First Thing: National guard begins deploying on DC streets after Trump police takeover

City’s mayor has hardened her stance on Trump’s ‘authoritarian’ actions. Plus, Israel intensifies bombing of Gaza killing 89 Palestinians in 24 hours

Good morning.

The Washington DC national guard began deploying on the city’s streets on Tuesday night, as the city’s mayor toughened her response to Donald Trump taking control of the city’s police force.

What did Washington’s mayor say? Muriel Bowser, the Democratic mayor of Washington, hardened her stance after treading a more diplomatic line earlier in the day. During a live event on social media on Tuesday night, she described the arrival of federalized national guard members as an authoritarian push. Other critics have said the move seeks to distract attention from political problems such as the Jeffrey Epstein files.

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Recognising Palestinian state must not distract from ending Gaza mass deaths, UN expert says

Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur for the occupied territories, calls for practical actions and warns against distracting ‘attention from where it should be: the genocide’

The United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied territories has warned that moves to recognise a Palestinian state should not distract member states from stopping mass death and starvation in Gaza.

“Of course it’s important to recognize the state of Palestine,” Francesca Albanese told the Guardian after several more countries responded to the mounting starvation in Gaza by announcing plans to recognize an independent Palestine. “It’s incoherent that they’ve not done it already.”

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New Zealand PM says Netanyahu has ‘lost the plot’ after Palestine recognition debate sees MP ejected

Green party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick accused government MPs of lacking a ‘spine’ during a debate on whether to recognise a Palestinian state

As more of its allies make moves to recognise Palestinian statehood, the issue is dominating New Zealand’s politics, with a prominent MP ejected from parliament on Tuesday and the prime minister describing his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu as having “lost the plot”.

Speaking to local media on Wednesday, Christopher Luxon said what was happening in Gaza was “utterly, utterly appalling”.

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‘It’s a horrible picture’: Gaza faces new threat from antibiotic-resistant disease

Fatal infections more likely due to malnutrition, injuries and lack of medical facilities under Israel’s blockade

Gaza is facing a new threat as diseases resistant to antibiotics spread across the devastated territory, research has revealed.

Medical supplies are desperately scarce and tens of thousands of people have been injured in the 22-month war, while many others have been weakened by malnutrition, so the high levels of drug-resistant bacteria will mean longer and more serious illnesses, a more rapid transmission of infectious diseases and more deaths, experts said.

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Israel intensifies bombing of Gaza, killing 89 Palestinians in 24 hours

At least 15 people queueing for food among the deaths, and five people reported to have died from starvation

Israel has stepped up bombing Gaza, killing at least 89 Palestinians in 24 hours, including at least 15 people queueing for food, despite global outcry over the deaths of six journalists in the territory the previous day.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City had intensified in the three days after Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet approved plans to expand the war in the territory.

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Palestinian reporters killed, international reporters banned – Israel’s other Gaza war is over narrative

Members of press and influencers covering devastation are being silenced despite protection under international law

Israel is running two Gaza campaigns: one for military control of the strip; another for narrative control of how the world understands what happens there.

In theory, Palestinian journalists and social media influencers documenting starvation, mass killing and other Israeli war crimes in Gaza are protected civilians under international law.

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‘I risked everything’: remembering six media workers killed by Israel in Gaza

CJP says the period since 7 October 2023 has been the most deadly for journalists since it began gathering data in 1992

Journalists have been prominent among casualties since the war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s incursion into Israel in October 2023.

Some were working for well-known international media, others were employed by local news organisations. Several were high-profile veterans, but many were newcomers to the profession.

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Mourners gather amid outrage over Israeli troops’ killing of journalists in Gaza – live updates

UN condemns killing of Anas al-Sharif and colleagues, calling it a ‘grave breach of international humanitarian law’

Anas al-Sharif among five journalists killed in Israeli airstrike

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the “acknowledged murder by the Israeli army” of Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif in Gaza, who the armed forces admitted they had targeted, along with several of his colleagues.

The press freedom campaign group told news agency AFP it “strongly and angrily condemns the acknowledged murder by the Israeli army” of al-Sharif and other journalists.

