conflict

An early-morning strike hits a group of civilians in ​​Bureij camp as drones attack a tent in Khan Younis displacement site.

At least seven Palestinians have been killed, and others wounded, in Israeli strikes across the central and southern Gaza Strip.

An Israeli drone fired two missiles close to a police post in Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza’s civil defence rescue service told the AFP news agency on Saturday.

Medical sources confirmed the early morning attack to Al Jazeera, saying the strike hit a group of civilians in the “Block 9” area of Bureij. Several people were killed and seriously wounded, they said.

Ambulance crews faced difficult conditions as they worked to transport the bodies and those injured to nearby hospitals, the sources added.

The al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza told AFP it had received six bodies and seven wounded people, including four in critical condition. The nearby al-Awda hospital said it received one fatality and two wounded people.

Separately, in the southern Gaza Strip, Nasser Medical Complex said it received three wounded people following an Israeli drone strike against a tent of displaced people in the town of Bani Suheila, located east of Khan Younis.

Al Jazeera’s correspondent on the ground also reported Israeli artillery shelling and heavy tank fire near Bani Suheila and east of Gaza City.

Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has killed more than 72,300 people since it began in October 2023, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, including at least 738 since the so-called ceasefire went into effect last October.

The tally includes at least 32 deaths since the start of April alone – among them Al Jazeera journalist Mohammed Wishah, who was killed in an attack west of Gaza City earlier this week.

United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk on Friday condemned Israel’s recent violence in the Gaza Strip, saying that “the unrelenting pattern of killings” reflects Israel’s “sweeping impunity”.

“For the past 10 days, Palestinians are still being killed and injured in what is left of their homes, shelters and tents of displaced families, on the streets, in vehicles, at a medical facility and a classroom,” Turk said.

West Bank raids, arrests continue

Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers and forces stormed homes and villages throughout the morning, continuing an escalating campaign to expand their illegal settlements.

The Palestinian Wafa news agency reported that Israeli forces arrested seven people east of Qalqilya and separately descended upon Bir al-Basha, near the city of Jenin, where they detained various residents and interrogated them.

In al-Maniya, southeast of Bethlehem, Israeli settlers fanned out across the streets, shone spotlights inside homes and provoked residents.

Another group of settlers set fire to a house in the village of Duma in the Nablus governorate, according to village council head Suleiman Dawabsheh.

Residents managed to control the fire and prevent it from spreading, Dawabsheh said.

Israeli media outlets have reported the recent secret approval of 34 new illegal West Bank settlements, adding to 68 that have been endorsed since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government rose to power in 2022.

Various foreign governments and organisations, including the European Union, Turkiye, Sweden and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, have condemned the move as a flagrant violation of international law.

Thousands of Muslims performed Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem after it reopened to worshippers following a 40-day closure by the Israeli army that barred access to Islam’s third-holiest site after the war on Iran began.

The casualty rate for Russian soldiers in Ukraine increased to a new monthly high in March, according to Ukraine’s armed forces. They say drone production enabled a record number of strikes.

Ukraine tallied Russian casualties at 35,351 last month, with drones causing 96 per cent of them while artillery and small arms fire accounted for the rest. That casualty rate was a 29 per cent increase on February, said Ukraine’s commander in chief.

“These are clearly confirmed losses: we have video footage of each such strike in our system,” said Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.

The losses are slightly above a previous record set in December, and appear to confirm Ukraine’s claim that Russian casualty rates are rising inexorably this year. Ukrainian Presidential Office Deputy Head Colonel Pavlo Palisa told RBC-Ukraine that Russia had suffered 316 casualties for every square kilometre it captured in the first three months of 2026, compared with 120 casualties per square kilometre last year.

Ukraine’s defence ministry said Russia has been unable to replace all of the losses since December. Russia aimed to recruit 409,000 contract soldiers this year, Ukraine’s armed forces said in January.

That means a daily average recruitment rate of 1,120. But Ukraine’s “I Want to Live” initiative, which provides communication channels for Russian soldiers wishing to surrender, said Russia recruited 940 troops a day in the first quarter.

If sustained, that meant Russian recruitment was on track for a 65,000-man shortfall this year. Ukraine now sees manpower shortages as a Russian strategic weakness it can exploit. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, set a goal of 50,000 Russian casualties a month in January, which he called the “optimal level” to ensure Russian forces weaken irrecoverably.

“We are confidently moving towards our strategic goal – 50,000+ eliminated occupiers per month,” said the Ukrainian defence ministry.

The territory Russia is capturing for its mounting losses is also in long-term decline, according to estimates by the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank. Russian forces captured an average of 5.5sq km a day this year, compared to 10.66sq km a day in the middle of last year and 14.9sq km a day at the end of 2024, said the ISW.

Zelenskyy said the stark reality of manpower weakness lay behind Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ceasefire demand that Ukraine hand over the heavily fortified quarter of the eastern Donetsk region it held last August.

“They believe that if we retreat, they won’t lose hundreds of thousands of people,” Zelenskyy told the Associated Press in an interview this week.

Drones are the key

Ukrainian officials credit drone production and training for their armed forces’ growing lethality. Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskii said the armed forces struck 151,207 targets in March using drones, a 50 per cent increase on February. That’s the result of 11,000 drone sorties a day.

“This is all a historical maximum,” Syrskii said.

