Category Archives: Israel-Gaza war

Sunak calls for investigation as British aid workers killed in Israeli airstrike named

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PM demands ‘transparent investigation’ from Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as names emerge of three Britons killed in Gaza

Rishi Sunak has called for an urgent investigation into the deaths of three British aid workers working for the charity World Central Kitchen who were killed by an Israeli airstrike that hit an aid convoy in Gaza.

WSK confirmed that British victims John Chapman, 57, James “Jim” Henderson, 33, and James Kirby, 47, who were working for the charity’s security team, were among seven of its staff killed.

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Israel divided: Netanyahu’s coalition crisis – podcast

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A cabinet split over military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews and large street protests demanding the release of hostages are threatening the prime minister’s grip on power. Bethan McKernan reports from Jerusalem

As the war in Gaza approaches its seventh month, tens of thousands of protesters in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities in Israel have demanded the release of hostages held in Gaza and called for new elections.

The Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent, Bethan McKernan, tells Michael Safi it is a moment of political danger for the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who also faces pressure from within his ruling coalition over the issue of exemption from military service granted to the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Israel’s allies, including the US, are piling pressure on Netanyahu to urgently allow aid into Gaza, which faces a famine, and to spell out how he will address the aftermath of the conflict.

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Biden says Israel is not doing enough to protect aid workers and calls for inquiry

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US president ‘outraged and heartbroken’ after IDF drone attack killed seven people working for World Central Kitchen in Gaza

Joe Biden has said that Israel is not doing enough to protect aid workers and has called for a swift investigation into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) drone attack in Gaza which killed seven people working for the World Central Kitchen (WCK) charity.

“This conflict has been one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed,” the US president said, in comments that were highly critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza.

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Bernie Sanders to Benjamin Netanyahu: ‘Stop murdering innocent people’

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Vermont senator makes remarks after Israeli strike kills seven aid workers, amid war that has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians

The Vermont senator and former US presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has a message for the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu: “Stop murdering innocent people.”

Sanders delivered his blunt message in an interview with MSNBC on Tuesday, a day after seven aid workers were killed by an Israeli strike in Gaza.

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Middle East crisis live: Netanyahu says deaths of seven aid workers in Gaza is ‘tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting innocent people’

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World Central Kitchen to pause operations immediately after deadly convoy strike by Israel; workers from UK, US, Australia, Poland and Palestine among dead

We’ve launched this video report on the Gaza strike, including footage of people being transported on stretchers as ambulances flash nearby.

Australia’s prime minister says the death of an Australian aid worker in Gaza is “completely unacceptable” and “beyond any reasonable circumstances”, saying the government will call in the Israeli ambassador and contact Israel’s government.

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‘Not a normal war’: doctors say children have been targeted by Israeli snipers in Gaza

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IDF says it ‘completely rejects’ charge that its soldiers deliberately fired on any of the thousands of civilians killed in Israeli offensive

Dr Fozia Alvi was making her rounds of the intensive care unit on her final day at the battered European public hospital in southern Gaza when she stopped next to two young arrivals with facial injuries and breathing tubes in their windpipes.

“I asked the nurse, what’s the history? She said that they were brought in a couple of hours ago. They had sniper shots to the brain. They were seven or eight years old,” she said.

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Zomi Frankcom’s family say Australian aid worker killed in Israeli airstrike was ‘doing the work she loves’

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PM Anthony Albanese describes 43-year-old’s death as ‘completely unacceptable’ as tributes flow for World Central Kitchen worker online

Lalzawmi Frankcom, the Australian aid worker killed by an Israeli military airstrike in Gaza, died “doing the work she loves”, her grieving family has said.

“We are deeply mourning the news that our brave and beloved Zomi has been killed doing the work she loves, delivering food to the people of Gaza,” her family said in a statement. “She will leave behind a legacy of compassion, bravery and love for all those in her orbit.”

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Seven Gaza aid workers including UK, US and Australian citizens killed in Israeli strike, charity says

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Israeli military investigating after World Central Kitchen workers were in convoy struck in central Gaza

Seven people working with World Central Kitchen, a charity spearheading efforts to alleviate looming famine in Gaza, have been killed in an Israeli airstrike, the charity said, throwing humanitarian relief efforts in the Palestinian territory into chaos as the organisation said it would suspend operations.

The workers were travelling in two armoured vehicles branded with the charity’s logo, according to a statement released early on Tuesday. World Central Kitchen (WCK) said those killed were from the UK, Australia, Poland and Palestine, as well as a US-Canada dual citizen.

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Call for Ukraine-style visa scheme for Palestinians in Gaza with family in UK

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Charities and law firms sign letter to home secretary saying existing immigration routes are not working

A letter signed by almost 60 charities, law firms and organisations will be sent to the home secretary calling for the creation of a Ukraine-style visa scheme for Palestinians trapped in Gaza who have family in the UK.

The letter, signed by the Refugee Council, Care4Calais and the Helen Bamber Foundation, says “existing immigration routes are insufficient and not working” and describes how a Gaza family scheme would “enable Palestinians in Gaza to reunite with their immediate and extended family members in the UK”.

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Al Jazeera faces ‘security threat’ ban as Israel passes new law

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Benjamin Netanyahu says after approval of bill he will ‘act immediately … to stop channel’s activities’

Israeli legislators have approved a bill paving the way for a ban on Al Jazeera and other international news outlets perceived as posing a threat to security.

After the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, promised to take prompt measures to force the end of Al Jazeera’s operations within the country, parliament granted senior ministers authority to shut down foreign news networks.

