Category Archives: Israel-Gaza war

Chef José Andrés says Israel engaging in ‘war against humanity itself’ in Gaza

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In response, White House pushes back and rules out putting US monitors on ground after seven aid workers killed in Gaza

The White House has pushed back on comments by World Central Kitchen founder José Andrés that Israel is engaged in “war against humanity itself” following the Israeli drone strike attack that killed seven of his aid workers on 1 April, but ruled out putting US monitors on the ground in Gaza.

“There’s going to have to be some changes to the way Israeli defense forces are prosecuting these operations in Gaza to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” White House national security communications adviser John Kirby told ABC’s This Week said on Sunday.

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Israel withdraws troops from southern Gaza for ‘tactical reasons’

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Drawdown after four months of fighting in Khan Younis coincides with new ceasefire talks

Israel has pulled all of its ground troops out of southern Gaza for “tactical reasons”, the country’s army has said, raising questions about the future direction of the war as Hamas and Israeli delegations travel to Egypt for a new round of ceasefire talks.

Two brigades will stay in the northern half of the Gaza Strip and the new corridor that now bifurcates the Palestinian territory at Wadi Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces said on Sunday, in order to “preserve the IDF’s freedom of action and its ability to conduct precise intelligence based-operations”.

Guardian Newsroom: Crisis in the Middle East
On Tuesday 30 April, 7-8.15pm GMT, join Devika Bhat, Peter Beaumont, Emma Graham-Harrison and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad as they discuss the fast-developing crisis in the Middle East. Book tickets here or at theguardian.live

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Israeli officials who want to deny aid to Gaza civilians merit Australian sanctions, humanitarian groups say

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Peak body for Australian aid groups joined by faith groups and health experts saying there is no excuse for starvation due to impact of war

The Australian government should impose targeted sanctions on Israeli officials who have called for the denial of aid to civilians of Gaza, according to humanitarian organisations, faith groups and health experts.

The Australian Council for International Development (Acfid), the peak body for Australian aid groups, said a “man-made, preventable famine” in Gaza would leave “a permanent stain on all our collective humanity”.

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David Lammy says he has ‘serious concerns’ about Israel’s actions in Gaza

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Shadow foreign secretary says ‘far too many people have died’ but refuses to back call for immediate ban on arms sales

The shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, has said he has “serious concerns about a breach in international humanitarian law” over Israel’s actions in Gaza as “far too many people have died”.

At least 33,037 Palestinians have been killed and 75,668 others have been injured in the Israeli military offensive, according to the Palestinian health ministry, six months on from the 7 October Hamas attack in southern Israel, during which about 1,140 people were killed and 240 others were taken as hostages.

Guardian Newsroom: Crisis in the Middle East
On Tuesday 30 April, 7-8.15pm GMT, join Devika Bhat, Peter Beaumont, Emma Graham-Harrison and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad as they discuss the fast-developing crisis in the Middle East. Book tickets here or at theguardian.live

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Middle East crisis: Israel to join Cairo talks on Gaza truce and hostage release, says official – as it happened

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Israel was previously undecided on whether to attend talks but will now take part in the latest round of negotiations

The Israeli military has withdrawn all ground troops from the southern Gaza Strip except for one brigade, a military spokesperson has said, according to Reuters.

An Israeli brigade is typically made up of a few thousand troops.

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Isolated at home and abroad, but Netanyahu isn’t about to go quietly

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Israel PM’s woes continue to mount, but the country’s policy on Gaza is unlikely to change

For Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the last week has perhaps been the worst since the Hamas attack on 7 October, six months ago, that triggered the current war in Gaza.

Protests against the longtime Israeli leader by hostage families and the opposition returned with a vengeance across the country as he spent two nights in hospital for hernia surgery. Then his major political rival, Benny Gantz, undermined the unity of the wartime government by calling for early elections; Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox coalition allies are already angry with him over a row regarding military conscription.

