Warning from ActionAid comes after Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli army told residents of Gaza City to leave
Dan Sabbagh is the Guardian’s defence and security editor
Fifty-one Israeli arms makers and the US defence giant behind the F-35 fighters used to bomb Gaza are among the 1,600 exhibitors at the biennial DSEI trade show that begins in London’s Docklands on Tuesday.
Continue reading...President says ‘the Israelis have accepted my terms’ and urges release of hostages to secure peace agreement
Donald Trump on Sunday issued what he called his “last warning” to Hamas, urging the Palestinian militant group to accept a deal to release hostages from Gaza.
“The Israelis have accepted my Terms. It is time for Hamas to accept as well,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. “I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting. This is my last warning, there will not be another one!”
Continue reading...Talks aimed at preventing row at UN conference, where several countries plan to recognise state of Palestine
A potential UN-endorsed reconstruction plan for Gaza, including a one-year technocratic government, an international stabilisation force, disarmament of Hamas and a rejection of mass deportation of Palestinians, is being discussed with the US to prevent the UN general assembly descending into a bitter row about the symbolic recognition of Palestine as a state.
It is almost certain that the UK, France, Canada, Belgium and Malta will recognise the state of Palestine at a UN conference on 22 September to be held on the sidelines of the general assembly, in the week when world leaders deliver major speeches.
Continue reading...Armoured vehicle hit in Zeitoun neighbourhood as Arab media reports intense clashes in the area
Seven Israeli soldiers were wounded in an explosion targeting an armoured vehicle in Gaza City on Friday night, the Israel Defense Forces have said.
The soldiers were wounded while operating in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, which has been the site of intense Israeli military activity in recent weeks.
Continue reading...Human Rights Watch says US military personnel could face criminal prosecution for assisting Israel’s war in Gaza
Human rights groups and activists who protest against continued US support for Israel have focused primarily on the flow of US weapons, warning that continuing to send weapons to a state which has been documented using them in probable war crimes makes the US complicit.
However, this week, Human Rights Watch (HRW) highlighted another facet of US military support for Israel: military cooperation and intelligence sharing.
Continue reading...Netanyahu tells soldiers he has approved takeover plan as aid groups advised to prepare for forced displacement
The International Red Cross and UN have warned of an impending catastrophe in the Gaza Strip if Israel launches an offensive to take over Gaza City, as the Israeli military told medical and aid groups in the Palestinian territory to prepare for imminent forced displacement.
At the same time a concerted campaign of international opposition to Israel’s defiance of ceasefire calls and its approval of a huge new illegal settlement construction in the occupied West Bank gathered pace, with the UK summoning Israel’s ambassador and joining 20 other countries in condemning the settlement plan as a “violation of international law”.
Continue reading...Troops already holding outskirts of territory’s capital, military says, while Israel approves huge new illegal settlement splitting West Bank
Iran launched its first military exercise since the end of its 12-day war with Israel, state television reported Thursday, with navy vessels launching missiles at targets at sea in the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean.
While such drills are routine in the Islamic Republic, the “Sustainable Power 1404” exercise comes as authorities in Iran are trying to project strength in the wake of a war that saw Israel destroy air defense systems and bomb nuclear facilities and other sites.
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Israel is “killing all prospects” for peace in the Middle East, Jordan’s foreign minister has said amid escalating international outrage over Israel’s plans for a new large-scale offensive in Gaza City and plans to massively expand Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Ayman Safadi made his remarks during a visit to Moscow on the same day that the Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, approved a plan to conquer Gaza City, an urban area home to hundreds of thousands of people in the north of the Palestinian territory.
Continue reading...Israel under pressure to accept ceasefire proposal that is said to be almost identical to earlier US-backed plan
Israel has said it will deliver its response to international mediators by Friday over a new Gaza ceasefire plan accepted by Hamas amid mounting pressure for a truce in a war that has claimed more than 62,000 Palestinian lives.
After mass protests in Israel demanding a deal to secure the release of the remaining 20 living Israeli hostages held in Gaza, it appeared that Hamas had reduced its demands over a prisoners-for-hostages exchange as well as over the scope of an Israeli-demanded “security buffer zone”.
Continue reading...Deal would include 60-day halt to violence and exchange of half of living Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners
Hamas officials say they have accepted a proposal for a Gaza ceasefire deal that would include the release of half of the approximately 20 remaining living Israeli hostages as part of a phased resolution to the war, as Gaza health officials said 62,000 Palestinians had died in the 22 months of war.
The proposed deal follows negotiations between Hamas and Egyptian and Qatari officials that have been taking place in Cairo in recent days, and comes after the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was confronted on Sunday by Israel’s biggest protests of the war, which called for a deal to secure the release of the hostages.
