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IDF confirms buying thousands of tents for evacuation, raising fears over long-threatened attackIsrael has reportedly deployed extra artillery and armoured personnel carriers to the Gaza Strip periphery, suggesting that the military is preparing for its long-threatened ground offensive on Rafah, the only place of relative safety for at least 1.4 million displaced Palestinian civilians.Israeli daily Ma’ariv also said on Wednesday that troops had been...

UK foreign secretary is probably first non-Israeli politician to admit military reprisal is inevitable but urges Israel not to escalateDavid Cameron has said it is clear Israel is “making a decision to act” in response to last weekend’s Iranian mass drone and ballistic missile attack, as Benjamin Netanyahu brushed off calls for restraint and said his country would make its own decisions about how...

Labour shadow minister also says Israel should be held accountable before international tribunal for war conduct in GazaMiddle East crisis – live updatesLisa Nandy, the UK’s shadow minister for international development, has called for support for the UN relief agency, Unrwa, warning that “time has run out for hundreds of thousands” of people in Gaza.Nandy is in Washington this week attending the spring meetings...

Exclusive: Government ministries and offices behind most contentious of projects, which will create thousands of housing unitsIsrael’s government has accelerated the construction of settlements across East Jerusalem, with more than 20 projects totalling thousands of housing units having been approved or advanced since the start of the war in Gaza six months ago, planning documents show.Ministries and offices within the Israeli government are behind...

National security adviser Jake Sullivan made the announcement as EU considers similar movesSee all our updates on the Israel-Gaza war and wider Middle East crisisThe US has said it will impose sanctions aimed at Iran’s missile and drone programme as well as the Revolutionary Guard and defence ministry in the next few days, and expects its allies to follow suit, in the wake of...

UN human rights office expresses concern over escalating violence after deaths near Nablus over weekendThe UN and the UK have voiced grave concern over escalating violence in the West Bank, demanding that Israeli security forces “immediately” stop supporting settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied territory.The comments came hours after two Palestinian men were killed by Israeli settlers in a northern village south of...

Flights delayed and traffic disrupted as protesters in major US cities intensify call for ceasefire in GazaThousands of people held protests across the US on Monday condemning Israel’s attack on Gaza, shutting down airports and disrupting traffic in major cities from New York to San Francisco.A portion of the Kennedy Expressway into Chicago O’Hare international airport, one of the US’s busiest, was blocked off...

General gives clearest confirmation yet that Israel will hit back but it is unclear what form response will takeIsrael’s top general has said the country will respond to Iran’s missile and drone attack, but it remains unclear what form that response will take and whether it will be so forceful that it could tip a worsening spiral of violence into a full-scale regional war.US...

In today’s newsletter: Mohammad Ali Shabani, editor of Amwaj.media, explains the internal dynamics in Tehran, and what Israel and America may do next• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning. For the first time, Iran has launched a direct attack against Israel from its own soil – and the Middle East stands closer to an all-out regional war than at any...

Israel signals it will not immediately act alone, while US states it would not take part in any counter-offensive against TehranMiddle East crisis – live updatesIsrael is weighing its response to Iran’s unprecedented missile and drone assault on its territory, signalling on Sunday night that it would not immediately act alone, but insisting its forces remained on high alert and that the leadership had...

Israeli military says 99% of Iran’s 300 drones and missiles intercepted during overnight attackFull report: Iran warns it will strike again if Israel or US retaliateWhat we know so farJordan declared a state of emergency amid Iran’s drone attack on Israel, Reuters reported, citing state media.Two regional security sources told Reuters that the country’s air defenses are prepared to intercept and shoot down any...

Islamic Republic’s first ever direct attack on Jewish state involved more than 300 drones and missiles, and raises the risk of a broader regional conflagrationIran launches attack against Israel – live updatesIran missile and drone attack on Israel – what we know so farIran launched more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel on Saturday night, in the Islamic Republic’s first ever direct attack...

