UK ‘morally incoherent’ for sending arms to Israel and aid to Gaza, says Oxfam chief

Exclusive: Charity granted permission to intervene after ministers rejected calls to suspend weapon sales

Supplying arms to Israel while simultaneously providing humanitarian aid to Gaza is “intellectually and morally incoherent”, the head of Oxfam GB has said.

According to Gaza’s health ministry, more than 37,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the Israeli military offensive on Gaza since the 7 October attacks by Hamas. Israel and Hamas have both been accused of breaking international law.

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Israel is fighting a war on two fronts. No end is in sight for either one | Peter Beaumont

Israel’s conflicts with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon are destined to grind on indefinitely

In 2019, Aviv Kochavi, then the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) chief of staff, delivered a bullish speech. The IDF, he proclaimed, is “all about victory”.

Assessing that the primary threats to Israel’s security were from nonstate actors such as Hamas and Hezbollah, Kochavi would the following year usher in a new operational doctrine titled “decisive victory”.

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Israel has fallen into Hamas trap in Gaza war, says Giorgia Meloni at G7

The Italian prime minister also stated the EU will not directly contribute to a $50bn loan to Ukraine agreed at the summit

Israel is falling into a trap laid by Hamas in its war in Gaza, Giorgia Meloni said at a press conference closing the G7 summit in Bari that affirmed her role as a leading figure in Europe. The Italian prime minister also stated that the EU will not directly contribute to a $50bn loan to Ukraine agreed by the G7 leaders.

And she underlined her status by declaring that she will start talks on Monday about the allocation of top jobs in the EU on the basis that Europe has to accept the verdict of the people reflected in the results of last week’s European parliament elections.

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ICC must be allowed to carry out work ‘without intimidation’, say 93 member states

Joint statement of support for international criminal court issued following revelations of Israeli interference

The international criminal court must be allowed to carry out its work “without intimidation”, a group of 93 states has said in a significant public intervention intended to reinforce support for the judicial body.

In a joint statement issued late on Friday, the large group of ICC member states vowed to defend the institution and “preserve its integrity from any political interference and pressure against the court, its officials and those cooperating with it”.

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Middle East: Hamas official says nobody knows how many of the remaining hostages are alive – as it happened

Speaking to CNN, Hamas spokesperson says any deal to release the hostages would need to include a permanent ceasefire

Fuel shortages are pushing hospitals in Gaza to the “brink of collapse”, with people facing dehydration, disease and starvation, the charity ActionAid has warned.

Dr Mohammad Salha, acting director of al-Awda hospital in northern Gaza, said a lot of services at the hospital were affected by the lack of fuel. In a voice note message, he told ActionAid:

The [World Health Organization] [was] providing fuel and medical supplies and medication.[But] from 22 April [until] now they are not providing because the Israeli [military] refused to [let] the fuel and medical supplies [enter]. So, [for] more than 50 days the hospital is without fuel and medical supplies and the fuel that they are bringing is only [enough] for two weeks.

[As a result] we are decreasing our intervention and we are not running the big generators. We are running the small generators only to recharge the batteries. And [on this] we are doing the surgeries related to life saving.”

Our laboratory is also affected. We can’t do many analyses, related to orthopedic analysis [and] we are dealing with many patients … 70% of people who [are] affected from the Israeli aggression need orthopedic surgery.”

Fuel is absolutely crucial to keep the infrastructure needed to sustain life operational in Gaza. It is shocking that hospitals are having to reduce their services due to shortages and that life-saving equipment could be forced out of action.

The trickle of aid currently entering Gaza is nowhere near enough to meet the enormous and ever-growing humanitarian need.

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‘No one has any idea’ how many Israeli hostages are alive, says Hamas official

Osama Hamdan’s comments signal group’s position on ceasefire proposal remains largely unchanged

A senior Hamas official has said the group does not know how many of the Israeli hostages it is holding in Gaza are still alive, as Israeli and Hamas sources set out positions that could undermine the possibility of an imminent ceasefire deal.

