Tory MPs threaten to rebel against UK bill banning boycotts of Israeli goods

Rebel group of 50 have voiced objections to the bill designed to stop public bodies boycotting Israel

As many as 50 Conservative MPs are threatening to rebel against a government measure due to be debated on Monday that would impose fines on public bodies, including local councils, that seek to mount boycotts against Israel.

The proposal – piloted by the communities secretary, Michael Gove – is a Conservative manifesto commitment, and has caused divisions in both main parties, highlighting the controversy surrounding the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.

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Israel’s far-right government fans the flames of vigilante settler violence

Religious nationalists emboldened now their representatives are major players in Benjamin Netanyahu’s new administration

Five bullet holes now scar the walls and window of Hummus Restaurant, a modest fast food outlet near the settlement of Eli on the Israeli-built highway running the length of the occupied West Bank.

On 20 June two gunmen affiliated with Hamas, the militant group in control of the Gaza Strip, shot and killed four people here in one of the worst attacks committed by Palestinians against Israelis in years. The incident was triggered by a huge Israeli army raid in the West Bank city of Jenin, which killed five people. The restaurant attack in turn led to a revenge rampage the next day by Israeli settlers on neighbouring Palestinian villages, in which one person was killed and about 30 homes and 60 cars set alight.

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Armed Israeli settlers rampage through Palestinian town in revenge attack

Palestinians say man was killed and 10 were injured after settlers rampaged through West Bank town and army opened fire

A large group of Israeli settlers have attacked a Palestinian town in the occupied West Bank, setting fire to homes, cars and fields in a revenge rampage that left one Palestinian dead from gunfire and 10 others injured, according to Palestinian witnesses and officials.

Many of the hundreds of settlers who raided the town of Turmus Ayya, north of Ramallah, on Wednesday were armed.

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Barbican apologises after asking speaker to avoid topic of ‘free Palestine’

A co-founder of the Palestinian station Radio Alhara was due to address the arts centre via a livestream

The Barbican has apologised after asking a Palestinian speaker to avoid discussing “free Palestine” at length during an event, calling the intervention “unacceptable and a serious error of judgment”.

Last week Elias Anastas, a co-founder of the Palestine-based Radio Alhara, was invited to deliver a livestreamed talk remotely on the radical possibilities of radio, exploring how broadcasting could be used as a tool of subversion.

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At least four people killed by Palestinian gunman in West Bank

Israeli security forces say gunman was shot and search for other attackers continues after incident near settlement of Eli

A Palestinian attacker has opened fire at a gas station near an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, killing at least four people and wounding several others, Israeli medics have said, as violence continued to roil the occupied territory.

Israeli security forces said they shot the gunman and were still searching for other attackers near the settlement of Eli north of the Palestinian city of Ramallah. Palestinian media reported that the attacker’s driver had fled the scene.

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Israeli forces launch helicopter raid on Jenin in occupied West Bank

Five Palestinians killed and 45 injured, according to Palestinian officials as Israeli army enters city to arrest ‘suspects’

The Israeli military has used combat helicopters in the occupied West Bank for the first time in years, as an arrest operation in Jenin encountered unexpectedly fierce Palestinian resistance.

The heavy fighting intensified calls by settler leaders to call for a broader military campaign in the West Bank.

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US ‘deeply troubled’ as Israel plans to approve thousands of homes in West Bank

Palestinians condemn move and Washington calls for return to dialogue amid Israeli plans to give go-ahead to 4,560 housing units in occupied territory

The United States says it is “deeply troubled” by the Israeli government’s tabling of plans to approve thousands of building permits in the occupied West Bank and has called on Israel to return to dialogue aimed at de-escalation.

The plans for approval of 4,560 housing units in various areas of the West Bank were included on the agenda of Israel’s Supreme Planning Council that meets next week, although only 1,332 are up for final approval, with the remainder still going through the preliminary clearance process.

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UK government expected to table bill banning boycotts of Israeli goods

Michael Gove quoted as saying council-level sanctions undermine UK foreign policy and lead to antisemitic abuse

A government bill aimed at banning councils from imposing boycotts on Israeli goods is expected to be presented next week.

The proposed legislation will prevent public bodies from adopting their own approach to international relations, including through sanctions and divestment campaigns.

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China’s Palestinian moment is about global standing rather than peace

Experts quash claims by Beijing that the Palestinian Authority president’s visit will facilitate new Israeli-Palestinian peace talks

The Palestinian Authority president’s imminent state visit to China is believed even by senior Palestinian officials to be aimed at bolstering Beijing’s credentials on the world stage, rather than a serious attempt to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Mahmoud Abbas’s four-day visit, which is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, has been described by Chinese state media as aimed at facilitating new talks predicated on a two-state solution to the decades-old conflict. It also comes on the heels of Beijing’s recent success in brokering a detente between the Middle East’s two major religious and geopolitical poles, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

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Five killed in shooting at car wash near Nazareth as Israel sees wave of violence

Police believe Yafa an-Naseriyye incident was connected to dispute between organised crime families

Five people have been killed in a shooting at a car wash in an Arab town in northern Israel, police said, the latest incident in a wave of criminal violence tearing through the minority community.

Police said they believed the shooting on Thursday in the town of Yafa an-Naseriyye, near the city of Nazareth, was connected to a dispute between organised crime families.

