Power cuts plunge Gaza hospitals into darkness as Israel’s attacks persist
Omar Abu Atwa, a 30-year-old driver, was walking home from work one day in central Gaza last month when an explosion shook the street around him. Bloodied and confused, he was taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, where doctors examined injuries to his hand. As he waited for an X-ray, the lights cut out, rendering much of the hospital’s medical equipment inoperable, including the machine doctors needed to inspect his wound. After a six-hour wait in the ward, Omar left tired and frustrated, without an X-ray or proper treatment for his injured hand. This is a repeated experience for patients in Gaza, including those rushed to hospital to receive potentially lifesaving surgery. “I waited for many hours inside the hospital hoping for electricity to return and the medical devices to start working again. During that time, I was in pain and anxious because I did not know the nature of my injury or whether my condition required urgent medical intervention,” he told Al Jazeera. “I saw children, elderly people and injured individuals waiting just as I was. Some needed medical tests, while others kept asking about when electricity would return so they could continue their treatment. The crisis affected everyone.” Israel’s genocide has already caused immense damage to Gaza’s healthcare sector, with Israeli bombing since October 7, 2023 destroying 38 hospitals and 96 primary healthcare centres or rendering them inoperable. Bombing has almost completely decimated Gaza’s national grid, with about 90 percent of power lines destroyed, forcing hospitals to rely on generators for power. Advertisement But an ongoing blockade on Gaza has resulted in severe shortages of fuel needed for generators, which power essential life-saving medical equipment at hospitals such as ventilators, incubators and monitoring devices. The use of non-original engine oils due to the blockade has resulted in generators malfunctioning or affected their performance. It comes as Israel continues its near-daily air raids on Gaza with at least 1,092 people killed and 3,507 injured since a so-called “ceasefire” came into effect in October 2025. The consequential routine power cuts have rendered hospitals semi-dysfunctional and affected thousands of patients and medical staff in Gaza, where the flow of patients caused by new waves of bombings and disease continues. Most of Al-Aqsa’s main generators went out of service in early May 2026, when doctors and nurses were already struggling to cope, leaving the hospital to use secondary generators and solar energy or simply cut back on operations. A Palestinian doctor checks a drip at the dialysis treatment centre at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on February 1, 2026 [AFP] Surgeon Omar al-Ashtal said medical teams at the hospital are struggling to provide proper and essential services to patients due to erratic power supplies, especially in operating rooms, where electricity is essential. Surgeons and doctors are having to shorten or delay important operations until stable energy supplies are available, leading to serious consequences for patients. “What we are witnessing today is not only a shortage of electricity, but a cumulative crisis that includes worn-out generators, fuel shortages and a lack of spare parts needed for maintenance,” al-Ashtal told Al Jazeera. “The continuation of this situation threatens the hospital’s ability to respond to emergencies and increases the suffering of patients waiting for treatment and medical care.” Intensive care units, operating rooms, anaesthesia departments and neonatal care are the most affected by the latest power crisis. Any interruptions to these departments can lead to serious life-threatening complications for patients, including babies in incubators. Outages of internet and electronic systems also prevent administrative teams and nurses from fulfilling the essential tasks of accessing or recording patient data, tracking cases and communicating between different departments. Nurse Hamza Nawas said that medical teams were coping as well as they could under the circumstances. Advertisement “We are living under daily pressure because of the electricity crisis. At night, the difficulties increase, especially with rising temperatures and the disruption of some services related to power,” he told Al Jazeera. “We try as much as possible to continue providing care, but the current conditions make work more difficult and complex.” Engineer Omar al-Ghariz, a specialist in energy systems at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, said that generators have been overloaded, exceeding their capacity for months. “The electric generators at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital have been operating continuously for many months under loads that exceed their normal capacity, due to full reliance on them amid ongoing electricity outages,” he told Al Jazeera. “[This has] led to significant wear on many generator components and a noticeable increase in technical malfunctions.” Shortages of fuel and spare parts have forced the hospital’s maintenance staff to rely on temporary solutions to keep generators running, but these can only delay the inevitable, with the machines struggling under 24/7 operations. “The greatest risk lies in the fact that the hospital depends on a limited number of generators to operate its vital departments. Any sudden failure or fuel shortage could lead to the suspension of essential services,” he said. “Therefore, we urgently need new generators, spare parts and immediate technical support to ensure the continuity of hospital operations.” Adblock test (Why?)
