Category Archives: Palestinian Territories

Israel presses on with Gaza assault as Trump again claims ceasefire is close

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IDF launches 140 airstrikes in last 24 hours as tanks advance in Gaza City and death toll for same period is put at 77

Israel has pressed on with its offensive in Gaza as Donald Trump claimed again to be on the brink of a breakthrough in negotiations for a ceasefire in the devastated territory.

Witnesses and medics said Israeli tanks were advancing through central and western neighbourhoods of Gaza City towards crowded coastal areas where hundreds of thousands of people are sheltering.

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Yvette Cooper suggests international community on brink of Gaza peace deal

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Exclusive: Foreign secretary says world has ‘reached moment’ it wants to end war after Donald Trump signals plan within reach

The international community is on the brink of securing a peace deal for Gaza that could finally bring an end to two years of conflict and a humanitarian crisis that has claimed thousands of lives, Yvette Cooper has suggested.

The new foreign secretary, who has just returned from a UN summit, said that they had “reached a moment where the world wants to end this war” after US president Donald Trump indicated a peace deal was within reach.

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World must deny Israel ‘tools of genocide’, says growing alliance of activist states

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New York meeting of Hague Group warns of shared responsibility to prevent genocide and proposes steps to isolate Israel

The international community has a legal and moral duty to deny Israel “the tools of genocide”, the Malaysian foreign minister, Mohamad Hasan, said at a meeting in New York of the Hague Group, the growing alliance of countries dedicated to coordinating practical economic and legal steps to isolate Israel over the war in Gaza.

The group, co-chaired by South Africa and Columbia, has become a central exchange for practical steps to try to pressure Israel, including stepping up collective action at ports and airports to prevent the transfer of weapons and goods to Israel, including dual-use heavy machinery.

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Israeli loudspeakers broadcast Netanyahu’s speech to UN into Gaza

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Operation prompts outrage as Israeli PM criticises western countries for recognising Palestine as a state and pledges to continue war

Israeli military loudspeaker systems have broadcast Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the UN into Gaza in an unprecedented operation that immediately prompted controversy and outrage.

In a statement on Friday, an Israeli government spokesperson said: “As part of the public diplomacy effort, the prime minister’s office has directed civilian elements, in cooperation with the [Israel Defense Forces], to place loudspeakers on the backs of trucks on the Israeli side of the Gaza border so that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s historic UN general assembly speech will be heard in the Gaza Strip.”

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Benjamin Netanyahu set for defiant UN speech as Trump warns on annexation of West Bank – Middle East crisis live

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Israeli PM expected to share a defiant message at the UN general assembly on Friday against a Palestinian state

Israel’s air force carried out airstrikes on Friday on eastern Lebanon, the Lebanese state-run news agency reported without giving any word on casualties. The Israeli military said it struck a site used for manufacturing precision missiles, reports the Associated Press (AP).

The airstrikes took place near the Lebanese village of Saraain in the Bekaa valley region, according to the National News Agency. They are the latest strikes since the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war ended with a US-brokered ceasefire in November.

The Israeli military said the site constituted a violation of the understanding between Israel and Lebanon. It added that the military will continue to operate to remove any threat posed to Israel.

Since the ceasefire went into effect, Israel has carried out almost daily airstrikes on southern and eastern Lebanon, alleging that Hezbollah is trying to rebuild its capabilities.

The White House is backing a plan that would see Tony Blair head a temporary administration of the Gaza Strip – initially without the direct involvement of the Palestinian Authority (PA), according to Israeli media reports.

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Trump says he ‘will not allow’ Israel to annex West Bank after lobbying from allies

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British officials said they feared Trump would recognise Israeli control over the West Bank in retaliation for the UK, Australia, France and other recognising Palestine

Donald Trump has said he will not allow Israel to annex the occupied West Bank, rejecting calls from some far-right politicians in Israel who want to extend sovereignty over the area and in doing so make impossible the establishment of a Palestinian state.

“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. Nope, I will not allow it. It’s not going to happen,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, adding “There’s been enough. It’s time to stop now.”

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Civilian injuries in Gaza similar to those of soldiers in war zones, study finds

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Wounds such as burns or leg injuries more common in Gaza than among US soldiers who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan

Civilians in Gaza have sustained injuries of a type and on a scale more usually seen among professional soldiers involved in intense combat operations, research has found.

A study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) found that some types of wounds – such as burns or injuries to legs – were more common among civilians in Gaza than among US soldiers fighting in recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Washington backing plan for Tony Blair to head transitional Gaza authority

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Reported proposal for international body to oversee Gaza for up to five years counters UN-backed plan for faster transition to Palestinian rule

The White House is backing a plan that would see Tony Blair head a temporary administration of the Gaza Strip – initially without the direct involvement of the Palestinian Authority (PA), according to Israeli media reports.

Under the proposal, Blair would lead a body called the Gaza International Transitional Authority (Gita) that would have a mandate to be Gaza’s “supreme political and legal authority” for as long as five years.

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Israel carrying out crime against humanity in Gaza, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas tells UN – as it happened

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Speech by Palestinian Authority president also says Hamas should have no role in governing Palestine and must disarm

Alimi says the policy of containment has given the Houthis time to expand its arsenal.

“It has become clear the peace we seek cannot be asked for but must be imposed by force,” he says.

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Liev Schreiber and Debra Messing among names rejecting pledge to boycott Israeli films

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More than 1,200 industry figures claim the pledge is ‘a document of misinformation’ and that much of the Israeli film and TV industry are ‘often the loudest critics of government policy’

More than 1,200 entertainment industry figures have signed a new open letter rejecting the recent high-profile pledge by thousands of their peers to boycott Israeli films over the war in Gaza.

