Category Archives: Gaza

Has Israel begun its Gaza City offensive or will there be yet more ‘approvals’?

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Netanyahu is latest to ‘approve’ plan that has had daily announcements and that Israel knows will have serious consequences

Has Israel begun its expanded offensive in Gaza City, or is it hype?

After several weeks of threats of a new large-scale offensive, strongly opposed by most of the international community, Israeli officials have made announcements daily saying the plan to occupy Gaza City has been “approved”; it has been approved by the Israel Defense Forces, by the security cabinet, by the defence minister.

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Israel to call up 60,000 reservists as it launches ‘first stages’ of attack on Gaza City – Middle East crisis live

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Troops already holding outskirts of territory’s capital, military says, while Israel approves huge new illegal settlement splitting West Bank

Iran launched its first military exercise since the end of its 12-day war with Israel, state television reported Thursday, with navy vessels launching missiles at targets at sea in the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean.

While such drills are routine in the Islamic Republic, the “Sustainable Power 1404” exercise comes as authorities in Iran are trying to project strength in the wake of a war that saw Israel destroy air defense systems and bomb nuclear facilities and other sites.

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UK to evacuate nine Gaza students with university scholarships

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Move follows months of pressure from MPs, academics and campaigners, with dozens of other students still stranded

Nine students in Gaza with full scholarships to study at British universities have been told the UK government is working to facilitate their evacuation.

The students – who have all been awarded Chevening scholarships, funded by the Foreign Office in recognition of their potential as future leaders – welcomed the development on Wednesday, but dozens more Palestinians in Gaza with university places are still awaiting news.

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Buchenwald can refuse entry to people wearing Palestinian keffiyeh, German court rules

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Court in Thuringia rejected woman’s request to enter concentration camp memorial while wearing the scarf

A German court has ruled that a Nazi concentration camp memorial has the right to refuse entry to those wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh scarf.

The higher administrative court in the eastern state of Thuringia on Wednesday rejected a request from a woman to be allowed entry to the Buchenwald concentration camp memorial while wearing a keffiyeh.

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Macron hits out at ‘abject’ Netanyahu claim of rise in antisemitism in France

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French president responds to Israeli PM’s ‘erroneous’ allegations in relation to decision to recognise state of Palestine

Emmanuel Macron has hit out at Benjamin Netanyahu for his “abject” and “erroneous” remarks after Israel’s prime minister claimed that antisemitism had “surged” in France after the country’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state in September.

In a statement released late on Tuesday, the office of the French president pushed back against Netanyahu’s claim. “The analysis suggesting that France’s decision to recognise the state of Palestine in September is behind the rise in antisemitic violence in France is erroneous, abject, and will not go unanswered,” it said. “The current period calls for seriousness and responsibility, not generalisation and manipulation.”

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Israel to call up around 60,000 reservists before planned offensive on Gaza City, says Israeli military official – as it happened

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Israel is “killing all prospects” for peace in the Middle East, Jordan’s foreign minister has said amid escalating international outrage over Israel’s plans for a new large-scale offensive in Gaza City and plans to massively expand Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Ayman Safadi made his remarks during a visit to Moscow on the same day that the Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, approved a plan to conquer Gaza City, an urban area home to hundreds of thousands of people in the north of the Palestinian territory.

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Israel expands Gaza City offensive as UK decries West Bank settlement approval

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Construction would be ‘flagrant breach of international law’ and undermine two-state solution, foreign secretary says

Israel has announced it is expanding its military operations in Gaza City, as the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, condemned its approval of a huge new illegal settlement in the West Bank as a “flagrant breach of international law.”

The Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Effie Defrin said the IDF had begun the second phase of Operation Gideon’s Chariots in Gaza, which it launched in May.

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Israel to respond by Friday over Gaza truce plan accepted by Hamas

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Israel under pressure to accept ceasefire proposal that is said to be almost identical to earlier US-backed plan

Israel has said it will deliver its response to international mediators by Friday over a new Gaza ceasefire plan accepted by Hamas amid mounting pressure for a truce in a war that has claimed more than 62,000 Palestinian lives.

After mass protests in Israel demanding a deal to secure the release of the remaining 20 living Israeli hostages held in Gaza, it appeared that Hamas had reduced its demands over a prisoners-for-hostages exchange as well as over the scope of an Israeli-demanded “security buffer zone”.

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Mediators optimistic Israel will accept ceasefire deal that is ‘almost identical’ to one they earlier agreed – as it happened

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Qatar says no breakthrough has yet been made but Hamas has given ‘positive response’

The UN’s human rights office on Tuesday condemned a far-right Israeli minister for taunting a Palestinian prisoner in his cell and sharing the footage online, Reuters reports.

National security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir published a video on Friday last week showing him confronting Marwan Barghouti, the most high-profile Palestinian detainee in Israeli custody.

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Hamas says it accepts proposal for Gaza ceasefire and release of hostages

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Deal would include 60-day halt to violence and exchange of half of living Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners

Hamas officials say they have accepted a proposal for a Gaza ceasefire deal that would include the release of half of the approximately 20 remaining living Israeli hostages as part of a phased resolution to the war, as Gaza health officials said 62,000 Palestinians had died in the 22 months of war.

The proposed deal follows negotiations between Hamas and Egyptian and Qatari officials that have been taking place in Cairo in recent days, and comes after the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was confronted on Sunday by Israel’s biggest protests of the war, which called for a deal to secure the release of the hostages.

