The academic was abducted in Baghdad nearly nine months ago and had not been heard from since
An Iraqi network has broadcast a video showing a kidnapped Israeli-Russian academic, in the first sign of life from Elizabeth Tsurkov since her abduction in Baghdad nearly nine months ago.
Israeli authorities revealed in July that Tsurkov had been kidnapped, blaming pro-Iranian militants after she had gone missing in Iraq in late March.
Continue reading...Staff say they fear rising numbers of deaths at hospital on third day without power, and with shooting and bombing outside
Dozens of corpses lay on the courtyard outside Gaza’s largest hospital, covering the ground next to a blue refrigerated truck that had long ceased to be able to keep the bodies cool. Most of the bodies were shrouded in colourful blankets originally meant for the living, after the hospital ran out of white bodybags. A severely burnt arm protruded from one of the blankets. Elsewhere, according to video footage seen by the Guardian, the charred body of a child was visible among the soft folds of the material.
“We are under siege,” said Munir al-Boursh, a doctor who is also a Palestinian health ministry undersecretary, speaking from inside Dar al-Shifa hospital. The facility had intended to dig a mass grave until Israeli tanks and snipers encircled the the complex on Friday, making movement around it impossible.
Continue reading...This blog has closed. You can see all our Israel-Hamas war coverage here and see our latest full report on the conflict here
In case you missed this earlier, hundreds of patients were trapped and thousands of people sought shelter around Gaza’s largest hospital on Monday, as Israeli troops and Hamas fighters battled near the compound.
On Sunday, witnesses at the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City told AFP that “violent fighting” raged throughout the night.
Continue reading...As former UK PM makes a return to cabinet, we look at his somewhat chequered record on global stage
David Cameron has made a shock return to the UK government as foreign secretary.
A profile on the government’s website credits him with developing “a foreign policy that responded to the new challenges of the Arab spring and also evolving challenges from various state and non-state actors”.
Continue reading...Justin Welby’s call came as British Palestinians with relatives in Gaza demanded a meeting with the prime minister
The archbishop of Canterbury has called for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, saying the scale of civilian deaths and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza could not be “morally justified”.
“The killing must stop,” Justin Welby said, adding that the call for a ceasefire was a “moral cry”.
Continue reading...Health officials say patients dying due to energy shortages as fighting between Israel and Hamas intensifies
Israeli forces have reached the gates of Gaza’s largest hospital as hundreds of patients, including dozens of babies, remained trapped inside.
Thousands of people have fled al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, but health officials said the remaining patients were dying due to energy shortages amid intense fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants.
Continue reading...WARNING: This article contains images that some readers may find distressing.
Noam Sagi wants information on what happened to Ada, 75, during the 7 October Hamas attack
“It’s a ghost town,” said Noam Sagi as he returned to the Nir Oz kibbutz for the first time since his mother, Ada, 75, was abducted by Hamas gunmen.
He had arrived from London to continue campaigning for the release of the 240 hostages who were snatched from their homes on 7 October, but he also wanted to make sense of what happened to Ada, who last messaged her family at 9.24am on what some in Israel now refer to as “Black Saturday”.
Continue reading...Defence secretary says US will defend its personnel and interests in the region amid surge in attacks on US troops in Iraq and Syria
The United States carried out strikes against two Iran-linked sites in Syria on Sunday in response to attacks on American forces, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said.
It is the third time in less than three weeks that the US military has targeted locations in Syria it said were tied to Iran, which supports armed groups that Washington blames for a spike in attacks on its forces in the Middle East.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed.
The Israel Defence Force (IDF) has published to its Telegram channel additional details of what it claims are its anti-terrorist operations in Al-Shati camp in the northern Gaza Strip.
It says that over the past 24 hours, “soldiers killed numerous terrorists and uncovered a large number of terrorist infrastructure in the area”.
During one of the battles with the terrorists, IDF troops identified civilians who were located in a building in the area. The IDF secured an evacuation route for the civilians, and as the civilians were evacuating, terrorists fired at the troops from the outskirts of the area. In order to protect the evacuation route, IDF troops responded with light weapons fire and tanks to kill the terrorists.
In another engagement, IDF troops identified a terrorist cell barricaded inside a house in the area and posed a threat to the forces. IDF troops directed an aircraft and fired at the terrorists, killing the terrorists. In addition, following an identification of an anti-tank missile launched from a weapons storage facility inside a building, a fighter jet struck the source of the fire.
Continue reading...Israel justifies attacks saying they are on Hamas bunkers and infrastructure in the area but the assault comes with diplomatic risks
Establishing control over al-Shifa hospital is a key Israeli objective for military and political reasons. The sprawling complex dominates the centre of Gaza City, where Hamas has much of its administrative infrastructure, and is close to the main north-south road that runs along the coast.
Destroying the ability of Hamas to govern Gaza is one of the stated aims of the Israeli offensive.
Continue reading...One person critically hurt after vehicles hit by anti-tank missiles as Israel denies Hezbollah claim it was targeting soldiers
Eighteen Israelis have been injured, one critically, after the Iranian backed Hezbollah militia fired anti-tank missiles from southern Lebanon in a further sign that the skirmishes along the border are steadily escalating.
