Barclays and BP are hardly strangers to criticism. But even those UK PLC heavyweights must have been taken aback when last week – along with the likes of Google, Amazon and educational institutions such as the the University of Edinburgh – they were accused by the United Nations of exploiting an “economy of genocide” by maintaining ties with Israel.

The family of a US-Palestinian man beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the West Bank called for a US State Department investigation into the killing on Saturday. Saif al-Din Kamil Abdul Karim

An independent U.N. investigator and outspoken critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza said “it was shocking” to learn that the Trump administration had imposed sanctions on her.

Hamas has criticized the United States sanctions against Francesca Albanese, a senior United Nations Human Rights Council official, for her alleged antisemitism, support for terrorism and "open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West".

Talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza are stalling over the extent of Israeli forces' withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian and Israeli sources familiar with the negotiations in Doha said on Saturday.

The U.S. State Department said on Friday it was aware of the reported death of a U.S. citizen in the Israeli-occupied West Bank after reports emerged of Israeli settlers fatally beating a Palestinian American.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the imposition of sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, for what he described as her repeated “biased and malicious activities” against Israel and the United States.

The United Nations on Thursday rejected as "unacceptable" sanctions imposed by the Trump administration on an independent UN rapporteur over her criticism of Israel and called for them to be reversed.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio denounced Francesca Albanese, a special rapporteur, for calling for international investigations of Americans and Israelis over the war in the enclave.

The United States has imposed sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, citing her alleged bias against Israel. The move comes amid her ongoing investigations into potential human rights violations in Gaza.

On July 7, settlers carried out a daytime arson attack on the Church of St. George and a Byzantine Christian cemetery. The fifth-century church is “one of the oldest and most venerated places of worship for Christians in Palestine.