Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
Here is a summary of today's events:
Gaza ceasefire talks in Doha were paused on Friday with negotiators set to meet again next week
A joint statement from Egypt, Qatar and the United States said the US presented on Friday a Gaza ceasefire proposal that “closes the remaining gaps” in a manner that allows for the rapid implementation of the agreement and is consistent with the principles set out by President Joe Biden on May 31.
Echoing widespread condemnation internationally and within Israel of the attack reportedly by Israeli settlers on the village of Jit on Thursday which left a Palestinian man dead and about a dozen injured, Office of the United Nations high commissioner for Human Rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani described the incident as “horrific”.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy and French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné, in a joint statement after meeting their Israeli counterparts, said they had been told they hope they are “on the cusp of a deal” to bring the conflict to an end.
We reported more details on the order and the former humanitarian zones affected by an Israeli evacuation order. They included al-Qarara, Muwasi, al-Galaa, Hamd City, and al-Nasr. The IDF said it had asked people to evacuate by rolling out flyers, SMS messages, phone calls, Arabic broadcasts, and recorded voice messages.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has called “the armed collective attack” by settlers on the village of Jit in the occupied West Bank “organised state terrorism” in a statement. Israeli leaders also condemned the attack in what is a rare move.
The U.N. special rapporteur on torture on Friday condemned what she called a “particularly gruesome” case of the alleged sexual abuse of a Palestinian prisoner by Israeli soldiers and said the perpetrators of such crimes must be held accountable.
Updated
The EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said Friday he would propose sanctions against Israeli government “enablers” of Jewish settler violence, following a deadly attack on a village in the occupied West Bank.
“Day after day, in an almost total impunity, Israeli settlers fuel violence in the occupied West Bank, contributing to endanger any chance of peace,” Borrell posted on X.
“The Israeli government must stop these unacceptable actions immediately,” he wrote, vowing to “table a proposal for EU sanctions against violent settlers’ enablers, including some Israeli government’s members”.
Any such sanctions would require unanimous approval from the EU’s 27 member states, who are divided over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
We condemn settlers attacks in Jit, aimed at terrorising Palestinian civilians.
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) August 16, 2024
Day after day, in an almost total impunity, Israeli settlers fuel violence in the occupied West Bank, contributing to endanger any chance of peace. 1/2
Latest Gaza ceasefire proposal 'closes gaps' to allow for rapid implementation
A joint statement from Egypt, Qatar and the United States said that the U.S. presented on Friday a Gaza ceasefire proposal that closes the remaining gaps in a manner that allows for the rapid implementation of the agreement and is consistent with the principles set out by President Joe Biden on May 31.
The statement came out after negotiators met in Doha on Thursday and Friday in the latest round of ceasefire talks.
Updated
Images show the aftermath of violence by settlers who rioted in the village of Jit on Thursday night, near the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank, killing one Palestinian and badly injuring others, according to Palestinian health officials.
Residents interviewed by The Associated Press said at least a hundred masked settlers entered the village, shot live ammunition, burned homes and cars and damaged water tankers.
Footage online showed fire ravaging the small village, which Palestinian residents said was left without military assistance for two hours.
Updated
The U.N. special rapporteur on torture on Friday condemned what she called a “particularly gruesome” case of the alleged sexual abuse of a Palestinian prisoner by Israeli soldiers and said the perpetrators of such crimes must be held accountable.
“There are no circumstances in which sexual torture or sexualised inhuman and degrading treatment can be justified,” Special Rapporteur Alice Jill Edwards said in a statement.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military said prosecutors have requested that soldiers accused of abusing a Palestinian detainee be placed under house arrest.
Israeli media reports said the soldiers have been accused of sexually abusing a member of an elite Hamas unit at the Sde Teiman detention facility in the Negev desert in southern Israel.
“This alleged sexual torture involving multiple offenders is particularly gruesome,” Edwards said, adding that Israeli authorities had informed her that several soldiers suspected of involvement were under investigation. All alleged crimes must be investigated and those responsible held accountable by civilian courts, she said.
Updated
Commenting on Israel’s new order to civillians to evacuate areas previously designated humanitarian zones, the UNRWA, the main U.N. agency in Gaza, said people “remain trapped in an endless nightmare of death and destruction on a staggering scale”.
Earlier, Israel’s military said it had hit an area in Khan Younis from where rockets were fired towards the community of Kissufim on Thursday, finding weapons including shoulder-fired missiles and explosives.
