A force that has been the backbone of the US-led campaign against Islamic State said additional air defences should be deployed in northeast Syria after six of its fighters were killed in a drone attack it blamed on pro-Iran factions.
Mazloum Abdi, commander of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, said his force considered it “a dangerous development when our camps are targeted in drone attacks by factions backed by Iran.”
Abdi’s remarks to Reuters from northeast Syria suggest the force’s fighters -- deployed alongside US troops to fight remnants of Islamic State - are increasingly vulnerable to widening regional instability in the aftermath of the attack on Israel by Palestinian group Hamas.
Bases across Syria’s east and northeast hosting US troops and SDF fighters have faced a slew of drone and rocket attacks as pro-Iran militias declaring support for the Palestinians seek to attack US and Western interests and fight Israel.
Repeated US strikes on Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq are pushing the Baghdad government to end the mission of the US-led coalition in the country, the prime minister’s military spokesperson said.
The US military said one such strike on Wednesday had killed a commander from Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed armed group in Iraq that the Pentagon has blamed for attacking its troops, Reuters reported.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani described the US strike as “a clear example of American state terrorism” and a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Yahya Rasool, military spokesperson for Iraqi prime minister Shia al-Sudani, said in a statement the US-led coalition “has become a factor for instability and threatens to entangle Iraq in the cycle of conflict”.
Talks began in January on the future of the coalition, but less than 24 hours later three US.soldiers were killed in an attack in Jordan that the United States said was carried out by Iran-backed militant groups in Syria and Iraq.
The talks have since paused, with Iraqi foreign minister Fuad Hussein calling for their resumption in a phone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday.
Any discussions over the future of the coalition are expected to take months if not longer, with the outcome unclear.
Summary of the day so far
It is 5pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a summary of the latest developments:
Israeli forces intensified strikes on Rafah in southern Gaza, as the UN said such action would only “increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare”. More than half of Gaza’s population is sheltering in the southern border city of Rafah, with many of them in makeshift tents and lacking food and medicine. The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (Ocha) added that fighting in Rafha would risk “further hampering a humanitarian operation already limited by insecurity, damaged infrastructure and access restrictions.”
US President Joe Biden will host Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Washington on Monday for talks on resolving the Israel-Hamas conflict, the White House said.
Israeli planes bombed areas in Rafah on Thursday morning, witnesses told Reuters, killing at least 11 people in strikes on two houses. Tanks also shelled some areas in eastern Rafah, intensifying the residents’ fears of an imminent ground assault.
A Hamas delegation is expected in Cairo for more ceasefire talks, a day after the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the group’s demands made as part of their response to a proposed ceasefire deal. Senior Lebanon-based Hamas official Osama Hamdan confirmed the trip at a news conference in Beirut while an Egyptian official has also told Agence France-Presse that “a new round of negotiations” is set to start on Thursday in Cairo aimed at achieving “calm in the Gaza Strip”.
More reports emerged from Khan Younis of people in the vicinity of Nasser hospital being targeted by Israeli snipers, said Al Jazeera journalist Hani Mahmoud in Rafah. He said: “Paramedics are unable to get out of the hospital to help the injured and remove the dead from the streets.” Al Jazeera also quoted Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesperson for Gaza’s health ministry, saying the situation at the hospital complex is a “humanitarian disaster” adding that there are “300 medical staff, 450 wounded, and 10,000 displaced people in the Nasser medical complex being killed and starved.”
Al Jazeera journalist Hani Mahmoud also said there had been intense bombing across Rafah city, particularly the western part. “This seems to be an indication that the ground invasion is expanding,” he wrote. Mahmoud said residential homes had been targeted and a displaced family from the northern part of the Gaza Strip and another that had come from Khan Younis were killed in overnight airstrikes that destroyed an entire building. Mahmoud added that 14 people had been killed in the attacks and described seeing people being removed from the rubble in the early hours of Thursday.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken left the Middle East on Thursday with public divisions between the US and Israel at perhaps their worst level since Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza began in October, reports the Associated Press. Blinken was returning to Washington after the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war would continue until Israel is completely victorious and appeared to reject outright a response from Hamas to a proposed ceasefire plan.
Before heading back to Washington, US secretary of state Antony Blinken on Thursday met in Tel Aviv with Benny Gantz and Gabi Eisenkot, two former military officials who joined Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet after the 7 October attack in Israel by Hamas fighters. Blinken discussed ways to secure the release of Gaza hostages with Gantz and Eisenkot.
Blinken also discussed on Thursday the hostage talks in a meeting with Israel’s main opposition leader Yair Lapid.
Repeated US strikes against Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq are pushing the government to end the mission of the US-led coalition in the country, the prime minister’s military spokesperson Yahya Rasool said on Thursday.
Five Israeli hostages who were freed in November pleaded with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to push for a deal, after he publicly rejected the terms of a ceasefire in Gaza proposed by Hamas.
A journalist and his son have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in the central Gaza Strip, reports Al Jazeera. Nafez Abdel Jawad, who worked for Palestine TV, was killed in a bombing of a residential building in the al-Salam neighbourhood in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip last night. The news organisation said that his only son also died in the airstrike and other injuries had also been reported.
