Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Ministers urged to help students trapped in Gaza with places at UK universities

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Forty people who have been offered scholarships unable to travel without biometric data they have no way of getting

Pressure is mounting on ministers to intervene on behalf of 40 students in Gaza who have been offered full scholarships to study at UK universities, but are unable to take up their places this September because of government red tape.

A high-level meeting is understood to have taken place at the Home Office on Tuesday after MPs and campaigners highlighted the students’ plight, calling on ministers to take action to help secure their safe passage to the UK. Some students are reported to have been killed while waiting, while others are said to be in constant danger.

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AFP news agency calls on Israel to allow evacuation of its freelance contributors

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Palestinian journalists working for French organisation say desperate hunger and lack of clean water is making them ill

News agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) has called on Israel to allow the immediate evacuation of its freelance contributors and their families from the Gaza Strip, a day after they warned that they were struggling to work due to starvation.

In a statement, the French news agency said its freelancers faced an “appalling situation” in Gaza. A 21-month war with Israel has devastated the territory, a conflict triggered by Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel in October 2023.

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Israeli cruise ship turned away from Greek island by Gaza war protest

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Tourists greeted on Syros by banner saying Stop the Genocide and prevented from disembarking

A cruise liner carrying Israeli tourists has been forced to reroute to Cyprus after being turned away from the Greek island of Syros after a quayside protest over the Gaza war.

Around 1,600 Israeli passengers on board the Crown Iris were prevented from disembarking amid safety concerns when more than 300 demonstrators on the Cycladic isle made clear they were unwelcome over Israel’s conduct of the war and treatment of Palestinians in Gaza. A large banner emblazoned with the words Stop the Genocide was held aloft alongside Palestinian flags.

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Starmer under pressure from cabinet to recognise Palestinian statehood

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Exclusive: Wes Streeting among ministers pushing for action after calling Israeli attacks on aid sites ‘intolerable’

Keir Starmer is under pressure from cabinet ministers for the UK to immediately recognise Palestine as a state, as global outcry grows over Israel’s killing of starving civilians in Gaza.

The prime minister is understood to have been urged by a number of senior ministers in different cabinet meetings over recent months that the UK should take a leading role in issuing recognition.

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Global outcry grows over Israel’s killing of starving civilians in Gaza

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UN secretary general warns ‘last lifelines’ may soon collapse after Israeli forces attack WHO facilities in Deir al-Balah

Israel is facing intensifying international condemnation for its killing of starving Palestinian civilians in Gaza, and its attacks on humanitarian efforts, as the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said the “last lifelines keeping people alive [in the strip] are collapsing”.

An angry chorus of senior figures, among them the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, and a senior Catholic cleric, expressed on Tuesday a growing sense of global horror over Israel’s actions.

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UK ban on Palestine Action is an abuse of power, high court told

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Intelligence assessment before proscription found that vast majority of group’s activities were lawful, court hears

An intelligence assessment before Palestine Action was banned under anti-terrorism laws found that the vast majority of its activities were lawful, a court has heard.

Raza Husain KC, appearing for Huda Ammori, a co-founder of the group, said Yvette Cooper’s decision to proscribe the group on 5 July was “repugnant” and an “authoritarian and blatant abuse of power”.

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Revealed: Harvard publisher cancels entire journal issue on Palestine shortly before publication

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As Harvard’s feud with Trump escalated, so did tensions over an ‘education and Palestine’ issue of a prestigious journal. Scholars blame the ‘Palestine exception’ to academic freedom

In March 2024, six months into Israel’s war in Gaza, education in the territory was decimated. Schools were closed – most had been turned into shelters – and all 12 of the strip’s universities were partially or fully destroyed.

Against that backdrop, a prestigious American education journal decided to dedicate a special issue to “education and Palestine”. The Harvard Educational Review (HER) put out a call for submissions, asking academics around the world for ideas for articles grappling with the education of Palestinians, education about Palestine and Palestinians, and related debates in schools and colleges in the US.

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Man rescued trying to reach Spain from Morocco in rubber ring and flippers

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Family in yacht pulled young man from the sea off Costa del Sol

A man who was apparently trying to reach Spain from Morocco using a rubber ring and flippers has been rescued after he was spotted by a family sailing to the Balearic islands.

The family were on their yacht 13 nautical miles south of the Andalucían town of Benalmádena on the Costa del Sol, on 16 July when they manoeuvred around the stern of an oil tanker and saw something moving on the waves.

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Clearing Gaza rubble could yield 90,000 tonnes of planet-heating emissions

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Processing debris from Israel’s destruction of homes, schools and hospitals could take four decades

Millions of tonnes of rubble left by Israel’s bombardment of Gaza could generate more than 90,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions – and take as long as four decades to remove and process, a study has found.

Israel’s destruction of Palestinian homes, schools and hospitals in Gaza generated at least 39m tonnes of concrete debris between October 2023 and December 2024, which will require at least 2.1m dump trucks driving 18m miles (29.5m km) to transport to disposal sites, researchers said.

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Trump ‘caught off guard’ by Israeli strikes on Syria last week

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The White House confirmed that Trump called Netanyahu to ‘rectify’ the situation after ongoing clashes in the city of Sweida

Donald Trump was “caught off guard” by Israeli strikes on Syria last week, the White House has said, adding that the US president called Benjamin Netanyahu to “rectify” the situation.

