标签： Asia

Amid the already catastrophic destruction and daily bombardment of the ongoing war in Gaza, hundreds of Palestinian residents are facing a new, crippling crisis: arbitrary freezes and closures of their bank accounts at the Bank of Palestine, cutting off access to critical salaries, humanitarian aid, and personal savings that families depend on for survival.

Gaza’s financial infrastructure has been strained for years by political instability, and the war has compounded these pressures to create a chronic liquidity shortage and widespread degradation of physical banknotes. For most Gazans, digital banking services and mobile wallets have become the only reliable way to manage, send, and receive funds – making account restrictions an immediate and devastating threat to livelihoods.

Ahmed Sardah, a Gaza resident, shared his experience with Middle East Eye (MEE), explaining he first discovered his account had been shuttered when he attempted to complete a routine transfer via the bank’s mobile app. Shortly after, he found his digital wallets on PalPay and Jawwal Pay, two of the territory’s most popular digital payment platforms, had also been suspended. Assuming the issue was a technical glitch, Sardah contacted bank staff, who only told him the account had been “reserved by management” with no further explanation. No advance warning was provided before the closure, and Sardah denies violating any bank policies, including transfer limit rules.

“Unfortunately, we are living in a war of destruction and constant bombardment, and on top of that, we are being strangled,” Sardah told MEE. “My life has completely stopped; I can’t even pay the rent, and I have monthly obligations. How am I supposed to meet them?”

Another devastating case highlights how the policy has harmed families of those killed in the conflict. Taghreed al-Daya lost her husband, four daughters, and son in an Israeli air strike on their Gaza City al-Sabra apartment in July 2024. Her eldest daughter, Raghad Banat, had received her monthly salary in an active Bank of Palestine account – but the account was closed immediately after the family submitted Banat’s death certificate.

Al-Daya completed all required legal inheritance processes and obtained all official documentation to claim the funds, but bank officials told her she would need to travel to Ramallah in the West Bank to finalize the process. For Gazans trapped in the blockaded enclave amid ongoing conflict, crossing into the West Bank is effectively impossible, leaving al-Daya with no path to access the money her daughter left behind. “I’m in Gaza. How am I supposed to get to Ramallah? This is an impossible request,” she said.

The widespread nature of the account closures sparked public pushback in mid-February, when a group of Gaza-based lawyers held a public demonstration to protest what they called illegal, unjustified freezes of their personal and professional accounts. The Palestinian Bar Association in Gaza issued a formal condemnation of the practice, labeling it “dangerous and unjustified” and warning that it pushes already vulnerable families, grappling with the catastrophic humanitarian conditions created by the war, even closer to collapse.

The association confirmed it had received dozens of complaints from lawyers who had their accounts closed without any prior notice, noting that roughly 700 Gaza-based lawyers have been impacted as part of a broader sweep that has suspended nearly 2,000 accounts total. Affected account holders have been given inconsistent, vague justifications for the actions, ranging from requests to update customer personal information to unsubstantiated claims of “unfair use” of accounts, the association added.

Rami Abdo, director of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, argued the account closures are not isolated incidents, but a systematic practice tied to guidance from the Palestinian Monetary Authority and internal bank risk assessment protocols. He emphasized that the Bank of Palestine has worsened the harm by blocking account holders from appealing closure decisions, withdrawing remaining funds, or providing documentation to prove they have complied with all banking regulations. Abdo told MEE that closures happen on a rolling basis, often impacting hundreds of accounts in a single sweep. He also confirmed the pattern of closing accounts of Palestinians killed in the war immediately after death notifications are received, cutting off heirs from funds even after all legal inheritance requirements are met. “As soon as a martyr’s name is received, the bank checks if he has an account and closes it,” Abdo said.

In response to the allegations, an anonymous senior source at the Bank of Palestine dismissed claims that thousands of Gaza accounts have been frozen as “false and baseless.” The source maintained that all actions taken against customer accounts adhere to local laws, regulatory requirements, and official instructions from relevant governing bodies, and no measures are taken arbitrarily or outside of established legal frameworks.

