The safety situation at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is deteriorating after a drone strike on a nearby road, the United Nations’ energy watchdog warned Saturday.

The plant, in southern Ukraine, has been under Russian control since March 2022.

“Yet again we see an escalation of the nuclear safety and security dangers facing the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. I remain extremely concerned and reiterate my call for maximum restraint from all sides and for strict observance of the five concrete principles established for the protection of the plant,” the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a press release Saturday.

The power plant informed the IAEA that a drone struck just outside the plant’s protected area near the “essential cooling water sprinkler ponds and about 100 meters from the Dniprovska power line, the only remaining 750 kilovolt line providing a power supply to (the power plant),” an IAEA statement said.

The IAEA team visited the area and reported that the damage seemed to have been caused by a drone. There were no casualties and no damaged equipment, but the road was damaged between the two main gates to the plant.

Russian state media outlet TASS claimed that staff at the power plant had accused Ukraine of the drone strike.

“At 7 a.m. Moscow time, the Ukrainian drone dropped a shell on the road that runs along the power units outside the perimeter. Personnel use this road all the time. No one was injured, but once again a direct threat to the safety of personnel and the plant was created,” it said.

Ukraine has not yet publicly commented on the strike. However, Russia and Ukraine have blamed previous incidents at the plant on each other.

Last weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russian forces started a fire at the plant, showing a video of a large plume of smoke coming out of one of the towers on the plant’s territory, but several Russian officials said Ukraine was behind the incident.

The IAEA team reported Saturday that there has been heavy military activity in the area for the last week.

“A significant fire at one of the (Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant) cooling towers earlier this week resulted in considerable damage, although there was no immediate threat to nuclear safety,” the IAEA added.

There were also air raid alarms and drone attacks at the Khmelnytskyy, Rivne and South Ukraine nuclear power plants, as well as at the Chernobyl site, according to the IAEA.

“Nuclear power plants are designed to be resilient against technical or human failures and external events including extreme ones, but they are not built to withstand a direct military attack, and neither are they supposed to, just as with any other energy facility in the world,” Grossi said. “This latest attack highlights the vulnerability of such facilities in conflict zones and the need to continue monitoring the fragile situation.”

Grossi added that he was willing to visit the Zaporizhzhia plant.

Meanwhile, TASS reported that Grossi had also been invited to visit a nuclear power plant in Kursk, the region of southern Russia where Ukrainian forces have launched a growing incursion.

“An invitation to visit the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant and its satellite city of Kurchatov in the nearest future has been relayed to the head of the IAEA. It is an uncommon, but a very timely and important step,” Russian Permanent Representative to international organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said on his Telegram channel Saturday.

Andrii Kovalenko, head of the Countering Disinformation Center of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, said on Friday that “Russia may be preparing a nuclear provocation. Their scenario of accusing us of terrorism and an offensive on the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant did not work, and now they are lying about a ‘dirty bomb’ and our possible provocation.”

Russia is scrambling to shore up its defenses more than a week into Ukraine’s shock, lightning attack across the border on the southern Kursk region.

A sizeable trench has been dug across countryside near the town of Selektsionnyi, around 45 kilometers (about 28 miles) from the border, in Kursk, satellite imagery showed. Online job adverts for trench diggers have emerged. “Payment every week,” promised one.

But after months on the backfoot, losing ground in grinding battles in their own territory, just how were the Ukrainians able to catch Moscow by surprise and penetrate the Russian homeland?

First: superb operational security. Nothing about the operation leaked. Based on videos from the ground and satellite imagery of their advance, the troop movements almost seemed like an exercise or a defensive reinforcement.

The force was built up under cover of thick summer foliage along the rural roads of Sumy region, in northeast Ukraine. Experienced, battle-hardened units were brought up or diverted from other areas. Units such as the 82nd Air Assault Brigade, which had until recently been fighting in nearby Kharkiv region, were pulled into the mission to breach the border, according to multiple videos and social media accounts.

Among the detailed preparations was precise intelligence on the readiness and ability of Russian units on the border, and the number of obstacles that lay ahead, from minefields to tank traps. There weren’t many.