Israel launched strikes on the capital Damascus and the southern Druze-majority city of Sweida last week, saying it aimed to put pressure on the Syrian government to withdraw its troops from the region amid ongoing clashes there.

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Britain told US that invading Iraq could cost Blair his premiership, papers reveal

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Adviser to former PM said Bush’s pursuit of regime change in Baghdad could also cause ‘regime change in London’

The stark terms in which the US was warned that invading Iraq without a second UN security council resolution could cost Tony Blair his premiership have been revealed in newly released documents.

Blair’s foreign policy adviser, David Manning, warned Condoleezza Rice, the then US national security adviser: “The US must not promote regime change in Baghdad at the price of regime change in London.”

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WHO says residence and main warehouse in Gaza hit by Israeli forces

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Staff quarters attacked three times and four people detained, three temporarily, as IDF tanks enter Deir al-Balah

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said the Israeli military attacked its staff residence and main warehouse in Deir al-Balah on Monday, compromising its operations in Gaza.

The WHO said its staff residence was attacked three times, with airstrikes causing a fire and extensive damage, and endangering staff and their families, including children.

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Meta allows ads crowdfunding for IDF drones, consumer watchdog finds

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Paid ads hosted on Facebook, Instagram and Threads seem to violate Meta’s stated policies yet remain active

Meta is hosting ads on Facebook, Instagram and Threads from pro-Israel entities that are raising money for military equipment including drones and tactical gear for Israeli Defense Force battalions, seemingly a violation of the company’s stated advertising policies, new research shows.

“We are the sniper team of Unit Shaked, stationed in Gaza, and we urgently need shooting tripods to complete our mission in Jabalia,” one ad on Facebook read, first published on 11 June and still active on 17 July.

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Israel launches air and ground offensive on Deir al-Balah in central Gaza

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Military targets key humanitarian hub that was relatively unscathed by war after ordering Palestinians to leave

Israel has launched substantial air raids and a ground operation in Gaza, targeting Deir al-Balah, the main hub for humanitarian efforts in the devastated Palestinian territory, amid urgent warnings of widening starvation in the coastal strip.

The latest assault comes a day after the highest death toll in 21 months inflicted by the Israeli military on desperate Palestinians seeking food aid, with at least 85 killed on Sunday in what has become an almost daily slaughter.

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Senior Labour MP urges UK to recognise Palestinian state ahead of UN conference

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Emily Thornberry says recognition is vital step towards peace and without long-term solution war in Gaza will continue

A senior Labour MP has said it is time for the UK to recognise a Palestinian state as some western countries are due to press ahead with their own recognition plans at an international conference this month.

Emily Thornberry, who heads the influential House of Commons foreign affairs select committee, said that without a ceasefire and a long-term political solution Israel’s war on Gaza – which has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians since 7 October 2023 – will continue.

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‘Tense calm’ returns to Syria’s Sweida province after week of deadly violence

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More than 1,000 people estimated to have been killed after clashes between Bedouin and Druze groups

An uneasy calm returned to southern Syria’s Sweida province on Sunday, after fighters withdrew following a week of violence estimated to have killed more than 1,000 people.

Local people told news agencies the area was calm after Syria’s Islamist-led government said Bedouin fighters had left the predominantly Druze city.

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Palestinian Health Ministry says 73 people killed while waiting for aid in Gaza – as it happened

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More than 150 people also wounded, some critically, as some witnesses say Israeli military shot at crowd. This live blog is closed

Israel wants the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) to replace a system coordinated by the UN and international aid groups. Along with the US, it accuses Hamas of stealing aid, without offering evidence.

Critics have argued that the GHF is a tool for the Israeli and US governments to politicise humanitarian aid and to distribute it in ways that will depopulate sectors of Gaza in apparent violation of international law.

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Recognised Palestinian state could develop disputed gas resources, expert says

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The Palestinian Authority’s ability to use the Gaza Marine field could leave them less dependent on aid

Recognition of Palestine as a state would put beyond doubt that the Palestinian Authority (PA) is entitled to develop the natural gas resources of the Gaza Marine field, according to one of the experts that worked on the stalled project.

Michael Barron, the author of a new book on Palestine’s untapped gas reserves, has suggested the field could generate $4bn (£3bn) in revenue at current prices and it is reasonable that the PA could receive $100m a year over 15 years.

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At least 32 Palestinians killed in Gaza as IDF fires on crowds seeking food

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Witnesses say scenes near Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid hubs in the south of the territory resembled a massacre

At least 32 people were killed and more than 100 injured on Saturday morning when Israeli troops opened fire on crowds of Palestinians seeking food from two aid distribution hubs in southern Gaza, according to witnesses and hospital officials.

People on the scene described it as “a massacre”, and claimed Israel Defense Forces fired “indiscriminately” at the groups of Palestinians – reported to be mostly young men – who were making their way towards the hubs run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

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Clashes continue in Sweida after Syrian presidency’s ceasefire declaration

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Government urges all parties to commit to truce and says any breaches will be violation of sovereignty

Bedouin fighters and their allies have continued to clash with Druze fighters in the Syrian province of Sweida, despite an order by the government to put down their arms in a conflict that has killed more than 900 people since Sunday.

The Syrian presidency had earlier declared an “immediate and comprehensive” ceasefire and deployed its internal security forces in the southern province after almost a week of fighting in the predominantly Druze area.

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