Woman and three men freed from Nuseirat, as EU diplomat condemns ‘reports from Gaza of another massacre of civilians’
Israeli special forces have freed four hostages held in Nuseirat, central Gaza, as Israeli attacks and airstrikes in the same area killed at least 93 Palestinians, including children, local medics said.
The rescue raid was the largest of the war, bringing three men and a woman who were kidnapped at the Nova music festival back to Israel.
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Here are some images of the hostages and their family and friends embracing after their release:
Noa Argamani
Continue reading...Aid group workers also taken as UN says it is trying to secure access to its personnel and clarify the situation around the detentions
Yemen’s Houthis have detained 11 Yemeni employees of UN agencies under unclear circumstances, authorities say, as the militia group faces increasing financial pressure and airstrikes from a US-led coalition.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said 11 UN staffers had been taken.
Continue reading...Warning comes amid visits by Israeli officials to region bordering Lebanon and speculation about an operation
The Biden administration has warned Israel that widening its conflict against the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah would risk drawing in Iran, even as Israeli officials said last week they had completed preparations for an operation if it were required.
According to an Axios report quoting two unnamed senior US officials, the administration has told Israel it does not believe “a limited war” in Lebanon or a “small regional war” is a realistic option because it would be difficult to end and be likely to spin out of control.
Continue reading...Territory’s civil defence chief says more than 40 killed with toll increasing due to lack of medical care
Survivors of an Israeli airstrike on a UN school in central Gaza have described finding children’s bodies that had been torn apart by the blast, as Israeli attacks on the area continued for a second night.
Gaza’s head of civil defence said his teams at al-Sardi school in Nuseirat found only civilians among the dead. Mahmoud Basal said the death toll from the attack was more than 40 and still climbing, because injured survivors could not get proper medical care.
Continue reading...Refugee camps under fire across region, according to reports
At least nine Yemeni employees of UN agencies have been detained by Yemen’s Houthi rebels under unclear circumstances, authorities said on Friday, reports the Associated Press (AP). The news agency adds that others working for aid groups are also likely to have been taken.
The detentions come as the Houthis, who seized Yemen’s capital nearly a decade ago and have been fighting a Saudi-led coalition since shortly after, have been targeting shipping throughout the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
The AP reports that the Houthis have cracked down at dissent in Yemen, including recently sentencing 44 people to death.
Regional officials, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to brief journalists, confirmed the UN detentions.
Unrwa chief says 6,000 displaced people were sheltering at school when it was hit and at least 35 have been killed. This live blog is closed
Local authorities report that 37 people have been killed after an overnight Israeli strike on the UN-run Unrwa school in the Nuseirat refugee camp in near Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
Inages from the site show a large number of bodies laid out for burial outside a hospital in Deir al Balah. Unrwa communications director Juliette Touma told Reuters on Thursday that the number of those reported killed in the Israeli offensive on the Nuseirat school is between 35 and 45, but it still cannot confirm the number at this stage, she added.
Continue reading...Israel says it targeted Hamas fighters in strike on school where hospital officials say displaced Palestinians were sheltering
Israel bombed a UN school sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians in central Gaza in the early hours of Thursday morning, killing at least 33 people including 23 women and children, according to hospital records and an eyewitness.
The Israeli military said it targeted “20 or 30” Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters who had taken part in the 7 October attack and were now using the school as an operations centre. The military spokesperson Lt Col Peter Lerner said he was not aware of any civilian casualties.
Continue reading...As grim memory of world war fades, many people are anxious amid rise of nationalist, country-first rhetoric
Twenty-two British D-day veterans, the youngest nearly 100, crossed the Channel on Tuesday to mark this week’s 80th anniversary of the landings in Normandy, representing a thinning thread to the heroics of two or three generations ago when about 150,000 allied soldiers began a seaborne invasion of western Europe that helped end the second world war.
Ron Hayward, a tank trooper who lost his legs fighting in France three weeks after D-day, told crowds assembled in Portsmouth on Wednesday why he and other soldiers were there: “I represent the men and women who put their lives on hold to go and fight for democracy and this country. I am here to honour their memory and their legacy, and to ensure that their story is never forgotten.”
Continue reading...Extreme hunger taking huge toll, say food security reports, regardless of delays to possible declaration of famine
Months of extreme hunger have already killed many Palestinians in Gaza and caused permanent damage to children through malnutrition, two new food security reports have found, even before famine is officially declared.
The US-based famine early warning system network (Fews Net) said it was “possible, if not likely” that famine began in northern Gaza in April. Two UN organisations said more than 1 million people were “expected to face death and starvation” by mid-July.
Continue reading...Eight permits have been approved since 7 October, officials say, but only for items that have to be repaired in Israel and returned to Australia
The Australian government has granted eight permits to send defence-related equipment to Israel since the Gaza conflict erupted, but said they related to items requiring repair by Israeli manufacturers before being returned.
