This live blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here
The search for a missing Israeli teenager resumed on Saturday in the occupied West Bank, where settler attacks on Palestinian villages have left at least one dead and dozens injured, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP) citing sources on both sides.
The Israeli army said it was still looking for Benjamin Achimeir, 14, who went missing early on Friday from Malachi Hashalom, an outpost near the city of Ramallah.
Continue reading...Few of Hamas’s senior leaders have been harmed but its ability to govern is reduced and thousands of fighters are dead
Six months after the surprise attacks it launched into Israel, triggering the Gaza conflict, Hamas is weakened and divided but far from defeated, experts, officials and sources close to the militant Islamist organisation say.
Hamas remains in de facto control of swaths of Gaza, including the parts where much of the territory’s population is now concentrated, and has re-established a presence elsewhere. In recent days, Hamas “operatives” armed with batons have been sighted keeping order on the streets of Khan Younis, the southern city from which Israeli forces withdrew just last week. On Wednesday, rockets targeting a kibbutz in Israel were launched by militants from Jabaliya in northern Gaza.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here
An assessment conducted by a UN team in Khan Younis after the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the area, has reported “widespread destruction”.
In an update on its website, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) wrote:
Every building they visited – and most of those they observed – had been damaged, and paved roads had been reduced to dirt tracks. They inspected a UN warehouse, four medical centres, and eight schools, and all but one had significant damage.”
Street and public spaces in Khan Younis are littered with unexploded ordnance posing a severe risk to civilians, especially for children. Our team found unexploded 1,000 pound bombs lying on the main intersection and inside schools.
Residents who returned to the area, and some who remained during the fighting, told the team about the dire shortages of food and water and the loss of critical health services due to the destruction of the al-Nasser and al-Amal hospital.”
Continue reading...Pedro Sánchez is first foreign premier Simon Harris will meet since becoming leader
The new Irish taoiseach is to meet the Spanish prime minister to discuss their joint plan to recognise Palestine as a nation state and their attempts to force the EU to assess Israel’s human rights obligations as a condition of their trade deal with the bloc.
Pedro Sánchez, who is due to arrive in Dublin on Friday, is the first foreign premier Simon Harris will meet since his promotion to the office of the taoiseach this week.
Continue reading...US-backed proposal involves women, children and elderly or sick hostages in Gaza being exchanged for 900 Palestinian prisoners
The Palestinian militant group Hamas has indicated it does not have 40 captives who are still alive who meet the “humanitarian” criteria for a proposed hostages-for-prisoners ceasefire agreement with Israel.
A senior Israeli official confirmed claims made at the weekend by Hamas during talks in Cairo that it does not have 40 hostages in Gaza who meet the exchange criteria.
Guardian Newsroom: Crisis in the Middle East
On Tuesday 30 April, 7-8.15pm GMT, join Devika Bhat, Peter Beaumont, Emma Graham-Harrison and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad as they discuss the fast-developing crisis in the Middle East. Book tickets here or at theguardian.live
This live blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here
Israeli forces killed three sons of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in an airstrike in Gaza without consulting senior commanders or political leaders including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, says Reuters citing Israeli media reports on Thursday.
Quoting senior Israeli officials, Walla news agency said neither Netanyahu nor defence minister Yoav Gallant had been told in advance of the strike, which was coordinated by the Israeli military and the Shin Bet intelligence service.
Continue reading...Body of Mohammad Surur reportedly discovered in town outside Beirut with several gunshot wounds to his legs
A Lebanese man under US sanctions for allegedly funnelling millions of dollars to Hamas has been found dead in a mountain town outside Beirut.
The body of Mohammad Surur was found on Tuesday in a villa in the mountain town of Beit Mery, with several gunshot wounds to his legs, according to security sources.
Continue reading...Deadly Israeli airstrike prompts comments by Ismail Haniyeh, as two sides remain far apart on key issues
Three sons and at least two grandchildren of the Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, the exiled political chief of the militant group has said from his base in the Qatari capital of Doha.
Haniyeh told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that his children Hazem, Amir and Mohammed and several of their children were visiting relatives for Eid at the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza when their car was targeted in an Israeli airstrike. Sixty of his relatives had been killed in the six-month-old war, he said, including 14 who died after an Israeli airstrike hit the family home in Gaza City in October.
Continue reading...Israel’s foreign minister says Israel will attack Iran directly if Tehran launches an attack from its territory
The commander of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (Unifil), Aroldo Lazaro, said on Wednesday the danger of escalation on the Lebanon-Israel border was real, reports Reuters.
“Unifil calls for a return to the cessation of hostilities, and a move towards a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution to the conflict,” Lazaro said in a statement.
Continue reading...US president gives some of his strongest criticism of Israeli PM yet, saying he needs to ‘empower’ Israel’s negotiators to call for a truce
US president Joe Biden has said prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s approach on Gaza was a “mistake” and urged Israel to call for a ceasefire, in an interview that aired on Tuesday.