Ukrainian forces also used detailed knowledge of the geography to launch the attack, using forest belts for cover and roads for speed. It was only in the last days before the incursion began that commanders were briefed on the mission.

“The key, in terms of Ukraine’s success, [was that] they managed to penetrate Russian territory quite easily with little to no resistance. It was a complete surprise for the Russians, and it demonstrates that Russian intelligence services really failed to foresee any sort of Ukrainian incursion into the region,” said Seskuria.

Having established weak points in Russian defenses, the first Ukrainian units stormed into Kursk on the afternoon of August 6.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Ukrainian forces had taken control of Sudzha – the first official confirmation that the troops, which have been in the town since last Wednesday, had captured it.

The town is an important transit point for gas supples from Russia to Europe via Ukraine. Satellite images showed a gas terminal at a nearby border point in ruins.

In their charge across the border, Ukrainians have used fast, resilient western-made armored vehicles: Strykers and Marders. Small mobile groups of special forces swiftly fanned out to dozens of locations as the Russian military scrambled to assess the strength of the assault.

Key to their success: air defenses and supporting artillery, as well as jamming to prevent the Russian military from communicating. Thermal protection for their body armor also helped soldiers evade heat-detecting drones.

Within hours of crossing the border, the Ukrainians were close to Sudzha. Many of its residents were sent scrambling on hair-raising escapes, some cursing the Russian military for abandoning them.

As the operation unfolded, Ukrainian soldiers posted video of themselves in front of village signs before vanishing, part of a parallel campaign of psychological warfare.

“I think that has a great value in terms of information warfare because these images, videos that we see … that is a really good morale boost for Ukrainians,” said RUSI’s Seskuria.

Rather than confront Russian units head-on, advanced Ukrainian units bypassed them, cutting them off. The Russian military command struggled to keep up with where the threat was emanating from.

The head of Ukraine’s armed forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Thursday that Ukrainian forces had captured 1,150 square kilometers (about 444 square miles) of territory and 82 settlements since the start of the surprise incursion.

More than a week after the incursion began, the Ukrainians were still probing for weaknesses, consolidating their hold on a band of territory 35 kilometers (about 22 miles) deep – even providing Russian civilians with emergency food aid.

“[Ukraine’s] strategic aim would be to divert Russian forces from offensive operations in the Donetsk oblast, where Russians have been making some advances in the recent months… that would be an obvious intention, to ease the military pressure in Ukraine.”

Seskuria added that Ukraine’s recent activity might provide Ukraine with “a better negotiating position when it comes to any sort of peace talks in the future.” Indeed Mykhailo Podolyak, an aide to Zelensky, said the incursion was aimed at persuading Russia to enter a “fair negotiation process.”

Russian military bloggers are apoplectic about the lack of readiness and the slow response to the incursion.

The Russian Defense Ministry insisted this week it was repelling Ukrainian advances and taking prisoners, but Russia’s reinforcements were struggling to retake ground, outmaneuvered and hit with missiles and artillery.

“The offensive is culminating, and the battleground is stabilizing. Nonetheless, the Ukrainian military has already secured operational depth. If they can set robust defensive positions … they can stay inside Russian territory for a long time,” he said.

Kursk would be Ukraine’s “crown jewel” when negotiating an end to the conflict, Kasapoğlu added, if Kyiv manages to hold on to the seized territory.

Lizzy Yee, Paul Murphy, Avery Schmitz and Isaac Yee contributed reporting.

A blaze has broken out at London’s historic Somerset House with more than 100 firefighters at the scene working to contain it.

Smoke could be seen rising over central London from the building’s roof. Firefighters are working from a crane to fight the fire.

Around 125 firefighters and 20 fire engines have been deployed, according to the London Fire Brigade.

The crews are fighting flames located in part of the building’s roof, the fire brigade said in a statement, with two of the brigade’s 32-meter (nearly 105 foot) ladders being used.

The cause of the fire is not yet known, the statement said, and Somerset House has been closed to the public whilst the fire is being tackled.

The complex was first built in the 1500s, though it was demolished and rebuilt in the 1700s.

The house gets its name from Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, who built it as a palace for himself in 1547. The Duke was executed at the Tower in London a few years later, and ownership of his palace passed to the Crown.