Algeria and Mali restore diplomatic ties following yearlong rift
Relations begin to thaw as both countries reinstate ambassadors and reopen airspace closed to each other since April 2025. Published On 11 Jul 202611 Jul 2026 More than a year after a diplomatic fallout, relations between Algeria and Mali are beginning to thaw, with both countries reinstating their ambassadors and reopening their airspace to one another. Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced on Saturday that the country’s ambassador would return to Mali, a day after Algiers fully reopened its airspace to civilian and military aircraft travelling to and from its southern neighbour. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Issa Ousmane Coulibaly, spokesperson for Mali’s military government, confirmed in a statement that Bamako had taken reciprocal measures. Relations between the two African nations deteriorated in April last year after Algeria said it had shot down a Malian surveillance drone for violating its airspace. Bamako disputes this, saying the drone was downed within its own borders. The fallout between Algeria and Mali has jeopardised security in the Sahel region. Mali is a member of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), along with Burkina Faso and Niger. Both Ouagadougou and Niamey also withdrew their ambassadors to Algeria in April last year in solidarity with their ally. The AES has experienced a surge in attacks by armed groups linked to the ISIL (ISIS) group and al-Qaeda in recent years. Many analysts argue that such groups were able to establish a foothold in the Sahel partly because of the NATO-backed overthrow of longtime Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The ousting of Gaddafi left a power vacuum that has been exploited by armed groups. Vast stockpiles of weapons belonging to forces loyal to him were looted and are believed to have been used by those groups. Advertisement Algeria has previously mediated peace talks between the Malian government and Tuareg separatist rebels waging an armed rebellion there. However, last year’s diplomatic fallout led Algiers to step back from its role as mediator, raising concerns about Mali’s security and territorial integrity while also posing a threat to Algeria’s own internal security. This April, Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf reaffirmed Algiers’s support for Mali’s territorial integrity, rejecting what he described as all forms of “terrorism”. Adblock test (Why?)
UK police free suspect in ex-MP Ann Widdecombe murder investigation
The former government minister is believed to have been attacked on Wednesday, a full day before her body was discovered. By Al Jazeera Staff and Reuters Published On 11 Jul 202611 Jul 2026 A man who was arrested on suspicion of murdering former British government minister Ann Widdecombe has been released and is no longer part of the investigation, police said. This comes as detectives revealed the killing took place a day before Widdecombe’s body was found at her home in rural southwest England on Thursday. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Devon and Cornwall Police said a 26-year-old white British national was arrested in Newton Abbot, about 14.5 kilometres (nine miles) from Widdecombe’s home, on Friday, before being freed on Saturday. Officers now believe the 78-year-old was attacked on Wednesday around 11:30 GMT, a day before ambulance workers called police to her home, where she was found dead with serious injuries. Police said they had found no evidence the killing was “terrorism”-related or politically motivated. They also said the suspect was believed to be a white male and that there was no wider risk to the public. Socially conservative views Widdecombe was known for her socially conservative views, first as a junior minister in Conservative Prime Minister John Major’s 1992-1997 government and latterly as an immigration spokesperson for Nigel Farage’s far-right populist Reform UK. She converted to Catholicism partly in protest at the Church of England’s ordination of women as priests and was opposed to abortion and to equalising the age of consent for homosexual and heterosexual relationships. She also defended a policy of shackling pregnant prisoners during childbirth to prevent their escape and viewed single mothers as poor role models, but was unusual among Conservative lawmakers in opposing the hunting of foxes with hounds. Advertisement News of her death led to tributes on Friday from across the political spectrum in the UK, including from Prime Minister Keir Starmer and from Farage, who described her as “an extraordinary woman”. “She stood up and fought for what she believed in – a devout Christian and somebody with strong, socially conservative views,” Farage said in a video clip posted on his X account. Two serving British members of parliament have been murdered in the last decade. The Labour lawmaker Jo Cox was shot and stabbed by a Nazi-obsessed loner during the Brexit campaign in 2016. The Conservative lawmaker David Amess was stabbed to death in 2021 by a man inspired by the ISIL (ISIS) group. Adblock test (Why?)
Why the new US housing bill won’t fix the crisis
NewsFeed Edward Pinto, co-director of the American Enterprise Institute Housing Center argues that the new US housing bill is unlikely to significantly ease the country’s housing crisis. He says it’s too limited to address the core issues – like restrictive local zoning. For the full segment, watch Al Jazeera’s ‘This is America’. Published On 11 Jul 202611 Jul 2026 Click here to share on social media share-nodes Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Adblock test (Why?)
