Category Archives: Israel-Gaza war

UN secretary general says Israel’s rejection of two-state solution is ‘unacceptable’

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António Guterres says denial of Palestinian state will embolden extremists at highly charged security council debate

Israel’s “clear and repeated rejection of the two-state solution” is unacceptable, and could only prolong the conflict in Gaza, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said, at the launch of a highly charged security council debate focusing on aid shipments to Gaza.

Gutteres told the meeting in New York on Monday that the denial of a Palestinian state will only embolden extremists everywhere and indefinitely extend the conflict.

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Twenty-four soldiers killed in deadliest day for Israeli forces of Gaza war

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Deaths come as talks of ceasefire increase and pressure rises on Netanyahu over leadership and handling of war effort

Twenty-four Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza on Monday, by far the biggest single-day Israeli death toll in the three-month war against Hamas, as talks about a ceasefire intensified and Palestinian casualties continued to climb.

The deaths came amid fierce fighting around the southern city of Khan Younis, with dozens of Palestinians killed and wounded. The Israeli casualties are likely to increase domestic pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu over his leadership and handling of the war effort.

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Netanyahu faces hostages dilemma as Israeli political debate heats up

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Deal to free hostages could give boost to unpopular PM but concessions could cost him key allies’ support

As Israeli military casualties mount in Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu finds himself on the horns of a dilemma. The Israeli prime minister’s popularity has plummeted and polls suggest that in an immediate election his rightwing Likud party would lose half its seats to a resurgent centrist opposition.

Voters have not forgotten the glaring failures that allowed Hamas to attack southern Israel from Gaza on 7 October, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 240. But the lack of tangible results from the Israeli offensive in Gaza that was supposed to bring “total victory” over Hamas is now important too.

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Houthis say US-UK airstrikes will not go unpunished or unanswered

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Houthi leaders reiterate commitment to targeting Israel-linked ships in Red Sea after attacks they say targeted Yemeni capital

Houthi leaders have vowed defiance in the face of a new wave of attacks they say targeted five governorates, including the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, and surrounding areas.

A Houthi army spokesperson, Brig Gen Yahya Saree, said the allied attacks would not go unpunished or unanswered. Houthi leaders also repeated that their threats to ships in the Red Sea were solely directed at stopping commercial ships trading with Israel due to its bombardment of Gaza. They insisted other ships had free passage. Some ships navigating the Red Sea have put out identifiers saying they are “not Israeli connected”.

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Labor urged to recognise Palestinian state ‘without further delay’ after Israeli PM’s rejection of two-state solution

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Palestinian diplomat Izzat Abdulhadi says Australia must do more than express disappointment at Benjamin Netanyahu’s stance

A Palestinian diplomat has implored the Australian government to recognise Palestine as a state “without further delay” after what he called the Israeli prime minister’s “appalling but not surprising” rejection of a two-state solution.

The comments from the head of the general delegation of Palestine to Australia, Izzat Abdulhadi, come after two Labor MPs also urged the government to fast-track recognition of Palestinian statehood, whereas the Coalition said the immediate priority should be “security and stability”.

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US calls on Israel to protect staff and patients as military reportedly storms Gaza hospital

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Medical staff arrested at al-Khair hospital, Palestinian officials say, while al-Amal hospital surrounded by tanks

The White House has called on Israel to protect innocent people as Palestinian officials said the Israeli military had stormed one hospital in Gaza and placed another under siege.

National security council spokesperson John Kirby said on Monday Israel had a right to defend itself but added: “We expect them to do so in accordance with international law and to protect innocent people in hospitals, medical staff and patients as well, as much as possible.”

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US and UK strike Yemen in latest attempt to stop Houthis targeting ships

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US officials confirmed attacks amid footage of explosions around the capital city of Sana’a

The US and the UK have conducted a further round of strikes against the Houthis in an attempt to stop the rebel group targeting shipping in the southern Red Sea.

A joint statement from both countries said that they had conducted “an additional round of proportionate and necessary strikes” against eight Houthi targets, with the support of Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands.

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Families of four Israeli hostages urge Rishi Sunak to push for their release

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UK PM urged to apply pressure on Qatar to help free Liri Albag, Eliya Cohen and Ziv and Gali Berman

The families of four Israeli hostages have urged Rishi Sunak to apply pressure on Qatar to help free their loved ones.

The father of 18-year-old Liri Albag, the older brother of 26-year-old twins Ziv and Gali Berman, and the girlfriend of Eliya Cohen, also 26, pleaded with the prime minister to do everything in his power to secure their release after 108 days in captivity.

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EU foreign policy chief says Israel failed to engage with Brussels peace summit

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Josep Borrell says minister came to meeting with plans for an artificial island off Gaza and a railway to India

One of the EU’s most senior diplomats has criticised the Israeli foreign minister for not properly engaging with a summit in Brussels designed to pave the way for a peace plan in the Middle East.

Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, told reporters Israel Katz had come to the meeting to present plans for an artificial island off the coast of Gaza and a railway to India, concepts that had nothing to do with the peace talks.

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Middle East crisis: US officials reject Houthi claim they attacked American ship in Gulf of Aden – as it happened

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The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip “could not be worse”, the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said on Monday.