In 1604, the Treaty of London was signed within the building, ending the 19-year Anglo-Spanish War. It later served as the headquarters for the parliamentary army during the English Civil War, and narrowly escaped burning in the Great Fire of London in 1666.

Somerset House is now the host of creative events and exhibitions. It is home to the Cortauld Gallery, which counts works by Manet, Van Gogh, and Monet among those in its collection. Kings College London has its school of law in the complex’s east wing.

It has served as a versatile filming location and can be spotted in the backdrops of films and TV shows like ‘Downton Abbey,’ ‘Love Actually,’ and ‘X Men: First Class.’

On Saturday, it said a dance battle was supposed to be held in the building’s open air courtyard, with “a day of dance and breaking showcases, workshops, live DJs and a big outdoor party, all culminating in a head-to-head dance battle between the four corners of London.”

“All staff and public are safe and the site is closed,” Somerset House said in a statement on its website. “The London Fire Brigade arrived swiftly and we’re working very closely with them to control the spread of the fire,” it added.

This story has been updated with additional information.

A fistfight broke out in Turkey’s parliament on Friday when an opposition deputy was attacked after calling for his colleague, jailed on charges of organizing anti-government protests but since elected an MP, to be admitted to the assembly.

Video footage showed MPs for the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) rushing in to punch Ahmet Sik, a member of the Workers’ Party of Turkey (TIP), at the lectern and dozens more joining a melee, some trying to hold others back. Blood spattered the white steps of the speaker’s podium.

Can Atalay was sentenced to 18 years in 2022 after being accused of trying to overthrow the government by allegedly organizing the nationwide Gezi Park protests in 2013 with philanthropist Osman Kavala, also now jailed, and six others. All deny the charges.

Despite his imprisonment, Atalay was elected to parliament in May last year to represent the TIP. Parliament stripped him of his seat, but on Aug. 1 the Constitutional Court declared his exclusion null and void.

“We’re not surprised that you call Can Atalay a terrorist, just as you do everyone who does not side with you,” Sik told AKP lawmakers in a speech.

“But the biggest terrorists are the ones sitting in these seats,” he added.

The deputy parliament speaker declared a 45-minute recess after the fistfight.

The TIP also called for Atalay’s release from prison.

Though not often, brawls are not unheard-of in Turkish parliament. In June, AKP lawmakers scuffled with pro-Kurdish DEM Party MPs over the detention and replacement of a DEM Party mayor in southeast Turkey for alleged militant links.

An Israeli strike has killed at least ten people – all of them Syrian nationals – in Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said in a statement Saturday morning.

A woman and her two children are among the dead, according to the ministry.

The strike also wounded at least five, two of which are in critical conditions. They include three Syrians, one Sudanese and one Lebanese, the ministry said. Two of the Syrians are in critical condition and undergoing surgery at a nearby hospital.

The Israeli military said it struck a Hezbollah weapons storage facility in the area of Nabatieh overnight.

The death toll from the strike is one of the largest in southern Lebanon since Israel launched its war on Gaza following the Hamas attacks of October 7 that killed around 1,200 people.

Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been exchanging almost daily cross-border fire since Israel launched its war on the enclave, which has killed over 40,000 Palestinians in ten months.

Tensions between Lebanon and Israel deepened further late last month when an Israeli strike on Lebanese capital Beirut killed the top military commander for Hezbollah, Fu’ad Shukr. The next day, Israel is widely believed to have assassinated Hamas’ political leader in Tehran. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in that incident.

Given Lebanon’s proximity to Israel as its direct neighbor to the north, Hezbollah could act with little to no notice, one of the sources said — which is not true of Iran.

On Friday hostage and truce talks ended and are due to resume next week. International mediators presented a new proposal intended close the remaining gaps of disagreement between Israel and Gaza.

Russia is “rapidly approaching” a key military hub in eastern Ukraine, a local official has said, as Moscow continues its advances despite Kyiv’s surprise gains in its enemy’s Kursk region.

While Pokrovsk is not a major city – about 60,000 people lived there before the war and many have left since the start of the full-scale invasion – it serves as a key hub for the Ukrainian military thanks to its easy access to Kostiantynivka, another military center.

