UN rapporteur calls for move as food deliveries are attacked and starvation becomes a weapon of war in Gaza and Sudan
UN peacekeepers should be routinely deployed to protect aid convoys from attack in places such as Gaza and Sudan, a senior United Nations expert has proposed.
With starvation increasingly used as a weapon of war, Michael Fakhri said armed UN troops were now required to ensure that food reached vulnerable populations.
Continue reading...Casualties reported in central Israel as G7 leaders were set to meet in Canada with the battle between the two regional enemies set to dominate the agenda
Iranian missiles have struck Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa, destroying homes and fuelling concerns among world leaders at this week’s G7 meeting that the conflict between the two regional enemies could lead to a broader Middle East war.
Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency service said Monday that four people were pronounced dead after strikes at four sites in central Israel, with 87 injured. The dead were two women and two men, all approximately 70 years old, the MDA said.
Authorities in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv said that Iranian missiles had hit a residential building there, charring concrete walls, blowing out windows and heavily damaging multiple apartments.
Trump calls for end to conflict and warns Tehran against striking US targets in the region
Israel and Iran have broadened their strikes against each other on the third day of an escalating war that has killed and injured hundreds of people, as Donald Trump called for an end to the conflict and warned Tehran against striking US targets in the region.
G7 leaders flying to Canada for a summit that starts on Monday are likely to try to use their time with the US president to urge him to keep the US out of the conflict and use his influence with Israel to broker a ceasefire.
Continue reading...Dragging conflict into the Gulf is a strategic mistake, says Iran’s foreign minister after drone strike on coastal facility
Iran’s foreign minister has accused Israel of seeking to expand the war beyond Iran by attacking a major gas facility in Bushehr province on the Gulf coast.
Speaking to diplomats in his first public appearance since the initial Israeli strikes, Abbas Araghchi said: “Dragging the conflict into the Persian Gulf is a strategic mistake and its goal is to drag the war outside Iranian territory. Any military development in this region can affect the entire world.”
Continue reading...Netanyahu has been systematically and successfully weakening his regional foes, now Tehran is in the crosshairs
Israel’s offensive against Iran is the latest link in a chain of events triggered by the attack launched by Hamas from Gaza into Israel on 7 October 2023. All have successively weakened Tehran and, militarily at least, empowered Israel. Without each, it is difficult to see how the new offensive it launched directly against Iran on Friday might be possible.
The first was the Israeli offensive in Gaza. This has now killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, but within weeks had militarily degraded Hamas sufficiently for the Islamist militant organisation to no longer pose a significant current threat to Israeli citizens.
Continue reading...Iranian forward remains in Tehran due to closed airspace
Inter to start Club World Cup campaign on Wednesday
The Inter forward Mehdi Taremi will not be able to join his teammates at the Club World Cup in the United States as he is stuck in Tehran because of the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel.
Flights from all Iranian airports have been grounded after an exchange of military strikes between Iran and Israel over the past two days. That meant the Iran international was unable to take his scheduled flight on Saturday to join his teammates in Los Angeles.
Continue reading...Defence minister Israel Katz says Iranian capital ‘will burn’ if more missiles are fired at his country
Israel has claimed to have gained control of the skies over the Iranian capital and warned that “Tehran will burn” if more missiles are fired at its territory, but the Iranian leadership remained defiant, vowing a “more severe and powerful response” and threatened to widen the war by striking ships and bases of Israeli allies.
The mutual threats reflected the risks of a dramatic escalation in the conflict, as US-Iranian negotiations planned before the war in Oman were abandoned after Tehran said they would be “meaningless”, and Israel appeared to target Iran’s gas industry. Israeli rhetoric reflected its leaders’ growing confidence that they have gained the upper hand, and raised questions over whether Israeli war aims could go beyond the stated objective of crippling Iran’s nuclear programme.
Continue reading...Critics of war will be more reluctant to press for its end while missiles from Tehran are killing people in Tel Aviv
In the hours after Israel attacked Iran, food shipments and distribution in Gaza stopped and a French-Saudi summit meant to pave the way for wider recognition of a Palestinian state was postponed indefinitely.
International pressure over starvation and civilian killings in Gaza had apparently dissipated in little more than the time it took for the smoke of the first missile strikes to clear over Tehran.
Continue reading...Footage purported to show spy agents launching missiles inside Iran is marked contrast to the intelligence service’s history of secrecy
Israelis were celebrating on Friday what many see as a stunning new success by their country’s foreign intelligence service, the Mossad.
Hours after launching 200 warplanes in a wave of strikes against Iran, Israeli officials released footage they said showed the Mossad agents deep inside Iran assembling missiles and explosive drones aimed at targets near Tehran.
Continue reading...Discordant US response as president says he was fully aware of plans for what Marco Rubio called a ‘unilateral action’
Donald Trump is walking a tightrope as he claims that he was fully aware of Israel’s plans to launch massive airstrikes against Iran while continuing to distance the US from those strikes and deny Washington took any active role in the preparations.
