I was born in Poonch (Kashmir) and now I live in Norway. I oppose war and violence and am a firm believer in the peaceful co-existence of all nations and peoples. In my academic work I have tried to espouse the cause of the weak and the oppressed in a world dominated by power politics, misleading propaganda and violations of basic human rights. I also believe that all conscious members of society have a moral duty to stand for and further the cause of peace and human rights throughout the world.
Rajiv Menon, a leading British
civil rights barrister, again faces contempt proceedings over his
closing speech in trial of pro-Palestine activists, reports Dania Akkad.
“The Right of Juries” plaque outside of Old Bailey, UK, 2016. (Paul Clarke, Flickr, Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 2.0)
A leading British civil
rights barrister faces contempt proceedings once again after a judge
decided to refer allegations against him for a second time.
The original proceedings brought against Rajiv Menon KC were thrown out last month for procedural reasons.
But on June 22, Justice Jeremy Johnson
ruled that Menon’s case met the necessary “threshold conditions” to
proceed and that it was in the public interest to do so.
He said the case should be referred to a judge who can “deal with the matter expeditiously.”
“I stress that nothing in this judgement decides that Mr. Menon has acted in contempt of court,” Johnson wrote.
“My findings do not bind the presiding
judge. The presiding judge will only institute contempt proceedings if
they consider that it is the appropriate and justified step.”
Garden Court Chambers, where Menon has
practised for three decades, said on Monday that the proceedings brought
against Rajiv were unprecedented and have “sent shock waves through the
legal profession.”
“The impact of these proceedings is
already being felt by the criminal defence community, especially
juniors, with concerns that public confidence in the independence of the
Bar and the integrity of our system of justice will be damaged.”
Menon has more than 30 years’ experience spanning high-profile cases such as Stephen Lawrence, Hillsborough and Grenfell.
The Defend Our Juries protest against the
proscription of Palestine Action in London on Sept. 6, 2025.
(indigonolan /Flickr/ Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 4.0)
How We Got Here
Menon is accused of violating Johnson’s
orders in his closing statement in the trial of six Palestinian Action
activists who broke into an Israeli-owned arms factory near Bristol in
2024.
The judge had warned defence barristers
not to tell the jury that they could reach a verdict according to their
conscience, a principle known as jury equity.
In his closing speech, Menon, who
represented one of the activists, told the jury about the Bushell case, a
landmark ruling from 1670 which established the independence of juries.
He read from a plaque at the Old Bailey commemorating the jury in that case, saying,
“it established the right of juries to give their verdict according to their convictions.”
In February, the jury acquitted all of the activists of aggravated burglary but failed to reach a verdict on several other charges.
The Crown Prosecution Service sought a retrial while Johnson filed the original contempt of court complaint against Menon.
In May, four of the defendants – Charlotte
Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio and Fatema Rajwani – were found guilty
of criminal damage. Corner was also convicted of grievous bodily harm
without intent.
Two others, Zoe Rogers and Jordan Devlin, were found not guilty of criminal damage.
It then emerged, as reporting restrictions
were lifted, that the four activists faced being sentenced as
terrorists even though the jury had not been informed of that
possibility.
?? ?? Four Palestine Action Activists Sentenced as ‘Terrorists’ in UK Legal First
Four activists who raided an Elbit Systems
arms factory near Bristol in 2024 were sentenced as “terrorists” Friday
at Woolwich Crown Court, in what supporters said is the first time UK
protesters… pic.twitter.com/gC4MvAXfz4
In a marathon court hearing on June 12, Johnson ruled first
that the four would indeed be sentenced as terrorists and then handed
down a combined total of more than 25 years in prison.
Meanwhile, three court of appeal judges had ruled that the contempt proceedings levelled against Menon were unlawful.
They said that Johnson could decide
whether to refer the complaint to another High Court judge, the Attorney
General, to the Bar Standards Board or take no further step.
Now Johnson has made his ruling, it will be up to the new judge to decide whether contempt proceedings continue.
Garden Chambers said it was awaiting the
outcome of “this already protracted process” and would continue to
support Menon “through this difficult time.”
Kirsty Brimelow KC, Chair of the Bar
Council which represents barristers in England and Wales, has previously
said the contempt proceedings against Menon “risk a chilling effect on
the profession” and called it a “troubling episode.”
