Global Outlook

  Canada will recognize   a Palestinian state   in September, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on Wednesday, the latest in a series of symbolic announcements that are part of a   broader global shift against Israel’s policies   in Gaza. Carney convened a Cabinet meeting to discuss the situation in the battered Palestinian territory. He said it came after he discussed the crisis with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer who  announced a similar move  on Tuesday. Leaders are under mounting pressure over the issue as  scenes of hunger in Gaza  have horrified so many across the world. “The level of human suffering in Gaza is intolerable,” Carney said. “Canada intends to recognize the State of Palestine at the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2025,” Carney said — a move that he said was predicated on the Palestinian Authority “holding general elections in 2026 in which Hamas can play no part, and to demilitarize ...

  The Netherlands will ban two far-right Israeli ministers from entering the country, in the latest European response to the rapidly deteriorating   situation in Gaza , the country’s foreign minister said. The ban and other measures were announced in a letter Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp sent to lawmakers late Monday evening, declaring “The war in Gaza must stop.” The ban targets hard-line National Security Minister  Itamar Ben-Gvir  and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, key partners in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition. The pair are champions of the Israeli settlement movement who support continuing the war in Gaza, facilitating what they call  the voluntary emigration of its Palestinian population  and the building of Jewish settlements there. Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway  imposed financial sanctions  on the two men last month. Later on Tuesday, leaders will meet in Brussels to discuss a European Union resp...

  The Israeli military began a limited pause in  fighting in three populated areas of Gaza  for 10 hours a day as part of a series of steps that it says would give the United Nations and other aid agencies secure land routes to tackle a deepening hunger crisis. The Israel Defense Forces said it would begin a “tactical pause” in Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and Muwasi, three areas of the territory with large populations, to “increase the scale of humanitarian aid” entering the Gaza Strip. It said the pause would begin every day at 10 a.m. local time, effective Sunday, and continue until further notice. “Whichever path we choose, we will have to continue to allow the entry of minimal humanitarian supplies,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. Israel said Monday that more than 120 truckloads of food aid were distributed by the U.N. and aid agencies in the Gaza Strip, French news agency AFP reported. The military early Sunday  carried out aid airdr...

  Gaza ceasefire talks were dealt a new blow on Thursday when the US and Israel withdrew their negotiating teams from Qatar, with the Trump administration saying Hamas is not acting in good faith. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his ceasefire negotiators will return to Israel from Qatar, a key mediator, for further consultations. Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East, said the US was doing the same. They made the decision after Israel studied Hamas’s latest response on Wednesday to a proposal for a 60-day truce. Israel and Hamas agree on the broad outlines: 10 living and and around 18 deceased hostages would be freed from Gaza during the ceasefire, and a yet-to-be-determined number of Palestinians in Israeli jails would be released. The sides would also negotiate a permanent end to the war. Yet they disagree over the extent of the pullback of Israeli forces from territory in Gaza. In addition, Hamas — designated a terrorist orga...

  Israel and Ukraine on Wednesday (Jul 23) announced they would begin formal talks on countering what they described as the  growing threat posed by Iran , signalling closer ties between the two countries amid shared security concerns. Speaking at a joint press conference in Kyiv, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said the two nations had decided to launch “a separate dialogue on the Iranian threat.” “Our countries face common security challenges,” Sybiga said, describing Iran as an “existential threat” to global stability. Israel has long accused Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies. Ukraine, meanwhile, has regularly been targeted by Iranian-designed drones used by Russian forces in the ongoing war. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, the most senior Israeli official to visit Ukraine since 2023, said any steps to limit Tehran’s access to weapons and technology would benefit European and Ukrainian security. “I thank President (Volodymyr) ...

  New Zealand joined 24 other countries including, Britain, Japan and a host of European nations in issuing a joint statement overnight saying the war in Gaza “must end now” — the latest sign of allies’ sharpening language as Israel’s isolation deepens. The foreign ministers of countries also including Australia and Canada said “the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths”. They condemned “the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food”. The statement described as “horrifying” the recent deaths of over 800 Palestinians who were  seeking aid , according to the figures released by Gaza’s Health Ministry and the UN human rights office. “The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity,” the countries said. “The Israeli government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unaccep...

  More than two dozen Western countries called for an immediate end to the war in Gaza on Monday, saying that suffering there had “reached new depths” as Israel’s military expanded its operations to the central city of Deir el-Balah. After more than 21 months of fighting that have triggered catastrophic humanitarian conditions for Gaza’s more than two million people, Israeli allies Britain, France, Australia, Canada and 21 other countries, plus the EU, said in a joint statement that the war “must end now”. “The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths,” the signatories added, urging a negotiated ceasefire, the release of hostages held by Palestinian militants and the free flow of much-needed aid. The plea came as Deir el-Balah came under intense shelling on Monday, after Israel’s military warned of imminent action in an area where it had not previously operated. The military a day earlier had ordered those in the central Gaza area to leave immediately as it was expandi...