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Israeli air strikes on the Lebanese coastal city of Tyre have now killed seven people.
Reuters reported that Lebanon’s health ministry said the death toll has risen from three to seven after the attack on Friday.
Continue reading...Tottenham fans will gather before their team’s game against Ipswich on Sunday to call for the release of Emily Damari, the last remaining British hostage held by Hamas in Gaza.
Damari, a Spurs supporter, has been in captivity for more than a year after being taken from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza during the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas. Stop The Hate UK, an activist group based in London, has been raising awareness about the 28-year-old, who is one of about 100 hostages in Gaza, and about 70 campaigners held a rally for her outside the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium before Spurs faced Aston Villa last Sunday.
Continue reading...Gulf state’s government is stopping mediation efforts until warring parties show a ‘sincere willingness’ to reach a deal
The Qatari government has informed the US and Israel it will stop mediation efforts to halt the conflict in Gaza because it no longer thinks the parties are negotiating in good faith.
The Gulf state has concluded that talks have become a political football, and its efforts to facilitate them were generating criticism towards it, according to a diplomatic source briefed on the situation.
Continue reading...‘Looming catastrophe’ will ‘dwarf anything we have seen so far’ in Gaza since 7 October 2023, famine review committee says
There is a “strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas” of the northern Gaza Strip, a committee of global food security experts warned on Friday, as Israel claims to be pursuing a military offensive against Palestinian militant group Hamas in the area.
“Immediate action, within days not weeks, is required from all actors who are directly taking part in the conflict, or have influence on its conduct, to avert and alleviate this catastrophic situation,” the independent Famine Review Committee (FRC) said in a rare alert.
Continue reading...Head of the Norwegian Refugee Council calls for peace process to begin as new figures reveal civilians have borne the brunt of the war
Nearly 70% of the people killed in the war in Gaza are women and children, according to a UN analysis of verified deaths that highlights the heavy civilian toll of the ongoing conflict.
In a new report, the most detailed analysis of its kind yet, the UN human rights office said it had verified 8,119 of those killed during the first six months of the war in Gaza. Of the fatalities, 3,588 were children and 2,036 were women. The youngest victim was a one-day-old boy and the oldest was a 97-year-old woman.
Continue reading...Ousted defence minister also quoted as saying Netanyahu rejected peace deal against advice of his security officials
Israel’s ousted defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has reportedly said the army has achieved all its objectives in Gaza and that Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a hostages-for-peace deal against the advice of his own security establishment.
Gallant was speaking to hostages’ families on Thursday, two days after being sacked by Netanyahu, and reports of his remarks quickly surfaced in Israeli media.
Continue reading...Leon Panetta says he also expects US president-elect to favor letting Russia retain control of areas of Ukraine
Donald Trump will as president give Benjamin Netanyahu a “blank check” in the Middle East, possibly opening the way for all-out war between Israel and Iran, the former CIA director and US defense secretary Leon Panetta predicted.
“With regards to the Middle East, I think he’s basically going to give Netanyahu a blank check,” Panetta said of Trump, who won the presidential election this week and will take office again in January.
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Continue reading...Many in Ramallah argue things cannot get any worse but some say US result could add unpredictability to despair
The waiters at Ramallah’s cafes and the tenders of its falafel stands all had more or less the same question: is Donald Trump’s win good or bad? It is a question reserved for outsiders. The Palestinians in the biggest city on the West Bank seem to have already come to a provisional consensus: that the US election result has no real impact here because things could not possibly be worse.
“It will not make a big difference,” said Eyad Barghouti, a retired university teacher, expressing a commonly held view as the Gaza war rages on. “What Biden was doing before with a low profile, Trump will be more vocal about.
Continue reading...Israeli army says officer’s comments that Palestinians will not be allowed return home were taken out of context
The Israeli army has distanced itself from comments made by a brigadier general that ground forces are getting closer to “the complete evacuation” of the northern Gaza Strip and residents will not be allowed to return home.
In a media briefing on Tuesday night, the Israel Defense Forces’ Brig Gen Itzik Cohen told Israeli reporters that “there is no intention of allowing the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to return”. He added that humanitarian aid would be allowed to “regularly” enter the south of the territory but there were “no more civilians left” in the north.
Continue reading...12 Palestinians killed in attack on al-Shati refugee camp; Irish foreign minister says country will join South Africa’s case in the international court of justice
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson has said the presidential election result in the US is a chance for a new administration to “review the wrong approaches of the past”.
Reuters quotes Esmaeil Baghaei saying “We had bitter experiences with various US governments’ past policies and approaches. Elections are an opportunity to review the wrong approaches of the past. What is important for Iran will be how we evaluate the actions of the US government.”
