Archive for August, 2026

Israel launches massacre in Gaza, as Trump threatens Iran with “decapitation”

August 4, 2026

Andre Damon@Andre__Damon, WSWS, 3 Aug 2026

Israeli forces killed at least 26 people in Gaza over the weekend, striking apartment blocks, tent camps and the medicine warehouses of a hospital, in the territory’s deadliest days in weeks. The killings came as US President Donald Trump threatened Iran with “decapitation” after a week of American strikes across the regio

Israel killed at least seven people on Saturday and destroyed two of the four medicine warehouses of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Al Jazeera reported. Gaza Health Ministry Director-General Munir al-Bursh said the destruction “turns medicine and illness itself into a tool of war.”

Palestinians try to extinguish a burning car after an Israeli military strike in Gaza City, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. [AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi]

The Associated Press reported that the Israeli military killed at least 17 more people, children among them, from Saturday night through Sunday, according to local hospitals. Al Jazeera counted 19 dead Sunday and put the weekend toll at 26. Among the dead were Abdullah Abu al-Teif, 33, his pregnant wife Abeer Anan, 29, and their five-year-old son Azzam, killed at the Al-Sousi Tower in western Gaza City. The Israeli military said the strikes had targeted militant operatives.

The bloodshed unfolded behind an official propaganda barrage of peace. On Thursday Trump announced a “HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas”; on Saturday he claimed the “perimeters of a deal” to reopen the Strait of Hormuz had been agreed. As he spoke, Israeli bombs fell on Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, and US bombers massed for what Trump said Sunday “would have been the biggest attack since World War II.”

Israel has attacked Gaza on 270 of the 297 days since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, 2025, an Al Jazeera analysis reported as of Monday. Gaza’s Health Ministry counts at least 1,250 Palestinians killed since the truce began; five Israeli soldiers have died in the same period, per the Associated Press.

The “ceasefires” are merely the framework for the permanent annexation of Gaza and the expansion of the war. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Sunday that the Israeli-held zone had reached 60 to 70 percent of Gaza, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman Doron Spielman told the AP: “Disarming means physically giving up the weapons. Nothing less.”

The AP reported that Israel’s demands, according to a person with knowledge of the deal, include the freedom to keep conducting military operations in Gaza. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote in the Telegram on July 31 that “assassinations in Gaza must continue.”

The Israeli army is meanwhile in the second week of a “wide-scale military operation” Netanyahu ordered across the West Bank after settlers from the Havat Gilad outpost attacked the village of Tal on July 24. Four Palestinians of the Ramadan family and two Israelis died.

The army deployed 26 battalions and raided towns from Jenin to Hebron, Al Jazeera reported on July 28; Army Radio counted 30 settler attacks the following weekend, including two mosques set on fire and a family home in Urif that more than 150 settlers set alight—an infant survived because her grandfather pulled her from her crib.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on July 24 that Palestinian villages should “look like the refugee camps in Nablus and Tulkarem.” According to UN figures, 1,122 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since October 2023, at least 246 of them children.

The assault on Gaza comes as Trump threatens to destroy the Iranian government. “Iranian Leadership is unbelievably duplicitous!” he wrote Monday on Truth Social. In the Oval Office later that day he said, “This is the last chance for them to sign a good document,” adding that he wanted to give “every last chance before decapitation.”

The threats followed a week of American bombardment. After Trump said July 27 that US strikes were paused for mediation, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard fired ballistic missiles on July 28 at a base housing US troops in Jordan, and the next day the US military announced a “heavy wave of strikes” on dozens of sites across Iran—command centers, missile and drone facilities and coastal defense sites.

Iranian state media reported that a missile struck a house on Qeshm Island, killing Qeisar Jafari, a taxi driver, his wife Zahra and their two-year-old son Sina. The same day, US and Saudi warplanes struck militia sites across seven Iraqi provinces; the Popular Mobilization Forces said 20 of its fighters were killed, and two Iraqi militia officials told the AP that six Iranian advisers died.

