Israel / Palestine

UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged the Security Council on Wednesday “to work in lock-step” to end the escalating violence between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants across the Blue Line in southern Lebanon.

The General Assembly passed a resolution demanding an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestine within the next twelve months by an overwhelming margin on Wednesday. The vote came in the middle of its 10th emergency special session considering Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Israel acknowledged Tuesday that its forces had likely shot dead an American citizen near a demonstration last week in the occupied West Bank, leading Secretary of State Antony Blinken to call for “fundamental changes” in the way the Israel Defense Forces operates there, “including changes to their rules of engagement.”

The U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday that the United Nations has offered to help monitor any eventual cease-fire to halt the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza, but that it is “unrealistic” to think that the world agency would directly administer the territory or provide a peacekeeping force.

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has told the BBC that justice must be seen to be done after seeking an arrest warrant for Israel's prime minister and defence minister. 

The Hamas militant group Thursday accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of working to prevent a cease-fire deal for the war in Gaza, a day after Netanyahu said Israel will combine military pressure with a firm stance on its demands. A Hamas statement said talks about a new cease-fire proposal are unnecessary since the group agreed to a July proposal put forward by the United States.

U.N. Security Council members expressed frustration Wednesday with the failure to conclude a cease-fire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas, amid the killing of six Israeli hostages and the escalation of violence in the West Bank.

Amid further raids, airstrikes and settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, warned that the Israeli military’s actions risked further enflaming an “already explosive situation”.

The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) until 31 August 2025, stressing the importance of — and the need to achieve — a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

Some 60 media and rights organisations on Monday urged the European Union to suspend a co-operation accord with Israel and impose sanctions, accusing it of "massacring journalists" in Gaza.