Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the past seven days
Continue reading...Category Archives: Israel
Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar shatters Gulf’s faith in US protection
The attack in Doha upended a decades-old assumption – and left Arab leaders questioning how much they can still rely on Washington
On Thursday, Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, led a funeral at the state mosque. Flanked by officials in white thobes, he prayed over six caskets – one draped in a Qatari flag and five bearing Palestinian flags.
Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders in Doha on Tuesday, which also killed a Qatari officer, marked an unprecedented moment for the Gulf kingdom. The attack undercut the assumption that has underpinned Qatari foreign policy for three decades and reverberated across the Arab region: be useful to the United States, and it will protect you.
Continue reading...‘We took the gloves off’: ex-IDF chief confirms Gaza casualties over 200,000
Retired general Herzi Halevi says ‘not once’ had legal advice constrained Israel’s military decisions in the strip
A former Israeli army commander, Herzi Halevi, has confirmed that more than 200,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured in the war in Gaza, and that “not once” in the course of the conflict were military operations inhibited by legal advice.
Halevi stepped down as chief of staff in March after leading the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for the first 17 months of the war, which is now approaching its second anniversary.
Continue reading...Festival axes German orchestra over concerns about Israeli conductor
Belgian organisers are accused of ‘naked antisemitism’ after cancelling performance by Lahav Shani
A Belgian classical music festival has axed a leading German orchestra from its programme over concerns about its Israeli conductor, drawing accusations of antisemitism from Berlin.
Flanders Festival Ghent announced it had cancelled a concert by the Munich Philharmonic scheduled for 18 September, citing insufficient clarity over Lahav Shani’s attitude to the Israeli government.
Continue reading...Meeting with Keir Starmer was ‘tough’, says Israeli president
Isaac Herzog says ‘when allies meet they can argue’ after some Labour MPs condemn Downing Street meeting
The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, and the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, had a “tough” set of exchanges over humanitarian aid in Gaza at a Downing Street meeting, amid street protests demanding Herzog’s arrest as a war criminal.
Herzog, speaking to the Chatham House thinktank immediately after the meeting, said he had offered the British government a fact-finding mission to look at the levels of aid entering Gaza. He denied there was any famine and blamed the high civilian death toll on Hamas placing missiles in living rooms.
Continue reading...Anti-Islamic biker gang members hired to run security at controversial Gaza aid sites
More than 10 Infidels MC members deployed to sites run by US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation
Senior members of an anti-Islamic biker gang have been hired by US contractors and deployed to Gaza to oversee security at food distribution sites backed by the US and Israeli governments, according to a BBC investigation.
The investigation found that more than 10 members of Infidels MC, a US biker gang that uses the Crusader cross as its symbol and whose members have anti-Islamic tattoos, have been hired by UG Solutions and deployed to food aid sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. According to the BBC, seven members of the gang are in “senior positions overseeing [GHF] sites”.
Continue reading...Israeli military kills at least 41 people as it continues to order evacuation of Gaza City
Many of 1 million residents say they will not leave as they do not believe al-Mawasi humanitarian zone is safe
The Israeli military has killed at least 41 people in Gaza, including 12 aid seekers, over the last 24 hours as it continued to order the population of Gaza City to evacuate before its planned offensive.
The evacuation orders were accompanied by intensified Israeli bombing of the city, the Israeli military interspersing orders with announcements of high-rise towers they had bombed.
Continue reading...Starmer says he has confidence in Peter Mandelson amid calls to sack him over Epstein ties – UK politics live
PM was grilled by Kemi Badenoch on suitability of Mandelson for job as US ambassador
Helena Horton is a Guardian environment reporter.
Emma Reynolds, the new environment secretary, had a difficult job this morning: meeting a group of farmers after Labour caused fury in the rural community by introducing a new inheritance tax.
The Treasury reserve, designed to be used for “genuinely unforeseen, unaffordable and unavoidable pressures” has recently been used to fund higher public sector pay and compensation payouts.
In a letter to ministers, the chancellor said Treasury would only consider providing reserve funds to departments that have already maximised their savings …
Continue reading...Ursula von der Leyen calls for suspension of EU trade with Israel
Commission president cites illegal West Bank settlement plans, Gaza and attempts to ‘undermine two-state solution’
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has called for a suspension of trade with Israel, as she spoke of Europe’s “painful” inability to respond to the war on Gaza and ensuing humanitarian disaster.
In her most extended condemnation yet of the Israeli government, von der Leyen criticised plans for illegal settlements that would split the occupied West Bank in half, as well as incitement of violence by extremist Israeli ministers, as a “clear attempt to undermine the two-state solution”.
Continue reading...Starmer’s meeting with Israeli president could set relations back further
Two leaders have competing visions for Israel’s security and Palestinian self-rule with little chance of finding common ground
A meeting in London between Keir Starmer and the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, could not come at a more difficult time for either leader, and far from easing British-Israeli relations, the encounter risks setting them back yet further.
Once the meeting on Wednesday was in the diary, there was a faint hope within Downing Street that the two men would at least listen to each other about their competing visions for Israel’s future, including a two-state solution to the Palestinian conflict, a vision Herzog once shared.
Continue reading...Gaza aid flotilla carrying Greta Thunberg reports second drone attack in 24 hours
Global Sumud Flotilla says no passengers or crew harmed by alleged incendiary device dropped on boat in Tunisian port
A flotilla seeking to break Israel’s aid blockade of Gaza has said it was attacked by a drone for the second time in less than 24 hours.
The Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), which is carrying pro-Palestinian activists, including Greta Thunberg, said in a statement early on Wednesday that it had been attacked by another drone, which dropped an incendiary device on one of its boats, the Alma, as it was moored in the port of Sidi Bou Said in Tunisia. None of the passengers or crew were harmed and no structural damage was caused, it said
Continue reading...Trump appears sidelined as the US caught unawares by Israel’s unprecedented strikes on Qatar
The White House is caught between supporting Israel’s war against Hamas and patching up relations with a key US ally in the region
In the aftermath of Israeli airstrikes targeting Hamas negotiators in the heart of Qatar’s capital Doha, the White House appeared sidelined from halting a conflict that Donald Trump has claimed only he could mediate.
As details of the diplomatic flurry before Tuesday’s extraordinary strike were revealed, it was claimed that the White House had little say in how Israel opened its latest front in its war against Hamas – this one on a US ally hosting negotiations days after Trump had claimed he was close to reaching a deal.
Continue reading...Israeli-Russian graduate student freed after 903 days in Hezbollah captivity
Elizabeth Tsurkov, who entered Iraq to do research for Princeton, had gone missing in Iraq in early 2023
Israeli-Russian academic and Princeton student Elizabeth Tsurkov has been released after being kidnapped by Kata’ib Hezbollah and spending more than two years in captivity, Donald Trump said in a post on social media.
“I am pleased to report that Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Princeton Student, whose sister is an American Citizen, was just released by Kata’ib Hezbollah (MILITANT Hezbollah), and is now safely in the American Embassy in Iraq after being tortured for many months. I will always fight for JUSTICE, and never give up. HAMAS, RELEASE THE HOSTAGES, NOW!” the US president wrote in a TruthSocial post on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Starmer condemns Israel’s airstrike on Qatar as No 10 denies prior knowledge of attack
‘Immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages and a huge surge in aid into Gaza’ only route to peace, says PM
Keir Starmer has condemned Israel’s strike on Qatar before a meeting with the Israeli president in London on Wednesday.
The UK prime minister said the military strike, which targeted Hamas leaders stationed in Doha, was a violation of Qatar’s sovereignty and risked “further escalation across the region”.
Continue reading...Von der Leyen under growing pressure to take tougher line with Israel
EU Commission president urged to ‘show leadership’ and preserve bloc’s credibility amid catastrophe in Gaza
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, is under growing pressure from MEPs to “show leadership” and preserve the EU’s political credibility by taking a tougher approach to Israel’s government over the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
Von der Leyen is expected to refer to the EU’s role on the world stage in her annual “state of the union” speech to the European parliament on Wednesday, where she will set out her agenda for the year ahead.
Continue reading...Israel’s expanded assault on Gaza City will endanger lives of ‘countless civilians’, charity warns – Middle East crisis live
Warning from ActionAid comes after Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli army told residents of Gaza City to leave
Dan Sabbagh is the Guardian’s defence and security editor
Fifty-one Israeli arms makers and the US defence giant behind the F-35 fighters used to bomb Gaza are among the 1,600 exhibitors at the biennial DSEI trade show that begins in London’s Docklands on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Flotilla boat carrying aid to Gaza struck by flaming object, video shows
Global Sumud Flotilla says one of its vessels was hit by drone at Sidi Bou Said port in Tunisia, sustaining fire damage
A flotilla carrying aid for Gaza and pro-Palestinian activists has published a video showing one of its boats being struck by a flaming object at Sidi Bou Said port in Tunisia.
The Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) said the boat had been hit by a drone and that it sustained fire damage to its main deck and below-deck storage, though all six passengers and crew were safe.
Continue reading...US visa refusal for Palestinian delegation prompts calls to move UN meeting to Geneva
General assembly session about two-state solution for Palestine and Israel due to start in New York on Tuesday
The US’s refusal to grant visas to the Palestinian delegation to the UN general assembly has led to calls for a one-day conference on a two-state solution for Palestine and Israel to be moved from the UN’s headquarters in New York to its other main site in Geneva.
Donald Trump’s White House has already refused to grant a visa to the Palestinian Authority (PA) president, Mahmoud Abbas, and 80 other Palestinian officials for the general assembly session, which begins on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Palestinian gunmen kill six people at Jerusalem bus stop
At least 12 others injured in attack at Ramot intersection during morning rush hour
Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a crowded bus stop in the northern outskirts of Jerusalem on Monday, killing six people and injuring 12 others before being shot dead by an off-duty soldier and a civilian at the scene.
The victims included a 79-year-old former cardiologist, a 43-year-old rabbi and a 25-year-old who had recently emigrated from Spain. Twenty-six others suffered injuries, including six who were left in a serious condition with gunshot wounds.
Continue reading...Actors and directors pledge not to work with Israeli film groups ‘implicated in genocide’
Exclusive: Thousands of film workers join new boycott initiative criticized by Israeli producers’ group as ‘misguided’
Thousands of actors, directors and other film industry professionals have signed a new pledge vowing not to work with Israeli film institutions they say are “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people”.
“As film-makers, actors, film industry workers, and institutions, we recognise the power of cinema to shape perceptions” the pledge reads. “In this urgent moment of crisis, where many of our governments are enabling the carnage in Gaza, we must do everything we can to address complicity in that unrelenting horror.”
Continue reading...