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The Israeli military said its troops killed two suspected militants in a town in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, while Palestinian officials accused Israeli settlers of setting fire to a mosque in the territory.Settler violence has surged in recent weeks across the West Bank, drawing international condemnation and even rare criticism from within the Israeli military and government.”A short while ago, IDF soldiers who were operating adjacent to the community of Karmei Zur, eliminated two terrorists who were on their way to carry out a terror attack,” the military said in a statement, without providing details.Palestinian authorities also did not provide any details.Meanwhile, the Ramallah-based Palestinian foreign ministry said Israeli settlers set ablaze the Hajja Hamida mosque near the town of Deir Istiya in the north.”This blatantly violates the sanctity of places of worship and reflects the deep-rooted racism driving settlers under the protection of the occupying government,” the ministry said.AFP photographs from the scene showed burnt copies of the Koran and walls blackened by smoke. A wall of the mosque was also graffitied.- ‘Red line’ -Thursday’s arson attack came a day after Israeli army chief pledged to halt settler violence, following a wave of attacks targeting Palestinians in the West Bank.”We are aware of the recent violent incidents in which Israeli civilians attacked Palestinians and Israelis. I strongly condemn them,” Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said in a statement.”These acts contradict our values, cross a red line and divert the attention of our troops from their mission,” he warned.”We are determined to stop this phenomenon and will act decisively until justice is served.”Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, where more than 500,000 Israelis now live in settlements.A minority of these Israelis engage in violence against Palestinians, who complain that Israeli forces usually do not arrest settlers.All settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.Earlier this month, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that October 2025 was the worst month for settler violence since it began recording in 2006, with at least 264 attacks that caused casualties or property damage.Almost none of the perpetrators have been held to account by the Israeli authorities.Violence has surged across the West Bank since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023.At least 1,003 Palestinians, including militants, have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers since the war started, according to the Palestinian health ministry.During the same period, 43 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks in the West Bank, according to official Israeli figures.

MrBeast, the world’s most followed YouTuber with over 450 million subscribers, opened a temporary amusement park in Riyadh on Thursday, the latest celebrity drawn to Saudi Arabia as it aspires to become a major entertainment hub.Eager for a chance to meet the social media star, families and teenagers gathered at “Beast Land”, a venue featuring obstacle course-like challenges similar to those in his popular videos where contestants compete for massive pay days.Hani Abu al-Naja said he travelled all the way from the city of Khobar, around 400 kilometres (250 miles) east of Riyadh, with his four children and four nephews for the opening.”It was a surprise for them,” the 42-year-old Palestinian told AFP, beaming with joy.MrBeast’s park will be open until December 27 as part of Riyadh Season, a major annual festival launched to promote the capital city as a tourist hub, as Saudi Arabia seeks to attract high-profile celebrities to diversify its oil-reliant economy.”The majority of our audience is outside of North America and we have a large concentration of people who watch our videos in the Middle East,” he told AFP in the Saudi capital Riyadh.”A lot of times when we do stuff, we do it in the West or in other places and I just really wanted to do something fun for our fans who live around here,” he added.After a dramatic countdown on giant screens, MrBeast appeared on stage surrounded by flames, lasers, confetti and a swarm of shining drones to intense applause.He opened briefcases and huge chests with bundles of cash. Every day, the visitor with the highest score will win 7,000 riyals ($1,866), and in 45 days the participant with the best overall score will receive 1 million riyals ($266,645).- ‘The craziest thing’ -The influencer had earlier posted a video from the gates of the new park in Riyadh, shaped like a blue tiger’s head with flashing lightning bolts for eyes, reminiscent of his logo, with neon lights beaming on the attractions.”This thing is the craziest thing that I’ve ever done, I can’t wait for you guys to experience this,” he said in the clip.With more followers across his social media platforms than there are people in the United States, the 27-year-old influencer — whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson — has built a digital empire over the years thanks to his prodigious output of content often featuring contests and challenges.The kingdom, where 75 percent of Saudis are under 35 years of age, is the perfect playground for influencers like MrBeast, whose content is mostly watched by children and young people.Smartphone market penetration in the kingdom stands at over 98 percent, while internet penetration stands at nearly 98 percent, both well above the global average, according to PwC.Saudis rank “among the most avid media consumers in the world” according to the consultancy.Human rights groups accuse the kingdom of inviting international stars and “art-washing” to obscure its poor human rights record, including a high rate of executions.In 2023, Time magazine named MrBeast one of the world’s most influential people.That same year, Forbes put his net worth at around half a billion dollars.Saudi Arabia has been building multiple leisure and entertainment attractions, including Qiddiya near Riyadh, billed as an “entertainment city” of theme parks and a motorsports racetrack.

