Poland has intercepted Russian drones that were flying over its airspace after completing a mission in western Ukraine. It’s the first time a NATO member nation has fired shots in Russia’s war on Ukraine.
World leaders were quick to criticise Israel for its attack in Qatar on Tuesday, targeting Hamas political leaders discussing a ceasefire in Gaza.
United States President Donald Trump, typically one of Israel’s most vocal supporters, said he was “very unhappy about every aspect” of the strike. Germany, long a consistent backer of Israel, declared the attack “unacceptable” and a violation of Qatar’s sovereignty. And India, which, under its nationalist leader Narendra Modi, has largely supported Israel, warned of “escalation” and said it was “deeply concerned”.
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But the rhetorical condemnation of Israel’s attack may not translate into meaningful policy shifts. Israel has continually ignored international law during its war on Gaza, where it has killed more than 64,000 Palestinians, destroyed the enclave, and caused a famine. It has also repeatedly attacked neighbouring countries and rejected any international criticism it has faced.
“One could presume that these strikes would mean that Israeli allies who have been rather cautious in their criticism would change their direction, but this is not particularly likely,” said HA Hellyer, a senior fellow at the Royal United Service Institute and Center for American Progress.
“In terms of policy, Israel has been engaged in a massive war of devastation on the Gaza Strip, leading to accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice, and violating the sovereignty of Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iran, and Tunisia over the past two years,” Hellyer added. “None of that led to any substantial changes in policy towards the Israeli government from these states, and I don’t expect this to either.”
Qatar’s growing diplomatic influence and its strong ties to the US lend extra significance to the Israeli attack, which failed in its mission to kill Hamas leaders, but did kill five lower-ranking Hamas members and a Qatari security officer. However, analysts cautioned that Qatar’s standing with the US might not be enough to shift global policy towards Israel.
“International public opinion is definitely shifting quite rapidly,” said Karim Emile Bitar, a professor of international relations at the Saint Joseph University of Beirut. “However, I think that this shift in public opinion is mostly related to what’s happening in Gaza, the famine and the fact that even leading Israeli intellectuals and scholars are now calling it a genocide.”
Bitar said that the attack on Qatar would most likely lead to a hardening of attitudes towards Israel in the Gulf, rather than elsewhere.
Gulf leaders have already visited Doha in solidarity or are planning to, and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani has said that Gulf states were discussing a response to Israel.
For other countries, the attack on Qatar is the latest evidence that Israel is unconcerned with international law, and is creating an increasingly unstable Middle East, which is unpopular among the public in many countries. Their concern about that, weighed against how much they are willing to anger Israel and its chief ally, the US, determines how far they are willing to go in terms of action against Israel.
One of the most notable shifts has been in Europe, where a number of countries – as well as the European Union – have become increasingly critical of Israel, and have begun to threaten sanctions.
Most recently, Spain has imposed a formal arms embargo on Israel and banned ships carrying fuel for Israel’s military from passing through its ports, while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has suggested sanctions – including the suspension of the EU-Israel free trade agreement – could be introduced.
But action against Israel from Western countries is still minimal in comparison with the isolation and sanctions placed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
That is despite Israel becoming increasingly unrestrained in committing violence across the Middle East.
On Wednesday, one day after its strike on Qatar and just weeks after assassinating the prime minister of the Houthi rebel government in Yemen, Israel struck the country, including a residential area in the capital, Sanaa, killing at least 35 people. And on two occasions this week, Israel has been accused of launching two drone attacks on the Global Sumud Flotilla, a peaceful mission attempting to break the blockade of Gaza, and currently docked in Tunisia.
That is in addition to its previous attacks on Syria, Lebanon and Iran.
Neither has Israel indicated that it regrets the attack upon Qatar, nor given other states reason to hope that their territory would not be host to similar attacks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appeared entirely unrepentant, saying of the strike, “Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility.”
Prime Minister’s Office:
Today’s action against the top terrorist chieftains of Hamas was a wholly independent Israeli operation.
Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility.
Other senior figures went further. Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich, who is currently negotiating an investment deal in India, despite its apparent concern over the strikes on Qatar, wrote that the enemies of Israel, whom he referred to as “terrorists”, would “have no immunity from the long arm of Israel anywhere in the world”.