The latest evacuation warnings came as negotiators in Doha were due to meet for a second day of talks aimed at reaching a deal to halt the fighting in Gaza and bring Israeli and foreign hostages home.
Updated
Israeli leaders on Friday have also condemned the attack in what is a rare move.
The settler riot in the village of Jit, near the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank, killed one Palestinian and badly injured others late Thursday, Palestinian health officials said.
Residents interviewed by The Associated Press news agency said at least a hundred masked settlers entered the village, shot live ammunition at Palestinians, burned homes and cars and damaged water tankers.
The video below shows flames engulfing the small village, which residents said was left to defend itself without military help for two hours.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he took the riots “seriously” and that Israelis who carried out criminal acts would be prosecuted. He issued what appeared to be a call for settlers to stand down.
“Those who fight terrorism are the IDF and the security forces, and no one else,” he said, using an acronym for the Israeli military.
President Isaac Herzog also condemned the attack, as did Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who said the settlers had “attacked innocent people.” He added they did not “represent the values” of settler communities.
Updated
UN calls Israeli settler attack in West Bank 'horrific'
Echoing widespread condemnation internationally and within Israel of the attack reportedly by Israeli settlers on the village of Jit on Thursday which left a Palestinian man dead and about a dozen injured, Office of the United Nations high commissioner for Human Rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani described the incident as “horrific”.
She noted that the killing “was not an isolated attack”, in reference to years of violence directed at Palestinian communities by Israeli settlers, maintaining that it was “the direct consequence” of Israel’s policy of occupation.
“We have been reporting for the past years about settlers attacking Palestinian communities in their land in the West Bank with impunity and this really is the crux of the matter, the impunity that the perpetrators of such actions have been enjoying,” Shamdasani said.
“Clearly this needs to stop and key to this will be accountability for the perpetrators,” the OHCHR spokesperson said.
Updated
The situation in the Middle East has now deteriorated so far that the US could be dragged into a regional war. The Israeli assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, after the top Hamas leader had travelled to attend the inauguration of Iran’s new president, has sparked fears of retaliation.
Seyed Hossein Mousavian - a Middle East security and nuclear policy specialist at Princeton University and a former head of Iran’s national security foreign relations committee – argues the flagging Israeli leader has every reason to involve the US in a regional conflict, but this would be a huge mistake for Tehran.
Read his analysis here:
The British and French Foreign Ministers also strongly condemned attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank.
British foreign minister David Lammy said at the joint conference: “The scenes overnight, of the burning and the torching of buildings, of the Molotov cocktails thrown at cars, of the widespread rampage and chasing of people from their homes, is abhorrent, and I condemn it in the strongest of terms.”
French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said on Friday that he condemned the attack on a Palestinian village.
“We condemn this situation,” said Sejourne, speaking alongside his British counterpart Lammy at a news conference in Jerusalem, Israel.
Updated
UK foreign secretary says Israeli ministers hope 'we are on the cusp of a deal'
Foreign Secretary David Lammy and French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné, in a joint statement after meeting their Israeli counterparts, said they had been told they hope they are “on the cusp of a deal” to bring the conflict to an end.
Lammy said: “The reports out of Qatar suggests the first day of hostage talks has gone well and it has been important to listen to ministers here in Israel and hear too from them that they hope we are on the cusp of a deal.
“As we head now to 315 days of war the time for a deal – for those hostages to be returned, for aid to get in, in the quantities that are necessary in Gaza, and for the fighting to stop – is now.
“Of course that is the message that we have jointly underlined to ministers today, both in Israel and in the occupied territories.”
Updated
We are awaiting a joint statement from Foreign Secretary David Lammy, French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné and Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.
The ministers have held a joint meeting as efforts to draw the conflict to a peaceful conclusion intensify.
People in Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah areas of Gaza ordered by IDF to leave
In our post at 9.14 BST we reported on orders by the Israeli army for people in northern Khan Younis and eastern Deir al-Balah to evacuate the area.
We now have more details on the order and the former humanitarian zones affected. They included al-Qarara, Muwasi, al-Galaa, Hamd City, and al-Nasr.
The IDF said it had asked people to evacuate by rolling out flyers, SMS messages, phone calls, Arabic broadcasts, and recorded voice messages.
