Category Archives: Gaza

Middle East crisis: Iran confirms resumption of air traffic – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog has now closed. You can see all our coverage of the Israel-Gaza war: one year on here and all our coverage of the Israel-Lebanon conflict here.

The death toll from the Israeli strike on the Gaza mosque has risen to 24, according to local authorities. The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said 93 people were also wounded in the strikes on the mosque and the school, near the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital told the Associated Press that the strike hit a mosque sheltering displaced people. Eyewitnesses told Reuters the same. However Israeli forces say the mosque was being used as a Hamas command and control centre “to plan and carry out terrorist operations against the IDF forces and the State of Israel”, and that it took steps to reduce the chance of harming civilians. An AP reporter counted 18 bodies at the hospital morgue, and said hospital records listed all those killed as men.

Continue reading...

Netanyahu hits out at Macron over call for halt to arms exports to Israel

Posted on by

Israeli prime minister turns on French counterpart’s continuing efforts towards a ceasefire and end to violence in Lebanon

A call by Emmanuel Macron for a halt in arms supplies to Israel for use in Gaza has been met with an angry rebuttal from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

The French president’s comments were directed mainly at the US and were part of continuing French efforts to revive its call for a ceasefire in Lebanon.

Continue reading...

Israel ‘preparing response’ to Iran attack as 7 October anniversary looms

Posted on by

Military also ordering civilians in two Gaza camps to evacuate, while operations in Lebanon continue to ramp up

The Israeli military is expanding its operations on multiple fronts around the anniversary of the 7 October attacks on Monday, including planning for a “significant and serious” retaliation against Iran for last week’s large-scale ballistic missile attack on Israel.

Signs of imminent Israeli retaliation against Iran came as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, called for an international embargo on arms delivered to Israel for use against Gaza, where authorities say more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s year long assault.

Continue reading...

Middle East crisis live: night of bombing in south Beirut; IDF confirms Gaza mosque strike

Posted on by

Israeli army issued evacuation warnings on Saturday to people in the south of Lebanese capital; Israel says Deir al-Balah mosque in Gaza was Hamas site

At least 41,825 Palestinians have been killed and 96,910 wounded in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the territory’s health authorities said on Saturday.

A South Korean military transport aircraft returned 97 citizens and family members from Lebanon on Saturday as Middle East tensions rise, the foreign ministry said.

Continue reading...

More blasts in Beirut after Israel demands new evacuations – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed. Our latest live blog is here. See all our Middle East crisis coverage

The Israeli military launched a series of strikes on southern Beirut on Thursday night, in one of the most intense bombardments on the city since the campaign began last week.

A source close to Hezbollah told the AFP news agency that Israel had conducted 11 consecutive strikes on the group’s stronghold in the Lebanese capital.

Continue reading...

Iran’s Ali Khamenei vows Hezbollah and Hamas will not back down

Posted on by

In rare public address, supreme leader defends missile attack on Israel and makes appeal for Muslim unity

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has vowed that Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza will re-emerge strongly with new leaders, as an Israeli airstrike cut Lebanon’s main route to Syria.

In a rare public sermon in front of tens of thousands in Tehran on Friday, Khamenei defended the “legal and legitimate” ballistic missile attack on Israel this week that Iran has said was in retaliation for the deaths of the Hezbollah secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, and the Hamas political leader, Ismail Haniyeh.

Continue reading...

Visas for Palestinians taking average of four months, data shows, not 24 hours as Coalition claimed

Posted on by

Exclusive: Guardian Australia found Coalition politicians cited the 24-hour figure in interviews on at least 12 occasions in August

It was one of the most potent talking points during the Coalition’s campaign against “rushed” visas to Palestinians fleeing Gaza.

