Global Outlook

  U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday in a bid to salvage Gaza truce talks and tackle a humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s military assault in the enclave, where a global hunger monitor has warned that famine is unfolding. Shortly after Witkoff’s arrival, U.S. President Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social network: “The fastest way to end the Humanitarian Crises in Gaza is for Hamas to SURRENDER AND RELEASE THE HOSTAGES!!” The U.S. State Department also announced sanctions on officials of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization, saying the groups were undermining peace efforts. It was Washington’s latest apparent diplomatic shift backing Israel against the Palestinians and diverging from its European allies. The PA and PLO, rivals of the Hamas fighters that control Gaza, are internationally accepted as the representatives of the Palestinian people and administrators of a Palestinian state that...

  The streets of Rafah have become a dystopian nightmare. On a recent day, at least 27 Palestinians were killed and over 180 wounded by Israeli gunfire near a U.S.-backed aid distribution site, marking the third such massacre in as many days. Witnesses described scenes of chaos: families scrambling for flour bags stained with blood, children collapsing from gunshot wounds, and the deafening roar of tank shells and drones overhead. The Israeli military claims it only fired “warning shots” at “suspects” who strayed from designated routes — but survivors say the shooting was indiscriminate and unrelenting. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the Israel-and-U.S.-backed group running the aid sites, insists its operations were “safe and without incident.” Yet the killings occurred just half a kilometer from their facility, in what the GHF later called a “closed military zone.” This contradiction highlights a grim reality: Israel’s new aid system funnels starving civilians into milita...

  At least 17 Palestinians have been killed and dozens more wounded after Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd of displaced Palestinians waiting for food near a distribution site operated by the Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in central Gaza, local health authorities said. Doctors said casualties were sent to the Al-Awda Hospital in central Gaza and Al-Quds Hospital in the north. The Israeli military has killed at least 36 people since dawn on Tuesday, according to medical officials. Massacres of Palestinians near GHF sites have become almost a daily occurrence since the organisation started operating at the end of May, with hundreds of people being killed and wounded by Israeli troops. GHF has consistently denied reports of violence at its facilities, though the Israeli military has admitted firing on civilians on several occasions. Meanwhile, a UN report has accused the Israeli military of the crime of extermination by targeting schools and religious sites in what it...