Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Red Cross and Foreign Office to discuss plan to visit Palestinians in Israeli detention

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ICRC is denied access to prisoners in what is said to be breach of Geneva conventions but critics say UK plan may weaken rule of law

Red Cross officials are to hold talks with the UK over a Foreign Office plan to visit Palestinian detainees held by Israel. Critics say this bypasses a duty on Israel under the Geneva conventions to give the Red Cross access to detainees.

Israel has suspended the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from access to Palestinian detainees since the Hamas attack on 7 October, and says it will not rescind the policy until Hamas grants access to Israeli hostages.

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‘Nothing short of horrific’: Amnesty criticises arrest of man in Qatar ‘trapped’ by police on Grindr

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Manuel Guerrero Aviña thought he was meeting a date, but was confronted by police who charged him for drug possession

The family of a gay man who was arrested in Qatar say that he was “trapped” by a fake Grindr account and that he urgently needs access to HIV medicine or his health could collapse.

Manuel Guerrero Aviña, who has dual Mexican-British citizenship, was arrested in February after arranging to meet a man named “Gio” on the dating app. When he showed up to the meeting in his apartment lobby, Aviña was instead confronted by police officers.

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US completes floating pier to deliver aid to Gaza; five killed in Israeli friendly fire incident – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our coverage of the war here

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group says it has launched “more than 60” rockets at Israeli military positions in retaliation for overnight air strikes on the country’s east, AFP reports

Israel and Hamas ally Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily fire following the Palestinian group’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza, now in its eighth month.

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Starlink internet shutdown in Sudan will punish millions, Elon Musk warned

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With a widespread telecoms blackout already in place, emergency help and humanitarian aid at risk if satellite service withdrawn, say NGOs

Nearly 100 humanitarian groups in Sudan have warned Elon Musk he risks “collectively punishing” millions of Sudanese by shutting down his vital Starlink satellite internet service in the war-ravaged country.

Sudan has been grappling with a widespread telecommunications blackout for several months, with many aid groups using Starlink to operate during the humanitarian crisis which the UN has warned is the largest in decades.

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US interior department staffer is first Jewish Biden appointee to resign over war in Gaza

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Lily Greenberg Call, special assistant to chief of staff, accused the president of using Jewish people to justify US policy in the conflict

An interior department staffer on Wednesday became the first Jewish political appointee to publicly resign in protest of US support for Israel’s war in Gaza.

Lily Greenberg Call, a special assistant to the chief of staff in the interior department, accused Joe Biden of using Jewish people to justify US policy in the conflict.

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Israel war cabinet split looms as defence minister demands post-war Gaza plan

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Yoav Gallant, who Benjamin Netanyahu tried to fire in 2023, says he will not allow Israeli rule of Gaza

A long-festering split at the heart of Israel’s war cabinet has burst into the open with the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, challenging the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to come up with plans for the “day after” the war in Gaza, and saying he would not permit any solution where Israeli military or civil governance were in the territory.

Gallant’s comments, immediately backed by his fellow minister Benny Gantz, plunged Israel’s leadership into a highly public row, in the midst of the Gaza conflict, calling into question Gallant’s future in the Israeli government and Netanyahu’s fractious coalition.

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UK government was ‘scared’, says man behind failed UAE-backed Telegraph bid

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RedBird IMI deal effectively killed by new legislation blocking foreign states from owning UK newspapers

The former CNN executive who fronted a failed bid for the Telegraph newspaper by a UAE-backed consortium has suggested the government was not willing to listen to assurances about editorial neutrality.

Jeff Zucker said there were figures in the UK who were “scared” of the £600m deal, which would have seen the Abu Dhabi-backed consortium, RedBird IMI, take control of the Telegraph and Spectator.

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UK trade summit in Saudi Arabia accused of promoting firms linked to senior Tories

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Lib Dems says Conservatives have ‘serious questions to answer’ about what appears to be clear conflict of interest

A UK government trade summit in Saudi Arabia has been criticised for helping to promote businesses linked to a string of senior Conservatives, including peers and the former chair of the party, Ben Elliot.

Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister, has been in Riyadh this week launching the government-backed Great Futures campaign to promote British trade with Saudi Arabia, despite the Gulf country’s controversial record on the repression of women and LGBT people.

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UN says it has no more food or tents for nearly 2m people in Gaza

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Aid warehouses in southern two-thirds of territory are now empty and resupply will be very difficult, according to officials

The UN has run out of tents and food to distribute to almost 2 million people in Gaza, the majority displaced from their homes and dependent on aid to stave off looming famine.

UN officials told the Guardian on Wednesday afternoon that their warehouses were now completely empty south of the river dividing the northern third of the Gaza from the south, with no likelihood of resupply as long as the main entry points into the territory remain closed after Israeli offensives launched in recent days.

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Israel-Gaza war: Israeli defence chief rejects military regime in Gaza and calls on Netanyahu to decide on postwar governance – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. For the latest on the Israel-Gaza war, you can read our full coverage here.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has said it faces “significant disruptions” to its humanitarian operations due to Israel’s recent ground operations in Rafah.