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Ed Husic accuses Israeli government of ‘systematic failure’ over death of Zomi Frankcom

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Coalition refuses to state if Israel breached international law, saying it ‘takes more care than Hamas does to protect civilian lives’

Senior Australian minister Ed Husic has accused the Israeli government of “a systematic failure” to observe the laws of war in Gaza, while insisting the west must “demonstrate our values” to avoid charges of hypocrisy.

But the Coalition opposition refused to say explicitly whether the Israeli military had breached international law, saying it “takes more care than Hamas does to protect civilian lives”.

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David Cameron warns of Gaza famine as UK sends Royal Navy ship to boost aid effort

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Move to join US-led maritime corridor follows international fury at last week’s killing of seven aid workers

The Royal Navy was ordered into action on Saturday to help supply desperately needed aid to Gaza, as the foreign secretary, David Cameron, warned that the Palestinian people trapped there were on the brink of famine.

With the UK and US governments under intense pressure to halt arms sales to Israel, Downing Street said on Saturday that ministers would instead boost support for a planned new maritime corridor from Cyprus to Gaza, to channel “life-saving aid” by sea to a population in urgent need of basic food supplies.

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Hamas to send team to Gaza ceasefire talks as body of Israeli hostage recovered

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Gaza’s Islamist rulers reiterated demands for a permanent end to the war and a withdrawal of Israeli troops

Hamas has announced it will take part in a new round of ceasefire talks in Cairo, as the body of an Israeli hostage has been found in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, the Israeli military said.

Six months into the war, repeated attempts at brokering a second truce after a week-long pause at the end of November in which hostages and Palestinian prisoners were exchanged have failed.

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Middle East crisis: UN humanitarian chief calls Gaza war ‘betrayal of humanity’ – as it happened

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Martin Griffiths lamented ‘the unconscionable prospect of further escalation in Gaza, where no one is safe and there is nowhere safe to go’

Iran on Saturday again threatened retaliation for the deaths of seven Revolutionary Guards in a strike on Damascus, with the army chief saying his country’s enemies will “regret” the killings, reports AFP.

Tehran has vowed to avenge Monday’s airstrike on the Syrian capital it blamed on its arch-enemy Israel, which has not commented.

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The new world disorder: how the Gaza war disrupted international relations

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While the US flounders in a conflict it did not foresee, emerging powers see a chance for new voices to join the top table

Not long ago a picture circulated from inside Gaza showing smoke billowing from the explosion of a US-supplied bomb, and discernible in the background was the outline of eight black parachutes dropping US aid in precisely the same neighbourhood. It was suggested that the picture would make an ideal cover for any book about the confused world disorder that the six-month war in Gaza have spawned – a disorder that as yet has no dominant player, value system or functioning institutions.

The great powers compete, coexist or confront one another across the region but none, least of all at the UN, is able to impose its version of order any longer. “Forget talk of unipolarity or multipolarity,” the journalist Gregg Carlstrom recently wrote in Foreign Affairs. “The Middle East is nonpolar. No one is in charge.”

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Outcry after Michigan university announces plan to restrict protest rights

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University of Michigan president Santa J Ono proposes ‘disruptive activity policy’ after pro-Palestinian group cuts his speech short

The University of Michigan is facing backlash from students, faculty and civil rights attorneys following a proposal to significantly restrict the right to protest on campus.

The “disruptive activity policy”, announced last week in a campus-wide email from the university president, Santa J Ono, would create strict punishments for anyone who interrupts official university events, including speeches, classes, athletic events, field trips, performances, graduation and award ceremonies.

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‘Deadly failure’: Australia demands Israel take ‘appropriate action’ against those responsible for killing aid workers

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Foreign minister Penny Wong says IDF’s killing of the seven aid workers, including Australian Zomi Frankcom, ‘cannot be swept aside’

The Australian government has demanded Israel take “appropriate action” over its military’s “deadly failure” that killed seven aid workers, including Australian Zomi Frankcom.

The foreign minister, Penny Wong, said she and the deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, wrote to their counterparts in Israel overnight on Friday after a verbal briefing on the initial findings of Israel Defense Forces’ investigation, which Wong said had not yet satisfied the government’s expectations.

