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      For Many Western Allies, Sending Weapons to Israel Gets Dicey

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      As civilian casualties in Gaza spiral, some nations are suspending sales amid accusations of abetting genocide and war crimes.For months, Western governments have provided military support for Israel while fending off accusations that their weapons were being used to commit war crimes in Gaza. But as a global outcry over the growing death toll in Gaza mounts, maintaining that balance is becoming increasingly difficult, as was clear on a single day this past week.On Tuesday, in a United Nations court, Germany found itself having to defend against accusations that it was complicit in genocide against Palestinians in Gaza by exporting weapons to Israel.A few hours later, in Washington, a top Democrat and Biden administration ally, Representative Gregory W. Meeks of New York, said he might block an $18 billion deal to sell F-15 fighter jets to Israel unless he was assured that Palestinian civilians would not be indiscriminately bombed.And two miles away, at a media briefing at the State Department, Britain’s foreign minister, David Cameron, was pressed on what his government had concluded after weeks of internal review about whether Israel has breached international humanitarian law during its offensive in Gaza.The governments of Germany and the United States remain the backbone of international military support for Israel, accounting for 98 percent of major weapons systems sent to Israel, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks the global weapons trade. So far, the pressure has not swayed them or Britain, though President Biden this month went further than he ever had, threatening to condition future support for Israel on how it addresses his concerns about civilian casualties and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.Mr. Cameron also equivocated, if only a bit. After defending Israel at the briefing and suggesting that the recent advice he had received did not conclude that arms exports should be halted, he said that the British government’s position reflected only “the latest assessment” of the issue, implying some flexibility.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      U.S. Official Heads to Israel Amid Fears of Iranian Attack

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      A senior U.S. military commander was traveling to Israel on Thursday, officials said, as fears ran high that Iran would soon launch a strike to avenge the killings of several senior commanders.Iran’s leaders have repeatedly vowed to punish Israel for an April 1 strike in Syria that killed several senior Iranian commanders. U.S. officials have said they are bracing for a possible Iranian response, and Israel has put its military on alert.A day after President Biden warned that Iran was threatening a “significant” attack, Defense Department officials said that the top American military commander for the Middle East, Gen. Michael E. Kurilla, was traveling to Israel. He will coordinate with Israel on what is expected to be imminent retaliatory action by Iran, as well as discuss the war in Gaza, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. Israel’s military declined to comment on the general’s visit.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged that Israel was facing “challenging times” on Thursday, noting that “in the midst of the war in Gaza” his country was “also prepared for scenarios involving challenges in other sectors.”“We have determined a simple rule: Whoever harms us, we will harm them,” he said while visiting an air base, using language that in recent days has been used to refer to threats from Iran and its proxies.While President Biden has become increasingly critical of Mr. Netanyahu’s conduct of the war in Gaza — threatening to withhold U.S. assistance unless Israel does more to protect civilians — he emphasized on Wednesday that American support for Israel in the face of an Iranian threat was unconditional.“As I told Prime Minister Netanyahu, our commitment to Israel’s security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad,” he said at a news conference.Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken also “made clear that the U.S. will stand with Israel against any threats by Iran and its proxies” when he spoke by phone on Wednesday with Israel’s defense minister, the State Department said.As Iran and Israel have traded fresh threats in recent days, diplomats have been trying to reduce tensions and avert a wider regional war.The foreign minister of Germany, Annalena Baerbock, spoke to her Iranian counterpart “about the tense situation” in the Middle East on Thursday, according to her office.“Avoiding further regional escalation must be in everyone’s interest,” it said in a statement. “We urge all actors in the region to act responsibly and exercise maximum restraint.” More

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      Germany Rebuffs Claim Its Arms Sales to Israel Abet Genocide in Gaza

