Global Pulse

标签： Asia

亚洲

  • Japan ends rescue operation at a mall that collapsed after a strong quake

    Japan ends rescue operation at a mall that collapsed after a strong quake

    On Saturday, Japanese emergency authorities concluded a five-day large-scale search-and-rescue mission at the site of a collapsed regional shopping mall in Kumamoto Prefecture, four days after a powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu, leaving at least 34 people dead across the affected region. The Aeon Mall in the town of Kashima was counted among the disaster’s most heavily damaged locations: a post-quake explosion, which mall operator Aeon suspects was triggered by a gas leak, caused the structure’s second floor and multiple exterior walls to collapse. In the immediate aftermath of the tremor, roughly 3,000 visiting shoppers were safely evacuated to an adjacent parking lot, but a number of staff members remained inside the building to secure the facility, leaving them trapped when the structure gave way.

    Over the course of the five-day operation, rescue teams pulled five survivors from the tangled rubble of the mall and recovered the remains of seven employees who did not survive the collapse. With all unaccounted-for people at the site now identified and located, officials called off active search efforts at the mall on Saturday. However, search operations across the wider Kumamoto Prefecture remain ongoing, as the total number of missing people across the region has not yet been confirmed. More than 5,000 personnel, including Japan Self-Defense Force troops, local police officers, specialized rescue workers and canine search teams, have been deployed to the affected area to continue looking for survivors.

    At a separate high-impact site in Yatsushiro City, a large industrial chimney at the Nippon Paper Industries factory collapsed during the quake, trapping 11 on-site workers. Local officials confirmed Saturday that nine of those trapped workers have been found dead, while the remaining two were rescued and are receiving medical care. Across Kumamoto Prefecture, the earthquake has left 103 people with documented injuries, and authorities are currently investigating whether two additional deaths can be linked to the seismic event.

    In addition to the human toll and structural damage, the prefecture is now facing a growing public health crisis driven by two overlapping crises: widespread disruptions to critical infrastructure and a record-breaking heatwave. As of Saturday, nearly 70,000 households across Kumamoto remain without access to clean potable water, and supplies of vehicle and generator fuel are running critically low, even as temperatures in Kumamoto City hit an extreme 36.6 degrees Celsius (97.8 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday. The sweltering conditions have raised urgent concerns about heat exhaustion and other heat-related illnesses among displaced residents.

    More than 9,000 people are currently staying in overcrowded emergency evacuation shelters, which have been set up in repurposed community centers, school gymnasiums and public school classrooms. Many other displaced residents have chosen to sleep in their vehicles parked at municipal parking lots and public parks, or camp outside their damaged homes, in order to access greater privacy than crowded shelters can offer.

    Longstanding criticism from disaster response experts has highlighted the dangers of overcrowded shelter conditions in Japan, noting that insufficient sanitation and a lack of personal space increase psychological stress for survivors and raise the risk of secondary public health outbreaks after a disaster. In response to these ongoing challenges, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi reaffirmed the national government’s commitment to supporting response and recovery efforts during a Saturday meeting of the government’s disaster task force, urging rescue teams to leave no one unaccounted for across the affected region.

    Takaichi added that relief supplies including bottled water, non-perishable food, portable toilets, mobile air conditioning units and privacy partitions are already being distributed to evacuation centers across the prefecture to improve living conditions for displaced residents. “The government is determined to do everything we can to support affected communities,” she stated.

    As of Saturday, Kumamoto Prefecture has recorded more than 1,500 reports of power outages across the region, though the local Kyushu Electric Power Company said it had no immediate confirmation of widespread ongoing outages. Preliminary structural assessments from the Kumamoto prefectural government confirm that at least 180 homes have been completely destroyed by the quake, and nearly 3,500 additional buildings have sustained damage — a figure that has nearly doubled since Friday’s update — with 20 of those structures classified as severely damaged.

  • ‘We cried instead of celebrating’: War and loss shadow Gaza’s top students

    ‘We cried instead of celebrating’: War and loss shadow Gaza’s top students

    For generations of Palestinian students, the General Secondary Education Certificate exam – widely known as Tawjihi – stands as a defining milestone. Traditionally, it brings closure to 12 years of schooling, opens the door to university, and is marked by joyous celebrations of hard-won achievement and hopeful plans for the future. But nearly three years into Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, this pivotal academic moment carries a drastically different weight for thousands of young Gazans. For these students, just surviving long enough to sit the exams and receive their results has become an extraordinary accomplishment.

    One story that has captured widespread attention is that of Saba Rabah, a 2024 Tawjihi graduate who claimed the top score across Palestine’s scientific stream, with a nearly perfect 99.9 percent average. The result fulfilled a childhood dream Rabah had nurtured for years – but the celebratory moment was deeply shadowed by the loss of her father, killed in an Israeli airstrike on the al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza earlier this year. The final selfie the pair shared, taken during Eid al-Fitr in April 2024, remains one of Rabah’s most cherished possessions.

    From childhood, Rabah’s parents pushed her to excel academically and supported her ambition to attend medical school. “In my last conversation with my father, he told me he dreamed I would rank among the top students in the scientific stream and study medicine, just as I had always hoped,” Rabah told Middle East Eye. “He said he wanted to spend his retirement in my future clinic.”

