Category Archives: Gaza

Gaza polio vaccine rollout hindered by Israeli evacuation orders, says UN

Posted on by

Aid workers preparing to distribute medicine to children in effort to contain outbreak call for pause in fighting

The UN has said its ability to function in Gaza is being crippled by a flurry of Israeli evacuation orders, forcing Palestinians into ever smaller and more remote areas, days before a critical effort to contain a polio outbreak.

Aid workers warn that without a humanitarian pause, a vaccination drive due to begin this weekend could fail to reach enough children to stop the spread of the virus, which was detected there this month for the first time in 25 years. A baby has already been partly paralysed by the disease, and health experts have warned it could spread rapidly given the terrible sanitation and overcrowding in camps for Gaza’s exhausted, displaced population.

Continue reading...

Zomi Frankcom’s brother calls for those responsible for her death in Israeli airstrike to be prosecuted

Posted on by

Mal Frankcom says he wants people behind strike that killed seven people to be ‘tried and convicted and punished’

The brother of the Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike, has called for those responsible for his sister’s death to be prosecuted and punished.

Frankcom, a 43-year-old from Melbourne who was working in Gaza with World Central Kitchen, was one of seven people killed in April when a convoy of cars was hit by an Israeli airstrike.

Continue reading...

Netanyahu says attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon ‘not the end of the story’

Posted on by

Israeli air raids on rocket sites are part of dangerous rise in hostilities, increasing fears a major conflict could erupt

Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that Israeli air raids targeting Hezbollah rockets in southern Lebanon in the early hours of Sunday morning were “not the end of the story”, after the two sides exchanged their heaviest fire since the war in Gaza began, raising fears of an all-out regional conflict.

The Israeli prime minister did not specify what further action, if any, was planned after the intense exchanges but he suggested Israel’s moves would be aimed at “changing the situation in the north”.

Continue reading...

Attorney general intervenes in Foreign Office review of weapons sales to Israel

Posted on by

Exclusive: Richard Hermer tells officials he can’t approve decision to ban arms without knowing if their use would breach international law

Keir Starmer’s most senior legal adviser has intervened in the contentious decision over whether to ban UK arms sales to Israel, the Guardian has learned, as officials struggle to distinguish between “offensive” and “defensive” weapons.

Sources say Richard Hermer, the attorney general, has told Foreign Office officials he will not approve a decision to ban some weapons sales until they can say for sure which could be used to break international humanitarian law.

Continue reading...

Israel and Hezbollah trade strikes as Hamas plays down talk of imminent ceasefire deal in Gaza – as it happened

Posted on by

IDF launches waves of what it calls ‘pre-emptive’ strikes into Lebanon as Hezbollah fires hundreds of rockets in major escalation of tensions

Circling back to Lloyd Austin and Yoav Gallant speaking, the Pentagon said the US defence secretary reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to Israel’s defence.

Reuters reports that a Pentagon readout of the call said Austin spoke with the Israeli defence minister “to discuss Israel’s defence against Lebanese [Hezbollah] attacks”.

Secretary Austin reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s defence against any attacks by Iran and its regional partners and proxies.

Continue reading...

Israeli airstrikes kill at least 36 Palestinians in southern Gaza

Posted on by

Deaths reported by Gaza health workers come as delegations gather in Egypt for ceasefire talks

Multiple Israeli airstrikes killed at least three dozen Palestinians in southern Gaza, health workers said Saturday, as officials including a Hamas delegation gathered for ceasefire talks in Egypt.

Among the dead were 11 members of a family, including two children, after an airstrike hit their home in Khan Younis, according to Nasser hospital.

Continue reading...

Baby in Gaza partly paralysed from polio in territory’s first case for 25 years

Posted on by

WHO says infant in stable condition as it prepares to vaccinate more than 640,000 children amid war

A Palestinian baby in Gaza has been partly paralysed from polio in the first case there for 25 years, amid preparations for a difficult and dangerous vaccination campaign in the midst of war.

