‘Hell on Earth’: famine nears in northern Gaza despite Israeli aid pledges

Doctors describe rise in infections and amputations among dangerously malnourished patients

Every morning, starving mothers arrive at the doors of al-Awda hospital in northern Gaza desperately seeking baby formula. Many mothers of newborns are unable to breastfeed, the head of the hospital said, because they are so underfed.

Inside the hospital, where doctors are undergoing treatment for malnutrition alongside their patients, surgeons say they are carrying out increasing numbers of amputations owing to the effects of acute hunger.

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David Cameron to set out UK basis for continuing arms sales to Israel

Foreign secretary’s intervention comes as pressure grows on ministers to reveal legal advice over Gaza conflict

David Cameron will set out the UK’s reasoning for continuing to export arms to Israel on Tuesday as ministers face ongoing pressure to disclose the official legal advice on the trade.

The foreign secretary will discuss the Middle East crisis with his US counterpart, Antony Blinken, on a visit to Washington where he is also expected to give an update on the UK’s arms export regime.

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Susan Sarandon, Olivia Colman and Paul Mescal join star donors of Cinema for Gaza auction

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn gives jam as swathe of film and TV celebrities add support, including Zone of Interest’s Jonathan Glazer and Thor’s Tessa Thompson

A host of film directors and stars, including Susan Sarandon, Paul Mescal and Olivia Colman, have added their names to those offering time and memorabilia to a Cinema for Gaza auction that is raising funds for humanitarian relief in Palestine.

Joining the celebrities is the former Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn – billed as the star of Sumotherhood, thanks to his cameo in last year’s Adam Deacon urban thriller – who is donating a Zoom poetry reading and a selection of homemade jam.

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No progress made at Cairo ceasefire talks, says Hamas, as Israel pulls troops out of southern Gaza – as it happened

Israeli defence minister says withdrawal forms part of preparations for later attack on Rafah

An Israeli strike on southern Lebanon early on Monday killed a field commander in the heavily-armed Lebanese group Hezbollah, as the United Nations warned that shelling was spreading and urged a halt to the violence.

Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been exchanging fire across Lebanon’s southern frontier in parallel with the Gaza war, adding to fears of a wider regional conflict.

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Palestinians return to destroyed homes in Khan Younis after Israeli withdrawal

People find landscape in southern Gaza city marked by shattered buildings and stench of death from under the rubble

Thousands of Palestinians, exhausted by six months of unrelenting war and multiple displacements, trudged back to the devastated city of Khan Younis on Monday, a day after Israel’s unexpected withdrawal of its forces from southern Gaza.

With many making the journey on foot from nearby Rafah, they struggled to find homes that had been atomised by the force of the bombardment in neighbourhoods heavy with the smell of death, where family and neighbours worked to dig out bodies long buried in the rubble.

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Monday briefing: The ‘unprecedented’ pressure to suspend arms exports to Israel

In today’s newsletter: The killing of aid workers in Gaza last week has western leaders under even greater scrutiny – and raises questions about the fragility of the Israeli coalition government

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Good morning.

Six months since the 7 October massacre by Hamas and the Israeli military’s ensuing ground offensive in Gaza, Israel is more isolated than ever before, and at odds with its closest allies.

Welfare | Tens of thousands of unpaid carers looking after disabled, frail or ill relatives are being forced to repay huge sums to the government and threatened with criminal prosecution after the Department of Work and Pensions erroneously overpaid them.

NHS | A study of more than 12,200 NHS workers across the UK has found that one in 10 reported unwanted incidents including being touched or kissed, demands for sex in return for favours, or derogatory comments.

Health | Guardian analysis of NHS figures for 2022-23 found that black women are up to six times more likely to experience some of the most serious birth complications during hospital delivery across England than their white counterparts, with the figures being described as “stark” and disheartening”.

Housing | The Resolution Foundation said average rents could increase by 13% over the next three years as current high growth in the private rental market works its way through existing tenancies.

Africa | After more than 9,940 miles (16,000km) over 352 days across 16 countries, Briton Russ Cook, aka the “Hardest Geezer”, has completed the mammoth challenge of running the length of Africa.

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The disappeared of Gaza: tens of thousands missing in territory since start of war

Families left unsure if loved ones are alive or dead as they search through rubble for signs of survivors

Late one night in March, Ahmed Abu Jalala rose quietly, trying hard not to wake his family, sleeping around him on the floor of a UN-run school in northern Gaza.

