8 h. ago The Guardian view on the UN’s genocide finding: Britain – and the world – can no longer look away | Editorial

A UN commission has found Israel’s war in Gaza ranks among history’s greatest crimes. The UK government must stop hiding behind legal fictions and recognise the realityA United Nations commission of inquiry has now said what Israeli, Palestinian and international human rights organisations, as well as many genocide scholars, have already argued: that Israel’s war in Gaza amounts to genocide. The commission finds that mass killings, attacks on vital infrastructure, starvation, displacement and denial of medical care meet the legal definition of history’s gravest crime. It finds genocidal intent “the only reasonable inference” from both the statements of Israel’s leaders and the conduct of its forces in Gaza.Against this, Israel’s repeated assertions that it is acting in lawful self-defence ring hollow in the face of overwhelming evidence and a deliberate pattern of destruction. The UN’s conclusion imposes moral clarity. It also demands political action, especially from those, includi...

Politics

9 h. ago Spain first of Eurovision ‘big five’ to say it will boycott event if Israel participates

State broadcaster says it will withdraw from next year’s contest in Vienna unless Israel is excluded over Gaza warSpain has become the latest country to confirm it will not take part in next year’s Eurovision song contest if Israel participates, with the head of its state broadcaster saying “the genocide currently taking place make[s] it impossible for us to look the other way”.The majority decision by RTVE board members makes Spain the first of the “big five” Eurovision countries that contribute the most money to the event to take such action in response to Israel’s offensive in Gaza. Continue reading...

Politics

12 h. ago Trump says Russian oil purchases by EU and Nato countries must ‘stop immediately’ — Europe live

US president adds that ‘Zelenskyy will have to make a deal’ and that Ukraine ‘is in serious trouble’ as he departs for UK state visitEU commissioners will on Wednesday agree to impose new sanctions against Israel over its war in Gaza, a spokesperson for the commission said on Tuesday.“Tomorrow, commissioners will be adopting a package of measures on Israel,” spokesperson Paula Pinho said, as reported by Reuters.“Specifically, a proposal to suspend certain trade provisions in the agreements between the EU and Israel.” Continue reading...

Politics

14 h. ago Spain says it will withdraw from 2026 Eurovision song contest if Israel takes part — Europe live

Spain is the first of the ‘Big Five’ countries to threaten withdrawal from the competition following vote at state broadcaster RTVEEU commissioners will on Wednesday agree to impose new sanctions against Israel over its war in Gaza, a spokesperson for the commission said on Tuesday.“Tomorrow, commissioners will be adopting a package of measures on Israel,” spokesperson Paula Pinho said, as reported by Reuters.“Specifically, a proposal to suspend certain trade provisions in the agreements between the EU and Israel.” Continue reading...

Politics

15 h. ago Spain votes to withdraw from 2026 Eurovision song contest if Israel takes part — Europe live

Spain is the first of the ‘Big Five’ countries to threaten withdrawal from the competition following vote at state broadcaster RTVEEU commissioners will on Wednesday agree to impose new sanctions against Israel over its war in Gaza, a spokesperson for the commission said on Tuesday.“Tomorrow, commissioners will be adopting a package of measures on Israel,” spokesperson Paula Pinho said, as reported by Reuters.“Specifically, a proposal to suspend certain trade provisions in the agreements between the EU and Israel.” Continue reading...

Politics

17 h. ago Netanyahu claims trade boycotts over Gaza will force Israeli economy to become ‘super Sparta’

Israeli PM admits Israel is ‘in isolation’ amid growing alarm over its war in Gaza and humanitarian crisis

Politics

6 d. ago Von der Leyen proposes bolder EU sanctions against Israel over the war in Gaza

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced plans to seek sanctions and a partial trade suspension against Israel over its military actions in Gaza

Politics

6 d. ago Holding Liat review – powerful study of a family torn apart by Hamas’ 7 October attacks

Brandon Kramer’s documentary complicates any simple view of the Israel-Gaza war in its portrait of one family’s agonising divisionsAt the present moment, for pro-Palestinian campaigners, mention of the hostages and victims of Hamas’s 7 October attacks tends to be greeted with indifference, or even contempt. And yet this powerful and complex documentary, directed by Brandon Kramer (a distant relative of some of the people involved) and co-produced by Darren Aronofsky, is a reminder that the situation now can’t be understood without remembering the Hamas massacre – how it was calculated to provoke a rage-filled reaction that would discredit Israel internationally, what it meant and continues to mean within Israel and how the political and ideological connotations of the hostages have themselves evolved.At first, the hostages’ images were widely seen as a focus for outrage and a casus belli. Posters put up in cities showing the hostages were ripped down - to the fury of their families....