    Rabah’s path to the top score was littered with obstacles no student should ever face. Like thousands of Tawjihi candidates across Gaza, she pursued her studies in conditions that turned the most basic educational tasks into daily battles for survival. Just days before her final exams, an Israeli strike damaged her family’s rented displacement shelter, leaving only one room intact. That small space served as kitchen, bedroom, living area, and study space all at once.

    “No words can describe the suffering of studying while starving or while fleeing,” Rabah said. She recalled repeated episodes of displacement, where she was forced to choose between carrying her textbooks, her mother’s life-saving heart and blood pressure medication, or assisting her 25-year-old quadriplegic brother Saeed. Basic educational supplies have become unattainable luxuries in blockaded Gaza: no new textbooks have entered the territory in three years, making even second-hand copies rare, and a pack of 200 A4 sheets now costs roughly $150, out of reach for most families. Unreliable electricity and spotty internet access have further complicated efforts to study remotely.

    Through the hardest moments, Rabah held onto her father’s dream, with her mother and siblings reminding her of what he had wanted for her. “Every family in Gaza has experienced grief. We have lost fathers, mothers, siblings and sometimes entire families,” she said. “We didn’t choose to live through this violence, but we keep trying to live and hold on to the small moments because that is our right. The only solution is for the Israeli war to stop. We don’t want to lose any more of our loved ones. We want to study like everyone else. We want to live in dignity.”

    Rabah’s story is far from unique. Thousands of Tawjihi students across Gaza navigated repeated bombardment, displacement, injury, and grief to sit for their exams this year. Among them is Maram Muqit, a northern Gaza student who took her exams just four months after an Israeli bullet became lodged in her spinal cord, leaving her partially paralyzed.

    Muqit was injured while walking back to her family’s displacement tent from a math class, her mother Naheel explained. “Doctors told us she might never walk again if she remains in Gaza because of the lack of medical supplies,” Naheel said. Before she was wounded, Muqit had attended two makeshift schools, despite the constant danger of traveling across northern Gaza. Her parents begged her to stay home for safety, but she refused to miss any chance to learn. When internet was available, she downloaded YouTube lessons and studied materials shared by her teachers on WhatsApp.

    Before the current conflict, Muqit and her family lived in Beit Lahia, but their home was destroyed in the first month of Israeli attacks. They have been displaced multiple times since, and now live in a tent in the al-Atatra neighborhood in northern Gaza. Muqit is currently undergoing rehabilitation at al-Wafa Hospital, where she balanced intensive therapy with exam preparation. Despite the exhaustion of balancing treatment and studying, she earned an outstanding 96.6 percent on her Tawjihi exams.

    “When the results came out, we cried instead of celebrating. Her father and I tried to help her stand, but she still couldn’t keep her balance,” Naheel said. The hospital later allowed Muqit to spend a day with her family at the displacement camp, where relatives and friends held a small celebration. When she returned to the hospital, staff and fellow patients celebrated her achievement, bringing her small gifts to mark the milestone.

    Even with her strong score, Muqit’s future remains uncertain. She has long dreamed of studying dentistry, but fears her injury and disability will block her from pursuing the career she has wanted since childhood. “I am happy I achieved the grades I needed. But I am sad that I may never walk again,” she said. “I hope I can get an electric wheelchair, travel abroad for treatment and go to university.”

    For other high-achieving students, the joy of a strong Tawjihi result never came at all. Among the nearly 19,000 Palestinian students killed by Israeli forces since October 2023, per Palestinian Ministry of Education data, is Yahya Nasman. Nasman scored a 96.6 percent on his 2024 Tawjihi exams – but he and five members of his family were killed in an Israeli airstrike on their Gaza City home just one week before results were announced in July.

    Two days before the attack, Nasman’s uncle Waleed hosted Yahya and another family member for a small post-exam meal. Waleed said his nephew had spent the year balancing studying with the daily work of helping his family survive the war: fetching clean water, collecting firewood, and securing basic supplies. Over pizza, Yahya spoke confidently about his plans: he was sure he would earn high marks, he told his uncle, and he wanted to study architectural engineering so he could help rebuild the thousands of homes destroyed across Gaza.

    Waleed remembered his nephew as the most caring member of the family, always the first to step in to help anyone in need before returning straight to his studies. The day before the strike, Yahya brought his six-year-old sister Arwa to play with Waleed’s daughters – a meeting Waleed never imagined would be their last. The next day, 12-year-old Ayham, Yahya’s brother, returned to the family home to find it reduced to rubble. He ran to alert relatives, who rushed to the site hoping to find survivors.

    “My brother, his wife and their three children, including Yahya, were killed instantly,” Waleed said. “The force of the explosion threw parts of their bodies hundreds of metres down the street. I collected the remains of my nephews and nieces from the road and the displacement camps before burying them.” Five days after the attack, the family learned Yahya had earned one of the highest Tawjihi scores in Gaza. What should have been a joyous celebration became one more moment of grief. “Yahya was one of thousands of students who tried to build a future despite everything happening around them,” Waleed said. “We want people around the world to help stop the attacks on Gaza. Every day more people are killed.”

