Category World News

A young Palestinian man has died while being held in captivity by Israeli authorities, according to the Palestinian Authority, as Israeli military and settler violence across the occupied West Bank reaches levels unseen in decades, and its genocidal war on Gaza continues unabated.

Abdul Rahman al-Sabateen, 21, from Husan near Bethlehem, died at a Jerusalem medical facility on Tuesday night after being arrested by Israeli soldiers in late June, the PA said in a statement.

His family reported seeing no signs of illness when they last visited him during a court appearance on November 25.

The death comes as Israeli forces arrested more than 100 Palestinians in dawn raids across the West Bank on Wednesday, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office said.

The sweeps targeted cities including Nablus, where approximately 30 people were detained, and Silwad, where another 24 were taken into custody. Witnesses told the Wafa news agency that soldiers entered homes, confiscating belongings and jewellery during the operations.

Al-Sabateen’s death brings to at least 94 the number of Palestinians who have died in Israeli detention since October 2023, according to Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, which has documented what it describes as “systematic torture” in both military and prison facilities.

The organisation’s recent report details cases involving beatings, medical neglect and deliberate starvation.

The United Nations human rights office has separately confirmed at least 75 deaths during the same period, saying that Israeli authorities have “deliberately imposed conditions of detention that amount to torture or other forms of ill-treatment”.

Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza, while settler attacks, often with the military’s backing, have surged dramatically and with impunity.

More than 700 Palestinians have been injured by Israeli settlers so far this year, double the total for all of 2024, according to UN data. October alone saw 264 such attacks, the highest monthly figure since tracking began in 2006.

The violence has coincided with an aggressive illegal settlement expansion drive. On Wednesday, Israeli authorities approved 764 new housing units in three West Bank settlements, a move Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – who openly rejects a two-state solution – described as a continuation of “the revolution”.

Far-right ministers in Israel have been pushing for the total annexation of the occupied territory, a move the United States, European, and Arab and Muslim nations all oppose.

Wasel Abu Yousef, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, told Reuters that “the settlements are illegal” and run counter to “all the resolutions of international legitimacy”.

Smotrich announced approval for 764 new housing units on Wednesday, part of what Israeli media describes as a 2.7 billion-shekel ($836m) five-year plan to entrench Israeli control over the territory.

Since late 2022, more than 51,000 settlement units have been authorised.

Human Rights Watch reported last month that Israeli forces forcibly displaced 32,000 Palestinians from three refugee camps earlier this year, operations the organisation characterised as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Omar Shakir, Human Rights Watch’s Israel and Palestine director, called it the “second largest – after Gaza – displacement of Palestinians since 1967,” likening it to a second Nakba, when more than 700,000 Palestinians were displaced during Israel’s founding in 1948.

A psychologist working with Doctors Without Borders and speaking anonymously in Hebron described the mounting psychological toll on Palestinians on Wednesday, saying they are “preparing themselves for loss” rather than planning for the future.

The mental health worker said patients commonly express the thought: “They started in Gaza, then moved to the north of the West Bank – now it’s just a matter of time until it’s our turn.”

The Wafa news agency reported that around 190 settlers, accompanied by Israeli forces, forcefully entered the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem on Wednesday, part of a pattern of increasingly frequent incursions in recent months, some of which far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has personally joined.

Many actors involved in negotiations to end Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and begin its reconstruction breathed a collective sigh of relief when it was announced that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, one of the most polarising figures in international diplomacy, was removed from the proposed “board of peace”, tasked with overseeing the transitional phase in the Strip. The announcement came at a highly sensitive moment, just as negotiations entered their second phase, focused on the security and economic arrangements necessary for stabilising the Strip and launching reconstruction efforts.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 2803, adopted on November 17, 2025, and aligned with United States President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace proposal, granted an international mandate to form a transitional peace council (TPC), deploy a stabilisation force, and set a framework stretching until the end of 2027. In the midst of shaping this new transitional architecture, Blair’s anticipated role quickly emerged as a source of deep concern for many stakeholders.

Since the Trump administration began engaging in efforts to end the war, several plans have circulated. Yet the plan attributed to Blair appeared closest to Trump’s thinking and may have informed key elements of the vision he unveiled in late September. That alone reignited controversy: why would placing Blair in such a consequential position be viewed as a grave misstep?

Blair carries a heavy political legacy rooted in what many consider the most disastrous foreign policy decision of the 21st century: the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which he championed alongside then-US President George W Bush under the false pretext of weapons of mass destruction (as later confirmed by the United Kingdom’s Chilcot inquiry). The war devastated Iraq, fuelled sectarian conflict, opened the door to years of foreign intervention, and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. For many across the region and beyond, Blair became a symbol of unaccountable power and catastrophic decision-making.