Twenty-five countries shipped oil to Israel during its two-year offensive in Gaza, according to a report published Thursday by the nonprofit Oil Change International, which argued the same fossil-fuel system driving the climate crisis is also enabling “genocide.”Released at the UN climate summit in Brazil, the analysis found Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan were by far the largest suppliers of crude, accounting for 70 percent of shipments between November 1, 2023 and October 1, 2025.Russia, Greece and the United States were the top providers of refined petroleum products — with the US standing out as the sole supplier of JP-8, a jet-fuel blend designed for military aircraft.”The states that have supplied Israel with fuel during this period have done so in full knowledge of its atrocities,” said Oil Change International, which advocates for a global phase-out of fossil fuels.”Their complicity is documented here to hold these states accountable. These states must address their role in the genocide and cease their complicity.”The group commissioned research firm Data Desk to conduct the analysis, which tracked 323 shipments during the study period, totaling 21.2 million tonnes.The conflict began in October 2023 when an attack by Islamist group Hamas killed 1,221 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Israel’s retaliatory campaign has since killed more than 69,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, whose data is deemed reliable by the United Nations.Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza that has largely halted the war since October 10, though violent incidents continue to be reported, often with fatalities.The International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel’s actions are unlawful, and a UN Commission has concluded Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.Irene Pietropaoli, a senior fellow in business and human rights at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, said states were obliged to follow the ICJ’s interim order directing them to “prevent and punish genocide.””States must consider that their military or other assistance to Israel’s military operations in Gaza may put them at risk of being complicit in genocide under the Genocide Convention,” she said.In August 2024, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced that Colombia had formally suspended coal exports to Israel.While official data indicates Brazil last sent oil directly to Israel in March 2024, the head of the Rio de Janeiro Oil Workers Union has claimed Brazil may have rerouted shipments via Italy.

One bucket at a time, Palestinian workers cleared sand and crumbling mortar from the remains of an former medieval fortress turned museum in Gaza City, damaged by two years of fighting between Israel and Hamas.A dozen workers in high visibility jackets worked by hand to excavate the bombarded buildings that remain of the Pasha Palace Museum — which reputedly once housed Napoleon Bonaparte during a one-night stay in Gaza — stacking stones to be reused in one pile, and rubble to be discarded in another.Overhead, an Israeli surveillance drone buzzed loudly while the team toiled in silence.”The Pasha Palace Museum is one of the most important sites destroyed during the recent war on Gaza City,” Hamouda al-Dahdar, the cultural heritage expert in charge of the restoration works, told AFP, adding that more than 70 percent of the palace’s buildings were destroyed.As of October 2025, the UN’s cultural heritage agency, UNESCO, had identified damage at 114 sites since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, 2023, including the Pasha Palace. Other damaged sites include the Saint Hilarion Monastery complex — one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the Middle East — and Gaza City’s Omari Mosque.- ‘No more materials’ -Issam Juha, director of the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation, the nonprofit organisation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank who is helping coordinate the castle’s restoration at a distance, said the main issue was getting materials into Gaza.”There are no more materials and we are only managing debris, collecting stones, sorting these stones, and have minimal intervention for the consolidation,” Juha told AFP.Israel imposed severe restrictions on the Gaza Strip at the start of the war, causing shortages of everything including food and medicine.After a US-brokered ceasefire deal came into effect in October, aid trucks began flowing in greater numbers, but each item crossing into Gaza must be approved by strict Israeli vetting, humanitarian organisations say.Juha said the ceasefire had allowed workers to resume their excavations.Before, he said, it was unsafe for them to work and “people were threatened by drones that were scanning the place and shooting”.Juha said that at least 226 heritage and cultural sites were damaged during the war, arguing his number was higher than UNESCO’s because his teams in Gaza were able to access more areas. Juha’s organisation is loosely affiliated with the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority’s ministry of antiquities, he said.- ‘Memory of the Palestinian people’ -“Our cultural heritage is the identity and memory of the Palestinian people,” Dahdar said in Gaza City.”Before the war, the Pasha’s Palace contained more than 17,000 artefacts, but unfortunately all of them disappeared after the invasion of the Old City of Gaza,” he said.He added that his team had since recovered 20 important artefacts dating back to the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic eras.Gaza’s history stretches back thousands of years, making the tiny Palestinian territory a treasure trove of archaeological artefacts from past civilisations including Canaanites, Egyptians, Persians and Greeks.”We are… salvaging the archaeological stones in preparation for future restoration work, as well as rescuing and extracting any artefacts that were on display inside the Pasha Palace,” Dahdar said.As the pile of excavated rubble already several metres high grew, one craftsman carefully restored a piece of stonework bearing a cross mounted with an Islamic crescent.Another delicately brushed the dust off stonework bearing Islamic calligraphy.”We are not talking about just an old building, but rather we are dealing with buildings dating back to different eras,” said Dahdar.

