Category Archives: Israel

Aid ship expected to leave Cyprus for Gaza faces logistical delays

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Open Arms vessel, loaded with humanitarian supplies, is waiting for approval from Israel before leaving

A Gaza-bound aid ship expected to make the maiden voyage along a new maritime corridor from Cyprus has yet to set sail because of logistical challenges.

Government officials confirmed on Saturday that while a vessel belonging to Open Arms, a Spanish search and rescue group, had been loaded with food, water and other supplies and was ready to depart the Mediterranean island, it was unlikely to leave before Sunday.

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EU will open sea corridor to send aid from Cyprus to Gaza amid famine fears

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Commission president says pilot delivery is expected to set sail on Saturday but did not say where shipments would land or unload

The EU has announced the opening of a sea corridor this weekend for shipping humanitarian aid from Cyprus to Gaza in the race to stave off a famine that is already claiming lives.

“We are now very close to the opening of the corridor, hopefully this Sunday. And I’m very glad to see that an initial pilot operation will be launched today,” the EU commission president, Ursula Von der Leyen, told reporters after touring harbour facilities at the Cypriot port of Larnaca, the departure point for the aid shipments.

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Middle East crisis: UN’s expert on torture investigating claims Palestinian detainees were mistreated in Israel – as it happened

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UN special rapporteur on torture to carry out fact-finding investigation after receiving allegations detained Palestinians were mistreated

Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories have expanded by a record amount and risk eliminating any practical possibly of a Palestinian state, the UN human rights chief said on Friday, reports Reuters.

The UN’s high commissioner for human rights Volker Türk said that the growth of Israeli settlements amounted to the transfer by Israel of its own population, which he said was a war crime. The US Biden administration said last month the settlements were “inconsistent” with international law after Israel announced new housing plans in the occupied West Bank.

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State of the Union address as it happened: Biden spars with Republicans and announces aid pier for Gaza

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US president makes last State of the Union address of this presidential term, with much at stake as he heads into re-election fight against Trump

For some reason, expelled former Republican congressman George Santos has returned to watch the State of the Union from the House floor:

Axios reports he wanted to hang out with the lawmakers who voted to remove him from office last year for being a big-time liar:

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‘Who is going to distribute it?’: the key flaw in US’s plan to build aid port in Gaza

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‘You need drivers, trucks and a distribution system that doesn’t exist,’ says president of Refugees International aid advocacy group

The US plan to build a floating port off the Gaza coast is a bold move, reminiscent of the Mulberry harbours built after D-day in Normandy, but there are serious concerns that what relief it brings will be too little too late for Palestinians facing starvation.

“When we talk about the sea route, it’s going to take weeks to set up and we are talking about a population that is starving now. We have already seen children dying of hunger,” said Ziad Issa, the head of humanitarian policy at the ActionAid charity.

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Israel to compete at Eurovision song contest after changing lyrics to its entry

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Song amended after organisers banned entry for seeming references to 7 October attacks, which broke rules on political neutrality

Israel will be allowed to compete at the Eurovision song contest after changing the lyrics to its song, organisers have confirmed.

Eden Golan, representing Israel at this year’s competition, originally submitted a ballad called October Rain, widely thought to reference the Hamas attacks of 7 October. However, the entry was barred on the grounds of breaking rules on political neutrality.

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Biden announces US will build pier on Gaza shore for large-scale aid delivery

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President lays out plans in State of the Union speech while senior US official says ‘we are not waiting on the Israelis’

US forces will build a temporary dock on the Gaza shoreline to allow delivery of humanitarian aid on a large scale, Joe Biden announced in his State of the Union speech, amid warnings of a widespread famine among the territory’s 2.3 million Palestinians.

“Nearly two million more Palestinians under bombardment or displaced, homes destroyed, neighborhoods in rubble, cities in ruin, families without food, water, medicine. It’s heartbreaking,” Biden said on Thursday night, declaring that the US was leading humanitarian relief efforts.

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Israel will resist pressure to halt Rafah attack, says Netanyahu

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Prime minister vows to continue offensive as Hamas delegation withdraws from ceasefire talks

Israel will not give in to international pressure to stall an attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah and will continue its bloody offensive against Hamas, said Benjamin Netanyahu.

“There is international pressure and it’s growing, but … we need to stand together against the attempts to stop the war,” the prime minister told a military graduation ceremony in southern Israel, saying that Israel’s forces would operate against Hamas all through the Gaza Strip “including Rafah, the last Hamas stronghold”.

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Middle East crisis: Hamas says ceasefire talks continue despite delegation leaving Cairo – as it happened

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Hamas statement says talks over deal will continue after official earlier said Israel was rejecting demands to end offensive in Gaza

Family members of hostages still being held in Gaza are holding a news conference in London. You can watch it here.

At least 30,800 Palestinians have been killed and 72,298 have been wounded since Israel began its military assault on Gaza after the 7 October Hamas attack inside Israel, according to the latest figures from the health ministry.

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US uses loophole to keep 100 arms sales to Israel under the radar amid Gaza war – report

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Biden administration not required to disclose sales below set dollar amount, in addition to public shipments worth over $573m

The US is reported to have made more than 100 weapons sales to Israel, including thousands of bombs, since the start of the war in Gaza, but the deliveries escaped congressional oversight because each transaction was under the dollar amount requiring approval.

The Biden administration has become increasingly critical of the conduct of Israeli military operations in Gaza and the failure to allow in meaningful amounts of humanitarian aid, with the death toll now over 30,000 and with famine looming. But it has kept up a quiet but substantial flow of munitions to help replace the tens of thousands of bombs Israel has dropped on the tiny coastal strip, making it one of the most intense bombing campaigns in military history.

