Bali gym owner refuses Israeli tourists entry over links to Israeli army

Footage circulating online shows a gym owner in Bali kicking out three tourists after finding out that they were Israelis who served in the Israeli army. 

In a video he posted on his TikTok, gym owner Samir explains that the three Israelis were brought to his attention after one of them was rude towards a staff member. 

“They told me they are Israelis. So I said we don’t serve Israelis, we don’t serve the IDF and we don’t serve anyone who’s rude to our staff,” he said. 

The tourists later left a negative Google review for the gym, accusing Samir of being “racist” and of kicking them out because of their religion.

Who will disarm the Israeli settlers storming West Bank villages? | Soumaya Ghannoushi | MEE Opinion

Soumaya Ghannoushi, a writer and expert in Middle East politics, says that Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank is not a series of isolated attacks but part of a wider campaign of displacement. In Qusra, Palestinian families have been trapped inside their homes as settlers cut water and electricity, attacked houses and gathered outside armed, while Israeli soldiers failed to protect them.

Ghannoushi says the same pattern is repeating across the West Bank. Homes are attacked, cars torched, farmers beaten, livestock stolen and olive trees destroyed. She points to human rights groups that have warned of mass atrocities and ethnic cleansing, while B’Tselem describes the relationship simply as “Settler Violence = State Violence.”

Israel’s Ben Gvir boasts of planned execution facility for Palestinian prisoners

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir boasted on Tuesday about the construction of a facility intended for the execution of Palestinian prisoners.

“In this place, the terrorists will be executed,” Ben Gvir said in a video posted on Instagram, where he has around 150,000 followers.

In the video, Ben Gvir points towards what appears to be an active construction site and says the complex will include “viewing chambers where crime victims will be able to come and watch” Palestinians being hanged.

"We are fulfilling what we promised," the minister added.

Ben Gvir also celebrated what he described as a victory over his opponents, saying those who “ridiculed” and “giggled” at his plan to execute Palestinians could now see that “this place is starting to be built”.

Israel kills nine people in Gaza police station bombing

Israeli air strikes killed at least nine Palestinians at a police station in Gaza City on Wednesday, in the latest escalation as mediators push to advance the fragile ceasefire.

Gaza’s Police Department said Israeli fighter jets dropped several bombs on the Gaza Governorate Municipalities Police Headquarters.

Who will disarm the Israeli settlers storming West Bank villages?

Soumaya Ghannoushi, a writer and expert in Middle East politics, explains the growing militarisation of settlers and Israel’s expanding settlements, arguing that “the machinery of annexation is advancing”.

She says the West Bank exposes the weakness of claims that Israel’s violence against Palestinians is simply a response to Hamas, because Hamas does not govern there, yet Palestinians are still being killed, displaced and stripped of their land.

She questions why Western discourse constantly invokes Israel’s right to exist, security and self-defence while denying Palestinians the same rights. “The West asks Palestinians to disarm,” she writes. “But who will disarm the armed settlers storming their villages?”

Israel admits firing on car carrying 5-year-old Hind Rajab in Gaza

Israel’s military has for the first time admitted that it opened fire on a vehicle carrying five-year-old Hind Rajab and her family in Gaza City two-and-a-half years ago.

The military said it would open a criminal investigation into the killing of nine people on 29 January 2024, including Hind. 

The bodies of Hind, six family members, and two paramedics who attempted to rescue her were found 12 days after the attack.

📰 A mercenary allegedly hired and paid millions of dollars by the United Arab Emirates carried out a covert surveillance operation against a British activist and academic in London, according to an investigation by ITV News.

Abraham Golan, a dual Hungarian-Israeli citizen who ran the private security company Spear Operations Group, travelled to Britain in December 2016 to target Anas al-Tikriti, the chief executive of the London-based Cordoba Foundation think tank, ITV News reported on Wednesday.

Emirati financial records seen by ITV showed that Golan, who lived in the US, was being paid by the UAE while carrying out the operation. He was receiving a six-figure annual retainer, as well as substantial bonuses, including a $1m payment weeks before his trip to London for an operation in Yemen.

🔗 https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uae-funded-mercenary-targeted-british-activist-anas-altikriti-london

Released Gaza detainee recounts killing of Dr Adnan al-Bursh

In an interview with Middle East Eye, released Palestinian detainee Islam Al-Hijazi recounts the harrowing details of Dr Adnan al-Bursh’s killing in Israeli detention, as relayed to him by inmates at Ofer prison. 

During his detention, Al-Hijazi found himself in the same cell where, around a month earlier, al-Bursh drew his last breath. Inmates who were present at the time told him what happened. 

“The doctor collapsed on the floor of the room, barely breathing. His breathing was very weak. The men started calling for help, banging on the doors and shouting that they needed a doctor. Unfortunately, there was no response from the prison guards,” says Al-Hijazi.

British academic Anas Altikriti targeted in UAE-funded surveillance operation

British academic Anas Altikriti told MEE he expected “far better” from the UK government after an ITV investigation revealed that a UAE-funded mercenary had covertly surveilled him in 2016, recording details of his home, car and workplace.

Victim of Israeli strike on Gaza port had to have her hand amputated, says daughter

Middle East Eye spoke to Ibtisam Murtaja, the daughter of 70-year-old Layla Murtaja, whose photo went viral after she was seen covered in blood and severely injured following an Israeli drone strike on a café at Gaza City’s port. The attack killed six people, including Layla’s son, and left her in intensive care.

