World’s largest wealth fund says it has excluded bulldozer maker and five Israeli banking groups on ethics grounds
The world’s largest wealth fund has excluded Caterpillar, the construction equipment manufacturer, over Israel’s use of its bulldozers to destroy Palestinian property in Gaza and the West Bank.
Norway’s $2tn (£1.5tn) fund said on Monday it had excluded Caterpillar and five Israeli banking groups on ethics grounds.
Continue reading...Double-tap strike suggests killing of civilians, rescue workers and journalists deliberate and not a mistake
Israel’s twin strike on the Nasser hospital in Gaza, which killed five journalists including staff working for the Associated Press, Reuters, NBC and Al Jazeera, is a potential violation of international law writ large.
The attack targeted a civilian building, specifically a hospital, in a reckless double-tap strike that killed civilians, with rescue workers and journalists among them. All categories that should be protected under international law.
Continue reading...Others refuse to leave as aircraft and tanks bomb outskirts of city where about half of Gaza’s 2m people now live
Israeli aircraft and tanks have pounded the eastern and northern outskirts of Gaza City, destroying buildings and homes, as Israeli leaders vowed to press on with an expanded large-scale offensive on the city.
Witnesses reported the sound of continuous explosions overnight from Saturday night into Sunday morning in the areas of Zeitoun and Shejaia. Meanwhile, tanks shelled houses and roads in the nearby Sabra neighbourhood and several buildings were blown up in the northern area of Jabaliya.
Continue reading...Health officials report dozens of casualties in Sana’a, including six deaths
Israeli strikes have hit the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, in retaliation for Houthi missiles fired towards Israel, with Houthi health officials saying the attack had killed six people.
The strikes on Sunday were the latest in more than a year of direct attacks and counterstrikes between Israel and Houthi militants in Yemen, part of a spillover from the war in Gaza.
Continue reading...The IPC’s findings that a quarter of Palestinians in Gaza are starving should mark an urgent turning point in this war
The declaration on Friday of widespread famine in Gaza by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) should mark a turning point in the war. The IPC, which represents a fastidious survey of available data, is regarded as the international gold standard in nutritional crises.
Long-criticised by humanitarians in other emergencies for its overabundance of caution, the IPC’s declaration of Level 5 – “catastrophic” hunger – in Gaza is a significant moment. Famine, under the IPC’s exacting criteria, requires three critical thresholds to be passed: extreme food deprivation, acute malnutrition and starvation-related deaths, all of which are now visible in Gaza.
Continue reading...Former Labour leader says Francesca Albanese to take part in event seeking answers over UK’s ‘role in war crimes’
A UN special rapporteur will contribute to a two-day “tribunal” being held by Jeremy Corbyn into Britain’s “role in war crimes perpetrated in Gaza”, the former Labour leader has said.
Corbyn, who is campaigning for a new political entity with the working title Your Party, said the event would take place in early September. His private member’s bill for an official inquiry into UK involvement in the Israel-Gaza war was blocked by the government at its second reading in July.
Continue reading...Caspar Veldkamp resigns after cabinet reaches deadlock on adopting harsher measures over situation in Gaza
The Dutch foreign minister, Caspar Veldkamp, has resigned after a cabinet meeting failed to secure sanctions against Israel, weakening the Netherlands’ already fragile caretaker government.
Veldkamp’s colleagues from the centrist New Social Contract (NSC) party also walked out after the cabinet debate late on Friday reached an impasse over adopting harsher measures against Israel.
Continue reading...Manager of zipline facility detained for alleged religious discrimination after group of eight- to 18-year-olds turned away
The manager of a leisure park in southern France has been detained for alleged religious discrimination after a group of Israeli children were refused access.
The children, aged eight to 16, were on holiday in Spain and had made a reservation for Thursday to use the Tyrovol zipline adventure park in Porté-Puymorens, near the Spanish border in the Pyrenees mountains, the Perpignan prosecutor’s office said.
Continue reading...The IPC has raised its classification to Phase 5, the highest and worst level of its acute food insecurity scale
Mothers in Gaza have resorted to using legume water and herbs as alternative to infant milk amid Famine, charity warns
Dr. Ra’ed Al-Baba, who works at Al Awda Hospital run by ActionAid’s partner Al-Awda, said usage of alternatives to infant milk had “catastrophic” consequences.
There are mothers who resort to using legume water, herbs, and other alternatives to infant milk because of the severe shortage. These methods carry catastrophic risks, causing gastroenteritis, food poisoning, delayed growth, severe anaemia, and even the inability to move. We have seen cases of extreme dehydration from polluted water mixed with these substitutes. This is not survival, this is slow death.”
Continue reading...IPC says famine is ‘entirely man-made’ and immediate response is needed or avoidable deaths will soar
An “entirely man-made” famine is taking place in Gaza’s largest city and its surrounding area, UN-backed experts have declared, in an escalation of the devastated territory’s humanitarian crisis.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a globally recognised organisation that classifies the severity of food insecurity and malnutrition, found that three key thresholds for famine had been met.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: After Israeli officials announced a stepped-up military operation in the city, Palestinians and the world wait to see what happens next
Good morning. Israel claims to have launched the first stages of a sweeping military operation to conquer Gaza City – the administrative heart of the strip – warning that a million people could be forced from their homes, sparking a wave of fear among residents.
In the past few nights Palestinians have described relentless bombardments, with thousands already scrambling to escape, while others are too starved or frail to evacuate.
