Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Police arrest pro-Palestinian protesters outside of New York Stock Exchange

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Hundreds partake in demonstration, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, against Israeli attacks on Gaza and Lebanon

New York City police arrested numerous pro-Gaza protesters outside the New York Stock Exchange on Monday after a demonstration highlighting Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza and Lebanon.

Demonstrators voiced chants such as “Let Gaza live!” and “Up up with liberation, down down with occupation!” and managed to get inside a security fence outside the exchange on Broad Street in downtown Manhattan.

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US intervention points to growing concerns over Israel’s air defences

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After Hezbollah drone strike, any tit-for-tat strikes with Iran could pose a bigger problem still for Israel’s defences

As Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah and Iran has escalated, it has begun to show a degree of vulnerability. A Hezbollah drone evaded Israel’s much vaunted air defences on Sunday and struck a military canteen when it was busy with soldiers eating dinner. Four were killed and 58 wounded, seven seriously, at a location 40 miles south of the Lebanese border.

The drone that hit the canteen of the Golani base near Binyamina appears to have been part of a synchronised attack that allowed it to elude the country’s well organised air defences. Three drones flew from Lebanon over the Mediterranean, and though they were all initially spotted, and two shot down, the other was able to reach its target.

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US officials attend Gaza aid meetings on site of Israeli prison accused of ‘horrific’ torture

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Revealed: USAid officials meet Israeli counterparts at Sde Teiman base, where detainees say abuse runs rampant

Officials from the US’s main humanitarian agency attend daily meetings on an Israeli military base that also hosts a notorious prison for Palestinian detainees where torture reportedly runs rampant, the Guardian has learned.

According to three officials with the US Agency for International Development (USAid), Israel’s humanitarian relief hub began operating at the desert military base Sde Teiman on 29 July, with a regular US presence. USAid is tasked with facilitating urgently needed humanitarian assistance to Gaza.

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Iranian journalists who covered Mahsa Amini’s death face five years in prison

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Hopes of pardon dashed for Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, who were cleared of collaboration with US

Two young female journalists who were sentenced to lengthy prison terms for reporting on the death of Mahsa Amini have been cleared of charges of collaborating with the United States government but will still spend up to five more years behind bars, the Iranian authorities have announced.

Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi were arrested in 2022 after reporting on the death and funeral of Amini, the young Kurdish woman who died in police custody in 2022, sparking the nationwide Women, Life, Freedom protests.

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Middle East crisis live: Israeli attacks on UN forces in Lebanon must stop, say UK, Italy, France and Germany

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Benjamin Netanyahu claims Israeli military did its utmost to avoid harming Unifil personnel while striking Hezbollah fighters

More now on the Hezbollah strike on an IDF training base we reported on earlier (see post 7.33BST)

The drone attack on an army base in central Israel killed four soldiers and severely wounded seven others on Sunday, the Israeli military said, in the deadliest strike by the militant group since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon nearly two weeks ago.

Hezbollah called the attack near Binyamina city retaliation for Israeli strikes on Beirut on Thursday that killed 22 people. It later said it targeted Israel’s elite Golani brigade, launching dozens of missiles to occupy Israeli air defence systems during the assault by “squadrons” of drones.

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Hezbollah drone attack kills four IDF soldiers as US prepares to send missile system to Israel

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Strike on base near Binyamina city is deadliest since Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon, and follows rare US commitment to deploy Thaad battery to Israel

A Hezbollah drone attack on an army base in central Israel killed four soldiers and severely wounded seven others on Sunday, the Israeli military said, in the deadliest strike by the militant group since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon nearly two weeks ago.

Hezbollah called the attack near Binyamina city a retaliation for Israeli strikes on Beirut on Thursday that killed 22 people. It later said it targeted Israel’s elite Golani brigade, launching dozens of missiles to occupy Israeli air defence systems during the assault by “squadrons” of drones.

