Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Israel says it will launch Rafah assault if hostages not freed by Ramadan

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Minister says fighting will reach southern border city if remaining hostages not released in next few weeks

A member of Israel’s war cabinet has said the country will launch its threatened ground offensive against Rafah, the last place of relative safety in Gaza, if Hamas does not release its remaining Israeli hostages by the beginning of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan in just under three weeks.

“The world must know, and Hamas leaders must know – if by Ramadan our hostages are not home, the fighting will continue everywhere, including the Rafah area,” Benny Gantz, a retired Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff, told a conference of American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem on Sunday.

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Houthis claim cargo ship is at risk of sinking after Red Sea attack

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Two projectiles hit Belize-flagged vessel in strike that if confirmed would be a propaganda victory

The Houthis have claimed one of their most significant strikes since they started launching missiles at ships in the Red Sea, after two projectiles hit a Belize-flagged cargo ship.

The Yemeni rebels claimed the ship was at risk of sinking, a significant propaganda victory for the Houthis if confirmed.

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Middle East crisis: EU launches maritime security operation as cargo ship damaged in Red Sea after missiles fired from Yemen – as it happened

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Defensive maritime security operation launched in Red Sea and Gulf as crew evacuated from Belize-flagged ship and UK maritime body reports another attack

The Times of Israel is reporting that Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz will deliver a reprimand to Brazil’s ambassador to Israel at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial today. It follows a speech by Brazil’s president which Israel has described as “shameful”.

Speaking in Ethiopia at the weekend, Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had said “what is happening in the Gaza Strip and to the Palestinian people hasn’t been seen in any other moment in history. Actually, it did when Hitler decided to kill the Jews. What’s happening in the Gaza Strip isn’t a war, it’s a genocide. It’s not a war of soldiers against soldiers. It’s a war between a highly prepared army and women and children.”

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Gaza’s largest functioning hospital ‘completely out of service’, say health officials

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Nasser hospital, which was raided by Israeli forces last week, is ‘not functional anymore’ says the head of the World Health Organization

Fighting, fuel shortages and Israeli raids have put Gaza’s largest still functioning hospital completely out of service, local and UN health officials have said, as Israel continued its threats to invade the southern city of Rafah if remaining Israeli hostages are not freed in the next three weeks.

Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis went out of action early on Sunday, Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said.

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Maritime authorities investigate reported attack on UK-registered cargo ship near Yemen

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UK Maritime Trade Operations says military authorities exploring apparent explosion near vessel

The UK is investigating reports that a cargo ship has come under attack off the coast of Yemen, after an apparent explosion close to the vessel on Sunday.

Following the reports of damage to the vessel, the UK Maritime Trade Operations said: “Military authorities are investigating. UKMTO has received a report of an incident 35 NM [nautical miles] south of Al Mukha, Yemen.

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Israeli swimmer Gorbenko booed at world championships as GB’s Colbert wins gold

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  • 20-year-old won silver in 400m individual medley
  • Jeers were partially drowned out by cheers and applause

Israeli swimmer Anastasia Gorbenko was jeered by some of the crowd after finishing second in the women’s 400m medley on the closing day of the World Aquatics Championships in Qatar on Sunday.

The 20-year-old Gorbenko was being interviewed after the race when the jeers rang out at the Aspire Dome in Doha. She smiled and then sighed when she was booed again, this time as she mounted the podium at the medal ceremony. Others in the crowd clapped and cheered, partially drowning out the jeers.

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Palestinian factions to meet in Moscow as west rejects Hamas role in ruling Gaza after war

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Palestinian Authority ‘ready to engage’, says prime minister ahead of talks on formation of new Gaza government

Western powers have rejected suggestions that Hamas as an entity can be allowed a role in governing Gaza at the end of the war, saying only that they recognise that Palestinian militancy will still exist.

Speculation that a weakened Hamas might be willing to form a partnership with the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, and govern Gaza and the West Bank jointly, have been revived by a Russian invitation for Palestinian factions to meet in Moscow on 26 February.

