The Times of Israel is liveblogged Monday’s events as they unfolded.
US President Donald Trump appears to deny a report in Axios that his administration is pursuing a deal with Iran that would allow limited uranium enrichment.
“The AUTOPEN should have stopped Iran a long time ago from “enriching.” Under our potential Agreement — WE WILL NOT ALLOW ANY ENRICHMENT OF URANIUM!,” he writes on his Truth Social platform.
A subsequent post boasts of the US military “stockpiling weapons at a rate never seen before by our Country.”
“Hopefully, however, we will never have to use them!,” he writes.
According to Axios, the proposal presented to Iran on Saturday by Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi would forbid Iran from building new enrichment facilities and dismantle existing infrastructure, but would allow it to keep enriching in above-ground facilities to 3 percent, the level needed to fuel a civilian nuclear reactor.
The White House responded earlier by saying “Trump has made it clear that Iran can never obtain a nuclear bomb,” but did not deny the report.
Both the US and Israel have agreed that any deal must include a requirement for Iran to cease all uranium enrichment activity, and US special envoy Steve Witkoff has insisted that this is a red line he will not back down from.
Iran has said it will reject any deal that bans enrichment for civilian purposes.
A senior Iranian diplomat said Monday that Tehran would reject the US proposal, saying that it fails to address Tehran’s interests or soften Washington’s stance on uranium enrichment.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim responsibility for launching a ballistic missile attack that was intercepted by Israel hours ago.
In a video statement, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree says the group’s “missile force… carried out a military operation” targeting Ben-Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv.
Sirens had sounded across central Israel, the Jerusalem area, several West Bank settlements, and some areas in southern Israel before Israel’s military said it shot down the projectile.
The Attorney General’s Office expresses opposition to a bill proposed by Likud MK Nissim Vaturi that would permit associates of ministers to be appointed as heads of government companies without needing “special qualifications.”
A letter sent on behalf of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to Justice Minister Yariv Levin says the bill “seriously harms the integrity of appointments to government companies, as well as appointments to various public corporations, as it has the effect of removing a central and essential guarantee that the appointment of a candidate with a political affiliation will be made for substantive considerations, due to his qualifications — and not due to his connections.”
The attorney general adds that the bill is part of a range of legislative steps that “politicize” the civil service, thereby harming its professionalism and quality.
Under the current system, the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee will only recommend the appointment of an individual associated with a minister to head a government firm if they have “special qualifications.”
Police are responding to reports of fallen shrapnel in south Jerusalem neighborhoods and communities around the city after a ballistic missile fired by Houthi rebels from Yemen was intercepted by air defenses.
Israel Police says sappers are working to locate shrapnel and warns residents not to approach the fallen missile pieces.
The US proposal for a nuclear deal presented to Iran on Saturday allows some limited uranium enrichment within the country, Axios reports, citing two sources with direct knowledge.
The proposal, presented to Iran on Saturday by Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, would forbid Iran from building new enrichment facilities and dismantle enrichment infrastructure, as well as stop Iran from new research and development of centrifuges.
However, Iran would be able to keep enriching in above-ground facilities to three percent, the level needed to fuel a civilian nuclear reactor.
It will have to stop enriching to higher levels, as it currently does, and will have to mothball its underground enrichment facilities for a to-be-agreed-upon period.
A regional enrichment consortium would provide Iran with any additional low-enriched uranium it needs for civilian purposes.
Sanctions would be eased after Iran “demonstrates real commitment” to the terms of the deal, as determined by Washington and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“President Trump has made it clear that Iran can never obtain a nuclear bomb,” says Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in response, without denying the details of the offer.
“Special Envoy Witkoff has sent a detailed and acceptable proposal to the Iranian regime, and it’s in their best interest to accept it. Out of respect for the ongoing deal, the Administration will not comment on details of the proposal to the media.”
A senior Iranian diplomat said Monday that Tehran would reject the US proposal, saying that it fails to address Tehran’s interests or soften Washington’s stance on uranium enrichment.
Both the US and Israel have agreed that any deal must include a requirement for Iran to cease all uranium enrichment activity, and US special envoy Steve Witkoff has insisted that this is a red line he will not back down from.
But the Wall Street Journal reports that Israeli officials believe the US may drop the demand and proceed with a less comprehensive agreement rather than risk collapsing the negotiations.
An organizer of the Run for Their Lives hostage advocacy group that was attacked yesterday in Boulder, Colorado, says the most severely injured participant is an 88-year-old woman who was critically injured in the attack.
The group was holding a weekly walk in Boulder when the attack happened, says Omer Shachar, an Israeli who co-leads the hostages group in Boulder and Denver.
“We were doing our usual walk, very peaceful, quiet walk, just with flags and the posters of the hostages,” Shachar tells The Times of Israel.
As the group approached Boulder’s courthouse, “This guy threw Molotov cocktails at us and many of us got injured, got burns.”
The 88-year-old woman and her husband were the worst injured and were airlifted to a hospital for treatment. The woman is the individual seen in the video from the attack lying on the ground, with bystanders pouring water on her injuries, he says.
“I saw flames all over her, top to bottom,” Shachar says, adding that there were children in the crowd.
He confirms that another woman, who is a Holocaust survivor, was wounded. He declines to share the victims’ names due to privacy concerns.
The alleged attacker, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, also used a “makeshift flamethrower” in the attack that was made from a “backpack weed sprayer” loaded with gasoline, according to the FBI.
Shachar says Soliman attempted to use the device against the protesters, but the sprayer caught fire itself, so Soliman removed it and his shirt, Shachar says.
Shachar, who is from central Israel and has been in Colorado for four and a half years, says he is arranging security for upcoming events, such as the Boulder Jewish Festival scheduled for this weekend and future hostage events. He vows to keep marching for the hostages.
“I will keep walking until the last hostage comes back,” he says.
“People here are so committed to the cause,” he says. “It doesn’t matter if it’s snow, if it’s rain, if it’s hot. It’s so important to them.”
