International
In West Bank, Palestinian recognition welcomed despite fears of Israeli annexation
In West Bank, Palestinian recognition welcomed despite fears of Israeli annexation
Abdel Aziz Majarmeh was standing next to his 13-year-old son, Islam, as he was shot dead by Israeli forces this month at the entrance to Jenin refugee camp, in the occupied West Bank.
“My son fell to the ground, and then I heard the sound of a shot,” he said. “An army jeep came up and five or six soldiers pointed their weapons at me, telling me to leave. I didn’t even know my son was martyred. I started dragging him away.”
Abdel Aziz said he had gone to the camp – occupied by Israel’s army since January – to retrieve family documents from his home there.
“There is no one for me to complain to,” he told me. “They control everything. The Palestinian Authority can’t even protect itself – it only implements the decisions of the Jews.”
As a Palestinian, Abdel Aziz is resigned to his powerlessness. As a father, he’s tormented.
“In my mind, I keep asking that soldier: why pick on a 13-year-old boy? I’m standing right next to him. Shoot me. Why are you shooting children? I’m here, shoot me.”
Israel’s army said it had fired to neutralise a threat posed by suspects who had approached them in a closed military area, and was examining the incident.
It refused to clarify what threat the teenager had posed.
Cities like Jenin were put under the full control of the Palestinian Authority three decades ago, under the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Peace Accords.
They were meant to be the seeds from which statehood would grow.
But Israel says it was terrorism that flourished there. In January, it sent tanks into Jenin and the neighbouring city of Tulkarem to crush armed Palestinian groups, saying it would apply lessons learned in Gaza.
Since then, Israeli forces have remained, razing large areas of the camps in both cities, and demolishing buildings in other areas.
The UK, France and other countries are now set to recognise a Palestinian state, as Israeli control spreads across the West Bank and the Gaza War grinds on.
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Jenin’s mayor, Mohammed Jarrar, took me to the camp entrance near where Islam was shot. The army vehicles stationed here on my previous visits are nowhere to be seen, but a large earth berm now blocks the road in, and locals say Israeli snipers still scan the area from the buildings overhead.
Mr Jarrar told me around 40% of Jenin was now a military area for Israeli forces, with around a quarter of residents – including the entire camp – displaced from their homes.
“It was clear from the beginning this was a major political plan, not a security operation,” he told me. “This Israeli government wants to annex the West Bank and in preparation for that, it wants to prevent any [armed] opposition to its plan.”
Israel has also placed the Palestinian Authority under a long-term economic siege, withholding tax revenues the PA needs to pay teachers and police.
Israel accuses it of funding terrorism by compensating the families of Palestinian militants who are killed. The PA says it has now scrapped that payment scheme.
Mr Jarrar said it was now very challenging to provide even basic services to the local population, and to persuade young people not to leave.
Against this backdrop, he said, the recognition of a Palestinian state by Britain, France and others is important, even after more than 140 other nations have already done so.
“It confirms the fact that the Palestinian people possess a state, even if it is under occupation,” he told me. “I know that this recognition will lead to [greater] occupation of the West Bank. But even so I believe recognition is more important, because it will shape the future of the Palestinian people, and the international community will be called on to defend their rights.”
Recognition of a Palestinian state by the UK and France is also a recognition of the political chasm between Israel and its European allies over this issue.
“There will be no Palestinian state,” Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told settlers in the West Bank last week. “This place is ours. We will see to our heritage, our land and our security.”
Netanyahu has built his career on preventing a Palestinian state, and his government has pushed hard on expanding settlements in the West Bank.
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His far-right allies have been pushing for formal annexation, with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich recently outlining a plan to annex 82% of West Bank, with the remaining Palestinian enclaves cut off from each other.
US President Donald Trump has opposed the recognition of a Palestinian state, but has not publicly criticised Israeli moves towards annexation.
Israel seized the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, and has never left.
