Children in their early teens have lived through four wars, with the fear, loss and trauma that brings
Her hair is matted with rubble dust. Bare feet poke out from pink tracksuit bottoms. Blood from a head wound streaks over her eye and down her face.
But Suzy Eshkuntana is alive, pulled out of the rubble of her family’s home seven hours after it was hit in an Israeli airstrike in the middle of the night. Her four siblings and her mother were killed.
Continue reading...The Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent Oliver Holmes examines the series of combustible events that coincided to trigger the worst violence in Israel and Gaza since 2014
Pandemic fatigue and economic woes blamed for lack of action despite rapid rise in number of cases
Tunisia has ended its one-week lockdown, despite having the highest reported deaths per capita of any country in Africa.
Covid-19 cases in Tunisia were initially low last year, with a sweeping six-week lockdown involving the closure of borders and shutting down all but essential commercial activity appearing to halt the spread of the virus. However, since easing that original lockdown cases have increased, with daily reported infections and deaths now the highest in Africa, according to Our World in Data.
Continue reading...Palestinian man killed and more than 70 wounded as hundreds hurl stones at Israeli checkpoint
Serious clashes erupted in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank on Tuesday as Palestinians took part in a day of protests and strikes over Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
A Palestinian man was killed and more than 70 wounded, including 16 by live fire, in clashes with Israeli troops on the outskirts of Ramallah, according to the Palestinian Authority health ministry. Two Israeli soldiers were injured.
Continue reading...Serious clashes erupted in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank on Tuesday as Palestinians took part in a day of protests and strikes over Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. In Jerusalem, police deployed water cannon in the neighbourhood Sheikh Jarrah, where Palestinian families are facing eviction from homes they have lived in since the 1950s.
Continue reading...Record arrivals deepen diplomatic standoff with Morocco, which recalls ambassador for consultation
Spain’s prime minister arrived in the north African enclave of Ceuta vowing to “restore order” after an unprecedented 8,000 migrants crossed into the territory over 36 hours, deepening the tense diplomatic standoff between Madrid and Rabat.
After a day of veiled recriminations, Morocco on Tuesday recalled its ambassador from Spain for consultation. Relations with Spain need a moment of “contemplation”, a diplomatic source told Reuters.
Continue reading...Areas that have escaped worst of bombing in previous conflicts are bearing brunt this time around
For the residents of the central neighbourhoods of Gaza City the last nine days have been unusually brutal.
The affluent heart of Gaza’s Palestinian society, in past conflicts areas like Tal al-Hawa and al-Rimal have been less heavily hit by the periodic wars between Israel and Hamas that have shaken the coastal strip since 2008.
Continue reading...Israel carries out fresh wave of pre-dawn airstrikes US president stops short of demanding halt to hostilities
Joe Biden has issued a statement for the first time expressing support for a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza’s militant rulers, Hamas, after a phone conversation with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
However, the US president stopped short of calling for an immediate halt to the eight days of Israeli airstrikes and Hamas rocket barrages that have killed more than 200 people, the vast majority of them Palestinian.
Continue reading...The Israeli military has launched another heavy wave of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, saying it destroyed militants' tunnels and the homes of nine Hamas commanders. Early on Tuesday morning, three massive blasts shook Gaza City. Confirmation is being sought as to what caused the explosions. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, signalled Israel’s bombardment would continue despite mounting global pressure to stop the bloodshed. After a phone conversation with Netanyahu on Monday afternoon, the US president, Joe Biden, issued a statement expressing support for a ceasefire, but did not say it should be immediate. In the last week, at least 200 Palestinians, including 59 children, have been killed in the attacks by Israel
Analysis: internal tensions and differences with the US have left the bloc unable to take a clear position on Israel-Palestine
If the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, wanted to symbolise the Joe Biden administration’s determination not to become embroiled in the Israel-Palestine issue, he could not have timed better his current trip to Copenhagen, Reykjavik and Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. Important discussions on the Arctic and the climate crisis may be on the agenda, but the chilly north is a distance from the tunnels, rocket fire and screams of those suffering in the latest war in the Middle East.
It may well be that in his numerous calls to key regional actors on the plane to Denmark Blinken made more progress in inching Israel, and Hamas, towards a ceasefire the US had been reluctant to demand in public.
Continue reading...Benjamin Netanyahu signals Israel’s bombardment will continue as Joe Biden issues statement supporting ceasefire
Two hundred Palestinians, including 59 children, have been killed during a week of attacks in Gaza, health officials in the territory have said, as Benjamin Netanyahu signalled Israel’s bombardment would rage on despite mounting global pressure to stop the bloodshed.
After a phone conversation with Netanyahu on Monday afternoon, US president Joe Biden issued a statement, supporting – but not demanding – a ceasefire and did not say it should be immediate.
