Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Washington backing plan for Tony Blair to head transitional Gaza authority

Posted on by

Reported proposal for international body to oversee Gaza for up to five years counters UN-backed plan for faster transition to Palestinian rule

The White House is backing a plan that would see Tony Blair head a temporary administration of the Gaza Strip – initially without the direct involvement of the Palestinian Authority (PA), according to Israeli media reports.

Under the proposal, Blair would lead a body called the Gaza International Transitional Authority (Gita) that would have a mandate to be Gaza’s “supreme political and legal authority” for as long as five years.

Continue reading...

Israel’s future in Uefa could come to a head before World Cup qualifiers

Posted on by

  • National team and club sides may face suspension

  • Next Uefa international break begins on 6 October

Uefa could decide as early as next week whether to suspend Israel from its competitions, with the governing body facing growing pressure from inside and outside the game.

Reports on Thursday, initially in the Times, suggested a vote that would determine Israel’s participation in World Cup qualifying and that of Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Europa League could be held by Uefa’s executive committee before the international break begins on 6 October.

Continue reading...

Sarkozy says he will ‘sleep in jail but with head held high’ after conviction

Posted on by

Former French president receives five-year prison sentence for criminal conspiracy over pact with Gaddafi regime

The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy said he would “sleep in jail but with my head held high” after receiving a five-year prison sentence for criminal conspiracy – the first time a former head of state has been sent to prison in modern French history.

The verdict and sentencing followed a trial in which he and his aides were accused of making a corruption pact with the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to receive funding for the 2007 French presidential election campaign.

Continue reading...

Israel carrying out crime against humanity in Gaza, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas tells UN – as it happened

Posted on by

Speech by Palestinian Authority president also says Hamas should have no role in governing Palestine and must disarm

Alimi says the policy of containment has given the Houthis time to expand its arsenal.

“It has become clear the peace we seek cannot be asked for but must be imposed by force,” he says.

Continue reading...

Liev Schreiber and Debra Messing among names rejecting pledge to boycott Israeli films

Posted on by

More than 1,200 industry figures claim the pledge is ‘a document of misinformation’ and that much of the Israeli film and TV industry are ‘often the loudest critics of government policy’

More than 1,200 entertainment industry figures have signed a new open letter rejecting the recent high-profile pledge by thousands of their peers to boycott Israeli films over the war in Gaza.

Stars including Liev Schreiber, Mayim Bialik, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Debra Messing are among those who have lent their names to the letter, which says the previous pledge “advocates” for “the erasure of art”.

Continue reading...

‘Tunnel vision’: how Israel is using archaeology for political ends

Posted on by

Scientists say Netanyahu government and its US backers are trying to construct a history shorn of all complexity

When the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, visited Jerusalem this month, the itinerary his Israeli hosts laid on involved more archaeology than anything else. On his first day, Benjamin Netanyahu took Rubio underground to excavations near the Western Wall. On the second day, Israel’s prime minister gave his American visitor the honour of inaugurating a tunnel burrowed under a Palestinian district, along a Roman-era street nicknamed the Pilgrimage Road, in a “City of David” archaeological park established by an Israeli settler organisation.

Both events were intended to emphasise Jerusalem’s Jewish roots and its status, Netanyahu stressed, as “our eternal and undivided capital”.

Continue reading...

Yemen needs two-state solution as no prospect of ousting Houthis, says southern leader

Posted on by

Aidarous al-Zubaidi says Houthis will not be dislodged by bombing and path to political settlement is blocked

Yemen needs its own two-state solution, the president of its Southern Transitional Council (STC) has said, warning that there is currently no prospect of dislodging the Iran-backed Houthis from power in the north.

Speaking on the sidelines of the UN general assembly, Aidarous al-Zubaidi told the Guardian: “The best solution for Yemen and the best path to stability is the two-state solution, whether by referendum or agreement. The reality on the ground is that there are two states militarily and economically.”

Continue reading...

At least 20 people reported injured after drone strike on Israeli city of Eilat

Posted on by

Two people seriously injured, says national ambulance service as military says drone was launched from Yemen

At least 20 people have been injured, two seriously, after a drone launched from Yemen hit Israel’s Red Sea resort city of Eilat on the border with Jordan and Egypt.

Police said the drone fell in Eilat’s city centre, causing damage in the area frequented by tourists.

Continue reading...

‘We are at our limit’: Gaza’s last hospitals overwhelmed as thousands flee south

Posted on by

‘Not enough of anything’, says surgeon, as Israel’s assault forces injured, sick and hungry people to leave Gaza City

The few remaining hospitals and clinics in central and southern Gaza are being overwhelmed by a “tsunami” of injured and sick patients fleeing a new Israeli offensive in the north of the devastated territory, medics say.

At both Nasser medical complex, in the southern city of Khan Younis, and field hospitals in al-Muwasi, the coastal “humanitarian zone” designated by Israel, staff are struggling to cope with large numbers of new arrivals forced out of Gaza City in the north of the devastated Palestinian territory.

Continue reading...

Explosions and drones targeting Gaza aid flotilla boats, activists say

Posted on by

The Global Sumud Flotilla said they would ‘not be intimidated’, after third report of drone attacks this month

Organisers of a Gaza-bound flotilla carrying aid and pro-Palestinian activists have reported explosions and multiple drones that targeted some of their boats, currently situated near Greece.

