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EU Commission Suspends ‘All Payments Immediately’ to Palestinians Following Hamas Attack

Palestinians inspect the destruction around Ahmed Yassin mosque, which was levelled by Israeli airstrikes, in Gaza City early on October 9, 2023. (AFP)
Palestinians inspect the destruction around Ahmed Yassin mosque, which was levelled by Israeli airstrikes, in Gaza City early on October 9, 2023. (AFP)
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EU Commission Suspends ‘All Payments Immediately’ to Palestinians Following Hamas Attack

Palestinians inspect the destruction around Ahmed Yassin mosque, which was levelled by Israeli airstrikes, in Gaza City early on October 9, 2023. (AFP)
Palestinians inspect the destruction around Ahmed Yassin mosque, which was levelled by Israeli airstrikes, in Gaza City early on October 9, 2023. (AFP)

European Union Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi said Monday the bloc is suspending “all payments immediately” to the Palestinians because of what he called the “scale of terror and brutality” during the attacks on Israel by Hamas.

The surprise announcement by Varhelyi came just hours after EU officials stressed that no EU money whatsoever was going to Hamas in the first place and that contacts had been frozen for 16 years. The EU considers Hamas a terror group.

Queries about what the move entailed and whether it would hit all humanitarian aid to Palestinians were not immediately answered.

Varhelyi said that “as the biggest donor of the Palestinians, the European Commission is putting its full development portfolio under review,” which he said amounted to 691 million euros.

Varhelyi said that the measures include that “all payments (be) immediately suspended. All projects put under review. All new budget proposals … postponed until further notice.”

The EU says it is the biggest donor to the Palestinian people and has been advocating for years for the two-state approach that has guided international diplomacy since the 1993 Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.

EU foreign ministers are slated to meet in Muscat, Oman, on Tuesday to discuss the situation and see what actions should be taken. Varhelyi’s announcement seemed to preempt the discussions.

“There can be no business as usual,” Varhelyi said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“The foundations for peace, tolerance and co-existence must now be addressed. Incitement to hatred, violence and glorification of terror have poisoned the minds of too many,” the commissioner wrote.

During an earlier briefing Monday, the EU Commission sought to draw a clear line between Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organization, and the Palestinian people, who are in need of humanitarian aid.

According to the bloc, it has provided humanitarian aid to help meet Palestinians’ basic needs since 2000 through the European Commission’s humanitarian aid department (ECHO) and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Since 2000, ECHO has provided 700 million euros of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The EU’s most populous member, Germany, and its neighbor Austria also said they were suspending development aid for the Palestinian areas.

The Development Ministry in Berlin said there was no direct German financing of the Palestinian Authority, but a total of 250 million euros ($265 million) is currently pledged in German aid — half of that for bilateral projects via Germany’s overseas aid agency and development bank and the other half for the UN agency for the Palestinians, UNRWA.

Like the EU Commission, Development Minister Svenja Schulze said in a statement that Germany took great care that its aid for Palestinians “serves peace and not the terrorists.”

“But these attacks on Israel are a terrible watershed, so we will review our whole commitment to the Palestinian areas,” she added.

Schulze said that Germany wants above all to discuss with Israel “how we can best serve peace in the region and security for Israel with our development projects.”  

She noted that Israel also has an interest in Palestinians being able to live in long-term stability, and said Germany will also coordinate with its international partners.

Germany is not suspending the humanitarian aid it provides separately via international NGOs and the UN, the Foreign Ministry said. Ministry spokesperson Christian Wagner said Monday that much of the 72 million euros pledged this year has been paid out, and payments will continue because they support “life-saving work.”

Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg told Oe1 radio on Monday that all development aid payments will be “put on ice for now.” He put the funds affected at about 19 million euros.

He said that Austria will review all projects with the Palestinian areas and consult with its international partners on further steps

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Arab World

Egyptian Gaza Relief Group Says Israeli Strike on Photographers Was Deliberate

An aid distribution point in northern Gaza operated by the Egyptian Relief Committee (Egyptian Relief Committee)
An aid distribution point in northern Gaza operated by the Egyptian Relief Committee (Egyptian Relief Committee)
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Egyptian Gaza Relief Group Says Israeli Strike on Photographers Was Deliberate

An aid distribution point in northern Gaza operated by the Egyptian Relief Committee (Egyptian Relief Committee)
An aid distribution point in northern Gaza operated by the Egyptian Relief Committee (Egyptian Relief Committee)

The spokesperson for the Egyptian Relief Committee in Gaza, Mohamed Mansour, said Israel deliberately targeted three photojournalists while they were carrying out a humanitarian mission inside the Netzarim camp, an area located about six kilometers away from Israeli army forces.

Mansour told Asharq Al-Awsat that the attack was “a continuation of Israeli pressure on the committee’s work since it began operating, as part of the occupation’s efforts to tighten restrictions on anyone attempting to provide relief work and humanitarian services to the people of Gaza.”

The Israeli army killed three photojournalists on Wednesday who were working as a media team for the Egyptian Relief Committee for Gaza.

Field sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the victims were Mohammed Salah Qashta, Abdul Raouf Shaat, and Anas Ghneim.

They were carrying out a filming mission using a small drone and cameras to document stages of work at camps that the Egyptian committee is helping to establish.

Mansour stressed that “the targeting of the photographers will only increase the committee’s determination to provide relief services and shelter to the Palestinian people.”

