Category Archives: Gaza

At least 70 killed in Israeli strike on refugee camp in central Gaza, health ministry says

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Palestinian health officials say death toll after attack on Maghazi camp likely to rise

An Israeli airstrike on a refugee camp in central Gaza has killed at least 70 people, Palestinian health officials have said as they warned the toll was likely to rise and the strikes that began hours before midnight continued into Christmas Day.

The fatalities at the Maghazi camp, east of Deir al-Balah, included at least 12 women and seven children, according to early hospital figures issued late on Sunday night.

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Deadly 24 hours of fighting across Gaza Strip kills scores of Palestinians

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Worries mount for desperate civilians as Israel expands its operations in the southern half of territory

Fierce fighting across the besieged Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours has killed 166 Palestinians and 13 Israeli soldiers, in one of the single deadliest days of the new conflict between Israel and the militant group Hamas to date.

Heavy bombing and shelling of Jabaliya, in the north of the Palestinian territory, overnight continued into Sunday morning, residents of the area said, while in Gaza City, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have begun a ground operation in the central neighbourhood of Tufah. In the southern half of the strip, aerial and ground attacks continue in the territory’s second city, Khan Younis.

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Death toll from Israeli attacks tops 20,000 – As it happened

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An Israeli airstrike has killed 76 members of an extended family in Gaza, Associated Press reported rescue officials as saying on Saturday.

Friday’s strike on a building in Gaza City was among the deadliest of the Israel-Gaza war, Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defence department said.

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Food aid failing to reach Gaza residents despite ‘catastrophic’ hunger crisis

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People vent their frustration on social media as many given just beans and biscuits to eat, and donated food is found for sale in markets

A couple of biscuits and a can of beans is all that many Palestinians in Gaza say is being given to families to live on, if they receive aid at all, and that they are finding donated items for sale in the markets.

The risk of famine is increasing every day, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which said this week that Gaza’s entire population is suffering “catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity”, the highest proportion of a population with acute food insecurity the monitor has ever recorded.

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Israeli airstrike kills Gaza aid worker and 70 of his extended family, UN says

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Call to protect civilians and humanitarian staff after UNDP’s Issam al-Mughrabi, his wife, children and scores of relatives killed

An Israeli military airstrike killed more than 70 members of an extended family, including a veteran UN aid worker, as the UN secretary general warned that the scale of death and destruction inside Gaza is blocking delivery of desperately needed aid.

Issam al-Mughrabi, 56, was killed with his wife, five children and dozens of other relatives in a bombing near Gaza City, said the head of the UN development programme (UNDP) in a statement that also called for an urgent ceasefire.

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Flooding Hamas tunnels with seawater risks ‘ruining basic life in Gaza’, says expert

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Senior hydrologist warns Israeli plan would constitute one element of the crime of genocide

A potential plan by Israel to flood the Hamas tunnel network with seawater risks “ruining the basic conditions for life in Gaza”, one of the elements of the crime of genocide, a senior hydrologist has told the Guardian.

Environmental experts have warned the strategy – which Israel has yet to commit to – risks causing an ecological catastrophe that will leave Gaza with no drinkable water and devastate what little agriculture is possible in the 141 sq mile territory.

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Joe Biden’s reluctance to call for ceasefire may leave him at odds with his party

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Many young voters disapprove of how the US president is handling the conflict in Gaza, a new poll suggests

It was a messy compromise. On Friday, after a week of wrangling, the United Nations security council (UNSC) staggered across the finish line, approving a watered-down bid to boost aid to Gaza and calling for urgent steps “to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities”.

The US, a staunch ally of Israel, abstained to allow the 15-member council to adopt the resolution. Joe Biden’s allies will claim that it represents progress of sorts. But it will have little impact on the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe as Israel’s bombardment continues.

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Israel widens ground offensive in Gaza as UN aid resolution talks continue

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More evacuations ordered in west of strip, 11 weeks into war that has now killed nearly 1% of people in Gaza

Israel is expanding its ground offensive in Gaza, ordering new evacuations in the west of the strip, as UN security council negotiations over a resolution intended to increase the flow of humanitarian supplies stretched into another day.

Israel’s military told people to leave their homes in al-Bureij, an urban refugee camp. It also said extra ground troops would head to fight in southern Khan Younis. Both areas were originally declared safe for civilians fleeing from the north.

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UN security council vote delayed yet again and now set for Friday – as it happened

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The World Health Organization said on Thursday that northern Gaza had been left without a functional hospital due to a lack of fuel, staff and supplies.

“There are actually no functional hospitals left in the north,” Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO representative in Gaza, told reporters via video link from Jerusalem.

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Israeli military accused of targeting journalists and their families in Gaza

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Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 68 journalists and media workers killed since 7 October

The Committee to Protect Journalists has accused the Israeli military of targeting journalists and their families in Gaza amid the highest death toll of media workers in any recent conflict.