Ukrainian troops use the road connecting the two to resupply the front lines and evacuate casualties toward Dnipro.

Serhii Dobriak, head of the Pokrovsk city military administration, urged the community there to evacuate without delay.

“The enemy is rapidly approaching the outskirts of Pokrovsk,” he said in a Telegram post on Thursday.

His warning is proof that Moscow has not relented in its attack on other parts of Ukraine, despite Kyiv’s successful incursion across the border over the past week, a major development after two-and-a-half years of open conflict.

Ukraine said it has captured more than 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of Russian territory since the start of its surprise assault, forcing tens of thousands of Russians from their homes.

On Friday, Ukraine officials said its military, already some 35 kilometers into Russian territory, is still advancing “in some areas from 1 to 3 kilometers.”

Russia appears to have diverted several thousand troops from frontline fighting in occupied Ukraine in order to address the territorial loss in the Kursk region.

But according to Dobriak, the enemy is “almost right up close” to Pokrovsk, Ukraine’s key logistics and military hub that has become the focus of the Russian offensive in the Donetsk region.

“They are a bit more than 10 kilometers (about 6.2 miles) from the outskirts of Pokrovsk,” he said, adding that the situation “is only getting worse.”

For months, Russia has been stretching Ukrainian defenses across the entire front line, trying to capture as much territory as possible before new Ukrainian recruits and fresh batches of Western weapons start arriving on the battlefield.

The gains made by Russia have been largely incremental – the front line has barely moved in the past few months – but the recent advance toward Pokrovsk has Ukraine and its allies worried.

The city’s capture would bring Russian President Vladimir Putin closer to his goal of seizing all of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Kostiantynivka is the southernmost part of a belt of four Ukrainian cities – with Druzhkivka, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk – that form the backbone of Ukraine’s defenses of the region, so any progress of Russian troops toward the city is significant.

Officer of Ukraine’s 59th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade Serhii Tsehotskyi told Ukrainian national broadcaster Suspilne on Friday that Ukraine’s incursion into Russia had not led to a decrease in Moscow’s attacks in the Donetsk region.

He said Russian attempts to advance do not stop “for a minute,” and “the battles continue around the clock.”

“Taking into consideration the events in the Kursk region, they (the Russian forces) are trying to do everything in order to be successful at least somewhere,” he said.

Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi acknowledged Friday that “intense fighting” is taking place in the cities of Pokrovsk and Toretsk.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War said Thursday that Russian forces are “maintaining their relatively high offensive tempo” in Donetsk, “demonstrating that the Russian military command continues to prioritize advances in eastern Ukraine even as Ukraine is pressuring Russian forces within” the Kursk region.

When Moawya Ali saw a wave of Israeli settlers storm towards his house in the West Bank town of Jit, he grabbed his five children and rushed to his car, where he dropped them off at a nearby house for safety.

When he returned to the house, Ali said, he saw some 30 settlers – armed, masked and dressed in black – jumping over the fence, breaking windows and throwing Molotov cocktails inside the house.

“We are (Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir) Ben Gvir’s gang, we are here to kill you, here to kill Arabs,” the settlers shouted in both Arabic and Hebrew, according to Ali.

Ali’s home is one of several houses and cars damaged by what residents of Jit say was an assault by dozens of settlers on Thursday night, which drew scathing condemnation from top Israeli officials.

“They were prepared with weapons,” Arman said, adding that they had silencer firearms with live ammunition, knives and M16 rifles. “They came to commit a crime in the town,” he said.

The attack has been condemned by top officials across Israel’s government, with a statement issued hours later by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office warning that “those responsible for any offense will be apprehended and tried.”

‘Netanyahu is but a toy’

One resident, Rashid Sedda, was killed in Thursday’s attack. According to the Palestinian Authority’s ministry of health, the 23-year-old died after an “injury to the chest by settlers’ bullets.”

Hundreds gathered for his burial on Friday, where residents marched down the narrow streets of the town carrying Sedda’s body, wrapped in a Palestinian flag.

Mourners blamed far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Ben Gvir for the attack, saying they have been instigating settler violence, and especially after October 7.

“Netanyahu is but a toy in their hands,” said the preacher speaking at Sedda’s burial.

