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17-05-2026
BEIRUT/ TEHRAN/ LONDON: Lebanon has welcomed a deal with Israel to extend a nominal ceasefire, which was due to expire on Sunday, by 45 days after talks in the United States, while Israeli forces continued attacking southern Lebanese towns and villages, killing at least a dozen people on Friday, including three paramedics.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said at a meeting of BRICS countries that Tehran has received communication from the Trump administration indicating openness to new talks to end the war, though a “deadlock” remains regarding “enriched material”.
US President Donald Trump indicated he may be receptive to Iran placing its civilian nuclear program on hold for two decades as long as Tehran’s commitment is sincere.
Hamas has yet to comment on claims by Israel that it carried out an assassination attack on the group’s senior military commander in Gaza, Izz al-Din al-Haddad, with at least seven people reported killed including women and children, in strikes on a residential building and car west of Gaza City.
Palestinians have commemorated 78 years of Nakba, or “catastrophe”, marking Zionist military forces’ expulsion of at least 750,000 people from their homes and land, capturing 78 percent of historic Palestine, for the founding of Israel in 1948.
London braces for Nakba Day commemoration
Tens of thousands of people are expected to descend on London for two major demonstrations, one marking the Nakba in Palestine and another led by far-right campaigner Tommy Robinson.
Meanwhile, the UK’s Press Association (PA) reports that about 4,000 police officers are expected to be on duty, with 660 being drafted in from forces outside the London Metropolitan area.
For the first time under official protest restrictions, organizers of the rallies will face prosecution as well as any speakers who break the law by using the events as a platform for extremism or hate speech, according to the PA.
Prosecutors have been told to consider whether protest placards, banners and chants viewed on social media may amount to offences of stirring up hatred during the rallies.
Live facial recognition will also be used for the first time in a protest policing operation, according to the PA.
UN expert calls out Israel amid lawsuit against NYT over article on sexual abuse of Palestinians
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has lambasted Israel’s Foreign Ministry after it called a New York Times article documenting sexual abuse against Palestinians in Israeli prisons “hideous and distorted lies”, and announced a defamation lawsuit against the newspaper.
In a post on social media, Albanese described the article as “accurate but barely scratching the surface” and said it was “triggering hysteria” in the Israeli government, not because of the facts, but because of the audience.
“Apartheid Israel fears NYT readers will finally see and no longer ignore,” she wrote.
In a thread consisting of 22 posts, she referenced several reports and investigations documenting sexual violence specifically in the context of Israel’s unlawful detention of Palestinians.
She stated they only cover abuses documented since October 2023, but that the “reality is far older”.
“Sexual violence against Palestinians has been documented since the very foundation of the Israeli state, but this is nothing the NYT spoke about, so far”, she wrote. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
