Category Archives: Hamas

Gaza is ‘hungriest place on Earth’ with all its people at risk of famine, says UN

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Mission to deliver help is ‘one of most obstructed aid operations in recent history’, humanitarian agency says

Gaza is “the hungriest place on Earth”, according to the UN, which has warned that the Palestinian territory’s entire population is at risk of famine.

Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said the territory was “the only defined area – a country or defined territory within a country – where you have the entire population at risk of famine. One hundred per cent of the population at risk of famine,” he said on Friday.

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Thom Yorke calls Netanyahu an ‘extremist’ in statement on Gaza

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Radiohead frontman makes lengthy statement after he had been criticised over perceived silence on the war, and for previously performing in Israel

After he was criticised for his silence on the subject, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has made a statement regarding the war in Gaza, saying Benjamin Netanyahu and his Israeli administration are “extremists” who “need to be stopped”.

He also criticised Hamas, saying the organisation “chooses too to hide behind the suffering of its people”.

I think Netanyahu and his crew of extremists are totally out of control and need to be stopped, and that the international community should put all the pressure it can on them to cease. Their excuse of self-defence has long since worn thin and has been replaced by a transparent desire to take control of Gaza and the West Bank permanently.

I believe this ultra-nationalist administration has hidden itself behind a terrified & grieving people and used them to deflect any criticism, using that fear and grief to further their ultra-nationalist agenda with terrible consequences, as we see now with the horrific blockade of aid to Gaza …

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Families of hostages stage protests on 600th day of Israel-Gaza war

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Relatives of Israeli hostages accuse Netanyahu of ‘sentencing them to death’ amid calls for resignation

Marking the 600th day of the Israel-Gaza war, thousands of family members of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza have held protests across the country, blocking traffic and calling for a deal securing the release of their loved ones from captivity and an end to the conflict.

“600 days we are without our loved ones, 600 days that Hamas is holding them captive, and the bloody Israeli government is abandoning them to maintain the integrity of their coalition,” the families said in a statement read by Keith Siegel, a former hostage, at a rally in Tel Aviv on Wednesday.

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Former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert says his country is committing war crimes

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Leader from 2006 to 2009 says Palestinian victims are at ‘monstrous proportions’ and Netanyahu heads a ‘criminal gang’

The former prime minister of Israel Ehud Olmert has said Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza, and that “thousands of innocent Palestinians are being killed, as well as many Israeli soldiers”.

Olmert, who was the 12th prime minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009, wrote in an opinion piece for the Israeli newspaper and website Haaretz that “the government of Israel is currently waging a war without purpose, without goals or clear planning and with no chances of success”.

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Netanyahu vows to ‘take control’ of Gaza as UK, France and Canada threaten action against Israel

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Key allies call escalation ‘egregious’ and promise ‘concrete’ response if Israel does not end renewed offensive and allow aid into strip

Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that Israel will “take control” of all of Gaza, as three key allies attacked his “egregious” escalation of the military campaign and blockade on humanitarian aid.

Britain, France and Canada attacked Israel’s expansion of its war as disproportionate, described conditions in Gaza as “intolerable” and threatened a “concrete” response if Israel’s campaign continues.

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Gaza ceasefire talks continue as Israel carries out fresh wave of strikes

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Netanyahu signals openness to deal but lays out conditions while territory’s hospitals ‘overwhelmed’ with casualties

Ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas have been continuing in Qatar for a second day as Israeli warplanes and artillery launched a fresh wave of strikes across Gaza, killing at least 130 people, according to health officials in the Palestinian territory.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, signalled on Sunday that Israel was open to a deal with Hamas that would include “ending the fighting” in Gaza, but laid out conditions that have been repeatedly refused by the militant Islamist organisation.

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Israel accused of ethnic cleansing after more than 140 killed in Gaza in 24 hours

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Israel says intensified bombings are part of campaign expansion to ‘achieve all of the war goals in Gaza’

At least 140 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the last 24 hours, a deadly escalation as Israel seemed poised to launch a major offensive in the besieged territory.

Israeli strikes in Gaza have killed more than 300 people since Thursday, Palestinian health officials said, one of the deadliest periods in the war since ceasefire talks broke down in March. The intensified bombing campaigns came as Israel’s total blockade on humanitarian aid has prompted fears of a famine in the Palestinian territory.

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Israel launches major offensive in Gaza after airstrikes that killed more than 100

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IDF aiming to seize strategic areas as part of expansion of war against Hamas in attempt to force release of hostages

Israel has announced a major new offensive in Gaza after launching a wave of airstrikes on the territory that killed more than 100 people, in what it said was a fresh effort to force Hamas to release hostages.

In a statement late on Friday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had “launched extensive attacks and mobilized forces to seize strategic areas in the Gaza Strip, as part of the opening moves of Operation Gideon’s Chariots and the expansion of the campaign in Gaza, to achieve all the goals of the war in Gaza”.

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Trump acknowledges starvation in Gaza as Israeli airstrikes kill more than 100

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President says US will ‘take care of’ situation in Gaza on final day of Gulf tour in Abu Dhabi

Donald Trump has said people are starving in Gaza and the US would have the situation in the territory “taken care of” as it suffered a further wave of intense Israeli airstrikes.

On the final day of his Gulf tour, the US president told reporters in Abu Dhabi: “We’re looking at Gaza. And we’re going to get that taken care of. A lot of people are starving.”

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Israeli bombing wave kills dozens in Gaza including at least 22 children, say reports

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Bombardment signals new escalation after Netanyahu said Israel would ‘go in with full force to complete the operation’

An intense wave of Israeli bombing has reportedly killed dozens of people in Gaza, including many children, signalling a new escalation at a critical moment in regional politics.

