Pacific island nation Nauru opens embassy in Jerusalem
“Our motto is God first, and Israel always has a special place in our hearts,” Naoero Foreign Minister Lionel Aingimea said.
The Pacific nation of Naoero (formerly known as Nauru) opened an embassy in Jerusalem on Monday, becoming the ninth country to locate its diplomatic mission in Israel’s capital.
“Israel’s relations with the nations of the South Pacific are advancing tremendously,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said at the event. “Today two ancient peoples stand together in Jerusalem, proud of our identity, our heritage and our friendship.”
Linking the Pacific nation’s reclaimed indigenous name to Jewish history, Sa’ar added that “we, too, are the indigenous people of this land” and that “Jews are called Jews because we are from Judea.”
“Our support for Israel has been unwavering,” said Naoero’s Foreign Minister Lionel Aingimea. “Naoero is historically one of Israel’s most reliable and consistent diplomatic allies at the United Nations.”
He continued: “We see opening an embassy here in Jerusalem not only as strengthening our ties with Israel, but also as a message to the world of where we stand. Our motto is God first, and Israel always has a special place in our hearts.”
Aingimea noted that the “easy decision” to establish the mission in Jerusalem came after discussions with Sa’ar in Fiji and received full endorsement from Naoero’s Cabinet.
The island nation is one of the smallest countries in the world, with a population of about 12,000 people.
Nine countries now have embassies in Israel’s capital: the United States, Fiji, Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo, Naoero, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay and Somaliland.
All the other nations that have diplomatic relations with Israel maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv or its suburbs.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to move the American embassy to Jerusalem during his first term set the stage for other countries to follow suit.
The leaders of Argentina and Colombia have also pledged to relocate their embassies to Jerusalem.
Ed Miliband and Bezalel SmotrichREUTERS/Temilade Adelaja, Yonatan Sindel/Flash 90
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich calls for the British ambassador to be expelled ahead of expected sanctions on Judea and Samaria: The British Mandate is over.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday evening called for a preemptive measure ahead of the sanctions expected to be announced by Britain on Tuesday on goods from Judea and Samaria.
"The British ambassador should be expelled this evening. We will not be a doormat for an antisemitic government in a country that has been conquered by radical Islam and is trying to save itself from economic and social decline by attacking Jews and the State of Israel. The British Mandate in the Land of Israel is over," Smotrich said.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir also responded to Britain's expected decision to impose sanctions on Judea and Samaria.
"The time has come for the State of Israel to publicly recognize the Falkland Islands as occupied Argentine territory, which the British are violently stealing from the Argentine people. The British are not only occupying the territory, but are also conducting oil drilling there and stealing money from the Argentine people," he said.
"I call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to recognize Argentina's sovereignty over the Falkland Islands and impose sanctions on Great Britain for as long as the occupation continues," added Ben Gvir.
The calls followed a report in The New York Times stating that Britain is preparing to announce broad economic restrictions targeting Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, potentially including a ban on trade in goods produced in the communities and sanctions against companies involved in construction.
Three officials cited in the report said sanctions against companies assisting construction in Jewish communities are also under consideration.
The measures would represent a significant expansion of previous British sanctions connected to Judea and Samaria, which have focused primarily on individuals.
The planned measures follow Britain's condemnation of Israel's construction plans in the E1 area between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim. Israel recently issued a tender for seven residential compounds in E1 totaling 1,234 housing units, part of approximately 3,400 units approved for the area last year.
British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has demanded that Israel withdraw the tender, describing the project as "an unacceptable and destructive act" and claiming that construction in E1 would threaten the viability of a future Palestinian state.
Miliband has also said that Britain is examining its broader economic relationship with areas under Israeli control in Judea and Samaria and does not want British companies financing, constructing or advertising new communities.
The expected move has prompted warnings from Israel, British Jewish leaders, and even members of Britain's Labour Party over its possible consequences.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar warned last week that Israel would retaliate against British measures.
"If Britain acts against Israel, Israel will act against Britain," Sa'ar said in an interview with Ynet.
The dispute also drew criticism from Britain's Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis. Rabbi Mirvis recently met with Miliband and urged him to reconsider planned British sanctions and trade restrictions targeting Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. He warned that the measures could undermine prospects for peace and have negative consequences for British Jews.
