European powers urge Israel to end settlements
Agence France-Presse . Rome, Italy 23 May, 2026, 00:59



A French activist detained and deported by Israel following the interception of their Gaza-bound flotilla hugs a relative as they arrive at Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris on Friday. | AFP photo

Italy, France, Britain and Germany urged Israel Friday to stop expanding its settlements in the West Bank, saying the government was ‘undermining stability’ and prospects for a two-state solution.

‘We call on the government of Israel to end its expansion of settlements and administrative powers, ensure accountability for settler violence and investigate allegations against Israeli forces,’ said the countries in a joint statement.

Noting that the situation in the West Bank had ‘deteriorated significantly’ in the past few months, the countries said settler violence towards Palestinians was at ‘unprecedented levels’.

‘The policies and practices of the Israeli government, including a further entrenchment of Israeli control, are undermining stability and prospects for a two-state solution,’ read the statement.

The countries condemned Israel’s E1 settlement plan—a new construction project expected to build some 3,400 housing units in the occupied West Bank over 12 square kilometres -- saying it would be a ‘serious breach of international law’.

‘Businesses should not bid for construction tenders for E1 or other settlement developments. They should be aware of legal and reputational consequences of participating in settlement construction including the risk of involving themselves in serious breaches of international law,’ the countries said.

The statement also called on Israel to lift its financial restrictions on the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian economy.

The four countries also noted that they ‘strongly oppose those, including members of the Israeli government, who argue for annexation and forcible displacement of the Palestinian population’.

Since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023, near-daily violence has also rocked the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

The joint statement came after a tense week in European-Israeli relations following the publication of a video that revealed the harsh treatment of European activists from a Gaza-bound flotilla while in Israeli custody.

Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, published the video that showed activists forced to kneel with their foreheads to the ground and their hands tied.

Italy and Spain later called on the EU to sanction Ben Gvir, while Ireland urged the EU to take action against Israel over the activists’ treatment, according to a leaked letter seen by AFP.

The United Kingdom, meanwhile, summoned Israel’s most senior diplomat in Britain following what it called the ‘inflammatory video’.​

Netanyahu told Trump Israel will remain free to act against threats, Israeli source says

REUTERS

Published :
May 24, 2026 19:58
Updated :
May 24, 2026 20:03


US President Donald Trump points his finger towards Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a press conference after meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, US, December 29, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/Files

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Donald Trump Israel would remain free to act against threats in Lebanon during a phone call about an emerging agreement between Washington and Iran ‌on Saturday, an Israeli source said.

Trump said Washington and Iran had "largely negotiated" a memorandum of understanding on a peace deal that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping passage that has been effectively closed since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran in February.

"In last night's ⁠conversation with President Trump, the Prime Minister emphasized that Israel will maintain freedom of action against threats in all arenas, including Lebanon, and President Trump reiterated and supported this principle," the Israeli political source told Reuters on Sunday, asking not to be named.

Expectations rose that a breakthrough might be imminent in the three-month-old war after Trump said an emerging agreement being brokered by Pakistan would reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran's Fars news agency said the draft stipulates that the US and ‌its ⁠allies will not attack Iran or its allies, and in return Iran pledges not to launch preemptive attacks on them.

Prominent Israeli politician Benny Gantz said it would be a strategic mistake for Israel to accept a ceasefire in Lebanon, which its troops have entered ⁠to fight the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia, as part of a deal with Iran.

According to the Israeli source, the US is updating Israel on the negotiations with Iran.

"President Trump made it ⁠clear that he will stand firm in negotiations on his consistent demand for the dismantling of the Iranian nuclear program and the removal of all enriched ⁠uranium from its territory," the source said, "and that he will not sign a final agreement without these conditions being met".

Trump wrote on Truth Social that a call with Netanyahu had gone "very well".​

Israel breaks all contact with UN secretary-general


Antonio Guterres

Agence France-Presse . United Nations, United States

Israel is breaking all contact with United Nations chief Antonio Guterres, the country’s ambassador announced Thursday.

‘We are done with this secretary-general,’ said Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, in a video posted on X.

‘The decision to blacklist Israel and accuse us of using sexual violence as a weapon of war is an outrageous decision,’ he said, referring to an upcoming report from the office of Guterres.

‘The secretary-general and his team continue to spread lies against Israel. To put us and Hamas terrorists on the same list, that’s unacceptable.’

