West Bank settler attacks head for a record year as Mladenov warns on the Gaza ceasefire
Violence by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank is heading for a record year and spreading into new areas, the BBC reports. Board of Peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov warned the Gaza ceasefire could collapse if the roadmap is not followed. A rare airstrike in Jenin killed three Palestinians. The BBC also reported that the Pentagon-funded Peshmerga aid memorandum ends on 30 September.
Geopolitics··Evening
Settler violence in the West Bank nears a record year
Violence by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank is on course to reach record levels this year, and human rights groups say the attacks are spreading into new areas of the territory, according to BBC reporting that tracked incidents over a single week. Attacks on Palestinians have risen under Israel's current government alongside a rapid expansion of settlements, which are illegal under international law. The BBC says many of the incidents it recorded were not widely reported elsewhere. BBC correspondent Lucy Williamson tracked attacks on Palestinians over one week. Human rights groups warn that settler mobility is no longer confined to areas documented for years and is reaching communities that had seen little of it until now. The report does not give a single count for that week; the broader trend rests on monitoring groups' own tallies. The BBC's Lucy Williamson followed attacks on Palestinians over the course of one week for the report.[3]
Mladenov says the Gaza ceasefire could collapse
Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for the Board of Peace, told Al Jazeera that both sides' failure to follow the roadmap threatens a collapse of the ceasefire in Gaza and that a return to war would be devastating. Mladenov said the Board has determined how and where the International Stabilization Force is to deploy, that Morocco has agreed to take part and that Turkiye will not, after Israel vetoed Ankara's involvement. Mladenov said reconstruction pledges have reached $7bn. Gaza's Health Ministry says 1,303 Palestinians have been killed and 4,336 wounded by Israeli fire since the ceasefire took effect in October 2025. On the same days a rare airstrike in Jenin killed three Palestinians. The Israeli military named Qais Bitawi as a Hamas operative; Hamas condemned the strike but did not claim him as a member. Mladenov first proposed the 15-point roadmap on 21 May; the Board of Peace announced on 31 July that agreement had been reached, Hamas said it had approved the plan, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu then rejected it.[1], [2]
The Peshmerga aid deal ends in September
The memorandum under which the Pentagon funds the Kurdistan Region's security force ends on 30 September, the same day the last US and coalition troops leave Iraq, four sources told the BBC. Defence department officials are said to be reluctant to extend it. The lapse would create a gap in security financing for the Kurdistan Region. The decision was taken amid existing tension between Erbil and Baghdad. The Peshmerga are seen as a key part of the security architecture in northern Iraq; ending the fund would directly affect regional security planning. BBC sources say the Pentagon tied the funding end to the Iraq withdrawal timetable on the same day. The Peshmerga are seen as a key part of northern Iraq's security architecture; ending the fund would directly affect regional security planning. Defence department officials are said to be reluctant to extend the memorandum. The Pentagon signed the memorandum in 2016 and renewed it in 2022; the Peshmerga, about 180000 strong, received $61m in the 2026 fiscal year for weapons, training and stipends through the counter-IS programme. The Pentagon's 2027 fiscal year budget request proposed cutting that assistance entirely, arguing the money should be reallocated now that IS is defeated, and the request is on hold inside a wider budget fight in Congress. Iran and Iran-backed militias had carried out 158 missile or drone attacks inside Iraqi Kurdistan by late May, according to research compiled by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.[4]
