‘The machine did it coldly’: Israel used AI to identify 37,000 Hamas targets

Israeli intelligence sources reveal use of ‘Lavender’ system in Gaza war and claim permission given to kill civilians in pursuit of low-ranking militants

The Israeli military’s bombing campaign in Gaza used a previously undisclosed AI-powered database that at one stage identified 37,000 potential targets based on their apparent links to Hamas, according to intelligence sources involved in the war.

In addition to talking about their use of the AI system, called Lavender, the intelligence sources claim that Israeli military officials permitted large numbers of Palestinian civilians to be killed, particularly during the early weeks and months of the conflict.

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Middle East crisis: UN human rights council to consider call for Israel arms embargo – as it happened

If draft brought forward by Pakistan is adopted, it would mark the first time that the UN’s top rights body has taken a position on the war in Gaza

The UK should stop arming Israel, a former national security adviser has said, after seven international aid workers were killed in Gaza in an Israeli airstrike.

Lord Ricketts, who was also the former permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Sometimes in conflict, you get a moment where there’s such global outrage that it crystalises a sense that things can’t go on like this.”

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Education ‘will grind to halt’ unless pay rises address recruitment crisis, union leader warns – UK politics live

National Education Union leader says morale among teachers is at ‘an all time low’ in radio interview

There is widespread agreement in the UK and the US that Israel has “gone too far” in its war against Hamas, Darren Jones, a Labour Treasury spokesperson, said this morning.

In an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Jones said:

I think what we’ve seen from President Biden, from Keir Starmer, and now from Lord Cameron, our own foreign secretary, is that countries that supported Israel’s right to defend itself and to recover its hostages from Hamas terrorists in Gaza, which clearly is their right to have done in the first place, have all said that you’ve gone too far, that we need to bring this war to an end, we need to get around the negotiating table, we need to aid to get to people who desperately need it in Gaza.

This latest situation, not only has it resulted in the death of aid workers, which is unacceptable, but it’s now making it much harder for aid to be made available to people who are in the most desperate situations.

The fact of the matter is if the UK, for example, stopped supplying arms, the war would not end. What we need to do is get the parties to a position where the fighting can stop.

As always, on questions of international law, it’s for judges and courts to make that decision, not for politicians.

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UK government under pressure from Tories to stop arming Israel

Lib Dems also call for action to suspend arms exports to Israel after seven aid workers killed in Gaza

Ministers are under pressure from Tory MPs and peers to stop arming Israel after seven humanitarian workers were killed by an airstrike in Gaza.

Four Conservatives told the Guardian on Wednesday that the UK should stop exporting arms to Israel after its strike, which killed three British aid workers.

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Sunak calls for investigation as British aid workers killed in Israeli airstrike named

PM demands ‘transparent investigation’ from Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as names emerge of three Britons killed in Gaza

Rishi Sunak has called for an urgent investigation into the deaths of three British aid workers working for the charity World Central Kitchen who were killed by an Israeli airstrike that hit an aid convoy in Gaza.

WSK confirmed that British victims John Chapman, 57, James “Jim” Henderson, 33, and James Kirby, 47, who were working for the charity’s security team, were among seven of its staff killed.

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Israel divided: Netanyahu’s coalition crisis – podcast

A cabinet split over military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews and large street protests demanding the release of hostages are threatening the prime minister’s grip on power. Bethan McKernan reports from Jerusalem

As the war in Gaza approaches its seventh month, tens of thousands of protesters in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities in Israel have demanded the release of hostages held in Gaza and called for new elections.

The Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent, Bethan McKernan, tells Michael Safi it is a moment of political danger for the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who also faces pressure from within his ruling coalition over the issue of exemption from military service granted to the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Israel’s allies, including the US, are piling pressure on Netanyahu to urgently allow aid into Gaza, which faces a famine, and to spell out how he will address the aftermath of the conflict.

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Biden says Israel is not doing enough to protect aid workers and calls for inquiry

US president ‘outraged and heartbroken’ after IDF drone attack killed seven people working for World Central Kitchen in Gaza

Joe Biden has said that Israel is not doing enough to protect aid workers and has called for a swift investigation into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) drone attack in Gaza which killed seven people working for the World Central Kitchen (WCK) charity.

“This conflict has been one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed,” the US president said, in comments that were highly critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza.

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Bernie Sanders to Benjamin Netanyahu: ‘Stop murdering innocent people’

Vermont senator makes remarks after Israeli strike kills seven aid workers, amid war that has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians

The Vermont senator and former US presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has a message for the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu: “Stop murdering innocent people.”

Sanders delivered his blunt message in an interview with MSNBC on Tuesday, a day after seven aid workers were killed by an Israeli strike in Gaza.

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Charities halt Gaza aid after drone attack that killed seven workers

Humanitarian groups say they cannot operate safely after Israeli targeting of food charity convoy prompts international outcry

The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza seems likely to worsen after charities announced they are suspending operations in the territory in the aftermath of an Israeli drone attack which repeatedly targeted a clearly identified convoy of international aid workers, killing seven.

The strikes on a team from World Central Kitchen (WCK) led the charity – along with other aid organisations such as Anera, which helps refugees around the Middle East, and the US-based Project Hope, which focuses on healthcare – to announce that it would pause operations in Gaza to protect its staff.

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Middle East crisis live: Netanyahu says deaths of seven aid workers in Gaza is ‘tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting innocent people’

World Central Kitchen to pause operations immediately after deadly convoy strike by Israel; workers from UK, US, Australia, Poland and Palestine among dead

We’ve launched this video report on the Gaza strike, including footage of people being transported on stretchers as ambulances flash nearby.

