Israel-Gaza war live: anger grows over Israeli far-right minister praying at al-Aqsa mosque | Middle East and north Africa
Anger grows over Israeli far-right minister praying at al-Aqsa mosque
Saudi Arabia has joined condemnations of far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s visit to al-Aqsa mosque today.
The minister of national security travelled to the holy site and prayed there with a reported group of 1,250 people. Police were pictured alongside Ben-Gvir.
Under a delicate decades-old “status quo” arrangement with Muslim authorities, the al-Aqsa compound is administered by a Jordanian religious foundation and Jews can visit but may not pray there.
“The foreign ministry expresses the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s condemnation in the strongest terms of the repeated provocative practices by officials of the Israeli occupation authorities against al-Aqsa mosque,” a statement on X read.
“The Kingdom affirms that such practices fuel the conflict in the region.”
Key events
They came in full force in the pouring rain, armed with umbrellas and ponchos and waterproof prams. One man even carried a surfboard. This is Sydney, after all.
At least 100,000 people marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday as part of a growing global call for a ceasefire in Gaza. It was double the estimated turnout, described by New South Wales police as the largest protest to descend on the city in memory.
The massive column of rain-soaked marchers snaked their way across the entire 1.2km length of the bridge. Police temporarily ordered a halt over fears of a crowd crush because of the “huge number of people taking part”.
On Saturday, after the NSW supreme court had ruled in favour of the march proceeding, the Palestine Action Group had crystal ball gazed and said Sunday’s bridge crossing would be an “immense march for humanity”.
Pro-Palestine protesters crossed the Harbour Bridge on a wet and wintry Sydney day, armed with umbrellas and ponchos and waterproof prams. One man even carried a surfboard. This is Sydney, after all. Read the full piece here:
Protesters gathered in Tel Aviv over the weekend to demand an end to the war in Gaza and the return of all hostages still held in the territory.
The rallies took place after Hamas released video footage of the hostage Evyatar David who was in an emaciated state.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, has said that four tankers of UN fuel had entered Gaza to help in operations of hospitals, bakeries, public kitchens and other essential services.
Israel blames Hamas for the suffering in Gaza but, in response to a rising international uproar, it announced steps last week to let more aid reach the population, including pausing fighting for part of the day in some areas, approving air drops and announcing protected routes for aid convoys.
UN agencies say airdrops are insufficient and that Israel must let in far more aid by land and open up access to the territory to prevent starvation among its 2.2 million people, most of whom are displaced amidst vast swathes of rubble.
COGAT said that during the past week over 23,000 tons of humanitarian aid in 1,200 trucks had entered Gaza but that hundreds of the trucks had yet to be driven to aid distribution hubs by UN and other international organisations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he spoke with the International Red Cross’s regional head, Julien Lerisson, and requested his involvement in providing food and medical care to hostages held in Gaza.
Macron condemns ‘abject cruelty’ of Hamas hostage videos
French president Emmanuel Macron has condemned Hamas’ “inhumanity without bounds” after the group released videos showing two visibly emaciated Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
Hamas and its Islamic Jihad ally have released clips showing captives Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David, who were kidnapped during the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war.
“An abject cruelty, an unlimited inhumanity: this is what Hamas embodies,” Macron posted on X.
“France’s absolute priority and imperative is the immediate release of all hostages,” he added.
Macron, who has said France will recognise a Palestinian state in September, promised to work “tirelessly” to “promptly restore the ceasefire, and to enable the massive delivery of humanitarian aid, still blocked at Gaza’s borders”.
He also argued that Hamas must have no part ruling Gaza once the war ends.
“We demand the total demilitarisation of Hamas, its complete exclusion from any form of governance, and recognition of Israel by the state of Palestine.” he said.
‘We don’t take lessons in democracy from those who kill civilians’: Athens mayor rebukes Israeli ambassador
The mayor of Athens, Haris Doukas, has sharply criticised Israel’s ambassador to Greece following claims that the city authorities were failing to tackle antisemitic graffiti.
In an interview published on Sunday by the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, ambassador Noam Katz said Israeli tourists felt “uncomfortable” in the capital and accused Athens of inaction against “organised minorities” responsible for antisemitic vandalism.
Doukas responded on X: “We have proved our strong opposition to violence and racism, and we do not take lessons in democracy from those who kill civilians.”
He went on to call the ambassador’s focus on graffiti “revolting” at a time when “an unprecedented genocide is taking place in Gaza.”
William Christou
Family of Israeli hostage held in Gaza accuses Hamas of starving him
The family of an Israeli hostage held in Gaza said that Hamas is starving him after the release of a video in which he appeared emaciated and weak.