Continue reading...Unprecedented influx comes amid tensions with Morocco over Western Sahara independence leader hospitalisation in Spain
More than 3,000 migrants, a third of them presumed to be minors, crossed into Spain’s northern African enclave of Ceuta on Monday, in an unprecedented influx that left Spanish officials scrambling to bolster police presence in the tiny territory.
Ceuta, along with nearby Melilla, has long been a magnet for African migrants hoping to cross into Europe, despite being heavily protected and fortified with a double fence. The mass crossing into Ceuta comes amid heightened tensions between Madrid and Rabat over Spain’s decision to allow a Western Sahara independence leader to be treated for Covid-19 in Spain.
Continue reading...A six-year-old Palestinian girl was found deep inside a pile of rubble after her home was destroyed by an Israeli strike in Gaza that killed her mother and all four of her siblings.
Suzy Eshkuntana, trapped for seven hours under the debris, was reunited in Shifa hospital with her father, who was also being treated for his wounds. The family’s home was hit by Israeli air strikes early on Sunday in Gaza City, a wave of attacks that Gaza health officials said killed 42 people including 10 children and raised the death toll in Gaza after a week of bombardment to more than 200.
Israel says it is attacking the militant Islamist Hamas movement that controls the densely populated Gaza Strip and that - along with Islamic Jihad and other militant groups - has fired more than 3,000 rockets towards Israeli towns and cities, killing 10 people, including two children
Continue reading...Deaths of doctors have further hit medical services struggling with damaged facilities and medicine shortages
In her bed in Gaza City’s Shifa hospital, 25-year-old Aya Aloul recalls the moment her 66-year-old father, Moeen, one of Gaza’s few neurologists, was killed in an Israeli strike, one of two key Palestinian medical staff killed within hours on Sunday.
Covered in wounds and bruises caused by shrapnel and falling masonry, she described the bombing of the family’s home in the Rimal neighbourhood. “I get scared,” Aya told the Guardian on Monday, “so, since the war began, I’ve slept next to my parents’ bed, putting a mattress on the floor.
Continue reading...Strikes early on Monday appeared broader and more intense than Sunday’s, in which 42 Palestinians died in the deadliest single attack yet
Israeli warplanes have launched what appeared to be the heaviest airstrikes yet on Gaza City, hours after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu signalled the bombardment would rage on.
The series of attacks early on Monday rocked the city from north to south for 10 minutes and was more intense, covered a broader area and lasted longer than the raids 24 hours earlier in which 42 Palestinians were killed – the deadliest single attack in the latest violence between Israel and the Hamas militant group that rules Gaza.
Continue reading...Grounding of the container ship in a southern section of the canal in March delayed the passage of hundreds of vessels through the waterway
Egypt has started dredging work to extend a second lane that allows for two-way traffic in a southern section of the canal near to where a giant container ship got stuck for six days in March.
The state-owned Suez Canal Authority (SCA) announced last week that it was planning to extend a second canal lane that opened in 2015 by 10km to make it 82km long, and would widen and deepen a single lane stretch at the southern end of the canal.
Continue reading...At least 33 Palestinians have been killed and 50 injured in the deadliest airstrikes since the start of fighting between Israel and Hamas six days ago. Israel targeted the home of the Hamas leader Yehya al-Sinwar over the weekend and destroyed the building that housed the offices of Al-Jazeera and the Associated Press. At least 181 people in Gaza and 10 in Israel have been killed so far
Analysis: US president may find himself increasingly isolated in his resolute defence of Israel
In his staunch defence of Israel, Joe Biden is sticking to a course set decades ago as a young senator, and has not so far given ground on the issue to the progressive wing of his party or many Jewish Democrats urging a tougher line towards Benjamin Netanyahu.
Biden has even been prepared to face isolation at the UN security council, at the potential cost of his own credibility on multilateralism and human rights. But analysts say that as the death toll rises with no sign of a ceasefire, the domestic and international pressures on the president could become impossible to ignore.
Continue reading...A rush for escape as Israeli forces bombed the building that housed the US news agency and Al Jazeera
On Saturday, Israeli forces bombed the office which houses Associated Press and Al Jazeera in Gaza, alleging that Hamas military intelligence was operating inside the building.
Twelve AP staffers and freelancers were working and resting in the bureau when the Israeli military telephoned a warning, giving occupants of the building one hour to evacuate. The AP journalist Fares Akram told how he escaped the building.
Continue reading...The Met said nine of its officers were injured while dispersing crowds outside the Israeli embassy
Thirteen people have been arrested after a day of largely peaceful protest in solidarity with the people of Palestine outside the Israel embassy on Saturday.
The Metropolitan police said nine of its officers were injured while dispersing crowds outside the embassy in west London. The force said missiles were thrown at officers during “small pockets of disorder”.
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