Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Israel reportedly deploys extra weapons for assumed Rafah offensive

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IDF confirms buying thousands of tents for evacuation, raising fears over long-threatened attack

Israel has reportedly deployed extra artillery and armoured personnel carriers to the Gaza Strip periphery, suggesting that the military is preparing for its long-threatened ground offensive on Rafah, the only place of relative safety for at least 1.4 million displaced Palestinian civilians.

Israeli daily Ma’ariv also said on Wednesday that troops had been put on alert and “the governing principle of the operation” had been approved by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) general staff and Yoav Gallant, the defence minister. The IDF declined to comment on the reports.

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Israel ‘making decision to act’ after Iran attack, says Cameron on Jerusalem visit

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UK foreign secretary is probably first non-Israeli politician to admit military reprisal is inevitable but urges Israel not to escalate

David Cameron has said it is clear Israel is “making a decision to act” in response to last weekend’s Iranian mass drone and ballistic missile attack, as Benjamin Netanyahu brushed off calls for restraint and said his country would make its own decisions about how to defend itself.

Lord Cameron, the UK foreign secretary, speaking on a visit to Jerusalem, said he hoped the Israeli response would be carried out in a way that minimised escalation.

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Lisa Nandy urges support for UN relief agency for Palestinians

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Labour shadow minister also says Israel should be held accountable before international tribunal for war conduct in Gaza

Lisa Nandy, the UK’s shadow minister for international development, has called for support for the UN relief agency, Unrwa, warning that “time has run out for hundreds of thousands” of people in Gaza.

Nandy is in Washington this week attending the spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund with a message of how the UK’s humanitarian and development policy will change if Labour, as expected, forms the next government by the end of this year.

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Palestinian boy who survived airstrike dies during food aid drop

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Zein Oroq’s death turns focus once again on human cost of six months of violence, food shortages and malnutrition in Gaza

When an Israeli airstrike destroyed his family’s home in November, Zein Oroq was pinned under rubble. He was wounded but survived, while 17 members of his extended family died.

But Zein, 13, would later suffer a cruel fate in Gaza, where more than 2 million people have endured more than six months of food shortages and malnutrition.

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Middle East crisis: Israel will ‘make its own decision’ on Iran after UK and Germany call for restraint – as it happened

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Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments came after UK foreign minister David Cameron and his German counterpart travelled to Israel for talks

Here are some more pictures sent over the news wires from Rafah showing the aftermath of an Israeli strike there.

Reuters, citing the semi-official Tasnim news agency, reports that Iran’s navy is to begin escorting Iranian commercial ships to the Red Sea.

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Increasing number of villages torched across Sudan shows conflict is intensifying – report

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Satellite data indicates growing number of airstrikes on settlements, in a war that has already killed thousands

The number of villages in Sudan that have been destroyed or severely damaged by fire has risen sharply in recent weeks, suggesting the country’s conflict is intensifying as it enters its second year.

Satellite data revealed the number of Sudanese settlements set on fire in March increased to 30, the highest monthly total recorded since fighting broke out between the country’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) last April.

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Desert city of Dubai floods as heaviest rainfall in 75 years hits UAE

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City records more than 142mm of rain in a day, about as much as it expects in a year and a half, as highways and malls flooded

Highways and malls have been flooded, schools have been closed, and flights disrupted at one of the world’s busiest airports after the United Arab Emirates experienced what the government described as its largest amount of rainfall in 75 years.

At least one person was killed, a 70-year-old man who police said was swept away in his car in Ras Al Khaimah, one of the UAE’s seven emirates.

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Netanyahu aims to trap west into war across Middle East, warns Iranian diplomat

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Iran’s chargé d’affaires in London said his country would respond more severely if Israel attacked it again in ‘another mistake’

Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to trap the west into a total war across the Middle East that would have incalculable consequences for the region and the world, Iran’s top diplomat in the UK has claimed, in his first interview since Tehran launched an unprecedented missile and drone attack against Israel at the weekend.

Seyed Mehdi Hosseini Matin also warned that if Israel made “another mistake” by launching an attack on Iran, there would be a response from Iran that was stronger, more severe, and administered without a warning like that issued before the weekend attack.

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Middle East conflict risks sharp rise in oil prices, says IMF

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In the UK, anxiety over the crisis after Iran’s missile strike on Israel drives down UK shares

An escalating Middle East conflict risks leading to higher oil prices, a reversal of the recent fall in inflation and a puncturing of the optimistic mood in financial markets, the International Monetary Fund has warned.

The Washington-based IMF said it was closely monitoring events in the region after Iran’s missile strike on Israel at the weekend and stressed the possibility that a war between the two countries could lead to higher interest rates.

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Middle East crisis: Israel says Iran won’t get off ‘scot-free’ after missile attack – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. For news on tensions between Israel and Iran, read our latest story:

A senior spokesperson for Iran’s military has warned the US, UK, France and Germany to stop supporting Israel, and said that there will be an even stronger response from Iran if Israel retaliates to the strikes at the weekend.

The official state news agency IRNA reports that Brig Gen Abolfazl Shekarchi said:

We remind the heads of state of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany to stop supporting the declining child-killing terrorist regime of Israel. The Islamic Republic of Iran has proven that it is not a warmonger and does not seek to spread the war. The response will be stronger if the regime carries out more severe aggressive act.

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US to impose new sanctions against Iran after its air attack on Israel

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National security adviser Jake Sullivan made the announcement as EU considers similar moves

The US has said it will impose sanctions aimed at Iran’s missile and drone programme as well as the Revolutionary Guard and defence ministry in the next few days, and expects its allies to follow suit, in the wake of Tehran’s large-scale air attack on Israel at the weekend.