    Official data from the Palestinian Ministry of Education underscores the catastrophic toll the conflict has taken on Gaza’s education sector. Since October 2023, Israeli forces have wounded at least 28,293 students, killed nearly 19,000 students and roughly 800 teachers and education workers, and damaged or destroyed 279 schools, leaving Gaza’s entire education system in ruins. Even after a tentative ceasefire agreement was reached in October, Israel has continued near-daily airstrikes across the strip, killing at least 1,200 people since the truce took effect. Total Palestinian fatalities from Israeli attacks since October 2023 now exceed 73,000, according to local officials.

  • Iceland seizes Paul Watson Foundation’s anti-whaling ship and detains its crew

    Iceland seizes Paul Watson Foundation’s anti-whaling ship and detains its crew

    In a high-stakes confrontation between Icelandic law enforcement and anti-whaling campaigners, Icelandic coast guard units and police special forces have seized a protest vessel operated by an organization founded by veteran anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, detaining all 21 members of its crew, Icelandic officials confirmed Saturday.

    The incident traces back to Thursday evening, when the crew of the Icelandic commercial whaling ship Hvalur 9 placed an emergency distress call, reporting that their safety was threatened by the protest vessel Bandero, which is owned and operated by the Captain Paul Watson Foundation. According to the Icelandic Coast Guard’s official account, the Bandero repeatedly defied direct orders from coast guard officials: first to exit Icelandic territorial waters, and later to cut its engines.

    Around midnight on Thursday, armed joint units of the Icelandic Coast Guard and the elite Viking Squad police special force boarded the Bandero and took the entire crew into custody. Notably, Paul Watson, the 75-year-old founder of the foundation that owns the vessel, was not on board during the operation. In an official statement released after the seizure, the Captain Paul Watson Foundation confirmed the action and reported that detained crew members are being held aboard the vessel with all their personal communication devices confiscated.

    By Friday, the Bandero had been escorted into Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital port, and Icelandic police have assumed lead responsibility for the ongoing investigation. Iceland’s national public broadcaster RÚV has reported that law enforcement intends to request deportation for all 21 detained crew members, alongside a permanent ban on their re-entry to Iceland.

    Iceland stands as one of only three nations alongside Norway and Japan that continue to permit large-scale commercial whaling, setting annual hunting quotas for fin and minke whales within its exclusive economic zone. While the country exports the vast majority of its whale meat to Japan, demand for the product has dropped sharply since 2019, when Japan withdrew from the International Whaling Commission and restarted its own commercial whaling operations. Domestically, commercial whaling has grown increasingly divisive in Iceland, as local consumption of whale meat has fallen to near-negligible levels in recent years.

    This latest encounter adds another chapter to Paul Watson’s decades-long, high-profile campaign against commercial whaling. A Canada-born activist, Watson stepped down as head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, the pioneering anti-whaling group he co-founded, in 2022 to launch the Captain Paul Watson Foundation. Watson’s confrontational direct-action tactics, which have included high-seas standoffs with whaling vessels, earned him global celebrity support and a starring role in the popular reality television series *Whale Wars*, but have also repeatedly landed him in legal custody.

    Earlier this year, Watson spent five months imprisoned in Greenland following his arrest on a Japanese extradition warrant stemming from a 2010 incident where he was accused of obstructing a Japanese whaling vessel. Upon his release in December 2024, Watson publicly stated he would avoid travel to nations where he faced arrest risk, telling reporters: “I have to make sure that I don’t land in Iceland or another country where Interpol might try to have me arrested again.”

    Watson was first placed on Interpol’s “red notice” most-wanted list in 2012, and was only removed from the roster earlier this year in 2025. Watson’s uncompromising, direct-action approach has long created divisions within the global conservation movement, and fishing and marine shipping firms have repeatedly accused his activists of endangering crew lives and vessel safety. Earlier this year, the Bandero was involved in a collision with a Norwegian-owned industrial krill trawler operating in Antarctica; the trawler’s owner called the incident a deliberate attack that put their crew at risk and could have triggered a major environmental catastrophe in the sensitive Antarctic ecosystem.

  • Mountaineer Nirmal Purja killed in Pakistan avalanche, his company says

    Mountaineer Nirmal Purja killed in Pakistan avalanche, his company says

    A devastating avalanche on Pakistan’s remote Broad Peak has claimed the lives of 10 climbers, including world-famous Nepali-born mountaineer Nirmal Purja, whose groundbreaking high-altitude achievements were catapulted to global attention by a hit 2021 Netflix documentary. The tragedy was officially confirmed by Purja’s mountaineering guiding company, Elite Expeditions, which announced the heartbreaking news in a social media post Thursday, expressing profound grief over the loss of the entire expedition team.

    Purja, 43, a former British Special Boat Service soldier who redefined high-altitude mountaineering limits in 2019 by climbing all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter-plus peaks in just six months and six days — a record that stood as a testament to human endurance — was leading the multinational expedition when the avalanche struck the 8,047-meter (26,400-foot) Karakoram range peak, one of the most challenging and dangerous summits on Earth.

    Prior to the official confirmation of Purja’s death, Pakistani rescue authorities had already recovered the bodies of three members of the 10-person team: American climber Mallory Geis, Omani climber Nadhira Ahmed Abdullah Al Harthy, and Nepali climber Pur Bahadur Gurung. Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah later issued an official statement confirming the total fatality count, which includes six Nepali climbers and four foreign nationals, and expressed the nation’s shock over the accident. “The tragic death of six Nepalese and four other foreign climbers, including world record holder Nirmal Purja, in the Karakoram mountain range of Pakistan, has shocked us,” Shah wrote on social media, adding that “the history of their courage, dedication, and contributions will always remain inspiring.”

