Major Israeli offensive has also destroyed roads, water networks and private property.
Israeli forces have wounded more than 200 Palestinians in raids on the West Bank governorate of Tubas, as a major offensive on northern parts of the occupied territory that began on Wednesday continues to inflict widespread destruction.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) told Al Jazeera that 78 of the people wounded in Israeli attacks on Tubas since Wednesday required treatment in hospital.
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After withdrawing from Tammun and Far’a refugee camp on Friday, Israeli soldiers have shifted the focus of raids to the city of Tubas, as well as the nearby villages of Aqqaba and Tayaseer.
Local officials said Israeli forces have detained nearly 200 Palestinians in the past four days. Most were interrogated on site and let go, but at least eight people were arrested and taken to Israeli military jails.
At least nine Palestinians were detained in other military raids in Qalqilya, Jenin and Nablus. The Wafa news agency quoted local sources as saying on Saturday that two children and a woman were among five arrested at dawn in Qalqilya.
The mayor of Tammun told Al Jazeera that while the town in the Tubas governorate was subject to dozens of raids in the past couple of years, the ones this week were the worst in terms of scale, destruction and violence.
He said that more than 1.5km (one mile) of roads have been torn up, water networks destroyed, private property vandalised and people severely beaten, repeating the pattern of other major Israeli military attacks across the occupied West Bank.
In the Jenin refugee camp, where Israeli soldiers have been advancing in a major offensive launched in January, Israeli bulldozers are making way for the demolition of at least 23 more Palestinian homes.
This comes several days after they issued notices claiming that the demolitions were necessary to ensure “freedom of movement” for the Israeli forces within the camp – even though the area remains largely empty as most families have been displaced.
The condemned buildings were home to 340 Palestinians. Only 47 of them, mostly women, were allowed to retrieve their belongings on Thursday.
A member of the Jenin Refugee Camp Services Committee told Al Jazeera that residents were given two hours to collect possessions, and some could not even recognise their homes due to the level of destruction after the Israeli assault.
The armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad said on Friday its fighters carried out a series of attacks on Israeli soldiers during raids in Jenin and Tubas.
The group said its fighters in Tubas targeted an Israeli foot patrol with an antipersonnel explosive device in the Wadi al-Tayaseer area. Fighters detonated explosives against Israeli military vehicles in the al-Ziyoud and al-Bir areas of the town of Silat al-Harithiya in Jenin, it added.
Since October 2023, Israeli soldiers have killed at least 1,086 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, including 223 children. At least 251 were killed in 2025.
At least 10,662 Palestinians have also been wounded since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, with more than 20,500 rounded up. As of the beginning of November, there were 9,204 Palestinians in Israeli jails, 3,368 of whom are detained without charges.
Palestinian deaths have also surged in the custody of both the Israeli army and the Israel Prison Service, with at least 94 deaths documented since October 2023.
Israeli soldiers have been filmed shooting two Palestinians who were seen on their knees with their hands in the air. The men were shot dead during Israeli raids in Jenin in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli army says it’s investigating the incident. Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh explains.
A gauge of risk on Oracle Corp.’s debt reached a three-year high in November, and things are only going to get worse in 2026 unless the database giant is able to assuage investor anxiety about a massive artificial intelligence spending spree, according to Morgan Stanley.
A funding gap, swelling balance sheet and obsolescence risk are just some of the hazards Oracle is facing, according to Lindsay Tyler and David Hamburger, credit analysts at the brokerage. The cost of insuring Oracle Corp.’s debt against default over the next five years rose to 1.25 percentage point a year on Tuesday, according to ICE Data Services.
The price on the five-year credit default swaps is at risk of toppling a record set in 2008 as concerns over the company’s borrowing binge to finance its AI ambitions continue to spur heavy hedging by banks and investors, they warned in a note Wednesday.
The CDS could break through 1.5 percentage point in the near term and could approach 2 percentage points if communication around its financing strategy remains limited as the new year progresses, the analysts wrote. Oracle CDS hit a record 1.98 percentage point in 2008, ICE Data Services shows.
