Category Archives: Gaza

Middle East crisis live: ‘promising’ signs of progress on new Gaza hostage deal, says Israel war cabinet member

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Comments by Benny Gantz come as Israel continues to threaten a ground invasion of Rafah

In a collective appeal, heads of UN humanitarian entities and global NGOs have implored world leaders to help prevent further deterioration of the crisis in Gaza.

The principals of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), the coordinating body of global humanitarian organisations, released a statement on Wednesday in which it said “civilians in Gaza are in extreme peril while the world watches on”. It listed ten requirements “to avoid an even worse catastrophe”.

We are calling on Israel to fulfil its legal obligation, under international humanitarian and human rights law, to provide food and medical supplies and facilitate aid operations, and on the world’s leaders to prevent an even worse catastrophe from happening.”

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Australian working in Rafah hospital says all staff are struggling: ‘We have victims caring for victims’

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Médecins Sans Frontières logistics expert calls for immediate ceasefire and fears ‘catastrophic’ Israeli ground offensive

An Australian logistics expert who is working at a hospital in Rafah has warned that “everyone here is struggling” while raising fears of a “catastrophic” Israeli ground offensive in the southern Gaza city.

Lindsay Croghan, who is on assignment with Médecins Sans Frontières, also said there must be an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire” because a prolonged debate “equates to more deaths”.

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Israeli report finds evidence of ‘systematic’ rape and abuse during 7 October attack

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Research is based on interviews with officials and first responders, media reports and ‘confidential sources’

The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel has said it has found evidence of “systematic and intentional” rape and sexual abuse during the Hamas attack on 7 October that ignited the war in Gaza.

The report said the attacks were more widespread than earlier thought, taking place at a series of locations across southern Israel. “In some cases, rape was conducted in front of an audience, such as partners, family or friends, to increase the pain and humiliation for all present.”

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Tory and SNP anger as speaker allows Labour’s amendment on Gaza ceasefire vote – UK politics live

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Move will help Keir Starmer head off threatened rebellion from his MPs

New 20mph limits are helping cut speeds and will save lives, the Welsh government has insisted. PA Media says:

Drivers are travelling on average 4mph slower on main roads in Wales since the rollout of a new lower speed limit for built-up areas, data collected by Transport for Wales (TfW) shows.

The Welsh Labour government, which implemented the change in September last year, insists the lower speeds will lead to fewer collisions and people injured.

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Middle East crisis: Knesset votes to back Netanyahu’s opposition to ‘unilateral’ creation of Palestinian state – as it happened

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99 of 120 lawmakers voted to support declaration passed earlier this week by cabinet and say any accord would have to be reached by direct negotiations

The International Court of Justice in The Hague will be sitting again today to here oral arguments in the case “legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.”

The session is due to begin at 9am GMT. The proceedings are live streamed which you can watch here, and you can find all the documents here.

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Prince William’s Gaza plea raises question of Foreign Office input

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Speculation that William’s ‘too many have been killed’ statement was encouraged to increase pressure on Israel

The timing of Prince William’s unprecedented intervention relating to the war in Gaza has raised questions about the involvement of the UK Foreign Office, and whether the royal statement was encouraged or even engineered to increase pressure on Israel.

On Tuesday, the Prince of Wales issued a statement saying “too many have been killed” in the conflict, and “I, like so many others, want to see an end to the fighting as soon as possible”.

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Gaza aid deliveries paused amid ‘incredible level of desperation’

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World Food Programme says territory is ‘hanging by a thread’ as food supplies run out and efforts to deliver aid are derailed

New fighting and a deepening breakdown in public order in northern Gaza have derailed a humanitarian effort to avert a famine in parts of the battered territory, with senior aid officials describing an “incredible level of desperation” as food supplies run out.

A UN attempt to deliver 10 convoys of food aid to northern Gaza over seven days was suspended earlier this week after trucks were looted by crowds, a driver was beaten and gunfire reported amid chaotic scenes.

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Stakes are high as SNP and Labour wrestle over Gaza ceasefire call

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With an election looming and voters increasingly horrified by events in Gaza, both parties are jostling to find the right position

A few days after the Hamas atrocities of 7 October, Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf, attended a service of solidarity at a synagogue near Glasgow. He embraced the mother of Bernard Cowan, a Scot killed by Hamas at the kibbutz where he had settled. “Your grief is my grief,” he told her.