President Isaac Herzog expresses his “outrage and deep solidarity” to Colorado Jewish community leader Renee Rockford in a phone call following an attack on a rally for Israeli hostages in Boulder.
“This vile act of terror is a painful reminder that antisemitism knows no borders. But let me be clear: we will never let terror win. The American and Israeli peoples stand united — determined to bring all our hostages home and to ensure no Jew, anywhere, stands alone,” Herzog says.
A ballistic missile launched at Israel by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen was successfully intercepted by air defenses a short while ago, the military says.
Sirens had sounded across central Israel, the Jerusalem area, several West Bank settlements, and some areas in southern Israel. Preceding the sirens by three minutes, an early warning was issued to residents, alerting civilians of the long-range missile attack via a push notification on their phones.
Since March 18, when the IDF resumed its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis in Yemen have launched 44 ballistic missiles and at least 10 drones at Israel. Several of the missiles have fallen short.
Sirens are now sounding across central Israel, the Jerusalem area, southern West Bank settlements, and some areas in southern Israel, following the launch of a ballistic missile from Yemen.
The IDF says it is working to shoot down the projectile.
A ballistic missile has been launched from Yemen at Israel, the military says.
Sirens are expected to sound in the Jerusalem area and central Israel in the coming minutes.
The IDF says it is working to shoot down the projectile.
The suspect who allegedly attacked a group of pro-hostage demonstrators yesterday in Colorado planned the attack for a year, the FBI says in an affidavit filed in a Colorado federal court.
The affidavit is based on suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman’s interview with law enforcement after his arrest.
It says Soliman threw two lit Molotov cocktails into the hostages rally while shouting “Free Palestine.” The firebombs ignited in the crowd, causing burn injuries to eight of the participants.
After he was arrested, a black plastic container was found nearby. Inside were at least fourteen unlit Molotov cocktails made of glass wine bottles or Ball jars with gasoline inside and red rags hanging out of the top.
Also nearby was a “backpack weed sprayer” with gasoline inside. Authorities have said Soliman used a “makeshift flamethrower” during the attack.
Law enforcement found a silver Toyota Prius parked a few blocks away that was registered to Soliman. Inside were a red gas container and papers with the words “Israel,” “Palestine,” and “USAID,” the affidavit says.
Soliman told law enforcement he researched how to make Molotov cocktails on YouTube. He assembled the firebombs and bought gas at a gas station on his way to Boulder. He lived in Colorado Springs, Colorado, about two hours away, with his wife and five children. He was in the US illegally, according to the US Department of Homeland Security.
“He stated that he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead,” the affidavit says, adding that Soliman vowed to “do it again.”
Two people were killed in a car explosion in the central Arab town of Jaljulia, the Magen David Adom ambulance service says, amid a spiraling crime wave in the Arab community.
A 10-year-old boy who was riding a bike near the blast suffered lower body injuries and was taken by paramedics to Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba, MDA says.
Hebrew media notes that five people have been murdered around the country over the Shavuot festival.
US President Donald Trump blames the attack on hostage protesters in Colorado on his predecessor Joe Biden’s border policy, asserting such attacks “will not be tolerated.”
The alleged attacker, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, is an illegal alien in the US, the Department of Homeland Security says. Soliman entered the US on a nonimmigrant visa in 2022, during Biden’s tenure, and stayed after the visa expired.
“He came in through Biden’s ridiculous Open Border Policy, which has hurt our Country so badly. He must go out under ‘TRUMP’ Policy,” Trump says in a statement on Truth Social.
“Acts of Terrorism will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law. This is yet another example of why we must keep our Borders SECURE, and deport Illegal, Anti-American Radicals from our Homeland. My heart goes out to the victims of this terrible tragedy,” Trump says.
The statement does not mention antisemitism or Israel.
The IDF orders Palestinians in a new area of southern Gaza’s Khan Younis to evacuate, as the military expands its ground offensive against Hamas.
The IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Col. Avichay Adraee, posts a map on X showing several blocks in western Khan Younis that are to be evacuated. The neighborhood was not included in the IDF’s previous warnings for Khan Younis.
Civilians are called to head westward toward the Maswasi area on the coast.
“The IDF will operate with great force in the areas where you are present,” Adraee warns.
#عاجل ‼️ إلى جميع المتواجدين في البلوكات 47, 106, 108, 109 في محافظة خان يونس
⭕️جيش الدفاع الإسرائيلي سوف يعمل بقوة شديدة في مناطق وجودكم
⭕️تواصل المنظمات الإرهابية وفي مقدمتها حماس الأنشطة الإرهابية من المناطق المدنية التي تعيشون فيها
🔴من اجل سلامتكم، اخلوا فوراً غرباً الى… pic.twitter.com/2nu6c644eU— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) June 2, 2025
The French parliament backs a bill that will promote Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish French army captain wrongly convicted of treason in 1894, to the rank of brigadier general, an act of reparation for one of the most notorious acts of antisemitism in the country’s history.
The lower-house National Assembly unanimously approves the legislation, which is seen as a symbolic step in the fight against antisemitism in modern France.
The draft law was put forward by former prime minister Gabriel Attal, who leads French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Renaissance party.
For the promotion to take effect, it still has to be approved by the upper house Senate, at a date that has yet to be fixed.
All 197 deputies present voted in favour in the lower house.
The rapporteur of the proposed law, Renaissance lawmaker Charles Sitzenstuhl, says the vote “will go down in history” and calls on senators “to quickly adopt the text.”
The symbolic promotion of Dreyfus, whose condemnation came amid rampant antisemitism in the French army and wider society in the late 19th century, comes at a time of growing alarm over hate crimes targeting Jews in the country.
A man who barricaded himself on the roof of a building after his wife was found stabbed to death has jumped to his death after nine hours, Israel Police says in a statement.
Police say negotiators conducted extensive negotiations to try to talk the suspect in the woman’s murder down, but the man ultimately did not cooperate, police say.
According to the Kan public broadcaster, the couple had recently separated.
According to the Israel Women’s Network, 14 women have been murdered in Israel since the start of the year, 13 of them by a partner or relative.