Continue reading...Brig Gen Itzik Cohen said in a briefing that aid would only be allowed to enter south of Gaza Strip, not the north
Israeli ground forces are getting closer to “the complete evacuation” of northern Gaza and residents will not be allowed to return home, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said, in what appears to be the first official acknowledgment from Israel it is systematically removing Palestinians from the area.
In a media briefing on Tuesday night, the IDF Brig Gen Itzik Cohen told Israeli reporters that since troops had been forced to enter some areas twice, such as Jabaliya camp, “there is no intention of allowing the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to return to their homes”.
Continue reading...Critics dismayed at timing of dismissal amid war and on day of US election – and warn more may come for PM’s political gain
Many Israelis have been left reeling by Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to dismiss his popular defence minister in the midst of a multifront war, accusing him of carrying out the move for his own political gain.
In a surprise announcement late on Tuesday, the prime minister said that he had fired Yoav Gallant over what he described a “crisis of trust” in the past few months. Gallant, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party and a senior general, has been replaced by the foreign minister, Likud lawmaker and loyalist Israel Katz, who has little military background.
Continue reading...Philippe Lazzarini, head of Unrwa, says aid agency will collapse ‘without intervention by member states’
Lebanon’s army has issued a warning to residents in the Ghobeiry area of the southern suburbs of Beirut that today between 10.30am and 1.30pm it will “detonate unexploded ordnance” in the area.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered his congratulations to Donald Trump, who appears on course for re-election in the US.
Dear Donald and Melania Trump, congratulations on history’s greatest comeback! Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America. This is a huge victory! In true friendship, yours, Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed. See our latest full report here and all our Middle East crisis coverage here
Al Jazeera reports that the death toll from an Israeli strike on tents housing displaced people in central Gaza has risen to six, and includes a six-year-old and a four-year-old child.
Lebanon’s Nation News Agency has reported that the Israeli army, which has been staging incursions inside the south of the country, “is booby-trapping and destroying entire neighbourhoods in cities and towns, such that more than 37 towns have been wiped out and their homes destroyed, and more than 40,000 housing units have been completely destroyed.”
Continue reading...Demonstrators in Tel Aviv and outside PM’s home condemn sacking of Gallant, widely seen by Israel’s allies as a brake on far-right elements of Israeli government
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has fired his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, a figure widely considered by Israel’s international allies to be a brake on the far-right elements of the country’s coalition government, prompting protests around Israel.
Netanyahu said in a video statement late on Tuesday that “significant gaps on handling the battle” in Gaza had emerged.
Continue reading...Large majorities in seven countries condemn 7 October attacks – but most common view is Israel’s response in Gaza is also unjustified
Full-scale war in the Middle East involving Israel and Iran is now likely, most western Europeans responding in a poll believe, with many criticising Israel’s conduct thus far and saying that if such a war did occur, the US and Europe should not provide it with military aid.
A YouGov Eurotrack survey in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Denmark and the UK found that strong majorities in all seven countries, ranging from 65% in France to 82% in Spain, felt the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023 were not justified.
Continue reading...Country’s allies and aid workers say move could cripple services for Palestinians who increasingly depend on them
Israel has formally informed the United Nations of its intention to sever ties entirely with the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees in a move the country’s allies and aid workers warn will deepen the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East.
The Knesset passed two bills last week banning Unrwa from Israeli territory and prohibiting Israeli state contact with the agency on the basis of allegations that Hamas had infiltrated it.
Continue reading...Doctored intelligence files allegedly leaked by Israeli PM’s office ‘harmed the achievement of Israel’s war aims’
An alleged intelligence leak from Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has ballooned into a major scandal for the Israeli prime minister after a court partly lifted a gag order on the case, saying that the affair may have undermined efforts to reach a hostage deal in the Gaza war.
Four people have been arrested in connection with the joint investigation by the police, internal security services and the army, a court in the city of Rishon LeZion said on Sunday night.
Continue reading...Breakdown in peace negotiations may have been caused by leaked and falsified documents involving close aide to Israeli PM
Israeli media reports that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet today with opposition leader Yair Lapid for a security briefing.
The Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry has issued a statement condemning the reported burning of cars by Israeli settlers in Al-Bireh in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The ministry affirms that the Jewish terrorist elements who stormed Al-Bireh would not have committed this heinous crime had they not felt protected, supported and immune from the political level in the occupying state, especially the ministers of the extreme Israeli right who openly incite against Palestinian citizens, their land and their property in full view.
Continue reading...Unicef director says three children injured after polio clinic came under fire despite promised humanitarian pause
A polio vaccination centre and the car of a UN aid official involved in this weekend’s vaccination campaign came under fire despite a promised “humanitarian pause” in Israeli bombardment, the UN has said.
Catherine Russell, the executive director of the UN child support and protection agency, Unicef, said: “At least three children were reportedly injured by another attack in the proximity of a vaccination clinic in Sheikh Radwan while a polio vaccination campaign was under way.”
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