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, confirmed that the affected infant had lost movement in his lower left leg, but was in a stable condition.

Continue reading...

Israel-Gaza war: Israeli forces claim to have killed prominent Hezbollah member in attack on Lebanon’s Ayta al-Jabal – as it happened

Posted on by

IDF says it has killed Muhammad Mahmoud Najam in attack in southern Lebanon

The Lebanon Health Ministry said one adult and one child were killed in an Israeli strike on southern Lebanon, Haaretz is reporting.

Lufthansa will resume flights to Amman in Jordan and Erbil in Iraq starting 27 August, Reuters is reporting.

Continue reading...

US officials say Gaza ceasefire ‘in sight’ but Israel and Hamas downbeat

Posted on by

Warring sides indicate breakthrough not imminent as renewed fighting rages in parts of Palestinian territory

US officials have expressed optimism that a ceasefire deal in the war in Gaza “is in sight”, despite growing indications from Israel and Hamas that a breakthrough is not imminent and as renewed fighting rages in parts of the Palestinian territory.

Washington has put pressure on both parties to accept a bridging proposal suggested during internationally mediated talks in Qatar last week, dispatching the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on his ninth visit to the region since the conflict broke out 10 months ago. The latest round of negotiations, in which Hamas is not directly participating, were scheduled to restart in Cairo by Thursday but appear to have been postponed.

Continue reading...

Uncommitted holds sit-in outside Democratic convention after Palestinians denied a speaker

Posted on by

Movement launched protest after party rejected requests for Palestinian American to speak on the main stage

A sit-in that began Wednesday evening in protest of the Democratic convention’s denial of a Palestinian American speaker on the main stage continued on Thursday.

Uncommitted, a national movement that began in Michigan, won 30 delegates to the convention and has tried to use the party process to pressure Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to broker an end to the war in Gaza. The sit-in has been taking place outside the United Center, where Harris will speak this evening, is the latest attempt to get the Democratic party to allow greater prominence for the anti-war movement at this week’s convention in Chicago. Organizers were expected to remain in place until or unless the party changes course.

Continue reading...

Labor quietly extends work and Medicare rights to some visa-holders from Gaza and Israel

Posted on by

Rights granted to two subclasses of bridging visa E as part of ‘additional assistance’ to those affected by conflict

The federal government has extended work rights and Medicare access to some visa-holders from Gaza and Israel as it prepares to shift those who arrived on visitor visas since the 7 October attacks on to bridging visas.

Without public announcement, the government issued a regulation on 5 August extending Medicare access to people holding two subclasses of bridging visa E who had already been granted work rights, and also to immediate family members who are also visa-holders.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Israel-Gaza war: Israeli police arrest four suspected over settler attack on Palestinian village – as it happened

Posted on by

Three adults and one minor arrested over suspected acts of terrorism against Palestinians, Israeli security services say. This live blog is closed

The crew of a Greek-flagged oil tanker that was attacked in the Red Sea on Wednesday abandoned the vessel and were rescued by the EU’s Red Sea naval mission “Aspides”, an official in the mission told Reuters on Thursday.

The Iran-aligned Houthi militants have launched attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea region since November in solidarity with Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Continue reading...

Israel launches reprisal strikes against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon

Posted on by

The attacks came after US president Joe Biden pressed Benjamin Netanyahu on the urgency of sealing a ceasefire deal

Israel launched strikes on more than 10 areas across southern Lebanon, a spokesperson for the army said, hours after Hezbollah launched more than 50 rockets and a swarm of drones, hitting homes in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights and wounding one person.

Israeli warplanes struck weapons depots, military buildings and a launcher used by Hezbollah in an overnight operation, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Thursday.

Continue reading...

Peter Dutton’s comments on Palestinians fleeing Gaza ‘bad for cohesion and harmony’, envoy says

Posted on by

De facto ambassador to Australia says opposition leader’s commentary ‘not evidence based, not verified and unacceptable’

Peter Dutton’s comments about people escaping the bloodshed in Gaza are hurtful and “very bad for cohesion and harmony”, according to Palestine’s de facto ambassador to Australia.