The Boulder Police Department says there are no fatalities in the attack on a rally for Israeli hostages yesterday.
“No victims have died,” the police department says in a statement.
Police said last night that one of the victims was in critical condition.
The suspect, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, was booked on murder charges in a local jail late last night. The charges are preliminary, have not been filed, and are subject to change. The reason for the discrepancy is still unclear.
The police department releases a mugshot of the suspect, who has a bandaged ear and bruising on his face.
The police department says it will hold a press conference on the attack later today and that more details are forthcoming.
In response to several questions received overnight regarding the Pearl Street attack, we are sharing the following:
*No victims have died
*The suspect’s mugshot is seen here and his date of birth is Dec. 15, 1979.
*The next press conference will be later today and details will… pic.twitter.com/valMiZFbsm— Boulder Police Dept. (@boulderpolice) June 2, 2025
DAMASCUS/AMMAN, Syria/Jordan — The United States has given its blessing to a plan by Syria’s new leadership to incorporate thousands of foreign jihadist former rebel fighters into the national army, provided that it does so transparently, US President Donald Trump’s envoy says.
Three Syrian defense officials say that under the plan, some 3,500 foreign fighters, mainly Uyghurs from China and neighboring countries, would join a newly-formed unit, the 84th Syrian army division, which would also include Syrians.
Asked by Reuters in Damascus whether Washington approved the integration of foreign fighters into Syria’s new military, Thomas Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey who was named Trump’s special envoy to Syria last month, says: “I would say there is an understanding, with transparency.”
He says it was better to keep the fighters, many of whom are “very loyal” to Syria’s new administration, within a state project than to exclude them.
The fate of foreigners who joined Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebels during the 13-year war between rebel groups and President Bashar al-Assad has been one of the most fraught issues hindering a rapprochement with the West since HTS, a one-time offshoot of al Qaeda, toppled Assad and took power last year.
At least until early May, the United States had been demanding that the new leadership broadly exclude foreign fighters from the security forces.
Lebanese security forces have arrested a Hezbollah operative for allegedly spying for Israel, the Saudi Al Hadath news outlet reports.
Mahmoud Ayoub, the financial director at Ragheb Harb Hospital, was arrested today in the town of Harouf, in the Nabatieh district, Al Hadath reports.
The arrest comes weeks after the London-based Arabic Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported that at least 21 suspects were being held for spying for the Jewish state, including Mohammed Salah, the son of an elite Radwan Force commander and a well-known religious singer.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee accuses major American news outlets of “contributing to the antisemitic climate” that resulted in the recent attacks targeting Israeli embassy staffers in Washington and Israeli hostages activists in Colorado over the networks’ coverage of yesterday’s shooting of Gazans near an aid distribution site.
“Without verification of any source other than Hamas and its collaborators, the New York Times, CNN, and Associated Press reported that a number of people seeking to receive humanitarian food boxes from the Gaza Humanitarian Fund were shot or killed by the Israeli Defense Forces,” Huckabee says in a statement.
“These reports were FALSE. Drone video and first-hand accounts clearly showed that there were no injuries, no fatalities, no shooting, no chaos,” Huckabee asserts.
It is unclear what drone footage and first-hand accounts Huckabee is referring to. GHF released what it said was drone footage showing no incident at the site, but the clip was taken during daylight hours, while the incident that reportedly injured 31 Gazans took place at around 3 a.m.
Asked to elaborate on the information Huckabee had that led him to refute Hamas’s claims, an embassy spokesperson tells The Times of Israel it came from first-hand accounts from GHF staffers.
But the incident took place outside the GHF site before it had opened on Sunday.
The embassy spokesperson also cites IDF drone footage, but the footage released by the IDF was not shot at the time or place where the incident in question took place.
The spokesperson didn’t provide any further information.
While the IDF has denied firing at Gazans near the GHF aid site yesterday, it has acknowledged firing in the air at Palestinians. Doctors Without Borders said its aid workers treated Palestinians who said Israeli soldiers were the ones who shot at them.
“The only source for these misleading, exaggerated, and utterly fabricated stories came from Hamas sources, which are designed to fan the flames of antisemitic hate that is arguably contributing to violence against Jews in the United States,” Huckabee says.
“Media sources who willingly parrot these libelous allegations should recant their fake news stories, apologize and pledge to practice actual reporting of fact instead of engaging in dangerous propaganda that assists the terror group Hamas as they continue to hold innocent hostages for over 600 days after butchering over 1,200 people on October 7th,” he says, demanding an “immediate retraction” by the American media sites.
In a statement responding to Huckabee, The Associated Press says it “stands by its reporting of the deaths overnight Sunday in Rafah, which includes multiple eyewitness accounts, interviews with health and hospital officials and the Red Cross, as well as statements from the Israeli military and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
“The Israeli military later released a video of what it said were masked men firing at civilians trying to collect aid, which the AP included in its coverage. That video was shot in daylight from the city of Khan Younis, miles from the incident in Rafah that witnesses described.”
“The Rafah incident occurred in an Israeli military zone that international journalists have been barred from entering except on approved military embeds. AP and other news organizations have repeatedly called for international journalists to be allowed into Gaza to report on the war,” the AP says.
The United Arab Emirates condemns what it says was a “terrorist attack” in Colorado targeting activists calling for the release of the Israeli hostages in Gaza.
The “UAE expresses its strong condemnation of these criminal and terrorist acts and its permanent rejection of all forms of violence and terrorism targeting innocent people,” a statement from its foreign ministry says, wishing a speedy recovery to the victims and expressing solidarity with the American people and their government.
A Palestinian suspect who allegedly was planning to throw rocks at a highway in the West Bank was shot by Israeli troops a short while ago, the military says.
Troops of the 636th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit had spotted the suspect near the village of Sinjil as he was attempting to hurl stones on a nearby road, the military says.
The IDF says the suspect threw two bottles with “dangerous material” in them at the forces, and the soldiers returned fire.
