عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Israeli Former Soldier Leaves Brazil over Investigation into Alleged War Crimes in Gaza

An Israeli soldier walks by the ceasefire line with Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, as seen from the Golan Heights, January 5, 2025. (Reuters)
An Israeli soldier walks by the ceasefire line with Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, as seen from the Golan Heights, January 5, 2025. (Reuters)
TT
TT

Israeli Former Soldier Leaves Brazil over Investigation into Alleged War Crimes in Gaza

An Israeli soldier walks by the ceasefire line with Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, as seen from the Golan Heights, January 5, 2025. (Reuters)
An Israeli soldier walks by the ceasefire line with Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, as seen from the Golan Heights, January 5, 2025. (Reuters)

Israel has helped a former soldier leave Brazil after legal action was initiated against him by a group accusing Israelis of war crimes in the Gaza Strip based in part on their own social media posts.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the incident on Sunday, saying it had helped the former soldier safely depart from Brazil after what it described as “anti-Israel elements” tried to bring about an investigation last week. It warned Israelis against posting on social media about their military service.

The Hind Rajab Foundation, named for a 5-year-old Palestinian girl killed in Gaza, said Brazilian authorities had launched an investigation into the soldier after it filed a complaint based on video footage, geolocation data and photographs showing him taking part in the demolition of civilian homes.

It described the move as a “pivotal step toward accountability for crimes committed in Gaza.”

There was no immediate comment from Brazilian authorities. Brazilian media reported Saturday that the investigation was ordered by an on-call federal judge in Brazil’s Federal District. The decision was issued on Dec. 30 but first reported by local media over the weekend.

Israel has faced heavy international criticism over its war against Hamas in Gaza, with the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister. The International Court of Justice is separately investigating genocide allegations.

The Brazil case raised the prospect that rank-and-file Israeli troops could also face possible prosecution while traveling abroad.

Israel adamantly rejects the international allegations, saying its forces in Gaza are acting in accordance with international law and that any violations are punished within its own judicial systems. It says Hamas conceals tunnels and other militant infrastructure in residential buildings, necessitating their demolition.

Throughout the nearly 15-month war, Israeli soldiers have posted numerous videos from Gaza that appear to show them rummaging through private homes and blowing up or burning residential buildings. In some, they chant racist slogans or boast about destroying the Palestinian territory.

The military has pledged to take disciplinary action in what it says are a handful of isolated cases.

The war began when Hamas-led fighters stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel’s offensive has killed over 45,800 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health officials. They say women and children make up over half the fatalities but do not distinguish between civilians and fighters in their tally. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The war has caused widespread destruction in Gaza and displaced around 90% of the population of 2.3 million people, with many forced to flee multiple times.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

Four Killed, 70 Injured in Mortar, Rocket Attacks by Pakistan, Afghan Taliban Says

28 February 2026, Afghanistan, Torkham: A Taliban fighter checks his weapon next to an armored vehicle at a checkpoint near Torkham border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan. (dpa)
28 February 2026, Afghanistan, Torkham: A Taliban fighter checks his weapon next to an armored vehicle at a checkpoint near Torkham border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan. (dpa)
TT
TT

Four Killed, 70 Injured in Mortar, Rocket Attacks by Pakistan, Afghan Taliban Says

28 February 2026, Afghanistan, Torkham: A Taliban fighter checks his weapon next to an armored vehicle at a checkpoint near Torkham border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan. (dpa)
28 February 2026, Afghanistan, Torkham: A Taliban fighter checks his weapon next to an armored vehicle at a checkpoint near Torkham border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan. (dpa)

Mortar and rocket attacks launched by Pakistan against Afghanistan killed four people on Monday and injured 70 more, the Taliban government said, as fighting between the countries erupted again and threatened to derail fragile peace talks.

Pakistan's government dismissed the claims as a "blatant lie."

About 30 students, women, and children were among those injured in the attacks, which targeted homes and the Syed Jamaluddin Afghani University in Kunar province's Asadabad, the Taliban's deputy spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said.

"We strongly condemn these attacks by the ‌Pakistani military regime, in ‌which ordinary people, academic, and educational institutions ‌were ⁠targeted, and declare ⁠them unforgivable war crimes," he said in a post on X.

Pakistan's information ministry in a post on X said no strike had been carried out on the university. "The claims are frivolous and fake," it said.

The Pakistani military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The worst fighting in years erupted between ⁠the allies-turned-foes in February, with Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan ‌that Islamabad said targeted militant ‌strongholds.

Islamabad has said Kabul provides safe haven to militants executing attacks ‌on Pakistan from its soil. The Taliban has denied the ‌allegations and said militancy in Pakistan is an internal problem.

More than 400 people were killed in a Pakistani strike on a drug rehabilitation center in Kabul last month, the Taliban had said, before the ‌neighbors suspended fighting. Pakistan rejected the Taliban's statements, saying it "precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure".

The ⁠United Nations ⁠Assistance Mission in Afghanistan had put the death toll at 143.

China, which was mediating between the countries, said earlier this month that they had agreed during peace talks in Urumqi to explore a comprehensive solution to their conflict.

Skirmishes have died down since the talks in Urumqi were announced, but there have been reports of a few small clashes. Three people were killed in mortar shelling by Afghan forces on April 18 in Pakistan's northern Bajaur region, security officials said.