The Lebanon-based Hamas official Osama Hamdan said in an interview with CNN that “no one has any idea” how many of the remaining 120 hostages captured on 7 October last year were still alive, amid Israeli estimates that at least a third had died in captivity or were killed when seized.

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Hamas has proposed ‘unworkable’ changes to ceasefire plan, Blinken says – as it happened

This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our Israel-Gaza war coverage here

Israel’s military has issued a statement saying that it continues to operate in the central Gaza Strip and in the Rafah area. It claims it is carrying out “intelligence-based, targeted operations” and to have “eliminated a number of armed terrorist cells in close-quarters encounters.”

It says that “Over the past day, the Israeli air force struck and dismantled over 30 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip, including military structures.”

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Israel and Hamas have both committed war crimes since 7 October, says UN body

Parallel reports describe serious crimes during Hamas attack and Israel’s subsequent offensive in Gaza

A UN investigation has accused Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity on and since 7 October, the date of Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel.

The allegations were contained in two parallel reports prepared by a commission of inquiry formed in 2021 by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate human rights violations in Israel and the Palestinian territories, chaired by the former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay.

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Israel-Gaza war: ‘talks ongoing’ but no formal response to ceasefire proposal from either side, says official – as it happened

Official briefed by mediators says that neither Hamas or Israel has yet given a formal response to US-backed plan. This live blog is closed

Israel’s military has said it has intercepted some of a barrage of about 50 projectiles fired towards the Golan Heights from the direction of Lebanon. In a statement the IDF said:

Following the sirens that sounded in northern Israel a short while ago, approximately 50 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into the area of the central Golan Heights. The IDF aerial defense array successfully intercepted a number of the projectiles. The rest of the launches fell in open areas. No injuries were reported.

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US ‘evaluating’ Hamas response to Gaza ceasefire proposal

Hamas was reportedly seeking some amendments to the proposal, as Antony Blinken puts pressure on both sides to accept the deal

The US has said it is “evaluating” Hamas’ formal response to its Gaza ceasefire proposal, as the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, attempts to channel global support for a UN security council resolution backing the proposal into pressure on the Palestinian militant group and Israel.

Late on Tuesday, a Hamas official said they had submitted a response to Egyptian and Qatari mediators, seeking some “amendments”, and that their priority was to bring a “complete stop” to the war. A separate Hamas spokesperson, Jihad Taha, said the response included “amendments that confirm the ceasefire, withdrawal, reconstruction and [prisoner] exchange”.

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UN security council endorses US-backed hostages-for-ceasefire Gaza deal

Only Russia abstains in vote on plan calling for hostage and prisoner swap in six-week ceasefire leading to wider deal

The UN security council has adopted a resolution calling for Hamas to agree to a three-phase hostage-for-ceasefire proposal outlined by Joe Biden, the first time the body has endorsed a comprehensive peace deal to end the Gaza war.

A Hamas statement said the group welcomed the resolution, though it was not immediately clear if that meant the leadership in Gaza accepted the ceasefire plan.

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Prospect of Israeli hostage deal recedes as far-right minister signals opposition

Bezalel Smotrich calls deal with Hamas ‘collective suicide’ as PM grapples with fallout from Benny Gantz resignation

The prospect of a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas appears to be rapidly receding after the far-right Israeli cabinet member Bezalel Smotrich – on whom Benjamin Netanyahu is now reliant after the resignations of more moderate ministers at the weekend – said he would oppose a deal.

Smotrich’s comments, during a Knesset committee meeting, came amid the fallout from the resignation of the former army chief of staff Benny Gantz from the war cabinet. Gantz quit on the same weekend that Israel rescued four Israeli hostages held in Gaza in an operation that Gaza’s health ministry said killed more than 270 Palestinians and injured hundreds more.

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Israel-Gaza war: ‘sense of urgency’ to secure immediate ceasefire, says Blinken – as it happened

US secretary of state, who is visiting the region, says Egyptian mediators have spoken to Hamas

The health ministry in Gaza has issued new casualty figures, claiming that 37,124 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s military campaign, with 84,712 injured.

The claims have not been independently verified. It has not been possible for journalists to verify casualty figures being issued during the conflict.