Establishing civilian settlements on occupied land is illegal under the Geneva Conventions, but Israel argues that it has a historic Jewish right to the West Bank.
Around half a million settlers now live there, and the Israeli organisation, Peace Now, which tracks settlement expansion, says more than 100 new outposts have appeared across the West Bank in the past two years.
Outposts are illegal under both international and Israeli law, but they receive tacit approval from Netanyahu’s government as well as state support in the form of roads, security and utilities.
Earlier this summer, Ayman Soufan saw new neighbours arrive on the hill next to his house, in the hills south of Nablus.
From his window, he and his grandchildren have a clear view of the simple wooden shelter and corrugated iron shed put up by Israeli settlers that Ayman says are from the nearby settlement of Yitzhar.
“This outpost they set up here is to push us out of our house. Every day a settler comes, bangs on the house, shouting ‘leave, leave!’,” he told me. “They throw their garbage at our doorstep. I call the authorities and they say, “We’ll send the army”. But the army never comes. The settlers are the army, they are the police, they are everything.”
Ayman’s family built this house, near the village of Burin, a few years after Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967.
Israel was temporarily given control over rural areas like this under the Oslo peace accords, with the intention that they would eventually be transferred to a future Palestinian State, after negotiations over settlements there.
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But Israeli control has remained, settlements have mushroomed, and human rights groups say Israeli forces are increasingly supportive of settler attacks.
Ayman said his father had died from a heart attack as settlers set fire to the house in 2003, and that his home had been torched several more times since then.
“Who is supposed to protect me,” Ayman asked. “The Palestinian police? They can’t even prevent this happening in the cities, how will they come here? Here, my security is in the hands of the people who occupy me.”
International recognition of a Palestinian state is a good thing, he says, even if little will change on the ground.
“What’s coming is worse,” he said. “But if I ever leave this house, it’ll be when I’m carried out dead. This house where I was born, where I grew up and lived my childhood; every corner has a memory for me. How can I leave it?”
In the decades since the Oslo Accords, Israeli narratives have hardened, armed Palestinian groups have strengthened, and the control of the Palestinian Authority government has been eaten away.
“Palestine was never theirs and will never be theirs,” said bereaved father Abdel Aziz Majarmeh. “Sooner or later, today, tomorrow, in a year or two, they will leave this country. And Palestine will be liberated.”
The UK and France have clung to the idea that two separate states – Israeli and Palestinian – are the solution to the conflict here, even as Palestinian territory was taken, and Palestinian institutions undermined.
Now the Gaza war, and questions over who will govern Gaza afterwards, have forced that political gridlock into open confrontation, as Netanyahu’s far-right allies push hard for annexation.
Some Israelis say the West Bank is like the Wild West: a place where statehood and sovereignty are decided not by laws and declarations but by facts on the ground.
Israel has long argued there can be no Palestinian state without its agreement.
Now, by pushing ahead with recognition, the UK, France and others are signalling that Israel can’t cancel statehood alone.
A political fact by Israel’s allies to counter its facts on the ground.
In West Bank, Palestinian recognition welcomed despite fears of Israeli annexation
BBC
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International
Miami Teen Receives 17-Year Jail Term For Boyfriend’s Fatal Stabbing
Miami Teen Receives 17-Year Jail Term For Boyfriend’s Fatal Stabbing
, the South Florida teenager convicted over the fatal stabbing of her boyfriend, has been sentenced to 17 years in prison after an emotional court hearing that left both families devastated.
The sentence was handed down on Tuesday by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Christine Hernandez, who ruled that Malik would serve 17 years in a Florida state prison followed by five years of reporting probation for the 2024 killing of 17-year-old Yahkeim “Keimo” Lollar.
The tragic incident occurred on December 20, 2024, at an apartment complex in Miami’s Liberty City neighbourhood. Prosecutors told the court that Malik stabbed Lollar in the chest during an argument inside a parking garage near Northwest Sixth Court and 61st Street.