“Due to significant acts of terrorism, the exploitation of the Humanitarian Area for terrorist activities, and the firing of rockets and mortars toward the State of Israel in the north of Khan Yunis, remaining in this area has become dangerous. Therefore, at this time the Humanitarian Area will be adjusted,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on social media, as reported by the Associated Press news agency.
More now on those ceasefire talks taking place for the second day in Qatar today.
Hamas is not thought to be directly taking part, with diplomats from Qatar and Egypt engaged on their behalf.
Israel’s foreign minister is also set to meet with his counterparts from the UK and France to discuss preventing a escalation of the Middle East conflict.
Mediators have spent months trying to hammer out a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release scores of hostages captured in the 7 October attack in exchange for a lasting ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Full details below from The Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent Bethan McKernan
Updated
Egypt’s foreign minister said Friday that an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip is needed to stop an escalation that could push the region into a wider war.
Badr Abdelaty’s comments in Beirut came as officials from Egypt, Qatar, Israel and the U.S. are holding talks in the Qatari capital of Doha in an attempt to end the war in Gaza.
“We confirm the importance of stopping the escalation and that the region does not slide to a comprehensive regional war,” Abdelaty told reporters after meeting with Lebanese Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a key ally of Hezbollah.
“Egypt is exerting all possible efforts, as you know, to stop the escalation and to work to reach as much as possible an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip,” Abdelaty said.
Updated
Israeli foreign minister says he expects allies to attack Iran if it strikes
Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz told his French and British counterparts Friday that his country expects support “in attacking” Iran if it strikes Israel.
“If Iran attacks, we expect the coalition to join Israel not only in defence but also in attacking significant targets in Iran,” Katz told his French and UK counterparts during their visit to Israel.
Updated
Undertakers are working like bricklayers in a Gaza cemetery, piling cinder blocks into tight rectangles, side by side, for freshly dug graves.
More than 10 months into the Gaza war, so many bodies are arriving at the cemetery in Deir el-Balah that the men, working in the hot sun, hardly have space to bury them, AFP reports.
“The cemetery is so full that we now dig graves on top of other graves, we’ve piled the dead in levels,” says Saadi Hassan Barakeh, leading his team of gravediggers.
Barakeh, 63, has been burying the dead for 28 years. In “all the wars in Gaza”, he says he has “never seen this”.
A Palestinian herding community in the occupied West Bank’s Jordan valley has been forced to abandon their village after attacks and harassment from newly installed Israeli settlers.
Around 10 settlers set up a tent “outpost” on top of a hill about 150m away from Um Jamal, or Ain al Jamal, on Monday, according to residents. Outposts - such as tents and caravans - are used by ideological and violent Israeli settlers to encroach on Palestinian communities before more permanent building can take place. They are illegal under Israeli law, and all Israeli settlement building is illegal under international law.
The settlers have entered the village every day since, threatening the Palestinians to leave, throwing stones, attempting to steal sheep and calling the army to displace them. The community made a group decision to leave on Thursday. The women and children left on Thursday night, and on Friday the men of the village dismantled and salvaged what they could and put the sheep and other animals in flatbed trucks.
Um Jamal is in Area C, the 60% of the West Bank under Israeli civil and military control, where most settlements are built. Palestinians living in Area C are not allowed to build without permits, which are difficult to obtain, and as a result many of their homes are considered illegal by Israel. They are usually not connected to the water or electricity grid, and often subject to demolition orders.
Um Jamal is located on private Palestinian land and land owned by the Catholic church, according to 2017 comments from a lawyer representing the community. Nineteen Palestinian communities in the West Bank have been forced to abandon their homes since 7 October, the largest displacement since the occupation began in 1967.
עין אל ג׳מאל.
— Yehuda Shaul (@YehudaShaul) August 16, 2024
נכבה 2024.
גירוש כתוצאה מהטרדות ואיומים של מתנחלים מהמאחז החדש שסמוך לקהילה. pic.twitter.com/ymL1ObvC9Z
When Vice President Kamala Harris flies to Chicago next week to accept her party’s nomination for the presidency, she will be met head-on with voters protesting one of her thorniest electoral issues: the Biden administration’s aid to Israel.
A coalition of some 200 social justice organizations is going forward with their plan to march at the Democratic National Convention on Monday. Pro-Palestinian activists resent Biden’s administration for funding Israel during its war against Hamas.