Israeli soldiers bar journalists from entering villages in the West Bank on a planned tour organized by the directors of the Oscar-winning movie “No Other Land.”
The directors of the film, which focuses on Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, say they had invited the journalists on the tour today to interview residents about increasing settler violence in the area.
In a video posted on X by the film’s co-director, Yuval Abraham, an Israeli soldier tells a group of international journalists there is “no passage” in the area because of a military order. Basel Adra, a Palestinian co-director of the film who lives in the area, says the military then blocked the journalists from entering two Palestinian villages they had hoped to visit.
Israel’s military does not immediately respond to a request for comment.
After the army destroyed a village and allowed settlers to invade it, they are now blocking our tour with dozens of international journalists saying they’re not allowed to enter Masafer Yatta and visit @basel_adra home. pic.twitter.com/1wEek6BeA6
— Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם (@yuval_abraham) June 2, 2025
The Israeli military says it carried out a strike a short while ago against a Hamas command center embedded within a school-turned shelter in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah.
According to Palestinian media, at least four people were killed in the strike on the Al-Aishiya school.
The IDF says that the command center was being used by Hamas operatives to plan and carry out attacks against troops and Israeli civilians.
The military says it took steps to mitigate civilian harm, including by using a precision munition, aerial surveillance, and other intelligence.
تغطية صحفية| اللحظات الولى لقصف قوات الاحتلال الطابق العلوي من مدرسة العائشية التي تؤوي نازحين، في دير البلح، ما أدى لارتقاء 4 غزيين وإصابة آخرين pic.twitter.com/aWsexuSH3e
— الجرمق الإخباري (@aljarmaqnet) June 2, 2025
A former senior Biden administration official says, “It is without a doubt true that Israel has committed war crimes” in Gaza.
Matthew Miller, who served as State Department spokesperson for the last two years of former US president Joe Biden’s term, clarifies during a podcast interview with Sky News that he doesn’t believe Israel is perpetrating a genocide in Gaza.
“There are two ways to think about the commission of war crimes,” Miller says. “One is if the state has pursued a policy of deliberately committing war crimes or is acting recklessly in a way that aids and abets war crimes. Is the state committing war crimes?
“That, I think, is an open question. I think what is almost certainly not an open question is that there have been individual incidents that have been war crimes where Israeli soldiers, members of the Israeli military, have committed war crimes,” he adds.
Israel has long denied that it is committing war crimes in Gaza, asserting that it takes steps to avoid civilian casualties, while Hamas operates among civilians in order to maximize such figures.
Miller acknowledges that there had been disagreements within the Biden administration about its Gaza war policy, including on whether to withhold weapons from Israel. However, he argues that doing so might have led Hamas to refrain from agreeing to a ceasefire.
“It was clear to us in that period that there was a time when our public discussion of withholding weapons from Israel, as well as the protests on college campuses in the United States and the movement of some European countries to recognize the state of Palestine… All of those things together were leading the leadership of Hamas to conclude that they didn’t need to agree to a ceasefire, they just needed to hold out for a little bit longer, and they could get what they always wanted,” he says.
“The thing that I look back on… is in that intervening period between the end of May and the middle of January [2025], when thousands of Palestinians, innocent civilians were killed… was there more that we could have done to pressure the Israeli government to agree to that ceasefire? I think at times there probably was,” Miller says.
GENEVA, Switzerland — The United Nations Secretary General says he was appalled by reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid in Gaza yesterday, and calls for an independent investigation.
“It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food,” Antonio Guterres says in a statement.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the suspect in the attack on an Israeli hostages rally in Colorado yesterday, is being held on a $10 million bail.
Soliman allegedly used a “makeshift flamethrower” and threw Molotov cocktails at the rally, wounding eight.
He was booked into the Boulder County Jail last night, shortly before midnight, according to a booking report from the local sheriff’s office.
The charges listed for Soliman include two murder charges, but the charges are preliminary, have not been filed, and are subject to change. There have not been any confirmed deaths in the attack, although one victim was in critical condition last night.
Some of the other preliminary charges include using explosive or incendiary devices during a felony, assault with a weapon, and crimes against at-risk elderly.
The French parliament is set to back a bill that would promote Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish French army captain wrongly convicted of treason in 1894, to the rank of brigadier general, in an act of historical reparation for one of the most notorious acts of antisemitism in the country’s history.
The lower house National Assembly, is expected to unanimously approve the legislation, which was put forward by former prime minister Gabriel Attal, who leads President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Renaissance party.
The bill will then head to the upper house Senate, for debate on a date yet to be fixed.
The symbolic promotion of Dreyfus, whose condemnation came against a backdrop of the late 19th century’s rampant antisemitism in the French army and wider society, comes at a time of growing alarm over hate crimes targeting Jews in the country.
Dreyfus, a 36-year-old army captain from the Alsace region of eastern France, was accused in October 1894 of passing secret information on new artillery equipment to the German military attache.
The accusation was based on a comparison of handwriting on a document found in the Germans’ waste paper basket in Paris.
Dreyfus was put on trial amid a virulent antisemitic press campaign. But novelist Emile Zola then penned the famous “J’accuse” (“I accuse…”) pamphlet in favor of the captain.
Despite a lack of evidence, Dreyfus was convicted of treason, sentenced to life imprisonment in the infamous Devil’s Island penal colony in French Guiana, and publicly stripped of his rank.
But Lieutenant Colonel Georges Picquart, head of the intelligence services, reinvestigated the case in secret and discovered the handwriting on the incriminating message was that of another officer, Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy.
When Picquart presented the evidence to the general staff of the French army, he was driven out of the military and jailed for a year, while Esterhazy was acquitted.
In June 1899, Dreyfus was brought back to France for a second trial. He was initially found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison, before being officially pardoned — though not cleared of the charges.
Only in 1906, after many twists, did the High Court of Appeal overturn the original verdict, exonerating Dreyfus.
He was reinstated with the rank of major. He served during World War I and died in 1935, aged 76.
But the backers of the new bill believe that in a society without discrimination, he would have risen to the top of the French army.
Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency says an Israeli strike on a home in the northern town of Jabalia killed 14 people.
“The number of martyrs from the targeting of the Al-Bursh family home has risen to 14, including six children and three women, in addition to more than 20 missing individuals still under the rubble,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal says.
There is no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces.
On Thursday, the IDF ordered the Jabalia area, along with other nearby towns in the Strip’s north and several Gaza City neighborhoods, to evacuate westward.
Hamas-given death tolls cannot be verified and routinely do not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.
The IDF denies reports that troops are operating within the compound of the European Hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.
“Contrary to the reports, the IDF is not operating within the European Hospital compound,” the military says.
Palestinian media said earlier that troops were demolishing the rear wall of the hospital.
Iran is poised to reject a US proposal to end a decades-long nuclear dispute, an Iranian diplomat says, slamming it as a “non-starter” that fails to address Tehran’s interests and leaves Washington’s stance on uranium enrichment unchanged.
“Iran is drafting a negative response to the US proposal, which could be interpreted as a rejection of the US offer,” the senior diplomat, who is close to Iran’s negotiating team, tells Reuters.
The US proposal for a new nuclear deal was presented to Iran on Saturday by Oman’s Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, who was on a short visit to Tehran and has been mediating nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington.
But after five rounds of talks between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to resolve the nuclear standoff, many issues remain unresolved.
Among clashing red lines is Iran’s rejection of a US demand that Tehran commit to scrapping uranium enrichment, viewed as a potential pathway to developing nuclear bombs.
Tehran says it wants to master nuclear technology for peaceful purposes and has long denied accusations by Western powers that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
“In this proposal, the US stance on enrichment on Iranian soil remains unchanged, and there is no clear explanation regarding the lifting of sanctions,” says the diplomat, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Tehran demands the immediate removal of all US-imposed curbs that impair its oil-based economy. But for the US, the removal of nuclear-related sanctions should be done in phases.
Dozens of Iranian institutions vital to Iran’s economy, including its central bank and national oil company, have been sanctioned since 2018 for, according to Washington, “supporting terrorism or weapons proliferation.”
Trump’s revival of a “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran since his return to the White House in January has included tightened sanctions and threats to bomb Iran if current negotiations yield no deal.
During his first term, Trump in 2018 ditched Tehran’s 2015 nuclear pact with six powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy. In return, Tehran has rapidly violated the 2015 nuclear pact’s curbs on its nuclear program.
The 2015 deal required Iran to take steps to restrict its nuclear program in return for relief from US, EU and UN economic sanctions.
The diplomat says the assessment of “Iran’s nuclear negotiations committee,” under the supervision of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was that the US proposal is “completely one-sided” and cannot serve Tehran’s interests.
Therefore, the diplomat says, Tehran considers this proposal a “non-starter” and believes it unilaterally attempts to impose a “bad deal” on Iran through excessive demands.
Two Iranian officials told Reuters last week that Iran may pause uranium enrichment if the US releases frozen Iranian funds and recognizes Tehran’s right to refine uranium for civilian use under a “political deal” that could lead to a broader nuclear accord.
Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinian “suspects who approached forces” overnight, around a kilometer away from an aid distribution site in southern Gaza’s Rafah and hours before it was set to open to hand out food to Gazans, the military says.
According to Hamas’s government media office, the Israeli gunfire killed three and wounded a further 35. The tolls could not immediately be verified.
The IDF says that it is aware of the reports of casualties and is investigating the incident.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the US- and Israel-backed body in charge of the aid distribution, has repeatedly warned Palestinians in its announcements that the aid sites are only open from 5 a.m., and approaching the area beforehand poses a risk due to ongoing Israeli military activity.
GHF also insists that the aid was handed out today without any incident.
The IDF says that it is allowing GHF to operate “independently to distribute aid to Gaza residents and prevent it from reaching the Hamas terror organization.”
“IDF troops do not prevent the arrival of Gaza residents to the distribution sites. The shooting was carried out about a kilometer from the distribution site, toward individual suspects approaching the forces in a way that threatened them,” the military says.
The IDF says Hamas is doing “everything it can to prevent the success” of the new aid distribution system, adding that “Hamas is a brutal terror organization that starves the population and puts it in danger to preserve its rule in the Gaza Strip.”
GHF has denied previous accounts of chaos and gunfire around its sites, which are in Israeli military zones. “Despite several inaccurate and in some cases, blatantly false, news reports, there have been no injuries nor fatalities during the first full week of GHF operations,” it said this morning.
The IDF has acknowledged firing warning shots on previous occasions outside the distribution centers, including yesterday, when troops fired at Palestinians around a kilometer away from an aid site, hours before it was set to open, killing 31 according to Hamas.
One of the eight people wounded in the attack on a Colorado rally for the hostages held in Gaza is a Holocaust survivor, her friend says.
The victim is not named by the outlet.
“She is an amazing person. Not because she is hurt. She always is an amazing person,” the victim’s friend Chany Scheiner, tells 9NEWS.
“She speaks — she has spoken at our synagogues as well as other synagogues and schools just about her background and the Holocaust and from her own perspective. She is passionate about standing up for good things, and she is an extremely exceptional person,” Scheiner says.
“Always a smile on her face. Her life wasn’t easy, but she is just a bright light. And anybody who is her friend is a friend for life,” she says.
At least eight people were wounded yesterday in Boulder, Colorado — including one person in critical condition — when activists rallying for the release of the hostages held by terrorists in Gaza were attacked by a man shouting “end Zionists,” who fired a makeshift flamethrower and threw firebombs at them.
The IDF announces that it has expanded its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip over the past day.
The announcement comes after yesterday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir instructed the army to operate in new areas in Gaza.
“In the past day, troops expanded the ground maneuver, eliminated terrorists and destroyed many weapon depots and terror infrastructure, above and below ground,” the statement says.
