Pro-Palestinian groups gather near Israeli embassy while pro-Israelis attend vigil in Westminster
Thousands of people have attended vigils and protests in London over the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Pro-Palestinian protesters rallied outside the boarded-up Israeli embassy in Kensington on Monday night, chanting “Israel is a terrorist state” and “free Palestine” while letting off flares and fireworks.
Continue reading...Investors predict more instability in Middle East, as some flights to Tel Aviv are suspended
Oil and gas prices rose on Monday and airline shares fell amid widespread flight cancellations as markets reacted to the surprise attack on Israel by the militant group Hamas.
Investors appeared to be pricing in the prospect of more instability in the Middle East, given the warning from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that his country was embarking on a “long and difficult war”. The death toll has passed 1,100 since fighting started on Saturday and is rising.
Continue reading...UK prime minister will chair Cobra meeting as death toll continues to rise after Hamas’s surprise attack
Rishi Sunak has pledged to provide diplomatic, intelligence or security support to Israel if requested after attacks by Hamas, as he chaired an emergency meeting of Cobra.
No 10 said the UK stood “poised” to help Israel militarily if it asked for assistance and is not ruling out evacuating some British citizens from affected areas, saying keeping them safe was the “utmost priority”.
Continue reading...Elon Musk endorsed users who have posted ‘wrong and unverifiable things’ while paid-for accounts spread fake news
X’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict has come under scrutiny after a “deluge” of fake posts and Elon Musk’s recommendation of war coverage from accounts that have made false claims or antisemitic comments.
The owner of X, formerly Twitter, recommended two accounts on Sunday. He wrote: “For following the war in real-time, @WarMonitors and @sentdefender are good. It is also worth following direct sources on the ground. Please add interesting options in the replies below.”
Continue reading...Protesters march on Sydney Opera House but prime minister Anthony Albanese says people need to ‘take a step back’
Hundreds of Australians have marched in solidarity with Palestinians after the Israeli government formally declared war against Hamas in response to its surprise attack.
The militant group Hamas launched a co-ordinated attack across Israel on Saturday, killing hundreds of civilians were killed and taking dozens of hostages in the largest incursion since the 1973 Yom Kippur war.
Continue reading...Netanyahu says response will ‘change the Middle East’; Hamas warns of executing civilian captives if Israel continues bombing civilian houses in Gaza
The US special antisemitism envoy, Deborah Lipstadt, among the most renowned Holocaust scholars in the world, called the Hamas attacks “the most lethal assault against Jews since the Holocaust”.
Lipstadt said there was “no justification” for the “heinous, barbaric terrorism against Israeli civilians” and mass murder.
“No one has the right to tell Israel how to defend itself and prevent and deter future attacks. As [US president Joe Biden] stated, “The United States stands with Israel. We will not ever fail to have their back … Israel has the right to defend itself and its people. Full stop.”
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Thousands of Israelis and Palestinians have been wounded and killed since Saturday morning, with Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning of a ‘long and difficult war’ after Hamas attack
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Good morning.
At about 6:30am local time on Saturday, Hamas, the Palestinian para-military group, launched an unprecedented, surprise attack by land, air and sea, firing thousands of rockets from Gaza and launching an incursion into southern Israel taking over several Israeli towns. The offensive, which Hamas have called “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood”, took place a day after the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur war and caught the Israeli government and military completely off guard. It has been described as an “intelligence failure for the ages”.
Germany | Germany’s opposition conservatives have held ground in the key states of Hesse and Bavaria in elections that highlighted discontent with Olaf Scholz’s centre-left government amid worries about economic slowdown and migration.
Labour | Rachel Reeves will announce today that a Labour government would create a powerful Covid corruption commissioner to help recoup billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money that has been lost to waste, fraud and flawed contracts during the pandemic.
Health | Mental healthcare in England has become “a national emergency”, with “overwhelmed” services unable to cope with a big post-Covid surge in people needing help, NHS bosses say.
