Belgian police question Israelis over alleged Gaza war crimes

According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Brussels, Belgian authorities have interrogated two Israeli military personnel following allegations of grave violations of international humanitarian law committed in Gaza.

Following the filing of legal complaints by the Global Legal Action Network and the Hind Rajab Foundation, the two individuals were questioned. As the soldiers gathered for Belgium’s Tomorrowland music festival on Friday and Saturday, they filed the complaints.

The Federal Prosecutor’s Office requested the police to track down and question the two people named in the complaint in a written statement released on Monday. They were released after these interrogations, the statement read.

The Belgian Code of Criminal Procedure recently passed a new provision that allowed for the questioning. If alleged violations are brought against them abroad under international treaties that Belgium has ratified, such as the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the 1984 UN Convention against Torture, it is possible for Belgian courts to do so.

At this stage of the investigation, the prosecutor’s office announced it would not release additional information.

The Belgian-based Hind Rajab Foundation has been fighting for Israeli soldiers to face legal challenges for alleged war crimes committed in Gaza. A six-year-old Palestinian girl who fled Gaza City with her family when Israel’s war began, was the victim of the Israeli fire.

The foundation has lodged dozens of complaints against Israeli military personnel, both low- and high-ranking, since it was founded last year in more than 10 countries.

The group praised the developments on Monday as “a turning point in the global pursuit of accountability.”

The foundation stated in a statement that “we will continue to support the ongoing proceedings and call on Belgian authorities to fully and independently pursue the investigation.” Justice must not stop at this, and we are working toward its completion.

This action sends a clear message to governments that credible evidence of international crimes must be provided by law, not by political indifference, the statement continued.

One Israeli citizen and one soldier were interrogated and later released, according to the Foreign Ministry of Israel. In a statement cited by The Associated Press news agency, the ministry said that “Israeli authorities dealt with this issue and are in contact with the two.”

The incident comes as Israel’s actions in its conflict with Gaza sputter become more and more international. More than 20 Western nations on Monday called for the end of the conflict in Gaza, citing the “new depths” of suffering there.

Israel’s allies, Britain, France, Australia, Canada, and 21 other nations, plus the European Union, said in a joint statement that the conflict “must end now” after more than 21 months of fighting that have caused catastrophic humanitarian conditions for Gaza’s more than 2 million people.

The signatories urged the release of captives held by Palestinian armed groups, the release of prisoners, and the flow of much-needed aid, adding that “the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths.”

Israel was charged by the World Food Programme on Sunday with shooting at a crowd of Palestinians seeking food aid with tanks, snipers, and other weapons.

It claimed that its 25-truck convoy encountered large crowds of civilians waiting for food supplies as they approached Gaza’s northern Zikim crossing.

As the convoy approached, Israeli tanks, snipers, and other gunfire started to fire in the surrounding crowd, according to the statement on X, noting that “many lives were lost” and many more were injured in critical conditions.

“These people were merely attempting to get food for themselves and their families who were on the verge of starvation.” This terrible incident highlights the increasingly dangerous circumstances in which humanitarian operations are required to take place in Gaza.

The Israeli attack, which claimed the lives of at least 92 people, was one of the war’s deadliest days for civilians seeking humanitarian aid, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Philippines’ Marcos to meet Trump seeking trade deal

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr will meet United States President Donald Trump this week, hoping Manila’s status as a key Asian ally will secure a more favourable trade deal.

Marcos will be the first Southeast Asian leader to meet Trump during the US leader’s second term.

Trump has already struck trade deals with two of Manila’s regional partners, Vietnam and Indonesia, driving tough bargains in negotiations even with close allies that Washington wants to keep onside in its strategic rivalry with China.

“I expect our discussions to focus on security and defence, of course, but also on trade,” Marcos said in a speech before leaving Manila and arriving in Washington on Sunday, with hopes to reach a deal before August 1, when Trump says he will impose 20 percent tariffs on goods from the Philippines.

“We will see how much progress we can make when it comes to the negotiations with the United States concerning the changes that we would like to institute to alleviate the effects of a very severe tariff schedule on the Philippines,” Marcos said.

The US had a deficit of nearly $5bn with the Philippines last year on bilateral goods trade of $23.5bn.