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Monday briefing: ​What a new investigation tells us about the shooting of Palestinians at Gaza aid sites

In today’s newsletter: A Guardian investigation uncovers chilling evidence that civilians in Gaza appear to have been targeted by coordinated ​gunfire during food distributions

Good morning. In May 2025, Israel dismantled the United Nations-led humanitarian aid distribution system in Gaza. In its place came a distribution scheme run by the secretive Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) that came under immediate scrutiny for its “militarised model” and close ties to Israeli authorities, which rights groups warned “undermines the core humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence”.

In the months since, humanitarians’ worst fears about the aid sites have been realised. International observers have expressed concern as daily reports emerged of civilians being shot, shelled or crushed while attempting to access aid. Almost 1,400 Palestinians have reportedly been killed while seeking food, primarily near GHF distribution sites.

Israel-Gaza war | Benjamin Netanyahu has defended his plan to take control of Gaza City, even as senior UN officials warned the move risked unleashing “another calamity” on the territory. On Sunday, Anas al-Sharif, a prominent Al Jazeera journalist, was killed in an Israeli airstrike. Israel admitted a deliberate attack on the journalist.

Ukraine | Europe’s leaders have raised the pressure on Donald Trump to involve Ukraine in a planned summit with Vladimir Putin, as Germany warned the White House against any deal hatched “over the heads of Europeans and Ukrainians”.

Housing | Lower-income householders, minority ethnic people and those with young children are more likely to live in homes at risk from dangerous overheating, research has found.

UK news | Half of the people arrested during the protest in relation to Palestine Action in London on Saturday were aged 60 or above, according to police figures. A total of 532 people were arrested at the largest demonstration relating to the group – all but 10 under section 13 of the Terrorism Act for displaying supportive placards or signs.

Crime | Foreign criminals from 15 more countries face deportation before they have a chance to appeal, in an expansion of the UK government’s “deport first, appeal later” scheme.

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Anas al-Sharif, prominent Al Jazeera correspondent, among five journalists killed in Israeli airstrike on Gaza

Israel admits deliberate attack on the journalist, known for frontline coverage, in a strike on a tent outside al-Shifa hospital

A prominent Al Jazeera journalist who had previously been threatened by Israel has been killed along with four colleagues in an Israeli airstrike.

Anas al-Sharif, who was one of Al Jazeera’s most recognisable faces in Gaza, was killed while inside a tent for journalists outside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Sunday night. His funeral was held on Monday morning.

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Netanyahu defends Gaza City plan as UN warns of ‘calamity’ and starvation

Israeli PM says taking over city is ‘best way’ to end war, despite condemnation from within Israel and around world

Benjamin Netanyahu has defended his plan to take control of Gaza City in the face of widespread international outrage, even as senior UN officials warned that the move risked unleashing “another calamity” on a territory already experiencing “starvation, pure and simple”.

In a rare press conference with foreign journalists in Jerusalem, the Israeli prime minister said the plan, signed off last week by the security cabinet to criticism both at home and abroad, was “the best way to end the war and the best way to end it speedily.”

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UK’s chief rabbi criticises Labour’s Palestine pledge at march for hostages

Sir Ephraim Mirvis joins relatives of hostages in calling for their release before any recognition of a Palestinian state

The chief rabbi has criticised Labour’s pledge to recognise a Palestinian state at a “national march for the hostages” in central London organised by a number of Jewish groups.

Family members of Israeli hostages taken on 7 October also joined the march on Downing Street to urge the release of those being held by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

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Thousands in Tel Aviv protest against Netanyahu’s plan to escalate Gaza war

Organisers say more than 100,000 people joined demonstration demanding end to military campaign

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday night to oppose Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to escalate the Gaza war.

A day earlier, the Israeli prime minister’s office said the security cabinet had decided to seize Gaza City, expanding military operations in the devastated Palestinian territory despite widespread public opposition and warnings from the military the move could endanger the hostages.

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Israeli plan to seize Gaza City an ‘unprecedented provocation’, Palestinian Authority says – as it happened

This blog is now closed

Iran’s judiciary said Saturday it was investigating the cases of 20 people arrested over their suspected links with Israel following the 12-day war between the two arch-foes.

“These cases were immediately filed under the supervision of the esteemed investigators and are being investigated,” Judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir told reporters in Tehran, adding that further information would be shared as it became available.

