Recent tragedies in Gaza are not a reason to “walk away from Israel”, the former British home secretary, Suella Braverman, said.
Asked if the UK should still be selling arms to Israel, Braverman told LBC: “I don’t think the fact that these tragedies happen is a reason to walk away from Israel, and to stop selling arms to Israel, because of that broader battle that they are engaging with.”
Israel strikes Syria after rocket fire on annexed Golan Heights
Israeli warplanes struck a Syrian military position overnight in response to rocket fire on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, the military said on Tuesday.
The strike follows a marked increase in violence between Israel and Hezbollah on the Israeli-Lebanon boundary since Hamas’s 7 October attack, as well as the resumption of attacks by Iranian-backed militia on US and Israeli positions in Iraq.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday that “warplanes attacked Syrian army military infrastructure overnight in the Mahajjah area” – about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the demilitarised zone separating the opposing forces.
The Israeli army said it identified a rocket launch from Syrian territory on Monday that caused no casualties. It said artillery struck the source of the fire.
Israel buying 40,000 tents to prepare to evacuate civilians before Rafah invasion - official
An Israeli official has said that Israel is buying 40,000 tents to prepare for the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the southern Gaza city of Rafah, the Associated Press reports.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Monday that a date has been set for an Israeli invasion of Rafah, located on the Egyptian border, without disclosing the specific date.
Israeli officials have said that Rafah is Hamas’ last major stronghold in Gaza. An estimated 1.5 million Palestinians – over half of Gaza’s population – have taken refuge in the southern city after fleeing Israeli bombardments elsewhere in the territory.
Many western countries, including the US, have voiced strong opposition to the proposed Israeli ground invasion as any attack on Rafah is likely to cause many more civilian casualties and worsen an already acute humanitarian crisis across Gaza.
The city is also a logistics hub for the distribution of aid through Gaza, where famine looms and one in three children under the age of two in the north are acutely malnourished, according to the UN.
Israel has said it has a plan to evacuate civilians ahead of its offensive, and Israel’s defence ministry on Monday published a tender seeking a supplier of tents.
The Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the tents were part of the Rafah preparations.
A Palestinian woman among the rubble and ash of the buildings in Rafah. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
In the UK, Clinicians for Gaza have published a letter expressing their outrage at the “ongoing slaughter” of Palestinian people in Gaza and the occupied West Bank by Israel.
The letter, which includes signatures from some registrants of the British Psychoanalytic Council, calls for an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza and says that freedom of thought and speech in relation to Palestine and Israel has been strictly policed in Britain over recent years.
Here is the letter in full:
We, the undersigned, current or former registrants of the British Psychoanalytic Council, wish to put on record our dismay at the ongoing slaughter and mayhem being inflicted on the people of Gaza and the West Bank.
As psychoanalytic practitioners we want to add our voices to those who have spoken out against this violence, especially in light of its apparent genocidal nature.
We are uncomfortable with the loud silence of our professional associations in response to these atrocities – in contrast to the principled and humane statements issued in response to Black Lives Matter and the invasion of Ukraine.
Our associations responded in an appropriate manner to the horrific attacks launched by Hamas on 7 October. However, the historical context of occupation and siege, impoverishment and massacre was ignored. This scotomisation underlies international complicity with Israel’s response.
We are deeply disturbed by a military campaign that, beside the terrible toll of death and destruction has, according to the UN, rendered Gaza uninhabitable.
This has raised concerns about an imminent forced population transfer, and about crimes against humanity as formally defined. We note that the International Court of Justice, in its ruling of 26 January 2024, concluded that there are plausible grounds to believe a genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza, and reminded Israel of its explicit obligations under the Genocide Convention.
In the first instance, we call for an immediate ceasefire and negotiations towards a peace aimed at providing justice and security for both the Palestinian and Israeli communities.
It is time to end the impunity that has enabled Israel to disregard Palestinian rights. To this end, we urge that the international community and civil society uphold the principles of international law, as contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and subsequent United Nations Conventions, and that these form the basis for collective thought and action.
We also express our deep concern at the way in which, over recent years, freedom of thought and speech in relation to Palestine/Israel has been curtailed in this country, and within this profession.
We call for freedom to speak and act peacefully without fear of recrimination, harassment or censure.
We understand the intensity of emotions that can be released when this subject is broached, but cannot accept that this justifies the suppression of that open and free discussion that is essential if we are to combat fundamentalism and dehumanisation.
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have called on Israel to halt its war in Gaza and seek a peaceful solution to the conflict in line with UN resolutions.
The two countries made the demands in a joint statement on Monday after a meeting between Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Mecca.
The two sides called for international efforts “to halt Israeli military operations in Gaza, mitigate humanitarian impact and underscored the imperative for the international community to pressure Israel to cease hostilities, adhere to international law, and facilitate unhindered humanitarian aid access to Gaza,” according to the statement.
They also discussed the need for a peace process in accordance with UN resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative “aimed at finding a just and comprehensive solution, for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital”.
As Palestinians prepared for Wednesday’s Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, those returning to Khan Younis came back to a devastated city left in ruins from intense Israeli bombardment.
Israel said on Sunday it had withdrawn more soldiers from southern Gaza, leaving just one brigade.
