8 h. ago Is Britain breaking international law over Israel to avoid offending Trump? We may find out in court this week | Yasmine Ahmed

The UK’s arms exports to Israel will be tested again as a Palestinian rights group challenges the governmentYasmine Ahmed is UK director of Human Rights WatchOn Tuesday, the British government will be in the high court defending the indefensible: its continuing approval of arms exports to Israel. As the government’s lawyers take the floor to deliver their opening remarks – in a case that was brought by the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq and is supported by Human Rights Watch – thousands of children in Gaza will be starving. This is the result of an Israeli blockade on food, aid and medical supplies that defies the binding orders of the international court of justice.Thousands of mothers will be mourning the children they have lost in an assault on Gaza that is estimated to have cost the lives of more than 50,000 people, according to the Gaza ministry of health. Thousands of people will be homeless, forcibly displaced and living among the rubble of the towns and cities they no...

Politics

11 h. ago California State students protest aid blockade in Gaza with hunger strike

Two dozen fasting students also press university system to divest from weapon manufacturers in list of demandsAround two dozen California State University students began a hunger strike last week to protest starvation in Gaza due to Israel’s aid blockade, marking the latest act of political protest on college campuses.The strikers – students from San Jose State, Sacramento State, San Francisco State and CSU Long Beach – began their fast on 5 May Continue reading...

Events

18 h. ago AP PHOTOS: UN agencies warn that Israel's plans for aid distribution will endanger lives in Gaza

International aid agencies warn that plans presented by Israel to control aid distribution in Gaza will only increase suffering and death in the devastated Palestinian territory. They called on Friday for an end to Israel’s total blockade of Gaza that has blocked all food and other supplies from reaching its 2.3 million people for nearly 10 weeks.

Events

55 h. ago Israeli airstrikes kill 23 in Gaza as outcry over aid blockade grows

Health officials say Israeli airstrikes overnight and into Saturday have killed at least 23 Palestinians in Gaza

Events

3 d. ago UN agencies warn Israel plans for aid distribution endanger lives in Gaza

International aid agencies warn that plans presented by Israel to control aid distribution in Gaza will only increase suffering and death in the devastated Palestinian territory

Events

3 d. ago Aid groups voice alarm as US pushes Israeli plan for Gaza assistance

Groups say plan to resume limited humanitarian assistance under strict Israeli rules ‘risks enabling war crimes’US politics live – latest updatesAid groups have voiced alarm at US moves to pressure them into accepting an Israeli proposal to resume limited humanitarian assistance to the war-ravaged territory under strictly controlled conditions.The Trump administration has attempted to strong-arm international agencies – including the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) – into accepting Israel’s stringent rules for resuming deliveries, according to sources familiar with the discussions and news reports. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago Solution to get food and aid to Gaza is ‘steps away’, US state department says – live

Gaza is on the brink of catastrophe after two months of a total blockade by Israel, aid workers say, with many families down to one meal a dayThe winners and losers of Trump’s first tariff war strongly suggest that bankruptcies and farm consolidation could surge during his second term, with major corporations best placed to benefit from his polices at the expense of independent farmers.New analysis by the non-profit research advocacy group Food and Water Watch (FWW), shared exclusively with the Guardian, shows that Trump’s first-term tariffs were particularly devastating for farmers in the Maga rural heartlands. Continue reading...

Society

4 d. ago Leading aid group shuts down its soup kitchens across Gaza over Israel's blockade

A leading aid group says that Israel’s ongoing blockade of humanitarian assistance for Gaza has forced it to shut down its community soup kitchens

Politics

5 d. ago Children so malnourished they’re losing their sight: Inside Israel’s aid blockade on Gaza

The blockade has led to famine-like conditions for the two million people living on the Strip, and at least 9,000 children have been admitted for treatment of acute malnutrition since the start of the year

Politics

5 d. ago UN experts demand action to avert ‘annihilation’ of Palestinians in Gaza – Middle East crisis live

More than 20 experts call on countries to act or ‘witness the slaughter of innocents’‘Desperate people’: Gaza faces wave of looting, theft and violenceThe Dutch government, seen as one of Israel’s most loyal allies in the European Union, is calling for an urgent review of the EU Israel association agreement, the basis for the EU-Israeli free trade agreement, the Dutch foreign minister Caspar Veldkamp told the Guardian.Veldkamp described the Israeli ban on the supply of aid into Gaza as “catastrophic, truly dismal” and in clear breach of international humanitarian law.You cannot starve the people of the Gaza Strip. It is against international law. It’s morally wrong. It’s dangerous. I don’t think it’s in Israel’s own interest. Continue reading...