Palisa said that’s because Ukraine’s drone manufacturing had managed to outpace Russia’s to achieve a 1.3:1 overall ratio in First Person View drones on the frontlines.

Other reports suggested Ukraine was raising drone production. Fedorov said Ukrainian interceptor drones shot down a record 33,000 Russian UAVs of various types in March – twice as many as in the previous month.

His deputy, Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov said he was working with interceptor drone manufacturers to develop the next generation of interceptors capable of flying at 400-550km/h to counter the jet-powered Shahed drones to which Russia was gradually converting.

Fire Point, Ukraine’s biggest manufacturer of long-range drones used in the majority of strikes deep inside Russia, told Reuters that it had designed two ballistic missiles of 300km and 850km range, which were approaching the deployment stage.

The longer-range type is capable of reaching Moscow.

Ukraine gains defensive ‘strategic initiative’

Syrskii thinks that Ukraine’s forces, although still ceding small amounts of territory, have now gained “the strategic initiative” because they “do not allow Russian troops to resume a large-scale offensive.”

He said an increase in mid-range strikes against logistics, warehouses, command posts and oil depots 30-120 km into the Russian rear had been particularly effective in hamstringing Russian assaults – one of the top operational priorities.

Syrskii said on April 5 that fighting was most intense in Dnipropetrovsk, where Ukraine’s forces have recaptured eight settlements and 480sq km of territory.

Ukraine’s leadership has long believed that Russia harbours territorial ambitions to seize the Odesa and Mykolaiv regions to control Ukraine’s entire Black Sea coastline, and to carve out a buffer zone across northern Ukraine.

Palisa told RBK-Ukraine on April 8 that Russia also planned to create a southern buffer zone in Ukraine’s southwestern Vinnytsia region next to Moldova’s Russian-speaking territory of Transnistria.

That was the first time a Ukrainian official has suggested such an ambition. “I am 100 per cent convinced that the Russians want to completely occupy us,” Zelenskyy told the AP.

United States President Donald Trump’s disdain for NATO allies dates back to even before he became president the first time. From anger over their relatively low defence spending to — more recently — threats to take over Greenland, the territory of fellow NATO member Denmark, the American leader has long left the alliance on edge.

But the decision of NATO allies not to join Trump’s war on Iran has deepened the fracture to unseen levels, say analysts. This week, Trump called their lack of support a stain on the alliance “that will never disappear”. Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany put it even more bluntly, hours later: The conflict “has become a trans-Atlantic stress test”.

That back and forth underscores a central question exposed by the Middle East crisis that experts say NATO can no longer put off: can the transatlantic alliance survive, especially if the US pulls out?

“There will be no return to business as usual in NATO, during neither this US administration nor the next one,” said Jim Townsend, adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. “We are closer to a break than we have ever been.”

Trump can’t pull the US out of the alliance on a whim.

To formally do so, he needs a two-thirds majority in the US Senate or an act of Congress — scenarios that are unlikely to come to pass any time soon, with NATO still enjoying broad support among many legislators in both major American parties.

But there are other things Trump can do. The US has no obligation to come to the aid of allies should they come under attack. The treaty’s Article 5 states members’ collective‑defence obligation, but it does not automatically force a military response — and there is scepticism among allies over whether Washington would ever come to help.

The US can also move the about 84,000 American troops spread across Europe out of the continent. The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Trump was considering moving some US bases from countries deemed unhelpful during the Iran war and transferring them to more supportive countries. He could close down US military bases and cease military coordination with allies.

Since US security guarantees to Europe have undergirded NATO since its founding, such disengagement would do enough damage.

“He doesn’t need to leave NATO to undermine it; by just saying he might, he has already eroded its credibility as an effective alliance,” said Stefano Stefanini, former Italian ambassador to NATO from 2007 to 2010 and former senior adviser to the Italian Presidency.

Still, allies are not helpless. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine revealed the weakened state of European defence industries and their deep reliance on the US. That, coupled with the numerous diplomatic crises in the US-NATO partnership – including Trump’s threat to take control of Greenland – has pushed European allies to invest more in defence capabilities. Between 2020 and 2025, member states’ defence expenditure increased by more than 62 percent.

However, areas where Europe suffers from overdependence on the US include the ability to strike deep into enemy territory, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, space-based capabilities such as satellite intelligence, logistics and integrated air and missile defence, according to a report by the International Institute for Security Studies (IISS).

These challenges remain considerable. It will take the next decade or more to fill them and about $1 trillion to replace key elements of the US conventional military capabilities. Europe’s defence industries are struggling to ramp up production quickly, and many European armies can’t hit their recruitment and retention targets, the IISS report said.

Still, some experts believe a European NATO is possible. Minna Alander, an analyst at the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies of the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, says NATO has, over the years, become a structure for military cooperation between European countries.

“NATO can therefore survive the Iran war — and even a US withdrawal — as European members have an incentive to maintain it, even if in a radically different form,” Alander said.

For some, the deadline is 2029. That is when Russia may have reconstituted its forces sufficiently to attack NATO territory, according to estimates by Germany’s chief of defence, General Carsten Breuer. “But they can start testing us much sooner,” Breuer said in May last year, ordering the German military to be fully equipped with weapons and other material by then. Others estimate that Moscow could pose that threat as early as 2027.

And what about the US — would it do better without NATO?

According to Stefanelli, the former ambassador, the debate about NATO is often “twisted” to portray the alliance’s raison d’être as solely in function of protecting Europe from Russia, as a US favour to the continent.

