2 h. ago Trump explains his pivot on Qatar after accusing them of funding terrorism in 2017

Donald Trump heaped praise on Qatar for their role in securing the release of Israeli hostages and helping rebuild Gaza after previously accusing the gulf state of funding terrorism.

Politics

4 h. ago Red Cross teams search Gaza ruins for the remains of Israeli hostages after Hamas were warned they had until tonight to return the remaining bodies

The International Committee of the charity said it may take considerable time to hand over the remains of hostages and detainees killed in the Israel-Hamas war

Events

5 h. ago Released Israeli hostages give accounts of torture, torment and extraordinary danger

Descriptions of captivity suggest Hamas had a change of approach in recent weeks as ceasefire talks progressedGaza ceasefire – live updatesAfter the jubilation in Israel of the return of the last Gaza hostages, stories of their time in captivity, hidden away in tents and tunnels, are emerging.Some described being tortured and tormented. Others, though, recalled moments of co-existence with their captors under the most extreme of circumstances. One played cards with the men holding him and even cooked for them. Another said the captors would speak Hebrew for ease of communication. Continue reading...

Politics

7 h. ago The hidden health problems Israel's last 20 hostages could face for YEARS after being released from Gaza

The current condition of all the hostages - men aged between 21 and 48 - is unknown after they were returned yesterday following the signing of the Gaza peace deal.

Politics

8 h. ago Missing bodies of hostages top the list of uncertainties as fragile Gaza ceasefire holds

The tenuous ceasefire in the two-year Israel-Hamas war is holding even as complex issues remain ahead, a day after widespread jubilation over the return to Israel of the last 20 living hostages held in Gaza and the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange

Events

8 h. ago Life in Gaza may go from utter hell to mere nightmare. What happens now? | Hussein Agha and Robert Malley

It took an American president unbound by traditional domestic constraints to get this done and provide the parties with what they could acceptDonald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza demands atonement from Palestinians for the horrific acts of 7 October, not from Israel for the barbarity that followed. It calls for Gaza’s deradicalization but not an end to Israel’s messianism. It micromanages the future of Palestinian governance while saying nothing about the future of Israel’s occupation.It is riddled with ambiguities, devoid of timetables, arbiters or consequences for inevitable eventual violations. If all goes according to plan – if the deal’s vagueness is not exploited to torpedo it; unavoidable clashes over subsequent phases do not get in the way of the first stage; Arab and Muslim states maintain pressure on the United States and the United States gets Israel to comply – life for Gazans will transition from utter hell to mere nightmare. Their condition will shift from defenceless pr...

Politics

10 h. ago Keir Starmer to address nation at 12.30pm as he gives major statement to Parliament

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is due to give a statement to MPs in the House of Commons after returning from a summit on Donald Trump's Gaza peace plan in Egypt

Politics

12 h. ago Families of dead Israeli hostages accuse Netanyahu of betrayal as only four bodies are returned from Gaza

The whereabouts of 24 dead Israeli hostages remains unknown to their families, leaving them in anguish

Events

12 h. ago Families of deceased hostages accuse Israeli government of 'betrayal' as only four bodies are returned from Gaza

The whereabouts of 24 dead Israeli hostages remains unknown to their families, leaving them in anguish

Events

23 h. ago Convoy carrying Israeli hostages inside coffins returns from Gaza in heartbreaking homecoming

An IDF escort of armored cars flying the Star of David was seen on Monday night heading to the National Institute for Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv.

Politics

24 h. ago The Guardian view on peace in Gaza: the relief is real, but Trump’s promise of a ‘golden age’ rings hollow | Editorial

Hostage and prisoner releases are bringing joy to families. But there is no guarantee that the ceasefire will end Palestinian sufferingThe reprieve brought by the end of fighting in Gaza is immense. In Israel, the release of the living hostages has led to widespread elation. In Gaza and the West Bank there are also celebrations, as up to 2,000 Palestinian detainees start to be released – though there is distress, too, due to uncertainty about who is being freed and where they will be sent. In northern Gaza, people can finally return to dig through rubble for the remains of an estimated 10,000 missing people.As recently as three weeks ago, the likelihood of a ceasefire appeared remote. But it has taken effect, and on Monday Donald Trump travelled from Jerusalem, where he was cheered in the Knesset, to Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. There, he joined a high-powered peace summit of more than 20 world leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer. The plan for peace begun there is due to be c...

