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Inquiry has not backed up allegations of ties to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which led to loss of $450m as people died in drovesIsrael has yet to provide evidence of Unrwa staff terrorist links, Colonna report saysUnsupported Israeli allegations about Unrwa links to terrorism led major donors to cut $450m in funding to the main humanitarian agency working in Gaza at a time when...

Expected measures are under Leahy law and against the Netzah Yehuda battalion, accused of human rights violations against PalestiniansBenjamin Netanyahu has said he will fight against any efforts to impose sanctions on Israeli military units, amid reports that an Israel Defense Forces battalion is facing US sanctions over its treatment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.The US outlet Axios reported on Saturday that...

More than half of Gaza’s population has sought refuge in areaOvernight Israeli strikes on Rafah killed 18 people, including 14 children, health officials have said in an update (earlier we reported that 13 people, including 9 children, were killed in the overnight strikes).The first strike killed a man, his wife and their 3-year-old child, according to the nearby Kuwaiti hospital, which received the bodies....

Grim milestone comes as G7 leaders urge Netanyahu not to press ahead with Rafah invasionThe death toll from Israel’s war on Gaza climbed to more than 34,000 on Saturday, with the majority of victims women and children, including at least six killed by an overnight airstrike on a house in Rafah.The latest grim milestone comes as hope of a ceasefire has dimmed, and global...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

France’s foreign minister says they will continue to pressure Israel to obtain the opening for humanitarian aidRecent tragedies in Gaza are not a reason to “walk away from Israel”, the former British home secretary, Suella Braverman, said.Asked if the UK should still be selling arms to Israel, Braverman told LBC: “I don’t think the fact that these tragedies happen is a reason to walk...

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...

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn gives jam as swathe of film and TV celebrities add support, including Zone of Interest’s Jonathan Glazer and Thor’s Tessa Thompson A host of film directors and stars, including Susan Sarandon, Paul Mescal and Olivia Colman, have added their names to those offering time and memorabilia to a Cinema for Gaza auction that is raising funds for humanitarian relief...

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...

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...

In response, White House pushes back and rules out putting US monitors on ground after seven aid workers killed in Gaza The White House has pushed back on comments by World Central Kitchen founder José Andrés that Israel is engaged in “war against humanity itself” following the Israeli drone strike attack that killed seven of his aid workers on 1 April, but ruled out...

Drawdown after four months of fighting in Khan Younis coincides with new ceasefire talksIsrael has pulled all of its ground troops out of southern Gaza for “tactical reasons”, the country’s army has said, raising questions about the future direction of the war as Hamas and Israeli delegations travel to Egypt for a new round of ceasefire talks.Two brigades will stay in the northern half...

Each time Madrid and Dublin speak out on the war in Gaza others are emboldened to join them, sources sayMiddle East crisis – live updatesBenjamin Netanyahu’s claim that the Israeli military’s killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza on Monday night was “a tragic incident” did precious little to allay the fears of Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez. Nor did his...

Steps approved in Israel to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza include temporary reopening of crossing in the northSee all our Israel-Gaza war coverageBenjamin Netanyahu’s office has said his security cabinet has approved a series of steps to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, including the temporary reopening of a key crossing that was destroyed in the 7 October Hamas...