Middle East

Speaking to the BBC’s Today programme, Mr Griffiths said: “Gaza is a war zone and the collection of data and statistics, while admirable and necessary, is first of all secondary to actually delivering some aid and, secondly, very difficult in cases of insecurity and violence. “So… be realistic, please, about …

Israel has accused South Africa of bringing “biased and false claims” to the UN’s top court in an attempt to force it to stop its military campaign in the town of Rafah in southern Gaza. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) began two days of hearings on Thursday, when South …

The US military has confirmed that the first aid shipment via a temporary pier off Gaza has gone ashore. US Central Command confirmed in a post on X that the aid trucks began moving ashore at about 0900 local time (0700 BST). “This is an ongoing, multinational effort to deliver …

That triggered a counter-letter from UK Lawyers For Israel (UKLFI). The 1,300-strong group said the ICJ had only ruled that Gaza Palestinians had a plausible right to be protected from genocide – in other words, that it had been dealing with a complex and somewhat abstract legal argument. The dispute …

The then president of the court, Joan Donoghue, told the BBC last month that the ICJ did not decide that there was a plausible case for genocide, but rather that the Palestinians had a right to be protected from genocide, as claimed by South Africa. The ICJ is not expected …

Five Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza, the military says, in one of the deadliest incidents of its kind since the war began in October. Israeli media say the troops were killed when they were mistakenly hit by Israeli tank fire on Wednesday. It happened in Jabalia in northern …

Smaller US military vessels, capable of carrying between five and 15 trucks of aid, will then transport it to a floating causeway, several hundred metres long, fixed to the beach in Gaza. Trucks will travel along the causeway before dropping off the aid at a marshalling yard on the beach. …

Unrwa’s communications director, Juliette Touma, told BBC News the agency was unable to verify the authenticity or the content of the footage, and that it did not have any information on the timing or exact location. She stressed that UN staff had evacuated the compound prior to Saturday, leaving behind …

Aid trucks destined for Gaza were blocked at a West Bank border crossing on Monday. Footage shows Israeli protesters throwing cartons of food to the ground and stomping on them. Four people including a minor have been arrested, according to a statement from their lawyers. Source link

Israel and Egypt are locked in a row over the Rafah border crossing, blaming each other for its continued closure as Gaza’s humanitarian crisis worsens. Israeli forces have taken control of the Gaza side of the crossing. On Tuesday Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz said he had told the UK …

I was lucky to have a relatively sheltered, privileged upbringing where if it was noted at all, it was seen as a vaguely charming mark of distinction. A musty old Classics teacher would tell me about the great Athenian rhetorician Demosthenes standing on the beach with stones in his mouth …

Palestinians meanwhile told Reuters news agency that Israeli tanks were advancing deeper into residential areas in south-eastern Rafah and had crossed the main north-south road to the nearby Rafah crossing with Egypt, which Israeli troops took control of on Tuesday. “The tanks advanced this morning west of Salah al-Din road, …

The United Nations General Assembly has enhanced Palestine’s rights within the organisation and called for it to be accepted as a member. The outcome saw an immediate rebuke from Israel, with the country’s UN ambassador Gilad Erdan destroying the UN charter with a tiny shredder in front of the assembly. …

The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, has spoken out against Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza. His comments came during a heated debate in New York, after which the UN General Assembly voted to enhanced Palestine’s rights within the organisation – and urged the Security Council to …

Lebanon is worried that Israel might intensify its offensive against the Lebanon-based Shia militant group Hezbollah, the country’s foreign minister has said, as the conflict between the two sides escalates along the border. In an interview with the BBC, Abdallah Bou Habib said it was unlikely Israeli forces would cross …

The United Nations says one of its staff members was killed and another injured as they travelled to a hospital in southern Gaza on Monday. It said the workers were travelling in a UN vehicle to the European Hospital in Rafah when it was struck. The UN did not mention …

Unverified footage shared on social media showed protesters toppling boxes from lorries onto the ground, and stomping on them once they’d fallen. Some videos appeared to show vehicles being set on fire later in the evening. The BBC has not been able to independently verify these. According to reports in …

It wasn’t just the past they were remembering today. Beside the rows of fresh graves at Israel’s Mount Herzl military cemetery, new plots were still being marked out – too recent for a memorial stone, their empty shapes heaped with flowers. Next to them, the vacant space stretched, shadowed with …

Sirens have sounded across Israel to mark Memorial Day, honouring its war dead. This year, Israelis also commemorate more than 1,000 victims of last October’s Hamas attack, which triggered the current war in Gaza. President Isaac Herzog opened commemorations at Jerusalem’s Western Wall on Sunday evening. Source link

Women who were filmed fleeing Jabalia on foot on Monday morning said they had decided to leave after seeing tanks advance into the area. “The tank was behind the school classrooms,” Umm Jumma told Reuters news agency. “We did not want to leave until we saw it with our own …