In May, Smotrich said that Israel should approve 10,000 settlements in the West Bank, establish a new settlement for every country that recognizes a state of Palestine, and cancel travel permits for Palestinian Authority officials. In June, the minister said the way to prevent a Palestinian state that would endanger the state of Israel is to develop Jewish settlements.

Netanyahu has long struggled to appease the far-right side of his coalition, and is currently under pressure to delay a ceasefire deal and press on with the war in Gaza, which today shows few signs of ending.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has recorded at least 1,143 settler attacks against Palestinians from October 7 to August 5 alone. Of those, at least 114 attacks “led to Palestinian fatalities and injuries,” according to OCHA.

After Thursday’s attack, some settler leaders were keen to distance themselves from the attackers. Smotrich, who lives in the Kedumim settlement just 10 minutes away, called attackers “criminals” who “are in no way related to the settlements and the settlers.”

In a statement, Ben Gvir suggested that the riot would not have happened if the Israeli military were allowed to shoot stone-throwers in the West Bank. Ben Gvir said he “told the [IDF] Chief of the General Staff this evening that the fact that we don’t let soldiers shoot any terrorist who throws stones is leading to events of the type that occurred tonight.”

“At the same time, it is unequivocally forbidden to take the law into one’s own hands,” he added.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have also condemned the attack, saying in a statement that Israeli security forces were dispatched to Jit “minutes after receiving the report of this incident” and “used riot dispersal means, fired shots into the air, and removed the Israeli civilians from the town.”

An Israeli civilian involved in the riot has been apprehended for questioning, and a joint investigation by Israeli security forces is looking into the death of the Palestinian resident, it also said.

The world ‘does nothing’

Statements by Israeli officials did little to cool residents’ anger, however.

Murad Eshtewi, spokesman for Fatah in the Qalqilya Province, where the town of Jit is located, said that attacks by settlers are always given a greenlight by settler leaders. Fatah is the leading party in the Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs the West Bank.

While the prime minister is enjoying the support of his far-right ministers, Eshtewi said, blood is being spilled in Gaza and the West Bank.

Residents of Jit said that attacks by settlers have been rampant since Netanyahu’s new government and more so after October 7, but that Thursday’s attack was unprecedented.

They fear it may not be the last.

Yamin said that it is up to the international community to stop the violence, as the Palestinian people have no means of confronting these attacks.

“The world sees and hears what happens, and does nothing,” he said.

Doctors in war-torn Gaza have detected a case of polio for the first time in 25 years, health officials said, as international aid bodies call for a pause in the conflict for make way for a vaccination drive.

Traces of poliovirus were found in a 10-month-old child in the central Gazan city of Deir al-Balah, the health ministry said in a statement late Friday, adding that the baby had not received any polio jabs.

Previously, UNICEF said poliovirus was detected in environmental samples from Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah in July, with stool samples of three children being sent to a lab in Jordan for testing.

Polio is a highly contagious disease that mainly affects children under the age of 5. It targets the nervous system and can cause paralysis and death in extreme cases.

The resurgence of the virus – eliminated in most of the developed world – highlights the struggles facing Gaza’s two million residents, who have lived under Israeli bombardment since October last year. Many people in the enclave are deprived of food, medical supplies and clean water, with up to 90% of the population internally displaced.

More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its war on Hamas following the group’s October 7 attack, according to officials. The Hamas attack killed more than 1,200 Israelis, with 250 taken hostage, according to the Israeli government.

The health ministry said it will work with UNICEF to vaccinate children under 10 years old in Gaza, adding that more than a million doses are available.

Two rounds of vaccination are expected to be launched this month and next across Gaza, UNICEF said in a news release Friday, adding that it will target more than 640,000 children.

But a pause in hostilities is needed to make way for an effective polio vaccination campaign, it said, alongside the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees and the World Health Organization, all calling for a halt to the fighting.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has called the proposal “a must,” noting the “ultimate vaccine for polio is peace and an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.”

International mediators are making an urgent push for Israel and Hamas to reach a broader ceasefire and hostage deal next week, after high-stakes negotiations in Qatar saw them put a fresh proposal to the warring parties.

Gaza has been polio-free for the last 25 years, UNICEF said.