NATO was a network of alliances born at the onset of the Cold War against the Soviet Union. For decades, the US fought to attract into the alliance as many countries as possible, treating those that refused as friends of the enemy.

Following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US, NATO invoked for the first and only time Article 5 to rally behind Washington and sent troops to fight in Afghanistan. Thousands of servicemen died there, including nearly 500 from the United Kingdom, and dozens from France, Denmark, Italy and other countries.

And during the war in Iran, European bases were beneficial staging sites for the US military — even if many countries publicly distanced themselves from the conflict.

“NATO served US interests and Trump comfortably overlooks these aspects,” Farinelli, the former ambassador, said. “Europe has its own responsibility by not investing in defence and creating strong dependence, but thinking that NATO serves only European strategic interests is simply not true.”

Min Aung Hlaing seeks to ‘enhance’ international relations and ties with ASEAN after coup plunged Myanmar into chaos.

Myanmar’s coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has been sworn in as the country’s new president, five years after he ousted an elected government and triggered a civil war.

In his inauguration address in the capital Naypyidaw on Friday, he said that “Myanmar has returned to the path of democracy and is heading towards a better future”, while acknowledging the country still has many “challenges to overcome”.

Min Aung Hlaing was voted to the top office last week in a landslide victory by the pro-military parliament, formalising his grip on power. He was among three candidates nominated for the post; the two runners-up became vice presidents.

The 69-year-old general seized power in 2021 from Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, placing her under arrest and causing violence, protests and demonstrations that sent Myanmar spiralling into chaos.

The coup prompted a mass civil disobedience movement and the formation of anti-coup armed groups, to which the military responded with brutal force. Myanmar was subsequently suspended from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

In his address on Friday, Min Aung Hlaing said they “will ‌enhance ‌international relations and strive to restore normal relations” with ASEAN.

Friday’s inauguration ceremony was attended by representatives from the neighbouring nations of China, India and Thailand as well as 20 other countries, according to the AFP news agency.

Lopsided parliamentary election

Min Aung Hlaing’s election has been decried as a farce by democracy watchdogs.

The new president’s pledge to “grant appropriate amnesties to support social reconciliation, justice and peace”, with political prisoners pardoned and civil servants who quit in protest invited back to their posts, has similarly been dismissed as cosmetic.

Min Aung Hlaing’s transition from top general to civilian president followed a lopsided parliamentary election in December and January, won in a landslide by an army-backed party and derided by critics and Western governments as a sham.

The pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party won more than 80 percent of parliamentary seats contested, while serving members of the armed forces occupy unelected seats making up a quarter of the total.

Voting did not take place in swaths of the country, which have been seized by rebels battling the military and rejecting the vote, further undermining Min Aung Hlaing’s mandate, according to rights monitors.

Meanwhile, the civil war that has racked Myanmar for much of the last five years rages on, with anti-military groups, including remnants of Aung San Suu Kyi’s party and longstanding ethnic minority armies, forming a new combined front to take on the military.

But the human cost is staggering; the International Conflict Monitor (ACLED estimates more than 96,000 people have been killed, while the United Nations says at least 3.6 million have been displaced since the coup in 2021.

Moscow and Kyiv signal a short Easter truce as diplomacy stalls and war pressures mount.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has announced a 32-hour ceasefire for Orthodox Easter, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirming that Ukraine will honour it.

The Kremlin said on Thursday that the pause in fighting will begin at 4pm Moscow time (13:00GMT) on Saturday and run until midnight on Sunday, covering Easter celebrations observed in both countries.

“We proceed on the basis that the Ukrainian side will follow the example of the Russian Federation,” the Kremlin said in a statement.

It added that Defence Minister Andrei Belousov had instructed Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov to halt military operations during the period. Russian forces, however, would remain ready to respond to any violations.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine had already proposed a similar pause and would act in kind.

“Ukraine has repeatedly stated that we are ready for reciprocal steps. We proposed a ceasefire during the Easter holiday this year and will act accordingly,” he wrote on Telegram.

“People need an Easter without threats and a real move towards peace, and Russia has a chance not to return to attacks even after Easter.”

Hours after the announcement, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk region said Russian artillery and aerial attacks had killed two people.

“The enemy attacked three districts of the region almost 30 times with drones and artillery,” Oleksandr Ganzha said on Telegram on Friday.

This weekend’s planned ceasefire echoes a similar, short-lived pause declared by Moscow last year, which both sides accused each other of breaching.

The ceasefire comes as wider diplomatic efforts to end the war remain stalled, with attention in Washington shifting towards escalating tensions in the Middle East.

Difficult months ahead

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow had not discussed the Easter proposal in advance with the United States, nor did it signal any immediate revival of three-way peace talks.

Despite the limited pause, humanitarian channels between the two sides remain active. Speaking from Moscow, Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova said Russia and Ukraine recently carried out another exchange of soldiers’ remains.

“Moscow handed over the remains of 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers to Kiev in exchange for 41 bodies of the Russians,” she said.

“More than 500 bodies of Russian servicemen have been returned this year during these regular exchanges and over 19,000 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers have been returned to Kiev,” she added.

These exchanges, often mediated by Turkiye, remain one of the few functioning lines of communication between the warring sides, alongside periodic prisoner swaps.