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IRGC commander among dead after Israeli strike on Iran consulate in Syria

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Iran vows revenge after seven people killed, including several diplomats and Mohammad Reza Zahedi of Revolutionary Guards

Iran has vowed revenge after Israeli war planes destroyed the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing at least seven people, including a senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds force.

Iran’s leaders in Tehran described the targeting of a diplomatic mission late on Monday as unprecedented and promised a harsh response.

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Israeli forces withdraw from Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital after two-week raid

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Palestinian organisations allege torture and ‘executions’ as video footage shows heavily damaged and charred buildings

Israeli forces announced their withdrawal from al-Shifa hospital in Gaza on Monday after a two-week raid, amid claims from Hamas that the Israel Defense Forces killed 400 people in the compound and allegations from the Palestinian Red Crescent of torture and “executions”.

According to the IDF, the facility – Gaza City’s main hospital before the war – was used to harbour Hamas fighters. The army described the operation as one of the most successful of the nearly six-month conflict and cited the killing of of 200 militants including senior operatives. The claim they were all militants could not be confirmed.

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Middle East crisis: Israel withdraws from al-Shifa hospital in Gaza as Hamas-run media office says hundreds of Palestinians killed – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. To read the latest news about the Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, head to our new live blog:

Here is a video of the destruction left in the wake of the Israeli army’s withdrawal from the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City:

“During [the Israeli] siege inside al-Shifa hospital, we did not have the means to treat patients … We could not treat or bury them,” a nurse with the hospital told Al Jazeera.

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Fears grow that Gaza could become ‘Mogadishu on the Mediterranean’

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Aid officials and people in territory describe erosion of civil order and gangs filling power vacuum after months of war

Gaza is facing deepening anarchy as the last remnants of civil order break down, leaving a vacuum increasingly filled by armed gangs, clans, powerful families and criminals, dozens of interviews with senior aid officials, experts and people in the territory reveal.

The interviewees described the continuing threat of famine and bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) but also a brutal new world in which guns, knives and intimidation often determine who gets desperately needed humanitarian assistance.

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Tens of thousands of Israeli protesters call for Netanyahu’s removal

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Demonstrators join families of hostages in cities across country and vow to persist until he is ousted as PM

Tens of thousands of people across Israel joined the families of hostages this weekend to protest against the government and call for the removal of Benjamin Netanyahu, as the Israeli prime minister grappled with one of the most serious threats yet to his coalition.

The protesters in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Be’er Sheva, Caesarea and other cities on Saturday – and at a further demonstration outside the Knesset in Jerusalem on Sunday – demanded the release of those still held captive in Gaza after close to six months, and labelled Netanyahu an “obstacle to the deal”, vowing to persist until he leaves power.

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Israel lodges proposal with UN for dismantling of Palestinian relief agency

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Exclusive: Aid officials warn that transferring Unrwa’s functions to other bodies with famine looming would be disastrous

Israel has given the UN a proposal to dismantle Unrwa, its relief agency in the Palestinian territories, and transfer its staff to a replacement agency to make large-scale food deliveries into Gaza, according to UN sources.

The proposal was presented late last week by the Israeli chief of the general staff, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, to UN officials in Israel, who forwarded it to the organisation’s secretary general, António Guterres, on Saturday, sources familiar with the discussions said.

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Congressman rebuked for call to bomb Gaza ‘like Nagasaki and Hiroshima’

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Civil rights group denounces congressmember Tim Walberg’s calls to ‘get it over quick’ as a ‘clear call to genocide’

Rather than provide humanitarian aid in Gaza, the US should ensure it is subjected to atomic bombing the way that “Nagasaki and Hiroshima” were at the end of the second world war, a Republican congressman said in shocking remarks that by all indications were recorded recently at a gathering with a relatively small group of his constituents.

The comments by US House representative Tim Walberg of Michigan drew condemnation from progressive political quarters, including from some who expressed disbelief that a former Christian pastor would advocate for what they called the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

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United Nations secretary general condemns explosion that injured UN observers in southern Lebanon

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António Guterres expresses ‘grave concern’ over ongoing clashes at border after a shell exploded near the observers

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has condemned an explosion that left three UN military observers and a Lebanese interpreter wounded when a shell exploded near them while they were patrolling the southern Lebanese border.

The blast came as clashes between the Israeli military and Hezbollah militants escalated in recent weeks.

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Starvation in Gaza likely key to UK legal advice on war crimes

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Accusations that Israel is committing war crimes mostly centre on failure to protect civilians or meet their basic needs

• UK government lawyers say Israel is breaking international law – leaked recording

Israel has faced questions about whether its war on Hamas inside Gaza broke international law ever since the first few days of the ­campaign, when it cut off all food, water and fuel shipments to the enclave.

As the scale of death, ­destruction and human suffering escalated, ­concerns hardened into warnings that Israel risked committing war crimes, including from key allies. In January, the UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, said he was “worried” Israel may have breached international law.

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UK government lawyers say Israel is breaking international law, claims top Tory in leaked recording

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Chair of foreign affairs select committee Alicia Kearns said at a Tory fundraiser that legal advice would mean the UK has to cease all arms sales to Israel without delay

• Analysis: scale of suffering will make war crimes harder to deny

The British government has received advice from its own lawyers stating that Israel has breached international humanitarian law in Gaza but has failed to make it public, according to a leaked recording obtained by the Observer.

The comments, made by the Conservative chair of the House of Commons select committee on foreign affairs, Alicia Kearns, at a Tory fundraising event on 13 March are at odds with repeated ministerial denials and evasion on the issue.

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