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The Palestinian soccer federation has consistently asked FIFA for more than a decade to take action against the Israeli soccer body for incorporating teams from West Bank settlements in its leagues.

The Palestinians have also recently accused the Israel Football Association of what it said was complicity in violations of international law by the Israeli government, discrimination against Arab players.

The request to FIFA’s congress in May also cited “international law violations” in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas conflict and directed the soccer body to its statutory commitments on human rights and against discrimination.

The PFA has said dozens of Palestinian players have been killed in the war, football infrastructure has been destroyed, its leagues suspended and its national team required to play World Cup qualifiers abroad. Israel has also been playing international fixtures abroad.

FIFA delayed making a decision in May until after a legal review scheduled for July, then pushed back the issue two more times until the meeting Thursday.

WASHINGTON/BEIRUT/JERUSALEM, Oct 4 (Reuters) - An Israeli strike on Friday near Lebanon's Masnaa border crossing with Syria cut off a road used by hundreds of thousands of people to flee Israeli bombardments in recent days, Lebanon Transport Minister Ali Hamieh told Reuters.

Hamieh said the strike hit inside Lebanese territory near the border crossing, creating a four-metre (12 feet) wide crater. An Israel Defence Forces (IDF) military spokesman had accused Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah on Thursday of using the crossing to transport military equipment into Lebanon.

"The IDF will not allow the smuggling of these weapons and will not hesitate to act if forced to do so, as it has done throughout this war," IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.

According to Lebanese government statistics, more than 300,000 people - a vast majority of them Syrian - had crossed from Lebanon into Syria over the last 10 days to escape escalating Israeli bombardment.

Experts have asserted that this tactic is a gross violation of international law and that targeting civilian infrastructure, no matter the justification offered, is a war crime. Yet, Israeli authorities insist that it’s a legitimate tactic of war and helps deter future attacks on Israel by its enemies.rms and mosques.

Two years after the devastating 2006 campaign on Lebanon, the head of Israel’s northern command, Gadi Eisenkot, asserted that Israel will continue to use the strategy in future conflicts.

“What happened in [Dahiyeh]… will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on,” he said. “We will apply disproportionate force on it and cause great damage and destruction there. From our standpoint, these are not civilian villages, they are military bases.”

Of course, the most severe display of the Dahiyeh Doctrine has been during Israeli’s ongoing genocidal campaign in Gaza. Since October 7, Israel’s apparent strategy of targeting Gaza’s civilian population and infrastructure with the full force of the military to try and deter Hamas has brought a catastrophe comparable only to the Nakba of 1948. In just a year, Israel’s military completely devastated all infrastructural and institutional bases of Palestinian civilian life in Gaza.

The global majority is of course deeply critical of Israel’s assaults on civilian infrastructure in Gaza and Lebanon. Yet, Israel’s partners in the West continue to support these efforts both materially and ideologically. Even when Israeli authorities outrageously claim that they are “escalating” their war efforts – meaning killing and maiming civilians and making their environments inhabitable – to “de-escalate”, they nod in approval.

American Hajj Kamel Ahmad Jawad, from Dearborn, Michigan, was killed by an airstrike in Lebanon on Tuesday, according to a statement released by his family.

Jawad was staying in Nabatieh, which is in the south of the country but north of the Litani River, according to his family.

The statement said he was killed in an Israeli airstrike. While Israel has been striking Nabatieh, ABC News cannot independently verify the manner of his death.

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who represents Dearborn, shared the statement on her Instagram. On X, she shared an article about Americans trying to evacuate Lebanon, saying one of her constituents there "was already killed in an Israeli airstrike."

Newly released footage shows Russian forces striking a Ukrainian town, using what pro-Kremlin sources have claimed is one of the most potent non-nuclear weapons in the world.

On Tuesday morning, videos began circulating on Russian and Ukrainian media of a "vacuum bomb" being dropped on the town of Vovchansk in the country's northeastern Kharkiv Oblast.

Ukrainian news agency InsiderUA posted the video to its Telegram channel, citing Russian military bloggers who said that the bomb was the ODAB-9000, a three-ton glide bomb sometimes referred to as "the father of all bombs."

A thermobaric or "vacuum" bomb draws in oxygen to generate intense, high-temperature combustions. According to the International Review of the Red Cross, an international law-focused academic journal produced by the humanitarian organization, the use of thermobaric weapons in built-up, civilian areas could constitute a war crime.

At least 78 individuals died this week after a boat capsized on Lake Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a local governor said.

Jean-Jacques Purusi, governor of the South Kivu province, spoke to The Associated Press after the incident. He reported that at least 78 people lost their lives but added that number could rise. Earlier in the day, witnesses estimated that at least 50 people had died and 10 survivors were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Witnesses also said the overcrowded boat sank just meters from the dock as it attempted to reach the port of Kituku. The vessel had been traveling from Minova, located in South Kivu province, to Goma in North Kivu province.

