Category Archives: Israel

UK study of 1948 Israeli massacre of Palestinian village reveals mass grave sites

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Researchers analysed cartographic data and aerial photos to identify three possible locations in former fishing village Tantura

An investigation into a massacre in a destroyed Palestinian village carried out by Israeli forces in the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation has identified three possible mass graves beneath a present-day beach resort.

Palestinian survivors and historians have long claimed that men living in Tantura, a fishing village of approximately 1,500 people near Haifa, were executed after surrendering to the Alexandroni Brigade and their bodies dumped in a mass grave believed to be located under an area that is now a car park for Dor Beach. Estimates have ranged from 40 to 200 people.

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US Congress members demand that PayPal end ban on Palestinian business

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Other payment companies do business with Palestinians in the occupied territories, but PayPal only provides services to Israelis there

Eleven members of the US Congress have demanded PayPal end a ban on doing business with Palestinians in the occupied territories while permitting Israeli settlers to use the digital payment platform.

The letter, authored by Representative Mark Pocan, says PayPal is discriminating against Palestinians by denying “equal access to the digital economy”.

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Far-right minister says Israel ‘in charge’ on visit to Jerusalem holy site

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Comments by Itamar Ben-Gvir draw condemnation from Palestinians amid escalating tensions

Israel’s far-right security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, visited a site in Jerusalem holy to both Muslims and Jews and declared Israel was “in charge”, drawing condemnation from Palestinians after months of escalating tension and violence.

The early morning visit to the site, revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the compound housing al-Aqsa mosque, also drew denunciations from two of Israel’s Arab peace partners, Jordan and Egypt.

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Israeli nationalists march in celebration of capture of East Jerusalem

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Thousands waved blue and white flags while some in the parade chanted racist slogans such as ‘Death to Arabs’

Thousands of Israeli nationalists, some of them chanting racist slogans, have paraded through Jerusalem’s Old City in an annual celebratory day for Israelis that became one of humiliation for Palestinians living under occupation.

The marchers, mostly male Orthodox teens and young men, were celebrating Israel’s capture of East Jerusalem in 1967. The crowd waved blue and white Israeli flags and chanted slogans such as “Death to Arabs” and “We will burn your village”.

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New York law aims to stop funding of illegal Israeli settlements in West Bank

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State assembly member introduced law to prohibit tax-deductible donations from being used to expel Palestinians from their land

New York’s state assembly is to consider legislation to stop registered charities from sending tens of millions of dollars a year to fund illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

State assembly member, Zohran Mamdani, has introduced the “Not on our dime!: Ending New York funding of Israeli settler violence” act to prohibit tax-deductible donations from being used to expel Palestinians from their land and other activities widely regarded as war crimes under the Geneva conventions.

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Gaza ceasefire ends five days of fighting that left dozens dead

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Hostilities destroyed more than 50 homes and displaced about 950 people, says the UN

Relative calm has returned to the blockaded Gaza Strip after a ceasefire that has ended five days of cross-frontier fire between Israel and militant groups in the coastal enclave that killed 33 Palestinians and two people in Israel.

A truce mediated by Egyptian officials that went into effect at 10pm (8pm BST) on Saturday night appeared to hold, despite the firing of a rocket towards southern Israel on Sunday evening that Palestinian factions said had launched due to a “technical error”.

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Ceasefire between Israel and Islamic Jihad in Gaza area takes effect

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Dozens of rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza, prompting airstrikes in return, in the half-hour leading up to the truce

A ceasefire has taken effect in and around the Gaza Strip after five days of cross-border exchanges that have killed at least 33 Palestinians in Gaza and two people in Israel.

The truce was due to take effect at 10pm local time (20.00 BST) on Saturday, Egyptian and Palestinian sources said. But, in the final 30 minutes before, dozens of rockets were fired from Gaza towards Israel, prompting renewed airstrikes, AFP correspondents in the territory said.