“Since its establishment, the Bank of Palestine has been proud of its national and economic role in serving Palestinians wherever they reside, especially the residents of the Gaza Strip,” the source said. “The bank continues to play its vital role in providing banking and financial services, enabling citizens and institutions to manage their financial affairs despite the exceptional circumstances and significant challenges facing the Strip.”

The source added that the bank has continued to serve more than one million customers in Gaza throughout the war, despite unprecedented operational challenges. Responding specifically to claims about deceased account holders, the source noted that inheritance cases are processed in line with existing legal procedures and judicial rulings designed both to protect the rights of heirs and prevent unauthorized access to funds. These procedures, the source said, are applied uniformly across Gaza and the West Bank and are not connected to the current wartime context.

MEE attempted to request comment from the Palestinian Monetary Authority on the allegations, but had not received a response as of the publication of this report.

A fresh wave of Israeli military bombardment across southern Lebanon has thrown a critical new set of Iran-US peace negotiations into disarray, forcing both delegations to delay their planned departure for opening talks in Switzerland. The violence, which left at least 18 Lebanese civilians dead, comes just weeks after the Trump administration and Iranian leadership signed a preliminary memorandum of understanding (MOU) to outline a path toward ending the ongoing Iran war, which began when the U.S. and Israel launched joint military operations in late February.

The incident also sparked open friction between senior U.S. officials and Israeli leadership. U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who was originally set to join the American delegation to Switzerland, publicly criticized Israeli leaders for a pattern of launching large-scale bombing attacks during key moments of diplomatic progress. Vance’s remarks echoed a similar disruption that unfolded just last weekend: shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to sign the MOU, Israeli forces carried out a deadly strike on central Beirut.

“We seem to be right on the cusp of a major breakthrough in the agreement, and then all of a sudden, there’s a major explosion that goes off in a civilian population center in Beirut, and a lot of people who have nothing to do with Hezbollah lose their lives,” Vance told reporters on Thursday. “That’s not acceptable.”

Friday’s bombardment targeted heavily populated residential areas across southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh district, according to on-the-ground reporting from Roqayah Chamseddine, a writer based in the region. Chamseddine documented mass civilian casualties in the towns of Dweir Harouf, Al-Sharqiya, and Kfar Sir, with additional strikes hitting Kfar Roumman, Haboush, Jebchit, Toul, and Deir al-Zahrani. Many of the residents in these areas had only just begun returning to their homes after previous ceasefire efforts, before the new offensive expanded into the Western Bekaa Valley, with warplanes targeting Abu Rashed Heights and launching strikes along the Litani River valley near Zalaya.

Hours after the initial Israeli strikes, Hezbollah carried out an anti-tank attack that killed four Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon, according to official statements from the Israel Defense Forces. The attack triggered harsh rhetoric from Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who called for widespread retaliation. “All of Lebanon must burn,” Ben-Gvir declared, adding, “With all due respect to the Americans, Israel must make it clear to the entire world that the blood of our sons and the security of our citizens are not forfeited.”

Officially, the Trump White House only cited unspecified logistical challenges to explain the delay of the U.S. delegation’s departure, making no public mention of the Lebanese bombardment. But Lebanese outlet Al Mayadeen, citing an anonymous Iranian government source, confirmed that the latest Israeli assault was the direct cause of Tehran’s decision to postpone its delegation’s trip.

The 60-day opening round of technical talks was meant to work out detailed implementation of the MOU, which calls for “the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.” Iranian leadership has repeatedly made clear that a full end to Israeli attacks on Lebanese territory is a non-negotiable precondition for advancing a final peace deal. Mediators have now shifted focus to rescheduling the talks, as escalating violence in Lebanon threatens to erase what little diplomatic momentum had been built to end the months-long conflict.