“Its reemergence, which the humanitarian community has warned about for the last ten months, represents yet another threat to the children in the Gaza Strip and neighboring countries,” the UN body added, stressing the importance of a ceasefire.

Hamas welcomed the call from the UN agencies on Friday for a seven-day “polio pause.”

But the health ministry in Gaza warned in a statement on Friday that a vaccination campaign “will not be enough without a radical solution to the problems of sanitation and accumulation of waste among the tents for the displaced.”

Last week, Palestinian Minister of Health Dr. Majed Abu Ramadan warned that Israel’s bombardment had destroyed 80% of the healthcare infrastructure in Gaza.

Most hospitals are out of service and those that have remained operational are working only partially “due to direct damage and the loss of qualified medical staff” due to displacement, according to the minister.

“We are facing a humanitarian catastrophe by all indications and evidence,” he said.

Eyad Kourdi, Hira Humayun, Sarah Dean and Ibrahim Dahman contributed to this report.

Tears streamed down Bisan Abuaita’s face as she reunited with her teammates at Jordan’s Queen Alia Airport in May.

It was the first time members of the Palestinian women’s soccer team had met since the start of the war in Gaza, an ongoing trauma for Palestinians inside and outside the enclave.

The team was en route to Dublin, Ireland – the first time a senior Palestinian women’s team had ever played in Europe.

This season’s Palestinian-based women’s league was slated to start on October 9, 2023, two days after Hamas’ devastating assault on Israel, that prompted a military campaign that has so far killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than a million more.

After months of fearing for their relatives and friends inside Gaza, the team finally got their 90 minutes of solace, kicking off against local Irish club Bohemians FC in May.

Adding extra significance to the match, it was played on the 76th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, or catastrophe, during which approximately 700,000 Palestinians fled their homes or were expelled by Jewish militia groups, in violence that accompanied the founding of the state of Israel in 1948.

Thousands of Palestinian flag-waving fans filled Dalymount Park, with the proceeds going to charitable organizations to help refugees back home. Irish President Michael Higgins was among those in attendance.

Just two weeks after the match was played, Ireland would go on to recognize Palestinian statehood, in a coordinated move with two other European nations, Spain and Norway, a decision that was condemned by Israel.

Ireland is considered one of the most pro-Palestinian nations in Europe, and earlier this year filed an intervention in the genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

The Palestinian side won the match 2-1, but the result was less important than the game itself.

“Leading the team out was unforgettable,” said 25-year-old captain Mira Natour, a doctor who will soon return to her native Bethlehem in the West Bank, where she works in a government hospital.

“It was a moment that filled me with enormous pride and a heavy sense of achievement. Not just for me, but the entire team and our nation. It was a symbol of our resilience; representing Palestine on the international stage despite all the challenges we face.”

Teammate Abuaita, who travels between Bethlehem and France to help displaced Palestinian women and children, described the “surreal” moment of being able to return to competitive soccer.

She had barely kicked a ball since her local club won the Palestinian Cup the previous year.

“It felt amazing,” she said. “Wearing the kit gives me goosebumps. With what’s happening lately, it’s like double the goosebumps.

“Everyone was crying when we heard the national anthem (pre-match) because you remember everything and everyone that you’re playing for. Each one of us knows people who are suffering, who (have been) martyred.”

‘Sisters’ assemble

The Palestinian players traveled to Ireland from far and wide – some from their homes in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, and others from the global diaspora living thousands of miles from the site of the conflict.

Five players from the West Bank, including Abuaita, had to drive to Jordan and fly from Amman. There are no airports in the Palestinian territories and the women would have needed a permit to fly from Israel’s Tel Aviv airport. Even though the distance to Jordan’s Queen Alia Airport is relatively short, three separate security checkpoints along the way meant the trip took around 10 hours, Abuaita said.

But at least they could travel. Since the team’s establishment in 2013, there has yet to be a Palestine women’s team member from Gaza, due to Israel’s blockade of the enclave.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have players from Gaza on our team. One of the main reasons why is the blockade that was forced upon Gazans since 2007,” said team manager Deema Yousef.

“This means citizens cannot leave the strip without a permit granted by the Israeli government, which is extremely hard to obtain,” said Yousef, a representative of the Palestinian Football Association.