In a statement, the organisation said “the closure of the Rafah crossing and a blockade on entry of humanitarian workers and aid, including fuel, [is] critically hindering our ability to deliver essential services and aid to those in desperate need.”

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Israel and Egypt in growing diplomatic row over Rafah border crossing

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Anger over Israel’s seizure of Palestinian side of crossing raises fears Cairo may downgrade relations

Israel and Egypt are embroiled in a growing diplomatic row over the Rafah border crossing after Israel’s takeover of the Gaza side of the crossing, amid warnings Cairo may be planning to downgrade relations.

In recent days Egypt has announced it will no longer participate in allowing the transit of aid into Gaza and said it planned to join the genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel at the UN’s top court.

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US advances $1bn Israel weapons package amid Rafah tensions

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Package in congressional review process after Biden delayed shipment of bombs over fears they would be used to attack Rafah

The US state department has moved a $1bn package of weapons aid for Israel into the congressional review process, two US officials said on Tuesday.

The latest weapons package includes tank rounds, mortars and armored tactical vehicles, one of the officials told Reuters.

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‘Impossible’ heatwave struck Philippines in April, scientists find

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Human-caused climate crisis brought soaring temperatures across Asia, from Gaza to Delhi to Manila

The record-breaking heatwave that scorched the Philippines in April would have been impossible without the climate crisis, scientists have found. Searing heat above 40C (104F) struck across Asia in April, causing deaths, water shortages, crop losses and widespread school closures.

The extreme heat was made 45 times more likely in India and five times more likely in Israel and Palestine, the study found. The scientists said the high temperatures compounded the already dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where displaced people are living in overcrowded shelters with little access to water.

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Israeli tanks reach residential areas as IDF pushes further into Rafah

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Witnesses report clashes in streets after seeing tanks cross strategically important Salah al-Din road

Israeli tanks have advanced further into eastern Rafah, reaching some residential districts of the southern border city in Gaza.

Witnesses reported seeing tanks crossing the strategically important Salah al-Din road into the Brazil and Jneina neighbourhoods. “They are in the streets inside the built-up area and there are clashes,” one person told Reuters.

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Global violence causing record numbers of internally displaced people

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Conflicts in Gaza, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have led to a total of 68m IDPs across the world

Conflict has forced more than 68 million people to leave their homes as of the end of 2023 – the highest figure since data became available 15 years ago.

Natural disasters made a further 7.7 million people homeless, pushing the total number of internally displaced people (IDPs) to a record 75.9 million, according to figures published by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre on Tuesday.

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At least eight Israeli strikes on Gaza aid groups since October, says report

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Human Rights Watch says warnings were not issued before attacks, which have killed or injured dozens

Israeli forces have carried out at least eight strikes on humanitarian convoys and their facilities in Gaza since October, even after aid organisations provided their coordinates to the Israeli authorities, according to a report by Human Rights Watch.

HRW said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not issue warnings to the aid organisations before the strikes, which killed or injured at least 31 people.

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US gives Saudis green light to try to revive peace deal with Houthis

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Saudis are keen to end their engagement in Yemen and US needs Saudi support to end Gaza conflict

US determination to keep Saudi Arabia engaged in a peace process with Israel has led Washington to give Riyadh an informal green light to try to revive a peace deal with the Houthis, the Yemen-based rebels who have been attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea since November.

The proposed Yemen UN roadmap for peace was agreed in outline in early December but progress was immediately frozen as the Houthis escalated their campaign of attacks in the Red Sea in what they billed as an act of solidarity with Palestine.

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Ex-US military intelligence official says he quit over ‘moral injury’ of Gaza war

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Harrison Mann, who resigned from Defense Intelligence Agency in November, said he kept quiet about motives out of fear

A former US military intelligence official released a letter on Monday that explained to his colleagues at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) that his November resignation was in fact due to “moral injury” stemming from US support for Israel’s war in Gaza and the harm caused to Palestinians.

Harrison Mann, an army major, would be the first known DIA official to quit over US support to Israel. A US airman fatally set himself on fire in February outside Israel’s embassy in Washington and other military personnel have protested.

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UN denies Gaza death toll of women and children has been revised down

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Spokesperson says confusion results from Gaza health ministry’s new way of classifying those not yet fully identified

The UN has denied that the estimated death toll of women and children in the war in Gaza has been revised downward, pointing towards a confusion between the total numbers of dead bodies recorded, and the number of those who have so far been fully identified.

After the Gaza health ministry’s revised totals of those killed first appeared on the website of the UN’s office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (Ocha), they were quickly seized on as proof by pro-Israel media and commentators that the UN had previously been exaggerating the toll.

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Israel deepens offensive in Rafah and re-enters northern areas of Gaza

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IDF launches most intensive fighting in weeks as Oxfam warns Palestinians face deadly epidemic

Israeli troops have continued their offensives across Gaza, deploying tank fire, artillery bombardment and airstrikes against Hamas militants in the most intensive round of fighting for weeks.

In the far south of the devastated territory on Monday, witnesses reported helicopter strikes and street battles in Rafah as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) consolidated their hold on neighbourhoods east of the strategic Salah al-Din road, which bisects the city.

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