Continue reading...Hamas account claims quotes attributed to co-founder Hassan Yousef unlikely to be true given he’s been in jail since October 2023
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Anthony Albanese has warned media about Hamas propaganda, amid confusion regarding statements reportedly made by the terrorist group in relation to Australia’s pledge to recognise a Palestinian state.
Nine newspapers reported on Wednesday that the Hamas co-founder and senior official Hassan Yousef had welcomed the decision, praising Australia’s “political courage” and calling on other countries to follow its example.
Continue reading...Fatal infections more likely due to malnutrition, injuries and lack of medical facilities under Israel’s blockade
Gaza is facing a new threat as diseases resistant to antibiotics spread across the devastated territory, research has revealed.
Medical supplies are desperately scarce and tens of thousands of people have been injured in the 22-month war, while many others have been weakened by malnutrition, so the high levels of drug-resistant bacteria will mean longer and more serious illnesses, a more rapid transmission of infectious diseases and more deaths, experts said.
Continue reading...Sir Ephraim Mirvis joins relatives of hostages in calling for their release before any recognition of a Palestinian state
The chief rabbi has criticised Labour’s pledge to recognise a Palestinian state at a “national march for the hostages” in central London organised by a number of Jewish groups.
Family members of Israeli hostages taken on 7 October also joined the march on Downing Street to urge the release of those being held by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Continue reading...Yair Lapid says far-right ministers dragged Benjamin Netanyahu into ‘exactly what Hamas wanted’ after security cabinet approves take over plan
The UK’s ambassador to Israel has said extending the war in Gaza would only lead to more deaths and that occupying Gaza would be a “huge mistake”.
Simon Walters was quoted by Israel’s Haaretz newspaper as saying on Thursday:
The IDF has achieved all that it can achieve in Gaza, and extending the war any further will simply lead to more deaths. Deaths of soldiers, deaths of Palestinians, deaths of hostages.
If you want to defeat Hamas, you cannot achieve that through military force. You need to use politics and diplomacy and you need to give the people of Gaza an alternative to Hamas.
We are working with friends, allies in Europe and in the Middle East to generate a real plan for what happens after the fighting stops, after the war.
It needs to be a description of what the governments will be for Gaza. That has to be governance by Palestinians who are not members of Hamas with a role for the Palestinian Authority.
Continue reading...Officials say prime minister planning offensive to fully occupy Gaza, but resistance reveals splits in government
An Israeli security cabinet meeting, which had been expected to discuss Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for the “full occupation” of Gaza, has been postponed amid mounting tensions over whether the plan is feasible.
Amid a stalling of ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, Israeli officials had briefed local and international media that the prime minister was considering an expansive offensive, aimed at taking full control of the Palestinian territory after 22 months of war against the militant group Hamas.
Continue reading...Family of Evyatar David condemn video as protesters in Tel Aviv call for a deal to be made to return hostages
Hamas has reaffirmed that it will not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established, as the group released its second video in two days of an Israeli hostage.
Responding to one of the key Israeli demands to end the war in Gaza, Hamas – which has dominated the territory since 2007 – said it could not yield its right to “armed resistance” unless an “independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital” is established.
Continue reading...Freed British-Israeli accuses PM of ‘moral failure’ over move to recognise Palestine at UN unless Israel changes course
Keir Starmer has said he is listening to hostages taken by Hamas but still intends to recognise a Palestinian state unless Israel commits to a ceasefire and two-state solution.
The prime minister said he had spoken to the freed British-Israeli Emily Damari, held hostage by Hamas for 471 days, after she accused him of “moral failure” over the move to recognise Palestine as a state in September at the UN.
Continue reading...No 10 sources say PM is ‘horrified’ by crisis and hopes to convince US to help end ‘unspeakable suffering’
Keir Starmer will personally press Donald Trump to revive ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas when they meet on Monday amid growing international alarm over the starvation crisis in Gaza.
The prime minister is expected to ask the US president, who is on a four-day break in Scotland, to push for a resumption of peace talks after the US and Israel withdrew their negotiation teams from Qatar.
Continue reading...Militant group has become adept at exploiting successful attacks – and now needs all the leverage it can get for talks
As Hamas intensifies its insurgent campaign against Israeli forces in Gaza, it is focusing on a new aim: capturing an Israeli soldier.
Last week, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) sergeant was killed in Khan Younis in southern Gaza in an attempted abduction. Hamas militants also tried to take away the remains of 25-year-old Abraham Azulay but abandoned the effort when attacked by other Israeli forces.
Continue reading...Latest deaths come as humanitarian workers and doctors in Gaza say they have been overwhelmed by almost daily ‘mass casualty incidents’
Here are some of the latest images coming through from Gaza:
On Tuesday, the European Union force patrolling the Red Sea told AFP that three people were killed and at least two injured - including a Russian electrician who lost a leg - in the attack on the Eternity C.
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