Local officials reported that rescue operations were ongoing, though the exact number of casualties remained uncertain. In a similar incident in February, most of the 50 passengers aboard a wooden boat were presumed dead after it capsized on Lake Kivu.

While speaking with a local radio station after the incident, Purusi said, "This boat was carrying about a hundred people when it had the capacity for about thirty passengers."

Meta is restricting the use of the upside-down red triangle emoji, a reference to Hamas combat operations that has become a broader symbol of Palestinian resistance, on its Facebook and Instagram, and WhatsApp platforms, according to internal content moderation materials reviewed by The Intercept.

Since the beginning of the Israeli assault on Gaza, Hamas has regularly released footage of its successful strikes on Israeli military positions with red triangles superimposed above targeted soldiers and armor. Since last fall, use of the red triangle emoji has expanded online, becoming a widely used icon for people expressing pro-Palestinian or anti-Israeli sentiment. Social media users have included the shape in their posts, usernames, and profiles as a badge of solidarity and protest.

The symbol has become common enough that the Israeli military has used it as shorthand in its own propaganda: In November, Al Jazeera reported on an Israeli military video that warned “Our triangle is stronger than yours, Abu Obeida,” addressing Hamas’s spokesperson.

Biden told reporters at the White House however that he was not expecting Israel to launch any retaliation for Tehran's missile barrage on Israel before Thursday at least.

When asked by a reporter if he supported Israel striking Iran's oil facilities, Biden said "we're discussing that. I think that would be a little... anyway."

Oil prices jumped five percent over concerns about the Middle East after Biden spoke.

A rise in oil prices could be hugely damaging for Biden's Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democrat confronts Republican former president Donald Trump in a November 5 election where the cost of living is a major issue.

Biden said he did not expect any immediate action from Israel -- even if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently paid little heed to calls for restraint as he targets the Iran-allied Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.

d on Israeli forces after two of their soldiers were killed in separate incidents. It was the first time the official military has done so since Hezbollah and Israel began clashing in October 2023 over Israel's onslaught on Gaza.

One Lebanese soldier was killed and another wounded while taking part in an evacuation and rescue mission jointly with the Lebanese Red Cross, while a second was killed by an Israeli attack on a military post in the Bint Jbeil area of southern Lebanon.

The escalation comes as the death toll in Israel's attacks on Lebanon in the past year reached 1,974 people, including 127 children, the majority in the past week.

The head of an Iranian counter-intelligence unit tasked with identifying and weeding out undercover Israeli agents was himself a Mossad operative, a former Iranian president has revealed.

Speaking to CNN Turk, former Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, revealed that the head of a counter-intelligence unit specially assigned to target Mossad agents was himself exposed as a double agent back in 2021, with a further 20 agents in that team also having operated for Israeli intelligence.

According to Ahmadinejad, those double agents were behind a series of intelligence leaks and failures on the part of Iran over the years, providing Israel with sensitive information on matters, such as the Iranian nuclear program.

The alleged Mossad moles were reportedly able to flee Iran following their operations, and are now living in Israel.

Ben Shapiro, Jake Tapper, and Dana Bash have and continue to use their platforms to display their support for Israel, hostage families,

Ben Shapiro is a prominent conservative commentator, lawyer, and author. He co-founded The Daily Wire, a media company that has become a significant platform for conservative viewpoints. Amid the Israel-Hamas War, Shapiro has been a staunch defender of Israel. He actively participated in university debates, addressing the complexities of the conflict and condemning Hamas’s actions.

Jake Tapper is CNN’s lead Washington anchor and the host of The Lead with Jake Tapper. Known for his rigorous journalism and commitment to truth, Tapper has covered major events and interviewed key figures throughout his career. Since the Israel-Hamas War was in the spotlight of global media, Tapper provided a platform for Israeli hostage families on his show, allowing them to share their stories and raise awareness about their plight.

Dana Bash is CNN’s chief political correspondent, recognized for her in-depth reporting and insightful analysis of American politics. During the Israel-Hamas War, Bash interviewed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in March, pressing him on the issue of allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Dozens of Palestinians are reported to have been killed as Israel has stepped up its military operations across Gaza.

Gaza’s Health Ministry reported on Wednesday that at least 51 people had been killed in the enclave over the previous 24 hours, as the Israeli military has stepped up attacks alongside its ongoing air and ground offensive in Lebanon.

Israeli fighter jets attacked Gaza City overnight, striking the Muscat School in the Tuffah neighbourhood and the Al-Amal Orphanage in the west of the capital. At least nine displaced people sheltering at the locations were killed, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.