Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Middle East crisis: Israel says investigation into its air strike that killed aid workers in Gaza to take weeks – as it happened

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Israel government says its report will be ‘transparent’ after seven people working for food charity killed in an Israeli air strike. This live blog is closed

Reuters has spoken with Israelis who have been displaced from their communities in the far north of the country, close to the UN-drawn blue line that has separated Israel from Lebanon since 2000.

Israel evacuated a number of communities, totalling about 60,000 people, almost immediately after the 7 October attack in southern Israel. There has been an almost constant exchange of fire between Israel’s military and Hezbollah and other anti-Israeli forces inside Lebanon.

What we saw in the south on 7 October was basically Hamas “stealing the thunder” from Hezbollah. If anything, Hezbollah is more of a border threat than Hamas was.

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Majority of voters in UK back banning arms sales to Israel, poll finds

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Exclusive: YouGov survey indicates loss of support among people in Britain for Israel’s war in Gaza

A majority of voters in Britain back a ban on arms sales to Israel, according to a YouGov poll.

One of the first up-to-date assessments of whether Israel is losing public support in key allied states, the research also suggests most people believe the Israeli government is violating human rights in Gaza.

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Israel accused of targeting aid convoy ‘car by car’ as pressure grows over Gaza tactics

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Founder of charity that lost seven people hits out at IDF as friendly governments decry drone attack

Israel is facing mounting international pressure to justify its conduct in the war in Gaza as the bodies of six foreign aid workers killed in a drone attack were repatriated to their families.

Seven members of World Central Kitchen (WCK) were killed when a drone repeatedly hit their convoy of three cars, which were clearly identified as belonging to the charity, after it left an aid warehouse in the central town of Deir al-Balah on Monday night.

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Israel’s rules of engagement seem looser than ever – if they are followed at all

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The deaths of seven aid workers add credence to allegations by observers that commanders on the ground in Gaza may ‘do as they please’

The killing of seven foreign aid workers by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza has once again raised serious questions about the IDF’s opaque and highly permissive rules of engagement, whether those rules are enforced, and how willing it is to investigate breaches.

Put simply, rules of engagement define how and in what circumstances it is permissible to use force, including lethal violence, during operations, and at what potential risk to civilians.

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‘The machine did it coldly’: Israel used AI to identify 37,000 Hamas targets

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Israeli intelligence sources reveal use of ‘Lavender’ system in Gaza war and claim permission given to kill civilians in pursuit of low-ranking militants

The Israeli military’s bombing campaign in Gaza used a previously undisclosed AI-powered database that at one stage identified 37,000 potential targets based on their apparent links to Hamas, according to intelligence sources involved in the war.

In addition to talking about their use of the AI system, called Lavender, the intelligence sources claim that Israeli military officials permitted large numbers of Palestinian civilians to be killed, particularly during the early weeks and months of the conflict.

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Middle East crisis: UN human rights council to consider call for Israel arms embargo – as it happened

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If draft brought forward by Pakistan is adopted, it would mark the first time that the UN’s top rights body has taken a position on the war in Gaza

The UK should stop arming Israel, a former national security adviser has said, after seven international aid workers were killed in Gaza in an Israeli airstrike.

Lord Ricketts, who was also the former permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Sometimes in conflict, you get a moment where there’s such global outrage that it crystalises a sense that things can’t go on like this.”

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UK government under pressure from Tories to stop arming Israel

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Lib Dems also call for action to suspend arms exports to Israel after seven aid workers killed in Gaza

Ministers are under pressure from Tory MPs and peers to stop arming Israel after seven humanitarian workers were killed by an airstrike in Gaza.

Four Conservatives told the Guardian on Wednesday that the UK should stop exporting arms to Israel after its strike, which killed three British aid workers.

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Sunak calls for investigation as British aid workers killed in Israeli airstrike named

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PM demands ‘transparent investigation’ from Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as names emerge of three Britons killed in Gaza

Rishi Sunak has called for an urgent investigation into the deaths of three British aid workers working for the charity World Central Kitchen who were killed by an Israeli airstrike that hit an aid convoy in Gaza.

WSK confirmed that British victims John Chapman, 57, James “Jim” Henderson, 33, and James Kirby, 47, who were working for the charity’s security team, were among seven of its staff killed.

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Israel divided: Netanyahu’s coalition crisis – podcast

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A cabinet split over military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews and large street protests demanding the release of hostages are threatening the prime minister’s grip on power. Bethan McKernan reports from Jerusalem

As the war in Gaza approaches its seventh month, tens of thousands of protesters in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities in Israel have demanded the release of hostages held in Gaza and called for new elections.

The Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent, Bethan McKernan, tells Michael Safi it is a moment of political danger for the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who also faces pressure from within his ruling coalition over the issue of exemption from military service granted to the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Israel’s allies, including the US, are piling pressure on Netanyahu to urgently allow aid into Gaza, which faces a famine, and to spell out how he will address the aftermath of the conflict.

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Bernie Sanders to Benjamin Netanyahu: ‘Stop murdering innocent people’

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Vermont senator makes remarks after Israeli strike kills seven aid workers, amid war that has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians

The Vermont senator and former US presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has a message for the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu: “Stop murdering innocent people.”

Sanders delivered his blunt message in an interview with MSNBC on Tuesday, a day after seven aid workers were killed by an Israeli strike in Gaza.

