Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Israeli human rights groups accuse country of failing to abide by ICJ’s Gaza aid ruling

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Exclusive: 12 prominent organisations sign open letter criticising lack of humanitarian access

Twelve of Israel’s most prominent human rights organisations have signed an open letter accusing the country of failing to comply with the international court of justice’s (ICJ) provisional ruling that it should facilitate access of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

The court in The Hague made a number of legal requirements of Israel when it issued a provisional ruling in late January in response to South Africa’s complaint accusing the state of committing genocide in its military campaign in Gaza.

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West won’t stop Houthi attacks unless it works with Yemeni authorities, say experts

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Calls for closer collaboration made after multiple Houthi drone strikes on ships in Red Sea over weekend

Western efforts to stop Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea will fail unless the US and its allies build stronger intelligence and military relations with the UN-recognised government in Yemen, politicians and experts are warning.

Yemen’s ambassador to the UK has warned the Houthis have to be confronted and driven away from Red Sea ports such as Hodeidah. Similar calls were made by members of the Yemeni government coalition when they visited London last month.

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Next stop for Democratic ‘uncommitted’ vote campaign for Gaza: Washington

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After successes in Michigan, Minnesota and Hawaii, local organizers urge voters to keep pressure on Biden for ceasefire

The movement among Democrats to cast a Gaza protest vote against President Joe Biden in the primary election moves to Washington state on Tuesday.

Organizers with Vote Uncommitted WA have been working for two weeks to ramp up outreach to voters via phone, text, online and in-person connections to explain how they can use their primary ballots to check “uncommitted delegates” to send a message to Biden in support of a permanent ceasefire.

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US defence contractor paid commissions to Saudi firm later alleged to be conduit for bribes

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Harris had longstanding relationship with ABTSS, later alleged by British prosecutors to have handled or received illegal payments

One of the largest military contractors in the US paid commissions to a Saudi company later alleged to have been a conduit for bribes for the kingdom’s royal family.

A document disclosed in a UK criminal trial revealed that Harris Corporation, now L3Harris, paid commissions to the Saudi company for over two decades for services in the kingdom.

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Middle East crisis: European Commission ‘hopeful’ first boat from Cyprus carrying aid to Gaza will set sail soon – as it happened

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The EU says the ship is just one of three routes to getting life-saving supplies to the population of Gaza

Citing the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS), Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that overnight and into the morning Israeli security forces have detained at least a further 25 people in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. It reports that most of the detentions happened in Ramallah.

The PPS now states that about 7,530 Palestinians have been detained since 7 October by Israeli security forces in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Ensuring all the needs of the population in the Gaza Strip are met is not a favour from anyone; it is a guaranteed right under international humanitarian law even during times of war.

If the US administration is serious about solving the humanitarian crisis, the easiest and shortest path is to stop using veto power to allow a ceasefire to be reached, and to compel Israel to open all land crossings and allow entry of all required aid.

The occupation’s attempt to communicate with the leaders and clans of some families to operate within the Gaza Strip is considered direct collaboration with the occupation and is a betrayal of the nation that we will not tolerate. The occupation’s efforts to establish bodies to manage Gaza are a ‘failed conspiracy’ that will not materialise.

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UK lawyer to oversee ICC investigation into alleged war crimes in Palestinian territories

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Andrew Cayley, previously Britain’s chief military prosecutor, to run operation of the complex case

A senior British lawyer has been appointed to oversee the international criminal court’s investigation into alleged war crimes in the Palestinian territories, the Guardian understands.

Andrew Cayley, a barrister and former military prosecutor, has recently joined the ICC after he was chosen by the court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, to lead the high-profile investigation.

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Gaza food aid ship stuck at Cyprus with ‘technical difficulties’

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Vessel carrying 200 tonnes of provisions to alleviate looming famine now not sailing from Larnaca on Sunday as planned

An aid ship carrying 200 tonnes of food to alleviate looming famine in the Gaza Strip remained docked in Cyprus on Sunday night, despite the push for maritime aid in the face of stalling ceasefire talks and the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The Cyprus government spokesperson, Konstantinos Letymbiotis, told the island’s official news agency that the exact timing of the vessel’s departure would not be made public for “security reasons”. It was later reported that due to “technical difficulties”, it might not depart until Monday morning.

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Palestinian town of Jericho names street after US soldier who set himself on fire

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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.

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Ramadan in Gaza: ‘We used to adorn our street, now everything around us is bleak’

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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.

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Middle East crisis: Egypt in touch with Hamas and Israel to restart ceasefire talks, says report – as it happened

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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.

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Diplomats fear growing power of Iranian factions that want nuclear weapons

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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.

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Michelle Donelan set to face more questions over taxpayer-funded £15,000 payout

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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.

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‘Waiting for the storm’: Israelis and Palestinians fear difficult week as Ramadan starts

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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.

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Royal Navy shoots down Houthi drones after US and allies attacked in Red Sea

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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.

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‘I’m Jewish and feel totally safe marching for Gaza’: London protesters defy Sunak’s ‘extremist’ slur

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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”.

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Gaza aid ship prepares to leave Cyprus as humanitarian concerns grow

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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.

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Middle East crisis: aid ship ‘set to sail from Cyprus to Gaza on new maritime corridor’ – as it happened

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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.

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Alicia Keys criticised for Women’s Day event in ‘misogynist’ Saudi Arabia

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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.

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Aid ship expected to leave Cyprus for Gaza faces logistical delays

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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.

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Houthi forces step up Red Sea attacks as US and Denmark shoot down drones

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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.

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