Category Archives: Gaza

Berlin film festival head to keep job after Gaza free speech row

Posted on by

The German government convened a crisis meeting after several prize winners at this year’s event condemned Israel’s actions against Palestinians

The American head of the Berlin film festival, Tricia Tuttle, will keep her job after a free speech row over Gaza, but the event will have to consider a new code of conduct to “fight antisemitism”, the German culture ministry has said.

Tuttle’s position came under threat after an awards gala at the end of the 76th edition last month in which several prize winners condemned Israel’s actions against Palestinians from the stage.

Continue reading...

Albanese should demand reparations from Israel, say families of Australian soldiers whose graves were bulldozed

Posted on by

A third family says the Australian government must do more to hold Israel and the Israeli Defence Force to account, including demanding an apology

The families of dead Australian soldiers whose graves were bulldozed by the Israeli Defence Force in Gaza have called for reparations and urged the Albanese government to hold Israel accountable.

Earlier this month, the Guardian revealed that the IDF had bulldozed parts of the Gaza War Cemetery – the resting place of Australian, British and Canadian soldiers who served in the first and second world wars.

Continue reading...

Israel responsible for two-thirds of record 129 press killings in 2025, says CPJ

Posted on by

Committee to Protect Journalists report says Israel also to blame for 81% of ‘intentionally targeted’ journalist killings

A record 129 journalists and media workers were killed in the course of their work in 2025, two-thirds of them by Israeli forces, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

It was the second consecutive year in which killings of members of the press reached unprecedented levels, and the second year running in which Israel was responsible for roughly two-thirds of the total, the New York-based independent organisation, which documents attacks on journalists worldwide, said in its annual report published on Wednesday.

Continue reading...

Disputes over Hamas disarmament stall Gaza peace plan progress

Posted on by

Hamas to almost certainly reject plan described in Israeli press, say experts, as no guarantee Israel will withdraw on surrender of weapons

Progress in the Gaza peace plan has stalled over disagreements on how Hamas should be disarmed, with Israel threatening to go back to full-scale war if the condition is not carried out quickly.

The second phase of the US-brokered ceasefire, which Washington declared had begun in January, was meant to involve Hamas disarming, Israeli forces withdrawing, and a Palestinian interim administration moving into Gaza backed by a Palestinian police force and an international stabilisation force (ISF).

Continue reading...

Gaza death toll in early part of war far higher than reported, says Lancet study

Posted on by

Research suggests more than 75,000 killed in the first 16 months of conflict, 25,000 more than announced at the time

More than 75,000 people were killed in the first 16 months of the two-year war in Gaza, at least 25,000 more than the death toll announced by local authorities at the time, according to a study published on Wednesday in the Lancet medical journal.

The research also found that reporting by the Gaza health ministry about the proportion of women, children and elderly people among those killed was accurate.

Continue reading...

Javier Bardem and Tilda Swinton among those to condemn Berlinale’s ‘silence’ on Gaza

Posted on by

At least 80 film-makers and stars sign open letter after German festival jury president Wim Wenders says they should keep out of politics

More than 80 current and former participants of the Berlinale, including Javier Bardem, Tilda Swinton and Adam McKay have signed an open letter condemning the festival’s “silence” on Gaza.

It comes after the film festival was swept up in what it called a “media storm” over the alleged sidelining of political discourse at the event.

Continue reading...

Medics in UK and US say they have been barred from Gaza after speaking out

Posted on by

Israel accused of denying doctors re-entry into territory after they gave first-hand testimony on conflict

Medics in the UK and US believe they have been denied re-entry to Gaza after speaking out on the conflict.

Following reports of rising refusal rates, medical workers and organisationswho have provided humanitarian aid in Gaza have described what they see as arbitrary denials.

Continue reading...

At least 12 Palestinians killed and several hurt in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza

Posted on by

Israel says strikes were in response to Hamas violations of ceasefire as Hamas calls attacks ‘massacre’ of displaced people

At least 12 Palestinians were killed and several more injured across the Gaza Strip on Sunday as the Israeli military said it carried out airstrikes in response to ceasefire violations by Hamas.

The Gaza civil defence agency said five people were killed and several others hurt when an airstrike targeted a tent sheltering displaced people in the northern city of Jabaliya.

Continue reading...

Convincing evidence Israel backed aid convoy looters in Gaza, historian says

Posted on by

Account of visit to Gaza by French professor describes Israeli military attacks on security personnel protecting convoys

A historian who spent more than a month in Gaza at the turn of the year says he saw “utterly convincing” evidence that Israel supported looters who attacked aid convoys during the conflict.

Jean-Pierre Filiu, a professor of Middle East studies at France’s prestigious Sciences Po university, entered Gaza in December where he was hosted by an international humanitarian organisation in the southern coastal zone of al-Mawasi.

Continue reading...

Global ‘Free Marwan’ campaign calls for Palestinian political leader’s release

Posted on by

Locked away in prison for decades, Marwan Barghouti is a longstanding advocate for a two-state solution

A global campaign is being launched to secure the release of Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinian prisoner seen by many as the best hope of leading a future Palestinian state, as negotiations continue in the context of the current Gaza ceasefire.

The campaign, being led by Barghouti’s West Bank-based family with UK civil society support, is seeking to put the 66-year-old’s fate at the centre of the next stage of the ceasefire.

Continue reading...