Zelenskyy has repeatedly pushed for temporary ceasefires, including a halt to attacks on energy infrastructure, but said Moscow had largely rejected proposals. He added that Ukraine now faces growing pressure, both on the battlefield and from international partners.

“This spring–summer period will be quite difficult politically and diplomatically. There may be pressure on Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said. “There will also be pressure on the battlefield.”

He warned that the coming months could prove decisive, as Kyiv confronts both sustained Russian attacks and shifting geopolitical priorities among its allies.

“I believe it will be very difficult for us until September.”

Palestinian journalist Muath Amarne said his prosthetic eye fell out after an infection while in Israeli detention, leaving him in urgent need of surgery. Amarne, who lost his left eye in 2019 after being struck by an Israeli rubber bullet, was held in prison for more than seven months.

Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warns ‘time is running out’ amid Israel’s continuing attacks on Lebanon.

The Strait of Hormuz, which links the Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, has held global attention since Israel and the US began their war on Iran in February.

Until fighting began, the narrow channel, through which 20 per cent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies are shipped from Gulf producers in peacetime, remained toll-free and safe for vessels. The strait is shared by Iran and Oman and does not fall into the category of international waters.

After the US and Israel began strikes, Iran retaliated by attacking “enemy” merchant ships in the strait, effectively halting passage for all, stranding shipping, and creating one of the worst-ever global energy distribution crises.

Tehran continued to refuse to re-open the strait to all traffic at the start of this week, despite US President Donald Trump’s threats to bomb Iran’s power plants and bridges if it did not relent. Trump backed away from his threat on Tuesday night when a two-week ceasefire, brokered by Pakistan, was declared.

That followed a 10-point peace proposal from Iran that Trump described as a “workable” basis on which to negotiate a permanent end to hostilities.

As part of the truce, Tehran has now issued official terms it says will guide its control of the Strait going forward. The US has not directly acknowledged the terms ahead of talks set to begin in Islamabad on Friday. However, analysts say Tehran’s continued control will be unpopular with Washington, as well as other countries.

During the crisis, only a few ships from specific countries deemed friendly to Iran and those which pay a toll have been granted safe passage. At least two tolls for ships are believed to have been paid in Chinese yuan, in what appears to be a strategy to weaken the US dollar, but also to avoid US sanctions. China, which buys 80 percent of Iran’s oil, already pays Tehran in yuan.

Here’s what we know about how shipments will work from now on:

Who is controlling the strait now?

On Tuesday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi said Iran would grant safe passage through the strait during the ceasefire in “coordination with Iran’s Armed Forces and with due consideration of technical limitations”.

On Wednesday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) released a map of the strait showing a safe route for ships to follow. The map appears to direct ships further north towards the Iranian coast and away from the traditional route closer to the coast of Oman.

In a statement, the IRGC said all vessels must use the new map for navigation due to “the likelihood of the presence of various types of anti-ship mines in the main traffic zone”.

It is unclear whether Iran is collecting toll fees during the ceasefire period.

However, Trump said on Tuesday the US would be “helping with the traffic buildup” in the strait and that the US army would be “hanging around” as the negotiations go on.

The Strait will be “OPEN & SAFE” he posted on his Truth Social media site on Thursday, adding that US troops would not leave the area, and threatening to resume attacks if the talks don’t go well.

It’s not known to what extent US troops are directing what happens in the strait now.

Delhi-based maritime analyst C Uday Bhaskar told Al Jazeera that there is a lot of “uncertainty” about who can sail through the strait, and that only between three and five ships have transited since the war was paused.

How does Iran’s 10-point plan affect the Strait?

Among Tehran’s main demands listed on its 10-point plan are that the US and Israel permanently cease all attacks on Iran and its allies – particularly Lebanon – lift all sanctions, and allow Iran to retain control over Hormuz. The plan has not been fully published but is understood to be a starting point for talks.

Iranian media say Iran is considering a plan to charge up to $2m per vessel to be shared with Oman on the opposite side of the strait. Other reports suggest Iran could charge $1 per barrel of oil being shipped.

Revenues raised would be used to rebuild military and civilian infrastructure damaged by US-Israeli strikes, Tehran said.

Oman has rejected the idea. Transport minister Said Al-Maawali said on Wednesday that the Omanis previously “signed all international maritime transport agreements” which bar taking fees.

What does international law say about tolls on shipping?

Critics of Iran’s plan to charge tolls say it violates international law guiding safe maritime passage, and should not be part of a final ceasefire agreement.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) says levies cannot be charged on ships sailing through international straits or territorial seas.

The law allows coastal states to collect fees for services rendered, such as navigation assistance or port use, but not for passage itself.

Neither the US nor Iran has ratified that particular convention, however.

Even if they had, there could be ways to get around this law anyway. Analyst Bhaskar told Al Jazeera that if Iran instead charged fees to de-mine the strait and make it safe for passage again, that could be allowable under maritime laws.

There is no precedent in recent history of countries officially taxing passage through international straits or waterways.

In October 2024, a United Nations Security Council report alleged that the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen were collecting “illegal fees” from shipping companies to allow vessels to pass through the Red Sea and the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, where it was targeting ships linked to Israel during the Gaza war.

Last week, a top adviser to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei suggested the Houthis could shut the Bab al-Mandeb shipping route again in light of the war on Iran.

How might countries react to a Hormuz toll?

Tolls for passage through the Strait of Hormuz would likely most affect oil and gas-producing countries in the Gulf, but ripple effects will spread to others as well, as the current supply shocks have shown.