“We didn’t hear the missile,” Ibtisam said. “I woke up, there were so many bodies. I didn’t know who to help and who to leave.”

Ibtisam told MEE that her mother’s right hand, which had been her only functioning hand for the past six years, had to be amputated due to the severity of her injuries.

The Assad trials: Will Syria get justice?

Atef Najib led political security in Daraa in 2011, when he catalysed a flashpoint of the Syrian civil war with the abduction and torture of 15 schoolboys.
 
And when Najib was sentenced to death on 11 August, Syrians celebrated - in Damascus, and in Daraa too, where the first protests broke out fifteen years ago.
 
The Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus has also convicted Bashar al-Assad himself, along with nine others associated with his government so far.
 
Amnesty International has called for an end to Syria’s use of the death sentence.
 
Syria’s new government rejects this criticism, saying proceedings comply with Syrian law.
 
Transitional justice is never easy; can Syria achieve it?

Palestinians hold funeral for 50 recovered bodies of three families in Gaza City

“I was waiting for this day, and I knew that a big wound would be opened.”

Palestinians gathered in Gaza City on Thursday to attend the funerals of 50 people whose remains were recently recovered from beneath the rubble. 

The remains were recently pulled from the ruins of houses belonging to the Sawafiri, Batniji, and Karam families, according to Gaza's civil defence.

Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for Gaza's civil defence, reported that teams had recovered about 180 bodies over the past 50 days from 17 homes.

He also mentioned that more than 8,000 people remain trapped under the rubble across the enclave, which requires significant effort and resources for recovery.

Hamas told to be 'sensitive' to Netanyahu ahead of Israeli elections

"It is not my duty as a Palestinian to take care of the sensitivity of the timing of the deal for Netanyahu."

Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim told CNN that Board of Peace mediators and US envoy Jared Kushner had asked the movement to be "sensitive" to Benjamin Netanyahu’s political standing ahead of Israel’s upcoming election.

Naim said that the movement remains committed to a peace roadmap for Gaza, adding that Israel has not fulfilled obligations stipulated under the ceasefire.

Pro-Palestinian activist disrupts New Zealand prime minister’s public meeting

“They killed 20,000 children, and you gave Israel money.”

A pro-Palestinian activist disrupted New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s public meeting in Christchurch on Wednesday, accusing his government of supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Israeli settler influencer questions why Palestinians remain in West Bank

Israeli settler and content creator Rivka Lafair has questioned why Palestinians were not completely expelled from the land during Israel’s establishment in 1948 and its occupation of the West Bank in 1967.
She said Israel had “conquered” the territory but left “so much work” still to be done, believing the continued presence of Palestinians is a problem.

Lafair lives in the illegal Shiloh settlement in the occupied West Bank and has built a social media following around her life as a settler, alongside her work as a yoga teacher and content creator. She has also previously called on Israeli soldiers to “stop showing mercy” towards Palestinians and praised the destruction of a hospital in Gaza.

Her comments come as Israeli settlers continue to expand settlements and outposts across the occupied West Bank with the protection of Israeli forces.

📰Turkey has announced criminal proceedings against dozens of Israelis over the attack on ships belonging to the Global Sumud Flotilla and the abduction of its activists and sailors.

In a statement posted on X, Justice Minister Akın Gurlek said those indicted included, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

🔗https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/turkey-requests-interpol-red-notice-netanyahu-over-sumud-flotilla

British MP Emily Thornberry calls for ban on Israeli settlement trade and reaffirms support for two state solution

UK Labour MP Emily Thornberry has called for a ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements and reaffirmed the need for a two state solution.

When talking about the situation in the occupied West Bank, she argues “it is Palestinian land, we have to do something about this".

Speaking to Sky News, Thornberry said settler violence in the West Bank is “the worst we have ever seen” as pressure grows on the UK to ban trade with these settlements.

She explains the UK’s Foreign Affairs Select Committee, to which Thornberry heads, has been calling for a ban on this trade for over a year. Her comments come amid a sharp escalation in violence by Israeli settlers, alongside continued settlement expansion across the occupied territory.

Elon Musk is a race-war entrepreneur | Amina Shareef | MEE Opinion

Amina Shareef, a researcher of anti-Muslim racism, argues that the question of whether Elon Musk personally considers himself racist misses the larger issue. She describes him as a “race-war entrepreneur” who uses his wealth, political influence and ownership of X to amplify anti-Muslim narratives and racial conflict.

Shareef says Musk’s language about Muslims, including references to “rape and murder”, incompatible values and the “imposition of laws and rules”, racialises Muslims as inherently violent and hostile to western society. She says that this feeds broader narratives about demographic replacement and “white decline”, ideas Musk has repeatedly promoted to millions of followers.

Family of five-year-old Hind Rajab reacts to Israel admitting it fired on vehicle carrying her

Israel’s military has for the first time admitted that it opened fire on a vehicle carrying five-year-old Hind Rajab and her family in Gaza City two-and-a-half years ago. 

The military said it would open a criminal investigation into the killing of nine people on 29 January 2024, including Hind.

“The statement issued by the occupying army took us by surprise … We’re used to the State of Israel never admitting its mistakes or acknowledging the reality of the actions it carries out, or anything that it does,” Hind’s grandmother tells Middle East Eye from Gaza. 

At the time of the killings, Israel’s military said it was not in the Tel al-Hawa area of Gaza City where the deaths took place, despite multiple media reports identifying Israeli tanks in the area.