Category Archives: Israel-Gaza war

UK manufacturers hit by Red Sea disruption and rising shipping costs

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Supply chain difficulties have led to job losses and cuts in purchasing and stocks, S&P Global poll shows

Britain’s factories have been hit by disruption caused by Houthi rebel attacks in the Red Sea that led to shipping delays and contributed to rising costs, as the boss of Adidas warned about “exploding” global freight rates.

UK manufacturers have experienced growing supply chain difficulties, as the Red Sea crisis led to the rerouting of deliveries of raw materials, components and other goods away from the Suez Canal, a survey has shown.

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Wong signals Labor wants to resume UN agency funding to ensure ‘fewer children are starving’ in Gaza

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Australian foreign minister says UNRWA is only organisation that can provide substantive support to occupied Palestinian territories

The foreign minister, Penny Wong, has signalled that resuming Australia’s funding to a key UN agency delivering aid to Gaza is the only realistic route “if we are serious about trying to ensure that fewer children are starving”.

Wong has directed Australia’s humanitarian coordinator, Beth Delaney, to “lead urgent work coordinating with like-minded partners as well as UNRWA” to work out the next steps, after more than 10 countries suspended funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.

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Hamas mulls ceasefire proposal amid intense fighting across Gaza

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Leader of Hamas heads to Cairo talks, with many families of Israeli hostages pressing for a negotiated release

Heavy bombardment of Gaza continued on Wednesday as the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was expected to arrive in Cairo to discuss a ceasefire proposal in the Israel-Gaza war that would reportedly involve the staged release of Israeli hostages.

A Hamas official said Haniyeh would be in the Egyptian capital for talks on Wednesday or Thursday, as intense fighting was reported in the south of the territory in Khan Younis and in the north in Gaza City.

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Diseases spread in overcrowded Rafah as Gaza’s population forced south

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Crisis in southern Gaza only set to worsen in coming days as Israeli forces push deeper into Khan Younis

Haneen Harara wakes up each morning in the southern Gazan city of Rafah thinking about the long queues and crowds that stand between her and the survival basics of food, water and medical care.

The film-maker and employee at a Dutch charity considers herself lucky that she and 15 members of her family reached the city on Gaza’s border with Egypt in time to find a house at which to stay. Many others have found shelter from the winter cold in tents that fill with water every time it rains.

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Pro-Palestinian protesters at Biden events cast shadow on his re-election effort

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President dogged by anti-Gaza war crowds everywhere he goes over support for Israel despite the heavy cost in civilian lives

Joe Biden had barely started speaking at a high-profile re-election campaign rally focusing on abortion rights in Virginia last week when the carefully choreographed made-for-TV spectacle exploded into a cacophony of angry yelling.

“Genocide Joe!”, a protester holding up a Palestinian flag cried from the back of the hall. “How many kids have you killed in Gaza? How many women have you killed in Gaza?”

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Australia and top allies in talks over UN aid funding in Gaza

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Albanese government is yet to publicly outline conditions to reinstate funding to UNRWA but it is unlikely to move before US or UK

The Australian government is in talks with close allies including the US and the UK to consider conditions to reinstate funding to a key United Nations agency delivering aid in Gaza.

The talks come after Australia and other donor countries met with the UN secretary general, António Guterres, in New York to discuss the investigations into UNRWA staffers over alleged involvement in the 7 October attacks on Israel.

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Netanyahu rules out ceasefire deal that would mean Gaza withdrawal

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Israeli PM also says he will not accept any truce that would require release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners

Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will not accept any ceasefire deal that requires the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners or the departure of Israeli troops from Gaza, as the Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said he was willing to travel to Cairo to discuss the proposals.

Haniyeh said the group’s aim remained to end Israel’s military offensive in Gaza and secure a full pullout of Israeli forces from the territory.

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Israeli special forces disguised as doctors kill three militants at West Bank hospital

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Counter-terrorism officers enter Jenin’s Ibn Sina hospital wearing doctors’ scrubs and women’s clothes

Israeli forces dressed in doctors’ scrubs and women’s clothes have killed three Palestinian militants in an undercover operation in a hospital in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.

A border police counter-terrorism unit and a unit from the internal security forces, known as the Shin Bet, entered Ibn Sina hospital on the outskirts of the city’s refugee camp early on Tuesday, CCTV footage of the aftermath of the operation showed.

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Israel denies its forces are storming al-Amal hospital in Gaza – as it happened

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Denial comes after Palestinian Red Crescent Society says hospital in Khan Younis is under attack; White House declines to give further details of response

The Wafa Palestinian news agency reports that “dozens of Palestinian civilians” have been killed today by Israeli airstrikes, including “intense and fierce airstrikes at the city of Rafah”, which is in the south of the Gaza Strip and is one of the areas Israel’s military has repeatedly told Palestinians to flee to for safety.

Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah for Al Jazeera, said the strike in Rafah caused “a great deal of panic and concern as people believe the military operation is expanding step by step”. He said a house was destroyed and a number of people were reported dead, as “the Israeli military continues bombing, killing and maiming Palestinians across Gaza”.

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UK will consider recognising Palestinian state, says David Cameron

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Foreign secretary says move would help to make two-state solution an ‘irreversible’ process

Britain will consider recognising a Palestinian state as part of concerted efforts to bring about an “irreversible” peace settlement, the foreign secretary, David Cameron, has said.