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      Germany argued against the accusation brought by Nicaragua at the International Court of Justice, but Germans are questioning their country’s unwavering support for Israel.Germany on Tuesday defended itself against accusations that its arms sales to Israel were abetting genocide in Gaza, arguing at the International Court of Justice that most of the equipment it has supplied since Oct. 7 was nonlethal and that it has also been one of the largest donors of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.The case at the U.N. court in The Hague pits Germany, whose support for Israel is considered an inviolable part of the country’s atonement for the Holocaust, against Nicaragua, which brought the allegations to the court and is a longstanding supporter of the Palestinian cause.Debate over Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip has been muted in Germany, whose leadership calls support for Israel a “Staatsräson,” a national reason for existence, and where people have historically been reluctant to question that support publicly. But the mounting death toll and humanitarian crisis in Gaza have led some German officials to ask whether that unwavering backing has gone too far.Lawyers for Germany said Tuesday that the allegations brought by Nicaragua had “no basis in fact or law” and rested on an assessment of military conduct by Israel, which is not a party to the case. Tania von Uslar-Gleichen, an official at Germany’s Foreign Ministry and lead counsel in the case, told the 15-judge bench that Nicaragua had “rushed this case to court on the basis of the flimsiest evidence.”On Monday, Nicaragua argued that Germany was facilitating the commission of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza by providing Israel with military and financial aid, and it asked for emergency measures ordering the German government to halt its support. The court is expected to decide within weeks whether to order emergency measures.Some German news media said it was absurd that Germany should have to answer to accusations from Nicaragua, whose authoritarian president, Daniel Ortega, has jailed critics or forced them into exile, and has been accused in a United Nations report of crimes against humanity.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Could Ecuador’s Diplomatic Spat With Mexico Be a Boon for Noboa?

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      Analysts believe that President Daniel Noboa’s re-election hopes are what motivated the arrest of an Ecuadorean politician taking refuge at the Mexican Embassy.Ecuador’s decision to send police officers into the Mexican Embassy to arrest a politician who had taken refuge there inflamed tensions between two countries that were already at odds, but it may prove a political boon for the Ecuadorean president.President Daniel Noboa has been faced with flagging approval ratings amid rising violence weeks before a referendum that could affect his prospects for re-election next year. The spat with Mexico, which suspended diplomatic relations, may be just what he needed.The politician who was arrested, Jorge Glas, a former vice president of Ecuador, had been sentenced to prison for corruption and living at the Mexican Embassy in Quito since December. Then on Friday, Mexico granted him asylum, and the Ecuadorean police moved in.Mr. Noboa’s office said that the arrest had gone forward because Mexico had abused the immunities and privileges granted to the diplomatic mission, but the message it sent was also in keeping line with Mr. Noboa’s hardhanded approach to tackling violence and graft in Ecuador.The 36-year-old center-right leader came to power in November after President Guillermo Lasso, facing impeachment proceedings over accusations of embezzlement, called for early elections. Mr. Noboa is in office until May 2025, the remainder of Mr. Lasso’s term.Mr. Noboa’s ability to show that he can restore law and order to the nation of nearly 18 million may prove critical to his re-election, and that means tackling the country’s gangs, as well as corruption within the government that has enabled criminal groups, analysts say.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Israel Withdraws Troops From Southern Gaza as War Hits 6-Month Mark

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      With the conflict at an apparent impasse, international mediators were gathering in Cairo with hopes of brokering a temporary cease-fire.The Israeli military said Sunday that it had withdrawn a division of ground troops from the southern Gaza Strip, as international mediators gathered with hopes of brokering a temporary cease-fire six months into a war that has now become the longest involving Israel since the 1980s.Israel has significantly reduced the number of troops it has on the ground in Gaza over the past several months. Only a fraction of the soldiers that it deployed in the territory earlier in the war against Hamas remain.Now, the last group of Israeli soldiers in the southern city of Khan Younis has left Gaza in order “to recuperate and prepare for future operations,” the army said. The withdrawal of the soldiers, members of the 98th Division, means that no Israeli troops are actively maneuvering in southern Gaza, the Israeli news media reported.But Israeli officials made clear that the army would stay in other parts of Gaza to preserve its “freedom of action and its ability to conduct precise intelligence-based operations.”The drawdown from Khan Younis, about four months after Israeli forces invaded southern Gaza, raised questions about Israel’s plans in the face of widespread calls for it to de-escalate the conflict. It was also unclear what it might signal about Israel’s oft-stated plan to invade the southernmost city of Rafah, where more than a million have fled to escape the fighting.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Peter Pellegrini Wins Slovakia’s Presidential Election