Harris has surged in opinion polls since Biden’s July 21 withdrawal from the race. Hatem Abudayyeh, spokesperson for the March on the DNC coalition, said dozens of coalition group leaders met after Biden ended his campaign and discussed if they should change tack if Harris became the nominee.
“There was absolute consensus,” he recalled. “She represents the policies of the administration and it’s full steam ahead.”
Concerns over a wider conflict in the Middle East have prompted international airlines to suspend flights to the region or to avoid affected air space.
Some of the airlines that have adjusted services to and from the region include Aegean Airlines. The Greek airline cancelled all flights to and from Beirut, Amman and Tel Aviv until August 19. Algerian airline Air Algerie has also temporarily suspended flights to and from Lebanon until further notice.
Latvia’s airBaltic cancelled all flights to and from Tel Aviv until August 18, while Indian flag carrier Air India suspended scheduled flights to and from Tel Aviv until further notice.
Air France-KLM cancelled all flights to and from Tel Aviv until Oct. 26, but resumed service between Paris and Beirut on August 15 after a two-week suspension. The Franco-Dutch group’s low-cost unit Transavia cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv until March 31, 2025, and flights to Amman until November 3.
Updated
To Australia now and a row between an independent MP and the leader of the opposition.
Liberal party leader Peter Dutton has insisted he is not racist after Zali Steggall, the independent MP, defended calling Dutton so in parliament and accused him of fuelling division with his political attacks over visa-holders from Gaza.
Dutton rejected Steggall’s assertion – which the speaker forced the member for Warringah to withdraw after she levelled it on Thursday – and said she was the one who was divisive.
“I’m not a racist, and I’m not going to be standing here as a punching bag for people like Zali Steggall,” Dutton told Nine’s Today Show on Friday. “I actually think, ironically, that them calling out people unnecessarily and unrealistically and unjustly as racists, they’re actually fuelling tensions.”
Read our full report here:
Updated
Is it legal to say the words “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” in Germany? The answer appears to be yes: you can shout them from the rooftops in German, English, Arabic or Hebrew, so long as a court accepts that you are not doing so to indicate support for Hamas or its murderous assault of 7 October.
This distinction came to bear on the activist Ava Moayeri last week, when she was convicted of “condoning a crime” for leading a chant of the slogan at a Berlin rally on 11 October.
Peter Kuras explains how the decision has widened a rift in German society:
Cars and houses burn after Israeli settlers attack West Bank village
Dozens of Israeli settlers, some wearing masks, attacked a Palestinian village near the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, burning cars and killing at least one person.
The Palestinian health ministry said one Palestinian was killed and another was critically wounded after Israeli settlers opened fire during the attack in the village of Jit. It is the latest in a series of attacks by violent settlers in the West Bank.
The Israeli military said police and army units had intervened and arrested one Israeli. It condemned the attack, which it said diverted security forces from other responsibilities
Watch our video here:
Updated
Norway will close its representative office in the Palestinian territories “until further notice” following a decision by Israel to revoke the accreditation of Norwegian diplomats working there, the foreign minister said Friday.
Norway considers the early August decision by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to be “extreme and unreasonable,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said as he announced the closure of the Representative Office in the West Bank town of Al Ram, nearly 30 years after it opened in 1995.
“This decision seeks to target the Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority and all those who defend international law, the two-state solution and the Palestinians’ legitimate right to self-determination,” Barth Eide said. Norway “will do our utmost to ensure that this does not affect our work for Palestine and for a viable Palestinian state.”
In May, Norway - together with Spain and Ireland - announced they would recognize a Palestinian state.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has called “the armed collective attack” by settlers on the village of Jit in the occupied West Bank “organised state terrorism” in a statement.
The ministry condemned the attack committed by “the terrorist settler gangs” on the village located in the east of the city of Qalqilya. The Palestinian health ministry said one Palestinian was killed and another critically wounded by Israeli settlers’ gunfire during the attack in the village of Jit, the latest in a series of attacks by violent settlers in the West Bank.
“We demand the imposition of deterrent sanctions on the racist colonial system, the dismantling of the terrorist settler militias, and the prosecution of their members,” the Palestinian Foreign Ministry statement said.
Israel orders evacuation of former humanitarian safe zone in Gaza
The Israeli army ordered a fresh evacuation of areas in southern and central Gaza previously designated as a humanitarian safe zone on Friday, saying the areas had been used by Hamas as a base for firing mortars and rockets towards Israel.
