Category Archives: Israel-Gaza war

Gaza’s largest functioning hospital ‘completely out of service’, say health officials

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Nasser hospital, which was raided by Israeli forces last week, is ‘not functional anymore’ says the head of the World Health Organization

Fighting, fuel shortages and Israeli raids have put Gaza’s largest still functioning hospital completely out of service, local and UN health officials have said, as Israel continued its threats to invade the southern city of Rafah if remaining Israeli hostages are not freed in the next three weeks.

Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis went out of action early on Sunday, Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said.

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Maritime authorities investigate reported attack on UK-registered cargo ship near Yemen

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UK Maritime Trade Operations says military authorities exploring apparent explosion near vessel

The UK is investigating reports that a cargo ship has come under attack off the coast of Yemen, after an apparent explosion close to the vessel on Sunday.

Following the reports of damage to the vessel, the UK Maritime Trade Operations said: “Military authorities are investigating. UKMTO has received a report of an incident 35 NM [nautical miles] south of Al Mukha, Yemen.

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Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib tells fellow Democrats: reject Biden in primary

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Michigan representative tells state voters to pick ‘uncommitted’ option over White House support for Israel’s strikes on Gaza

The progressive US congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has called on her fellow Michigan Democrats to vote “uncommitted” in the state’s presidential primary election – at the expense of the party’s incumbent, Joe Biden – in late February.

Appearing in a video posted to X on Saturday by Listen to Michigan, a political campaign to encourage the state’s voters to vote “uncommitted” in the 27 February primary, Tlaib justified her stark display of displeasure with Biden by alluding to Israel’s military strikes on Gaza, which local authorities say have killed nearly 29,000 Palestinians since last October.

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Israeli swimmer Gorbenko booed at world championships as GB’s Colbert wins gold

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  • 20-year-old won silver in 400m individual medley
  • Jeers were partially drowned out by cheers and applause

Israeli swimmer Anastasia Gorbenko was jeered by some of the crowd after finishing second in the women’s 400m medley on the closing day of the World Aquatics Championships in Qatar on Sunday.

The 20-year-old Gorbenko was being interviewed after the race when the jeers rang out at the Aspire Dome in Doha. She smiled and then sighed when she was booed again, this time as she mounted the podium at the medal ceremony. Others in the crowd clapped and cheered, partially drowning out the jeers.

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Palestinian factions to meet in Moscow as west rejects Hamas role in ruling Gaza after war

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Palestinian Authority ‘ready to engage’, says prime minister ahead of talks on formation of new Gaza government

Western powers have rejected suggestions that Hamas as an entity can be allowed a role in governing Gaza at the end of the war, saying only that they recognise that Palestinian militancy will still exist.

Speculation that a weakened Hamas might be willing to form a partnership with the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, and govern Gaza and the West Bank jointly, have been revived by a Russian invitation for Palestinian factions to meet in Moscow on 26 February.

Guardian Newsroom: the unfolding crisis in the Middle East On Wednesday 20 March, 7-8.15pm GMT, join Devika Bhat, Peter Beaumont and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad as they discuss the developing crisis in the Middle East. Book tickets at theguardian.live

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Middle East crisis: Nasser hospital in Gaza ‘not functional’, says WHO chief; US likely to veto UN vote calling for ceasefire – as it happened

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Hospital in Khan Younis no longer functional due to Israeli forces’ ‘week-long siege’; US ambassador to UN says text could jeopardise negotiations

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said his government would vote on a “declaratory decision” regarding Israel’s opposition to any unilateral imposition of Palestinian statehood, Reuters reports.

Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting that the move comes after “recent talk in the international community about an attempt to unilaterally impose on Israel a Palestinian state”.

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Egypt preparing safe areas for Gaza refugees, foreign minister says

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Move comes as ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas make little progress, according to key Qatar negotiator

Egypt is preparing safe areas for Gaza refugees, Cairo has said, as the key Qatar negotiator in the ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas admitted they have made no progress in recent days.

Egypt’s foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, said at a security conference in Munich on Saturday that while his country would deal with civilians humanely, the displacement of Palestinians remained unacceptable.