He said the committee would continue its work as usual to be “a genuine support for the people of the Strip, amid extremely complex security conditions.”

Israeli Army Radio reported, citing sources, that Egypt sent an angry message to Israel following the attack in Gaza in which Palestinians working for the Egyptian committee for the reconstruction were killed.

According to the radio report, Egypt expressed its protest that the attack took place outside the boundaries of the so-called yellow line, in an area that does not pose a threat to Israeli forces.

For its part, the Israeli army claimed it had targeted suspects operating a “Hamas-affiliated drone” in central Gaza.

In a statement on Wednesday, the army said: “Following the identification of the drone and due to the threat it posed to the forces, the Israeli army precisely struck the suspects who were operating the drone.”

The army said the details were under review.

Arab World

Israel Launches Wave of Fresh Strikes on Lebanon

Smoke and sparks ascend from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in the southern Lebanese village of Kfour on January 21, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke and sparks ascend from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in the southern Lebanese village of Kfour on January 21, 2026. (AFP)
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Israel Launches Wave of Fresh Strikes on Lebanon

Smoke and sparks ascend from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in the southern Lebanese village of Kfour on January 21, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke and sparks ascend from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in the southern Lebanese village of Kfour on January 21, 2026. (AFP)

Israel launched fresh strikes on what it said were Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon after raids earlier Wednesday killed two people, the latest violence despite a year-old ceasefire with the group.

The state-run National News Agency said Israeli warplanes launched raids on buildings in several south Lebanon towns including Qanarit and Kfour, after the Israeli army issued evacuation warnings to residents identifying sites it intended to strike there.

An AFP photographer was slightly wounded along with two other journalists who were working near the site of a heavy strike in Qanarit.

The Israeli army said it was striking Hezbollah targets in response to the group's "repeated violations of the ceasefire understandings".

Under heavy US pressure and fears of expanded Israeli strikes, Lebanon has committed to disarming Hezbollah.

But Israel has criticized the Lebanese army's progress as insufficient and has kept up regular strikes, usually saying it is targeting members of the Iran-backed group or its infrastructure.

Earlier Wednesday, the health ministry said an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the town of Zahrani, in the Sidon district, killed one person.

An AFP correspondent saw a charred car on a main road with debris strewn across the area and emergency workers in attendance.

Later, the ministry said another strike targeting a vehicle in the town of Bazuriyeh in the Tyre district killed one person.

Israel said it struck Hezbollah operatives in both areas.

A Lebanese army statement decried the Israeli targeting of "civilian buildings and homes" in a "blatant violation of Lebanon's sovereignty" and the ceasefire deal.

It also said such attacks "hinder the army's efforts" to complete the disarmament plan.

This month, the army said it had completed the first phase of its plan to disarm Hezbollah, covering the area south of the Litani river, around 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border.

Most of Wednesday's strikes were north of the river.

More than 350 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon since the ceasefire, according to an AFP tally of health ministry reports.

The November 2024 truce sought to end more than a year of hostilities, but Israel accuses Hezbollah of rearming, while the group has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.

Arab World

Syria’s Rifaat Al-Assad, ‘Butcher of Hama’, Dies Aged 88, Say Sources

Rifaat al-Assad, uncle of deposed Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad. (AP file)
Rifaat al-Assad, uncle of deposed Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad. (AP file)
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Syria’s Rifaat Al-Assad, ‘Butcher of Hama’, Dies Aged 88, Say Sources

Rifaat al-Assad, uncle of deposed Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad. (AP file)
Rifaat al-Assad, uncle of deposed Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad. (AP file)

Rifaat al-Assad, uncle of deposed Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad and dubbed the "Butcher of Hama" for suppressing an uprising in the 1980s, has died aged 88, two sources close to the family said Wednesday.

Once a pillar of the Assad family's dynastic rule, Rifaat "died after suffering from influenza for around a week", one source who worked in Syria's presidential palace for over three decades told AFP.

A second source, an ex-officer of Syria's army in the Assad era, confirmed the death, saying Rifaat had moved to the United Arab Emirates after his nephew's government was toppled by opposition factions in December 2024, without specifying if he died there.

Rifaat's role in a February 1982 massacre as part of a crackdown on an armed revolt by the Muslim Brotherhood earned him the nickname "the Butcher of Hama", referring to the central Syrian city.

His brother Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria at the time, launched the campaign, which government forces carried out under the command of Rifaat, who was the head of the elite "Defense Brigades".

The death toll from 27 days of violence, which took place under a media blackout, has never been formally established, though estimates range from 10,000 to 40,000.

Swiss prosecutors had accused Rifaat of a long list of crimes, including ordering "murders, acts of torture, inhumane treatment and illegal detentions" while an officer in the Syrian army.

He also served as vice president under his brother Hafez but went into exile in 1984 after a failed attempt to overthrow him, moving to Switzerland then France.

He later presented himself as an opponent of his nephew Bashar, who succeeded Hafez in 2000.

In 2021, he returned to Syria from France to escape a four-year prison sentence for money laundering and misappropriation of Syrian public funds.

Two years later, he appeared in a family photo alongside Bashar, the ruler's wife Asma and other relatives.

Shortly after Bashar's ouster, Rifaat crossed into Lebanon and then flew out of Beirut airport, a Lebanese security source said at the time, without specifying his final destination.