Eleven European countries, including Spain, in addition to Canada, denounce the deteriorating situation in the West Bank and have announced that they are considering restricting trade in products from Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law. In a joint statement published this Tuesday in Paris, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Ireland, Iceland, Norway, Poland, Portugal and Sweden have stated that the expansion of settlements and settler violence in the Palestinian territory bordering Jordan put at risk the prospect of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

The President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed, warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Hamas was planning a major operation against Israel days before the October 7 attacks, according to an investigation published this Tuesday by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Netanyahu reportedly dismissed the warning, even though the Emirati president, in a 45-minute direct conversation, had asked him to take the threat seriously. The conversation took place about ten days before the attacks, according to the newspaper, which cites three senior officials familiar with its content.

In Metula, there is not much time to react. When a siren sounds, the inhabitants know they have between fifteen and twenty seconds to reach the nearest shelter. If they do not reach it, there is only one last instruction that everyone knows by heart: lie down on the ground, protect your head with your hands, and hope that the shrapnel does not fall too close.

It is common for Israeli senior officials, once retired, to criticize the government and denounce the occupation of the Palestinian territories, and sometimes even the systematic ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population or the no less systematic persecution and dispossession in general. They make comments to this effect, which in some cases are public.

In January 2024, amidst the Israeli offensive against Gaza, Hind Rajab, a six-year-old girl, was traveling with six other members of her family in a car in the Strip's capital. Suddenly, someone opened fire on the car. Unlike her relatives, who died during the attack, the girl survived the shooting, but days later a rescue team found her lifeless body next to two of the medics who had tried to save her in an ambulance.

Israel's National Security Minister, the far-right Itamar Ben-Gvir, stated that Israeli forces should "kill 30 or 40" Palestinians every night in Gaza, in addition to those who may pose "a danger at this specific moment." Ben-Gvir made these statements to Rom Braslavski – who was kidnapped on October 7 and held in the Strip by Palestinian militias – in an episode of a podcast published on Sunday. "There are people there who do not deserve to live. They are not even human," the far-right politician added.

Sixty days. This was the deadline that the United States and Iran gave themselves to transform the memorandum of understanding signed in June into a final agreement. The deadline expires this Monday without this agreement having been reached. And during these two months, the understanding that was supposed to contain the war has been on the verge of causing it to explode again. In fact, in the last few hours Tehran has raised its tone again: a high-ranking commander of the Revolutionary Guard has warned that its defensive stance will become "offensive" and has threatened with "strategic surprises" against the enemy.

Several Palestinian families from Qusra, in the north of the West Bank, have been trapped in their homes for days, besieged by Israeli settlers who have blocked access to the homes and cut off their water and electricity supplies. The Israeli army has reinforced its deployment in the town and initially ordered the evacuation of about fifteen homes, in an operation that comes amid a full escalation of settler violence in the West Bank. The evacuation order, however, was withdrawn shortly after, and the army assured that residents can stay in their homes.

Every few minutes an explosion interrupts the conversation. A dry crackle. Then another. And another. In the background, on Ali Taher hill, a column of smoke rises again. An Israeli drone slowly flies over the entrance to Zautar al-Gharbiyah while a small Lebanese army checkpoint regulates access to the village. It is the first "pilot zone" of the agreement negotiated between Lebanon and Israel under the auspices of the United States. On paper, it was supposed to symbolize the beginning of the Lebanese state's return to the south. On the ground, it is hard to imagine anyone living there again.

The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced this Sunday that he rejects the 15-point plan announced by the President of the United States, Donald Trump, to move towards the second phase of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and reiterated that the Israeli army will not abandon the Palestinian enclave until Hamas is disarmed.

A prison surrounded by crocodiles seems like the plot of a fictional movie, but it has become a real proposal within the Israeli political debate. The initiative promoted by the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, to use Nile crocodiles as a deterrent around a center housing Palestinian prisoners, has once again put the focus on the "Israeli prison system.

Morocco likes to recall that it was the first country to recognize the independence of the United States. A long-standing relationship that has accelerated dramatically under Donald Trump. The trigger was when, in 2020, Rabat adhered to the Abraham Accords, promoted by the Republican during his first term to normalize relations between Israel and Arab countries. In exchange, Washington recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. This transaction laid the groundwork for the current triangulation of interests between the US, Israel, and Morocco in Africa.

At ten in the morning, when the sun is already warming the sand, the Dead Sea seems indifferent to the noise of the country. The still water reflects the mountains of Jordan, the first visitors enter the beach with their skin covered in mud, and the hotels on the coast reopen terraces overlooking one of the most unique landscapes on the planet.

Israel will go to the polls with an open institutional wound. In the final hours before the dissolution of Parliament, the government has pushed through a package of laws that reactivates a conflict that marked the beginning of the legislature: the struggle between the government and the Supreme Court for control of the state's main power mechanisms.

