3 h. ago Israel attacking framework for international law compliance, ICJ hears

Court considering if Israel acted unlawfully by cutting ties with Unwra with claim it is ‘starving, killing and displacing Palestinians’Israel appears set on destroying the framework created to ensure compliance with international law in a way that will have profound consequences that reverberate far beyond Palestine, the international court of justice has heard.The warning was made at the start of five days of proceedings in The Hague that may prove critical to Israel’s future within the world body. The UN’s top court will hear from dozens of nations and organisations in order to draw up an advisory opinion on Israel’s humanitarian obligations to Palestinians more than 50 days into its total blockade on aid entering Gaza. Continue reading...

Politics

3 h. ago Israel seems set on destroying system of international law compliance, ICJ hears

Country accused of obstructing UN as court considers its decision to end cooperation with Unrwa Israel appears set on destroying the framework created to ensure compliance with international law in a way that will have profound consequences that reverberate far beyond Palestine, the international court of justice has heard.The warning was made at the start of five days of proceedings in The Hague that may prove critical to Israel’s future within the world body. The UN’s top court will hear from dozens of nations and organisations in order to draw up an advisory opinion on Israel’s humanitarian obligations to Palestinians more than 50 days into its total blockade on aid entering Gaza. Continue reading...

Politics

6 h. ago UN is threatened by Israel’s decision to cut ties with relief agency, world court told

Hague judges start five days of hearings on Gaza humanitarian crisisMiddle East crisis – live updatesThe very nature of the UN is threatened by Israel’s refusal to accept the rights of its agencies to operate freely in the occupied Palestinian territories, the international court of justice has heard.The statement was made at the start of five days of proceedings in The Hague that may prove critical to Israel’s future inside the world body. The UN’s top court will hear from dozens of nations and organisations in order to draw up an advisory opinion on Israel’s humanitarian obligations to Palestinians more than 50 days into its total blockade on aid entering Gaza. Continue reading...

Events

6 h. ago Israel’s ban on working with Gaza aid agency threatens aims of UN, ICC hears

Court considering if Israel acted unlawfully by cutting ties with Unwra with claim it is ‘starving, killing and displacing Palestinians’The very nature of the UN is threatened by Israel’s refusal to accept the rights of its agencies to operate freely in the occupied Palestinian territories, the international court of justice has heard.The statement was made at the start of five days of proceedings in The Hague that may prove critical to Israel’s future within the world body. The UN’s top court will hear from dozens of nations and organisations in order to draw up an advisory opinion on Israel’s humanitarian obligations to Palestinians more than 50 days into its total blockade on aid entering Gaza. Continue reading...

Politics

6 h. ago Israel’s ban on working with Gaza aid agency threatens aims of UN, ICJ hears

Court considering if Israel acted unlawfully by cutting ties with Unwra with claim it is ‘starving, killing and displacing Palestinians’The very nature of the UN is threatened by Israel’s refusal to accept the rights of its agencies to operate freely in the occupied Palestinian territories, the international court of justice has heard.The statement was made at the start of five days of proceedings in The Hague that may prove critical to Israel’s future within the world body. The UN’s top court will hear from dozens of nations and organisations in order to draw up an advisory opinion on Israel’s humanitarian obligations to Palestinians more than 50 days into its total blockade on aid entering Gaza. Continue reading...

Politics

9 h. ago Middle East crisis live: Israel has turned Gaza into a ‘mass grave’, top UN court hears

ICJ holding hearing about Israel’s obligation to facilitate aid to Gaza and the West Bank amid the outlawing of UnrwaTehran has accused Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to dictate US policy in negotiations after the Israeli prime minister repeated calls for Iran’s entire nuclear infrastructure to be dismantled.The US and Iran have so far held three rounds of indirect talks, mediated by Oman, aimed at sealing a deal that would block Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon but also lift crippling economic sanctions imposed by Washington.Israel’s fantasy that it can dictate what Iran may or may not do is so detached from reality that it hardly merits a response. What is striking, however, is how brazenly Netanyahu is now dictating what President Trump can and cannot do in his diplomacy with Iran Continue reading...

Events

27 h. ago Gaza on brink of catastrophe as aid runs out and prices soar, groups warn

Palestinians face starvation and severe malnutrition as Israel’s blockade continues, say aid agenciesSoaring prices of basic foodstuffs, diminishing stocks of medical supplies and sharp cuts to aid distribution threaten newly catastrophic conditions across Gaza, Palestinians and international aid officials in the battered territory are warning.Humanitarian organisations including the World Food Programme and Unwra, which supplies food and services to more than 2 million Palestinians across Gaza, have now distributed the last of their stocks of flour and other foodstuffs to the dozens of community kitchens in the territory that serve basic meals to those with no other option. Continue reading...

Events

30 h. ago Israel faces legal pressure at UN’s top court over Unrwa blockade

Hearings in The Hague over Palestinian aid agency ban mark major test of Israel’s compliance with international lawIsrael will come under sustained legal pressure this week at the UN’s top court when lawyers from more than 40 countries will claim the nation’s ban on all cooperation with the UN’s Palestinian rights agency Unrwa is a breach of the UN charter.The five days of hearings at the International court of justice in The Hague have been given a fresh urgency by Israel’s decision on 2 March to block all aid into Gaza, but the hearing will focus on whether Israel – as a signatory to the UN charter – acted unlawfully in overriding the immunities afforded to a UN body. Israel ended all contact and cooperation with Unrwa operations in Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem in November, claiming the agency had been infiltrated by Hamas, an allegation that has been contested. Continue reading...

