6+ day, 3+ hour ago (806+ words) Embassy's employment of Gila Ben-Yakov Phillips is potentially violation of UK sanctions law, say experts The British embassy in Tel Aviv may have broken both UK sanctions law and UK government security policies by employing an Israeli citizen who owns a home in an illegal settlement in occupied Palestine, legal experts have said. The embassy's deputy head of corporate services and HR, Gila Ben-Yakov Phillips, moved to Kerem Reim in 2022. She listed a house she bought there as her home address on financial documents at the time. She later shared posts about the community on social media, including advertising youth programmes and subsidised housing for childcare workers. The settlement, north of Ramallah, was built by Amana, a construction company hit with sanctions last year for supporting, promoting and inciting violence against Palestinians. "Amana has overseen the establishment of illegal outposts…...

3+ week, 5+ day ago (921+ words) Rightwing politicians and pundits have called the soldiers accused of attack on Palestinian detainee "heroes" and military investigators traitors Police in Israel have arrested and detained the military"s top legal officer after she admitted leaking footage of soldiers allegedly attacking a Palestinian detainee and then in effect lying about her actions to Israel"s high court. The military advocate general, Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, said in a resignation letter last week that she had authorised publication of the video to defuse attacks on military investigators and prosecutors working on the case. Rightwing politicians and pundits championed soldiers detained over the case as "heroes, attacked military investigators as traitors, and called for the case against the soldiers to be dropped. Tomer-Yerushalmi has now been arrested on suspicion of fraud and breach of trust, abuse of office, obstruction of justice, and disclosure of…...

3+ week, 2+ day ago (774+ words) Exclusive: British government adopted "least ambitious" option months before RSF"s massacres in El Fasher Britain rejected atrocity prevention plans for Sudan despite intelligence warnings that the city of El Fasher would fall amid a wave of ethnic cleansing and possible genocide, according to a report seen by the Guardian. Government officials turned down the plans six months into the 18-month siege of El Fasher in favour of the "least ambitious" option of four presented. The city was captured last month by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which immediately embarked on ethnically motivated mass killings and rapes. Thousands of the city"s residents are missing. An internal British government paper, prepared last year, detailed four options for increasing "the protection of civilians, including atrocity prevention" in Sudan. The options, evaluated by officials from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office…...

3+ day, 3+ hour ago (547+ words) Rahmeh Aladwan barred from practising for 15 months pending inquiry amid claims she "celebrated terrorist acts" An NHS doctor accused of antisemitism has been suspended for 15 months pending an investigation, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) in the UK has ruled. The General Medical Council (GMC) is investigating Dr Rahmeh Aladwan over posts and comments made across various social media platforms after several complaints, including from the Jewish Medical Association UK and the Campaign Against Antisemitism. The GMC counsel Emma Gilsenan told the MPTS hearing that Aladwan"s posts included content that allegedly "justifies terrorism, denies sexual violence, includes antisemitic conspiracy theories, misuses Holocaust and Nazi imagery and expresses support for proscribed groups and terrorist acts. She added that Aladwan, a British Palestinian trainee in trauma and orthopaedics, had allegedly referred to the Royal Free hospital in London as a "Jewish…...

3+ week, 3+ day ago (357+ words) Majd is one of a handful of injured children from Gaza brought to the UK for urgent medical treatment. But why have there been so few? Nosheen Iqbal reportsOver the summer, the government promised to bring hundreds of desperately sick children from Gaza to the UK for life-saving treatment. But, so far, only five children have safely made it through on the government scheme. Meanwhile, four friends got together " and worked out a way to do it themselves.Omar Din is a co-founder of Project Pure Hope, which has, through fundraising, managed to bring over and treat children from Gaza. Din tells Nosheen Iqbal how difficult this process has been. Nosheen also meets Majd, who is in the UK for treatment after he was shot by IDF soldiers trying to get food for his family, and his mum and siblings....

2+ week, 3+ day ago (590+ words) Fears rise for displaced civilians as UN reports deteriorating situation and MSF warns of "staggering" malnutrition There are grave fears for civilians who survived the capture of El Fasher by a Sudanese paramilitary group last month, as the UN warned relief operations were on the brink of collapse and an aid group said malnutrition in displacement camps had reached "staggering" levels. The Rapid Support Forces captured El Fasher " the capital of North Darfur state and the last urban centre outside of its grasp in the wider Darfur region " on 26 October. Survivor accounts and video and satellite evidence suggest more than 1,500 people were killed in ethnically-targeted massacres in the immediate aftermath. Amy Pope, the IOM director general, said: "Our teams are responding, but insecurity and depleted supplies mean we are only reaching a fraction of those in need. Without safe access…...

2+ week, 5+ day ago (537+ words) Sports personalities including Martina Navratilova and the swimmer Sharron Davies sign letter condemning Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani's death sentence More than 20 Olympic medallists, coaches and other international athletes, including the tennis player Martina Navratilova and the swimmer Sharron Davies, have signed a letter calling for a halt to the execution of a boxing champion and coach, who is on death row in Iran. Amid growing international outrage over Iran's escalating use of capital punishment as a tool of oppression, the strongly worded letter condemns the Iranian regime's decision to uphold the death sentence of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani. Vafaei Sani, 30, from Mashhad in north-east Iran, was arrested for taking part in nationwide protests in 2019 and accused of supporting an opposition group, the People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (MEK). He has spent five years in prison, where he has been tortured…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago (184+ words) Australia exports more arms and ammunition to the United Arab Emirates than it does to any other country in the world. And just this week Team Defence Australia holds a prime slice of real estate at a weapons fair in Dubai. But human rights advocates are calling on the government to suspend defence exports to the country over reports it's arming a militia responsible for mass killings in Sudan.Senior reporters Ben Doherty and Henry Belot tell Nour Haydar about Australia's growing role in the global weapons trade.Read more: Continue reading... Australia exports more arms and ammunition to the United Arab Emirates than it does to any other country in the world. And just this week Team Defence Australia holds a prime slice of real estate at a weapons fair in Dubai. But human rights advocates are calling on…...

2+ week, 3+ day ago (788+ words) President condemns "shocking" incident in rare comment as settlers injure four Palestinians and attack Israeli soldiers Dozens of masked Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, injuring four Palestinians and attacking Israeli soldiers in the latest incident of rising settler violence. The settlers attacked the Palestinian villages of Beit Lid and Deir Sharaf, setting vehicles on fire and damaging property belonging to a Bedouin community, with charred remains of cars left behind the next day. The al-Juneidi dairy factory, a big employer in the area, was also damaged in the attacks, and four of its trucks laden with products were set alight. Israeli settler violence has surged since the war in Gaza started two years ago, with at least 1,001 Palestinians killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem by settlers and Israeli soldiers. According to…...

2+ day, 6+ hour ago (588+ words) Far-right minister defends killing of two men in Jenin, saying "terrorists must die" Video of an Israeli military raid in Jenin shows soldiers summarily executing two Palestinians they had detained seconds earlier. The shooting on Thursday evening, which was also witnessed by journalists close to the scene, is under justice ministry review, but has already been defended by Israel"s far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who declared: "terrorists must die. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued a statement admitting two men were shot during a joint IDF operation with the Israeli border police around Jenin. It said the shooting "is under review by the commanders on the ground and will be transferred to the relevant professional bodies. The footage, which has circulated widely within Israeli and Arab media, shows Israeli soldiers surrounding what appears to be a storage facility in an…...