The White House’s messaging has shifted quickly from Marco Rubio’s arms-length description of the Israeli attack as a “unilateral action”, to Trump claiming on Friday morning that he was fully in the loop on the operation and that it came at the end of a 60-day ultimatum he had given Iran to “make a deal” on its nuclear programme.
Continue reading...Explosions heard in capital Tehran as Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, says counter attack is expected
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has addressed the nation, saying the IDF had targted Iran’s leading nuclear scientists working on the Iranian bomb.
He said that Iran’s main enrichment facility in Natanz had been targeted.
This operation will continue for as many days as it takes … We are at a decisive moment in Israel’s history.
Continue reading...Israel has threatened to destroy Tehran’s nuclear programme before, ultimately holding back in absence of Washington’s support
The withdrawal of non-essential US personnel from parts of the Middle East and the anonymously sourced US reports in the past 24 hours that Israel is on the brink of an all-out attack on Iran are all deeply alarming, but they are also familiar.
The Israeli government has approached the same precipice, of a war to destroy Tehran’s nuclear programme, several times in the past two decades, going as far as honing detailed plans and conducting practice air sorties.
Continue reading...Women advised to cover up on public beaches, prompting concerns about freedoms under new government
Syria’s government has asked women to wear “burkinis” or more modest swimwear while visiting public beaches this summer, although it later clarified there will be no legal consequences for those who wear bikinis.
A government directive on Tuesday asked women to wear a “burkini or swimwear that covers more of the body”, and loose-fitting clothing when out of the water. The decree also asked men not to be shirtless when not swimming.
Continue reading...Dozens more wounded as crowds approached food distribution centres run by Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation
Israeli forces killed at least 60 Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday, most of them as they were seeking food from a US-Israeli distribution scheme, according to local health authorities.
Medical officials said at least 25 people were killed and dozens wounded as they approached a food distribution centre run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), near Netzarim in central Gaza.
Continue reading...State department move comes amid increasing concerns about nuclear talks between US and Iran that appear to be deadlocked
The United States has ordered the departure of “non-essential” diplomatic staff and their families from embassies in the Middle East amid growing diplomatic tensions in the region.
The US diplomatic draw-down came as Iran threatened to target US military bases in the region if conflict breaks out, while Donald Trump said he was “less confident” about reaching a nuclear deal.
Continue reading...Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich face travel bans and asset freezes as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway also impose measures
The UK has been joined by Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway in placing sanctions on two Israeli government ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, largely for inciting violence against Palestinians in their campaign to gain control of new settlements in the West Bank.
Ben-Gvir, the security minister in Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, and Smotrich, the finance minister, will face travel bans and have any assets in the five countries frozen. It was stressed that they were being sanctioned in their personal capacity, placing no restrictions on the ministries they lead. Netanyahu has promised to retaliate.
Continue reading...Swedish activist says ‘12 peaceful volunteers’ did not break laws during attempt to bring symbolic aid shipment to Gaza
Hours after being deported from Israel, Greta Thunberg accused the country of kidnapping her and her fellow activists in international waters, adding that she had refused to sign a document stating that she had entered Israel illegally.
Speaking to reporters at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, the Swedish campaigner stressed that she and others on a Gaza-bound ship intercepted by Israel on Monday had simply been attempting to bring much-needed aid to the war-torn territory.
Continue reading...Palestinians reportedly killed while trying to reach food sites, while Israel accused of war crime in targeting schools
Israeli troops killed at least 17 Palestinians trying to reach food distribution sites on Tuesday, health authorities in Gaza said, as UN experts accused Israel’s military of committing war crimes including the “obliteration” of Gaza’s education system.
More than 130 people have been shot dead over the past two weeks in a series of brutally repetitive attacks on desperate crowds trying to access food handouts. Hundreds of others have been injured.
Continue reading...Tehran threat comes as European powers press for vote that could lead to reimposition of UN sanctions
Iran has said it will soon start releasing information from a hoard of Israeli nuclear secrets it claims to have obtained, as European countries push for a vote this week on reimposing UN sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear programme.
The unverified claims by Iranian intelligence of a massive leak of Israeli secrets may be designed to turn the focus away from what Iran argues is its own excessively monitored civil nuclear programme.
Continue reading...Crew of activists making symbolic attempt to deliver aid expected to be held in port until deportation hearings
A boat seized by Israel’s military as it tried to break the blockade on Gaza was towed into an Israeli port after sunset on Monday, with the crew of activists including Greta Thunberg expected to be held there in advance of deportation hearings.
The Madleen was attempting to bring a symbolic shipment of aid to Gaza, which faces a looming famine after more than 11 weeks of total siege and ongoing severe restrictions on food entering the territory.
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