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

This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our Israel-Gaza war coverage here

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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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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Israel’s settlement policies break international law, court finds

International court of justice says exploitation of natural resources in Palestinian territories also break law

The top United Nations court has ruled that Israel’s settlement policies and use of natural resources in the occupied Palestinian territories violate international law.

The international court of justice said “the transfer by Israel of settlers to the West Bank and Jerusalem as well as Israel’s maintenance of their presence, is contrary to article 49 of the fourth geneva convention”.

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Gaza conflict could fuel IS and al-Qaida revival, security experts warn

Officials and analysts warn of evidence of increased Islamic State and al-Qaida militant activity across Middle East

Security services across the Middle East fear the conflict in Gaza will allow Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaida to rebuild across the region, leading to a wave of terrorist plots in coming months and years.

Officials and analysts say there is already evidence of increased Islamic militant extremism in many places, although multiple factors are combining to cause the surge.

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National religious recruits challenge values of IDF once dominated by secular elite

Two-fifths of infantry graduate officer cadets now come from section of Israeli society aligned with far-right parties and settler movement

Israel’s army, for much of its seven decades the country’s pre-eminent secular institution, is increasingly coming under the sway of a national religious movement that has made bold moves across Israeli society in recent years.

About 40% of those graduating from the army’s infantry officer schools now come from a national religious community that accounts for 12 to 14% of Jewish Israeli society and is politically more aligned with Israel’s right and far-right political parties and the settler movement. Critics charge that its growing influence – including from the more orthodox portion known as Hardalim – is pursuing its own agenda within the army.

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Dozens killed in Israeli airstrikes across Gaza Strip

Targets include ‘humanitarian zone’ and school harbouring displaced people, where IDF says there were Hamas fighters

At least 60 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, health officials have said, including in an attack on a school sheltering displaced people and another on an Israeli-designated “humanitarian zone”, as ceasefire talks in the nearly 10-month-old conflict appeared to stall again.

The Red Crescent said on Tuesday that 17 people were killed in a bombing near a petrol station in Mawasi, an area on the Mediterranean shoreline packed with hundreds of thousands of displaced people that Israel had previously declared an evacuation zone. Another 16 were killed in a strike that targeted the UN-run al-Awda school in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, medics at a nearby hospital said.

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US and Israel allowed tax-deductible donations to groups blocking Gaza aid

Three groups that have prevented humanitarian supplies reaching the Palestinian territory have raised over $200,000

Under American pressure, Israel has pledged to deliver large quantities of humanitarian aid into the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. But at the same time, the US and Israel have allowed tax-deductible donations to far-right groups that have blocked that aid from being delivered.

Three groups that have prevented humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza – including one accused of looting or destroying supplies – have raised more than $200,000 from donors in the US and Israel, the Associated Press and the Israeli investigative site Shomrim have found in an examination of crowdfunding websites and other public records.

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Israel-Gaza war: US warns of ‘serious concern’ about recent civilian casualties in Gaza – as it happened

The US secretary of state reportedly told senior Israeli leaders they must do more to reduce civilian casualties

At least eight Palestinians were killed and several were wounded in an Israeli air strike on a school in central Gaza on Tuesday, Gaza health officials said.

The strike hit Al-Awda school in Al-Nuseirat camp, the ministry said.

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Tuesday briefing: What David Lammy’s Middle East visit says about Labour’s foreign policy plans

In today’s newsletter: The new foreign secretary has met with officials from Israel, Palestine and relief agencies – but what do his actions and words mean for the conflict?

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Good morning. A few months before the election, David Lammy outlined his vision for Britain’s role on the international stage under a Labour government: “progressive realism”, or “the pursuit of ideals without delusions about what is achievable”. Just over a week into his tenure as foreign secretary, we have our first concrete indications of how he intends to operate those principles in practice.

On a visit to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories over the last couple of days, his first international trip as foreign secretary, Lammy says he is sending a clear message: “We need an immediate ceasefire, the immediate release of all hostages, the protection of civilians, unfettered access to aid in Gaza and a pathway towards a two-state solution”.

Republican national convention | Donald Trump named JD Vance, the Ohio senator who was once one of his fiercest critics and called him “America’s Hitler”, as his running mate at the Republican national convention on Monday. Trump, wearing a bandage over his wounded ear, shook hands with Vance in his first public appearance since the assassination attempt against him.

US politics | A Florida judge appointed by Donald Trump has dismissed the case against him for illegally retaining classified documents, ruling that the special counsel who brought the prosecution had been improperly appointed. The stunning decision, in defiance of precedent going back to the Watergate era, is likely to be appealed.

UK news | Rescue teams on the Spanish island of Tenerife have discovered the body of a young man in the area where the British teenager Jay Slater disappeared four weeks ago. Police said it appeared that the person could have died after an accidental fall from a cliff.

UK-EU relations | Britain is taking its first steps towards forging closer trading links with the EU in meetings between the new business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, and international counterparts in Italy. Reynolds will say that the new UK government wants to foster a “closer, more mature relationship with our friends in the EU”.

Defence | Britain and its allies are facing a “deadly quartet” of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea who are acting together against the west, the newly appointed head of Labour’s defence review said. The comments from former Nato secretary general George Robertson reflect concerns that the grouping are increasingly sharing arms, components and military intelligence.

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Yvette Cooper to chair meeting of taskforce considering ‘alarming rise’ in candidate intimidation – as it happened

Home secretary to host meeting of government’s Defending Democracy taskforce after reported rise in harassment during election campaign

More in Common, the group that campaigns to reduce polarisation in politics, published a good slideshow presentation last week, based on polling it carried out, giving an analysis of the general election results. It has followed that up today with the publication of a 129-page report on the election, based on the same polling and on what it learned from focus groups.

One of the main interesting points it makes is that the government will be judged, above all, on whether it can bring down NHS waiting lists and the cost of living, polling suggests. The report says:

How does the public plan to judge the government on its delivery of change and what benchmarks will they use to evaluate progress?

First and foremost, the public will look to NHS waiting lists and the cost of living to judge Labour’s success or failure. These are top performance indicators for every segment, with the elderly tending to be more concerned than average about waiting lists and younger generations more so about the cost of living. As inflation falls and interest rates seem set for a summer cut, waiting lists are arguably the new government’s key challenge in maintaining public support.

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UK foreign secretary repeats ceasefire call as Israel continues to pummel Gaza

David Lammy holds second day of meetings with Israeli officials but hopes of immediate ceasefire are dwindling

Israeli air and naval strikes continued to pummel Gaza as the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, reiterated his demand for a ceasefire during a visit to Jerusalem.

Strikes on central Gaza followed two days of particularly deadly attacks including one in a humanitarian zone in southern Gaza that killed at least 90 people when Israeli forces targeted the head of Hamas’s military wing, Mohammed Deif.

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