Politics

25 h. ago ‘I’m shaking all over’: hugs, tears and relief in Israel as Gaza hostages return

On a powerfully emotional day, 20 Israelis went home, hundreds of Palestinians were freed from prison and Trump had his perfectly scripted momentThe estimated 65,000 people in “hostages square” in Tel Aviv heard it before they saw it. Like so many sunflowers, their faces turned up to search the clear blue morning sky for the source of the sound. Then it swept into view from the west, from the direction of Gaza.A helicopter, military brown, was on the way to Ichilov hospital a few hundred metres away. But it diverted. It circled around the crowd giving each person below a view, and then tilted to its right, in an apparent salute to the cheering, waving, smiling faces below. Continue reading...

Politics

32 h. ago Voters' voices are being shut out of British politics. Your Party has a radical plan to change that | Jeremy Corbyn

At our conference in November we will use a jury service-type model to allow members to discuss and decide policy, strategy and even the name of our partyAt Labour’s latest conference, one thing stood out: the party no longer believes in democracy. Members and trade union affiliates voted to back, first the findings of a UN commission of inquiry that Israel is committing genocide, and second that the government must do all it can to prevent it.It is now two weeks since this motion was passed, but still the Labour government refuses to recognise the genocide in Gaza and allows the supply of weapons to Israel.Jeremy Corbyn is the MP for Islington North and co-leader of Your Party. He was leader of the Labour party from 2015 to 2020 Continue reading...

Politics

33 h. ago Hamas hostages list in full as Israeli prisoners released from Gaza during peace deal

Hamas has released all living hostages held in Gaza with 20 people returning to Israel meanwhile 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,700 detainees from Gaza including 22 children will be released

Events

34 h. ago Hamas returns all living Israeli hostages from Gaza as Trump meets their families on historic day: Live updates

LIVE: Hamas has released the first seven Israeli hostages as part of a monumental ceasefire agreement with Israel.

Politics

35 h. ago First Israeli hostages return to families after Gaza release as Trump arrives for historic handover: Live updates

LIVE: Hamas has released the first seven Israeli hostages as part of a monumental ceasefire agreement with Israel.

Politics

37 h. ago While the perpetrators of Gaza’s genocide pose as its saviours, survivors return home – to a wasteland | Nesrine Malik

Western leaders attending the Sharm el-Sheikh summit have enabled and sponsored this slaughter. They are in no position to build a Palestinian futureToday, Sharm el-Sheikh will host the most high-profile gathering of global leaders in the Middle East of recent years. Donald Trump, Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, Pedro Sánchez and others are meeting “to end the war in the Gaza Strip, enhance efforts to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East, and usher in a new era of regional security and stability”.If the ceasefire holds, this language is an augur of the future. One where there is no reckoning, no addressing of root causes. Only a hurtling into the imperatives of cleanings-up and workings-out. All the while illegal occupation continues, and another chapter of Israel’s violations is furtively closed without accountability not only for Israel, but for its sponsors.Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Events

48 h. ago US envoy calls Phillipson ‘delusional’ for saying UK played ‘key role’ on Gaza

The Education Secretary had insisted the UK had done important ‘behind-the-scenes’ work in the Middle East on Sunday.

Politics

49 h. ago US envoy calls Phillipson ‘delusional’ for claim UK played ‘key role’ on Gaza

The Education Secretary had insisted the UK had done important ‘behind-the-scenes’ work in the Middle East on Sunday.

Politics

53 h. ago Israel rejects Phillipson’s claim UK played ‘key role’ securing Gaza ceasefire

Benjamin Netanyahu’s deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel said she would ‘have to contradict’ the assertion.

Politics