“It is not appropriate to give 3,000 tourist visas to people leaving a war zone controlled by a terrorist organisation in an average of 24 hours,” the Liberal senator James Paterson told Sky News on 20 August.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

A year on, how the Hamas attack has profoundly affected UK political life

Posted on by

From general election upsets to protests on the streets, the shockwaves from the Middle East have resonated in Britain

When Shockat Adam, the newly elected independent MP for Leicester South, addressed his supporters at the July election count, he brought his speech to an end with a dedication – not to the constituents of the East Midlands city he now represents, but to people more than 2,000 miles away.

“This is for the people of Gaza”, he said, holding a Palestinian keffiyeh aloft.

Continue reading...

UK Palestinians on the nightmare of watching war unfold from afar

Posted on by

One year on, we speak to those who have lost more than 50 relatives and who call some ministers’ support for the Israeli government ‘shameful’

In September 2023, 45-year-old Mohammed Ghalayini travelled to Gaza from Manchester, where he had lived since 2004, to visit family. He was still there on 7 October when Hamas’s attack on Israel killed 1,200 people. In Israel’s subsequent bombardment of Gaza – which to date has killed more than 41,000 people – he and his family were displaced multiple times, faced shortages of food and water, and endured the relentless sound of drones.

Ghalayini is now back in the north of England, but nearly a year into Israel’s war in Gaza, he says every day still brings bad news – whether from family members in WhatsApp messages, or in updates on Facebook, which has become like an “obituary page”. Ghalayini said he feels helpless.

Continue reading...

Yazidi woman kidnapped by IS freed from Gaza after decade in captivity

Posted on by

Officials say US, Israel, Jordan and Iraq involved in rescue of 21-year-old who had been captured in Iraq

A 21-year-old woman kidnapped by Islamic State militants in Iraq more than a decade ago has been freed from Gaza in an operation led by the US.

The operation this week also involved Israel, Jordan and Iraq, according to officials.

Continue reading...

Dozens killed in Israeli strikes and ground operations in southern Gaza

Posted on by

At least 70 dead as Israeli strikes against Hamas continue despite attention shifting to Lebanon and Iran

More than 70 people have been killed in a series of intensive ground operations and airstrikes by the Israel Defense Forces in southern Gaza, Palestinian medical officials said on Wednesday.

Israel has continued to strike what it says are militant targets across Gaza nearly a year after Hamas’s 7 October attack triggered the war in the territory, and even as attention has shifted to Lebanon and Iran.

Continue reading...

Strike on central Beirut as Lebanon death toll passes 100 – as it happened

Posted on by

This live blog has closed. You can read the latest news here:

Lebanon’s information minister, Ziad Makary, has said during a cabinet session that diplomatic efforts for a ceasefire with Israel are ongoing.

He said:

It is certain that the Lebanese government wants a ceasefire, and everyone knows that Netanyahu went to New York based on the premise of a ceasefire, but the decision was made to assassinate Nasrallah.

Diplomatic efforts to achieve a ceasefire are ongoing. The prime minister is not falling short, but the matter is not that easy.

Continue reading...

European ministers call for immediate ceasefire in Lebanon

Posted on by

France says Israel must stop strikes, as governments voice alarm over escalation and killing of Nasrallah

European foreign ministers have stepped up calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, amid concern that Israel’s killing of Hezbollah’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, risks seriously destabilising Lebanon and the region.

Even as Israeli defence officials continued to raise the prospect of a cross-border operation into southern Lebanon, the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the UK voiced alarm over the latest escalation on the Israeli side.

Continue reading...

The killing of Hassan Nasrallah leaves Iran with a fateful choice and the US humiliated

Posted on by

Israel’s airstrike on Hezbollah’s leadership in Lebanon has far-reaching implications for Tehran and Washington

When Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, told reporters in New York on Friday that the coming days will determine the future path of the Middle East, he could not have been more prescient, even if at the time he was hoping that Hezbollah and Israel could be persuaded to step back from the brink.

Now, with the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah confirmed killed, the region, after 11 months, has finally stepped over the brink and into a place it has truly never been before.

Continue reading...

Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu says killing of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah will change balance of power in the region – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed

Numerous reports have said that Hezbollah’s long-time leader Hassan Nasrallah was the target of Israel’s strikes on a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on Friday evening. There has been no official confirmation of whether Nasrallah was killed in the strikes or not.

The Israeli Defense Forces said the military carried out a “very accurate” strike on Hezbollah headquarters, but did not mention Nasrallah’s name. Media outlets quoted Hezbollah sources as saying he was “alive and well” but the Iran-backed militant group haven’t yet made an official statement.

The Syrian Arab republic strongly condemns all these continuous crimes, and renews its affirmation that the Israeli terrorist entity’s insistence on shedding blood and committing all kinds of war crimes and crimes against humanity that are blasphemy, will lead the region to a dangerous acceleration that is impossible to predict its consequences.

Continue reading...

Netanyahu defies calls for ceasefire at UN as Israeli missiles target Beirut

Posted on by

To half-empty chamber, Israeli PM says his country ‘seeks peace’ but will continue ‘degrading’ Hezbollah

Benjamin Netanyahu shrugged off global appeals for a ceasefire in a defiant speech to the United Nations that was delivered barely an hour before massive airstrikes targeting Hezbollah’s leader levelled several apartment blocks in Beirut.

Addressing the general assembly in New York, Israel’s prime minister presented his country as a champion of peace and prosperity for the Middle East, even as its security forces prepared an attack that spread terror in the streets of the Lebanese capital and heightened fears of an all-out regional war.

Continue reading...

Israel accused of breaking global labor law by withholding Palestinian worker pay

Posted on by

Unions say ‘blatant’ violations of international wage protections have tipped many into extreme poverty

Ten trade unions have accused Israel of breaching international labor law by holding back pay and benefits from more than 200,000 Palestinian workers since 7 October.

The Israeli government stands accused of “blatant” violations of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) protection of wages convention, tipping many Palestinians into extreme poverty.

Continue reading...

Netanyahu says Israel ‘will not stop’ attacks on Hezbollah despite ceasefire calls

Posted on by

Israeli airstrikes killed 92 people in Lebanon on Thursday; John Kirby says White House had believed Israel was ‘on board’ with ceasefire proposal

Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel “will not stop” its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon despite calls from the US, France and other allies for an immediate three-week ceasefire aimed at containing the spread of a conflict that is beginning to engulf Lebanon.

The calls for an immediate ceasefire were backed on Thursday night by Lebanon’s minister for foreign affairs, Abdallah Bouhabib, who told the UN general assembly his country was enduring a crisis that “threatens its very existence”.

Continue reading...

‘Stop killing children’: protests as Netanyahu arrives for UN address

Posted on by

Protesters gather outside UN headquarters in New York to oppose Israeli PM’s visit and to call for end to Gaza war

As the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, arrived in New York on Thursday ahead of his address to the United Nations general assembly, scheduled for Friday morning, protesters opposed to the war in Gaza gathered near UN headquarters.

One group of people who waved Israeli flags and campaign banners described themselves as an informal coalition of Jewish and Israeli-led organizations taking an anti-occupation and anti-war stance in relation to the Palestinian territories. They assembled close to the UN building in Manhattan to protest against Netanyahu’s arrival after he flew in from Israel overnight.

Continue reading...

Middle East crisis threatens Lebanon’s ‘very existence’, foreign minister tells UN – as it happened

Posted on by

This live blog is now closed. For the latest on the Middle East, read our full report:

Lebanon’s National News Agency reports that trade unions in the country have called on people to show solidarity, and for “the owners of food establishments, bakeries, gas stations and pharmacies to keep their establishments open, and facilitate everything necessary for our people.”

In a statement the trade unions also called on “merchants not to raise prices and not to exploit people.”

They want to do exactly what Hamas did in the south. Remember, we have been in this situation for a whole year. In the past week, the army has fought as it should, as we expect, to bring us back home. It seems we are again taking two steps back.

Continue reading...