-establishment of Jewish settlements there, which Israel abandoned in 2005.

In February, Smotrich approved a plan to claim large areas of the occupied West Bank as “state property,” as more than 700,000 Israelis live in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli military forces and settlers have killed at least 1,155 Palestinians, injured around 11,750 others, and abducted approximately 22,000 in the occupied West Bank since October 2023, according to official figures. (PressTV.ir)

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The Global Sumud Flotilla said the detainees are refusing food “in protest of their illegal abduction and in solidarity with the over  9,500 Palestinian hostages held in Israeli dungeons.”

The escalation comes after Israeli troops attacked the Lina al-Nabulsi, the flotilla’s final remaining vessel, in international waters late May 19, forcibly seizing the six people on board.

Israel began intercepting the flotilla on May 18, roughly 70 nautical miles west of  Cyprus, despite its civilian humanitarian mandate.

The mission departed Marmaris, Türkiye, May 14, carrying more than 420 participants determined to break Israel’s illegal blockade on Gaza and deliver urgently needed aid.

Among those abducted were nine Indonesian citizens, Indonesia’s foreign ministry confirmed. Jakarta demanded the immediate release of the vessels and pledged to use “every diplomatic channel and consular measure” available.

The detainees also include 15 Irish nationals, among them Dr. Margaret Connolly, the sister of Irish President Catherine Connolly.

Foreign ministers from 10 countries, Türkiye, Bangladesh, Brazil, Indonesia, Spain, Colombia, Libya, the Maldives, Pakistan and Jordan, issued a joint statement condemning Israel’s attack on the civilian flotilla.

“These assaults on vessels and the arbitrary detention of activists constitute a clear violation of international law and international humanitarian law,” the ministers declared.

Poland, too, voiced “great concern” and demanded urgent clarification from Israel.

The fallout expanded May 20 as Israeli rights group Adalah confirmed the abducted activists had been transferred to Ashdod. The group noted that those taken included international solidarity volunteers, human rights defenders, and medical workers, all forcibly brought into occupied territory after being seized in international waters.

Adalah warned that information on the detainees’ conditions, locations, and legal status remains severely restricted.

The latest assault follows multiple Israeli attacks on the Global Sumud Flotilla, including an April 26 raid off Greece during the Spring 2026 mission, where activists later reported sexual violence, physical assault, and degrading treatment in Israeli custody.

A similar operation last October saw Israel intercept around 40 boats, detaining more than 450 activists, including Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, and European Parliament member Rima Hassan. Many later described severe physical and psychological abuse before being deported. (PressTV.ir)

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Media reports indicate that Israel has dramatically increased the demolition of Palestinian homes since October 2023, when it launched its genocidal war on the people of the besieged Gaza Strip.

More than 2,000 Palestinians in three neighborhoods across the city now face the threat of expulsion, either through settler claims on their homes or alleged building violations.

Residents fear that entire Palestinian communities could be wiped out—not only in Silwan, but also in Sheikh Jarrah and Ras al-Amoud.

This escalation comes as Israel moves swiftly and with impunity to seize Palestinian land and private property. For decades, Silwan and other Palestinian neighborhoods surrounding the Old City have been prime targets of Israeli demolition campaigns and displacement efforts.

Home to around 55,000 Palestinians as of 2022, Silwan lies strategically south of al-Quds’ Old City and the al-Aqsa Mosque.

Al-Bustan is one of the three main sections of Silwan, a Palestinian district bordering the southern walls of the al-Aqsa Mosque.

Residents and researchers report that Israeli authorities have demolished 54 homes in al-Bustan alone since October 2023, out of approximately 115 homes in the neighborhood.

Most of the remaining homes are now under threat of demolition.

Fakhri Abu Diab, a longtime anti-occupation activist, told media outlets that the occupying Tel Aviv regime’s policy of forced expulsion has shattered the dreams of him and his fellow Palestinians.

“The suffering is not only in the demolition of the house, but in the demolition of our past, our lives, and our future,” Abu Diab said.

