Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Israel appears to be in breach of ICJ orders on Gaza, senior UN official says

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Special rapporteur cites lack of medical supplies, food and clean water, and continued demolition of infrastructure

Israel appears to be in breach of the orders issued a fortnight ago by the international court of justice requiring it to take immediate steps to protect Palestinians’ rights and cease all activities that could constitute genocide, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied territories, Francesca Albanese, has said.

The Israeli government was given until 23 February to report to the ICJ on what it has done to comply with six orders the court issued, including one relating to ending incitement to genocide and another requiring immediate steps to improve the supply of humanitarian aid.

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UNRWA staff accused by Israel sacked without evidence, chief admits

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Philippe Lazzarini says summary dismissal of nine employees was ‘reverse due process’ after Israel’s claims they aided Hamas attack

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said he followed “reverse due process” in sacking nine staff members accused by Israel of being involved in Hamas’s 7 October attacks.

Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner general, said he did not probe Israel’s claims against the employees before dismissing them and launching an investigation.

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Instagram and Facebook delete the accounts of Iran’s supreme leader

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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei supported Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel, which Meta said violated its policies

Meta has removed Instagram and Facebook accounts run on behalf of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, following criticism over his support for Hamas after the group’s 7 October attack on Israel that sparked the months-long war still raging in the Gaza Strip, the company confirmed on Friday.

Meta, based in Menlo Park, California, offered no specifics about its reasoning. However, it said it removed the accounts “for repeatedly violating our Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy”.

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Middle East crisis: Palestinian president says Israel aims to drive Palestinians from their land amid evacuation plan – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. You can read our latest reporting on the Israel-Gaza war here:

The Ireland women’s basketball team chose not to shake hands with the Israel players at their EuroBasket 2025 qualifier in Riga on Thursday in response to an allegation by an Israeli player about antisemitism, reports Reuters.

The Israeli Basketball Association published an interview with player Dor Saar on Tuesday, during which she said: “It’s known that they are quite antisemitic, and it’s no secret; maybe that’s why a strong game is expected.”

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Gaza: Israel moves closer to Rafah offensive despite ‘bloodbath’ warning

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Biden and UN say assault on city where 1.3m civilians are sheltering would be disastrous

Israel has moved closer to a full-scale ground offensive against the southern Gaza city of Rafah, as Benjamin Netayahu ordered military leaders to present a plan to evacuate civilians from the area.

Despite warnings from a senior aid official that an assault on Rafah – where about 1.3 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering – would lead to a “bloodbath”, and the UN urging against forced mass displacement, Israel appeared determined to push ahead.

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Baghdad mourners gather for funeral of Iraqi militant killed in US drone strike

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US claims responsibility for killing, saying Kataib Hezbollah commander was behind attack that killed three US soldiers

A large crowd gathered in eastern Baghdad on Thursday for the funeral of Abu Bakr al-Saadi, who was killed the night before in a drone strike in a residential street in Baghdad.

Al-Saadi was a senior military commander with the Kataib Hezbollah, a prominent faction of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq with close political, religious and military ties to Iran.

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Family of Swede imprisoned in Iran fear death penalty verdict is imminent

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EU diplomat Johan Floderus’s sister calls on Sweden to start speaking up loudly to demand his release

The family of a Swedish EU diplomat imprisoned in Iran for more than 663 days fear he will be given a death sentence or life imprisonment within the coming days after prosecutors sought the maximum sentence in his case.

“I ask how can this be happening? He is my brother and I’m like: they want to kill my younger brother? That is very hard to take in. I also feel so sad for him being there alone, you know, when I see the pictures of him I just want to be there for him,” said Johan Floderus’s sister, Ingrid.

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Israeli lawyer arrested for peaceful protest leaves prison after 110 days

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Ahmad Khalefa, human rights lawyer of Palestinian heritage, released to house arrest after organising anti-war protest

A prominent Israeli human rights lawyer of Palestinian heritage has been released to house arrest after spending 110 days in prison for organising a peaceful protest against the war in Gaza.

A supreme court judge ruled on Wednesday that Ahmad Khalefa, 42, a lawyer working with Human Rights Defenders Fund, an Israeli non-governmental organisation, should be detained at home subject to electronic monitoring while his case is pending.

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UK home secretary apologises over unlawful detention of Bahraini activist

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Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei receives compensation from government after being stopped at Gatwick

The home secretary, James Cleverly, has apologised and arranged for compensation to be paid to a human rights activist after officials unlawfully detained him at Gatwick airport on his return to the UK from a UN meeting in Switzerland.

Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, a prominent Bahraini human rights activist and advocacy director of the London-based NGO Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, is a torture survivor who was granted asylum in the UK in 2012 after he fled persecution at the hands of Bahraini authorities.

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Middle East crisis: Israel bombs overcrowded Rafah as UN warns of ‘humanitarian nightmare’ – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed, you can read more on the Middle East here

A journalist and his son have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in the central Gaza Strip, reports Al Jazeera.

Nafez Abdel Jawad, who worked for Palestine TV, was killed in a bombing of a residential building in the al-Salam neighbourhood in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip last night, says Al Jazeera. The news organisation said that his only son also died in the airstrike and other injuries had also been reported.

