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Here are some images of the hostages and their family and friends embracing after their release:
Noa Argamani
Continue reading...Category Archives: Palestinian Territories
Survivors of Israeli strike on Gaza school describe finding children’s bodies
Territory’s civil defence chief says more than 40 killed with toll increasing due to lack of medical care
Survivors of an Israeli airstrike on a UN school in central Gaza have described finding children’s bodies that had been torn apart by the blast, as Israeli attacks on the area continued for a second night.
Gaza’s head of civil defence said his teams at al-Sardi school in Nuseirat found only civilians among the dead. Mahmoud Basal said the death toll from the attack was more than 40 and still climbing, because injured survivors could not get proper medical care.
Continue reading...Israel-Gaza war live: Gaza facing Israeli attacks from land, sea, and air, witnesses report
Refugee camps under fire across region, according to reports
At least nine Yemeni employees of UN agencies have been detained by Yemen’s Houthi rebels under unclear circumstances, authorities said on Friday, reports the Associated Press (AP). The news agency adds that others working for aid groups are also likely to have been taken.
The detentions come as the Houthis, who seized Yemen’s capital nearly a decade ago and have been fighting a Saudi-led coalition since shortly after, have been targeting shipping throughout the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
The AP reports that the Houthis have cracked down at dissent in Yemen, including recently sentencing 44 people to death.
Regional officials, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to brief journalists, confirmed the UN detentions.
Keir Starmer expected to push for Palestinian state in Labour manifesto
Labour policy likely to irritate Israel, whose prime minister reacted angrily when Ireland, Spain and Norway officially recognised Palestine in May
Keir Starmer is planning to use the Labour manifesto to make his strongest commitment yet on Palestinian statehood in a move to shore up the party’s core support on the left, sources have told the Guardian.
People with knowledge of the document say the Labour leader is expected to include a pledge to recognise Palestine before the end of any peace process, and to make sure such a move does not get vetoed by a neighbouring country.
Continue reading...‘We will not go away’: Israeli demolitions leave Bedouins homeless
Bedouins erect tents only for Israeli forces to return and dismantle them in Negev village earmarked for clearance
Under the unrelenting heat of the Negev desert, for the fifth time in the last two weeks, Tayaeer Abu Asda has set up an improvised tent, which will serve as a temporary home for his wife and five children for at least the next three days. Abu Asda, 38, a Palestinian Bedouin and truck driver, is one of a group of Bedouins now numbering 500 who have been living for decades in Wadi al-Khalil, a village east of Be’er Sheva, about 12 miles (20km) from Gaza.
In early May, Israeli authorities demolished 350 structures in the community, 47 of them homes, leaving hundreds of children homeless. In the shadow of the conflict in Gaza, the government described this action as “an important move of sovereignty and governance”.
Continue reading...Israel-Gaza war: dozens reported killed after Israeli strike on UN school in refugee camp – as it happened
Unrwa chief says 6,000 displaced people were sheltering at school when it was hit and at least 35 have been killed. This live blog is closed
Local authorities report that 37 people have been killed after an overnight Israeli strike on the UN-run Unrwa school in the Nuseirat refugee camp in near Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
Inages from the site show a large number of bodies laid out for burial outside a hospital in Deir al Balah. Unrwa communications director Juliette Touma told Reuters on Thursday that the number of those reported killed in the Israeli offensive on the Nuseirat school is between 35 and 45, but it still cannot confirm the number at this stage, she added.
Continue reading...Dozens killed in Israeli strike on UN school, witnesses say
Israel says it targeted Hamas fighters in strike on school where hospital officials say displaced Palestinians were sheltering
Israel bombed a UN school sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians in central Gaza in the early hours of Thursday morning, killing at least 33 people including 23 women and children, according to hospital records and an eyewitness.
The Israeli military said it targeted “20 or 30” Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters who had taken part in the 7 October attack and were now using the school as an operations centre. The military spokesperson Lt Col Peter Lerner said he was not aware of any civilian casualties.
