Israel

Palestine

UN condemns attack on Gaza Catholic church

UN Secretary-General António Guterres strongly condemned a deadly Israeli artillery strike that damaged Gaza’s Holy Family Catholic Church, calling the attack “unacceptable” and reiterating calls for an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages. The strike killed three civilians and injured several others, including parish priest Father Gabriel Romanelli, according to the Vatican. The Holy Family Church, Gaza’s only Catholic parish, had served as a refuge for displaced civilians since the onset of the war, and held up to 600 people when it was struck by tank fire. (Photo: By Dan Palraz/Wikipedia)

Palestine

EU in ‘cruel and unlawful betrayal’ of Gaza

At a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels, the bloc opted not to take punitive action against Israel over widespread evidence of war crimes and atrocities committed in Gaza. For weeks, the EU had been discussing a range of potential actions, including: suspending its free trade agreement with Israel, an arms embargo, banning the import of products from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, and ending visa-free travel for Israeli citizens. Instead of taking any of these measures—which advocates argue are necessary to avoid complicity in serious violations of international law—EU ministers pointed to an aid deal for Gaza struck days earlier as justification for inaction. The details of that deal remain vague, and it has so far shown little on-the-ground impact. Amnesty International assailed the apparent quid pro quo as a “cruel and unlawful betrayal” of the Gazans. (Photo: Mohammed Zaanoun/TNH)

Syria

Syria: Israel intervenes amid Druze-Bedouin fighting

Days of clashes between Bedouin tribes and local fighters in the predominantly Druze city of Suwayda in southern Syria left some 300 dead before a ceasefire was brokered by the government. Amid the fighting, Israeli warplanes bombed Syrian government tanks as they advanced on Suwayda, and also struck military targets around Damascus. Some 1,000 Israeli Druze also amassed on the Purple Line, separating Israeli-controlled and Syrian-controlled territory in the Golan Heights, saying they were prepared to cross over to protect their brethren in Suwayda. IDF Brig. Gen. (res.) Amal As’ad, a prominent member of Israel’s Druze community, accused Syrian transitional president Ahmed al-Sharaa of seeking to “eliminate the Druze,” and criticized Israel for seeking peace with Damascus even amid the attacks. (Map: Google)

Palestine

West Bank: settler attacks on Christian village

The two most senior church leaders in the Holy Land toured the Christian Palestinian town of Taybeh in the West Bank, which has been the scene of repeated attacks by Israeli settlers in recent weeks. In a joint statement, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, and Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, called the settler attacks a threat to Christian heritage, and demanded an investigation into the failure of Israeli authorities to respond to the ongoing assaults. Taybeh, the biblical Ephraim, has three churches—Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Melkite—whose pastors have issued an joint appeal calling on Israeli authorities to prevent further settler violence. They charged that the violence—including arson attacks that have threatened the Byzantine-era Church of Al-Khader (St. George)—has often taken place in the presence of passive Israeli soldiers. The settlers have also damaged the olive groves that are Taybeh’s primary source of income, and are preventing farmers from accessing and working their lands. (Photo: VisitPalestine)

Palestine

Podcast: Orwell in Gaza

Amid starvation and horrifically escalating atrocities in Gaza, Israel announces plans to build a giant concentration camp on the ruins of Rafah, an evident preparation for forced “transfer” of the Palestinian population from the Strip entirely—an idea Trump enthusiastically embraces. On the West Bank, amid growing settler attacks, more Palestinian land is enclosed behind separation walls built to protect Israeli settlements. Amid all this, Benjamin Netanyahu (wanted for war crimes by the ICC) meets with Trump in Washington to openly discuss the “transfer” plan—and announces that he has nominated the American president for the Nobel Peace Prize. In Episode 286 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg argues that Trump could in fact get get the Nobel prize while facilitating genocide in Gaza and instating a mass detention state in the US—a fitting inauguration of the fascist world order. (Photo: Jaber Jehad Badwan via Wikimedia Commons)

Palestine

UN warns of ‘weaponized hunger’ in Gaza

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) announced that the recent killing of Palestinians trying to receive food from aid hubs may constitute a war crime, warning of a policy of “weaponized hunger” in the Gaza Strip. Jonathan Whittall, the head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Gaza and the West Bank, reported that more than 400 people have now died in the process of trying to reach food distribution points. “We see a chilling pattern of Israeli forces opening fire on crowds gathering to get food,” Whittall said, adding that “Israel’s militarized humanitarian assistance mechanism is in contradiction with international standards on aid distribution.” (Photo: Maan News Agency)

Iran

Podcast interview: Iranian-American activist Frieda Afary

In Episode 284 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg interviews Frieda Afary of the blog Iranian Progressives in Translation, author (most recently) of Socialist Feminism: A New Approach, and a longtime voice for democratic-secular opposition movements in Iran. How is the situation of Iran’s civil resistance complicated by the US-Israeli air-strikes on the country, and how should progressives in the West respond? Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon.

