Yemen’s Houthi rebels seize cargo ship in Red Sea, calling Israeli vessels ‘legitimate targets’

Israel says Galaxy Leader is British-owned and describes seizure as an ‘escalation in Iran’s belligerence’

Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they have seized what they called an Israeli cargo ship in the Red Sea, and warned that all vessels linked to Israel “will become a legitimate target for armed forces”.

Houthi forces would “continue to carry out military operations against the Israeli enemy until the aggression against Gaza stops and the ugly crimes … against our Palestinian brothers in Gaza and the West Bank stop”, said a spokesperson for the group, Yahya Saree, in a statement on X.

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Three more journalists killed in Gaza over weekend, relatives say – as it happened

This blog is now closed. Our live coverage continues here.

Some protests aimed at MPs have “crossed the line from protest to intimidation”, the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said, also speaking to Sky’s Trevor Phillips programme.

Asked about recent protests outside MPs’ offices calling for a ceasefire, PA Media reports she said:

I believe in the right to protest, I don’t believe in the right to intimidate.

Some of those protests, I believe, over the last few days have crossed the line from protest to intimidation. Protesting outside people’s homes, putting pressure on them in that way, I think it’s totally unacceptable.

We recognise, and I’m afraid this morning’s news confirms, that there is an absolutely tragic loss of life on both the Palestinian and the Israeli side. But I think it is important to remember this started with horrific murders on October 7, and if Hamas are hiding in these hospitals then Israel has to do something about it. I think we can all just hope this situation resolves itself as quickly as possible.

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Gaza protests targeting MPs ‘cross line into intimidation’, says Rachel Reeves

Hundreds march through Keir Starmer’s constituency to protest against failure to back ceasefire

Some protests targeting MPs over their stance on the war in Gaza have “crossed the line from protest to intimidation”, the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has said.

Other MPs already voiced concern about their safety and that of staff ahead of a weekend on which more than 100 pro-Palestine events were planned across the UK as campaigners sought to put pressure on parliamentarians who failed to vote for a Scottish National party motion last week calling for a ceasefire.

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Israel and Hamas appear close to hostage release deal, say officials

Agreement could involve limited ceasefire in Gaza Strip and release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails

Israel and Hamas appear to be edging towards a deal that would see the release of a significant number of hostages, possibly in return for a limited ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.

Senior US and Israeli officials, as well as the Qatari prime minister, all suggested an agreement was close on Sunday, although observers have cautioned that public statements during such negotiations are often misleading and any potential deal could easily collapse.

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IDF publishes footage of what it says is Hamas tunnel at al-Shifa hospital

Israel says opening was discovered beneath floor of a garage within Gaza medical complex’s walls

The Israeli army has published video footage that it says shows the first solid evidence of a sophisticated Hamas tunnel network underneath Gaza City’s Dar al-Shifa hospital complex.

In a statement on Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said troops operating near the in-patients building at al-Shifa found a booby-trapped pickup truck in a garage inside the medical complex’s walls. When it was destroyed in a controlled explosion, a tunnel was exposed beneath the floor of the garage, the IDF said, providing photographs.

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Nakba generation relive trauma of displacement in Gaza

Images of distressed families walking south have been evocative of what Palestinians call the catastrophe of 1948

Umm Ghadeer’s earliest memories are of the Nakba, or catastrophe, of 1948 in which about 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homeland after the creation of Israel. She was three years old. Last month she was forced to abandon her home all over again, fleeing Shejaiya, a neighbourhood of Gaza City, after the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas.

“I cried very hard because I relived the experience of displacement when we fled our homes in 1948. We fled. Some people were walking on the streets, some in cars, some screaming, some crying. We lost so many people,” she said. “So many awful things happened in 1948. I am now scared of the same thing.”

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Gaza’s main hospital has become a ‘death zone’, says WHO

UN agency visits al-Shifa hospital after raid by Israeli forces who allege it is used by Hamas as a command centre

Dar al-Shifa, the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital, has become a “death zone”, the World Health Organization has said, with a mass grave at the entrance and only 25 staff left to care for 291 seriously ill patients after orders from the Israeli army to evacuate the complex.

The WHO managed to access the medical centre in Gaza City on Sunday after it was raided by Israeli forces earlier this week. Israel alleged the militant group Hamas used al-Shifa as a command centre, identifying it as a key target in its military operation despite international outcry.

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‘It’s basically hell on earth’: Gaza City left totally bereft of healthcare

The raid on al-Shifa hospital by Israeli forces forced out thousands of patients and medical staff

In the early hours of Saturday morning, over piles of concrete and rubble, crowds of doctors and patients walked miles through the destroyed streets of Gaza City, forced to evacuate on foot from what remained of its hospitals. Medics said they feared leaving critically ill patients behind in a city now largely reduced to rubble and overtaken by Israeli forces, where hospitals had been operating without power, fuel, water or food.

“It’s basically hell on earth,” said William Schomburg, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza, describing what remained of life inside the city.

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Israeli airstrikes kill 80 in Palestinian refugee camp

Fears mount for Gaza refugees as nowhere is deemed safe for civilians in effort to destroy Hamas

Israel-Hamas war – live update

Airstrikes on crowded UN shelters in north Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp killed more than 80 people on Saturday, as Israeli plans to expand operations into south Gaza deepened fears for hundreds of thousands of civilians who have sought refuge there.

Underlining the reminder that there is nowhere safe for Gaza’s civilians, an airstrike outside the southern town of Khan Younis killed at least 26 people in the early hours of Saturday morning.

