Displaced Palestinians return to the war-devastated Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, shortly before a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was implemented. AFP
Displaced Palestinians return to the war-devastated Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, shortly before a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was implemented. AFP

2023 - Saudi-Iranian rapprochement and the Oct. 7 attacks

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Updated 19 April 2025
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2023 - Saudi-Iranian rapprochement and the Oct. 7 attacks

2023 - Saudi-Iranian rapprochement and the Oct. 7 attacks
  • Surprise assault on Israel by Hamas triggers massive war on Gaza, reshapes the Middle East and raises questions about future of the territory

RIYADH: The year 2023 began with signs of shifting regional dynamics. On March 10, senior security officials from China, Iran and Saudi Arabia met in Beijing to formalize an agreement restoring diplomatic ties between Riyadh and Tehran after more than four decades of tensions.

While both sides described the rapprochement as cautious, the deal marked a turning point. Previous rounds of talks, hosted by Iraq and Oman, had paved the way for dialogue but the final agreement signaled a broader shift toward diplomacy and direct engagement over longstanding hostility.

In the months that followed, Iran and Saudi Arabia reestablished diplomatic missions, with Tehran reopening its embassy in Riyadh and the Kingdom resuming operations in the Iranian capital. The agreement provided a framework for the two countries to focus on shared regional challenges rather than their history of rivalry. For Riyadh, in particular, the easing of tensions with Iran was a crucial step toward achieving the stability needed for its long-term development goals.

This momentum toward regional realignment was further reflected in reports of ongoing Saudi-Israeli normalization talks, brokered by the US. Speculation intensified until Sept. 21, when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman confirmed, in an interview with Fox News, that Saudi Arabia was moving “closer” to a deal with Tel Aviv, describing it as “the biggest historical agreement since the end of the Cold War.” However, he also stressed that the Palestinian issue remained a key factor in any potential accord.

In hindsight, his words seemed to foreshadow what would come next. Two weeks later, on Oct. 7, Hamas launched a large-scale attack on Israel, shattering hopes of a breakthrough in Saudi-Israeli relations.

More than that, the attacks represented a seismic event that left Israelis and Palestinians, and the rest of the Middle East, badly bleeding. The scars will remain on the two peoples and their societies, and many others far beyond their borders, for decades to come.

How we wrote it




Arab News reported the unprecedented attacks with two main images comparing Oct. 7 to the 1973 Yom Kippur War. 

The brutality of the Hamas attacks, during which more than 1,200 people were killed and about 250 abducted, followed by the relentless nature of Israel’s massive military response, have left a legacy of death and destruction that spread to other countries in the Middle East.

It remains to be seen what the two societies, and the others directly or indirectly involved, have learned from this. But the first lesson must surely be that allowing a conflict to fester without meticulously addressing its root causes is a disaster waiting to happen, the consequences of which will be considerably more dire than any painful efforts to resolve them.

The second lesson that must be internalized by those involved in the conflict is that the concept of “status quo” can be dangerously misleading and ends only in bloodshed.

Thirdly, setting unrealistic war objectives, especially maximalist ones, will only result in a never-ending war, inevitably with large numbers of victims.

Moreover, underestimating the capabilities, determination and intentions of the enemy can only have disastrous consequences; both sides in this conflict are at fault for that.

Finally, decades of mutual demonization and dehumanization can only result in a complete loss of empathy and legitimize the kind of carnage we have witnessed during this war.

Key Dates

  • 1

    Following days of discussions in Beijing, Saudi Arabia’s National Security Advisor Musaed Al-Aiban and Iran’s security official Ali Shamkhahni declare the resumption of diplomatic relations.

    Timeline Image March 10, 2023

  • 2

    Hamas stages unprecedented attacks on Israel on multiple fronts, killing more than 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages.

    Timeline Image Oct. 7, 2023

  • 3

    Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, orders complete siege of Gaza amid intense retaliatory strikes.

    Timeline Image Oct. 9, 2023

  • 4

    Iran-backed Houthis hijack Galaxy Leader, an Israeli-linked cargo ship, in the first of many attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea. The group says it is acting in protest against the war in Gaza.

    Timeline Image Nov. 19, 2023

  • 5

    First ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel takes effect, lasting a week; 70 Israeli hostages released in exchange for 210 Palestinians in Israeli jails.

  • 6

    Israel intensifies aerial campaign against Lebanon in a crackdown on Hezbollah after almost a year of cross-border fire exchange.

    Timeline Image Sept. 23, 2024

  • 7

    Lebanon and Israel sign ceasefire agreement.