Continue reading...Police arrest student protesters who occupied Stanford president’s office
Police arrest 13 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who staged occupation of office while roughly 50 others linked arms outside
Police at Stanford University arrested a group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had barricaded themselves inside the campus president’s office on Wednesday morning to demand that the school divest from Israel.
A group of about a dozen students staged an occupation of the office of Richard Saller, Stanford’s president, while roughly 50 others linked arms outside, the Stanford Daily reported. The group entered the building around 6am on Wednesday, the final day of classes for the spring quarter, and said they intended to stay until the university met its demands.
The Associated Press contributed
Continue reading...Starvation already causing many deaths and lasting harm in Gaza, agencies say
Extreme hunger taking huge toll, say food security reports, regardless of delays to possible declaration of famine
Months of extreme hunger have already killed many Palestinians in Gaza and caused permanent damage to children through malnutrition, two new food security reports have found, even before famine is officially declared.
The US-based famine early warning system network (Fews Net) said it was “possible, if not likely” that famine began in northern Gaza in April. Two UN organisations said more than 1 million people were “expected to face death and starvation” by mid-July.
Continue reading...Clashes in Jerusalem as thousands of Israelis parade through Muslim quarter
Fears that Flag Day event will spark more violence, with far-right minister expected to attend and Hamas calling for ‘day of anger’
Thousands of Israeli religious nationalists have paraded through Muslim parts of the Old City of Jerusalem in the annual Flag Day march, an event that threatens to trigger further violence in the Israel-Hamas war.
The march, in which Israelis enter the Muslim quarter through the highly symbolic Damascus Gate and walk to the Western Wall waving the national flag, takes place around sunset on what Israel calls Jerusalem Day, marking the capture and occupation of the eastern half of the city and its holy sites in the war of 1967. Control of Jerusalem is at the centre of the decades-old conflict, and the Israeli takeover is not recognised internationally.
Continue reading...Netanyahu threatens ‘extremely powerful’ response to Hezbollah attacks
Israeli PM promises to ‘restore security to the north’ as strikes near border with Lebanon escalate
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has threatened an “extremely powerful” response to attacks by Hezbollah from Lebanon, which have escalated in recent days.
His comments, made during a visit to the city of Kiryat Shmona, in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon, came after Hezbollah launched a wave of attacks earlier this week that set off substantial fires, fanned by dry and powerful winds.
Continue reading...Israel-Gaza war: Israel prepared for ‘strong action’ in north near Lebanon, says Netanyahu – as it happened
Israeli prime minister tours country’s northern border with Lebanon; gunman wounded after shots fired at US embassy north of Beirut. This live blog is closed
Here are the fuller quotes from Benjamin Netanyahu, who was touring northern Israel near the UN-drawn blue line which has separated Lebanon and Israel since 2000 and said that Israel was prepared for strong action in the region. Earlier this week Israel’s military and emergency rescue teams fought large fires set of by rockets fired into Israel.
Reuters reports Netanyahu said:
Whoever thinks that they can harm us and we will sit idly by is making a big mistake. We are prepared for a very strong action in the north. In one way or another we will restore security to the north.
Continue reading...Jerusalem braces for Israeli nationalist flag march through Muslim Quarter
Thousands of police deployed for parade that has been historical flashpoint for violence between marchers and Palestinians
Residents of Jerusalem are bracing for a rightwing flag march through Muslim areas of the Old City, an annual event often accompanied by violence.
The provocative Jerusalem Day parade by thousands of Jewish nationalists celebrates Israel’s capture and occupation of East Jerusalem and its holy sites in the 1967 war, a move that is not internationally recognised. It is often marred by violent clashes between marchers and Palestinian residents of the Old City, as well as anti-Arab hate speech and vandalism of Palestinian property.
Continue reading...Biden: ‘every reason’ to believe Netanyahu is prolonging Gaza war for political gain
US president’s remarks to Time magazine about PM’s role in conflict draw heavily critical response from Israeli government
Joe Biden has said that there is “every reason” to draw the conclusion that Benjamin Netanyahu is prolonging the war in Gaza for his own political self-preservation.