Ed Miliband has been accused of 'Jew hate' by one of Donald Trump's key ambassadors today after he claimed medicines had been blocked from entering Gaza.
Andy Burnham is reportedly preparing to announce sanctions on Israel as soon as this week, with a tougher approach a key demand of many on the Labour Left.
Trade with settlements in the West Bank – a separate area of disputed territory – could be banned despite warnings from the US against taking such action.
Mike Huckabee, the American envoy to Israel, said the UK Government was engaging in 'Jew hate'
Mr Huckabee was responding to a video posted by the Foreign Secretary on social media
Mr Huckabee said: 'The Brits have lost it. The Jew hate of their government knows no boundaries and knows no facts.'
Israel's foreign ministry also criticised Mr Miliband, saying: 'If the Foreign Secretary were interested in facts rather than stories, he would know that there are no restrictions whatsoever on the entry of medicines into the Gaza Strip, and that no medicines are being blocked; that 22,500 tons of medical supplies have entered Gaza since the ceasefire began; and that Gazans exit the Strip for medical treatment, including 200 who did so in just the last two weeks.'
Shadow Foreign Secretary Tom Tugendhat has warned that the sanctions on West Bank settlements could undermine Britain's national security.
He said: 'It's worth remembering that Israel is one of our most important intelligence partners, and has been for many, many years.
'I can tell you, as security minister, a lot of incidents did not happen because of co-operation with intelligence sources in Israel, who helped us to protect British people from terror attacks.
'Now, the first job of the British Government is the protection of the British people, and one of the things I am absolutely clear on, is that leading Britain's foreign policy is about protecting our people first.'
Huckabee blasts UK foreign secretary over Gaza medicine claims: The Brits have lost it
US Ambassador Mike Huckabee accuses Britain's government of having “lost it" over false Gaza medicine claims.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Saturday sharply criticized British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband over claims that Israel is preventing medicines from reaching Gaza, accusing the British government of having “lost it."
The dispute began after Miliband posted a video on Friday describing what he called the “horrific" healthcare situation in Gaza. He said he had attended a meeting where he was told that “medicines being blocked" from entering the Strip and that “children dying while waiting for vital life-saving treatment."
Responding on social media, Huckabee wrote, “the Brits have lost it."
“The Jew hate of their government knows no boundaries and knows no facts," Huckabee wrote.
Israel's Foreign Ministry rejected Miliband's claims, saying there are no restrictions on the entry of medicines into Gaza and that Israel is not preventing Palestinian Arabs from leaving the Strip for medical treatment.
"The British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband posts a video recounting 'stories' he was told about Gaza. If the Foreign Secretary were interested in facts rather than stories, he would know that there are no restrictions whatsoever on the entry of medicines into the Gaza Strip, and that no medicines are being blocked; that 22,500 tons of medical supplies have entered Gaza since the ceasefire began; and that Gazans exit the Strip for medical treatment, including 200 who did so in just the last two weeks," the Ministry wrote on social media
"And of course," the Foreign Ministry continued, "the British Foreign Secretary is well aware of all this, as the UK is a member of the International Gaza Support Center, which facilitates the delivery of medical aid to the Gaza Strip."
"But apparently, facts matter less (when making a video for a political audience)," it concluded.
Miliband was appointed foreign secretary by Prime Minister Andy Burnham in mid-July. He has a longstanding record of criticism of Israeli policies. While serving as Labour leader in 2014, he shifted the party toward a more confrontational stance toward Israel.
During that year's Gaza war, Miliband called Israel's military operation "wrong and unjustifiable" and criticized then-Prime Minister David Cameron over his response to civilian casualties. Later in 2014, he instructed Labour lawmakers to back a symbolic parliamentary motion supporting unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, a move that alienated some Jewish donors and communal organizations.
During a subsequent regional visit, Miliband toured a Bedouin site and described Israeli community expansion as "wrong and illegal."
Miliband has also taken positions supportive of Israel. After the October 7 Hamas massacres, he rejected calls for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire and instead supported humanitarian pauses. He has described Hamas as a terrorist organization, condemned rocket attacks on Israeli communities as "totally unjustified and appalling," and opposed the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, calling it an obstacle to peace.
Since becoming foreign secretary, Miliband has also criticized Israel's decision to issue a tender for construction in the E1 area between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim. He called the tender unacceptable, urged Israel to withdraw it and halt the plans, and warned that Britain was preparing further measures in response.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar rejected Britain's criticism, objecting to both Miliband's position and the language he used, while accusing London of applying double standards.
