Israeli

Police in the Australian city of Sydney have used pepper spray against pro-Palestine protesters who have rallied against a visit by Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

A journalist with the AFP news agency witnessed police arresting at least 15 demonstrators during the confrontation on Monday. Media members covering the event were also affected by pepper spray.

Thousands of demonstrators gathered in Sydney’s business district with more protests planned across the country on Monday night.

In Melbourne’s city centre, simultaneous protests took place with participants demanding an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory. About 5,000 protesters gathered outside downtown Flinders Street Railway Station before marching several blocks to the State Library, blocking evening peak-hour traffic, according to police.

The protests continued despite Palestine Action Group organisers losing a court challenge of a police order barring them from marching from the Town Hall in Sydney to the New South Wales Parliament.

A 20-year-old woman was arrested after allegedly burning two flags and causing fire damage to a tram stop. Police released her but said she was expected to face wilful damage charges.

Activists said Herzog, whom a United Nations commission of inquiry has found to be responsible for inciting genocide against Palestinians, should not be immune to protests.

“President Herzog has unleashed immense suffering on Palestinians in Gaza for over two years – brazenly and with total impunity,” Amnesty International’s Australia chapter said. “Welcoming President Herzog as an official guest undermines Australia’s commitment to accountability and justice. We cannot remain silent.”

Herzog characterised the protests as mostly attempts to “undermine and delegitimise” Israel’s right to exist.

Earlier, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had called for respectful behaviour during Herzog’s visit, noting he would join the president to meet families of the victims of the December Bondi Beach mass shooting.

New South Wales authorities implemented recently expanded police powers under new protest management legislation. Protesters’ legal challenge to these measures was rejected by the state’s Supreme Court shortly before the demonstrations began.

Herzog had earlier laid a wreath in the rain at Bondi Pavilion to honour victims of the attack that killed 15 people during a Hanukkah celebration.

The Israeli president began his four-day Australian visit there. He also met with survivors and victims’ families.

“This was also an attack ‌on all Australians,” Herzog said at the site. “They attacked the values that our democracies treasure, the sanctity of human life, the freedom of religion, tolerance, dignity and respect.”

“I’m here to express solidarity, friendship and love,” he added.

The entrance of the Armenian Church in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem witnessed a new assault on Sunday, carried out by Israeli settlers. Surveillance camera footage and eyewitness testimonies showed several of them deliberately spitting in front of the church entrance, in a provocative attack that violates freedom of worship and targets Christian holy sites.

Local sources said Israeli occupation forces also raided the town of al-Issawiya, northeast of occupied Jerusalem, and the al-Bustan neighbourhood in Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque. The occupation forces were deployed in streets and residential areas, causing tension among residents.  

The sources added that the occupation municipality in Jerusalem imposed a fine of 5,000 shekels on the manager of the post office in Silwan, claiming that a “no smoking” sign was not displayed, despite the sign being inside the office. The move was seen as part of ongoing administrative pressure targeting Palestinian institutions.

In the same context, Israeli forces raided shops in the Ain al-Lawza neighbourhood in Silwan and checked the identities of workers. This disrupted commercial activity and caused losses to local businesses.

These incidents come amid a series of continued violations targeting the holy city and its residents, as part of an ongoing escalation by Israeli forces and settlers against Palestinian neighbourhoods and holy sites.

READ: Israeli forces detain journalists, foreign activists in southern West Bank following settler attacks 

Milan, Italy – The world’s largest shipping line has been enabling the transport of goods to and from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, as the United States and Europe continue to promote trade despite clear responsibilities under international law, a joint investigation by Al Jazeera and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) reveals.

The Switzerland-based Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) has regularly shipped cargo from companies based in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, according to commercial documents obtained through US import databases.

Between January 1 and November 22, 2025, lading bills show that MSC facilitated at least 957 shipments of goods from Israeli outposts to the US. Of these shipments, 529 transited through European ports, including 390 in Spain, 115 in Portugal, 22 in the Netherlands, and two in Belgium.

MSC is privately owned by Italian billionaire Gianluigi Aponte and his wife, Rafaela Aponte-Diamant, who was born in the Israeli city of Haifa in 1945, then under British rule as Mandatory Palestine.

