Category Archives: Israel

Middle East crisis: 40-day ceasefire on table if Hamas accepts deal, says UK foreign minister – as it happened

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Current proposed deal includes 40-day ceasefire and release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli hostages, says David Cameron

Antony Blinken has told a meeting of regional leaders in Riyadh that the most effective way to alleviate humanitarian suffering in Gaza is to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Speaking in Saudi Arabia, the US secretary of state said that there had been “measurable progress” in delivering aid to Gaza, which Israel has beseiged for six months, but more is needed.

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Iran’s death sentence for rapper sparks protests and undermines criticism of US

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Regime’s effort to exploit US campus crackdown damaged by treatment of Toomaj Salehi

An Iranian court’s decision to pass the death sentence against Toomaj Salehi, a popular Iranian rapper and regime opponent, has led to international protests and damaged Iran’s fledgling efforts to exploit crackdowns on unrest in US university campuses over Gaza as an abuse of human rights.

Crowds gathered in the US, Europe and Canada on Sunday to support Salehi, while dozens of political prisoners in Iran’s Ghezel Hesar prison issued a statement condemning the death sentence, calling it “the culmination of gross human rights violations in Iran”. Salehi has also won the support of major US rappers, as well as human rights groups.

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Biden and Netanyahu speak as pressure grows on Israel over Rafah and ceasefire talks

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US president and Israeli PM talk as Israel vows to invade Gaza city despite global concern for 1 million Palestinians sheltering there

The White House on Sunday said Joe Biden had again spoken with Benjamin Netanyahu as pressure builds on Israel and Hamas to reach a deal that would free some Israeli hostages and bring a ceasefire in the nearly seven-month-long war in Gaza.

There were no immediate details of the conversation, which took place as Israel vows to invade Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah despite global concern for more than 1 million Palestinians sheltering there. The US secretary of state is returning to the Middle East on Monday.

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Antony Blinken to visit Saudi Arabia to try to restart Gaza ceasefire talks

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US secretary of state to discuss avoiding regional conflict amid fears about Israeli ground invasion of Rafah

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, will travel to Saudi Arabia to try to restart fraught ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel and discuss efforts to prevent spiralling regional conflict, while other senior US officials claimed Israel was willing to listen to their fears about a ground invasion of Gaza’s southernmost city.

A delegation from Hamas, expected in Cairo in parallel to Blinken’s visit, said they would provide a response to an Israeli proposal focused on an initial hostage release.

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Middle East crisis: Israel has agreed to listen to US concerns before any Rafah invasion, says White House – as it happened

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Israel has started to meet commitments it made to Joe Biden on allowing aid into the north of Gaza, says White House national security spokesperson

The Gaza health ministry on Sunday reported at least 66 Palestinians had been killed in the past 24 hours.

In central Gaza, Mohammed al-Hattab said he found his one-year-old baby in the rubble after an Israeli airstrike hit the Nuseirat refugee camp over the weekend.

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‘We are showing the world what people do’: grim relics of Hamas attack go on display in New York

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Tents, debris and personal items from the Nova festival, where 364 people died on 7 October, form shocking exhibit on Wall Street

While New York was preoccupied with student protests over the US’s ­support of Israel’s war in Gaza last week, another aspect of how the city with the largest Jewish population outside Israel is coming to terms with bloodshed in the Middle East was being prepared.

On Wall Street, a gruelling ­exhibition has opened detailing the horrific attack on the Nova music festival by Hamas terrorists on 7 October, in which 364 people were murdered, many wounded and 44 taken hostage.

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‘Everyone knows something’s going to happen’: fears of a new war on Israel’s border with Lebanon

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As hostilities ramp up, Israelis evacuated from the country’s north say Hezbollah must be pushed back to protect communities from its rockets

For the Israeli communities evacuated from the country’s far north in the aftermath of 7 October, there is no longer any doubt about whether full-scale war with Hezbollah in Lebanon is going to happen. For most people, the only question is when.

Nissan Zeevi, 40, has spent the past six months working as a first responder in Kfar Giladi, a kibbutz that grows apples and avocados. His wife and two young boys are living near the Sea of Galilee and are yet to come home; it’s just him, bulldog Joy, and his M16 rifle, keeping an eye on the Lebanese villages and Hezbollah outposts clearly visible from the garden, just a few kilometres away.

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Workers accuse Google of ‘tantrum’ after 50 fired over Israel contract protest

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Tech giant fired number of people who protested against $1.2bn Project Nimbus, which supports Israeli military and government

Google has been accused of throwing a “tantrum” after sacking more than 50 workers in response to a protest over the company’s military ties to the Israeli government – firings that have shone a light on a controversial project and long-simmering tensions between staff and management.

The workers were sacked following protests at Google offices in New York City and Sunnyvale, California, organized by No Tech for Apartheid – an alliance of Google and Amazon workers who have been protesting against a $1.2bn contract with the Israeli government called Project Nimbus that they claim will make it “easier for the Israeli government to surveil Palestinians and force them off their land”.

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Middle East crisis: Hamas ‘reviewing new Israeli ceasefire proposal’ – as it happened

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Three people have been killed in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday, including two members of Hezbollah, AFP reports, citing statements from the militant group and official media.

Hezbollah released statements mourning the deaths of two fighters from the villages of Kafr Kila and Khiam, saying they had been “martyred on the road to Jerusalem”.

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Columbia University calls for inquiry into leadership as student protests sweep 40 campuses

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Professors at Emory University arrested as campuses follow Columbia’s lead in demanding ceasefire and divestment

At least 40 pro-Palestine protest camps have arisen across US campuses following Columbia University’s example earlier this month, as the New York school’s senate called for an investigation into its leadership, the New York Times reported.

