Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

From safety first to Palestine first, Keir Starmer shows some leadership | John Crace

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The PM is to lead recognition of a Palestinian state – a good day for him, the UK and the starving people of Gaza

What a difference a week makes. Last Tuesday, Keir Starmer batted away all invitations to recognise the state of Palestine. It wasn’t happening. Keir was committed to being appalled by the situation in Gaza but not appalled enough to do anything about it.

He then received a letter from more than 250 MPs, including some cabinet ministers, later in the week begging him to recognise the state of Palestine. He still stonewalled. The time was not yet right.

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UK to recognise Palestinian statehood in September unless Israel agrees ceasefire and two-state solution, Starmer says – as it happened

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UK also demands Hamas release all hostages, disarm, sign up to a ceasefire and accept that they will play no role in the government of Gaza. This live blog is closed

Donald Trump is speaking now at the opening of his new golf course in Aberdeenshire. He said that as president he had “stopped about five wars”.

Yesterday he was claiming to have stopped six of them, and it is not clear why he has revised the number down.

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Saudi Arabia and France to lead UN push for recognising Palestinian statehood

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Two countries open three-day conference at United Nations with goal as part of peaceful settlement to end war in Gaza

Saudi Arabia and France have opened a three-day conference at the United Nations with the goal of recognising Palestinian statehood as part of a peaceful settlement to end the war in Gaza.

The conference began on Monday, just days after the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said Paris would officially recognise the Palestinian government in September in an effort to reinvigorate peace talks around a two-state solution that have all but been written off since the deadly Hamas raid and ensuing Israeli military operation that began in 2023.

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Aid deliveries a ‘drop in the ocean’ amid Gaza’s desperate hunger, UN says, as Israel resumes military pause – as it happened

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UN says ‘vast amounts of aid’ needed to prevent catastrophic health crisis in Gaza

At least 43 Palestinian people have been killed across Gaza since dawn, including nine people seeking aid, Al Jazeera is reporting, citing hospital sources.

More than 1,000 people have been killed by Israeli fire while trying to get aid, most of them near Gaza Humanitarian Foundation food distribution sites, during its two months in Gaza, the UN says.

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Israel committing genocide in Gaza, say Israel-based human rights groups

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Reports detailing intentional targeting of Palestinians as a group, and systemic destruction of Palestinian society, add to pressure for action

Two leading human rights organisations based in Israel, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights, say Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the country’s western allies have a legal and moral duty to stop it.

In reports published on Monday, the two groups said Israel had targeted civilians in Gaza only because of their identity as Palestinians over nearly two years of war, causing severe and in some cases irreparable damage to Palestinian society.

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Christopher Nolan criticised for filming in occupied Western Sahara city

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Organisers of local film festival warn production of The Odyssey in Dakhla could normalise repression by Morocco

The organisers of the Western Sahara international film festival (FiSahara) have criticised Christopher Nolan for shooting part of his adaptation of the Odyssey in a Western Saharan city that has been under Moroccan occupation for 50 years, warning the move could serve to normalise decades of repression.

The British-American film-maker’s take on Homer’s epic, which stars Matt Damon, Charlize Theron, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o and Anne Hathaway, is due to be released on 17 July 2026.

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Keir Starmer to urge Trump to resume US role in Gaza ceasefire talks

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No 10 sources say PM is ‘horrified’ by crisis and hopes to convince US to help end ‘unspeakable suffering’

Keir Starmer will personally press Donald Trump to revive ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas when they meet on Monday amid growing international alarm over the starvation crisis in Gaza.

The prime minister is expected to ask the US president, who is on a four-day break in Scotland, to push for a resumption of peace talks after the US and Israel withdrew their negotiation teams from Qatar.

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‘Really cautious’: why the ICJ is delaying a Gaza genocide verdict

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While Palestinians starve and global opinion hardens, judgment from international court may not come until 2027 – or later

While Palestinians in Gaza die in ever-increasing numbers from starvation each day and a growing number of legal scholars, aid officials and politicians have begun describing Israel’s actions as genocide, a definitive ruling on the question by the world’s top court will be a long time coming.

Experts on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said a judgment on whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza is unlikely before the end of 2027 at the earliest, amid warnings that the international community should not use the court’s glacial proceedings as an excuse to put off action to stop the killing.

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Starmer says plan to airdrop Gaza aid and evacuate ill children will go ahead

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Leaders of UK, France and Germany call for lifting of aid restrictions and immediate ceasefire after holding talks

Keir Starmer has confirmed the government will be “taking forward” plans to airdrop aid into Gaza and evacuate children who need medical assistance in an effort to relieve what Downing Street called an appalling situation.

Speaking to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, on Saturday morning, the prime minister outlined the UK’s intentions to work with Jordan to carry out the plans.

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At least six civilians killed in militant attack on courthouse in south-east Iran

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Jihadist separatist group Jaish al-Adl says it launched mortar, shooting and grenade attack in Sistan-Baluchestan

An attack by the jihadist separatist group Jaish al-Adl on a courthouse in Iran’s south-eastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan has killed at least six civilians, including a mother and child, and wounded 22, Iranian media reported on Saturday.

Attackers stormed the building, shooting a number of people inside. They then launched a second attack with mortars and grenade launchers on the courthouse, where a clash began with security forces that lasted three hours, according to the Baluch human rights group Haalvsh.

