Global Pulse

分类： world

  • World Cup 2026: Why Sahrawis are rallying behind Algeria and not Morocco

    World Cup 2026: Why Sahrawis are rallying behind Algeria and not Morocco

    On a baked-earthen football pitch cut into the arid desert of southwestern Algeria’s Smara refugee camp, fine orange dust hangs thick in the still late-afternoon air, billowing in choking clouds every time a player sprints after a loose ball. Despite the unrelenting desert heat, a group of young men and teenage boys has gathered for their weekly match—one of the few steady rituals in a life defined by displacement. For the fans leaning on makeshift barriers watching the game, conversation drifts quickly from the local play to the World Cup unfolding thousands of miles across North America, and the deep, history-bound loyalty that draws nearly every Sahrawi refugee in Algeria’s camps to cheer for one team: Algeria.

    According to United Nations data, more than 173,000 Sahrawi refugees currently reside in a network of camps near Tindouf, Algeria. Their displacement stretches back 50 years, rooted in a decades-long dispute over their indigenous homeland of Western Sahara, a 266,000-square-kilometer desert expanse in Northwest Africa bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, Morocco, Mauritania and Algeria.

    The conflict’s origins trace to the late 19th century, when Spain colonized the region, then called Spanish Sahara. After Morocco gained independence from colonial rule in 1956, it staked a long-standing territorial claim to Western Sahara. By 1973, the Polisario Front formed to advocate for Sahrawi independence, launching an armed movement after Spain agreed to cede the territory to Morocco and Mauritania in the 1975 Madrid Accords—an agreement negotiated without any input from Sahrawi representatives, following Morocco’s mass Green March of 350,000 civilian supporters into the territory. The resulting war forced thousands of Sahrawis to flee across the border into Algeria, where they established the refugee camps that remain home to generations of displaced people today.

    A 1991 UN-brokered ceasefire established the MINURSO peacekeeping mission to oversee a planned independence referendum for Western Sahara, but the vote has never been held due to disputes over voter eligibility. The ceasefire collapsed entirely in 2020, after Morocco launched military operations in a UN buffer zone, and sporadic fighting has resumed in the years since. Today, Morocco controls most of Western Sahara, incentivizing Moroccan settlers to move to the region, while the Polisario Front holds a smaller eastern stretch of desert and continues to campaign for full Sahrawi independence—with Algeria as its most prominent regional backer.

    That decades-long political and humanitarian partnership has woven deep ties between Sahrawi refugees and their host nation. For generations, Sahrawi refugees have attended Algerian schools and universities, received medical care in Algerian hospitals, and built interwoven family, cultural and political bonds across the border. To many, Algeria is far more than a place of refuge—it is a steadfast ally in their struggle for self-determination.

    “My support for Algeria is unconditional,” Brahim Salem, a long-term camp resident, told Middle East Eye. “For us, Algeria is not just a neighbour. It’s a country that stood against oppression and gave us safety when we needed it most.”

    That loyalty translates directly to the football pitch. Because the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic remains unrecognized by FIFA, Sahrawi players cannot compete as an independent national team in major international tournaments. For displaced Sahrawis, supporting Algeria becomes a way to channel collective pride and national aspiration that cannot be expressed through their own team.

    Algalya, a 60-something refugee who fled Western Sahara as a war refugee decades ago, is among the millions of Sahrawi fans ready to cheer on Algeria. She still vividly remembers the joy of Algeria’s 2019 Africa Cup of Nations victory, when the entire camp erupted in celebration with traditional zaghareet ululations that lasted long into the night. “I remember having nowhere to go, and Algeria welcomed us with open arms,” she said. “I pray Algeria make us happy again.”

    Across the camps, football is woven into the fabric of daily life: children chase balls across dusty dirt streets between tents, families huddle around bulky secondhand televisions to watch major tournaments, and local weekly matches like the one in Smara draw crowds of enthusiastic spectators. For local players Hafdala Mohamed and Khalil, their World Cup plan is already set: they will gather to watch every single one of Algeria’s matches together, no matter how late kickoff falls.

    For Hafdala, like many other Sahrawi refugees, football is far more than just entertainment. It is one of the only unchanging certainties in a life shaped by decades of exile. Even as the conflict over their homeland remains unresolved, and the dream of self-determination stays unfulfilled, the shared joy of supporting Algeria on the world’s biggest football stage offers a rare moment of collective connection and hope.

  • Police charge a third suspect in a Melbourne synagogue arson allegedly directed by Iran

    Police charge a third suspect in a Melbourne synagogue arson allegedly directed by Iran

    In a major development in an antisemitic terror investigation, Australian law enforcement announced Friday that a third suspect has been charged in connection with a devastating late 2024 arson attack on a prominent Melbourne synagogue, an attack Australian authorities allege was orchestrated by Iran.

    According to official statements from the Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team — a specialized unit combining resources from federal police, state law enforcement, and Australia’s primary domestic intelligence service — the 20-year-old suspect is accused of being one of three masked assailants who forced their way into the Adass Israel Synagogue in the early hours of December 6, 2024. The offenders allegedly doused the interior of the sacred space with flammable liquid before igniting the blaze, which left the building with widespread structural and interior damage. One worshipper who was at the site suffered minor physical injuries during the incident.

    The newly charged suspect was already in custody at a Melbourne correctional facility facing unrelated, undisclosed charges, and police have not released his name to the public. He joins two previously arrested co-accused: 21-year-old Giovanni Laulu, taken into custody in July 2024, and 20-year-old Younes Ali Younes, who was arrested one month later. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance on the new arson and terrorism-related charges next week.

    Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese publicly accused Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of directing not just this synagogue attack, but a second arson that targeted a kosher restaurant, Lewis’ Continental Kitchen, in Sydney two months prior to the synagogue incident. Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), confirmed that the IRGC leveraged an intricate network of proxies to conceal its direct role in both antisemitic attacks, which have shaken Australia’s Jewish community.