Additionally, the IDF says the Israeli Air Force hit dozens of targets across Gaza in the past day, including cells of terror operatives, buildings used by terror groups, tunnels, weapon depots, and other infrastructure.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says that the situation in Gaza is getting “worse by the day” and that it is important to ensure the Palestinian enclave receives more humanitarian aid urgently.
“The situation is intolerable in Gaza, and getting worse by the day,” Starmer tells reporters in Scotland, when asked whether the UK would take any action over the issue.
“Which is why we are working with allies… to be absolutely clear that humanitarian aid needs to get in at speed and at volumes that it is not getting in at the moment, causing absolute devastation,” he adds.
A man remains barricaded on the roof of a building, hours after his partner was found stabbed to death.
According to the Kan public broadcaster, the couple had recently separated.
According to the Israel Women’s Network, 14 women have been murdered in Israel since the start of the year, 13 of them by a partner or relative.
Palestinian media reports that Israeli troops advanced toward the European Hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis in the past day, and are currently demolishing the medical center’s rear wall.
An airstrike last month targeted a Hamas tunnel system that ran underneath the hospital, killing the terror group’s leader in Gaza Muhammad Sinwar and two other senior commanders in its military wing.
The IDF has not yet commented.
Iran’s top diplomat and chief nuclear negotiator will meet the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Cairo today, Egypt’s foreign ministry says.
The tripartite meeting will be between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty and IAEA chief Rafael Grossi, the ministry says in a statement.
It comes a day after a report by the UN agency showed Iran has stepped up production of uranium enriched up to 60 percent — close to the roughly 90 percent level needed for atomic weapons.
That is enough, if enriched further, for nine nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick.
Additionally, the watchdog said in a wide-ranging, confidential report to member states that Iran had carried out secret nuclear activities with material not declared to the UN nuclear watchdog at three locations that have long been under investigation.
The UN report was leaked as Iran holds talks with the United States on its nuclear program, after Washington unilaterally abandoned a landmark agreement between Tehran and world powers in 2018 during US President Donald Trump’s first term.
The 2015 deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, aimed to stop Iran from developing a nuclear bomb — a goal Western countries accuses it of pursuing, though Tehran denies it.
During his visit to Cairo, Araghchi is also scheduled to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reports.
Iran urges the United States to provide a formal guarantee that it will lift sanctions in ongoing talks on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
“We want to guarantee that the sanctions are effectively lifted,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei tells a news conference in Tehran.
“So far, the American side has not wanted to clarify this issue,” he adds.
His remarks come two days after a report by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency showed Iran has stepped up production of uranium enriched up to 60 percent — close to the roughly 90 percent level needed for atomic weapons.
An IAEA report said Iran’s stock of uranium enriched to up to 60% purity had grown by roughly half to 408.6 kg. That is enough, if enriched further, for nine nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick.
Additionally, the watchdog said in a wide-ranging, confidential report to member states that Iran had carried out secret nuclear activities with material not declared to the UN nuclear watchdog at three locations that have long been under investigation.
More than a million Muslim pilgrims pour into the holy city of Mecca ahead of the annual hajj, with authorities vowing to hold a safer pilgrimage amid searing desert heat and a massive crackdown on illegal visitors.
Temperatures were forecast to exceed 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) this week as one of the world’s largest annual religious gatherings officially commences on Wednesday.
The hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, must be performed at least once by all Muslims with the means.
This year, authorities have mobilized more than 40 government agencies and 250,000 officials, doubling their efforts to mitigate heat-related risks following a lethal heatwave in 2024 that left hundreds dead.
The partner of a woman found stabbed to death in an apartment in Bat Yam has barricaded himself on the roof of the building.
Police negotiators are working to get him to come down.
Police are said to believe that the woman in her 40s was killed in a domestic dispute. The couple had two children in their 20s, Hebrew-language media reports.
According to a tally by Haaretz, six people have been murdered in Israel over the past day and a half, including a 13-year-old boy amid rising levels of crime.
A woman aged around 40 was found stabbed to death in an apartment in Bat Yam, medics say.
The Magen David Adom emergency service says medics pronounced the woman’s death on the scene.
Police tell Hebrew-language media that it appeared that the woman had been killed by her partner.
The woman is the third person murdered nationwide within a number of hours.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemns the “vicious terror attack” in Colorado, in a relatively rare statement on a Jewish holiday.
“This attack was aimed against peaceful people who wished to express their solidarity with the hostages held by Hamas, simply because they were Jews,” he says in a statement published on X.
“I trust the United States authorities to prosecute the cold-blooded perpetrator to the fullest extent of the law and do everything possible to prevent future attacks against innocent civilians,” Netanyahu says.
“The antisemitic attacks around the world are a direct result of blood libels against the Jewish state and people, and this must be stopped,” he says, echoing an earlier statement by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who blamed the attack on “pure antisemitism fueled by the blood libels spread in the media.”
At least eight people were wounded yesterday in Boulder, Colorado, including one person in a critical condition, when activists rallying for the release of the Israeli hostages in Gaza were targeted in a firebombing attack by a man shouting “end Zionists,” which the FBI said it was investigating as an act of terrorism.
Overnight, Palestinian media reported a wave of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City.
It is unclear if any casualties were caused by the strikes.
Additionally, reports in Gaza claim that Israeli ground forces are advancing in the Khan Younis area in the Strip’s south.
There is no immediate comment from the IDF.
Aid distribution this morning in southern Gaza’s Rafah passed without incident, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the US- and Israel-backed body in charge of the aid distribution, says in a statement.
In an update at 7 a.m., two hours after an distribution site in Rafah opened, GHF says it handed out “21 truckloads of food this morning, totaling 18,720 boxes.”
“Operations… were once again smooth and no security incidents occurred. Aid was distributed without incident despite ongoing acute needs in the Strip,” GHF says.
In the past week, GHF says it had distributed 5.8 million meals at three distribution sites in southern and central Gaza. But its classification of meals is based on boxes of dry food products that still require cooking equipment or community kitchens, which are very limited throughout the Strip after nearly 20 months of devastating conflict.
A man was shot and killed in the coastal city of Netanya, police say.
