This blog is now closed. See all our Israel-Gaza war coverage here
The US defence secretary has invited dozens of countries to take steps to address Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping as he spoke at a defence ministerial to tout a new military operation to secure commerce in the waterway.
“We’re all here because many countries can directly contribute to our common efforts to keep strategic waterways safe,” Lloyd Austin said, according to prepared remarks.
Continue reading...Lloyd Austin discusses focus on precise targeting of Hamas leaders; however, UN delays vote calling for cessation of hostilities
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has held talks with Israeli officials about shifting away from large-scale aerial and ground operations in the Gaza Strip to a new phrase in the war focused on the precise targeting of Hamas leaders.
“Hamas should never again be able to project terror from Gaza into Israel. This is Israel’s operation; I’m not here to dictate timelines or terms,” Austin told reporters after meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defence counterpart, Yoav Gallant, in Tel Aviv on Monday. He added that protecting Palestinian civilians in Gaza was “both a moral duty and a strategic imperative”.
Continue reading...Labour leader also reiterates support for ‘two-stage solution’ as ‘the only way this is going to be resolved’
Keir Starmer has joined Rishi Sunak in calling for a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza, as the political rhetoric continues to shift away from unqualified support for Israel’s assault in line with moves from the US and others.
Some senior Conservatives were even more explicit. Ben Wallace, a former defence secretary, said Israel’s “killing rage” risked it losing international support, and Alicia Kearns, who chairs the Commons foreign affairs committee, said she believed Israel had broken international humanitarian law.
Continue reading...Former Tory peer claims she never concealed her link to PPE Medpro from officials dealing with the contract
Mark Harper, the transport secretary, has announced in a written statement that Transport for London is getting a capital funding settlement worth £250m for 2024. It will fund upgrades to the Piccadilly line. Sadiq Khan, the mayor, welcomed that announcement but, as the Evening Standard reports, said “a decent long-term funding settlement” from the government was still needed.
Rishi Sunak has said that too many civilian lives have been lost in Gaza – but declined to back Ben Wallace’s claim that Israel is engaged in a “killing rage”. (See 10.27am.)
Israel obviously has a right to defend itself against what was an appalling terrorist attack perpetrated by Hamas, but it must do that in accordance with humanitarian law.
It’s clear that too many civilian lives have been lost and nobody wants to see this conflict go on a day longer than it has to.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed
The UN security council is to be asked to support a new call for an urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities that allows the delivery of humanitarian aid by land sea and air.
The resolution places pressure on the US not to protect Israel again by using its veto as one of the five permanent members of the 15-member security council.
Continue reading...Ziad, a 35-year-old Palestinian, describes the extra hardship that winter rain brings and a friend reminisces about a cappuccino
8am
I have never been a fan of the sun nor the sunny weather. I am a lover of the rain, winter and tree leaves falling. I remember at high school – my English language teacher would always ask me and other students during the recess to stand in the sun. “Hug the sun, feel its warmth. It is full of vitamin D.” I did what she asked but never liked it.
On the other hand, this teacher opened the door for me to learn about literature, which I loved. In class, we would read summarised classics like Great Expectations, Pride and Prejudice and A Tale of Two Cities.
Continue reading...Vincent Nichols says shooting of mother and daughter did nothing to further Israel’s right to defend itself
The shooting of a mother and daughter allegedly by an Israeli military sniper in a church compound in Gaza City was a “cold–blooded killing”, the most senior Catholic cleric in England has said.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster, said the shooting did “nothing to further Israel’s right to defend itself”.
Continue reading...With pupils and teachers uprooted and buildings destroyed, it is likely to be many months before classes can resume
Mohammad Mosa packed his laptop when he fled his home in October and hoped he would still be able to Zoom into classes between airstrikes. The 14-year-old has his heart set on a competitive scholarship and has studied through wars before.
Two months later, the only new thing he has learned is how to bake bread over an open fire. Intense bombardment and a tight blockade have meant that civilian life in Gaza has turned into a daily fight to survive, and education is one of the many casualties.
Continue reading...Fatalities in last 24 hours come amid public anger over mistaken killing of three hostages by Israeli forces
Airstrikes in the Gaza Strip have killed at least 100 people over the last 24 hours, as Israel’s leadership faces growing international pressure for a ceasefire and calls at home to resume hostage negotiations after the Israeli army shot and killed three men kidnapped by Hamas.
The health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory said on Sunday that at least 90 people had been killed by Israeli bombardment in the Jabalia camp in the north, and another 12 had died in bombings in the central city of Deir al-Balah, as fighting was reported in several parts of Gaza.
Continue reading...Oxford and Abingdon MP’s extended family among those sheltering in besieged Holy Family church in Gaza City
“I fear my family under siege by Israeli forces in a church in Gaza will not survive until Christmas, between the snipers and the lack of water.”
Those were the stark words of Layla Moran, the MP for Oxford and Abingdon whose extended Christian Palestinian family members are among those who have been trapped inside the Holy Family church complex in Gaza City for 60 days.