    Pakistani rescue teams had launched an urgent search and recovery operation immediately after the avalanche was reported, navigating harsh, high-altitude conditions to reach the disaster site on the world’s 12th highest mountain. Broad Peak has long held a reputation as one of mountaineering’s most dangerous tests: while the first successful ascent was completed by an Austrian expedition in 1957, dozens of climbers have lost their lives on its slopes in the decades since. One of its deadliest seasons on record was 2013, when at least six climbers died in separate incidents on the peak.

    Purja, who joined the British Army in 2003 before moving to the elite Royal Navy Special Boat Service in 2009, became a household name globally after Netflix released *14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible*, the 2021 documentary that chronicled his history-making 2019 expedition to scale all 14 of the world’s highest peaks. The documentary introduced his extraordinary story of endurance to millions, cementing his legacy as one of the most iconic mountaineers of the 21st century.

    This is an ongoing breaking news story, and updates with additional details are expected to be released as more information becomes available from rescue officials and expedition authorities.

  • Search resumes for missing climbers after avalanche on Pakistan’s Broad Peak

    Search resumes for missing climbers after avalanche on Pakistan’s Broad Peak

    ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Rescue teams supported by military aviation assets have restarted search operations for six missing mountaineers who were swept away in a sudden avalanche on Pakistan’s Broad Peak, officials confirmed Saturday. The recovery effort comes one day after three of the four fatalities located so far were extracted from the disaster site, deepening a tragedy that has hit the global mountaineering community.

    Local law enforcement official Tahir Khan outlined the status of victim identification and transport Saturday. The remains of Omani climber Nathira Ahmed are being airlifted to Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, for final processing and repatriation. Meanwhile, the bodies of American climber Mallory Geis and Nepalese climber Bahadur Gurung are currently held at a medical facility in Skardu, the primary urban hub for expeditions in Pakistan’s northern Gilgit-Baltistan region.

    Despite the continuation of ground and air search efforts, officials have acknowledged that optimism for finding the missing climbers alive is rapidly diminishing. Karrar Haidri, vice president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, shared that the entire 10-member expedition lost all contact with its base camp on Thursday, moments after the avalanche hit the team as they were ascending the 8,051-meter mountain, one of the world’s 14 peaks over 8,000 meters.

    The full expedition roster, released by the Alpine Club, includes five Nepalese climbers, the Omani and American climbers, Pakistani climber Sohail Sakhi, a Chinese climber identified publicly only by the surname Wang, and a sixth foreign member whose identity has not yet been released to the public. The expedition was organized under the leadership of famed high-altitude mountaineer Nirmal Purja, a Nepal-born former British Army soldier known widely to the climbing community as Nims Dai. Purja earned global acclaim in 2019 when he completed ascents of all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks in a groundbreaking 189 days, a feat that was later chronicled in the popular Netflix documentary *14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible*. Purja’s record was ultimately broken in 2023 by another climber.

    Pakistan-based adventure travel firm Moving Mountains announced the expedition’s departure in late April, sharing that the team had departed for the remote starting town of Askole and extending well wishes for a safe summit bid. According to the company’s public profile of the team, the Broad Peak attempt marked Geis’ first effort to summit an 8,000-meter peak in Pakistan. For Sakhi, the expedition was planned to be his final major climb before retirement. A veteran guide for Moving Mountains, Sakhi is also an accomplished geographer and high-altitude photographer who has already summited many of the world’s most iconic high peaks.

    High-altitude climbing in northern Pakistan carries inherent and persistent risk: avalanches, falling rock and ice, extreme altitude sickness, and rapidly shifting weather patterns make accidents a regular occurrence for expedition teams operating in the region. Multiple experienced climbing teams are assisting military personnel in the ongoing search for the six missing climbers, with army helicopters conducting regular aerial scans of the avalanche path to locate any signs of the missing team members.

  • Columbia University student workers’ union withdraws Israel divestment demand

    Columbia University student workers’ union withdraws Israel divestment demand

    In a move that marks a stark shift in the union’s political priorities, the 3,000-strong Student Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers (SWC-UAW) has voted to withdraw its landmark demand that Columbia University divest all financial ties linked to Israel, during a collective bargaining session this week. The decision to pull the controversial contract proposal, formally titled “Obligations Under International Law,” came out of a general body vote held Monday by the union, which represents both undergraduate and graduate student workers at the Ivy League institution.

    The withdrawn proposal had carried far-reaching demands beyond divestment. It sought to force the university to cut financial ties with any companies and state actors the United Nations or International Criminal Court deemed to violate international law, require Columbia to publish full details of all its direct and indirect investments twice every fiscal year, and grant the union the right to submit a formal list of entities the university must divest from, complete with the union’s own documentation of alleged international law violations. The union had long justified the proposal on the grounds that its members, who generate core academic and operational value for Columbia, deserve a formal say in how the institution invests its endowment and institutional funds.