A representative for Oracle declined to comment.
Oracle is among firms taking part in an artificial intelligence spending race, which has quickly made the data center giant the credit market’s barometer for AI risk. The company borrowed $18 billion in the US high-grade market in September. Then in early November, a group of about 20 banks arranged a roughly $18 billion project finance loan to construct a data center campus in New Mexico, which Oracle will take over as tenant.
Banks are also providing a separate $38 billion loan package to help finance the construction of data centers in Texas and Wisconsin developed by Vantage Data Centers, Bloomberg reported last month. Lenders involved in these construction loans linked to Oracle are likely a key driver of the surge in trading volume on the Oracle’s CDS recently, a trend that may persist, according to Morgan Stanley.
“Over the past two months, it has become more apparent that reported construction loans in the works, for sites where Oracle is the future tenant, may be an even greater driver of hedging of late and going forward,” wrote the analysts.
There is a risk that some hedges by banks could unwind if and when banks distribute these loans to other parties, they wrote. Still, other parties may also hedge at some point even if down the road plus the construction debt funding needs don’t stop after the Vantage sites and the New Mexico site.
Last month, the analysts said they expect near-term credit deterioration and uncertainty to drive further hedging by bondholders, lenders and thematic players.
“The bondholder hedging dynamic and also the thematic hedging dynamic could both grow in importance down the road,” they added.
Oracle CDS have underperformed the broader investment-grade CDX index and Oracle corporate bonds have underperformed the Bloomberg high-grade index amid the jump in hedging demand and the weakening sentiment. Concerns have also started to weigh on Oracle’s stock, which the analysts said may incentivize management to outline a financing plan on the upcoming earnings call, including details on Stargate, data centers and capital spending.
The analysts had previously been recommending investors buy Oracle bonds and CDS in what is known as a basis trade, to profit from their expectation that credit derivatives would widen more than the bonds. Now they’re saying it’s a cleaner trade to just buy the CDS outright.
“Therefore, we are closing the ‘buy bond’ part of the basis trade, and keeping the ‘buy CDS protection’ leg of it,” they wrote. “We think a trade in CDS outright is cleaner right now and will result in a greater spread move.”
The UN has documented nearly 3,000 settler attacks across the occupied West Bank since October 2023, driving communities from their land in what Palestinians say is a deliberate, violent campaign to displace them.
New attacks near Bethlehem and Hebron underscore intensifying Israeli violence in occupied Palestinian territory.
Israeli settlers have launched two major arson attacks on Palestinian villages near Bethlehem and Hebron amid a wave of rising violence by Israel in the occupied West Bank.
Dozens of settlers rampaged through the village of al-Jaba, located 10km (six miles) southwest of Bethlehem, on Monday, torching three Palestinian homes, one shack and three vehicles, according to Dhyab Masha‘la, the head of the local council.
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Masha‘la told Palestinian news agency Wafa that the attackers caused extensive damage to the village, but that locals had managed to extinguish the flames. No casualties were reported.
Earlier on Monday, Wafa said settlers set fire to a home and two vehicles, and physically assaulted several civilians in Sa’ir town, northeast of Hebron, under the protection of Israeli forces.
The Israeli settlers beat the Palestinians with batons and sharp instruments, resulting in injuries to a number of women, with Israeli forces blocking fire engines and ambulances from reaching the scene, the agency reported.
Violence in the West Bank has broken new records this year, with settlers carrying out almost-daily attacks on Palestinians that have involved killings, beatings and the destruction of property, often under the protection of the Israeli military.
Last wek, settlers set a mosque ablaze in the village of Deir Istiya in the north of the West Bank.
The Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission says that Israeli forces and settlers carried out 2,350 attacks across the West Bank last month alone in an “ongoing cycle of terror”, which has been taking place in the shadow of the war in Gaza.
The violence is rarely prosecuted.
Referring to the attack on al-Jaba, an Israeli military spokesperson said security forces were “searching for those involved” after being deployed to the village following reports of “dozens of Israeli citizens” torching and vandalising houses and vehicles.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has overseen the rapid expansion of settlements, denounced Monday’s attack, calling the assailants a “small, extremist group” and signalling that he would convene cabinet ministers to address the problem.