Gulf countries, which issued statements calling for the reopening of the passage and praising the ceasefire on Wednesday, would also face a continuing degree of uncertainty, analysts say, as Iran could again disrupt flows in the future.

Before the ceasefire was announced, Bahrain had already proposed a resolution at the UN Security Council calling on member states to coordinate and jointly reopen the passage by “all necessary means”. It was backed by Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan. On April 7, 11 of 15 UNSC members voted in favour of that resolution.

But Russia and China vetoed the resolution, saying it was biased against Iran and did not address the initial strikes on Iran by the US and Israel.

Beyond the region, observers say the US is unlikely to accept indefinite toll demands by Iran as part of the negotiations expected to begin on Friday.

A toll to pass through the Strait of Hormuz “is not going to go down well with President Trump and his expectations that the strait should be open for everyone”, Amin Saikal, a professor at the Australian National University, said.

Other major powers have also voiced opposition. Ahead of the ceasefire, Britain had begun discussions with 40 other countries to find a way to reopen the strait.

Practical realities in the strait might see a different scenario play out with ship owners losing millions each day their vessels remain stranded seeking to get them out quickly and undamaged experts say. They are more likely to comply with Iran, at least for now.

“If I were the owner of a VLCC [very large crude carrier] which weighs about 300,000 tonnes, whose value could be a quarter billion dollars…I would believe the Iranians if they said we have laid mines,” Bhaskar said.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk describes Israel’s attacks on Lebanon as ‘horrific’ coming so soon after US-Iran ceasefire announcement.

Ecuador has recalled its ambassador from Colombia over remarks related to a high-profile criminal case that has stirred tensions across Latin America.

The case in question is that of former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas, a left-wing figure currently serving a lengthy prison sentence for corruption.

This week marks the two-year anniversary of a controversial police raid that saw Ecuadorian authorities storm the Mexican embassy in Quito to arrest Glas, who had sought asylum in the diplomatic facility.

But the right-wing government of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, which authorised the raid, has denounced criticisms of the Glas case as a violation of his country’s sovereignty.

Wednesday’s decision to recall Ambassador Arturo Felix Wong from Bogota is the latest sign of cross-border strife with Ecuador’s neighbour, Colombia, and its left-wing President Gustavo Petro.

In a local radio interview on Wednesday, Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld confirmed that her country’s ambassador to Colombia had been recalled.

The criticisms of the Glas case, she added, were uncalled for. “It’s clearly a provocation because these kinds of messages come out of nowhere,” she said.

Her remarks echoed those of Noboa himself, who has led a months-long feud with the Colombian government.

“This country has waited years to see the corrupt answer to justice,” Noboa said in a social media message on Tuesday.

He denounced critics, like Petro, who consider Glas to be a “political prisoner” and warned that he considered such rhetoric to be a form of foreign interference.

“I wish to be emphatic: This constitutes an assault on our sovereignty and a violation of the principle of non-intervention,” Noboa said.

His statement appeared to be prompted by a series of social media posts Petro wrote on the anniversary of the Mexican embassy raid, which took place on April 5, 2024.

That episode resulted in Mexico breaking its diplomatic relations with Ecuador, a rupture that endures to this day.

Critics called the raid a violation of international law. Treaties like the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations protect embassies and consulates from military and law enforcement actions without prior consent.

Glas had been sheltering in the Mexican embassy since December 2023, claiming he was facing political persecution in Ecuador.

After the raid, he was sentenced to an additional 13 years in prison for the misuse of public funds, in addition to prison terms for two prior corruption cases.

Glas was one of several politicians who were convicted as part of the Odebrecht scandal, which saw government officials across Latin America accused of taking bribes in exchange for issuing favourable contracts to certain business interests.

In 2017, Glas was sentenced to six years in prison for allegedly accepting bribes worth $13.5m, and in 2020, he faced an additional eight-year sentence. He has been barred from ever holding public office again.

Last September, Colombia granted citizenship to Glas. President Petro then called for Glas to be transferred into Colombian custody. He reprised that request in a social media post on Monday.

“I called for there to be no political prisoners in any country in the Americas. It is undeniable that Jorge Glas is a political prisoner,” Petro wrote in the first of two posts on the subject.

In the second, published the next day, Petro raised concerns about Glas’s health and wellbeing. The former vice president is serving his sentence in a maximum-security prison in Ecuador, El Encuentro.

“Jorge Glas is a Colombian citizen, and he is a political prisoner,” Petro said.

“I call upon international human rights organisations to safeguard his rights. His health condition now poses a threat to his life; due to his imprisonment, he has not received adequate sustenance and is currently suffering from severe malnutrition and muscle mass loss.”

Petro added that “allowing a person to starve to death” would constitute a “crime against humanity”.

The heated rhetoric between Petro and Noboa is part of a long-running spat between the two leaders.

Since March alone, Noboa has slapped Colombia with 50-percent tariffs, based on accusations it has been too lax in its fight against drug trafficking.

Petro, meanwhile, has accused Noboa of carrying out a bombing campaign near the Colombian border, resulting in the recovery of 27 charred bodies.

Noboa has been leading an aggressive, military-led anti-narcotics campaign with the support of United States President Donald Trump, who has similarly criticised left-wing governments like Petro’s for failing to tamp down on drug trafficking.