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Netanyahu criticises protests in Israel against his handling of Gaza war

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Israeli PM suggests demonstrators are toughening Hamas’s stance and delaying the release of hostages

Benjamin Netanyahu has criticised massive street protests against his handling of the Gaza war, and failure to secure the release of remaining Israeli hostages, suggesting demonstrators were giving comfort to Hamas’s position in negotiations.

The Israeli prime minister made his comments against the backdrop of the largest protests in almost two years of war, with estimates that upwards of 400,000 people joined marches across Israel on Sunday.

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Hamas delegation in Egypt receives new Gaza truce plan, reports say – Middle East crisis live

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Negotiators in Cairo receive proposal calling for 60-day truce and hostage release in two batches, says Palestinian official

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, said on Monday it had decided to exclude six companies with connections to the West Bank and Gaza from its portfolio, following a review of its Israeli investments.

The $2tn wealth fund did not name the companies it had decided to exclude, but said these would be made public once the divestment was completed, Reuters reports.

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Far-right Israeli politician barred from Australia ahead of speaking tour

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Simcha Rothman – a supporter of plan to remove Palestinians from Gaza – was scheduled to appear at events in Sydney and Melbourne

A far-right Israeli politician, who has described Palestinian children in Gaza as “enemies” and called for Israel’s total control of the West Bank, has been denied entry into Australia ahead of an upcoming “solidarity tour”.

Simcha Rothman, a member of the Knesset for the far-right party Religious Zionism, was scheduled to appear at two public events in Sydney and Melbourne in August and two private events billed as a “solidarity tour”.

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Ex-Israeli intelligence chief said 50 Palestinians must die for every 7 October victim

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‘It does not matter if they are children,’ said Aharon Haliva in recorded comments calling the death toll ‘necessary’

The Israeli general who headed military intelligence on 7 October 2023 has said 50 Palestinians must die for every person killed that day and “it does not matter now if they are children”, in recordings broadcast by Israel’s Channel 12 TV station.

Aharon Haliva said the toll in Gaza, which he put at more than 50,000 dead, was “necessary” as a “message to future generations” of Palestinians.

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Israeli unit tasked with smearing Gaza journalists as Hamas fighters – report

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Israeli-Palestinian magazine says IDF ‘legitimisation cell’ set up to blunt global outrage over killing of media staff

A special unit in Israel’s military was tasked with identifying reporters it could smear as undercover Hamas fighters, to target them and to blunt international outrage over the killing of media workers, the Israeli-Palestinian outlet +972 Magazine reports.

The “legitimisation cell” was set up after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack to gather information that could bolster Israel’s image and shore up diplomatic and military support from key allies, the report said, citing three intelligence sources.

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Israeli minister posts video online confronting Palestinian detainee in his prison cell – as it happened

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Far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir posts video showing him confronting Marwan Barghouti, who has spent more than 20 years in Israeli custody

At least 16 Palestinian people, including five aid seekers, have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since dawn, Al Jazeera is reporting, citing medical sources.

Here are some of the latest images being sent to us over the newswires from Gaza:

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Israeli minister says Sydney Harbour Bridge protesters ‘useful idiots’ who fell for terrorist propaganda

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Sharren Haskel accuses demonstrators of ‘marching with terrorist organisations’ but organisers reject her claims and say people are ‘outraged’

An Israeli government minister has said the thousands of Australians who marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to protest against the killing in Gaza were “naive” and “useful idiots” for Hamas.

Sharren Haskel, Israel’s deputy foreign affairs minister, also claimed during Friday’s interview on ABC radio that there was not a “real famine” in Gaza.

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Aid groups say Israel’s new registration rules are ‘weaponising aid’

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Lifesaving goods for starved people in Gaza blocked by vague rules on anti-Israeli activity, say humanitarian bodies

More than 100 aid organisations working in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have accused Israel of dangerously “weaponising aid” in its application of new rules for registering groups involved in delivering humanitarian assistance.

The letter represents the latest broadside from the international aid community against Israel after the EU, Britain and Japan on Tuesday called for urgent action to stop “famine” spreading in the Gaza Strip.

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Albanese says ‘Hamas will engage in propaganda’ amid confusion over statements on Palestinian statehood

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Hamas account claims quotes attributed to co-founder Hassan Yousef unlikely to be true given he’s been in jail since October 2023

Anthony Albanese has warned media about Hamas propaganda, amid confusion regarding statements reportedly made by the terrorist group in relation to Australia’s pledge to recognise a Palestinian state.

Nine newspapers reported on Wednesday that the Hamas co-founder and senior official Hassan Yousef had welcomed the decision, praising Australia’s “political courage” and calling on other countries to follow its example.

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‘Censorship’: over 115 scholars condemn cancellation of Harvard journal issue on Palestine

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In an open letter, writers denounced abrupt scrapping of a Harvard Educational Review issue dedicated to Palestine

More than 115 education scholars have condemned the cancellation of an entire issue of an academic journal dedicated to Palestine by a Harvard University publisher as “censorship”.

In an open letter published on Thursday, the scholars denounced the abrupt scrapping of a special issue of the Harvard Educational Review – which was first revealed by the Guardian in July – as an “attempt to silence the academic examination of the genocide, starvation and dehumanisation of Palestinian people by the state of Israel and its allies.”

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