Guardian Newsroom: the unfolding crisis in the Middle East On Wednesday 20 March, 7-8.15pm GMT, join Devika Bhat, Peter Beaumont and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad as they discuss the developing crisis in the Middle East. Book tickets at theguardian.live

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Middle East crisis: Nasser hospital in Gaza ‘not functional’, says WHO chief; US likely to veto UN vote calling for ceasefire – as it happened

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Hospital in Khan Younis no longer functional due to Israeli forces’ ‘week-long siege’; US ambassador to UN says text could jeopardise negotiations

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said his government would vote on a “declaratory decision” regarding Israel’s opposition to any unilateral imposition of Palestinian statehood, Reuters reports.

Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting that the move comes after “recent talk in the international community about an attempt to unilaterally impose on Israel a Palestinian state”.

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Egypt preparing safe areas for Gaza refugees, foreign minister says

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Move comes as ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas make little progress, according to key Qatar negotiator

Egypt is preparing safe areas for Gaza refugees, Cairo has said, as the key Qatar negotiator in the ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas admitted they have made no progress in recent days.

Egypt’s foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, said at a security conference in Munich on Saturday that while his country would deal with civilians humanely, the displacement of Palestinians remained unacceptable.

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Middle East crisis live: ‘Extraordinary’ chance for Israel to be integrated into Middle East, says Blinken – as it happened

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US secretary of state tells Munich security conference that almost all Arab countries want to normalise ties

A climate of fear pervades a hospital in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, where patients and doctors are reeling from last month’s deadly raid by Israeli agents disguised as medics, reports news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP).

AFP say that at the rehabilitation ward at Jenin’s Ibn Sina hospital, two patients recalled hearing the screams of a nurse as Israeli forces reached the third floor.

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Desperate Egypt sells off historic hotels as it dives deeper into debt

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Amid biting austerity and rising inflation, the al-Sisi government is off-loading assets – some to a convicted murderer with Emirati cash

As dusk fell over the verdant grounds of the Marriott Mena House hotel, the reflection of the Great Pyramid of Giza grew darker in a pool built to reflect the last of the seven wonders of the world.

A band played a smooth jazz rendition of the Eagles’ Hotel California on the grassy lawns as guests assembled for dinner, while the staff attempted to project a sense of business as usual, despite the hotel’s recent acquisition by an infamous Egyptian real estate tycoon, Hisham Talaat Moustafa, and two powerful Emirati conglomerates.

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‘He was so close to coming home’: mother’s agony over Israeli hostage killed by IDF

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Iris Haim says she does not blame soldiers who shot Yotam and two other escaped captives

Iris Haim cannot bear to think about how close her kidnapped son came to freedom before he was mistakenly shot dead by Israeli soldiers. After being held captive by Hamas in Gaza for more than two months, Yotam Haim and two other Israeli hostages escaped and evaded their captors for five days, only to be killed by the IDF.

Haim has repeatedly insisted she does not blame the soldiers who mistakenly identified Yotam as a threat. But she said it was devastating to know how close she had come to being reunited with the 28-year-old, who had dreamed of becoming a professional musician.

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Sudan armed forces advance in Omdurman for first time since start of war

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SAF join engineering corps in south of city where they have been besieged by RSF forces since April

The Sudan armed forces (SAF) have advanced in Omdurman for the first time since the beginning of the war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April last year.

It is reported that the SAF in the Karari military area, north of Omdurman, have joined their peers in the engineering corps in the south of the city, where they have been besieged by the RSF since April.

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Patients with chronic illnesses in Gaza failing to get treatment, doctors warn

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The lack of medicine, food and water means thousands of people with asthma, kidney disease or diabetes are unable to treat or control their conditions

Four months of conflict in Gaza is jeopardising the health of thousands of people with chronic illnesses such as kidney disease, diabetes and asthma, doctors have warned.

The chronically ill are the hidden casualties of the war, as access to water, food and medicine is severely restricted, said Guillemette Thomas, the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical coordinator for Palestine.

