Category Archives: Israel-Gaza war

UN finds ‘convincing information’ that Hamas raped and tortured Israeli hostages

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Pramila Patten’s findings are based on interviews with released hostages, whose testimony suggests abuses are continuing in Gaza

The UN’s special envoy on sexual violence in conflict has reported “clear and convincing information” that some women and children hostages held by Hamas had been subjected to rape and sexualised torture and that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe such abuses were “ongoing”.

The special envoy, Pramila Patten, also reported on Monday that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe sexual assaults including rape and gang-rape in several places took place during the 7 October attacks by Hamas.

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Hamas negotiators under pressure to produce list of hostages to be released

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Officials at Cairo talks say list is first step in truce deal as militant group demands aid into Gaza

Egyptian and Qatari officials are putting pressure on Hamas negotiators in Cairo to produce a list of hostages to be released as the first step in a phased ceasefire agreement with Israel, according to officials familiar with the talks.

Israel has not sent a delegation to the second day of talks in Cairo, demanding that Hamas present a list of 40 elderly, sick and female hostages who would be the first to be released as part of a truce that would initially last six weeks, beginning with the month of Ramadan, the officials say.

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Middle East crisis: 16-year-old boy reportedly killed during Israeli raid near Ramallah – as it happened

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Palestinian Authority ministry of health said the killing of Mustafa Abu Shalbak happened in the early morning hours. This live blog is closed

Israeli media is reporting that one person has been killed and several wounded in Margaliot in northern Israel, which is close to the UN-drawn blue line that separates Lebanon and Israel.

More details soon …

I am deeply concerned that in this powder keg, any spark could lead to a much broader conflagration. This would have implications for every country in the Middle East, and many beyond it. It is imperative to do everything possible to avoid a wider conflagration.

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Twin babies among 14 killed in Israeli airstrike on house in Rafah

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Five-month-old boy and girl born after 10 years of trying died in blast at home that also killed their father

Five-month-old twins who were conceived after three rounds of IVF have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on their family home in Rafah, southern Gaza.

Naeim and Wissam Abu Anza were among 14 Palestinians – including six children – killed in the strike at the weekend, according to survivors and health officials. The babies’ father was among the dead. Another nine people are still missing under the rubble.

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Aid corridor needed urgently to prevent famine in north Gaza, says WFP official

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Agency’s country director says deaths near aid convoy last week were avoidable and north of territory needs to be flooded with aid

The deaths of more than 100 people when Israeli forces opened fire near an aid convoy in Gaza was a tragedy that should have been foreseen and could have been prevented, the World Food Programme country director for Palestine has said.

Matthew Hollingworth also said an aid corridor into northern Gaza was needed urgently to prevent a “man-made” famine there after Palestinians were starved of food at terrifying speed and scale.

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UK ministers consider ban on MPs engaging with pro-Palestine and climate protesters

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Plans call for ‘zero-tolerance approach’ to groups such as Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Just Stop Oil

Ministers are considering proposals to ban MPs and councillors from engaging with groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil.

The plans, put forward by the government’s adviser on political violence, John Woodcock, say mainstream political leaders should tell their representatives to employ a “zero-tolerance approach” to groups that use disruptive tactics or fail to stop “hate” on marches.

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California prisoner donates earnings from 13-cent hourly wage to Gaza

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Donors raise more than $100,000 for man who gave his $17.74 paycheck for 136.50 hours of work to relief efforts in Gaza

Donors have raised more than $100,000 for an incarcerated man in the US who, earning 13 cents an hour in a California prison doing janitorial and porter work, donated his paycheck of $17.74 to Gaza relief efforts.

Last month, Los Angeles-based filmmaker Justin Mashouf who has been in correspondence with the 56-year old man – known only by the name Hamza – shared photos on social media of Hamza’s October time log and a check of $17.74 with the words, “California department of corrections and rehabilitation.”

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Hamas delegation joins mediators at Gaza ceasefire talks in Cairo

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Israel indicated to have provisionally accepted six-week hostage and truce deal, but Palestinian official says: ‘We’re not there yet’

A Hamas delegation was in Cairo on Sunday for talks on efforts to broker a ceasefire in the war in Gaza after indications that Israel had provisionally accepted a six-week phased hostage and truce deal before the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Qatari and US mediators also arrived in the Egyptian capital on Sunday, according to the state-linked Al Qahera News.

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Italian warship forced to shoot down Houthi missile in Red Sea

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Destroyer Caio Duilio, part of the EU shipping protection force, took out weapon when it came within four miles of the vessel

An Italian warship participating in the EU naval protection force in the Red Sea was forced to shoot down a Houthi missile on Saturday in a rare engagement by the country’s navy, which has largely avoided direct action since the second world war.

The incident came as Houthi officials vowed to continue to attack British ships after the UK-owned Rubymar sank on Saturday having taken on water for a fortnight after being hit by one of the group’s missiles.

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Middle East crisis: Ceasefire deal possible within 24 to 48 hours if Israel accepts demands, Hamas official says – as it happened

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Senior Hamas official says if Israel accepts demand for military withdrawal from Gaza and increase in aid, it would pave way for agreement. This live blog is closed

Born a month into Israel’s war in Gaza, infant twins Wesam and Naeem Abu Anza were buried on Sunday, the youngest of 14 members of the same family whom Gaza health authorities say were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah overnight.

Reuters reports:

Their mother, Rania Abu Anza, held one of the twins, its tiny body wrapped in a white shroud, to her cheek and stroked its head during the funeral on Sunday. A mourner held the second baby close by, pale blue pyjamas visible beneath a shroud.

