Aaron Bushnell, who died last month, ‘sacrificed everything’ for Palestinians, says mayor of Jericho
The Palestinian town of Jericho has named a street after Aaron Bushnell, the US air force member who set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington to protest against the war in Gaza.
The 25-year-old, who died on 25 February, “sacrificed everything” for Palestinians, said the mayor of Jericho, Abdul Karim Sidr, as the street sign was unveiled on Sunday.
Continue reading...Displaced families prepare to spend holy month in Rafah amid food shortages and fear of attack
Seventy days after they were forced to leave their house in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, Hanaa al-Masry, her husband and their six children are preparing for Ramadan in their new home: a dilapidated tent. Here, there will be no decorations, no joyous family meals and no reading of the Qur’an under the lemon and orange trees in the garden.
The Muslim holy month – a time for friends and family as well as religious contemplation, prayer and fasting – starts on Monday and will be like none that anyone in Gaza can remember.
Continue reading...Cairo in touch with both sides and other mediators in effort to restart negotiations for truce in Gaza during Ramadan, say security sources
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has said that hunger is “everywhere” in Gaza and described the situation in the north of the enclave as “tragic”.
The agency is calling for humanitarian access across the Gaza Strip and an immediate ceasefire.
Continue reading...Warnings that war in Gaza and Iran’s lack of cooperation on its nuclear programme are strengthening hand of hardliners
There are growing fears among diplomats in the US and Europe that Iran’s largely unmonitored nuclear programme and the destabilisation caused by the Gaza conflict are strengthening the hand of Iranian factions that back the development of nuclear weapons.
The Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, has reiterated in recent days that his country is pursuing a civilian nuclear programme for now.
Continue reading...Cross-party group of peers expected to ask for more details about why minister made and withdrew claims about two academics
The cabinet minister Michelle Donelan is to face more questioning this week over her judgment after taxpayers funded a payout to an academic she had falsely accused of supporting Hamas.
The science secretary will appear before a cross-party group of peers on Tuesday, when she is expected to be questioned on the process that led her to make the accusation, which she has since retracted. The decision to leave taxpayers with the £15,000 bill is also likely to be raised. The sum was paid “without admitting any liability”, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said.
Continue reading...Key site is al-Aqsa mosque on what Jews call the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Peaceful access for Muslims could send a message of calm
Israelis and Palestinians are bracing themselves for a tense and potentially violent week, with no sign of a ceasefire likely in Gaza and calls from Hamas for protest marches around the Islamic world to mark the start of Ramadan on Monday.
Earlier this month, a halt to hostilities before the Muslim holy month looked possible, but hopes have dimmed since indirect talks in Cairo ended without progress last week.
Continue reading...HMS Richmond destroyed two targets with Sea Ceptor missiles, defence secretary Grant Shapps said
A Royal Navy frigate used its missiles to shoot down two attack drones as the US and its allies came under sustained Houthi attack in the Red Sea in the early hours of Saturday.
The UK defence secretary, Grant Shapps, announced HMS Richmond’s role in destroying the targets in a post on X.
Continue reading...Marchers on Saturday came from wide range of backgrounds as rightwing press characterises city as ‘no-go zone for Jews’
As on previous Saturdays in the past six months, there were two marches taking place in London yesterday. The first, a gathering of tens of thousands of full-throated, flag-waving supporters of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza gathered at Hyde Park Corner at noon, and shuffled peaceably and patiently in the sunshine in the direction of the American embassy at Vauxhall, over the river.
The second march was taking place mostly in the imaginations of right-wing commentators and politicians who increasingly choose to see these displays of solidarity with the Palestinian cause only as a provocation and a threat. Following the prime minister’s Downing Street address on 1 March which represented these gatherings as representative of “forces trying to tear apart” our democracy, the latest figure to loud-hailer that version of reality was the government-appointed commissioner for countering extremism, Robin Simcox, who argued on Friday the marches were “a permissive environment for radicalisation”, leading to a hysterical Daily Telegraph front-page headline that read: “London is now a no-go zone for Jews”.
Continue reading...European Commission hopes maritime corridor will open by Sunday, while Israel strikes large residential tower in Rafah
A ship laden with humanitarian aid intended for Gaza is preparing to leave Cyprus, amid acute international concern as conditions in the territory continue to deteriorate.
A US charity said it was loading aid on to a boat in Cyprus, which will be the first shipment to Gaza along a maritime corridor the European Commission hopes will open by Sunday.
Continue reading...US charity preparing vessel with hopes it could leave for territory this weekend
The UN’s top aid official has renewed his call for a ceasefire in Gaza and outlined six priorities in the humanitarian response.
In a social media post via the account of the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (Ocha) on Friday, Martin Griffiths, the UN emergency relief coordinator, wrote:
The hostilities in Gaza entered their sixth month. These six facts should keep us all awake at night:
1) More than half a million people are on the brink of famine. Children are dying of hunger.
1) A ceasefire and full adherence to the rules of war.
2) Additional entry points, supply routes and storage capacity in Gaza.
