The search for a missing Israeli teenager resumed on Saturday in the occupied West Bank, where settler attacks on Palestinian villages have left at least one dead and dozens injured, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP) citing sources on both sides.
The Israeli army said it was still looking for Benjamin Achimeir, 14, who went missing early on Friday from Malachi Hashalom, an outpost near the city of Ramallah.
According to AFP, Israeli security forces and hundreds of volunteers formed a huge search party to look for the teen.
Violence erupted on Friday afternoon when Jewish settlers who were part of the manhunt raided the village of al-Mughayyir, about 500 metres (yards) west of Malachi Hashalom, according to an AFP reporter.
Israeli settlers set houses and cars on fire on Friday when they raided the village of al-Mughayyir looking for a missing Israeli teenager. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
The settlers fired off shots and torched numerous homes and cars in the village, while residents responded by throwing stones, said AFP reporters.
Mayor Amin Abu Alyah said “settlers raided the town with the excuse of searching for the missing Israeli boy,” adding that “the army arrived to back them up.”
Arafat Abu Alia, a resident of al-Mughayyir, said the Israeli army had told residents to gather on the outskirts of their village. “More than 10 houses and 50 vehicles were burnt,” he told AFP.
At least one person was killed and 25 wounded, the Palestinian health ministry said on Friday.
Overnight, the official Palestinian news agency reported that five Palestinians were injured in another settler attack in the Abu Falah village near Ramallah.
Reports of vessel being boarded near Strait of Hormuz
A British maritime organisation warned Saturday that a vessel may have been boarded by an unknown party near the crucial strait of Hormuz, reports the Associated Press (AP).
The warning from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) offered no details about the boarding in the Gulf of Oman off the Emirati port city of Fujairah.
The incident comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and the west, particularly after a suspected Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria.
According to the AP, Iran did not immediately acknowledge seizing any vessel, nor was there any report carried by state media about the incident. However, Iran since 2019 has engaged in a series of ship seizures and had attacks on vessels attributed to it amid ongoing tensions with the west over its rapidly advancing nuclear program.
The Gulf of Oman is near the strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil passes. Fujairah, on the United Arab Emirates’ eastern coast, is a main port in the region for ships to take on new oil cargo, pick up supplies or trade out crew.
Reuters report that the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) has received a report of an incident 50 nautical miles northeast of the United Arab Emirates’ Fujairah and authorities were investigating.
An explosive device was detonated in a car in an upmarket neighbourhood of Damascus, Syrian state media said on Saturday, quoting a police source.
According to a report by Agence France-Presse (AFP), it was not immediately clear who was responsible for the blast or who it targeted, but it came with tensions high in Syria’s capital after Iran vowed retaliation for an airstrike on 1 April that it blamed on Israel.
Both Damascus and Tehran blame Israel for the consular raid, but it has not commented.
“The explosion heard a short while ago in the Mazzeh area resulted from an explosive device detonating in a car in al-Huda square,” Syria’s official Sana news agency said, quoting a Damascus police command source.It added that there were no injuries.
The incident happened in the Mazzeh area, where Iran’s embassy and other foreign missions are located.
The Netherlands to close embassy in Tehran on Sunday 'as precaution'
The Netherlands will close its embassy in Tehran on Sunday as a “precaution”, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday, citing the rising tensions between Iran and Israel.
According to a report by news agency Reuters, the ministry added that it would decide on Sunday whether the embassy would reopen on Monday.
Ireland and Spain reiterate plan to form alliance to recognise state of Palestine
Ireland and Spain have reiterated their intention to forge an alliance of countries that will soon recognise Palestine as a nation state.
The Irish taoiseach, Simon Harris, and Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, vowed on Friday to muster international support for a two-state solution in Israel and Palestine.
The two leaders held bilateral talks in Dublin to inject momentum into a diplomatic offensive inside and outside the EU.
Recognition of Palestinian statehood “is coming much closer”, Harris told a joint press conference. Ireland would move with Spain and other countries “when the time is right”, he said, without giving a timeline or naming the other countries.