Noboa and Trump have grown close since the US president was sworn in for a second term in January 2025, and Ecuador’s policies towards regional governments and drug-trafficking have echoed those of the US.

The Diamond League’s season-opening event in Doha has been postponed until June amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

The meeting, the first of 15 stops on the Diamond League circuit this season, was set to be held at the Qatar Sports Club on 8 May but will instead take place at the Khalifa International Stadium on 19 June “should conditions allow”.

It comes after conflict was sparked across the Middle East when the US and Israel launched wide-ranging strikes on Iran in February.

This year’s Diamond League series will now begin on 16 May in Keqiao, China.

The decision to also change the venue of the Doha meeting was taken because of Qatar’s scorching summer temperatures, which can exceed 40C in June.

The Khalifa International Stadium, which hosted the World Athletics Championships in 2019, is temperature regulated to allow for safe competition.

The new date of the Doha event will fall between the Oslo (10 June) and Paris (28 June) Diamond League meetings, making it the eighth leg of this year’s series.

Diamond League organisers said they would “continue to monitor developments in the Middle East in the coming weeks”.

“The series and meeting organisers remain committed to delivering the highest level of safe and secure competition for athletes, media and spectators,” they added in a statement on Wednesday.

Several high-profile sporting events have been affected by the crisis in the Middle East, including the cancellation of Formula 1 Grand Prix weekends in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in April.

Donald Trump warned that “a whole civilisation will die tonight” if Iran does not open the Strait of Hormuz, ahead of a Tuesday night deadline for Tehran to comply. The comments follow a “pretty shocking” silence from US Congress on the US-Israeli war, Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett explains.

Israeli forces raided the Muslim Youth Association in Hebron, firing tear gas at Palestinians and shutting down the group’s headquarters. Troops confiscated and destroyed equipment during the raid.

Arrest comes after Roberts-Smith lost case against journalists who said he was involved in murders of unarmed Afghan men.

Former Australian special forces soldier Ben Roberts-Smith has been arrested at Sydney airport and is expected to face charges for alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

The 47-year-old was expected to appear in a court in New South Wales later on Tuesday over five counts of the war crime of murder, related to unarmed Afghan nationals who “were not taking part in hostilities at the time of their alleged murder”, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday, according to the ABC.

Barrett said the charges followed a “complex” investigation by the AFP news agency and the Office of the Special Investigator (OSI) dating back to 2021.

The arrest comes after Roberts-Smith lost defamation proceedings he brought against journalists who had reported he was “complicit in and responsible for the murder” of three Afghan men.

An Australian judge found in 2023 that those journalists had not defamed Roberts-Smith, a ruling that was upheld by the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia in May last year.

Rawan Arraf, the executive director of the Australian Centre for International Justice, said the arrest was a “significant and long-awaited step for victims and affected communities” in Afghanistan, where Roberts-Smith was deployed multiple times.

“The proper investigation and prosecution of alleged war crimes by members of the Australian special forces in Afghanistan are essential to ensuring justice for Afghan victims and to Australia meeting its obligations under international law,” Arraf said in a statement.

About 39,000 Australian soldiers were deployed to Afghanistan as part of the United States and NATO-led operations against the Taliban and other armed groups over two decades.

Roberts-Smith’s case has drawn considerable scrutiny in Australia, including because prior to the charges, he had received the Victoria Cross medal for his fifth tour of Afghanistan, and was reportedly the most-decorated living Australian war veteran.

Meanwhile, former Australian army lawyer David McBride remains imprisoned in Australia over his role in revealing information about alleged Australian war crimes in Afghanistan.

Australian Senator David Shoebridge responded to the news of Roberts-Smith’s arrest by saying “Release David McBride” in a short post on X.

April 6 (Asia Today) — South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said Monday the conflict between the United States and Iran could enter a lull by the end of this month, while also assessing that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is solidifying a succession plan centered on his daughter.

The assessment was delivered during a closed-door briefing to the National Assembly’s intelligence committee.

The agency said the conflict, which began in February, remains a war of attrition with relatively low likelihood of major escalation, despite continued military pressure.

It said the United States and Israel maintain battlefield superiority, while Iran is leveraging its geopolitical position, including control over energy routes, to sustain its position.

The agency said both sides may pursue limited negotiations, including a potential arrangement in which Iran reopens the Strait of Hormuz and the United States releases frozen Iranian assets.

Officials said the possibility of the United States escalating the conflict with ground troop deployment remains low for now.

The agency added that the trajectory of the conflict over the coming days, particularly the impact of U.S. airstrikes, will likely determine whether tensions ease toward the end of April.

On North Korea, the intelligence service said Kim Jong Un’s daughter Ju-ae can now be regarded as a likely successor, based on recent intelligence.

It said Ju-ae has increasingly appeared in military-related settings, suggesting efforts to build her leadership profile and normalize the idea of a female successor.

The agency also said recent imagery and public appearances appear designed to highlight her military credentials, including staged scenes reminiscent of Kim Jong Un’s own rise to power.

In contrast, the agency assessed that Kim Yo Jong, Kim’s sister, does not hold substantial independent power, and will likely continue serving as a senior aide and public spokesperson.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260406010001642

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Monday will be the “largest volume of strikes” on Iran since the US-Israeli war began, adding that tomorrow could be even worse if Iran does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

WHO driver Majdi Aslan was killed and a WHO doctor wounded, along with several other Palestinians, medical sources said.