Dania Akkad is an investigative
journalist. She has won awards for her reporting on women’s rights in
the Middle East, Saudi Arabian dissidents and California’s lettuce
industry. She served most recently as senior investigations editor at
Middle East Eye.
A
small motorboat passes anchored vessels in the Strait of Hormuz off
Bandar Abbas, Iran, Thursday, June 11, 2026. [AP Photo/Amirhosein
Khorgooi]
The US launched a new round of strikes on
Iran on Friday in the most explicit indication yet that the recently
signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has collapsed into an
escalating and open conflict. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said its
aircraft struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations and coastal
radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz.
A report by Al Jazeera said the US strikes
were near the Iranian port of Sirik. Al Jazeera also reported that Iran
said it had “succeeded in neutralizing” the attack and pledged to
retaliate in a statement shared by the ISNA news agency. The statement
said, “We emphasize that this aggression will not go unanswered, and our
response will be swift and decisive at a time and place of our
choosing.”
An Iranian parliamentary security
official, Ebrahim Azizi, accused Washington of attacking “in the middle
of negotiations once again” and said the US president had shown no
commitment to negotiation or ceasefire principles.
According to other reports, the US strikes
were carried out in response to Iran’s launching of at least four
one-way attack drones at a commercial vessel on Thursday, with one drone
striking the ship’s upper deck and damaging it before the vessel
continued its course.
CENTCOM confirmed the targets and
presented the strikes as a limited but forceful response meant to punish
the Iranian attack and deter further action. The reports indicate that
the US strikes were not random but targeted the command-and-control
infrastructure surrounding Iran’s maritime reach.
The exact physical damage remained unclear, and both CENTCOM and the New York Times
noted that the full extent of the damage had not yet been determined.
The news reports said the choice of targets was intended to send a
message that Washington could hit the systems enabling drone operations
and surveillance in the Gulf without widening the war.
However, the response by President Trump
and Vice President Vance was both threatening. Trump said Iran’s drone
launch amounted to a violation of the ceasefire framework. He then
portrayed the US strikes as responding to Iranian aggression rather than
initiating escalation. JD Vance gave the direct warning, “… violence
will be met with violence.”
Vance added that Iran had signed the
ceasefire agreement and that if Tehran had disagreements over
implementation, it could “pick up the phone,” but that military
retaliation would follow if the agreement was challenged.
Iran said the drone strike was part of its
effort to control passage through the Strait of Hormuz and warned that
ships using routes outside Tehran’s approved framework would not be
guaranteed safe passage or insurance coverage.
More specifically, the statement quoted by
CBS said, “Any passage through routes outside the framework designated
by PGSA [Persian Gulf Strait Authority] will not be covered by safe
passage guarantees and will not be entitled to insurance coverage or
related liabilities.”
Other reporting on the same incident says
Iranian officials framed the move as a response to insecurity in the
waterway and to what Tehran describes as continued US aggression, with
Iran later warning vessels to use only routes authorized by Tehran.
Iran has once again rejected the American
claim to maritime authority in the Strait of Hormuz. Reuters reported
that Tehran insisted it had the right to control shipping there and
warned Gulf states not to side with Washington after the cargo ship
incident.
The Iranian line is that the strait lies
within a contested security zone and that the US and its allies are
using “freedom of navigation” language to mask coercive control over a
vital strategic waterway. The dispute over the strait is a key issue
over whether the MOU means anything in practice.
The reported drone attack itself centered on a commercial vessel, identified in some reporting as the Ever Lovely,
which was struck in the Strait of Hormuz near Oman. Trump said three
other drones were intercepted, and the ship, while damaged, remained
able to continue. AP and Reuters reported that the event led maritime
authorities to pause efforts to move ships out of the area, indicating
the immediate consequences for commercial traffic.
The MOU, signed only a week earlier, has
now shown itself to be a piece of paper with little meaning in a war
that has not ended. The language of the deal, including the phrase that
Iran would “make arrangements using its best efforts” to ensure safe
passage, was ambiguous from the start and left room for interpretation,
and it has now become a mechanism for the collapse of the entire MOU.
Reports over the last week have shown
that, far from receding, the conflict is broadening with Israeli attacks
continuing in Lebanon, and Gaza remains under near-constant assault
despite talk about a ceasefire and peace agreements. Just as it has in
Gaza, the ceasefire framework contained in the MOU is emerging as a
formal cover for the continuation of the imperialist war by other means.