Events

6 d. ago Keir Starmer will meet Israeli president Isaac Herzog as MPs express ‘grave concern’ at the visit – UK politics live

The visit is seen as highly contentious amid the war in Gaza and Israel’s bombing of Qatar in a targeted strike aimed at Hamas officialsPeter Mandelson, the British ambassador to the US, has spoken at length about how he regrets “very, very deeply indeed” his past friendship with the billionaire paedophile sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.After new evidence about the extent of that friendship came to light yesterday, Mandelson gave an interview to the Sun’s editor-at-large in the US, Harry Cole, accepting that the disclosures were “very embarrassing to see and to read”.I just feel two things now – one, I feel a tremendous sense, a profound sense of sympathy for those people, those women, who suffered as a result of his behaviour and his illegal criminal activities.Secondly, I regret very, very deeply indeed carrying on that association with him for far longer than I should have done I just would say this during all the time I was an associate of his, I never saw the wrongdoing. I neve...

Politics

6 d. ago EU leader calls for sanctions against Israel over the war in Gaza

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced plans to seek sanctions and a partial trade suspension against Israel over the war in Gaza

Politics

6 d. ago EU commission president seeks sanctions, partial trade suspension against Israel over war in Gaza

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says she plans to seek sanctions and a partial trade suspension against Israel over the war in Gaza

Politics

7 d. ago Voices: Gaza’s journalists are being silenced as the world watches – who will tell our story?

Last month, our tent in Gaza City was attacked by Israel, killing my colleagues Anas al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, and four other journalists, writes Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael al-Dahdouh. How many more lives must be lost before the world pays attention?

Politics

7 d. ago Keir Starmer faces Labour backlash as Government decides Israel has NOT committed genocide in Gaza

The Government said it had not concluded Israel is acting with the 'intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group'.

Politics

1 week ago There are only two ways to get a breakthrough in Israel – and stop Netanyahu from destroying Gaza

The Israeli government has repeatedly said the release of all remaining hostages and disarmament of Hamas would end the war, but in reality, Netanyahu’s military objectives in Gaza City come first, sources tell chief international correspondent Bel Trew

Politics

1 week ago Teaching the deaf to survive in a silent war zone: How Gaza is even more dangerous when you can’t hear Israel’s missiles coming

When bombs fall on the Gaza Strip, members of the deaf community are particularly vulnerable, Ezz Al Din Abu Eisha reports

Events

1 week ago Lush shuts all UK stores, factories and website in 'solidarity with Gaza' amid Israel’s war against Hamas

The cosmetics giant operates more than 100 shops across the country, including 12 in London

Politics

2 w. ago Ireland calls out the genocide in Gaza while profiting from Israeli war bonds. That’s why I’m joining the flotilla | Naoise Dolan

My government pays lip service to Palestine but remains complicit. Like many Irish citizens, I refuse toHundreds of people from 44 countries are sailing to Gaza in the Global Sumud Flotilla this week. I am among them. We aim to non-violently break Israel’s illegal siege by delivering much-needed supplies. I joined the mission because, as an Irish person, I have watched my government meet what our taoiseach acknowledges to be a genocide with little more than the occasional round of three Hail Marys.In fact, that framing is overly generous. The Irish government is not just passively useless in the face of genocide; it aids and abets the perpetrators. US military planes potentially carrying arms to Israel routinely pass through Ireland’s Shannon airport without inspection. A 2018 Occupied Territories bill originally intended to ban all trade with illegal Israeli settlements is now in its seventh year of legislative limbo, with endless dithering as to whether it should include services....

Politics

2 w. ago ‘We fear we are next’: Palestinian journalists in Gaza targeted by Israeli smear campaigns

With the Committee to Protect Journalists warning that more reporters are at risk of being killed by Israeli ‘war crimes’, Bel Trew and Nedal Hamdouna hear from those whose work places them firmly in the firing line

Politics

2 w. ago Palestinians flee Gaza City as escalating Israeli offensive kills 77

Israeli official reveals plan to halt or limit aid into northern Gaza even as malnutrition kills 10 more people

Events

2 w. ago UN human rights staff urge leadership to declare Israel’s war in Gaza a genocide

Internal letter also calls on UN member states to suspend arms sales, saying ‘criticising Israel is not enough’Middle East crisis – live updatesHundreds of employees of the United Nations’ leading human rights agency have backed an internal letter telling its leadership to declare Israel’s offensive in Gaza a genocide and to call on UN member states to suspend arms sales to Israel.The 1,100-word letter, signed by about a quarter of the 2,000 staff of the Geneva- and New York-based Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), says the Israeli offensive in Gaza meets the legal threshold of genocide and that this means “arms sales, transfers and related logistical or financial support to Israeli authorities” constitutes a clear breach of international law by all those involved. Continue reading...

Politics