Later that day, the SNP leader spoke to journalists at Bute House in Edinburgh: he described movingly the plight of his in-laws, who had become trapped under Israeli bombardment while visiting relatives in Gaza. He became one of the first senior political voices in the UK to call for a ceasefire on both sides to allow humanitarian aid into the territory.

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Pastor says Welby would not meet him if he spoke at Palestine rally with Corbyn

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Archbishop said he could not meet Bethlehem Lutheran Munther Isaac if he shared platform with former Labour leader, Isaac says

The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, cancelled plans to meet the Bethlehem-based Lutheran pastor Munther Isaac, saying he could not meet him if he shared a platform with the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at a pro-Palestinian rally, the pastor has said.

Isaac, the pastor of the Christmas Evangelical Lutheran church in Bethlehem, who has been highly critical of Israel in Gaza, saw his Christmas sermon go viral when he said if Jesus Christ was born today it would have been under the rubble.

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Keir Starmer seeks to head off another Labour rebellion over Gaza ceasefire

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Crucial vote on party’s new call for ‘humanitarian ceasefire’ goes before MPs on Wednesday as thousands of protesters expected in Westminster

Keir Starmer’s attempt to head off a damaging rebellion over Gaza was hanging by a thread last night, despite bowing to pressure by finally calling for an immediate ceasefire in the region.

Labour explicitly backed an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” for the first time since fighting broke out in October, in a bid to ward off another party split in what is likely to be a tense Commons vote on Wednesday.

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Key allies seek to rein in Israel without letting Hamas off the hook

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Diplomatic search for ceasefire in Gaza gathers pace as threatened ground offensive in Rafah draws near

In New York at the UN, in Brussels at the EU, in The Hague, in Cairo, in Rio and even at Westminster, a set of subtle and interrelated diplomatic dances are under way.

Israel’s foremost supporters are attempting to apply the squeeze on their ally while avoiding making undiluted calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza they fear would leave a battered Hamas in charge, its leadership at large.

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Middle East crisis: WHO accuses Israel of hindering medical rescue missions to Nasser hospital – as it happened

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The World Health Organization has said the destruction around Nasser hospital is ‘indescribable’. This live blog is closed

UN agency Unicef has warned the Gaza Strip is poised to witness an increase in what an official said was “the already unbearable level of child deaths” due to a worsening food crisis.

A report by the Global Nutrition Cluster (GNC), an aid partnership led by the UN’s children’s agency, says more than 90% of children under five in Gaza eat two or fewer food groups a day, known as severe food poverty. A similar percentage are affected by infectious diseases, with 70% experiencing diarrhea in the last two weeks.

Analysis indicates a dire nutrition situation for the entire population of Gaza, both in the short and long term. It is expected that all areas of Gaza will be affected by malnutrition, but governates receiving limited or no humanitarian assistance will be particularly impacted.

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Minister says government working on sanction options for those involved in Alexei Navalny’s death – UK politics live

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Leo Docherty, Foreign Office minister, says government ‘working at pace’ to hold those responsible for Russian opposition leader’s death to account

No 10 has declined to repeat Kemi Badenoch’s claim that the former chair of the Post Office gave an interview “full of lies” about the conversation she had when she sacked him.

At the morning lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson would not adopt the language used by Badenoch in a post on X yesterday and instead claimed that Badenoch believes that the account of what she said given by Henry Staunton is a “misrepresentation”.

Obviously this referred to a conversation that she had with Henry Staunton, and you’ll have seen her words on this; she’s very clear that the interview that he gave was a misrepresentation of her conversation with him and the reasons for his dismissal.

And the government has being clear, and will refute the allegations [that it wanted to slow down compensation to victims]. The government has taken action to speed up the compensation to victims, and we’ve consistently encouraged postmasters to come forward with their claims. Any suggestions otherwise [are] not correct.

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Palestinian minister accuses Israel of ‘colonialism and apartheid’ at ICJ

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Riyad al-Maliki presents Palestinian case at start of week of hearings called by UN general assembly vote

The Palestinian foreign minister, Riyad al-Maliki, has accused Israel of “colonialism and apartheid” at a world court hearing on the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands since 1967.