On Friday, Israeli Defense Forces
continued ground and aerial operations in southern Lebanon. Actions
included combing operations in the border town of Ain Arab, advancing
military vehicles toward Haris, a drone strike near Qabrikha and
airstrikes near Nabatieh. Israel also dropped leaflets over the town of
Mansouri ordering residents to evacuate. The military described this as a
“reminder” to keep out of the area for civilian safety.Available from Mehring BooksThe struggle against imperialism and for workers’ power in IranA pamphlet by Keith Jones
Despite US-led negotiations, Israeli
warplanes launched two waves of airstrikes targeting the outskirts of
Nabatieh al-Fawqa. Following talks in Washington D.C., Israel, Lebanon
and the US signed an initial trilateral framework agreement on Friday
for restoring sovereignty and establishing “pilot zones” in which the
Lebanese Armed Forces will take control.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel will not withdraw its forces
from occupied security zones until Hezbollah is disarmed. Hezbollah
leadership rejected prior US-brokered deals and maintained that Israel
must fully withdraw unconditionally.
Taken together, Friday’s actions show that
the ceasefire is highly fragile, if existing at all, and that Israel
continued to use military force to pressure villages near the border.
The result was continued civilian deaths, displacement and an ongoing
clash between formal diplomacy and battlefield realities.
The situation in Gaza, which has been
moved off the front page of the news since the war with Iran began on
February 28, is even more catastrophic. Palestinian and UN-linked
reports say Israel has killed roughly 1,000 Palestinians since the
ceasefire was announced, while Gaza’s Government Media Office says
Israel has carried out 3,269 violations, killed 992 Palestinians and
wounded 3,144 others.
Aid delivery has remained far below what
was promised, with only 52,740 trucks entering Gaza out of the 147,000
required, according to the same reporting. These numbers show that the
“agreement” has disguised the sustained Israeli campaign of attrition
against Palestinians.
The WSWS has explained that the Gaza
arrangement was designed to turn the Mediterranean coast into a site for
speculative reconstruction once Israel had reduced Gaza City and other
towns to rubble.
In this respect, Trump’s “Board of Peace”
has served as political theater intended to legitimize a plan of
conquest, displacement and future real estate plunder. The same logic
now appears in the US-Iran memorandum, which functions less as peace
than as an unstable pause inside a larger war project.
The contradictions at the core of the
Middle East conflict remain unresolved. The US and Israel are pursuing a
strategy aimed at subjugating the region through siege, bombing and
occupation. The events on Friday confirm that the military conflict is
moving into another stage, not away from it.
Only the independent mobilization of the
working class across the Middle East and within the imperialist centers
in a unified struggle against war and for socialism can break the cycles
that are leading to a Third World War.
Israel has killed over 20,000
Palestinian children since 7 October 2023. The UN has detailed instances
of torture, rape and murder in a landmark report
Wounded children wait for medical care at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on 25 May 2026 (AFP)
Published date: 25 June 2026 13:23 BST | Last update:19 hours 50 mins ago
Israeli forces deliberately targeted Palestinian children as a central element of their genocide in Gaza, the UN’s top investigative body on Palestine and Israel concluded this week.
The finding comes in an 88-page report
examining the full scope of harm inflicted on children since 7 October
2023, from precision shootings by snipers and drones to torture in
detention, reproductive violence and the destruction of schools and
hospitals.
“The evidence shows that Palestinian
children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli
security forces,” said Srinivasan Muralidhar, chair of the Independent
International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian
Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel.
“Even after the October 2025 ceasefire,
children continue to be killed and seriously injured, with continued
disregard by Israel for the ceasefire and for the protection owed to
Palestinian children under international law,” the Indian lawyer and
judge said.
The commission, which previously concluded that Israel bore responsibility for genocide
in Gaza, found that children were targeted in two ways: directly,
through precision weapons including quadcopters and sniper rifles, and
indirectly, through the systematic destruction of the conditions
necessary for their survival.
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It named specific Israeli military units
responsible for killings and urged the International Criminal Court
(ICC) to prioritise crimes against children in its ongoing
investigation.
Below, we highlight the report’s key findings.
At least 20,179 children killed
Between the Hamas-led attack of 7 October
2023 and 7 October 2025, Israeli military operations killed at least
20,179 children and wounded 44,143 others in Gaza, representing 30
percent of those killed and 26 percent of those injured.
Children under five accounted for at least 5,031 of the deaths, including 1,029 under the age of one and around 420 newborns.