The footage, released on Saturday, shows Evyatar David speaking in what appeared to be a Hamas tunnel in Gaza. In scenes that have caused outrage and dismay in Israel, he is shown digging what he says could be his own grave. In comments made under duress, he urges the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to agree to a ceasefire.
The family of David released a statement responding to the video, accusing Hamas of starving David for propaganda.
“We are forced to witness our dear son and brother Evyatar being deliberately and cynically starved in Hamas’s tunnels in Gaza – a living skeleton buried alive. Our son has only a few days left to live in his current condition,” the family said.
They called for humanitarian aid that enters Gaza to be allowed to reach David and urged the US and Israeli governments to do everything possible to secure his release.
Read the full story here:
Gaza health ministry reports 119 killed and 866 injured in past 24 hours
The Palestinian ministry of health has reported on Telegram that 119 people were killed in the past 24 hours amid ongoing Israeli strikes, including 15 bodies recovered from beneath rubble.
Hospitals across Gaza recorded 866 injuries in the same period, with emergency crews reportedly unable to reach many victims still trapped in debris or lying in the streets.
The ministry says the total death toll since the start of the war on 7 October 2023 has now reached 60,839, with 149,588 people injured.
Between 18 March and today, the ministry has documented 9,350 deaths and 37,547 injuries.
Among those killed in the last 24 hours, 65 were reportedly attempting to access humanitarian aid, raising the total number of such deaths to 1,487, with more than 10,578 wounded in similar circumstances.
Fresh clashes break out in Syria as the interim government struggles to ease tensions
New outbreaks of violence overnight into Sunday rocked Syria at two flashpoints, straining a fragile ceasefire and calling into question the ability of the transitional government to exert its authority across the whole country.
In the north, government-affiliated fighters confronted Kurdish-led forces who control much of the region, while in the southern province of Sweida, they clashed with Druze armed groups.
The outbreaks come at a time when Syria’s interim authorities are trying to maintain a tense ceasefire in Sweida province after clashes with Druze factions last month, and to implement an agreement with the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces that would reintegrate large swaths of northeastern Syria with the rest of the country.
Palestinians stage protest in the occupied West Bank
Thousands of Palestinians protested in the occupied West Bank’s major cities on Saturday, rallying against the war in Gaza and in support of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
One of the largest marches took place in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority located just north of Jerusalem, with hundreds gathering at the main square, waving Palestinian flags.
Many protesters carried photos of Palestinians killed or imprisoned by Israel, as well as photos depicting the hunger crisis unfolding in the Gaza Strip, where UN-backed experts have warned that a “famine is unfolding”.
“My son is in [Israel’s] Megido prison and he suffers from many things, such as the lack of medicine the lack of food,” Rula Ghanem, a Palestinian academic and writer who took part in the march, told AFP.
She said that her son had lost 10 kilograms and suffered from scabies in jail.
Netanyahu: ‘no change’ over al-Aqsa mosque status
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that “Israel’s policy of maintaining the status quo on the Temple Mount has not changed and will not change”.
The comments follow outrage that far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir led a large group to the Al-Aqsa mosque, also revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, to pray, in defiance of a long-standing convention.
Jordan, which acts as the site’s custodian, condemned the minister’s latest visit there as “an unacceptable provocation”.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has shared this footage after it said that one of its staff members was killed and three others wounded in an Israeli attack on its Khan Younis headquarters in southern Gaza early this morning.
Israeli newspapers have dedicated their front pages on Sunday to the plight of the hostages following the release of videos showing Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David.
Maariv decried “hell in Gaza” and Yedioth Ahronoth showed a “malnourished, emaciated and desperate” David.
Right-wing daily Israel Hayom said that Hamas’s “cruelty knows no bounds”, while left-leaning Haaretz declared that “Netanyahu is in no rush” to rescue the captives.
Anger grows over Israeli far-right minister praying at al-Aqsa mosque
Saudi Arabia has joined condemnations of far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s visit to al-Aqsa mosque today.
The minister of national security travelled to the holy site and prayed there with a reported group of 1,250 people. Police were pictured alongside Ben-Gvir.
Under a delicate decades-old “status quo” arrangement with Muslim authorities, the al-Aqsa compound is administered by a Jordanian religious foundation and Jews can visit but may not pray there.
“The foreign ministry expresses the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s condemnation in the strongest terms of the repeated provocative practices by officials of the Israeli occupation authorities against al-Aqsa mosque,” a statement on X read.
“The Kingdom affirms that such practices fuel the conflict in the region.”
