Category Archives: Israel

Trump depends on the EU and UK to act as peacemakers more than he thinks

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The US doesn’t need to spend more on Ukraine. Britain can bring funding to the table – and help Trump reboot alliances

With Donald Trump the very meaning of words is up for negotiation. What does he really mean when he promises to “build a wall”? When he pledges to end the Russo-Ukrainian war in one day?

His supporters say they don’t take him literally but seriously – but who decides what “serious” is? The very ambiguity can be part of Trump’s appeal. There’s something exhilarating in the sense one is in an exclusive negotiation with the president to define reality. It’s as if he’s welcoming you backstage from the reality show of politics to the discrete board room where meaning is made.

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Hamas says Israeli female hostage killed in north Gaza combat zone

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Group’s armed wing says unnamed woman’s death established after long break in contact with her captors

Hamas’s armed wing said on Saturday that an Israeli woman taken hostage during the October 2023 attack had been killed in a combat zone in northern Gaza, as the Israeli military said it was investigating.

The spokesperson for Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeida, said contact had been restored with the woman’s captors after a break of several weeks and it was established that the hostage had been killed in an area of north Gaza where the Israeli army has been operating.

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Arrest warrants for Israeli leaders marks pivotal moment in international law | Beth McKernan

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Charges against Israeli prime minister and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant mark first time western-affiliated leaders have been targeted for war crimes

The international criminal court’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders over the war in Gaza has been welcomed by Palestinians as a landmark moment in their decade-long fight to challenge the Israeli occupation through international institutions.

Thursday’s announcement from the international criminal court’s pretrial chamber of arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has sent shockwaves through the international legal system. As the first time that officials from a democratic, western-allied state have been charged with war crimes, it is widely seen as the most significant action taken by the court since it was set up at the turn of the century.

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At least 20 killed and 66 wounded by Israeli bombing of Beirut homes

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Missing families feared dead after block of flats and nearby homes destroyed by airstrikes on Lebanese capital

At least 20 people have been killed and 66 wounded in a series of Israeli airstrikes on an apartment block in the densely populated Basta neighbourhood of central Beirut.

At least four bombs hit an eight-storey apartment building at about 4am on Saturday, without warning, producing blasts heard around the Lebanese capital. The strike levelled the building and destroyed seven smaller residential buildings in the surroundings, leaving meters-deep craters of rubble where the structures once stood.

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Middle East crisis: Netanyahu thanks Orbán for invite after ICC warrant, saying Hungary on ‘side of justice and truth’ – as it happened

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Israeli PM thanks his Hungarian counterpart after he extends invite in defiance of moves by International Criminal Court

The US have said they “fundamentally reject” the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for senior Israel officials and said the court does not have jurisdiction over the matter.

On Thursday, arrest warrants were issued by the court for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant and the late Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif over alleged war crimes committed in Gaza.

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Hungary invites Netanyahu to visit as world leaders split over ICC arrest warrant

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Viktor Orbán says he will not enforce ICC decision that requires court members to detain Israeli PM if he enters their country

Hungary’s illiberal prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has said he will invite his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, to visit in defiance of an international criminal court arrest warrant, as world leaders split over the ICC’s momentous decision.

The world’s highest criminal court issued warrants on Thursday for Netanyahu, his former defence minister Yoav Gallant and the Hamas commander Ibrahim al-Masri, commonly known as Mohammed Deif, who is believed to be dead, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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‘Reward for terrorism’: Israeli politicians unite to condemn ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu

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Leaders from across spectrum are outspoken in rejection of court’s ‘antisemitic’ and ‘outrageous’ decision

Israeli leaders from across the political spectrum united to condemn the decision by a three-judge panel of the international criminal court to issue arrest warrants for the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the former defence minister Yoav Gallant.

Netanyahu’s office described the warrants as “an antisemitic decision … equivalent to the modern Dreyfus trial”, referring to the 1894 trial of a French artillery captain of Jewish descent that has become one of the most prominent examples of antisemitism.

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War crimes charges will be hard stigma for Netanyahu to shrug off

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The ICC warrants are a legal earthquake and could weigh heavier on the Israeli PM and his former minister over time

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The arrest warrants issued by the international criminal court (ICC) represent an earthquake on the world’s legal landscape: the first time a western ally from a modern democracy has been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity by a global judicial body.

Inside Israel, the warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant will not have an immediate impact. In the short term they are likely to rally support around the prime minister from a defiant Israeli public.

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US and Israel reject ICC warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest as number of countries signal they will abide by it – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. You can read our latest reporting on the ICC arrest warrant here:

Israel’s position has always held that the rulings of the international criminal court do not apply to it, as it is not a member.

Foreign minister Gideon Saar on Thursday said that it had “issued absurd orders with no authority” against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant because “Israel is not a member of the court.”

The Chamber found reasonable grounds to believe that during the relevant time, international humanitarian law related to international armed conflict between Israel and Palestine applied. This is because they are two High Contracting Parties to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and because Israel occupies at least parts of Palestine.

The Chamber also found that the law related to non-international armed conflict applied to the fighting between Israel and Hamas.

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ICC issues arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged Gaza war crimes

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Joe Biden describes as ‘outrageous’ the warrants for Israeli PM and former defence minister, which put them at risk of detention if they go to some other countries

The international criminal court has issued arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant and the Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif for alleged war crimes relating to the Gaza war.

It is the first time that leaders of a democracy and western-aligned state have been charged by the court, in the most momentous decision of its 22-year history.