Defence Minister Israel Katz said on X that the government would “not tolerate the attempts of a small group of violent and criminal anarchists who break the law to take the law into their own hands and tarnish the settler community”.
But his statement backed the continued expansion of illegal settlements on Palestinian land.
The government, Katz said, would “continue to develop and foster the settlement enterprise throughout Judea and Samaria”.
Last year, the International Court of Justice – the top United Nations tribunal – ruled that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank is illegal and called for removing Israeli settlements from the territory.
Settler violence has spiked as members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government push to formally annex the area, which has long operated under a system of apartheid, according to leading rights groups.
The United Nations’ human rights office warned in July that the settler violence was being carried out “with the acquiescence, support, and in some cases participation, of Israeli security forces”.
Last week, in a rare public rebuke, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and army chief Eyal Zamir condemned the burgeoning settler attacks.
HomeSustainable FinanceIn conversation with Sohail Sultan, Chairman of Intercontinental Investment Bank
Commitment to sustainability – from financing green and blue bonds, to creating digital access for customers, to maintaining transparent governance for all stakeholders – can enable banks to create a culture that fosters long-term resilience, trust and value creation.
Joseph Giarraputo, Founder and Editorial Director of Global Finance, talks to Sohail Sultan, Chairman of Intercontinental Investment Bank (iib), about the bank’s wide-ranging sustainability initiatives and how they have shaped the institution’s identityand culture.
Committed to serving as a sustainability leader in the community, iib’s sustainability initiatives span multiple sectors. In healthcare, for example, the bank has run blood donation campaigns and supported oncology services. iib’s educational programsincludes partnering with the British Foreign Office to sponsor post-graduates for UK education as well as sponsoring technology upgrades and providing digital media solutions for corporate employees.
For the environment, iib has led numerous programs that preserve and protect natural spaces and reduce the carbon footprint, including mangrove restoration tobeach clean-ups and tree planting.
Financial inclusion is another key driver for iib. Across East Africa, the bank conducts grassroots campaigns on responsible saving and borrowing, while also providing access to credit. Digital-first products are part of the offering in a bid to make banking affordable and accessible in underserved communities.
iib also leverages its role as an intermediary to drive green and blue financing in emerging markets – for renewable energy and low-carbon infrastructure via green bonds, and ocean conservation and coastal resilience via blue bonds. To further connect international capital and embed climate responsibility in growth strategies, iib supports sustainable trade corridors across Africa, South Asia and the Caribbean.
Watch this video to learn more about what sustainability means to iib, and how the bank pursues this mission to show that social returns matter as much as financial ones.
An Israeli settler arson attack on a mosque in the occupied West Bank has drawn international condemnation, as a wave of intensified violence against Palestinians continues unabated across the area.
Israeli settlers set fire to the Hajja Hamida Mosque in the Palestinian village of Deir Istiya, near Salfit in the north of the West Bank, around dawn on Thursday, local residents told Al Jazeera.
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Photographs taken at the scene showed racist, anti-Palestinian slogans sprayed on the walls of the mosque, which was damaged in the blaze. Copies of the Quran – the Islamic holy book – were also burned.
The Palestinian Ministry of Religious Endowments and Affairs condemned what it said was a “heinous crime” that highlights “the barbarity” with which Israel treats Muslim and Christian holy sites in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Separately, two Palestinian children were killed on Thursday when Israeli forces opened fire during a raid in the town of Beit Ummar, near Hebron in the southern West Bank, the Wafa news agency reported.
The violence comes amid a record-setting number of Israeli settler and military attacks on Palestinians across the West Bank so far this year, with many of the assaults taking place in the context of the 2025 olive harvest.
At least 167 settler attacks related to the olive harvest were reported since October 1, the United Nations’ humanitarian agency (OCHA) said in its latest update this week. More than 150 Palestinians have been injured in those assaults, while more than 5,700 trees have also been damaged.