The latest figures from the Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said 130 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes and 170 were injured in the past 24 hours. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said a paramedic colleague, Mohammed Al-Omari, was killed, and two other paramedics were injured after Israeli occupation forces directly fired at them in Gaza City while they were transferring several wounded individuals from al-Ahli Baptist hospital in preparation for their transfer to hospitals in the south.
More than 6,920 Palestinians have been arrested in the occupied West Bank since 7 October, say the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society. This includes those who were arrested from their homes, military checkpoints, and those who were forced to surrender themselves under pressure, the group said.
A US drone strike on a car in Baghdad has killed three members of the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia, including a high-ranking commander, officials said after a string of blasts were heard in the Iraqi capital. The strike late on Wednesday came on a main thoroughfare in the Mashtal neighbourhood in eastern Baghdad.
Leading Palestinian human rights groups have accused the UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide of failing to fulfil her mandate after she issued only one statement on the war in Gaza – largely supportive of Israel – that has claimed 26,000 Palestinian lives.
The Canadian government did not see any evidence backing up Israel’s claim that staff employed by UNRWA colluded with Hamas before suspending funding to the agency, CBC News reports. Canadian officials told CBC News that Canada’s own decision to defund was a reaction to UNRWA’s decision to dismiss the staffers, which created the impression that the agency saw Israel’s allegation as credible.
Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, has said she did not have all the evidence about serious allegations regarding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) before she decided to halt funding. Australia, the US and the UK were among more than 10 donors to suspend funding to the UN agency after the Israeli government alleged that as many as 12 UNRWA staff members were involved in the 7 October Hamas attacks.
Israel’s ambassador to Australia has invited federal Greens MPs and senators to view footage of Hamas’s attacks from 7 October, after the party’s push for Australia to remove support for what it called Israel’s “slaughter” in Gaza.
The US military said on Thursday that its forces conducted multiple strikes against Houthi missile systems as the Yemen based rebel group prepared to launch attacks that threatened US Navy and merchant ships. Centcom said it identified the missiles in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and determined they “presented an imminent threat to US Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region”.
Norway has transferred $26m to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), foreign minister Espen Barth Eide said on Wednesday.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) issued a new call for an urgent and sustained ceasefire in Gaza. Bob Kitchen, vice-president of emergencies at the IRC said military operations in Rafah would result in there “no longer” being “a single ‘safe’ area for Palestinians to go to as their homes, markets, and health services have been annihilated”.
On Wednesday the Houthis’ news agency reported that the US and the UK had hit targets in Yemen’s Hodeida province.
A German navy frigate has departed for the Red Sea, where Berlin plans to have it take part in an EU mission to help defend cargo ships from attacks by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. EU foreign ministers are expected to sign off on the Red Sea mission on 19 February. Officials have said that seven countries in the bloc are ready to provide ships or planes.
British defence intelligence officials say the UK is closer to a large-scale conflict than at any recent point, as the Middle East crisis intensifies while Russia pursues an expansionist agenda and China develops advanced weapons.
Turkish authorities have detained 147 people suspected of having ties to militant group Islamic State (IS) in operations across 33 provinces, interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Thursday.
Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz is heading to Washington, and will meet the US president, Joe Biden on Friday. As well as discussing the war in Ukraine, he also aims to discuss plans for strengthening the western Nato defence alliance and the Israel-Hamas war, German government officials said.
A senior member of the Swedish security police said on Thursday that Iran has planned attacks on the country. According to AFP, Daniel Stenling, counterespionage head at Sweden’s domestic security agency, told SR on Thursday that Iran “has been preparing and conducted activities aimed at carrying out a so-called physical attack against someone or something in Sweden.”
Updated
Joe Biden to host king of Jordan next week to discuss Gaza
US President Joe Biden will host Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Washington on Monday for talks on resolving the Israel-Hamas conflict, the White House said.
According to AFP, the meeting comes as the US and regional powers try to broker a ceasefire in exchange for the release of hostages from Gaza, amid hopes of a longer-term solution.
The two leaders will “discuss the ongoing situation in Gaza and efforts to produce an enduring end to the crisis,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Thursday in a statement.
They also will talk about the “US effort to support the Palestinian people including through enhanced humanitarian assistance into Gaza and a vision for a durable peace to include a two-state solution with Israel’s security guaranteed.”
The Jordanian king will be accompanied by Queen Rania for the visit to the White House, which comes as the US and Jordan mark 75 years of diplomatic relations, Jean-Pierre said.
It will be the first time Biden and Abdullah have met since the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel.
Biden was meant to travel to Jordan for talks with the king when he visited Israel less than two weeks after the attack, but the meeting was canceled after an explosion at a Gaza hospital caused anger across the Arab world. Biden later backed Israel’s account that the strike was caused by a malfunctioning Palestinian rocket.
Updated
We don’t have all the facts on UNRWA allegations, says Australia’s foreign minister
Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, has said she did not have all the evidence about serious allegations regarding a key United Nations agency delivering aid to Gaza before she decided to halt funding.
Australia, the US and the UK were among more than 10 donors to suspend funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) after the Israeli government alleged that as many as 12 staff members were involved in the 7 October attacks.