The 54-year-old father knew his six children needed food, but after months of war there was none. Little aid reached Jabaliya, where they had been staying since fleeing their small home in the early weeks of the conflict, and his children had been reduced to eating wild plants. So Abu Jalala went out into the darkness to search for flour being brought by a humanitarian convoy.

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Chef José Andrés says Israel engaging in ‘war against humanity itself’ in Gaza

In response, White House pushes back and rules out putting US monitors on ground after seven aid workers killed in Gaza

The White House has pushed back on comments by World Central Kitchen founder José Andrés that Israel is engaged in “war against humanity itself” following the Israeli drone strike attack that killed seven of his aid workers on 1 April, but ruled out putting US monitors on the ground in Gaza.

“There’s going to have to be some changes to the way Israeli defense forces are prosecuting these operations in Gaza to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” White House national security communications adviser John Kirby told ABC’s This Week said on Sunday.

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Israel withdraws troops from southern Gaza for ‘tactical reasons’

Drawdown after four months of fighting in Khan Younis coincides with new ceasefire talks

Israel has pulled all of its ground troops out of southern Gaza for “tactical reasons”, the country’s army has said, raising questions about the future direction of the war as Hamas and Israeli delegations travel to Egypt for a new round of ceasefire talks.

Two brigades will stay in the northern half of the Gaza Strip and the new corridor that now bifurcates the Palestinian territory at Wadi Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces said on Sunday, in order to “preserve the IDF’s freedom of action and its ability to conduct precise intelligence based-operations”.

Guardian Newsroom: Crisis in the Middle East
On Tuesday 30 April, 7-8.15pm GMT, join Devika Bhat, Peter Beaumont, Emma Graham-Harrison and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad as they discuss the fast-developing crisis in the Middle East. Book tickets here or at theguardian.live

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Israeli officials who want to deny aid to Gaza civilians merit Australian sanctions, humanitarian groups say

Peak body for Australian aid groups joined by faith groups and health experts saying there is no excuse for starvation due to impact of war

The Australian government should impose targeted sanctions on Israeli officials who have called for the denial of aid to civilians of Gaza, according to humanitarian organisations, faith groups and health experts.

The Australian Council for International Development (Acfid), the peak body for Australian aid groups, said a “man-made, preventable famine” in Gaza would leave “a permanent stain on all our collective humanity”.

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David Lammy says he has ‘serious concerns’ about Israel’s actions in Gaza

Shadow foreign secretary says ‘far too many people have died’ but refuses to back call for immediate ban on arms sales

The shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, has said he has “serious concerns about a breach in international humanitarian law” over Israel’s actions in Gaza as “far too many people have died”.

At least 33,037 Palestinians have been killed and 75,668 others have been injured in the Israeli military offensive, according to the Palestinian health ministry, six months on from the 7 October Hamas attack in southern Israel, during which about 1,140 people were killed and 240 others were taken as hostages.

Guardian Newsroom: Crisis in the Middle East
On Tuesday 30 April, 7-8.15pm GMT, join Devika Bhat, Peter Beaumont, Emma Graham-Harrison and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad as they discuss the fast-developing crisis in the Middle East. Book tickets here or at theguardian
.live

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Middle East crisis: Israel to join Cairo talks on Gaza truce and hostage release, says official – as it happened

Israel was previously undecided on whether to attend talks but will now take part in the latest round of negotiations

The Israeli military has withdrawn all ground troops from the southern Gaza Strip except for one brigade, a military spokesperson has said, according to Reuters.

An Israeli brigade is typically made up of a few thousand troops.

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Isolated at home and abroad, but Netanyahu isn’t about to go quietly

Israel PM’s woes continue to mount, but the country’s policy on Gaza is unlikely to change

For Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the last week has perhaps been the worst since the Hamas attack on 7 October, six months ago, that triggered the current war in Gaza.

Protests against the longtime Israeli leader by hostage families and the opposition returned with a vengeance across the country as he spent two nights in hospital for hernia surgery. Then his major political rival, Benny Gantz, undermined the unity of the wartime government by calling for early elections; Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox coalition allies are already angry with him over a row regarding military conscription.

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Ed Husic accuses Israeli government of ‘systematic failure’ over death of Zomi Frankcom

Coalition refuses to state if Israel breached international law, saying it ‘takes more care than Hamas does to protect civilian lives’

Senior Australian minister Ed Husic has accused the Israeli government of “a systematic failure” to observe the laws of war in Gaza, while insisting the west must “demonstrate our values” to avoid charges of hypocrisy.

But the Coalition opposition refused to say explicitly whether the Israeli military had breached international law, saying it “takes more care than Hamas does to protect civilian lives”.

