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Middle East crisis live: Trump says he is pausing operation that helps ships leave strait of Hormuz after just one day

Further to what is happening in the strait, earlier today Marco Rubio told reporters that many countries want to help open Hormuz but some lack the ability to do so. Asked what the global appetite is for the US effort to reopen the strait, Rubio said the issue has not been a lack of interest but that not many can provide the assets and resources needed. “The capabilities is the issue. A lot of countries would love to do something about it. But they don’t have a navy, right? Or they can’t get there in time.” he said. The onus, he said, is on the US.

US-Iran truce teeters on meltdown as stalemate takes toll on each side

The month-old ceasefire between Iran and the US appeared to be in new peril on Tuesday with a fresh barrage of Iranian missiles reported to have targeted the United Arab Emirates as US naval forces pressed ahead with efforts to reopen the strait of Hormuz. The Iranian strike on the UAE was the second in 48 hours, and came shortly after the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, insisted the shaky truce that has paused the war in the Middle East was intact, despite the new increase in violence. On Monday, the US military said it had destroyed six Iranian small boats, as well as cruise missiles and drones, after Donald Trump sent warships to “guide” stranded tankers through the strait in a campaign he called “Project Freedom”. Hegseth told a press conference on Tuesday the operation to encourage commercial ships to transit the strait was temporary and the truce was not over. “We’re not looking for a fight … Right now the ceasefire certainly holds, but we’re going to be watching very, very closely,” he said. There was no immediate reaction from Iran, though earlier on Tuesday its parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, issued a defiant statement accusing the US of breaching the ceasefire. “We know well that the continuation of the current situation is unbearable for the United States, while we have not even begun yet,” Ghalibaf, who is considered one of the most influential senior officials in Tehran, said in a social media post. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, claimed that 10 civilian sailors had died due to the ongoing conflict in the strait of Hormuz, without providing additional details. Ships and their crews were being “held hostage”, he told a White House briefing, saying: “They’re isolated, they’re starving, they’re vulnerable.” The strait of Hormuz carries a fifth of the world’s oil and liquid gas supplies in normal times but has been virtually shut since the US and Israel began attacks on Iran on 28 February, triggering huge economic disruption around the world. More than 800 ships and roughly 20,000 crew members remain stranded west of the narrow waterway. Iran has threatened to deploy mines, drones, missiles and fast-attack craft, making passage through the strait too risky for commercial shipping. The US has countered by blockading Iranian ports. Addressing reporters, Rubio claimed Tehran was trying to make its shutdown of the waterway a “new normal”. “Under no circumstances can we ever allow them to normalize the fact that they get to blow up commercial ships and put mines in the water,” he said. “So the response to that is, we’re going to blockade your ships.” The war, which began with an Israeli strike that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s then supreme leader, now appears to have reached a stalemate. Iran is suffering huge economic losses, which may escalate dramatically if it begins to run out of storage capacity for its oil, but Trump is under pressure domestically and internationally as fuel prices surge in the US and across the rest of the world. Leaders in Washington and Tehran appear to believe they are close to victory and are unwilling to make significant concessions to allow an on-off negotiation process mediated by Pakistan to make progress. There are contesting claims from Iran and the US over events in the strait on Monday, when several merchant ships in the Gulf reported explosions or fires, and the important oil port at Fujairah in the UAE was hit by Iranian missiles. In Washington, Hegseth told reporters the US had successfully secured a path through the strait and that hundreds of commercial ships were lining up to pass through. However, only two vessels, both of them US-flagged merchant ships, are confirmed to have crossed through the waterway so far. Iran denied that any crossings had taken place and claimed that the US had targeted civilian and cargo vessels on Monday, killing five people. Trump has minimised recent violence in the strait. Speaking on Tuesday during an Oval Office event on physical fitness among American children, Trump claimed that Iran “wants to make a deal”. He said: “We’re in a little skirmish, military [sic]. I call it a skirmish, because Iran has no chance. They never did. They know it. “What I don’t like about Iran is they’ll talk to me with such great respect and then they’ll go on television. They’ll say, we did not speak to the president.” US and Iranian officials held one round of face-to-face peace talks in Islamabad last month, but efforts to arrange further meetings have been abortive. Trump has repeatedly cited Iran’s nuclear programme as a justification for the war and has insisted Iran must surrender its enriched uranium stockpiles to prevent it producing a nuclear weapon – an ambition Tehran denies. Iran presented a 14-point peace proposal to the US via Pakistan on Friday, with a reported focus on the lifting of the blockades and a new mechanism for managing the strait. Iranian press reports portrayed this as a comprehensive peace plan to be implemented within 30 days, rather than just a ceasefire. Iranian state media said on Sunday that the US had conveyed its response to the proposal via Pakistan, and Iran was reviewing it. Neither side gave details. A senior Pakistani official involved in the talks told Reuters that “backdoor diplomacy” was continuing. “We have put in a lot of efforts, actually both the sides have narrowed gaps on a majority of the issues,” the source said. Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said peace talks were progressing with Pakistan’s mediation, and warned the US and the UAE against being drawn into a “quagmire”. Iran’s state television said military officials had confirmed they attacked the UAE on Monday in response to the “US military’s adventurism”, while Iranian authorities released a map of what they said was an expanded maritime area now under Iranian control, stretching beyond the strait of Hormuz to include sections of the UAE coastline. The Iranian map included Fujairah and another Emirati port, Khor Fakkan, both on the Gulf of Oman which the UAE has relied on since the start of the conflict to bypass the blocked strait. The stalemate has cast a shadow over Trump’s delayed trip to China, planned for 14 May. China is Iran’s biggest customer, buying 80% of its oil before the war, accounting for 13% of Chinese oil imports. Rising petrol prices and a slowing global economy also pose a political threat to Trump as the US approaches congressional elections in November. A Democratic win in one or both chambers would weaken his presidency. Trump has so far shrugged off domestic concerns with some reports suggesting he is more interested in securing what he sees as his historic legacy than any immediate political concerns.