Police say it appears that the man was attacked as part of a criminal disagreement.
The 30-year-old man was found on a street in the coastal city. Medics pronounced his death on the scene, the Magen David Adom emergency service says.
The deadly shooting came hours after a man was shot and killed in Lod in an apparently unrelated incident. Three suspects have been arrested in connection with that killing.
Police in Boulder say the number of people wounded when a man yelled “Free Palestine” and threw incendiary devices into a crowd where a demonstration to support the Israeli hostages in Gaza was taking place has risen to eight.
Four women and four men between 52 and 88 years old were transported to hospitals, Boulder police says. Authorities had earlier put the count of the injured at six and said at least one of them was in a critical condition.
Conservative Karol Nawrocki wins Poland’s weekend presidential runoff election, according to the final vote count. Nawrocki wins 50.89% of votes in a very tight race against liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, who received 49.11%.
Nawrocki is a right-wing historian who has made Holocaust revisionism part of his campaign.
The close race had the country on edge since a first round two weeks earlier and through the night into Monday, revealing deep divisions in the country along the eastern flank of NATO and the European Union.
An early exit poll released Sunday evening suggested Trzaskowski was headed to victory before updated polling began to reverse the picture hours later.
The outcome indicates that Poland can be expected to take a more nationalist path under its new leader, who was backed by US President Donald Trump.
Nawrocki has most recently been the head of the Institute of National Remembrance, which embraces nationalist historical narratives, which glorified Polish victimhood and resistance to the Nazis while delegitimizing research on Polish antisemitism or Poles who killed Jews.
The Jewish Community Relations Council of Colorado says it is “outraged and heartbroken” over the firebombing attack against a hostages rally that wounded six people earlier today.
Details about the attack are still unclear pending an investigation, but the group says, “We know that innocent people were severely injured for nothing more than raising awareness of the hostages held by Hamas for over 600 days.”
The statement highlights the shooting attack 10 days ago that killed two Israeli embassy staffers and last month’s attempted firebombing of the US embassy in Tel Aviv by a man from Colorado.
“We must look in the mirror and ask ourselves how our society allowed this to happen and keep happening,” says Brandon Rattiner, the head of the JCRC in Colorado.
“Our community has consistently warned that hateful and reductive rhetoric about Israel and Jews puts us in danger. We’re not being alarmist—we’re just paying attention,” he says. “Violence against Jews is immoral and must end.”
“We will continue to live proudly and openly,” Rattiner says. “Anyone who claims to care about human lives and dignity must speak out against this attack and against antisemitism.”
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller says the suspect in today’s firebombing attack on activists rallying for the release of the Israeli hostages in Gaza is “an illegal alien.”
“He was granted a tourist visa by the Biden Administration and then he illegally overstayed that visa. In response, the Biden Administration gave him a work permit,” Miller says of Mohamed Sabry Soliman.
Miller doesn’t specify that Soliman’s work permit had expired.
A 20-year-old man has succumbed to his wounds after being shot overnight in Lod.
Police say they have opened an investigation into what appears to have been a criminal dispute.
The victim was rushed to the nearby Assaf Harofeh Medical Center where he succumbed to his wounds.
Another man, 25, was moderately injured in the shooting and is being treated at the same hospital.
Six elderly people were wounded in the attack on a rally for Israeli hostages in Boulder, Colorado, FBI Special Agent Mark Michalek says at a press conference.
The victims range in age from 67 to 88. All are being treated in hospitals and one is in critical condition.
The suspect in the attack is named as Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45.
Witnesses told investigators that Soliman attacked the demonstrators with a “makeshift flamethrower” and threw an incendiary device, Michalek says, adding that Soliman also shouted “Free Palestine.”
“It is clear that this is a targeted act of violence and the FBI is investigating this as an act of terrorism,” he says.
Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn says the suspect hurled Molotov cocktails at the demonstrators.
Police are still clearing the area of the attack. Police believe the suspect attacked alone during the incident, Redfearn says.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar tweets that he is “shocked by the terrible antisemitic terror attack targeting Jews in Boulder, Colorado.”
“This is pure antisemitism, fueled by the blood libels spread in the media,” he asserts, adding that he has been in touch with Israel’s ambassador in Washington and its consul general in Los Angeles about the incident.
“I pray for those who were wounded in the attack,” Sa’ar adds.
Israeli settlers assaulted two Palestinian brothers on the outskirts of the village of al-Mughayyir in the central West Bank, the Wafa official Palestinian news agency reports.
Ghassan and Imad Jaber were visiting relatives in al-Mughayyir and were walking outside the town when they came under attack by a group of settlers from a nearby illegal Israeli outpost and beat them, al-Mughayyir mayor Sayel Canaan told Arabic media.
The settlers held the brothers — who also have American citizenship — against their will until Israeli soldiers arrived at the scene and released the pair. Both of them required medical treatment and were evacuated to a nearby hospital.
The IDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
There are no reports of any arrests, which are highly unlikely in incidents of settler violence, even though they have been taking place on a near-daily basis across the West Bank in recent months.
Palestinian-American Ghassan Jaber and his brother Imad were kidnapped by Israeli settlers in the village of Burqa and brutally tortured before being released and rushed to the hospital.
In this photo, Ghassan lies on a stretcher, holding his American passport in his hand. pic.twitter.com/Wgb4DRdYDL
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) June 1, 2025
🚨Horrific: Israeli settlers kidnapped and brutally tortured two Palestinian-American brothers from the village of Burqa near Ramallah in the West Bank—before eventually releasing them. pic.twitter.com/FGE9SFk4Qx
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) June 1, 2025
Colorado Governor Jared Polis condemns an apparent attack on hostage demonstrators in Boulder as a “vicious act of terrorism.”
“As the American Jewish community continues to reel from the horrific antisemitic murders in Washington, D.C., it is unfathomable that the Jewish community is facing another terror attack here in Boulder,” Polis says on X.
The attack targeted several individuals while they were marching for the hostages, he says.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says, “We’re united in prayer for the victims of a targeted terror attack this afternoon in Boulder. Terror has no place in our great country.”