In what would mark a landmark diplomatic moment, he said the move would help to bring about a two-state solution – currently facing trenchant opposition from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

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How war destroyed Gaza’s neighbourhoods – visual investigation

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Satellite imagery and open-source evidence lay bare the destruction to civilian infrastructure by Israel in its war on Hamas

A Guardian investigation has detailed the mass destruction of buildings and land in three neighbourhoods in Gaza.

Using satellite imagery and open-source evidence, the investigation found damage to more than 250 residential buildings, 17 schools and universities, 16 mosques, three hospitals, three cemeteries and 150 agricultural greenhouses.

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Hamas regroups in northern Gaza to prepare new offensive

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Militant Palestinian group begins to rebuild system of governance in north after being driven out by Israeli forces

Hamas militants have returned to northern Gaza, where they are mobilising against Israeli forces and rebuilding a system of governance, aid officials, Gaza residents, analysts and Israeli officials say.

Elsewhere in Gaza, Hamas administrators and police maintain firm control of the south, where much of the population is concentrated, though civil order is breaking down in central regions.

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Israel-Gaza war: aid agencies ‘outraged’ by ‘reckless’ decision to cut UNRWA funding

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Agencies including Oxfam and Save the Children note Gaza population already facing famine due to Israeli siege and bombardment

International aid agencies have said they are “deeply concerned and outraged” at the “reckless” decision by major donors to cut funding to a UN Palestinian aid agency after Israel accused some of its workers of taking part in Hamas’ 7 October attack.

“We are shocked by the reckless decision to cut a lifeline for an entire population by some of the very countries that had called for aid in Gaza to be stepped up and for humanitarians to be protected while doing their job,” the coalition of 21 agencies, including Oxfam, Save the Children and ActionAid, said in a statement on Monday.

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Swedish music stars call for Israel Eurovision ban over Gaza

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Open letter signed by more than 1,000 musicians from 2024 host country follows petition from artists in Finland and Iceland

More than 1,000 musical artists from Eurovision host country Sweden have signed an open letter calling for Israel to be excluded from this year’s edition of the song contest over its “brutal warfare in Gaza”.

Published in Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, the open letter says that by allowing Israel to participate, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) “is exhibiting a remarkable double standard that undermines the organisation’s credibility”.

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Middle East crisis live: US vows ‘very consequential’ response to deadly attack as reports suggest drone was misidentified

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White House spokesman says Biden mulling options as media reports suggest the drone that killed three US service people was confused with a US drone

Medical sources in the West Bank have said that the man killed by Israeli military fire in the village of Yamoun, near Jenin, was 21-year-old Tair Hamo, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz has reported.

As we reported earlier, the Israeli military carried out raids on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin overnight, as well as a nearby town and village.

If we don’t want another October 7, we need to go back home and control [Gaza]. We need to find a legal way to voluntarily emigrate [Palestinians] and impose death sentences on terrorists … I turn to you, prime minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu: this is time for brave decisions.

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Framework for ceasefire deal being put to Hamas, Qatar’s PM says

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Proposal is for 45-day pause in fighting and release of 35 Israeli hostages and up to 4,000 Palestinian prisoners

The framework for a deal that could lead to a ceasefire and the release of hostages held in Gaza is being put to the Hamas leadership, Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, said on Monday.

Speaking after talks in Paris between officials from the US, Qatar, Egypt and Israel, he said: “We are in a better place than we were a few weeks ago.”

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Biden beware: US must fully consider response to soldiers’ deaths – or risk Iran escalation

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President is facing pressure from Republicans after numerous attacks on US bases by Iran’s proxies

The killing of three American soldiers in Jordan and the wounding of dozens more, allegedly by an Iranian-backed group, is a red line that was always likely to be crossed in what is becoming an increasingly dangerous region.

The US had up to this weekend avoided fatalities in more than 150 attacks on its military bases by Iranian proxies since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war after the 7 October attacks, but that luck could not last for ever. The question now is what lies on the far side of that red line.

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Several people killed in Israeli strikes on Iran-linked site in Syria

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Strikes reportedly hit farm housing members of Hezbollah and other Iran-backed factions

Israel has struck an Iran-linked site south of the Syrian capital, Damascus, killing several people, two days after regional tensions rose again when three US troops were killed in a drone attack on a military outpost in Jordan.

The Israeli strikes, which also left an unspecified number injured, were not regarded as a direct response to the attack on the Tower 22 base on Jordan’s border with Iraq and Syria.

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Talks on Israel-Hamas hostage deal ‘constructive’ but meaningful gaps remain

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US, Qatari, Israeli and Egyptian officials met in Paris and will continue to discuss options

Talks on Sunday initiated by Qatar, the US and Egypt aimed at brokering a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas were “constructive” but meaningful gaps remain, a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office has said.

The statement said the parties would continue to hold discussions this week. “There are still significant gaps in which the parties will continue to discuss this week in additional mutual meetings,” the statement added.

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UN chief urges donors to reconsider UNRWA funding withdrawal

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António Guterres says loss of funding from US and others means aid into Gaza for whole of this month cannot be guaranteed

The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has appealed to the 10 donor countries that have withdrawn funding from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees to reconsider, saying the agency and Palestinians in desperate need should not be penalised due to the alleged acts of a dozen staff.

Guterres said nine UNRWA staff had already been dismissed for alleged involvement in Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October and any UN employee involved in acts of terror would be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.

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