Category Archives: Palestinian Territories

‘We cannot operate, we have no drugs’: Gaza’s indirect casualties mount as health service decimated

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Tens of thousands with life-threatening illnesses ‘defenceless’ after months without treatment, say doctors

Health services in Gaza are “decimated”, with medical staff exhausted after three months of war forced to extract shrapnel without adequate pain relief, conduct amputations without anaesthetics and watch children die of cancers because of a lack of facilities and medicine.

Dozens of interviews with doctors and medical administrators in Gaza reveal a catastrophic and deteriorating situation as health services struggle to cope with tens of thousands of casualties of the continuing Israeli offensive in the territory and the effects of the acute humanitarian crisis.

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US says it conducted strikes against three Houthi missiles – as it happened

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There can be “no security and stability in the region” without a Palestinian state, said the spokesperson for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, reports Associated Press.

The remarks come in response to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rejection on Thursday of calls by the US to take steps toward the establishment of a Palestinian state after the war.

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Fears grow for largest remaining hospital in Gaza as Israeli forces bombard Khan Younis

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Staff say situation at Nasser hospital ‘catastrophic’ as Israeli strikes hit metres away

Israeli forces have advanced further into southern Gaza’s main city, pounding areas near the territory’s biggest functioning hospital and sparking fears it could be forced to close due to Israeli bombardments and evacuation orders.

Khan Younis residents and medical staff said the fighting had come within metres of Nasser hospital, the biggest hospital still partially working in Gaza, over the past week. It has been receiving hundreds of wounded patients a day since the fighting shifted to the south last month.

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US carries out fifth strike against Houthis as Biden admits bombing isn’t stopping attacks

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Defiant Houthi leader mocks US president and calls for boycott of Israeli goods as Biden tells reporters attacks are ‘going to continue’

The US has carried out a fifth strike against Houthi rebel targets in Yemen, even as Joe Biden acknowledged that bombing the rebels has yet to stop their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.

Late on Thursday US warplanes targeted anti-ship missiles that “were aimed into the southern Red Sea and prepared to launch,” according to US Central Command.

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Netanyahu tells US he opposes creation of Palestinian state after Gaza war

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PM rebuts White House by saying all territory west of Jordan River would be under Israeli security control

Israel’s prime minister has told the Biden White House that he rejects any moves to establish a Palestinian state when Israel ends its offensive against Gaza, and that all territory west of the Jordan River would be under Israeli security control.

Benjamin Netanyahu has sought to obstruct the establishment of a Palestinian state throughout his political career, despite occasional lukewarm endorsements of the idea.

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Israel added to list of ‘worst jailers of journalists’ for first time

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Israel is in sixth place after the Committee to Protect Journalists recorded 18 Palestinian journalists in its jails

Israel has joined a notorious band of authoritarian states with a history of imprisoning journalists by detaining Palestinian reporters without trial since the beginning of the latest war in Gaza.

A report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released on Thursday said that for the first time Israel figures in its list of “worst jailers of journalists”, putting it on a par with Iran.

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Gaza conditions go from catastrophe ‘to near collapse’, says Unicef – as it happened

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While Iran has taken low-level action against Balochistan in the past, Tuesday’s strikes were unusually heavy-handed and Thursday’s retaliatory bombings were the first time that Pakistan has responded with comprehensive military action against its neighbour.

Sources in Islamabad said the decision was taken after heavy political and military pressure on the top army leadership to show strength against Tehran.

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‘Different rules’: special policies keep US supplying weapons to Israel despite alleged abuses

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Revealed: review of internal state department documents shows special mechanisms have been used to shield Israel from US human rights laws

Top US officials quietly reviewed more than a dozen incidents of alleged gross violations of human rights by Israeli security forces since 2020, but have gone to great lengths to preserve continued access to US weapons for the units responsible for the alleged violations, contributing – former US officials say – to the sense of impunity with which Israel has approached its war in Gaza.

An estimated 24,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed by Israeli forces since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, a death toll that has spurred condemnation of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US president Joe Biden, who has been criticized for failing to rein in Israel’s “indiscriminate” bombing of Gaza.

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Ten people killed in Israeli strikes on West Bank, Palestinian officials say

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Deaths inside Tulkarem refugee camp and near Balata camp are latest in an explosion of violence in the Palestinian territory since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza

A new wave of violence has swept the occupied West Bank, with a series of major raids launched by the Israeli military across much of the territory.

Ten people were killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank on Wednesday, Palestinian officials have said, one of the highest single daily death tolls for many months.

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Middle East crisis live: US designates Houthis as terrorist group after attacks on ships in waters off Yemen

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Decision means Yemeni group’s funds will be frozen in US and members are banned from the country

US Navy Seals boarded a boat heading for Yemen and seized Iranian-made missile components and other weaponry bound for Houthi forces, in an operation in which two Seal commandos went missing, the US military has said.

US Central Command (Centcom) posted pictures of the missile parts on X, including what appeared to be the components of a complete small missile, rocket motors and guidance systems, as well as a photograph of the small cargo vessel that was allegedly carrying the arms.

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Israel and Hamas agree deal to send medicine to hostages and Gaza civilians

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Shipment of medicine has arrived in Egypt on way to conflict zone under deal brokered by Qatar and France

A shipment of medicine for Israeli hostages and Palestinian civilians has arrived in Egypt on its way to Gaza under a deal mediated by Qatar and France, as fighting continues across much of the territory after a deadly night of bombardments.