A man screams, “End Zionists” in video said to show the scene of an attack on hostage protesters in Boulder, Colorado.
The footage, posted on X, shows a shirtless man holding what appear to be Molotov cocktails.
There appear to be scorch marks on the ground next to flyers showing the images of Israeli hostages in front of him. There are also flames and scorch marks in the nearby grass.
The suspect is heard here saying twice "End Zionists" pic.twitter.com/ATNlXkKyM0
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) June 1, 2025
The man also shouts ,”Palestine is free.”
At least one person is lying on the ground as bystanders pour water on them.
A police officer approaches the man, who lies down, and the officer cuffs his hands behind his back.
Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn holds a press conference on the reported attack targeting a gathering of pro-Israel activists in the Colorado city earlier this afternoon.
He says that at 1:26 p.m. local time, police received calls that there was a “man with a weapon” near the county courthouse on 13th and Pearl St. and that “people were being set on fire.”
When police arrived at the scene shortly thereafter, they encountered “multiple victims” with injuries “consistent with burns,” Redfearn says.
Witnesses at the scene told CBS Colorado that the suspect attacked people with Molotov cocktails who were participating in a walk to remember the Israeli hostages who remain in Gaza.
CBS cites witnesses who saw the suspect attack people with Molotov cocktails while they were participating in a weekly walk to raise awareness for the hostages in Gaza.
משתתפים בצעדה למען החטופים הותקפו בקולורדו על ידי אלמוני שזרק בקבוק תבערה לעברם. המשטרה עצרה חשוד בזירה. מספר אנשים נפצעו בדרגות שונות של חומרה ופונו לבתי החולים | כל הפרטים >>> https://t.co/tDmvHyvBeo pic.twitter.com/GAEKD1P0rz
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) June 1, 2025
The victims were evacuated to a nearby Boulder Community Health medical center for treatment, says the local police chief, adding that a number of them apparently suffered “life-threatening” injuries.
Shortly after arriving on the scene, a suspect was pointed out to officers who managed to apprehend him, Redfearn says.
The suspect is an adult male and was taken to a nearby hospital after sustaining minor injuries of his own in the incident, the police chief says, declining to identify him further.
Redfearn confirms that a pro-Israel “peaceful demonstration” was taking place in the area, as it frequently does.
However, he stresses that police are still gathering information roughly three hours after the attack and are still working to determine whether the pro-Israel group was specifically targeted.
Asked whether he would classify the incident as a “terror attack” the way that FBI director Kash Patel has, Redfearn says it would be “irresponsible to speculate on motive at this point.”
The police chief clarifies that if it is later determined that the pro-Israel gathering was targeted, security for it would be stepped up moving forward.
He adds that the scene of the attack has not yet been declared safe yet and that there is a vehicle of interest that is still being probed.
The incident takes place less than two weeks after a pair of Israeli embassy staffers were shot dead outside an American Jewish Committee event in Washington.
The FBI chief says the agency is investigating a “targeted terror attack” in Boulder, Colorado, amid reports of an assault on a pro-Israel demonstration in the US city.
The Boulder Police Department tweets that it is also responding to the attack, adding that there are “reports of several victims.”
One person has been arrested on suspicion of hurling a Molotov cocktail at pro-Israel demonstrators, with initial reports saying at least five people were injured, the Axios news site says.
The Anti-Defamation League says the attack took place at today’s Boulder Run for Their Lives event – a weekly meeting of Jewish community members to run/walk in support of the hostages kidnapped during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.
“We are aware of and fully investigating a targeted terror attack in Boulder, Colorado,” Kash Patel says on X, adding that “our agents and local law enforcement are on the scene already, and we will share updates as more information becomes available.”
NEW: Colorado police respond to an attack at Pearl Street Mall in Boulder. Witnesses say the suspect targeted people walking to honor Israeli hostages
Multiple people were injured pic.twitter.com/cDfRTVSp54
— Unlimited L's (@unlimited_ls) June 1, 2025
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders said Sunday that people it treated at a Gaza aid site run by a new US-backed organization reported being “shot from all sides” by Israeli forces.
The IDF has vehemently denied opening fire at Gazans at or near the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s aid distribution site in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
The NGO, known by its French name MSF, blamed the GHF system for chaos at the scene in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency said Israeli fire killed 31 Palestinians at the site. Witnesses also told AFP the Israeli military had opened fire.
“Patients told MSF they were shot from all sides by drones, helicopters, boats, tanks and Israeli soldiers on the ground,” MSF said in a statement.
MSF emergency coordinator Claire Manera in the statement called the GHF’s system of aid delivery “dehumanizing, dangerous and severely ineffective.”
“It has resulted in deaths and injuries of civilians that could have been prevented. Humanitarian aid must be provided only by humanitarian organizations who have the competence and determination to do it safely and effectively.”
MSF communications officer Nour Alsaqa in the statement reported hospital corridors filled with patients, mostly men, with “visible gunshot wounds in their limbs.”
MSF quoted one injured man, Mansour Sami Abdi, as describing people fighting over just five pallets of aid.
“They told us to take food — then they fired from every direction,” he said. “This isn’t aid. It’s a lie.”
The Israeli military said an initial inquiry found its troops “did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the humanitarian aid distribution site”.
A GHF spokesperson said: “These fake reports have been actively fomented by Hamas,” the Islamic militant group that Israel has vowed to destroy in Gaza.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas earlier today participated virtually in a meeting of Middle Eastern ministers organized by Saudi Arabia, after Israel barred the senior officials from entering the West Bank to attend the scheduled gathering in Ramallah.
The ministerial meeting focused on efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan says during a press conference afterwards.
Participants also discussed ongoing efforts to reform the PA, with Prince Faisal hailing Abbas for them.
“The Palestinian Authority continues to fulfill its duties and responsibilities toward the Palestinian people,” says the Saudi diplomat.
“It is the rational party in this equation, facing a party that does not want any solutions,” he adds, blasting Israel’s current government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
