Israeli military investigates 'reports of harm to civilians' after hundreds killed near Gaza aid sites
The Israeli military has said it is examining reports of civilians being "harmed" while approaching aid distribution centres in Gaza run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.Since GHF operations began in late May, following a three-month Israeli blockade on Gaza, there have been almost daily reports from medics, eyewitnesses and the Hamas-run health ministry of Israeli fire killing people seeking aid at these sites.The UN says more than 400 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid.The Israeli military said on Monday instructions had been issued to forces after "lessons learned", but did not specify what these lessons were.
The IDF has on numerous occasions said it has fired what it has described as "warning shots" on "suspects" approaching its troops.Multiple Israeli media outlets, including the Times of Israel, reported on Monday that the IDF had acknowledged that some Palestinians had been killed while seeking aid, but that the IDF said Hamas's casualty figures were inaccurate. Israeli media reported that the military had admitted that in some cases "inaccurate" fire by Israeli forces had led to casualties and some deaths.The BBC put these points to the IDF, which said in response that "reports of incidents of harm" were being "examined" and that "any allegation of a deviation from the law or IDF directives will be thoroughly examined and further action will be taken as necessary."It said it had no further comment regarding the claims made in Israeli media on Monday.However it denied any allegations of deliberate fire at civilians, such as those raised in a report by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Friday.That report quoted unnamed IDF soldiers who said they were ordered to shoot at unarmed civilians near aid distribution sites, to drive them away or disperse them.Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly rejected the report, calling the allegations "malicious falsehoods".The GHF aid system has been condemned by UN agencies, and on Friday UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres branded it "inherently unsafe". It is intended to bypass the UN as the main supplier of aid to Palestinians. Israel and the US said the system would prevent aid being stolen by Hamas, which the group denies doing.Within days of GHF operations starting in late May, dozens of Palestinians were killed in separate incidents on 1 and 3 June, sparking international condemnation.On Friday GHF boss Johnnie Moore told the BBC he was not denying reports of deaths near aid sites, but said "100% of those casualties are being attributed to close proximity to GHF" and that was "not true".Israel does not allow international news organisations, including the BBC, to send journalists into Gaza.
In its statement on Monday, the IDF said it was reorganising access to the sites and this would include new "fencing" and signposting, including directional and warning signs. This was aimed at "improving the operational response in the area, minimising friction with the population, and ensuring that the aid reaches its intended recipients", it said.It also said it had decided to close an aid distribution centre in the Tel al-Sultan area near Rafah in southern Gaza to establish a new one nearby.Last week the US State Department announced $30m (£22m) in funding for the GHF, which is its first known direct contribution to the group. Israel partially eased its three-month blockade of Gaza following pressure from US allies and warnings from global experts that half a million people were facing starvation.The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.More than 56,500 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry.
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The Guardian
28 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Tuesday briefing: How weakened is Iran after Operation Midnight Hammer – and where might it go from here?
