Starmer calls Gaza City takeover plan wrong and urges Israel to reconsider

UK prime minister says occupation approved by Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet will only bring more bloodshed

Keir Starmer has urged Benjamin Netanyahu to reconsider his plans to take over Gaza City and said the move would only bring more bloodshed.

The British prime minister said Israel’s decision to escalate a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians over the past 22 months while pushing the territory into famine was wrong and would do nothing to secure the release of Israeli hostages.

Continue reading...

Israel-Gaza war live: security cabinet approves Gaza City take over; opposition leader calls decision ‘a disaster’

Yair Lapid says far-right ministers dragged Benjamin Netanyahu into ‘exactly what Hamas wanted’ after security cabinet approves take over plan

The UK’s ambassador to Israel has said extending the war in Gaza would only lead to more deaths and that occupying Gaza would be a “huge mistake”.

Simon Walters was quoted by Israel’s Haaretz newspaper as saying on Thursday:

The IDF has achieved all that it can achieve in Gaza, and extending the war any further will simply lead to more deaths. Deaths of soldiers, deaths of Palestinians, deaths of hostages.

If you want to defeat Hamas, you cannot achieve that through military force. You need to use politics and diplomacy and you need to give the people of Gaza an alternative to Hamas.

We are working with friends, allies in Europe and in the Middle East to generate a real plan for what happens after the fighting stops, after the war.

It needs to be a description of what the governments will be for Gaza. That has to be governance by Palestinians who are not members of Hamas with a role for the Palestinian Authority.

Continue reading...

Netanyahu announces plan to take over Gaza City, marking another escalation in devastating war

Plan will likely displace tens of thousands of Palestinians already suffering from famine and comes after PM said he wanted to take control of entire territory

Israel’s security cabinet has approved a plan to take over Gaza City, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has said, marking another escalation in the 22-month offensive that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, destroyed most of Gaza and pushed the territory into famine.

Ahead of the security cabinet meeting, which began Thursday and ran through the night, Netanyahu had said Israel planned to retake control over the entire territory and eventually hand it off to friendly Arab forces opposed to Hamas.

Continue reading...

‘Palestinian Pelé’ killed in Israeli attack in southern Gaza

Palestine Football Association says Suleiman al-Obeid, 41, died during attack on people waiting for humanitarian aid

A footballer known as the “Palestinian Pelé” has been killed in an Israeli attack in southern Gaza, according to the Palestine Football Association (PFA).

Suleiman al-Obeid was killed on Wednesday when Israeli forces attacked civilians waiting for humanitarian aid, the PFA said.

Continue reading...

Netanyahu aims to fully control Gaza despite warnings of mass death and resistance from military

Israeli PM needs security cabinet to approve plan amid opposition from aid agencies and families of hostages

Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israel intends to take military control of all of Gaza in defiance of warnings that such a move would lead to countless more Palestinian deaths, further mass displacement and endanger Israeli hostages still held in the territory.

Before a security cabinet meeting to discuss Gaza’s future, the Israeli prime minister insisted that Israel does not want to ultimately govern the territory and would hand over that responsibility to friendly Arab nations.

Continue reading...

Israel’s security cabinet expected to meet to sign off plans for expanded Gaza operation – Middle East crisis live

On Wednesday the Israeli military put parts of Gaza City and Khan Younis under new enforced displacement orders

Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, urged UK prime minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday to call Donald Trump to encourage him to use his influence to block Israel’s plans for a “full occupation” of Gaza.

In a statement, Davey said:

[Israeli PM Benjamin] Netanyahu’s latest proposals for the occupation of all of Gaza are utterly horrifying.

If realised, they will only wreak yet more destruction on Gazans – while gravely endangering the lives of the hostages still held in Hamas’ captivity.

Breaking – Palestine Red Crescent: The Israeli occupation forces have targeted the 8th floor of the PRCS headquarters in Khan Younis with an artillery shell.

Continue reading...

Starmer declines to rule out election pledge-breaking tax rises in budget after claim Treasury must fill £40bn deficit – as it happened

Prime minister defends government’s handling of economy but will not give assurances over not raising income tax, employee NI or VAT

Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, has urged Keir Starmer to call Donald Trump to encourage him to use his influence to block Israel’s plans for a “full occupation” of Gaza.

In a statement, Davey said:

[Israeli PM Benjamin] Netanyahu’s latest proposals for the occupation of all of Gaza are utterly horrifying.

If realised, they will only wreak yet more destruction on Gazans - while gravely endangering the lives of the hostages still held in Hamas’ captivity.

I see NIESR is talking today about a £41.2bn hole in the UK public finances

Two things are newsworthy:

Continue reading...

Israeli cabinet meeting postponed as tensions rise over Netanyahu’s occupation plan

Officials say prime minister planning offensive to fully occupy Gaza, but resistance reveals splits in government

An Israeli security cabinet meeting, which had been expected to discuss Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for the “full occupation” of Gaza, has been postponed amid mounting tensions over whether the plan is feasible.

Amid a stalling of ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, Israeli officials had briefed local and international media that the prime minister was considering an expansive offensive, aimed at taking full control of the Palestinian territory after 22 months of war against the militant group Hamas.

Continue reading...

Speaker Mike Johnson visits occupied West Bank to support Israeli settlers

Palestinian foreign ministry condemns Republican visit for ‘undermining efforts to stop the war and cycle of violence’

Mike Johnson became the highest ranked US official to visit the occupied West Bank on Monday, the Republican House speaker drawing measures of praise and condemnation for his trip in support of Israeli settlements amid a worsening starvation crisis in Gaza.

The excursion followed Johnson’s arrival in Israel on Sunday on an unannounced visit with other Republican lawmakers, and his meeting with Israeli defense minister Israel Katz and foreign minister Gideon Saar.