“Israeli settlements are widely considered illegal under international law, because they are built on occupied territory, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention,” Nicola Perugini, senior lecturer in international relations at the University of Edinburgh, told Al Jazeera. “Commercialising products from these settlements effectively supports the illegal settlements.”

The findings capture a limited portion of the settlement trade, since import and export data from Israel and most European countries is not publicly available. They reveal a reliance on cargo shipping companies and European maritime ports for the transport of a vast range of settlement products, from food items and textiles to skin care and natural stones.

Perugini said states should ban trade with illegal settlements entirely, as it contributes to ongoing violations of international law.

“You cannot normalise the profits of an illegal occupation,” he said.

US, EU positions on illegal settlements

Under President Donald Trump, the US adopted a permissive stance towards Israeli settlements, reversing decades of policy in 2019. Washington declared them as not inherently illegal under international law and continued this approach upon Trump’s re-election in 2025.

While the EU does not recognise Israel’s sovereignty over West Bank settlements and regards them as an “obstacle to peace”, the findings show that goods were delivered directly from European ports to illegal settlements.

In 2025, MSC facilitated at least 14 shipments from Italy, according to Italian export data. In each case, the cargo originated from the port of Ravenna, which stretches along the Adriatic Sea in central Italy, and openly listed the names and zip codes of Israeli settlements as recipients.

The trade stands in contrast with a landmark 2024 opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) advising that third states are obliged to “prevent trade or investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.

The ICJ opinion does not directly address the responsibility of private corporations like MSC.

In April, the UN Human Rights Council urged individual corporate actors to “cease contributing to the establishment, maintenance, development or consolidation of Israeli settlements or the exploitation of the natural resources of the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.

Additionally, a 2024 EU directive on corporate sustainability mandates that large companies working in the bloc identify and address adverse human rights and environmental impacts in their operations.

PYM, a grassroots, international pro-Palestinian movement, last year found that Maersk, Denmark’s publicly owned shipping company, facilitated trade from Israeli settlements.

The world’s biggest container group before being overtaken by MSC in 2022, Maersk is now reviewing its screening process to align with the UN Global Compact, which urges companies to adopt sustainable, socially responsible policies, and guidelines from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to the same effect.

MSC told Al Jazeera in a statement that it “respects global legal frameworks and regulations wherever it operates” and applies this “to all shipments to and from Israel”.

Despite insurance companies raising premiums due to security risk as Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, MSC announced that it would absorb the extra costs rather than impose war surcharges.

It also holds cooperation and vessel-sharing agreements with Israel’s publicly held cargo shipping company, ZIM.

The Spanish and Italian interior ministries were also contacted by Al Jazeera, but did not respond to requests for comment on the shipments.

The Israeli ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Sustaining settlement economy

According to UN estimates, settlements in Area C – comprising more than 60 percent of the occupied West Bank that Israel controls – and occupied East Jerusalem contribute about $30bn to the Israeli economy each year.

As Israel enforces administrative and physical barriers that severely limit Palestinian businesses, the West Bank’s economy is understood to have suffered a cumulative loss of $170bn between 2000 and 2024.

Israel has recently accelerated efforts to build illegal settlements in the heart of the occupied West Bank, pressing a controversial project known as E1 that could effectively sever Palestinian land and further cut off East Jerusalem.

The plan includes about 3,500 apartments that would be situated next to the existing settlement of Maale Adumim.

Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said the project would effectively “bury” the idea of a sovereign Palestinian state.

In August, 21 countries, including Italy and Spain, condemned the plan as a “violation of international law” that risked “undermining security”.

Bills of lading obtained by Al Jazeera and PYM show that MSC delivered shipments on behalf of at least two companies, listing their address in Maale Adumim and the nearby Mishor Adumim industrial zone.

Maya, a wholesale supplier for supplement and candy companies, lists Mishor Adumim in the shipper address in 13 out of 14 shipments. Extal, a private company that develops aluminium solutions and holds partnerships with Israeli weapons manufacturers – including Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems – listed the Mishor Adumim industrial zone in all 38 bills of lading.