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Palestinian journalist hit in head by bullet during raid on terror suspect’s home

News photographer Moamen Sumreen, 22, had been covering the demolition of the apartment in Ramallah

A Palestinian news photographer is in a serious condition in hospital after being hit in the head by a rubber bullet during a rare Israeli raid in Ramallah, the Palestinian administrative capital in the occupied West Bank.

A convoy of Israel Defence Forces (IDF) vehicles entered the city late on Wednesday night in order to demolish the home of a terrorism suspect who had been accused of planting two bombs targeting rush-hour commuters in Jerusalem last November that killed two people and injured another 21.

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Three-year-old Palestinian boy shot by Israeli soldiers dies in hospital

Mohammed al-Tamimi was shot in the head while riding in a car in the West Bank with father, who was also injured

A three-year-old Palestinian boy has died in hospital, four days after he was shot in the head by Israeli soldiers while riding in a car with his father in the occupied West Bank.

Mohammed al-Tamimi was airlifted to the Sheba hospital near Tel Aviv after the incident on Thursday night and remained in a critical condition until medical officials announced his death on Monday. His father, Haitham al-Tamimi, 40, is still being treated at a Palestinian hospital. His injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

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UK study of 1948 Israeli massacre of Palestinian village reveals mass grave sites

Researchers analysed cartographic data and aerial photos to identify three possible locations in former fishing village Tantura

An investigation into a massacre in a destroyed Palestinian village carried out by Israeli forces in the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation has identified three possible mass graves beneath a present-day beach resort.

Palestinian survivors and historians have long claimed that men living in Tantura, a fishing village of approximately 1,500 people near Haifa, were executed after surrendering to the Alexandroni Brigade and their bodies dumped in a mass grave believed to be located under an area that is now a car park for Dor Beach. Estimates have ranged from 40 to 200 people.

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US Congress members demand that PayPal end ban on Palestinian business

Other payment companies do business with Palestinians in the occupied territories, but PayPal only provides services to Israelis there

Eleven members of the US Congress have demanded PayPal end a ban on doing business with Palestinians in the occupied territories while permitting Israeli settlers to use the digital payment platform.

The letter, authored by Representative Mark Pocan, says PayPal is discriminating against Palestinians by denying “equal access to the digital economy”.

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Far-right minister says Israel ‘in charge’ on visit to Jerusalem holy site

Comments by Itamar Ben-Gvir draw condemnation from Palestinians amid escalating tensions

Israel’s far-right security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, visited a site in Jerusalem holy to both Muslims and Jews and declared Israel was “in charge”, drawing condemnation from Palestinians after months of escalating tension and violence.

The early morning visit to the site, revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the compound housing al-Aqsa mosque, also drew denunciations from two of Israel’s Arab peace partners, Jordan and Egypt.

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Israeli nationalists march in celebration of capture of East Jerusalem

Thousands waved blue and white flags while some in the parade chanted racist slogans such as ‘Death to Arabs’

Thousands of Israeli nationalists, some of them chanting racist slogans, have paraded through Jerusalem’s Old City in an annual celebratory day for Israelis that became one of humiliation for Palestinians living under occupation.

The marchers, mostly male Orthodox teens and young men, were celebrating Israel’s capture of East Jerusalem in 1967. The crowd waved blue and white Israeli flags and chanted slogans such as “Death to Arabs” and “We will burn your village”.

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New York law aims to stop funding of illegal Israeli settlements in West Bank

State assembly member introduced law to prohibit tax-deductible donations from being used to expel Palestinians from their land

New York’s state assembly is to consider legislation to stop registered charities from sending tens of millions of dollars a year to fund illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

State assembly member, Zohran Mamdani, has introduced the “Not on our dime!: Ending New York funding of Israeli settler violence” act to prohibit tax-deductible donations from being used to expel Palestinians from their land and other activities widely regarded as war crimes under the Geneva conventions.

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Gaza ceasefire ends five days of fighting that left dozens dead

Hostilities destroyed more than 50 homes and displaced about 950 people, says the UN

Relative calm has returned to the blockaded Gaza Strip after a ceasefire that has ended five days of cross-frontier fire between Israel and militant groups in the coastal enclave that killed 33 Palestinians and two people in Israel.

A truce mediated by Egyptian officials that went into effect at 10pm (8pm BST) on Saturday night appeared to hold, despite the firing of a rocket towards southern Israel on Sunday evening that Palestinian factions said had launched due to a “technical error”.

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Ceasefire between Israel and Islamic Jihad in Gaza area takes effect

Dozens of rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza, prompting airstrikes in return, in the half-hour leading up to the truce

A ceasefire has taken effect in and around the Gaza Strip after five days of cross-border exchanges that have killed at least 33 Palestinians in Gaza and two people in Israel.

The truce was due to take effect at 10pm local time (20.00 BST) on Saturday, Egyptian and Palestinian sources said. But, in the final 30 minutes before, dozens of rockets were fired from Gaza towards Israel, prompting renewed airstrikes, AFP correspondents in the territory said.

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Israel and Gaza militants trade heavy fire as hopes of truce fade

Outbreak of violence – now in its fourth day – has killed dozens, all but one of them Palestinian

Israel and Gaza militants have traded heavy fire as hopes faded of securing a truce to end days of fighting during which dozens have been killed, all but one of them Palestinian.

There have been international calls for de-escalation, with the EU pushing for an “immediate comprehensive ceasefire”.

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