A member of staff from the World Health Organization (WHO) has been killed in Gaza and several others injured when the Israeli army fired on their vehicle, according to sources, including an Al Jazeera correspondent.

WHO driver Majdi Aslan, 54, was killed on Monday. A doctor from the international organisation and several other Palestinians were also injured in the incident in eastern Khan Younis, according to sources at the enclave’s Nasser and Al-Aqsa hospitals.

As the world’s attention remains fixed on the United States-Israel war on Iran, Israel is continuing its attacks on the Gaza Strip, which has seen near-daily Israeli fire and strikes since a fragile ceasefire was reached in October, with more than 700 Palestinians killed since, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Monday’s incident took place in an area close to the so-called yellow line in eastern Khan Younis, reported Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud.

Israeli forces shot “indiscriminately” at people and vehicles moving along the Salah al-Din Street in the southern Gaza Strip, he said.

A commercial vehicle was transporting civilians between southern and central Gaza. It was followed by a car carrying WHO employees, said Mahmoud.

“The driver was shot in the head, and by the time he was transported to the Al-Aqsa Hospital, he was announced dead,” the correspondent reported from Gaza City. Seven or so others suffered injuries, he added.

Translation: Qamar Majdi Mustafa Aslan (54 years old), a resident of Bureij camp, who ascended after being wounded in a shooting targeting a World Health Organization vehicle on Salah al-Din Street east of Khan Younis city.

WHO did not immediately confirm that the man killed was an employee, but said in a statement emailed to Al Jazeera that “this morning, a critical security incident occurred in Gaza that is under review by relevant authorities”.

“As [a] result of this critical security incident, today’s medical evacuation from Gaza via Rafah to Egypt has been put on hold with immediate effect, until further notice,” the statement added.

WHO has been overseeing coordination between Egypt and Israel since the opening of the Rafah crossing, which has allowed small numbers of injured Palestinians desperate for medical aid to leave to seek treatment abroad.

Israel has, however, continued to limit the entry of humanitarian aid into the besieged territory, also shutting the vital crossing in the early days of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Elsewhere on Monday in the southern part of Khan Younis, a Palestinian man with special needs was killed after being shot by Israeli soldiers.

To the north, a drone attack in Gaza City killed one person, Mahmoud said.

“The target was an electric bike … moving in the area that was struck by drone missiles. It killed … a 36-year-old individual who was moving … around the displacement camps,” he reported.

A child was also injured in the attack and is now in critical condition in hospital, the correspondent added.

Two Palestinians were also killed in Israeli drone strikes on the Yarmouk and Shujayea neighbourhoods, according to a medical source at al-Shifa Hospital.

Sources at Gaza hospitals have reported the deaths of eight Palestinians in Israeli air strikes outside areas under Israeli control since Sunday.

United States President Donald Trump has announced that the US military has rescued a missing American fighter jet crew member in Iran.

The Air Force officer went missing in a remote part of Iran after the downing of his F-15 jet on Friday. Its two crew members ejected from the plane. The pilot was quickly rescued by US forces, but a search had to be launched for the F-15’s weapons systems officer.

In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump wrote that the US had rescued the second “seriously wounded, and really brave” airman from “deep inside the mountains of Iran”. It was reported that a firefight between US and Iranian forces took place in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province before the rescue. Iran has not confirmed this, however.

Here is how the complicated rescue mission unfolded:

What has Trump said about the rescue?

While the identity of the rescued airman has not been made public, Trump referred to him as “a highly respected Colonel”.

He added that the type of rescue mission that recovered him “is seldom attempted because of the danger to ‘man and equipment’”.

Trump said two raids had taken place, and the pilot was rescued in “broad daylight” during the second raid. It is unclear when precisely the pilot was rescued. The US president wrote that the rescue was “unusual, spending seven hours over Iran”.

In his post, Trump said he would talk more about the rescue mission during a news conference with the US military in the Oval Office of the White House on Monday at 1pm (17:00 GMT).

Trump wrote on Truth Social: “This brave Warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour, but was never truly alone because his Commander in Chief, Secretary of War, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and fellow Warfighters were monitoring his location 24 hours a day, and diligently planning for his rescue.”

Trump added that he had ordered dozens of aircraft carrying “lethal weapons” to be sent to retrieve the airman, who had managed to evade Iranian forces for two days.

How did the search unfold?

On Friday morning, the US confirmed that an F-15E Strike Eagle had been shot down over southern Iran. The F-15 is a tactical fighter jet used by the US Air Force that first flew in 1972. Modern variants of the jet cost more than $90m each.

State media outlets in Iran showed photos of what they said was wreckage from the F-15 and what appeared to be an ejection seat with an attached parachute.

Trump suggested that the US knew the location of the plane’s second airman and was tracking him as the rescue mission unfolded.

Iran was also racing to locate the airman. Tehran called on the public to hand over the soldier to the authorities in what appeared to be an effort to secure an American prisoner of war.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed on Sunday that Iranian forces had also destroyed two C-130 aircraft and two Black Hawk helicopters during the operation to rescue the US airman in southern Isfahan province.

What do we know about the two C-130 planes that Iran says it destroyed?

The C-130 Hercules and the newer C-130J Super Hercules variant were developed by the US weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin. They are military transport aircraft primarily used for tactical airlifts, troop transport and medical evacuations.

The Wall Street Journal reported that each C-130 costs more than $100m.