Israel still committing genocide in Gaza, Amnesty International says

Posted on by

The NGO’s chief says last month’s ceasefire ‘risks creating a dangerous illusion that life in Gaza is returning to normal’

Amnesty International has said Israel is “still committing genocide” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, despite the ceasefire agreed last month.

The fragile, US-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas came into effect on 10 October, after two years of war.

Continue reading...

Rebuilding ‘human-made abyss’ in Gaza will cost at least $70bn, UN says

Posted on by

Report says Israel’s operations ‘significantly undermined every pillar of survival’ and reduced the economy by 87%

Israel’s war in Gaza has created a “human-made abyss”, and reconstruction is likely to cost more than $70bn (£53bn) over several decades, the United Nations has said.

The UN’s trade and development agency (Unctad) said in a report that Israel’s military operations had “significantly undermined every pillar of survival” and that the entire population of 2.3 million people faced “extreme, multidimensional impoverishment”.

Continue reading...

US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to end operations in territory

Posted on by

Four main food distribution sites operated by the opaque company had been flashpoints of deadly violence

A controversial and secretive private company backed by the US and Israel that distributed food in Gaza has announced the end of its operations in the devastated territory.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which had four food distribution sites that became flashpoints of chaos and deadly violence between May and October, said in a statement that it would shut down permanently, having “successfully completed its emergency mission”.

Continue reading...

Gaza hospitals running out of supplies as airstrikes continue, medics say

Posted on by

‘Severe lack’ in territory where Israeli strikes have killed more than 50 people and injured over 100 in recent days

Hospitals in Gaza are running out of essential supplies, with new waves of Israeli airstrikes killing more than 50 people and injuring more than 100 in recent days, medical and aid workers in the devastated Palestinian territory have said.

Medics told the Guardian on Sunday that stocks of gauze, antiseptics, thermometers and antibiotics were running low.

Continue reading...

Israeli airstrikes kill 33 people in Gaza in escalation of post-ceasefire attacks

Posted on by

Medical officials say 17 people killed in Khan Younis area and 16 in strikes on Gaza City

Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed 33 people and injured many more, according to medical officials, in one of the most serious escalations of violence since the US-backed ceasefire came into effect last month.

Officials at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis said they received the bodies of 17 people, including five women and five children, after four Israeli airstrikes targeted tents sheltering displaced people. In Gaza City, medical officials said two airstrikes killed 16 people, including seven children and three women.

Continue reading...

Rabih Alameddine wins National book award for fiction with darkly comic epic spanning six decades

Posted on by

True to his irreverent style, author of The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) thanks his psychiatrist, his gastrointestinal doctors and his drug dealers

Rabih Alameddine has won the National book award for fiction for The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother), a darkly comic saga spanning six decades in the life of a Lebanese family.

The novel, which traverses a sprawling history of Lebanon including its civil war and economic collapse, is told through the eyes of its titular protagonist: a gay 63-year-old philosophy teacher confronting his past and his relationship with his mother and his homeland.

Continue reading...

One of the oddest UN resolutions in history seeks to solidify shaky Gaza ceasefire into an enduring peace

Posted on by

The hazy UN resolution dictates that Trump’s ‘board of peace’ will supervise an International Stabilisation Force, whose membership is as yet undetermined

The resolution passed by the UN security council on Tuesday evening, aimed at turning the precarious Gaza ceasefire into a real peace plan, is one of the oddest in United Nations history.

It puts Donald Trump in supreme control of Gaza, perhaps with Tony Blair as his immediate subordinate in a “board of peace”, which will oversee multinational peacekeeping troops, a committee of Palestinian technocrats and a local police force, for a period of two years.

Continue reading...

UN security council votes to endorse Donald Trump’s Gaza plan

Posted on by

The resolution, which includes references to an independent Palestine, was passed by a vote of 13-0 with China and Russia abstaining

The UN security council has endorsed proposals put forward by Donald Trump for a lasting peace in Gaza, including the deployment of an international stabilisation force and a possible path to a sovereign Palestinian state.

The resolution, passed by a vote of 13-0 with abstentions by China and Russia, charted “a new course in the Middle East for Israelis and Palestinians and all the people of the region alike”, the US envoy to the UN, Mike Waltz, told the council chamber.

Continue reading...

Israel breaching international law by limiting Gaza aid, says Unrwa official

Posted on by

Natalie Boucly says supplies are ready but only about half of what is needed is getting into territory

Israel is breaching international law by continuing to impose restrictions on aid flows into Gaza, where the population remains critically short of food and life-saving goods as winter sets in, a senior official at the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said.

In an interview during a recent visit to Brussels, Natalie Boucly, an Unrwa deputy commissioner general, said the whole world – including the EU and US – needed to increase the pressure on Israel’s government to ensure the unrestricted flow of aid into Gaza.

Continue reading...

US military planning for divided Gaza with ‘green zone’ secured by international and Israeli troops

Posted on by

Exclusive: Almost all Palestinians have been displaced to ‘red zone’ where no reconstruction is planned

The US is planning for the long-term division of Gaza into a “green zone” under Israeli and international military control, where reconstruction would start, and a “red zone” to be left in ruins.

Foreign forces will initially deploy alongside Israeli soldiers in the east of Gaza, leaving the devastated strip divided by the current Israeli-controlled “yellow line”, according to US military planning documents seen by the Guardian and sources briefed on American plans.

Continue reading...