Trump accuses pope of ‘endangering a lot of Catholics’ with Iran stance

Donald Trump has issued another verbal attack against Pope Leo, accusing the pontiff of “endangering a lot of Catholics” because “he thinks it’s fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon”. The remarks come two days before Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, meets Leo at the Vatican in an effort to ease the tensions sparked by Trump’s previous broadside against the Chicago-born pontiff over his condemnation of the US-Israeli war on Iran. Speaking to Hugh Hewitt, a prominent conservative radio talkshow host on the US-based Salem News network, Trump said the pope “would rather talk about the fact that it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, and I don’t think that’s very good”. “I think he’s endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people,” the president added. “But I guess if it’s up to the pope, he thinks it’s just fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.” Leo has never said that Iran should have nuclear weapons, but has repeatedly opposed the war on the country and the subsequent escalation of the conflict in Lebanon and the wider Middle East, calling for ceasefires and dialogue. Brian Burch, the US ambassador to the Holy See, said on Tuesday that he expected a “frank” meeting between Rubio, a Catholic, and Leo at the Apostolic Palace on Thursday morning. “Nations have disagreements, and I think one of the ways that you work through those is … through fraternity and authentic dialogue,” Burch told reporters, adding that he thought Rubio was coming to the Vatican “in that spirit, to have a frank conversation about US policy, to engage in dialogue”. Burch said he did not accept the idea that there was “some deep rift” between the US and the Vatican, saying that Rubio was coming so that each side could “better understand each other, and to work through, if there are differences, certainly to talk through that”. The trip, which coincides with the first anniversary of Leo’s papacy, was organised after Trump lashed out at the pope in April, calling him weak and saying he was not doing a very good job as pontiff. Trump also shared an AI-generated image depicting himself as a Jesus-like figure, before deleting it and saying it had actually been a portrayal of him as a doctor. Rubio later denied his trip to the Vatican was designed to “smooth things over” between Pope Leo and Trump, and tried to downplay the rift. “It’s a trip we had planned from before, and obviously we had some stuff that happened and no, look, there’s a lot to talk about with the Vatican,” he said. The US secretary of state will also endeavour to patch things up with the Italian government after Trump berated its prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, previously one of his closest allies in Europe. She had criticised his remarks against Leo, rebuking her government for not supporting the strikes on Iran and threatening to withdraw US troops from Italy as a result. Rubio will also meet the Vatican’s secretary of state, Pietro Parolin, before meeting Meloni and the Italian foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, on Friday morning. The US vice-president, JD Vance – a Catholic convert – has also criticised the pope, saying the Vatican should “stick to matters of morality” and that Leo should be careful when it came to talking about theology and war. Rubio and Vance attended the pope’s inauguration in May last year and had a private audience with him the day after, during which they handed him an invitation from Trump to the White House that Leo has not yet taken up.