Wong told the ABC on Thursday night that she had spoken with commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini the previous day and was working to bring an end to the suspension, including by seeking more information regarding the allegations from the agency and from the Israeli government.
My colleague, Emine Sinmaz in Tel Aviv has written the following report on the families fearing that remaining hostages held by Hamas in Gaza will pay price for Netanyahu’s pursuit of “absolute victory”:
Moments after Benjamin Netanyahu publicly rejected the terms of a ceasefire in Gaza proposed by Hamas, five Israeli hostages who were freed in November pleaded with him to push for a deal.
“Everything is in your hands,” a tearful Adina Moshe, 72, said in a direct appeal to the Israeli prime minister at an emotional press conference in Tel Aviv. She said she feared the remaining hostages and their families would pay the price for Netanyahu’s pursuit of “absolute victory” over the militant group.
She said: “I’m very afraid and very concerned that if you continue with this line of destroying Hamas, there won’t be any hostages left to release.”
Moshe was comforted by Sharon Aloni Cunio, 34, Nili Margalit, 41, Aviva Siegel, 62, and Sahar Calderon, 16, who were abducted by Hamas on 7 October and released in November as part of a temporary ceasefire deal.
Updated
More than 6,920 arrested in occupied West Bank since 7 October, say Palestinian Prisoner’s Society
The number of Palestinians arrested by Israel in the occupied West Bank over the past four months is more than 6,920 detainees, reports Al Jazeera citing new figures from the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.
This includes those who were arrested from their homes, military checkpoints, and those who were forced to surrender themselves under pressure, the group said.
It called the arrests a “comprehensive aggression against the Palestinian people and the ongoing genocide in Gaza”.
Updated
US strikes Houthi missile positions in Yemen, says military
The US military said on Thursday that its forces conducted multiple strikes against Houthi missile systems as the Yemen based rebel group prepared to launch attacks that threatened US Navy and merchant ships, reports AFP.
Late Wednesday Sana’a time US Central Command forces (Centcom) “conducted self-defence strikes against two Houthi mobile anti-ship cruise missiles prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea,” Centcom said in a statement posted on social media platform X.
Later that night CENTCOM forces “conducted a second strike against a Houthi mobile land attack cruise missile prepared to launch.”
Feb. 7 Summary of USCENTCOM Self-Defense Strikes in Yemen
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) February 8, 2024
On Feb. 7, at approximately 9:00 p.m. (Sanaa time), U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted self-defense strikes against two Houthi mobile anti-ship cruise missiles prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea.… pic.twitter.com/7ERk9DvWRN
Centcom said it identified the missiles in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and determined they “presented an imminent threat to US Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region”.
The strikes “will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for US Navy and merchant vessels”, it said.
On Wednesday the Houthis’ news agency reported that the US and the UK had hit targets in Yemen’s Hodeida province.
The Iran-backed rebels, who control much of war-torn Yemen including the port of Hodeida, have been targeting shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
A German navy frigate has departed for the Red Sea, where Berlin plans to have it take part in an EU mission to help defend cargo ships from attacks by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
The Hessen set off from the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven with about 240 servicepeople on board, Associated Press reports.
EU foreign ministers are expected to sign off on the Red Sea mission on 19 February. Officials have said that seven countries in the bloc are ready to provide ships or planes.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has said the EU mission – unlike US and UK forces in the region – will not carry out any military strikes.
Reporting for Al Jazeera from Rafah, Hani Mahmoud writes that “more reports are emerging from Khan Younis of people in the vicinity of Nasser hospital being targeted by Israeli snipers. Paramedics are unable to get out of the hospital to help the injured and remove the dead from the streets.”
The news network quotes Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesperson for Gaza’s health ministry, saying the situation at the hospital complex is a “humanitarian disaster” adding that there are “300 medical staff, 450 wounded, and 10,000 displaced people in the Nasser medical complex being killed and starved.”
Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz is heading to Washington, and will meet with US president Joe Biden on Friday. As well as discussing the war in Ukraine, he also aims to discuss plans for strengthening the western Nato defence alliance and the Israel-Hamas war, German government officials said.
Reuters reports that speaking at the airport in Berlin prior to his departure, Scholz said Germany feels the responsibility to stand by Israel’s side while developing the conditions necessary for a sustainable peace in the region, such as a two-state solution and humanitarian aid for Gaza.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has issued a new call for an urgent and sustained ceasefire in Gaza.
Bob Kitchen, vice-president of emergencies at the IRC said:
Military operations in Rafah will result in the displacement of more than a million Palestinians and risk death, destruction and injury for tens of thousands of people.
If Israel expands its operations farther south, it would mean the renewed forced displacement of more than a million people who have nowhere left to go; and it would end the humanitarian lifeline from Egypt.
If they aren’t killed in the fighting, Palestinian children, women and men will be at risk of dying by starvation or disease. There will no longer be a single “safe” area for Palestinians to go to as their homes, markets, and health services have been annihilated.
Writing for Haaretz in Israel today, Anshel Pfeffer’s analysis of Benjamin Netanyahu’s press conference yesterday says that the Israeli public’s trust in the prime minister has been “fundamentally broken”.
