Bernie Sanders condemns speech to Congress by ‘war criminal’ Netanyahu

Independent senator says in floor speech invitation to Israeli PM, due to give address on Wednesday, is ‘disgrace’

The Vermont senator Bernie Sanders has condemned Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming address to the US Congress, calling him a “war criminal” presiding over a “rightwing extremist government”.

Sanders delivered his remarks on the Senate floor on Tuesday as Congress expects Netanyahu to give a speech to Congress on Wednesday afternoon. The speech comes after an underwhelming arrival to the US, just after President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from November’s elections.

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Doctors in Khan Younis overwhelmed as casualties of new Israeli invasion mount

Nasser hospital director pleas for medical supplies and says staff cannot save influx of patients as IDF continues assault

Doctors in the largest hospital in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis pleaded for supplies from a facility overwhelmed by wounded people, as Israeli airstrikes, artillery fire and fighting on the streets continued for a second day.

“There’s no space for more patients. There’s no space in the operating theatres. There is a lack of medical supplies, so we cannot save our patients,” Mohammed Zaqout, the director of Nasser hospital, told AFP.

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Palestinian factions including Hamas agree to form future unity government

Diplomatic coup for China as Beijing declaration sets out deal to unite across territories and prepare for elections

Leaders from Hamas, Fatah and other Palestinian factions have agreed after three days of talks in Beijing to form a national unity government at an unspecified point in the future, in a move that has bolstered China’s status as a global mediator, particularly in the Middle East.

The “Beijing declaration”, signed by 14 Palestinian factions, also represents a significant step forward in negotiations between the groups, although it is light on detail about how to actually achieve Palestinian unification.

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Australia not ruling out sanctions against Israel settlers as concerns grow over ‘troubling’ behaviour

Exclusive: Senior Australian government source says ICJ ruling the continued Israeli occupation of territory seized in 1967 was illegal ‘can’t be ignored’

The Australian government is increasingly alarmed at Israel’s “troubling pattern” of behaviour and has not ruled out a more assertive response, including sanctions against settlers.

In the wake of a sweeping international court of justice ruling read out in a courtroom in The Hague late on Friday that said the continued Israeli occupation of territory seized in 1967 was illegal, a senior Australian government source said the advisory opinion “can’t be ignored”.

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As Netanyahu arrives in Washington, Kamala Harris treads a careful path on Israel and Gaza

Harris insiders say she is more likely to engage in public criticism of the Israeli prime minister than Joe Biden and to focus attention on the civilian toll in Gaza

One of the key intrigues hanging over Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious visit to Washington this week is what kind of reception he will receive from the White House, and how he will be received by Joe Biden and his vice-president – and the likely Democratic party nominee – Kamala Harris.

For much of Monday, no meetings between Netanyahu and either Biden or Harris had been confirmed, even though the Israeli PM had already departed for the US and was scheduled on Wednesday to address a joint session of Congress at the request of the House leader, Mike Johnson, a Republican.

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Blair government accused IDF of acting like Russian army in West Bank

Tensions over Palestinian death toll have eerie parallels to western concerns about current Israeli operations

Tony Blair’s government accused Israeli forces of acting more like the “Russian army than that of a civilised country” during a major military incursion into the occupied West Bank, newly released official files show.

The tensions, which have eerie parallels to western concerns over current Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip, are laid bare in papers released by the National Archives.

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Netanyahu to arrive in Washington as fears grow of wider war in Middle East

Israeli PM will visit US amid political tumult and his meeting with Biden will be a test of US president’s influence

Benjamin Netanyahu is due to arrive in Washington on Monday at a moment of historic political tumult, as he is scheduled to meet the outgoing US president, Joe Biden, and address a divided Congress amid fears of a growing regional war in the Middle East.

The Israeli prime minister’s arrival will come just a day after Biden bowed out of the presidential race, and will be a major test of Biden’s ability to project US influence and restraint on Israel in the lame duck period of his presidency. Netanyahu will be forced to walk a tightrope as he balances between the Donald Trump-led Republican party and a reinvigorated Democratic campaign that may unite behind the vice-president, Kamala Harris.

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Scores killed in Israeli attacks, medics say, after IDF orders evacuation of Gaza humanitarian zone

Hundreds also wounded in assault on parts of Khan Younis, including area designated a humanitarian zone by IDF

The Israeli military has launched a fresh attack on the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, killing at least 70 people according to medics, after ordering Palestinians to leave several neighbourhoods including areas that had been designated by the military as part of a humanitarian zone.

Palestinian civil defence in the territory estimated that 400,000 people sheltering in the city were affected by the order, which included the eastern part of Al-Mawasi, a sandy strip of land without infrastructure where Palestinians have sought shelter in tent encampments in recent months.

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France Unbowed MP sparks outrage by saying Israeli Olympians not welcome

Thomas Portes accused of ‘putting a target on the backs of Israeli athletes’ with remarks at protest against Gaza war

An MP for the radical-left France Unbowed party has sparked outrage after saying Israeli athletes are not welcome at the Paris Olympics and calling for protests against their presence.

Citing Israel’s war in Gaza, Thomas Portes told a pro-Palestinian gathering in Paris on Saturday: “We are just a few days away from an international event to be held in Paris, the Olympic Games. And I’m here to say that no, the Israeli delegation is not welcome in Paris. Israeli athletes are not welcome at the Olympic Games in Paris. We have to use this deadline and all the levers we have to mobilise.”

