Category Archives: Hamas

Ikea warns Red Sea attacks could disrupt supplies and deliveries

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Firm says it is weighing up options to secure product availability amid Yemeni rebel attacks on shipping

Ikea has warned that the disruption to global trade caused by Yemeni rebel attacks in the Red Sea could delay its deliveries and affect availability of some products.

The world’s largest furniture company said it was “evaluating other supply options to secure the availability of our products” after many big shipping companies stopped sending vessels through the Suez canal in response to the attacks by Houthi militants’ protests against the Israel-Gaza war.

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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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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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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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MP Layla Moran fears family trapped in Gaza church ‘will not survive until Christmas’

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Oxford and Abingdon MP’s extended family among those sheltering in besieged Holy Family church in Gaza City

“I fear my family under siege by Israeli forces in a church in Gaza will not survive until Christmas, between the snipers and the lack of water.”

Those were the stark words of Layla Moran, the MP for Oxford and Abingdon whose extended Christian Palestinian family members are among those who have been trapped inside the Holy Family church complex in Gaza City for 60 days.

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Pro-Palestine rally leaders credit public ‘pressure’ with Labor’s shift on Gaza

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Change of heart on ceasefire shows ‘collective action is working’, Sydney protest speaker says

Speakers at Sydney’s pro-Palestine rally have said public outcry against the war in Gaza has pushed the Albanese government to shift its position and back calls for a humanitarian ceasefire, while criticising Labor for not calling for a permanent end to the conflict.

On Wednesday Australia joined 152 other nations in voting in favour of a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and an immediate and unconditional release of all hostages in an emergency session of the United Nations general assembly. The move followed Australia’s decision in late October to abstain from casting a vote on a similar motion.

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Israel-Gaza war: UK and Germany call for ‘sustainable’ ceasefire

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UK foreign minister David Cameron and German counterpart Annalena Baerbock say goal must be peace lasting ‘generations’

The foreign secretary, David Cameron, has called for a “sustainable” ceasefire in the Gaza conflict, as he warned that “too many civilians have been killed” by Israel in spite of its right to eliminate the threat posed by Hamas.

In a significant shift in tone by the UK government, Cameron, in a joint article with the German foreign affairs minister Annalena Baerbock, wrote: “Our goal cannot simply be an end to fighting today. It must be peace lasting for days, years, generations. We therefore support a ceasefire, but only if it is sustainable.

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MP Layla Moran’s family trapped inside Catholic church in Gaza City

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‘Beyond desperate and terrified’ relatives among hundreds inside compound amid bombing by Israeli forces

An MP’s relatives have been trapped alongside hundreds of other civilians in a Catholic church in Gaza City since almost the start of the conflict, and the situation has only grown more dire in recent days.

Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford and Abingdon, told the BBC that some of her Christian Palestinian extended family – a grandmother, her son, his wife and their 11-year-old twins – sought refuge inside the Holy Family Church complex after their home was bombed in the first week of the war.

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‘Israel only responds to force’: support for Hamas soars in West Bank after October attack

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Residents of Jenin say Israeli army seems intent only on revenge as they pick through wreckage of their homes

Fluffy pink slippers on her feet and scarves thrown over her hair and pyjamas, Amal Abu Ghazi, 39, leaned against a wall as she watched her family clear out the rubble from their ruined house in the Jenin refugee camp, in the north of the occupied West Bank.

Her husband used a stick to smash the remaining shards of glass out of the window frames of their two-storey home and her brothers-in-law hauled out the remains of sofas and tables; somehow, a laptop had managed to survive intact. Israeli soldiers had burst in two nights ago, Abu Ghazi said, arresting her sons, 20 and 18, and ordering the rest of the family to wait outside before troops used explosives to demolish the building.

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Al Jazeera asks legal team to refer journalist’s killing to ICC – as it happened

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Israel has said it is opening a military police investigation into the killing of two Palestinians in the West Bank after an Israeli human rights group posted videos that appeared to show Israeli troops killing the men – one who was incapacitated and the second unarmed – during a military raid in a West Bank refugee camp.

The B’Tselem human rights group accused the army of carrying out a pair of “illegal executions”.