The Israeli mission to the United Nations said in a statement that it would have no contact with the secretary-general’s office as long as Guterres serves as the head of the organisation.

Guterres’s spokesperson said that they were aware of Danon’s remarks.

‘For our part, the secretary-general’s door remains open,’ Stephane Dujarric said.

The UN secretary-general’s annual report on conflict-related sexual violence is customarily presented to relevant states ahead of publication.

Last August, the report warned that Israel could be added to the list of parties suspected of, or responsible for, sexual violence in situations of armed conflict.

Militant group Hamas appears on the list.

At the time, the United Nations cited ‘credible information’ regarding sexual violence allegedly committed by Israeli security forces against Palestinian detainees in prisons and other detention centers, and saying UN inspectors had been denied access to the facilities.

‘We invited the representative of the UN to come to Israel to check those ridiculous allegations. They chose not to come,’ Danon said.

Relations between the United Nations and Israel are fraught and have reached an all-time low since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza.

Israeli authorities have reproached Guterres and other UN officials for criticising devastating Israeli strikes against Gaza. The UN chief was declared ‘personal non grata’ in Israel in 2024.​

Israeli media says Netanyahu made unannounced visit to UAE

AFP
Jerusalem
Published: 28 Sep 2026, 10: 33



Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the scene of a shooting at the Ramot road junction in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on 8 September, 2025. AFP

Israeli media reported on Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had made an unannounced visit to the United Arab Emirates to meet with the Gulf state’s leader.

TV channels 12 and KAN as well as the newspapers Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post said that Netanyahu undertook a one-day visit to the UAE to meet President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

The premier’s office did not immediately comment.

The reported visit comes with the Middle East still gripped by the Israel-US war launched against Iran in February.

It also comes weeks after a bombshell Israeli media report that said the Emirati president warned Netanyahu ahead of Hamas’s 7 October, 2023 attack on Israel, which the Israeli premier did not pass on to the security services.

Netanyahu has denied the story.

Israel and the UAE formally established diplomatic relations in 2020 as part of the US-negotiated Abraham Accords.​

Israel-bound flight diverted to Saudi Arabia after fight between pilots, Israeli official says

Reuters
Published: 30 Sep 2026, 16: 23



A screengrab taken from Flightradar24 shows a flydubai flight to Israel which was diverted to Saudi Arabia on 30 September 2026. Reuters

A flight bound for Israel from the United Arab Emirates diverted to Saudi Arabia after transmitting emergency signals following a fight between the pilots, an Israeli official said on Wednesday.

Flydubai Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv diverted over Jordanian airspace towards Saudi Arabia, transmitting a general emergency signal and then another emergency signal that indicated possible unlawful interference several minutes later, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24.

The Boeing 737 plane, which Israeli media said had around 150 Israeli passengers on board, then again transmitted the initial general emergency signal before later landing at Tabuk airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia, the website said.

The aircraft's data appeared to show that it had suddenly and rapidly descended by nearly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds before the first emergency signal, Flightradar24 said.

The emergency signals triggered a major security response in Israel, which has no official diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, where the plane landed. The incident highlighted the potential risks on a route that has become popular among Israeli nationals since the UAE and Israel normalized ties 6 years ago.

Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister's office, told Reuters the incident was not believed to have been a hijacking, describing it as a "different incident".

An airline spokesperson said the flydubai flight experienced an "incident" en route to Tel Aviv and diverted to Tabuk, where it landed safely. All passengers were safe and accounted for, the spokesperson said, without providing any further details.

An Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters the pilots had transmitted the emergency signals after getting into a physical altercation with each other.

It was not immediately clear if either pilot had intentionally transmitted the signals.

Yasmin Abu Kasis said her daughter Miriam, who was among the passengers on the flight, had told her that she had heard screaming and that a man holding a knife had forced one of the pilots onto the floor, and that there was blood everywhere.

Israeli media published a photo purportedly taken from inside the plane, which appeared to show a passenger's blood-soaked shirt. Reuters could not immediately verify the image.

In a statement, the Israeli prime minister's office said the situation was "under control" and that all measures were being taken to bring the Israeli passengers back to Israel.