A further 5,160 children are estimated to be buried under rubble.
The commission noted that the true figure is certainly higher, as many deaths went unrecorded.
Children shot in a deliberate pattern
The commission investigated and documented
a consistent pattern of Israeli forces deliberately targeting children
using precision weapons.
Seventeen medical practitioners who worked
across different hospitals in Gaza described treating large numbers of
children with single gunshot wounds to the head and upper body, fired by
Israeli snipers or quadcopters.
One doctor said the pattern suggested Israeli soldiers were “deliberately shooting teenage boys in a game of target practice”.
The commission forensically analysed 15
out of 17 cases brought by doctors. In 12 of those cases, the wounds
were consistent with a single gunshot.
Among the specific cases documented:
On 29 January 2024, Israeli forces shot and killed five-year-old girl Hind Rajab in Tal al-Hawa, Gaza City, along with six of her family members.
Five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab was shot and killed by Israeli forces (Supplied)
When two Palestinian Red Crescent
paramedics drove to rescue her, Israeli forces shelled their ambulance
and killed them too. The commission concluded the 401st Brigade of the
162nd Division deliberately shot the family and obstructed the medical
rescue.
On 24 January 2024, Israeli soldiers shot dead a 15-year-old boy in Khan Younis while
he held a white flag, stepping out of his family home following an
Israeli evacuation order. When his 20-year-old brother ran to help him,
Israeli soldiers shot him too. The commission found the 98th Division
was operating in the area and concluded the shooting was deliberate.
An Israeli quadcopter operator shot a 10-day-old baby boy in the head while his mother was breastfeeding
On 12 April 2024, an Israeli quadcopter
operator shot a 10-day-old baby boy in the head while his mother was
breastfeeding him inside a tent in Nuseirat camp. The baby survived but
now suffers from seizures. The commission concluded the operator had a
clear view inside the tent before firing.
On 24 August 2024, an Israeli quadcopter
operator shot a four-year-old girl in the head while she was eating with
her family in their tent in Khan Younis. She survived but her left side
was paralysed. The commission concluded she was deliberately targeted.
On 10 December 2024, an Israeli sniper
shot an eight-year-old boy in the buttock while he was playing outside
in the Bureij refugee camp. The bullet lodged in his abdomen wall.
Surgeons removed a 3cm bullet. The commission found the 99th Division
was operating in the area and assessed the boy was hit by an Israeli
sniper rifle.
Several doctors told the commission they treated children with gunshot wounds sustained there.
A GHF truck driver who spent seven weeks
in Gaza told investigators he witnessed two teenagers shot in the head
by Israeli soldiers while sprinting away. One soldier was overheard
remarking that “fingers are light on the trigger”.
Children killed after ceasefire
The October 2025 ceasefire did not stop
Israeli forces from killing children. The commission documented more
than 100 children killed and hundreds more wounded in the weeks that
followed.
Israeli forces redeployed to a newly
established demarcation line inside Gaza known as the yellow line,
shooting civilians including children who crossed it while trying to
return to their homes or collect firewood.
Death toll in Gaza surpasses 73,000 as Israel continues post-ceasefire killings
On 29 November 2025, Israeli forces from the Kfir Brigade fired a drone strike that killed two brothers aged nine and ten near Bani Suheila in southern Gaza while they were gathering firewood for their wheelchair-bound father.
Israeli forces claimed the boys were
suspects crossing the yellow line. The commission found the claim
baseless: the boys were more than 300 metres from Israeli soldiers, were
visibly children collecting wood, and the drone operator had an
unobstructed view of them before firing.
On 10 December 2025, Israeli soldiers shot a 16-year-old boy from Jabalia camp and an Israeli tank then ran over his body.
213 children killed in West Bank
Israeli forces killed 213 Palestinian
children in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, between 7 October
2023 and 20 October 2025. The commission found that Israeli forces
systematically targeted boys there as a distinct group, labelling them
as “terrorists” or “future terrorists”.
On 25 January 2025, soldiers from the
Israeli Menashe Brigade shot a two-year-old girl in the back of the head
while she was having dinner with her family in south Jenin. She died
immediately and is the youngest child killed by Israeli forces in the
West Bank since 7 October 2023.
Palestinian children near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, 22 April 2026 (Mohammed Torokman/Reuters)
On 28 January 2025, soldiers from the
Israeli Ephraim Brigade shot a 10-year-old boy at his father’s house
during a military incursion in Tulkarm.