    In response to these allegations, the Australian government expelled Iran’s ambassador to Canberra and three additional Iranian diplomatic staff. The Iranian government has repeatedly and vehemently denied any involvement in the attacks.

    Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Peter Crozier told reporters Friday that the investigation remains active, with investigators collaborating closely with international partner agencies to unpack the full scope of the plot. A key ongoing line of inquiry, Crozier noted, is determining whether the three accused arsonists knew the identities of the individuals who ordered the attack. “They may not actually be aware of the people who are directing or the principals of these operations. That remains a key line of inquiry for us,” Crozier said.

    Victoria Police Acting Assistant Commissioner Paul O’Halloran added that authorities prioritized notifying the local Jewish community of the third arrest before making the news public, to avoid causing unnecessary surprise or alarm. “Our heart goes out to them. Again, this brings back this terrible incident,” O’Halloran said. “People deserve the right to feel safe and be safe in their community and particularly at their place of worship. Today’s charges are a strong testament to this.”

    The arrest comes as Australia confronts a documented rise in antisemitic violence across the country. In response to the growing threat, the federal government has launched a public inquiry to examine the surge in hate crimes, which includes a deadly December shooting at a Sydney Hanukkah celebration that left 15 people dead.

  • Thousands killed in US-Israeli war on Iran – but experts say true total may never be known

    Thousands killed in US-Israeli war on Iran – but experts say true total may never be known

    Four months after the outbreak of open conflict between a US-Israeli coalition and Iran across the Middle East that left thousands dead, international mediators have secured a formal agreement to end hostilities. But even with the war coming to a close, researchers and analysts warn that the full human cost of the conflict may never be accurately known, with multiple barriers blocking transparent casualty reporting across the battle zone.

    Official government data from Iran and Lebanon alone puts the confirmed death toll at more than 7,300 since fighting began on February 28, a count that already includes hundreds of children and dozens of medical workers. Additional fatalities have been recorded across neighboring Gulf states, Iraq, Israel, and among international military personnel and commercial sailors, pushing the total confirmed death toll well above 7,500. However, nearly all independent observers agree this number is a drastic undercount, hobbled by internet blackouts, government information restrictions, limited access to conflict zones, and the fragmented control of territory by armed groups that makes systematic counting impossible.

    “When conflict spreads across multiple sovereign states and non-state controlled areas, casualty records are often incomplete, delayed, or impossible to cross-check independently,” explained Dr. Iain Overton, executive director of the UK-based non-profit Action on Armed Violence. Dr. Overton, who has studied conflict casualty reporting across the Middle East for decades, added that “the final death toll will likely remain contested for years after the final shot is fired, matching patterns seen in past wars in Iraq and Syria where undercounting ran into the thousands.”

    In Iran, official government figures released April 26 by state news agency IRNA put the national death toll at 3,468, split between 1,460 civilian residents and 2,008 military personnel, including 499 women. But the US-based independent monitoring group Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) puts the confirmed death toll substantially higher at 3,636, with 1,701 civilians among the dead — 307 of them children. HRANA’s May 18 report emphasizes that even this higher number is an absolute minimum, as data collection has been crippled by restricted access to strike sites, government-mandated internet shutdowns, and political pressure that leads both authorities and families to withhold information about conflict deaths.

    “Authorities routinely hide casualty data, and many families face direct pressure not to speak publicly about how their loved ones died,” said Skylar Thompson, HRANA’s deputy director.

    Iranian officials have repeatedly accused US and Israeli forces of deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure across the country. Multiple independent inquiries have confirmed that a US missile strike on the first day of the war hit a public school in the southern Iranian town of Minab. Iranian authorities say the attack killed 168 people, 110 of them children, and the US military has confirmed it is conducting an internal investigation into the incident. Days later, a missile strike on a girls’ volleyball match in a Lamerd town sports hall killed 20 people, according to Iranian officials. While the US has denied responsibility for the attack, analysis for BBC Verify by independent arms experts found the weapon used was likely a US-made Precision Strike Missile (PrSM).

    The conflict expanded rapidly beyond Iran’s borders when Hezbollah, the Iran-aligned Lebanese armed group, launched a rocket barrage into Israel on March 2 in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader in the opening days of the war. Israel responded with a sustained air campaign and a full ground invasion of southern Lebanon, which has produced the highest single national death toll of any country in the conflict.

    Lebanese government health data confirms 3,912 people have been killed in Israeli strikes across the country, including 366 women and 247 children. The Lebanese health ministry has not clarified how many of the dead are active Hezbollah fighters, and the group has not released its own official casualty counts. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed last month that roughly 3,000 Hezbollah fighters had been killed since the war began.

    Controversy has followed multiple high-profile Israeli strikes in Lebanon. In early March, an Israeli air and ground operation in the eastern Bekaa Valley killed 41 people, according to Lebanese officials. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the operation was intended to recover the remains of an Israeli airman who went missing in a 1980s conflict in Lebanon, but Lebanese authorities confirmed three of their own troops, plus dozens of civilians and children, were among the dead. On April 8, a massive coordinated wave of Israeli strikes killed 361 people across Lebanon in just 10 minutes, Lebanese officials reported. The IDF said all 361 killed were Hezbollah operatives targeted in planned raids, a claim the Lebanese health ministry has rejected, saying the vast majority of fatalities were civilians. Seven UN peacekeepers deployed to Lebanon have also been killed in cross conflict violence, with the most recent death recorded on June 4.