  • 8

    Israel and Hamas agree on ceasefire deal after 14 months of stalled negotiations, which takes effect three days later.

  • 9

    Arab leaders adopt Egyptian plan to reconstruct Gaza without displacing Palestinians, countering US President Donald Trump’s ‘Middle East Riviera’ vision.

    Timeline Image March 4, 2025

  • 10

    Israel resumes war on Gaza, shattering the ceasefire agreement.

    Timeline Image March 18, 2025

It is still unknown whether Hamas, and the others who joined their attacks, expected to be able to execute the massacre they committed on the scale that unfolded, or whether they were surprised by the complete lack of Israeli preparedness for such an incident. Regardless, nothing can excuse the brutality that was on display that day.

Israel’s response was as much expected as it was condemnable, even allowing for the trauma and sense of grief that engulfed the country. It entered into this war as a red mist descended on the entire nation, including its leaders, who neglected any thoughts of morality and had no political vision for ending the war or its aftermath, nor any consideration for their country’s international reputation.

Depicting the entire population of Gaza as culprits complicit in the attacks, and simply collateral damage in the war against Hamas, legitimized, in their eyes, the mass killing of civilians.

Israel initially garnered the sympathy and support of the world to go after Hamas — but never to kill more than 48,000 people, more than half of them women and children, or reduce the entire Gaza Strip to rubble.

The Israeli government — the most far-right in the country’s history, led by a prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who was thoroughly compromised by being a defendant in a corruption trial — was ill-equipped to protect its people in the first place, and then set two unachievable objectives: the elimination of Hamas, and the rescue of the hostages through the application of military pressure.




Iran’s FM Hossein Amir- Abdollahian (R) and Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan (L) meet in Beijing in the first formal meeting of the two countries’ top diplomats in seven years. AFP 

Israeli authorities ended up negotiating with their sworn Islamist enemy, at a very heavy price, a ceasefire agreement that included the return of the remaining hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian detainees.

Still, the ceasefire deal, reached during the final days of the Biden administration in Washington, with the active encouragement of the incoming Trump administration, presented an opportunity to establish a horizon for the reconstruction of Gaza. However, a genuine peace process between Israelis and Palestinians is under threat from US President Donald Trump’s proposal to take over Gaza and relocate the Palestinians there to Egypt and Jordan.

In response, Egypt proposed an alternative plan, calling for $53 billion to rebuild Gaza without displacing its population. However, the resistance in Israel and Washington to the Egyptian plan, which Arab leaders adopted during the Cairo Summit on March 4, compounded by unanswered questions about the fate of Hamas and who will rule Gaza, means the future of the enclave remains uncertain.

The Arab gathering to discuss Egypt’s plan reflects the impact that Oct. 7 had, and will continue to have, on the rest of the Middle East.

The hostilities were not confined to Gaza; they spread across the Middle East as old enmities bubbled back up to the surface, mainly among Iran and its “Axis of Resistance” allies.




Palestinians salvage belongings from a UN-run school damaged in the Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, during the Israel-Hamas conflict. AFP

It is true that Hezbollah, the military threat Israel most feared along its immediate borders and was probably the best-prepared to deal with, proved hesitant when the Israelis were at their most vulnerable in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, and offered only halfhearted support for Hamas.

However, the continual barrage of missiles and rockets from southern Lebanon rendered northern Israel too dangerous for much of the population to remain there and forced their displacement, eventually leading to a powerful, if delayed, response by Israeli authorities in late September 2024.

The resultant elimination of much of the Hezbollah leadership, in particular its chief Hassan Nasrallah, and the severe damage inflicted on its military capabilities changed the equation of fear between this Shiite movement and the Jewish state, giving Israel the upper hand. Their ceasefire agreement on Nov. 27 has the potential to ensure the Israeli-Lebanese border remains quiet in the long term.

Combined with this truce, the election of Joseph Aoun as Lebanese president on Jan. 9, after two years of a power vacuum that followed the end of his predecessor’s term, marked the start of a journey of political change in the country.

However, it remains to be seen what the lasting effects of the Oct. 7 attacks will be on the Israelis and the Palestinians, as well as the wider Middle East.

One can only hope diplomacy will prevail and peaceful resolutions to conflicts can be reached. The alternative, as we saw during this most recent war, is immense suffering, mainly among innocent civilians.

  • Yossi Mekelberg is professor of international relations and senior consulting fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House. 