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Cameron describes talks with Israeli minister over Gaza as ‘tough but necessary’

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UK foreign secretary repeated request to Benny Gantz for Israel to allow delivery of more aid and refrain from a full-scale assault on Rafah

The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, has said he had held a “tough but necessary” conversation with Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, repeating calls for more humanitarian aid for Gaza and warning him against a fully fledged offensive in Rafah.

Cameron said ensuring the availability of aid in Gaza would be a factor when the UK assesses whether Israel is acting in line with international law.

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After Michigan success, Biden ballot protest movement heads to Georgia

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Campaign to ‘leave it blank’ or vote ‘uncommitted’ aims to increase pressure on Biden to stop Israel’s incursion in Gaza

A protest movement in Georgia – a swing state that President Biden narrowly won in 2020 – is seeking to apply pressure to the incumbent over his support of Israel before the 12 March Democratic primary election.

On Monday, a group of multifaith and multiracial groups called the Listen to Georgia Coalition launched the Leave It Blank campaign, which urges voters to submit a blank ballot next Tuesday. The push follows a similar grassroots effort – Listen to Michigan – in which more than 100,000 voters marked their ballots “uncommitted” last month.

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Food aid convoy for northern Gaza looted after delay at Israeli checkpoint

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Trucks attacked by desperate people as logistical obstacles and restrictions imposed by Israel limit urgently needed aid

A new drive by the United Nation’s World Food Programme to deliver aid to an estimated half million people at risk of famine in northern Gaza has failed amid further scenes of chaos and violence.

A 14-truck convoy destined for northern Gaza was looted on Tuesday after being held at an Israeli army checkpoint for several hours, aid workers said. As the convoy turned back after the delay, it was attacked and 200 tonnes of food looted by “a large crowd of desperate people”.

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Middle East crisis live: EU working on maritime humanitarian corridor to support people in Gaza – as it happened

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European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen due to travel to Cyprus as bloc works to try to establish corridor through island

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday that hunger and malnutrition were on the rise among children, breastfeeding women, and pregnant women in Gaza.

In a post on X, the UN’s health agency, said that the only paediatric hospital in northern Gaza was “overwhelmed with patients” and was facing “acute shortages of food, water, fuel, health workers, and medicines”. It added: “The need for access to humanitarian aid is dire.”

Malnutrition plays a major role in the number of children that come to us, and the number of deaths.

When a child is supposed to eat three meals a day and ends up eating one meal, that’s not enough; your body becomes deficient in carbohydrates, vitamins, proteins, and defecient in fats that are necessary for the body. Then the body goes into a severe dehydration state.

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Gaza’s hunger crisis

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Children are reported to be starving in Gaza as insufficient aid supplies crawl into the territory. Meanwhile, as Ramadan approaches, peace talks are faltering. Patrick Wintour reports

The scenes were chaotic: hundreds of people crowded around aid trucks desperately trying to grab what they could amid a hunger crisis that international observers feared could turn into famine. By the end of the night, according to Gazan health authorities, 112 would be dead and more than 700 people injured.

As the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, tells Michael Safi, the events of that night are under investigation amid an international outcry. The incident has brought the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza into sharper focus and led to increasing pressure from Israel’s allies to intensify their efforts in getting food through the crossings and to the people who need it most.

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Gaza ceasefire talks appear to stall days before Ramadan

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Two days of negotiations in Cairo break up with Hamas accusing Israeli PM of not wanting to a deal

Negotiations aimed at brokering a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war appear to have stalled, days before an unofficial deadline of the beginning of Ramadan.

Two days of talks between Hamas and international mediators in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, have not yielded any significant breakthroughs, Palestinian officials said, after Israel declined to send a delegation to the latest round of negotiations.

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Palestinians ‘beaten and sexually assaulted’ at Israeli detention centres, UN report claims

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Internal analysis by UNRWA, based on interviews with released Palestinians, describes dog attacks and the prolonged use of stress positions

An internal UN report describes widespread abuse of Palestinian detainees in Israeli detention centres, including beatings, dog attacks, the prolonged use of stress positions and sexual assault.

The report was compiled by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) and is largely based on interviews of Palestinian detainees released at the Kerem Shalom crossing point since December, when UNRWA staff were present to provide humanitarian support.

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Middle East crisis: Hamas set to stay in Cairo for ceasefire talks; Israel says Hezbollah ‘aggression’ bringing ‘critical point’ nearer – as it happened

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Leaders from Hamas expected to hold further talks with mediators; Israel defence minister warns of military escalation with Lebanon. This live blog is closed

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that malnutrition in northern Gaza is “particularly extreme”.

“The situation is particularly extreme in northern Gaza,” Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative for Gaza and the West Bank, said.

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UN finds ‘convincing information’ that Hamas raped and tortured Israeli hostages

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Pramila Patten’s findings are based on interviews with released hostages, whose testimony suggests abuses are continuing in Gaza

The UN’s special envoy on sexual violence in conflict has reported “clear and convincing information” that some women and children hostages held by Hamas had been subjected to rape and sexualised torture and that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe such abuses were “ongoing”.

The special envoy, Pramila Patten, also reported on Monday that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe sexual assaults including rape and gang-rape in several places took place during the 7 October attacks by Hamas.

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Hamas negotiators under pressure to produce list of hostages to be released

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Officials at Cairo talks say list is first step in truce deal as militant group demands aid into Gaza

Egyptian and Qatari officials are putting pressure on Hamas negotiators in Cairo to produce a list of hostages to be released as the first step in a phased ceasefire agreement with Israel, according to officials familiar with the talks.

Israel has not sent a delegation to the second day of talks in Cairo, demanding that Hamas present a list of 40 elderly, sick and female hostages who would be the first to be released as part of a truce that would initially last six weeks, beginning with the month of Ramadan, the officials say.

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