Zaporizhzhia’s mayor says Russian advance reaches city’s outskirts
NewsFeed Emergency crews are searching for survivors after a Russian air strike on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least one person and injured 29, including two children. The city’s mayor says Russian troops have advanced to just over 20 kilometres away. Published On 11 Jul 202611 Jul 2026 Click here to share on social media share-nodes Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Adblock test (Why?)
Yamal does not mind lack of goals if Spain win World Cup 2026
Spanish star has scored just one goal in the World Cup, where he’s been sharing celebrations with his little brother. Published On 11 Jul 202611 Jul 2026 Despite not scoring a goal in Spain’s quarterfinal win over Belgium, Lamine Yamal was named the player of the match for his contributions and capped off the win by sharing a touching moment with his little brother during the post-match celebrations in Los Angeles. Yamal, who has not scored since Spain’s group-stage win over Saudi Arabia on June 21, said after the match on Friday that nobody will care about his lack of goals if Spain win the World Cup. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list At a tournament where stars like Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland and Harry Kane have been prolific, 18-year-old Yamal has just one goal to date, in a routine 4-0 group drubbing of Saudi Arabia. He failed to find the net once again as Spain booked their place in the World Cup semifinals for the second time. “Obviously I want to score, but I don’t go onto the pitch thinking about that. I do it thinking about helping the team,” said Yamal. “If we win the World Cup, no one will remember whether I scored goals … The important thing is winning,” said the Barcelona star, after the victory in Los Angeles set up a semifinal clash with France. “I know I can contribute even if I don’t score. I know my movements draw in many opponents, so I do everything I can to help the team,” he said. Despite the lack of goals, Yamal has performed consistently for La Roja and has also broken records along the way. On Friday, he made his sixth FIFA World Cup appearance, the outright most by a player aged 18 or younger in the competition. Breakout star Two years ago, then aged 16, Yamal was the breakout star of the Spanish team that won the European Championships in Germany. Advertisement He only scored once during that victorious campaign – a stunning strike in a 2-1 semifinal win against France. “There’s an idea that I should be scoring more, like at the Euros, but we won the Euros with me scoring just one goal. And I have one goal here too, so I’m relaxed about it,” he said, with a smile. But Spain will be hoping Yamal, who turns 19 the day before the semifinal, can bag further goals if his side is to see off the free-scoring tournament favourites France. “There are two possibilities – either they reach three consecutive World Cup finals, or we beat them three times in a row. We’ll see what happens,” said Yamal. “We aren’t afraid at all.” Yamal shares endearing moment with brother Keyne Amid Spain’s post-match celebrations, Yamal and his half-brother Keyne were caught in a sweet moment when the younger sibling was shown on the big screen. The three-year-old was screaming and stuck his tongue out when the camera panned on him. Keyne then blew a kiss at his brother, making the teen Spanish star laugh and wave at him. Keyne, who often accompanies Yamal to award shows and other public events, has been a fan favourite for the crowds at the World Cup. He has been picked up by the cameras on multiple occasions, drawing a chuckle from his older brother and cheers from the crowd around him. Kenye, younger brother of Yamal, is seen on the screen at the quarterfinal in Los Angeles [David Ramos/Getty Images via AFP] Adblock test (Why?)
