GAZA – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July effectively spiked a draft hostage and ceasefire deal by introducing a raft of new, 11th-hour demands, according to a report by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth citing a document it obtained.

The report lends credence to charges often leveled at the prime minister – most notably by hostage families – of purposefully prolonging the war and torpedoing deals for his political benefit. Far-right members of Netanyahu’s coalition have pledged to bring down the government should he end the war. Several news outlets, including CNN, have reported on the late July demands made by Netanyahu, but this is the first time the Israeli document has been obtained in full.

Among the 11th-hour demands, according to the newspaper, was that Israel retain control of the Egypt-Gaza border area – a condition Netanyahu has since portrayed as non-negotiable, including at a press conference on Wednesday. Yedioth Ahronoth also reported that at least three of six hostages found dead in Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces over the weekend were due for release as part of the May draft agreement – Carmel Gat, Aden Yerushalmi, and Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office in August confirmed to CNN the existence of the document but denied that it added “new conditions to the May 27 proposal”. The statement came in response to a report by the same Israeli correspondent who wrote the Yedioth Ahronoth report, Ronen Bergman, this time in The New York Times. A senior Israeli official on Wednesday said the new report was “misinformed, misleading and hampers the chance of achieving the release of hostages.” But separately, an Israeli source familiar with the talks said Netanyahu’s demands were to blame for the deaths of the hostages over the weekend. (CNN)…[+]

ISRAEL – The US has charged Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and several other prominent figures in the Palestinian group in connection with its deadly attack in Israel on 7 October last year. The justice department said it was indicting six Hamas members with seven charges, including the murder of dozens of US citizens, conspiracy to finance terrorism and use of weapons of mass destruction.

The criminal complaint covers decades of alleged attacks by Hamas, as well as last October’s unprecedented assault. It is the first step by US law enforcement to hold accountable the ringleaders of that attack, but has been seen by analysts as partly symbolic, not least because some of those named in the indictment are already dead. In a video statement on Tuesday US Attorney General Merrick Garland said the defendants were responsible for financing and directing a decades-long campaign to murder American citizens and endanger the security of the United States”.

The group also “led Hamas’s efforts to destroy the state of Israel and murder civilians in support of that aim”, Garland said. He highlighted the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas, in which the group “murdered entire families” in “the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust”. The charges were filed in February, but were kept under wraps until Tuesday in case the US had the opportunity to arrest any of the accused, an unnamed justice department official told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner. The reason for the timing of the US charges was not immediately clear, although the recent discovery in Gaza of the body of an Israeli-American hostage – and five others – might have given the move “extra impetus”, one analyst told the BBC.

The charges themselves were partly about the US sending “a message” to Hamas and anyone working with the group, added Prof Yossi Mekelberg, an associate fellow of the UK think tank Chatham House. In his comments, Garland referred to the Israeli-American found dead in Gaza at the weekend, 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin, as well as the other American citizens killed or taken hostage in the 7 October attack. “We are investigating Hersh’s murder, and each and every one of Hamas’ brutal murders of Americans, as an act of terrorism,” Garland said. (BBC)…[+]

WASHINGTON – Jimmy McCain, son of the late Republican Senator John McCain, is endorsing Vice-President Kamala Harris following controversy around Donald Trump’s recent visit to Arlington National Cemetery. He called Trump’s visit last week to the military burial site “a violation”.

The Army has accused a Trump staffer of pushing aside an Arlington employee as they tried to warn his team about rules against filming in the cemetery. The Trump campaign says it received permission from families of fallen service members to film video during an event to honour US soldiers killed during the American withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. “Show respect and leave. It doesn’t need to be videoed,” McCain told CNN’s Jake Tapper.

He added: “The point of Arlington Cemetery is to go and show respect for the men and women who have given their lives to this country. When you make it political, you take away the respect of the people who are there.” McCain, who was previously an independent, said he has changed his voter registration to Democrat and plans to vote for Harris for president in November.

“I feel that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz embody a group of people that will help make this country better. That will take us forward. That’s really what matters at the end of the day,” he said. The youngest McCain son enlisted in the Marine Corps and has served as an intelligence officer since 2022. Three generations of McCain family are buried at Arlington. Federal law prevents use of the site for political campaigning.

The Trump campaign has disputed the cemetery’s version of events and released a statement from the Gold Star military families that invited him to the site, saying the former president was there to honour the sacrifice of their relatives who were killed. Trump – who is running for president for a third time – and late Sen McCain had a long rivalry. The Vietnam war hero was one of the most outspoken Republican critics of Trump from the very start of his first candidacy. Trump once attacked McCain, himself a former Republican presidential candidate, saying he was “not a war hero” because he was captured and held as a prisoner of war. (BBC)…[+]

ISRAEL – Palestinian journalists say that they were fired on by the Israeli military during a raid in the occupied West Bank town of Kafr Dan. Mohammed Mansour, a journalist for the Palestinian news agency WAFA, was injured when the car he was driving was struck by gunfire, according to video of the aftermath and his employer.

Footage filmed in the car by freelance journalist Jarah Khalaf shows a chaotic scene, as Mansour races through the streets and blood pours from his leg. All journalists were wearing flak jackets with “press” labels, and the car bore a “press” identifier on its hood.

“The occupation surprised us by shooting at us directly. Our colleague Mohammed Mansour was here in this car,” said Khalaf. “The army shot at us more than once, even though we had press signs and were wearing body armor and everything.” WAFA said that the Israeli military “fired live bullets directly at the vehicle,” which was carrying four journalists reporting on the Tuesday raid. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said that it treated four journalists who were injured by gunfire and shrapnel. CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment.

Violence from the Israeli offensive in Gaza since the Hamas-led October 7 attacks has spilled into the occupied West Bank in recent months. The IDF unleashed a barrage of raids and airstrikes in multiple parts of the territory on August 28 – including in the cities of Jenin, Tubas and Tulkarem – bulldozing highways and razing buildings to rubble. The IDF has said that its operations in the West Bank are necessary “in order to remove immediate terror threats in real time.”

Humanitarian groups have accused the Israeli military of using disproportionate force against Palestinian residents, inflicting severe damage on critical infrastructure and disrupting health care services. On Tuesday, a UN spokesperson warned that Israeli forces are using “lethal war-like tactics” in the occupied territory, with people being killed, injured and displaced – and have blocked critical access to aid organizations. (CNN)…[+]

OTTAWA – Canada’s left-wing New Democratic Party (NDP) has pulled the plug on a two-and-a-half-year-old agreement with Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, that had helped keep his minority government in power.

In a video posted to social media on Wednesday, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said he had informed the prime minister of his decision, saying the Liberals were “too weak, too selfish” to fight for Canadians.

The deal – called a “supply and confidence” agreement – had the NDP supporting the Liberals in confidence votes. The announcement does not automatically mean a federal election is imminent but that Canadians may go to the polls before the election scheduled for October 2025.

Singh and Trudeau has first reached the agreement in March 2022, with the Liberals pledging to support the left-leaning NDP on several of the party’s key priorities in parliament. The deal differed to a coalition, where parties share power.

Instead, the Liberals – who failed to win a majority in the past two elections – governed as a minority, but with assurances the NDP would support them in confidence votes. It was the first such formal agreement between two parties at the federal level.

Announcing he was tearing up the deal, Singh said the Liberals had “let people down” and didn’t “deserve another chance from Canadians”. In recent years, Canadian voters have grown increasingly frustrated with rising inflation and a housing affordability crisis. Trudeau’s Liberals have been down in the polls for months, with surveys suggesting the party is lagging about 18 points behind the opposition Conservatives. (BBC)…[+]