Prime Minister Keir Starmer praised Britain’s “unique bonds” with India as he and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi formally signed a recently announced UK-India trade deal during talks on Thursday.Starmer hailed the agreement as a “landmark moment” for both countries as he hosted India’s leader at his Chequers country estate, northwest of London.”This is not …
Israel said on Thursday it had recalled its negotiators from Gaza ceasefire talks with Hamas, as international pressure mounted for a breakthrough to end nearly two years of devastating war.Mediators have been shuttling between Israeli and Hamas delegations in Qatar for more than two weeks, but the indirect talks have so far failed to yield an elusive truce.International concern is growing over the plight of the more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where the fighting has triggered a dire humanitarian crisis and warnings that “mass starvation” was spreading.The office of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that after Hamas had submitted its response to mediators on the latest ceasefire proposal, the Israeli negotiators were being brought back for consultations.”We appreciate the efforts of mediators Qatar and Egypt and the efforts of (US special) envoy (Steve) Witkoff to bring about a breakthrough,” said a statement from Netanyahu’s office.A Palestinian source familiar with the talks told AFP earlier that Hamas’s response included proposed amendments to clauses on the entry of aid, maps of areas from which the Israeli army should withdraw, and guarantees on securing a permanent end to the war.The White House said on Wednesday that US envoy Witkoff was meeting “key leaders” from the region to discuss the ceasefire proposal.Witkoff was reportedly on the Italian island of Sardinia on Thursday, Israeli media said.- Key demands -Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces had killed at least 40 people since dawn on Thursday, including six waiting for aid.In Khan Yunis, in the south, Umm al-Abd Nassar urged Hamas to secure a truce after her son was killed in an air strike on a camp for the displaced.”They need to do something. Enough with this destruction and people dying,” she told AFP.Israel’s military said Hamas militants targeted a food distribution site in the south of the territory on Wednesday.The militants, though, claimed they had shelled “an enemy command and control site”.Through 21 months of fighting, both sides have clung to long-held positions, preventing two short-lived truces from being converted into a lasting ceasefire.The talks in Doha began on July 6 to try to reach an agreement on a truce that would also see the release of Israeli hostages.Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.But the talks have dragged on without a breakthrough, with each side blaming the other for refusing to budge on their key demands.For Israel, dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities is non-negotiable, while Hamas demands firm guarantees on a lasting truce, a full withdrawal of Israeli troops and the free flow of aid into Gaza.- ‘Blockade’ -Israel has rejected accusations that it is responsible for Gaza’s deepening hunger crisis, which the World Health Organization has called “man-made” and France blamed on an Israeli “blockade”.Instead, it accuses Hamas of preventing supplies from being distributed and looting aid for themselves or to sell at inflated prices as well as shooting at people seeking handouts.International news organisations, including AFP, urged Israel on Thursday to allow journalists in and out of Gaza, with concern that a lack of food is putting their lives at risk.Israel maintains that it is allowing aid into the Palestinian territory but that international relief agencies were failing to pick it up for distribution.COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body overseeing civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said on Thursday that around 70 food trucks had been unloaded at aid crossings the previous day.”Over 150 were collected by the UN and international organisations from the Gazan side, but over 800 still await pick up,” it said in a post on X.Aid agencies have said permissions from Israel are still limited, and coordination to safely move trucks to where they are needed is a major challenge in an active war zone.Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,587 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Several EU countries are pushing Brussels to move forward with concrete actions against Israel over the war in Gaza for failing to improve the dire humanitarian situation, diplomats said Thursday.The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas earlier this month announced a deal with Israel to allow more aid into Gaza as warnings mount over mass-starvation in the war-ravaged territory. The bloc’s diplomatic service on Wednesday gave a first briefing to ambassadors from the EU’s 27 nations on Israel’s efforts to improve access to Gaza.”Israel has made some efforts on the basis of the agreed parameters, the number of trucks entering Gaza has increased, additional crossing points and routes have opened, and fuel supplies have increased,” said EU spokesman Anouar El Anouni. “But the situation remains dire, clearly, a lot, a lot still needs to be done.”But several diplomats said that a group of countries had demanded the EU move ahead with a list of options to punish Israel over Gaza to keep up pressure.”A significant number of member states said the situation is intolerable,” an EU diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.An EU source said that, under the aid deal, Israel was supposed to let at least 160 trucks into Gaza daily, a figure far above current levels.- Pushing for tougher line -Kallas this month laid out a raft of steps that could be taken against Israel after it was found to have breached a cooperation agreement with the bloc on human rights grounds.The measures range from suspending the entire accord or curbing trade ties to sanctioning Israeli ministers, imposing an arms embargo and halting visa-free travel.Some of the options could be initiated by the EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, or the bloc’s diplomatic arm.So far, however, neither have been willing to push ahead with any of the moves amid divisions on how to tackle Israel.Diplomats said Brussels had agreed to report back next week on any potential steps that could be taken.The internal push came as dozens of former EU ambassadors also demanded the bloc take firmer action against Israel in an open letter.The 27-nation EU has struggled for a unified line over the war in Gaza as it is split between countries that strongly back Israel and those favouring the Palestinians. International criticism of Israel is growing over the plight of the more than two million Palestinians in Gaza, where more than 100 aid and rights groups have warned that “mass starvation” is spreading.