A new report from Sweden-based human rights organization Repatriate the Children (RTC) has sounded a fresh alarm over steeply escalating violence, intimidation, and degrading treatment against women and children detained at northeastern Syria’s Roj Camp, the country’s last major detention facility for foreign nationals alleged to have ties to the Islamic State group. The report, based on first-hand testimonies collected from more than 40 women of diverse nationalities held at the camp between January and May 2026, confirms that human rights violations against detainees have grown significantly in both frequency and severity since the start of the year.

Located near the Iraqi border in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah province, Roj Camp is currently co-administered by the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). It became the sole major camp for foreign families linked to former IS fighters after the larger Hol Camp ceased operations in January 2026, amid shifting territorial control as Syria’s new Damascus government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa reclaims authority over Kurdish-held areas that have been self-governed for much of Syria’s decade-long civil war. As of mid-2026, the camp holds 2,373 people across 769 households representing 54 nationalities; the vast majority of detainees are third-country nationals, neither Syrian nor Iraqi. Official United Nations data from late 2025 confirms that children make up 63% of the camp’s population, with women accounting for another 35%, and men just 2%.

Multiple detainees interviewed for the report described a daily reality shaped by unrelenting fear and abuse. Nightly armed raids by camp security have become routine, during which guards conduct widespread ransacking of tents, confiscate or steal personal property including money, mobile phones, food, and even a community-funded generator, carry out unprovoked beatings, and separate children from their parents. Detainees report being warned that snipers posted on camp towers will shoot anyone who leaves their tent during raids, leaving families trapped in constant terror as they wait to see if their tent will be targeted next. Women detailed additional degrading treatment, including having cold water poured over them during winter to intensify exposure to freezing temperatures, and consistent verbal abuse that includes guards telling detainees “there are no human rights” and taunting them to ask God for rescue.

Many detainees linked the sharp deterioration in conditions to broader regional instability following the SDF’s territorial losses earlier this year. “It is like they are taking out all of their frustration on us. And we cannot do anything to protect ourselves,” one detained woman told RTC researchers. Beyond physical violence, basic services in the camp have also collapsed: widespread electricity shortages, inadequate access to healthcare, and failure to meet basic nutritional needs have left detainees in increasingly desperate condition. One woman reported that a French national held at the camp died in April after guards denied her care for severe headaches, leading to a fatal heart attack. Detainees described crippling psychological harm, with many noting that constant fear has destroyed their mental health, leaving them trapped in what one called a “live horror movie.”

Children, who make up the majority of the camp’s population, have borne the brunt of the escalating abuse. Multiple testimonies documented children being beaten, threatened with death, and separated from their parents for days or weeks without explanation. In one case, a 12-year-old boy was held for three days, returned with visible bruising from beatings, and told he would be killed if he spoke about the experience. In another, guards beat a mother and her three young daughters with iron sticks during a night raid before detaining all of the children. In some instances, children are only returned to their families after demands for bribes, and families who inquire about detained relatives are met with threats of extended detention. Many mothers have gone to extreme lengths to prepare for potential separation: one woman wrote her family’s home country contact details on her children’s arms, so they could be identified if they were separated during a raid.

RTC co-founder Beatrice Eriksson told Middle East Eye that the situation has reached a crisis point, noting that the international community has largely normalized the prolonged detention of these families. “We’re not talking about a temporary emergency. We’re talking about children who have spent years growing up behind fences. And it seems that the world has gradually become used to it and accepted this situation,” Eriksson said. “It’s very dark for many of these children because they’re so young.”

Longstanding arguments from Western governments that repatriation of their citizens is impossible because the camps are controlled by non-state armed groups no longer hold, the report emphasizes. Following the collapse of the Assad government and the January 2026 agreement between Damascus and the SDF, the internationally recognized Syrian government now holds increasing influence over northeast Syria, creating new diplomatic pathways to resolve the crisis. Eriksson argues that the only barrier to repatriation now is a lack of political will, noting that international law guarantees detainees the right to return to their countries of origin. She also called out European governments for hypocrisy: many demand that Damascus accept the deportation of Syrian nationals from Europe, while refusing to repatriate their own citizens held in Roj Camp.