CCTV footage showed the boy was unarmed.
Israeli soldiers delayed the ambulance taking him to hospital for 30
minutes. One soldier told the boy’s father: “I am the one who shot your
son. God willing, he will die.” The boy died of his wounds on 7 February
2025.
‘I am the one who shot your son. God willing, he will die’
– Israeli Ephraim Brigade soldier
On 16 November 2025, soldiers from the
Israeli Paratrooper Battalion, operating under the Menashe Brigade, shot
a 14-year-old boy during a military raid on the Al-Faraa refugee camp
in Tubas.
Israeli soldiers then left him bleeding on
the ground for 45 minutes while standing around him. One soldier filmed
him on his phone while another placed a stone next to him, in what the
commission assessed was an attempt to frame the shooting as a response
to stone throwing. Israeli soldiers also pointed gun laser sights at the
heads of paramedics to prevent them from reaching the boy, who died.
Israeli authorities withheld his body.
Settlers attacked and abducted children
In the first half of 2025, Israeli settlers carried out more than 1,000 attacks across 230 Palestinian communities.
In April 2025, two settlers abducted two
siblings under five years old at knifepoint while they were playing
outside their home, dragged them to an olive grove and tied them to a
tree.
In August 2024, armed settlers abducted
two 15-year-old boys herding cattle, beat them, blindfolded them,
stripped them, and sexually assaulted them. A settler urinated on one of
the boys and fractured his leg.
Children tortured and sexually abused
Israeli forces have detained over 1,655 children in the West Bank since 7 October 2023, 600 of them in 2025 alone.
As of 31 December 2025, 51 percent of
child detainees were held under administrative detention, meaning
imprisonment without charge, a record number.
Israeli soldiers subjected the detained
children to beatings, blindfolding, handcuffing, stress positions on
gravel, and terror by dogs from the moment of arrest. Israeli prison
authorities denied children food, water and medical care.
‘I wished for death’: Sexual violence in Israel’s prisons is an ‘organised state policy’
One 15-year-old boy held at the Sde Teiman facility
told the commission he was the only child among 70 adults in his cell.
Israeli soldiers entered the cell with dogs and ordered detainees to lie
on their stomachs before releasing the animals on them. He described
his 23 days there as “the worst days of my life”.
Another 15-year-old, detained during mass
arrests in Gaza in December 2023, told the commission that Israeli
interrogators electrocuted him through a needle inserted into his
shoulder, denied him food and water, and forced him into painful
positions for up to 12 hours at a time over 54 days before releasing him
at the Kerem Shalom crossing with no medical care and no means of
reaching his family.
The commission also received testimony
that Israeli prison guards raped boys in detention and subjected them to
other forms of sexual violence as a systematic component of the
detention regime.
On 22 March 2025, a 17-year-old boy from Ramallah died in Megiddo Prison,
the commission said. Israeli prison authorities had been aware since
December 2024 that he was suffering from head trauma, inadequate food
and severe weight loss, but failed to provide proper care.
A post-mortem found he died from severe
prolonged malnutrition. Israeli authorities withheld his body from his
family for months. The commission found that Israeli prison authorities
caused his death and that it amounted to the war crimes of torture,
inhuman treatment and wilful killing.
Hospitals and neonatal units destroyed
Israeli forces attacked and forced the
closure of all three major paediatric hospitals in Gaza within the first
two months of hostilities.
Before October 2023, Gaza had 178
incubators across eight neonatal intensive care units. Israeli attacks
and the siege reduced that number to 54 by November 2024. Medical staff
described placing three or four infants in a single incubator.
At Al-Nasr Paediatric Hospital, Israeli
forces cut electricity and prevented staff from evacuating patients,
giving them only 30 minutes to leave. When a ceasefire allowed access
weeks later, investigators found four babies decomposing in the neonatal
unit, still attached to defunct life-support machines.
The
grandmother of baby Idres Al-Dbari, who was killed in an Israeli
strike, holds his body at Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital, Rafah, on 12
December 2023 (Reuters/Mohammed Salem)
At least 15 newborns died of preventable
hypothermia between December 2024 and February 2025 as a direct result
of conditions imposed by the Israeli siege.
Israel’s blockade and attacks on
reproductive healthcare caused miscarriage rates to increase by up to
300 percent after October 2023.