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Middle East crisis live: ‘Extraordinary’ chance for Israel to be integrated into Middle East, says Blinken – as it happened

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US secretary of state tells Munich security conference that almost all Arab countries want to normalise ties

A climate of fear pervades a hospital in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, where patients and doctors are reeling from last month’s deadly raid by Israeli agents disguised as medics, reports news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP).

AFP say that at the rehabilitation ward at Jenin’s Ibn Sina hospital, two patients recalled hearing the screams of a nurse as Israeli forces reached the third floor.

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‘He was so close to coming home’: mother’s agony over Israeli hostage killed by IDF

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Iris Haim says she does not blame soldiers who shot Yotam and two other escaped captives

Iris Haim cannot bear to think about how close her kidnapped son came to freedom before he was mistakenly shot dead by Israeli soldiers. After being held captive by Hamas in Gaza for more than two months, Yotam Haim and two other Israeli hostages escaped and evaded their captors for five days, only to be killed by the IDF.

Haim has repeatedly insisted she does not blame the soldiers who mistakenly identified Yotam as a threat. But she said it was devastating to know how close she had come to being reunited with the 28-year-old, who had dreamed of becoming a professional musician.

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Patients with chronic illnesses in Gaza failing to get treatment, doctors warn

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The lack of medicine, food and water means thousands of people with asthma, kidney disease or diabetes are unable to treat or control their conditions

Four months of conflict in Gaza is jeopardising the health of thousands of people with chronic illnesses such as kidney disease, diabetes and asthma, doctors have warned.

The chronically ill are the hidden casualties of the war, as access to water, food and medicine is severely restricted, said Guillemette Thomas, the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical coordinator for Palestine.

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Egypt building walled enclosure in Sinai for Rafah refugees, photos suggest

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Monitoring group releases evidence of work that appears intended to house Palestinians in event of Israeli assault on city

Egypt has begun building an enclosed area ringed with high concrete walls along its border with Gaza that appears intended to house Palestinians fleeing a threatened Israeli assault on the southern city of Rafah.

Photos and videos released by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights (SFHR), a monitoring group, show workers using heavy machinery erecting concrete barriers and security towers around a strip of land on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing.

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Palestinian ambassador to UK says eight relatives killed in Israeli strikes in Rafah

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Husam Zomlot says family members who died while sheltering in city include seven-year-old twins and 15-month-old

The Palestinian ambassador to the UK has said eight of his relatives who were sheltering in the southern Gaza town of Rafah have been killed in an Israeli strike.

Husam Zomlot identified a girl in a distressing photo that has been widely shared online as his wife’s seven-year-old cousin Sidra Hassouna. In the image that has been posted on social media, Sidra’s body can be seen dangling from the ruins of a building after attacks on Rafah on Monday.

Sharing a blurred version of the image, alongside pictures of his other relatives, Zomlot posted on X on Wednesday: “This is seven-year-old Sidra, the cousin of my wife. The impact of the Israeli missile was so powerful it flung her out, leaving her mutilated body dangling from the ruins of the destroyed building in Rafah 48 hours ago.”

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Middle East crisis: Palestinian exodus into Egypt ‘must be avoided’, warns UN chief – as it happened

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High commissioner for refugees says people crossing the border would be the ‘nail in the coffin’ for any peace process

The hunger crisis in Gaza has reached “unprecedented levels, as people run out of even animal feed to eat” said development charity ActionAid on Friday.

“An unprecedented and totally avoidable hunger crisis” has led to “every single person in the territory now experiencing extreme levels of hunger”, it said, warning that “as grim as the picture is, things will get substantially worse” if Israel proceeds with its plans for a full military operation in Rafah.

As grim as the picture is, things will get substantially worse if Israel proceeds with its plans for a full military operation in Rafah, which is the main centre of aid distribution for the entire strip. Aid operations will grind to a complete halt, denying a lifeline to hundreds of thousands of people.

The consequences are unimaginable. Governments around the world must do everything in their power to prevent a further onslaught in Rafah and push for a permanent and immediate ceasefire. It’s the only way to stop the indiscriminate killing of civilians, allow aid to enter Gaza and be distributed safely at scale to prevent famine and deadly disease outbreaks.”