It said warning flyers and text messages had been sent out in the area north of the southern city of Khan Younis and in the eastern part of Deir Al-Balah, where tens of thousands of people have sought shelter from fighting in other parts of Gaza.
“The advance warning to civilians is being issued in order to mitigate harm to the civilian population and to enable civilians to move away from the combat zone,” the military said in a statement seen by Reuters.
Earlier the military said it had hit an area in Khan Younis from where rockets were fired towards the community of Kissufim on Thursday, finding weapons including shoulder-fired missiles and explosives.
Updated
As they struggled to recover bodies from the ruins of yet another air strike on Thursday, Palestinians in north Gaza questioned why, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s team was in Qatar.
“Why did Netanyahu send a delegation to the talks while we are being killed here?” in Jabalia, Mohammed al-Balwi said as rescuers around him pulled bodies from the concrete wreckage.
They had found “limbs on the ground”, he told AFP.
Fears of a wider Middle East war have soared since the July 31 killing of Hamas political leader and truce negotiator Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Iran and its allied groups in the region blamed Israel and vowed revenge.
Updated
David Lammy and French minister to hold joint meeting with Israeli ministers
Foreign Secretary David Lammy is to take part in intensified efforts for international diplomacy to prevent the war in Gaza from spreading into a wider regional conflict today, with he and the French foreign minister making a joint trip to Israel while internationally mediated cease-fire talks in Qatar were expected to enter their second day.
The new push for an end to the Israel-Hamas war came as the Palestinian death toll in Gaza climbed past 40,000, according to Gaza health authorities, and fears remained high that Iran and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon would attack Israel in retaliation for the killings of top militant leaders.
“This is a dangerous moment for the Middle East,” Lammy said. “The risk of the situation spiraling out of control is rising. Any Iranian attack would have devastating consequences for the region.”
Lammy and French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné were expected hold a joint meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.
A Jordanian citizen residing in Orlando, Florida, was charged with threatening to use explosives and destruction of an energy facility after threats against businesses for their perceived support of Israel, the U.S. Justice Department said.
Incidents of hate against Jews, Muslims, Arabs, Palestinians and Israelis in the U.S. have risen since Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7. Israel subsequently launched its now more than 10-month old military assault on Hamas-governed Gaza that has caused a humanitarian crisis.
“We allege that the defendant threatened to carry out hate-fueled mass violence in our country, motivated in part by a desire to target businesses for their perceived support of Israel,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement on Thursday.
A 43-year-old man has been arrested and FBI Director Christopher Wray added that “the defendant allegedly attacked a power facility and threatened local businesses, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.”
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.
Negotiators were set to meet again in the Qatari capital Doha on Friday in an effort to hammer out a Gaza ceasefire agreement. A US official briefed on the discussions in Doha, who declined to be identified, told Reuters that Thursday’s talks were “constructive.”
“This is vital work. The remaining obstacles can be overcome, and we must bring this process to a close,” US national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters at the White House.
In a statement issued late on Thursday, Hamas politburo member Hossam Badran said Israel’s continuing operations in Gaza were an obstacle to progress on a ceasefire. Hamas officials did not join Thursday’s talks.
Gaza’s health ministry said 40,005 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza after the 7 October attack by Hamas last year. In an update on Thursday, the ministry said 92,401 Palestinians had been injured. The majority of casualties are civilians, though Gaza’s health ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its figures.
The UN’s high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, said the death toll in Gaza passing 40,000 is a “grim milestone”. Türk accused the Israeli army to repeatedly failing to “comply with the rules of war”. The numbers do not necessarily reflect all victims as many are still missing under the rubble, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
The international charity ActionAid said it was “outraged and heartbroken” following the news that more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s offensive. It accused “most governments across the world” of having “refused to do the bare minimum to protect civilian life”, adding that it is “to our collective shame”.
Dozens of Israeli settlers, some wearing masks, attacked a Palestinian village near the city of Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank, burning cars and killing at least one person. The Palestinian health ministry said one Palestinian was killed and another critically wounded by Israeli settlers’ gunfire during the attack in the village of Jit, the latest in a series of attacks by violent settlers in the West Bank.
The Israeli military said police and army units intervened and arrested one Israeli. It condemned the attack, which it said diverted security forces from other responsibilities. It said it was examining reports about the death of the Palestinian. The office of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, issued a statement saying he viewed the attack with “utmost severity”. “Those responsible for any offence will be apprehended and tried,” it said.