By October 2024, women in Gaza were three times more likely to die in childbirth than before the war.
By March 2026, 70 percent of newborns were classified as premature or underweight.
Schools bombed, demolished and occupied
Israeli forces directly hit 459 of Gaza’s 564 school buildings between 7 October 2023 and October 2025.
Over 97 percent of schools were damaged or destroyed.
‘In my childhood, I’ve always dreamed of blowing up my school. Today I’m blowing up a school. Wow’
– Israeli soldier
Children in Gaza have missed three full
school years, and more than 668,000 school-age children were denied
access to formal education.
Israeli soldiers filmed themselves
demolishing schools and posted the videos online. In one video, a
soldier says before blowing up a school: “In my childhood, I’ve always
dreamed of blowing up my school. Today I’m blowing up a school. Wow.”
In another, a soldier mocks Palestinian students, saying they will “not be engineers any more”.
The commission found that Israeli forces
from the 252nd Division carried out controlled demolitions of at least
two UN schools in Beit Hanoun in November 2023.
Israeli forces also seized schools and used them as military bases, weapons stores and barracks.
In the West Bank, Israeli authorities
issued demolition orders against 85 schools. Israeli forces raided and
expelled more than 550 children from three UN schools in Shu’fat Camp in
May 2025.
Siege starved children and brought back polio
By October 2025, Unicef reported 151 child
deaths from malnutrition caused by Israel’s siege and blockade. July
2025 was the deadliest month, with 24 children under five dying from
malnutrition.
Israel’s blockade also halted a fourth
round of polio vaccinations for 600,000 children planned for April 2025.
Polio returned to Gaza in August 2024 after 25 years of eradication. It
was confirmed in a 10-month-old baby who, a year later, was still
unable to stand or move his legs.
Soldiers destroyed children’s belongings
The commission documented at least 35
instances of Israeli soldiers filming themselves in Palestinian homes,
schools and public spaces destroying or mocking children’s toys,
trophies and belongings, and posting the footage online.
In one video, an Israeli soldier rides a
child’s wooden toy horse in a wrecked apartment. In another, Israeli
soldiers hang a teddy bear by its neck from a tank barrel.
The commission concluded these acts were
not isolated but reflected a deliberate culture of dehumanisation across
different units and time periods, with no disciplinary action taken by
Israeli military commanders.
The legal findings
The commission concluded on reasonable
grounds that Israeli authorities and security forces have continued to
commit genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, and war
crimes in the West Bank.
On genocide, the commission found that
Israeli forces’ deliberate targeting of children is one of the key
elements establishing genocidal intent. Children embody the biological
and social continuity of the Palestinian group. The commission found
that Israeli forces killed children, caused them serious bodily and
mental harm, and deliberately imposed conditions of life calculated to
destroy them as part of the broader Palestinian group in Gaza.
She survived an Israeli raid that left babies decomposing. Now she awaits treatment
On crimes against humanity, the commission
found that Israeli forces’ killings and maiming of children amount to
extermination and murder. Their mistreatment of children in detention
amounts to torture and other inhumane acts.
On war crimes, the commission found wilful
killing, torture and inhuman treatment, sexual violence, intentional
attacks on civilian objects including hospitals, schools and orphanages,
and the use of starvation as a method of warfare.
The commission named specific Israeli
military units responsible for killings in individual cases and called
for accountability for those with command responsibility. Israel did not
respond to any of the commission’s 13 requests for information or
access.
Editorial Published June 25, 2026 Updated about 5 hours ago
GOVERNMENTS in the US have rarely
reflected on follies they have committed beyond their borders. Failed
nation-building experiments and military misadventures by both
Republican and Democrat administrations have not led to internal
reflection on these misguided policies.
But the Iran debacle should lead to some
sort of reckoning, considering that America has been unable to achieve
any of its objectives in the war, and may have actually helped give Iran
the upper hand in the region — just as it did with the removal of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
Of course, the current US president is not
known for soul-searching and deep contemplation over foreign policy
choices. Donald Trump prefers to think aloud, especially on social
media. This has disastrous implications. For instance, at the recent negotiations in Switzerland,
the Iranians boycotted the session after Mr Trump tweeted fresh
threats. If talks are to succeed, the American leader must desist from
issuing expletive-laden threats on social media, and let diplomacy take
its course.
