Starmer, Macron and Carney ‘on the wrong side of humanity,’ says Netanyahu – Middle East crisis live

Benjamin Netanyahu announced he has appointed Maj Gen David Zini as the next head of the Shin Bet domestic security agency.

The announcement comes a day after Israel’s attorney general, Gali Baharav Miara, said Netanyahu was barred from appointing a new Shin Bet chief, following a supreme court ruling that the government’s decision to fire former head Ronen Bar was “unlawful”.

Zini currently serves as the head of the Israel Defense Forces training command and general staff corps, according to the Times of Israel.

A Palestinian Red Crescent rescue worker who survived the killing of 15 paramedics in southern Gaza in March was spared because he spoke to Israeli soldiers in Hebrew, the head of the organisation said.

Assad Al-Nassasrah, a Red Crescent paramedic, went missing during the 23 March shootings that drew international condemnation. The bodies of 15 emergency aid workers were uncovered in a mass grave by Red Crescent and UN officials who accused Israeli forces of killing them.

Al-Nassasrah was freed from Israeli detention on 29 April; one other paramedic survived.

Younis Al-Khatib, president of the Palestine Red Crescent Society, told reporters on Thursday that Al-Nassasrah was spared after he pleaded in Hebrew and said his mother was a Palestinian citizen of Israel.

What does Assad say in Hebrew? ‘Don’t shoot. I am Israeli.’ And the soldier got a bit confused. That confusion … made him survive.

“Assad will be a witness that can put all the Israeli stories in shambles,” he added.

Al-Khatib said the organisation was working with lawyers and considering formal submissions to international courts and to the UN security council. He said:

We think the international community is responsible to provide justice to those killed. We don’t train our people to go and die.

Here’s more on Benjamin Netanyahu’s video statement, in which he accused the leaders of France, Britain and Canada of being “on the wrong side of history”.

Last night in Washington, something horrific happened. A brutal terrorist shot in cold blood a young, beautiful couple, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim.

The Israeli prime minister said the “terrorist who cruelly gunned them down” did so because “he wanted to kill Jews”.

Netanyahu called out French president Emmanuel Macron and the UK and Canadian prime ministers, Keir Starmer and Mark Carney, for demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and threatening Israel with sanctions.

These three leaders effectively said they want Hamas to remain in power. They want Israel to stand down and accept that Hamas’s army of mass murderers will survive, rebuild.

Addressing the three leaders directly, Netanyahu said:

You’re on the wrong side of justice, you’re on the wrong side of humanity and you’re on the wrong side of history.

Benjamin Netanyahu has launched a blistering attack on Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney, saying the leaders of the UK, France and Canada are

on the wrong side of justice. You’re on the wrong side of humanity and you’re on the wrong side of history.”

He posted the statement on a video you can see here on X addressing the murder of the two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington DC.

It follows developments earlier this week when Britain, France and Canada attacked Israel’s expansion of its war as disproportionate, described conditions in Gaza as “intolerable” and threatened a “concrete” response if Israel’s campaign continues.

More to follow…

The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, has told the media that Donald Trump is “saddened and outraged” by the fatal shooting of the two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington DC last night.

She adds: “The department of justice will be prosecuting the perpetrator of this to the full extent of the law.”

Leavitt confirms that Trump spoke to Benjamin Netanyahu earlier today.

She says Trump believes things are moving in the right direction, and the two leaders talked about a potential deal with Iran.

Earlier Reuters reported that US special envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Rome on Friday for a new round of talks with an Iranian delegation over Tehran’s nuclear program.

It will be the fifth such round of talks. The source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity, that Witkoff will be joined by a top state department official, Michael Anton. “Discussions are expected to be both direct and indirect, as in previous rounds,” the source said.

Benjamin Netanyahu said construction of the first humanitarian aid distribution zones in Gaza would be complete in the coming days, Reuters reported.

It comes after Israel allowed 100 trucks carrying baby food and medical equipment into the enclave on Wednesday. “Ultimately, we intend to have large safe zones in the south of Gaza. The Palestinian population will move there for their own safety, while we conduct combat in other zones,” Netanyahu added in a video statement released by his office on Thursday.

However, Palestinian Red Crescent said on Thursday that people in Gaza have yet to receive aid deliveries that have crossed over the border and that sending so few trucks was an “invitation for killing” because of the risk of mobbing.

Twenty-nine children and elderly people have died from starvation in Gaza in the last two days, the Palestinian Authority health minister has said. You can read our report here:

Iran ‘to hold US responsible for any attacks by Israel on its nuclear sites’

Patrick Wintour

Iran has said that it will hold the US responsible for any Israeli attack on its nuclear sites in remarks that set a fraught backdrop for the fifth and probably most important round of talks between Iran and the US on the future of Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, issued the warning on Thursday after reports appeared in the America media claiming US intelligence understood Israel was planning an attack on Iranian nuclear sites – with or without American support – if the talks broke down.

The report may be accurate or alternatively an attempt by the US to strengthen its negotiating hand before the indirect talks in Rome, which are being mediated by Oman. Israel has repeatedly said it will attack Iran’s nuclear sites, while Donald Trump has said the US will do so if the talks break down.