Bomb attacks rattle Damascus but for most Syrians, life goes on
Damascus, Syria – At a cafe in central Damascus, lines of chairs sat dormant outside an empty cafe. Mohammad al-Dahabi, the cafe’s owner, pulled away one chair, revealing a small crater on the floor. “This is where the explosion happened,” al-Dahabi said about the July 2 bomb blast that took place at the cafe close to Damascus’s Justice Palace and killed at least 10 people. “If it had gone off a half hour later, everyone would have [already] left for the day.” Damascus was hit by three explosions over the past week, with one on July 2 followed by two more blasts on July 7 near the Four Seasons Hotel, where French President Emmanuel Macron was staying during a visit to the Syrian capital. That attack killed one person and wounded 36. The attacks have rattled many people living in Damascus and pointed to the continuing challenges the Syrian government faces in bringing security to the capital. Some residents said years of instability had adapted them to dealing with such events, but there was still a fear when visiting certain parts of central Damascus. “Many residents felt Damascus was gradually returning to a more normal rhythm of life,” Navvar Saban, a researcher in security and military affairs at the Arab Center for Contemporary Syrian Studies, told Al Jazeera about life before this week’s attacks. Late Thursday evening, Syrian officials said they had apprehended an ISIL- (ISIS)-linked cell responsible for Tuesday’s blasts. “The cell responsible for the terrorist bombings that targeted Damascus two days ago is now in our custody,” Interior Minister Anas Khattab posted on X, formerly Twitter. Advertisement No group took responsibility for the attacks. Saban said that by going after symbolic targets at sensitive moments, the attackers appeared to be trying to disrupt people’s sense of security in the capital. “These attacks appear aimed at damaging the perception of stability rather than demonstrating the existence of a large operational capability,” he said. Security challenges The fall of the al-Assad regime in December 2024 came after years of fighting and Syria’s slow decline into a devastated country with a barely functioning state. The challenge for Syria since al-Assad’s departure has been tenfold: The economy is in ruins, infrastructure is crumbling if existent at all, electricity is sparse, and there is a genuine fear among locals about security in the country. Many of those challenges still exist around Syria, though analysts said there had been progress, particularly in Damascus. Syria’s security forces have arrested dozens of operatives of ISIL and foiled numerous assassination plots in the little more than a year and a half since al-Assad’s fall. “These attacks do not erase the progress made in Damascus, but they do show how conditional that progress still is,” Nanar Hawach, senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera. “The capital has looked stable on the surface for some time, while the harder work of penetrating clandestine networks and urban peripheries remains incomplete.” The arrest of an ISIL-linked cell is consistent with previous attacks in Damascus, including an attack on a church in June 2025 that killed at least 25 people. “The targets fit its logic of perpetrating attacks that deepen communal fear while exposing the government’s inability to protect,” Hawach said. “ISIL has a record of using deniable channels, front groups, or strategic silence when public ownership would be less useful than leaving the state and its rivals guessing.” Little choice but to continue On Thursday evening, a policeman outside the Ministry of Tourism, across from the Four Seasons hotel where Tuesday’s explosion happened, picked up a piece of metal stashed in a plant pot. He said it was once part of a rubbish dumpster where the explosive device had been stashed. He arrived at the scene shortly after the blast and found a colleague with a badly wounded leg. A charred tree trunk stood nearby that locals said was a result of the second bombing just a few steps away. The attacks did not appear to disrupt foot or car traffic. A highway facing the blast sites was packed with cars, and locals walked past it or sat in a park across the street. But Razan Rashidi, executive director of The Syria Campaign, said the attacks have inspired fear among many residents of the city. Advertisement “A lot of the anxiety is around the attacks that have happened near places like the courthouse and other government institutions where people need to process official paperwork,” she said. Unfortunately, many in Damascus are used to living with this kind of violence, she added. “At the same time, I wouldn’t say the current situation has completely disrupted people’s daily livelihoods,” she said. “Most people continue because they have no other choice.” Mirella Abou Chanab, a journalist based in Damascus, said that after all the years of war, many locals had gotten used to such incidents. “Generally speaking, it hasn’t changed our daily lives.” Life carries on Back at the cafe, Mohammad stood in front and pointed towards the sky. “This used to all be covered,” he said. The fabric awning that used to provide shade was tattered from the explosion. Mohammad has shut down his cafe, a spot near the Justice Palace popular for lawyers and working-class people, since the attack, which took place as high-profile trials of prominent al-Assad regime figures were being held. This includes Atef Najib, a notorious security chief accused of torturing children in Deraa in 2011, Wassim al-Assad, a fighter group commander, and former Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, with their cases drawing huge media attention in the country. Analysts say that Syrian security forces are stretched, handling threats from both elements of the former regime and ISIL-linked cells. But they also said the past week’s attacks do not indicate a complete collapse of security. “There is a difference between isolated security breaches and a general collapse of security,” Saban said. “This attack appears aimed at damaging the perception of stability rather than demonstrating
Trump grants Kyiv Patriots licences: What’s next in the Russia-Ukraine war?