Within the Palestinian and Arab context, Blair’s record is even more troubling. As the Quartet’s special envoy to the Middle East peace process from 2007 to 2015, he was widely accused of reinforcing Israeli policies, enabling the entrenchment of the Gaza blockade, and allowing Israel to evade its obligations under peace frameworks. Although the Quartet’s mandate was to support negotiations, foster economic development, and prepare institutions for eventual statehood, none of these goals meaningfully advanced during Blair’s tenure. Meanwhile, illegal Israeli settlement expansion accelerated, and the occupation deepened.

Most consequential was the Quartet’s decision, following the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, to impose sweeping political and economic sanctions on the new Hamas-led government. These conditions, which required Hamas to recognise Israel and renounce armed resistance before lifting the blockade, effectively triggered Gaza’s long-term isolation. The decision dealt a severe blow to Palestinian political cohesion and helped entrench the division whose consequences are still felt today.

During Blair’s years in office, Gaza endured four devastating Israeli assaults, including the 2008-09 Operation Cast Lead, one of the bloodiest military campaigns in the Strip’s history during his mandate. Yet Blair achieved no political breakthrough. Instead, British media investigations revealed serious conflicts of interest, suggesting that the former prime minister used his Quartet role to facilitate business deals benefitting companies linked to him, earning millions of pounds despite his lack of diplomatic achievements. Multiple reports indicated that he was not fully dedicated to his envoy responsibilities, devoting significant time to his private consultancy work and lucrative speaking engagements.

In 2011, Blair also openly opposed Palestine’s bid for full UN membership, calling it a move that was “deeply confrontational” and reportedly lobbied the UK government to withhold support.

Years later, in 2017, he admitted that he and other world leaders were wrong to impose an immediate boycott on Hamas after its electoral victory – an admission that came only after Gaza had suffered the long-term consequences of that policy.

For these reasons, Palestinians, Arab states, and numerous donor countries perceived Blair’s anticipated role in the proposed board for peace with profound scepticism. Given his political record, clear alignment with Israeli positions, and unresolved allegations of profiteering, Blair is seen not as an impartial stabiliser but as a liability capable of undermining the fragile trust necessary for any transitional process.

Removing him is therefore a step in the right direction, yet not sufficient on its own. The real test lies in determining whether his private consulting firm and affiliated networks are also excluded, or whether his departure is merely symbolic. If Blair exits in name only, while his institutional influence persists behind the scenes, then the risks to the peace process remain substantial.

In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera, Hamas’ political leader outside Gaza, Khaled Meshaal, said that he told mediators that Palestinians must be given the chance to heal and recover from Israel’s genocide.

A Palestinian woman says Israeli soldiers used her as a human shield during a ground operation in Gaza, a practice that constitutes a war crime under international law. Her story is one of several testimonies and videos that point to a wider pattern of the practice by Israeli forces.

United States President Donald Trump spoke to US news outlet Politico in an interview at the White House on Monday, during which he made several strong claims about the state of the economy, the threat he claims is posed by drug gangs in Venezuela, and his popularity among Black Americans.

Then, a day later, Trump spoke about immigration and affordability at a rally-style speech, which lasted for 90 minutes in Pennsylvania, during which he launched a scathing attack on Ilhan Omar, the US’s first Muslim congresswoman, who he claims is in the country illegally.

We fact-check some of the claims Trump made during the interview and the speech.

Claim: Trump inherited the ‘worst inflation in history’, the economy is thriving now

During the Pennsylvania rally, Trump claimed that he had inherited the “worst inflation in the history of our country” from former president, Democrat Joe Biden.

In the Politico interview, Trump said: “I inherited a mess. I inherited a total mess. Prices were at an all-time high when I came in.”

He also told Politico: “If you think of gasoline a gallon, they had it at $4.50, almost $5.00. You go to some of the states, you had it at $6.00. We hit, uh, three states two days ago, $1.99 a gallon.”

The facts

Philadelphia-based nonprofit Factcheck.org wrote in January this year that while inflation did rise under Biden, Trump did not, in fact, inherit the “worst inflation” in history.

The annualised inflation rate was below 3 percent during the six months before Trump took office in his second term.

The organisation explained the rise in inflation under Biden was partly down to the economic damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Factcheck.org, the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose from 5.4 percent to 9.1 percent in the 12-month period ending in June 2022. But this was far from the worst the US has experienced. That was in the aftermath of World War I, when inflation hit 23.7 percent in June 1920.

In March 1980, inflation hit 14.8 percent, marking one of the most severe spikes in consumer prices in modern US history.

Trump’s statements about petrol prices are also slightly misleading.

In the US, the average price of petrol – called “gas” in the US – was $3.05 per gallon (3.8 litres) in November this year, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). According to online marketplace Choose Energy, the cost per gallon ranged from $2.41 in Oklahoma to $4.53 in California as of December 3.

The $1.99 price cited by Trump applies to isolated low-price stations in certain states and does not reflect a general statewide average.