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Israel and Gaza militants trade heavy fire as hopes of truce fade

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Outbreak of violence – now in its fourth day – has killed dozens, all but one of them Palestinian

Israel and Gaza militants have traded heavy fire as hopes faded of securing a truce to end days of fighting during which dozens have been killed, all but one of them Palestinian.

There have been international calls for de-escalation, with the EU pushing for an “immediate comprehensive ceasefire”.

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Israel treats Palestinian territories like colonies, says UN rapporteur

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Francesca Albanese says Israel is maintaining occupation to get as much land as possible for Jewish people

Israel treats the Palestinian territories as its colonies, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied territories has said on her first visit to London since her appointment last year.

Francesca Albanese, an Italian lawyer and human rights academic, has faced calls to resign by Israeli government ministers, such as Amichai Chikli, who accused her of “spewing hatred and antisemitism”, and Zionist groups have described her as biased.

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Gaza Strip fighting intensifies on third day despite Egypt ceasefire efforts

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Clashes between Israel and militants leave 29 dead so far, with airstrikes targeting homes of Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders

Fighting between Israel and militant groups in the blockaded Gaza Strip has intensified for the third day despite ceasefire efforts brokered by Egypt, in the worst bout of violence in the region in months that has killed 29 people in Gaza, including at least 10 civilians, and one civilian in Israel.

The latest conflagration began in the early hours of Tuesday, when Israel launched surprise airstrikes targeting the homes of three senior commanders in Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the second most powerful group in the strip after Hamas, despite a fragile ceasefire in place since a day of cross-frontier fire last week.

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Shireen Abu Akleh: friends and family call for justice on anniversary of killing

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Israeli forces admit ‘high possibility’ Al Jazeera reporter was shot by sniper at West Bank refugee camp

Family members, friends and colleagues of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was almost certainly fatally shot by an Israeli sniper, have renewed calls for justice on the first anniversary of her killing, during a week of memorials and events celebrating her life.

Abu Akleh, a household name in the Arab world who worked for Qatar-based Al Jazeera, was shot in the head in the slumlike refugee camp on the outskirts of the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on 11 May last year while covering an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) raid. International outrage at the reporter’s death was fuelled by scenes of violence at her funeral in Jerusalem, when Israeli police attacked pallbearers, almost causing them to drop the coffin.

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Gaza: fighting continues in defiance of reported ceasefire

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Tit-for-tat rocket fire follows claims that Egyptian officials brokered pause in conflict between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants

Israel and Palestinian militant groups in the blockaded Gaza Strip have continued fighting despite reports of ceasefire negotiations, in a bloody episode of violence that has left 21 people in Gaza dead and brought daily life in Tel Aviv to a standstill.

An Egyptian state-run station with close ties to the security agencies said on Wednesday evening that Egyptian officials – who frequently mediate in the conflict – had successfully brokered a pause in the fighting. But the tit-for-tat fire continued late into the night, suggesting the truce had not held.

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Israel bombs Gaza Strip, killing three Islamic Jihad leaders and nine civilians

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Hamas and Islamic Jihad vow to retaliate after Israeli launches overnight strikes despite ceasefire

Israeli airstrikes on the blockaded Gaza Strip targeting the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad have killed three senior operatives and at least nine civilians, including three children, according to the Israeli army and Palestinian officials.

A total of 40 jets took part in Operation Shield and Arrow, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said, conducting strikes that lasted about two hours starting at 2am (12am BST) on Tuesday.

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Saudi-Iranian detente is fragile but potential for the Middle East is huge

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Should rapprochement solidify it could augur well for Yemen, Lebanon and Syria – and spell disaster for Israel

Tehran’s embassy in Riyadh has reopened for the first time since 2016, the Iranian foreign ministry quietly confirmed in April, in the latest of a series of gestures showing that the two Middle East powers are determined to dial down a rivalry that has disfigured the region for 40 years.