UK news | Protesters at the next mass demonstration against the ban on Palestine Action will withhold their details from officers to force en-masse processing at police stations in an effort to make it “practically impossible” to arrest everyone.
Ukraine | Moscow threw Donald Trump’s Ukraine peace initiative into disarray on Thursday, insisting it must have a veto over any postwar support for the country as its forces carried out a large-scale overnight missile barrage.
Immigration | Refugee support organisations have been forced to install safe rooms in their premises, relocate to less visible sites and in some cases close their offices in response to the threat of far-right violence, the Guardian can reveal.
US news | A federal judge in Miami late on Thursday ordered the closure of the Trump administration’s notorious “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration jail within 60 days and ruled that no more detainees were to be brought to the facility while it was being wound down.
Health | Baby food manufacturers have been given 18 months to improve the quality of their products in England amid mounting concerns that leading brands are nutritionally poor.
Continue reading...Netanyahu tells soldiers he has approved takeover plan as aid groups advised to prepare for forced displacement
The International Red Cross and UN have warned of an impending catastrophe in the Gaza Strip if Israel launches an offensive to take over Gaza City, as the Israeli military told medical and aid groups in the Palestinian territory to prepare for imminent forced displacement.
At the same time a concerted campaign of international opposition to Israel’s defiance of ceasefire calls and its approval of a huge new illegal settlement construction in the occupied West Bank gathered pace, with the UK summoning Israel’s ambassador and joining 20 other countries in condemning the settlement plan as a “violation of international law”.
Continue reading...Netanyahu is latest to ‘approve’ plan that has had daily announcements and that Israel knows will have serious consequences
Has Israel begun its expanded offensive in Gaza City, or is it hype?
After several weeks of threats of a new large-scale offensive, strongly opposed by most of the international community, Israeli officials have made announcements daily saying the plan to occupy Gaza City has been “approved”; it has been approved by the Israel Defense Forces, by the security cabinet, by the defence minister.
Continue reading...Troops already holding outskirts of territory’s capital, military says, while Israel approves huge new illegal settlement splitting West Bank
Iran launched its first military exercise since the end of its 12-day war with Israel, state television reported Thursday, with navy vessels launching missiles at targets at sea in the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean.
While such drills are routine in the Islamic Republic, the “Sustainable Power 1404” exercise comes as authorities in Iran are trying to project strength in the wake of a war that saw Israel destroy air defense systems and bomb nuclear facilities and other sites.
Continue reading...Israeli prime minister ignores pleas to resolve dispute with Australia through ‘diplomacy rather than public posturing’
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Benjamin Netanyahu has ignored pleas from Australian Jewish groups to calm his feud with Anthony Albanese, further criticising the prime minister and escalating an ugly spat between the two leaders.
Australia’s peak Jewish group, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), on Wednesday labelled Israeli prime minister Netanyahu’s attack on Albanese as “inflammatory and provocative”, and a “clumsy intervention” which had affected Australia’s Jewish community.
Continue reading...Court in Thuringia rejected woman’s request to enter concentration camp memorial while wearing the scarf
A German court has ruled that a Nazi concentration camp memorial has the right to refuse entry to those wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh scarf.
The higher administrative court in the eastern state of Thuringia on Wednesday rejected a request from a woman to be allowed entry to the Buchenwald concentration camp memorial while wearing a keffiyeh.
Continue reading...French president responds to Israeli PM’s ‘erroneous’ allegations in relation to decision to recognise state of Palestine
Emmanuel Macron has hit out at Benjamin Netanyahu for his “abject” and “erroneous” remarks after Israel’s prime minister claimed that antisemitism had “surged” in France after the country’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state in September.
In a statement released late on Tuesday, the office of the French president pushed back against Netanyahu’s claim. “The analysis suggesting that France’s decision to recognise the state of Palestine in September is behind the rise in antisemitic violence in France is erroneous, abject, and will not go unanswered,” it said. “The current period calls for seriousness and responsibility, not generalisation and manipulation.”
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Israel is “killing all prospects” for peace in the Middle East, Jordan’s foreign minister has said amid escalating international outrage over Israel’s plans for a new large-scale offensive in Gaza City and plans to massively expand Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Ayman Safadi made his remarks during a visit to Moscow on the same day that the Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, approved a plan to conquer Gaza City, an urban area home to hundreds of thousands of people in the north of the Palestinian territory.
Continue reading...Construction would be ‘flagrant breach of international law’ and undermine two-state solution, foreign secretary says
Israel has announced it is expanding its military operations in Gaza City, as the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, condemned its approval of a huge new illegal settlement in the West Bank as a “flagrant breach of international law.”
The Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Effie Defrin said the IDF had begun the second phase of Operation Gideon’s Chariots in Gaza, which it launched in May.
Continue reading...Executive Council of Australian Jewry says Australian and Israeli governments should use ‘diplomacy rather than public posturing’
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Australia’s peak Jewish group has lambasted Benjamin Netanyahu’s attack on Anthony Albanese as “inflammatory and provocative”, adding that the “clumsy intervention” showed a “woeful lack of understanding of social and political conditions in Australia” – notwithstanding what the group describes as “unseemly” conduct from Australia’s leader.
The concerned intervention by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) came as Australia and Israel entered the third day of a diplomatic tit-for-tat prompted by Australia’s visa cancellation of far-right Israeli politician Simcha Rothman on Monday.
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