Israel claims not to have seen ‘final’ draft of agreement designed to end war as some officials optimistic deal is close
At least 46,584 Palestinian people have been killed and 109,731 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Monday.
At least 19 Palestinians were killed in the last 24 hours, the ministry said.
Continue reading...Family of now 19-year-old conscript Liri Albag appeals to PM to ‘take decisions as if it were your own children there’
The armed wing of Hamas has released a video it says is of an Israeli hostage held in Gaza since its October 2023 attack.
Liri Albag, described by local media as a soldier, was 18 when she was captured by Palestinian militants at the Nahal Oz base on the Gaza border along with six other women conscripts, five of whom remain in captivity.
Continue reading...Israel says Gaza hospital is ‘Hamas terrorist stronghold’ and it made efforts to facilitate evacuation of those inside
An estimated 730,000 people living in tents in camps for the displaced in northwest Syria are experiencing dire conditions this winter including from flooding, the UN humanitarian office has said.
The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA) said yesterday that more than 200 family tents in camps in Idlib and northern Aleppo were damaged by flooding from heavy rainfall on 23 December.
“Since the start of 2024, flooding and strong winds have damaged more than 8,800 family tents – including nearly 2,000 that were fully destroyed – across 260 camps,” OCHA said.
In early December, the UN said about 1.1 million people had been displaced since Syrian rebels launched the offensive that ousted former president Bashar al-Assad. Among those displaced were more than 100,000 people who have fled into Kurdish-administered areas in northern Syria amid escalating factional fighting and fears of retaliatory attacks.
Continue reading...Israel says Gaza hospital is ‘Hamas terrorist stronghold’ and it made efforts to facilitate evacuation of those inside
An estimated 730,000 people living in tents in camps for the displaced in northwest Syria are experiencing dire conditions this winter including from flooding, the UN humanitarian office has said.
The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA) said yesterday that more than 200 family tents in camps in Idlib and northern Aleppo were damaged by flooding from heavy rainfall on 23 December.
“Since the start of 2024, flooding and strong winds have damaged more than 8,800 family tents – including nearly 2,000 that were fully destroyed – across 260 camps,” OCHA said.
In early December, the UN said about 1.1 million people had been displaced since Syrian rebels launched the offensive that ousted former president Bashar al-Assad. Among those displaced were more than 100,000 people who have fled into Kurdish-administered areas in northern Syria amid escalating factional fighting and fears of retaliatory attacks.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our coverage of the Middle East here
Israeli forces have killed a Palestinian man in a dawn raid on a refugee camp near the city of Tulkarm in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinian and Israeli officials said. The Israeli military said the man was killed in a “counter-terrorism” operation that resulted in 18 arrests, Reuters reports. Palestinian news agency Wafa said that Fathi Saeed Odeh Salem died after snipers shot him and fired on ambulance crew. We have not yet been able to independently verify any of this information. Meanwhile, medics said at least nine Palestinians, including a member of the civil emergency service, were killed in four separate Israeli airstrikes across the territory today.
At least 45,338 Palestinian people have been killed and 107,764 injured in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Avi Dichter, of Israel’s security cabinet, made the comments as reports of the scale of Israel’s military infrastructure in the territory emerge
The Israeli military will remain in Gaza for many years, fighting against fresh Hamas recruits in the territory and could be responsible for delivery of humanitarian aid there, a senior Israeli minister has said.
The comments by Avi Dichter, Israel’s minister for food security and a member of the Israeli security cabinet, confirm an emerging picture of a long-term deployment of Israeli troops inside Gaza, with no immediate Israeli plan for any other administration to govern the territory’s 2.3 million people and begin reconstruction there.
Continue reading...Displaced people make their way home despite volatile situation and warnings from Israeli military
Thousands of people displaced from war-torn southern Lebanon have begun returning home after a ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah took effect on Wednesday, amid fears on both sides of the border about whether the truce would hold.
Israel heavily bombed the capital, Beirut, and the south of the country throughout Tuesday, killing 42 people, until the truce began at 4am local time, while Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel, triggering air raid sirens.
Continue reading...Claim comes after Paris signalled it would fulfil obligations as signatory to Rome statute after arrest warrant issued
The French government has claimed that Benjamin Netanyahu has immunity from arrest warrants issued by the international criminal court for war crimes on the grounds that Israel is not an ICC member.
The claim came soon after Netanyahu’s cabinet agreed to a French-backed ceasefire in Lebanon and is in contrast to Paris’s attitude towards last year’s ICC war crimes warrant issued against Vladimir Putin, another leader of a non-member country.
Continue reading...A truce between Israel and the Lebanese militant group has come into effect after 14 months of fighting
A ceasefire to end 14 months of fighting between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah has come into effect, with Lebanese civilians already returning to the devastated south of the country.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Police investigate claim that Israeli PM’s chief of staff changed recorded time of call made about Hamas attacks
A top aide of Benjamin Netanyahu has been questioned by police investigating reports of alterations made to official records of phone calls involving the Israeli prime minister on the morning of the 7 October attacks.
Israeli media reported that Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, is suspected of changing the recorded time of a conversation the prime minister held with his military secretary in the first minutes of the attack to protect the prime minister.
Continue reading...Former human rights commissioner Chris Sidoti says ‘there is no end in sight’ as ongoing bombardment is sowing seeds for generations of hostilities
“Kids aren’t terrorists,” Chris Sidoti told the handful of journalists assembled in the quiet of the UN’s New York headquarters.
Thousands of kilometres from the conflict in Gaza he was documenting, Sidoti felt compelled to repeat it: “Kids aren’t terrorists.”
Continue reading...This live blog is closed.
Images sent over the news wires show smoke billowing over Beirut after Israeli strikes on the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital.
Lebanese media is reporting that two people have been killed and six wounded in an Israeli airstrike on Hermel, which is in the north-east of the country near the border with Syria.
Continue reading...Wars in Gaza and Lebanon set to intensify after Israeli PM’s position is reinforced by Trump’s victory and ousting of defence minister
Benjamin Netanyahu is set to stay in power in Israel until elections due in 2026 and possibly longer, analysts and officials now believe, after a tumultuous week in which the 75-year-old veteran politician successfully fired his defence minister and was boosted by the results of the US election.
Netanyahu’s newly reinforced position could lead to further intensification of Israel’s campaign in Lebanon, and prolong the conflict in Gaza, critics fear – although the incoming US president Donald Trump has said he wants to swiftly end both wars.
Continue reading...Yechiel Leiter, American-born rightwinger, has called for ultimate Israeli ‘sovereignty’ over West Bank territories
Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed a hardline supporter of the war in Gaza and longtime backer of settlements in the West Bank as his ambassador to the US as Israel prepares for the incoming administration of Donald Trump.
Yechiel Leiter, an American-born rightwing publicist and former government aide who immigrated to Israel four decades ago, was announced as Israel’s next ambassador to Washington on Friday. His son, a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, was killed in fighting in northern Gaza last year.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed, you can read our full report on this story here
Reuters reports that the Israeli military said on Friday that all Israel Defense Forces (IDF) personnel have been banned from going to the Netherlands until further notice.
Human rights organisations say they are gravely concerned that a young Iranian woman arrested for stripping down to her underwear could be subjected to torture after she was transferred to a psychiatric hospital by the authorities.
Continue reading...