Trump this month raised the threatened “reciprocal” tariffs on imports from the Philippines to 20 percent from 17 percent threatened in April.

Although US allies in Asia such as Japan and South Korea have yet to strike trade deals with Trump, Gregory Poling, a Southeast Asia expert at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Marcos might be able to do better than Vietnam, with its agreement of a 20 percent baseline tariff on its goods, and Indonesia at 19 percent.

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see an announcement of a deal with the Philippines at a lower rate than those two,” Poling told the Reuters news agency.

Marcos visited the Pentagon on Monday morning for talks with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and will see Secretary of State Marco Rubio later in the day, before meeting Trump at the White House on Tuesday.

He will also meet US business leaders investing in the Philippines.

Philippine officials say Marcos’s focus will be on economic cooperation and Manila’s concerns about Trump’s tariffs.

They say he will stress that Manila must become economically stronger if it is to serve as a truly robust US partner in the Asia Pacific.

Philippine Assistant Foreign Secretary Raquel Solano said last week that trade officials have been working with US counterparts seeking to seal a “mutually acceptable and mutually beneficial” deal for both countries.

China tensions

Trump and Marcos will also discuss defence and security, and Solano said the Philippine president would be looking to further strengthen the longstanding defence alliance.

Philippine media quoted Manila’s ambassador to Washington, Jose Manuel Romualdez, as saying on Sunday that the visit would see a reaffirmation of the seven-decade-old mutual defence treaty and “discussions on how we can continue to cooperate with the United States, our major ally”.

With the Philippines facing intense pressure from China in the contested South China Sea, Marcos has pivoted closer to the US, expanding access to Philippine military bases amid China’s threats towards Taiwan, the democratically governed island claimed by Beijing.

The US and the Philippines hold dozens of annual exercises, which have included training with the US Typhon missile system, and more recently, with the NMESIS antiship missile system, angering China.

Manila and the US have closely aligned their views on China, Poling said, and it was notable that Rubio and Hegseth made sure their Philippine counterparts were the first Southeast Asian officials they met.

‘Less than human’: Report details Trump immigration detention centre abuses

A delay in medical care that may be related to two deaths has been reported by detainees at three US immigration detention centers, according to a human rights report.

The three facilities in or close to Miami, Florida, Krome North Service Processing Center, Broward Transitional Center, and the Federal Detention Center, detailed women being held in male facilities, rampant overcrowding, and potentially fatal indifference to medical needs.

The abuses, according to its authors, underscore one more aspect of President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign’s human trafficking, which has forced numerous facilities to function beyond their capacity. The administration has also pushed for a massive expansion of deportation infrastructure, including the state-built “Alligator Alcatraz,” which raises their own issues and condemnation.

The associate crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch, which co-authored the report with Americans for Immigrant Justice and Sanctuary of the South, warned that “people in immigration detention are being treated as less than human” in a statement that came with the release of the 92-page report.

These incidents are not isolated incidents, but rather the result of a deeply flawed and abuse-ridden detention system, according to Wille.

medical malpractice

The report detailed a lax approach to medical care at the three facilities, including denial of treatment and medication, using current and former inmate testimony, information from family members, lawyers, and information from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency data.

When Marie Ange Blaise, a 44-year-old Haitian national, experienced what would prove to be a fatal medical emergency at the Broward Transitional Center, a detainee reported that guards ignored cries for help in late April.

According to the report, the detainee claimed that the guards ignored her and that we began yelling for help. She was still standing when a rescue team arrived more than half an hour later.

The detainee who described the death claimed that she was also subject to punishment for seeking mental health care, noting that requests for such care were frequently solitaryd.

[Rebecca Blackwell/The Associated Press] Oksana Tarasiuk touches a box containing the ashes of her husband, Maksym Chernyak, who passed away while being held by ICE in Hallandale Beach, Florida.

In another instance, the 44-year-old Ukrainian woman’s wife claimed Maksym Chernyak’s requests to see a doctor were repeatedly postponed because he had a fever, chest pain, and other symptoms while incarcerated in Krome. His wife claims that when he saw a doctor, his wife discovered that he had an elevated blood pressure that needed to be treated.

