Exclusive: Pouria Zeraati ‘no longer felt safe in UK’ as Tehran regime steps up threats and attacks on critics in exile
An Iranian television presenter, who was attacked in London by men believed to be acting for the Tehran regime, has moved abroad, saying that he no longer felt safe in the UK.
Pouria Zeraati said the UK’s approach to the threat posed by Iran on British soil could not guarantee his safety.
Continue reading...The US secretary of state reportedly told senior Israeli leaders they must do more to reduce civilian casualties
At least eight Palestinians were killed and several were wounded in an Israeli air strike on a school in central Gaza on Tuesday, Gaza health officials said.
The strike hit Al-Awda school in Al-Nuseirat camp, the ministry said.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: The new foreign secretary has met with officials from Israel, Palestine and relief agencies – but what do his actions and words mean for the conflict?
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Good morning. A few months before the election, David Lammy outlined his vision for Britain’s role on the international stage under a Labour government: “progressive realism”, or “the pursuit of ideals without delusions about what is achievable”. Just over a week into his tenure as foreign secretary, we have our first concrete indications of how he intends to operate those principles in practice.
On a visit to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories over the last couple of days, his first international trip as foreign secretary, Lammy says he is sending a clear message: “We need an immediate ceasefire, the immediate release of all hostages, the protection of civilians, unfettered access to aid in Gaza and a pathway towards a two-state solution”.
Republican national convention | Donald Trump named JD Vance, the Ohio senator who was once one of his fiercest critics and called him “America’s Hitler”, as his running mate at the Republican national convention on Monday. Trump, wearing a bandage over his wounded ear, shook hands with Vance in his first public appearance since the assassination attempt against him.
US politics | A Florida judge appointed by Donald Trump has dismissed the case against him for illegally retaining classified documents, ruling that the special counsel who brought the prosecution had been improperly appointed. The stunning decision, in defiance of precedent going back to the Watergate era, is likely to be appealed.
UK news | Rescue teams on the Spanish island of Tenerife have discovered the body of a young man in the area where the British teenager Jay Slater disappeared four weeks ago. Police said it appeared that the person could have died after an accidental fall from a cliff.
UK-EU relations | Britain is taking its first steps towards forging closer trading links with the EU in meetings between the new business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, and international counterparts in Italy. Reynolds will say that the new UK government wants to foster a “closer, more mature relationship with our friends in the EU”.
Defence | Britain and its allies are facing a “deadly quartet” of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea who are acting together against the west, the newly appointed head of Labour’s defence review said. The comments from former Nato secretary general George Robertson reflect concerns that the grouping are increasingly sharing arms, components and military intelligence.
Continue reading...David Lammy holds second day of meetings with Israeli officials but hopes of immediate ceasefire are dwindling
Israeli air and naval strikes continued to pummel Gaza as the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, reiterated his demand for a ceasefire during a visit to Jerusalem.
Strikes on central Gaza followed two days of particularly deadly attacks including one in a humanitarian zone in southern Gaza that killed at least 90 people when Israeli forces targeted the head of Hamas’s military wing, Mohammed Deif.
Continue reading...Deir Al-Balah, in central Gaza Strip, says it can no longer provide drinking water after running out of fuel
After a night spent shaking in fear as the roof rattled from explosions, and a long walk along a crowded road, Diana Mahmoud arrived at the hospital where she gave birth to her son, Yaman.
Mahmoud, 22, discovered she was pregnant a week after the outbreak of the war in Gaza and, like other mothers who became pregnant about that time, spent her entire pregnancy fearing for her own safety as well as that of her child. Miscarriages are three times more likely than before the war, according to a February report by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health.
Continue reading...Assessment puts cost at $500m-$600m and underlines immense challenge of rebuilding after months of Israeli offensive
A fleet of more than one hundred lorries would take 15 years to clear Gaza of almost 40m tonnes of rubble in an operation costing between $500m (£394m) and $600m, a UN assessment has found.
The conclusions will underline the immense challenge of rebuilding the Palestinian territory after months of a grinding Israeli offensive that has led to massive destruction of homes and infrastructure.
Continue reading...Vaccine misinformation has added to crisis of collapsed healthcare and poor nutrition, Unicef and WHO report
Conflicts have hampered efforts to vaccinate children across the world, health leaders have warned, as new figures showed about 14.5 million children had not received a single immunisation dose.
More than half of the children live in countries where armed conflicts or other humanitarian crises had created fragile and vulnerable situations, according to data from the UN children’s agency, Unicef, and the World Health Organization.
Continue reading...Airstrikes add to one of deadliest weeks amid uncertainty over whether Hamas has withdrawn from ceasefire talks
At least 31 Palestinians have been killed and more than 50 wounded in fresh Israeli bombings across the Gaza Strip, rescuers and health officials have said, as conflicting reports emerged over whether Hamas was withdrawing from ceasefire talks after the targeting of the group’s top military commander.
Four attacks in various parts of Gaza City in the early hours of Sunday morning occurred less than 24 hours after Israeli forces said Mohammed Deif, who is believed to be the mastermind behind the 7 October attack on southern Israel, was the target of a strike in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza that, according to the territory’s emergency services, killed more than 90 people and injured 300 others.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary will also push for release of hostages and increase in aid during visit to Israel and West Bank
David Lammy is to call for an immediate ceasefire during talks with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on his first visit to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories as foreign secretary.
Lammy said he would push for the release of all hostages as well as an increase in aid into Gaza, announcing a new £5.5m humanitarian and medical assistance package.
