Closing summary
In the UK, Keir Starmer, the Labour party leader, said the “fighting must stop now” in Gaza, warning Israel not to extend its military offensive to the southern city of Rafah.
Israel formalised its opposition to what it called the “unilateral recognition” of Palestinian statehood, and said any such agreement must be reached through direct negotiations. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, brought the “declaratory decision” to a vote in cabinet, which unanimously approved the measure, according to a statement.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the situation in the Israel-occupied West Bank posed a major obstacle to finding a long-term solution for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
A total of 28,985 Palestinian people have been killed and 68,883 others injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement. At least 127 Palestinians have been killed and 205 others injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in Gaza is no longer functioning due to the Israeli army’s “week-long siege followed by the ongoing raid”. The Gaza Strip’s second-largest hospital still sheltered many patients suffering from war wounds and Gaza’s worsening health crisis, but there was no power and not enough staff to treat them all, health officials said. “It’s gone completely out of service,” Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra told Reuters. “There are only four medical teams – 25 staff – currently caring for patients inside the facility,” he said.
The Israeli military said on Sunday that it killed dozens of Palestinian militants and seized a large amount of weapons in fighting throughout the Gaza Strip over the past day.
The UN security council is likely to vote on Tuesday on an Algerian push to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Israel’s war in Gaza, diplomats told Reuters.
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Earlier on Sunday, Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, also condemned the suspension of humanitarian aid to the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), urging an investigation into errors without cutting off funding to help those affected by what he called a “genocide.”
The agency is facing a financial strain after a number of donors suspended funding to UNRWA after the Israeli government alleged that as many as 12 of its staff members were involved in the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 Israelis.
UNRWA is the only UN agency that is mandated to work in Gaza to distribute aid to the two million people currently trapped and starving in the besieged enclave. With 40,000 staff, including 13,000 in Gaza, it is facing a funding shortfall after the exodus of donors.
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Here is a video of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that Israel will continue to oppose the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state (see post at 12.02 for more details).
Israel to reprimand Brazilian ambassador over Lula's Gaza remarks
Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, said he would summon Brazil’s ambassador for a reprimand over remarks made by Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has been harshly critical of the conduct of the Gaza war.
“The words of the president of Brazil are shameful and serious. No one will harm Israel’s right to defend itself. I have ordered the people of my office to summon the Brazilian ambassador for a reprimand call tomorrow,” he wrote on X.
The post did not specify what Lula remarks Katz was responding to.
הדברים של נשיא ברזיל מבישים וחמורים. אף אחד לא יפגע בזכותה של ישראל להגן על עצמה. הוריתי לאנשי משרדי לזמן את שגריר ברזיל לשיחת נזיפה מחר.
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) February 18, 2024
“What’s happening in the Gaza Strip isn’t a war, it’s a genocide,” Lula told reporters on Sunday in Addis Ababa, where he was attending an African Union summit (see earlier post at 12.54).
“It’s not a war of soldiers against soldiers. It’s a war between a highly prepared army and women and children.”
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UK Labour party leader says Gaza fighting ‘must stop now'
In the UK, the Labour party leader, Keir Starmer, said the “fighting must stop now” in Gaza.
Starmer made the comments in a speech to the Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow, where he has come under pressure ahead of a crucial Commons vote on Wednesday calling for an immediate ceasefire.
“I have just returned from the Munich Security Conference where every conversation I had came back to the situation in Israel and Gaza and the question of what we can do practically to deliver what we all want to see – a return of all the hostages taken on October 7th, an end to the killing of innocent Palestinians, a huge scaling up of humanitarian relief and an end to the fighting,” he said.
“Not just for now, not just for a pause, but permanently. A ceasefire that lasts. That is what must happen now. The fighting must stop now.”
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Here are some of the latest images coming out of the newswires:
Israeli forces killed two Palestinians during a raid in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The Palestinian health ministry said two men, aged 19 and 36, were pronounced dead after the army raid in the Tulkarm refugee camp, in the north of the West Bank, which the UN says houses over 27,000 Palestinian refugees.
At least five other people were injured in the Israeli military operation, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
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In the UK, David Lammy has described the death toll in Gaza as “abominable” as he sought to play down a Scottish National party vote next week on a ceasefire, arguing that party political debates in Westminster were not going to achieve peace in the region.
Ahead of another potential crunch point for Labour over whether or not to back a call for a ceasefire, Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, said the main point was that everyone wanted to see the violence stop.
“We all want to see an end to the fighting,” he told BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show. “Over 28,000 people have lost their lives, women and children. One of my children is adopted – [there are] 17,000 orphans now in Gaza. It’s just abominable. So of course people want to see a ceasefire.
“The question now is how, and to be absolutely clear that when that ceasefire comes, we can’t see the fighting restart.”