Following Iraq’s parliamentary election this week, the complex and often lengthy task of choosing the country’s next leader is set to begin.Incumbent Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani claimed victory for his coalition after preliminary results showed it was the largest bloc — though it still falls short of the majority needed to form a government.Sudani now faces the tough quest of securing support from other parties, mostly from the Shiite majority, in his bid for a second term.With no single bloc dominating the next parliament, key parties could spend weeks or even months negotiating alliances to build the largest bloc and nominate the next premier.Sudani was brought to power in 2022 by the Coordination Framework, an alliance of Shiite factions with varying links to Iran.While preliminary vote counts for each list by province were released, seat allocations in parliament will not be announced until later.By convention in Iraq, a Shiite Muslim holds the post of prime minister and a Sunni that of parliament speaker, while the largely ceremonial presidency goes to a Kurd.- How is the government formed? -Naming a premier and forming a government has often proven to be an arduous task involving protracted political wrangling.In previous parliaments, Shiite majority parties have struck compromises to work together and form a government, and the main contenders often find themselves sidelined.Seats are used as bargaining chips, and newly-elected lawmakers can switch sides.With an outright majority almost impossible to achieve by any single list — as was the case in this week’s vote — the next premier will be selected by whichever coalition can gather enough allies to become the biggest bloc.Since voting began two years after the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, only one premier, Nuri al-Maliki, has served for two terms (2006-2014).- What are the possible outcomes? -Currently, no serious candidates have emerged except for Sudani — though he himself was a relative unknown prior to his nomination.A senior politician told AFP last month that the Coordination Framework is divided over supporting Sudani, with Maliki seemingly poised to oppose a second term for the incumbent.Long-term powerbrokers, including from the Coordination Framework, worry that Sudani has amassed too much power during his first term, making some reluctant to allow him to keep his seat.Sudani has also faced allegations that members of his office were responsible for wiretapping the phones of politicians.A source within a main party in the Coordination Framework told AFP that the alliance had previously agreed to reunite and create the largest bloc.”They will name the next premier and participate in choosing the parliament speaker, his deputies and the president,” the source said. – What happened after previous votes? -In the 2010 election, former premier Iyad Allawi’s bloc won most seats, 91, closely followed by Maliki’s alliance, which won 89.After months of bickering, political leaders stuck a deal and Maliki was reappointed for another term despite coming second in the ballot.In 2021, influential Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr’s bloc emerged as the biggest winner, with 73 seats, but still fell far short of a majority.His bloc withdrew from parliament following a dispute with other Shiite parties that culminated in deadly fighting in Baghdad.In the aftermath, influential parties instead came together under the Coordination Framework to form a larger bloc, and brought Sudani to power.- What role do Tehran and Washington play? -For decades, Iraq has been a proxy battleground between the US and Iran, and forming a government has always been influenced by the two foes.The next premier will have to maintain the delicate balance between their interests.Since the US-led invasion, Iran has not only wielded significant influence in Iraqi politics, but also backs armed groups in the country, whose power has grown both politically and financially.As Iran’s regional influence wanes, it aims to preserve its power in Iraq and keep the market open to products from its crippled economy.Washington meanwhile wants to cripple Tehran’s influence, pressuring Baghdad to disarm Iran-backed factions, many of which have been designated as terrorist groups.Some of those groups will nonetheless have seats in the parliament and maybe the government.Last week, Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told the Saudi-funded Al-Hadath channel that six pro-Iran factions are on a US blacklist — a key factor the government must consider.