Biden’s comments were some of his strongest criticism yet of Netanyahu amid growing tensions over the civilian death toll from Israel’s war on Hamas and dire conditions inside Gaza.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary says Britain’s position on export licences is ‘unchanged’ after reviewing latest legal advice
David Cameron has confirmed the UK government will not suspend arms exports to Israel after the killing of seven aid workers in an airstrike on Gaza last week, as he insisted the UK would continue to act within international law.
The foreign secretary said that he had reviewed the most recent legal advice about the situation on the ground but this left the UK’s position on export licences “unchanged”.
Continue reading...Israeli PM says Rafah invasion will go ahead as official says tents are part of evacuation plan
Recent tragedies in Gaza are not a reason to “walk away from Israel”, the former British home secretary, Suella Braverman, said.
Asked if the UK should still be selling arms to Israel, Braverman told LBC: “I don’t think the fact that these tragedies happen is a reason to walk away from Israel, and to stop selling arms to Israel, because of that broader battle that they are engaging with.”
Continue reading...Israeli defence minister says withdrawal forms part of preparations for later attack on Rafah
An Israeli strike on southern Lebanon early on Monday killed a field commander in the heavily-armed Lebanese group Hezbollah, as the United Nations warned that shelling was spreading and urged a halt to the violence.
Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been exchanging fire across Lebanon’s southern frontier in parallel with the Gaza war, adding to fears of a wider regional conflict.
Continue reading...Drawdown after four months of fighting in Khan Younis coincides with new ceasefire talks
Israel has pulled all of its ground troops out of southern Gaza for “tactical reasons”, the country’s army has said, raising questions about the future direction of the war as Hamas and Israeli delegations travel to Egypt for a new round of ceasefire talks.
Two brigades will stay in the northern half of the Gaza Strip and the new corridor that now bifurcates the Palestinian territory at Wadi Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces said on Sunday, in order to “preserve the IDF’s freedom of action and its ability to conduct precise intelligence based-operations”.
Guardian Newsroom: Crisis in the Middle East
On Tuesday 30 April, 7-8.15pm GMT, join Devika Bhat, Peter Beaumont, Emma Graham-Harrison and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad as they discuss the fast-developing crisis in the Middle East. Book tickets here or at theguardian.live
Israel was previously undecided on whether to attend talks but will now take part in the latest round of negotiations
The Israeli military has withdrawn all ground troops from the southern Gaza Strip except for one brigade, a military spokesperson has said, according to Reuters.
An Israeli brigade is typically made up of a few thousand troops.
Continue reading...Israel PM’s woes continue to mount, but the country’s policy on Gaza is unlikely to change
For Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the last week has perhaps been the worst since the Hamas attack on 7 October, six months ago, that triggered the current war in Gaza.
Protests against the longtime Israeli leader by hostage families and the opposition returned with a vengeance across the country as he spent two nights in hospital for hernia surgery. Then his major political rival, Benny Gantz, undermined the unity of the wartime government by calling for early elections; Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox coalition allies are already angry with him over a row regarding military conscription.
Continue reading...Move to join US-led maritime corridor follows international fury at last week’s killing of seven aid workers
The Royal Navy was ordered into action on Saturday to help supply desperately needed aid to Gaza, as the foreign secretary, David Cameron, warned that the Palestinian people trapped there were on the brink of famine.
With the UK and US governments under intense pressure to halt arms sales to Israel, Downing Street said on Saturday that ministers would instead boost support for a planned new maritime corridor from Cyprus to Gaza, to channel “life-saving aid” by sea to a population in urgent need of basic food supplies.
Continue reading...Martin Griffiths lamented ‘the unconscionable prospect of further escalation in Gaza, where no one is safe and there is nowhere safe to go’
Iran on Saturday again threatened retaliation for the deaths of seven Revolutionary Guards in a strike on Damascus, with the army chief saying his country’s enemies will “regret” the killings, reports AFP.
Tehran has vowed to avenge Monday’s airstrike on the Syrian capital it blamed on its arch-enemy Israel, which has not commented.
Continue reading...Former prime minister says a western arms embargo on Israel would ‘hand victory’ to Hamas
Boris Johnson has said banning arms sales to Israel would be “insane”.
The former prime minister also criticised the foreign secretary, David Cameron, for remaining silent on the debate over curtailing UK arms sales to Israel.
Guardian Newsroom: Crisis in the Middle East
On Tuesday 30 April, 7-8.15pm GMT, join Devika Bhat, Peter Beaumont, Emma Graham-Harrison and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad as they discuss the fast-developing crisis in the Middle East. Book tickets here or at theguardian.live
Families are being offered grants to go home but many have stayed away and others are already thinking of leaving again
Downtown Sderot, an impoverished Israeli town just a kilometre away from the north-eastern corner of the Gaza Strip, is still quiet six months after 7 October. There is no longer any trace of the police station where Hamas militants took hostages and engaged the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in a two-day battle before the Israelis decided to blow up the building. The site has been levelled and is now home to flags and a memorial.
Seventy people were killed and about 90% of the town’s 28,000 residents were evacuated, most of them put up in hotels up and down the country. A huge new mural saluting the town adorns a wall of a block of flats.
Continue reading...