“Israel has crossed red line after red line after red line and nothing has happened,” Rob Geist Pinfold, lecturer in international security at King’s College London said. “Every time it’s crossed the Rubicon, it’s gone right back and done it again.”
“European states can say and do anything they like,” he added, “but at the moment, there just isn’t a sufficient deterrent to stop them striking anywhere they like.”
Geist Pinfold did point to one man who could change the way Israel acts: Donald Trump.
“The only figure that can stop them is Donald Trump,” the academic said.
The US provides billions of dollars in support to Israel, as well as arming it, ensuring it has military superiority over all its neighbours. It also supports Israel diplomatically, ensuring that Security Council resolutions against Israel are rare, and has even sanctioned officials from the International Criminal Court for having the temerity to charge Netanyahu for war crimes.
Trump himself is viewed favourably in Israel for his pro-Israel policies, particularly in his first term, when he recognised Jerusalem – including occupied East Jerusalem – as the capital of Israel.
Many Israeli right-wingers view Trump’s presidency as a perfect opportunity to carry out their goals, such as the annexation of the occupied West Bank. They believe the US will do little to stop them.
And while Trump has rhetorically pushed for a ceasefire deal in Gaza, he has largely backed Israel’s position, and has even suggested the Palestinian enclave be transformed into a “Gaza Riviera”, involving what critics have called the ethnic cleansing of the Strip’s Palestinian population.
The bombing of Qatar, a country Trump visited soon after taking office for his second term this year, is, for the president, a different matter from Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. However, the White House narrative on Israel’s bombing has already afforded Washington plausible deniability, saying that the US government only found out about the attack at the last minute, and tried to inform Qatar in time.
A real indication of whether the US is frustrated with Israel will be if Trump now pushes his ally to finally agree to a ceasefire deal and end the war in Gaza, as well as its foreign adventurism.
Based on past evidence, that may be unlikely. But if the US does, it has a chance of opening the floodgates and further isolating Israel internationally.
Conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organisation Turning Point USA, was shot at during a campus event at Utah Valley University. President Trump has posted on social media that Kirk has died.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened to try to kill Hamas leaders in Qatar again if Doha does not expel the group’s officials, drawing a sharp response from Doha.
Unfazed by international outrage over the attack in the Qatari capital, Netanyahu said on Wednesday that countries should “applaud” Israel for its bombing and killing spree across the Middle East.
“I say to Qatar and all nations who harbour terrorists, you either expel them or you bring them to justice — because if you don’t, we will,” he said.
The comments came a day after Israel carried out an unprecedented attack in Qatar, targeting senior Hamas leadership in Doha as discussions on a US-backed ceasefire proposal for Gaza were under way.
In response, Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a condemnation of the Israeli prime minister’s comments, calling them a “shameful attempt … to justify the cowardly attack that targeted Qatari territory, as well as the explicit threats of future violations of state sovereignty”.
“Netanyahu is fully aware that the hosting of the Hamas office took place within the framework of Qatar’s mediation efforts requested by the United States and Israel,” it said.
“Such statements are hardly surprising coming from an individual who relies on extremist rhetoric to win elections and is wanted for international justice, facing mounting sanctions on a daily basis – factors that only deepen his isolation on the global stage.”
In just three days, Israel has launched attacks in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Tunisia and Qatar, while continuing daily raids in the occupied West Bank. On Wednesday, it killed 35 people in an attack in Yemen.
Last week, Israel was slammed for dropping grenades near the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in southern Lebanon.
Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut said, “Israel again has no problem meddling into the internal affairs of another country or violating international law, and the sovereignty of other nations by getting involved in military conflicts.
“We’ve seen it repeatedly in this region, but not just during the war on Gaza. We’ve seen it throughout Netanyahu’s political career, and Netanyahu is saying he’s going to take matters into his own hands.
“Israel doesn’t seem to care what the rest of the world are thinking – despite all the criticisms and violations of international law.”
Separately on Wednesday, in an interview with CNN, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani described Israel’s attack on Doha as “state terror”.
“I have no words to express how enraged we are from such an action … this is state terror,” Sheikh Mohammed said on Wednesday. “We are betrayed.”