Good morning. The term 'cakeism' – the false belief that one can simultaneously enjoy the benefits of two mutually exclusive choices – may forever be associated with the Brexit negotiations, when keeping the advantages of EU membership while also shedding its costs became the UK's official bargaining position. But the appeal of cakeism endures, and over the last week the US president's approach to the conflict with Iran has started to look distinctly gateau-shaped. Donald Trump wants the glory of a decisive victory on the battlefield but is not so keen on the long-term repercussions that come with it: tit-for-tat retaliations, unforeseeable conflict spillage, focused diplomacy, or even regime change – the kind of talk the Maga movement associates with Trump's predecessors. Questions over the efficacy of the US strikes of Iranian nuclear facilities remain unanswered. And as the regime in Tehran defiantly insists on its own 'victory', insists that trust in the UN nuclear inspectorate is 'broken', and cracks down on dissent at home, it is starting to look as if Trump might not be able to have his cake and eat it after all. For today's newsletter, I spoke to diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour about how weakened Iran really is, and what this could mean for the stability of the ceasefire. Here are the headlines. Welfare | Downing Street's plans to see off a major Labour welfare rebellion were in chaos on Monday night, amid continued brinkmanship between MPs and the government over the scale of the concessions. There was significant division between government departments over how to respond to rebels' demands ahead of the knife-edge vote on Tuesday. UK news | Police have formally opened a criminal investigation into comments made by Bob Vylan and Kneecap at Glastonbury after reviewing video and audio footage of the performances. Meanwhile on Monday, the BBC said that it should not have allowed chants of 'Death to the IDF' at Bob Vylan's performance to be broadcast. Crown Estate | King Charles is set to receive official annual income of £132m next year, after his portfolio of land and property made more than £1bn in profits thanks to a boom in the offshore wind sector. Arms trade | Britain's decision to allow the export of F-35 fighter jet components to Israel, despite accepting they could be used in breach of international humanitarian law in Gaza, was lawful, London's high court has ruled. The judges ruled that the 'acutely sensitive and political issue' was 'a matter for the executive … not for the courts'. Crime | A 92-year-old man who evaded justice for almost 60 years has been convicted of raping and murdering a woman in Bristol, after a review by a cold case police team and scientists. Officers believe the 58-year gap between the crime and the conviction may be the biggest in modern English policing history. On 21 June, the US air force and navy bombed three of Iran's nuclear sites, thus becoming directly involved in a military conflict started when Israel struck key military and nuclear facilities in Iran eight days earlier. Since then, president Donald Trump has been ever more adamant that Iran's nuclear facilities have been 'completely and totally obliterated', and that the ceasefire agreed on 24 June would bring 'tremendous LOVE, PEACE, AND PROSPERITY' to the region in perpetuity. A week on, the ceasefire still holds, but questions over the strikes' long-term consequences are mounting. CNN has reported US intelligence assessments that the bombing did not destroy the core components of the country's nuclear programme. The regime in Tehran, meanwhile, has struck a note of defiance, with Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claiming his country had 'dealt a severe slap to the face of America' with a missile attack on a US base in nearby Qatar. Which begs the question: did Operation Midnight Hammer weaken Iran's nuclear ambitions, or will it embolden its leadership to pursue them in the long term? How damaged are Iran's military capabilities? The intense fighting between Israel and Iran – now often referred to as the '12-day war' – exposed the Islamic Republic's air defences, showing it was not able to defend itself as effectively against aerial assaults as it has previously claimed. The American strike on the three nuclear facilities – at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan – was undoubtedly effective. 'Most serious analysts think that the damage of the US strikes was very, very serious, and it's hard to imagine that Iran still has a credible nuclear weapons programme in place that has somehow eluded intelligence,' said Patrick Wintour. That is not the same as 'obliteration', however – significantly so. Rafael Grossi, the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said that while American bombers had 'severely damaged' Iranian facilities, 'one cannot claim that everything has disappeared and there is nothing there', and Tehran could begin weaponising uranium again in 'a matter of months'. 'Even if Iran just has a couple of dozen centrifuges out of tens of thousands left, it could purify its uranium stockpiles within about three months,' said Patrick. 