Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Arrest warrants for Israeli leaders marks pivotal moment in international law | Beth McKernan

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Charges against Israeli prime minister and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant mark first time western-affiliated leaders have been targeted for war crimes

The international criminal court’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders over the war in Gaza has been welcomed by Palestinians as a landmark moment in their decade-long fight to challenge the Israeli occupation through international institutions.

Thursday’s announcement from the international criminal court’s pretrial chamber of arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has sent shockwaves through the international legal system. As the first time that officials from a democratic, western-allied state have been charged with war crimes, it is widely seen as the most significant action taken by the court since it was set up at the turn of the century.

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Revealed: Saudi Arabia accused of modifying official Cop29 negotiating text

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Exclusive: News of changes to usually non-editable document ‘risks placing climate summit in jeopardy'

A Saudi Arabian delegate has been accused of directly making changes to an official Cop29 negotiating text, it can be revealed.

Cop presidencies usually circulate negotiating texts as non-editable PDF documents to all countries simultaneously, and they are then discussed. Giving one party editing access “risks placing this entire Cop in jeopardy”, one expert said.

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‘Protect the climate for whom?’: Palestinians highlight Gaza at Cop29

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Advocates and officials argue that consequences of Israeli siege are inextricably linked to tackling the climate crisis

As countries negotiate over climate finance, Palestinian officials and advocates have come to Cop29 in Baku to highlight global heating’s intersection with another crisis: Israel’s siege on Gaza.

“The Cop [meetings] are very keen to protect the environment, but for whom?” said Ahmed Abu Thaher, director of projects and international relations at Palestine’s Environment Quality Authority, who had travelled to Cop29 from Ramallah. “If you are killing the people there, for whom are you keen to protect the environment and to minimise the effects of climate change?”

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At least 20 killed and 66 wounded by Israeli bombing of Beirut homes

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Missing families feared dead after block of flats and nearby homes destroyed by airstrikes on Lebanese capital

At least 20 people have been killed and 66 wounded in a series of Israeli airstrikes on an apartment block in the densely populated Basta neighbourhood of central Beirut.

At least four bombs hit an eight-storey apartment building at about 4am on Saturday, without warning, producing blasts heard around the Lebanese capital. The strike levelled the building and destroyed seven smaller residential buildings in the surroundings, leaving meters-deep craters of rubble where the structures once stood.

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Middle East crisis: Netanyahu thanks Orbán for invite after ICC warrant, saying Hungary on ‘side of justice and truth’ – as it happened

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Israeli PM thanks his Hungarian counterpart after he extends invite in defiance of moves by International Criminal Court

The US have said they “fundamentally reject” the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for senior Israel officials and said the court does not have jurisdiction over the matter.

On Thursday, arrest warrants were issued by the court for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant and the late Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif over alleged war crimes committed in Gaza.

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Hungary invites Netanyahu to visit as world leaders split over ICC arrest warrant

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Viktor Orbán says he will not enforce ICC decision that requires court members to detain Israeli PM if he enters their country

Hungary’s illiberal prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has said he will invite his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, to visit in defiance of an international criminal court arrest warrant, as world leaders split over the ICC’s momentous decision.

The world’s highest criminal court issued warrants on Thursday for Netanyahu, his former defence minister Yoav Gallant and the Hamas commander Ibrahim al-Masri, commonly known as Mohammed Deif, who is believed to be dead, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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UAE urges countries to honour fossil fuels vow amid Cop29 impasse

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Petrostate’s rebuke comes as Saudi Arabia and allies try to derail transition promise made at climate talks last year

The world must stand behind a historic resolution made last year to “transition away from fossil fuels”, the United Arab Emirates has said, in a powerful intervention into a damaging row over climate action.

The petrostate’s stance will be seen as as a sharp rebuke to its neighbour and close ally Saudi Arabia, which had been trying to unpick the global commitment at UN climate talks in Azerbaijan this week.

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‘Reward for terrorism’: Israeli politicians unite to condemn ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu

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Leaders from across spectrum are outspoken in rejection of court’s ‘antisemitic’ and ‘outrageous’ decision

Israeli leaders from across the political spectrum united to condemn the decision by a three-judge panel of the international criminal court to issue arrest warrants for the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the former defence minister Yoav Gallant.

Netanyahu’s office described the warrants as “an antisemitic decision … equivalent to the modern Dreyfus trial”, referring to the 1894 trial of a French artillery captain of Jewish descent that has become one of the most prominent examples of antisemitism.

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War crimes charges will be hard stigma for Netanyahu to shrug off

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The ICC warrants are a legal earthquake and could weigh heavier on the Israeli PM and his former minister over time

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The arrest warrants issued by the international criminal court (ICC) represent an earthquake on the world’s legal landscape: the first time a western ally from a modern democracy has been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity by a global judicial body.

Inside Israel, the warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant will not have an immediate impact. In the short term they are likely to rally support around the prime minister from a defiant Israeli public.

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US and Israel reject ICC warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest as number of countries signal they will abide by it – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. You can read our latest reporting on the ICC arrest warrant here:

Israel’s position has always held that the rulings of the international criminal court do not apply to it, as it is not a member.

Foreign minister Gideon Saar on Thursday said that it had “issued absurd orders with no authority” against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant because “Israel is not a member of the court.”

The Chamber found reasonable grounds to believe that during the relevant time, international humanitarian law related to international armed conflict between Israel and Palestine applied. This is because they are two High Contracting Parties to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and because Israel occupies at least parts of Palestine.

The Chamber also found that the law related to non-international armed conflict applied to the fighting between Israel and Hamas.