Australia’s prime minister says the death of an Australian aid worker in Gaza is “completely unacceptable” and “beyond any reasonable circumstances”, saying the government will call in the Israeli ambassador and contact Israel’s government.

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‘Not a normal war’: doctors say children have been targeted by Israeli snipers in Gaza

IDF says it ‘completely rejects’ charge that its soldiers deliberately fired on any of the thousands of civilians killed in Israeli offensive

Dr Fozia Alvi was making her rounds of the intensive care unit on her final day at the battered European public hospital in southern Gaza when she stopped next to two young arrivals with facial injuries and breathing tubes in their windpipes.

“I asked the nurse, what’s the history? She said that they were brought in a couple of hours ago. They had sniper shots to the brain. They were seven or eight years old,” she said.

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‘What harm could a firework do?’ Family of boy killed by Israeli police want justice

Rami Halhouli was shot in the chest from a watchtower as he held a firework in East Jerusalem

Rami Halhouli had just lit a firework in East Jerusalem to celebrate the end of another day of Ramadan when his life was cut short.

As the 12-year-old hoisted the firework in the air, he was shot in the chest by Israeli police standing on a watchtower overlooking Shuafat refugee camp. Rami fell to the ground as the firework exploded and painted the night sky with a flash of red stars.

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Middle East crisis live: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps says two of its generals killed in Damascus consulate strike

IRGC statement names two generals as Mohammad Reza Zahedi and deputy Sardar Haji Rahimi. Airstrike in Syrian capital reportedly carried out by Israel

Hossein Akbari, the Iranian ambassador in Syria, has said Tehran “will reciprocate when we want” to what he described as the “extreme brutality” of the attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.

Posting to social media, Akbari wrote:

With extreme brutality, contrary to all international conventions, they targeted my place of residence and the consular section of the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran; We will reciprocate when we want.

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Al Jazeera faces ‘security threat’ ban as Israel passes new law

Benjamin Netanyahu says after approval of bill he will ‘act immediately … to stop channel’s activities’

Israeli legislators have approved a bill paving the way for a ban on Al Jazeera and other international news outlets perceived as posing a threat to security.

After the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, promised to take prompt measures to force the end of Al Jazeera’s operations within the country, parliament granted senior ministers authority to shut down foreign news networks.

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IRGC commander among dead after Israeli strike on Iran consulate in Syria

Iran vows revenge after seven people killed, including several diplomats and Mohammad Reza Zahedi of Revolutionary Guards

Iran has vowed revenge after Israeli war planes destroyed the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing at least seven people, including a senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds force.

Iran’s leaders in Tehran described the targeting of a diplomatic mission late on Monday as unprecedented and promised a harsh response.

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Israeli forces withdraw from Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital after two-week raid

Palestinian organisations allege torture and ‘executions’ as video footage shows heavily damaged and charred buildings

Israeli forces announced their withdrawal from al-Shifa hospital in Gaza on Monday after a two-week raid, amid claims from Hamas that the Israel Defense Forces killed 400 people in the compound and allegations from the Palestinian Red Crescent of torture and “executions”.

According to the IDF, the facility – Gaza City’s main hospital before the war – was used to harbour Hamas fighters. The army described the operation as one of the most successful of the nearly six-month conflict and cited the killing of of 200 militants including senior operatives. The claim they were all militants could not be confirmed.

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Middle East crisis: Israel withdraws from al-Shifa hospital in Gaza as Hamas-run media office says hundreds of Palestinians killed – as it happened

This live blog is now closed. To read the latest news about the Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, head to our new live blog:

Here is a video of the destruction left in the wake of the Israeli army’s withdrawal from the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City:

“During [the Israeli] siege inside al-Shifa hospital, we did not have the means to treat patients … We could not treat or bury them,” a nurse with the hospital told Al Jazeera.

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Fears grow that Gaza could become ‘Mogadishu on the Mediterranean’

Aid officials and people in territory describe erosion of civil order and gangs filling power vacuum after months of war

Gaza is facing deepening anarchy as the last remnants of civil order break down, leaving a vacuum increasingly filled by armed gangs, clans, powerful families and criminals, dozens of interviews with senior aid officials, experts and people in the territory reveal.

The interviewees described the continuing threat of famine and bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) but also a brutal new world in which guns, knives and intimidation often determine who gets desperately needed humanitarian assistance.

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Tens of thousands of Israeli protesters call for Netanyahu’s removal

Demonstrators join families of hostages in cities across country and vow to persist until he is ousted as PM

Tens of thousands of people across Israel joined the families of hostages this weekend to protest against the government and call for the removal of Benjamin Netanyahu, as the Israeli prime minister grappled with one of the most serious threats yet to his coalition.

The protesters in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Be’er Sheva, Caesarea and other cities on Saturday – and at a further demonstration outside the Knesset in Jerusalem on Sunday – demanded the release of those still held captive in Gaza after close to six months, and labelled Netanyahu an “obstacle to the deal”, vowing to persist until he leaves power.

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Israel lodges proposal with UN for dismantling of Palestinian relief agency

Exclusive: Aid officials warn that transferring Unrwa’s functions to other bodies with famine looming would be disastrous

Israel has given the UN a proposal to dismantle Unrwa, its relief agency in the Palestinian territories, and transfer its staff to a replacement agency to make large-scale food deliveries into Gaza, according to UN sources.

The proposal was presented late last week by the Israeli chief of the general staff, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, to UN officials in Israel, who forwarded it to the organisation’s secretary general, António Guterres, on Saturday, sources familiar with the discussions said.

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