“Governments must just take responsibility for their own citizens. If anyone is suspected of a crime, investigate them. If they can be prosecuted, prosecute them. But children shouldn’t spend their entire childhood detained just because governments are reluctant to deal with a politically difficult issue,” Eriksson said. The report warns that continued failure to repatriate perpetuates widespread harm and intergenerational trauma, leaving detainees exposed to violence, exploitation, human trafficking, and recruitment by armed groups. From a counterterrorism perspective, the report concludes, prolonged unlawful detention in catastrophic conditions does not reduce risk—it creates new risk. Neglect leaves vulnerable detainees desperate for support, Eriksson noted, increasing the chance they may turn to extremist groups for help. “We need to break this cycle of violence,” she said.

Despite the new opportunities for repatriation, only two repatriations have been carried out at Roj Camp since January 2026, both to Australian citizens, one in April and one in May. Middle East Eye has contacted both the Syrian government and Kurdish regional officials to request comment on the allegations in the report, and as of publication, no response has been received. International human rights bodies have long flagged dangerous conditions in northeast Syria’s detention camps: UN experts have previously warned that conditions in Roj and Hol camps may qualify as cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, while Amnesty International has documented repeated allegations of gender-based violence against female detainees.

Just 24 hours after the United States and Iran finalized a broader agreement aimed at ending cross-regional hostilities, a dramatic surge in clashes between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah pushed the Middle East to the brink of a wider regional war, before the two parties agreed to a ceasefire that took effect at 4 p.m. local time Friday.

Diplomatic efforts to broker the truce were led by intensive backchannel negotiations and calls mediated by both Washington and Tehran, a source with direct knowledge of Hezbollah’s position confirmed to Middle East Eye. The breakthrough came only after Tehran threatened to pull out of planned follow-up talks with U.S. negotiators scheduled in Geneva in response to heavy Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon, the source added. The agreement remains conditional on Israel abiding by its terms, the source emphasized.

A senior Israeli official confirmed the truce to Reuters, noting that the ceasefire would hold only so long as Hezbollah halts all attacks on Israeli targets. The official also confirmed that Israeli military forces will remain positioned in areas of southern Lebanon they have seized during recent advances.

The rapid escalation that preceded the ceasefire began Thursday night, when Hezbollah fighters ambushed advancing Israeli troops near Ali al-Taher, a strategically critical hilltop outpost just outside the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh. The ambush left four Israeli service members dead, including a senior battalion commander, and multiple others wounded, the Israeli military confirmed. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack, stating its fighters had used both ambushes and drone strikes to repel the Israeli advance into the area.

Israel responded within hours with a massive wave of airstrikes that hit more than 80 targets across southern and eastern Lebanon. By Friday morning, Lebanon’s Ministry of Health reported that at least 47 civilians and combatants had been killed in the bombardment, with another 39 people wounded across 11 affected towns. Rescue teams have been unable to reach trapped survivors due to ongoing shelling, health officials warned, adding that the final casualty count is expected to climb.

Seven people were killed in the southern Lebanese village of Harouf alone, with additional residents still believed to be trapped under collapsed buildings, health ministry sources told Middle East Eye. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency documented mass displacement from the southern districts of Tyre and Bint Jbeil, as thousands of residents fled north to escape the violence. Many of those fleeing had only just returned to their home villages in the days after the U.S.-Iran interim agreement was reached earlier this week.

Hezbollah officials argue that the scale and scope of Israel’s retaliation went far beyond a proportional response to the ambush, suggesting the assault was a deliberate attempt to derail the broader U.S.-Iran regional peace deal. The U.S.-Iran agreement has already sparked fierce backlash in Israel, where political leaders across the ruling coalition have condemned it as a strategic victory for Tehran.

