Category Archives: Gaza

Bill Shorten urges Israel to look after Palestinian civilians after Unrwa banned in Gaza

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Coalition meanwhile says Australia should divert aid funding away from the UN humanitarian assistance body

Bill Shorten has said Palestinians in Gaza should be “prioritised” and urged Israel to look after civilians at risk after Israel’s parliament voted to ban the UN Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) from Israel and the areas of Gaza, the West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem within 90 days.

Meanwhile, the opposition said the Albanese government should divert the millions of dollars in funding to Unrwa to other more “trusted” humanitarian organisations.

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US calls on Israel to tackle ‘catastrophic humanitarian crisis’ in Gaza

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Failure to help improve the situation on the ground could be met by restrictions on US military aid

Israel is not addressing the “catastrophic humanitarian crisis” in Gaza, the US envoy to the United Nations has said as a deadline imposed by Washington looms for the Israelis to improve the situation or face potential restrictions on military aid.

“Israel’s words must be matched by action on the ground,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the security council. “Right now, that is not happening. This must change – immediately.”

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Deadly airstrikes reported in Lebanon – as it happened

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The Israeli army told residents in parts of Lebanon’s southern city of Tyre to leave immediately, warning that it would attack Hezbollah targets there.

“Hezbollah’s activities force the (Israeli army) to act against it forcefully,” military spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote in a post on X that included a map of targeted areas in the coastal city.

Hezbollah’s activities force the IDF to act against it forcefully, as we do not intend to harm you.

You must immediately move out of the area marked in red and head north of the Awali River.

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Israeli parliament votes to ban Unrwa from Israel within 90 days

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Lawmakers also voted to declare UN relief agency a terror group, banning any direct interaction with Israeli state

Israel’s parliament has voted to ban the UN relief and works agency (Unrwa) from the country within 90 days, in defiance of US and other international pressure to maintain the largest provider of humanitarian assistance to the country’s Palestinian population.

In a 92-10 vote late on Monday, the Knesset banned the agency, which operates in Israel according to a 1967 treaty, from conducting “any activity” or providing any service inside Israel, including the areas of annexed East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank.

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London conference hears UK and Israeli criticism of conduct of Gaza war

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Speakers at event call for commitment to a two-state solution and urge Labour government to do more

Criticism of the Israeli government and calls for tolerance and a commitment to a two-state solution were the major themes of an event in London on Sunday organised by the left-leaning Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

The conference, titled Israel After October 7th: Allied or Alone?, featured speakers from across Israeli and UK politics, academia and media. It served in part to show the extent to which some members of the Jewish diaspora have been traumatised not just by the horrors of 7 October but also the response of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

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Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 70 as UN chief calls civilians’ plight ‘unbearable’

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One person killed as truck rams into bus stop in Israel, and Benjamin Netanyahu heckled at memorial event

Approximately 70 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in the past day, health officials in Gaza said, as Israel’s renewed campaign in the north of the strip shows no sign of slowing despite the revival of ceasefire talks after a three-month-long hiatus.

Separately, one person was killed when a truck rammed into a bus stop in Ramat Hasharon, north of Tel Aviv, on Sunday, in what Israeli police are treating as a suspected terrorist attack. About 40 people were injured to varying degrees, some seriously, and were taken to nearby hospitals, police said.

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Cutting off Unrwa would deeply harm Israel’s reputation, says UK minister

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Hamish Falconer says legislation under consideration by Knesset is ‘neither in Israel’s interest nor realistic’

Israel’s reputation as a democracy would be “deeply harmed” if the Knesset pressed ahead with bills this week that would end all Israeli government cooperation with the Palestinian relief agency Unrwa, the UK’s Middle East minister has said.

Hamish Falconer said such a move at a time when the humanitarian crisis in Gaza was catastrophic and worsening would “neither be in Israel’s interest or realistic”.

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Middle East crisis live: two more Palestinian journalists reportedly killed in Gaza; deadly Tel Aviv crash investigated as terrorist attack

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One killed and at least 29 injured after truck hits bus stop in Israel; protesters shout ‘shame on you’ as Israeli PM speaks at memorial ceremony for victims of Hamas attack

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has commented on Israel’s airstrikes on Iran, which the IDF said targeted missile factories and other sites near Tehran and western Iran on Saturday morning.

In a speech, Netanyahu said:

The air force attacked throughout Iran. We hit hard Iran’s defence capabilities and its ability to produce missiles that are aimed at us.

The attack in Iran was precise and powerful, and it achieved all its objectives.

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Iran-Israel’s shadow war is out in the open and will only escalate unless causes addressed

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Face-to-face military confrontation on each other’s soil has now been normalised

For years, Israel and Iran have waged a “shadow war”, attacking each other indirectly using proxy forces, assassinations, informants, spies and hybrid, non-military covert means. Now this undeclared, largely silent war is undisguisedly out in the open. It’s become a shooting war, it’s noisy, it’s escalating, and there’s no end in sight.

This is not to say Israel’s large-scale, three-wave air assault on Tehran and other targets inside Iran early on Saturday morning means the two enemies are now engaged in all-out conflict. This is not yet the full-scale, region-wide conflagration so many in the Middle East fear. That may be coming, but it’s still in the future.

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‘Israel is trying to erase our presence’: Palestinians say ‘generals’ plan’ to clear north Gaza is under way

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Many believe new offensive, along with tightening of siege, is following blueprint for removing remaining population

Hospitals shelled, shelters set alight, men and boys separated from their families and taken away in military vehicles; a year into Israel-Hamas war, civilians clinging on in northern Gaza say the situation is worse than it has ever been.