Experts say Israeli attacks in the West Bank have increased in the shadow of Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 69,000 Palestinians in the coastal enclave since October 2023.
They also come as members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government are pushing to formally annex the area. Rights groups say Israel already maintains a system of de facto annexation and apartheid in the West Bank.
The UN human rights office warned in July that the settler violence was being carried out “with the acquiescence, support, and in some cases participation, of Israeli security forces”.
Settler and military attacks, it said, “are part of a broader and coordinated strategy of the State of Israel to expand and consolidate annexation of the occupied West Bank, while reinforcing its system of discrimination, oppression and control over Palestinians there”.
‘Completely unacceptable’
Thursday’s attack on the mosque in Deir Istiya prompted an outpouring of international condemnation.
A spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres said the international body was “deeply disturbed” by the assault. “Such attacks on places of worship are completely unacceptable,” Stephane Dujarric told reporters during a briefing at the UN headquarters in New York.
A Palestinian man holds a scorched fragment of a Quran page inside the mosque that was attacked in Deir Istiya [AFP]
“We have and will continue to condemn attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians and their property in the West Bank,” Dujarric said.
“Israel, as the occupying power, has a responsibility to protect the civilian population and ensure that those responsible for these attacks, including this attack on a mosque and the spray-painting of horrendous language on the mosque, be brought to account.”
Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also “strongly condemned” the rise in Israeli settler attacks, according to a statement shared by the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
A Jordan Foreign Ministry spokesman described the violence as “an extension of the Israeli government’s extremist policies and inflammatory rhetoric that fuel violence and extremism against the Palestinian people”.
Germany, which has faced criticism for defending Israel amid the Gaza war, also called for a halt to settler violence, saying the “incidents must be thoroughly investigated and those responsible held accountable”.
The Swiss Foreign Ministry likewise said recent Israeli arson attacks in the West Bank “are unacceptable”. “This violence and the continued expansion of illegal settlements must stop,” it said in a statement.
Palestinians stand next to scorched copies of the Quran at the mosque [AFP]
Palestinians have urged world leaders to go beyond words, however, and take concrete action against Israel amid the wave of violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including by ending weapons transfers to the Israeli military.
In a separate incident last week, Israeli settlers set fire to a Palestinian home in the village of Khirbet Abu Falah, near Ramallah, while a family was inside, the UN’s humanitarian office reported.
“As the flames spread, the family immediately evacuated while neighbours and civil defence teams rushed to the scene and managed to extinguish the fire. The mother sustained a leg fracture while running away from the settlers,” OCHA said.
Israeli settler violence targeting Palestinians in the occupied West Bank is at its highest level on record, according to the UN. Settlers are destroying mosques, dairy facilities, and attacking olive farmers in hundreds of attacks that are terrifying families and disrupting everyday life.
BTG Pactual Empresas retains its ranking as the world’s best bank for small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs). Its tremendous growth in the SME sector justifies this ranking.
SME lending has increased 28% year over year, with lending to this sector totaling R$28.3 billion (about $5.2 billion). SME loans now account for roughly 12% of the bank’s total credit book. And more than 30,000 SMEs opened new accounts with the bank in the first quarter of 2025 alone. Its NPL ratio is just 0.66%.
BTG Pactual offers a laundry list of general and sector-specific products for Brazilian SMEs. Consider its work in the agricultural arena. The bank reports that Brazil’s agricultural sector remains a vital pillar of the national economy. Accounting for approximately 25% of the country’s GDP, it is a key driver of productivity, employment and foreign trade. In addition to traditional banking services, BTG Pactual offers farmers flexible financing for essential products, such as fertilizers and seeds, as well as machinery financing and infrastructure loans for silos, warehouses, and logistics depots. Additional SME services include a B2B advisory network and an SME Insights portal, providing news and insights on entrepreneurship, management, and innovation.
Digital advances have done much to both attract new SME clients and retain existing ones. BTG Pactual’s digital capabilities in the field of same-day lending is one example: 96% of approved SME customers working with the bank’s digital lending platform have funds dispersed in less than 10 minutes.