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‘Just look us in the eye’: Israeli hostages’ families arrive at Benjamin Netanyahu’s Jerusalem office

Thousands had marched for five days to demand action by the Israeli prime minister to bring home the 240 people captured by Hamas

“I am wounded and bleeding. Mummy, I think I’m going to die,” were some of the last words Romi Gonen, 23, said to her mother, Meirav Leshem Gonen, after Hamas stormed southern Israeli towns and kibbutzim on 7 October.

Leshem Gonen, 54, could hear shooting during the frantic 40-minute phone call but tried to comfort her daughter, who was at the Supernova music festival, saying: “Everything will be OK” and “You’ll feel better. You are not alone, you are with me, my darling.”

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Hundreds march through Keir Starmer’s constituency in Gaza ceasefire protest

Protesters march through Camden and gather outside Labour leader’s office amid anger over failure to call for ceasefire

Hundreds of people marched through Keir Starmer’s constituency and protested outside his Camden office on Saturday over the Labour leader’s failure to call for a ceasefire.

The action was organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which planned more than 100 local demonstrations across the country on Saturday rather than holding a national march in the capital.

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Israel says it will increase military offensive in southern Gaza

Apartment block bombed, killing 26, in area civilians were urged to flee to for their safety

Israel bombed an apartment block in southern Gaza early on Saturday, killing 26 people, soon after announcing plans to intensify operations in areas where the Israeli military had told civilians to flee for their safety.

In the north, a column of medics, patients and refugees trudged out of al-Shifa hospital, the biggest in Gaza, where Israeli troops spent a fourth day searching for evidence of a Hamas command node it claimed was buried below the wards.

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Arab forces will not go to Gaza, says Jordanian minister in rebuke of Israel

Ayman Safadi says credibility of international law at stake as he clashes with senior US official over terms for humanitarian pause

Jordan’s foreign minister has said Arab troops will not go to Gaza as he delivered a blistering criticism of Israel’s war on Hamas.

Ayman Safadi clashed with Joe Biden’s senior Middle East adviser on Saturday, saying a humanitarian pause should not be conditional on the release of hostages held by Hamas. The US envoy, Brett McGurk, said the onus was on Hamas to release hostages as a pathway to humanitarian aid increasing and a pause in the fighting.

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Israel-Hamas war live: Joe Biden says Gaza and West Bank should be ‘reunited’ under Palestinian Authority; reiterates call for two-state solution

In Washington Post on Saturday, Biden writes: ‘After this war is over, the voices of Palestinian people … must be at the center of post-crisis governance’

A Tanzanian citizen missing since the 7 October raid by Hamas militants on southern Israel has been confirmed dead while a second remains unaccounted for, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dar Es Salaam said.

In a statement issued late on Friday, it said the family of farming student Clemence Mtenga had been notified of his death and talks were under way on repatriating his body. Searches continue for the second Tanzanian, Joshua Mollel, it added.

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More than 100 pro-Palestine rallies to take place across UK, say organisers

Groups behind ceasefire protests attended by hundreds of thousands say local action will replace London march this week

Organisers of the pro-Palestine marches that have drawn hundreds of thousands of people to London’s streets have planned smaller action in villages, towns and cities rather than holding a national march in the capital this Saturday.

More than 100 pro-Palestine events demanding a ceasefire in Gaza are due to take place across the UK.

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Apec summit ends with unity on WTO reform but not Gaza or Ukraine

US gathering of Pacific Rim leaders most notable for meeting between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, seen as a sign of easing China-US relations

Pacific Rim leaders have shown divisions over the wars in Ukraine and Gaza after a two-day summit of the Apec forum, while pledging support for reform of the World Trade Organization.

The 21 economies that make up the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum – among them Russia, China, the US and Australia – did not mention either conflict in their final joint communique. Instead an accompanying chair’s statement noted the bloc had “exchanged views on the ongoing crisis in Gaza”.

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IDF evidence so far falls well short of al-Shifa hospital being Hamas HQ

Footage to date fails to prove Gaza complex was nerve centre for attacks on Israel, as military has claimed

Israel-Hamas war – latest updates

Prior to their capture of Dar al-Shifa hospital, the Israel Defense Forces went to great lengths to depict the medical complex as a headquarters for Hamas, from where its attacks on Israel were planned.

The evidence produced so far falls well short of that. IDF videos have shown only modest collections of small arms, mostly assault rifles, recovered from the extensive medical complex.

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Israeli forces ‘determined to advance’, says military – as it happened

Daniel Hagari’s comments come amid mounting concerns about Israeli plans to expand military operations where people have sought refuge from fighting

The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, has urged leaders of developing nations to unite in the face of growing challenges due to the Israel-Hamas war as he convened a virtual summit of more than 100 countries.

“This is the time when the countries of the global south should unite for the greater global good,” Modi said in a speech, referring to developing nations.

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UN warns of Gaza starvation as concerns rise about safety in the south

Israeli military expansion seen as likely alongside acute shortages of of food and water

The UN has said Gaza’s civilians face the “immediate possibility” of starvation, amid mounting concerns about Israeli plans to expand military operations in parts of the south where people have sought refuge from fighting.

Fuel shortages on Friday halted aid shipments and blacked out communications across the strip. The UN said its trucks could not move and it could not coordinate deliveries. Palestinian network operators said they could no longer power the phone and internet systems.

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Israel kills Hamas militants in Jenin raid as violence surges in West Bank

Hamas says three fighters died, while Israeli military says it killed at least five, as tensions rise

Israeli security forces have mounted a major raid in the city of Jenin, destroying roads and killing between three and five Hamas militants in the latest instance of surging violence across the occupied West Bank.

Hamas said three of its fighters died in the overnight raid, which began late on Thursday night and lasted about eight hours. Israeli military officials said their forces had killed at least five.

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