Pfeffer writes:
Netanyahu did not need to hold a press conference. A laconic statement rejecting Hamas’ maximalist demands would have sufficed. The press conference wasn’t about the Hamas proposal, though. It wasn’t about the hostages in Gaza either. It was about Netanyahu.
For the last couple of weeks, it’s been his empty promise of “total victory,” repeated over and over again. When asked by a reporter to explain what “total victory” meant, he launched into a bizarre allegory about breaking a glass “into small pieces, and then you continue to smash it into even smaller pieces and you continue hitting them”, leaving no one any the wiser.
Netanyahu, like many other leaders before him, is living in a Churchillian fantasy. He still believes he can emulate Britain’s wartime prime minister and lead Israel “forward into broad, sunlit uplands”. What he can’t accept is that in his second world war cosplaying, he isn’t Winston Churchill but Neville Chamberlain – the dismal appeaser whom Churchill replaced eight months after war began.
Everyone but the most diehard Bibi-ists already know the unavoidable truth: that Netanyahu will for ever be remembered in history as Israel’s worst prime minister, who led it into the greatest tragedy to ever befall the state. But he is incapable of understanding that and will continue fighting to change that narrative, even after the war ends.
Updated
Israeli forces intensify strikes on Rafah in southern Gaza, as UN say it will 'increase humanitarian nightmare'
Israeli forces bombed areas in the southern border city of Rafah where more than half of Gaza’s population is sheltering on Thursday, a day after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a proposal to end the war, reports Reuters.
Netanyahu said on Wednesday terms proposed by Hamas for a ceasefire that would also involve releasing hostages held by the Palestinian militant group were “delusional” and vowed to fight on, saying victory was in reach and just months away.
The rejection followed intense diplomacy to end the four-and-a-half-month conflict before a threatened Israeli assault on Rafah, which is now home to more than one million people, many of them in makeshift tents and lacking food and medicine.
Israeli planes bombed areas in Rafah on Thursday morning, witnesses told Reuters, killing at least 11 people in strikes on two houses. Tanks also shelled some areas in eastern Rafah, intensifying the residents’ fears of an imminent ground assault.
Aid agencies have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe if Israel follows through on its threat to enter one of the last remaining areas of the Gaza Strip that its troops have not moved into during its ground offensive.
UN secretary general António Guterres said on Wednesday that pushing into Rafah on the border with Egypt would “increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences.”
Those who fled to the border city, almost half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, face a terrifying choice: stay in overcrowded Rafah – once home to 280,000 people – and wait for the attack, or risk moving north through an area of continued fighting.
Updated
Canada did not see any evidence backing up Israel's claims against UNRWA before suspending funding, reports CBS News
The Canadian government did not see any evidence backing up Israel’s claim that staff employed by UNRWA colluded with Hamas before suspending funding to the agency, CBC News reports.
Government sources told CBC that Israel still has not shared evidence with Canada to substantiate its claim that 12 employees of UNRWA were involved in some capacity in the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas and the affiliated group Islamic Jihad. CBC News said it had not yet been able to review the Israeli intelligence document.
CBC News said Israel had refused to provide the intelligence it says backs up its allegations, either to UNRWA or to the UN Office of internal oversight services (OIOS), the UN body assigned to investigate.
Canadian officials told CBC News that Canada’s own decision to defund was a reaction to UNRWA’s decision to dismiss the staffers, which created the impression that the agency saw Israel’s allegation as credible.
Updated
Before heading back to Washington, US secretary of state Antony Blinken on Thursday met in Tel Aviv with Benny Gantz and Gabi Eisenkot, two former military officials who joined Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet after the 7 October attack in Israel by Hamas fighters.
According to AFP, Blinken discussed ways to secure the release of Gaza hostages with Gantz and Eisenkot, among other officials present. Blinken set out his intentions as he opened the meeting by saying the focus would be on “the hostages and the strong desire that we both have to see them returned to their families, the work that’s being done to that end”.
“The most urgent issue is of course to find ways to bring back the hostages,” Gantz told Blinken.“That being done, many things can be achieved,” he said.
Blinken also discussed on Thursday the hostage talks in a meeting with Israel’s main opposition leader Yair Lapid.
“It’s good to see how committed this group is to the hostages, to solving the situation, to figure out ways to promote peace,” the centrist former prime minister said, referring to efforts by Blinken and US officials.
130 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, says health ministry
The latest figures from the Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said 130 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes and 170 were injured in the past 24 hours.
According to the statement, at least 27,840 Palestinians have been killed and 67,317 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October.
The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
Blinken ends latest Middle East mission after Israeli snub to proposed Gaza ceasefire plan
US secretary of state Antony Blinken left the Middle East on Thursday with public divisions between the US and Israel at perhaps their worst level since Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza began in October, reports the Associated Press (AP).
Wrapping up a four country Middle East trip – his fifth to the region since the conflict erupted – Blinken was returning to Washington after the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war would continue until Israel is completely victorious and appeared to reject outright a response from Hamas to a proposed ceasefire plan.