US president convenes top advisers as US and Jordanian forces help Israel intercept barrageIran launches attack against Israel – liveIran said it launched dozens of drones and ballistic missiles towards Israel on Saturday in a major attack following days of acute tension building up in the region and warnings from the US and elsewhere about a wider conflict erupting.Air attack warning sirens began wailing...

The warning from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations offered no details about the boarding See all our coverage of the Middle East crisisThe search for a missing Israeli teenager resumed on Saturday in the occupied West Bank, where settler attacks on Palestinian villages have left at least one dead and dozens injured, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP) citing sources on both sides.The Israeli army...

Few of Hamas’s senior leaders have been harmed but its ability to govern is reduced and thousands of fighters are deadSix months after the surprise attacks it launched into Israel, triggering the Gaza conflict, Hamas is weakened and divided but far from defeated, experts, officials and sources close to the militant Islamist organisation say.Hamas remains in de facto control of swaths of Gaza, including...

President said US are ‘devoted to the defence of Israel’ as he urged Tehran to show restraint Joe Biden has said he expects an Iranian attack on Israel “sooner rather than later” and issued a last-ditch message to Tehran: “Don’t.”“We are devoted to the defence of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” Biden told reporters...

Samantha Power becomes first US official to confirm famine, while aid workers decry continuing lack of help ‘Man-made starvation’: the obstacles to Gaza aid deliveries – visual guideA promised surge in aid into Gaza that Benjamin Netanyahu promised Joe Biden a week ago has so far failed to materialise, aid workers say, as the US aid chief confirmed that famine is beginning to take...

US-backed proposal involves women, children and elderly or sick hostages in Gaza being exchanged for 900 Palestinian prisonersMiddle East crisis – live updatesThe Palestinian militant group Hamas has indicated it does not have 40 captives who are still alive who meet the “humanitarian” criteria for a proposed hostages-for-prisoners ceasefire agreement with Israel.A senior Israeli official confirmed claims made at the weekend by Hamas during...

In today’s newsletter: Despite protests and the fact that almost three-quarters of Israelis want the PM to quit, huge obstacles stand in the way of his exit• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning. Almost three-quarters of the Israeli public want Benjamin Netanyahu to resign as prime minister. More than two-thirds say he is handling the war in Gaza badly. And...

Nicaragua asks UN’s highest court to halt German weapons sales to Israel, alleging it is breaching obligation to prevent genocideGermany has said Israel’s security is at “the core” of its foreign policy because of the history of the Holocaust, but denied accusations at the UN’s highest court that is aiding genocide in Gaza by arming Israel.Nicaragua has brought a case against Germany at the...

People find landscape in southern Gaza city marked by shattered buildings and stench of death from under the rubbleCivilians return to Khan Younis – in picturesThousands of Palestinians, exhausted by six months of unrelenting war and multiple displacements, trudged back to the devastated city of Khan Younis on Monday, a day after Israel’s unexpected withdrawal of its forces from southern Gaza.With many making the...

Israeli defence minister says withdrawal forms part of preparations for later attack on RafahAn Israeli strike on southern Lebanon early on Monday killed a field commander in the heavily-armed Lebanese group Hezbollah, as the United Nations warned that shelling was spreading and urged a halt to the violence.Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been exchanging fire across Lebanon’s southern frontier in parallel with the...

In today’s newsletter: The killing of aid workers in Gaza last week has western leaders under even greater scrutiny – and raises questions about the fragility of the Israeli coalition government• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning.Six months since the 7 October massacre by Hamas and the Israeli military’s ensuing ground offensive in Gaza, Israel is more isolated than ever...

Limited communications and uncertainty over detention have left many families unsure if their loved ones are alive or deadMiddle East crisis – live updatesLate one night in March, Ahmed Abu Jalala rose quietly, trying hard not to wake his family, sleeping around him on the floor of a UN-run school in northern Gaza.The 54-year-old father knew his six children needed food, but after months...