Trump administration authorizes $30 million for Israeli-backed group distributing food in Gaza

Palestinians gather to receive aid supplies in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, June 23, 2025. (REUTERS)
Palestinians gather to receive aid supplies in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, June 23, 2025. (REUTERS)
Updated 35 min 55 sec ago
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Trump administration authorizes $30 million for Israeli-backed group distributing food in Gaza

Palestinians gather to receive aid supplies in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, June 23, 2025. (REUTERS)
  • Palestinian witnesses and health officials say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on crowds heading to the sites for desperately needed food, killing hundreds in recent weeks

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration has authorized providing $30 million to a US- and Israeli-backed group that is distributing food in Gaza, a US official said Tuesday, an operation that has drawn criticism from other humanitarian organizations.
The request is the first known US government funding for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s aid distribution efforts amid the Israel-Hamas war. The American-led group had applied for the money to the US Agency for International Development, which has been dismantled and will soon be absorbed into the State Department as part of the Trump administration’s deep cuts of foreign aid.
The application is part of a controversial development: private contracting firms led by former US intelligence officers and military veterans delivering aid to some of the world’s deadliest conflict zones in operations organized with governments that are combatants in the conflicts.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive diplomatic issue involving a controversial aid program, said the decision to directly fund GHF was made “to provide effective and accessible humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.”
The announcement comes as violence and chaos have plagued areas near the new food distribution sites since opening last month. GHF says no one has been killed at the aid sites themselves and that it has delivered some 44 million meals to Palestinians in need.
Palestinian witnesses and health officials say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on crowds heading to the sites for desperately needed food, killing hundreds in recent weeks. The Israeli military says it has fired warning shots at people it said approached its forces in a suspicious manner while going to the sites.
Witnesses said Israeli troops opened fire as crowds tried to reach a GHF site on Tuesday in southern Gaza. At least 19 were killed and 50 others wounded, according to Nasser hospital and Gaza’s Health Ministry. The Israeli military did not immediately comment.
Israel wants the GHF to replace a system coordinated by the United Nations and international aid groups. Along with the United States, it accuses Hamas of stealing aid, without offering evidence. The United Nations, its affiliated aid agencies and private humanitarian groups that work in Gaza have denied that there has been any significant theft of their supplies by Hamas.
The Associated Press reported Saturday that the American-led group had asked the Trump administration for the initial funding so it can continue its aid operation, which has been criticized by the UN, humanitarian groups and others. They accuse the foundation of cooperating with Israel’s objectives in the 21-month-old war against Hamas in a way that violates humanitarian principles.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters earlier Tuesday that she had no information to provide on funding for the foundation.

 


Grok shows ‘flaws’ in fact-checking Israel-Iran war: study

Grok shows ‘flaws’ in fact-checking Israel-Iran war: study
Updated 39 min 15 sec ago
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Grok shows ‘flaws’ in fact-checking Israel-Iran war: study

Grok shows ‘flaws’ in fact-checking Israel-Iran war: study
  • “Grok demonstrated that it struggles with verifying already-confirmed facts, analyzing fake visuals, and avoiding unsubstantiated claims”

WASHINGTON: Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok produced inaccurate and contradictory responses when users sought to fact-check the Israel-Iran conflict, a study said Tuesday, raising fresh doubts about its reliability as a debunking tool.
With tech platforms reducing their reliance on human fact-checkers, users are increasingly utilizing AI-powered chatbots — including xAI’s Grok — in search of reliable information, but their responses are often themselves prone to misinformation.
“The investigation into Grok’s performance during the first days of the Israel-Iran conflict exposes significant flaws and limitations in the AI chatbot’s ability to provide accurate, reliable, and consistent information during times of crisis,” said the study from the Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) of the Atlantic Council, an American think tank.
“Grok demonstrated that it struggles with verifying already-confirmed facts, analyzing fake visuals, and avoiding unsubstantiated claims.”
The DFRLab analyzed around 130,000 posts in various languages on the platform X, where the AI assistant is built in, to find that Grok was “struggling to authenticate AI-generated media.”
Following Iran’s retaliatory strikes on Israel, Grok offered vastly different responses to similar prompts about an AI-generated video of a destroyed airport that amassed millions of views on X, the study found.
It oscillated — sometimes within the same minute — between denying the airport’s destruction and confirming it had been damaged by strikes, the study said.
In some responses, Grok cited the a missile launched by Yemeni rebels as the source of the damage. In others, it wrongly identified the AI-generated airport as one in Beirut, Gaza, or Tehran.
When users shared another AI-generated video depicting buildings collapsing after an alleged Iranian strike on Tel Aviv, Grok responded that it appeared to be real, the study said.
The Israel-Iran conflict, which led to US air strikes against Tehran’s nuclear program over the weekend, has churned out an avalanche of online misinformation including AI-generated videos and war visuals recycled from other conflicts.
AI chatbots also amplified falsehoods.
As the Israel-Iran war intensified, false claims spread across social media that China had dispatched military cargo planes to Tehran to offer its support.
When users asked the AI-operated X accounts of AI companies Perplexity and Grok about its validity, both wrongly responded that the claims were true, according to disinformation watchdog NewsGuard.
Researchers say Grok has previously made errors verifying information related to crises such as the recent India-Pakistan conflict and anti-immigration protests in Los Angeles.
Last month, Grok was under renewed scrutiny for inserting “white genocide” in South Africa, a far-right conspiracy theory, into unrelated queries.
Musk’s startup xAI blamed an “unauthorized modification” for the unsolicited response.
Musk, a South African-born billionaire, has previously peddled the unfounded claim that South Africa’s leaders were “openly pushing for genocide” of white people.
Musk himself blasted Grok after it cited Media Matters — a liberal media watchdog he has targeted in multiple lawsuits — as a source in some of its responses about misinformation.
“Shame on you, Grok,” Musk wrote on X. “Your sourcing is terrible.”