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Charities halt Gaza aid after drone attack that killed seven workers

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Humanitarian groups say they cannot operate safely after Israeli targeting of food charity convoy prompts international outcry

The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza seems likely to worsen after charities announced they are suspending operations in the territory in the aftermath of an Israeli drone attack which repeatedly targeted a clearly identified convoy of international aid workers, killing seven.

The strikes on a team from World Central Kitchen (WCK) led the charity – along with other aid organisations such as Anera, which helps refugees around the Middle East, and the US-based Project Hope, which focuses on healthcare – to announce that it would pause operations in Gaza to protect its staff.

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British Steel wins multimillion-pound contract for Egyptian rail project

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Around 9,500 tonnes of track will be provided for north African country’s first fully electrified mainline

British Steel has won a multimillion-pound contract to supply rail for a new route in north Africa, the company has announced.

Approximately 9,500 tonnes of track, produced in Scunthorpe, will be provided for Egypt’s first fully electrified mainline and freight network which stretches from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.

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Middle East crisis live: Netanyahu says deaths of seven aid workers in Gaza is ‘tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting innocent people’

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World Central Kitchen to pause operations immediately after deadly convoy strike by Israel; workers from UK, US, Australia, Poland and Palestine among dead

We’ve launched this video report on the Gaza strike, including footage of people being transported on stretchers as ambulances flash nearby.

Australia’s prime minister says the death of an Australian aid worker in Gaza is “completely unacceptable” and “beyond any reasonable circumstances”, saying the government will call in the Israeli ambassador and contact Israel’s government.

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‘Not a normal war’: doctors say children have been targeted by Israeli snipers in Gaza

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IDF says it ‘completely rejects’ charge that its soldiers deliberately fired on any of the thousands of civilians killed in Israeli offensive

Dr Fozia Alvi was making her rounds of the intensive care unit on her final day at the battered European public hospital in southern Gaza when she stopped next to two young arrivals with facial injuries and breathing tubes in their windpipes.

“I asked the nurse, what’s the history? She said that they were brought in a couple of hours ago. They had sniper shots to the brain. They were seven or eight years old,” she said.

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Artists call on Manchester venue to reinstate event celebrating Palestinian voices

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More than 300 artists and cultural workers write open letter to Home venue over cancellation of Voices of Resilience event

More than 300 cultural workers, theatre and film artists, including Maxine Peake and Asif Kapadia, have called for a Manchester arts venue to reinstate an event celebrating Palestinian voices.

Home Manchester last week cancelled the Voices of Resilience evening, scheduled for 22 April, citing “recent publicity” and safety concerns for audiences and artists.

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Seven Gaza aid workers including UK, US and Australian citizens killed in Israeli strike, charity says

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Israeli military investigating after World Central Kitchen workers were in convoy struck in central Gaza

Seven people working with World Central Kitchen, a charity spearheading efforts to alleviate looming famine in Gaza, have been killed in an Israeli airstrike, the charity said, throwing humanitarian relief efforts in the Palestinian territory into chaos as the organisation said it would suspend operations.

The workers were travelling in two armoured vehicles branded with the charity’s logo, according to a statement released early on Tuesday. World Central Kitchen (WCK) said those killed were from the UK, Australia, Poland and Palestine, as well as a US-Canada dual citizen.

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Call for Ukraine-style visa scheme for Palestinians in Gaza with family in UK

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Charities and law firms sign letter to home secretary saying existing immigration routes are not working

A letter signed by almost 60 charities, law firms and organisations will be sent to the home secretary calling for the creation of a Ukraine-style visa scheme for Palestinians trapped in Gaza who have family in the UK.

The letter, signed by the Refugee Council, Care4Calais and the Helen Bamber Foundation, says “existing immigration routes are insufficient and not working” and describes how a Gaza family scheme would “enable Palestinians in Gaza to reunite with their immediate and extended family members in the UK”.

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‘What harm could a firework do?’ Family of boy killed by Israeli police want justice

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Rami Halhouli was shot in the chest from a watchtower as he held a firework in East Jerusalem

Rami Halhouli had just lit a firework in East Jerusalem to celebrate the end of another day of Ramadan when his life was cut short.

As the 12-year-old hoisted the firework in the air, he was shot in the chest by Israeli police standing on a watchtower overlooking Shuafat refugee camp. Rami fell to the ground as the firework exploded and painted the night sky with a flash of red stars.

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Middle East crisis live: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps says two of its generals killed in Damascus consulate strike

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IRGC statement names two generals as Mohammad Reza Zahedi and deputy Sardar Haji Rahimi. Airstrike in Syrian capital reportedly carried out by Israel

Hossein Akbari, the Iranian ambassador in Syria, has said Tehran “will reciprocate when we want” to what he described as the “extreme brutality” of the attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.

Posting to social media, Akbari wrote:

With extreme brutality, contrary to all international conventions, they targeted my place of residence and the consular section of the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran; We will reciprocate when we want.

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Al Jazeera faces ‘security threat’ ban as Israel passes new law

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Benjamin Netanyahu says after approval of bill he will ‘act immediately … to stop channel’s activities’

Israeli legislators have approved a bill paving the way for a ban on Al Jazeera and other international news outlets perceived as posing a threat to security.

After the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, promised to take prompt measures to force the end of Al Jazeera’s operations within the country, parliament granted senior ministers authority to shut down foreign news networks.

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