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World leaders react to Biden’s decision to exit presidential race

Polish prime minister Donald Tusk and UK PM Keir Starmer among US allies to pay tribute to US president’s decades of public service

Leaders from around the world have begun to react to Joe Biden’s announcement that he would not seek re-election this year, endorsing vice-president Kamala Harris in the most unorthodox US presidential campaign in generations.

US allies largely offered tributes to Biden’s work over decades of government service, discussing his work as a partner in international security, without addressing the tense political debate still unfolding in the US.

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Middle East crisis: Yemen’s Houthis will not abide by any rules of engagement in continued attacks on Israel, group says – as it happened

Houthi military spokesperson says there will be ‘no red lines’ in response to Israel after airstrikes hit Hodeidah on Saturday, killing at least six people

In the months before the Israeli invasion, Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah was a lifeline, a place where thousands sought shelter or scrabbled to raise funds to cross into neighbouring Egypt.

Now satellite images and social media video uploaded by Israeli soldiers stationed around the city show roads widened for armoured vehicles surrounded by total destruction, including buildings razed to the ground in the once bustling city.

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Draft Israeli law to limit academic speech labelled ‘McCarthyite’

Law allowing committee to fire staff for ‘supporting terror’ backed by education minister and national student union

Israel’s education minister and the country’s national union of students are backing a draft law to limit academic speech in the country, which the heads of leading universities have attacked as “McCarthyite” and fundamentally undemocratic.

The legislation, currently being debated in the Knesset, would give a government-appointed committee the power to order the firing of academic staff that it decides have expressed “support for terror”. If the universities refuse, their funding would be cut.

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Israel says it intercepted missile fired by Houthis at port city of Eilat

Houthi military says US ship in Red Sea also targeted after Israeli strikes on oil facilities and power station in Yemen

Israeli forces have said they intercepted a ballistic missile fired by Houthi militants in Yemen targeting the southern city of Eilat, in retaliation for a series of Israeli strikes on the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah.

Meanwhile, forest fires engulfed parts of northern Israel after a barrage of rocket fire from Lebanon.

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Middle East crisis: civilians wounded after Israel reportedly strikes southern Lebanon – as it happened

Attack comes after Israeli fighter jets hit Houthi military targets in Yemen’s Hodeidah, killing three people and wounding 87

Three people were killed and 87 were wounded in Israel’s airstrikes in Hodeidah in Yemen, according to Almasirah TV.

Israel’s military said on Saturday there was no indication of a security incident in the Red Sea port city of Eilat after reports of explosions were heard there, Reuters reports.

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Slowly but surely, Israel tightens its grip on Gaza’s lifeline to Egypt

Latest satellite imagery reveals new roads that appear designed to support the long-term presence of Israeli troops

In the months before the Israeli invasion, Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah was a lifeline, a place where thousands sought shelter or scrabbled to raise funds to cross into neighbouring Egypt.

Now satellite images and social media video uploaded by Israeli soldiers stationed around the city show roads widened for armoured vehicles surrounded by total destruction, including buildings razed to the ground in the once bustling city.

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Israel strikes Yemen port after Houthi rebels attack Tel Aviv

Three reported killed and 87 wounded after oil depot and electrical installations hit

Powerful airstrikes rocked the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah a day after Israeli officials vowed revenge for a drone that struck Tel Aviv.

Airstrikes hit a refinery and electricity infrastructure, sparking a huge blaze. The Almasirah television channel, run by Yemen’s Houthi movement, reported late on Saturday that three people had been killed and 87 wounded in the strikes on the oil facilities.

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Israel-Gaza war: ceasefire ‘close to the goalline’, says US – as it happened

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Sven Koopmans, the EU’s special representative for the Middle East peace process, has said he still believes a two-state solution – a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank and in Gaza alongside Israel - is achievable despite opposition to it from Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister.

In an interview with Agence France-Presse (AFP), he said Netanyahu’s government cannot indefinitely disregard European views on resolving the conflict, with Israel needing international support amid its war in Gaza.

I think that recently he was very explicit about rejecting the two-state solution.

Now, that means that he has a different point of view from much of the rest of the world.

It is important that we have that discussion. I am sure that in such a meeting, there will be very substantive discussions about what we expect from our partner Israel. And that relates to things that we do not see at present.

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Israel shaken as fatal Houthi drone hits Tel Aviv after interception failure

One dead and at least 10 injured, with human error blamed for allowing drone to escape multilayered air defences

An Iranian-made drone sent by Yemen’s Houthi rebels struck Tel Aviv in the early hours of Friday, killing one person and wounding at least 10.

The hit in Israel’s biggest city was startling, because the drone appeared to have crossed much of the country through the multilayered air defences that have intercepted almost all Houthi drones and rockets since the Gaza war began.

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Why ICJ ruling against Israel’s settlement policies will be hard to ignore

Judgment challenges allies such as UK and US, which for years soft peddled on occupation of Palestinian territories

Israel’s settlement policies break international law, court finds

Thorough, detailed and all encompassing, the international court of justice’s advisory ruling on the illegality of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and settlement building represents a stark refutation of Israel’s claims, and will have a profound impact for years to come.

The ICJ declared Israel’s long-term occupation of Palestinian territory “unlawful” and said it amounted to de facto annexation. The court called for Israel to rapidly quit the occupied territories and ruled Palestinians were due reparations for the harm of 57 years of an occupation that systematically discriminates against them.

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Israel-Gaza war: Israel systematically discriminates against Palestinians, says ICJ in ruling on occupation – as it happened

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German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock has again called for a “humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza.

In a statement, Baerbock said: “This war in Gaza must come to an end at long last. There are no safe places in Gaza for civilians.”

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