After facing months of criticism from the Greens over the issue, the government has given its most detailed account yet of Israel-bound equipment.
Continue reading...Israeli PM promises to ‘restore security to the north’ as strikes near border with Lebanon escalate
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has threatened an “extremely powerful” response to attacks by Hezbollah from Lebanon, which have escalated in recent days.
His comments, made during a visit to the city of Kiryat Shmona, in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon, came after Hezbollah launched a wave of attacks earlier this week that set off substantial fires, fanned by dry and powerful winds.
Continue reading...Israeli prime minister tours country’s northern border with Lebanon; gunman wounded after shots fired at US embassy north of Beirut. This live blog is closed
Here are the fuller quotes from Benjamin Netanyahu, who was touring northern Israel near the UN-drawn blue line which has separated Lebanon and Israel since 2000 and said that Israel was prepared for strong action in the region. Earlier this week Israel’s military and emergency rescue teams fought large fires set of by rockets fired into Israel.
Reuters reports Netanyahu said:
Whoever thinks that they can harm us and we will sit idly by is making a big mistake. We are prepared for a very strong action in the north. In one way or another we will restore security to the north.
Continue reading...Correspondent scoops ‘Italian Pulitzer’ for ‘exceptional work’ reporting on Ukraine and Israel-Gaza conflict
The Guardian international correspondent Lorenzo Tondo has been awarded the Premiolino, one of Italy’s oldest and most prestigious journalism prizes, for his reporting on the war in Ukraine and the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Tondo, 42, who joined the news organisation in 2016 and covers Ukraine, the Middle East and the migration crisis around the Mediterranean, is the first Italian journalist working for a foreign publication to win the award, known as the “Italian Pulitzer”.
Continue reading...Radiohead musician issues statement on his ongoing work with Israeli musician Dudu Tassa after being accused of ‘artwashing genocide’ by pro-Palestine movement
Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood has defended his ongoing collaboration with the Israeli artist Dudu Tassa amid criticism from pro-Palestine activists, calling the backlash “unprogressive” and “silencing”.
Greenwood, a composer and musician who also plays in the Radiohead spin-off group The Smile, has been playing with Tassa since 2008. Last year, Greenwood and Tassa released a collaborative album titled Jarak Qaribak, a compilation of Arabic love songs featuring artists from across the Middle East.
Continue reading...Thousands of police deployed for parade that has been historical flashpoint for violence between marchers and Palestinians
Residents of Jerusalem are bracing for a rightwing flag march through Muslim areas of the Old City, an annual event often accompanied by violence.
The provocative Jerusalem Day parade by thousands of Jewish nationalists celebrates Israel’s capture and occupation of East Jerusalem and its holy sites in the 1967 war, a move that is not internationally recognised. It is often marred by violent clashes between marchers and Palestinian residents of the Old City, as well as anti-Arab hate speech and vandalism of Palestinian property.
Continue reading...US president’s remarks to Time magazine about PM’s role in conflict draw heavily critical response from Israeli government
Joe Biden has said that there is “every reason” to draw the conclusion that Benjamin Netanyahu is prolonging the war in Gaza for his own political self-preservation.
Biden made the remarks about the Israeli prime minister in an interview with Time magazine published on Tuesday morning, drawing a sharp response from the Israeli government, which accused the US president of straying from diplomatic norms.
Continue reading...Biden-backed proposal is causing rifts in unstable coalition led by Israeli PM that could lead to his government falling apart
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is facing growing pressure at home and internationally to support a new ceasefire plan for Gaza, a move he is resisting over fears it will collapse his government.
Far-right members of the prime minister’s coalition have threatened to quit the coalition if Israel “surrenders” before “total victory” over Hamas, while his leading rival, the centrist Benny Gantz, has said he will resign from the emergency unity government if Netanyahu does not commit to a deal and “day after” plan for Gaza by 8 June.
Continue reading...Omar Barghouti, who attended Columbia University in 80s, says student solidarity with Palestine has educated the world
The student-led protests demanding universities cut financial and academic ties to Israel have led to unprecedented support for the Palestinian liberation struggle, and have propelled the divestment debate into the mainstream, according to the co-founder of the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian human rights defender who helped launch the BDS movement almost 20 years ago, said the students’ solidarity had helped educate the world about the Israeli occupation and “apartheid” while exposing the hypocrisy – and repressive tendencies – of some of the world’s most prestigious universities with investments in corporations which put “profit before people and the planet”.
Continue reading...Authorities confirmed 70 people were taken in to custody, cited for trespassing and released after they ‘refused to vacate’ the premises
Police on Monday arrested pro-Palestinian demonstrators who occupied the lobby of a San Francisco building that houses the Israeli Consulate.
Associated Press journalists saw police zip-tie the hands of about 50 people. Officers then put them in police vans and drove them away. San Francisco police later confirmed that 70 protesters were arrested and cited for trespassing after they “refused to vacate the building”. They have since been released from San Francisco county jail.
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