Category Archives: Gaza

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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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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‘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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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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Gaza ministry says 20 killed in anti-‘gang’ operation after looting of aid convoy

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Hamas-run interior ministry says it carried out security operation after armed looters hijacked almost 100 trucks

Gaza’s Hamas-run interior ministry has said that at least 20 people have been killed in an operation targeting “gangs” accused of looting trucks bringing aid into the war-torn territory which is facing the threat of famine.

Gunmen attacked and looted about 100 trucks carrying desperately needed supplies over the weekend, the biggest such attack during 13 months of war in the territory and new evidence of the growing power of Gaza’s criminal gangs.

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Middle East crisis live: Israeli strike kills Hezbollah lead spokesperson in Beirut

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A Lebanese soldier has been killed, with three wounded after Israel attacked an army post in a Lebanese town.

The Lebanese Army posted on X that one of those injured was in a critical condition after the attack on Sunday.

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Israeli strike on Beirut kills Hezbollah media chief Mohammed Afif

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Attack came without warning on day dozens killed in airstrikes in Gaza and Israel struck other targets in Lebanon

Hezbollah’s chief spokesman has been killed by an Israeli airstrike on Beirut, as Israel intensifies its air offensive in Lebanon despite ongoing indirect negotiations for a ceasefire.

Mohammed Afif, who has been the public face of Hezbollah for months, was killed in a strike on offices of the Ba’ath party in Ras al-Nabaa, central Beirut. The attack in the busy residential area came without warning, and appeared to damage to neighbouring buildings.

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Middle East crisis: Israeli troops reach deepest point in Lebanon since invasion began – as it happened

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Another airstrike hit the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut around midday local time, according to AFP, after the area was hit earlier this morning.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported a raid by “enemy aircraft” in the neighbourhood of Chiyah.

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Elizabeth Warren denounces Biden administration over Gaza humanitarian situation

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Massachusetts senator now joins Bernie Sanders in endorsing joint resolution of disapproval against Joe Biden

Elizabeth Warren, a leading progressive voice in the US Senate, has denounced the Biden administration’s failure to punish Israel over the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza and endorsed a joint resolution of disapproval in Congress.

The amount of aid reaching the territory has dropped to the lowest level in 11 months, official Israeli figures show. The White House last month gave Israel an ultimatum of 30 days to improve conditions or risk losing military support. As the deadline expired on Tuesday, international aid groups said Israel had fallen far short.

But the US state department announced it would not take any punitive action, insisting that Israel was making limited progress and was not blocking aid and therefore not violating US law. Warren condemned the Biden administration’s decision to continue supplying arms to its ally.

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Israeli strikes intensify on three fronts as Lebanon talks reach critical stage

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IDF hits Gaza, Syria and Beirut suburbs, as analysts say raids could be aimed at forcing hand of Hezbollah in negotiations

Israel has intensified its air offensives on three fronts, launching dozens of new strikes in Lebanon, Gaza and Syria as negotiations for a ceasefire on its northern border reach a critical point.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said about 30 targets had been struck in the southern suburbs of Beirut in 48 hours and described continuing efforts to “dismantle and degrade” the military capabilities of the militant Islamist organisation.

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Conflict in Gaza an ‘Israeli terrorism creation factory’, warns Australian on UN inquiry

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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.”

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Middle East crisis: Israeli strike kills six in southern Lebanon, health ministry says – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. You can read all our coverage of the Israel-Gaza war here and all our coverage of Israel’s war on Lebanon here

Overnight the IDF announced that six soldiers had been killed in clashes with Hezbollah inside southern Lebanon.

The Times of Israel reports “it was one of the heaviest single-day losses in the operation that began in late September,” and that “according to an initial IDF probe, the soldiers were killed in an exchange of fire with at least four Hezbollah operatives inside a building in a village in southern Lebanon.”

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Israel accused of crimes against humanity over forced displacement in Gaza

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Human Rights Watch says it has evidence that suggests ‘the war crime of forcible transfer’ of civilians

Israel is using evacuation orders to pursue the “deliberate and massive forced displacement” of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, according to a report by Human Rights Watch, which says the policy amounts to crimes against humanity.

The US-based group added it had collected evidence that suggested “the war crime of forcible transfer [of the civilian population]”, describing it as “a grave breach of the Geneva conventions and a crime under the Rome statute of the international criminal court”.

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US wants Gaza fighting pause, Blinken says, but will not limit arms transfers despite Israel missing aid deadline – as it happened

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The US wants real and extended pauses in fighting in Gaza so assistance can get to people who need it, US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, told reporters on Wednesday.

More details to follow …

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Unrwa shutdown by Israel would add to Gaza suffering, says top official

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Sam Rose warns of severe consequences amid weakened US stance and points to ICJ demand to protect aid efforts

Israel’s plan to close the UN Palestinian relief agency, Unrwa, within three months is impossible and unrealistic without causing further untold suffering to the Palestinian people, its director of operations in Gaza has warned.

Just returned from Gaza, where he said he had seen levels of suffering unprecedented since the war started, Sam Rose warned that Unrwa could collapse, with severe implications for schools and hospitals not just in Gaza but in the West Bank if Israel went ahead with its plan.

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Aid groups accuse Israel of ignoring US ultimatum on ‘apocalyptic’ Gaza crisis

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US may soon impose sanctions as organisations say Israel has failed to help relieve dire humanitarian situation

A coalition of international aid organisations have accused Israel of ignoring a US ultimatum that threatened sanctions if Israel did not implement a series of measures to counter the acute humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The 30-day ultimatum– due to expire on Tuesday or Wednesday – was delivered on 13 October, and almost none of its demands have been met, the humanitarian groups say.

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Aid entering Gaza is lowest in months, says Unrwa, as US deadline approaches – Middle East crisis, as it happened

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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.

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