This could lead to the murder of many Jews. When Hamas demands to end the war while it’s surviving in Gaza, it means that the group is arming itself, digging tunnels, buying rockets and that many Jews could be murdered and taken hostage on another 7 October.

This is the dilemma we are facing. And it is painful. It is our responsibility as leadership to think not only about the current situation, but also about its long-term consequences.

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Hamas claims three hostages died, including US citizen, in Israel raid that killed more than 200 Palestinians – as it happened

Hamas’ armed al-Qassam Brigades said three hostages were killed in an Israeli military operation on Saturday in which some hostages were freed. This live blog is closed

At least 236 Palestinians were killed in Israel’s raid to free hostages Saturday, Gaza health officials have told the Washington Post.

At al-Awda Hospital, where victims were transported, there were 142 bodies, hospital director Marwan Abu Nasser told the US newspaper. Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital spokesman Khalil al-Degran said over the weekend that the hospital had at least 94 bodies. Hundreds more are believed to be wounded.

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Survivors of Israeli strike on Gaza school describe finding children’s bodies

Territory’s civil defence chief says more than 40 killed with toll increasing due to lack of medical care

Survivors of an Israeli airstrike on a UN school in central Gaza have described finding children’s bodies that had been torn apart by the blast, as Israeli attacks on the area continued for a second night.

Gaza’s head of civil defence said his teams at al-Sardi school in Nuseirat found only civilians among the dead. Mahmoud Basal said the death toll from the attack was more than 40 and still climbing, because injured survivors could not get proper medical care.

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Israel-Gaza war: Israel prepared for ‘strong action’ in north near Lebanon, says Netanyahu – as it happened

Israeli prime minister tours country’s northern border with Lebanon; gunman wounded after shots fired at US embassy north of Beirut. This live blog is closed

Here are the fuller quotes from Benjamin Netanyahu, who was touring northern Israel near the UN-drawn blue line which has separated Lebanon and Israel since 2000 and said that Israel was prepared for strong action in the region. Earlier this week Israel’s military and emergency rescue teams fought large fires set of by rockets fired into Israel.

Reuters reports Netanyahu said:

Whoever thinks that they can harm us and we will sit idly by is making a big mistake. We are prepared for a very strong action in the north. In one way or another we will restore security to the north.

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Israel-Gaza war: Biden only published partial version of Gaza ceasefire proposal, says Netanyahu – as it happened

Israel’s PM says US president only published some of the detail in his plan to wind down war in Gaza and says return of hostages key to any discussions. This live blog is closed

Palestinian health officials said Israeli airstrikes killed 11 people overnight into Monday, including a woman and three children, in central Gaza, according to the Associated Press.

A strike on a home in the built-up Bureij refugee camp late on Sunday evening was reported to have killed four people, including the three children.

The second strike, early Monday, reportedly killed seven people, including a woman, in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

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Hamas still strong in areas ‘cleared’ by Israel in northern Gaza, say experts

Hamas’s ability to return to areas from which it was earlier forced to retreat threatens ‘forever war’

There may be more Hamas militants in the north of Gaza, supposedly cleared by Israeli forces months ago, than in Rafah, the southern city in the territory described by Israeli officials as the extremist Islamist organisation’s “last stronghold”, analysts believe.

More than 1 million people have fled Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, after instructions from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the biggest wave of displacement since the early months of the conflict. The IDF has said repeatedly that four Hamas brigades – the militant Islamist organisation’s biggest remaining force – is based in Rafah.

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Biden’s botched Gaza ceasefire deal only demonstrates his lack of influence | Julian Borger

The US president’s announcement on Friday suggested a ceasefire might be close, but Benjamin Netanyahu’s rebuke was swift and decisive

The latest peace plan for Gaza was given a launch worthy of a historic turning point, with the US president delivering remarks directly to camera from the White House state dining room, declaring it finally “time for this war to end”.

Yet even as Joe Biden spelled out the proposal – leading in theory to a permanent end to hostilities, large-scale food deliveries and the start of reconstruction, there was clearly something awry.

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