“Multiple drones, unidentified objects dropped, communications jammed and explosions heard from a number of boats,” the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) said in a statement. “We are witnessing these psychological operations first-hand, right now, but we will not be intimidated.”

Continue reading...

‘Guess what?’ Macron phones Trump after US president’s motorcade blocks his car

Posted on by

Bemused French president forced to take unscheduled 30-minute trek through the streets of New York

Emmanuel Macron had to walk half an hour by foot through New York after his speech to the United Nations on recognising Palestine as a state.

Video footage shows him getting out of his car to talk to police officers after they stop his vehicle to make way for the expected arrival of the motorcade of Donald Trump, the US president.

Continue reading...

Middle East crisis: Trump to address UN general assembly as Israeli attacks on Gaza City continue – as it happened

Posted on by

US president to address UN general assembly in New York after UK, France, Belgium, Canada, Australia and Portugal recognised a Palestinian state

The UN investigators cited examples of the scale of the Israeli killings, aid blockages, forced displacement and the destruction of a fertility clinic to back up its genocide finding.

The 1948 UN Genocide Convention defines genocide as crimes committed “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such”. To count as genocide, at least one of five acts must have occurred.

Continue reading...

British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah freed from prison

Posted on by

Writer, who has served six years for sharing a Facebook post, was given a presidential pardon

The British-Egyptian human rights activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah has been released from jail after serving six years for sharing a Facebook post.

Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, granted him his freedom after intensive lobbying by the UK government and pressure from Egypt’s national human rights council.

Continue reading...

Iran’s foreign minister meets with UN nuclear watchdog in bid to avert sanctions

Posted on by

Abbas Araghchi will likely also meet with European officials, as window for reaching an agreement narrows

Iran’s foreign minister has met the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog at the start of a frantic round of diplomatic meetings in New York in a bid to avert the reimposition of a wave of UN sanctions on Iran starting on Sunday.

The crisis could rapidly spiral into fresh Israeli calls to attack Iran for failing to cooperate over its nuclear programme. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, warned on Monday: “We must destroy the axis of evil Iran and we have the power to do so. This is what lies ahead of us in the coming year, a year that could be a historic one for Israel’s security.”

Continue reading...

Netanyahu may struggle to find response that matches rhetoric on Palestine recognition

Posted on by

Israeli PM has threatened bilateral action and annexation of occupied Palestinian land but there are risks in either

Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to denounce the recognition of a Palestinian state by many of Israel’s historic allies, but the prime minister may be struggling to decide how to turn rhetoric into a concrete response.

His options are perhaps more constrained than he would have his supporters believe. He has variously threatened annexation of occupied Palestinian land and bilateral action against countries that joined the tide of recognition.

Continue reading...

‘A surreal journey’: Palestinian students evacuated from Gaza arrive in UK

Posted on by

First 34 students, who have full scholarships, welcomed after months of campaigning by academics and others

A group of Palestinian scholars who have been awaiting evacuation from Gaza to take up their places at universities across the UK finally arrived on Monday after “a surreal journey from devastation to opportunity”.

The 34 students, who all have fully funded scholarships, arrived in London and Manchester onboard three flights from Queen Alia international airport in Jordan. A number took onward flights to Northern Ireland and Scotland where they will purse their studies.

Continue reading...

Disruption across Italy as tens of thousands protest against Gaza war

Posted on by

Schools and stations closed and ports blocked in one of Europe’s biggest demonstrations opposing Israel’s offensive

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in dozens of cities across Italy – shutting schools, disrupting trains and blocking ports and roads – in one of Europe’s largest nationwide protests against Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

The protests came as France and several other countries prepared to recognise Palestinian statehood at the UN general assembly on Monday after the UK, Australia, Portugal and Canada did so on Sunday.

Continue reading...

European officials warn Israel not to annex parts of West Bank in response to recognition of Palestinian state – Middle East crisis live

Posted on by

UK, Australia, Canada and Portugal recognised Palestinian statehood on Sunday with France set to do the same

The Israeli military, which justifies its assault on Gaza City by saying it wants to “destroy Hamas military infrastructure” hasn’t given a timeline for the ground offensive, but there are indications it could take months.

Amid this flurry of diplomatic activity, Israel is continuing to launch deadly attacks on Gaza, including on Gaza City, the biggest urban centre in the territory.

Continue reading...

Mass grave reveals scale of unlawful killings by Egyptian army in Sinai, say campaigners

Posted on by

Human rights group says hundreds of skeletons found exposed or buried just below ground during research into killings of civilians

Hundreds of bodies could have been buried at a mass grave discovered in Egypt’s Sinai province by human rights campaigners.

Bodies lying on the surface and others buried barely 30cm below were found at a burial site near a military outpost by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights.

Continue reading...

At least 40 killed in Gaza and five in Lebanon in Israeli strikes

Posted on by

Military steps up Gaza City takeover campaign as high-rise towers targeted and residents ordered to leave

Israeli strikes killed at least 40 people in Gaza on Sunday, including 19 women and children, as well as five people in Lebanon.

At least 14 people were killed in a single strike on a residential block in southern Gaza City, health officials at al-Shifa hospital said. Another attack killed at least eight Palestinians in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, according to al-Awda hospital.

Continue reading...