Within America, the Iran war is deeply unpopular. The US Senate on Tuesday passed a largely symbolic resolution
calling for an end to the war, which was supported by at least four
Republicans. Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, has called
the Iran war “Trump’s historic blunder”, while numerous opinion polls
show that most Americans want the war to end.
Some Iran hawks in Washington are also of
the view that the MoU currently under discussion is a ‘victory’ for
Iran. Certainly, as compared to past American misadventures, such as the
Iraq war where the US put boots on the ground to occupy a sovereign
country, the Iran campaign has failed on nearly all fronts. In fact,
where the MoU is concerned, Tehran has managed to secure most of its
demands in the document, while also exercising greater control over the
Strait of Hormuz.
There needs to be greater discussion
within the US establishment about the mistakes Washington has made with
regard to Iran. There should be a realisation that American militarism
is a failed policy, achieving little while costing much in innocent
lives and taxpayer dollars. Secondly, the Israeli stranglehold over US
foreign policy also needs greater scrutiny.
America’s lawmakers need to decide if they
want to put their country’s interests first, or pour more blood and
treasure into protecting Israel, and sustaining the Zionist state’s
violent expansionism.
Israel is the biggest source of
instability in the Middle East, and it is high time the US ended its
blind support to Tel Aviv, if it genuinely wants peace in the region.
The Trump administration needs to calmly study the lessons of the Iran
war, and stop making the same foreign policy mistakes the US has been
doing for the past many decades.
Illegal Israeli settlers launched a
coordinated assault against Palestinians and their property in multiple
areas of the occupied West Bank over the past 24 hours.
The assault began on 18 June and continued into the early hours of 19 June, with settler attacks persisting on Friday.
Settlers attacked homes in Khirbet
al-Himsa, south of occupied Hebron, while also storming the town of
Awarta, southeast of Nablus.
The illegal settlers also assaulted
shepherds in the Anata plains east of occupied Jerusalem and targeted
farmers near Jamala, east of Ramallah.
During the widespread attack, two new
illegal settler outposts were established – one on the outskirts of the
village of Burqa and one on the outskirts of Deir Abu Mashaal, near
Ramallah.
Palestinian media reports said severe
damage was inflicted on civilian infrastructure and economic assets in
an effort to force Palestinians off their land.
In Al-Taybeh, a Palestinian family was assaulted inside their home before settlers severed their water and electricity lines.
Multiple vehicles were set ablaze or stolen. Later on Friday, settlers destroyed an electricity pole in Beita, south of Nablus.
Several cars and a house were also smashed by settlers in Kifl Haris, north of Salfit.
These massive attacks and pogroms take place on a regular basis.
Perpetrators are rarely prosecuted, and
most of the pogroms take place with direct backing from or in
coordination with Israeli military forces.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert wrote in an opinion piece for Haaretz
on 19 June that the settler attacks in the occupied West Bank “can no
longer be tolerated,” while referring to it as a “systematic campaign of
ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.”
In his Haaretz piece, the former
premier wrote that the settler attacks are “managed, directed,
encouraged and supported by the Israeli government.”
“The fight against Jewish terrorism in the
West Bank must advance to the next stage and be waged with greater
determination,” he added.
Olmert himself was responsible for war crimes during the 2006 Israeli war against Lebanon.
Since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s most recent government took office in late 2022, authorities have accelerated plans for the de facto annexation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In February, the Israeli government
approved a land registration process allowing Israel to claim territory
in the occupied West Bank as “state property” if Palestinians cannot
prove ownership
Since then, scores of new illegal settlements have been approved.
The Iranian delegation led by Mohammad
Baqer Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian Parliament, arrives to meet with
the Pakistani delegation led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on June
21, 2026 in Obbuergen, Switzerland.
(Photo by Hamed Malekpour/Getty Images)
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s top diplomat,
specifically welcomed the announcement of a “deconfliction cell” aimed
at “ensuring the termination of military operations in Lebanon.”
Iran’s top diplomat said late Sunday that peace negotiations in Switzerland
have produced “major progress” despite US President Donald Trump’s
belligerent military threats and Israel’s continued assault on Lebanon, both of which have risked derailing the high-stakes talks.
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister,
credited “tireless Pakistani and Qatari mediation” with securing
commitments to establish a “deconfliction cell” to ensure “the
termination of military operations in Lebanon,” as required under the
recently signed memorandum of understanding (MOU).