The prime minister added that the United States has expressed its support for Qatar “on many occasions”.
Sheikh Mohammed added that Israel’s actions had “killed any hope” for the captives remaining in Gaza.
“I was meeting one of the hostages’ families the morning of the attack,” he said. “They are counting on this [ceasefire] mediation. They have no other hope for that.”
“I think that what [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu has done yesterday, he just killed any hope for those hostages,” the prime minister added.
“He needs to be brought to justice,” Sheikh Mohammed said. “He’s the one who’s wanted at the [International Criminal Court or ICC].
“I think that someone like him trying to lecture about the law — he’s breaking every law — he broke every international law.”
Netanyahu, along with Israel’s former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, is accused by the ICC of war crimes related to Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Regional leaders have rushed to Doha in the aftermath of the strike. United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan met Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, while Jordan’s king and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are also expected to arrive.
The attack has sent shock waves across the Gulf, with states that recently explored normalisation with Israel now rallying around Qatar.
“There is a response that will happen from the region,” Sheikh Mohammed said. “This response is currently under consultation and discussion with other partners in the region.”
He confirmed that an Arab-Islamic summit will be held in Doha in the coming days to decide on a course of action.
Anonymous street artist Banksy’s mural showing a judge hitting a protester with a gavel has been removed from the wall of a court building in London two days after it was revealed, in what appeared to be a response to a crackdown on protests in solidarity with the Palestine Action campaign group.
Images shared by AP news agency on Wednesday showed a worker removing the new artwork by Banksy, which shows a bewigged judge bringing down a gavel on a protester sprawled on the ground, clutching a blood-stained placard, after it appeared at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, the United Kingdom on Monday.
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According to PA Media, work began to remove the image on Tuesday and resumed on Wednesday.
The mural appears to be a commentary on the mass arrests of people protesting the ban on the campaign group Palestine Action.
In July, Britain designated the activist network a “terrorist organisation” after its members stormed a Royal Air Force base and damaged military aircraft. Supporting or belonging to the group now carries criminal penalties.
But rights groups and campaigners have accused the British government of criminalising pro-Palestinian activism, saying the ban threatens the right to peaceful protest.
Lawyers and civil liberties advocates argue that proscribing Palestine Action sets a dangerous precedent for restricting activism on foreign policy issues, with Amnesty International calling the decision by the Labour government “a disturbing legal overreach”.
Campaigners have accused the Labour government led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer of allowing the export of military items to Israel. Amid mounting pressure, Starmer last month announced that the UK would recognise the state of Palestine.
Banksy has long used his work to highlight Palestinian struggles under Israeli occupation. His murals in the occupied West Bank include ones that depict a girl conducting a body search on an Israeli soldier, a dove wearing a flak jacket, and a masked protester hurling a bouquet.
Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison has wrested the title of the world’s richest person from longtime holder Elon Musk.
On Wednesday, as stock in Ellison’s software giant rocketed more than a third in a stunning few minutes of trading, Ellison’s net worth surpassed the Tesla CEO, according to wealth tracker Bloomberg. As of 3pm in New York (19:00 GMT), Oracle stock is up 34.4 percent for the day.
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Ellison, 81, is now worth $393bn, according to Bloomberg. That is several billion more than Musk, who had been the world’s richest person for four years running. Stock in one of Musk’s biggest holdings, Tesla, has been moving in the opposite direction of Oracle’s, dropping 14 percent so far this year as of Tuesday.
The switch in the ranking came after a blockbuster earnings report from Oracle, powered by multibillion-dollar orders from customers as the AI race heats up.
Ellison’s net worth is largely derived from his 41 percent stake in Oracle.
Another news organisation with a long history of tallying the world’s richest, Forbes, still has Musk at the top, at $439bn. Bloomberg put his net worth at $385bn. The difference is in how the two estimate the value of Musk’s rocket company SpaceX, among other private holdings.
It comes as Tesla shareholders have offered Musk a $1 trillion compensation package.
With Ellison’s surging fortune on Wednesday, he could fund the lifestyles of five million US families for a year, about the entire population of Florida, allowing them to all quit their jobs, assuming the US median household income.