Latin America Regional Awards
For more information on the BTG Pactual Empresas’ significant digital transformation efforts.
Israeli settlers have attacked Palestinian villagers, activists, and journalists, including Reuters reporter Raneen Sawafta, near Nablus. The assault is the latest in a surge of settler violence across the occupied West Bank during the olive harvesting season, with over 760 attacks recorded in October.
Global Finance’s rankings expand from 50 to 100 of the safest banks.
The global banking sector faces major challenges as economies worldwide navigate volatility driven by US tariff policies and intensifying competition that is reshaping bank strategies and business models. Against this backdrop, our 2025 rankings expand the World’s Safest Banks from the Global Top 50 to the Top 100, offering a broader view of the sector and deeper insight into its resilience.
Washington’s evolving tariff policy and the resulting disruptions to global trade and supply chains have fractured economic ties among the largest US trading partners, contributing to upward pressure on inflation and to diminished global growth. These represent persistent issues that are likely to grow as the full effects of tariffs take hold. According to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the October forecast for growth in global trade volume in 2025 rose to 2.4% from 0.9% in August, mainly due to the front-loading of imports into the US ahead of announced tariffs. The WTO outlook for 2026, however, is more muted, with trade volume growth falling to 0.5%.
The September economic outlook of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) projects global GDP growth to decrease from 3.3% in 2024 to 3.2% in 2025, and to 2.9% in 2026. Regionally, growth in the US economy is forecast to fall from 2.8% in 2024 to 1.8% in 2025 and 1.5% in 2026 while euro area GDP growth is expected to be 1.2% in 2025, declining to 1% in 2026. China is facing a possible contraction from 4.9% GDP in 2025 to 4.4% in 2026.
As this year has unfolded, many of the world’s central banks are firmly in an easing cycle, with broadening global rate cuts to spur their respective economies. The institutions at the forefront in providing the most effective service offerings continue to invest in technology to aggressively transform their business models beyond their current digital platforms and online capabilities. Increasingly these banks are utilizing generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to accelerate this transformation by leveraging data analytics to quickly identify new solutions to drive growth and uncover cost efficiencies.
The Global Top 100
Frequently, changes in a country’s sovereign rating provide the catalyst for year-over-year shifts in our annual rankings. Notably, Moody’s downgraded France to Aa3 from Aa2, citing the country’s fiscal challenges with deficit reduction and weakening public finances. Bank downgrades followed, given reduced government-support uplift to the ratings under the agency’s methodology. Consequently, Caisse des Depots et Consignations fell to No. 29 from No. 11, SFIL dropped to No. 47 from No. 19, BNP Paribas fell to No. 60 from No. 48, Credit Agricole fell to No. 61 from No. 49, and Banque Federative du Credit Mutuel fell to No. 62 from No. 50.
Similarly, following Fitch’s April 2025 downgrade of China due to weakening public finances, follow-on downgrades kept Chinese banks lower in the rankings, with China Development Bank at No. 73, Agricultural Development Bank of China at No. 75, and Export-Import Bank of China at No. 76.
On a positive note, Saudi Arabia benefited from a Moody’s upgrade to Aa3 from A1 in November 2024, with the agency citing progress on economic diversification. S&P recognized the country’s sustained socioeconomic and capital market reforms with a March 2025 upgrade to A+ from A. These moves allowed two banks to enter the top 100: Saudi National Bank at No. 99 and Al Rajhi Bank at No. 100.
In Canada, National Bank of Canada’s progress in growing its franchise to expand beyond its home market of Quebec prompted an S&P upgrade that moved the bank to No. 44 from last year’s No. 68. At Toronto-Dominion Bank, anti-money laundering deficiencies prompted both Moody’s and S&P to downgrade the bank, resulting in a drop in its ranking to No. 41 from No. 21 last year.
