Category Archives: Israel-Gaza war

Middle East crisis live: Israeli airstrike kills 12 in Gaza City school; Ireland joins genocide case against Israel – as it happened

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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.”

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Palestinians will not be allowed to return to homes in northern Gaza, says IDF

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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”.

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Netanyahu’s sacking of defence chief ‘last thing Israel needs’, says president

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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 Gallant, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party and a senior general, has been replaced by the foreign minister, Likud lawmaker and loyalist Israel Katz, who has little military background.

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Middle East crisis: UN members must defend Unrwa against Israel’s ban, says aid agency boss – as it happened

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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.

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Protests in Israel after defence minister sacked – as it happened

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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.”

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Benjamin Netanyahu fires defence minister Yoav Gallant, triggering protests across Israel

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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.

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Full-scale war in Middle East involving Israel and Iran likely, say most Europeans in poll

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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.

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Israel formally tells UN of intent to sever all ties with Unrwa relief agency

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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.

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Alleged Netanyahu leak may have harmed Gaza hostage deal, says court

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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.

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Middle East crisis live: Leaks from Netanyahu’s office may have compromised peace deal, Israeli court finds – as it happened

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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.

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Vaccination centre and aid official’s car bombarded in Gaza, says UN

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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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Netanyahu in fresh storm over Gaza hostages after arrests linked to alleged leak

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Court says arrests followed investigation into suspected breach of national security that had ‘harmed Israeli war aims’

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is at the centre of a new political storm related to a hostage deal in the Gaza war after the arrest of several people in connection with an alleged leak of classified documents from his office.

An Israeli court announced the arrests on Friday afternoon, before the beginning of Shabbat, saying that a joint investigation by the police, internal security services and the army suspected a “breach of national security caused by the unlawful provision of classified information”, which had also “harmed the achievement of Israel’s war aims”.

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The ultranationalist TV channel fast becoming Israel’s most-watched news source

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Channel 14, which counts Netanyahu as a supporter, has denied allegations that its coverage has incited war crimes

An ultranationalist Israeli television channel backed by the government is fast emerging as one of the country’s most-watched news sources, despite allegations from liberal groups that it is inciting war crimes, and claims from the army that it is riling up hatred of its generals for not being far enough to the right.

Last month Channel 14, also known as Now 14, beat Israel’s principal mainstream news outlet, Channel 12, in viewer ratings when 343,000 Israelis watched Channel 14’s “Patriots” talkshow, known for its virulent rhetoric on Gaza.

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Israel abducts alleged Hezbollah official in unprecedented sea raid

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Commandos land in northern Lebanon in highly unusual operation to capture supposed militant group member

The Israeli military abducted who it said was a senior Hezbollah official in an unprecedented operation on Saturday morning during which Israeli commandos landed on the shores of Batroun, northern Lebanon, captured the alleged official and escaped via speedboat.

In a statement, an Israeli military official said its forces captured a “senior operative of Hezbollah” and transferred him to its territory to be investigated by military intelligence. The media outlet Axios cited Israeli sources as saying the captured man – Imad Amhaz – was responsible for Hezbollah’s naval operations.

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‘Death is everywhere’: fears grow that Israel plans to seize land in Gaza

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Increasingly violent siege of north raises suspicions about Netanyahu’s war aims

Israel has tightened its siege of northern Gaza in the face of warnings from the UN and other aid agencies that hundreds of thousands of Palestinian lives at are risk, raising questions over whether the Netanyahu government’s ultimate war aims include territorial expansion.

The IDF says it is hunting Hamas militants but suspicions are growing that Israel is putting into practice a blueprint it had officially distanced itself from, known as the “generals’ plan”.

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Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib declines to endorse Kamala Harris

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The Palestinian American ‘squad’ member has been critical of Harris and the Democratic party’s inaction on Gaza

Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib declined to endorse Kamala Harris at a union rally in Detroit, where the war in Gaza is the top issue for the largest block of Arab American voters in the country.

Tlaib, the first Palestinian American woman to serve in Congress, is the only one of the so-called leftist “Squad” that has not endorsed the Democrat candidate. The other three members – Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York – endorsed Harris in July.

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Israel captures Lebanese sea captain and claims he is a Hezbollah operative – as it happened

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Navy confirms it landed in Batroun, 30km north of Beirut, and took him to Israel to be ‘investigated’

Troops were also operating in central Gaza and Rafah in the territory’s far south, the Israeli military said, while witnesses told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that Israeli drones and boats opened fire on al-Mawasi in south Gaza.

Medics and Gaza’s civil defence rescuers on Saturday reported three people killed in a strike on Nuseirat, in central Gaza, a day after AFP images showed the blood-stained shrouds of several people killed there in an Israeli strike.

The entire Palestinian population in north Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence.”

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Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon and Gaza kill dozens as rockets are fired into Israel

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Israel targets north-eastern Lebanon and Beirut, while bombardment of Gaza raises fears of worsening humanitarian conditions for civilians

Israeli airstrikes on Friday killed at least 52 people and wounded scores more, the Lebanese health ministry said, while rockets fired from Lebanon fell on Israel on Saturday.

Israeli police said 19 people were injured before dawn on Saturday in the central town of Tira. Three projectiles crossed into Israel from Lebanon, Israel’s military said, and some were intercepted.

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Middle East crisis: North Gaza situation ‘apocalyptic’ with whole population at risk of ‘imminent death’, say UN chiefs – as it happened

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The Israel Defence Force has shared pictures of Nazi memorabilia it says it found in “civilian homes exploited by Hezbollah” in Lebanon.

The IDF shared photos of a book with a swastika and the name “Hassan Salih” inscribed on the front, as well as a Nazi pennant flag and figurine of Adolf Hitler, but it did not provide any more evidence or details of the find. The Guardian could not independently verify the images.

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Israeli assault has caused ‘apocalyptic’ situation in northern Gaza, UN warns

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Key officials say entire population of northern Gaza ‘at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence’

The situation in the northern Gaza Strip is “apocalyptic” as Israel pursues a military offensive against Hamas militants in the area, top United Nations officials have warned.

“The entire Palestinian population in north Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence,” they said in a statement on Friday signed by the heads of UN agencies, including the UN children’s agency Unicef and the World Food Programme, and other aid groups.

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