You can read the full story by the Guardian’s acting deputy political editor, Peter Walker, here:
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Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva accused Israel on Sunday of committing “genocide” against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.
“What’s happening in the Gaza Strip isn’t a war, it’s a genocide,” Lula told reporters in Addis Ababa, where he was attending an African Union summit.
“It’s not a war of soldiers against soldiers. It’s a war between a highly prepared army and women and children,” he added.
The 78-year-old leader condemned Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel as a “terrorist” act but he has since grown vocally critical of Israel’s retaliatory military campaign.
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EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the situation in the Israel-occupied West Bank posed a major obstacle to finding a long-term solution for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
AFP reports:
“The West Bank is the real obstacle for the two-state solution,” Borrell said at the Munich Security Conference.
“The West Bank is at boiling … we could be on the eve of a greater explosion,” he said.
Around 490,000 Israelis live in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, in dozens of settlements that are deemed illegal under international law.
The settlers live alongside around three million Palestinians in the territory.
Palestinians view the Israeli settlements as a war crime and a major obstacle to peace, but many national-religious hardliners see living there as fulfilling a divine promise.
Since the start of the war, the number of clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians in the West Bank has increased.
Borrell said the EU needed to “support the Arab initiative” to establish a Palestinian state, including both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Israel formalises opposition to 'unilateral recognition' of Palestinian statehood
Israel has formalised its opposition to what it called the “unilateral recognition” of Palestinian statehood, and said any such agreement must be reached through direct negotiations, Reuters reports.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, brought the “declaratory decision” to a vote in cabinet, which unanimously approved the measure, according to a statement (see earlier post at 10.39 for more details).
Efforts to achieve a two-state solution - a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza alongside Israel - have been stalled since 2014.
Joe Biden has been trying to clinch an even broader deal in the Middle East that would include Saudi Arabia and other Arab states normalising ties with Israel, as well as the creation of a Palestinian state.
The formal Israeli statement, according to Netanyahu’s office, reads:
Israel rejects outright international dictates regarding a permanent accord with the Palestinians. An accord, should it be reached, will only come through direct negotiations between the sides, without preconditions.
Israel will continue to oppose the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. Such recognition in the wake of the October 7th massacre will grant a huge, unprecedented reward to terrorism and prevent any future peace accord.
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Summary of the day so far...
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said his government would vote on a “declaratory decision” regarding Israel’s opposition to any unilateral imposition of Palestinian statehood.
A total of 28,985 Palestinians have been killed and 68,883 others injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement. At least 127 Palestinians have been killed and 205 others injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in Gaza is no longer functioning due to the Israeli army’s “week-long siege followed by the ongoing raid”. The Gaza Strip’s second-largest hospital still sheltered many patients suffering from war wounds and Gaza’s worsening health crisis, but there was no power and not enough staff to treat them all, health officials said. “It’s gone completely out of service,” Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra told Reuters. “There are only four medical teams – 25 staff – currently caring for patients inside the facility,” he said.
The Israeli military said on Sunday that it killed dozens of Palestinian militants and seized a large amount of weapons in fighting throughout the Gaza Strip over the past day.
The UN security council is likely to vote on Tuesday on an Algerian push to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Israel’s war in Gaza, diplomats told Reuters.
Updated
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that Israeli forces are continuing to target al-Amal hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis for the 27th consecutive day.
In a post to X, the PRCS said the hospital’s central maintenance room has been destroyed, and the fourth floor severely damaged by Israeli artillery shelling.
It also said that the Israeli military targeted fuel tanks, while gunfire led to a patient getting trapped (who was later “evacuated with difficulty”).
🚨Israeli occupation forces continue the siege and targeting of Al-Amal Hospital for the 27th day. #NotATarget ❌ #IHL #Gaza #AlAmalHospital pic.twitter.com/6BylazjFvX
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) February 18, 2024
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Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said his government would vote on a “declaratory decision” regarding Israel’s opposition to any unilateral imposition of Palestinian statehood, Reuters reports.
Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting that the move comes after “recent talk in the international community about an attempt to unilaterally impose on Israel a Palestinian state”.
The formal statement, he said, would reflect that “Israel rejects outright international dictates regarding a permanent arrangement with the Palestinians. Such an arrangement can only be reached in direct negotiations between the sides, without preconditions.”
Britain, the US and other western countries have supported the idea of an independent Palestine existing alongside Israel, but have said Palestinian independence should come as part of a negotiated settlement.
Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected the creation of an independent Palestinian state after the war.
An Israeli airstrike in Rafah overnight reportedly killed six people, including a woman and three children, and another strike killed five people in Khan Younis.
Associated Press journalists saw the bodies arrive at a hospital in Rafah, where about 1.4 million displaced civilians are sheltering.
In Gaza City, an airstrike flattened a family home, killing seven people, including three women, according to Sayed al-Afifi, a relative of the deceased.