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ICC issues arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged Gaza war crimes

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Joe Biden describes as ‘outrageous’ the warrants for Israeli PM and former defence minister, which put them at risk of detention if they go to some other countries

The international criminal court has issued arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant and the Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif for alleged war crimes relating to the Gaza war.

It is the first time that leaders of a democracy and western-aligned state have been charged by the court, in the most momentous decision of its 22-year history.

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Mazyouna, whose face was ‘ripped off’ by Israeli missile, allowed to leave Gaza

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Israeli move follows Guardian report that 12-year-old girl’s evacuation for treatment had been repeatedly blocked

The Israeli authorities have permitted Mazyouna Damoo, a 12-year-old Palestinian girl whose face was “ripped off” when an Israeli missile struck her home in June, to leave Gaza for medical treatment, five days after the Guardian reported that repeated requests for her urgent medical evacuation had been denied.

Last Friday, the Guardian highlighted the Damoo family’s desperate battle to get Mazyouna evacuated from Gaza to the United States to receive emergency surgery on devastating injuries to her face sustained in a missile attack by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which tore off half of her cheek and exposed her jawbone.

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Gaza food production ‘decimated’ with 70% of farmland hit, UN finds

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Israeli attacks have destroyed huge areas of land used for crops, with 90% of cattle killed, analysis shows

More than 90% of cattle have died and about 70% of land for crops in Gaza has been destroyed or damaged since the beginning of the war in the territory, an analysis of satellite imagery by the UN has found.

More than half of sheep and goat herds have been wiped out, while more than three-quarters of the territory’s famous orchards have been destroyed or damaged, the survey in September found.

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World’s conflict zones increased by two-thirds in past three years, report reveals

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Wars have spread and intensified, with far-reaching impacts on global economic growth and food security, according to latest Conflict Intensity Index

The proportion of the world engulfed by conflict has grown 65% – equivalent to nearly double the size of India – over the past three years, according to a new report.

Ukraine, Myanmar, the Middle East and a “conflict corridor” around Africa’s Sahel region have seen wars and unrest spread and intensify since 2021, according to the latest Conflict Intensity Index (CII), published by risk analysts Verisk Maplecroft.

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British 18-year-old arrested in Dubai for sex with 17-year-old

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Marcus Fakana could face two decades in jail for having sex with girl, also from London, while on holiday in UAE

An 18-year-old man from London could be jailed in the United Arab Emirates after having sex with a 17-year-old girl.

Marcus Fakana, from Tottenham, was on a family holiday in Dubai when he met the British girl, who is also from London and has since turned 18.

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Author Kamel Daoud sued over claim he used life of wife’s patient in novel

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Woman says French-Algerian writer’s prize-winning Houris uses her story as she told it to therapist Aicha Dehdouh

Two complaints have been filed in Algeria against the French-Algerian author Kamel Daoud, the winner of France’s most prestigious literary award, and his wife, a therapist, alleging that they used a patient’s life story as the basis for his prize-winning novel.

The writer, the first Algerian novelist to be awarded the Prix Goncourt, won this year’s prize for his novel Houris, a fictional account of a young woman who lost her voice when an Islamist cut her throat during the country’s brutal 1992-2002 civil war.

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‘Positive progress’ made in Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire talks, US envoy says

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Amos Hochstein to meet Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday after Beirut discussions over deal to end fighting

The US envoy Amos Hochstein has said there is “positive progress” towards a ceasefire in Lebanon after talks in Beirut aimed at ending 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Hochstein has met Lebanese officials over the past two days after Hezbollah indicated it had agreed to the text of a US ceasefire proposal, although with some comments. He said on Tuesday that the gaps between Hezbollah and Israel had “narrowed”, raising optimism about a deal between the two parties.

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Iran has offered to keep uranium below purity levels for a bomb, IAEA confirms

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UN inspectorate chief calls Tehran’s move a ‘concrete step in the right direction’, amid threat of restored sanctions

Iran has offered to keep its stock of uranium enriched up to 60% – below the purity levels required to make a nuclear bomb – the head of the UN nuclear inspectorate, Rafael Grossi, has confirmed amid the threat of restored European sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear activities.

“I think this is … a concrete step in the right direction. We have a fact which has been verified by us. It is the first time Iran has agreed to take a different path,” Grossi said in Vienna on Tuesday.

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Food prices soar in Gaza after looting of almost 100 aid trucks worsens shortages

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WHO says hijacking by armed men has aggravated already severe scarcity of food, medicine and other aid

Food prices have soared in Gaza after the looting of nearly 100 aid trucks amid an already severe food crisis caused by more than a year of war between Israel and Hamas.

This weekend’s hijacking of 98 lorries of a 109-strong convoy by armed men – the biggest such attack to date – has aggravated food, medicine and other aid shortages, according to a World Health Organization spokesperson, Margaret Harris. “It’s getting harder and harder to get the aid in,” she said on Tuesday.

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Norway to ask ICJ for advisory opinion condemning Israel’s stance on Unrwa

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Draft resolution for UN general assembly seeks to protect the aid agency and allow it to keep functioning in Gaza

Norway is to seek an international court of justice (ICJ) advisory opinion condemning the Israeli government for ending cooperation with the UN Palestinian relief agency Unrwa.

The Israeli Knesset passed two bills last month banning Unrwa from Israeli territory and prohibiting Israeli state contact with the agency, moves that would prevent it from delivering aid to Gaza, after allegations by Israel that members of Unrwa staff in Gaza were involved in the 7 October attacks by Hamas. The UN launched an investigation into the Israeli claims and fired nine Unrwa staff as a result.

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