The newspaper said in a report on Sunday that the US blew up the C-130 jets on the ground during the rescue operation, quoting an unnamed person familiar with the matter. This unnamed official did not explain how the jets were downed during the rescue operation but told the outlet that it was necessary to destroy them to ensure they did not fall into enemy hands.

Has the US lost other military assets or personnel?

Yes. This conflict has killed 13 US service members and wounded more than 300, the US military’s Central Command said, but no US soldiers have been taken prisoner by Iran.

Since the start of the war on February 28, the US has lost three F-15 fighter jets in what it said was a friendly fire incident over Kuwait. A US military refuelling aircraft also went down over Iraq last month, killing all six crew members.

According to the US military, the last US fighter jet to be shot down by enemy fire before the F-15 on Friday was an A-10 Thunderbolt II during the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.

At least one Black Hawk helicopter was hit during the initial rescue operation, US officials said, but it managed to stay airborne.

An A-10 Warthog aircraft was also hit near the Strait of Hormuz a short time after the F-15E on Friday, but its pilot was able to eject before the plane crashed and was subsequently rescued. Iranian media reported this aircraft was hit by Iran’s defence systems.

Iran has not yet confirmed that a firefight took place before the F-15 airman’s rescue. Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said a firefight appeared to have occurred in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province and nine people were reported to have been killed in “strikes” there although it was unclear if this was related to the US rescue mission.

Abu Obeida says calling for the group’s disarmament amounts to an attempt to continue Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida has said that calling for the group’s disarmament amounted to an attempt to continue Israel’s genocide.

Hamas’s armed wing has rejected calls for the Palestinian group to disarm, saying that discussing the issue before Israel fully implements the first phase of the United States-brokered “ceasefire” in Israel’s war on Gaza amounts to an attempt to continue the genocide against the Palestinian people.

In a televised statement on Sunday, Obeida, who is Hamas’s armed wing spokesperson, said that raising the issue of weapons “in a crude manner” would not be accepted.

The issue of Hamas relinquishing its weapons is a major obstacle in talks to implement US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza, aimed at ending Israel’s war on the besieged territory.

Since the US- and Qatar-brokered “ceasefire” took effect in October, more than 705 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Hamas has told mediators it will not discuss disarmament without guarantees that Israel will completely withdraw from Gaza, three sources told the Reuters news agency last week.

“What the enemy is trying to push through today against the Palestinian resistance, via our brotherly mediators, is extremely dangerous,” Obeida said.

He said the disarmament demands were “nothing but an overt attempt to continue the genocide against our people, something we will not accept under any circumstances”.

It was not immediately clear whether the comments amounted to a formal rejection of the US-backed plan, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms.

Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which began after the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel in October 2023, has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians and injured at least 172,000 others.

Obeida urged mediators to pressure Israel to fulfil its commitments under the first phase of the Trump plan before any discussion of the second phase can take place.

“The enemy is the one who undermines the agreement,” he said.

There was no immediate comment from Israel on his remarks.

Obeida also addressed Israel’s role in the US-Israel war on Iran, condemning it for launching strikes on Iran “in the midst of the deception of negotiations, with full collusion and conspiracy with the United States”.

The US had been involved in talks with Iran over its nuclear programme in the weeks before the US and Israel launched the war on February 28.

In Iran, more than 2,000 people have been killed and at least 26,500 others injured since the war began.

Obeida also condemned Israel’s renewed offensive “against sisterly Lebanon”, which it launched on March 2 after the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel.

Israel’s assault on Lebanon has killed more than 1,400 people and displaced over 1.2 million, according to Lebanese authorities.

Obeida commended Iran, Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis for their continued strikes against Israel.

Hamas’s spokesman also condemned the Israeli parliament’s passage of a new death penalty law that only applies to Palestinians, urging people in the West Bank “to seek, by every possible means, to liberate the [Palestinian] prisoners” held in Israeli jails.

The activists were protesting the alleged use of the RAF base as a departure point for US aircraft involved in the US-Israel war on Iran.

British police have arrested seven people on suspicion of supporting the banned group Palestine Action at a protest near a Royal Air Force (RAF) air base in eastern England used by United States forces.

The five men and two women arrested at a peace encampment just outside the Lakenheath airbase had gathered with other activists on Sunday to protest the alleged use of the base as a departure point for US aircraft involved in the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The Lakenheath Alliance for Peace, which organised the protest, said the seven had been arrested wearing clothing with the message: “We oppose genocide, we support Palestine Action.”

Police said the protesters had been arrested “on suspicion of supporting a proscribed organisation”.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government banned Palestine Action as a “terrorist” organisation last year, making it a criminal offence to belong to or support the group.

In February, a court ruled the ban was “disproportionate” and interfered with the right to free speech. But the government has appealed, and the ban remains in effect in the meantime.

More than 2,700 people have been arrested and hundreds charged over rallies in support of the group, according to protest organisers Defend Our Juries.

Police said in a statement on the latest arrests that they had a duty to enforce the law “as it currently stands, not as it might be in the future”.

Two protesters were also arrested on Saturday at Lakenheath and charged with obstructing public thoroughfares, police said.

US President Donald Trump has railed against Starmer for what he calls insufficient support in the US-Israel war on Iran, straining the countries’ longtime alliance.

The United Kingdom has authorised the US to use British military bases to carry out “defensive” operations against Iran and protect the vital Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil passes in peacetime.