59 h. ago ‘When they are at risk they text me’: Gaza academic in UK powerless to rescue family

Nearly two years after accepting a UK scholarship, Bassem Abudagga has watched Gaza’s horrors close in on his relatives, and British bureaucracy fail to helpThe silence of the early hours was unbearable, perhaps worse than on any night since 7 October 2023. Bassem Abudagga paced around his flat in Manchester waiting desperately for an answer. He knew from a WhatsApp group of 800 relatives, set up by his extended family in Gaza, that houses near where his wife and two young children were holed up to the west of Khan Younis were being hit by Israeli missiles. His wife, Marim, was not picking up.“Every single minute, I am with them 24 hours a day and night. When there is any risk, I keep in contact all the time with them online,” he says. “It depends on the connections, sometimes they are very bad. Even when I am sleeping I keep the notifications very loud and I keep just waking up when one goes off. When they are at risk they just text me. It is very exhausting because they feel that ...

Events

8 d. ago Starving Palestinians, gunfire and deadly stampede: Horror in Gaza as Israel’s aid plan descends into chaos

Israel Defense Forces admits to firing warning shots at food distribution sites in war-ravaged Gaza as the Israeli government approves 22 new illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. Nedal Hamdouna from Gaza and Bel Trew report on the growing crisis

Events

9 d. ago Gary Lineker and Dua Lipa among stars calling on Keir Starmer to 'end UK’s complicity in horrors of Gaza'

Some 300 actors, musicians, activists and others used an open letter to call on the Prime Minister to ‘take immediate action’

Events

1 week ago Member of UK Jewish body resigns over failure to call out Israel on Gaza

Daniel Grossman, one of 36 Board of Deputies members facing inquiry, says there is ‘huge shift’ among British JewsAn elected representative on the UK’s largest Jewish body has resigned, saying it had “failed to act morally and failed to represent the increasing diversity of opinion within the British Jewish community” amid growing horror at Israel’s renewed assault on Gaza.Daniel Grossman, one of 36 elected members of the Board of Deputies facing disciplinary proceedings over their criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, told a meeting called by the board last weekend that he had “no confidence in the leadership”. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Germany trumpets its reckoning with its Nazi past – except when it’s inconvenient | Hanno Hauenstein

From a media prize with a dubious pedigree to the horrors of Gaza, the establishment forgets and remembers what suits it bestGrowing up in Germany, we were taught to believe we had done better. Better than our grandparents’ generation, who swept their complicity under a thick rug of silence. Better even than our parents, whose revolts in the late 1960s rarely led to any serious reckoning with the legacy of the Holocaust.Born in the late 1980s, my generation learned about Auschwitz early on. We visited former concentration camps and studied the Nazi regime not as an alien aberration, but as a warning: this is how democracies die. Today, with the far-right AfD and ethno-chauvinism on the rise, that warning has never felt more urgent.Hanno Hauenstein is a Berlin-based journalist and author. He worked as a senior editor in Berliner Zeitung’s culture department, specialising in contemporary art and politics Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Gaza famine sees 29 elderly and children starve to death in race against time

Elderly Palestinians as well as children are now dying of starvation in stricken Gaza as a trickle of aid enters the Strip and fresh horror hits Gaza since this morning with many 'missing'

Events

2 w. ago Mounting Gaza horror as Israel presses attack despite world condemnation

Crisis-hit Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu pushes on with his horror war on Gaza - snubbing growing global condemnation, accusing one outspoken critic of uttering 'anti semitic blood libels'

Events

2 w. ago Aid workers feel helpless as Israel's blockade pushes Gaza towards famine

Humanitarian workers in Gaza have overflowed with anger, frustration and horror as Israel’s blockade pushed the territory into famine

Politics

3 w. ago The Guardian view on Israel and Gaza: Trump can stop this horror. The alternative is unthinkable | Editorial

The US president has the leverage to force through a ceasefire. If he does not, he will implicitly signal approval of what looks like a plan of total destructionDonald Trump would like a big foreign policy win as he embarks on his tour of the Middle East this week. He could secure one – and save lives – by demanding that Israel agree to a lasting ceasefire in exchange for the release of all hostages held in Gaza. He might prefer to avoid the issue, but no other leader has the leverage to force its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to end this war. If Mr Trump instead backs Israel’s current proposals, he will put the US imprimatur on what looks like a plan of total destruction.Israel’s attacks have already killed more than 52,000 people in Gaza, according to local health authorities – the vast majority of them civilians, many of them children. Bakeries, hospitals and schools have been obliterated. Aid has been blocked for two months. Gaza faces famine. Last week, Isr...

Politics

4 w. ago ‘Nothing prepares you for the devastation’: Physiotherapist recalls Gaza horrors

Rachael Moses, from Newcastle, has returned from Gaza after spending a month volunteering at one of the region’s last functioning hospitals.

Events

4 w. ago ‘Nothing prepares you for the devastation’: British physio recounts horror inside Gaza hospital under bombardment

Rachael Moses, from Newcastle, has returned from Gaza after spending a month volunteering at one of the region’s last functioning hospitals.

Events