“I came to see my home, only to find it destroyed and reduced to a pile of rubble,” Umm Ahmad al-Fagawi told AFP after coming back to the city.
“I’m shocked by what I saw. Every home is destroyed, not only mine but also all the neighbours’ homes.”
Another returnee said she had come back to find “a ruined place”.
“No water, no electricity, no columns, no walls, and no doors, there’s nothing. Gaza is not Gaza any more,” she said.
The rubble of destroyed houses after an Israeli military operation in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Photograph: Mohammed Saber/EPA
Qatar’s embassy in Washington has dismissed a statement by the US House Oversight Committee chairman, James Comer, that it says “inaccurately claims” Doha has paid Hamas “$30 million per month since 2018”.
In the press release, Comer threatens to subpoena the Justice Department if the agency does not willingly turn over documents related to any investigations of TikTok and Al Jazeera under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
It briefly mentions Qatar when it says: “Qatar has reportedly hosted a Hamas headquarters in Doha, paying the terrorist group $30 million per month since 2018.
In response, Qatar’s embassy in Washington said that “Qatar does not pay Hamas”, adding that it has provided assistance to Gaza in two ways with the “full coordination” of the Israeli government.
Today in Washington, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability @GOPoversight issued a press release that inaccurately claims Qatar has paid Hamas “$30 million per month since 2018.”
Qatar does not pay Hamas.
In full coordination with the Government of Israel, Qatar…
— Qatar Embassy USA (@QatarEmbassyUSA) April 9, 2024
Turkey imposes export restrictions on Israel until ceasefire is declared in Gaza
Turkey will impose restrictions on the export of products from 54 different categories to Israel until a ceasefire is declared in Gaza, the Turkish trade ministry has said.
The ministry said the measures would take effect immediately, adding that the restrictions would include iron and steel products and construction equipment, among other things.
“This decision will remain in place until Israel declares a ceasefire immediately and allows adequate and uninterrupted flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza,” the ministry announced on social media.
The announcement from Ankara comes after Israel denied Turkey’s request to join airdrops of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza on Monday.
Israel did not immediately explain why the request was rejected, with its refusal leading to Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, warning: “There is no excuse for Israel to block our attempt to drop aid to starving Gazans.”
Turkey, which has backed steps to have the Israeli leadership tried for genocide at the World Court, has repeatedly called for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict, which, according to the Gaza health ministry, has seen over 33,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes since 7 October.
Hamas says Israeli ceasefire proposal fails to meet Palestinian demands
Hamas has said Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.
But the Palestinian militant group did also say on Tuesday it was considering a new framework for a truce proposed during the latest round of negotiations in Cairo.
The three-part proposal would halt fighting for six weeks to facilitate an exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
Saying it “appreciates” the mediators’ efforts, Hamas on Tuesday accused Israel of not responding to any of its demands during the talks.
“Despite this, the movement’s leadership is studying the submitted proposal,” Hamas said in a statement.
Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as the CIA director, William Burns.
Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.
Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the territory.
Hamas says Israel’s proposal it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators in ceasefire negotiations did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.
However, the militant group added in a statement on Tuesday morning that it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.
A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group had rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, the Egyptian capital.
Meanwhile, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said a date had been set for an invasion of Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, without specifying when.
More on that soon. In other developments:
An Israeli strike on southern Lebanon killed a field commander in the country’s militant Hezbollah group early on Monday, while the UN warned that shelling was spreading and urged a halt to the violence. Hezbollah and the Israeli military have regularly exchanged fire across Lebanon’s southern frontier in parallel with Israel’s war on Gaza.
In the US, sixteen more Democrats have signed a letter urging the US president, Joe Biden, to halt weapons transfers to Israel.
Nicaragua has called on the UN’s top court to halt German military and other aid to Israel, arguing that Berlin’s support is enabling acts of genocide and breaches of international humanitarian law in the war.
Palestinians began returning to the devastated city of Khan Younis on Monday after Israel’s unexpected withdrawal of forces from southern Gaza. Those returning to the city, which has been under a relentless Israeli military assault for the past four months, described scenes of widespread destruction.
Israel is yet to provide a satisfactory explanation for the death of seven aid workers last week, the prime minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, said as it appointed a senior former military official to study Israel’s inquiry into the attack. Israel said on Friday its soldiers mistakenly believed they were attacking Hamas gunmen. Two officers were dismissed and others reprimanded.
Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, and the visiting Cypriot president, Nikos Christodoulides, discussed the Syrian refugee crisis on Monday, Beirut said, as Nicosia pushes Lebanese authorities to stem boat departures.
The commander of a European Union naval mission in the Red Sea wants to significantly increase its size to better defend against possible attacks by Houthi rebels based in Yemen, as just four warships are patrolling an area twice the size of the 27-nation bloc. The EU mission – dubbed Aspides, from the Greek for “shield” – has escorted 68 ships and repelled 11 attacks since it was established less than two months ago.
Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, left Oman to visit Syria’s capital of Damascus a week after Iran’s consulate there was targeted in a suspected Israeli attack, state media has reported. Iran has vowed to avenge the death of seven of its Revolutionary Guards commanders killed in the attack.
Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese village of Khiam, near the Israeli border, on Monday. Photograph: Rabih Daher/AFP/Getty Images
