📰 A judge has ordered a hearing in which he will decide whether five Palestine Action defendants convicted of criminal damage will be sentenced as terrorists.

The five defendants - Brendon O’Hagan, 28, Amanda Kelly, 31, Hmeera Atiqnisar, 31, Mohammed Malik, 28, and Alma Yaniv, 70 - were found guilty in June 2026 of causing £212,000 ($283,000) worth of damage to a Barclays branch in Burnley in August 2024.

Following their convictions, presiding Judge Phillip Parry told defence lawyers that he would consider applying a “terrorist connection”, despite jurors not being told about a potential terror sentencing in the case.

🔗 https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hearing-set-decide-terror-sentencing-barclays-activists

Far right disinformation fuelled Ceuta migrant crisis

At least 88 people died after thousands attempted to cross into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta last week, with many saying they believed Spain would not deport them and that they could continue to mainland Europe.

On Thursday's episode of MEE Live, Mathilda Mallinson explains that those beliefs were fuelled by years of false claims that Spain's borders were effectively open. This narrative was promoted by far-right politicians across Europe and exploited by criminal smuggling networks.

Almost everyone who crossed was returned to Morocco, and no one was confirmed to have reached mainland Europe.

Mallinson argues that many of the same politicians later pointed to the crossing as evidence of a migration crisis requiring harsher border policies, even though the disinformation itself had helped encourage the journey.

The abandoned children of the Ceuta migrant crisis

"We're not going to allow this."

Speaking to MEE Live's Mathilda Mallinson, journalist Javier Jennings says the response of Ceuta's residents has radically differed from the media narratives surrounding the recent migrant crossings.

While politicians across Europe and beyond used the events to fuel debates over migration and border security, Jennings says many local people rallied around a humanitarian response. He describes residents opening their homes to unaccompanied children, providing food and shelter, while organising grassroots initiatives to protect those left sleeping outdoors.

One local man, Abdullah, mobilised his community to support migrant women and girls from a local football pitch, with volunteers bringing tents, shoes, clothing, food and water. Jennings says these efforts have been driven almost entirely by residents rather than the authorities.

Israeli scholar on the dangers of weaponising antisemitism | Real Talk

Last year, @mohhashem spoke to Israeli genocide scholar Raz Segal about how the weaponisation of antisemitism puts Jewish people at risk.

"It actually puts Jews in more danger because it feeds into this conflation of a people and a state."

In 2024, the University of Minnesota withdrew Segal's offer to lead its Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies after he called Israel's assault on Gaza "a textbook case of genocide."

This week, the university agreed to pay him $250,000 to settle his legal challenge over the decision.

📰 More than 85 British MPs have written to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood expressing concern over reports that the government is blocking the evacuation of dozens of women and children from Gaza.

Labour MP Kim Johnson sent a letter to Mahmood on Thursday which was signed by MPs from across different parties.

Last September the Home Office suspended refugee family reunion applications pending the introduction of new, stricter rules, but these have not yet been announced.

As a result, families in Gaza who had applied to join an immediate family member in Britain before the suspension have been blocked from doing so.

Johnson told Middle East Eye on Thursday: "Family reunification should never be treated as a political bargaining chip.

"For families enduring the horrors of Gaza, it is a lifeline – often the only hope of safety and the chance to hold their loved ones again."

🔗https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/85-mps-urge-uk-not-block-evacuation-women-and-children-gaza

Houthis kill more than 60 Saudi-backed Yemen troops in escalation of dormant conflict

Yemen's Houthi movement killed more than 60 Saudi-backed troops belonging to the internationally recognised Yemeni government between Thursday and Friday, marking the deadliest toll since the civil war stalled under a 2022 truce.

At least 58 were killed in Thursday's strikes alone, with three more killed in a follow-up attack on Friday morning.

The Houthis called the strikes pre-emptive, claiming they were responding to a Saudi and government military build-up ahead of a planned assault on Sanaa.

Daniella Weiss dodges Piers Morgan question on whether Israeli and Palestinian lives are equal

Speaking to Piers Morgan on Thursday, far-right Israeli settler leader Daniella Weiss repeatedly dodges Morgan’s question on whether she considers Israeli and Palestinian lives as equal. 

“A Jew is proud to be a Jew, and a Muslim is proud to be a Muslim. So what’s that comparison for?” says Weiss, 
Repeatedly questioning the reason behind Morgan’s question instead of answering it.

Morgan’s question comes in relation to earlier comments made to the BBC by Israeli settler and lawyer Yehuda Shimon, who represents Israelis accused of violence against Palestinians, in which he says that one Jewish life is equal to 10 million Palestinian lives.

Israeli activists hold sit-in outside Smotrich’s Religious Zionist party offices

A group of Israeli activists from the Standing Together movement held a sit-in outside the headquarters of the Religious Zionist party headed by far-right Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is behind a government push to expand illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. 

Painted in red to represent the blood of Palestinians being terrorised and killed by settlers in the West Bank, the activists chanted slogans accusing Smotrich and his party of funding settler terrorism in occupied Palestine.