Stars including Liev Schreiber, Mayim Bialik, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Debra Messing are among those who have lent their names to the letter, which says the previous pledge “advocates” for “the erasure of art”.

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‘Tunnel vision’: how Israel is using archaeology for political ends

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Scientists say Netanyahu government and its US backers are trying to construct a history shorn of all complexity

When the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, visited Jerusalem this month, the itinerary his Israeli hosts laid on involved more archaeology than anything else. On his first day, Benjamin Netanyahu took Rubio underground to excavations near the Western Wall. On the second day, Israel’s prime minister gave his American visitor the honour of inaugurating a tunnel burrowed under a Palestinian district, along a Roman-era street nicknamed the Pilgrimage Road, in a “City of David” archaeological park established by an Israeli settler organisation.

Both events were intended to emphasise Jerusalem’s Jewish roots and its status, Netanyahu stressed, as “our eternal and undivided capital”.

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‘We are at our limit’: Gaza’s last hospitals overwhelmed as thousands flee south

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‘Not enough of anything’, says surgeon, as Israel’s assault forces injured, sick and hungry people to leave Gaza City

The few remaining hospitals and clinics in central and southern Gaza are being overwhelmed by a “tsunami” of injured and sick patients fleeing a new Israeli offensive in the north of the devastated territory, medics say.

At both Nasser medical complex, in the southern city of Khan Younis, and field hospitals in al-Muwasi, the coastal “humanitarian zone” designated by Israel, staff are struggling to cope with large numbers of new arrivals forced out of Gaza City in the north of the devastated Palestinian territory.

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Explosions and drones targeting Gaza aid flotilla boats, activists say

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The Global Sumud Flotilla said they would ‘not be intimidated’, after third report of drone attacks this month

Organisers of a Gaza-bound flotilla carrying aid and pro-Palestinian activists have reported explosions and multiple drones that targeted some of their boats, currently situated near Greece.

“Multiple drones, unidentified objects dropped, communications jammed and explosions heard from a number of boats,” the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) said in a statement. “We are witnessing these psychological operations first-hand, right now, but we will not be intimidated.”

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‘Guess what?’ Macron phones Trump after US president’s motorcade blocks his car

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Bemused French president forced to take unscheduled 30-minute trek through the streets of New York

Emmanuel Macron had to walk half an hour by foot through New York after his speech to the United Nations on recognising Palestine as a state.

Video footage shows him getting out of his car to talk to police officers after they stop his vehicle to make way for the expected arrival of the motorcade of Donald Trump, the US president.

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Middle East crisis: Trump to address UN general assembly as Israeli attacks on Gaza City continue – as it happened

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US president to address UN general assembly in New York after UK, France, Belgium, Canada, Australia and Portugal recognised a Palestinian state

The UN investigators cited examples of the scale of the Israeli killings, aid blockages, forced displacement and the destruction of a fertility clinic to back up its genocide finding.

The 1948 UN Genocide Convention defines genocide as crimes committed “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such”. To count as genocide, at least one of five acts must have occurred.

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Netanyahu may struggle to find response that matches rhetoric on Palestine recognition

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Israeli PM has threatened bilateral action and annexation of occupied Palestinian land but there are risks in either

Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to denounce the recognition of a Palestinian state by many of Israel’s historic allies, but the prime minister may be struggling to decide how to turn rhetoric into a concrete response.

His options are perhaps more constrained than he would have his supporters believe. He has variously threatened annexation of occupied Palestinian land and bilateral action against countries that joined the tide of recognition.

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‘A surreal journey’: Palestinian students evacuated from Gaza arrive in UK

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First 34 students, who have full scholarships, welcomed after months of campaigning by academics and others

A group of Palestinian scholars who have been awaiting evacuation from Gaza to take up their places at universities across the UK finally arrived on Monday after “a surreal journey from devastation to opportunity”.

The 34 students, who all have fully funded scholarships, arrived in London and Manchester onboard three flights from Queen Alia international airport in Jordan. A number took onward flights to Northern Ireland and Scotland where they will purse their studies.

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Disruption across Italy as tens of thousands protest against Gaza war

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Schools and stations closed and ports blocked in one of Europe’s biggest demonstrations opposing Israel’s offensive

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in dozens of cities across Italy – shutting schools, disrupting trains and blocking ports and roads – in one of Europe’s largest nationwide protests against Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

The protests came as France and several other countries prepared to recognise Palestinian statehood at the UN general assembly on Monday after the UK, Australia, Portugal and Canada did so on Sunday.

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European officials warn Israel not to annex parts of West Bank in response to recognition of Palestinian state – Middle East crisis live

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UK, Australia, Canada and Portugal recognised Palestinian statehood on Sunday with France set to do the same

The Israeli military, which justifies its assault on Gaza City by saying it wants to “destroy Hamas military infrastructure” hasn’t given a timeline for the ground offensive, but there are indications it could take months.

Amid this flurry of diplomatic activity, Israel is continuing to launch deadly attacks on Gaza, including on Gaza City, the biggest urban centre in the territory.

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At least 40 killed in Gaza and five in Lebanon in Israeli strikes

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Military steps up Gaza City takeover campaign as high-rise towers targeted and residents ordered to leave

Israeli strikes killed at least 40 people in Gaza on Sunday, including 19 women and children, as well as five people in Lebanon.

At least 14 people were killed in a single strike on a residential block in southern Gaza City, health officials at al-Shifa hospital said. Another attack killed at least eight Palestinians in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, according to al-Awda hospital.

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