Conservatives | Working-class people who were a key part of the coalition of voters that delivered the Conservatives’ 2019 general election win have been deserting the party in droves under Rishi Sunak’s leadership, polling by YouGov has found. Only 44% of working-class voters who voted for the Tories in 2019 say they will back the party next time.
Spain | Tens of thousands of people have joined conservative and far-right Spanish political leaders in Barcelona to protest against the Socialist party’s decision to consider an amnesty for those involved in the failed, unlawful and unilateral push for Catalan independence six years ago.
Continue reading...IDF says fighting is ongoing in south, saying it ‘could be a 9/11 and a Pearl Harbour wrapped into one’ as Supernova festival-goers describe attack
About 260 bodies have been recovered from the site of a music festival in southern Israel that was attacked by Hamas militants, as Israel’s military said fighting was ongoing in the region and described the situation as “dire”.
Late on Sunday, Israeli rescue service Zaka said it had retrieved hundreds of bodies from the Supernova festival, near Kibbutz Re’im close to Gaza. Shocking images and video from the site showed festival-goers running for their lives across open fields as Hamas gunmen attacked them and took hostages.
Continue reading...Offensive launched from Gaza represents large failure of Israeli intelligence and is likely to have long-lasting repercussions
Shocked Israelis woke on the last day of the Jewish high holidays to the wail of sirens as Hamas and Islamic Jihad fired thousands of rockets from Gaza and armed militants broke down the hi-tech barriers surrounding the strip to enter Israel, shooting and taking hostages. Militants in boats also tried to enter Israel by sea.
Continue reading...Israel’s national security council says its citizens should avoid going abroad and those in Egypt should leave
An Egyptian police officer shot dead two Israeli tourists and their Egyptian guide on Sunday, as war raged for a second day between Israel and Palestinian militants.
Israel’s national security council later said its citizens should consider not travelling abroad particularly in the Middle East “on the backdrop of the attack in Egypt”. It said visitors already in Egypt should leave “as soon as possible”.
Continue reading...Palestinians seek refuge but electricity and gas have been cut off and medical infrastructure is on its knees
Palestinians across the besieged Gaza Strip have described their terror and confusion, as thousands fled a wave of Israeli airstrikes after Hamas’s unprecedented cross-border incursion.
“When we began asking about the situation inside the hospitals we work with, one person described it as a slaughterhouse,” said Mahmoud Shalabi of Medical Aid for Palestinians, who is overseeing support to hospitals across the Gaza Strip.
Continue reading...US secretary of state also confirms that American citizens are among those killed and taken hostage
The Biden administration is preparing to send additional military assistance to Israel to ensure it has all it needs to rebuff the Hamas attack from Gaza, the US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Sunday, as he confirmed that American civilians were among those killed and taken hostage.
Speaking to CNN’s State of the Union, Blinken said that extra help for Israel was likely to be announced by the end of the day. He said the US government had received reports of “several Americans” killed in the fighting, as well as “reports of missing Americans”.
Continue reading...Iran wants to make it impossible for Saudi Arabia to strike deal with Israel, while others in region cannot afford mayhem in Gaza
As the death toll rises, and the security consequences multiply, Israel is pointing its finger of accusation at Tehran for orchestrating the attacks by Hamas. The attacks may have been born of anger, specifically at the months-long behaviour of the Netanyahu coalition, including the provocations at al-Aqsa mosque, but Iran and the forces it supports have a longer-term strategic goal: to thwart the US-led effort to achieve a normalisation of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, a move that would entrench the US in the Middle East – and in Iran’s eyes deprive the Palestinians of their last influential sponsor.
Iran’s goal is to denormalise the region, and make it near-impossible for Saudi Arabia to strike a deal. Israel, by contrast, wants to shrink the Palestinian conflict diplomatically so it gradually becomes an irrelevance, a historical curio such as the Yom Kippur war. The aid it drip-feeds to Gaza via Qatar is one leg of this strategy.
Continue reading...Family of Nathanel Young say they are ‘heartbroken’, as fellow Briton Jake Marlowe is reported missing
A 20-year-old British man serving in the Israeli army has been killed in an attack by Hamas militants, while another British citizen is missing.