“From now on I will not talk about the peace process, but I want a two-state-solution process”, Borell was quoted by Reuters as saying ahead of an EU foreign ministers’ meeting.

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Benjamin Netanyahu’s denial of Palestinian statehood undermines prospects for peace, Labor MP says

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Criticism from the assistant foreign minister, Tim Watts, comes as backbencher says Israeli prime minister ‘is not a partner for peace’

The Australian government has said it is deeply disappointed by comments from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he rebuffed international calls for a pathway to a Palestinian state.

The assistant foreign minister, Tim Watts, said the remarks undermined prospects for peace. He also urged Israel to “live up to” its commitment to uphold international law in its military operations in Gaza, where the death toll has passed 25,000 Palestinians.

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Hamas official says ‘no chance’ hostages will return to Israel after Netanyahu rejects deal

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The prime minister said he rejected the terms of a deal which included Israel’s complete withdrawal from Gaza

The prospect of a deal to release the remaining hostages held by Hamas appeared to recede on Sunday after a Hamas official said Benjamin Netanyahu’s rejection of their conditions meant there was “no chance” of their return.

Netanyahu had earlier dismissed the militant group’s conditions to end the war, which he said included leaving Hamas in power and Israel’s complete withdrawal from the territory.

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UN chief condemns ‘utterly unacceptable’ killing of Palestinians as Gaza toll passes 25,100 – as it happened

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A total of 25,105 Palestinians have been killed and 62,681 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

An estimated 178 Palestinians were killed and 293 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.

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‘War hurts our hearts’: silent multi-faith peace walk held in London

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Hundreds follow route to Parliament Square in solidarity with people affected by Israel-Gaza conflict

Without flags, placards or chants, hundreds of people joined a silent multi-faith peace walk in London on Sunday in response to the Israel-Gaza war.

Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus and Buddhists walked side-by-side from Trafalgar Square to Parliament Square and back in solidarity with people affected by the conflict in the Middle East.

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UN chief decries ‘unacceptable’ scale of Gaza deaths as 25,000 reported killed

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Territory’s health ministry says most casualties are women and children, and that thousands more may lie under rubble

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed 25,000 Palestinians, the health ministry in the territory has announced, as the UN chief described the scale of civilian killings as “heartbreaking and utterly unacceptable”.

Most of the casualties were women and children, the ministry said, and thousands more bodies were likely to remain uncounted under rubble across Gaza.

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Cameron to be asked to clarify claim he took no decision over Israel arms sales

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Foreign secretary told MPs he had not made formal decision to continue, but papers reveal he recommended move

The chair of the foreign affairs select committee is writing to the foreign secretary, David Cameron, asking him to clarify his claim that he had not taken any formal decision to allow arms sales to Israel to continue amid the Gaza crisis.

Written evidence presented by the UK Department for Business and Trade shows the foreign secretary on 8 December recommended arms sales licences be allowed to continue when presented with three options: stopping arms sales, pausing them, or allowing them to continue.

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Israel’s actions in Gaza are not genocide, says UK’s chief rabbi

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Sir Ephraim Mirvis says use of the term is moral inversion designed to ‘tear open the still gaping wound of the Holocaust’

The chief rabbi has said using the word “genocide” to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza is an “increasingly frequent, disingenuous misappropriation of the term”.

Sir Ephraim Mirvis said the use of the term was a “moral inversion, which undermines the memory of the worst crimes in human history” and was designed to “tear open the still gaping wound of the Holocaust”.

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Gaza activist tells of beating and abuse in Israeli detention

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Human rights worker Ayman Lubbad is among the Palestinian prisoners claiming abuse in Israeli custody, where six have died

The Gaza-based human rights activist Ayman Lubbad has not seen his wife and three children for more than a month, since he was ordered to strip to his underwear in the street outside his home, then driven away with other Palestinian men for a week of abuse and detention.

He was tortured and humiliated, he said, giving one of various accounts of recent Israeli abuse of Palestinians in detention; at least six have died, and one autopsy report showed serious injuries, Haaretz newspaper reported.

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Battle on ‘third front’: Palestinians in West Bank vow to fight on after Israeli raids

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With the IDF now routinely using armed drones to watch and target militants, the worst wave of violence for almost 20 years is sweeping the West Bank

For days earlier this month, many of the young men of Nur Shams refugee camp on the outskirts of the town of Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank were engaged in a potentially lethal race against time.

Scaling precarious ladders, they stretched between rooftops vast plastic sheets used in more peaceful times to collect the olive harvest. Soon, hundreds of metres of winding lanes were in deep shadow, the sun and the sky obscured. The hill behind the buildings, from which you can see the Mediterranean less than 20km away, was no longer visible.

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Iran accuses Israel of killing Revolutionary Guards spy chief in Damascus

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Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it has lost four members in strike on Syrian capital

A suspected Israeli strike killed the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ espionage chief for Syria and three other guard members on Saturday, Iran has said, in an attack that destroyed much of a multistorey residential building in Damascus.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said six people were killed in the Israeli strike on the upmarket Mazzeh neighbourhood in the Syrian capital.

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