Several vehicles near the northern community of Dovev were hit in the missile strike, whose victims included Israel Electric Corporation employees who had arrived to repair power lines damaged by previous fire from Lebanon. Hezbollah sources had claimed they were soldiers, an assertion denied by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). The Magen David Adom emergency service said one of the civilians injured in the attack was in a critical condition.
Continue reading...Tories reject international criminal court’s right to investigate war with Hamas but Labour wants an inquiry into potential war crimes
The UK government is being challenged over whether it will join Labour in supporting an international criminal court inquiry into potential war crimes committed by Israel, with the shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, calling for all parties to uphold international law.
The ICC prosecutor, Gen Karim Khan, has insisted he has jurisdiction, but under the premiership of Boris Johnson the government said the court had no legal right to interfere.
Continue reading...Home secretary’s rhetoric is dividing Conservative MPs, who are frustrated that Rishi Sunak has not sacked her
Suella Braverman has demanded “further action” against pro-Palestine marches, as centrist Conservative MPs expressed despair at Rishi Sunak’s delay in sacking his rogue home secretary.
One senior backbencher predicted “a lot of noise” from angry colleagues when they return to parliament on Monday, with no signs of imminent action from Sunak after a series of controversies involving Braverman.
Continue reading...Iranian president had travelled to Saudi Arabia to try to force a more interventionist approach to Israel-Hamas war
Gulf state leaders have fended off an Iranian-led attempt to call for arming the Palestinians and severing all diplomatic ties with Israel at an extraordinary summit in Riyadh, in a effort to retain control of the region’s diplomatic response to the Israeli assault on Gaza.
Tehran, however, insisted on Sunday that its influence remained through its allied “resistance factions” operating in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. In a further sign that it has no intention of jettisoning a military path, militants near the Israeli border with Lebanon fired anti-tank missiles towards Israel, hitting a number of civilians, according to the Israeli military.
Continue reading...As Israeli missiles rain down on crowded apartment blocks, survivors are left numb as entire family groups are wiped out
The first call informing Fares Alghoul that a relative’s home had been hit by an Israeli airstrike arrived late on a Friday. The internet in Gaza was cut only moments later, forcing him to wait 12 hours to learn the names of the 18 dead. He would have to wait even longer for the confirmation that a further 18 family members stuck under the rubble had also been killed, bringing his family’s death toll to 36.
As a journalist, Alghoul has covered all Gaza’s previous wars but now lives in Canada, where he has had to watch from a distance as generations of his family are wiped out.
Continue reading...Doctors accuse IDF of attacking people trying to flee al-Shifa, the hospital portrayed by Israel as the main command post for Hamas
Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza appeared to be reaching a key moment, with close-quarter battles raging around the most important hospital in the heart of its biggest city.
Residents said Israeli forces had been fighting Hamas gunmen all night and throughout the day in the neighbourhood in Gaza City where the al-Shifa hospital is located, considered a key strategic area.
Continue reading...The latest Opinium poll shows Keir Starmer’s personal rating has slumped but the Tories are also suffering from internal divisions
Labour is perceived by voters as far more divided in the wake of party splits over the conflict in Israel and Gaza, amid concerns that there may be further frontbench resignations on the issue this week.
Keir Starmer has also taken a hit, with the latest Opinium poll for the Observer showing a slump in the proportion of voters who regard him as a strong leader compared with a month ago.
Continue reading...Met assistant commissioner Matt Twist says nine officers were injured while preventing a violent crowd reaching the Cenotaph
Scores of people have gathered in Hyde Park for a “stewards’ meeting” before the march, the PA Media agency reports.
They are all wearing hi-vis jackets, while many have also donned keffiyehs, Palestinian scarves.
Armistice Day is a moment of solemn national reflection in remembrance of those who have given their lives in service of our country. It’s important that people can use our rail network to safely travel, free from intimidation.
That’s why I have granted consent for the British Transport Police to make orders under section 14A of the Public Order Act 1986 prohibiting planned protests at various London stations today, meaning anyone taking part will be subject to arrest.
Continue reading...This blog has now closed. You can read all our coverage of the Israel-Hamas war here
The al-Shifa hospital director, Muhammad Abu Salmiya, has warned “we are minutes away from imminent death” with patients dying “by the minute”.
Speaking from inside the besieged facility in Gaza City to Al Jazeera, he said:
All I can say is that we’ve started to lose lives. Patients are dying by the minute, victims and wounded are also dying – even babies in the incubators.
We lost a baby in the incubator, we also lost a young man in the intensive care unit.
Continue reading...Al-Shifa chief says Israeli troops firing at complex, which has no medical supplies, power or water for thousands trapped inside
Leaders from across the Middle East and surrounding region are meeting in Saudi Arabia for an emergency summit on Gaza, as the territory’s largest hospital remains encircled by Israeli forces, without power, and with strikes “on everything moving inside the complex”, according to staff trapped inside.
“We are totally cut off from the whole world, we are minutes away from imminent death,” Mohammad abu Salmiya, the head of Dar al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, told Al Jazeera.
Continue reading...