All kinds of signs, trivial and large, suggest the rapprochement is genuine: civilian flights between the two countries are to resume; an Iranian won an $800,000 Saudi Qur’an-reading competition; Iranian steel is making its way to Saudi markets; officials from the two countries were seen embracing after the Saudi navy rescued 60 Iranians trapped in Sudan; and Ibrahim Raisi is expected to announce a visit to Riyadh soon, the first by an Iranian president since 2007.

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Israeli raid kills three men accused of killing UK-Israeli woman and daughters

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Two alleged Hamas operatives and alleged accomplice shot dead in operation in occupied West Bank

Israel said its security forces shot dead three Palestinians blamed for killing a British-Israeli woman and her two daughters last month, in a raid on Thursday in the occupied West Bank.

Two suspects in the killings, members of the militant group Hamas, and a third man accused of helping them were killed in an operation in Nablus by the army, police and the security service Shin Bet, a statement said.

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Israel strikes Gaza as unrest continues after death of hunger striker

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Rockets were fired towards Israel from Gaza after the death of Khader Adnan was announced

Israeli jets struck targets across Gaza as armed groups there fired rocket barrages toward Israel in response to the death of a Palestinian hunger striker in Israeli custody.

Plumes of smoke spiralled into the sky late on Tuesday as the jets hit targets that the Israeli military said included weapons manufacturing sites and training camps of Hamas, the Islamist group that governs the blockaded coastal enclave.

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Palestinian Khader Adnan dies in Israel jail after 87-day hunger strike

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Adnan, who was affiliated with the Palestinian militant Islamic Jihad group, was found unconscious in his cell early on Tuesday

Militants in the blockaded Gaza Strip have launched rockets at Israel in response to the death after a hunger strike of a well-known political figure affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Khader Adnan, a 44-year-old father of nine from near the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, was found unconscious in his cell in the early hours of Tuesday after an 87-day-long hunger strike during which he refused medical treatment, the Israeli prison authority said. He was transferred from the maximum-security detention facility in the central Israeli city of Ramle to a local hospital, where he was declared dead.

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Gun-toting, prayer-reciting protesters throng Jerusalem to back judicial overhaul

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Large numbers march on Knesset in biggest rightwing protest in Israel in nearly two decades

More than 150,000 Israelis in favour of the government’s divisive judicial overhaul have taken part in a demonstration outside the Knesset in Jerusalem, in the biggest rightwing protest in the country in nearly two decades.

Protesters from all over Israel, as well as settlers who travelled in buses from the occupied West Bank, chanted “the people demand judicial reform” and danced and sang as the rally got under way at sunset on Thursday, sending a message before the beginning of the Knesset’s summer session next week. Exact numbers were hard to verify, but Israeli media reported between 150,000 – 200,000 people took part.

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Netanyahu’s ‘national guard’ deal with Ben-Gvir raises fears of intercommunal violence

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Political rivals have denounced the national guard plans as creating a personal ‘militia’ for extremist minister

After a dramatic day of wildcat strikes that shut down much of the country last month, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, finally announced that his government’s controversial plans to overhaul the judiciary would be suspended until the Knesset’s summer session.

The Israeli leader struggled for hours to reach a compromise with the recalcitrant far-right elements of his coalition pushing for the judicial changes. But that evening, the extremist anti-Arab Jewish Power party, led by the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said it had agreed to back the pause in exchange for a promise to create the minister’s long sought-after “national guard”.

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Political division casts long shadow over Israel’s memorial day

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Politicians and protesters urged to stay away from events honouring those killed serving in armed forces and in terrorist attacks

Israel’s memorial day, in which those killed serving in the armed forces as well as terrorist attacks are honoured, is usually quiet and sombre; then, at sunset, independence day celebrations and fireworks begin.

But this year, as the country readies for the consecutive holidays, Israelis find themselves grappling with an unprecedented political crisis that has divided society and cast a shadow over what are supposed to be displays of national unity. A car ramming carried out by a Palestinian suspect with a Jerusalem residency on a busy street in the city on Monday afternoon, which injured five, added to the tensions.

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