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Cabinet ministers and third of MPs call on Starmer to recognise state of Palestine

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Exclusive: Rayner and Cooper understood to back action as 221 MPs sign letter calling for UK recognition of statehood

Keir Starmer is under intense pressure from his most senior cabinet ministers and more than a third of MPs to move faster on recognising a Palestinian state in response to Israel withholding aid to starving civilians in Gaza.

Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, and Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, are understood to be among ministers who believe the government should take the lead on Palestinian statehood alongside France.

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Macron plan to recognise Palestine puts pressure on Starmer to choose a course

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Prime minister risks either provoking mutiny in his cabinet and party over Gaza or alienating White House

France’s decision to recognise Palestine at the next UN general assembly is an attempt to build momentum for change and make a break from the major western powers’ impassivity in the face of Israel’s mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza.

Emmanuel Macron’s declaration, announced in typically dramatic fashion on social media late on Thursday night, draws a line between the paths followed by the US and France over the Gaza war, and significantly raises the pressure on the UK, Germany and other G7 powers to pick a side.

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France’s top court annuls arrest warrant for Bashar al-Assad

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Judges rule document invalid as former Syrian leader had immunity as head of state

France’s highest court has cancelled an arrest warrant for the former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity during the country’s civil war.

The Cour de cassation declared the warrant invalid under international law, which gives heads of state personal immunity from prosecution in foreign courts while they are in office.

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Israel trying to deflect blame for widespread starvation in Gaza

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Officials and ministers either deny that Palestinians are being affected by hunger or say it is not Israel’s fault

Israel is pursuing an extensive PR effort to remove itself from blame for the starvation and killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza in the face of overwhelming evidence that it is responsible.

As dozens of governments, UN organisations and other international figures have detailed Israel’s culpability, officials and ministers in Israel have attempted to suggest that there is no hunger in Gaza, that if hunger exists it is not Israel’s fault, or to blame Hamas or the UN and aid organisations for problems with distribution of aid.

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Middle East crisis live: Gaza running out of specialised food to save malnourished children, UN agencies say

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Supplies of ready-to-use-therapeutic food will be depleted by mid-August if nothing changes, says Unicef

Gaza is on the brink of running out of the specialised therapeutic food needed to save the lives of severely malnourished children, United Nations and humanitarian agencies say.

“We are now facing a dire situation, that we are running out of therapeutic supplies,” Salim Oweis, a spokesperson for Unicef in Amman, Jordan, told Reuters on Thursday, saying supplies of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), a crucial treatment, would be depleted by mid-August if nothing changed.

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Albanese says Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza ‘cannot be defended or ignored’ in strongest condemnation yet

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The prime minister did not, however, follow French president Emmanuel Macron’s lead with a commitment to recognise a Palestinian state

Anthony Albanese has condemned Israel for “the killing of civilians, including children” seeking aid, but stopped short of saying Australia would recognise a Palestinian state, as France has committed to doing.

In the Australian government’s strongest condemnation of Israel yet, the prime minister said the killings and denial of aid “cannot be defended or ignored”.

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People in Gaza are ‘walking corpses’, says Unrwa, as agency says it has 6,000 aid trucks ready to enter – Middle East crisis live

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Philippe Lazzarini says Unrwa findings show one in five children is malnourished in Gaza City and says agency has food and medical supplies

Palestinian health officials said Thursday that two Palestinian teenage boys were killed by Israeli fire on Wednesday night in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israel’s military said its forces had fired at Palestinians throwing molotov cocktails toward a highway, killing two near the West Bank town of Al-Khader.

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Saudi Arabia accused of banning women’s rights activists from leaving the country

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Former political prisoners face lengthy travel restrictions to stop them speaking out, says human rights organisation

Saudi Arabia is banning large numbers of its own citizens from leaving the country in a “cruel” attempt to silence criticism, say human rights activists.

High-profile women’s rights campaigners, including Loujain al-Hathloul, who pushed for the right for women to drive in Saudi Arabia, and Maryam al-Otaibi, one of three sisters targeted by the authorities for their activism, appear to have been given long travel bans. These restrictions frequently extend to family members.

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‘This is not action’: MPs respond to David Lammy’s condemnation of Israel

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Keir Starmer’s government struggling to convince MPs and public it is doing enough for civilians starving in Gaza

When David Lammy stood at the dispatch box to deliver a statement condemning Israel’s killing of starving civilians in Gaza on Monday, he was met with anger from MPs.

“We want action, and this is not action,” thundered one Labour MP. Another questioned: “Is this it?” A third asked: “At what point does our basic humanity require us to take stronger action? Many of us think the red line was passed a long time ago.”

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‘We faced hunger before, but never like this’: skeletal children fill hospital wards as starvation grips Gaza

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For months Israel kept food shipments to Gaza far below starvation rations. Now the death toll is rising rapidly

Mohammed’s skeletal arms stick out of a romper with a grinning emoji-face and the slogan “smiley boy”, which in a Gaza hospital reads as a cruel joke. He spends much of the day crying from hunger, or gnawing at his own emaciated fingers.

At seven months old, he weighs barely 4kg (9lbs) and this is the second time he has been admitted for treatment. His face is gaunt, his limbs little more than bones covered in baggy skin and his ribs protrude painfully from his chest.

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