A cellmate reported that guards responded in 15 to 20 minutes when Chernyak later started vomiting, drooling, and defecating on himself. The cellmate, who was the only one to identify himself as Carlos, claimed that Chernyak had taken illegal synthetic drugs when they did it.

Chernyak was taken off a stretcher, taken to a hospital, and later declared brain dead.

degrading and overcrowding

The report noted widespread overcrowding with detainees who claimed their cell sizes were sometimes more than twice as high as they could at Krome across the three facilities.

Some detainees were forced to sleep on the floor because of the crowding, which resulted in a shortage of toiletries, soap, and other supplies.

Despite being a male-only facility, Krome also handled female processing. Women in the center claimed to be denied access to showers and made to use open restrooms, which might be seen by the male population.

A woman from Argentina claimed that if the men had sat down on a chair, they would have a view of our room and the bathroom. We pleaded for access to the restroom, but the hotel said it was against the law because it was only for men.

Other alleged abuses include excessive force, insufficient food preparation, prolonged shackling, and extreme heat and cold exposure. Detainees described 30 to 40 people being forced to use a bucket as a toilet in a room intended for six.

After being detained by ICE at a regular immigration appointment in February, British businessman Harpinder Chauhan recounted one response from detention center authorities. He spent months switching between facilities.

They warned us that if we pressed on, it would lead to issues we wouldn’t like, he said.

domestic and international law violations

Overall, according to the report’s authors, the allegations constitute federal US immigration detention policies and international law violations.

Despite lacking the necessary resources, they claimed the conditions demonstrated the effects of Trump’s plan to implement mass deportations, which is based on the fact that immigrant criminality is widespread in the US.

Since Trump took office on January 20, the number of people who are typically subject to their right to contest their deportations has increased steadily, from 39, 238 on January 26, to 56, and 816 on July 13, according to information collected by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

The Trump administration’s detention capacity is expected to increase from 40, 000 to 100, 000 beds by the end of the year, according to The Wall Street Journal, largely by placing a top priority on quick-build tent facilities on military installations and ICE properties.

Trump signed a tax- and spending bill that will add an unprecedented $45 billion to new detention facilities, leading to the construction drive.

At least 49 killed in Gaza attacks as Israel sends tanks into Deir el-Balah

According to medical sources, the Israeli military has launched tanks into Deir el-Balah in central Gaza for the first time since Israel launched its assault on the besieged territory in October 2023, killing at least 49 Palestinians in Israeli-led attacks across the country.

A day after its military forced thousands of residents to flee the areas’ southern and eastern neighborhoods, forcing thousands of people to flee to the Mediterranean coast and south to Khan Younis, Israel launched a ground offensive on the city’s densely populated southern and eastern neighborhoods on Monday.

At least three Palestinians were killed and several others were hurt by tank shelling that hit homes and mosques in the area, according to local doctors.

According to Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, who was reporting from Deir el-Balah, gunfire was audible as Israeli tanks began to roll into the area on Monday morning.

He claimed that “we can see that the entire city is being attacked by Israelis.” “We were unable to fall asleep last night.”

Israeli bombardment is ongoing, according to the statement. Israeli military installations continue to bombard various residential areas. Residential homes were flattened before three more squares were destroyed in the city.

On July 21, 2025, an Israeli attack in Gaza City left a residential building with smoke and flames.

He claimed that donkey carts and other forms of transportation were frequently used by Deir el-Balah residents to flee.

Israel’s attacks get worse.

At least five people were killed in a tent in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, as a result of an Israeli airstrike, including a husband, wife, and their two children, according to the medical personnel.

Four aid seekers have been reported dead near a distribution center run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) since dawn on Monday.

In a separate Israeli bombardment in Jabalia al-Balad in the north, five additional Palestinians were killed.

Following an Israeli artillery strike on the nearby Jabalia al-Nazla area, the Palestine Red Crescent Society reported that its teams had recovered one person’s body and evacuated three injured people.

According to a source at al-Shifa Hospital, drone strikes were reported in Gaza City and left people dead.

The Gaza Ministry of Health reported that Israeli forces had killed at least 134 people and injured 1,155 others the day before. Since the start of the war, at least 59, 029 people have died in Gaza.

At least 19 people died from starvation in a single day, according to Gaza health officials on Sunday, highlighting the desperate state of the aid situation.