Extal is among 158 companies listed by the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) in its database of entities officially known to be operating from illegal Israeli settlements.

In at least three other cases, MSC delivered shipments on behalf of settlement-based companies listed in the OHCHR database.

This includes 17 shipments from Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories, an Israeli world-renowned cosmetic brand that has come under intense scrutiny for reportedly pillaging Palestinian natural resources.

A substantial portion of the settlement-based companies listed in the bills of lading were based in the Barkan Industrial Zone, one of the largest in the occupied West Bank. The area was established on confiscated private Palestinian agricultural land and, over the past 20 years, its expansion has led to the fragmentation and isolation of nearby Palestinian villages.

Obligation to uphold human rights

European member states are aware of a gap between the business-as-usual reality on the ground and the mandates of international law.

In June, nine EU countries called on the European Commission to come up with proposals on how to discontinue EU trade with Israeli settlements.

“This is about ensuring that EU policies do not contribute, directly or indirectly, to the perpetuation of an illegal situation,” the letter addressed to EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said. It was signed by foreign ministers from Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

The European Commission has not fulfilled the request. Currently, products originating from the settlements can be imported into Europe, but do not benefit from the preferential tariffs of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. Since an EU court ruling in 2019, they must be labelled as originating from Israeli settlements.

Hugh Lovatt, senior policy fellow with the Middle East and North Africa programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), said the EU theoretically has an obligation to align its policies with international law.

Whether that happens “comes down to a political decision”.

“Human rights abuses should be a core criterion for deciding what to buy and what to invest in,” he said. “But in the current global attitude, that approach has been increasingly undermined.”

In 2022, restrictions on trade and investment were imposed on Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine following Moscow’s full-scale invasion, but no similar measures were taken towards illegal Israeli settlements.

A few member states have opted to take independent action. Spain and Slovenia last year banned the imports of goods produced in Israeli settlements, while Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands are working on legislation.

As of January 2026, Spain banned importing goods produced in Israeli settlements, but its measures do not make explicit mention of transshipments through its ports.

Bills of lading obtained as part of this investigation show that the port of Valencia plays a key role, receiving 358 out of a total of 390 shipments transiting through Spain.

Several bills of lading directly reference illegal settlements in the Syrian Golan Heights.

Aquestia Ltd, a company that specialises in hydraulic systems, list Kfar Haruv and Ramat HaGolan in the shipper address. Miriam Shoham, which exports fresh fruit, also lists Ramot HaGolan, while polypropylene manufacturer Mapal Cooperative Society lists Mevo Hama.

PYM said, “MSC’s transfers to and from Israeli settlements are systemic and in violation of both international and domestic Spanish laws.

“MSC provides the infrastructure connecting illegal settlements to global markets, thus encouraging further occupation of Palestinian and Syrian land.”

The opening ceremony of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics on Friday was marked by audible boos from the crowd as delegations from the US and Israel entered the San Siro stadium, Anadolu reports.

US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio led the American delegation.

As Vance appeared on the stadium’s big screen, waving the US flag, the crowd responded with jeers, according to live coverage of the event.

“There is the Vice President JD Vance and his wife Usha. Oops — those are a lot of boos for him,” an announcer was heard saying during the broadcast.

The reaction followed days of tension surrounding the participation of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Olympic security.

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the presence of Homeland Security Investigations personnel in Milan, prompting widespread protests and opposition from Italian lawmakers and citizens.

READ: Israel’s Netanyahu again dodges responsibility for Oct. 7 failures, blames army, past governments

“They’re not welcome in Milan,” said Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala in a radio interview, calling ICE a “militia that kills.”

Thousands gathered in Piazza 25 Aprile last weekend to demonstrate against the agents’ presence and raise concerns about civil rights violations.

International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry responded to concerns ahead of the ceremony, saying: “I hope that the opening ceremony is seen by everyone as an opportunity to be respectful of each other.”

The Israeli delegation, which included nine Olympians and one Paralympian, also faced a “smattering of boos” as they entered the stadium, though the crowd noise was largely drowned out by music.