“When we move forward, we would like to do so with as many others as possible to lend weight to the decision and to send the strongest message. The people of Israel deserve a secure and peaceful future. So do the people of Palestine. Equal sovereignty, equal respect, in a region where people of all faiths and all traditions live together in peace.”
You can read more of the report by Rory Carroll in Dublin, Sam Jones and Lisa O’Carroll here:
Australian airline Qantas said on Saturday it would redirect its long-haul flights between Perth and London to avoid Iran’s airspace amid soaring Middle East tensions.
A Qantas spokesperson told AFP the airline would temporarily adjust the flight paths due to “the situation in parts of the Middle East”.
“We’ll reach out to customers directly if there’s any change to their booking,” the spokesperson said.
Qantas joins other airlines including Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines in redirecting flights to avoid Iranian airspace. Photograph: Matt Jelonek/Getty Images
According to AFP, the Perth-London flight, which is usually a non-stop 17-and-a-half hour journey, will now stop in Singapore to refuel, allowing it to carry a full load of passengers on an alternate route.
The return service – London to Perth – will continue to fly non-stop on a readjusted path due to prevailing winds. AFP report that all other flights are not affected.
Qantas joins other airlines including Lufthansa and its subsidiary Austrian Airlines in redirecting flights to avoid Iranian airspace.
The move comes after Iran blamed Israel for a strike in Syria this month that killed two Iranian generals, and threatened reprisals.
Iranian attack on Israel expected ‘sooner rather than later’, says Joe Biden
US president Joe Biden has said he expects an Iranian attack on Israel “sooner rather than later” and issued a last-ditch message to Tehran: “Don’t.”
“We are devoted to the defence of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” Biden told reporters on Friday.
The rubble of a building annexed to the Iranian embassy a day after an airstrike in Damascus, Syria. Photograph: Louai Beshara/AFP/Getty Images
Earlier the White House national security spokesperson John Kirby warned that the threat of a significant Iranian attack on Israel remains “viable” despite Washington-led efforts, including calls to Tehran from the UK and Germany, to deter a serious escalation in the conflict in the Middle East.
The White House comments came as several countries, including India, France, Poland and Russia, warned their citizens against travel to the region and Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said his country was “prepared to defend [itself] on the ground and in the air, in close cooperation with our partners”.
Six months after the surprise attacks it launched into Israel, triggering the Gaza conflict, Hamas is weakened and divided but far from defeated, experts, officials and sources close to the militant Islamist organisation say.
Hamas remains in de facto control of swaths of Gaza, including the parts where much of the territory’s population is now concentrated, and has re-established a presence elsewhere. In recent days, Hamas “operatives” armed with batons have been sighted keeping order on the streets of Khan Younis, the southern city from which Israeli forces withdrew just last week. On Wednesday, rockets targeting a kibbutz in Israel were launched by militants from Jabaliya in northern Gaza.
Few members of the organisation’s top echelons have been harmed so far and much of its extensive tunnel network remains intact. However, the organisation’s ability to effectively govern is much reduced, its military stores are depleted, and thousands of fighters are dead.
The months-long war has also led to new tensions between Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, and leaders based overseas, mainly in Qatar and Turkey. In recent weeks, bitter arguments have broken out over what would be acceptable terms for a ceasefire and over the future strategy of Hamas, well-informed sources in direct contact with senior Hamas figures said.
It has gone 9am in Gaza and 10am in Tel Aviv. This is our latest Guardian live blog on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis.
The US president has said he expects an Iranian attack on Israel “sooner rather than later” and issued a last-ditch message to Tehran not to launch one.
Joe Biden’s comments came as the White House warned that the prospect of an Iranian attack on Israel in retaliation for the bombing of an Iranian consular building in Syria was “still a viable threat”.
Biden said on Friday: “We are devoted to the defence of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed.”
Meanwhile, the first trucks carrying food aid entered Gaza through the newly opened northern crossing point, the Israeli military said on Friday.
The trucks were inspected at the Kerem Shalom crossing point near the Egyptian border before being transported inside Israel to the crossing, the military said.