Biden made the remarks about the Israeli prime minister in an interview with Time magazine published on Tuesday morning, drawing a sharp response from the Israeli government, which accused the US president of straying from diplomatic norms.
Continue reading...Pressure grows on Benjamin Netanyahu to back Gaza ceasefire plan
Biden-backed proposal is causing rifts in unstable coalition led by Israeli PM that could lead to his government falling apart
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is facing growing pressure at home and internationally to support a new ceasefire plan for Gaza, a move he is resisting over fears it will collapse his government.
Far-right members of the prime minister’s coalition have threatened to quit the coalition if Israel “surrenders” before “total victory” over Hamas, while his leading rival, the centrist Benny Gantz, has said he will resign from the emergency unity government if Netanyahu does not commit to a deal and “day after” plan for Gaza by 8 June.
Continue reading...BDS founder hails campus protests for taking Israeli divestment mainstream
Omar Barghouti, who attended Columbia University in 80s, says student solidarity with Palestine has educated the world
The student-led protests demanding universities cut financial and academic ties to Israel have led to unprecedented support for the Palestinian liberation struggle, and have propelled the divestment debate into the mainstream, according to the co-founder of the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian human rights defender who helped launch the BDS movement almost 20 years ago, said the students’ solidarity had helped educate the world about the Israeli occupation and “apartheid” while exposing the hypocrisy – and repressive tendencies – of some of the world’s most prestigious universities with investments in corporations which put “profit before people and the planet”.
Continue reading...White House says ‘ball in Hamas’s court’ over Gaza peace proposal
Comment made despite signs of division in Israeli war cabinet and Netanyahu appearing to challenge the deal
The White House insisted that the “ball was in Hamas’s court” on whether to accept a new Gaza peace proposal, despite mixed signals from Benjamin Netanyahu reflecting turmoil within his governing coalition in Israel.
The US national security spokesperson, John Kirby, insisted on Monday that it was an Israeli proposal – despite the fact it had been unveiled by Joe Biden on Friday, during the Jewish Sabbath, and Netanyahu had appeared to challenge it. The Israeli prime minister said any deal that did not lead to the complete destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capacity would be a “non-starter”.
Continue reading...Israel-Gaza war: Biden only published partial version of Gaza ceasefire proposal, says Netanyahu – as it happened
Israel’s PM says US president only published some of the detail in his plan to wind down war in Gaza and says return of hostages key to any discussions. This live blog is closed
Palestinian health officials said Israeli airstrikes killed 11 people overnight into Monday, including a woman and three children, in central Gaza, according to the Associated Press.
A strike on a home in the built-up Bureij refugee camp late on Sunday evening was reported to have killed four people, including the three children.
The second strike, early Monday, reportedly killed seven people, including a woman, in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Continue reading...Hamas still strong in areas ‘cleared’ by Israel in northern Gaza, say experts
Hamas’s ability to return to areas from which it was earlier forced to retreat threatens ‘forever war’
There may be more Hamas militants in the north of Gaza, supposedly cleared by Israeli forces months ago, than in Rafah, the southern city in the territory described by Israeli officials as the extremist Islamist organisation’s “last stronghold”, analysts believe.
More than 1 million people have fled Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, after instructions from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the biggest wave of displacement since the early months of the conflict. The IDF has said repeatedly that four Hamas brigades – the militant Islamist organisation’s biggest remaining force – is based in Rafah.
Continue reading...Trade convoys ‘squeezing out’ Gaza aid, humanitarian organisations say
UN says aid shipments fell by two-thirds during May but number of trucks entering Gaza rose
Aid shipments into southern Gaza are being squeezed out by commercial convoys, humanitarian organisations say, at a time when Israel’s military push into Rafah has choked off supply routes critical to feeding hundreds of thousands of people.
Deliveries of food, medicine and other aid into Gaza fell by two-thirds after Israel began its ground operation on 7 May, UN figures show. But overall the number of trucks entering Gaza rose in May compared with April, according to Israeli officials.
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