Although Malik was 17 years old at the time of the incident, she was prosecuted as an adult. Earlier this year, she pleaded guilty to manslaughter and carrying a concealed weapon without reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors, leaving the final sentencing decision to the judge.
During the hearing, Judge Hernandez imposed additional probation conditions on Malik, including mandatory yearly reflection letters about the crime and its consequences.
“You will have to write a letter December 20th of every year that you’re on probation acknowledging what occurred and how it has affected your life,” the judge said in court.
The judge also ordered a mental health evaluation for the teenager as part of her probation requirements.
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Court proceedings became emotional as members of Lollar’s family delivered victim impact statements. His mother, Nathalie Jean, expressed relief after the ruling and said she believed justice had finally been served.
“I’m glad today my son can finally rest in peace knowing that justice was served,” she said after the sentencing.
Jean added that she hoped Malik would reflect deeply on the damage caused by the stabbing.
“I hope that when she goes to prison and gets processed, she thinks about the lives that she destroyed and how much she affected our families,” she stated.
During the hearing, prosecutors reportedly played surveillance footage showing Lollar’s final moments after the stabbing. Testimony from investigators revealed that the knife wound penetrated the teenager’s chest and struck his heart.
Before the sentence was announced, Malik addressed the court directly and apologised for her actions.
“Every day I sit and think about the damage I caused,” she told the judge.
“The family wants me in prison, but I’m in my own prison for the rest of my life. This was my best friend, my love and someone I could vent to about anything and everything,” Malik added tearfully.
Defense attorneys had urged the court to sentence Malik as a youthful offender and place her in a correctional boot camp programme instead of prison, arguing that she was still a juvenile when the incident occurred.
However, prosecutors requested a tougher punishment of 20 years imprisonment followed by 10 years probation, insisting the seriousness of the crime required a substantial sentence.
Judge Hernandez ultimately rejected the request for youthful offender treatment, saying the evidence showed the stabbing was not accidental.
“Although I do believe that you are remorseful, I do not believe that this was an isolated incident of aggression,” the judge said.
Following the hearing, emotions remained high outside the courthouse. While Lollar’s relatives embraced one another and welcomed the ruling, some members of Malik’s family argued that the sentence was too harsh for someone who was still a teenager at the time of the crime.
The case has continued to attract widespread attention across the United States due to the age of those involved and the emotional courtroom scenes surrounding the sentencing.
Miami Teen Receives 17-Year Jail Term For Boyfriend’s Fatal Stabbing
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International
US Warns Parents Owing $2,500 Child Support Risk Passport Revocation
US Warns Parents Owing $2,500 Child Support Risk Passport Revocation
The United States government has warned that citizens who owe more than $2,500 in unpaid child support risk having their passports revoked or denied under existing federal regulations governing child support enforcement.
The US Department of State said the measure applies to individuals who fall behind on court-ordered child support payments, stressing that such persons will not be eligible to obtain or renew a US passport until their debts are cleared.
In its advisory, the department stated that affected individuals are typically identified through federal and state child support enforcement systems and notified through email or postal mail using contact details provided in their passport records.
The agency warned: “If you owe more than $2,500, federal regulations do not allow us to issue you a U.S. passport and we may revoke your valid U.S. passport.”
It also urged affected persons to contact their state child support enforcement agency immediately to make payment arrangements and avoid passport restrictions or revocation.
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The State Department explained that even after repayment, a revoked passport cannot be used for travel, meaning holders must apply for a new passport before regaining full travel privileges.
It further noted that in urgent travel situations, coordination between state agencies and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to update records and clear names from enforcement lists may take about 2–3 weeks.
The department also warned that US citizens abroad whose passports are revoked may only be issued limited-validity emergency travel documents to return home, until their child support debts are fully settled and verified.
According to the agency, applicants must first clear all outstanding arrears through their state child support enforcement agency before any passport application can be processed.