    The high number of civilian casualties in Lebanon has drawn widespread international condemnation of the IDF’s campaign. In a rare public rebuke of key ally Israel by a US president, former President Donald Trump sharply criticized Israeli military tactics during a June appearance at the G7 summit in Paris. “Too many people have been killed in these strikes,” Trump said. “You don’t have to destroy an entire apartment building every time you go after one person — most of the people living there aren’t Hezbollah.”

    On the Israeli side, government data provided to the BBC confirms 60 people have been killed in the country as of June 18, most in Iranian missile strikes and Hezbollah cross-border fighting. Twenty-nine of the dead are civilians, 21 of whom were killed in Iranian missile attacks, while 31 IDF soldiers died in combat operations. One additional fatality was recorded as accidental friendly fire. Israel has repeatedly accused Iran of deploying banned cluster munitions against Israeli population centers. In one documented incident, an elderly couple in their 70s was killed while traveling to an air raid shelter in the town of Ramat Gan when cluster bomb submunitions hit their vehicle. Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report in March accusing Iran of committing war crimes through the use of cluster munitions against civilian areas.

    “Cluster munitions scatter explosive submunitions across huge areas, making them inherently indiscriminate and a violation of international laws of war,” explained Patrick Thompson, a HRW crisis and arms researcher.

    In the opening weeks of the conflict, Iran launched retaliatory missile and drone strikes against US military bases located across eight neighboring regional states: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, Bahrain and Oman. Many of these strikes hit civilian infrastructure including airports, energy facilities and commercial ports, and falling debris from intercepted missiles often landed in residential areas, causing additional civilian casualties. The strikes sparked fierce backlash from Iran’s Arab neighbors. “Your war is not with your neighbors, and this escalation only confirms the narrative of those who see Iran as the primary source of instability and danger in this region,” wrote Dr. Anwar Gargash, senior adviser to the UAE’s president, on social media.

    Building a complete picture of total conflict fatalities across the entire Middle East remains a major challenge, as many affected states have not published full cumulative casualty data. What data is available confirms additional deaths across the region: the UAE’s defense ministry has confirmed 13 people killed in Iranian strikes, while Al Jazeera and Agence France Presse have recorded more than 100 deaths in Iraq, at least 80 of them members of the Iran-aligned Popular Mobilisation Forces paramilitary killed in US and Israeli strikes. The Pentagon has confirmed 13 US military personnel based in the region have been killed, seven in Iranian attacks and six in a refueling plane crash in Iraq. The International Maritime Organisation has recorded 14 civilian sailors of multiple nationalities killed in attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and other regional waterways.

    Dr. Overton reiterated that systemic barriers to reporting have suppressed casualty numbers across the region. “Access restrictions, destroyed civilian infrastructure, and political sensitivities have all limited transparent counting, in some cases suppressing entire casualty tolls,” he said. “Historical experience from conflicts across this region makes clear that the final death toll will stay contested, and could end up being far higher than the numbers we have access to today.”

  • UK actress charged with importing meth worth almost $300m into Australia

    UK actress charged with importing meth worth almost $300m into Australia

    A 34-year-old British performer, whose credits include a popular *EastEnders* spin-off and a Hollywood action film starring Jason Statham, is facing life imprisonment after being charged with orchestrating one of the more brazen recent illicit drug importation attempts in Australian history. Emaa Hussen made her first scheduled appearance in a Sydney courtroom Thursday, following her arrest on charges of attempting to bring a commercial-scale shipment of methamphetamine into the country from West Africa.

    Australian law enforcement authorities allege Hussen worked alongside a South Australian couple to smuggle 320 kilograms of meth hidden inside shipments of charcoal contained in shipping containers that departed Ghana for Sydney. The seizure of the narcotics puts their estimated street value at roughly AU$296 million, equal to approximately US$208 million or £157 million. If convicted on the charges, Hussen faces a maximum sentence of life behind bars. She was previously denied bail during an earlier court hearing and is scheduled to reappearance for further proceedings in August.

    Hussen’s acting resume includes a role as the character Naz in *E20*, the youth-focused *EastEnders* spin-off that first premiered on British television in 2010. She also held a supporting role in the 2013 Jason Statham action thriller *Hummingbird*, which was distributed in the United States under the title *Redemption*.

    The investigation that led to Hussen’s arrest was launched back in April, when border security officials detected unusual density inconsistencies during scanning of two shipping containers that had arrived at Port Botany in Sydney from Ghana. The containers were officially declared to hold only bags of charcoal, but x-ray scanning revealed the presence of an unidentified white crystalline substance hidden inside the cargo. Subsequent forensic testing confirmed the material was methamphetamine.

    Undercover law enforcement personnel monitored the shipment after seizing the drugs, allowing the container to be delivered to a pre-arranged storage facility in Girraween, a suburb in Western Sydney. Police investigations allege Hussen traveled to the storage facility to oversee the unloading process, where several co-conspirators unloaded the charcoal bags containing the drugs before transferring them to a private vehicle. The group then traveled to a residential property in the Sydney suburb of Blacktown, where officers moved in to arrest Hussen. During the arrest, law enforcement seized a number of electronic devices and a handwritten notebook as evidence.

    As part of the cross-state investigation, officers also arrested and charged a 30-year-old woman and 32-year-old man in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. The pair are accused of using false identification documents to rent the Sydney storage units where the drug shipment was intended to be delivered before distribution.

    In a statement following the arrests, Acting Detective Superintendent Trevor Robinson of the Australian Federal Police highlighted the massive public impact of the seizure, noting that the 320 kilograms of meth would have been split into roughly 3.2 million individual street deals that would have reached communities across Australia. “This seizure keeps hundreds of thousands of deadly illicit drug doses off our streets, and eliminates a huge revenue stream for transnational criminal syndicates,” Robinson said.

