Israeli settlers on Sunday launched a series of widespread attacks across the West Bank, setting on fire two mosques in Nablus and Tulkarm and damaging heavy equipment at an industrial facility near Ramallah.
Eyewitnesses told Middle East Eye that settlers also raided several towns and villages, attacked homes, destroyed vehicles and fired live ammunition to terrorise residents.
The attacks targeted communities in the governorates of Nablus, Tulkarm, Ramallah, Hebron, Salfit, Qalqilya, Jericho and Jerusalem, according to Palestinian officials who said settlers were acting under the protection of Israeli forces.
In the village of Qusra, south of Nablus, Israeli settlers burned large parts of the al-Rahma mosque and spray-painted racist slogans in Hebrew on its walls.
Activist Abdul-Azim Wadi, from the village, told MEE that he received a call at 2:30 am informing him that settlers had burned the mosque, located in the southwestern part of the village.
Waves of settler attacks target mosques, homes and businesses across West Bank
Netanyahu accuses Mamdani of ‘fomenting hate’ in calls for PM’s arrest
Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor, is “fomenting hate” by calling the Israeli prime minister a war criminal who should be arrested over Israel’s war in Gaza if he visits the city for the United Nations general assembly.
Netanyahu said he intends to be in New York in September to address the annual UN gathering of world leaders, despite the mayor’s suggestion that he is not welcome. Mamdani said on Wednesday that while New York City does not have legal authority to execute an arrest warrant issued by the world’s top war crimes court, he encouraged the federal government to do so.
“He’s supposed to be the mayor of all New Yorkers – Jews, Christians, Muslims, everyone,” Netanyahu said on the Fox News channel’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo. “But he’s trying to turn one group against the other.”
The prime minister has become an increasingly polarizing figure over Israel’s war in Gaza, which was ignited by the 7 October 2023 deadly attack on southern Israel by Hamas militants. Israel also joined the US in starting the war against Iran on 28 February before launching a ground invasion in southern Lebanon in response to fire from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group.
‘Extraordinarily hot’: US heatwave stretches on with millions still under warnings
At least 40 million people were under extreme heat warnings across central and southern parts of the United States on Sunday as high temperatures and severe humidity gripped large swaths of the country for a second straight day.
Heat indexes well above 100F (38C) stretched from Minnesota down to Mississippi, extending west into southern California and Nevada. Parts of the south-west were expected to see highs of 120F (49C), according to the National Weather Service.
Meteorologists said the sweltering weather was the result of another heat dome – a phenomenon in which atmospheric conditions trap heat, accentuating and prolonging already high temperatures.
“It’s extraordinarily hot,” said Pete Miller, an outreach manager for the homeless services network Threshold CoC, which was passing out water bottles to residents in Omaha, Nebraska, on Sunday.
“We’re seeing a lot of people who are exhausted, drained by the heat in a way that is really dangerous,” Miller added. “The humidity is insane. You stand outside for 30 seconds and you get drenched. And it’s going to be like that all night.”
Pope Francis Dies: First Latin American Pope, Voice Of Progressive Outreach In the Catholic Church Was 88
Pope Francis, leader of the Catholic Church for the past 12 years, died Monday at age 88 after a period of significant health challenges. Francis, whose background and social stances made him unique among popes, leaves behind a legacy of attempts to reorient the Catholic Church toward vulnerable populations, both internally and politically.
Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Argentina, Francis became pope in 2013 following the resignation of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. The BBC reported that his election made Francis the first Latin American pope in history and the first pope in centuries to take office while his predecessor was still alive. Francis was also the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits, a Catholic religious order known for its missionary work and public service; he adopted the name Francis in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan religious order.
According to The Associated Press, as pope, Francis embodied the humility and lack of self-aggrandizement represented by these religious orders; he lived in the Vatican hotel instead of the palatial Apostolic Palace, rode in a small car, and wore simple shoes instead of the traditional red loafers of previous popes.
As pope, Francis set a progressive tone for the Catholic Church, per The Guardian. Francis promoted greater incorporation of LGBTQ+ people, women and divorced Catholics into Church life and sometimes leadership positions. While he didn’t generally change official Church doctrine concerning these issues, his tone and willingness to interpret Catholic teachings in more inclusive ways were very different from his socially conservative predecessors.
While not going far enough for some progressives, Francis’ social policies drew anger and opposition from many traditionalists in the Catholic Church, including the generally conservative contingent of United States bishops who sometimes questioned his policies and leadership, according to PBS. Francis’ relationship with the U.S. branch of the Church was not all negative, however. In 2020, he appointed Washington, D.C.’s Archbishop Wilton Gregory as the first Black American cardinal in the Catholic Church.