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Israel tempers claims of imminent Hamas defeat as both sides seem set on long war

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The militant group’s ideology and its complex tunnel network means it is no ordinary enemy

Israel’s insistence to the Biden administration that it needs more time to defeat Hamas has raised questions over the level of damage inflicted on the Islamist militant organisation, and whether it is changing tactics in its fight against the Israel Defense Forces.

In a week in which nine Israeli soldiers were killed, including two senior commanders and several other officers in a single complex ambush in the Shejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City, analysts and commentators have begun to question previously bullish assessments about Hamas’s ability to fight.

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Bernie Sanders demands answers on Israel’s ‘indiscriminate’ Gaza bombing

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Senator introduces resolution to investigate ‘humanitarian cataclysm … being done with American bombs and money’

The US’s support for Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza is facing new scrutiny in Washington following a resolution by the independent senator Bernie Sanders that could ultimately be used to curtail military assistance.

It is far from clear whether Sanders has the support to pass the resolution, but its introduction in the Senate this week – by an important progressive ally of the US president Joe Biden – highlights mounting human rights and political concerns by Democrats on Capitol Hill.

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Lufthansa to resume flights to Tel Aviv in January – as it happened

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The Israeli heritage minister, Amichai Eliyahu, of Otzma Yehudit, the far-right party led by Itamar Ben-Gvir, said in a radio interview that the Gaza Strip must be “fully” occupied.

In comments reported by Haaretz, Eliyahu said: “Anyone who sells an illusion that [Hamas] will return to manage things does not want to remember what happened on Simhat Torah.”

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Israeli forces recover body of French-Israeli hostage in Gaza

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Elya Toledano was among estimated 240 hostages taken during Hamas attacks on 7 October

The Israeli army has recovered the body of the French-Israeli hostage Elya Toledano, who was kidnapped and taken to Gaza by militants during the 7 October attacks.

Toledano, who turned 28 in captivity, was among an estimated 240 people taken hostage during the Hamas attacks in southern Israel. A resident of Tel Aviv, he was at the Nova music festival along with his friend and fellow French-Israeli Mia Schem, who was released under a truce agreement at the end of November.

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Four arrested in Europe over alleged cross-border Hamas terrorism plot

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Three held in Germany and one in Netherlands over plans for possible attacks on Jewish institutions, prosecutor says

Four people have been arrested in Germany and the Netherlands on suspicion of being part of a cross-border Hamas terror plot that German prosecutors said aimed to obtain weapons to target Jewish institutions in Europe.

Three others were arrested in Denmark on separate terrorism offences, and the country’s politicians indicated they were also Hamas related, while the prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said the threat was “as serious as it gets”.

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Israel-Gaza war live: White House says it wants Israel’s war in Gaza to ‘end as soon as possible’ and be of lower intensity

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Spokesperson adds ‘we’re not dictating terms … about how long it has to be’ as Jake Sullivan says Israel being urged to lower intensity of military operations

A pro-Palestinian group temporarily hacked into the Israeli army website on Wednesday.

The group, calling themselves Anonymous Jo, left a message on the homepage of the website warning of further attacks against Israeli forces.

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Gaza: Israeli commanders among nine soldiers killed in Hamas ambush

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Senior officer from Golani Brigade dies after failed attempt to rescue injured troops in Shejaiya area

Two senior Israeli commanders and seven other soldiers have been killed by Hamas in a complex ambush in the Gaza City suburb of Shejaiya, an area that has seen intense urban fighting in recent days.

The latest Israeli combat deaths came amid fears of a rapidly escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza as heavy winter rains lashed the region and after reports by aid agencies of dwindling food stocks for the vast number of Palestinians who have been displaced to southern Gaza.

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Israel reports its heaviest combat losses in six weeks – as it happened

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The Times of Israel is reporting a little more detail on the incident in the Red Sea earlier, which caused the UK maritime trade operations (UKMTO) agency to issue a warning. [See 7.46 GMT]

Citing US officials, it reports that two missiles fired from Yemen missed a commercial tanker near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. It also reports that a US navy vessel shot down a drone that was heading towards it.

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