    Jared Leighton, Superintendent of the Australian Border Force, commended his agency’s officers for their vigilance in detecting the carefully hidden shipment. “Organized criminal groups will go to extraordinary lengths to disguise their illicit contraband, even hiding narcotics in common, everyday goods like charcoal to avoid detection,” Leighton said. “But our highly trained, experienced officers have the skills and technology to see through these deceptive tactics and stop these dangerous drugs before they enter our communities.”

  • Israeli army reservist ‘flees’ India after war crimes allegation filed

    Israeli army reservist ‘flees’ India after war crimes allegation filed

    Two weeks after a Brussels-based human rights organization filed an official complaint seeking the arrest of an Israeli army reservist accused of war crimes in Gaza, the suspect is thought to have left Indian territory, an anonymous legal source connected to the case confirmed to Middle East Eye Thursday.

    The accused, Eitan Gilboa, a member of Israel’s 271st Combat Engineering Battalion, had been vacationing in India when the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) submitted the 2 June complaint to Indian authorities. Per the legal representative, who requested anonymity due to personal security risks, Gilboa likely fled the country just days after the complaint was registered.

    HRF’s case accuses Gilboa of direct involvement in crimes against humanity carried out during Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza. The organization alleges that Gilboa personally oversaw and celebrated the demolition of civilian residential neighborhoods in the southern Gazan cities of Khan Younis and Rafah, documented his actions in on-the-ground photos and videos, and shared the content publicly on social media platforms. These acts, HRF argues, violate the Fourth Geneva Convention and qualify as prosecutable war crimes under India’s 1960 Geneva Conventions Act. Middle East Eye has independently reviewed multiple pieces of evidence held by HRF to support these claims.

    Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has been formally recognized as genocide by the United Nations, leading global human rights organizations, and hundreds of genocide studies scholars. When the complaint was first filed, HRF Director-General Dyab Abou Jahjah stressed that Gilboa was not an ordinary tourist, but a suspected war criminal seeking to evade accountability for his actions. “New Delhi must not allow its soil to become a safe haven for those who celebrate the destruction of civilian lives,” Jahjah said in a statement at the time.

    The complaint against Gilboa is part of HRF’s global campaign to investigate and prosecute Israeli nationals accused of war crimes in Gaza. Founded in 2024, the organization has already filed more than 90 criminal complaints against suspected war criminals across 30 different national jurisdictions.

    India has emerged as a top post-service travel destination for discharged Israeli military personnel, alongside Thailand and Sri Lanka. An estimated tens of thousands of Israelis travel to India annually, many trekking the popular “Hummus trail” through the Himalayan foothills to decompress after military service. Prior to his departure, Gilboa was spotted in Old Manali and Gondla village in India’s Himachal Pradesh state.

    Gilboa was born in Moshav Morag, an illegal Israeli settlement established in the southwestern Gaza Strip, decades before Israel withdrew all settlers from the enclave in 2005. He was redeployed to Gaza as part of the Israeli military’s ground offensive following the 7 October 2023 attacks carried out by Hamas on southern Israel. Following the conclusion of his active reserve service, he traveled directly to India for vacation.

    The legal representative for the case told MEE that India’s federal government has so far taken only token action on the complaint, despite India’s binding legal obligations under the 1960 Geneva Conventions Act. “We expected India to move to enforce its obligations under domestic law and international law, but the only response we received was an email from the Bureau of Immigration asking for HRF’s contact information, which was shared immediately. There has been no follow-up action of any kind since that point,” the lawyer said.

    On 16 June, the U.S.-based Polis Project reported that HRF documents confirmed the complaint had been forwarded to the Foreigners Division of India’s Ministry of Home Affairs, the department legally responsible for reviewing visas and ordering deportations. No intervention or action was taken within the legally allowed window to process deportation, the organization confirmed.

    In its formal complaint, HRF demanded Indian authorities immediately arrest Gilboa, file a First Information Report (FIR) to open a formal criminal investigation, and order his deportation if arrest was not feasible. This complaint marks the first case of its kind brought against an alleged Israeli war crime suspect in India, at a time of rapidly deepening bilateral ties between New Delhi and Tel Aviv.

    Earlier this year, India and Israel upgraded their diplomatic relationship to a Special Strategic Partnership for Peace, Innovation & Prosperity, anchored by expanded military and economic cooperation agreements. As part of the deal, the two governments agreed to strengthen bilateral tourism ties, including rolling out joint tourism products and increasing overall travel volumes between the two countries.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior Israeli diplomatic officials have repeatedly praised India’s consistent diplomatic support for Israel over the past two and a half years. India has declined to back South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), refused to join any international arms embargo on Israel, and has continued to supply critical military components to the Israeli military. A May 2025 Al Jazeera analysis of Israeli Tax Authority import data covering 2022 to 2025 found India is one of the top five suppliers of military-related goods to Israel following the ICJ’s January 2024 preliminary genocide ruling.

  • US lifts naval blockade after Iran deal signed

    US lifts naval blockade after Iran deal signed

    In a landmark shift that aims to end a months-long regional war ignited by a February US-Israeli strike on Iran, the United States has formally ended its naval blockade of Iran following the signing of a bilateral ceasefire memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two nations. The development comes against a backdrop of fractured internal opinions on both sides, as well as sharp pushback from key regional actors.

    US Central Command publicly confirmed the end of blockade enforcement on the social platform X, noting the action was carried out “in accordance with the President’s direction”. The terms of the framework agreement lay out an immediate full ceasefire across all active conflict fronts, the full reopening of the strategic Strait of Hormuz — a critical chokepoint for global oil supplies — and a requirement for Iran to eliminate its entire stockpile of enriched uranium to verifiably commit to never pursuing a nuclear weapon.