The dispute has also drawn criticism from Britain's Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis. After meeting with Miliband in late August, Rabbi Mirvis urged him to reconsider planned British sanctions and trade restrictions targeting Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. He warned that the measures could harm prospects for peace and have negative consequences for British Jews.
British foreign secretary claims children in Gaza are dying while waiting for medical treatment, prompting anger from both US and Israel, which denies his account (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90, Leon Neal/Pool Photo via AP) US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee bashed British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband on Saturday and accused the UK government of having “lost it,” after the Labour lawmaker published a video discussing allegations of Israel blocking the entry of medication to the Gaza Strip.
The Foreign Ministry also responded to Miliband and denied that Israel was preventing Palestinians from accessing medical treatment.
Miliband, in the video published on Friday, says he attended a meeting on the “horrific” healthcare situation in the Gaza Strip, where he said he was told about “medicines being blocked” from entering, and of “children dying while waiting for vital life-saving treatment.”
Huckabee, in response to Miliband’s video, said, “the Brits have lost it.”
“The Jew hate of their government knows no boundaries and knows no facts, Huckabee wrote on X, declining to note that Miliband is Jewish.
The Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, denied that Israel was blocking medicine from entering Gaza or that it was preventing Palestinians from seeking medical treatment abroad, and insisted that Miliband was “well aware of all this.”
“If the Foreign Secretary were interested in facts rather than stories, he would know that there are no restrictions whatsoever on the entry of medicines into the Gaza Strip, and that no medicines are being blocked,” wrote the Foreign Ministry on X.
It added that “22,500 tons of medical supplies have entered Gaza since the ceasefire began” in October 2025, and that in the past two weeks alone, 200 Palestinians have exited the enclave for medical treatment. “The UK is a member of the International Gaza Support Center, which facilitates the delivery of medical aid to the Gaza Strip,” the Foreign Ministry added, referring to the US-led coordination center in Kiryat Gat.
Miliband was appointed foreign secretary in mid-July by Prime Minister Andy Burnham and has since called for a “comprehensive reset” of British policy toward Israel. Miliband is the son of Jewish refugees.
The clash comes as relations between Israel and the United Kingdom have deteriorated further over Jerusalem’s controversial E1 settlement project, which would impede territorial contiguity between major Palestinian population centers.
Israel is reportedly considering expelling British representatives from the Gaza coordination center amid growing tensions between London and Jerusalem over E1.
On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar warned that Israel “will act against” Britain if it follows through on threatened measures against settlements, saying Jerusalem has “tools” at its disposal.
British media have reported that Burnham’s government is considering a complete ban on trade in goods from Israeli West Bank settlements as part of its response to E1.
The Kiryat Gat center has itself become part of the dispute. Britain said last month that removing its representatives from the US-led International Gaza Support Center would “undermine” efforts to improve conditions in Gaza.
London said it maintains a presence there at the request of the United States and the US-backed Board of Peace and works alongside Israel, international partners and UN agencies to support implementation of the American postwar plan for Gaza. A source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel that Israel was weighing expelling the British officials and considering “other measures” against London.
The threat against the British delegation followed a similar step against the Netherlands. Sa’ar announced in late August that Dutch representatives would be removed from the center after what he described as a series of “anti-Israel measures” by The Hague.
The planned E1 expansion would connect the Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim areas, effectively scuttling the prospect of contiguous Palestinian sovereignty between the population centers of Bethlehem, East Jerusalem and Ramallah — long considered the basis of a future Palestinian state.
The project was frozen for years amid fierce opposition from the international community, including past US administrations, which feared that building a new settlement neighborhood on the mostly empty tract of land would rule out the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Supporters of the E1 settlement expansion say they want to block Palestinian statehood. Last month, the government opened bidding for the construction of seven residential compounds with 1,234 housing units in the E1 area, after greenlighting construction of roughly 3,400 units last August.
Miliband called the plan “unacceptable and destructive” in a written statement last month, and said his office was working to prepare a “comprehensive set of measures” in response, including sanctions against “those who participate in illegal settlement expansion.”
Sa’ar hit back at Miliband, calling his statement “patronizing,” and accused the British government of contributing “to a massive wave of antisemitic hatred and attacks against the British Jewish community” and harming the UK-Israeli relationship.