The Israeli military said eight soldiers were wounded on Thursday when a driver deliberately rammed his car into a bus stop in what police called a “terror attack”.The army said two soldiers were “moderately injured” and six “lightly injured” in the attack at the Beit Lid junction near Kfar Yona in central Israel.”The soldiers were evacuated to a hospital to receive medical treatment and their families have been notified,” it said in a statement.There has been a spate of violence in Israel and the occupied West Bank since the start of the war against Hamas in Gaza, triggered by the Palestinian militants’ attack on October 7, 2023.A teenager died in March this year when police said a car driven by a Palestinian man deliberately ploughed into civilians at a bus stop in northern Israel.One witness to Thursday’s ramming said the driver cut her off the road near Kfar Yona, then “turned his wheel to the right, full gas, as fast as he could, and hit as many people as he could”.Kineret Hanuka, 45, told AFP: “I saw only blood and heard them screaming: ‘It hurts!’… It was so hard for me to see this.”Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) first responders said they received a report at 9:25 am (0625 GMT) that a vehicle had crashed into a bus stop near Kfar Yona.They said that the wounded had chest, limb and head injuries.Israeli police spokesman Dedan Elsdunne described the incident as a “terror attack, where a terrorist rammed his vehicle into individuals who were standing here waiting to catch the bus”.”He (the attacker) then attempted to flee. He abandoned his vehicle and fled from that location. We had large police forces who immediately arrived here, set up a perimeter so that we can locate this individual.” The car was later recovered and the driver is being hunted using helicopters, motorbikes and a specialist dog unit, police added.The site of the crash was cordoned off as forensic investigators combed the scene, AFP journalists reported.In Israel, at least 32 people, including soldiers, have died in attacks by Palestinians since the start of the Gaza war, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.In the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, at least 960 Palestinians, including many fighters but also civilians, have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to Palestinian Authority figures.At the same time, at least 36 Israelis, including civilians and soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations, Israeli figures showed.
International news agencies Agence France-Presse (AFP), Associated Press (AP) and Reuters as well as the BBC on Thursday called on Israel to allow journalists in and out of Gaza, which is subject to a strict blockade.”We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families,” the media groups said in a joint statement. They added that “journalists endure many deprivations and hardships in war zones. We are deeply alarmed that the threat of starvation is now one of them.””We once again urge the Israeli authorities to allow journalists in and out of Gaza. It is essential that adequate food supplies reach the people there,” they concluded.With Gaza sealed off, many media groups around the world depend on photo, video and text coverage of the conflict provided by Palestinian reporters to international news agencies such as AFP.International criticism is growing over the plight of the more than two million Palestinian civilians in Gaza, where more than 100 aid and rights groups have warned that “mass starvation” is spreading.Since the war started following the unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas, a small number of journalists have been able to enter Gaza only with the Israeli army and under strict military censorship rules.Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in early July that more than 200 journalists had been killed in Gaza since the war began.- Evacuations -AFP news agency has published accounts of life inside Gaza from its reporters this week. It has said it is concerned about “the appalling situation” they face due to a daily struggle to find food.   “We have no energy left due to hunger and lack of food,” said Omar al-Qattaa, a 35-year-old AFP photographer shortlisted for a Pulitzer Prize earlier this year.”Obtaining food in Gaza is extremely difficult. Even when it is available, prices are multiplied by 100,” video journalist Youssef Hassouna said.Israel says humanitarian aid is being allowed in and accuses Hamas of exploiting civilian suffering, including by stealing food handouts to sell at inflated prices or shooting at those awaiting aid.The World Health Organization’s chief warned on Wednesday of widespread starvation in Gaza, saying food deliveries into the territory were “far below what is needed for the survival of the population”.Witnesses and Gaza’s civil defence agency have repeatedly accused Israeli forces of firing on aid seekers. The UN said the military had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food since late May.AFP succeeded in evacuating eight staff members and their families from Gaza between January and April 2024, after months of effort. – ‘Starving’ -The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a media freedom group, said in a statement on Wednesday that Israel was “starving Gazan journalists into silence”. “They are not just reporters, they are frontline witnesses, abandoned as international media were pulled out and denied entry,” CPJ regional director Sara Qudah was quoted as saying.Many Palestinian journalists have spoken out or posted about their exhaustion, with Sally Thabet, a correspondent for Al-Kofiya satellite channel, fainting after a live broadcast this week, the CPJ said. Doha-based Al Jazeera, the most influential Arabic media group, also called for global action to protect Gaza’s journalists on Tuesday. The channel, which has been banned in Israel, has had five of its reporters killed since the start of the conflict in what it says is a deliberate targeting campaign by Israel. In some cases, Israel has accused reporters of being “terror operatives”, such as when it killed a Gaza-based Al Jazeera staff journalist and freelancer last year — allegations condemned by the Qatari news network.”We know that probably most journalists inside Gaza are operating under the auspices of Hamas, and until Hamas is destroyed, they will not be allowed to report freely,” Israeli government spokesman David Mercer told a press conference last December.
