Israel’s occupation of southern Syrian territory expanded after last year’s overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials.
Published On 20 Nov 2025
A family flees their home in Colombia after rebels kill a young man who had accompanied them when they were young.
Published On 20 Nov 2025
The Israeli military’s forced displacement of Palestinians from three refugee camps in the occupied West Bank earlier this year amounts to war crimes and a crime against humanity, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said.
In a 105-page report released on Thursday, the rights group said the Israeli military forced 32, 000 Palestinians out of their homes in the Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams refugee camps, starting in January of this year.
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The forced evictions were carried out “without regard to international legal protections”, and Israel has not allowed residents to return, said Nadia Hardman, a senior refugee and migrant rights researcher at HRW.
Satellite images also showed that more than 850 homes and other buildings were destroyed or heavily damaged across the three refugee camps that were targeted by the Israeli military, the report said.
“With global attention focused on Gaza, Israeli forces have carried out war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank that should be investigated and prosecuted”, Hardman said.
The report comes as Palestinians across the West Bank have faced a wave of intensified Israeli military and settler violence in the shadow of Israel’s Gaza war, which has killed more than 69, 000 people in the coastal enclave since October 2023.
Members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government have also been pushing to formally annex the West Bank, which experts say is already under a system of de facto annexation and apartheid.
Rights groups have been warning for months that Palestinians in the West Bank faced a heightened risk of ethnic cleansing amid the violence.
“Over the past few years, we have seen the impact of the Israeli forces and settlers exerting increased force and control over the Palestinian people”, Simona Onidi, a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) project coordinator in Jenin and Tulkarem, said in September.
“These actions are entrenched in the broader settler-colonial process, where the risk of ethnic cleansing – through the forced removal of Palestinian communities – will cement permanent demographic change”, Onidi said.
The Israeli authorities have said the Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams camp raids aimed to root out Palestinian armed groups and to dismantle infrastructure from which attacks on Israeli forces could be carried out.
“The operation was based on the understanding that terrorists exploit the terrain and the densely built environment of the camps, which restricts the]military’s] freedom of action”, the Israeli army said in a statement to HRW.
But the rights group said in Thursday’s report that the military failed to demonstrate “a presence in the three refugee camps of military objectives, namely Palestinian fighters and military arms and supplies, that would justify the forced displacement of the entire population of the camps”.
It also said Israel, as the occupying power in the West Bank, had failed to meet its obligations under international law to evacuate civilians safely and then allow them to return to their homes once hostilities end.
Displaced Palestinians reported that they were given just minutes to leave the camps, often under threats of violence, and that they had witnessed wide-scale destruction.
A Palestinian woman referred to as Nour H in the report said she and her relatives were told they had 10 minutes to leave Nur Shams refugee camp during the Israeli military’s raid in early February.
“I asked the soldiers where we should go, and they said to the east, and they told us if you go to the left or to the right, you will be targeted by snipers who are in high places around the area”, the mother of five recalled.
Another Nur Shams resident, Nadine G, told HRW that she “couldn’t recognise the camp” as she was forced out with her family because so many homes had been destroyed.
“There were more than 40 men, and maybe 45 women with their children walking with us at the same time from my neighbourhood. As we were walking, drones were following us overhead and there were maybe 20 to 25 soldiers, aiming guns at us”, she said.
“We were meeting women along the way who had also been forced to leave, and they were all crying”.
Meanwhile, HRW has called for senior Israeli military and political officials to be investigated over the alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity that took place in the three refugee camps.
That includes Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, Defence Minister Israel Katz, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and Major General Avi Bluth, who oversees the Israeli military’s central command.
The rights group also urged third-party countries to impose sanctions against those individuals.
“They should take other actions to press Israeli authorities to end their repressive policies”, HRW said, including imposing an arms embargo against Israel and enforcing International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants.
Published On 20 Nov 2025
After a trial that lasted for several years, a Nigerian court has found separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu guilty of charges relating to “terror.”
In his ruling on Thursday, Nigerian Judge James Omotosho argued that prosecutors had established that Kanu’s broadcasts and orders to his now-banned Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) organization sparked deadly attacks on southeast Asians and residents.
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His demand for an ethnically Igbo-dominated region to become an independent Biafra state was reflected in the violence.
His belief in violence was quite clear, according to him. Omotosho claimed that these threats of violence were nothing more than terrorist acts.
Kanu, who has been in custody since his contentious re-arrest in Kenya in 2021, yelled enrageously in opposition to the proceedings and was kicked out of court prior to the decision. Any chance of a fair trial was undermined by his unlawful extradition from Kenya, he had claimed.
In 2021, Kanu entered a not-guilty plea on seven counts, including “terrorism,” treason, and spreading falsehoods against former Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari.
Kanu was detained for the first time in 2015, but he escaped while being released. The government, which claimed his posts promoted attacks against security forces, was upset about his social media posts and Radio Biafra broadcasts during his absence.
Kanu was ultimately detained in Kenya and taken to court in Abuja in June 2021 after his lawyer claimed he had been mistreated while he was being held there. Kenya has denied being involved.
Since Kanu’s statements were made in London, Kanu’s lawyers argued that they shouldn’t be admissible in a Nigerian court in October 2021.