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      The victory for Peter Pellegrini, an ally of Slovakia’s populist prime minister, strengthens Central Europe’s ties to Moscow.Voters in Slovakia on Saturday strengthened the grip of Russia-friendly political forces in Central Europe, handing victory in a presidential election to a candidate who opposes providing military and financial aid to Ukraine.With 99 percent of the votes counted, the official tally showed Peter Pellegrini, an ally of Slovakia’s populist prime minister, Robert Fico, the winner with 53 percent of the vote in a presidential runoff. Despite the presidency’s limited powers in Slovakia, the election was widely watched as a test of strength between political camps with starkly different views on Russia.The defeated candidate, former Foreign Minister Ivan Korcok, is a stalwart supporter of Ukraine and critic of Mr. Fico, a pugnacious veteran politician who has aligned with Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary in opposing aid to Ukraine and challenging mainstream opinions within the European Union.With Mr. Fico at his side, Mr. Pellegrini declared victory early Sunday, soon after Mr. Korcok conceded defeat.Mr. Korcok came first among nine candidates in an initial round of voting on March 23, but he lost in Saturday’s face-off with Mr. Pellegrini, who appears to have picked up votes that in the first round went to an anti-NATO nationalist who finished third.In the campaign leading up to the vote, Mr. Pellegrini copied tactics used by Mr. Orban during an election in 2022 in Hungary, in which his governing party falsely claimed that the main opposition leader wanted to send Hungarian soldiers to fight against Russia in Ukraine. Mr. Pellegrini used the same smear against Mr. Korcok, casting him as a warmonger intent on sending Slovak troops into Ukraine.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Who Is Jorge Glas, an Ecuadorean Politician Arrested at Mexico’s Embassy?

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      A former vice president of Ecuador, Jorge Glas had been convicted of bribery in two separate cases. He had fled to the Mexican Embassy in Quito after facing more embezzlement charges.Mexico has severed diplomatic relations with Ecuador after Ecuadorean police officers on Friday arrested Jorge Glas, an Ecuadorean politician who had been granted refuge in Mexico’s Embassy in Quito.That arrest, which Mexico described as a “violation” of its sovereignty, capped days of growing tensions between the two Latin American countries. Ecuador has considered Mr. Glas a fugitive and said its police force was acting on an arrest warrant for Mr. Glas.Here’s what to know about the politician at the center of the dispute.Jorge Glas is a former vice president of Ecuador.Mr. Glas served in several ministerial roles under the longtime left-wing government of a former Ecuadorean president, Rafael Correa. Mr. Glas’s most notable role was as Mr. Correa’s vice president, a position he held from 2013 to 2017.His term as vice president in the subsequent government, led by Lenín Moreno, lasted only a few months. In 2017, he was forced from office and sentenced to six years in prison after being found guilty of receiving over $13.5 million dollars in bribes.The bribes had involved Odebrecht, an international construction giant that admitted to paying bribes in more than a dozen countries. The corruption scandal implicated current and former officials in Latin America and has rocked its political establishment.He became mired in other bribery charges.In 2020, a separate bribery case led to Mr. Glas being found guilty of accepting money in exchange for issuing public contracts between 2012 and 2016.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Netanyahu Faces Pressure at Home and Abroad, From Foes and Friends

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      Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is facing challenges on multiple fronts, with his domestic support appearing to erode at a time when international fury and frustration over the war in Gaza have reached new heights.The Israeli leader has come under sharper criticism from allies like the United States as the civilian death toll climbs in Gaza, and the Israeli military’s killing there this week of seven aid workers has heightened global anger.On Thursday, President Biden and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken both suggested that American support for Israel was not unconditional in remarks that laid bare the growing divisions between Washington and Jerusalem.In a phone call with Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Biden called the strikes on relief workers and the broader humanitarian crisis in Gaza “unacceptable,” according to a White House statement.“He made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering and the safety of aid workers,” the White House statement said. “He made clear that U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More