CBS News reported Friday that the US and Israel were preparing a bombing campaign against Iranian power plants and refineries. In a Truth Social post late Saturday, Trump announced he had canceled the attack, writing that “Iran, and other Middle Eastern Countries” had asked him to hold off.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth wrote Sunday on X: “The @DeptofWar was ready to go—and remains ready—at levels not seen since World War 2. Locked and loaded.”

These realities render all the talk of “ceasefire” by Trump and Netanyahu moot: There is an ongoing regional war throughout the Middle East, in which people are being killed every day.

Houthi missiles and drones have struck Saudi tankers and Aramco facilities since the group declared an embargo on Saudi shipping July 20; a drone set two gas vessels ablaze at Egypt’s port of Damietta July 29. Kuwait said Saturday it destroyed hostile drones over its territory and blamed Iran; Israel killed Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon Saturday and shelled southern Syria on July 30.

Trump’s claims of peace negotiations met a flat denial from Tehran. “We are not negotiating with the United States at this time,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Monday; Iran says its only talks are with Oman, over a temporary shipping corridor through the Strait of Hormuz.

No ceasefire is in effect with Iran—the June memorandum collapsed in early July, and The Guardian wrote Monday that the weekend reversal was thought to be Trump’s 12th cancellation of threatened strikes.

On CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday, Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona attacked the war as mismanaged: “Here’s a guy who got us into this without a strategic goal, without a plan, without a timeline.” His remedy was to win it: “put some people in here that know how to do this, how to talk to the Iranians.” He did not call for an end to the war and said nothing about Gaza.

At a Senate hearing on July 21, Democratic Senator Gary Peters of Michigan demanded that the administration win the war, telling Hegseth: “You don’t have a long-term plan to actually win this war. Win the war.”

The war is deeply unpopular: 64 percent of Americans told an AP-NORC poll published July 30 that it has not been worth fighting, and 60 percent told Quinnipiac July 29 they oppose US military action against Iran. But in Washington, the argument is over how the war should be fought, not how to end it.

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‘They want to make us leave’: Israel destroys West Bank wells serving Palestinian herders

August 4, 2026

Residents of Ras al-Ahmar say the destruction of their main water source follows months of settler attacks

Families haul water after wells in Ras al-Ahmar were destroyed (Mojahid Nawahda/MEE)

Mojahid Nawahda and Teebah Assi in Ras al-Ahmar, occupied Palestine

MEE, 3 August 2026

As first light reaches the scattered tents and animal pens of Ras al-Ahmar in the northern Jordan Valley, the silence is broken only by the cries of thirsty livestock waiting for water that no longer comes.

Days after Israeli forces destroyed three of the Palestinian community’s main water wells, residents are scrambling to secure enough water for their families, crops and animals in one of the occupied West Bank’s driest regions.

For 60-year-old Ali Bani Odeh, the destruction of the wells was more than merely the loss of infrastructure. A father of four and grandfather of 14, he has spent decades farming and raising livestock to support his family in Ras al-Ahmar.

Now, like dozens of other families, he is uncertain how long they can continue living on the land without a reliable water supply.

“Water is everything for us,” Ali told Middle East Eye.

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“Without water, we cannot live. We need it for our families, our sheep and our crops. Since the wells were destroyed, we have been forced to bring water from town at a much higher cost, and even then, we’re not always allowed to pass.”

Families must now haul water from distant towns at far greater expense, while military checkpoints and movement restrictions frequently delay or prevent tankers from reaching the village.

‘The wells were the lifeline of this community’

– Abdullah Bisharat, head of the village council

According to Ras al-Ahmar village council head Abdullah Bisharat, the three destroyed wells supplied more than 47 Palestinian families, serving over 600 people and irrigating around 7,500 dunams of farmland.

The wells also sustained thousands of sheep and goats, the main source of income for many families.

“The wells were the lifeline of this community,” Bisharat said.

“Their destruction has affected every aspect of daily life, from drinking water and agriculture to livestock, leaving dozens of families struggling to meet their most basic needs.”

Settler attacks

Residents say the destruction marked the worst escalation in a months-long water crisis caused by Israeli settler attacks.

They say settlers repeatedly cut the pipelines supplying the community, forcing families to rely on costly water tankers. This time, however, the wells themselves were destroyed, eliminating the community’s main source of water.