Flydubai operates daily return flights between Dubai and Tel Aviv, a route that is popular among Israeli nationals. The flight path normally uses airspace over Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

It is not the first time a flight between Israel and the UAE has landed in Saudi Arabia. A flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv made an emergency landing in Riyadh in September 2025 due to a medical incident, Israeli media reported at the time.​

Co-pilot of flydubai plane underwent radical Islamist indoctrination: Netanyahu

Plane made sudden plunge during incident. Israel's initial assessment finds Omani co-pilot likely acted alone, officials say.

Reuters
Jerusalem


Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu File Photo: Reuters

The co-pilot of a passenger jet who stabbed the captain in an apparent attempt to crash the plane as it flew to Israel had undergone radical Islamist indoctrination and was clearly suicidal, Israel's prime minister said on Thursday.

Disaster was averted on Wednesday's flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv after the wounded captain managed to unlock the cockpit door, allowing passengers to subdue the attacker. A reserve crew that had been aboard landed the plane, which had more than 170 people on board, at Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia.

"We know that he underwent Islamist radical indoctrination. That appears to be something we are gathering from his personal information," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News.

Two Israeli security officials said Israel's initial assessment was that the co-pilot, identified by Israel as an Omani national, was likely acting alone, though the investigation was still ongoing.

The flight plunged more than 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds during the incident as it flew over Saudi Arabia on the journey from the United Arab Emirates to Israel, according to the flight-tracking website Flightradar24.

Netanyahu said it was clear that the co-pilot was suicidal.

"It looks very likely that he was going to down the plane," Netanyahu said. Coupled with "the Islamist tendencies, that radicalization that are found in his background, I think that's ... a pretty good clue," he said, without elaborating.

"But again, I don't make final conclusions yet. But that's the indications we have now," he added.

The United Arab Emirates has started investigations seeking to establish the circumstances and motives and determine "whether the incident was linked to any terrorist activity or purpose, or involved prior planning or direction," the UAE state news agency reported on Thursday.

Attacker Identified as Omani National

Israel's envoy to the UAE, Yossi Shelley, told Reuters that it was too early to draw conclusions and no motive had been determined.

Another Israeli official said Israel was not receiving all the information it sought from the Saudis and that the Israeli intelligence services, Mossad and Shin Bet, were investigating the incident as well.

In the first comment by the Saudi government on the incident, the Interior Ministry said in a statement that the captain and co-pilot, who were both treated in a hospital for injuries, left for Abu Dhabi on Thursday morning after receiving medical clearance. Saudi Arabia said it had conducted the preliminary investigation with security teams from the United Arab Emirates.

The Saudi statement also said that the initial investigation indicated that the co-pilot assaulted the captain, forcing the plane to make the emergency landing in Tabuk.

With the co-pilot now in the United Arab Emirates, Israeli investigators "can now join the UAE's investigation team and get precisely knowledge of what his motives were, who was behind him, what his plans were," Netanyahu spokesperson David Mencer told Fox News.

Netanyahu identified the attacker as an Omani national. Omani authorities have not commented.

"We have constraints that say you can't have pilots from countries that don't have diplomatic relations with Israel. So obviously he was able to go through that," Netanyahu told Fox.

Asked if there was any indication of Iranian involvement, Netanyahu said it was too early to say. There have been no official suggestions from Israel of Iranian involvement. The two Israeli security officials said Israel had not identified any Iranian involvement so far.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that Israel's preliminary information indicated that the co-pilot aimed to crash the plane, describing him as a terrorist, though Netanyahu only described it as "a serious security incident."

Iran's permanent mission in Geneva did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.

Security Fears Ahead of Israeli Election

The incident heightened security fears in Israel weeks before Israelis vote in the first election since the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October, 2023, with Israel's security figuring prominently in the campaigning.

The US and Israel launched strikes against Iran in February, in a conflict that quickly spread to the Gulf and Lebanon, where Israel has been fighting Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

Netanyahu and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have hailed the flight FZ1073 captain and Indian national Smit Machchhar as a hero.

The pilot was recovering well, the Indian embassy in the UAE said on X. Israel has also lauded passengers who subdued the attacker.

Yaniv Hayun, one of the men who incapacitated the attacker, described running to the cockpit as the plane nosedived.

"We pulled the assailant out, I pulled him out. After I pulled him out we took control of the plane, I pulled up the yoke (steering control of the plane), I straightened the plane out a bit," he said, talking to reporters upon his return to Israel on Wednesday.​