Continue reading...The US singer has been called out by human rights activists for hosting a summit and performing on stage in the repressive state
Performer Alicia Keys projects a powerful position on women’s rights, hosting a regular Women to Women summit and posting inspirationally on Instagram on Friday for International Women’s Day. But the singer-songwriter’s message is undermined for some by the revelation that she is hosting the third edition of her summit this weekend in Saudi Arabia.
The American performer and her guests, including Pharrell Williams, best known for his worldwide hit Happy, are to discuss “how women are pushing the culture forward in Saudi Arabia and around the world”, she has announced, before the get-together in the coastal city of Jeddah.
Continue reading...Open Arms vessel, loaded with humanitarian supplies, is waiting for approval from Israel before leaving
A Gaza-bound aid ship expected to make the maiden voyage along a new maritime corridor from Cyprus has yet to set sail because of logistical challenges.
Government officials confirmed on Saturday that while a vessel belonging to Open Arms, a Spanish search and rescue group, had been loaded with food, water and other supplies and was ready to depart the Mediterranean island, it was unlikely to leave before Sunday.
Continue reading...Iran-backed group is attempting to strike ships it claims have links to Israel, in solidarity with Gaza
Houthi forces in Yemen claim to have launched one of their largest attacks on US shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, saying they sent 37 drones to hit US navy war ships and a commercial ship.
The US Central Command said it had stopped the attack, which it attributed to Iranian-backed Houthi forces. The US spoke of only shooting down 15, not 37, drones.
Continue reading...Commission president says pilot delivery is expected to set sail on Saturday but did not say where shipments would land or unload
The EU has announced the opening of a sea corridor this weekend for shipping humanitarian aid from Cyprus to Gaza in the race to stave off a famine that is already claiming lives.
“We are now very close to the opening of the corridor, hopefully this Sunday. And I’m very glad to see that an initial pilot operation will be launched today,” the EU commission president, Ursula Von der Leyen, told reporters after touring harbour facilities at the Cypriot port of Larnaca, the departure point for the aid shipments.
Continue reading...Package ‘fell down like a rocket’ on roof of house near al-Shati refugee camp where people were waiting, a witness says
Five people have been killed and 10 injured in Gaza when they were hit by a pallet of aid parachuted into the territory as part of a humanitarian airdrop.
Witnesses said the accident happened on Friday morning near the coastal refugee camp known as al-Shati, one of the most devastated parts of Gaza, after a parachute attached to the pallet failed to deploy properly and the parcel fell on a group of men, teenagers and younger children hoping to obtain food and other supplies.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Dame Sara Khan warns that framing demonstrations as Islamist extremism is ‘far-fetched and untrue’
A UK government adviser on social cohesion has described attempts to portray protesters on pro-Palestinian marches as extremist as “outrageous” and dangerous.
Dame Sara Khan, who is carrying out a review of the resilience of the UK’s democracy for Michael Gove, said such claims risked further dividing the country.
Continue reading...Documents show officials stressing need to ‘keep the Saudis on side’ after revelations about notorious al-Yamamah deal
Britain’s Ministry of Defence moved questionable payments through its own bank account amid one of the biggest corruption scandals in history, despite concerns the money could be pocketed by the Saudi royal family.
Previously confidential documents show how the MoD agreed to make the payments to a Saudi bank account after the transactions came under scrutiny following an investigation by the UK anti-corruption agency, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
Continue reading...Fact-finding mission concludes regime murdered, imprisoned, tortured and raped those who protested the death of Mahsa Amini
The Iranian regime’s human rights violations during its brutal suppression of protests in 2022 amount to crimes against humanity, a UN fact-finding mission (FFM) has said.
Established by the UN human rights council in November 2022 – two months after the Woman, Life, Freedom protests swept the country in response to the death in custody of Mahsa Amini – the FFM has released a report concluding the regime carried out widespread and sustained human rights violations against its own people, which broke international laws and specifically targeted women and girls.
Continue reading...UN special rapporteur on torture to carry out fact-finding investigation after receiving allegations detained Palestinians were mistreated
Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories have expanded by a record amount and risk eliminating any practical possibly of a Palestinian state, the UN human rights chief said on Friday, reports Reuters.
The UN’s high commissioner for human rights Volker Türk said that the growth of Israeli settlements amounted to the transfer by Israel of its own population, which he said was a war crime. The US Biden administration said last month the settlements were “inconsistent” with international law after Israel announced new housing plans in the occupied West Bank.
Continue reading...‘You need drivers, trucks and a distribution system that doesn’t exist,’ says president of Refugees International aid advocacy group
The US plan to build a floating port off the Gaza coast is a bold move, reminiscent of the Mulberry harbours built after D-day in Normandy, but there are serious concerns that what relief it brings will be too little too late for Palestinians facing starvation.
“When we talk about the sea route, it’s going to take weeks to set up and we are talking about a population that is starving now. We have already seen children dying of hunger,” said Ziad Issa, the head of humanitarian policy at the ActionAid charity.
Continue reading...