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Egypt scraps plan to restore cladding on one of three great pyramids of Giza

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Antiquities authority drops proposal for Menkaure pyramid after review prompted by international outcry

Egypt has scuttled a controversial plan to reinstall ancient granite cladding on the pyramid of Menkaure, the smallest of the three great pyramids of Giza, a committee formed by the country’s tourism minister said in a statement.

Mostafa Waziri, the secretary general of the supreme council of antiquities, announced the plan last month, declaring it would be “the project of the century”.

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Egypt building walled enclosure in Sinai for Rafah refugees, photos suggest

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Monitoring group releases evidence of work that appears intended to house Palestinians in event of Israeli assault on city

Egypt has begun building an enclosed area ringed with high concrete walls along its border with Gaza that appears intended to house Palestinians fleeing a threatened Israeli assault on the southern city of Rafah.

Photos and videos released by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights (SFHR), a monitoring group, show workers using heavy machinery erecting concrete barriers and security towers around a strip of land on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing.

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Palestinian ambassador to UK says eight relatives killed in Israeli strikes in Rafah

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Husam Zomlot says family members who died while sheltering in city include seven-year-old twins and 15-month-old

The Palestinian ambassador to the UK has said eight of his relatives who were sheltering in the southern Gaza town of Rafah have been killed in an Israeli strike.

Husam Zomlot identified a girl in a distressing photo that has been widely shared online as his wife’s seven-year-old cousin Sidra Hassouna. In the image that has been posted on social media, Sidra’s body can be seen dangling from the ruins of a building after attacks on Rafah on Monday.

Sharing a blurred version of the image, alongside pictures of his other relatives, Zomlot posted on X on Wednesday: “This is seven-year-old Sidra, the cousin of my wife. The impact of the Israeli missile was so powerful it flung her out, leaving her mutilated body dangling from the ruins of the destroyed building in Rafah 48 hours ago.”

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Middle East crisis: Palestinian exodus into Egypt ‘must be avoided’, warns UN chief – as it happened

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High commissioner for refugees says people crossing the border would be the ‘nail in the coffin’ for any peace process

The hunger crisis in Gaza has reached “unprecedented levels, as people run out of even animal feed to eat” said development charity ActionAid on Friday.

“An unprecedented and totally avoidable hunger crisis” has led to “every single person in the territory now experiencing extreme levels of hunger”, it said, warning that “as grim as the picture is, things will get substantially worse” if Israel proceeds with its plans for a full military operation in Rafah.

As grim as the picture is, things will get substantially worse if Israel proceeds with its plans for a full military operation in Rafah, which is the main centre of aid distribution for the entire strip. Aid operations will grind to a complete halt, denying a lifeline to hundreds of thousands of people.

The consequences are unimaginable. Governments around the world must do everything in their power to prevent a further onslaught in Rafah and push for a permanent and immediate ceasefire. It’s the only way to stop the indiscriminate killing of civilians, allow aid to enter Gaza and be distributed safely at scale to prevent famine and deadly disease outbreaks.”

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Houthi attacks in Red Sea having a ‘catastrophic’ effect on aid to Sudan

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Shipments of food and medical supplies from Asia are having to take longer, more expensive routes to avoid seaborne assaults

Attacks by Houthi forces against ships in the Red Sea are holding up shipments of vital aid to Sudan and driving up costs for cash-strapped humanitarian agencies in the east African country, where conflict has put millions at risk of famine.

The attacks mean ships carrying aid from Asia to Port Sudan must now circumnavigate Africa, traverse the Mediterranean and then enter the Red Sea via the Suez Canal from the north, resulting in huge delays and increased costs.

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How Gaza’s ‘safe’ city Rafah came to be on the precipice of catastrophe – visualised

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With 1.5 million people now in Rafah, these visuals show how destruction has travelled from north to south, leaving Gazan civilians with nowhere to turn

Last October, following the Hamas attacks, Israel’s military delivered evacuation orders for many of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, telling them to head south for their own safety.

Multiple evacuation orders ensued, and it is now estimated that more than 1.5 million Palestinians are taking refuge in and around the southern city of Rafah, vastly swelling its pre-war population of 280,000.

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