Iran

Iran’s retaliation: choreographed charade?

Two days after the US carried out air-strikes against Iran’s nuclear sites in what is being dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer, Iran launched missiles at al-Udeid air base in Qatar, headquarters for US Central Command’s regional operations and host to some 8,000 US troops. The US said nearly all the missiles were intercepted and there were no casualties. In a post on TruthSocial, President Trump shortly later claimed a ceasefire between Israel and Iran has been reached, with Israeli media reporting that the truce was brokered by Qatar. Sources also told Reuters that Iran had tipped off Qatar authorities before the attack, who then warned the US—accounting for the light damage and raising the possibility that, as in US-Iran brinkmanship of early 2020, the supposed Iranian retaliation was choreographed to allow Tehran to save face. The US, Israel and Iran alike are now all claiming victory, and it remains unclear how seriously Tehran’s nuclear capabilities have in fact been degraded. (Image of al-Udeid air base: Wikimedia Commons)

Iran

Tehran vows retaliation after US strikes nuclear sites

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) vowed retaliation against US and Israeli targets following American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. “Operation True Promise 3 continues, and the aggressors must await responses that will make them regret and will go beyond their calculations,” the IRGC said in a statement, adding that “American bases in the region are not points of strength but rather factors of their greater vulnerability.” (Image: Pixabay)

New York City

Podcast: Zohran Mamdani and the weaponization of anti-Semitism

New York City’s mayoral race has become embroiled in the national and global dilemmas, with progressive candidate Brad Lander getting arrested by ICE and progressive frontrunner Zohran Mamdani being aggressively baited as an anti-Semite by the campaign of the overall frontrunner, disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo. Joining Cuomo in this propaganda offensive, not surprisingly, is the pro-Israel doxxing operation Canary Mission. In the current fraught atmosphere, this is a serious matter; Mamdani has received death threats and his campaign is boosting security measures. In Episode 283 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg examines the accusations against Mamdani that have been hyped by the New York Post and even the supposedly more objective Politico, and weighs them against Mamdani’s own responses. (Photo: CounterVortex)

Greater Middle East

Civilian toll of US bombing in Yemen

A late May ceasefire between Yemen’s Houthi rebels and the US appears to be holding, although Israel and the Houthis are still in conflict, with the latter saying this week that they have joined Iran’s war effort. A new report from casualty monitor AirWars looks at the civilian death toll during the 53 days of “Operation Rough Rider,” when Trump escalated a long-running US bombing campaign in Yemen. The monitor says at least 224 civilians were killed between the operation’s start in mid-March until the May truce, marking a massive escalation from previous US campaigns. If you also include the 258 civilians counted as killed in the previous 23 years of US operations against the Houthis, al-Qaeda, and other groups, it takes the overall civilian toll from US bombing in Yemen to almost 500. (Photo: CENTCOM)

Iran

Iranian opposition activists demand peace, regime change

Prominent Iranian opposition activists and cultural figures have issued a joint statement calling for both Iran and Israel to instate a ceasefire, for cessation of Iran’s nuclear program, and for the “authoritarian regime” to step down. The statement, published in the French daily Le Monde, was also released on the X (Twitter) account of its lead signatory, imprisoned human rights advocate and Nobel Laureate Narges Mohammadi. It is also signed by Nobel Laureate dissident Shirin Ebadi, filmmakers Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof, and attorneys Sadiqeh Vasmaghi and Abdolfattah Soltani. The statement calls for an “end to the devastating war between the Islamic Republic and the ruling regime in Israel—a war that not only destroys infrastructure and the lives of civilians in both territories but also poses a clear threat to the foundations of human civilization.” It concludes: “We hold that the current leaders of the Islamic Republic lack the capacity to resolve Iran’s domestic crises or its external tensions. The only credible path to preserve this country and its people is for current authorities to step down and facilitate a peaceful transition to authentic democracy.” (Image: Twitter)