Ex-US spy for Israel calls for Gaza ethnic cleansing as he seeks Knesset seat

Jonathan Pollard, a former US navy intelligence analyst jailed for 30 years for spying for Israel, has said he will stand for election to the Knesset this year on a platform of ethnic cleansing. Speaking to Channel 13 television, Pollard said: “I personally prefer the forcible removal of all current residents of Gaza, and the annexation of Gaza and its repopulation by us.” Pollard said he decided to enter politics because of the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israeli communities that killed nearly 1,200 people and triggered the Gaza war. He blamed the Israeli government for failure to prevent the attack or intervene quickly after it began. “Until then, I thought that the abandonment and betrayal I experienced from the government was an exception and not the rule, but after October 7 I realized that I was not an exception,” he said. Pollard was released on parole at the age of 61 from US prison in 2015 after serving 30 years for selling military secrets to Israel for money. He and his wife, Anne Henderson, were arrested in 1985 after Pollard passed a huge volume of classified documents to Israeli intelligence – enough to fill a 10ftx6ftx6ft room, by Pollard’s own calculation. In return he received cash and jewels. Marion Bowman, a Pentagon lawyer who assessed the damage to US national security by Pollard’s espionage, told NBC News in 2014 the spy had been motivated by money as much as allegiance to Israel, and alleged he had provided highly classified materials to two other countries. He pleaded guilty in 1986 in hopes of avoiding a life sentence, but in 1987 the plea agreement was rejected by a federal judge. He was championed during his imprisonment by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and he was awarded Israeli citizenship while in jail. The terms of Pollard’s parole did not allow him to leave the US for five years, but he emigrated to Israel in 2020 after his parole term was over, and received a hero’s welcome from Netanyahu. Despite Netanyahu’s past support for him, Pollard has become a fierce critic of the prime minister. In his television interview, he said Israel was not winning the war it had been fighting since 2023 and called for new leadership with a clearer and sharper policy. According to Channel 13, Pollard will enter politics as part of a new party, formed with Nissim Louk, whose 22-year-old daughter, Shani, was murdered in the 7 October attack while she was attending a music festival near the Gaza border. Despite his bitter criticisms over the security failures that made Israel vulnerable to attack, Pollard said that if Netanyahu comes out of the coming elections, expected in October this year, still in command of a governing coalition, “then we will have to support him”.