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Mazyouna, whose face was ‘ripped off’ by Israeli missile, allowed to leave Gaza

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Israeli move follows Guardian report that 12-year-old girl’s evacuation for treatment had been repeatedly blocked

The Israeli authorities have permitted Mazyouna Damoo, a 12-year-old Palestinian girl whose face was “ripped off” when an Israeli missile struck her home in June, to leave Gaza for medical treatment, five days after the Guardian reported that repeated requests for her urgent medical evacuation had been denied.

Last Friday, the Guardian highlighted the Damoo family’s desperate battle to get Mazyouna evacuated from Gaza to the United States to receive emergency surgery on devastating injuries to her face sustained in a missile attack by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which tore off half of her cheek and exposed her jawbone.

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Gaza food production ‘decimated’ with 70% of farmland hit, UN finds

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Israeli attacks have destroyed huge areas of land used for crops, with 90% of cattle killed, analysis shows

More than 90% of cattle have died and about 70% of land for crops in Gaza has been destroyed or damaged since the beginning of the war in the territory, an analysis of satellite imagery by the UN has found.

More than half of sheep and goat herds have been wiped out, while more than three-quarters of the territory’s famous orchards have been destroyed or damaged, the survey in September found.

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‘Positive progress’ made in Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire talks, US envoy says

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Amos Hochstein to meet Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday after Beirut discussions over deal to end fighting

The US envoy Amos Hochstein has said there is “positive progress” towards a ceasefire in Lebanon after talks in Beirut aimed at ending 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Hochstein has met Lebanese officials over the past two days after Hezbollah indicated it had agreed to the text of a US ceasefire proposal, although with some comments. He said on Tuesday that the gaps between Hezbollah and Israel had “narrowed”, raising optimism about a deal between the two parties.

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Food prices soar in Gaza after looting of almost 100 aid trucks worsens shortages

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WHO says hijacking by armed men has aggravated already severe scarcity of food, medicine and other aid

Food prices have soared in Gaza after the looting of nearly 100 aid trucks amid an already severe food crisis caused by more than a year of war between Israel and Hamas.

This weekend’s hijacking of 98 lorries of a 109-strong convoy by armed men – the biggest such attack to date – has aggravated food, medicine and other aid shortages, according to a World Health Organization spokesperson, Margaret Harris. “It’s getting harder and harder to get the aid in,” she said on Tuesday.

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Norway to ask ICJ for advisory opinion condemning Israel’s stance on Unrwa

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Draft resolution for UN general assembly seeks to protect the aid agency and allow it to keep functioning in Gaza

Norway is to seek an international court of justice (ICJ) advisory opinion condemning the Israeli government for ending cooperation with the UN Palestinian relief agency Unrwa.

The Israeli Knesset passed two bills last month banning Unrwa from Israeli territory and prohibiting Israeli state contact with the agency, moves that would prevent it from delivering aid to Gaza, after allegations by Israel that members of Unrwa staff in Gaza were involved in the 7 October attacks by Hamas. The UN launched an investigation into the Israeli claims and fired nine Unrwa staff as a result.

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‘Total oppression’: West Bank children being killed at unprecedented rate

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Huge rise in attacks by Israeli settlers and soldiers killed 171 children in year after 7 October

Mohammad was 12, a football-mad teenager who spent his days dreaming of a career on the pitch and his last minutes practising ball skills. Ghassan was 14, a quiet, generous teenager who ran errands for elderly relatives, with an adoring six-year-old brother who stuck to him like a shadow.

Both boys were shot dead this summer by Israeli soldiers, victims of an unprecedented surge in attacks on children in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

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Gaza ministry says 20 killed in anti-‘gang’ operation after looting of aid convoy

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Hamas-run interior ministry says it carried out security operation after armed looters hijacked almost 100 trucks

Gaza’s Hamas-run interior ministry has said that at least 20 people have been killed in an operation targeting “gangs” accused of looting trucks bringing aid into the war-torn territory which is facing the threat of famine.

Gunmen attacked and looted about 100 trucks carrying desperately needed supplies over the weekend, the biggest such attack during 13 months of war in the territory and new evidence of the growing power of Gaza’s criminal gangs.

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UK upheld some arms export licences to Israel to reassure US

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Carve-out for F-35 parts prioritised ‘US confidence in UK and Nato’ over risk of rights violations, court documents show

The UK government did not fully suspend export licences to Israel as it would undermine US confidence in the UK and Nato and have a “profound impact” on international peace and security, court documents reveal.

On Monday the UK government returned to the high court in legal action by the Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq and the UK-based Global Legal Action Network (Glan) over the decision to continue arms exports to Israel.

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‘Israel is trying to terrorise people’: Lebanon’s civil defence reels after deadly strike

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After 20 people including 15 first responders killed in Douris, rescuers ask why state service was targeted

All the corpses had been recovered but still the rescuers sifted through the rubble. A paramedic carried a sack with him, filled with the charred remains of his colleagues. Every few feet he stopped and knelt down, assessing. In the twisted mess left behind by the Israeli airstrike, it was hard to distinguish between flesh, earth and the life-saving equipment that had melted in the heat of the blast.

The night before, on Thursday, an Israeli jet had dropped a bomb on the salon of the Douris civil defence centre on the outskirts of the ancient Lebanese town of Baalbek, killing 20 people, including 15 first responders. Five were rendered unrecognisable by the force of the explosion. On Friday afternoon, emergency workers were still collecting bodily remains to be taken for DNA analysis.

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Middle East crisis live: Israeli strike kills Hezbollah lead spokesperson in Beirut

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This blog is now closed. Read today’s full report here

A Lebanese soldier has been killed, with three wounded after Israel attacked an army post in a Lebanese town.

The Lebanese Army posted on X that one of those injured was in a critical condition after the attack on Sunday.

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