Category Archives: Palestinian Territories

Israel and Hezbollah edge closer to war as drone hits key Israeli command base

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IDF says no damage or casualties caused after Lebanese militant group launches explosives at Safed base

Israel and Hezbollah edged closer towards full scale war on Tuesday, as the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group launched explosive drones at a key Israeli command base, declaring the attack part of its response to recent high-level Israeli assassinations in Lebanon.

Hezbollah announced it had launched “a number of explosive attack drones” at the Israeli northern military command base in Safed, the first time it has targeted the site.

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Emissions from Israel’s war in Gaza have ‘immense’ effect on climate catastrophe

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Exclusive: First months of conflict produced more planet-warming gases than 20 climate-vulnerable nations do in a year, study shows

The climate costs of war and militaries can no longer be ignored

The planet-warming emissions generated during the first two months of the war in Gaza were greater than the annual carbon footprint of more than 20 of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations, new research reveals.

The vast majority (99%) of the 281,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2 equivalent) estimated to have been generated in the first 60 days following the 7 October Hamas attack can be attributed to Israel’s aerial bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis by researchers in the UK and US.

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More civilian casualties recorded in 2023 than any year since 2010

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Action on Armed Violence says 33,846 were killed or wounded by airstrikes, bombs or artillery, the most it has recorded

More civilians were recorded as being killed or injured by airstrikes, bombs or artillery during 2023 than in any other year for more than a decade due to the high number of casualties from the three-month war in Gaza, an annual study has said.

Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), a monitoring group, said 33,846 non-combatants had been killed or wounded during 2023, an increase of 62% on last year, and the largest amount it had counted since it began its annual survey in 2010.

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Antony Blinken arrives in Israel amid fresh US push to stop war spreading

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US secretary of state poised for meetings with leaders who have so far proved resistant to pressure from Washington

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has landed in Israel for potentially difficult meetings with Israeli leaders and officials who have repeatedly proved resistant to pressure from Washington over their conduct of the war against Hamas.

Blinken flew late on Monday night from the Saudi oasis town of AlUla where he held talks with the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, on a Middle East tour aimed at reaching a consensus on Gaza’s future.

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Three Palestinians shot dead by Israeli forces in West Bank, says health ministry

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This blog has now closed. You can read our full report on the Middle East crisis here and all our coverage of the Israel-Gaza war here.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it had been compelled to cancel a mission to bring medical supplies to northern Gaza on Sunday after failing to receive security guarantees, Reuters reports.

It was the fourth time WHO had had to call off a planned mission to bring urgently needed medical supplies to Al-Awda Hospital and the central drug store in northern Gaza since 26 December it said.

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Palestinians desperate to flee Gaza pay thousands in bribes to ‘brokers’

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Fixers with alleged links to Egyptian intelligence are making a fortune in ‘fees’ from people hoping to exit through the Rafah crossing

Palestinians desperate to leave Gaza are paying bribes to brokers of up to $10,000 (£7,850) to help them exit the territory through Egypt, according to a Guardian investigation.

Very few Palestinians have been able to leave Gaza through the Rafah border crossing but those trying to get their names on the list of people permitted to exit daily say they are being asked to pay large “coordination fees” by a network of brokers and couriers with alleged links to the Egyptian intelligence services.

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The numbers that reveal the extent of the destruction in Gaza

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From death tolls to destroyed buildings and lost hospital beds, these are the figures that cut through the fog of war

The situation in Gaza over the last three months has been so chaotic that much of the data available comes with some sort of asterisk: it might be incomplete, or out of date, or drawn from a source that is claimed to be unreliable.

But on even the most frequently disputed point – casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run ministry of health – there are few plausible critiques of the broad scale of what is being shown. And in many cases, the numbers published by the UN, independent aid agencies and others are likely to be at the low end of the possible range. So it is reasonable to view the picture presented by these sources as a conservative account of the situation, rather than conclude that the reality is hopelessly occluded by the fog of war.

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Israel says Gaza fighting could last a year, amplifying fears of regional war

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Comments from senior defence officials come during tour by US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, intended to defuse tensions

Israeli defence officials and former senior intelligence officers have said they expect fighting in Gaza to continue for at least a year, raising the prospect of thousands more civilian casualties, a deepening humanitarian crisis and a continuing grave threat to regional stability.

In a briefing, R Adm Daniel Hagari, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), said the centre and south of Gaza, where military efforts are now focused, was “dense and saturated with terrorists” with “an underground city of branching tunnels”.

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Two journalists have been killed in an Israeli air strike in southern Gaza – as it happened

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At least 113 Palestinians have been killed and 250 others injured over the past 24 hours in Israeli strikes on Gaza, the health ministry in Gaza said in a statement on Sunday, Reuters reports.

Sunday’s tally brings the death toll in Gaza to 22,835 Palestinians killed and 58,416 injured since 7 October, the statement added.

Israeli bombardment [claimed] civilian lives in the southern city of Khan Yunis and in the Rafah area near the Egyptian border, where many of the territory’s displaced people have sought refuge, AFP correspondents reported.

Relatives were mourning the dead at Khan Yunis’ European hospital, among them Mohamed Awad, who wept over the body of a 12-year-old boy and listed other family members killed.

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UK accused of hypocrisy in not backing claim of genocide in Gaza before ICJ

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Experts say submission to international court of justice on Myanmar six weeks ago makes stance ‘wholly disingenuous’

The UK is facing accusations of double standards after formally submitting detailed legal arguments to the international court of justice in The Hague six weeks ago to support claims that Myanmar committed genocide against the Rohingya ethnic group through its mass mistreatment of children and systematically depriving people of their homes and food.

