Omer Bartov has written a new book, Israel: What Went Wrong? It's a look at Israel's transformation since Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Since then, Israel has become more warlike, less liberal and more nationalist and religious. Some in Israel's cabinet actively encouraged the carnage on Gaza. Bartov blames the transformation on the way Israelis interpret the Holocaust.
The number of settler attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has surpassed 1,000 this year. More than 2,200 Palestinians have been displaced this year due to settler violence or access restrictions, and hundreds more due to home demolitions by Israeli authorities. Since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023, Palestinian officials say Israeli measures aimed at annexing the West Bank have intensified.
Hamas started the conflict on October 7, 2023. Since the ceasefire, Hamas has been largely absent from the battlefield. Hamas's last known attempt to fire a rocket at Israel came in January. Hamas has refrained from launching any significant attacks on Israel since the ceasefire came into effect.
Two Palestinians were killed and four others wounded in separate Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on Thursday. The attacks violate a ceasefire deal in place since last October. Since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, 73,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 173,000 wounded.
Jerusalem Governorate warns of an Israeli plan to remove a vocational training college run by the UNRWA in the occupied city. The college is located between Kafr Aqab and the Qalandiya refugee camp in the city. It serves 350 male and female students. It is located on land made available to the agency by the Jordanian government before Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967.
On Saturday, Israeli settlers raided the town of Huwara in the West Bank and stole dozens of sheep from Saeed Hamous. He had bought the sheep and raised them as his main source of income after no longer being allowed to work in Israel. According to residents, the raid was organized and well-planned. Two suspects in their 30s were arrested the next day and their detention was extended by three days.
Amnesty International has accused the Israeli government of turning annexation of the occupied West Bank into an officially declared political objective. It warned of what it described as an escalating campaign of forced displacement against Palestinians. The organisation argued that the measures form part of a systematic effort to alter the demographic and geographic character of the West Bank.
Alice Froussard was deported from Ben Gurion Airport back to Paris. She has often been critical of Israel's war on Gaza and its policies in the occupied West Bank. Israel has been accused of suppressing the free press by clamping down on media outlets and targeting journalists. The Foreign Press Association condemned the deportation.
On 4th June, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas approved the electoral framework for the Palestinian National Council. National Council elections are expected to be held in early November. In the second half of last year, the United Nations General Assembly voted by an overwhelming majority in favour of the New York Declaration, drafted by France and Saudi Arabia. The declaration condemned Hamas for the 7th October attacks and linked recognition of Palestinian statehood to reform within the Palestinian Authority. On 16th August 2025, a presidential decree established a committee tasked with drafting a provisional constitution. The decree called for the formation of a national body to prepare a constitutional framework.