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Death toll in Gaza reaches 28,985, says health ministry
A total of 28,985 Palestinians have been killed and 68,883 others injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
At least 127 Palestinians have been killed and 205 others injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
Most of the casualties have been women and children, the ministry has said, and thousands more bodies are likely to remain uncounted under rubble across Gaza.
Russia has invited Palestinian factions to meet in Moscow on 26 February, the Palestinian Authority’s prime minister has said.
“Russia has invited all Palestinian factions who will be meeting on the 26 of this month in Moscow. We will see if Hamas is ready to come to the ground with us,” Mohammad Shtayyeh told the Munich security conference, according to Reuters.
“We are ready to engage. If Hamas is not then that’s a different story. We need Palestinian unity,” he said, adding that to be part of that unity Hamas needed to meet certain prerequisites.
The Palestinian Authority exercises limited governance in the occupied West Bank.
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The UN’s highest court will open historic hearings on Monday into the legality of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967, news agencies report.
Six days of hearings are scheduled at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), with an unprecedented 52 countries expected to give evidence.
Countries including the US, Russia, and China will address judges in a week-long session at the Peace Palace in The Hague.
Against the backdrop of the current war, it will focus on Israel’s open-ended occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem.
Palestinian representatives, who speak first on Monday, will argue that the Israeli occupation is illegal because it has violated three key tenets of international law, the Palestinian legal team has told reporters.
Israel is not scheduled to speak during the hearings, but could submit a written statement and will likely justify the ongoing occupation on security grounds, especially in the absence of a peace deal.
The court will likely take months to rule. But experts say the decision, though not legally binding, could profoundly impact international jurisprudence, international aid to Israel and public opinion.
Nasser hospital has been put 'completely out of service', says health ministry
The Gaza Strip’s second-largest hospital has been put “completely out of service”, a spokesperson for the Gaza health ministry said on Sunday.
“There are only four medical teams – 25 staff – currently caring for patients” inside the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, Ashraf al-Qidra told Reuters.
“The Nasser medical complex is the backbone of healthcare in southern Gaza Strip. Its ceasing to function is a death sentence for hundreds of thousands of Palestinian displaced people in Khan Younis and Rafah,” he said.
Qidra said a lack of fuel and fighting around the facility – which was Gaza’s largest functioning hospital until Sunday – had put it out of action.
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WHO chief: Nasser hospital in Gaza no longer 'functional'
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in Gaza is no longer functioning due to the Israeli army’s “week-long siege followed by the ongoing raid”.
In a post on X, he said there are about 200 patients in the hospital, of which at least 20 need to be urgently referred to receive care elsewhere.
“The cost of delays will be paid by patients’ lives. Access to the patients and hospital should be facilitated,” he wrote.
Nasser hospital in #Gaza is not functional anymore, after a weeklong siege followed by the ongoing raid.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) February 18, 2024
Both yesterday and the day before, the @WHO team was not permitted to enter the hospital to assess the conditions of the patients and critical medical needs, despite…
Intense fighting raged last week around the Nasser hospital.
The Israel Defense Forces said troops entered the hospital on Thursday, acting on what it said was “credible intelligence” that hostages seized on 7 October had been held there.
The UN criticised the raid while medical staff reported on Thursday that the hospital was hit directly by tank fire. The power was cut and the generators stopped after the raid, leading to the deaths of six patients due to a lack of oxygen, according to the health ministry.
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The Israeli military said on Sunday that it killed dozens of Palestinian militants and seized a large amount of weapons in fighting throughout the Gaza Strip over the past day.
Israel has been focusing its offensive in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, where the military said troops are being backed by tanks and air support.
“Over the past day, dozens of terrorists were eliminated and large quantities of weapons were seized,” the military said.
Israeli special forces were still operating in and around the Nasser hospital, the largest in southern Gaza, it said.
At least 120 patients and five medical teams were trapped without water, food and electricity in the Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
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US likely to veto UN vote calling for ceasefire
The UN security council is likely to vote on Tuesday on an Algerian push to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Israel’s war in Gaza, diplomats told Reuters.
Algeria put forward an initial draft resolution more than two weeks ago. But the US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, quickly said the text could jeopardise negotiations aimed at brokering a pause in the war.
“The United States does not support action on this draft resolution. Should it come up for a vote as drafted, it will not be adopted,” Thomas-Greenfield said in a statement on Saturday.
Algeria requested on Saturday that the council vote on Tuesday, diplomats said.
Washington traditionally shields its ally Israel from UN action and has already twice vetoed council action since the 7 October Hamas attack.
But it has also abstained twice, allowing the council to adopt resolutions that aimed to boost humanitarian aid to Gaza and called for urgent and extended humanitarian pauses in fighting.
Talks between the US, Egypt, Israel and Qatar are on to seek a pause in the war and the release of hostages held by Hamas.