MV Hondius: the ice-breaking expedition cruise hit with hantavirus cases

With a fortified hull that can break through ice, the MV Hondius – the scene of a suspected hantavirus outbreak – is not the average cruise ship. The 107-metre polar explorer vessel is small, nimble and made for touring the natural wonders of Arctic and Antarctic waters. In place of the amusement arcades, ballrooms and deck-top waterparks that may be found on larger vessels, such as those where thousands became marooned during the Covid pandemic, the Hondius has an open observation lounge and lecture room in which biologists, geologists and glaciologists give lectures. Its passengers are told to be in good health before their voyage, and “able to walk several hours per day”. Age can range up to people in their 80s, but most are between 45 and 65. Two inflatable Zodiac boats can be launched to take passengers for expeditions to rocky shores. “Remember, you will be traveling in remote areas without access to sophisticated medical facilities, so you must not join this expedition if you have a life-threatening condition or need daily medical treatment,” the operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, says on its website. Three people – a Dutch couple and a German man – have died from what health authorities say could be an outbreak of deadly hantavirus, which is usually spread from rodents via their faeces, saliva or urine and can cause severe respiratory illness. A total of seven suspected cases have been identified, including the three people who have died. Two of the cases have been confirmed as hantavirus. Maria Van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the World Health Organization (WHO), said on Tuesday that the assumption was that people had initially been infected off the ship during an excursion. “This was an expedition boat and many of the people onboard were doing bird watching; they were doing a lot of things with wildlife,” she said. It is rarely transmitted between people, but the WHO said it believed there could be some human-to-human transmission among “really close contacts”. Another person, a British national, has became seriously ill. They were evacuated to South Africa, and remain in intensive care in Johannesburg. Two crew members have also developed breathing issues and are due to be evacuated by helicopter or boat. The passengers, and 61 crew, have been stuck off Cape Verde – an island nation off the coast of West Africa – which has asked the ship to stay at sea as a precaution. The vessel hopes to head for the Canary islands, where Spanish authorities could conduct an epidemiological investigation and fully disinfect the ship. Life for those onboard will be different depending on their cabin class, or whether they are crew or passengers. The largest nationality grouping is 38 people from the Philippines, who are all crew. The rest are a mixture of several nationalities including 23 people from Britain, 17 from the US and 14 from Spain. The largest guest room, a 26-sq-metre “grand suite”, has a private balcony; the smallest is 12 sq metres. All have private bathrooms and windows. Footage since the suspected outbreak has shown the decks deserted, and people wearing masks. People with full protective gear have been seen in a small vessel alongside the ship. Few accounts from inside the ship have been shared, but on Monday, a US travel blogger released a video. “We’re not just headlines: we are people,” Jake Rosmarin said in a teary video posted to social media. “People with families, with lives, with people waiting for us at home. There’s a lot of uncertainty, and that’s the hardest part.” On Tuesday, Rosmarin posted an update with a photo of him smiling – possibly to allay fears for those inside the ship. He wrote in a caption that the company and crew were “doing everything they can to keep us safe and informed”. Oceanwide Expeditions, which is based in the Netherlands, said it had launched a response plan. “This is currently at level 3, the highest response level,” it said, adding that the plan included isolation measures, hygiene protocols and medical monitoring. The company and its crew will have prepared for an event like this. The coronavirus pandemic led cruise companies to improve their infectious diseases outbreak plans. Their protocols include upgraded ventilation and even thermal cameras for “continuous automated temperature screening”. The problems arose during a Atlantic Odyssey trip, with Cape Verde being the originally intended final destination after a 42-night voyage including whale watching in Antarctic waters and views of migratory birds, including Arctic terns. A 70-year-old Dutch man died while the ship was in the Atlantic, and his body remained onboard for nearly two weeks until it reached the isolated British outpost of Saint Helena. The man’s wife, 69, disembarked with his body, but later collapsed and died in South Africa. Two crew members, one British and one Dutch, have been suffering from acute respiratory distress. The body of a third deceased passenger – the German national – remains on the vessel.

Alberta voter data leaked as separatists file signatures for independence vote

Alberta separatists have delivered more than 300,000 signatures to elections officials in western Canada, in support of their attempt to force an independence referendum in Canada’s oil-rich province. But the effort stumbled immediately as a separatist-linked group posted the personal data of nearly 3 million residents online in one of the largest data breaches in Canadian history, fomenting fears of a possible political interference crisis. On Monday, hundreds of supporters gathered in Edmonton, the provincial capital, as Mitch Sylvestre, a separatist leader, delivered the petitions to Elections Alberta. “We’re not like the rest of Canada,” Sylvestre told reporters and attenders. “We’re 100% conservative. We’re being ruled by Liberals who don’t think like us.” A minority of residents of the oil-rich province have long argued that the province’s woes are due to the structure of payments to Canada’s federal government and a perceived inability to get their vast fossil fuel reserves to market. In recent months, separatists have seized on the sentiment. Polls put separatist support between 18% and 30%. Last year, Alberta’s premier, Danielle Smith, reduced the number of signatures required for citizens to bring a constitutional referendum, dropping it from 588,000 to roughly 178,000. The provincial government also changed how citizen-initiated referendums worked, removing powers from Alberta’s chief electoral officer. Now, referendums can pose questions that would run afoul of the Canadian constitution. They hope their question – “Do you agree that the Province of Alberta should cease to be part of Canada and become an independent state?” – will be added to a planned referendum in October, which will also include questions on immigration, healthcare and the country’s constitution. While the separatists have cleared the required signatures needed for a separatist referendum, Elections Alberta says it needs to verify the names. But the process has been put on hold by a court ruling. Indigenous nations in Alberta, whose treaties with Britain predate the creation of Alberta, say that a possible referendum vote on separating from Canada would violate their treaty rights. “Alberta has treated [Sturgeon Lake Cree First Nation] as though they are chattel on the land, merely an afterthought in forced negotiations, not the first step in any potential secession,” the First Nation said in its court filing. “Alberta has no right to secede from Canada and no right to take Treaty No 8 territory.” The First Nation has also warned the current push had invited the threat of influence of foreign actors and a vote to leave Canada “will enable foreign interference from the most powerful nation to the south”. Late last year, separatist activists held covert meetings with members of Donald Trump’s administration. The former Alberta deputy premier and pro-federalist Thomas Lukaszuk says the movement to secede from Canada is “a form of treason” and something “most of us Albertans and Canadians don’t stand for”. But the revelation that a separatist-linked group obtained Alberta’s official list of electors – a database of the names, home addresses and contact information for roughly 2.9 million voters – has unleashed political chaos in the western province. The list was provided to the Republican party of Alberta, which is legally registered, but was then improperly shared with the Centurion Project, a pro-separation group which allegedly used the list to target voters. A court ordered the database to be taken down, and both Elections Alberta and the RCMP launched investigations. But the data has probably been copied and shared already. Among the names visible on the database were prominent politicians, elections officials, senators, judges, Crown prosecutors, journalists and other public figures. Jared Wesley, a University of Alberta political scientist, wrote that a public inquiry is needed “before [Albertans] cast another ballot”. He warned that Elections Alberta, by investigating itself, “is now defending its own response, its own mandate, and the integrity of the democratic system it administers”. Separatist groups say they will cooperate with any investigation, but expect the government to proceed with a referendum. “We expect our question to be on the ballot this October regardless of what the courts say, regardless of what Elections Alberta says,” Jeffrey Rath, one of the separatist leaders, told reporters. He said getting the 300,000-plus Albertans signed up took immense effort. “All of our people were out busting their asses collecting signatures. Period.”