The agreement marks the first significant progress in indirect talks between Israel and Hamas since December, when a short-lived ceasefire collapsed.

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The Houthis and the Red Sea crisis – podcast

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Attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea by the Houthi rebel group in Yemen have been met with airstrikes from the UK and US. Patrick Wintour reports

Since the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October and Israel’s military response in Gaza, there has been an effort by western leaders led by the US to avoid the conflict spreading to the wider region. That attempt looks increasingly tenuous now. US and UK airstrikes have targeted the Houthi rebel group in Yemen after a series of attacks by the group on commercial ships in the Red Sea.

As Patrick Wintour, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, tells Michael Safi, the Houthis say they are targeting Israeli-linked ships in an attempt to force a ceasefire. In doing so they are are positioning themselves as the foremost champions of Palestinians in the region. In reality, they have struck shipping interests beyond Israel and ignored warnings from the US to desist. Now, with Washington promising further strikes if necessary, the threat of a wider regional escalation is growing and with it the danger of a far more deadly conflict.

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Middle East crisis live: Kurdish PM says Iran is attacking civilians; EU sanctions Hamas leader and adds him to terrorist list

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Iraqi Kurdish prime minister Masrour Barzani accuses Iran after its strikes in Kurdistan region; EU adds Yahya Sinwar to terrorist list

The Israeli military said on Tuesday that its special forces had carried out a strike in the area of Ayta ash Shab in Lebanon.

“IDF special forces struck in order to remove a threat in the area of Ayta ash Shab in Lebanon,” the military said.

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US military says it seized Iranian weapons bound for Houthis

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Search still under way for the two Seals involved in mission targeting supply of arms to Yemeni rebels

US Navy Seals boarded a boat heading for Yemen and seized Iranian-made missile components and other weaponry bound for Houthi forces, in an operation in which two Seal commandos went missing, the US military has said.

US Central Command (Centcom) posted pictures of the missile parts on X, including what appeared to be the components of a complete small missile, rocket motors and guidance systems, as well as a photograph of the small cargo vessel that was allegedly carrying the arms.

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US-UK airstrikes force aid agencies to suspend operations in Yemen

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Charities warns of ‘dire’ outcome for the impoverished country, where two-thirds of the population already relies on aid to survive

Aid agencies have begun suspending vital operations in Yemen after the recent US and UK strikes on Houthi targets, amid warnings that further military intervention risks deepening one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

A coalition of 23 aid organisations operating within the Gulf state issued a joint statement on Tuesday, warning that military escalation will further compromise their ability to deliver critical services while worsening living conditions for millions of people in Yemen.

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‘No food, no water’: aid officials think pockets of famine exist in Gaza

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UN agencies issue joint plea for entry routes to Gaza, where Israel’s war with Hamas has damaged swaths of territory

Aid officials in Gaza believe that pockets of famine already exist in the territory, with parents sacrificing remaining food for their children, an apple costing $8 (£6.30) and fuel for cooking almost impossible to find.

UN agencies have said that Gaza urgently needs more humanitarian assistance as Palestinian authorities reported that the death toll in the territory during the Israeli offensive there had risen to more than 24,000.

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US ship south-east of Aden hit by Houthi missile; two Palestinians kill woman and injure several in Israel – as it happened

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US military says anti-ship ballistic missile fired by Houthi militants hit container ship; police describe incident in Raanana, north of Tel Aviv, as terrorist attack

A video journalist from the Cairo-based television channel Al Ghad was killed in the Gaza Strip on Sunday in a strike that the channel blamed on the Israeli army.

In a post on X, the station said it was announcing “with a heavy heart” that Yazan al-Zwaidi was “murdered by Israeli fire”, Agence France-Presse reports.

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Hamas says two Israeli hostages have been killed by Israeli airstrikes

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In unverified video, woman also held captive and speaking under duress says two men have been killed

Hamas has released a video announcing the death of two Israeli hostages and claimed that they were killed by Israeli airstrikes.

The video showed a female hostage named in Israeli media as Noa Argamani, 26, speaking under duress, revealing that two men she was held captive with had been killed in captivity. It was not clear when or where the video was filmed and there was no independent confirmation of Hamas’s claims.

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Ex-Shin Bet head says Israel should negotiate with jailed intifada leader

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Israel will not have security until Palestinians have their own state, Ami Ayalon says in Guardian interview

A former leader of the Shin Bet domestic security force has said Israel will not have security until Palestinians have their own state, and Israeli authorities should release Marwan Barghouti, jailed leader of the second intifada, to direct negotiations to create one.

Ami Ayalon, a retired admiral who also commanded Israel’s navy and was wounded in battle and decorated for his service, also said destroying Hamas was not a realistic military goal, and the current operation in Gaza risked entrenching support for the group.

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Middle East crisis live: Netanyahu says world court cannot stop Israel in Gaza as war enters 100th day

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Israeli PM says it is ‘possible and necessary to continue until victory’ in televised press conference, days after South Africa launches genocide case against Israel in The Hague

Britain could strike Houthi targets in Yemen again if the rebel group continues to attack ships in the Red Sea, the UK’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, has indicated.

The former Conservative prime minister warned that the Iran-linked militants could force up prices in Britain if they are allowed to block the passage of container ships in the busy trade route.

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