In other developments:
Residents reported heavy Israeli fire in central Gaza on Friday, with authorities reporting dozens of new airstrikes in the area. The Hamas media office said 25 people were taken to hospital in Deir al-Balah city “as a result of an airstrike on a house of the al-Tabatibi family”. Israel’s military said its aircraft had struck more than 60 militant targets in Gaza over the previous day.
Dozens of angry Israeli settlers have stormed into a Palestinian village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, shooting and setting houses and cars on fire. Palestinian health officials said one Palestinian man was killed and 25 others wounded in the attack. An Israeli rights group said the settlers were searching for a 14-year-old boy missing from their settlement. After the rampage, Israeli troops said they were still searching for the boy.
At least 33,634 Palestinians have been killed and 76,214 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, according to the latest figures from the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Palestinians check damage at the destroyed al-Sheihk Zakaria mosque in Gaza City after Israeli attacks on Friday. Photograph: APAImages/REX/Shutterstock
France has warned its citizens to “imperatively refrain from travel in the coming days to Iran, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories”. The foreign minister, Stéphane Séjourné, also asked that family members of French diplomats in Iran be evacuated. India, meanwhile, advised its citizens against travelling to Iran and Israel until further notice in view of the “prevailing situation in the region”.
Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said she had urged her Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, to “use its influence in the region to promote stability, not contribute to escalation”. Wong posted on X (formerly Twitter): “Further conflict will only add to the devastation in the Middle East.”
Poland’s government called the killing of a Polish aid worker by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza “murder” and said the case should be brought before an independent court in Israel. Poland’s deputy foreign minister, Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski, said Poland was demanding compensation from Israel over the death of Polish volunteer Damian Soból, 35, who was killed along with six other workers of the World Central Kitchen charity in an Israeli airstrike.
Germany will face a fresh call to revoke all arms sales to Israel on Thursday in a lawsuit that puts more pressure on Berlin amid a rising outcry over the war on Gaza. The lawsuit has been issued by four human rights groups on behalf of five named Palestinians who say they are in fear of their lives in Gaza and are suffering a form of collective punishment by Israel.
A Unicef spokesperson says she was on an aid mission on Tuesday when the UN-marked vehicle she was in was shot, she told Australia’s ABC News on Friday. Tess Ingram, an Australian, said the Israeli military and Hamas were aware of the convoy’s movements as part of the mission, but she did not see the source of the gunfire. “It appeared to come from the direction of the checkpoint towards civilians, who then turned and ran in the other direction,” she said.
A Turkish state television journalist was badly injured and another slightly hurt in Gaza, the TRT channel said, adding that the team’s vehicle had been targeted by an Israeli strike. The team from TRT Arabi, its Arabic-language channel, was preparing to broadcast from the Nuseirat camp, the broadcaster said. It called Friday’s attack “Israeli brutality” and said Sami Shahada, a freelance cameraman, had “lost a foot and is currently in surgery”.
China urged the US to play “a constructive role” in the Middle East after its top diplomat, Wang Yi, spoke with his US counterpart, Antony Blinken, over the phone on Friday. Blinken used the call to ask Beijing to use its influence to dissuade Iran from striking Israel, the US state department said.
An assessment conducted by a UN team in Khan Younis after the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the area in southern Gaza has reported “widespread destruction”. “Street and public spaces in Khan Younis are littered with unexploded ordnance posing a severe risk to civilians, especially for children,” said Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN’s secretary general, António Guterres. “Our team found unexploded 1,000-pound bombs lying on the main intersection and inside schools.”
The UK government’s continued refusal to suspend arms sales to Israel is inconsistent with previous wars and could make it complicit in war crimes, Oxfam has warned. Writing ahead of an open letter the charity is delivering to ministers, Oxfam said: “The prime minister and the foreign secretary have repeatedly defended the UK’s decision to continue arms sales. Yet in every previous escalation of violence in Gaza and against Palestinians in the region, the UK has at least revoked some licenses or otherwise suspended arms transfers to Israel.”