Ali’s son, Obeida Bani Odeh, fears the loss of the wells threatens not only his family’s livelihood but also their future in Ras al-Ahmar. 

How Israeli settler terrorism threatens the basics of Palestinian survival

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“We cannot survive here without water,” Obeida said.

“For months, the pipelines supplying our community were repeatedly cut, and we had to bring water from nearby towns, often at three times the usual cost.

“Now the wells have been destroyed, and there is no reliable source of water left for our families or our livestock.”

He said the challenges extend beyond water shortages. Settler attacks and movement restrictions have made it increasingly difficult to bring in water, animal feed and other essential supplies.

“The settlers attack everyone, from the young to the old,” Obeida said. 

“They want to make people afraid and force them to leave. But we have been living on this land for generations.”

(MEE)
The three destroyed wells supplied more than 47 Palestinian families, around 600 people (Mojahid Nawahda/MEE)

Around 700,000 Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem across roughly 300 settlements and outposts. The settlements are regarded as illegal under international law, according to the International Court of Justice.

Settler attacks on Palestinian herding communities have increased sharply in recent years. Between January 2023 and April 2026, at least 5,910 Palestinians were internally displaced due to settler violence in the West Bank, according to UN data.

‘A silent war’

Aref Daraghmeh, a human rights activist, says the destruction of water infrastructure in Ras al-Ahmar reflects a broader struggle over control of natural resources in the Jordan Valley.

“Water has become a silent war against Palestinians in the Jordan Valley,” Daraghmeh told MEE.

“The occupation has taken control of many Palestinian water sources, while the water available to Palestinian communities is insufficient for agriculture and sustaining life on the land.”

‘Policy to displace us’: How settler attacks are drying up the West Bank 

Read More »

Daraghmeh said restrictions on water access have contributed to the decline of Palestinian agriculture, making it increasingly difficult for farmers and herders to sustain their livelihoods. As water becomes harder to access, he argues, communities face growing pressure to leave their land while settlement agriculture continues to expand across the Jordan Valley. 

He added that movement restrictions have compounded those challenges. 

“The Jordan Valley is effectively under closure,” Daraghmeh said. “Military checkpoints control movement, roads are restricted, and residents often have to wait for hours before they can enter or leave their communities.”

For farmers and herders, those restrictions make it harder to reach grazing land and transport livestock, produce and agricultural supplies, adding to the pressures already created by limited access to water.

But for Ali Bani Odeh, leaving Ras al-Ahmar is not an option. Displaced from his home as a child, he says he will not leave again.

“I have left before, but I will not leave this place,” Ali said. 

“If we leave, they will take over the land. We are staying because this is where our lives and our history are.”

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Expert: Trump’s Trying to Exert Control With Claim He Canceled Iran Strikes Over Progress on Deal

August 3, 2026

IRAN-US-ISRAEL-WAR

A bridge that was hit and heavily damaged by a US strike is pictured along the road connecting Roudan and Bandar Abbas in southern Iran on July 18, 2026.

(Photo by Amir Hossein KHORGOOEI/ISNA/AFP via Getty Images)

“It’s a narrative designed to give the impression that Trump is in the driving seat in this conflict. It’s been clear for some time now: He isn’t.”

Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams, Aug 01, 2026

Trita Parsi, an expert on US-Iranian relations, cast doubt on President Donald Trump’s Saturday claims that he halted planned strikes on Iran due to progress in negotiations to end the illegal conflict, launched by the Republican and Israel in February.

“The U.S.A. is locked and loaded and ready to go against the Islamic Republic of Iran, at levels of Military Terror, Strength, and Power not seen since World War II. Despite this, we have just been asked by Iran, and other Middle Eastern Countries, to hold off any attack in that the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform at 10:05 pm Eastern time.

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“This would include the Immediate, Complete, and Total OPENING OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT, and an end to Iran’s nuclear threat,” Trump declared—despite repeated conclusions from US intelligence agencies that the Iranian government was not aiming to build a nuclear weapon when the United States and Israel began bombing Iran five months ago.