    In his first public remarks on the agreement since it was signed, Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei acknowledged that he holds a “different view” of the deal, saying former US President Donald Trump pushed the agreement through “out of desperation”. Khamenei, who took office in March after his father Ali Khamenei was killed in the February strike that sparked the full-scale war, added that he allowed the MoU to move forward after receiving assurances from Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. He stressed that future in-person negotiations between Tehran and Washington do not equate to Iran accepting the US’s position, while acknowledging that the Iranian negotiating team acted out of “sincere concern and goodwill”.

    US Vice President JD Vance, who defended the agreement in a White House press briefing Thursday, outlined strict conditions for any concessions to Iran, emphasizing that Tehran will not receive sanctions relief or financial benefits until it fully complies with all obligations laid out in the MoU. “The memorandum does not give Iran any benefits until the country proves it will comply fully and change their behaviour, including following through on its commitment to destroy its enriched uranium stockpile and end support for regional proxy militant groups,” Vance told reporters.

    The MoU has triggered a 60-day window for detailed technical negotiations, which Vance confirmed he will likely lead in Switzerland, though he declined to set a firm timeline for the visit, noting “Iran is not an easy country” and scheduling requires further coordination. What was originally planned as an official public signing ceremony in Switzerland on Friday was canceled by mediator Pakistan, which confirmed the deal had already been finalized via remote signing. US and Iranian negotiators will still convene in Switzerland for the next phase of talks as planned.

    The agreement has already sparked division within Israel’s ruling coalition, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu releasing a statement reaffirming the strength of the US-Israel alliance, noting Washington had stood “shoulder to shoulder” with Israel throughout the conflict. Vance pushed back against criticism from two far-right Israeli cabinet ministers — National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — who have publicly opposed the deal. In remarks to reporters Thursday, Vance said critics of the agreement should “wake up and smell the reality”, adding, “If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.” He later challenged the critics to present a viable alternative, noting “You’re a country of nine million people. You can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.”

    The 14-point framework also includes a provision for a $300 billion fund for post-conflict Iranian reconstruction and economic development, though the US is not required to contribute to the pool. Despite the formal announcement of the ceasefire, violence has continued between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, with three people killed in mutual strikes reported Thursday. Israel has argued its conflict with Hezbollah is separate from its confrontation with Iran, while Hezbollah has outright rejected the terms of the US-Iran deal. Trump has not directly responded to Khamenei’s critical statement, but wrote on his social platform Truth Social that he expects the ceasefire to hold across all fronts, including the Israel-Heidelberg front, and called on all regional states to uphold their commitments to the negotiated process.

  • After a year of displacement, Tulkarm’s Palestinians allowed home for two hours

    After a year of displacement, Tulkarm’s Palestinians allowed home for two hours

    On a Wednesday morning in mid-June 2026, lines of displaced Palestinian families clutching only their identity documents gathered at the entrance of Tulkarm refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank. For more than 16 months, since Israel launched its large-scale “Iron Wall” military operation across the region in January 2025, these families and thousands more have been barred from returning to the homes they fled, locked out of the communities they built over generations.

    Through a limited coordination arrangement mediated by the Palestinian Civil Affairs Committee, just 45 displaced households from Tulkarm camp were granted permission to enter for two hours on June 17. Their mission: collect only the most essential personal belongings left behind when they fled the offensive. This temporary access does not pave the way for a permanent return, leaving thousands of displaced camp residents stuck in limbo, with no clarity on if or when they will be able to resettle in their original homes.

    Faisal Salama, leader of the Tulkarm refugee camp Popular Committee, issued sharp condemnation of the restrictive, demeaning conditions imposed on the small group of residents allowed entry. In an interview with Middle East Eye, Salama noted that the entry terms included invasive body searches and the forced confiscation of all communications devices. “These measures are deeply humiliating and inconsistent with basic humanitarian principles and respect for civilians’ rights,” he said. He added that the two-hour time limit only allowed families to grab a handful of urgent items, with no path to moving back to their residences permanently.

    “The camp belongs to its residents, yet it has effectively been turned into a military zone while its people remain displaced,” Salama stated. “Thousands of families are still waiting for the opportunity to return and rebuild their normal lives.”

    As the permitted residents walked through the camp’s narrow, pockmarked streets, many carried empty canvas bags and wheeled carts, clinging to the small hope of salvaging whatever fragments of their former lives remained inside their homes. Some left with armfuls of personal documents, clothing and small mementos, while others found their properties so heavily damaged that almost nothing was salvageable. Widespread destruction is visible across every corner of the camp: damaged homes, crumbled roads, and crippled infrastructure stand as evidence of the months-long military operation. For many residents, the brief two-hour visit was as much about confronting the wreckage of their former communities as it was about collecting belongings.

    Abdelhalim Turkman, one of the displaced residents allowed entry, described the experience as overwhelmingly emotional. “This is the first time I’ve entered the camp in more than a year and a half,” he said. “It’s very emotional to see my home and neighbourhood again. We came to collect some of our belongings, but what we’ve been through cannot be compensated.” Turkman added that the short trip only reinforced the scale of what residents have lost, and the persistent uncertainty hanging over their futures. “I hope the day comes when we can return and live here again,” he said.

    Aisha Zeitoun, another displaced resident who entered the camp, called her return after 16 months of displacement a deeply painful experience. “Walking back into my home after more than a year and a half was heartbreaking,” she said. “Every room holds memories of the life we once had, and seeing it again brought back so much emotion.” When Zeitoun and her family stepped inside their property, they were met with widespread, catastrophic damage. “We only had a limited time to gather what we could, but the destruction was overwhelming,” she said. “We couldn’t even take many of our belongings because of the damage.”

    Like other residents, Zeitoun emphasized that temporary access to retrieve a small number of possessions is not enough. What the displaced population truly demands is the right to permanently return and rebuild. “Today we’re leaving with only a few belongings,” she added. “But what we really want is the chance to come back home for good and rebuild our lives.”