Kyiv, Ukraine – Patriot missile interceptors are the most coveted Western-made weapon Ukraine needs – right now and every night when Russia attacks. Frequent Russian strikes depleted Ukraine’s stock of the pricey United States-made interceptors – and US President Donald Trump has now offered hope, giving Kyiv a licence to make them. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list “A little birdie told me this, about the fact that we’ll give them the right to make Patriots. We’ll show them how to do it, it’s very complex actually. But it’s – you’ll figure out the complexity quickly,” Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a NATO summit in Turkiye on Wednesday. “This way, you can’t complain that we’re not giving them enough.” Trump has not specified when the production might start – and said that Washington would hold on to its own stash. Ukraine said it will attempt to master domestic production as soon as possible. In the short-term perspective, Ukraine “perhaps, gets nothing,” according to Nikolay Mitrokhin, a researcher with Germany’s Bremen University. However, “access to US technologies can significantly speed up or develop Ukraine’s domestic program of ballistic and counter-ballistic missiles,” he told Al Jazeera. Ukraine may opt to produce cheaper and simpler missiles, and it may take less than a year, he said. “However, we can’t rule out that such a programme already exists and has only been made public,” he said. Ukraine seeks to produce missiles that are only part of the Patriot surface-to-air systems that also consist of missile launchers, a radar and a control van. The van lets the system move around to avoid detection and consequent strikes. [Al Jazeera] But it is other “little birdies” that make the difference on the front lines of the Russia-Ukraine war. Advertisement A Ukrainian spy drone recently froze 80 metres above a forest patch in the no-man’s land in the northeastern Kharkiv region. The drone’s operator, who was sitting in a bunker dozens of kilometres west of the patch, saw a hole in the ground where a Russian soldier clad in grey-green camouflage was hiding. The soldier sneaked there as part of Moscow’s new tactic of dispatching two or three “infiltrators” to bypass porous Ukrainian positions – because larger groups are easier to detect and destroy. The drone’s operator, whose video stream Al Jazeera observed in real time from his commander’s laptop, clicked and clacked to call for help. In less than a minute, an explosives-laden kamikaze drone flew right into the hole. The spy drone’s operator yelled a triumphant expletive – and flew his drone farther east. “I receive streams from 20, 30 drones at once,” the unit’s commander told Al Jazeera, withholding his and his unit’s name and exact location in accordance with wartime protocol. The scene is but an episode in the daily life and death of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers, but it puts an end to the millennia-old concept of a “front line,” where soldiers actually see – and kill – each other. ‘Network-centric warfare’ When the war began in 2022, it was two ex-Soviet armies fighting each other using World War II stratagems and relying on tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery that now seem hopelessly extinct. Instead, “things are moving towards further development of the conception of network-centric warfare,” Pavel Luzin, a military analyst with the Jamestown Foundation, a think tank in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera. He referred to real-time connection between commanders, servicemen and their weaponry that helps achieve faster command speed and combat advantage. And as a conscription and desertion crisis widens, Ukraine’s military increasingly relies on fast technological solutions such as ground robots that blow up enemy bunkers, fire machineguns, deliver food and ammunition, and rescue wounded soldiers. “If we didn’t have a shortage of soldiers, the generals would still be sending soldiers to the front line,” Ihor Chaikivsky, head of the Robotic Complexes company that produces cart-like ground robots in the western city of Ternopil, told Al Jazeera. “We didn’t want to go to the front line, didn’t want to die in the trenches, so we started using ground robots.” While some solutions may seem low-tech, others use artificial intelligence with lethal precision. Hornets, inexpensive mid-range strike drones made by Swift Beat, a company of Google’s ex-CEO Eric Schmidt, use AI to identify Russian fuel tankers, supply trucks and military columns – and cannot be stopped by electronic jamming. Advertisement A Ukrainian drone operator is anticipating the detection of enemy soldiers to be “outsourced” to AI. “I could have missed someone in the foliage. AI won’t, and then there’s gonna be nowhere to hide,” Andriy told Al Jazeera, withholding his last name in accordance with wartime protocol. Ukrainian military experts: Russia needs more air defence but can still hit back Meanwhile, Ukrainian drone and missile strikes have gone beyond Russia’s European region, using one of Moscow’s biggest miscalculations. Instead of investing in air defence, the Kremlin focused on the manufacturing of costly missiles. As a result, Russia’s enormous size – with a dwindling population of less than 145 million, its area is almost as large as the United States and India combined – makes air defence increasingly difficult. “Their air defence can’t handle their tasks effectively with the tools they have,” Lieutenant-General Ihor Romanenko, former deputy head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, told Al Jazeera. “They need a lot more [equipment] in the wider spectrum of air and missile defence.” On Tuesday, Russia’s largest oil refinery in the city of Omsk in southwestern Siberia stopped operating after a Ukrainian drone strike a day earlier. On the same day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proclaimed that the war would be won “in the skies”. “We have moved into the air domain. And in the air, we are already competitive,” Zelenskyy told The Financial Times. “The decisive struggle will take place in the skies.” But his former top general warned that Ukrainian strikes alone will not yield a decisive victory. “These attacks are expensive,