El-Sayed vs Haley Stevens: Michigan is the race to watch in the midterms
Of all the Democratic primaries between a progressive populist and establishment liberal this year, the Michigan Senate contest Aug. 4 could be the most consequential in mapping the party's future.
The race between Abdul El-Sayed, a Detroit-based public health officer, and U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, a former Obama administration official, has touched almost every nerve on the political left leading up to the 2026 midterms.
Whether it's who is to blame for the 2024 election outcome, what type of candidate is best to defeat Republicans in a general election or the U.S. relationship with Israel and its prosecution of the war in Gaza, centrist and left-leaning factions agree that the stakes are higher than in any other primary battle.
"The crux of the race is between two competing visions for where the Democratic Party should go," said Ravi Mangla, spokesman for Working Families Party, a progressive political party that supports El-Sayed.
US pauses Iran attacks for second night after Trump advised to halt bombing
The US has paused strikes on Iran for a second night as top military officials advised Donald Trump to halt his bombing campaign, and diplomatic negotiations have continued to avoid a return to all-out war.
Trump is said to be weighing up diplomatic and military options in the nearly five-month-old conflict, with Benjamin Netanyahu expected to visit the White House on Tuesday. The Israeli prime minister is a vocal critic of Washington’s negotiations with Iranian leaders and has pressed for the US to continue its strikes against Iran.
Netanyahu is under considerablehttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/26/us-pauses-trump-netanyahu-attacks-on-iran-talks-hormuz?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us political pressure to show that his military campaigns against Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon have yielded results before elections scheduled for October.
Tehran said on Sunday it would pause what it called “retaliatory” attacks against US allies in the region. “These [US] attacks continued until two nights ago, but over the past two nights the Americans have stopped their attacks,” said the army spokesperson Mohammad Akraminia. “Our strategy has essentially been retaliatory, we have also halted our retaliatory operations.”
The Last-Minute Million-Dollar Ad Spend Against Will Lawrence Is Coming From a Major Pro-Israel Group
Democratic Majority for Israel is behind a million-dollar effort to slow the momentum of populist candidate William Lawrence in the closing days of a three-way primary in mid-Michigan’s 7th congressional district, according to two sources familiar with the arrangement.
Lawrence, a co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, is running primarily against data center buildouts in the district, but has also made opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the war in Iran core parts of his campaign. He has two well-funded centrist challengers. The winner will take on Republican incumbent Tom Barrett.
DMFI is using a vehicle called Rolling Sea Action Fund PAC to move money into the race. It is unclear if DMFI is funding the ad buy with a transfer or whether DMFI donors were being directed to Rolling Sea, but Joel Wanger, DMFI’s chief political officer, is organizing the effort.
It’s a PAC affiliated with the Congressional Black Caucus, but it is regularly used by big money interests as a pass-through to cloak the true source of spending. “Rolling Sea exists as a place to wash money,” as one consultant working on the race put it to Drop Site. The ad buy began with $899,000 being put behind it.
Luxembourg will not renew approval for Israeli war bonds, finance minister confirms
Luxembourg will not renew its approval for the sale of Israel Bonds in the European Union, the country’s finance minister has confirmed.
In an interview with broadcaster RTL, Gilles Roth said the decision had been taken solely by the CSSF, Luxembourg's financial regulator, which he said had decided two months ago not to extend the bond programme beyond its 31 August expiry date.
Campaign groups in Luxembourg and across the EU have long called for Israel Bond sales to European investors to be stopped. As previously reported by Middle East Eye, they say the programme, which raises billions of dollars for the Israeli government, has helped fund Israel’s wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.
Roth defended the CSSF against criticism, arguing that the regulator had followed European criteria throughout and that many of the accusations levelled at it were unwarranted. The discontinuation, he insisted, was a matter of regulatory compliance rather than political pressure.
That account, however, sits awkwardly within the chronology of recent events.
Israeli settlers rampage through Palestinian village near Nablus
Hundreds of Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Sarra, southwest of Nablus, on Friday, burning homes, damaging property and assaulting residents.
The attacks forced several families in the occupied West Bank village to flee for safety, residents told Middle East Eye.
Residents said that at least two homes were set on fire, while several Palestinians suffered from smoke inhalation after the fires.
Eyewitnesses told MEE that villagers also attempted to confront the attackers and prevent further damage.
The attack on the village comes after a series of attacks carried out by settlers in the Nablus area, following the deadly attack on the town of Tell.
Mohammed Turabi, a resident of Sarra, said that he and his family were shaken by the settlers' attack on their home, where they hurled stones and Molotov cocktails.
The courtyard, vehicle and ground floor of the house were burned, but the family says it managed to escape unharmed.
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