Additional protests were reported in Cortina d’Ampezzo and Predazzo, where simultaneous parades were held.

Security remains a top concern for several delegations, with increased attention to political sensitivities throughout the Games.

More than 800 athletes have been killed in Gaza since the start of Israel’s offensive on Oct. 7, 2023, as the sports community continues to suffer under bombardment, famine, and the collapse of infrastructure, according to Palestinian officials.

READ: US lawmaker calls for halt to weapons transfers to Israel amid Gaza violence

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi slammed the double standard allowing Israel to expand its military while other countries in the region are demanded to reduce their defensive capabilities. Araghchi spoke at the Al Jazeera Forum in Doha, a three-day event focusing on geopolitical shifts in the Middle East.

Israeli warplanes conducted more than 50 raids on Lebanon last month amid major surge in attacks, says refugee rights NGO.

Israel is carrying out a “clear and dangerous” surge in air attacks on Lebanon, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has said, with its warplanes conducting more attacks on its neighbour in January than in any previous month since the ceasefire.

The humanitarian organisation said on Thursday that Israeli warplanes had carried out at least 50 air raids on Lebanon last month – about double the number of the previous month.

The group said the repeated attacks made a mockery of the ceasefire agreed between Israel and Lebanon in November 2024, after more than a year of cross-border attacks and a two-month-long Israeli intensification that killed thousands in Lebanon and devastated civilian infrastructure.

“These attacks – as well as the many ground incursions that continue to happen away from the cameras – have deemed the ceasefire agreement little more than ink on paper,” said Maureen Philippon, NRC’s country director in Lebanon.

The data, provided to the NRC by security company Atlas Assistance, captures only attacks carried out by manned Israeli warplanes and does not include Israeli drone attacks, which regularly result in deaths in Lebanon, or attacks carried out during Israeli ground incursions.

The Israeli attacks have continued in recent days. On Monday, Israeli warplanes targeted buildings in two villages in southern Lebanon, Kfar Tebnit and Ain Qana, after issuing evacuation orders to residents.

Israel’s military claimed the buildings were Hezbollah “military infrastructure” and said it was targeting them in response to what it said were the group’s prohibited attempts to rebuild its activities in the area.

On Wednesday, Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun accused Israel of committing an environmental crime after Israeli aircraft sprayed an unknown substance over southern Lebanese towns.

Death and displacement

The NRC said the ongoing attacks have created a climate of fear and instability for residents and were hampering much-needed reconstruction efforts, in a country still reeling from the effects of the conflict with Israel before the ceasefire.

The attacks have struck targets in dozens of cities and villages in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, destroying homes and displacing families in an environment where approximately 64,000 people have already been displaced by the conflict.

“Aid agencies, including NRC, are still dealing with the aftermath and consequences of months of destructive conflict which left much of Lebanon in ruins,” said Philippon.

She said the effect of the attacks was being felt by families and children, citing a school in west Bekaa that had recently been repaired by her organisation, only to be damaged again in a recent attack in the area.

“This means yet another spell of interrupted education for children,” she said.

Philippon called on Israel’s allies to do “everything they can to stop these attacks on civilian areas and villages”.

“This vicious cycle has to end,” she added.

‘Thousands’ of breaches

Under the terms of the November 2024 ceasefire, cross-border attacks were supposed to stop; Hezbollah was to withdraw north of the Litani River, which runs across south Lebanon; and Israel was to withdraw troops that had invaded south Lebanon in October.

Israel, however, has continued its attacks across the south and the Bekaa Valley in the east on a near-daily basis, while its army continues to occupy five points in southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese government says Israel has committed thousands of breaches of the ceasefire agreement.

Hezbollah has launched only one attack in the 14 months since the ceasefire, while Israel has killed more than 330 people in Lebanon, including at least 127 civilians, and a top Hezbollah commander, Haytham Ali Tabatabai.

Two people are reported killed in a drone strike at Maghazi camp in central Gaza while three others die in Rafah.

Israeli shelling and drone strikes across Gaza have killed at least five people and injured 11 others, according to Palestinian and Israeli officials.