Araghchi said in a letter to the United Nations: “Iran strongly warns against any adventurism by the Zionist regime of Israel and will decisively respond to any threat or unlawful act by this regime.”

He said Iran would view Washington as a “participant” in any such attack, and Tehran would have to adopt “special measures” to protect its nuclear sites and material from any attacks or sabotage. Araghchi said the UN nuclear inspectorate, the IAEA, would only be subsequently informed of such steps.

You can read the full piece here

Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Donald Trump on Thursday and they discussed the killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, a statement from the Israeli PM’s office said.

The two leaders also discussed the war in Gaza, and Trump expressed his support for Netanyahu’s goals which include the release of all hostages, according to the statement.

The Israeli army has warned residents in the southern Lebanese town of Toul to evacuate the area around a building it said was used by Hezbollah militants.

The “urgent warning” on Thursday was accompanied by a map showing a structure and the 500-metre radius around it marked in red, Agence France-Presse reported.

“You are located near facilities belonging to the terrorist (group) Hezbollah,” the statement said in Arabic, urging people “to evacuate these buildings immediately and move away from them”.

Israel has kept up its air strikes in neighbouring Lebanon despite a November truce aimed at halting more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah that included two months of full-blown war.

Under the ceasefire, Hezbollah fighters were to pull back north of the Litani River and dismantle military infrastructure south of it.

Israel was to withdraw all forces from Lebanon, but it has kept troops in five areas that it deems “strategic”.

The Lebanese army has deployed in the south and has been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure.

Ayman Odeh, a member of the Arab-Jewish Hadash party, was forcefully removed from the podium in the Israeli parliament as he criticised Israel’s war on Gaza and the mounting death toll.

The UN food agency said on Thursday that a handful of bakeries it supports in south and central Gaza have resumed bread production after trucks were finally able to collect cargo from the Kerem Shalom crossing point.

“We are in a race against time to prevent widespread starvation,” said WFP country director Antoine Renard in a statement to journalists.

Smoke rises to the sky after an Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel.

The head of the Palestinian Red Crescent said on Thursday its operations in Gaza may stop within days in the absence of fresh supplies and its ambulance fleet was running at only a third of capacity due to fuel shortages.

Flour and other aid began reaching some of Gaza’s most vulnerable areas on Thursday after Israel let some trucks through, but nowhere near enough to make up for shortages caused by an 11-week Israeli blockade, Palestinian officials said.

Israel said it let in 100 trucks carrying baby food and medical equipment on Wednesday, two days after announcing its first relaxation of the blockade under mounting international pressure amid warnings of starvation in Gaza, Reuters reported.

Asked how long his organisation could continue operating in Gaza, Palestine Red Crescent Society president Younis Al-Khatib told reporters in Geneva: “It’s a matter of time. It could be days.

“We are running out of fuel. The capacity of ambulances we work with now is one-third,” he added, saying its gasoline-powered ambulances had already halted but it had some that were running on solar power provided by the United Nations.

The PRCS is part of the world’s largest humanitarian network, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and provides medical care in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

France rejects Israeli comments accusing some European officials of antisemitic incitement, foreign ministry spokesperson Christophe Lemoine told reporters at a weekly news conference, adding these comments were “unjustified” and outrageous”.

“France has condemned, France condemns and France will continue to condemn always and without ambiguity all antisemitic acts,” he said.

Faisal Ali

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has said he has no interest in running again to be the country’s president, dispelling fears he would seek a third term under the current presidential system which would see he tenure as the Turkey’s leader enter its third decade.

Erdoğan was speaking about the need for a new constitution in Turkey and called on opposition parties to participate during a flight to Hungary, according to local media.

The last time Turkey’s constitution was changed from a ceremonial to executive presidency in 2017 Erdoğan said it re-set the clock on his terms. He had served as president since 2014 and was prime minister before that from 2003. His current term ends in 2028.

Erdoğan told reporters he had “no concern about being re-elected or running for office again” but wanted a new constitution “for our country”. He added: “Our concern is how we can increase the reputation of our country with the steps we will take.”

The statement comes as his most popular challenger, Ekrem Imamoglu, the Istanbul mayor, remains behind bars in pre-trial detention on corruption charges. The move, which the opposition CHP party says was politically motivated, triggered protests across the country for the last month.

The UN humanitarian aid organisation for children, Unicef, says more than 9,000 children have been treated for malnutrition in Gaza this year, and food security experts say tens of thousands of cases are expected in the coming year, reports the Associated Press (AP).

Experts also warn the territory could plunge into famine if Israel does not stop its military campaign and fully lift its blockade – but the World Health Organization said last week that people are already starving.

“Everywhere you look, people are hungry … They point their fingers to their mouths showing that [they] need something to eat,” said Nestor Owomuhangi, the representative of the United Nations Population Fund for the Palestinian territories. “The worst has already arrived in Gaza.”

“Children are already dying from malnutrition and there are more babies in Gaza now who will be in mortal danger if they don’t get fast access to the nutrition supplies needed to save their lives,” said Tess Ingram of Unicef.