'That's the problem with a military solution and no diplomatic strategy behind it – it would have to be a total wipeout to solve the problem.' Last week, Iran's parliament voted unanimously to suspend all cooperation with the IAEA, and the message that Tehran does not want anyone to have a close look at the wreckage was underlined by a menacing article in an Iranian newspaper, claiming Grossi was an Israeli spy who should be executed. 'They cannot have access to our site,' Iran's UN ambassador Amir-Saeid Iravani said. 'Our assessment is that they have not done their jobs.' Until the nuclear inspectorate is allowed access to what remains of the facilities, Patrick said, 'we are driving blind' – which, at the moment, could actually be not just in Iran's but also Trump's interest. 'Iran wants to have nuclear ambiguity for now', he added. For the US president, meanwhile, the lack of empirical evidence has allowed him to claim an emphatic military victory: 'It has allowed his assessment of the strikes' impact to become harder and harder.' How isolated is Iran diplomatically? In recent months, Iran's foreign minister has invested some effort trying to convey to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE that Tehran is not some rogue bellicose state but a mature diplomatic player in the region. 'The war has undone that,' said Patrick. 'And that's the case even though those wealthy Gulf states don't publicly support what the US has done, and even bemoan its short sightedness in private.' The 12-day war and its aftermath have also shown up little return for Iran's diplomatic efforts in Europe. Germany's new chancellor, conservative Friedrich Merz, praised Israel's air strikes on the Islamic Republic, saying it was 'doing the dirty work for all of us', and later added there was 'no reason' to criticise America's attack. Britain's prime minister, Keir Starmer, backed the strikes and only warned mildly of a 'risk of escalation' in the Middle East. 'What will trouble Tehran most is that it hasn't managed to leverage the disagreements between Trump and the European Union,' said Patrick. 'The Iranians had hoped that Europe would be much more condemnatory of the strikes.' Is the regime also weakened domestically? In the wake of Operation Midnight Hammer, some Maga acolytes on social media called on the Iranian people to rise up against the regime. Given the social and economic situation in the west Asian republic, this might sound like a realistic demand: unemployment and poverty rates are high, inflation at almost 40%, in part due to the state's self-punishingly high military spending. It was only three years ago that the country saw civil unrest and mass protests against the regime, triggered by the death in police custody of the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini. Yet Israeli and American air strikes, with a reported death toll of more than 900 lives, have also shored up support for the government. 'The regime is trying to galvanise what happened, and there has been a rallying-around-the-flag effect', Patrick said. 'Even critical voices in the diaspora have been mindful of alienating ordinary Iranians.' Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the last shah who has been one of the leading figures of the pro-democracy movement, has endorsed calls for a civil uprising but has appeared isolated. Instead of pro-democracy marches, Tehran has seen the regime parade the coffins of the 'martyred' military chiefs and nuclear scientists who died in the strikes to state funerals. The regime has also further tightened its grip on civil liberties, turning on alleged traitors from within. 'After the strikes, the Iranian opposition called on the regime to mark a fresh start and release political prisoners', says Patrick. In fact, the opposite happened.' During the 12-day war, six Iranians were executed on alleged charges of collaborating with Israel. 'It is clear that a new wave of intense repression has begun, more severe than ever before', the daughter of one political prisoner told Guardian reporters. Prioritising military over social spending might become a harder political sell in the wake of the war, but then there is only so much political-selling that authoritarian regimes need to do while they have the electorate's hands tied behind their backs. 'In truth, Iran's loathsome regime didn't even come close to falling', said foreign affairs commentator Simon Tisdall in his analysis. What does this mean for the ceasefire? The truce between Israel and Iran is volatile. 'The situation is very unstable, and anything could kick it off,' said Patrick. The list of unpredictable 'anythings' is long: American security agencies have warned of a looming threat of Tehran-backed; US-based 'sleeper cells' could be called in for retaliatory attacks; and Iran's top Shia cleric has issued a fatwa for Trump and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu to be made to 'regret their words and mistakes'. Analysts are concerned about the lack of a political programme to keep the ceasefire in place. Trump has said he is 'not offering Iran anything', while the Iranian side has claimed that the US president wants to return to negotiations. In an interview with the BBC on Monday, Iran's deputy foreign minister, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, said his country would only be open to such talks if the US were to rule out further strikes during the process. But as long as Trump's intelligence assessment of his victory remains the same, Patrick reckoned there was also considerable pressure to keep the ceasefire in place. 