EU states do not need ‘consensus’ to hold Israel accountable
On July 13, European Union foreign ministers are due to meet again at the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels. The agenda includes an “exchange of views on Gaza and the West Bank” and is expected to cover settlement trade, the EU-Israel Association Agreement, possible sanctions on Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and proposals to restrict, rather than ban, goods from illegal Israeli settlements. If previous efforts are any guide, the July meeting will follow a familiar pattern: Hesitation, euphemism and no meaningful action to hold Israel accountable. The stated obstacle will likely be a “lack of consensus”. In practice, that phrase has become the bloc’s preferred way of masking collective inaction. Germany and Italy, backed by several Eastern European states, have repeatedly blocked meaningful action in response to Israel’s violations. Other member states, meanwhile, have remained largely paralysed, shifting responsibility between national governments and EU institutions instead of taking decisive steps. Yet the EU and its member states continue to invoke the language of international law while refusing to apply it when Israel is concerned. The gap between principle and practice, between rhetoric and action, is no longer a diplomatic inconsistency. It has become policy. That is becoming harder to justify and harder to hide. According to reports on a leaked 2017 legal memo, the EU had already been advised that it had legal grounds to suspend the Association Agreement, the political and trade framework governing the bloc’s relations with Israel. Another investigation has shown that Israel has damaged or destroyed more than 150 million euros ($172m) in EU-funded infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank without accountability, while settlement goods continue to enter European markets under misleading labels. At the same time, United Nations and human rights bodies have continued to document grave violations, including a June 2026 report by a UN human rights body that described the deliberate targeting of Palestinian children in Palestine as amounting to genocide, alongside crimes against humanity and war crimes. Advertisement The recent episode involving EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas exposed how far the EU has submitted to Israeli pressure. Reports that she compared Israeli practices to apartheid in a closed meeting triggered a furious response from Israeli officials, with Israel’s foreign minister saying he was severing all contact with her until she retracted the remarks. The European Commission’s response was to send another commissioner to Israel to reassure officials that relations would remain intact. That is the real message from Brussels: Preserving ties with Israel matters more than internal solidarity, self-respect, or the EU’s stated commitment to international law and its own values. Pressure at the EU level is essential, and exposing the complicity of EU institutions and leaders must remain a priority. But accountability cannot end there. Member states, especially those that claim to uphold Palestinian rights and international law, must also be held responsible for their ongoing complicity. The International Court of Justice was clear in July 2024: Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is unlawful. It violates the Palestinian right to self-determination and must end. Settlement activity must stop immediately, and Israel’s policies breach the international prohibition on racial segregation and apartheid. The court did not stop at Israel. It ruled that every state, not just Israel, is legally bound not to recognise the occupation as lawful, not to aid or assist in sustaining it, and to cooperate to bring it to an end. EU member states do not only have a legal obligation to act. They also have tools at their disposal that do not require EU-wide consensus. Member states can suspend bilateral cooperation, including visa facilitation and cultural or scientific exchanges; apply national export-control regimes to block arms, military equipment and dual-use transfers to Israel; and adopt national measures to ban trade with illegal settlements. They may also impose targeted sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, against individuals implicated in serious violations of international law. They can press the EU to activate the Blocking Statute against US sanctions targeting those pursuing accountability at the ICC, while ensuring continued funding for Palestinian civil society. They can pursue accountability through domestic courts, support the enforcement of ICC arrest warrants, and contribute to the implementation of ICJ rulings and advisory opinions. They can also formally intervene in South Africa’s genocide case before the International Court of Justice. Advertisement The EU and its member states have spent two and a half years finding reasons not to act. The July Council should expose that reality plainly, especially with Ireland holding the rotating presidency from July 1 to December 31, 2026 and having the institutional power to translate its words into action. The issue is no longer whether the bloc has the legal tools. It does. The question is whether member states will keep outsourcing responsibility to Brussels or finally act within their own powers. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy. Adblock test (Why?)
Lebanon Latest: concerns about latest escalation in regional fighting
NewsFeed Al Jazeera’s Robert McBride brings you the latest from Beirut with concerns about how renewed fighting in the region will impact Lebanon. Published On 9 Jul 20269 Jul 2026 Click here to share on social media share-nodes Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Adblock test (Why?)