The UK made its 21-page “declaration of intervention” jointly with five other countries, but it is not supporting South Africa as it prepares to try to convince the ICJ on Thursday that Israel is at risk of committing genocide against the Palestinian people.

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Blinken returns to Middle East and warns of risk war could spread

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US secretary of state begins visit to region as fears grow Israel could expand Gaza conflict to Lebanon

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has returned to the Middle East for the fourth time in three months as he warned Israel’s war against Hamas risked spreading throughout the region.

Recent intensifying violence between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, increasing attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, and strikes by Tehran-linked groups on US bases in Iraq, have created an increasingly febrile atmosphere across the Middle East.

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Blinken puts pressure on Middle East countries to contain Gaza conflict

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The US secretary of state was speaking in Turkey, on trip that will take him to Jordan, Egypt and Israel

US secretary of state Antony Blinken has urged Middle East countries to use their influence over regional actors to ensure the Gaza conflict is contained and prevent “an endless cycle of violence,” as he continued his week-long trip aimed at calming tensions.

Blinken was speaking on Saturday, after Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah group said it had fired rockets at Israel, who said it had struck a “terrorist cell” in retaliation. Hezbollah called the strikes a “preliminary response” to the killing of a senior Hamas leader in Beirut last week in an attack widely attributed to Israel

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Creation of Palestinian state is only way to peace, EU foreign policy chief says – as it happened

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Josep Borrell wants European-Arab initiative to revive a peace process, with the ultimate aim being a two-state solution

The World Health Organization and the United Nations have made a new delivery of medical supplies to southern Gaza, the WHO director-general has said.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the shipment included eight refrigerators, eight solar panels, and clean delivery kits to supports 66 births as well as medicines and supplies to enable surgeries. He added that it would support 142,000 people requiring care.

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Hundreds block off Westminster Bridge in call for Gaza ceasefire

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Protesters also call for UK to stop arms sales to Israel and end to Israeli occupation of Palestine

Hundreds of protesters in London have staged a sit-in on Westminster Bridge, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in the first big demonstration of the year.

Elsewhere on Saturday, there were protests in Belfast and Dublin.

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US and EU launch twin diplomatic mission to calm tensions in Middle East

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Escalation of violence comes as US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and Europe’s Josep Borrell begin tours of the region

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The most senior diplomats from the US and the EU launched a dual diplomatic offensive in the Middle East on Saturday aimed at calming tensions that threaten chaos and wider conflict across the region.

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, began a five-day tour of the region with meetings in Turkey and the EU’s most senior diplomat Josep Borrell, visited the Lebanese capital Beirut.

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UN warns Gaza is now ‘uninhabitable’ as war continues

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Humanitarian chief fears ‘famine is around the corner’ with 85% of population displaced and more than 20,000 dead

The UN humanitarian chief has described Gaza as “uninhabitable” three months into Israel’s war with Hamas, warning that famine was looming and a public health disaster unfolding.

In a grim assessment of the devastating impact of Israel’s military response to the horrific Hamas attacks on 7 October, Martin Griffiths said that Gaza’s 2.3 million people face “daily threats to their very existence” while the world just watches.

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Israel tries to appease US with proposals for Gaza as Blinken heads to Middle East

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Washington wants concessions from the Netanyahu administration, as critics say plans lack detail or commitment

Israeli officials are scrambling to head off mounting frustration in Washington in the run-up to a potentially difficult meeting between the top US diplomat and Benjamin Netanyahu by offering a series of policy proposals on Gaza that critics say lack detail or commitment.

The US has offered staunch support to Israel since the outbreak of its war with Hamas three months ago but is anxious to secure some concessions from Netanyahu to lower regional tensions and help avert a wider conflict in the Middle East.

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Hezbollah chief says response to killing of senior Hamas official is ‘inevitable’

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Hassan Nasrallah says assassination in Beirut has changed nature of his group’s conflict with Israel, raising fears of escalation

The assassination of one of Hamas’s most senior officials in Beirut has changed the nature of the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, Hezbollah’s head, Hassan Nasrallah, has said, adding that a response is “inevitable”.

In a second nationally televised address within three days, Nasrallah said that all of Lebanon would be “exposed” if there was no response from his group to the killing of Saleh al-Arouri, further heightening fears of a dangerous escalation in the conflict, even as Israel said its military was ready for any eventuality.

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Israel could keep security control of Gaza after Hamas defeat, says defence minister

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Yoav Gallant’s proposal suggests Palestinians would run day to day administration of territory

The Israeli defence minister has suggested that Israel would keep security control of Gaza after Hamas has been defeated with an undefined, Israeli-guided Palestinian body running day to day administration and the US, European Union and regional partners taking responsibility for the reconstruction of the territory.

Yoav Gallant revealed the plan to media on Thursday before a visit by Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, and after growing pressure from the US for Israel to make proposals for postwar scenarios.

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Unauthorised Jewish settlements surge in occupied West Bank, says watchdog – as it happened

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This blog is now closed. Our full report on the latest developments in the Middle East is here and all our Israel-Gaza war coverage here

The German government is monitoring the situation on the border between Israel and Lebanon, a German foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday, as the country’s top diplomat prepares to travel to the Middle East for talks.

The spokesperson said:

The risk of escalation is unfortunately very real.

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