Events

6 d. ago Trump says nothing Carney says will stop tariffs after PM insists Canada ‘will never be for sale’ – live

Trump claims he wants ‘friendship’ between US and Canada as new PM visits White HouseA group of US senators wants Congress’ watchdog agency to investigate whether controls on humanitarian aid deliveries by Israel and other foreign governments violate US law, according to a letter seen by Reuters.The six senators – Chris Van Hollen, Dick Durbin, Jeff Merkley, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Peter Welch – wrote to Gene Dodaro, the comptroller general, asking him to launch an investigation by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office into the US government’s implementation of laws regarding the delivery of humanitarian assistance. Continue reading...

Politics

6 d. ago Carney says Canada ‘will never be for sale’ and Trump responds ‘never say never’ – live

Trump claims he wants ‘friendship’ between US and Canada as new PM visits White HouseTrump and Carney to meet in closely-watched encounterA group of US senators wants Congress’ watchdog agency to investigate whether controls on humanitarian aid deliveries by Israel and other foreign governments violate US law, according to a letter seen by Reuters.The six senators – Chris Van Hollen, Dick Durbin, Jeff Merkley, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Peter Welch – wrote to Gene Dodaro, the comptroller general, asking him to launch an investigation by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office into the US government’s implementation of laws regarding the delivery of humanitarian assistance. Continue reading...

Politics

6 d. ago Palestinians ‘desperate for food but getting bombs’, says UN as it criticises Israel’s Gaza aid plan – Middle East crisis live

Reports say that Israel is planning to use private American security contractors in move that OCHA says falls short of ‘humanitarian principles’China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Lin Jian, said Beijing is “highly concerned about the current Palestine-Israel situation”.“We oppose Israel’s ongoing military actions in Gaza, and hopes all parties continuously and effectively implement the ceasefire agreement,” Jian said.The government of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, hopes that the Israel Defense Forces’ call-up of tens of thousands of reservists, the threat of the new offensive and the prospect of Israel seizing swaths of territory will force Hamas’s leaders to make concessions.If it fails to do so, then physical possession of terrain will offer useful leverage in future negotiations and allow Hamas to be squeezed further in the meantime Continue reading...

Events

6 d. ago ‘There is no life here’: Palestinians say Israel is imposing its Gaza endgame

As Israel’s aid blockade continues and humanitarian zones disappear, there is talk of a ‘second Nakba’ being realisedLike so many others across the Gaza Strip, Khalil al-Hakimi felt a weight lift from his shoulders for the first time in over a year when Israel and Hamas agreed a long-delayed ceasefire in January.He cried and hugged his five children tightly. “I slept deeply, free from the sound of bombing, destruction and death,” he said. Continue reading...

Politics

6 d. ago ‘There is no life here’: Palestinians fear Israel is imposing its Gaza endgame

As Israel’s aid blockade continues and humanitarian zones disappear, there is talk of a ‘second Nakba’ being realisedLike so many others across the Gaza Strip, Khalil al-Hakimi felt a weight lift from his shoulders for the first time in over a year when Israel and Hamas agreed a long-delayed ceasefire in January.He cried and hugged his five children tightly. “I slept deeply, free from the sound of bombing, destruction and death,” he said. Continue reading...

Politics

9 d. ago Witnesses and aid groups report looting in Gaza after two months of Israeli blockade

Organizations in Gaza, messages circulated between security officials for aid groups seen by The Associated Press and witnesses say warehouses are being looted by Palestinians, some armed, as desperation for aid spikes after more than two months of Israel’s blockade

Politics

9 d. ago Groups fear Israeli proposal for controlling aid in Gaza will forcibly displace people

Israel has blocked aid from entering Gaza for two months and says it won’t allow food, fuel, water or medicine into the besieged territory until it can prevent Hamas and other militants from siphoning it away from Palestinian civilians

Politics

1 week ago Desperate children and adults in Gaza struggle to get food as Israel blocks aid

Young children and adults in Gaza frantically wave pots and pans at charity workers

Politics

1 week ago Top UN court wraps a week of hearings on humanitarian aid to Gaza

The top United Nations court is wrapping a week of hearings on what Israel must do to ensure desperately needed humanitarian aid reaches Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank

Events

1 week ago Jerusalem fires latest: Israel declares national emergency and appeals for international aid over ‘largest ever’ wildfires

Netanyahu warns fire could reach close to Jerusalem as officials struggle to control it

Politics