After deadly attacks between Pakistan and India, a ceasefire was suddenly declared. Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar rejects claims that Washington imposed the truce, insisting Pakistan acted independently. He addresses India’s accusations and Pakistan’s military influence. As two rivals teetered on the edge of war, Ishaq Dar explains Pakistan’s strategy, its position on Kashmir, and whether this ceasefire might not last.
Qatari prime minister states that the UN should be allowed to resume aid distribution inside Gaza.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has said that a series of recent Israeli attacks on Gaza show that Israel is not interested in ending the war.
In an interview with the US news outlet CNN on Wednesday, Al Thani said that he had hoped that the release of a US-Israeli soldier named Edan Alexander from captivity in Gaza would be a “breakthrough that will help bring back the talks on track” but that Israel had instead opted to step up strikes on the Strip.
“Unfortunately, Israel’s reaction to this was [bombing] the next day, while sending the delegation,” he said.
Al Thani also stated that a US-backed plan for distributing aid in Gaza through a newly created group is unnecessary. Humanitarian and United Nations aid groups have said that they already have the means of delivering aid to Gaza but are being blocked from doing so by Israel.
Israel has completely cut off Gaza’s access to food, water, fuel, and humanitarian aid since March 2, prompting global monitors of extreme hunger to warn of possible famine and allegations of the use of starvation as a weapon of war by human rights groups.
Israel has claimed, with little evidence, that members of the armed Palestinian group Hamas are stealing large portions of aid entering the Strip, and have pushed for the exclusion of UN organisations, long viewed with ire by Israeli authorities, from aid distribution.
A newly created body with US backing called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said on Wednesday that it would begin operations in Gaza by the end of May, and that it has asked Israel to allow increased levels of aid into the Strip.
Critics have said that the new organisation fulfils an Israeli goal of sidelining the UN and independent international organisations from aid distribution in Gaza.
“GHF emphasizes that a successful humanitarian response must eventually include the entire civilian population in Gaza,” the foundation’s executive director, Jake Wood, wrote in a letter to the Israeli government.
“GHF respectfully requests that the [Israeli military] identify and deconflict sufficient locations in northern Gaza capable of hosting GHF-operated secure distribution sites that can be made operational within 30 days,” he added.
A recent report by the Observer, a UK-based news outlet, notes that a GHF fundraising document appears to mirror claims about the problems of humanitarian assistance in Gaza that do not include the actions of the Israeli government itself and instead blame a “collapse” of “traditional humanitarian channels” due to aid diversion and combat operations.
Thousands of aid trucks have been bottlenecked outside of Gaza amid Israel’s blockade for weeks, with UN officials stressing that they are ready and capable of resuming aid distribution in the Strip, if Israel will lift the siege.
UNIFIL says incident first of its kind since Israel and Lebanese-armed group Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire last November.
Direct fire from the Israeli military hit the perimeter of United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon’s (UNIFIL) peacekeeping positions in south Lebanon, the mission said.
In a statement on Wednesday, UNIFIL added that the incident on Tuesday was the first of its kind since Israel and Lebanese-armed group Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire last November.
UNIFIL said one of its bases in the village of Kfarchouba in southern Lebanon was hit. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army.
“In recent days, UNIFIL has also observed other aggressive behaviour by the [Israeli military] towards peacekeepers performing operational activities in accordance with Security Council Resolution 1701,” it said in a post on X, referring to a UN resolution originally adopted in 2006 to end hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
UNIFIL is concerned by the recent aggressive posture of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) involving UNIFIL personnel and assets near the Blue Line, including yesterday’s incident in which a direct fire hit the perimeter of a UNIFIL position south of the village of Kfar Shouba.
— UNIFIL (@UNIFIL_) May 14, 2025
Tuesday’s incident occurred near the Blue Line, a UN-mapped demarcation separating Lebanon from Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, it added.
Any unauthorised crossing of the Blue Line by land or by air from any side constitutes a violation of Security Council Resolution 1701.
UNIFIL cited other alleged incidents it blamed on the Israeli army, including being targeted by lasers while it was performing a patrol with the Lebanese army in the southern border town of Maroun al-Ras on Tuesday.
“UNIFIL protests all such and we continue to remind all actors of their responsibility to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property and to respect the inviolability of UN assets and premises at all times,” it added.
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s military said it killed a Hezbollah fighter in a strike on southern Lebanon.
“Earlier today [Wednesday], the [Israeli military] struck in the area of Qaaqaaiyet El Jisr in southern Lebanon, eliminating a Hezbollah terrorist who held the position of the commander of the Qabrikha area within the Hezbollah terrorist organisation,” a military statement said.
The November ceasefire ended a conflict in which Israel attacked Lebanon by air and invaded the country, devastating vast swaths of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli attack in September.
The ceasefire terms require that neither Hezbollah nor any other armed group have weapons in areas near the border south of the Litani River, which flows into the Mediterranean some 20km (12 miles) north of the Israeli border.
They require Israel to withdraw troops from the south and the Lebanese army to deploy into the border region.
Although the truce officially ended hostilities, sporadic cross-border attacks have continued. Israel has regularly broken the truce and carried out air raids across southern Lebanon, also hitting neighbourhoods in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah retains strong support.
Israel still occupies five strategic hilltops along the border. While rockets have been fired into Israel from Lebanese territory on two separate occasions, Hezbollah has denied involvement.
Hezbollah’s leader, Naim Qassem, has maintained that the group no longer keeps weapons in the border zone, in accordance with the truce.