“For over a century, the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination has been denied and violated,” Maliki told a bench of judges at the international court of justice (ICJ), the UN’s highest court, in The Hague. “Palestine was not a land without people. It was not, as Israeli leaders have described it, a wasteland. There was life on this land.”

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Israel says it will launch Rafah assault if hostages not freed by Ramadan

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Minister says fighting will reach southern border city if remaining hostages not released in next few weeks

A member of Israel’s war cabinet has said the country will launch its threatened ground offensive against Rafah, the last place of relative safety in Gaza, if Hamas does not release its remaining Israeli hostages by the beginning of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan in just under three weeks.

“The world must know, and Hamas leaders must know – if by Ramadan our hostages are not home, the fighting will continue everywhere, including the Rafah area,” Benny Gantz, a retired Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff, told a conference of American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem on Sunday.

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Middle East crisis: EU launches maritime security operation as cargo ship damaged in Red Sea after missiles fired from Yemen – as it happened

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Defensive maritime security operation launched in Red Sea and Gulf as crew evacuated from Belize-flagged ship and UK maritime body reports another attack

The Times of Israel is reporting that Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz will deliver a reprimand to Brazil’s ambassador to Israel at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial today. It follows a speech by Brazil’s president which Israel has described as “shameful”.

Speaking in Ethiopia at the weekend, Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had said “what is happening in the Gaza Strip and to the Palestinian people hasn’t been seen in any other moment in history. Actually, it did when Hitler decided to kill the Jews. What’s happening in the Gaza Strip isn’t a war, it’s a genocide. It’s not a war of soldiers against soldiers. It’s a war between a highly prepared army and women and children.”

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Gaza’s largest functioning hospital ‘completely out of service’, say health officials

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Nasser hospital, which was raided by Israeli forces last week, is ‘not functional anymore’ says the head of the World Health Organization

Fighting, fuel shortages and Israeli raids have put Gaza’s largest still functioning hospital completely out of service, local and UN health officials have said, as Israel continued its threats to invade the southern city of Rafah if remaining Israeli hostages are not freed in the next three weeks.

Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis went out of action early on Sunday, Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said.

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Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib tells fellow Democrats: reject Biden in primary

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Michigan representative tells state voters to pick ‘uncommitted’ option over White House support for Israel’s strikes on Gaza

The progressive US congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has called on her fellow Michigan Democrats to vote “uncommitted” in the state’s presidential primary election – at the expense of the party’s incumbent, Joe Biden – in late February.

Appearing in a video posted to X on Saturday by Listen to Michigan, a political campaign to encourage the state’s voters to vote “uncommitted” in the 27 February primary, Tlaib justified her stark display of displeasure with Biden by alluding to Israel’s military strikes on Gaza, which local authorities say have killed nearly 29,000 Palestinians since last October.

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Palestinian factions to meet in Moscow as west rejects Hamas role in ruling Gaza after war

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Palestinian Authority ‘ready to engage’, says prime minister ahead of talks on formation of new Gaza government

Western powers have rejected suggestions that Hamas as an entity can be allowed a role in governing Gaza at the end of the war, saying only that they recognise that Palestinian militancy will still exist.

Speculation that a weakened Hamas might be willing to form a partnership with the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, and govern Gaza and the West Bank jointly, have been revived by a Russian invitation for Palestinian factions to meet in Moscow on 26 February.

Guardian Newsroom: the unfolding crisis in the Middle East On Wednesday 20 March, 7-8.15pm GMT, join Devika Bhat, Peter Beaumont and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad as they discuss the developing crisis in the Middle East. Book tickets at theguardian.live

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Middle East crisis: Nasser hospital in Gaza ‘not functional’, says WHO chief; US likely to veto UN vote calling for ceasefire – as it happened

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Hospital in Khan Younis no longer functional due to Israeli forces’ ‘week-long siege’; US ambassador to UN says text could jeopardise negotiations

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said his government would vote on a “declaratory decision” regarding Israel’s opposition to any unilateral imposition of Palestinian statehood, Reuters reports.

Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting that the move comes after “recent talk in the international community about an attempt to unilaterally impose on Israel a Palestinian state”.

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