Meeting Trump, Turkiye’s Erdogan hails Iran-Israel truce

Meeting Trump, Turkiye’s Erdogan hails Iran-Israel truce
Updated 9 min 57 sec ago
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Meeting Trump, Turkiye’s Erdogan hails Iran-Israel truce

Meeting Trump, Turkiye’s Erdogan hails Iran-Israel truce
  • The Turkish president “expressed his satisfaction with the ceasefire achieved between Israel and Iran through President Trump’s efforts
  • Erdogan stressed the need for Ankara and Washington to work closely to end the war in Gaza and the Russia-Ukraine conflict

THE HAGUE: Turkiye’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed the Iran-Israel ceasefire and urged “close dialogue” to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict, as he held talks with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of a NATO summit late Tuesday.
The Turkish president “expressed his satisfaction with the ceasefire achieved between Israel and Iran through President Trump’s efforts, hoping it would be permanent,” his office said.
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, Trump announced that Iran and Israel had agreed to a staggered ceasefire that would bring about an “official end” to their 11 day conflict.
The move came after the US joined Israel’s campaign on Sunday, striking key nuclear sites, prompting a carefully-coordinated Iranian retaliation against a US base in Qatar late Monday — which appeared to bring the confrontation to a close.
Erdogan also stressed the need for Ankara and Washington to work closely to end the war in Gaza and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The Turkish president “emphasized the importance of close dialogue in ending the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza as soon as possible and in peacefully resolving the Russia-Ukraine war,” it said.
Erdogan also called for increased defense industry cooperation with the United States, which he said could significantly boost trade between them.
“Advancing cooperation in the defense industry would facilitate achieving the goal of a $100 billion trade volume,” he said.

 

 

 


Lawsuit challenges billions of dollars in Trump administration funding cuts

Lawsuit challenges billions of dollars in Trump administration funding cuts
Updated 25 June 2025
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Lawsuit challenges billions of dollars in Trump administration funding cuts

Lawsuit challenges billions of dollars in Trump administration funding cuts
  • The lawsuit argues the Trump administration has used the clause for the basis of a “slash-and-burn campaign” to cut federal grants