The arrest of Muein al-Arabid in the heart of Gaza City is a strategic message underscoring that Israel is not returning to full-scale war, but is also not allowing Hamas to exploit the ceasefire to rebuild its military capabilities.
(Sept. 5, 2026 / Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs)
The capture on Sept. 1 of Muein al-Arabid, head of Hamas’s internal security apparatus in the Gaza Strip, is far more than a successful operation by the Shin Bet and the IDF.
It offers another glimpse into how Israel intends to manage its campaign against Hamas during the ceasefire, as Hamas seeks to rebuild its military strength, according to senior security officials, who describe the operation as a major achievement for the Shin Bet under the command of David Zini.
According to these officials, al-Arabid is an “intelligence treasure,” and the information in his possession is expected to help Israel understand what Hamas is planning and expose what they describe as its deception campaign, in which the organization claims that it is supposedly prepared to disarm.
Senior political officials say that, at this stage, Israel is not returning to a broad ground offensive in Gaza and does not currently intend to violate the ceasefire and plunge the Strip back into full-scale war.
Instead, Israel is seeking to prevent Hamas from rebuilding its military strength while continuing to settle accounts with terrorists who took part in the atrocities of Oct. 7, 2023, as part of its policy of targeted killings.
Senior security officials estimate that approximately 3,000 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives remain on Israel’s target list and have yet to be eliminated.
Israel’s campaign is based on highly precise intelligence, special forces and the Israeli Air Force.
According to security officials, Israel has added a new dimension to its war against Hamas. Tuesday’s ground operation in the al-Katiba area of western Gaza City illustrates this new reality: Israel is no longer relying solely on airstrikes and targeted killings from the air, but is also conducting ground operations deep inside enemy territory.
A Shin Bet force, assisted by the IDF, infiltrated the area where Hamas operates and reached al-Arabid’s home. The force captured him while he was wounded and extracted him from the Gaza Strip. The IAF struck threats that endangered the force and provided air cover throughout the operation. According to Israel, the force returned without casualties.
According to security officials, Israel has demonstrated that it possesses the intelligence and operational capabilities required to penetrate the heart of Hamas’s infrastructure and arrest a senior figure in the organization. This, they say, reflects a failure by Hamas and reinforces Israeli deterrence.
For Hamas, however, the fact that the Shin Bet and the IDF captured its internal security chief is the real problem. The organization is now trying to claim that Muein al-Arabid was merely a security officer, not the head of its internal security apparatus.
Analysts in the Gaza Strip acknowledge that the operation represents a failure for Hamas. They said the shock from the successful Shin Bet and IDF operation is considerable.
According to them, Hamas’s security apparatus suffered a major failure in protecting the organization from Israeli intelligence penetration. Preventing espionage, identifying collaborators, protecting senior commanders and maintaining the secrecy of senior officials’ hiding places are among the apparatus’s primary responsibilities. Hamas failed on all of these fronts.
From the perspective of Israeli intelligence, security officials say, the operation could continue to yield results long after it has ended.
Al-Arabid is not merely a senior official. He is believed to possess extensive knowledge of the people, structures and methods Hamas is using in an effort to continue operating in the Strip.
His interrogation could provide information about Hamas’s internal security network, the security arrangements protecting senior officials, hiding places, communications systems, the movement of operatives and the mechanisms of control that Hamas is attempting to rebuild.
According to security officials, the operation is also a psychological warfare success. It is likely to increase suspicion and mistrust within Hamas and undermine the organization’s morale.
According to a joint statement by the IDF and Shin Bet, al-Arabid was involved in Hamas efforts to reestablish its control over northern Gaza and promote attacks against IDF troops. Now, Israeli security officials say, Hamas’s entire plan may be laid bare before the IDF, enabling Israel to thwart it.
According to security sources, Israel made the decision to carry out the operation alone. However, the Trump administration was briefed afterward and was informed of the operation’s importance in thwarting Hamas’s terrorist plans.
The bottom line, according to a senior security official, is that Israel cannot currently occupy the entire Gaza Strip. The ceasefire agreement constrains it, but it is continuing to act against Hamas attempts to rebuild its military capabilities.
The battlefield in Gaza, the official says, has effectively become a hunting ground, in which Israel is using precise intelligence to gradually but consistently eliminate operatives belonging to Hamas’s military wing.