A veneer of normality has returned to Tehran but fears for the future are rife

In the weeks since the fragile ceasefire with the US and Israel took hold, life in Tehran has – on the surface at least – largely returned to something like prewar normality. Many security checkpoints have been taken down, coffee shops are bustling, parks are full of people gathering for picnics, musicians are playing again in the streets, highways are jammed with traffic and the metro – free to use since the war – runs packed. But underlying worries run deep, and many Iranians fear the war could return at any moment. The uncertainty was underlined on Monday when the US and Iran launched fresh attacks in the Gulf as the two sides continue to blockade of the strait of Hormuz. The war’s economic toll has been severe too. Many people have lost their jobs and inflation is surging. The International Monetary Fund estimates it could reach 70% this year. Sara, 24, lost her job teaching art at an after-school centre when it shut down at the start of the war on 28 February. She has had no income since, no severance pay and has little to fall back on. Online job platforms – still accessible through Iran’s restricted local network despite the wider internet shutdown – are flooded with people looking for work, and Sara knows that as a teacher, her prospects are slim. Schools have moved to online classes and after-school centres remain closed for now. “I spend my free time with friends, or on the phone with my boyfriend in Canada,” she said, but she admitted that both the prospects of renewed war and inflation worried her. Across Tehran, many are cutting back or are opting for free activities instead. Parks are crowded with people playing games and exercising, while restaurants are noticeably quieter. Larger bazaars are busy with people buying essentials or trying to earn a living. “Many vendors in the market had to shut down because of economic difficulties. The situation is very unstable,” said Sina, 25, a jewellery maker in the city’s Grand Bazaar. For some, work has resumed, at least in part. Mohammad Reza, 32, a high school Arabic teacher who also works at a private university-prep institute, said that since the ceasefire he was back to teaching online. “My students are happy to be in class again, even the ones who were never particularly interested,” he said. “The war has been exhausting for them and they genuinely want to be together, even if it’s just in front of a screen.” Alongside food and medicine, tuition fees at the private institute where he teaches have risen. “Families are still willing to invest in their children’s education, but it’s not easy,” he said. Political repression continues. More than 20 people have been executed on national security-related charges since late February, many in connection with the January protests. The UN High commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, said he was “appalled that on top of the already severe impacts of the conflict, the rights of the Iranian people continue to be stripped from them”. The head of Iran’s judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejeai, has defended the executions, saying authorities would “not neglect … the legal punishment of criminals whose hands are smeared with the blood of our people”. On the streets of Tehran, however, the executions are rarely discussed. “Everyone’s tired and exhausted from the war,” said one woman who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Most people are worried about their incomes and the economy. We know about the executions, but there are no protests, nothing. We’re just trying to live our lives.” Sara, who took part in the Woman, Life, Freedom demonstrations in 2022, said the war had shifted her perspective, and that she was now taking part in anti-US protests. “I’ve always been critical of my government,” she said. “But since the bombings and destruction, I’ve realised who our real enemies are, and we have to resist them.” Tensions between Iran and the US remain high. Negotiations have stalled, and Washington’s recently announced “Project Freedom” – intended to escort stranded cargo ships through the strait of Hormuz – risks further escalation. On Enghelab Street, one of Tehran’s main thoroughfares, none of this is visible. Jammed with traffic, home to bookshops, cafes, restaurants, and the city’s largest university, people are strolling past shop windows and catching up with friends. Ali, 38, who works at one of the bookshops, said the transformation from deserted streets at the height of the war to something resembling normal life again has been overwhelming. “I don’t think the ceasefire will collapse,” he said, perhaps trying to convince himself. “There will be no more war.”