While many remain provocative though peaceful, demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and divestment by their institutions from companies with ties to Israel, hundreds of students and outside protesters have been arrested, and there have been some fierce clashes with police.

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Gaza’s 37m tonnes of bomb-filled debris could take 14 years to clear, says expert

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Top UN demining official outlines scale of devastation as Egypt officials fly into Israel in attempt to revive ceasefire talks

Israel’s war in Gaza has created 37m tonnes of debris, much of it laced with unexploded bombs, which could take more than a decade to remove, a top UN demining official said.

Nearly seven months into the war, there is an average 300kg of rubble a square metre of land in Gaza, Pehr Lodhammar, the former United Nationals Mine Action Service chief for Iraq, told a news conference.

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Middle East crisis: it could take 14 years to clear Gaza Strip of rubble and unexploded bombs, says UN official – as it happened

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War has left estimated 37m tons of debris in area, requiring years of work with ‘100 trucks’, says Pehr Lodhammar

A premature Palestinian infant, rescued from her mother’s womb by an emergency caesarean section shortly after the woman was killed by an Israeli airstrike, has died, her uncle said Friday.

Associated Press reports Rami al-Sheikh said Sabreen Jouda died in a Gaza hospital on Thursday after her health deteriorated and medical teams were unable to save her.

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‘Political arrest’ of Palestinian academic in Israel marks new civil liberties threat

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University and colleagues condemn detention of law professor, the first time an academic has been held over speech related to work

The arrest and interrogation of a leading Palestinian legal scholar based at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem marks a new threat to civil liberties in Israel, her legal team and employer have said.

Prof Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian was detained by police on the afternoon of 18 April over comments made on a podcast more than a month earlier and held overnight in conditions her lawyers described as “terrible” and designed to humiliate.

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Palestinian baby rescued from dead mother’s womb dies in Gaza hospital

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Infant dies five days after caesarean delivery following death of mother in Israeli airstrike in Rafah

A premature Palestinian baby rescued from her mother’s womb shortly after the woman was killed in an Israeli airstrike has died, the baby’s uncle has said.

Sabreen Jouda died in a Gaza hospital on Thursday after her health deteriorated and medical teams were unable to save her, Rami al-Sheikh said on Friday.

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US troops begin construction of Gaza aid pier as questions remain over distribution

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About 1,000 US troops will support the military construction efforts, but Joe Biden has ordered them not to set foot on the Gaza shore

US troops have begun construction of a maritime pier off the coast of Gaza that aims to speed the flow of humanitarian aid into the territory, the Pentagon has said, but the complex plan to bring more desperately needed food to Palestinian civilians is still mired in fears over security and how the aid will be delivered.

“I can confirm that US military vessels, to include the USNS Benavidez, have begun to construct the initial stages of the temporary pier and causeway at sea,” Pentagon spokesperson Maj Gen Patrick Ryder told reporters.

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Leaders of 18 countries urge Hamas to release hostages held in Gaza

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UK and US leaders among those calling for release, as families renew pressure on Netanyahu to restart negotiations

The leaders of 18 countries including the US and the UK have called on Hamas to free Israeli and dual-national hostages held in Gaza.

“The fate of the hostages and the civilian population in Gaza, who are protected under international law, is of international concern,” they said. “We strongly support the ongoing mediation efforts in order to bring our people home.”

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Oil price could exceed $100 a barrel if Middle East conflict worsens, World Bank warns

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Increase in cost of crude could drive inflation up and force central banks to keep interest rates high

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A serious escalation of tensions in the Middle East would push the price of oil above $100 (£80) a barrel and reverse the recent downward trend in global inflation, the World Bank has said.

The Washington-based institution said the recent fall in commodity prices had been levelling off even before the recent missile strikes by Iran and Israel – making interest rate decisions for central banks tougher.

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Middle East crisis: US and other countries link ‘immediate ceasefire’ to hostages’ release – as it happened

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White House releases joint letter signed with 17 other countries saying such a deal would lead to the ‘credible end of hostilities’

Here are some of the scenes in Jerusalem, where people, including Israeli interior security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, have been worshipping during the Passover holiday.

Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah for Al Jazeera, states that two people have been killed there by drone strikes. He writes for the news network:

A surge in attack drones flying over Rafah has taken place over the past couple of hours. At least two people have been hit in what appear to be targeted killings – one in the western part of the city and the other in the east. They were killed when the drones fired missiles about half an hour apart. The tragedy keeps unfolding. The destruction is overwhelming. Everywhere you go, you see rubble-filled roads.

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Senior Democrat calls for arrests of ‘leftwing fascists’ urging Gaza ceasefire

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Congressman Adam Smith says ‘totalitarian’ protesters are ‘trying to silence anyone who dares to disagree with them’

Protesters calling for Israel to cease fire in its war with Hamas who have disrupted US public events and infrastructure are practicing “leftwing fascism” or “leftwing totalitarianism”, a senior US House Democrat said, adding that such protesters are “challenging representative democracy” and should be arrested.

“Intimidation is the tactic,” said Adam Smith of Washington state, the ranking Democrat on the House armed services committee. “Intimidation and an effort to silence opposition … I don’t know if there’s such a thing as leftwing fascism. If you want to just call it leftwing totalitarianism, then that’s what it is. It is a direct challenge to representative democracy now.”

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Protesters arrested amid crackdown on pro-Palestine student rallies across US campuses

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At least 34 arrested at University of Texas in Austin and 50 more detained at University of Southern California while House speaker jeered at Columbia University

Dozens of protesters were arrested on Wednesday while participating in pro-Palestine demonstrations across US college campuses.

At least 34 protesters, including a member of the media from a local news station, were arrested during protests at University of Texas in Austin and at least 50 more were detained by police at University of Southern California (USC).

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