    This withdrawal represents a major strategic reversal for the union, which has been a central institutional backer of Columbia’s pro-Palestinian student movement since the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war in October 2023. The conflict, which began after Hamas carried out cross-border attacks on southern Israel that killed approximately 1,200 people and took 240 hostages, has left more than 73,000 people dead in Gaza according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, sparking widespread protests across college campuses in the United States and around the world. For Columbia’s pro-Palestinian movement, financial divestment from Israel has remained the top policy demand, after activists set up the high-profile “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” and occupied the university’s Hamilton Hall in April 2024. Those actions drew national attention, prompting two NYPD sweeps to clear the encampment and re-take the occupied building.

    In the months following the 2024 campus protests, SWC-UAW cemented its alignment with the pro-Palestinian movement: it passed a June 2024 resolution endorsing the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, called on Columbia to end its dual degree program with Tel Aviv University, and pushed to scrap plans for a new Columbia global center in Tel Aviv. The union also passed a separate “Cops off Campus” resolution the same month, calling for a permanent ban on NYPD officers from the university’s Morningside Heights campus.

    The divestment demand withdrawal comes as SWC-UAW and Columbia administration have remained deadlocked in negotiations over a new collective bargaining contract, which the union originally expected to finalize by June 2025, when its first contract was set to expire. Talks have stalled over a fundamental disagreement: what counts as a permissible “workplace issue” for collective bargaining under the existing 2018 framework that governs negotiations between the two parties.

    To date, the union has put forward 34 separate contract articles covering everything from wage increases and healthcare benefits to job security protections amid growing adoption of artificial intelligence in academic work. But Columbia administration has refused to negotiate on the majority of these proposals, arguing they fall outside the bounds of the 2018 bargaining framework, which restricts negotiations to narrow workplace issues rather than academic or operational institutional policy. Under the U.S. National Labor Relations Act, both parties are only legally required to bargain over mandatory subjects such as wages and working conditions, leaving policy-focused proposals like divestment outside of mandatory bargaining requirements.

    As negotiations continue, Columbia is still on track to open its long-planned Tel Aviv global center this coming summer, a milestone that pro-Palestinian activists have repeatedly sought to block.

  • The ‘Board of Peace’ announced a Palestinian body will take Hamas weapons. That’s not what Trump said

    The ‘Board of Peace’ announced a Palestinian body will take Hamas weapons. That’s not what Trump said

    A public discrepancy between U.S. President Donald Trump and the Board of Peace, an organization Trump himself serves as lifetime chairman of, has emerged over who will take control of weapons as Hamas implements its pledged disarmament in Gaza, injecting new uncertainty into a fragile ceasefire framework announced last week. The contradiction arose during Trump’s first on-camera press availability at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, where a reporter asked who would assume custody of Hamas’ weapons as part of the disarmament plan. When asked whether the weapons would transfer to a new Palestinian governing body, Trump flatly stated the Board of Peace would oversee collection of the armaments, praising the body as an extraordinary initiative led by exceptional leaders.

    What made Trump’s remarks notable is that just hours before the press conference, the Board of Peace had published a public statement on social platform X outlining a very different arrangement. The board’s framework laid out a roadmap of full demilitarization, de-radicalization, and a full transfer of all civilian and security governing authority in Gaza to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), a Palestinian technocratic body. It explicitly emphasized that only the NCAG would be authorized to hold, store, and control all weapons within the Gaza Strip. This wording was widely viewed as a deliberate compromise to win Hamas’ support for the plan, as the group has long insisted it will only engage with Palestinian institutions to advance Palestinian national unity.

    The conflicting claims have highlighted the growing confusion surrounding the disarmament plan, which was first included in Trump’s 20-point Gaza proposal released last year. Analysts and insiders have offered conflicting assessments of whether the contradiction is a meaningful rift or simply a misstatement of process. Guy Ziv, associate director of the Meltzer Schwartzberg Center for Israel Studies at American University, framed the discrepancy as just the latest example of the chaotic and uncoordinated nature of the current proposal.

    However, Bishara Bahbah, a Palestinian-American former leader of Arab Americans for Trump who served as a key backchannel between Hamas and Trump’s negotiating team ahead of the October ceasefire announcement, pushed back on the idea of a major conflict. He argued the two statements are not contradictory, explaining the Board of Peace’s reference to the NCAG means the technocratic committee will collect the weapons before transferring them to a third party, most likely Egypt, where the weapons will be permanently removed from Hamas’ access. “It’s not a contradiction. The Board of Peace would collect [the weapons], meaning the technocratic committee that would run Gaza, and they’re not going to keep them themselves. They’re probably going to hand them to some other party, most likely the Egyptians. And the Egyptians, once they have those weapons, those weapons are gone. Meaning Hamas is not going to ever see them again,” Bahbah told Middle East Eye.

    Even as stakeholders work to resolve the confusion over the weapons handover, the broader plan remains far from a finalized, actionable agreement, existing more as a broad roadmap than a step-by-step implementation schedule. Hamas clarified on Friday that its commitment to full disarmament of all Palestinian factions in Gaza is conditional on both the U.S. and Israel honoring all commitments outlined in the 10 October ceasefire deal. As of Friday, Israeli drone strikes continued across Gaza, leaving at least two Palestinians dead. Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas representative, told Reuters that the group will retain its weapons until Israel halts all military operations, allows expanded entry of humanitarian aid and commercial goods into Gaza, and withdraws all Israeli military forces from the enclave.