Met with @IsraeliPM Netanyahu in Jerusalem to discuss the latest efforts to secure release of all hostages and ensure events of October 7 are never repeated. I stressed the importance of protecting civilians in Gaza and ensuring more humanitarian aid gets to people in need. pic.twitter.com/EQsKUijoL0
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) February 7, 2024
Relations between Israel and its main international ally, the US, have been tense for months, but Netanyahu’s public dismissal of a plan the US says has merit, at least as a starting point for further negotiation, highlighted the divide, say AP.
Yet Blinken and other US officials said they remained optimistic that progress could be made on their main goals of improving humanitarian conditions for Palestinian civilians, securing the release of hostages held by Hamas, preparing for a post-conflict Gaza and preventing the war from spreading.
“Clearly there are things that Hamas sent back that are absolute non-starters,” Blinken said of the response the militant group delivered on Tuesday to a ceasefire and hostage release proposal that was endorsed last month by Egypt, Qatar, the US and Israel.
“But, at the same time, we see space to continue to pursue an agreement,” Blinken said late on Wednesday. “And these things are always negotiations. It’s not flipping a light switch. It’s not ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ There’s invariably back and forth.”
Shortly before Blinken spoke, though, Netanyahu took direct aim at the Hamas response, calling it “delusional” and vowing that Israel would fight on to achieve “absolute victory” over the militant group, no matter what.
Compounding Blinken’s dilemma, Netanyahu also appeared to dismiss concerns from the US and others about expanding Israel’s military operations in southern Gaza, particularly in Rafah, the area on the Egyptian border to which more than one million Palestinians have fled.
“On all of my previous visits here and pretty much every day in between, we have pressed Israel in concrete ways to strengthen civilian protection, to get more assistance to those who need it. And over the past four months, Israel has taken important steps to do just that,” he said. “And yet … the daily toll that its military operations continue to take on innocent civilians remains too high.”
Blinken appealed to Netanyahu and other Israelis still reeling from the Hamas attack not to allow vengeance to dictate their continued response. “Israelis were dehumanised in the most horrific way on 7 October,” he said. “And the hostages have been dehumanised every day since. But that cannot be a licence to dehumanise others.”
Updated
Here are some of the latest images from the occupied West Bank, Rafah, the Kerem Shalom crossing, Glasgow, New York and Tel Aviv on the newswires:
Sweden has thwarted Iranian attack plots, counterintelligence police say
A senior member of the Swedish security police said on Thursday that Iran has planned attacks on the country, days after local media reported that two Iranians were deported for a plot to kill three Swedish Jews several years ago, reports news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Earlier this week, Swedish broadcast SR reported that two Iranians had been suspected of planning to kill members of the Swedish Jewish community. They were arrested in 2021 and were expelled from Sweden in 2022 without charges, according to Swedish radio.
According to AFP, Daniel Stenling, counterespionage head at Sweden’s domestic security agency, told SR on Thursday that Iran “has been preparing and conducted activities aimed at carrying out a so-called physical attack against someone or something in Sweden.”
He added, “we have worked on a number of such cases where we have, as we gauge it, thwarted such preparations.” He declined to give specifics.
The two deported Iranians sought asylum in the Scandinavian country in 2015, claiming to be Afghans, and eventually got shelter in Sweden, according to SR. The report identified them as Mahdi Ramezani and Fereshteh Sanaeifarid, and said they have links to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
A Swedish prosecutor earlier confirmed to the Associated Press that the two, a man and woman, were suspected of planning to carry out an attack “deemed to be terror” and that they have been expelled from Sweden. Prosecutor Hans Ihrman did not say when.
Ihrman told the AP that the prosecution “failed to get the necessary evidence that had been a prerequisite to be able to bring charges.” He also declined to give further details.
SR said the Iranians arrived in Sweden in 2015 as hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers sought to Europe. Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson said on Wednesday that the report was “very serious.”
“We have had too many people in Sweden entering on the wrong grounds and who were not stopped at the border,” Kristersson said. “It is extremely important that dangerous people are stopped if they try to enter.”
The security agency earlier said that Iran was active in Sweden and has been described as one of the countries that pose the greatest intelligence threat to Sweden. “But I can’t go into detail about what it’s about, because then I’d reveal what we’re doing,” Stenling told SR.
PRCS paramedic killed after Israeli forces 'directly fired' at team in Gaza City, says humanitarian organisation
The Palestine Red Crescent paramedic colleague, Mohammed Al-Omari, was killed, and two other paramedics were injured after the Israeli occupation forces directly fired at them in #Gaza City while they were transferring several wounded individuals from Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in… pic.twitter.com/12i8u50Fsu
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) February 7, 2024
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said a paramedic colleague, Mohammed Al-Omari, was killed, and two other paramedics were injured after Israeli occupation forces directly fired at them in Gaza City while they were transferring several wounded individuals from al-Ahli Baptist hospital in preparation for their transfer to hospitals in the south.
The PRCS have shared updates of the situation in Gaza on its X account. Another post by the humanitarian organisation said on Wednesday that two people had been injured at the PRCS al-Amal hospital, including one patient by the direct firing from the vehicles of Israeli forces positioned at the gate of the hospital in Khan Younis. “This comes amidst the ongoing siege and continuous targeting of the hospital for the seventeenth consecutive day,” said the PRCS.
In an update to X on Wednesday, the humanitarian organisation also shared a video showing PRCS teams inside al-Amal hospital burying a patient who had died the same day due to oxygen depletion at the medical facility.