Events

37 h. ago What is the International Court of Justice and why is it weighing in on humanitarian aid in Gaza?

The top United Nations court on Monday will begin hearing from 40 countries on what Israel must do to provide desperately needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank

Society

57 h. ago 49 killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza over 24 hours, as mediators scramble to restart ceasefire

Health officials in Gaza aid that at least 49 people were killed by Israeli strikes in the last 24 hours and Arab mediators are scrambling to restart a ceasefire

Events

3 d. ago Why is Yale University implicitly endorsing Israeli extremist Ben

Shabtai, a Jewish society based at Yale, hosted the extremist far-right politician convicted of supporting terrorism. Why did Yale allow this?Let me start with a statement that should be obvious: deliberately starving 2 million people – half of whom are children – is indefensible. It is not complicated, it is not a nuanced situation that requires a PhD to parse. It is not an unfortunate and unavoidable part of war. It is quite simply indefensible. I would say that it is also very much prohibited by international human rights law, but that doesn’t seem to exist any more, does it?As I write this, no food, water or medicine has been allowed into Gaza for almost two months. It is impossible to know just how bad the situation really is because Israel has imposed a media blackout on the region. However, aid organizations have said: “The Gaza Strip is now likely facing the worst humanitarian crisis in the 18 months” since the war began. Thousands of children are malnourished. Childhood mal...

Politics

7 d. ago IDF troops are accused of carrying out 'summary executions' of 15 Gaza aid workers as Israel sacks deputy commander over the incident

Gaza's civil defence agency have rejected the findings of the army's internal probe which suggested a chain of 'professional failures' led to the incident which saw 15 aid workers killed.

Politics

8 d. ago Israel sacks deputy commander after it admits 'professional failures' over the killings of 15 Gaza aid workers by IDF troops

An Israeli investigation into the killings of 15 Palestinian medics last month in Gaza by Israeli forces said Sunday it found a chain of 'professional failures'

Events

9 d. ago Despair in Gaza as Israeli aid blockade creates crisis ‘unmatched in severity’

Palestinians pushed into new misery as supplies of food, fuel and medicine run out in seven-week siegeGaza has been pushed to new depths of despair, civilians, medics and humanitarian workers say, by the unprecedented seven-week-long Israeli military blockade that has cut off all aid to the strip.The siege has left the Palestinian territory facing conditions unmatched in severity since the beginning of the war as residents grapple with sweeping new evacuation orders, the renewed bombing of civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, and the exhaustion of food, fuel for generators and medical supplies. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Disney’s Snow White starring Gal Gadot banned in Lebanon due to ‘Israel boycott list’

New live-action remake stars Rachel Zegler and Israeli actor Gadot

Events

2 w. ago Gaza rescue workers say 20 people killed in Israeli strike on residential block – Middle East crisis live

Gaza’s civil defence agency says the strike resulted in ‘20 martyrs and more than 40 injured’The Gaza health ministry said on Wednesday that at least 1,482 Palestinians have been killed since Israel resumed intense strikes on the Gaza Strip on 18 March, taking the overall death toll since the start of the war to 50,846.Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) tally based on Israeli official figures. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Gaza has become ‘a killing field’ due to Israel blocking aid, says UN secretary general – Middle East crisis live

António Guterres says ‘more than a month has passed without aid into Gaza’ as Israeli officials say there is ‘no shortage’ of aidAs calls for Lebanon’s Hezbollah to disarm gain momentum, a senior Hezbollah official told Reuters the group is ready to hold talks with the Lebanese president about its weapons if Israel withdraws from south Lebanon and stops its strikes.US-backed president Joseph Aoun, who vowed when he took office in January to establish a state monopoly on the control of arms, intends to open talks with Hezbollah over its arsenal soon, three Lebanese political sources told Reuters. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Israel kills 15 aid workers in Gaza as Red Crescent demands international probe

The bodies of the 15 aid workers, including eight medics from PRCS, were found in a mass grave in southern Gaza after the Israeli Defence Force shot the group to death two weeks ago

Events

2 w. ago Ten Brits are accused of committing war crimes 'by targeting and killing civilians and aid workers' in Gaza while fighting for Israel

The alleged war crimes include 'running a bulldozer over a dead body' and a vehicle demolishing part of a hospital.

Events

3 w. ago Doge’s attack on social security causing ‘complete, utter chaos’, staff says

Understaffed agency sent into ‘death spiral’ as employees warn Musk-led cuts will lead to structural collapseOffice closures, staffing and service cuts, and policy changes at the Social Security Administration (SSA) have caused “complete, utter chaos” and are threatening to send the agency into a “death spiral”, according to workers at the agency.The SSA operates the largest government program in the US, administering social insurance programs, including retirement, disability and survivor benefits. Continue reading...

Events