His own house in the occupied East al-Quds’ al-Bustan neighborhood was demolished by Israeli authorities in 2024. It was one of dozens of Palestinian homes razed south of the al-Aqsa Mosque to make way for expanded Israeli settler projects.

Israeli authorities have sharply accelerated home demolitions and expulsions across East al-Quds, with al-Bustan among the hardest-hit areas.

In the neighborhood, the scale of destruction is visible at every turn: along its narrow streets, piles of rubble and flattened homes appear every few meters.

North of the Old City, Sheikh Jarrah has long been a focal point of settler activity.

In Ras al-Amoud, southeast of the Old City, hundreds of settlers live in heavily guarded, gated communities.

Shortly after occupying East al-Quds in 1967, Israeli authorities introduced laws that facilitated the transfer of Palestinian property to Jewish ownership.

Years of Palestinian resistance and international scrutiny had previously slowed the advance of settler organizations in these areas.

However, since the Israeli genocide in Gaza began in October 2023, the situation has shifted dramatically.

Activists warn that these demolitions are altering the demographic landscape around the al-Aqsa Mosque—encircling it with a belt of settler compounds while severing it from Palestinian residents.

Amid mounting repression, scarce international support, and limited media attention, Palestinians say they feel increasingly defenseless. (PressTV.ir)

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Speaking to reporters in Geneva on May 12, Reinhilde Van de Weerdt, the WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, said the updated figures reflect the devastating long-term impact of the conflict on Gaza’s people and its collapsing healthcare system.

Since the WHO’s last report in September 2025, nearly 5,000 additional life-changing injuries have been recorded, almost half of them after the ceasefire was announced in October 2025.

According to WHO data, major limb injuries account for the largest share of severe cases, with more than 22,000 recorded. That is followed by over 5,000 traumatic amputations, more than 3,400 major burns, over 2,000 spinal cord injuries, and more than 1,300 traumatic brain injuries.

Van de Weerdt stated that more than 50,000 injuries now require long-term rehabilitation. Nearly 14,000 patients registered for limb reconstruction services between July 2025 and May 2026, with almost half of those assessed needing additional surgery.

Due to severe shortages in the blockaded territory, only 500 out of 2,300 amputees evaluated between September 2024 and May 2026 have received permanent prosthetics.

No rehabilitation facility is fully operational in Gaza. More than 400 patients are currently waiting for specialized rehabilitation beds, Van de Weerdt said, forcing hospitals to discharge patients early and increasing the risk of permanent disability.

She also warned that no rehabilitation equipment has entered Gaza in the past two years. Eighteen shipments containing wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs, and rehabilitation devices remain pending clearance.

“The people of Gaza have endured unimaginable suffering,” Van de Weerdt said. “They deserve not just emergency care, but the sustained support needed to recover and reclaim their lives.”

Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has killed about 72,500 people since October 2023, according to the official count, including at least 850 since the “ceasefire” took effect. (PressTV.ir)

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“The EU and its member states, together with partners, must take immediate action to deter Israel from further advancing its illegal annexation of Palestinian land in the West Bank,” an open letter signed by more than 440 figures, including former EU foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell and former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt, read on May 6.

The signatories called for targeted sanctions, such as visa bans and business restrictions on “all those engaged in illegal settlement activity,” calling for measures against those promoting or implementing the E1 scheme.

The E1 project near al-Quds covers around 12 square kilometers, with some 3,400 illegal settler units in the West Bank.

The letter said the regime plans to publish an initial tender on June 1 for the construction of up to 15,000 “illegal settlers,” urging the EU and its member states to “act now.”

The plan has been censured by international leaders, with the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s spokesman, saying it would pose “an existential threat to an independent Palestinian state with al-Quds as its capital.”

According to the United Nations, the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory has reached its highest level since at least 2017.

Under international law, all Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are unequivocally illegal. The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits an occupying power from transferring its population into occupied lands, a principle Israel continues to defy with impunity.

The UN has repeatedly said settlement expansion by the Israeli regime is a major obstacle to peace, as it fragments Palestinian land and leaves little contiguous territory for a viable, independent Palestinian state under a so-called two-state solution.

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