“Patients’ lives are at severe risk due to the ongoing siege for the seventeenth consecutive day, oxygen and medical supplies running out, and the hospital being targeted with direct gunfire,” said the PRCS.
Israel's ambassador to Australia invites Greens politicians to view 7 October footage
Israel’s ambassador to Australia has invited federal Greens MPs and senators to view footage of Hamas’s attacks from 7 October, after the party’s push for Australia to remove support for what it called Israel’s “slaughter” in Gaza.
On Thursday afternoon, the embassy posted on X that ambassador Amir Maimon was inviting the MPs when they’re in Canberra next week to view the 42-minute compilation which has been shown to politicians and journalists.
Maimon said he was inviting the politicians to view the footage due to the “amount of time the Greens have devoted to attacking Israel in parliament this week”.
Following their comments in parliament this week, Ambassador @MaimonAmir invites the @Greens to view the raw footage of Hamas' October 7 terrorist attacks. pic.twitter.com/9gWvH4z1aG
— Israel in Australia (@IsraelinOZ) February 8, 2024
On Wednesday, the Greens failed in an attempt to suspend standing orders so they could propose a motion stating that parliament “does not support the State of Israel’s continued invasion of Gaza and calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire”.
The leader of the Greens, Adam Bandt, said Israel’s actions had “moved beyond self-defence – this is now a slaughter”.
The Greens were contacted for comment.
Palestinian groups accuse UN adviser of failing to warn about potential genocide
My colleague, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour has written about leading Palestinian human rights groups accusing the UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide of failing to fulfil her mandate. You can read it here:
Leading Palestinian human rights groups have accused the UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide of failing to fulfil her mandate after she issued only one statement on the war in Gaza – largely supportive of Israel – that has claimed 26,000 Palestinian lives.
In a statement issued in October, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, a Kenyan, omitted any criticism of Israel.
In a letter sent to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, on Wednesday, 16 Palestinian groups, including the umbrella body the Palestinian human rights council, said there had been a “glaring absence of any action in response to the sustained mass atrocities endured by Palestinians in Gaza”, and that this raised “significant concerns about the special adviser’s capability to execute her mandate with due effectiveness and impartiality”.
Journalist and son killed in Israeli airstrike, reports Al Jazeera
A journalist and his son have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in the central Gaza Strip, reports Al Jazeera.
Nafez Abdel Jawad, who worked for Palestine TV, was killed in a bombing of a residential building in the al-Salam neighbourhood in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip last night, says Al Jazeera. The news organisation said that his only son also died in the airstrike and other injuries had also been reported.
Footage obtained by Al Jazeera shows civil defence and ambulance crews attempting to evacuate victims of the Israeli attack. The Guardian has not been able to independently verify this.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent nonprofit organisation that promotes press freedom worldwide, as of 7 February 2004 at least 85 journalists and media workers have been killed since the Israel-Gaza war began on 7 October. This is based on the CPJ’s most recent and preliminary account of journalist deaths in the war.
Updated
Repeated US strikes against Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq are pushing the government to end the mission of the US-led coalition in the country, the prime minister’s military spokesperson Yahya Rasool said on Thursday, reports Reuters.
The US military said a strike on Wednesday killed a commander from Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed armed group in Iraq that the Pentagon has blamed for attacking its troops.
Rasool said in a statement that the US-led coalition “has become a factor for instability and threatens to entangle Iraq in the cycle of conflict.”
The US-led international military coalition in Iraq was set up to fight Islamic State. The US has 2,500 troops in Iraq, advising and assisting local forces to prevent a resurgence of the group.
Since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began in October, Iraq and Syria have witnessed almost daily tit-for-tat attacks between hardline Iran-backed armed groups and US forces stationed in the region, say Reuters.
Residential homes targeted in bombing of Rafah, reports Al Jazeera journalist
Intense bombing continues in Rafah, reports Al Jazeera journalist Hani Mahmoud who is reporting from the area in southern Gaza.
In an update for the Qatar-based news organisation, Mahmoud writes:
There is an intense bombing campaign across Rafah city, particularly the western part. This seems to be an indication that the ground invasion is expanding.
Residential homes have been targeted. One displaced family from the northern part of the Gaza Strip and another that had come from Khan Younis were killed in massive overnight airstrikes that destroyed an entire building.
Mahmoud said 14 people had been killed in the attacks and described seeing people being removed from the rubble in the early hours of Thursday.
“In the eastern part of the city, close to the Egypt-Gaza border, many people have been killed and more residential homes have been destroyed. In central areas, there is a similar situation, with more than 10 people killed in designated ‘safe areas’,” he wrote.
Updated
Three dead as US drone strike targets Iran-linked militia leader in Baghdad
A US drone strike on a car in Baghdad has killed three members of the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia, including a high-ranking commander, officials said after a string of blasts were heard in the Iraqi capital.
The strike late on Wednesday came on a main thoroughfare in the Mashtal neighbourhood in eastern Baghdad. A crowd gathered as emergency response teams picked through the wreckage. Security forces closed off the heavily guarded Green Zone, where a number of diplomatic compounds are located, amid calls for protesters to storm the US embassy.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the commander who was killed had been targeted “in response to the attacks on US service members.”