Other players came from the Palestinian diaspora in Germany, Sweden, Canada and Saudi Arabia.

Eighteen-year-old goalkeeper Charlotte Phillips was born in Canada to a Bahamian father and Palestinian mother.

Phillips’ grandparents, George and Odette, are Nakba survivors whose family members were killed in front of them, she said.

They left Jerusalem in the mid-70s and moved to Canada and went on to open a successful Palestinian restaurant in Toronto, said Phillips, now a university student in Toronto.

“I can’t always fully relate to the struggles,” Phillips said. “I know what it means to be Palestinian in Canada, but I don’t know what it means to be Palestinian living in occupied Palestine. So, playing in a game like that in front of my teta (grandmother) and sidi (grandfather) was so significant to our family history.”

Nonetheless each meetup of the team, like the match in Ireland, is charged.

“It was so incredibly emotional,” Phillips recalled.

‘We are still fighting’

Both Natour and Abuaita described the team’s bittersweet feeling of clocking valuable minutes on the field, while remembering those struggling in war-torn Gaza.

Abuaita said her team plays as a mark of respect for those killed in the conflict, and as a reminder to the world that Palestinians are still fighting.

“We play for all those people who were killed, for those footballers and athletes who were murdered. And for those athletes who are still unable to play, because in Gaza now there’s zero stadiums – they were all destroyed. Being able to show people we’re here and that we’re still fighting in Palestine is an honor,” she said.

Since the game in Dublin, both the Palestinian men’s and women’s teams have played a handful of international friendly matches, with the former still in contention for a place at the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the US, Mexico and Canada after an impressive outing in the Asian group stages this summer.

“Football is a source of hope and unity for our people. It allows us to tell our story – we are more than just a conflict,” captain Natour said.

“Most importantly, it inspires the younger generation to dream and strive for a better future, no matter what. When I look at my teammates with diverse backgrounds and unique talents, (I realize) we’re not just athletes but role models and advocates for our country, both on and off the field.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz raised eyebrows on Friday when he said Israel would expect international partners such as the United Kingdom and France to join Israel in responding to a potential strike from Iran, “not only in defense, but also in attacking significant targets in Iran.”

Katz made the claim during a meeting to discuss “preventing regional escalation and promoting a hostage deal,” with his British and Israeli counterparts in Jerusalem, according to a readout from the Israeli foreign office.

Both France and the UK, however, have downplayed such a prospect, with the UK emphasizing the need to break the “current destructive cycle of retaliatory violence” in the Middle East.

French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné told a press conference in Jerusalem that it would be “inappropriate” to speak of “a retaliation or preparation for an Israeli retaliation” whilst diplomatic talks are underway.

Katz’s declaration comes amid heightened fears of a reprisal attack from Iran, following the assassination of Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Iran has blamed Israel for Haniyeh’s death but Israel hasn’t confirmed or denied responsibility.

When asked about Katz’s statement, a UK foreign office spokesperson stressed that the UK is “working in lockstep with our allies to deescalate tensions,” adding that they “urge all parties to refrain from perpetuating the current destructive cycle of retaliatory violence.”

“We call on Iran and its allies to refrain from attacks that would further escalate regional tensions and jeopardise the opportunity to agree a ceasefire and the release of hostages. No country or nation stands to gain from a further escalation in the Middle East,” the spokesperson added.

Meanwhile, a senior United States administration official struck a harsher tone, warning on Friday there could be “cataclysmic” consequences and “particularly for Iran” if Tehran decides to strike Israel and escalate the conflict in the Middle East.

The official added that the US has encouraged Iran, through intermediaries, to not attack as there is a “path” to achieve a ceasefire and hostage deal on the table. The de-escalation and potential for a ceasefire deal are “separate,” the official said, but they are happening in “parallel.”

“We have deployed the military resources to the region that are needed for every possible contingency, and we’re working in very close coordination with partners and allies,” the official added.

“We are ready for any possible contingency, and we’re going to help defend Israel, and not going to get ahead of anything else that. I just say this, this attack from Iran has been predicted now, I think every day over the last two and a half weeks. So you know, let’s see. I’ll just say we are prepared,” they added.