The deadly strikes on Friday in central Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp and the southern city of Rafah came as Israel carried out continued targeted operations in the besieged territory, despite the ongoing ceasefire.

Two Palestinian men were killed in Maghazi after they were targeted in a drone strike, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

In Rafah, Israeli forces said in a statement that the air force had killed three “terrorists” as a group of eight had emerged from an underground location.

They said that further strikes were launched and that “soldiers continue to conduct searches in the area in order to locate and eliminate” the remaining people

Also in Rafah, Israeli naval gunboats pursued fishing boats and opened heavy machinegun fire on fishermen off the coast, according to Wafa. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Rafah is the location of a strategic border crossing to Egypt. It is the only passage between the Gaza Strip and the outside world that does not lead to Israel, and is a vital conduit for humanitarian aid.

Palestinian authorities have demanded the immediate reopening of the Rafah crossing, a stipulation of the second phase of the US-brokered ceasefire deal, saying the continued blockade has prevented the entry of necessary supplies for the tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians in the area.

Elsewhere in southern Gaza, six Palestinians were injured after Israeli forces shelled a tent sheltering displaced people in the al-Mawasi area, just west of Khan Younis, sources from al-Helal field hospital and Nasser Hospital told Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Hani al-Shaer.

Anadolu news agency reported that a pregnant woman was among those injured in the attack.

Israeli strikes and operations have killed at least 492 Palestinians and injured 1,356 since the ceasefire came into force in October, according to Palestinian authorities in Gaza.

The US-brokered ceasefire, which sought to halt the fighting between Israel and Hamas since October 7, 2023, has been in place for more than three months. Both sides accuse each other of repeated violations.

Earlier in January, Washington announced that the ceasefire had progressed to its second phase, intended to bring a definitive end to the war. However, signs of progress on the ground remain scant.

On Thursday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed the need to fully implement the ceasefire agreement, including the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.

However, the Israeli military has said its forces “remain deployed in accordance with the ceasefire agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat”.

While diplomatic circles welcome the recovery of the last Israeli captive’s remains in Gaza and the imminent partial reopening of the enclave’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt, a quieter, darker reality is taking shape on the ground.

According to comments by retired Israeli General Amir Avivi, who still advises the military, Israel has cleared land in Rafah, an area in the southern Gaza Strip that it had already flattened in more than two years of its genocidal war, to construct an enormous facility to entrench its military control and presence in Gaza for the long term.

Speaking to the Reuters news agency on Tuesday, Avivi described the project as a “big, organised camp” capable of holding hundreds of thousands of people, stating it would be equipped with “ID checks, including facial recognition”, to track every Palestinian entering or leaving.

Corroborating Avivi’s claims, exclusive analysis by Al Jazeera’s Digital Investigations Team confirms that ground preparations for this project are already well under way.

Satellite imagery captured from December 2 through Monday reveals extensive clearing operations in western Rafah. The analysis identifies an area of about 1.3sq km (half a square mile) that has undergone systematic levelling.

According to the investigation, the operations went beyond mere debris removal and involved the flattening of land previously devastated by Israeli air strikes.

The cleared zone is located adjacent to two Israeli military posts, suggesting the new camp will be under direct and immediate military supervision. The satellite evidence aligns with reports that the facility is to act as a controlled “holding pen” rather than a humanitarian shelter.

The trap of return

To analysts in Gaza, no humanitarian intent is behind this projected high-tech infrastructure, which they say is in fact a trap for Palestinians.

“What they are building is, in reality, a human-sorting mechanism reminiscent of Nazi-era selection points,” Wissam Afifa, a Gaza-based political analyst, told Al Jazeera. “It is a tool for racial filtering and a continuation of the genocide by other means.”

The reopening of the Rafah crossing, tentatively scheduled for Thursday, according to The Jerusalem Post, comes with strict Israeli conditions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted on full “security control”.

For Palestinians hoping to return to Gaza, this means submitting to what Afifa describes as “human sorting stations”.

“This mechanism is designed to deter return,” Afifa said. “Palestinians will face interrogation, humiliation and the risk of arrest at these Israeli-run checkpoints just to go home.”