The family of Nathanel Young, who was serving with the Israel Defence Forces when he was killed on Saturday, said: “We’re heartbroken to share that our little brother Nathanel Young was tragically killed on the Gaza border yesterday.”
Continue reading...Assault is designed to give militant group control over the Palestinian narrative as regional relationships change
There are two key questions in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’s surprise assault on Israel: what was the attack designed to achieve, and why now?
Even as the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel was at war with Hamas and the other Gaza factions, it is important to understand what Hamas’s military aims did not include. Hamas fights its periodic conflicts for political reasons, to shore up support in Gaza and elsewhere and to ensure its continuing relevance.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed. Follow our latest updates from the Gaza conflict here
The Israeli air force has released footage of an airstrike in the Gaza Strip.
There are two key questions in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’s surprise assault on Israel: what was the attack designed to achieve, and why now?
Continue reading...Israel warns Gaza residents to ‘get out now’ and says it will stop supplying electricity, fuel and goods, vowing unprecedented retaliation
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel is embarking on a “long and difficult war” after a surprise attack by Palestinian militants led to hundreds of deaths, the seizure of dozens of Israeli hostages, and sparked fears of a regional escalation.
Gunbattles continued well after nightfall, and militants held hostages in standoffs in two towns. Militants occupied a police station in a third town, Sderot, where Israeli forces struggled until Sunday morning to finally reclaim the building.
Continue reading...Images from Israel and Gaza fill the front pages of newspapers around the world after Palestinian militants launch unexpected and sweeping attack
The most serious escalation between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in 50 years has dominated global headlines.
At least 250 Israelis have died in Hamas attacks, Israeli officials have said. Meanwhile, at least 230 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by Israeli retaliation.
Continue reading...Hundreds are dead after a surprise attack by Hamas, prompting Israel to declare a state of war and launch retaliatory strikes
Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories are reeling after the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched the biggest attack on the Jewish state in 50 years. Hundreds are dead after a surprise attack on the morning of a Jewish holiday and Israel has declared a state of war.
Here is what we know so far:
Israeli forces continued to battle Hamas fighters on the streets of southern Israel on Sunday and launched strikes that levelled buildings in Gaza, more than 24 hours after the Palestinian militant group launched a surprise and unprecedented incursion into Israel – the deadliest in decades.
At least 600 Israelis were killed, including 44 soldiers, and more than 2,000 wounded, Israeli media reported.
At least 370 Palestinians were killed, including 20 children, and 2,200 wounded as a result of airstrikes in Gaza since Saturday, the Palestinian authority said. Seven people were also killed by Israeli army fire in the West Bank.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country was at war and would exact a heavy price from its enemies. Hamas leaders said they were prepared for further escalation.
Israel military officials said “hundreds of terrorists” had been killed and dozens captured as the fighting continued on Sunday.
Israeli military said a “substantial” number of civilians and soldiers had been taken to Gaza and were being held hostage.
In northern Israel, a brief exchange of strikes between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group raised fears of a broader conflict.
In neighbouring Egypt, a policeman shot dead two Israeli tourists and an Egyptian at a tourist site in Alexandria.
The UN security council is due to meet on Sunday after the secretary general, António Guterres, urged “all diplomatic efforts to avoid a wider conflagration”.
Israel will stop supplying electricity, fuel and goods to Gaza, according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office on Saturday night.
The US president, Joe Biden, issued a staunch condemnation of the attacks by Hamas against Israel, saying in an address on Saturday: “The United States stands with Israel”. He issued a statement earlier calling the attacks “horrific” and an “appalling assault”.
Continue reading...Joe Biden says US will offer ‘rock solid and unwavering’ support to Israeli government as Tel Aviv mounts counterattack
The White House and other US politicians voiced their support for Israel on Saturday after attacks from Hamas stunned the world.
Joe Biden said he spoke to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Saturday, assuring him that the American government is “ready to offer all appropriate means of support to the government and people of Israel”.
Continue reading...