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‘Bring them back’: freed Israeli hostages plead with Netanyahu for deal

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Families fear remaining hostages will pay price for prime minister’s pursuit of ‘absolute victory’ over Hamas

Moments after Benjamin Netanyahu publicly rejected the terms of a ceasefire in Gaza proposed by Hamas, five Israeli hostages who were freed in November pleaded with him to push for a deal.

“Everything is in your hands,” a tearful Adina Moshe, 72, said in a direct appeal to the Israeli prime minister at an emotional press conference in Tel Aviv. She said she feared the remaining hostages and their families would pay the price for Netanyahu’s pursuit of “absolute victory” over the militant group.

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Iran-backed hackers interrupt UAE TV streaming services with deepfake news

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Microsoft analysts cite reports saying disruption by group known as Cotton Sandstorm also reached audiences in UK and Canada

Iranian state-backed hackers interrupted TV streaming services in the United Arab Emirates to broadcast a deepfake newsreader delivering a report on the war in Gaza, according to analysts at Microsoft.

The tech company said a hacking operation run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, a key branch of the Iranian armed forces, had disrupted streaming platforms in the UAE with an AI-generated news broadcast branded “For Humanity”.

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Italian court jails people smuggler over shipwreck that killed at least 94 migrants

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Gun Ufuk, 29, sentenced to 20 years in prison over deadly sinking that occurred metres from shore

An Italian court has sentenced a people smuggler to 20 years in prison for involvement in a shipwreck last year that killed at least 94 migrants.

The court in the southern city of Crotone found Gun Ufuk, a 29-year-old Turkish national, guilty of crimes including causing a shipwreck and aiding illegal immigration. It also ordered him to pay a €3m fine and pay damages to civil plaintiffs.

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Palestinian groups accuse UN adviser of failing to warn about potential genocide

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Letter sent to UN raises concerns about Alice Wairimu Nderitu’s ability to act with ‘effectiveness and impartiality’

Leading Palestinian human rights groups have accused the UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide of failing to fulfil her mandate after she issued only one statement on the war in Gaza – largely supportive of Israel – that has claimed 26,000 Palestinian lives.

In a statement issued in October, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, a Kenyan, omitted any criticism of Israel.

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‘The destruction is massive … It’s a disaster area’: Israeli soldiers speak about fighting in Gaza

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Exclusive: IDF troops shed light on their experience of fighting in the territory, where Palestinian casualties have passed 27,700

Demobilised Israeli reservists have described how they deployed massive fire power in a brutal, complex and often one-sided war of sporadic but intense clashes that has reduced much of Gaza to ruins.

They spoke, too, of the challenge of fighting on unfamiliar ground that is well-known to Hamas and which offered easy opportunities for surprise attacks, despite Israel’s conventional military superiority and air power.

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EU leaders unveil €210m Mauritania deal in bid to curb people-smuggling

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Plan includes energy and infrastructure projects with aim of strengthening stability in Sahel

The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, have unveiled plans for a €210m partnership with Mauritania in an attempt to curb people-smuggling to the Canary islands and launch new energy and infrastructure projects benefiting both sides.

Figures soon to be published by Frontex, the EU’s border agency, are expected to show that the number of people risking their lives by making the perilous journey from west African shores to the Spanish islands has risen dramatically in the past year.

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Iraq labels US ‘factor of instability’ after three killed in drone attack

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Military says ‘blatant assassination’ of three members of Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia in Baghdad risks widening conflict

The US military presence in Iraq has become a “factor for instability” and must be ended, the Iraqi military has said, as it responded angrily to a US drone strike on a car in Baghdad that killed three members of the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia.

Yehia Rasool, the spokesperson for the commander of the military forces, accused the US of conducting “a blatant assassination through an airstrike in the heart of a residential neighbourhood in the capital, Baghdad, showing no regard for civilian lives or international laws.

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Minister ‘pissed off’ as Canadians’ family members blocked from leaving Gaza

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Immigration minister Marc Miller frustrated by impasse over list of about 1,000 people trapped in Palestinian territory

Canada’s immigration minister, Marc Miller, has said he is “pissed off” that extended family members of Canadians are being blocked from leaving war-torn Gaza.

Ottawa last month provided a list of about 1,000 people approved to come to Canada to Israeli and Egyptian authorities, who jointly control the only border crossing out of the Palestinian territory, at Rafah.

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Netanyahu rejects Gaza ceasefire deal and says victory is ‘within reach’

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Israeli PM rebuffs US-led mediation efforts as order is given to commence ground assault in southern city of Rafah

Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the terms of a ceasefire in Gaza proposed by Hamas and rebuffed US pressure to move more quickly towards a mediated settlement to the war, saying there could be no solution to Israel’s security issues except “absolute victory” over the militant group.

The Israeli prime minister also confirmed that the Israel Defense Forces had been instructed to commence operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where the population has been swelled by hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

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‘Our last stop is Rafah’: trapped Palestinians await Israeli onslaught

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Refugees crammed into the border city face a terrifying choice: stay for the expected attack, or flee back north through a war zone

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians crammed into the small southern Gaza border city of Rafah are being forced to contemplate being displaced once more as an Israeli offensive looms.

Those who fled to the border city, almost half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, face a terrifying choice: stay in overcrowded Rafah – once home to 280,000 people – and wait for the attack, or risk moving north through an area of continued fighting.

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