Closing summary
The US state department has said that secretary of state Marco Rubio will head to Qatar after meeting with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel. The visit announced Monday comes as the region is still reeling from Israel’s strike targeting Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital, Doha.
Rubio said international efforts to recognise the Palestinian state “emboldens [Hamas]” and makes it harder to end the war, at a joint press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu in Jeruslaem. He said the US has expressed this view to its allies, which includes the UK, France and Canada. He warned that if Hamas sees it is getting support globally, it can walk away from deals it has “tacitly agreed to” and says it could put the release of Israeli hostages at risk.
An emergency meeting of Arab and Islamic states is taking place in Qatar in response to Israel’s deadly airstrike in Doha last week that caused panic in nearby countries who feel Israel is acting with impunity. At the meeting, Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, said Israel had sought to derail Gaza talks by striking Hamas negotiators in his country last week.
Gulf leaders said on Monday that the Gulf Cooperation Council’s joint defence body will meet in Doha following Israel’s attack on Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital last week. In a statement, the leaders called for measures to activate the bloc’s “joint defence mechanism,” without providing further details.
UN expert Francesca Albanese on Monday warned that Israel’s assault on Gaza City would devastate Palestinians and that the city could be rendered unlivable. “Israel is bombing using unconventional weapons ... it is trying to forcibly evacuate Palestinians. Why? This is the last piece of Gaza that needs to be rendered unlivable,” Albanese, the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, told reporters in Geneva.
The permanent mission of Israel to the UN has rejected Albanese’s comments regarding Israel’s assault on Gaza City. “Her numerous statements have showcased her willingness to go to extreme lengths in [the] delegitimization of the state of Israel,” the mission said in a statement.
Families of Israeli hostages have pleaded that their loved ones not be “abandoned” and for no more living hostages to be “murdered in captivity” as a result of Israeli “military pressure”. In a post on X, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said the military must provide a “clear policy to the public and families”.
The United Nations Human Rights Council will hold an urgent debate in Geneva on Tuesday on Israel’s 9 September attack targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar, the council said on Monday. The 9 September airstrike, which Hamas says killed five of its members but not its leadership, has prompted US-allied Gulf Arab states to close ranks, adding to strains in ties between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, which normalised relations in 2020.
Britain has banned Israelis from attending a prestigious London defence studies college due to the escalation of the war in Gaza, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said on Monday, prompting an angry response from Israel. While Britain remains a close ally of Israel’s, it has recently tried to pressure its government over the conflict, threatening in July to recognise a Palestinian state unless Israel takes steps to relieve suffering in the enclave.
Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Monday that Israel’s current actions hindered any chances of new peace treaties in the Middle East. In remarks aimed at Israel, he told the Arab-Islamic summit in Doha: “What is happening right now hinders the future of peace, threatens your security and the security of the peoples in the region and adds obstacles to chances for any new peace agreements and even aborts existing ones.”
Doctors and medical staff at the largest hospital still functioning in Gaza say they will be overwhelmed by a wave of new wounded and sick patients if hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flee the north of the devastated territory in the face of an intensifying Israeli offensive. Dr Mohammed Saqr, the director of nursing at the Nasser medical complex near Khan Younis, in the south of Gaza, said there were not enough staff to cope with even existing demand and that supplies of medicine and fuel were running low.
Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday said Israel and Russia should be banned from international sports competitions until “barbaric acts” end, referring to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Sanchez said he condemned the violent protests by pro-Palestinian on Sunday in Madrid which disrupted the La Vuelta cycling race and ultimately led to the cancellation of the final leg and the podium ceremony.
Gulf leaders said on Monday that the Gulf Cooperation Council’s joint defence body will meet in Doha following Israel’s attack on Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital last week.
In a statement, the leaders called for measures to activate the bloc’s “joint defence mechanism,” without providing further details.