World

Report: Ukraine to Take Measures Against Israel if Grain Ship Docks

View of Mount Carmel city and port of Haifa in northern Israel. (AFP)
View of Mount Carmel city and port of Haifa in northern Israel. (AFP)
TT
TT

Report: Ukraine to Take Measures Against Israel if Grain Ship Docks

View of Mount Carmel city and port of Haifa in northern Israel. (AFP)
View of Mount Carmel city and port of Haifa in northern Israel. (AFP)

Israel ‌risks a diplomatic and legal response from Kyiv if it allows a vessel carrying grain from Russian-occupied Ukraine to dock at the port of Haifa, a Ukrainian diplomatic source told Reuters on Monday.

Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported earlier that the vessel Panormitis, which ‌it said was ‌carrying grain from ‌occupied Ukrainian ⁠territory that Kyiv ⁠regards as stolen, was waiting for permission to berth in Haifa.

"If this ship and its cargo isn't rejected, we reserve the right to deploy a ⁠full suite of diplomatic and ‌international legal responses," ‌the Ukrainian source said on ‌condition of anonymity.

Israel's foreign ministry did ‌not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Haaretz reported on Sunday that four shipments of grain from occupied Ukraine ‌had already been unloaded in Israel this year.

"The ⁠practice ⁠of laundering stolen goods is unacceptable, and Israel has essentially shrugged off our demands regarding the previous vessel," the source said.

The source added Kyiv was tracking the vessel, warning that allowing it to dock would have consequences for bilateral relations between Ukraine and Israel.

World

‘Looming’ Risk of Nuclear Arms Race, UN Proliferation Meeting Hears

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to delegates during a meeting on Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty at UN headquarters in New York City, US, April 27, 2026. (Reuters)
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to delegates during a meeting on Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty at UN headquarters in New York City, US, April 27, 2026. (Reuters)
TT
TT

‘Looming’ Risk of Nuclear Arms Race, UN Proliferation Meeting Hears

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to delegates during a meeting on Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty at UN headquarters in New York City, US, April 27, 2026. (Reuters)
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to delegates during a meeting on Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty at UN headquarters in New York City, US, April 27, 2026. (Reuters)

Signatories of the landmark nuclear non-proliferation treaty began a meeting at the UN on Monday as fears of a renewed arms race escalate, with atomic powers once again at loggerheads over safeguards.

In 2022, during the last review of the treaty considered the cornerstone of non-proliferation, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned humanity was "one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation."

On Monday he warned "the drivers" of nuclear weapons proliferation were accelerating.

"For too long, the Treaty has been eroding. Commitments remain unfulfilled. Trust and credibility are wearing thin. The drivers of proliferation are accelerating. We need to breathe life into the Treaty once more," Guterres said in opening remarks.

With global geopolitical friction only heightened since the last meeting, it was unclear what the two-week gathering at UN headquarters in New York could achieve.

"We should not expect this conference to resolve the underlying strategic tensions of our time... but a balanced outcome that reaffirms core commitments and set out practical steps forward would strengthen the integrity of the NPT," said Do Hung Viet, Vietnam's UN ambassador and president of the conference.

"The success or failure of this conference will have implications way beyond these halls and way beyond these next five years, the prospects of a new nuclear arms race are looming over us," he said.

The nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), signed by almost all the countries on the planet -- with notable exceptions including Israel, India, and Pakistan -- aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, to promote complete disarmament, and to encourage cooperation on civilian nuclear projects.

The nine nuclear-armed states -- Russia, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea -- possessed 12,241 nuclear warheads in January 2025, according to the latest report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

The United States and Russia hold nearly 90 percent of nuclear weapons globally and have carried out major programs to modernize them in recent years, according to SIPRI.

China has also rapidly increased its nuclear stockpile, SIPRI said, with the G7 raising the alarm Friday over Moscow and Beijing boosting their nuclear capabilities.

US President Donald Trump has indicated his intention to conduct new nuclear tests, accusing others of doing so clandestinely.

In March, France's President Emmanuel Macron announced a dramatic shift in nuclear deterrence, notably an increase in the atomic arsenal, currently numbering 290 warheads.

- 'Affront' to NPT -

"It is obvious that trust is eroding, both inside and outside the NPT," Seth Shelden of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, told AFP.

He questioned the likely outcome of the four-week summit.

Decisions on the NPT have to be agreed by consensus, with the previous two conferences failing to adopt final political declarations.

In 2015, the deadlock was largely due to opposition by Israel's arch-ally Washington to the creation of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East.

In 2022, the impasse was due mainly to Russian opposition to references to Ukraine's nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia, occupied by Moscow.

This year's summit could fall on any number of stumbling blocks.

The ongoing war in Ukraine, Iran's nuclear program and the war there, non-nuclear states' fears over proliferation and North Korea's developing arsenal could all be deal-breakers.

The United States along with its allies Britain and Australia spoke out at Iran's appointment as a conference vice president.

Washington's envoy to the meeting said conferring a leadership role on Tehran was an "affront" to countries that take the NPT "seriously."

Artificial intelligence could be a prominent issue as some countries call for all sides to keep human control over nuclear weapons.