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At least 21 killed in Gaza Strip by Israeli fire and airstrikes
Israeli gunfire and airstrikes killed at least 21 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, local health authorities said, as mediators reached out to Israel and Hamas to seek a resumption of ceasefire talks to end the war, Reuters reports.
Local health authorities said an Israeli airstrike killed at least nine people at a school housing displaced families in the Sheikh Radwan suburb in Gaza City, while another strike killed nine people near a tent encampment in Khan Younis in the south of the enclave.
Three other people were killed by Israeli gunfire and dozens were wounded as crowds awaited UN aid trucks along a main route in central Gaza, medics said, the latest in a series of multiple fatalities at aid distribution points.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on Thursday’s incidents.
The new deaths come as Arab mediators, Egypt and Qatar, backed by the United States, reached out to the warring parties in a bid to hold new ceasefire talks, but no exact time was set for a new round, according to Hamas sources.
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads a coalition with far-right parties, insists that Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades, release all hostages, relinquish any role and lay down its weapons to end to the war.
Hamas, in turn, has stated it would release the hostages if Israel agrees to a permanent ceasefire and withdraws from Gaza. While it has conceded it would no longer govern Gaza, Hamas has refused to discuss disarmament.
Hamas-led militants killed close to 1,200 people and took 251 hostages when they attacked Israel on Oct 7, 2023, according to tallies from Israel, which launched a huge military campaign in response.
Israel’s retaliatory war has so far killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, and destroyed much of the coastal strip.
Most of the hostages released so far have been freed through indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel.
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Members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet have praised Donald Trump’s call to cancel the Israeli prime minister’s corruption trial.
The US president said on Wednesday night he had “just learned that Bibi has been summoned to court on Monday” and also suggested a pardon for the “great hero”.
Miki Zohar, Israel’s culture minister, called the trial “absurd” and said Netanyahu would go down as “one of the greatest leaders in history”.
He said in a post on X:
President Trump is right – it is time to overturn the trial!
The president of the world’s greatest power, and a true friend of the Jewish people, Donald Trump, is voicing what many Israeli citizens feel in their hearts – particularly and especially in the midst of historic days in the country’s history.
Shlomo Karhi, the country’s communications minister, shared Trump’s post supporting Netanyahu and said he would like to see the Israeli prime minister “crush the political prosecution in court”.
Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said Trump was “absolutely right” and said an “urgent reform” was needed to the country’s legal system
Israeli minister calls for 'complete halt' of aid to Gaza
Israel’s national security minister called for a “complete halt” of humanitarian aid to Gaza on Thursday, claiming that Hamas is taking control of the supplied goods and food.
Itamar Ben-Gvir says that he will “demand” Benjamin Netanyahu put a new vote to the country’s cabinet on the issue of the introduction of aid to Gaza.
He said in a post on X:
The humanitarian aid currently entering Gaza is an absolute disgrace. What is needed in Gaza is not a temporary halt to the “humanitarian” aid, but a complete halt to it.
When I warned and warned, and unfortunately the only one who voted a month and a half ago against the introduction of the aid, it was clear to me that it would give oxygen to Hamas.
There were those who mocked me and claimed that “the aid that will enter the northern Gaza Strip will only last for 10 days,” and today what was known in advance is becoming clear: Hamas is taking control of the quantities of food and goods that contribute to its survival.
Stopping the aid will quickly advance us to victory. I will demand from the Prime Minister that at the upcoming cabinet meeting the issue of the introduction of aid to Gaza be put up for a new vote.
Food has become extremely scarce in Gaza since a tight blockade on all supplies was imposed by Israel throughout March and April, threatening many of the 2.3 million people who live there with a “critical risk of famine”.
Since the blockade was partly lifted last month, the UN has tried to bring in aid but has faced major obstacles, including rubble-choked roads, Israeli military restrictions, continuing airstrikes and growing anarchy.
There have been multiple incidents in recent weeks in which crowds have been fired on after gathering in the hope of getting aid from one of the dozens of trucks being brought into Gaza by UN agencies each day.
Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid said Donald Trump should keep out of the matter of Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-running corruption trial, Reuters reports.
The US president had said in a social media post that the trial was a “witch hunt” and should be cancelled.
Lapid told Israeli news website Ynet:
With all due respect and gratitude to the president of the United States, he’s not supposed to intervene in a legal process of an independent state.
I hope and suppose that this is a reward he (Trump) is giving him (Netanyahu) because he is planning to pressure him on Gaza and force, to force him into a hostage deal that will end the war.
France’s military took part in efforts to stop Iranian drones targeting Israel prior to this week’s ceasefire, the country’s defence minister Sebastien Lecornu said late on Wednesday, Reuters reports.