“Based on this request, I have agreed, for the future benefit of the WORLD and, likewise, the survival of a successful and prosperous Iran, to cancel the attack, subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL,” Trump added. “The Country of Israel joins me in this commitment. Get to work, everybody, and get it DONE.”

Sharing the post on the platform X, Parsi said, “Trump ‘cancels’ ‘planned’ ‘attack’ on Iran…” The expert struck a similarly skeptical tone during a Saturday on-air interview with CNN about the president’s announcement.

Parsi, co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said that “I don’t believe there was an imminent attack. We’ve gone through this several times, in which Trump issues these threats, and then he backs off because the other side calls his bluff.”

“Trump does not have an escalatory way out of this conflict, but what he is trying to do is to give the impression that he is in control—that he is in the driving seat,” Parsi suggested. “And I think it’s been quite clear for quite some time now he is not.”

During Trump’s first term, he tore up the Obama administration’s Iran nuclear deal, and so far, he has been unable to negotiate a replacement. Since launching this war, without authorization from Congress and in violation of the United Nations Charter, the ceasefire agreement reached in April and a June memorandum of understanding ultimately have not stopped the bloodshed.

Earlier this week, most US Senate Republicans and Democratic Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.) blocked yet another war powers resolution intended to prevent the Trump administration from launching further attacks on Iran without congressional approval—a vote that came as polling showed 64% of Americans disapprove of continuing the war, including 37% of Republicans.

The Iran War has killed thousands of Iranians and Lebanese civilians—the latter mostly from Israeli attacks purportedly targeting Hezbollah—as well as hundreds of people in other nations across the Middle East and at least 18 US service members.

In the hours before Trump’s Saturday Truth Social post, Axios revealed that “Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Trump spoke on Saturday, with MBS expressing concern over the strike plans,” and “other regional powers, including Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Pakistan, have also pressed the US and Iran to de-escalate.”

CBS chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan reported on social media about Saturday’s “flurry of phone calls by Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi to regional leaders, which suggests an effort underway to avoid military strikes.”

“Earlier today, the State Department advised Americans throughout the Mideast to leave the region,” Brennan noted.

Araghchi said Saturday that “any hostile action by the US or Israel—or participation or cooperation by regional countries in such actions—would be met with a decisive and proportionate response from Iran’s powerful armed forces.”

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Why Israel is a friend of budding autocrats around the world

August 3, 2026

Antony Loewenstein

MEE, 3 August 2026

As global public opinion turns against Tel Aviv, the Netanyahu regime is ramping up its electoral meddling, from Europe to South America

Presidential hopeful Flavio Bolsonaro appears with his wife, Fernanda, during the launch of his candidacy in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on 25 July 2026 (Nelson Almeida/AFP)

Presidential hopeful Flavio Bolsonaro appears with his wife, Fernanda, during the launch of his candidacy in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on 25 July 2026 (Nelson Almeida/AFP)

I have spent more than a decade investigating the Israeli arms and surveillance industries, and have always understood that the Israeli state is far more involved than it publicly admits. 

The revolving door between the public and private sector is well-known, but how exactly did some of the biggest Israeli companies achieve such incredible access to governments around the world, from Saudi Arabia to Ethiopia?

Beyond Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spyware diplomacy – a highly effective way to make friends, by offering sophisticated tools to spy on perceived enemies, journalists, human rights workers and even friends – there were always gaps in our knowledge. 

But a recent revelation provides a window into how it happened. In 2013, Shalev Hulio – one of the founders of NSO Group, which developed the phone spyware Pegasus – travelled to Panama on an Israeli diplomatic passport and stayed at the Israeli embassy. 

The vital reporting by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and two other media outlets found that Hulio was central to NSO Group’s sale of Pegasus to Panama in 2012, and that he signed the contract with the Panamanian government. 

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“Panamanian migration records obtained by reporters show Hulio arrived at Tocumen airport in Panama City from the U.S. on a Copa Airlines flight on December 3, 2013, and used a diplomatic passport to enter the country. The records state Hulio’s visit was for ‘recreation’ and list his profession as ‘diplomat,’” the report notes.

This piece of the puzzle confirms part of a story that has been hard to pin down with documents, and not just conjecture: NSO Group and many other Israeli arms and surveillance firms operate as an arm of the Israeli state, advancing its interests, biases and agendas – and operating with its full protection.