Israeli army chief says West Bank troops ‘killing like we haven’t killed since 1967’

The Israeli army chief in the West Bank has said his troops were “killing like we haven’t killed since 1967”, including fatally shooting Palestinian stone-throwers, according to an Israeli report of his comments. The remarks by Maj Gen Avi Bluth, head of the army’s central command, were made in a recent closed forum but were leaked to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper. Bluth has so far not denied the authenticity of the Haaretz account. The Israel Defense Forces did not respond to a request for comment. Bluth, who was born in a West Bank settlement and educated in a religious military academy in the occupied territory, spoke bluntly about the discriminatory military justice his soldiers administered. He said they had shot 42 Palestinian stone-throwers on West Bank roads last year, insisting that such acts amounted to terrorism. Bluth said the army did not shoot Jewish settler militants for doing the same thing, noting that on one occasion when a settler throwing stones at motorists had been wounded by army gunfire, there was a public “ruckus”. “Any such incident has very serious consequences from a societal perspective,” Bluth said, according to the reported remarks, openly admitting: “Yes, it involves discrimination.” Palestinians are subjected to military law in the West Bank and extended detention without trial, while Israelis are judged by civilian courts. Bluth said another way he had loosened legal constraints on Israeli soldiers in the West Bank was to allow the maiming of Palestinians caught trying to cross the separation barrier into Israel in search of work. “At the [separation barrier], it is currently permitted to detain a suspect by shooting him at the knee or below to create ‘barrier awareness’,” Bluth said, adding that it served as a deterrent. “There are a lot of ‘limping monuments’ in Palestinian villages of those who tried to [cross the barrier], so there is a price being paid,” he said. As with stone-throwers, Bluth justified his rules of engagement on the grounds that each illegal Palestinian worker was a “potential terrorist”. The general also portrayed his actions as part of a “survival of the fittest” struggle. “If someone comes to kill you, kill them first is the norm in the Middle East, so we’re killing like we haven’t killed since 1967,” Bluth said, in reference to the war against Arab states that resulted in the permanent occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Thousands of Palestinians were killed in the second intifada from 2000 to 2005. “His apartheidist approach, under which the army shoots only Palestinian stone-throwers, not Jewish ones, was justified on the grounds of the ‘sociological consequences’ of shooting at the latter,” Haaretz said in an editorial, asking: “Did he take into account the ‘sociological consequences’ of these ‘lame monuments’ on the Palestinians?” Since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the resulting war in Gaza, Israeli settlers have conducted an escalating campaign of violent intimidation of Palestinians in the West Bank with the aim of driving them off their land. In that campaign, they have routinely been abetted by the Israeli army, which is increasingly made up of soldiers and officers drawn from the settlements. According to UN figures, 230 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces and settlers in 2025. Bluth had sparked controversy a few days earlier with a warning, also reported in Haaretz, that “Jewish terror” carried out by extremists, known as “hilltop youth”, would ultimately trigger an uprising. “These people don’t see Arabs as human beings and think it’s possible to burn people alive, to burn houses down with their occupants inside, and unfortunately, they do this frequently,” Bluth said, according to the Haaretz account. The general said “it’s almost a miracle that the Palestinians are still indifferent” but added they “won’t remain indifferent indefinitely” and warned of the possibility of a West Bank uprising. “Bluth has now revealed what everyone already knew: the Israel Defense Forces is working hand in hand with the settlers who are carrying out the daily pogroms,” Haaretz commented. “Bluth calls it Israeli terrorism, but not only does he not try to prevent it in the same way that the IDF prevents Palestinian terrorism, but he is actually abetting it.”