Methodology
Our rankings apply to the world’s largest 500 banks by asset size and are calculated based on long-term foreign currency ratings issued by Fitch Ratings, Standard & Poor’s, and Moody’s Investors Service. Under our methodology, we require a rating from at least two of these agencies. It’s important to note that the largest 500 banks with at least two agency ratings are sourced from a universe of approximately 1,000 banks, as not all banks hold two agency ratings. Where possible, ratings on holding companies rather than operating companies are used; and banks that are wholly owned by other banks are omitted. Within each rank set, banks are organized according to asset size, based on data for the most recent annual reporting period provided by Fitch Solutions and Moody’s. Ratings are reproduced with permission from the three rating agencies, with all rights reserved. A ranking is not a recommendation to purchase, sell, or hold a security; and it does not comment on market price or suitability for a particular investor. All ratings in the tables were valid as of August 15, 2025.
‘Cycle of terror’ spikes as Higher Planning Council set to advance plans to build 1,985 new settlement units in occupied West Bank.
Israeli forces and settlers have carried out 2,350 attacks across the occupied West Bank last month in an “ongoing cycle of terror”, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CRRC).
CRRC head Mu’ayyad Sha’ban said on Wednesday that Israeli forces carried out 1,584 attacks – including direct physical attacks, the demolition of homes and the uprooting of olive trees – with most of the violence focused on the governorates of Ramallah (542), Nablus (412) and Hebron (401).
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The research, compiled in a CRRC monthly report titled Occupation Violations and Colonial Expansion Measures, also noted 766 attacks by settlers. The commission said they are expanding settlements, which are illegal under international law, as part of what it called an “organised strategy that aims to displace the land’s indigenous people and enforce a fully racist colonial regime”.
The report said settler attacks reached a new peak with most targeting the Ramallah governorate (195), Nablus (179) and Hebron (126). Olive pickers received the brunt of attacks, according to the report, which said they were the victims of “state terror” that had been “orchestrated in the dark backrooms of the occupation government”.
It described instances of Israeli “vandalism and theft” carried out in cahoots with Israeli soldiers that have seen the “uprooting, destruction and poisoning” of 1,200 olive trees in Hebron, Ramallah, Tubas, Qalqilya, Nablus and Bethlehem. During the violence, settlers have tried to establish seven new outposts on Palestinian land since October in the governorates of Hebron and Nablus.
For decades, the Israeli military has uprooted olive trees, an important Palestinian cultural symbol, across the West Bank as part of efforts by successive Israeli governments to seize Palestinian land and forcibly displace residents.
The spike in Israeli violence comes amid expectations that Israel’s Higher Planning Council (HPC), part of the Israeli army’s Civil Administration overseeing the occupied West Bank, will meet to discuss the construction of 1,985 new settlement units in the West Bank on Wednesday.
The left-wing Israeli movement Peace Now said 1,288 of the units would be rolled out in two isolated settlements in the northern West Bank, namely Avnei Hefetz and Einav Plan.
It said the HPC had been holding weekly meetings since November last year to advance housing projects in the settlements, thus normalising and accelerating construction on land taken from Palestinians.
Since the beginning of 2025, the HPC has pushed forward a record 28,195 housing units, Peace Now said.
In August, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich drew international condemnation after saying plans to build thousands of homes as part of the proposed E1 settlement scheme in the West Bank “buries the idea of a Palestinian state”.
The E1 project, shelved for years amid opposition from the United States and European allies, would connect occupied East Jerusalem with the existing illegal Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim.
The Israeli far right’s push to annex the West Bank would essentially end the possibility of implementing a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as outlined in numerous United Nations resolutions.
United States President Donald Trump’s administration has been adamant that it won’t allow Israel to annex the occupied territory. US Vice President JD Vance, while visiting Israel recently, said Trump would oppose Israeli annexation of the West Bank and it would not happen. Vance said as he left Israel, “If it was a political stunt, it is a very stupid one, and I personally take some insult to it.”
But the US has done nothing to rein in Israel’s assaults and crackdowns on Palestinians in the West Bank as it trumpets its Gaza ceasefire efforts.
Israel is holding a record 360 Palestinian children from the occupied West Bank in its prisons, many without charge or trial, in what rights groups call a system of control and abuse. Families say the detentions, marked by torture and neglect, are meant to crush Palestinians.