After a week of intense parliamentary debate about Australia’s use of visitor visas for Palestinians fleeing the conflict, Izzat Salah Abdulhadi called the opposition leader’s commentary “very political”.

Continue reading...

People in Gaza forced to stay in areas at risk of Israeli attack as ‘safe zone’ full

Posted on by

Overcrowding in humanitarian zone dissuading those given evacuation orders by IDF from leaving, say UN officials

Thousands of people facing Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have been forced to abandon plans to comply with Israeli evacuation orders telling them to move to a designated “safe humanitarian zone” because there is no space for them there.

At the weekend the Israeli military told residents of multiple neighbourhoods in and around the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah to leave their homes before planned attacks and go to the narrow strip of coast around the small town of al-Mawasi that was designated earlier in the war to receive displaced people.

Continue reading...

Ceasefire elusive as Blinken leaves Middle East, with future Israeli presence in Gaza key sticking point

Posted on by

The US secretary of state’s ninth visit to the region since the start of the conflict has ended without truce agreement

US secretary of state Antony Blinken said that “time is of the essence” to secure a Gaza ceasefire, as he wrapped up a Middle East tour with an agreement between Israel and Hamas still elusive.

The deal “needs to get done, and it needs to get done in the days ahead,” Blinken told reporters in Doha before departing for Washington, as he reiterated his call for Hamas to accept a “bridging proposal” for a deal, which he said Israel had accepted, and asked both parties to work towards finalising it.

Continue reading...

Countries fueling Israel’s Gaza war may be complicit in war crimes, experts warn

Posted on by

Exclusive: research tracks dozens of oil and fuel shipments that could have aided Israel’s war on Gaza

Israeli tanks, jets and bulldozers bombarding Gaza and razing homes in the occupied West Bank are being fueled by a growing number of countries signed up to the genocide and Geneva conventions, new research suggests, which legal experts warn could make them complicit in serious crimes against the Palestinian people.

Four tankers of American jet fuel primarily used for military aircraft have been shipped to Israel since the start of its aerial bombardment of Gaza in October.

Continue reading...

Israel-Gaza war: at least 12 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike on school, say Gaza defence authorities – as it happened

Posted on by

Israeli military says it struck Hamas militant base inside the school but civil defence agency spokesperson says bodies of men and children recovered

Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned on Tuesday of the risk of the Gaza war expanding regionally in a way “difficult to imagine” during a meeting with U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken, the Egyptian presidency said.

He added:“The ceasefire in Gaza must be the beginning of broader international recognition of the Palestinian state and the implementation of the two-state solution, as this is the basic guarantor of stability in the region.”

Continue reading...

Israel says bodies of six hostages have been recovered from Gaza

Posted on by

IDF says the dead men were all civilians abducted from kibbutzim during 7 October Hamas attack

Israel has recovered the bodies of six hostages who were seized during Hamas’s 7 October attack and taken to Gaza, its military has announced.

An overnight operation in Khan Younis in southern Gaza found the bodies of Yagev Buchshtab, Alexander Dancyg, Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell and Chaim Peri, all civilians abducted from their homes in kibbutzim adjacent to Israel’s barrier wall with the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Tuesday.

Continue reading...

Peter Dutton tells Coalition party room he only wants temporary pause on Gaza visas as part of ‘principled stance’

Posted on by

Some Coalition MPs have indicated privately they would be concerned if opposition leader was advocating to permanently refuse visas to Palestinians

Peter Dutton has assured Coalition MPs he is only calling for a temporary pause in allowing people from Gaza to come to Australia, after some were concerned he wanted a permanent ban.

In his weekly address to the Coalition party room, Dutton insisted the Coalition had taken “a principled stance” in challenging the visa approval process for applicants from Gaza and demanding greater security checks.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...