A run of scoops from a writer who came ‘out of nowhere’ has led to intensified questions about the paper’s ownership
Elon Perry gave the impression he was a mover and a shaker.
There are the photos of him alongside Michael Gove – and taking selfies in Downing Street. And there are interviews too.
Continue reading...IDF says its is reviewing the incident, which took place during a raid in the town of Qabatiya
Israeli soldiers have been filmed pushing three apparently lifeless bodies from a rooftop during a raid in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, in the latest in a series of suspected violations by Israeli forces since the start of the Israel-Hamas war that rights groups say show a pattern of excessive force toward Palestinians.
The incident took place in the town of Qabatiya in the northern West Bank, where the Israeli military has been carrying out large-scale raids since late August that the Palestinian health ministry says have killed dozens of people.
Continue reading...On Tuesday, dozens of people were killed when electronic pagers blew up. The next day walkie-talkies exploded. What was the goal of the attacks? William Christou reports
On Tuesday, William Christou, a journalist reporting from Beirut for the Guardian, began hearing about simultaneous explosions across the city. Then videos began to emerge of small blasts in shops, cars and people’s homes. The death toll began to rise. Then came the extraordinary reason: electronic pagers, used by members of Hezbollah to communicate, had blown up, wounding their owners and whoever was nearby.
Israel was blamed by its critics and supporters alike and questions multiplied: how could such an attack have been carried out, and why now? Israel and Hezbollah have been trading attacks over the Lebanese border since the beginning of the war on Gaza, but this operation took everyone by surprise. Then came more deadly explosions – this time walkie-talkies blew up.
Continue reading...Hassan Nasrallah decries targeting of pagers and walkie-talkies that killed 37, including children, and hurt thousands
Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of strikes across southern Lebanon late on Thursday, hours after Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, threatened “tough retribution and just punishment” for the wave of attacks that targeted the organisation with explosives hidden in pagers and walkie-talkies.
The Israeli military said it had hit hundreds of rocket launchers which it said were about to be used “in the immediate future”.
Continue reading...Hassan Nasrallah due to give televised speech, as US warns all sides in Middle East against escalation ‘of any kind’
Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, will seek to rally his followers and inspire new defiance of Israel in a much-anticipated televised speech on Thursday afternoon, after the Lebanon-based militant Islamist organisation was thrown into disarray by successive waves of unprecedented attacks that have been blamed on Israel.
On Tuesday, thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah exploded simultaneously, killing 12 people, including two children, and wounding up to 2,800 others across Lebanon. A day later, 25 people were killed and more than 450 wounded when walkie-talkies exploded in supermarkets, on streets and at funerals, stoking fears that a full-blown war between Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, and Israel could be imminent.
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In our First Edition newsletter today, my colleague Heather Stewart has spoken to our defence and security editor Dan Sabbagh. Here is a snippet:
Targeting Hezbollah directly is not new: Benjamin Netanyahu’s government claimed to have killed a Hezbollah leader in an airstrike on Beirut in July, for example. But the widespread and indiscriminate nature of Tuesday’s blasts represented a significant escalation.
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Continue reading...The Australian ambassador to the UN said Australia supported many of the principles of the resolution that called on Israel to end the occupation of the Palestinian territories
Australia “abstained with great disappointment” on a United Nations general assembly resolution that called on Israel to end the occupation of the Palestinian territories within 12 months, the Australian ambassador said.
Despite casting an abstain vote on Thursday morning, the Australian ambassador to the UN, James Larsen, said Australia “supports many of the principles of this resolution” and was “already doing much of what it calls for”.
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Continue reading...Republican John Kennedy of Louisiana accuses thinktank director of supporting Hamas in heated hate crime hearing
A congressional hearing on hate crimes drew charges of the bigotry it was meant to address after a Republican senator told the female Muslim head of a thinktank to “hide your head in a bag” and accused her of supporting Hamas and Hezbollah.
John Kennedy, the GOP senator for Louisiana, drew condemnation from Democrats as well as Muslim, Jewish and civil liberties groups for the remark, aimed at Maya Berry, the executive director of the Arab American Institute, at a hearing staged by the Senate judiciary committee.
Continue reading...What sources are saying about the techniques behind the simultaneous explosion of thousands of devices across Lebanon
In an unprecedented security breach, thousands of pagers and walkie-talkie radios belonging to members of Hezbollah detonated across Lebanon in simultaneous explosions on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing at least 26 people and wounding thousands of others.
Hospitals across Lebanon were overwhelmed with an influx of patients after the pager attack on Tuesday, and a field hospital was set up in the southern city of Tyre to accommodate the wounded.
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Local Palestinian media is reporting that a 17-year-old child has been killed by Israeli security forces near Ni’lin, west of Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The claims have not been independently verified.
Overnight Israel’s military announced the deaths of four soldiers.
