Israel's West Bank raids
The Israeli regime has raided several towns and neighborhoods across the occupied Palestinian territories amid heightened tensions with Palestinian resistance fighters there. In Qalqiliya, west of the occupied territories, regime forces blew up the home of a Palestinian martyr they accused of being involved in an anti-regime operation earlier this year. Israeli occupation forces also abducted dozens of Palestinians during a wide-scale detention campaign in the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin. They vandalized homes and several public places as part of their raid. Israeli troops also stormed the Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus, and abducted a number of Palestinians. Israeli troops have scaled up their attacks across the West Bank since the onset of the regime’s genocidal campaign in Gaza back in October 2023. Since then, more than 1,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands of others have been displaced.
Islamophobia in US
Rights advocates in the Council on American-Islamic Relations have highlighted an increase in Islamophobia, anti-Arab bias and anti-Semitism in the US since the Israeli genocide against Gaza began in October 2023. As one of the largest Muslim civil rights groups in the US, it blamed the US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza for driving Islamophobia for two consecutive years. Employment discrimination cases topped the list, followed by immigration and asylum issues, discrimination against Muslim and Palestinian students and hate crimes against Muslims and Arabs. CAIR also noted a crackdown on pro-Palestine protests on university campuses, saying this represents the weaponization of antisemitism in an ideological campaign against higher education. In one of the latest incidents, Mahmoud Khali, a prominent organizer of the pro-Palestine campus protest at Columbia University, was arrested on Saturday. His arrest triggered demonstrations in several US cities.
Maritime security belt 2025
The seventh joint naval exercise by Iran, China, and Russia, codenamed "Security Belt 2025" is underway in the Sea of Oman. On the third day of the drills, Rear Admiral Mostafa Tajeddini, Deputy Operations Commander of Iran’s Navy said the naval and aerial units of the three countries conducted firefighting and damage control operations on a commercial vessel in the northern Indian Ocean. Earlier, Tajeddini said the main goal of the five-day drill is to enhance maritime security and cooperation among the participating nations. The naval exercise involves live-fire artillery drills, search and rescue operations, and counter-piracy exercises. Naval groups from Azerbaijan, South Africa, Oman, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Qatar, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, and Sri Lanka also participate as observers during the drills.