Israel is exploiting the vacuum left by southern Syria’s sectarian clashes and a weak state: Several days of bitter sectarian fighting in the south of Syria has brought the fledgling government in Damascus dangerously close to direct conflict with Israel, after Israeli warplanes launched strikes against government buildings in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on July …
World Affairs Briefing: World considers response to Trump’s tariffs – and Israel launches new Gaza offensive: This article was first published in The Conversation UK’s World Affairs Briefing email newsletter. Sign up to receive weekly analysis of the latest developments in international relations, direct to your inbox. Donald Trump has announced a massive package of …
Palestinian Authority joins Israel in attacking Al Jazeera raising concerns about press freedom: The Palestinian Authority (PA) has suspended Al Jazeera from broadcasting in the West Bank in response to the Qatari network’s coverage of conflict between the PA and Palestinian armed groups in the region. The closure follows Israel’s raid on Al Jazeera’s West …
Gaza update: as assault on Rafah continues international sentiment shifts away from supporting Israel: If Israel’s ongoing assault on Rafah on the Gaza Strip is anything to go on, the concept of “red lines”, so beloved of US presidents as a measure of when to take action, is increasingly flexible. Back in February, when the …
Why Iran’s failed attack on Israel may well turn out to be a strategic success: saeediex/Shutterstock As midnight approached on April 13, over 300 weapons were launched from Iran towards Israel. This included 185 drones, 110 ballistic missiles and 36 cruise missiles. The vast majority were shot down by Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system …
Gaza war: Israel using AI to identify human targets raising fears that innocents are being caught in the net: Death by algorithm: increasingly AI is being used to identify targets, as in Gaza. TSViPhoto/Shutterstock A report by Jerusalem-based investigative journalists published in +972 magazine finds that AI targeting systems have played a key role in …
US calls for UN vote on immediate ceasefire in Gaza – what this shift says about America’s relationship with Israel: The United States has significantly shifted its position on Gaza by submitting a UN security council resolution calling for an “immediate and sustained ceasefire”, tied to the release of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas. This …
Gaza update: Biden ups the pressure on Israel as deadline for Rafah assault approaches: Joe Biden’s most senior Middle East adviser, Brett McGurk, has arrived in Israel to push for a deal to halt the war in Gaza and secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. McGurk has served each successive president since …
UN’s top court orders Israel to ‘prevent genocide’ in Gaza but fails to call for immediate ceasefire: In a landmark decision – and with the whole world watching – the International Court of Justice in The Hague has ordered Israel to “take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of acts of genocide” …
US election: how a Trump victory could embolden Russia, China and Israel: A potential second term as president for Donald Trump is likely to result in an America-first, America-alone foreign policy. The ramifications for the rest of the world could be huge, potentially endangering international security around the globe. So it’s no wonder that the …
South Africa’s legal team in the genocide case against Israel has won praise. Who are they?: South African justice minister Ronald Lamola led a top legal team to argue the country’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 11 January. South Africa argues that Israel’s indiscriminate retaliatory bombing and siege …
South Africa’s genocide case against Israel: expert sets out what to expect from the International Court of Justice: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will be holding public hearings on 11-12 January at the Peace Palace in The Hague, the seat of the court, in a case brought by South Africa against Israel. South Africa …
How Israel failed to learn from the Northern Ireland peace process: There is no peace in the Middle East because there is no effective peace process. This isn’t because the Palestinians and Israelis do not know how to make peace. They do. The Good Friday agreement which brought peace to Northern Ireland a quarter of …
Gaza war: US-Israel relationship is in period of transition as Biden says Israel is losing support: With US president Joe Biden under increasing pressure to alter his policy towards Israel, it is significant that he has said publicly that Israel is starting to lose international support for its offensive over “indiscriminate” bombing of Gaza. His …
Gaza war: how Hezbollah has opened a second front inside Israel: While the attention of the world has focused on Israel’s assault on Gaza over the past two months, following Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, one aspect of the Middle East conflict not getting a great deal of news coverage has been the …
Gaza war: Hamas’s web of allies in the October 7 attacks makes ending the conflict much harder for Israel: There have been reports that Hamas cooperated with a number of other armed groups to stage the October 7 attacks. If correct, this indicates substantial challenges for Israel – especially when it comes to ending the …
Israel and Palestine in the therapist’s office: how counsellors support people without taking sides: SeventyFour/Shutterstock War and politics can cause serious mental anguish and trauma, even for people thousands of miles away from a conflict. Counsellors who specialise in loss and grief may well meet clients who have lost relatives in conflicts such as those …
Gaza Update: as the world debates ‘ceasefires’ and ‘pauses’, Israel is silent on the ‘day after’: I spent several hours on Wednesday night wrestling over how we could best cover the raid by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital. My initial plan was to get an expert in international law to write …