The World Food Programme’s representative for Palestine, Antoine Renard, claimed in an interview with Al Jazeera that he had been warned for “weeks” that the Palestinians in Gaza were facing starvation.

From occupied East Jerusalem, Renard said, “You have a level of despair that people are willing to risk their lives just to receive any of the assistance actually coming into Gaza.”

We can clearly see how high the number of people who are suffering from malnutrition is actually rising to levels that have never been seen before.

As the humanitarian situation for Palestinian refugees continues to deteriorate, UNRWA, the UN agency, reported receiving “desperate messages of starvation” from inside Gaza, including from its staff.

“Manmade suffering in Gaza must be stopped,” he said. In a statement posted on X, UNRWA said, “Lift the siege and allow aid to enter safely and at scale.”

900, 000 children in Gaza are varying degrees of malnutrition, according to Amjad Shawa, the organization’s head.

Israel must abide by international law, according to a joint statement from 25 nations, including the United Kingdom, France, and other European countries.

The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new levels, according to the foreign ministers of the 25 nations, including Australia, Canada, and Japan. They also condemned “the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, who seek to meet their most basic needs of water and food.

The statement read, “The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, causes instability, and undermines the dignity of Gazans.”

Bangladesh plane crash: What we know, what’s the latest

At least 19 people have been killed when a training jet from the Bangladesh Air Force crashes into a school campus.

The most recent information is:

What transpired in the plane crash in Bangladesh?

The F-7 BGI training aircraft from Bangladesh Air Force crashed in Uttara. The Bangladeshi military’s public relations team reported that the aircraft descended at 13:06 [07:06 GMT]

Around 12:30 p.m., local media reported that the aircraft crashed.

As people watched from a distance, there were videos of the aftermath of the crash that showed a fire and thick smoke rising into the sky.

The plane crashed in 1984, which was the deadliest aviation incident in Bangladesh since the plane’s collision, which claimed the lives of all 49 passengers.

In Ahmedabad, India, a passenger plane of Air India crashed into a medical college hostel last month, killing 19 people on the ground as well as 242 on board. The worst aviation disaster in a ten years was this one.

(Al Jazeera)

The crash site was where?

The plane crashed into the private school Milestone School and College in Uttara’s northern Dhaka neighborhood.

The location of the aircraft’s collision with the side of a building was revealed in video posted online following the crash, leaving a gaping hole behind.

Students were studying for exams or enrolling in regular classes at the time of the crash.

What size is this institution?

There are 6, 000 students enrolled at Milestones, according to the information on the school’s website.

What kind of aircraft did it have?

The Chinese Chengdu Corporation produces the light, “multi-role” fighter F-7 BGI.

Air-to-air combat, aerial bombing, reconnaissance, and the suppression of air defenses are all common “roles” in combat, which include multi-role fighter aircraft.

When Bangladesh purchased 36 of them in 2022, the BGI was hailed as the most developed F-7.

According to Bangladesh’s requirements, it had been upgraded.

F-7 BGI [Bangladesh Air Force]
Bangladesh Air Force’s F-7 BGI [Bangladesh Air Force]

What are the victims’ details known to us?

Using data from a variety of hospitals, at least 19 people have died and more than 100 have been injured.

Details about those who have died or are injured have not been made public by authorities.

According to Bidhan Sarker, head of the burn unit at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, “a third-grade student was brought in dead, and three others, aged 12, 14 and 40, were admitted to the hospital.”

What are the outlines of the rescue efforts?

A doctor at the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery reported to reporters that more than 50 people had burn injuries after the collision, including children.

According to Muhammad Yunus, the head of Bangladesh’s interim government, an emergency hotline has been established at the institute.

According to local media reports, several injured people were flown by air force helicopters to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH).

According to local media reports, the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), a paramilitary border security force, and the army, air force, police, and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) are working together on rescue operations.

According to the Dhaka Tribune, eight fire service units are attempting to contain the fire.

What is the most recent tidbit of information?

In the wake of the crash, Yunus claimed that the government is taking all necessary precautions.

He declared on his X account that as soon as possible, the bodies of those who can be identified will be returned to their families.

Those whose identities cannot be confirmed right away will have their identities verified through DNA testing, which will include the release of their remains to their families.