    When asked what assurances he had received from Israel that it would comply with its obligations under the plan, Trump told reporters he has a standing understanding with Israel, and that “Israel is very happy about it. Israel helped us, and they’ve been very good.” But Israeli officials have openly rejected the plan, creating a major hurdle to implementation. Michael Koplow, chief policy officer for the Washington-based Israeli Policy Forum think tank, wrote on X that he believes Israel’s current strategy is to publicly approve the framework to shift blame to Palestinians if talks collapse. “Israeli strategy with Trump has been [to] say yes, count on the other side saying no, and assign the blame when nothing moves forward onto the Palestinian side,” Koplow noted.

    Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir went further, publicly stating that the Israeli government has not agreed to any terms of the plan. “The draft agreement published by the ‘Peace Council’ is not acceptable to Israel,” he wrote in Hebrew. “The targeted killings in Gaza must continue, encouraging emigration must happen, Israel must win.” With Israeli national elections scheduled in less than two months, incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced strong political pressure to avoid any perceived concessions on issues related to Palestinians, making compromise on the disarmament plan unlikely in the near term.

    Bahbah argued that the plan can only move forward if Trump personally intervenes to pressure Israel to comply, noting that current Secretary of State Marco Rubio is widely seen as unilaterally pro-Israel and hostile to Palestinian interests, actively working to block progress on issues such as allowing Palestinians to travel to the U.S. “Unless the president himself is convinced… into making this a priority, Israel is going to find one excuse after the other,” Bahbah said.

    Beyond the immediate dispute over weapons collection, analysts have questioned the Trump administration’s long-term vision for Palestinian statehood, a core demand of nearly all Board of Peace stakeholders, particularly Arab, Muslim, and European partners. “What is the vision that the administration has? They’re not really using the two-state discourse that has been used for 25 years since Bill Clinton,” Ziv noted. “How are they going to square the circle here? Netanyahu is not going to agree… to a Palestinian state. That’s not happening.” Previous reporting from Middle East Eye has indicated the Trump administration may be willing to delay progress until after the Israeli election, waiting to see if Netanyahu is voted out of office.

    While it remains uncertain how fully Hamas will implement disarmament as long as Israeli military threats persist, the current draft plan calls for Hamas to first transfer its heavy weapons, including mortars and rocket launchers, followed by small arms such as Kalashnikov rifles. Bahbah noted that Hamas’ commitment to end weapons development, smuggling, and public military displays in Gaza was a difficult concession for the group, given that Israel has continued to violate ceasefire terms on a daily basis and target Hamas leaders in Gaza.

    As of Thursday, Gaza’s Ministry of Health has confirmed that at least 73,341 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the 7 October 2023 attacks on southern Israel led by Hamas. More than 1,200 of those deaths have occurred after the 10 October ceasefire announcement, killed by Israeli sniper fire or airstrikes. Overall, more than 174,000 Palestinians have been wounded in the conflict.

    Despite the domestic political hurdles in Israel and ongoing tensions, international reaction to the disarmament announcement has been largely positive, though tempered with calls for full compliance from all parties. Saudi Arabia, which has been seeking a normalization agreement with Israel that was derailed by the 7 October attacks, described the Board of Peace announcement as historic. “The Kingdom commends President Trump’s leadership and steadfast commitment, which have been instrumental in achieving this significant milestone,” the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement. “The Kingdom also emphasizes the importance of the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, the deployment of the International Stabilization Force, and the continued, unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance and reconstruction support to the Palestinian people.”

    Kaja Kallas, European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, called the developments constructive, while noting that significant challenges remain. “A lot needs to fall in place for this to work. Success depends on the full commitment of all parties. Verifying Hamas’ compliance will be a significant challenge. Israel would need to eventually withdraw from Gaza,” Kallas wrote on X. She added that the EU remains Gaza’s largest humanitarian donor, having pledged €900 million in aid for Gaza recovery in July.

    Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who is currently involved in mediation talks between the U.S. and Iran, welcomed the disarmament plan and called for full Israeli withdrawal. “The mediating countries including the United States of America, Egypt, Qatar, and Turkiye, deserve special appreciation for their efforts in achieving this progress. Under President Trump’s courageous leadership, this represents a significant achievement for the Board of Peace,” Sharif wrote. “Pakistan also hopes that these efforts will lead to the realization of the right to self-determination of the people of Palestine.”

    Canada, which was disinvited from the Board of Peace by Trump after it criticized the body’s membership structure, also called the announcement an important step forward. “As one of the largest donors to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the West Bank, Canada stands ready to contribute to this effort,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney wrote on X. “We remain committed to a just and lasting resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, based on a negotiated two-state solution in which Israeli and Palestinian people can live in peace, security and dignity.”

  • India’s ‘cockroach’ protesters have wounds consistent with pellet-gun fire, say experts

    India’s ‘cockroach’ protesters have wounds consistent with pellet-gun fire, say experts

    Last week’s mass protest in central Delhi, organized by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) to demand education reforms and the resignation of India’s education minister, descended into extreme violence on July 20. What began as a peaceful march toward the Indian parliament has sparked a national controversy after independent ballistic and forensic experts confirmed to the BBC that at least four injured protesters sustained wounds consistent with pellet gun use by security forces — a finding that directly contradicts official denials from Indian law enforcement and government officials.

    Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered for the protest, which was sparked by widespread anger over repeated leaks of high-stakes government recruitment and academic exams. Eyewitness accounts and video footage show police and paramilitary personnel responding to the crowd with baton charges, wooden stick beatings, and tear gas. Official government figures put the number of injured at 60 protesters and 118 security personnel, but CJP leaders say the actual count of injured demonstrators is far higher. In the weeks following the crackdown, senior government officials have repeatedly refused to confirm emerging media reports of pellet gun deployment against crowds.

    Pellet guns, more formally 12-gauge pump-action shotguns loaded with “birdshot” cartridges, fire between 200 and 400 small toxic lead pellets that spread in a wide arc when fired, striking bystanders and protesters indiscriminately. Originally designed for bird hunting, the weapons are banned or strictly restricted for crowd control use in dozens of countries due to their potential to cause permanent, life-changing injury. Even at distances of up to 100 feet, experts note, pellet shots can cause devastating harm, with lead pellets often remaining embedded in soft tissue long after the incident.

    The BBC collected photographic evidence, medical records, and firsthand testimony from four injured protesters, which was reviewed by two independent armament and forensic specialists. Philip Boyce, a UK-based ballistics forensic scientist, told the outlet the dozens of tiny round puncture wounds visible in photos are a definitive marker of birdshot injuries. “The injuries depicted are definitely from a pellet gun,” Boyce said, identifying the weapon used as a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun. He added that while the Delhi injuries appear to have been fired from a distance of at least 50 yards, they can still be life-threatening and cause long-term health complications from toxic lead exposure.

    NR Jenzen-Jones, director of the UK-based Armament Research Services (ARES), confirmed Boyce’s assessment, noting that imagery from the protest shows police deploying shotguns for crowd control, and the injury patterns match those typical of birdshot use. “While shotguns are a common tool in the less-lethal arsenals of many states, Indian law enforcement agencies have a long history of employing shotgun cartridges loaded with small lead pellets… in crowd-control scenarios,” Jenzen-Jones explained. He added that the weapons are not safe for crowd management: “They can result in life-changing or, occasionally, life-threatening injuries. They also pepper the body with toxic lead, which can sometimes be difficult to remove safely.”

    Multiple injured protesters have shared their firsthand accounts of the violence with the BBC. A 28-year-old journalist, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said he was walking near Connaught Place — a busy commercial hub adjacent to parliament — when he saw a security officer aim a weapon at him. He turned to run, and seconds later felt a burning pain on his right arm and back. Medical records from Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital confirm 30 embedded pellets: 26 on his right elbow and four on his upper right back. Doctors have advised against surgery to remove the pellets, warning it could worsen his injury, leaving the journalist worried about long-term health effects and permanent scarring.

    Shaikh Irshad Mansoori, a Gurugram-based private sector employee, suffered more severe injuries when a member of the Rapid Action Force (RAF), a paramilitary unit under the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), fired on his group of protesters. Scans confirm more than 40 pellets embedded across his body, including three lodged deep in his neck, left eye muscle, and under his nose. Surgeons were only able to safely remove seven pellets, leaving the pellet in his neck in place due to the high risk of surgery. More than 10 days after the incident, Mansoori says he still experiences persistent pain.

    The most high-profile injured protester is 19-year-old Delhi University student Sahil Lochab, who appeared alongside opposition leader Rahul Gandhi at a press conference held by the Indian National Congress last Saturday. Lochab, who joined the protest after his police recruitment exam was canceled last year due to a paper leak, now risks permanent blindness in one eye from pellet injuries. Images show dozens of tiny pellet punctures covering one side of his face, his right arm, and his torso. “I couldn’t see who fired the pellet gun but it came from the side where the forces were,” Lochab said. “My right eye was swollen so much that it felt it had popped out of my face… I want justice. Whoever did this to me doesn’t deserve to be in power.”

    Senior officials have pushed back against the allegations. Delhi Police initially called all claims of pellet gun use “completely false and misleading,” stating the force does not even possess pellet guns. Recent Indian media reports have attributed the firing to the RAF, which falls under the command of the CRPF. The BBC has reached out to CRPF chief Gyanendra Pratap Singh for comment, but has not received a response. In a parliamentary address Wednesday, Union Minister Jitendra Singh stated no bullets were fired during the protest and only tear gas was used, but he declined to directly address questions about pellet gun deployment. Gandhi has called for the dismissal of Home Minister Amit Shah, who oversees both Delhi Police and the CRPF.

    Notably, pellet guns have a long controversial history of use in Indian-administered Kashmir, where security forces have deployed the weapons against protesters since 2010. Data compiled by Human Rights Watch shows pellet gun use there has injured thousands of people, killed at least 17, and left dozens permanently blind. If confirmed, the use of pellet guns on protesters in Delhi marks the first time the weapons have been deployed against citizens in India’s national capital, escalating concerns about excessive force against political demonstrators.