The strike killed “a Kataeb Hezbollah commander responsible for directly planning and participating in attacks on US forces in the region,” according to CENTCOM, which said there are “no indications of collateral damage or civilian casualties at this time.”
UK closer to large-scale conflict than in many years, intelligence official says
My colleague, the Guardian’s defence and security editor Dan Sabbagh has written a piece on an intelligence official that believes the UK is closer to large-scale conflict than in many years. You can read it here:
British defence intelligence officials say the UK is closer to a large-scale conflict than at any recent point, as the Middle East crisis intensifies while Russia pursues an expansionist agenda and China develops advanced weapons.
One senior official said the secretive 4,500-strong unit was the busiest it had been in at least a decade, and said the fast turnover of ministers made it harder to ensure key politicians were making informed decisions.
The official was asked if they agreed with Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, who said in a speech last month that the UK and the west was “moving from a postwar to a prewar world”.
The official, based in defence intelligence and speaking on condition of anonymity, cited Russia’s continuing attack on Ukraine and the possibility of an expansion of the conflict, while adding that it remained possible China would attempt to take Taiwan by force.
“Is there a likelihood of a large-scale conflict? Yes, there is. It’s probably more likely than it has been at any recent point,” they said, reflecting a period of instability deepened by the Israel-Gaza war and US-led bombing campaigns against Houthi rebels in Yemen and Iranian-back militias in Iran and Syria.
Norway transfers $26m to UNRWA
Norway has transferred $26m to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), foreign minister Espen Barth Eide said on Wednesday.
Today, Norway transfers $26 million to @UNRWA, the UN Agency that supports Palestinian refugees.
— Espen Barth Eide (@EspenBarthEide) February 7, 2024
UNRWA is the backbone of humanitarian efforts in Gaza. Its services are critical for millions of people in extreme need. https://t.co/4dIcCaEEun
Several major donors suspended funding to the UN body after Israeli allegations that a number of UNRWA staff were involved in the 7 October Hamas attacks in Israel. UNRWA responded by saying it had severed ties with the staff members accused and was launching an investigation.
Al Jazeera reported, Norway’s minister of international development Anne Beathe Tvinnereim as saying:
People in Gaza are starving. Health services have collapsed. In addition to all of the ramifications of the war, many are dying from infectious diseases and a lack of healthcare. Our support for UNRWA’s efforts is more important than ever.”
Turkey detains 147 people over suspected Islamic State ties
Turkish authorities have detained 147 people suspected of having ties to militant group Islamic State (IS) in operations across 33 provinces, interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Thursday, reports news agency Reuters.
The “Operation Heroes-49”, was carried out simultaneously across the country, Yerlikaya said on social media platform X.
3️⃣3️⃣ İlde DEAŞ Terör Örgütüne yönelik eş zamanlı olarak gerçekleştirilen “KAHRAMANLAR-49” operasyonlarında 1️⃣4️⃣7️⃣ şüpheli yakalandı❗
— Ali Yerlikaya (@AliYerlikaya) February 8, 2024
Aziz Milletimizin huzuru, birlik ve beraberliği için teröristlerin hiçbirine göz açtırmayacağız. Güvenlik güçlerimizin üstün gayretleriyle… pic.twitter.com/eTS4sN6nch
Last month, one Turkish citizen was killed by two IS gunmen at the Italian Santa Maria Catholic church in Istanbul. Turkish police captured the suspected perpetrators of the attack.
The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (Ocha) has released its latest update on the Israel-Gaza war.
In it, Ocha notes that while there was a short suspension of hostilities in the west of Rafah for humanitarian reasons, there are still fears over fighting moving into the area:
Intense fighting around Khan Younis continues to drive thousands of people into the southern town of Rafah, which is already hosting over half of Gaza’s population.
On 7 February, undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths expressed extreme concern about the safety and wellbeing of families who “have endured the unthinkable” in search of safety and now find themselves facing the prospect that intensified hostilities will expand to Rafah.
He warned: “Further fighting in Rafah risks claiming the lives of even more people. It also risks further hampering a humanitarian operation already limited by insecurity, damaged infrastructure and access restrictions.”
With hostilities entering their 5th month, hundreds of thousands remain in the area to the north of Wadi #Gaza - largely cut off from humanitarian assistance.
— OCHA oPt (Palestine) (@ochaopt) February 7, 2024
In the south, over half of Gaza’s population is crammed in Rafah, in abysmal living conditions.
Latest update 👇
Hamas delegation set to arrive in Cairo
A Hamas delegation is expected in Cairo for more ceasefire talks, a day after the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the group’s demands made as part of their response to a proposed ceasefire deal.
Senior Lebanon-based Hamas official Osama Hamdan confirmed the trip at a news conference in Beirut while an Egyptian official has also told Agence France-Presse that “a new round of negotiations” is set to start on Thursday in Cairo aimed at achieving “calm in the Gaza Strip”.