Lecornu said during a parliamentary debate on the situation in the Middle East:
I can confirm that the French army intercepted less than 10 drones in the last few days during the different military operations conducted by the Islamic Republic of Iran against Israel, either by ground-to-air systems or via our Rafale fighter jets
Lecornu said Iran had launched some 400 ballistic missiles and 1,000 drones towards Israel during the 12-day conflict.
Israel started attacking Iran on June 13, saying it aimed to destroy its arch-enemy’s nuclear capabilities.
Its strikes wiped out a senior echelon of Iran’s military command and killed several nuclear scientists. Iranian authorities said 610 people were killed and nearly 5,000 injured in the country.
Tehran’s retaliatory missiles killed at least 28 people in Israel and damaged hundreds of buildings, until a ceasefire came into effect on Tuesday.
At least 21 killed in Gaza Strip by Israeli fire and airstrikes
Israeli gunfire and airstrikes killed at least 21 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, local health authorities said, as mediators reached out to Israel and Hamas to seek a resumption of ceasefire talks to end the war, Reuters reports.
Local health authorities said an Israeli airstrike killed at least nine people at a school housing displaced families in the Sheikh Radwan suburb in Gaza City, while another strike killed nine people near a tent encampment in Khan Younis in the south of the enclave.
Three other people were killed by Israeli gunfire and dozens were wounded as crowds awaited UN aid trucks along a main route in central Gaza, medics said, the latest in a series of multiple fatalities at aid distribution points.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on Thursday’s incidents.
The new deaths come as Arab mediators, Egypt and Qatar, backed by the United States, reached out to the warring parties in a bid to hold new ceasefire talks, but no exact time was set for a new round, according to Hamas sources.
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads a coalition with far-right parties, insists that Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades, release all hostages, relinquish any role and lay down its weapons to end to the war.
Hamas, in turn, has stated it would release the hostages if Israel agrees to a permanent ceasefire and withdraws from Gaza. While it has conceded it would no longer govern Gaza, Hamas has refused to discuss disarmament.
Hamas-led militants killed close to 1,200 people and took 251 hostages when they attacked Israel on Oct 7, 2023, according to tallies from Israel, which launched a huge military campaign in response.
Israel’s retaliatory war has so far killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, and destroyed much of the coastal strip.
Most of the hostages released so far have been freed through indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel.
In the latest episode of the Guardian’s Today in Focus podcast, published on Thursday, Michael Safi hears how Iranians’ relationship with the regime has changed in the last two weeks since the escalation of the country’s conflict with Israel.
You can listen to the full podcast here: Afraid of Israel, angry at the regime: Iranians on 12 days of war - podcast
Trump brands Netanyahu's corruption trial a 'witch hunt'
Donald Trump has weighed in on ally Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-running corruption trial, saying in a social media post that the trial was a “witch hunt” and should be cancelled, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Trump said on Wednesday night:
Bibi and I just went through HELL together, fighting a very tough and brilliant longtime enemy of Israel, Iran, and Bibi could not have been better, sharper, or stronger in his LOVE for the incredible Holy Land
The US president, who himself has faced an array of criminal charges and convictions that he argued were politically motivated, said he had “just learned that Bibi has been summoned to court on Monday” and also suggested a pardon for the “great hero”.
He added:
It was the United States of America that saved Israel, and now it is going to be the United States of America that saves Bibi Netanyahu.
In December, Netanyahu became the first Israeli prime minister to take the stand as the defendant in a criminal trial for corruption. He assailed the charges against him as an “ocean of absurdity”.
He was charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases. The 75-year-old is accused of accepting tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of cigars and champagne from a billionaire Hollywood producer in exchange for assisting him with personal and business interests, and of promoting advantageous regulation for media moguls in exchange for favourable coverage of himself and his family.
He denies wrongdoing, saying the charges are a witch-hunt orchestrated by a hostile media and a biased legal system out to topple his lengthy rule.
Netanyahu’s trial has been delayed many times since it began in May 2020, with the prime minister requesting postponements due to the war in Gaza and later conflict in Lebanon. It was unclear when the next hearing would be scheduled for.
Shah Meer Baloch
Shah Meer Baloch covers Pakistan for the Guardian.
Donald Trump’s intervention into the Iran-Israel war, and brokering then announcing a ceasefire, has drawn a heated debate in Pakistan.
The government had formally nominated the US president for the Nobel peace prize as the US military was making its final preparations for a strike that threatened all-out war in the Middle East.
A statement in the early hours of Saturday local time – shortly before US B-2 bombers left the Whiteman air force base in Missouri and headed to Iran – had credited Trump for a “legacy of pragmatic diplomacy” and “pivotal leadership” for ensuring Pakistan’s ceasefire with India in a conflict that had begun with the killing of tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir in April.
A day later that same government was condemning Trump for the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities and what it said was a violation of international law, insisting that diplomacy was the only way to resolve the crisis. The Pakistani prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, called the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, to express his concerns over the US strike.