Political leverage

The vast treasure trove of information that has been gathered by NSO Group and other like-minded firms is incalculable, as they are the ones extracting data from mobile phones (as opposed to the paying clients). 

It’s thus inevitable that NSO Group, and by extension the Israeli government, have gathered information and secrets that could be used for political leverage on any number of countries. This is one way that Israel maintains such significant diplomatic leverage. 

The story about spyware and hacking battles over the last decade, and Israel’s central place within them, has not gone away. Israeli spying tools continue to be used against unsuspecting politicians, journalists and activists.

A rampaging Israeli government wants to make friends in the international community, as public opinion turns against it in an unprecedented way

From the European Parliament to Russia, the lack of regulation in the industry has allowed it to metastasize without restraint. But the threat of cyber-tools like Pegasus seems relatively minor when compared with the explosion of Israeli election interference around the globe. 

From Scotland to France, and Colombia to Honduras, Israeli companies are deploying the dark arts to push for pro-Israel candidates to win. This includes massive bot farms, spreading disinformation about pro-Palestinian candidates, and manipulating social media. As with the spyware industry, the world responds with paralysis and fear.

This is an issue that goes to the heart of democracy and the viability of its existence. Israeli electoral manipulation services are for sale to the highest bidder, and they’re already twisting what we know and understand about the very essence of free and fair elections. 

Destabilisation campaigns

Take Latin America, a region that’s experiencing a wave of Israeli-led disruption campaigns. Earlier this year, a story surfaced about alleged collaboration among the Trump administration, the Netanyahu regime, and former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was sentenced in the US in 2024 on massive drug-related charges – and pardoned the following year. 

The plan? Destabilise “unfriendly” governments and aim to install pro-Israel and pro-US elements to undermine left-wingers, from Colombia to Mexico (the former campaign has already been successful, with the recent win of president-elect Abelardo de la Espriella). 

Brazil may be next, with presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro – son of the previous president, Jair Bolsonaro – launching his campaign with an endorsement from Netanyahu. 

How Israel sabotages democracy in the Middle East

Read More »

It’s fair to presume that Israeli electoral hackers will be working night and day to assist the Bolsonaro campaign and sabotage Brazilian President Luiz ‌Inacio Lula da Silva in the run-up to the October general election.

Honduras once again appears to be a central point around which Israeli and American far-right pressures are being applied; the country is reportedly willing to give control of military bases and special economic zones to Israel and the US. 

All of this is occurring while Israel is experiencing its biggest collapse in support in its history. This is a historic change – one that could well impact western politics in the coming years. But right now, Palestine is being trampled and erased, from Gaza to the occupied West Bank. 

It’s hard to convey the scale of the displacement, violence and fear among Palestinians. This is the Israeli state on steroids, sensing a once-in-a-generation opportunity to remove as many Palestinians from their land as possible, making way for a truly Jewish supremacist and rabbinical state. 

In this context, it makes sense that a rampaging Israeli government wants to make friends in the international community, as public opinion turns against it in an unprecedented way. Electoral manipulation might seem like a desperate move from a nation on the edge, but in reality it represents an acceleration of Israel as a reliable, autocratic ally – one that proudly discriminates against minorities and Palestinians, and inspires the surging far right in the process.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

Antony Loewenstein is an independent journalist, best–selling author, filmmaker and co–founder of Declassified Australia. He’s written for the Guardian, the New York Times, the New York Review of Books and many others. His latest book is The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World. His other books include Pills, Powder and Smoke, Disaster Capitalism and My Israel Question. His documentary films include Disaster Capitalism and the Al Jazeera English films West Africa’s Opioid Crisis and Under the Cover of Covid. He was based in East Jerusalem from 2016 to 2020.

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Trump’s war on Iran and his deceptive tricks leave him bewildered

August 2, 2026

The US war on Iran keeps expanding into a regional conflict, as more countries get involved. Reports show that Donald Trump is getting desperate, and he is frantically seeking an off-ramp. Washington announced a “pause” to the fighting, but it lasted just four days.
Ben Norton explains the three main reasons why the United States is desperately seeking an exit: one, the Pentagon is running out of missile interceptors; two, the number of casualties among American troops is steadily increasing; and three, Yemen joined the conflict, attacking Saudi oil infrastructure, exacerbating the energy crisis.