Araghchi added that negotiators agreed to
an end to the US blockade on Iran, the release of some of Iran’s frozen
assets, and a “major reconstruction and development plan” for Iran,
whose delegation reportedly left the Swiss negotiating venue on Sunday
in response to Trump’s threat to assassinate
Iranian diplomats and “take over” the Middle East country. The threats
violated the terms of the MOU, which requires parties to “refrain from
the threat or use of force against each other.”
In a joint statement late Sunday, the governments of Pakistan and Qatar
said that negotiators agreed on “a roadmap towards reaching a final
deal within 60 days, laying the foundation for the immediate
commencement of further technical talks.
“In addition, a communication line between
the parties has been formed… to avoid incidents and miscommunication
with the aim of safe passage for commercial vessels through the Strait
of Hormuz,” the statement continued. “The mediating parties will
continue to do their utmost to ensure that the negotiations continue to
be conducted in a constructive atmosphere with the aim of reaching a
final deal.”
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PR No: /
Joint Statement by the State of Qatar and
the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Regarding the Conclusion of Lake
Lucerne Summit, First High-Level Committee Meeting with Participation of
the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran pic.twitter.com/2G3PAf7LVY — Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan (@ForeignOfficePk) June 22, 2026
The optimistic comments from Iran’s
foreign minister and mediators came after the first round of formal
talks in Switzerland got off to a shaky start, with Iran’s delegation
postponing its arrival due to a deadly barrage of Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon late last week.
Israel’s leadership, which is not a party to the peace negotiations,
has refused to end its occupation of Lebanon, a major obstacle in the
way of a final deal to end the war on Iran that the US and Israel
launched in late February. Iran has said the Trump administration must force the Israeli government to end its assault on Lebanon.
In a social media post on Sunday amid the negotiations in Switzerland, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declared
that “Israel has no intention of withdrawing from the Beaufort, which
is an integral part of the security zone in Lebanon and essential for
the defense of the Galilee settlements and IDF forces.”
“As Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu
and I have clarified—Israel will not withdraw from the security zone in
Lebanon,” Katz added.
THE fate of Lebanon could determine whether the recently signed MoU between the US and Iran survives.
True to form, Israel is doing all possible
to ensure the nascent peace deal is destroyed before the proverbial ink
dries, as it continues to mercilessly pound Lebanon. While a supposed
ceasefire was announced on Friday, Israeli attacks in Lebanon continued
yesterday, with a large number of casualties reported, as the Zionist
state hit both the southern and eastern parts of the Arab state in
apparent pursuit of its arch-foe Hezbollah.
Tragically, a large number of
non-combatants have also been killed in Tel Aviv’s murderous forays,
with even steadfast supporters like US President Donald Trump expressing
displeasure over its bloodstained tactics.
But the Israeli leadership seems very
clear on what it wants to do. For example, the Israeli prime minister
has refused to end the occupation of southern Lebanon, while the
extremist national security minister has said that “Lebanon must burn”.
If this happens, the Iran-US MoU — and the entire region including
Israel— may also burn.
At one end of the spectrum, the
signatories of the MoU, as well as nations such as Pakistan, which have
played key roles in finding a diplomatic off-ramp, are again actively
trying to take the negotiation process forward. At the other end, Israel
is hell-bent on sabotaging the process.
The international community, principally
the US and Europe, must be firm with their friends in Tel Aviv and tell
them that their destabilising behaviour must end. The past few months
have proven that the biggest threat to Middle East peace is not Iran,
but Israel, which has attacked one sovereign state after the other,
along with carrying out the Gaza genocide. It must be stopped before it
destroys a hard-won chance at peace.
While nearly all US administrations in the
past — as well as European states — have mollycoddled Israel and
ignored its atrocious behaviour, this time the tone in Washington seems
to be hardening. For example, US Vice President J.D. Vance has told
Israel to “wake up and smell the reality of the situation”, with
reference to Tel Aviv’s displeasure with the Iran deal.
But tough words will not be enough. If the
US wants Israel to change its bad behaviour, it must withhold the funds
and weapons that are needed by the Zionist war machine to keep
functioning. Israel has hardly any friends left in the world, and if the
US starts asserting itself, Tel Aviv should listen.
The MoU is unambiguous: the ceasefire must
apply to all fronts, including Lebanon. Either Israel must silence its
guns and withdraw from all of Lebanon, or face isolation and boycott
from the international community until it mends its ways.
(Photo credit: X)
PR No: 