You can read Shah Meer Baloch’s full report here: Pakistan debates Trump Nobel peace prize nomination after US strikes on Iran
Top administration officials are pressing Donald Trump’s case, with a news conference set for Thursday at the Pentagon.
Briefings also are scheduled for lawmakers on Capitol Hill, though the White House plans to limit the sharing of classified information after the initial intelligence assessment leaked this week suggested Tehran’s nuclear programme had been set back by only a few months by the US strikes, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
Larry Pfeiffer, a 32-year intelligence veteran who held positions including CIA chief of staff and senior director of the White House Situation Room, said:
Intelligence people strive to live in a world as it is, describe the world as it is, where politicians are all about describing the world as they want it to be.
I don’t think we’ve seen another president push back as strong as this guy has.
Trump claims US strikes on Iran were 'devastating' with 'new intelligence' supporting success
Donald Trump’s administration ratcheted up its defence of the US’s weekend attacks on Iran, citing “new intelligence” to support its initial claim of complete success and criticising a leaked intelligence assessment that suggested Tehran’s nuclear programme had been set back by only a few months.
The growing row came amid reports that the White House will to try to limit the sharing of classified documents with Congress, according to the Washington Post and the Associated Press.
“This was a devastating attack, and it knocked them for a loop,” Trump said on Wednesday, apparently backing away from comments he’d made earlier in the day, that the intelligence was “inconclusive”.
Senior Trump officials publicly rejected the leaked initial assessment of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) which concluded key components of the nuclear programme were capable of being restarted within months. Director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said in a post on X that “new intelligence confirms” what Trump has stated.
She said:
Iran’s nuclear facilities have been destroyed. If the Iranians chose to rebuild, they would have to rebuild all three facilities (Natanz, Fordow, Esfahan) entirely, which would likely take years to do.
CIA director John Ratcliffe in a statement said that new intelligence from a “historically reliable” source indicated that “several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years.”
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.
Donald Trump’s administration has cited “new intelligence” to support its initial claim of complete success of the US’s weekend attacks on Iran, while criticising a leaked intelligence assessment that suggested Tehran’s nuclear programme had been set back by only a few months.
The growing row came amid reports that the White House will to try to limit the sharing of classified documents with Congress.
“This was a devastating attack, and it knocked them for a loop,” Trump said on Wednesday, apparently backing away from comments he’d made earlier in the day, that the intelligence was “inconclusive”.
The claim comes after the US president hit back at a leaked intelligence report that said US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities had likely only set back the country’s nuclear programme by a few months.
Trump had earlier criticised CNN and the New York Times for their reports on the leaked intelligence assessment, claiming they had teamed up to “demean one of the most successful military strikes in history”, and declared Iran’s nuclear sites were “completely destroyed”. The White House earlier called the intelligence assessment “flat-out wrong”.
In other key developments:
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US senators are also set to meet with top national security officials on Thursday as many question President Donald Trump’s decision to bomb three Iranian nuclear sites — and whether those strikes were ultimately successful. The classified briefing, which was originally scheduled for Tuesday and was delayed, also comes as the Senate is expected to vote this week on a resolution that would require congressional approval if Trump decides to strike Iran again.
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Donald Trump has weighed in on ally Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-running corruption trial, saying in a social media post that the trial was a “witch hunt” and should be cancelled. “Bibi and I just went through HELL together, fighting a very tough and brilliant longtime enemy of Israel, Iran, and Bibi could not have been better, sharper, or stronger in his LOVE for the incredible Holy Land,” Trump said on Wednesday night, using a nickname for the Israeli leader.
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US secretary of state Marco Rubio told Politico on Wednesday that Iran is “much further away from a nuclear weapon” after a US strike on Iran’s three main nuclear sites over the weekend.
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There is a chance that much of Iran’s highly enriched uranium survived Israeli and US attacks because it may have been moved by Tehran soon after the first strikes, UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday.
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Trump said the US will hold talks with Iran next week, with a possible agreement on the table about Tehran’s nuclear programme.
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The US president said that Israel and Iran are “tired” but the conflict between the two countries could start again.
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Speaking alongside the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, Trump compared the US strikes on Iran to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, saying: “This was essentially the same thing: that ended that war; this ended the war.”
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Mark Rutte defended Donald Trump’s swearing outburst on Tuesday when commenting on the Israel-Iran war. “Daddy sometimes has to use strong language,” Rutte told reporters.
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France is conducting its own analysis on damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities after US and Israeli strikes, French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters on Wednesday.
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Iranian authorities are pivoting from a ceasefire with Israel to intensify an internal security crackdown across the country with mass arrests, executions and military deployments, particularly in the restive Kurdish region, according to officials and activists.
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Iran’s parliament approved a bill on Wednesday to suspend cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, state-affiliated news outlet Nournews reported. Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf was quoted by state media as saying Iran would accelerate its civilian nuclear programme.