It’s as the US secretary of state Antony Blinken continues his fifth trip to the region since the 7 October Hamas attacks. He said Wednesday that a ceasefire and hostage-release agreement between Israel and Hamas was still possible, despite the two sides being far apart on the central terms for a deal.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu also confirmed that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had been instructed to commence operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where the population has been swelled by hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
Welcome and opening summary
It’s just after 9am in Gaza, Tel Aviv and Cairo. Welcome to our latest blog on the Middle East crisis.
A Hamas delegation is heading to Cairo on Thursday to continue ceasefire talks, according to senior Lebanon-based Hamas official Osama Hamdan. An Egyptian official has also told Agence France-Presse that “a new round of negotiations” is set to start on Thursday in Cairo aimed at achieving “calm in the Gaza Strip”.
It comes after the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the terms of a ceasefire in Gaza proposed by Hamas and ordered troops to prepare to enter the overcrowded Gazan city of Rafah.
The US secretary of state Antony Blinken said Wednesday that a ceasefire and hostage-release agreement between Israel and Hamas was still possible, despite the two sides being far apart on the central terms for a deal.
More on that in a moment but first, here’s a summary of the latest events:
A US drone strike on a car in Baghdad has killed three members of the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia, including a high-ranking commander, officials said after a string of blasts were heard in the Iraqi capital. The strike late on Wednesday came on a main thoroughfare in the Mashtal neighbourhood in eastern Baghdad.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has rejected Hamas demands for a ceasefire in Gaza and vowed to press ahead with Israel’s military offensive in Gaza until achieving “total victory”. Israel was within reach of achieving total victory “in a matter of months”, Netanyahu said at a news conference shortly after meeting US secretary of state, Antony Blinken. “The day after is the day after Hamas. All of Hamas.”
Hamas laid out a detailed three-phase plan to unfold over four and a half months late on Tuesday via Qatari and Egyptian mediators, responding to a proposal drawn up by the US, Israel, Qatar and Egypt. The plan stipulates that all hostages would be released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, including senior militants, and an end to the war.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said “a lot of work” remained to be done to bridge the gap between Israel and Hamas on terms for a new ceasefire and hostage-release deal. Blinken met with Netanyahu and Israeli president Isaac Herzog on Wednesday, during which he reiterated US support for “the establishment of a Palestinian state as the best way to ensure lasting peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike and greater integration for the region”, according to a US state department readout.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said he is “especially alarmed” by reports that the Israeli military intends to focus next on the southern Gaza city of Rafah. His comments came amid concerns of an “imminent” Israel ground invasion of Rafah as Israeli gunboats reportedly fired on the main coastal road to the west of the city on Wednesday morning. “Such an action would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences,” Guterres warned.
At least 27,708 Palestinians have been killed and 67,147 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, according to the latest figures by the Gaza health ministry on Wednesday. The figures includes 123 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes and 169 injured in the past 24 hours.
Saudi Arabia has said there will be “no diplomatic relations with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state is recognised”. A Saudi foreign ministry statement on Wednesday reiterated “its call to the permanent members of the UN security council that have not yet recognised the Palestinian state, to expedite the recognition of the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital”.
Israeli protesters have prevented trucks carrying humanitarian aid from entering Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing on Wednesday, according an Israeli defence body. The group behind the protests has demanded freedom for the Israeli hostages in Gaza before further aid is allowed into the besieged Palestinian territory.
Israel’s military has said it discovered and destroyed a tunnel used by senior Hamas leaders and to hold hostages in southern Gaza’s main city of Khan Younis. Israeli special forces unearthed what they said was a “strategic underground tunnel” stretching more than one kilometre (just over half a mile) in a “targeted raid”. The city has been the focus of intense bombardment in recent weeks.
Israeli strikes on a southern Lebanese village has killed one civilian and wounded two others on Wednesday, according to Lebanon’s state media. An Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said the army attacked a series of Hezbollah targets in the Khiam area. “A sixth of all rocket launches from Lebanese territory since the start of fighting were launched from the vicinity of Khiam,” Adraee said in a statement on X.
Police in Austin, Texas in the US say the stabbing of a 23-year-old Palestinian American was a hate crime, reports Associated Press. Threats against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities have increased across the US since the 7 October attacks by Hamas and during the Israel-Gaza war.
Human Rights Watch has urged EU donors to restore funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) amid warnings that it could cease operations across the Middle East by the end of the month. The rights group said it was “unconscionable” to consider shutting down the UN agency amid a “desperate” humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Norway has announced a fresh donation UNRWA. Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said the transfer of 275 million Norwegian kroner ($26 million) would support Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, Agence France-Presse reports.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has called the 7 October attacks by Hamas on Israel the “biggest antisemitic massacre of our century” as he led a ceremony paying tribute to the French victims. The ceremony, the first major international memorial event outside Israel since the Hamas attacks four months ago, remembered the 42 French citizens killed in the attacks and the three others still missing, believed to be held hostage.
Canada’s immigration minister, Marc Miller, has said he is “pissed off” that extended family members of Canadians are being blocked from leaving war-torn Gaza. Ottawa last month provided a list of about 1,000 people approved to come to Canada to Israeli and Egyptian authorities, who jointly control the only border crossing out of the Palestinian territory, at Rafah. They would be permitted to stay in Canada temporarily while fighting continues. But none have been allowed yet to leave the coastal strip.
