International Glance
Israel is razing a strategic area of Rafah in southern Gaza, compacting the ground, and clearing rubble in a way that suggests the land is being prepared for the construction of new residential infrastructure, according to new research by Forensic Architecture. The findings, which are based on an analysis of satellite imagery, suggest that Israel is beginning to build infrastructure which may be used to house Palestinians and effectively contain them in an area under full Israeli military control.
Since the so-called ceasefire went into effect on October 10, Israel has engaged in widespread destruction of buildings and infrastructure across the more than 53% of Gaza that it occupies east of the yellow line. However, this pattern of Israeli activity—razing the land, compacting the ground, and clearing the rubble—is not visible at this scale anywhere else east of the yellow line. The activity is centered in an area around 1 square kilometer in Rafah at the intersection of the two military corridors.
The location lies on the northern edge of what Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz first announced in July would be a planned “humanitarian city” that would eventually house the entire population of the Gaza Strip.
Several Ukrainian power substations critical to nuclear safety were damaged during widespread Russian attacks on Monday morning, leaving the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) closely monitoring the situation, the agency’s chief said.
U.S. military forces boarded and took control of a seventh oil tanker connected with Venezuela on Tuesday as the Trump administration continues its efforts to take control of the South American country’s oil.
The Israeli military has launched a “large-scale” operation in Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank, deploying hundreds of soldiers and heavy machinery in a move that has paralysed the city’s southern districts.
At a meeting in Seoul on Monday, leaders from Italy and South Korea agreed to cooperate on the defense industry, marking a new collaboration between two strong allies of Ukraine who are, coincidentally, prohibited by their respective constitutions from directly sending Kyiv all the military help for which it might ask.
The Israeli government has forcibly taken large swathes of Palestinian land in the northwest of the occupied West Bank to pave the way for the establishment of a settlement, Israeli media reported on Sunday.