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How Gaza’s ‘safe’ city Rafah came to be on the precipice of catastrophe – visualised

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With 1.5 million people now in Rafah, these visuals show how destruction has travelled from north to south, leaving Gazan civilians with nowhere to turn

Last October, following the Hamas attacks, Israel’s military delivered evacuation orders for many of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, telling them to head south for their own safety.

Multiple evacuation orders ensued, and it is now estimated that more than 1.5 million Palestinians are taking refuge in and around the southern city of Rafah, vastly swelling its pre-war population of 280,000.

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Pressure builds on Israel to ditch Rafah offensive as ministers gather in Munich

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US secretary of state and foreign ministers from UK, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan join Israel at security conference

Western leaders are hoping a round of meetings at a security conference in Munich will put overwhelming pressure on Israel not to press ahead with a ground offensive in Rafah.

Almost all the key figures, save the Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, will be present in Munich on Friday, including foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan. The Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, and foreign minister, Israel Katz, will also attend along with three freed hostages, Raz Ben Ami, Adi Shoham and Aviva Siegel. Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, is flying in too.

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Israeli troops launch raid on Nasser hospital in southern Gaza

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Staff say one person killed and eight injured in attack as UN aid chief warns Rafah offensive could cause refugee exodus into Egypt

Israeli forces have raided the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip that is still functioning, amid warnings from the UN aid chief that a threatened ground offensive in Rafah, the area’s last remaining place of relative safety, could trigger an exodus of refugees fleeing into Egypt.

Nasser hospital, in the central town of Khan Younis, was hit directly by tank fire overnight, staff at the medical complex said on Thursday, in an attack that killed one person and injured eight more. Dr Khaled al-Serr, a surgeon at the hospital, said in an Instagram post that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) ground troops stormed the premises about an hour later and began forcing patients, medical personnel and displaced civilians sheltering at the hospital to flee.

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Israel can compete at 2024 Eurovision song contest, say organisers

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European Broadcasting Union’s decision follows calls for country to be excluded over Gaza war

Israel can compete in this year’s Eurovision song contest, organisers have said, despite calls for it to be excluded over the Gaza war as Russia was after invading Ukraine.

Petitions have been circulating calling for Israel to be kicked out of the event, which is being held in Malmö, Sweden, in May.

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Hezbollah vows to retaliate for civilian deaths in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon

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Lebanese sources say 10 civilians including four children killed in fiercest exchanges since Hamas’s 7 October attack

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate for Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon that killed three of its fighters and 10 other people, including four children.

A strike on the city of Nabatiyeh late on Wednesday killed seven civilians, including two children, and three members of Hezbollah, sources in Lebanon said. It followed an earlier attack that killed a woman and her two children in the village of Souaneh at the boundary between the two countries.

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Middle East crisis: MSF says ‘medical staff have had to flee’ Gaza’s Nasser hospital following Israeli military intervention – as it happened

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Médecins Sans Frontières says staff forced to evacuate, ‘leaving patients behind’ after special forces entered the hospital

Israeli forces have stormed Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, according to Al Jazeera journalist Hani Mahmoud who is reporting from Rafah in southern Gaza.

In a breaking news update to the publication, Mahmoud said Israeli forces had given those in Nasser hospital until 7am (Gaza time) to evacuate and as of Thursday morning there is “a presence of Israeli soldiers inside the facility”. “At the same time, there is heavy tank and machine gun fire,” he added.

Dozens have been wounded in attacks, some victims injured more than once. This is the largest health facility in southern Gaza. It is completely out of service now. The entire medical staff was rounded up, their hands tied behind their backs.

Military checkpoints were set up and Palestinians were told to come in groups of five – doctors, nurses, those with injuries. A large number of young people were detained.”

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Seven civilians killed in Israeli strikes on south Lebanon

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Cross-border rocket fire raises fears of a broader conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group

Eleven civilians, including six children, have been killed by Israeli strikes on villages across southern Lebanon, a hospital director and local security sources said, while the Israeli army said it lost a soldier in cross-border rocket fire.

While the rocket attack was not immediately claimed, the exchanges of fire – and the worst single-day civilian death toll in Lebanon since cross-border hostilities began in October – raised fears of a broader conflict between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah.

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