Ifeanyi Ejiofor, Kanu’s attorney, said to reporters at the time, “I can’t see how someone would make a statement in London and it becomes a triable offence in this country.”
After moving to London to study economics and politics, Kanu, a dual citizen of Nigeria and British citizen, founded Radio Biafra, a mysterious, London-based radio station.
We all believe in Biafra, and one thing we all share is a pathological hatred for Nigeria, Kanu said in a broadcast of one . I can’t even begin to express my hatred for Nigeria.
Published On 20 Nov 2025
Police in Indian-administered Kashmir have raided an office of the Kashmir Times, local news outlets are reporting, fuelling concerns about a deepening crackdown on press freedom in the disputed territory.
The State Investigation Agency, a branch of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, carried out searches at the office in Jammu on Thursday, The Hindu newspaper and other outlets reported.
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The police agency did not immediately release a statement on the raid, The Hindu said.
It was not immediately clear what prompted the incident, but some news outlets said authorities have accused the Kashmir Times of promoting activities against the state.
The Kashmir Times rejected that allegation, describing the raid on its office as “yet another attempt to silence us”.
“The bizarre allegations against us are baseless”, the news outlet said in a statement shared on its website on Thursday.  , “Criticising the government is not the same as being inimical to the state. In fact, it is the very opposite”, it said.
“A robust, questioning press is essential to a healthy democracy. Our work of holding power to account, investigating corruption, amplifying marginalised voices strengthens our nation. It does not weaken it”.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a global press freedom organisation, also raised concerns about the raid and called on police to return any documents or other property that was seized.
“The raid on the Kashmir Times office is deeply troubling and raises concerns about increasing pressure on media outlets in Jammu and Kashmir”, Kunal Majumder, CPJ’s Asia-Pacific programme coordinator, said in a statement.
“Authorities must clearly explain the legal basis for this action and ensure that any investigation is conducted with transparency and full respect for due process. News outlets should not face punitive action simply for doing their journalistic work”.
In 2019, India revoked the special status for Indian-administered Kashmir, which had given the area a degree of autonomy.
Additionally, the Indian government splits Kashmir into Jammu and Kashmir in the west and Ladakh in the east, which will be under the direct rule of New Delhi.
Kashmir’s population is overwhelmingly Muslim. India controls the southern and southern regions of the country, including the Kashmir Valley and its largest city, Srinagar, as well as Jammu and Ladakh, while Pakistan controls the northern and western regions, which are Azad Kashmir, Gilgit, and Baltistan.
Since the end of British colonial rule, India and Pakistan have engaged in territorial disputes over Kashmir. The partition resulted in the creation of Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India in 1947. Both nations continue to assert claims over Kashmir’s entire region.
According to CPJ’s Asia-Pacific Program Coordinator Kunal Majumder, “the raid on the Kashmir Times office is deeply troubling and raises concerns about growing pressure on Jammu and Kashmir media outlets.” Authorities must “ensure and clearly explain the legal basis for this action.”
Published On 20 Nov 2025
The Netherlands has announced that it will return , control of chipmaker Nexperia to its Chinese parent company, a step towards resolving a standoff between The , Hague and Beijing that upended automotive supply chains.
Dutch Economic Affairs Minister Vincent Karremans said on Wednesday that he , had suspended an order to effectively seize control of the chipmaker following “constructive” talks with Chinese officials and consultations with European and international partners.
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“We are positive about the measures already taken by the Chinese authorities to ensure the supply of chips to Europe and the rest of the world”, Karremans said in a statement.
“We see this as a show of goodwill. We will continue to engage in constructive dialogue with the Chinese authorities in the period ahead”.
China’s Ministry of Commerce welcomed the announcement as a “first step”, but called for the full revocation of the order, describing it as the “root cause” of the supply chain disruptions.
It also criticised a Dutch court’s “erroneous ruling” last month that forced out Nexperia’s Chinese CEO, Zhang Xuezheng, over alleged mismanagement.
Jo Van Biesebroeck, an economics professor at KU Leuven, said Europe’s efforts to craft a strategy for managing China’s involvement in critical supply chains were a “work in progress”.
“The Nexperia action was triggered by specific actions, and the main worry now seems to be diminished with the personnel change at Nexperia”, Biesebroeck told Al Jazeera.
“The Dutch government made clear how far it is willing to go, and it seems like China has met them halfway”.
The Dutch government took effective control of Nexperia, owned by Jiaxing-based Wingtech, in late September, citing the need to ensure chip supplies amid concerns Zhang could move manufacturing operations and intellectual property to China.
The move came after the United States had warned the Netherlands that the company would likely be placed on its list of sanctioned firms unless it replaced Zhang, though Dutch officials have denied acting due to pressure from Washington.
Beijing condemned the Dutch government’s intervention, invoked under the Cold War-era Goods Availability Act, as an act of “improper interference” in a company’s affairs and blocked exports of some Nexperia products manufactured in China in response.
Japanese carmakers Honda and Nissan were forced to cut back production amid the resulting disruption to supply chains, while Germany’s Mercedes-Benz announced that it had taken steps to secure chip supplies in the short term.