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The Cradle is an online news magazine covering West Asian geopolitics from within.
❗️Israel's Channel 13:
"Israel is preparing to return the negotiating delegation from Doha, as no progress has been made in the talks."
BREAKING | UK sanctions a number of Israeli settlers linked with violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Among those targeted is extremist settler leader Daniella Weiss.
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❗️Quds Brigades announces that its fighters successfully detonated a pre-planted GBU-39B bomb, left behind by Israeli forces, targeting an Israeli military vehicle during its incursion on Al-Montar Street in the Shujaiya neighborhood, east of Gaza City, on 12 May 2025.
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❗️Local sources in Syria report that unidentified individuals posted religious leaflets on several churches in Al-Hamirat, Tartous Governorate, calling on Christians to convert to Islam and describing other religions as "false."
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⭕️ Nearly 100 bodies were found in four newly discovered mass graves in the village of Sanobar in the Jableh countryside of the Syrian coast, reportedly victims of the widespread massacres committed by the HTS-led Syrian security forces and their affiliated extremist factions in March.
Local residents compiled lists identifying 44 victims in the first grave, 33 in the second, 19 in the third, and 9 in the fourth.
⭕️ Israel approves $1.4 billion border wall between occupied West Bank and Jordan in push to expand control over Jordan Valley
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The Israeli security cabinet has approved a $1.4 billion plan to construct a high-tech, multi-layered security barrier along the entire eastern border with Jordan, in what it claims is a step to bolster “national security.”
The 425-kilometer wall—stretching from the southern Golan Heights to Eilat—will combine physical fencing, advanced sensors, military outposts, and command infrastructure.
Construction is set to begin in June and will unfold in stages, with initial work focusing on 80 kilometers of terrain. War Minister Israel Katz framed the project as a preemptive measure against Iran (weapons entering from Jordan), claiming it would prevent the eastern front from becoming “another terrorist corridor.”
Many argue the move is less about security and more about accelerating de facto annexation of the occupied West Bank.
Researcher Aliyan al-Hindi notes the project mirrors earlier proposals from the Sharon era that aimed to shift the border 20 kilometers westward into Palestinian territory. If implemented, the wall would cut through the Jordan Valley and large swathes of land near Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and southern Hebron—areas long targeted for Israeli expansion.
Critics warn that the plan threatens to enclose Palestinian communities into fragmented enclaves, further entrenching isolation and segregation on the ground under the guise of border security.
Israeli drone strike on south Lebanon injures several including children
Tel Aviv has violated the ceasefire agreement with Lebanon over 3,000 times since it was signed in November
❗️Gary Lineker, BBC’s highest-paid presenter, has left the British news company following a social media post he shared last week condemning Israel and Zionism. He shared someone else’s video that included an emoji of a rat, which is an old anti-Semitic trope.
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On this day last year, Iran announced the deaths of President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, alongside several other senior officials, following a fatal helicopter crash in the mountainous northwest region of the country.
The incident occurred on 19 May 2024, as their convoy was returning from a visit to the Azerbaijan border. After hours of uncertainty and a tense overnight search operation through dense fog and treacherous terrain, Iranian authorities confirmed the crash and their deaths on the morning of 20 May.
President Raisi, who served just under three years, left behind a legacy defined by loyalty, an assertive nuclear posture, and unflinching support for West Asia’s resistance movements, from Lebanon to Yemen. His presidency emphasized internal unity, strategic autonomy, and what has often been called “rational resistance” – a doctrine that blended deterrence with diplomacy. Raisi also spearheaded a decisive “Look East” policy that brought Iran into closer alignment with Russia and China, solidifying Tehran’s position within BRICS, the SCO, and the Eurasian Economic Union as part of a broader multipolar vision.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, revered as one of Iran’s most capable modern diplomats, was widely seen as the voice of the oppressed in global forums. Fluent in the language of both diplomacy and defiance, he reoriented Iran’s foreign policy by restoring ties with key regional players without compromising the Islamic Republic’s principles. A staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause and the Axis of Resistance, he was hailed in death as the “martyr of the resistance.” His tenure turned resistance into a structured regional alliance, and his diplomacy into a moral campaign against imperial injustice.
Though officially deemed an accident, the crash has continued to spark speculation in Iran and abroad, with many questioning whether Raisi and Amir-Abdollahian were, in fact, assassinated – victims of sabotage, and not a mechanical failure.
One year on, their deaths remain etched in memory, not merely for the tragedy, but for the legacy of steadfast resistance and diplomacy they carried to the very end.
France, UK, Canada threaten 'concrete actions' if Israel continues Gaza invasion
More than 18 months into the US-sponsored genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, Netanyahu's allies are urging him to halt his 'egregious actions'
Yemen adds Haifa port to target list in response to Israeli escalation in Gaza
Israel is carrying out a new operation to displace the entire population of Gaza, and has killed over 500 people in just a few days
❗️Israel has killed at least 67 Palestinians in attacks on the Gaza Strip since dawn today.