The national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, made the announcement on the same day Germany said it expected concerted EU sanctions, as the allies rushed to punish Iran economically while urging Israel not to launch military reprisals that could ignite an all-out war. Sullivan also said that a regional air defence and early warning system would be expanded to help defend against future attacks.

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UN demands end to Israeli forces’ support of settler attacks on West Bank Palestinians

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UN human rights office expresses concern over escalating violence after deaths near Nablus over weekend

The UN and the UK have voiced grave concern over escalating violence in the West Bank, demanding that Israeli security forces “immediately” stop supporting settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied territory.

The comments came hours after two Palestinian men were killed by Israeli settlers in a northern village south of Nablus in the latest violent attack involving settlers in the increasingly tense West Bank.

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Artists refuse to open Israel pavilion at Venice Biennale until ceasefire is reached

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Curators protesting against Gaza conflict say ‘art can wait but women, children and people living though hell cannot’

The artists and curators of the Israeli national pavilion at the Venice Biennale have announced their decision not to open until “a ceasefire and hostage release agreement is reached” in the conflict in Gaza, on the opening preview day of the largest and most prominent global gathering in the art world.

A sign on the front of the Israel pavilion in the Giardini, or public gardens, in Venice, one of the main venues for the Biennale, conveyed the team’s decision – while the pavilion itself is guarded by three armed Italian military personnel.

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Israeli settlers kill two Palestinians in West Bank, officials say

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Violence is reported to have escalated after a 14 year old Israeli shepherd went missing in the West Bank on Friday

Israeli settlers have killed two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian officials, after a weekend of escalating violence across the territory.

The Palestinian health ministry named the victims of the attack near Nablus as Abdulrahman Maher Bani Fadel, 30, and Mohammed Ashraf Bani Jame, 21, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

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Roads blocked as thousands protest in US against Israel’s attack on Gaza

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Flights delayed and traffic disrupted as protesters in major US cities intensify call for ceasefire in Gaza

Thousands of people held protests across the US on Monday condemning Israel’s attack on Gaza, shutting down airports and disrupting traffic in major cities from New York to San Francisco.

A portion of the Kennedy Expressway into Chicago O’Hare international airport, one of the US’s busiest, was blocked off by protesters calling for an end to the violence.

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IDF chief of staff says Israel will respond to Iran missile attack

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General gives clearest confirmation yet that Israel will hit back but it is unclear what form response will take

Israel’s top general has said the country will respond to Iran’s missile and drone attack, but it remains unclear what form that response will take and whether it will be so forceful that it could tip a worsening spiral of violence into a full-scale regional war.

US officials said on Monday that some form of counter to Iran’s attack, which involved more than 300 missiles and drones, was almost inevitable, but the Biden administration was still hoping it would be a limited counterstrike and not aimed at Iranian territory.

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Jordan faces difficult balancing act amid row over role in downing Iranian drones

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Amman and allies insist Jordanian actions were self-defence after public anger at home and across region

Jordan has found itself caught in the crosshairs of the confrontation between Iran and Israel, facing public anger at home and in the region for its role in downing dozens of Iranian drones targeting Israeli territory on Saturday night.

Underlying its precarious position, Amman summoned the Iranian ambassador on Sunday over comments from Tehran that appeared to threaten Jordan for joining the US-led effort to support Israel in shooting down the incoming salvo. The diplomatic summons came after Iran seemed to warn Jordan that it would face an attack of its own if it continued to defend Israel.

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Sunak says ‘all sides should show restraint’ after Iranian attack on Israel – as it happened

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British PM says he will speak to Netanyahu to express solidarity and discuss how further escalation can be avoided

UK general election opinion poll tracker: Labour leading as election looms

David Cameron ruled out trying to become PM again in an interview this morning. (See 9.30am.) But Liz Truss has not done so. In an interview with LBC’s Iain Dale, being broadcast tonight, she did not entirely dismiss the possibility. This is from LBC’s Henry Riley.

Truss is giving interviews to publicise her memoir which is out this week. According to extracts sent out in advance, she also confirmed in her LBC interview that she wanted to see Donald Trump win the US presidential election. She said:

I don’t think [Joe] Biden has been particularly supportive to the United Kingdom. I think he’s often on the side of the EU. And I certainly think I would like to see a new president in the White House …

The thing I would say about Donald Trump is, because I served as secretary of state under both Trump and Biden, and Trump’s policies were actually very effective. If you look at his economic policies, and I met his regulatory czar, I travelled around the United States looking at what he’d done. He cut regulation, he cut taxes, he liberated the US energy supply. And this is why the US has had significantly higher economic growth than Britain.

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Four Israeli soldiers injured by Hezbollah bombs inside Lebanon

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One soldier seriously wounded as IDF crosses border in apparent first acknowledged breach since Gaza war began

Four Israeli soldiers have been injured inside Lebanon, one seriously, after being hit by bombs planted by Hezbollah.

The incident was confirmed by the Israel Defense Forces and came after the Lebanese Shia group said it had ambushed Israeli troops.

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Europe: Sudan war ‘world’s worst child displacement crisis,’ Paris conference told – as it happened

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Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, says ‘every life counts equally, whether in Ukraine, in Gaza, or in Sudan’

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, has warned of a further escalation in violence in Sudan.

“The Sudanese people have been subjected to untold suffering during the conflict which has been marked by indiscriminate attacks in densely populated areas, ethnically-motivated attacks, and a high incidence of conflict-related sexual violence. The recruitment and use of children by parties to the conflict are also deeply concerning,” Türk said in a statement today.

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