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UN mission says Israeli tanks forcibly entered base in southern Lebanon

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Unifil seeks explanation from IDF for ‘shocking violations’ while Netanyahu urges peacekeepers to withdraw

The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon has said two Israeli tanks destroyed a gate and forcibly entered a base in the south of the country as Israel’s ground operation against Hezbollah moved deeper into Lebanese territory.

The incident in Ramyah on Sunday morning was the latest in a string of violations that Unifil, the UN force deployed since 1978 to southern Lebanon, has blamed on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

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‘We fear Gaza will be forgotten’: Palestinians despair as focus shifts to Lebanon

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People and aid workers in the strip say ‘no one is talking about’ the bloodshed there and ceasefire hopes are receding

As Israeli bombs began to fall across Lebanon, the scenes of bloodshed and chaos were grimly familiar to the people of Gaza. Mai al-Afifa, 24, was teaching a workshop about how to identify unexploded ordnance in a school turned shelter in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah on Thursday when an Israeli missile hit the next building in the compound. Twenty-eight people were killed and 54 injured, according to medics at the scene.

Through the smoke and rubble dust Afifa saw the body parts of two women and a male aid worker as she stumbled to safety. The Israeli military said it had used a precise strike to target Hamas fighters using the school as a command centre.

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Israel orders more evacuations in Lebanon and threatens medics who treat Hezbollah members

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Military spokesperson demands that medics ‘avoid dealing with Hezbollah operatives’ and claims ambulances used to transport weapons

Israel has ordered more evacuations in southern Lebanon and threatened to target ambulances, as a fifth UN peacekeeper was wounded in Israel’s escalating conflict with the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah.

Israel’s military on Saturday ordered people in 23 southern Lebanese villages to evacuate to areas north of the Awali River, which flows from the western Bekaa valley into the Mediterranean.

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Hunger in Lebanon could soar amid Israeli onslaught, UN expert warns

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Michael Fakhri, special rapporteur on right to food, warns Israeli military attack risks repeat of starvation seen in Gaza

Hunger and malnutrition rates could rise “exponentially” in Lebanon, if Israel follows through with threats to escalate the current military operation which has so far killed more than 2,000 and displaced as many as a million people, according to a leading UN expert.

“Israel has the ability to starve Lebanon – like it has starved Palestinians in Gaza,” said Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food. “If you look at the geography of Lebanon, Israel has the power to absolutely put a stranglehold on the food system. There is a huge risk of hunger and malnutrition rates skyrocketing very quickly in Lebanon.”

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‘The fear is unspeakable’: airstrikes on northern Gaza leave hundreds of thousands with nowhere to go

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Roughly 400,000 people trapped in latest offensive with most of territory under evacuation orders

At least 22 people have been killed in airstrikes in northern Gaza, with Israeli forces stepping up their campaign on the besieged Palestinian territory even as fighting in the new war in Lebanon escalates.

On Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) renewed its evacuation orders for Palestinians still living in the decimated northern half of Gaza, although many residents say the fighting and Israeli sniper fire make it impossible to leave.

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Middle East: African Union joins UN member states in expressing support for Guterres – as it happened

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This blog has now closed. You can read all our coverage of the Israel-Gaza war here and Israel’s invasion of Lebanon here.

Images on the newswires show Palestinians fleeing areas in the northern Gaza Strip after a fresh Israeli evacuation order:

In a separate post on X to the one we reported on earlier (see 9.38am BST), Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee reiterated an earlier call for health workers and medical teams in southern Lebanon to avoid using ambulances, claiming they are being used by Hezbollah fighters.

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Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, officials say, as thousands remain trapped

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Palestinian women and children among dead after Israel reportedly targets schools and homes with quadcopters and airstrikes

At least 30 people have been killed by Israeli strikes throughout the day in northern Gaza’s Jabalia town and refugee camp, Gaza’s civil defence agency has said, a week after Israel launched an offensive there which it claims is aimed at stopping Hamas regrouping.