The New York-based CPJ said at least 68 journalists and other media workers had been killed in Gaza, Israel and southern Lebanon since the Hamas cross-border attack on 7 October and subsequent Israeli assault.

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Hamas rejects hostage talks as UN declares ‘catastrophic’ hunger in Gaza

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Hamas says no talks without halt to Israeli onslaught, after Netanyahu appeared to dismiss prospect of another truce

Gaza is facing a “catastrophic” hunger crisis of unprecedented proportions, according to the UN, with everyone in the besieged coastal strip liable to face acute food insecurity in the coming weeks.

At the same time, hopes of a temporary pause in fighting to allow a new prisoner exchange receded as Hamas rejected talks until Israel halted its military onslaught on Gaza. And a UN resolution aimed at increasing aid flows into Gaza remained mired in disagreement at the security council, with the US demanding changes, arguing that the current text could hurt humanitarian deliveries more than help them.

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Israel orders new evacuations in southern Gaza, says UN – as it happened

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Intensive Qatari and Egyptian-mediated talks are under way for a possible second Gaza truce under which Hamas would return some hostages in exchange for Israel releasing Palestinian prisoners, a person briefed on the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

While the number of people slated to go free was still being discussed, Israel is insisting that women and infirm male hostages be included, said the source, adding that Palestinians jailed for serious offences could also be on the roster.

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Palestinian casualties in Gaza near 20,000 with nearly 2m people displaced

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UK and Germany demand ‘sustainable ceasefire’ as Israel’s military campaign enters 11th week

Israeli forces killed 25 people in bombings in southern Gaza, hit a refugee camp in the north and raided one of the area’s last operating hospitals, as Palestinian casualties in the territory climbed towards 20,000.

The death toll from airstrikes and grim conditions for nearly 2 million people displaced from their homes with little access to food, clean water or sanitation is fuelling growing international anger, even among Israel’s close allies.

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MPs clash in Commons as government urged to back instant Gaza ceasefire

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Lib Dem MP Layla Moran describes desperate plight of relatives in Gaza after she was granted urgent question on situation

The Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran has made an impassioned plea in the House of Commons for the government to back an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as she told of the desperate plight of relatives who had taken refuge in a church there.

Those inside the Holy Family parish in Gaza City were down to their last can of corn, she told the development minister, Andrew Mitchell, who will meet her on Wednesday. Two women were allegedly killed by an Israeli military sniper in the church on Saturday.

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US launches Red Sea protection force after Houthi attacks – as it happened

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The US defence secretary has invited dozens of countries to take steps to address Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping as he spoke at a defence ministerial to tout a new military operation to secure commerce in the waterway.

“We’re all here because many countries can directly contribute to our common efforts to keep strategic waterways safe,” Lloyd Austin said, according to prepared remarks.

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US defence secretary reasserts support but urges Israel to change tactics in Gaza

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Lloyd Austin discusses focus on precise targeting of Hamas leaders; however, UN delays vote calling for cessation of hostilities

The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has held talks with Israeli officials about shifting away from large-scale aerial and ground operations in the Gaza Strip to a new phrase in the war focused on the precise targeting of Hamas leaders.

“Hamas should never again be able to project terror from Gaza into Israel. This is Israel’s operation; I’m not here to dictate timelines or terms,” Austin told reporters after meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defence counterpart, Yoav Gallant, in Tel Aviv on Monday. He added that protecting Palestinian civilians in Gaza was “both a moral duty and a strategic imperative”.

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Keir Starmer joins Rishi Sunak in calling for sustainable ceasefire in Gaza

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Labour leader also reiterates support for ‘two-stage solution’ as ‘the only way this is going to be resolved’

Keir Starmer has joined Rishi Sunak in calling for a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza, as the political rhetoric continues to shift away from unqualified support for Israel’s assault in line with moves from the US and others.

Some senior Conservatives were even more explicit. Ben Wallace, a former defence secretary, said Israel’s “killing rage” risked it losing international support, and Alicia Kearns, who chairs the Commons foreign affairs committee, said she believed Israel had broken international humanitarian law.

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US announces creation of multinational operation in Red Sea after attacks from Yemen’s Houthis – as it happened

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The UN security council is to be asked to support a new call for an urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities that allows the delivery of humanitarian aid by land sea and air.

The resolution places pressure on the US not to protect Israel again by using its veto as one of the five permanent members of the 15-member security council.

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Cardinal condemns ‘cold–blooded’ killing of two women in Gaza church

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Vincent Nichols says shooting of mother and daughter did nothing to further Israel’s right to defend itself

The shooting of a mother and daughter allegedly by an Israeli military sniper in a church compound in Gaza City was a “cold–blooded killing”, the most senior Catholic cleric in England has said.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster, said the shooting did “nothing to further Israel’s right to defend itself”.

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