Claim: Ilhan Omar is in the US illegally

During the Pennsylvania rally, Trump launched an attack on Ilhan Omar, the Democrat who has served as a Minnesota representative in Congress since 2019.

While bemoaning immigration to the US by people from Somalia and other countries, he claimed that Omar is in the US illegally.

“I love this Ilhan Omar, whatever the hell her name is. With her little turban. I love her. She comes in, does nothing but bitch. She’s always complaining. She comes from her country, where, I mean, it’s considered about the worst country in the world,” Trump said to a crowd of supporters, who roared with applause.

“We gotta get her the hell out,” he said. “She married her brother in order to get in, right … she married her brother to get in, therefore she’s here illegally.”

The crowd of supporters at the rally started chanting “Send her back!”

Trump also claimed that Somalia has no military, parliament or police. “They police themselves, they kill each other all the time.”

The facts

First, Somalia does have a military, a parliament and a police force.

While Omar was born in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, in 1982, her family fled the Somali Civil War and spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya before seeking asylum in the US in 1995, when she was 12.

Once asylum is granted – as it was to Omar’s family – the US Refugee Admissions Program grants lawful permanent resident (LPR) status to refugees, who can then apply for citizenship five years later.

Omar became eligible for citizenship five years after she entered the US, and finally became a citizen in 2000, when she was 17 years old.

Doubts about Omar’s legal status in the US and claims that she married her brother have circulated among the US right wing since 2018, shortly before she was elected to Congress. In 2018, Omar dismissed these claims as “disgusting lies” in a statement to The Associated Press (AP). She provided AP with detailed marriage and divorce records.

Ilhan Omar first married Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi in 2002 in a Muslim faith ceremony, had two children, and later separated. In 2009, she married British citizen Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in a civil marriage, separating in 2011; she reunited with Hirsi in 2012, and after legally divorcing Elmi in 2017, remarried Hirsi legally in 2018.

There is no verifiable evidence to back up allegations that either Hirsi or Elmi is Omar’s brother. She has strongly denied these allegations.

Claim: The Venezuela boat strikes save 25,000 American lives each time

During Trump’s Politico interview, he repeated the claim that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro “sends in a lot of drugs” to the US.

Since September, US military strikes on at least 21 Venezuelan boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific have killed more than 80 people.

In September, a top US Navy commander ordered a second strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat, despite almost completely destroying it in the first attack. According to witnesses, there were only two survivors clinging to debris in the water after the first strike, and both were killed in the second.

When Trump was asked about that second strike, he said: “It looked like they were trying to turn back over the boat, but I don’t get involved in that. That’s up to them. Uh, the admiral that did is a highly respected man. And we save 25,000 people every time we knock out a boat.”

During the rally in Pennsylvania, Trump again made the claim that for every US strike on alleged Venezuelan drug boats, “we save 25,000 American lives”.

The facts

The Trump administration has not provided any evidence that strikes on Venezuelan boats each save 25,000 American lives by preventing drug trafficking into the US. Indeed, it has not provided evidence that any of the boats it has struck were carrying drugs or were affiliated with drug cartels, as it claims.

Furthermore, there is little evidence that drugs are trafficked from Venezuela on a large scale. The 2023 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) World Drug Report said global cocaine production had hit a record 3,708 tonnes, up nearly one‑third from 2022, with most coca cultivation taking place in Colombia, followed by Peru and Bolivia.

Trafficking routes into the US in 2023-2024 primarily passed through Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, not Venezuela, although it does serve as a minor transit corridor for Colombian cocaine moving into the eastern Caribbean.

The dominant US-bound maritime route remains through the eastern Pacific, then into Mexico and Central America, where most large seizures occur before drugs can pass overland into the US. The US Drug Enforcement Administration’s own 2024 report similarly identified Colombia as the source for about 84 percent of cocaine seized in the US, and made no mention of Venezuela.

Claims about transgender people and Black people

During the Pennsylvania rally, Trump claimed the Democrats want “transgender for every member in your family”.

He added: “If they’re not feeling well that night, let’s just change their sex.”

Trump also said: “Black people love Trump. I got the biggest vote with Black people.”

The facts

In the US, access to medical transition or “gender‑affirming” treatments, such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy or surgeries, is not a uniform process nationwide. It varies significantly from state to state depending on local laws, medical practices and insurance coverage provisions.

However, while some European countries have placed restrictions on access to such treatments – especially for children, for whom there are concerns that puberty blockers, which are largely untrialled, might cause lasting developmental harm – these can be more readily available in parts of the US.

There is certainly no evidence that the Democratic Party believes all families should have a transgender member.

When it comes to Black voters, it is true that Trump made significant inroads in the lead-up to the 2024 election. Overall, he secured 20 percent of the Black vote in November 2024 – a big rise from the 12 percent he won in 2020.