Continue reading...Lawyer who has advised foreign secretary says Israel has the capacity, but not the will, to relocate even one settler
Nearly 200,000 of the 700,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank would have to be relocated to Israel to create a viable Palestinian state, according to an Israeli lawyer from whom the UK foreign secretary, Lord Cameron, has sought advice on his visits to Israel.
Cameron has said he realises reaching a two-state solution would be tough, but he has not spelled out the practical consequences in terms of borders, including the need to persuade so many Israelis to relocate.
Continue reading...Change of heart on ceasefire shows ‘collective action is working’, Sydney protest speaker says
Speakers at Sydney’s pro-Palestine rally have said public outcry against the war in Gaza has pushed the Albanese government to shift its position and back calls for a humanitarian ceasefire, while criticising Labor for not calling for a permanent end to the conflict.
On Wednesday Australia joined 152 other nations in voting in favour of a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and an immediate and unconditional release of all hostages in an emergency session of the United Nations general assembly. The move followed Australia’s decision in late October to abstain from casting a vote on a similar motion.
Continue reading...UK foreign minister David Cameron and German counterpart Annalena Baerbock say goal must be peace lasting ‘generations’
The foreign secretary, David Cameron, has called for a “sustainable” ceasefire in the Gaza conflict, as he warned that “too many civilians have been killed” by Israel in spite of its right to eliminate the threat posed by Hamas.
In a significant shift in tone by the UK government, Cameron, in a joint article with the German foreign affairs minister Annalena Baerbock, wrote: “Our goal cannot simply be an end to fighting today. It must be peace lasting for days, years, generations. We therefore support a ceasefire, but only if it is sustainable.
Continue reading...‘Beyond desperate and terrified’ relatives among hundreds inside compound amid bombing by Israeli forces
An MP’s relatives have been trapped alongside hundreds of other civilians in a Catholic church in Gaza City since almost the start of the conflict, and the situation has only grown more dire in recent days.
Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford and Abingdon, told the BBC that some of her Christian Palestinian extended family – a grandmother, her son, his wife and their 11-year-old twins – sought refuge inside the Holy Family Church complex after their home was bombed in the first week of the war.
Continue reading...Deaths of Hani Jnena, 32, wife and daughters aged 2 and 4 led NGO to call for Biden to demand Israeli accountability
A contractor for the US Agency for International Development (USAid) in Gaza was killed with his wife and two daughters aged four and two in an Israeli airstrike in November, his employer said on Saturday.
“We are deeply saddened to confirm the tragic loss of our colleague, Hani Jnena (33), along with his family in Gaza, including his wife, Abeer (32), and their two young daughters, Mariam and Zayna, aged 4 and 2,” the non-profit organization Global Communities, which partners with governments and private-sector entities for humanitarian work, said in a statement.
Continue reading...Residents of Jenin say Israeli army seems intent only on revenge as they pick through wreckage of their homes
Fluffy pink slippers on her feet and scarves thrown over her hair and pyjamas, Amal Abu Ghazi, 39, leaned against a wall as she watched her family clear out the rubble from their ruined house in the Jenin refugee camp, in the north of the occupied West Bank.
Her husband used a stick to smash the remaining shards of glass out of the window frames of their two-storey home and her brothers-in-law hauled out the remains of sofas and tables; somehow, a laptop had managed to survive intact. Israeli soldiers had burst in two nights ago, Abu Ghazi said, arresting her sons, 20 and 18, and ordering the rest of the family to wait outside before troops used explosives to demolish the building.
Continue reading...This blog has now closed. Read our full report on the latest developments here.
Israel has said it is opening a military police investigation into the killing of two Palestinians in the West Bank after an Israeli human rights group posted videos that appeared to show Israeli troops killing the men – one who was incapacitated and the second unarmed – during a military raid in a West Bank refugee camp.
The B’Tselem human rights group accused the army of carrying out a pair of “illegal executions”.
Continue reading...The militant group’s ideology and its complex tunnel network means it is no ordinary enemy
Israel’s insistence to the Biden administration that it needs more time to defeat Hamas has raised questions over the level of damage inflicted on the Islamist militant organisation, and whether it is changing tactics in its fight against the Israel Defense Forces.
In a week in which nine Israeli soldiers were killed, including two senior commanders and several other officers in a single complex ambush in the Shejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City, analysts and commentators have begun to question previously bullish assessments about Hamas’s ability to fight.
Continue reading...Two men, one unarmed and the other already injured, died after being shot in a military raid on a refugee camp
Israel has said it is opening a military police investigation into the killing of two Palestinians in the West Bank after an Israeli human rights group posted videos that appeared to show Israeli troops killing the men – one who was incapacitated and the second unarmed – during a military raid in a West Bank refugee camp.
The B’Tselem human rights group accused the army of carrying out a pair of “illegal executions.”
Continue reading...IDF identifies hostages killed as Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer El-Talalqa, saying they were mistakenly believed to be a threat
The Israeli military has said that its troops shot and killed three hostages being held by Hamas after mistakenly identifying them as a threat during fighting in a battle-torn neighbourhood of Gaza City.
The announcement on Friday came amid heavy fighting across the embattled territory that led to an influx of dead and wounded into hospitals in Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah.
Continue reading...