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Spanish commentators accuse Israel and US of involvement in Ceuta crisis

August 1, 2026

Some 60,000 people crossed into Ceuta from Morocco this week, including around 8,000 children

A Spanish soldier escorts a group of migrants on their way back towards the Moroccan border, following their illegal crossing into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, on August 1, 2026.

A Spanish soldier escorts a group of migrants on their way back towards the Moroccan border, following their illegal crossing into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, on 1 August 2026 (AFP)

Imran Mulla

MEE, 1 August 2026

A Spanish minister has suggested Israel was stirring problems over 60,000 migrants crossing from Morocco into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta. 

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, posted on X on Friday: “Spain, which never misses an opportunity to lecture Israel, has declared a state of emergency in Ceuta following the crisis over its immigration policy.

“Maybe before it continues lecturing us, it’s time it explained to the world why it still maintains colonial enclaves in Africa,” he added.

Sharing Danon’s post, Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente remarked: “Well, it all seems to be becoming quite clear.”

This comes as numerous Spanish politicians and commentators have alleged that Israel and the United States have sought to cause trouble for Spain in retaliation for the Spanish government’s opposition to the US-Israeli war on Iran and Israel’s war on Gaza. 

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Gabriel Rufian, the parliamentary spokesperson for the Republican Left of Catalonia, a left-wing party, argued that the crisis served American and Israeli interests.

Spanish journalist Jose Vizner, meanwhile, shared a 2019 social media post by Yair Netanyahu, the son of Israel’s prime minister, discussing alleged Israeli support for separatism in Ceuta.

Prominent Spanish actor Javier Bardem shared a video accusing Israel of being behind the crossings.

Former Portuguese minister and commentator Bruno Macaes said that “whether or not the US and Israel were involved before the fact, they were deeply involved and intensely active after the fact, especially trying to use it against the current Spanish government”.

Ceuta, a Spanish territory on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast, and Melilla, another Spanish autonomous city on the country’s northern coast, share the only land borders between the European Union and Africa.

Some 60,000 people crossed into Ceuta from Morocco this week, including around 8,000 children, according to the Spanish government.

Footage posted online showed people swimming into the enclave around the border barrier, with some wearing swimsuits and using flotation rings to make the dangerous journey.

Diplomatic spats over migrant crossings

France said it was increasing checks along its border with Spain, while Italy threatened to suspend Spain from the EU’s internal open-border scheme.

But on Saturday, Spain said most migrants, around 48,000, had already returned to Morocco, ushered by Spanish soldiers.

Videos online showed migrants hiding in tunnels and walking around on the streets of Ceuta.

At least 67 people are believed to have died while attempting to reach the enclave.

It is unclear what prompted the wave of attempted crossings, but there have previously been similar incidents.

In May 2021, 8,000 Moroccans entered the enclave amid a diplomatic dispute between Spain and Morocco over Western Sahara. At the time, Spain accused Morocco of using migrants as leverage, and a Moroccan minister said Morocco was justified in relaxing its border control as a response to the diplomatic dispute.

Thousands make dramatic sea crossing into Ceuta from Morocco

Read More »

Some commentators have accused Morocco of facilitating this week’s crossings, pointing to the Moroccan government’s anger at Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s recent visit to Algeria, Spain’s biggest gas supplier.

Lorenzo Gabrielli, a senior researcher at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona who researches migration in Ceuta, told the New York Times: “It is impossible for nearly 50,000 people to cross the border between Morocco and Spain in a single day without Morocco having a hand in it.”

Ceuta President Juan Jesus Vivas condemned the migration as a “violation of Spain’s territorial integrity”.

Morocco’s ambassador to Spain, Karima Benyaich, said: “We have always prioritised legal, orderly and safe migration for all.”

She insisted the crossings had been against the wishes of the Moroccan government.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump called the situation a “catastrophe” and added that “if we’re not in office our country will be invaded at levels that will make Spain look small time”.

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