“It is critical that other parties give this process the best odds of succeeding, rather than push measures that put it – and the opportunity for an enduring resolution of hostilities – in jeopardy,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
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Opening summary
We are restarting our live coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza and the wider Middle East crisis.
The UN security council is likely to vote on Tuesday on whether to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Israel’s war in Gaza, diplomats told Reuters, in a move the US signalled it would veto.
Algeria put forward an initial draft resolution to the 15-member body more than two weeks ago. To be adopted, a UN security council resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by the United States, Britain, France, China or Russia.
But the US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, quickly said the text could jeopardise “sensitive negotiations” aimed at brokering a pause in the war.
“The United States does not support action on this draft resolution. Should it come up for a vote as drafted, it will not be adopted,” Thomas-Greenfield said in a statement on Saturday.
More on that story shortly. In other key developments:
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday insisted Israeli forces would press ahead wth the Rafah offensive, saying those who were critical of it were effectively telling the country to “lose the war” against Hamas. He also indicated that troops would go in regardless of whether a hostage release is agreed. “Even if we achieve it, we will enter Rafah,” he told a televised news conference.
G7 foreign ministers on Saturday said they were worried by the risk of forcible displacement of Palestinian civilians out of Gaza and the possible consequences of an Israeli military operation in the Rafah region.
There is an “extraordinary opportunity” in the months ahead for Israel to be integrated into the Middle East as Arab countries are willing to normalise ties with the country, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Saturday. Speaking at a panel at the Munich Security Conference, Blinken also highlighted the “urgent” imperative to proceed with a Palestinian state that would also ensure the security of Israel.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany was asking Israel to abide by international law in the conflict in Gaza and not to open a second front on its northern border with Lebanon. Speaking at the Munich conference on Saturday, Scholz also said it should be made impossible for Iran to exploit the conflict to expand its influence and urged the need for humanitarian aid to get to Gaza.
Mediator Qatar acknowledged on Saturday that prospects for a new pause in Israel’s war in Gaza were “not really promising”. Qatari prime minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, who met with negotiators from both Israel and Hamas this week, said in Munich that efforts for a ceasefire had been complicated by the insistence of “a lot of countries” that any new truce involve further releases of hostages.
Head of the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, blamed Israel for a lack of progress in achieving a ceasefire deal in Gaza in a statement issued on Saturday. Haniyeh added that Hamas “will not accept anything less than a complete cessation of the aggression, withdrawal of the occupation army from Gaza, and lifting of the unjust siege”. He also insisted that Israel must free Palestinian prisoners serving long sentences in any upcoming swap deal.
The US president, Joe Biden, said he doesn’t expect an offensive on the densely populated Rafah region of Gaza. Speaking at a press conference held after the announcement by Moscow of the death of dissident Alexei Navalny, Biden said a “temporary ceasefire” was necessary to evacuate hostages held in Gaza.
The US is preparing to send bombs and other weapons to Israel even as the US pushes for a ceasefire in the war on Gaza, reports The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Citing current and former US officials, the US news publication said the proposed arms delivery is estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars.
Iran unveiled two new air defence systems on Saturday, state media reported. The Arman missile system “can identify targets at 180 kilometres and engage and destroy them at 120 kilometres,” defence minister Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani said, while the new Azarakhsh defence system can be mounted on multiple vehicle types and “uses radar, electro-optical system and thermal seekers to detect and track its target”.
Israel is waging a concerted campaign aimed at destroying UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said in an interview published on Saturday. Calls for his resignation were also part of the Israeli government’s push, he told the Swiss newspaper group Tamedia.
Israeli forces have arrested 100 people at Gaza’s largest functioning hospital amid mounting fears for patients and staff trapped inside the Nasser hospital in Gaza’s main southern city of Khan Younis. The IDF said on Saturday that it was continuing to conduct “a precise and limited operation against the Hamas terrorist organisation within the Nasser hospital”.
At least 120 patients and five medical teams are stuck without water, food and electricity in the Nasser hospital, according to the Gaza health ministry.
At least 28,858 Palestinians have been killed and 68,667 injured in Gaza since the 7 October, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Egypt has begun building an enclosed area ringed with high concrete walls along its border with Gaza that appears intended to house Palestinians fleeing a threatened Israeli assault on the southern city of Rafah. Photos and videos released by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights (SFHR), a monitoring group, show workers using heavy machinery erecting concrete barriers and security towers around a strip of land on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing.
US Central Command (Centcom) said on Saturday that four anti-ship ballistic missiles were launched on Friday from Iranian-backed Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen into the Red Sea. At least three of the missiles were launched towards oil tanker Pollux, a Panamanian-flagged and Denmark-owned vessel, said Centcom. Earlier on Saturday, Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said that they had fired missiles at oil tanker Pollux.
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