About 400,000 people have remained in Gaza City and surrounding towns since Israel cut the area off from the rest of the territory and issued evacuation orders. Some are unwilling to leave home, afraid they will never be allowed to return; others decided to stay put for the sake of elderly or disabled family members. Civilians have reported that the routes to the relative safety of the south are unsafe, citing sniper fire and detention by Israeli forces.

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Israeli airstrikes kill at least 72 across Gaza

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Thirty-eight killed in Khan Younis including 13 children from same family, as survivors sift through rubble

• Middle East crisis – live updates

At least 72 people have been killed in Israeli operations across Gaza in the past day, hospital officials in the besieged territory have said, although communication difficulties in the north of the strip mean the final toll could be much higher.

In the central town of Khan Younis, 38 people, including at least 13 children from the same family, were killed in airstrikes early on Friday, hospital records showed. Relatives cradled their bruised and broken bodies in the morgue of the nearby European hospital before they were buried, in some cases several children to a shroud.

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Israel must stop ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Gaza, Jordan tells US

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Jordanian foreign secretary warns ‘we stand at brink of regional war’ as he meets Antony Blinken in London

Jordan’s foreign minister has called for pressure on Israel to end what he called the “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza, as he met the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, in London.

Blinken, who is still hoping Gaza peace talks can be revived, stopped over in the UK to brief leaders from Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan after he had been unable to meet them on his recent tour of the Middle East.

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Blasts reported near Imam Khomeini international airport in Iran – as it happened

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Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, has told reporters that over 163 rescuers and health workers had been killed and 272 injured in Israeli airstrikes during more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Hezbollah, the Iranian backed Lebanese militant group, began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Palestinians on 7 October 2023, the day after its ally Hamas’s attack on southern Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed.

We have been very clear that this cannot lead - should not lead - to a protracted campaign and that Israel must take the necessary steps to avoid civilian casualties and not endanger UN peacekeepers or the Lebanese armed forces.

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Israel’s plan to ban Unrwa from accessing Gaza marks new low in its relations with UN

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US only nation likely to be able to persuade Netanyahu to drop plan condemned by 123 member states

Worsening relations between the United Nations and Israel appear to have reached a nadir with the imminent passage of a bill in the Israeli Knesset designed to make it impossible for the UN relief and works agency for Palestinians (Unrwa) to operate in Gaza and West Bank.

Unrwa has long been a target of Israel, predating its claims that up to 12 members of the group’s staff took part in the 7 October attacks , but the move to ban the agency altogether signals a fresh polarisation that may take years to reverse.

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US warns against ‘protracted’ campaign in Lebanon as Israel strikes Beirut

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In a visit to the region, secretary of state Antony Blinken said the US was working to progress ceasefire talks for Gaza and Lebanon

Israeli strikes hit Beirut on Thursday evening, after the US warned against Israel being led into a “protracted” campaign in Lebanon and efforts got under way to hold renewed talks over a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza.

Lebanese state media said several strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday, about half an hour after Israel issued evacuation warnings for the Hezbollah bastion after intense strikes the night before.

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Israeli airstrike reported in south Beirut; Gaza is ‘dying’, aid group chief says – as it happened

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This blog has now closed. You can read our full coverage of the continuing conflict in the region here.

Warning sirens have again sounded in northern Israel.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reports that later today India will deliver 33 tons of medical aid to Lebanon.

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At least 17 killed in Israeli strike on school turned shelter in Nuseirat

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Deaths in central Gaza come as Al Jazeera accuses Israel of targeting its journalists working in the war zone

At least 17 people, nearly all women and children, have been killed in Israeli bombing of a school turned shelter in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, medics in the territory have said.

The strike, the latest bombing of a school sheltering displaced people across Gaza, came as the Qatari television network Al Jazeera accused Israel of turning its journalists reporting from north Gaza into targets after the Israeli military claimed a day earlier that six reporters were members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

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Israeli assault on northern Gaza forces postponement of polio vaccination campaign

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WHO says ‘escalating violence’ in northern Gaza has led to postponement of vaccines to more than 100,000 children

Israeli strikes across Gaza killed 42 people on Wednesday as the military intensified a siege on northern parts of the Palestinian territory, forcing the World Health Organization to pause the latest phase of its polio vaccination campaign, medics and officials said.

Israeli forces began the operation in the north about three weeks ago with the declared aim of preventing Hamas fighters from regrouping. The operation has intensified since the killing of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar a week ago, despite hopes from the US that his death could provide a fresh impetus for peace.

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Hezbollah claims to have hit Tel Aviv factory – as it happened

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In a statement on its official Telegram channel, Israel’s military has claimed that overnight it struck at weapons storage facilities in Beirut in Lebanon.

In the message, the IDF said the targets were “manufacturing facilities and command centres belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization which were located within civilian infrastructure.”

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Four in 10 deaths in war zones last year were women, UN report finds

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UN Women says figure doubled in 2023 amid ‘blatant disregard’ of laws that left women and children unprotected

The proportion of women killed in conflicts around the world doubled last year, with women now accounting for 40% of all those killed in war zones, according to a new report by the United Nations.

The report from UN Women, which looks at the security situation for women and girls affected by war, says UN-verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence also rose by 50% in 2023 compared with 2022.

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