    The mass displacement of Tulkarm camp residents began on January 27, 2025, when the Israeli military launched its offensive across the northern West Bank. Local officials confirm that more than 10,000 Tulkarm residents were forced to abandon their homes during the operation. Over the 19-day campaign, approximately 40,000 refugees from Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps were forcibly expelled by Israeli special forces, who deployed armored vehicles, drones and bulldozers to carry out the operation.

    The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has labeled the Israeli offensive “the longest and most extensive displacement crisis since 1967.” The agency’s assessments estimate that 43 percent of Jenin camp, 35 percent of Nur Shams camp, and 14 percent of Tulkarm camp have been completely destroyed or suffered severe irreversible damage. Local officials confirm that across Tulkarm camp alone, more than 1,100 housing units have been fully leveled, while an additional 4,400 units have sustained partial damage.

    In the 16 months since the offensive ended, most displaced families have been living in overcrowded, inadequate conditions: in makeshift temporary shelters, overcrowded displacement centers, overpriced rented accommodation, or crammed with relatives in nearby towns and villages. This brief two-hour access marked the first time most of these residents have been allowed to step foot inside the camp since they fled.

    When the two-hour window expired, the permitted families once again exited Tulkarm camp, carrying whatever small belongings they had been able to recover. Behind them, they left damaged homes, broken communities, and neighborhoods that have remained almost entirely empty since their displacement. Along with their handful of salvaged possessions, they carried back out the same uncertainty that has defined their lives for 16 months: no official guarantees have been given about when, or if, they will be allowed to return for good. While the visit offered a fleeting, bittersweet reunion with the places they once called home, displaced residents remain waiting for the promise they have held since January 2025: the unconditional right to return and rebuild their lives.

  • Revealed: How a German-US corporate giant became the world’s largest foreign financier of Israel’s wars

    Revealed: How a German-US corporate giant became the world’s largest foreign financier of Israel’s wars

    Amid the intensification of Israel’s multi-front military campaign across Gaza, Lebanon, and the occupied West Bank, a transatlantic financial giant has quietly become the single biggest foreign backer of Israeli sovereign debt, holding more Israeli government bonds than the United States, United Kingdom, France, and every other non-Israeli entity combined. New data compiled by Amsterdam-based sustainability research group Profundo, shared exclusively with Middle East Eye, lays bare the unprecedented scale of this investment: by September 2025, Germany’s Allianz, which owns California-headquartered bond behemoth PIMCO, the world’s largest active fixed-income manager, had accumulated an estimated $2.67 billion in Israeli government bonds across its network of fund subsidiaries.

    This staggering sum accounted for 51.8 percent of all tracked non-Israeli holdings in Profundo’s dataset at that time, confirming that at the peak of Israel’s military expansion, the Allianz-PIMCO combine held more Israeli sovereign bonds issued to fund wartime operations than the rest of the entire world’s non-Israeli investors put together. For Israel, these bond sales have become a critical lifeline. To finance its ongoing military campaigns, Israeli authorities ramped up sovereign bond issuance to record-breaking levels in both 2024 and 2025, with a sizeable “war premium” built into yields to attract risk-tolerant institutional investors. Issued during the active conflict, these bonds carry an average interest rate of 5.56 percent, far outpacing the 1.4 percent average yield of pre-war Israeli issuances – a premium that has proven irresistible to yield-hungry asset managers even after all three major global credit rating agencies downgraded Israel’s sovereign credit score.

    But the investment carries far more than standard financial risk. Since the International Court of Justice opened an investigation into allegations of genocide against Israeli forces in Gaza, holding Israeli government bonds exposes investors to significant legal and reputational repercussions that go well beyond ordinary sovereign debt investments. Critics argue that PIMCO’s sustained accumulation of these bonds demonstrates a deliberate disregard for fundamental human rights obligations under international law. “In light of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, PIMCO’s continued investments in Israeli sovereign debt demonstrate a clear disregard for human rights responsibilities and international legal obligations,” explained Max Hammer, a campaigner with BankTrack, an organization that tracks the human rights impacts of commercial financial institutions. “They also put PIMCO at odds with many of its peers, which have understandably decided to pull back from Israel’s bond issuances. Human rights organisations, international legal experts and UN officials – including Francesca Albanese – have been clear that providing financing to Israel inevitably means contributing to gross human rights abuses and war crimes.”

    Profundo’s dataset tracks holdings from international institutional investors across four quarterly snapshots between late 2024 and early 2026. While the research is not fully comprehensive, it captures a clear, staggering trend: total non-Israeli holdings of Israeli government bonds surged more than fourfold from $1.16 billion in November 2024 to at least $4.91 billion by March 2026, a growth trajectory that aligns directly with the expansion of Israel’s military operations across Gaza, Lebanon, and the occupied West Bank. The data reveals that this explosive growth is overwhelmingly driven by just two markets: the U.S. and Germany. Together, investors based in these two countries held 90.7 percent of all tracked non-Israeli holdings as of early 2026, totaling $4.45 billion of the $4.91 billion aggregate, with all other nations combined accounting for less than 10 percent of total foreign holdings.

    The rise of Allianz-PIMCO’s holdings is particularly dramatic. In November 2024, shortly after the outbreak of the current conflict, the Allianz group – which spans its core German insurance operations, PIMCO’s U.S. fund platform, PIMCO Europe, and Allianz Global Investors – held just $32 million in Israeli bonds. Less than 12 months later, that figure had ballooned to $2.67 billion, a concentration of investment unmatched by any other corporate group in Profundo’s dataset. “Allianz, through PIMCO, is by far the largest non-Israeli investor in Israeli sovereign bonds and has been so since the October 7 attacks. It has not divested from these bonds, even after allegations of genocide were submitted to the ICJ,” said Ward Warmerdam, senior researcher at Profundo. “It’s no coincidence that it’s a US-German company that is investing so much into Israel. Allianz/Pimco is the largest fixed income investor in the world. But, that only goes some way to explain this scale of investment. I believe it is disproportionate, and deliberate. And the question of how deliberate it is for them to double down on Israeli sovereign bond issuances after October 7th is something I believe only insiders can speak to.”