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David Cameron warns of Gaza famine as UK sends Royal Navy ship to boost aid effort

Move to join US-led maritime corridor follows international fury at last week’s killing of seven aid workers

The Royal Navy was ordered into action on Saturday to help supply desperately needed aid to Gaza, as the foreign secretary, David Cameron, warned that the Palestinian people trapped there were on the brink of famine.

With the UK and US governments under intense pressure to halt arms sales to Israel, Downing Street said on Saturday that ministers would instead boost support for a planned new maritime corridor from Cyprus to Gaza, to channel “life-saving aid” by sea to a population in urgent need of basic food supplies.

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Roadside bomb kills seven children in southern Syria, says state media

Blast struck in conflict-stricken Daraa province, where dozens of incidents have claimed about 100 lives this year

At least seven children were killed after a roadside bomb detonated in south-western Syria, in an area where dozens of incidents have already claimed about 100 lives in 2024, state media and a war monitor reported.

It remains unclear who planted the bomb in the northern countryside of conflict-stricken Daraa province, which lies between Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Russian-backed Syrian government forces and their allies captured the city and province of Daraa from opposition forces in 2018.

Syrian state news agency Sana, citing an unnamed police official in Daraa, blamed militant groups, which are still active in the area.

But the UK-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights accused a pro-government militia of planting the bomb in an assassination attempt, without giving further details. It says at least eight children were killed.

Sana reported two other injuries in the explosion.

Daraa city was known as the cradle of the Syrian uprising in 2011 that spiralled into an all-out war, now in its 14th year.

In 2018, after Daraa was retaken by the government and its allies, Moscow mediated a reconciliation agreement with rebel groups which left them in charge of security in some areas, under Russian supervision.

The unique reconciliation effort was a way for Moscow to alleviate concerns from Israel of Iran-backed militias approaching its borders and Jordan, which has a key border crossing nearby.

However, an armed insurgency has continued.

The observatory said the bombing is the 83rd security incident in Daraa it has documented in 2024 so far, which has led to the deaths of 100 people.

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Hamas to send team to Gaza ceasefire talks as body of Israeli hostage recovered

Gaza’s Islamist rulers reiterated demands for a permanent end to the war and a withdrawal of Israeli troops

Hamas has announced it will take part in a new round of ceasefire talks in Cairo, as the body of an Israeli hostage has been found in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, the Israeli military said.

Six months into the war, repeated attempts at brokering a second truce after a week-long pause at the end of November in which hostages and Palestinian prisoners were exchanged have failed.

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Middle East crisis: UN humanitarian chief calls Gaza war ‘betrayal of humanity’ – as it happened

Martin Griffiths lamented ‘the unconscionable prospect of further escalation in Gaza, where no one is safe and there is nowhere safe to go’

Iran on Saturday again threatened retaliation for the deaths of seven Revolutionary Guards in a strike on Damascus, with the army chief saying his country’s enemies will “regret” the killings, reports AFP.

Tehran has vowed to avenge Monday’s airstrike on the Syrian capital it blamed on its arch-enemy Israel, which has not commented.

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The new world disorder: how the Gaza war disrupted international relations

While the US flounders in a conflict it did not foresee, emerging powers see a chance for new voices to join the top table

Not long ago a picture circulated from inside Gaza showing smoke billowing from the explosion of a US-supplied bomb, and discernible in the background was the outline of eight black parachutes dropping US aid in precisely the same neighbourhood. It was suggested that the picture would make an ideal cover for any book about the confused world disorder that the six-month war in Gaza have spawned – a disorder that as yet has no dominant player, value system or functioning institutions.

The great powers compete, coexist or confront one another across the region but none, least of all at the UN, is able to impose its version of order any longer. “Forget talk of unipolarity or multipolarity,” the journalist Gregg Carlstrom recently wrote in Foreign Affairs. “The Middle East is nonpolar. No one is in charge.”

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Banning arms sales to Israel would be ‘insane’, says Boris Johnson

Former prime minister says a western arms embargo on Israel would ‘hand victory’ to Hamas

Boris Johnson has said banning arms sales to Israel would be “insane”.

The former prime minister also criticised the foreign secretary, David Cameron, for remaining silent on the debate over curtailing UK arms sales to Israel.

Guardian Newsroom: Crisis in the Middle East
On Tuesday 30 April, 7-8.15pm GMT, join Devika Bhat, Peter Beaumont, Emma Graham-Harrison and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad as they discuss the fast-developing crisis in the Middle East. Book tickets here or at theguardian.live

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