“If this were merely a response to the ambush, then why did Israel also strike Baalbek and the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon?” a second Hezbollah source asked, pointing to the geographic spread of attacks far from the site of the Thursday clash. The source explained that Israeli troop movements and the intensity of bombardment indicate the Israeli military’s core goal is to seize full control of the Ali al-Taher position, which offers unobstructed commanding views over most of the Nabatieh district and the Iqlim al-Tuffah region.

“Israel considers it strategically significant because of its location within the area it is attempting to control, which it has described as the ‘Yellow Line’,” the source said. “Control of this position would allow Israel to overlook the entirety of the Nabatieh district and the Iqlim area, as part of an attempt to consolidate its presence in the same territory it occupied before Lebanon’s liberation in 2000.”

The escalation came one day after the Israeli government published an official map expanding its declared military deployment zone in southern Lebanon, pushing the boundary of controlled territory all the way to the outskirts of Nabatieh, north of the Litani River. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz made clear the operation’s territorial goals during an interview with Israeli television, stating that holding seized territory is the military’s top priority. Katz added that the Israeli military is destroying villages in occupied areas of southern Lebanon and will not allow displaced residents to return to their homes.

“The 200,000 residents who lived in the security zone are not returning. None of them are returning,” Katz said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed he had personally ordered strikes against dozens of Hezbollah targets in response to the deaths of the four Israeli soldiers, adding that Israeli forces will remain in the southern Lebanon security zone “for as long as necessary.” Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir doubled down on the aggressive rhetoric, calling for “all of Lebanon to burn.”

When asked whether Hezbollah believes the Israeli escalation was carried out with U.S. approval, the second Hezbollah source said the group now assesses that public disagreements between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government and the U.S. administration are genuine. This marks a shift from the long-held view among Hezbollah supporters that public disputes between the two allies often mask broad alignment on core regional strategic goals.

International pressure for a de-escalation grew quickly after the violence erupted: former U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington expected a full and immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, while France called on the U.S. to intervene aggressively to prevent the fighting from spilling into a full-scale regional war.

The outbreak of renewed violence derailed planned diplomatic talks between the U.S. and Iran in Geneva, with negotiations scrapped as tensions flared. A third source familiar with Hezbollah’s position said Tehran has given the group clear assurances that it will not sign any final agreement with Washington that does not include binding provisions addressing Lebanon’s security and territorial integrity. Specifically, Iran will reject any deal that does not include “a complete and comprehensive cessation of hostilities against Lebanon across all Lebanese territory” alongside a formal commitment to a full Israeli military withdrawal from all seized Lebanese territory, the source said.

When asked whether indirect diplomatic contacts between Hezbollah and the U.S. are still ongoing, the source said he would “neither confirm nor deny” that such communications are taking place, but added that when American officials wish to reach Hezbollah, “they know exactly which channels to use.”

Hezbollah has repeatedly accused Israel of intentionally violating both the existing Lebanon ceasefire and the new U.S.-Iran regional agreement, noting that Israel has continued to target civilians, destroy civilian infrastructure and push forward with its ground incursion into southern Lebanon. The third source confirmed that Hezbollah still opposes any new round of direct bilateral negotiations between the Lebanese government and Israel hosted in Washington, and does not consider itself bound by that process. The source also added that the group has received multiple indications that the U.S. itself is no longer committed to the proposed negotiating track.

The latest round of fighting has laid bare the core, unresolved divide that has undermined all regional efforts to end the long-running conflict. Israel insists it will retain control of seized territory in southern Lebanon and bar displaced Lebanese residents from returning to their border communities. Hezbollah, by contrast, maintains that no final regional peace agreement can be accepted without an immediate end to all Israeli attacks and a full Israeli military withdrawal from all Lebanese territory.

As thousands of residents flee southern Lebanese towns for the second time in as many weeks, the standoff over the Ali al-Taher position has emerged as both a critical battle for strategic terrain and an early make-or-break test for the fragile U.S.-Iran negotiated framework that was meant to bring an end to cross-regional hostilities.