    Middle East Eye reached out to both Allianz and PIMCO with detailed questions about their Israeli bond holdings, but neither company had issued a response by the time of this publication. PIMCO, officially the Pacific Investment Management Company, is one of the most influential players in global bond markets. Founded in Newport Beach, California in 1971, the firm manages $2.27 trillion in total assets as of early 2026, including $1.86 trillion held on behalf of external clients ranging from public pension funds to sovereign wealth funds and global insurance groups. PIMCO has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Allianz since 2000, and together with Allianz Global Investors, it helps the parent group manage nearly €2 trillion in third-party assets, making the combined Allianz group one of the largest asset managers on the planet.

    The group’s Israeli bond holdings are spread across dozens of separately registered fund vehicles, with the majority held through PIMCO’s various subsidiaries, plus additional holdings through Allianz Global Investors. Profundo’s aggregation of separate regulatory filings reveals the $2.67 billion peak holding figure, but researchers emphasize this is almost certainly an undercount of the group’s true exposure. Beyond investing its own and client capital through its in-house funds, PIMCO also acts as a sub-manager for hundreds of external mandates from institutional investors around the world, purchasing bonds on behalf of third-party clients within client-approved investment guidelines. This means PIMCO’s role in the Israeli bond market extends far beyond its own balance sheet holdings, with the true volume of Israeli bonds passing through PIMCO’s operations unknown to the public.

    One high-profile example of this dynamic came to light in a previous Middle East Eye investigation, which revealed PIMCO purchased $29.2 million in Israeli government bonds between 2024 and 2025 on behalf of Border to Coast, the United Kingdom’s largest public sector pension pool. The purchases only became public after pro-Palestine activists filed public inquiries, prompting Border to Coast to open a review and ultimately divest its holdings under activist pressure. The only rationale PIMCO provided for the purchases, relayed to Border to Coast ahead of the divestment, was that the bonds were purchased based on Israel’s then-strong credit rating and economic fundamentals. However, this explanation does not rule out hidden political ties or vested interests driving the investment, and no PIMCO executive, including CEO Emmanuel Roman, has ever addressed the purchases publicly. Notably, PIMCO’s global advisory board includes Joshua Bolten, former White House Chief of Staff and a prominent figure in Washington’s pro-Israel policy community, alongside former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

    While Allianz-PIMCO dominates foreign holdings of Israeli sovereign bonds, the broader U.S. investment industry stands as the core pillar of international demand for the debt. U.S.-based investors held $2.02 billion in Israeli government bonds as of March 2026, up from just $879 million in November 2024, with growth remaining steady and showing no signs of slowing. Pennsylvania-headquartered Vanguard, the world’s largest index fund manager, crossed the $1 billion threshold in Israeli bond holdings for the first time in the March 2026 snapshot, with its holdings continuing an upward trajectory.

    Germany’s outsized share in the data is largely a product of PIMCO’s ownership structure: of the $2.43 billion in total German-domiciled holdings tracked in the dataset, roughly 94 percent is managed by PIMCO out of its U.S. headquarters. In reality, the overwhelming majority of this investment is U.S.-domiciled capital, flowing into Israeli war bonds at an unprecedented rate through U.S.-based asset management firms. After the U.S. and Germany, the next largest national holders as of March 2026 are the United Kingdom ($149 million), Canada ($101 million), Italy ($53 million), Switzerland ($46 million), and France ($22 million) – with all these nations combined accounting for just 9 percent of total non-Israeli holdings.

    The concentration of U.S. capital in Israeli bonds reflects both the outsized dominance of U.S. asset managers in global fixed-income markets and the deep, sustained support for Israel at the highest levels of U.S. political and financial leadership. The trend also highlights a stark divide between the U.S. and much of Western Europe when it comes to Israeli bond investment. While the U.S. and Allianz-PIMCO have dramatically expanded their exposure, a growing wave of European institutional investors have moved to divest their Israeli holdings in response to human rights concerns. In September 2025, Danish academics’ pension fund AkademikerPension formally excluded Israeli sovereign debt from its portfolio. Three months prior, the Irish Strategic Investment Fund sold off all its Israeli government bonds, while Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global divested from 11 Israeli companies and excluded five major Israeli banks.

    “Across the West’s asset management industry, we’re seeing divergence rather than convergence [especially between the US and much of Western Europe],” said Courtney Wicks of the Center for Monitored and Ethical Investment. “Some managers are reducing their exposure to [Palestine-related] human rights concerns in response to political or reputational pressure, rather than strengthening conflict-sensitive stewardship frameworks.”

    This divergence is even visible within the Allianz group itself. In late 2025, Allianz’s core insurance division dropped its coverage contract for Elbit Systems UK, the British subsidiary of Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems, following months of sustained activist pressure. At the very same time, the group’s asset management division held billions of dollars in Israeli government bonds that fund the military campaigns Elbit Systems supplies. Pro-Palestine activists who occupied Allianz offices in London and Guildford in 2024 and 2025, spraying red paint to protest the Elbit contract, now face a nearly £300,000 civil lawsuit from Allianz, in addition to existing criminal proceedings. A London court recently ruled the civil case can proceed, and the activists, who have no access to legal representation for the civil claim, argue the lawsuit is an attempt to suppress legitimate political protest. For context, Allianz reported an operating profit of $20.1 billion in 2025.