  • What we know about the Pakistan avalanche and missing climbers

    What we know about the Pakistan avalanche and missing climbers

    A devastating avalanche in Pakistan has left the mountaineering community in mourning, as rescue operations press forward to locate seven missing climbers three bodies have already been pulled from the snow and debris by emergency response teams. The disaster, which struck in one of the country’s popular high-altitude climbing regions, triggered an immediate large-scale search and recovery effort amid challenging conditions. Himalayan climbing expeditions have long carried inherent risks, but unpredictable weather patterns and shifting snowpack in recent years have amplified the danger for adventurers exploring the region’s iconic peaks. Local emergency services have been working around the clock, navigating treacherous terrain and residual avalanche risk to reach the site of the incident and locate the remaining unaccounted-for climbers. As of the latest update, no additional survivors or bodies have been extracted from the avalanche path, leaving families of the missing in a state of anxious waiting. Authorities have not yet released full details about the nationalities of the climbers or the exact location where the avalanche occurred, but confirm that search operations will continue as weather conditions allow.

  • Hamas says it will ‘disarm when Israel keeps its word’

    Hamas says it will ‘disarm when Israel keeps its word’

    An unreleased 15-point Gaza disarmament framework, obtained exclusively by Middle East Eye (MEE), upends popular public narratives about the proposed agreement by outlining a fully Palestinian-led process that keeps all weapons out of Israeli and international hands, rather than requiring factions to surrender their arms.

    The draft agreement came to light after former U.S. President Donald Trump claimed Thursday that the U.S.-backed Board of Peace had secured a binding deal to disarm Hamas and all other armed Palestinian groups in Gaza, framing the announcement as a breakthrough for his 20-point Middle East peace plan and the establishment of a new transitional Palestinian administration. “This is a monumental step toward lasting PEACE and SECURITY,” Trump posted on his social platform Truth Social, adding that Israeli forces would withdraw from occupied areas of Gaza as disarmament was finalized, and that a UN-mandated International Stabilization Force would partner with a new Palestinian police force.

    Hamas pushed back on the announcement within 24 hours, issuing a statement that any final deal for the full disarmament of Palestinian factions is contingent on Israel and the United States fulfilling all commitments laid out in the October 2025 ceasefire agreement. Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad told Reuters Friday that the group will retain its arms until Israel ends all military attacks, facilitates increased entry of humanitarian aid and commercial goods into Gaza, and completes a full withdrawal of its forces from territory it currently controls, in line with the 2025 truce terms.

    Despite Trump’s public framing that the deal requires Hamas to lay down its arms under external pressure, the draft text obtained by MEE paints a drastically different picture. The agreement explicitly states that no weapons will be transferred or surrendered to Israel or any non-Palestinian entity. Instead, all weapons in Gaza will be placed under the oversight of the National Committee, a transitional Palestinian governing body that will hold exclusive authority over weapons registration, licensing, storage, and enforcement by the end of the disarmament process.

    The deal frames weapons collection and inventory as an entirely domestic Palestinian process, with all Palestinian factions, clans, and community groups required to cooperate with the National Committee. International actors will only monitor the process, not lead or enforce it, and armed Palestinian factions will participate directly in the work. Notably, the agreement enshrines a phased implementation structure where progress to each next stage depends on the verified completion of the previous stage’s obligations, a structure that explicitly ties all weapons-related steps to a gradual Israeli withdrawal from the areas of Gaza it still occupies.

    Three critical preconditions must be met before the disarmament process can even begin: completion of all remaining obligations under the existing Sharm El-Sheikh Protocol, the entry of the National Committee into Gaza, and the full deployment of the International Stabilization Force. As of August 2026, none of these preconditions have been fulfilled. The text requires parties to finalize a full implementation timeline within 14 days of the agreement’s signing, a window that can be extended by the International Verification Committee, a body made up of international guarantor states, the Board of Peace, and the International Stabilization Force.

    Contrary to public messaging that positions the International Stabilization Force as the primary security guarantor for the transition period, the draft assigns the force a far more limited mandate. The agreement explicitly bars the international force from carrying out policing duties within Palestinian society, enforcing ceasefires, or training Palestinian police. Its only authorized roles are monitoring compliance from all parties, tracking the flow of humanitarian aid and essential goods into Gaza, and completing non-policing tasks requested by the National Committee. All internal security responsibilities remain fully under the control of the transitional Palestinian body.

    One of the most consequential, underreported clauses of the draft rules out the integration of former militia fighters into formal Palestinian security services or police forces, a common practice in post-conflict disarmament processes designed to stabilize demobilized combatants. The agreement states that militia weapons will be logged and stored under the National Committee’s authority, but does not guarantee fighters positions in new state security institutions. Only existing police personnel are granted protections: officers who fail required vetting will be offered alternative civilian roles matching their expertise or retired with full financial benefits per Palestinian law. For militia fighters, the text only offers a vague promise of future “reintegration and social support” that leaves their fate undecided.

    Another little-noticed provision places a strict $400 million cap on the National Committee’s total financial obligations to suppliers, contractors, and other third parties, to be implemented gradually over three years per the committee’s priority setting. Any claims or liabilities exceeding that cap will be deferred to a future broader national reconciliation process. Analysts note that the modest cap underscores the severely depleted state of Gaza’s institutional finances ahead of any large-scale reconstruction funding.

    Israel has not yet publicly acknowledged the existence of the draft agreement, and an unnamed Israeli political source quoted by Israeli daily Haaretz stated that Israel has no intention of withdrawing from the Yellow Line, a strategic corridor that splits the Gaza Strip in half. The divergent public positions of all key parties leave the future of the proposed framework uncertain, given Israel’s history of failing to uphold previous agreements with Palestinian groups, and Hamas’s firm refusal to move forward without Israeli compliance with existing ceasefire terms.