The policy is based on the 1996 federal child support enforcement law, which allows US authorities to deny, revoke, or restrict passports for individuals owing significant child support debt.
While the law has existed for decades, the State Department said improved coordination and data sharing between state agencies and federal systems have made enforcement more consistent and effective in recent years.
US Warns Parents Owing $2,500 Child Support Risk Passport Revocation
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International
Outrage as Israeli Soldier Poses With Cigarette in Virgin Mary Statue’s Mouth
Outrage as Israeli Soldier Poses With Cigarette in Virgin Mary Statue’s Mouth
The Israeli military has opened an investigation after a soldier was photographed smoking and placing another cigarette in the mouth of a statue of the Virgin Mary in southern Lebanon, triggering outrage among Christian leaders and residents in the region.
The controversial image, which spread rapidly across social media platforms, was reportedly taken in the Christian-majority village of Debel in southern Lebanon. The incident has intensified tensions amid ongoing clashes between Israel and Hezbollah despite a fragile ceasefire agreement.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) described the soldier’s conduct as unacceptable and said the military viewed the matter with “utmost severity.”
According to the military, the soldier’s actions were inconsistent with the ethical standards expected of Israeli troops. The IDF added that disciplinary action would be taken after the completion of an internal investigation.
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Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani stated that the photograph had been taken several weeks earlier and stressed that the military respects religious freedom and holy sites.
“The IDF respects freedom of religion and worship, as well as holy sites and religious symbols of all religions and communities,” he said.
The controversy comes only weeks after another incident in the same village where an Israeli soldier was filmed striking a statue of Jesus Christ on the cross with a sledgehammer. Following widespread criticism, two soldiers involved in that case reportedly received 30-day prison sentences and were removed from combat duties.
Reacting to the latest incident, head of Debel’s congregation, Father Fadi Felfeli, condemned the act, describing it as offensive and unethical.
“Honestly, this issue really provoked us, especially after the apology regarding the cross,” he told the BBC.
Father Felfeli accused some members of the Israeli army of displaying intolerance toward Christians and religious symbols.
“It also shows that there are individuals within the army that lack ethics and values and are bigoted. This reflects a great deal of fanaticism,” he added.
Although the Virgin Mary statue was not physically damaged, the cleric said the act reflected extremism and disrespect toward a peaceful Christian community that has tried to remain neutral during the conflict.
The Custodia Terrae Sanctae, which represents the Roman Catholic Church in the Holy Land, also condemned the incident. The organisation described the soldier’s actions as “disrespectful and outrageous behaviour” and called on Israeli authorities to ensure accountability.
The church body urged the Israeli government and the military to send a strong message that attacks or acts of disrespect toward religious symbols would not be tolerated.
The incident has further raised concerns about growing hostility toward Christian sites and religious symbols amid the ongoing Israel-Lebanon conflict. Christian leaders have repeatedly warned against attacks on churches, clergy and sacred monuments in the region.
Meanwhile, tensions between Israel and Hezbollah continue despite a US-mediated ceasefire agreement that took effect in April. Israeli troops remain stationed in parts of southern Lebanon, while both sides continue to accuse each other of violating the truce.
Lebanese health authorities claim Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon have killed more than 120 people in the past week, including civilians. Hezbollah has also continued rocket, drone and mortar attacks targeting Israeli troops and communities in northern Israel.
On Wednesday night, Israel carried out an air strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs for the first time since the ceasefire began. The Israeli military claimed the strike killed Ahmed Ali Balout, identified as a commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force, although Hezbollah had not officially confirmed the claim at the time of reporting.
Lebanese officials say at least 2,715 people have been killed since the conflict escalated in March, while Israeli authorities report that 17 soldiers and one civilian have died in southern Lebanon. Two civilians have also reportedly been killed in northern Israel.
Outrage as Israeli Soldier Poses With Cigarette in Virgin Mary Statue’s Mouth
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