(Medical sources to Al Jazeera)
Israel allows five aid trucks into Gaza after 73-day blockade
The UN estimates 500 aid trucks a day are needed in Gaza as half a million Palestinians face starvation
❗️Israeli settlement of Harsha announces that Yossi Yehuda, a soldier from the army's combat engineering unit, was killed in the Gaza Strip earlier today. He is the son-in-law of Yehuda Eliyahu, head of the Settlement Administration at the Ministry of Defense.
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❗️The Palestinian Islamic Jihad's (PIJ) Quds Brigades reports that yesterday, its fighters successfully detonated a pre-planted field of barrel explosives targeting an Israeli military convoy that had advanced into the Abu Hadaf neighborhood in the al-Qarara area, northeast of Khan Yunis. The fighters confirmed the operation upon returning from the combat zone and observed a helicopter landing at the scene to evacuate dead and wounded soldiers.
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❗️“I want to save as many as these 14,000 babies as we can in the next 48 hours."
UN's humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told BBC this morning that up to 14,000 babies in Gaza could die within 48 hours without immediate aid.
He called for a massive influx of humanitarian assistance and said the estimate is based on reports from UN teams on the ground, many of whom have been killed by Israel.
Khamenei blasts 'absurd' US demands in nuclear talks
The Islamic Republic has repeatedly rejected Washington’s calls for Tehran to halt uranium enrichment
⭕️ The Palestinian Water Authority has reported that at least 85 percent of water and sanitation infrastructure in the Gaza Strip has been damaged by Israel.
Gaza’s Government Media Office stated that since the October 2023, Israel has destroyed over 330,000 linear meters of water networks and more than 655,000 linear meters of sewage pipelines.
❗️Gaza Ministry of Health:
– "87 martyrs and 290 injuries were admitted to Gaza Strip hospitals in the past 24 hours."
– "The initial toll of those who arrived at hospitals since dawn today until now is 53 martyrs and more than 50 wounded as a result of the occupation's massacres and targeting of citizens in the Gaza Strip."
– "The death toll and injuries since March 18, 2025 has reached 3,427 martyrs, 9,647 injuries."
❗️The UN has been granted Israeli approval for approximately 100 additional emergency aid trucks to enter Gaza, although the initial deliveries in weeks were still being held by Israeli authorities, a spokesperson announced today.
"We have requested and received approval for more trucks to enter today, many more than were approved yesterday," Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office (OCHA), told a press briefing in Geneva. Asked for a specific number, he replied: "Around 100."
❗️Earlier today, Palestinian journalist Mohammad Amin Abu Daqqa was assassinated by an Israeli drone in Abasan al-Kabira, east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
Israel has murdered at least 221 journalists in Gaza since the start of its brutal war.
❗️Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said at an economic forum in Doha that recent Gaza ceasefire talks have made no progress due to "fundamental differences between parties."
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❗️European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the EU will meet today to decide whether or not it will lift its sanctions on Syria. She also condemned Israel’s 'military operations' in Gaza, stating that the limited aid allowed into the strip is like "a drop in the ocean."
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❗️An Israeli drone strike in the southern Lebanese town of Al-Mansoureh failed to assassinate its target, injuring nine people, including two children, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
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❗️French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said that Israel’s limited steps to facilitate humanitarian aid into Gaza fall short, cautioning that the renewed 'military offensive' must end or face repercussions.
"It (the situation) is unsustainable because the Israeli government's blind violence, the blocking of humanitarian aid have turned Gaza into a place for dying, not to say a cemetery," Barrot told France Inter radio today.
⭕️ Iran has received a proposal for a fifth round of nuclear negotiations with the United States and is currently reviewing it, according to Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi.
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❗️A short while ago, Israeli warplanes launched a series of brutal raids and belts of fire on several areas east of Jabalia in northern Gaza.
Israel has not ceased its attacks on north, central, and southern Gaza.
BREAKING | Yemeni Armed Forces announces the start of a naval blockade on the port of Haifa.
"All companies with ships currently at or heading toward the aforementioned port (Haifa Port) are hereby informed that Haifa Port has from this moment become part of the target bank, and they must take the contents of this statement — and future ones — into full consideration."
❗️Gaza Ministry of Health:
– “ A complete power outage has struck the Indonesian Hospital after the occupation forces targeted the electric generators."
– “Targeting the electric generators means the hospital has entirely ceased operations."
– “Destroying electric generators in hospitals strikes at the core of healthcare services and effectively shuts down hospital operations in the Gaza Strip."
– “The Ministry of Health views the occupation’s systematic actions against hospitals with extreme seriousness and warns of catastrophic scenarios if the targeting of healthcare facilities continues."
❗️Chairman of the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor Ramy Abdu:
"Out of five trucks that entered Gaza today, two were loaded with shrouds.
"White bags labeled “SHROUDS” in blue—this isn’t food, it’s preparation for mass death. Gaza isn’t being fed. It’s being buried."