The agency’s spokesperson, Mahmud Bassal, said a strike that occurred before 9.40pm local time killed 12 people including women and children, while 14 were missing and likely trapped under the rubble.

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Middle East crisis: Nicaragua breaks diplomatic relations with Israel – as it happened

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This blog is now closing. You can read our latest full report on Israel’s invasion of Lebanon here and all our coverage of its war on Gaza here.

Israel’s Magen David Adom has reported that one person has been killed and another wounded at a kibbutz in northern Israel by anti-tank fire from Lebanon.

Israel’s emergency services said the person killed was a 27-year-old Thai national working at kibbutz Yiron.

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Two Lebanese soldiers killed in Israeli airstrike hours after UN peacekeepers HQ fired on

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Two incidents in Lebanon prompt growing concern over Israel’s escalating campaign and the spreading Middle East conflict

An Israeli airstrike has killed two Lebanese soldiers and wounded three others, hours after the Israeli military fired on the headquarters of a UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon for the second time in as many days.

The two incidents on Friday prompted further concern over Israel’s escalating campaign, amid waves of heavy airstrikes across Lebanon. Lebanon’s army has not been involved in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, and it withdrew its forces from the border between the countries when Israel launched its invasion last month.

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US-made munition used in Israeli strike on central Beirut, shrapnel shows

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Exclusive: Strike that killed 22 is first time US-made munition confirmed to have been used in attack on central Beirut since 2006

A US-made munition was used in a strike on central Beirut that killed 22 people and wounded 117, according to an analysis of shrapnel found by the Guardian at the scene of the attack.

The strike on Thursday night hit an apartment complex in the densely populated neighbourhood of Basta, levelling the apartment building and destroying cars and the interiors of nearby residences.

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UK remains distant from any Israeli plan to attack Iran | Patrick Wintour

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Ministers are unclear on what action Israel is preparing to take, which shows how far the UK is from endorsing it

The UK will not participate in or coordinate any Israeli attack on Iran, but no decisions have been taken on how to respond if Iran then decides to take further retaliatory action against Israel.

UK ministers also remain unclear on what military action Israel is preparing to take, or its timing, which shows how far the UK is from endorsing an attack on Iran, and how it would prefer a route to de-escalation.

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EU unable to retrieve €150m paid to Tunisia despite links to rights violations

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Concerns are growing that funds from the migration deal are connected to abuses by the repressive regime in Tunis

The EU will be unable to claw back any of the €150m (£125m) paid to Tunisia despite the money being increasingly linked to human rights violations, including allegations that sums went to security forces who raped migrant women.

The European Commission paid the amount to the Tunis government in a controversial migration and development deal, despite concerns that the north African state was increasingly authoritarian and its police largely operated with impunity.

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Feedback loop: the tangled ties between the US election and the Middle East war

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Benjamin Netanyahu has humiliated Biden’s America and seems to anticipate Trump’s return, but what would that mean for Israel?

The year since the 7 October attack has demonstrated just how densely intertwined US presidential politics is with the trajectory of events in the Middle East. Each exerts a gravitational pull on the other, often in ways that are damaging for both.

Foreign policy rarely matters much in US presidential elections, but this year could be an exception. In a contest likely to be decided by small margins in a handful of states, the fallout from the conflicts in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, with a potential war with Iran looming, could have a significant impact on Kamala Harris’s prospects.

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ECHR ruling for Cyprus asylum seekers may embolden refugees in buffer zone

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Lawyers predict more claims after ‘perfect win’ for two Syrian asylum seekers pushed back to Lebanon

A ruling by the European court of human rights ordering authorities in Cyprus to pay damages to two Syrian refugees found to have been prevented from applying for asylum has been welcomed as a “perfect” victory by campaigners.

Lawyers said Tuesday’s judgment would encourage others to follow suit, including an ever-growing group of asylum seekers stranded in the UN-patrolled buffer zone of the war-split country.

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