The exact number of deaths from the attacks was unclear, with estimates ranging from about 30 to more than 50, making it one of the highest tolls in a single morning for many weeks.

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Hamas frees last living US citizen held in Gaza in what Trump calls a ‘good faith step’

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American soldier Edan Alexander meets family at Israel border after masked fighters hand him over to Red Cross

Hamas has freed the last living US citizen it held in Gaza, soldier Edan Alexander, in a unilateral move US president Donald Trump described as a “good faith step” towards ending the war and bringing home all remaining hostages.

The release of 20-year-old Alexander, who spent 584 days in captivity after he was seized from his base on 7 October 2023, was agreed with little Israeli involvement beyond practical coordination on the ground.

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Palestinian president names Hussein al-Sheikh vice-president of PLO and his likely successor

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Mahmoud Abbas appoints veteran aide to newly created role, making him frontrunner to replace ageing leader

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday named a veteran aide and confidant as his new vice-president. It’s a major step by the ageing leader to designate a successor.

The appointment of Hussein al-Sheikh as vice-president of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) does not guarantee he will be the next Palestinian president. But it makes him the frontrunner among longtime politicians in the dominant Fatah party who hope to succeed the 89-year-old Abbas.

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Hamas calls on UK government to remove it from list of banned terrorist groups

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The Palestinian Islamist organisation, which launched deadly 7 October attacks on Israel, says it is a ‘resistance movement’ and no threat to Britain

The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has submitted a legal filing saying it should be removed from the UK government’s list of proscribed terrorist groups.

Hamas, which carried out the 7 October 2023 attacks on southern Israel, in which more than 1,200 people, mainly civilians, were killed and a further 250 taken hostage, is arguing that it is not a terrorist group but “a Palestinian Islamic liberation and resistance movement whose goal is to liberate Palestine and confront the Zionist project”.

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Gaza City strike kills at least 23 as Israel reportedly plans to seize Rafah

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Search for survivors continues at residential building, amid reports Israeli military preparing to seize entire city in south

At least 23 people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit a residential building in northern Gaza, as reports emerged that the Israeli military is preparing to seize the entire city of Rafah as part of a newly announced security corridor.

Medics at al-Ahli hospital said that the bombing on Wednesday of a four-storey building in the Gaza City suburb of Shijaiyah had killed at least eight women and children, as rescue workers continued to search for survivors into the evening. The Israeli military said the strike targeted a senior Hamas militant.

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Gaza medic deaths just the latest in Israel’s long history of changing its story over civilian killings

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After 15 Palestinian medics and civil defence workers were killed by Israeli forces late last month, Israel began a familiar pattern of denial

The Israel Defense Forces’ changing account of its killing of 15 Palestinian medics and civil defence workers is part of a long familiar pattern in high profile cases involving the killing of civilians.

Often, at first, the IDF denies involvement. Sometimes – in the context of Gaza – it suggests one of Hamas’s own rockets fell short, causing the casualties.

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Israel restarts ground operations in northern Gaza Strip in renewed campaign

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At least 25 killed in attack on Khan Younis in south as Israel says it is aiming to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages

Israel has restarted ground operations in the northern Gaza Strip and killed at least 25 people in airstrikes on the southern city of Khan Younis in what it says is a renewed military campaign aimed at pressuring Hamas into releasing Israeli hostages.

At least 25 people were killed in the attack on Khan Younis early on Friday, the local Nasser hospital told AFP, as the search for survivors continued.

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At least 27 killed in Israeli bombing of shelter in Gaza City, rescuers say

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Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flee from southern city of Rafah in one of war’s biggest mass displacements

An Israeli bombing of a school turned shelter in Gaza City has killed at least 27 people, rescuers said, and hundreds of thousands in the Rafah area are fleeing in one of the biggest mass displacements of the war amid Israel’s newly announced campaign to “divide up” the Gaza Strip.

Three missiles hit Dar al-Arqam school in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood on Thursday afternoon, the civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal said, killing several children and wounding 100 people.

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Middle East crisis: Israel issues evacuation order for parts of northern Gaza – as it happened

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IDF says residents should evacuate Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya and the neighbourhoods of Sheikh Zayed, al-Manshiya and Tal al-Zaatar

At least 50,399 Palestinian people have been killed and 114,583 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

At least 42 bodies and 183 injured people have been received by hospitals in Gaza over the last day, according to the territory’s health ministry, which said that at least 1,042 Palestinian people have been killed by Israeli forces since Israel broke the ceasefire with Hamas on 18 March.

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Netanyahu says he is ‘willing’ to reach deal to free Gaza hostages

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Prime minister says military pressure is working, as he rejects claims that Israel is not serious about negotiations

Rejecting claims from Hamas and Israeli protesters that his government is not engaged in serious negotiations aimed at securing the release of those held captive in Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he was committed to reaching an agreement to free the hostages and military pressure had been effective.

“We are willing,” Israel’s prime minister told a cabinet meeting. “We are negotiating under fire” and “can see cracks beginning to appear” in what Hamas has demanded in its negotiations, he said.

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Hamas reportedly agrees to release five living Israeli hostages for ceasefire

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Militants release video of Israeli captive Elkana Bohbot pleading for freedom as they seek a 50-day halt to conflict

Hamas has allegedly agreed to free five living Israeli hostages in exchange for a 50-day ceasefire, as the militant group released a video of a hostage making an appeal for his freedom.

Hamas’s chief, Khalil al-Hayya, reportedly said on Saturday that the militant group expressed willingness to release the five hostages over the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr, which begins on Sunday, after a proposal it received two days ago from Egypt and Qatar, Reuters has reported.

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