'If it were to end, the next stage could only be regime change, and that would take Trump into ideologically difficult territory.' Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Stefan Stern makes a compelling case for a collective U-turn on U-turns. They can make politicians look indecisive and sloppy, but isn't it a good thing that politicians show they can change their mind? After all, he writes: 'Westminster orthodoxy and the real world are not always in perfect alignment.' Charlie Lindar, acting deputy editor, newsletters I enjoyed Sam Jones's interview with Santiago Yahuarcani, the indigenous Peruvian artist whose paintings of pink dolphins (above) and pipe-smoking frogs take you deep into the Amazonian rainforest. Philip Where season one of Squid Game was a word-of-mouth sensation, seasons two and now three have nearly killed off the show's legacy. 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Elsewhere on Monday, Emma Raducanu and Sonay Kartal were among a record seven British players to win in the first round. Football | Manchester City have been knocked out of the Club World Cup in an upset 4-3 defeat to Saudi Arabia's Al-Hilal. With the scores level at 2-2 at the end of 90 minutes, goals for Kalidou Koulibaly and and Marcos Leonardo were enough to take Al-Hilal through despite Phil Foden's volley. Formula One | Lando Norris has urged fans at Silverstone not to cast his McLaren teammate and world championship rival, Oscar Piastri, as a villain at Sunday's British Grand Prix. Norris won the Austrian GP in Spielberg after a tense, lights-to-flag fight with Piastri, the pair in almost constant competition over 70 laps. 'Labour bid to woo rebels descends into chaos on eve of welfare vote,' is the splash on the Guardian today. The i has 'No 10 in final push to win over rebel MPs ahead of welfare vote.' The FT opts for 'Diluted welfare reform halves savings but still pushes 150,000 into poverty,' while the Mail splashes with 'Rebel MPs are set to humiliate PM today.' 'NHS will prioritise UK doctors and nurses,' says the Times. 'BBC boss at festival for rapper's hate chant,' is the lead story over at the Telegraph. The Express highlights the same controversy at Glastonbury with: 'BBC boss has 'to act now or resign''. 'Did somebody say..... JUST NICKED,' has the Sun, for a story about arrests of asylum seekers working as food delivery drivers. The Metro leads with 'The Vivienne's tragic last hours,' and the Star focuses on the heatwave with: 'You ain't seen nothing sweat!' The French town that banned its tap water and the chemicals that could be in yours Phoebe Weston heads to Alsace, eastern France, to hear about a ban on drinking water caused by dangerously high levels of 'forever chemicals'. A bit of good news to remind you that the world's not all bad Few office workers do not dream of becoming a digital nomad. But what if that life isn't for you? In this feature, Emily Bratt (above) writes about when she – and others around the globe – discovered they needed the comfort of a 9-5, and the relief they gained from coming back home. 'I had conflated digital nomadism with holidaying,' writes Bratt. 'But it turned out that working in a cafe was still working in a cafe, whether you are in a Starbucks in Swindon or a beach bar in Bali. I found myself resenting having to work when there was so much to explore.' Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday And finally, the Guardian's puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Trust in UN's nuclear watchdog is broken, Iranian president says
Trust in the UN nuclear inspectorate is broken inside Iran, the country's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has told Emmanuel Macron, as European nations issued a statement in defence of its head. The two men spoke as Iranian officials said the total number of Iranian deaths during the 12-day air war with Israel and the US had risen to 935 people, including 38 children and 132 women. Pezeshkian criticised Rafael Grossi, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general, in the call, according to an Iranian account, saying he had not condemned the Israeli and US attacks even though they had been in flagrant breach of the UN charter and the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT). His language was more constrained than others in Iran, where the conservative newspaper Kayhan said if Grossi came to the country he should be put on trial and sentenced to death for links to the Israeli spy agency the Mossad. A joint statement on Monday from the UK, France and Germany said they condemned threats against Grossi 'and reiterate our full support to the agency and [Grossi] in carrying out their mandate', calling on Iran to cooperate with it. 