This blog has now closed. You can read our full report on the latest developments in the Israel-Gaza war here and see all our Israel-Gaza war coverage here
Lebanese state media is reporting that three people have been killed and one wounded by an Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: The Hamas attack on Israel, and the country’s overwhelming armed response, have destabilised the region and caused unfathomable suffering
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Good morning. For more than 80 days, a bloody conflict has been raging in Israel and Gaza. On 7 October Hamas launched thousands of rockets into Israel, and gunmen broke through security barriers in the worst breach of the country’s defences in five decades – 1,200 Israelis were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage. Harrowing reports have emerged of sexual violence against women, of torture and abuse of adults and children.
The response from Israel was swift and brutal, with the government promising a “mighty vengeance” against Hamas, vowing to destroy the militant group altogether. In the months since the attack, the Israeli military has unleashed one of the heaviest conventional bombing campaigns in history, according to one expert. More than 20,400 people have been killed, including nearly 8,000 children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, in the two and a half months since the bombardment began. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced; entire neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble. The UN has described the humanitarian situation in Gaza as “apocalyptic” and the World Food Programme has said that there is a “catastrophic hunger crisis”. Safe drinking water is desperately scarce, raising the risk of disease outbreaks.
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Iraq’s government has condemned overnight US air strikes on Iraqi military positions that it said killed one serviceman and injured 18 other people, calling them a “clear hostile act”.
The US carried out retaliatory air strikes on Monday in Iraq after a one-way drone attack earlier in the day by Iran-aligned militants that left one US service member in critical condition and injured two others, Reuters reports.
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Here are more details of the Egyptian plan to end the conflict, as reported by the Associated Press:
The call is for an initial ceasefire of up to two weeks during which Palestinian militants would free 40 to 50 hostages in return for the release of 120 to 150 Palestinians from Israeli prisons, the Egyptian official said.
At the same time negotiations would continue on extending the ceasefire and the release of more hostages and bodies held by Palestinian militants, he said.
Egypt and Qatar would work with all Palestinian factions, including Hamas, to agree on the establishment of a government of experts, he added.
The government would rule Gaza and the West Bank for a transitional period as Palestinian factions settled their disputes and agreed on a roadmap to hold presidential and parliamentary elections.
In the meantime, Israel and Hamas would continue to negotiate a comprehensive “all-for-all” deal, the official said. This would include the release of all remaining hostages in return for all Palestinian prisoners in Israel, as well as the Israeli military’s withdrawal from Gaza and the Palestinian militants’ halting of rocket attacks into Israel.
Continue reading...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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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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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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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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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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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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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.
Continue reading...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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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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...‘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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