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Albanese and Luxon urge Israel to reconsider Gaza City takeover during ‘warm, generous’ meeting

Australian and New Zealand leaders reject possible US trade retaliation over recognising Palestinian statehood and reaffirm plans to deepen security ties

Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and his New Zealand counterpart, Christopher Luxon, have urged Israel to reconsider its plans to take over Gaza City and reaffirmed their intentions to deepen security ties, as they met in Queenstown on Saturday.

Following a pōwhiri (formal Māori welcome) at Te Wharehuanui – a private retreat built by the billionaire Xero founder, Rod Drury – Luxon said the world had become uncertain and fractious, and that New Zealand “has no greater friend than Australia”.

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US and UK disagree about Gaza policy, Vance suggests before Lammy meeting

Vice-president says, unlike Britain, White House has no plans to recognise the Palestinian state

The US and UK have “disagreements” on Gaza including over whether to recognise a Palestinian state, JD Vance has suggested as he arrived in England for his summer holiday.

The US vice-president was speaking before a bilateral meeting with David Lammy, the UK foreign secretary, at his 17th-century grace-and-favour country house, Chevening.

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Vance says UK and US have ‘disagreements’ over Gaza, as he confirms Trump does not back Palestinian state recognition – as it happened

David Lammy is hosting the US vice-president at Chevening, his grace-and-favour residence in Kent, where they will discuss the Middle East

The SNP is calling for the recall of parliament so that MPs can approve sanctions against Benjamin Netanyahu in the light of his decision to extend the occupation of Gaza. In a statement Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader at Westminster, said:

A genocide is happening before our eyes in Gaza. Words of condemnation aren’t anywhere near enough - if we have any hope of stopping this genocide strong actions are desperately needed, now.

That means Keir Starmer needs to recall Westminster and take concrete steps to sanction the Israeli government.

Those sanctions must include ending all arms sales to the Israeli military, stopping all training, logistical and military support to the IDF, directly and personally sanctioning Netanyahu and his ministers and finally and immediately recognising the state of Palestine before it is brutally wiped off the map.

If the international community fails to act - we are consciously and complicitly standing idly by - allowing Benjamin Netanyahu to plan, implement and inflict an ongoing genocide in Gaza.

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Israel’s delusional, inhuman Gaza takeover plan could be recipe for perpetual war

Decision will place huge financial burden on Israel and could lead to massive increase in Palestinian civilian deaths

One of Israel’s most celebrated images is David Rubinger’s photograph of a trio of paratroopers at the newly captured Western Wall in 1967, an event that would mark the beginning of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

You see it when arriving at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport. It has been used to illustrate the Israel Defense Forces’ “values” page, and appears endlessly in the Hebrew media and on pro-Israel sites.

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Starmer calls Gaza City takeover plan wrong and urges Israel to reconsider

UK prime minister says occupation approved by Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet will only bring more bloodshed

Keir Starmer has urged Benjamin Netanyahu to reconsider his plans to take over Gaza City and said the move would only bring more bloodshed.

The British prime minister said Israel’s decision to escalate a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians over the past 22 months while pushing the territory into famine was wrong and would do nothing to secure the release of Israeli hostages.

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Israel-Gaza war live: security cabinet approves Gaza City take over; opposition leader calls decision ‘a disaster’

Yair Lapid says far-right ministers dragged Benjamin Netanyahu into ‘exactly what Hamas wanted’ after security cabinet approves take over plan

The UK’s ambassador to Israel has said extending the war in Gaza would only lead to more deaths and that occupying Gaza would be a “huge mistake”.

Simon Walters was quoted by Israel’s Haaretz newspaper as saying on Thursday:

The IDF has achieved all that it can achieve in Gaza, and extending the war any further will simply lead to more deaths. Deaths of soldiers, deaths of Palestinians, deaths of hostages.

If you want to defeat Hamas, you cannot achieve that through military force. You need to use politics and diplomacy and you need to give the people of Gaza an alternative to Hamas.

We are working with friends, allies in Europe and in the Middle East to generate a real plan for what happens after the fighting stops, after the war.

It needs to be a description of what the governments will be for Gaza. That has to be governance by Palestinians who are not members of Hamas with a role for the Palestinian Authority.

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