'We call on Iranian authorities to refrain from any steps to cease cooperation with the IAEA. We urge Iran to immediately resume full cooperation in line with its legally binding obligations, and to take all necessary steps to ensure the safety and security of IAEA personnel,' it said. But the sense in Iran of western double standards is fuelling a deep feeling of grievance, as well as a refusal to give the IAEA access to make an independent assessment of the damage to Iran's nuclear sites, leaving such assessments to highly politicised reports emerging from the US. According to the Iranian account of the Sunday evening call, Pezeshkian told the French president: 'What guarantee is there that our facilities won't be attacked again, even if we cooperate?' He also questioned why Israel, which is not a member of the NPT, had been allowed to become a source of evidence for IAEA reports. Despite persistent reports that Iran and the US are using back channels to set up further indirect talks under the mediation of Oman, Iran's deputy foreign minister, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, said no such dates or times had been agreed. A compromise being floated by the US special envoy Steve Witkoff suggests that Iran be entitled to enrich uranium, a key Iranian demand, but in a consortium on the Iranian island of Kish under severe constraints. Speaking at a seminar hosted by the UK defence thinktank the Royal United Services Institute, Nicholas Hopton, a former UK ambassador to Iran, said huge damage had been done to the Iranian regime, but questioned whether any of Israel's key objectives had been met including regime change. He said: 'There was little evidence that Iran was rushing to a bomb three weeks ago and apparently now 400 kilos of highly enriched uranium are unaccounted for. 'It will be a long time before the IAEA can comment authoritatively on the extent to which Iran's nuclear programme has even degraded.' Ali Ansari, a professor of Iranian history at St Andrews University, said: 'There is a lot of shouting about nationalist solidarity that may subside as the dust settles. The official narrative that Iran has scored a major triumph against Israel is a classic case of when George Orwell talks about nationalism and indifference to reality.' He claimed that in reality serious discussions were going on within the state about what went wrong, its air defences, the lack of civil defence and the shocking and profound levels of infiltration of the security forces. 'People are saying the one thing we thought the Islamic Republic can do is defend us and they cannot even do that. The Islamic Republic that went into this conflict will not be the Islamic Republic that comes out,' he said.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Israeli, US-backed Gaza aid group must end, say 130 charities
More than 130 charities and other NGOs are calling for the controversial Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) to be shut down. Over 500 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid since the GHF started operating in late May, following Israel's three-month blockade of Gaza, the organisations said. Almost 4,000 have been injured. The organisations, including Oxfam, Save the Children, Amnesty International, and at least nine with head offices in Israel, say Israeli forces and armed groups "routinely" open fire on Palestinians seeking denies its soldiers deliberately shot at aid recipients, and has issued instructions to forces after "lessons learned". At least one Israeli newspaper has suggested orders to use live fire against civilians were issued. Israel has repeatedly blocked most United Nations supplies into Gaza, where the entire population is now at risk of starvation, according to the United Nations. The aid groups' statement says the foundation should stop work immediately, and be replaced by a United Nations-led joint statement from some of the world's biggest charities says the foundation is violating all norms of humanitarian work, including by forcing two million people into overcrowded and militarized zones where they face daily gunfire. Since the GHF started operating in Gaza, there have been almost daily reports of Israeli forces killing people seeking aid at these sites, from medics, eyewitnesses and the Hamas-run health GHF aid distribution system replaced 400 aid distribution points that were operating during the temporary Israel-Hamas ceasefire with just four military-controlled distribution sites, three in the far south-west of Gaza and one in central Gaza."Today, Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families," the statement says. "Orphaned children and caregivers are among the dead, with children harmed in over half of the attacks on civilians at these sites." The GHF aid system has been condemned by UN agencies. On Friday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called it "inherently unsafe".From the start the UN condemned the plan, saying it would "militarise" aid, bypass the existing distribution network and force Gazans to make long journeys through dangerous territory to get food. The Israeli military has said it is examining reports of civilians being "harmed" while approaching GHF aid distribution it has denied any allegations of deliberate fire at civilians, including those raised in a report by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Friday. The report quoted unnamed IDF soldiers who said they were ordered to shoot at unarmed civilians near aid distribution sites to drive them away or disperse them."Amidst severe hunger and famine-like conditions, many families tell us they are now too weak to compete for food rations," the statement from the aid organisations said. "This is not a humanitarian response."
