Center East disaster reside: Israeli assault on tents housing journalists in Gaza kills a minimum of two, say Palestinian medics

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is because of go to US President Donald Trump on the White Home later right this moment.

The shut allies will meet on Monday to “discuss tariffs, efforts to bring back Israeli hostages (from Gaza), Israel-Turkey relations, the Iranian threat, and the fight against the international criminal court”, which has accused the Israeli chief of battle crimes, his Jerusalem workplace mentioned in a press release.

Netanyahu, the nation’s longest-serving prime minister, travelled to the US in February when Trump vowed that America would “take over” Gaza and “own it”, successfully endorsing the ethnic cleaning of Palestinian individuals.

Netanyahu, who depends on US weapons to proceed the assault on the strip, would be the first chief to fulfill with Trump after the US imposed world tariffs, which Israel is eager to be exempt from. The Israeli chief is on trial for corruption costs, which he denies.

The Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent, Bethan McKernan, writes that the assembly underscores the shut alliance between the 2 leaders. Right here is an extract from her story:

Trump has pressed Tehran for a brand new deal on its nuclear programme, though little progress has been made. There’s widespread hypothesis that Israel, probably with US assist, would possibly launch a army strike on Iranian services if no settlement is reached.

Al Hadath, a Saudi tv channel, reported on Saturday that the US transferred a second THAAD battery and two Patriot batteries to Israel amid rising tensions. Flight monitoring web sites confirmed {that a} C-5M Tremendous Galaxy, a big US air drive transport aircraft, landed at an airbase in southern Israel on Saturday for about eight hours, the Occasions of Israel reported.

The Biden administration despatched one THAAD battery, a sophisticated anti-missile system, to Israel within the instant aftermath of the Hamas assault in October 2023. It has been used since to intercept missile assaults from Iran and the Tehran-allied Houthi group in Yemen.

Lebanon’s well being ministry mentioned an Israeli airstrike in Taybeh, a border-village within the nation’s south, killed one particular person on Monday.

The official nationwide information company (NNA) mentioned the airstrike hit “in front of a motorcycle repair shop”.

The November ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, brokered by France and the US, introduced an official finish to Israel’s assault on Lebanon final yr however it stays extraordinarily precarious.

Beneath the settlement, Israeli forces had been imagined to withdraw from all Lebanese territory by late January whereas Hezbollah needed to finish its armed presence south of the Litani river alongside the border with Israel. However all sides accuses the opposite of not residing as much as these phrases.

Israel delayed a promised troop withdrawal in January and continues to occupy a number of so-called “strategic” hilltops in southern Lebanon. The Israeli army has additionally carried out frequent assaults on the nation, claiming it’s focusing on Hezbollah fighters and weapons, however many civilians have been killed within the airstrikes.

As we talked about within the opening abstract, ten Britons have been accused of committing battle crimes whereas combating for Israel in Gaza. Right here is some extra of the story, written by the Guardian’s authorized affairs correspondent Haroon Siddique:

Michael Mansfield KC is one among a gaggle of legal professionals who will on Monday hand in a 240-page file to Scotland Yard’s battle crimes unit alleging focused killing of civilians and support staff, together with by sniper hearth, and indiscriminate assaults on civilian areas, together with hospitals.

The report, which has been ready by a workforce of UK legal professionals and researchers in The Hague, additionally accuses suspects of coordinated assaults on protected websites together with historic monuments and spiritual websites, and compelled switch and displacement of civilians.

For authorized causes, neither the names of suspects, who embrace officer-level people, nor the complete report are being made public…

The report, which has been submitted on behalf of the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and the British-based Public Curiosity Legislation Centre (PILC), covers alleged offences dedicated within the territory from October 2023 to Could 2024 and took six months to compile.

Every of the crimes attributed to the ten suspects, a few of whom are twin nationals, quantities to a battle crime or crime towards humanity, in line with the report.

One witness, who was at a medical facility, noticed corpses “scattered on the ground, especially in the middle of the hospital courtyard, where many dead bodies were buried in a mass grave”. A bulldozer “ran over a dead body in a horrific and heart-wrenching scene desecrating the dead”, the witness mentioned.

Welcome to our reside protection of the most recent developments within the Center East, with a specific give attention to Israel’s persevering with battle on Gaza.

Israel struck tents exterior two main hospitals within the Gaza Strip in a single day, killing a minimum of two individuals, together with a neighborhood reporter, and injuring 9, together with six reporters, Palestinian medics mentioned.

One of many Israeli airstrikes hit a media tent exterior Nasser hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, setting it ablaze, killing Yousef al-Faqawi, a reporter for the Palestine At the moment TV information web site and one other man. Two of the six reporters injured within the airstrike are in a vital situation, with one affected by extreme burns and the opposite with a head harm, in line with studies.

Beneath worldwide regulation, journalists are protected civilians who should not be focused by combatants. However greater than 200 journalists and media staff have been killed by Israeli forces since October 2023, in line with the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate.

Israel additionally focused tents on the sting of the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in central Gaza, which mentioned two individuals had been killed and three injured in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Deir al-Balah within the central Gaza Strip.

In another developments:

• A minimum of three individuals had been killed by Israeli assaults on the Zeitoun district of Gaza Metropolis, in line with Al Jazeera Arabic.

• US airstrikes on Sana’a yesterday killed a minimum of 4 individuals and injured over 20 others, together with ladies and youngsters, in line with well being officers and native studies.

• Hamas mentioned yesterday it had fired rockets at cities in Israel’s south in response to Israeli “massacres” of civilians in Gaza. Israel’s army mentioned about ten projectiles had been fired, however most efficiently intercepted. Israeli emergency companies mentioned they had been treating one particular person for shrapnel accidents.

• A battle crimes criticism towards 10 Britons who served with the Israeli army in Gaza is to be submitted to the Met police by one of many UK’s main human rights legal professionals.