The West Bank has experienced one of the most explosive days in recent months. A shooting in the village of Tell, southwest of Nablus, in which at least four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers died, triggered a massive wave of settler attacks against several Palestinian communities early this morning. Israeli authorities have arrested seventy Palestinians, who have been taken to an interrogation center set up in a house in the village where the incident took place. The army and settlers have organized raids in which they have carried out more arbitrary arrests, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised "forceful measures," such as demolishing the house of one of those involved in the riots and building new settlements in the area. Israeli settlers have attacked several Palestinian villages, including Urif, Surra, Far'ata, Jit, Imatin, Khirbet Imreiha, Iraq Burin, and the Masafer Yatta area, in the north and center of the West Bank. In Urif, a home was set on fire and at least one Palestinian was injured. In Far'ata, settlers burned agricultural land and shot a man in the chest, who is in critical condition. Other videos shared by residents of various localities show homes, businesses, and vehicles on fire, excavators uprooting olive trees, as well as the word revenge painted on the walls. In some of the incidents, according to local sources, Israeli troops dispersed Palestinian residents with tear gas.The incident that precipitated the escalation occurred after a group of Israeli settlers entered a restricted military zone without authorization or coordination with the army, according to the Israeli army. From here, the versions diverge. The army maintains that the settlers were on an unauthorized excursion when they were attacked and that a Palestinian snatched the weapon from one of the security members before opening fire. Palestinian witnesses, on the other hand, assure that it was the settlers, with the support of the soldiers present, who began to shoot at the inhabitants of the village.A video recorded during the events shows an armed settler trying to push two Palestinians away by pushing them with his rifle. A struggle for the weapon then ensues, while shouts of revenge in Hebrew are heard in the background. Moments later, one of the Palestinians appears holding the rifle and at least a dozen shots are heard coming from different points. Be that as it may, the result was four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers dead, one of whom was also a settler, according to the Efe agency.A pretext to intensify the offensive

After the events in Tell, the Israeli Prime Minister and Defense Minister, Israel Katz, announced that they would intensify military operations in villages that Israel considers "a hotbed of terrorism." They announced new military deployments, the demolition of homes of suspects who may have participated in the Tell incident, the confiscation of weapons, and the withdrawal of work permits for the inhabitants of this village.Netanyahu also ordered the acceleration of the construction of new settler outposts in the area where the events occurred and the legalization of those that already exist, even though the settlements are considered illegal, according to international law and by the majority of the international community.

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The United States and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday closed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement that would open the door to the development of a Saudi nuclear program without some of the safeguards traditionally required by Washington. U.S. President Donald Trump has assured that "there will be no enrichment of nuclear material" and that the program will be exclusively for civilian uses. He also specified that the pact will only go ahead if Saudi Arabia adheres to the Abraham Accords, promoted by the United States in 2020, and if it normalizes relations with Israel. Riyadh has not yet reacted publicly.

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With only a few months left until the elections, the trial against Benjamin Netanyahu has entered a new phase. The Israeli prime minister concluded his testimony before the court at the end of June, after 98 sessions that lasted a year and a half. But the process is still far from over: defense testimonies, final reports from the parties, and the judges' deliberations are still pending before a verdict. What future awaits a case that has marked Israeli politics in recent years and that will mark the country's electoral pre-campaign?The process that began in 2020 has advanced through marathon declarations, postponements for political and security reasons, constant calendar changes due to the different wars Israel has experienced in recent years, and an increasingly open confrontation between the prime minister and the country's judicial system. This is an unprecedented episode in Israeli judicial history: it is the first time that a prime minister in office has faced a criminal trial and has testified for so long in court. True to the strategy he has maintained since the beginning, Netanyahu has denied all accusations and has once again presented the case as a political persecution.The judicial proceeding focuses on three open cases, known as cases 1000, 2000, and 4000, in which the prosecution alleges there are indications of bribery, fraud, and abuse of power. Case 1000 investigates the receipt of gifts valued at approximately 260,000 euros from businessmen such as Arnon Milchan and James Packer, in exchange for possible political favors. For now, Netanyahu has admitted they were friends, but argues that the gifts were part of a personal relationship and not an exchange of favors.Case 2000 analyzes the conversations held with Arnon Mozes, editor of the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot, about a possible improvement in media coverage in exchange for limiting the influence of the rival newspaper Israel Hayom. The legal discussion now focuses on whether those conversations constituted a real negotiation or a political maneuver without intention of materializing.Case 4000, the most serious, focuses on the alleged granting of regulatory favors to businessman Shaul Elovitch in exchange for favorable coverage on the Walla portal. It is the only case in which Netanyahu is accused of bribery, but where the judges have reiterated that they have difficulty seeing where this crime lies. The prosecution maintains the accusation.

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Hamas announced on Monday the name of the man who will politically lead the Islamist organization after the internal election process to replace the last leaders killed by Israel. It is Khalil al-Hayya, a hawk from the old guard who participated in the founding of the organization in Gaza, on the eve of the First Intifada, in 1987. Al-Hayya was already part of the five-man council that was provisionally appointed after in 2024 Israeli soldiers killed Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the Islamists within the Strip, considered the mastermind of the October 7 attacks. In turn, Sinwar had replaced Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the movement who died in an Israeli attack in Tehran in 2024, a few months before his successor.

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Lawyer Khaled Quzmar(1964) has been working for almost four decades to defend the rights of the Palestinian population. Executive Director of the Palestinian Centre for Child Rights (PCCR), a few days ago he visited Barcelona at the invitation of the NGO Mundubat to denounce the impact of the occupation and genocide on children in Gaza and the West Bank. He spoke to ARA before meeting with representatives of the Parliament and travelling to Madrid to meet with the Minister of Youth and Children, Sira Rego.Since October 7, 2023, more than 20,000 Palestinian minors have been killed in Gaza, 44,000 have been injured, and 58,000 have been orphaned, according to UN data.

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Half of the Democratic congresspeople in the United States voted on Thursday to end aid to Israel. Previously, sixty had boycotted Benjamin Netanyahu's speech at the Capitol in Washington in 2024, an action that was supported by Democrat Ro Khanna. Khanna is, in fact, one of the most critical US politicians regarding Israeli policies in the occupied territories and has often denounced the actions of Benjamin Netanyahu's government towards Palestinians.

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