“My heart is gone,” wept Abu Anza, whose husband was also killed, as mourners comforted her. She resisted when asked to release the body of one of the babies ahead of burial. “Leave her with me,” she said.

Severe malnutrition can be deadly or leave young children with permanent cognitive & physical damage.

For children in Gaza, every minute counts in safely accessing nutrition, water, medical care & protection from bullets & bombs. This requires a humanitarian ceasefire NOW.

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‘We were constantly in terror’: Israeli hostage tells of captivity in Gaza

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Taken from her home on 7 October with three of her children, Chen Almog-Goldstein recalls being held captive by Hamas

Chen Almog-Goldstein refuses to forget her eldest daughter’s last moments. Yam, 20, was gasping for breath, having been shot in the face by Hamas gunmen, who minutes earlier had killed her father.

Almog-Goldstein, 49, did not see Yam or her husband, Nadav, again because she and her three surviving children were bundled into a car and abducted. During the seven-minute journey across the border into Gaza on 7 October, their two captors smiled and took photographs of the traumatised mother and children.

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Australia to announce Gaza aid as pro-Palestine and pro-Israel supporters rally

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Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered in Sydney to demand a ceasefire while a separate pro-Israel rally against antisemitism took place in Adelaide

Pro-Palestinian protesters have taken to the streets after more than 100 Gazans were killed while trying to secure food as Australia flags more humanitarian aid.

About 120 Palestinians were killed as they tried to access humanitarian resources from an aid convoy, the local Hamas health authority said, attributing the deaths to Israeli gunfire.

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Israel reportedly close to accepting six-week Gaza ceasefire, US official says

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Israel ‘more or less’ accepts deal on hostage release and Gaza aid, but Hamas stuck on ‘category of vulnerable hostages’

Israel is reported to be close to accepting a six-week ceasefire proposal for Gaza, a senior Biden administration official told several US news outlets on Saturday, two days after more than 100 Palestinians died while attempting to access aid trucks in the territory.

The official said that there is a “framework deal” and Israel has “more or less accepted” a ceasefire to allow for the release of Hamas-held hostages in Gaza and to allow aid into the territory that has been devastated by four months of bombardment, killing more than 30,000 people.

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Gaza airdrops might not be necessary if Israel faced more pressure on aid

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Delivering by parachute is risky and inefficient – and other options could open up if the west were to expend more diplomatic capital

Half an hour before Rishi Sunak launched his assault on British extremism, the foreign secretary, David Cameron issued his own strong statement.

Cameron said the killings of more than 100 Palestinians in Gaza as crowds gathered around aid trucks on Thursday were horrific and required an investigation and accountability. He said the halving of the number of aid trucks entering Gaza in the past month was “completely unacceptable” and that Israel had an “obligation” to ensure significantly more humanitarian aid reached the territory.

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US aircraft carry out airdrops of aid to Gaza with 38,000 meals

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Three C-130 aircraft dropped a total of 66 bundles of aid to the Palestinian territory besieged by Israel

The US air force began airdrops of aid over Gaza on Saturday afternoon, in a joint operation with Jordanian planes in a last-resort attempt to get food into the besieged coastal strip as mass starvation looms.

US officials said that US and Jordanian C-130 planes taking off from Jordan dropped 66 pallets of food, containing a total of 38,000 meals at mid-afternoon local time, in the first of a series of airdrops that Joe Biden announced on Friday.

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Middle East crisis live: UK-owned cargo ship sinks in Red Sea days after Houthi attack; US aircraft carry out airdrops of aid to Gaza – as it happened

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Officials say a British-registered cargo ship hit in a missile attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels has sunk in the Red Sea. This blog is now closed.

The US will start airdrops of food and emergency supplies into Gaza in the next few days, Joe Biden has announced, amid UN warnings of famine and after Israeli troops opened fire on Gazans seeking food aid.

The use of airdrops is a spectacular but inefficient way of delivering aid, and Friday’s announcement suggests that Biden had given up on being able to persuade Israel in the near future to coordinate a large-scale ground-based relief effort under the threat of mass starvation across Gaza.

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‘I wish I had never come to the UK’: Palestinian academic despairs of getting visas for family stuck in Gaza

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A lecturer doing his PhD on a British Council scholarship in York is frightened for his wife and two small children who are under Israeli bombardment

When Bassem Abudagga heard in 2022 that he had won a British Council scholarship to do his PhD in Britain, he was elated. “I was so proud,” he recalls. “It is what every academic in Palestine hopes for: to gain a qualification from the UK.

“It felt like a turning point for my career, my future, my family. It would shift my prospects to a completely different place.”

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Joe Biden confuses Gaza with Ukraine in airdrop announcement

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President says US will ‘insist’ Israel does more to facilitate help, saying ‘children’s lives are on the line’

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Joe Biden twice confused Gaza with Ukraine as he was announcing that the US would provide desperately needed aid to Palestinians.

The US president, 81, confirmed on Friday that humanitarian assistance would be airdropped into Gaza and said the US would “insist” Israel did more to facilitate help for those affected by famine and the effects of war, saying: “Children’s lives are on the line”.

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Pro-Palestine marches to continue after Sunak ‘extremists’ speech

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Organiser suggests PM consider own MPs’ behaviour after speech about rise in ‘extremist disruption’

Pro-Palestine protests are to continue across the UK on Saturday after Rishi Sunak’s warning that democracy was being targeted by “extremists”.

In an address to the nation on Friday, the prime minister spoke about “forces here at home trying to tear us apart”, in the aftermath of the 7 October attacks by Hamas against Israel.

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