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‘The memories are too much’: Sderot residents return six months after Hamas attack

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Families are being offered grants to go home but many have stayed away and others are already thinking of leaving again

Downtown Sderot, an impoverished Israeli town just a kilometre away from the north-eastern corner of the Gaza Strip, is still quiet six months after 7 October. There is no longer any trace of the police station where Hamas militants took hostages and engaged the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in a two-day battle before the Israelis decided to blow up the building. The site has been levelled and is now home to flags and a memorial.

Seventy people were killed and about 90% of the town’s 28,000 residents were evacuated, most of them put up in hotels up and down the country. A huge new mural saluting the town adorns a wall of a block of flats.

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Israeli inquiry findings on aid worker killings lack credibility, charity says

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WCK renews call for independent investigation as former general blames incident on ‘grave errors’

World Central Kitchen has rejected as lacking credibility the findings of an Israeli investigation led by a former general into a coordinated series of Israeli drone strikes on the charity’s vehicles in Gaza this week that killed seven aid workers.

As the Israel Defense Forces blamed a series of “grave errors” by officers for the deadly attack that killed three Britons, three other foreign nationals and a Palestinian colleague while delivering food, WCK renewed its calls for a full and independent investigation.

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Top Israeli spy chief exposes his true identity in online security lapse

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Exclusive: Yossi Sariel unmasked as head of Unit 8200 and architect of AI strategy after book written under pen name reveals his Google account

The identity of the commander of Israel’s Unit 8200 is a closely guarded secret. He occupies one of the most sensitive roles in the military, leading one of the world’s most powerful surveillance agencies, comparable to the US National Security Agency.

Yet after spending more than two decades operating in the shadows, the Guardian can reveal how the controversial spy chief – whose name is Yossi Sariel – has left his identity exposed online.

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Gaza killings: Australia plans to appoint independent adviser to scrutinise Israeli inquiry

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Penny Wong demands Israel preserve evidence because of unsatisfactory initial inquiry as Israel dismisses two officers over death of seven aid staff

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Australia has demanded that Israel preserve all evidence surrounding the killing of seven aid workers in Gaza and it also plans to appoint an independent adviser to scrutinise the official investigation.

The Australian government said on Friday that the information provided by Israel on its investigation into the killing of Australian citizen Zomi Frankcom and her World Central Kitchen colleagues “hasn’t yet satisfied our expectations”.

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UN body calls for Israel to be held accountable for possible war crimes

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Human rights council adopts resolution as Israel opens new routes into Gaza after Biden-Netanyahu phone call

The UN human rights council has adopted a resolution calling for Israel to be held accountable for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Gaza Strip.

The resolution came as Israel finally succumbed to unprecedented US pressure and opened new food corridors into Gaza.

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How Spain and Ireland became the EU’s sharpest critics of Israel

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Each time Madrid and Dublin speak out on the war in Gaza others are emboldened to join them, sources say

Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that the Israeli military’s killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza on Monday night was “a tragic incident” did precious little to allay the fears of Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez. Nor did his assertion that “this happens in wartime”.

Sánchez, who has been one of the most outspoken and persistent European critics of the way in which Israel has prosecuted its war in Gaza after the terrorist atrocities of 7 October, described the Israeli prime minister’s “supposed explanations” as “totally unacceptable and insufficient”. He added that Spain was waiting for a full and detailed account of the killings before deciding “what action we’ll take with regard to the government of Prime Minister Netanyahu”.

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Israel to reopen Erez crossing into Gaza after Biden sounds warning over protecting civilians

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Steps approved in Israel to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza include temporary reopening of crossing in the north

Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has said his security cabinet has approved a series of steps to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, including the temporary reopening of a key crossing that was destroyed in the 7 October Hamas attack.

The announcement was made hours after a warning from US president Joe Biden that future US support for Israel would depend on it taking concrete action to protect civilians and aid workers.

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