A fresh wave of Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon has sent shockwaves across the Middle East, killing at least 21 people and injuring more than 39 others since Thursday night, according to an official announcement from Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health. The attack has already derailed planned follow-up negotiations between the United States and Iran aimed at cementing a region-wide ceasefire, triggering harsh condemnation from Lebanese leadership and sharp, bellicose threats from top Israeli officials.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun labeled the strikes a “dangerous and reprehensible escalation” that has claimed the lives of dozens of innocent civilians, among them women and children. In a formal statement, Aoun emphasized that the aggression undermines every ongoing effort to solidify a ceasefire and end broader regional conflict, coming just days after the US and Iran signed a landmark memorandum of understanding (MoU) designed to end more than 100 days of cross-border fighting that has devastated Lebanon.

The Israeli military, for its part, confirmed that Hezbollah fighters had killed four of its soldiers in southern Lebanon on Friday, including a senior battalion commander. Hezbollah issued its own statement confirming the attack, explaining that its fighters targeted Israeli forces that were attempting to advance into sovereign Lebanese territory. The militant group detailed that it lured an Israeli military unit into a pre-planned “kill zone” near the southern Lebanese area of Ali al-Tahir, destroying three Merkava tanks in the engagement. When a second Israeli unit moved in to recover the first, fighters hit it with concentrated rocket barrages and mortar fire.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly issued a vow of retaliation in a social media statement Friday, promising Hezbollah would pay a “heavy price” for the attack. He reiterated that Israeli forces would maintain a presence in a self-declared “security zone” in southern Lebanon for as long as necessary to protect Israeli communities in the country’s north. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz echoed Netanyahu’s hardline stance, stating that the Israeli military would not tolerate attacks on its soldiers and civilians, and any ceasefire violation by Hezbollah would be met with overwhelming force. Katz also confirmed the security zone extends from Lebanon’s Mediterranean coastline all the way to the Beaufort Heights, formalizing Israel’s expanded military footprint in the region.

The rhetoric grew even more extreme from far-right members of Netanyahu’s governing coalition. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has a long track record of inflammatory rhetoric against Lebanese people, called for a drastically more aggressive military response. “For every tear shed by an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers should cry,” Ben Gvir wrote on the social platform X, adding that “all of Lebanon should burn” and emphasizing that Israel must make clear “the blood of our sons and the security of our citizens are not up for grabs.” This is not the first time Ben Gvir has made extreme remarks: just one week prior, he publicly called for the kidnapping of Lebanese women and youth to pressure Hezbollah.

Shortly after Ben Gvir’s comments, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, another far-right member of the coalition, echoed the rhetoric, calling on Israel to “open the gates of hell” for Hezbollah – a phrase he previously used to describe Israel’s military campaign in Gaza that has been widely labeled genocidal by international bodies and human rights groups.

The latest escalation comes at a critical diplomatic juncture: US and Iranian officials had been scheduled to meet in Switzerland this week to continue negotiating the terms of the MoU signed in Paris Wednesday. That agreement requires an immediate end to fighting on all regional fronts, including Lebanon, and Iranian officials have repeatedly warned that any continued Israeli military presence or operation inside Lebanese territory counts as a direct violation of the deal. Crucially, the Israeli government is not a signatory to the MoU and has openly opposed its provisions for Lebanon. Since the agreement was signed, the Israeli military has released a new official map outlining plans for expanded military occupation and operations across southern Lebanon.

In response to Israel’s new strikes, Lebanon-based broadcaster Al Mayadeen reported Thursday that the Iranian delegation had postponed its planned talks with US officials in Switzerland. The Swiss foreign ministry confirmed the postponement Friday, officially putting the diplomatic process on hold amid the new violence.

Even before this latest wave of violence, Lebanon has already suffered staggering human cost since cross-border fighting resumed on March 2. The new strikes bring the total death toll across the country to at least 3,915, a figure that stands despite a formal ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah signed back on June 2.