By leveraging facial recognition technology confirmed by Avivi, Israel is creating a high-risk ordeal for returnees, he said. Afifa argued it will force many Palestinians to choose exile over the risk of the “sorting station”, serving Israel’s longstanding goal of depopulating the Strip.

Permanent occupation within the ‘yellow line’

The Rafah camp is just one piece of a larger puzzle. Israel in effect occupies all of Gaza with a physical military presence in 58 percent of the Gaza Strip. Its forces directly occupy an area within the “yellow line”, a self-proclaimed Israeli military buffer zone established by an October ceasefire.

“We are witnessing the re-engineering of Gaza’s geography and demography,” Afifa said. “About 70 percent of the Strip is now under direct Israeli military management.”

This assessment of a permanent foothold is reinforced by Netanyahu’s own remarks to the Knesset on Monday. By declaring that “the next phase is demilitarisation”, or disarming Hamas, rather than reconstruction, Netanyahu signalled that the military occupation has no end date.

“The talk of ‘reconstruction’ starting in Rafah under Israeli security specifications suggests they are building a permanent security infrastructure, not a sovereign Palestinian state,” Afifa added.

A ‘show’ of peace

For the more than two million Palestinians in Gaza, the hope that the return of the last Israeli captive would bring relief has turned into frustration.

“There is a deep sense of betrayal,” Afifa said. “The world celebrated the release of one Israeli body as a triumph while two million Palestinians remain hostages in their own land.”

Afifa warned that the international silence regarding these “sorting stations” risks normalising them. If the Rafah model succeeds, it would transform Gaza from a besieged territory into a high-tech prison where the simple act of travel becomes a tool of subjugation, he said.

“Israel is behaving as if it is staying forever,” Afifa concluded. “And the world is watching the show of peace while the prison walls are being reinforced.”

Social media influencer Sammy Yahood is known to spread Islamophobic content online.

Australia has cancelled the visa of an Israeli social media influencer who has campaigned against Islam, saying it will not accept visitors to the country who come to spread hatred.

Australian Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke said in a statement on Tuesday that “spreading hatred is not a good reason to come” to Australia, hours after influencer Sammy Yahood announced that his visa was cancelled three hours before his flight departed from Israel.

People who want to visit Australia should apply for the correct visa and come for the right reasons, Burke said in a statement to the AFP news agency.

Just hours before his visa was cancelled, Yahood had written on X, “Islam ACCORDING TO ISLAM does not tolerate non-believers, apostates, women’s rights, children’s rights, or gay rights.”

He also referred to Islam as a “disgusting ideology” and an “aggressor”.

Australia tightened its hate crime laws earlier this month in response to a mass shooting at a Jewish celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, which left 15 people dead.

In a recent post, Yahood, a native of the UK and a recent citizen of Israel, had also advocated for the deportation of United States Representative Ilhan Omar, a Somali-American, who is Muslim.

In another, he ridiculed the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which is responsible for coordinating relief for Palestinians and Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Israel began bulldozing UNRWA’s headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem last week, a move strongly condemned by the world body and Palestinian leaders, who said the flattening of the site marked a “barbaric new era” of unchecked defiance of international law by Israeli authorities.

Despite the cancellation of his visa to Australia, Yahood said he flew from Israel to Abu Dhabi, but was blocked from getting his connecting flight to Melbourne.

“I have been unlawfully banned from Australia, and I will be taking action,” he wrote on X.

“This is a story about tyranny, censorship and control,” he added in another post.

Yahood’s visa was reportedly cancelled under the same legislation that has been used in the past to reject people’s visas on the grounds of disseminating hatred.

Sky News Australia reported that Minister Burke previously revoked the visitor visa of Israeli-American activist and tech entrepreneur Hillel Fuld over his “Islamophobic rhetoric”, as well as the visa of Simcha Rothman, a lawmaker with Israel’s far-right Mafdal-Religious Zionism party and a member of Netanyahu’s governing coalition, amid concerns that his planned speaking tour in the country would “spread division”.

The conservative Australian Jewish Association, which had invited Yahood to speak at events in Sydney and Melbourne, said it “strongly condemned” the visa decision by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government.