Continue reading...

Hamas releases second video of Israeli hostage and says it will not disarm until Palestinian state established

Family of Evyatar David condemn video as protesters in Tel Aviv call for a deal to be made to return hostages

Hamas has reaffirmed that it will not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established, as the group released its second video in two days of an Israeli hostage.

Responding to one of the key Israeli demands to end the war in Gaza, Hamas – which has dominated the territory since 2007 – said it could not yield its right to “armed resistance” unless an “independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital” is established.

Continue reading...

Gaza hospitals say 18 killed by Israeli fire as aid site shootings continue to rise

UN says 859 have died near GHF sites since May while hospitals report growing number of hunger-related deaths

Hospitals in Gaza say Israeli fire killed more than a dozen people on Saturday, eight of them while trying to get food, as malnutrition-related deaths continue to rise in the territory.

The bloodshed comes a day after Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, visited an aid distribution site run by the Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Continue reading...

Gaza hospitals say 18 killed by Israeli fire as aid site shootings continue to rise

UN says 859 have died near GHF sites since May while hospitals report growing number of hunger-related deaths

Hospitals in Gaza say Israeli fire killed more than a dozen people on Saturday, eight of them while trying to get food, as malnutrition-related deaths continue to rise in the territory.

The bloodshed comes a day after Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, visited an aid distribution site run by the Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Continue reading...

Gaza hospitals say 18 killed by Israeli fire as aid site shootings continue to rise

UN says 859 have died near GHF sites since May while hospitals report growing number of hunger-related deaths

Hospitals in Gaza say Israeli fire killed more than a dozen people on Saturday, eight of them while trying to get food, as malnutrition-related deaths continue to rise in the territory.

The bloodshed comes a day after Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, visited an aid distribution site run by the Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Continue reading...

Gaza hospitals say 18 killed by Israeli fire as aid site shootings continue to rise

UN says 859 have died near GHF sites since May while hospitals report growing number of hunger-related deaths

Hospitals in Gaza say Israeli fire killed more than a dozen people on Saturday, eight of them while trying to get food, as malnutrition-related deaths continue to rise in the territory.

The bloodshed comes a day after Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, visited an aid distribution site run by the Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Continue reading...

Israel closes 88% of cases of alleged war crimes or abuse without charges – report

Conflict monitoring group Action on Armed Violence says Israel is seeking to create a ‘pattern of impunity’

Nearly nine out of 10 Israeli military investigations into allegations of war crimes or abuses by its soldiers since the start of the war in Gaza have been closed without finding fault or left without resolution, according to a conflict monitor.

Unresolved investigations include the killing of at least 112 Palestinians queueing for flour in Gaza City in February 2024, Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) said, and an airstrike that killed 45 in an inferno at a tented camp in Rafah in May 2024.

Continue reading...

Israel closes 88% of cases of alleged war crimes or abuse without charges – report

Conflict monitoring group Action on Armed Violence says Israel is seeking to create a ‘pattern of impunity’

Nearly nine out of 10 Israeli military investigations into allegations of war crimes or abuses by its soldiers since the start of the war in Gaza have been closed without finding fault or left without resolution, according to a conflict monitor.

Unresolved investigations include the killing of at least 112 Palestinians queueing for flour in Gaza City in February 2024, Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) said, and an airstrike that killed 45 in an inferno at a tented camp in Rafah in May 2024.

Continue reading...

‘We are dying slowly, save us’: starvation takes hold in Gaza after a week of appalling milestones

Parents watch children waste away as deliberate aid restrictions from Israel mean hunger is becoming a killer, as experts confirm famine is currently playing out

The people of Gaza did not need this week’s official confirmation from UN-backed hunger experts that the “worst-case scenario of famine” was unfolding there. For months they have watched as their children waste away.

“All my children have lost nearly half of their body weight,” said Jamil Mughari, a 38-year-old from Maghazi in central Gaza. “My daughter, who is five years old, now weighs only 11kg. My son Mohammad has become just skin and bones. All my children are like this.

Continue reading...

‘We are dying slowly, save us’: starvation takes hold in Gaza after a week of appalling milestones

Parents watch children waste away as deliberate aid restrictions from Israel mean hunger is becoming a killer, as experts confirm famine is currently playing out

The people of Gaza did not need this week’s official confirmation from UN-backed hunger experts that the “worst-case scenario of famine” was unfolding there. For months they have watched as their children waste away.

“All my children have lost nearly half of their body weight,” said Jamil Mughari, a 38-year-old from Maghazi in central Gaza. “My daughter, who is five years old, now weighs only 11kg. My son Mohammad has become just skin and bones. All my children are like this.

Continue reading...

Wong criticises Israel’s conduct in Gaza in closed-door meeting with Israeli ambassador

The foreign affairs minister’s meeting with Amir Maimon was requested by the Israeli embassy, according to federal government sources

In a private meeting with Israel’s ambassador to Australia, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, criticised Israel’s conduct in Gaza and called for it to urgently comply with international law and increase the supply of food to Palestinians.

Wong’s Thursday meeting with Amir Maimon was requested by the Israeli embassy, according to federal government sources, and took place inside Wong’s office at Parliament House in Canberra.

Continue reading...

Wong criticises Israel’s conduct in Gaza in closed-door meeting with Israeli ambassador

The foreign affairs minister’s meeting with Amir Maimon was requested by the Israeli embassy, according to federal government sources

In a private meeting with Israel’s ambassador to Australia, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, criticised Israel’s conduct in Gaza and called for it to urgently comply with international law and increase the supply of food to Palestinians.

Wong’s Thursday meeting with Amir Maimon was requested by the Israeli embassy, according to federal government sources, and took place inside Wong’s office at Parliament House in Canberra.

Continue reading...