Continue reading...Israeli Defense Forces say one of masterminds of 7 October attack was ‘struck’ in Gaza strike targeting him
Mohammed Deif is the head of the military wing of Hamas and one of the masterminds of the group’s bloody surprise attack on 7 October which triggered the latest war in Gaza.
Israeli officials said Deif – whose real name is Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri – was the target of Saturday’s airstrike, which levelled several buildings in Khan Younis and killed 90 people, according to local health authorities.
Continue reading...Hamas says 90 people killed and almost 300 injured in attack – but it is unclear if Mohammed Deif is among them
The Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, who it has been reported was the target of an Israeli strike in Gaza, has previously been described as the “mastermind” of Hamas’s 7 October attack.
In this piece from November, the international security correspondent of the Guardian, Jason Burke wrote of Deif:
The exact role of different Hamas leaders in the attack is yet to be established, but it is clear that Sinwar and Deif were central to its planning.
Deif means “guest”, a reference to the 58-year-old’s constant relocation to avoid detection by Israel. A member of Hamas since his early 20s, the former science student oversaw a wave of suicide bombings against Israeli civilians in the early 1990s, and another a decade later. Deif may have been crippled by one of many Israeli assassination attempts, and his wife and young family were killed in an airstrike in 2014. Israeli officials have described Deif, whose real name is Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, as “a dead man walking”.
Continue reading...Health officials say at least 90 people killed and 289 injured by strike on camp for displaced people in Khan Younis
Israeli forces say the Hamas military chief, Mohammed Deif, the mastermind of the 7 October attack, was the target of a strike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, which, according to the territory’s emergency services, has killed 90 people and injured hundreds more.
Deif, 58, who has been on Israel’s most-wanted list since 1995 and escaped multiple Israeli assassination attempts, is believed to be the chief architect of the attack that killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and triggered the Israel-Hamas war.
Continue reading...As a terrorist attack, a harsh response and an ensuing invasion strike familiar chords, analysts look for lessons from the war of 42 years ago
It started with a terrorist attack, which triggered massive military retaliation, the siege of a city, the deaths of thousands of civilians and devastation and global outrage. If the military operation was a success in tactical terms, it led to strategic failures that scarred the nation and the region for decades to come.
Sounds familiar? Forty-two years later, as a new conflict looms on Israel’s northern borders, historians, analysts and veterans of Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon are looking to that now-distant war for lessons and warnings.
Continue reading...IOC signs deal with kingdom to host gaming Olympics over 12-year period amid criticism of Saudi human rights record
Saudi Arabia and the International Olympic Committee have announced a 12-year agreement to host the new esports Olympics in the oil-rich kingdom starting next year.
The partnership promises “Olympic Esports Games held regularly”, the International Olympic Committee said in a statement on Friday, beginning with the Esports Olympics in 2025. Saudi Arabia did not disclose how much it planned to spend on the competition.
Continue reading...Forces involved in week-long offensive against Hamas in territory’s largest urban area have now pulled back
Emergency workers claim to have recovered the bodies of approximately 60 Palestinians from two districts of Gaza City after Israeli forces pulled back from days of battles with Hamas militants in the territory’s biggest urban area.
The civil defence agency in Hamas-run Gaza on Friday said the bodies were found in the Tal al-Hawa and Al-Sinaa districts after the week-long offensive.
Continue reading...In his Nato news conference, the US president acknowledged concerns about Israeli actions despite his overall support
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Friday it is not possible for Nato to continue its partnership with the Israeli administration, reports Reuters.
“Until comprehensive, sustainable peace is established in Palestine, attempts at cooperation with Israel within Nato will not be approved by Turkey,” Erdoğan said at a news conference at the Nato summit in Washington DC. Turkey also continues its diplomatic efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war, he said.
Continue reading...International Committee of the Red Cross takes between 500 and 2,500 calls a week, mostly from family members
About 6,400 Palestinians reported as missing to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) since the outbreak of the war in Gaza on 7 October are yet to have been found, the group has said.
Many are believed to be trapped under debris, buried without identification, or held in Israeli detention while others have been separated from their loved ones, who have been unable to contact them.
Continue reading...Crown prince criticised ‘bad laws’ for Mohammed al-Ghamdi’s death sentence months before second conviction
Fresh questions have been raised about the suppression of free speech in Saudi Arabia after the brother of a man facing the death penalty for tweeting to 10 followers was handed a 20-year sentence for largely innocuous tweets.
The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, had said Mohammed al-Ghamdi was a victim of “bad laws” after being sentenced to death, yet the crown prince permitted the same laws to be used to sentence Ghamdi’s younger brother, Asaad al-Ghamdi.
Continue reading...Targeting ‘outposts’ suggests Biden administration prepared to take some action to confront blatant land grab
The US has stepped up efforts to target violent Israeli settlers, adding new individuals and organisations to a growing sanctions list and warning banks to check transactions linked to all Israeli “outposts” in the occupied West Bank.
The new sanctions cover the far-right group Lehava, already listed by the UK, and two founding members of Tsav9, a campaign group that blocked aid from reaching Gaza. The new measures also target outposts, suggesting the Biden administration is prepared to take at least some steps to confront Israel’s creeping land grab on the West Bank.
Continue reading...Group says that mediators have not provided any updates over negotiations about a deal to end the war
Iran is still conducting indirect nuclear talks with the United States via Oman, Iran’s Etemad newspaper on Thursday quoted Iran’s acting foreign minister as saying.
Ali Bagheri Kani’s reported comments followed remarks on Monday in which a White House spokesperson said the United States was not ready to resume nuclear talks with Iran under the newly elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian, Reuters reported.
Continue reading...