Settler who murdered Awdah Hathaleen charged with manslaughter

Israeli prosecutors on Thursday charged settler Yinon Levi with reckless manslaughter, over a year after he murdered Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen. It is the first time in years that an Israeli is indicted for killing a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank.

Yinon Levi fired gunshots on the community of Umm al-Khair in July 2025 and killed Hathaleen, an English teacher and prominent activist who had also been involved in the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land.

Levi was also charged with armed trespassing and malicious property damage. The maximum prison sentence in Israel for reckless manslaughter is 12 years.

📰 For nearly three decades, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has relied on ultra-Orthodox parties as one of the pillars of his political survival.

But as Netanyahu gears up to one of his toughest elections in years, his governing alliance is facing unprecedented strain over the long-running dispute about military conscription for ultra-Orthodox Jewish men.

The row has exposed deep divisions within Netanyahu's right-wing bloc and raised questions about whether the United Torah Judaism (UTJ) and Shas parties, two of his most dependable allies since he first became prime minister in 1996, could look elsewhere.

🔗 https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-netanyahu-ultra-orthodox-alliance-shows-signs-fracture

How US and Israel capitalised on the Ceuta crisis

Around 60,000 people crossed from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on 30 July, with at least 141 people confirmed dead.

The crisis followed months of political developments challenging Spain’s position over Ceuta and Melilla.

In March, the American Enterprise Institute published a proposal for a Moroccan “Green March” into the enclaves. In April, an article published by Israeli outlet Ynet argued that Israel should help Morocco advance its claims following Spain’s recognition of Palestine.

Then, on 15 July, the US House passed a bill whose accompanying committee report described Ceuta and Melilla as “located in Moroccan territory” and called for $40m in military funding for Morocco.

After the crossings began, US and Israeli political figures quickly used the crisis to attack the Spanish government.

Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia sign Mecca Joint Defence Agreement

Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey signed a defence agreement on Friday.

The pact, which was called the "Mecca Joint Defence Agreement", ties together the three countries amid the backdrop of war on Iran and a revived conflict with Houthis in Saudi Arabia's southern neighbour Yemen.

A Turkish spokesperson said the deal was purely defensive in nature, and not against any actor in particular.

Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia sign Mecca Joint Defence Agreement

Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey signed a defence agreement on Friday.

The pact, which was called the "Mecca Joint Defence Agreement", ties together the three countries amid the backdrop of war on Iran and a revived conflict with Houthis in Saudi Arabia's southern neighbour Yemen.

A Turkish spokesperson said the deal was purely defensive in nature, and not against any actor in particular.

UN says Gaza destruction rises despite ceasefire

“Overall, about 82% of the structures in Gaza are damaged.”

UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters on Friday that a new assessment by the UN Satellite Centre has revealed that the number of structures assessed as destroyed in Gaza has increased by 9% since the October 2025 ceasefire.

Han highlighted that most of Gaza’s 2.1 million people remain displaced in poor conditions, while restrictions also limit deliveries of durable shelter materials.

Was Asma al-Assad a calculated partner in power or a passive pawn?

MEE’s Rhana Natour speaks to Chloe Hadjimatheou about her new investigative podcast, “We called her Emma,” and discusses whether Asma al-Assad, the British-born wife of deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was a calculating partner in power or a passive pawn.

Was Asma al-Assad a calculated partner in power or a passive pawn?

MEE’s Rhana Natour speaks to Chloe Hadjimatheou about her new investigative podcast, “We called her Emma,” and discusses whether Asma al-Assad, the British-born wife of deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was a calculating partner in power or a passive pawn.

Was Asma al-Assad a calculated partner in power or a passive pawn?

MEE’s Rhana Natour speaks to Chloe Hadjimatheou about her new investigative podcast, “We called her Emma,” and discusses whether Asma al-Assad, the British-born wife of deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was a calculating partner in power or a passive pawn.

Was Asma al-Assad a calculated partner in power or a passive pawn?

MEE’s Rhana Natour speaks to Chloe Hadjimatheou about her new investigative podcast, “We called her Emma,” and discusses whether Asma al-Assad, the British-born wife of deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was a calculating partner in power or a passive pawn.

UN spokesperson says Unicef ‘taking appropriate action’ against staff accused of spying for Israel

UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq has confirmed that Unicef is aware of allegations against a staff member accused of spying for the Israeli government and has said that the agency is “taking appropriate action.”

An investigation by Drop Site News, based on leaked emails obtained by the hacking group Handala, reveals that Yahav Lichner, who currently leads Unicef's office in Washington, DC, provided confidential UN information to Israeli officials during his tenure at the UN Population Fund in 2014 and 2015.

UN spokesperson says Unicef ‘taking appropriate action’ against staff accused of spying for Israel

UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq has confirmed that Unicef is aware of allegations against a staff member accused of spying for the Israeli government and has said that the agency is “taking appropriate action.”

An investigation by Drop Site News, based on leaked emails obtained by the hacking group Handala, reveals that Yahav Lichner, who currently leads Unicef's office in Washington, DC, provided confidential UN information to Israeli officials during his tenure at the UN Population Fund in 2014 and 2015.