  • New arrest in US consulate shooting as Toronto police pursue ‘criminals for hire’ probe

    New arrest in US consulate shooting as Toronto police pursue ‘criminals for hire’ probe

    A sprawling investigation into coordinated, contract-fueled violence across Toronto has launched a cross-border manhunt, with law enforcement racing to unmask foreign backers accused of recruiting young criminals to carry out attacks that have left one officer dead and targeted Jewish community sites and a U.S. diplomatic facility.

    Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw confirmed this week that investigators are untangling a web of violence involving dozens of shootings linked to a so-called “criminals for hire” network, whose operatives are recruited on encrypted messaging platforms. Authorities have not yet been able to answer the central question driving the probe: which actors are funding this coordinated campaign of fear. “Who is paying for this? That is what we are trying to determine,” Demkiw told reporters, repeating the core line of inquiry that has defined the investigation.

    The investigation gained a new critical development this week, when law enforcement arrested 19-year-old Zara Jabbi at Toronto Pearson International Airport. Jabbi is directly linked to a March shooting outside the U.S. consulate in Toronto, one of the most high-profile attacks in the series of violent incidents. Shortly after his arrest, Jabbi made an initial court appearance, where he faces a slate of charges including theft, possession of a restricted firearm, and attack on an internationally protected property.

    Last week, Toronto police carried out a citywide series of search warrants tied to the consulate shooting plot, including a targeted raid on a downtown Toronto apartment complex. The operation turned deadly when Constable Marc Pinizzotto, a veteran Toronto police officer, was killed in the line of duty during the raid. Investigators also recovered a cache of handguns sourced from the United States during the search, and believe this same type of weapon was used in dozens of other unrelated shootings across the Greater Toronto Area.

    Security camera footage from the consulate attack has given investigators a key clue into the network’s operating model: suspects allegedly recorded themselves carrying out the shooting to provide proof of completion to their paymasters, Demkiw said. The investigation has also confirmed that the consulate attack is not an isolated incident, but part of a wider pattern of coordinated attacks targeting sensitive community and diplomatic sites, including multiple synagogues and Jewish schools across the city.

    “It is clear that some of the people hiring these criminals want to create a sense of fear in our communities, including in the Jewish community,” Demkiw said. The probe is already a coordinated multinational effort, with Toronto police partnering with Canada’s national law enforcement agency, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to trace the origins of the plot.

    The investigation comes just one month after U.S. authorities announced the arrest of a 32-year-old Iraqi national, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, who is alleged to be a commander in Kataib Hezbollah — an Iraqi militia branded a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government with documented ties to Iran. U.S. prosecutors have charged al-Saadi with plotting more than a dozen attacks across North America and Europe targeting Jewish institutions and U.S. interests, including the March consulate attack in Toronto. Toronto police have so far declined to confirm any connection between al-Saadi and their ongoing domestic investigation, and al-Saadi’s lawyer has dismissed the charges against his client as political prosecution.

  • Parents of Serbia’s teenage school shooter given jail terms in retrial

    Parents of Serbia’s teenage school shooter given jail terms in retrial

    On a bright spring day in May 2023, Serbia was shaken by an unprecedented act of violence that shattered the country’s longstanding reality of rare mass gun violence and nonexistent school shootings. A 13-year-old boy entered Belgrade’s Vladislav Ribnikar Elementary School, carried two handguns stolen from his father’s locked safe, and opened fire. Over the course of just two minutes and one second, he fired 66 bullets, leaving nine children and one security guard dead, with six more people injured. A tenth victim later succumbed to her wounds in hospital, making the attack one of the deadliest peacetime tragedies in Serbia’s modern history.

    Because the shooter was below the age of criminal responsibility under Serbian law, he could not face prosecution, and was instead ordered into long-term psychiatric care. But the legal system turned its focus to his parents, Vladimir and Miljana Kecmanović, who were charged with neglect and abuse of a minor. Vladimir faced an additional charge of a serious offense against public safety, stemming from his failure to secure his firearms and his role in teaching his underage son to handle guns.

    The first trial against the couple concluded in 2024. Vladimir was handed a lengthy prison sentence, while Miljana was acquitted of illegal firearms possession but convicted on neglect charges. A shooting range instructor who had allowed the boy to practice was also found guilty of providing false testimony. However, in November 2025, Belgrade’s appellate court threw out the original convictions, ordering a full retrial on the grounds that the initial verdict contained unclear and contradictory reasoning. Vladimir remained in custody throughout the waiting period, while Miljana was granted release ahead of the new trial.

    The retrial got underway in January 2026. In a verdict issued Thursday, the Belgrade court handed down new sentences: Vladimir Kecmanović will serve 14 years and six months in prison, while Miljana Kecmanović received a prison term of two years and 11 months for child neglect.

    Both the prosecution and defense teams have already filed appeals against the new sentences, kicking off another round of legal proceedings. Zora Dobričanin, a lawyer representing the families of the victims, described the legal process as a “long fight” that would continue through the appeal process. Defense attorneys argued that the guilty verdict on neglect charges repeated the flaws of the overturned initial ruling, claiming prosecutors failed to prove the charges and presented no expert evidence confirming the boy suffered from neglect.

    The 2023 school shooting triggered an unprecedented wave of public reckoning across Serbia. Just two days after the Belgrade school attack, a separate mass shooting in a drive-by attack near the capital left nine more people dead. Tens of thousands of Serbian citizens took to the streets in mass protests, demanding stronger gun control and government action to address the root causes of the violence. In response, the Serbian government implemented a national gun amnesty program and passed stricter firearms regulations to prevent similar tragedies in the future.

    Speaking ahead of the verdict, the chief prosecutor emphasized that securing convictions for the parents would be a critical step toward answering unresolved questions about how Serbian society responded to the 2023 tragedy.