Continue reading...Taiwanese company Gold Apollo says a company in Europe made the pagers used in extraordinary attack in Lebanon that Hezbollah blames on Israel
The Taiwanese manufacturer linked to pagers that exploded as part of a deadly and unprecedented attack in Lebanon against Hezbollah has said the devices were made by a company in Europe, as the militant group blamed Israel and vowed revenge attacks.
Potentially thousands of pagers were remotely and simultaneously detonated across Lebanon, killing at least nine people and wounding almost 3,000 on Tuesday. Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, said a young girl was among the dead, and that more than 200 people had critical injuries.
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German news media outlets have called on Israel to grant them access to Gaza, and for neighbouring Egypt to allow entry to the territory via the Rafah border crossing.
“After almost a year of war, we call on the Israeli government: allow us to enter the Gaza Strip,” a group of newspapers, agencies and broadcasters wrote in an open letter.
To date, CPJ has determined that at least five journalists were directly targeted by Israeli forces in killings which CPJ classifies as murders: Issam Abdallah, Hamza Al Dahdouh, Mustafa Thuraya, Ismail Al Ghoul, and Rami Al Refee. CPJ is still researching the details for confirmation in at least 10 other cases that indicate possible targeting.
Immediately stop the process of replacing (Gallant). The firing of the minister weakens Israel in the eyes of her enemies, and will further deepen the division in the people of Israel…
The prime minister knows better than anyone that all the economic indicators also prove that Israel is deteriorating into an economic abyss and sinking into a deep recession.
Continue reading...Statement from Benjamin Netanyahu comes after defence minister says the possibility for an agreement with Hezbollah was ‘running out’
Israel will expand its war goals to include the return of northern residents who were evacuated due to attacks by Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, according to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The decision was approved during an overnight meeting of the security cabinet, Netanyahu’s office said. Israeli forces have exchanged near-daily strikes with Hezbollah since Hamas’s 7 October attack sparked the war in the Gaza.
Continue reading...Five women and four children said to be among dead with strike hitting residential building in crowded Nuseirat camp
At least 16 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes across central Gaza on Sunday night and Monday morning, including five women and four children, Palestinian health officials have said.
Rescuers said an airstrike early on Monday destroyed a residential building in the densely populated Nuseirat refugee camp in the heart of central Gaza, killing at least 10 people, including four women and two children.
Continue reading...Osama Hamdan rejects claim by Israeli defence minister that Hamas ‘no longer exists’ as a military formation
Polio vaccination coverage in Gaza has reached 90%, the head of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency said on Monday, adding that the next step was to ensure hundreds of thousands of children got a second dose at the end of the month.
The campaign to vaccinate 640,000 children in Gaza under 10 years of age against polio, which began on 1 September, presented major challenges to Unrwa and its partners due to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, Reuters reported.
Continue reading...Israeli prime minister speaks after Yemen’s Houthis claim responsibility for ballistic missile attack that reached central Israel for the first time
Continue reading...David Baddiel and Jonathan Freedland among those to resign over articles by former IDF soldier Elon Perry
A number of prominent columnists have resigned in protest from the Jewish Chronicle after allegations it printed articles about the Gaza conflict that were based on “wild fabrications”.
The weekly title, the world’s oldest Jewish newspaper, is facing calls for an investigation after it deleted nine articles by Elon Perry because of doubts over their accuracy and concerns he had misrepresented his CV.
Continue reading...Rebel group claims what would be first missile to have landed in Israel from Yemen, but no reports of casualties
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has warned Yemen’s Houthi rebels will pay a “heavy price” after the group claimed its first ballistic missile strike on Israel and its leader warned of bigger attacks to come.
The missile – claimed by the Houthis as an advanced surface-to-surface hypersonic missile – triggered air sirens across the country at about 6.30am, and local media aired footage of people racing to shelters at Ben Gurion international airport south-east of Tel Aviv. According to reports, it hit an open area in the Ben Shemen forest, causing a fire near Kfar Daniel. There were no reports of casualties or damage.
Continue reading...Small initiatives are trying to maintain some learning, but resources are scant and many children are put to work
Every evening, for two hours, Asma Mustafa sits down with the small children of Nuseirat camp in central Gaza for what now passes as school in the beleaguered strip. She makes do with what is available: sometimes there are pens and paper for basic maths and literacy, but most of the time class time is taken up with storytelling, singing and play.
“I have been doing this since November,” said Mustafa, 38, who taught at a girls’ high school in Gaza City before the war. “Many children are now working or helping their families find basic things like food during the day, but I try to give them a little bit of structure and normality in the evenings.”
Continue reading...US president Joe Biden and British PM Keir Starmer fear secret arms link-up amid talks in Washington over Ukraine
Britain and the US have raised fears that Russia has shared nuclear secrets with Iran in return for Tehran supplying Moscow with ballistic missiles to bomb Ukraine.
During their summit in Washington DC on Friday, Keir Starmer and US president Joe Biden acknowledged that the two countries were tightening military cooperation at a time when Iran is in the process of enriching enough uranium to complete its long-held goal to build a nuclear bomb.
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