BOSTON: Attorneys general from more than 20 states and Washington, D.C. filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday challenging billions of dollars in funding cuts made by the Trump administration that would fund everything from crime prevention to food security to scientific research.
The lawsuit filed in Boston is asking a judge to limit the Trump administration from relying on an obscure clause in the federal regulation to cut grants that don’t align with its priorities. Since January, the lawsuit argues that the administration has used that clause to cancel entire programs and thousands of grants that had been previously awarded to states and grantees.
“Defendants’ decision to invoke the Clause to terminate grants based on changed agency priorities is unlawful several times over,” the plaintiffs argued. “The rulemaking history of the Clause makes plain that the (Office of Management and Budget) intended for the Clause to permit terminations in only limited circumstances and provides no support for a broad power to terminate grants on a whim based on newly identified agency priorities.”
The lawsuit argues the Trump administration has used the clause for the basis of a “slash-and-burn campaign” to cut federal grants.
“Defendants have terminated thousands of grant awards made to Plaintiffs, pulling the rug out from under the States, and taking away critical federal funding on which States and their residents rely for essential programs,” the lawsuit added.
Rhode Island Attorney General Neronha said this lawsuit was just one of several the coalition of mostly Democratic states have filed over funding cuts. For the most part, they have largely succeeded in a string of legal victories to temporarily halt cuts.
This one, though, may be the broadest challenge to those funding cuts.
“It’s no secret that this President has gone to great lengths to intercept federal funding to the states, but what may be lesser known is how the Trump Administration is attempting to justify their unlawful actions,” Neronha said in a statement. “Nearly every lawsuit this coalition of Democratic attorneys general has filed against the Administration is related to its unlawful and flagrant attempts to rob Americans of basic programs and services upon which they rely. Most often, this comes in the form of illegal federal funding cuts, which the Administration attempts to justify via a so-called ‘agency priorities clause.”
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said the lawsuit aimed to stop funding cuts he described as indiscriminate and illegal.
“There is no ‘because I don’t like you’ or ‘because I don’t feel like it anymore’ defunding clause in federal law that allows the President to bypass Congress on a whim,” Tong said in a statement. “Since his first minutes in office, Trump has unilaterally defunded our police, our schools, our health care, and more. He can’t do that, and that’s why over and over again we have blocked him in court and won back our funding.”
In Massachusetts, Attorney General Andrea Campbell said the US Department of Agriculture terminated a $11 million agreement with the state Department of Agricultural Resources connecting hundreds of farmers to hundreds of food distribution sites while the US Environmental Protection Agency terminated a $1 million grant to the state Department of Public Health to reduce asthma triggers in low-income communities.
“We cannot stand idly by while this President continues to launch unprecedented, unlawful attacks on Massachusetts’ residents, institutions, and economy,” Campbell said in a statement.
The lawsuit argues that the OMB promulgated the use of the clause in question to justify the cuts. The clause in question, according to the lawsuit, refers to five words that say federal agents can terminate grants if the award “no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities.”
“The Trump Administration has claimed that five words in this Clause— ‘no longer effectuates . . . agency priorities’— provide federal agencies with virtually unfettered authority to withhold federal funding any time they no longer wish to support the programs for which Congress has appropriated funding,” the lawsuit said.


Early goal holds up as Benfica beats Bayern Munich to advance to knockouts

Early goal holds up as Benfica beats Bayern Munich to advance to knockouts
Updated 25 June 2025
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Early goal holds up as Benfica beats Bayern Munich to advance to knockouts

Early goal holds up as Benfica beats Bayern Munich to advance to knockouts
  • Anatoliy Trubin made four saves to keep Benfica’s second consecutive clean sheet

Andreas Schjelderup scored early and Benfica held on amid oppressive conditions for a 1-0 victory over Bayern Munich on Tuesday afternoon in Charlotte.
Anatoliy Trubin made four saves to keep Benfica’s second consecutive clean sheet and preserve its first-ever competitive victory over Bayern as the Portuguese club finished atop Group C and extended their FIFA Club World Cup campaign.
Benfica (2-0-1, 7 points) will face either Chelsea or Esperance de Tunis, who play later Tuesday to decide the second spot in Group D, in a Saturday round- of-16 clash also in Charlotte.
A heavily rotated Bayern (2-1-0, 6 points) had already clinched their spot in the knockout phase and will face Group D winner Flamengo on Sunday in Miami Gardens, Florida
Benfica went in front 13 minutes into a sluggish first half that was played amid temperatures hovering around 97 degrees and beneath bright sunshine.
Ángel Di María played a ball wide down the right for Fredrik Aursnes, who then dragged a low cross back to the penalty area. That’s where Schjelderup met it in stride and fired a low first-time finish past Manuel Neuer.
Trubin was exceptional after halftime as Benfica weathered increasing Bayern pressure.
In the 51st minute, Leroy Sané ran onto Joshua Kimmich’s ball over the top but was denied by Trubin, who also made a more comfortable save of Thomas Müller’s follow-up effort seconds later.
Kimmich thought he’d scored from the edge of the penalty area in the 61st minute, but the goal was ruled offside because Harry Kane was standing in an offside position and in the goalkeeper’s view.
In the 74th minute, he denied Aleksandar Pavlovic with an outstretched leg from about 10 yards after Bayern’s initial cross from the right rattled off a few bodies inside the area.
Then in the 87th, he thwarted Sané on the break for a second time after Sané ran onto Harry Kane’s excellent through ball.