Israeli cargo ship heads toward LA after Oakland protest blocks unloading

An Israeli-owned container ship that was blocked from unloading its cargo at the Port of Oakland by pro-Palestinian protesters over the weekend was headed to Los Angeles on Monday, according to a ship-tracking website.

The Zim Shanghai left Oakland with its cargo still onboard on Sunday evening, according to the website marinetraffic.com. It was expected to arrive in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Some 200 people angry over Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip in response to Hamas rocket salvoes staged a protest of the Zim Shanghai at the Port of Oakland on Saturday morning and again that afternoon.

Members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, saying they were threatened physically and their vehicles blocked as they tried to report to work, refused to unload the ship.

“The ILWU is not among the groups organizing the protests and the leadership and membership of the ILWU have taken no position on the Israel/Gaza conflict,” the union said in a written statement.

Representatives for Zim International Shipping Lines could not be reached for comment on Monday.

A spokeswoman for Block the Boat, which has organized protests of Zim ships at the Port of Oakland in the past, said the organization was not responsible for this weekend’s demonstration. It was carried out by a loose group of individuals, she said.

More than 2,100 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed in 50 days of fighting in July and August, according to the Gaza health ministry. Sixty-seven Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel were also killed.

Binyamin Netanyahu: Isis and Hamas 'branches of the same poisonous tree'

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu compared his country’s recent bombing campaign in Gaza to the US-led strikes against militants in Iraq and Syria on Monday, saying Hamas and the Islamic State (Isis) group share the same goal of world domination.

In a speech to the United Nations general assembly, Netanyahu railed against countries who condemned Israel for its war with Hamas while praising President Barack Obama for attacking Islamic State militants and other extremists.

The Israeli prime minister said those world leaders “evidently don’t understand that Isis and Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree.”

Netanyahu also says Iran’s concern about the spread of terrorism was “one of history’s greatest displays of doubletalk.”

A nuclear-armed Iran would pose a far greater threat to the world than Isis, he said. “Make no mistake, Isis must be defeated. But to defeat Isis and leave Iran as a threshold nuclear power is to win the battle and lose the war.”

“Iran’s nuclear military capabilities must be fully dismantled,” he said, adding that the point of Tehran’s recent “charm offensive” for the West was get international sanctions lifted “and remove the obstacles to Iran’s path to the bomb.”

Earlier, Israel’s foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman said Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas had no intention of making peace with Israel, calling his speech to world leaders last week “a message of hatred and incitement.”

Lieberman also questioned Abbas’ legitimacy to speak on behalf of the Palestinian people, saying he does not control the Gaza Strip, where Hamas remains in charge of security and elections have been postponed for more than four years.

Abbas accused Israel in his speech on Friday of carrying out “war crimes” and conducting a “war of genocide” in Gaza, but stopped short of saying he would pursue war crimes charges against Israel. He said he would ask the UN security council to dictate the ground rules for any talks with Israel, including setting a deadline for an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian lands.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report

Guardian Live: Hatreds Old and New as it happened

Just weeks after the latest direct conflict between Israel and Gaza dominated headlines, The Guardian and The Huffington Post UK brought together Jonathan Freedland and Mehdi Hasan - two of Britain’s leading commentators – to talk about the current atmosphere between British Muslims and Jews; their relationship prone to be held hostage to events happening in the Middle East.

Mehdi Hasan wrote for the Guardian’s Comment is Free section until he left his role as a senior editor the New Statesmen to become political editor of the Huffington Post UK in 2012. In his final article, he wrote about British Muslims feeling alienated from participating on the public stage because of the prejudice Muslim commentators, like himself, encountered:

I used to encourage Muslim students to get involved in the media or in politics, but I now find it much harder to do so. Why would I want anyone else to go through what I’ve gone through? Believe me, Muslims aren’t endowed thicker skins than non-Muslims.

Two days later, Jonathan Freedland wrote a follow-up piece, sympathising with the abuse Mehdi received after the article was published:

Each time I come across the kind of abuse he cites I mentally replace the word “Islam” with “Judaism” and “Muslim” with “Jew”. I know how I would feel if I was bombarded with long screeds denouncing Jewish faith and customs as sinister, alien, backward or bonkers, just as I know how I would feel if I were told Jews need to change their ways if they are to be accepted into polite society... So yes, I’m glad to stand with Mehdi Hasan, even when we don’t see eye to eye.

Face to face at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, Jonathan and Mehdi sat with chair Anita Anand, who was overseeing the discussion.

The discussion began with a brief exploration of the importance of balanced debate. Mehdi explained the importance of exploring different opinions without dismissing those differences as bad faith; in his case, the occasional hostility he had encountered from the British Islamic community when he criticised elements of Islam. “We’ve lost the ability to have a genuine disagreement without questioning each others motives and that is a real problem for me,” he said. “If you say something that people don’t agree with, you’ve immediately sold out, you’ve immediately betrayed your people, you’ve immediately done something to get ahead with the mainstream or with the majority. There is never a sense that we may just disagree on the principles of this.”

Jonathan empathised, but said he had never felt overtly pressured to write to a particular tune when contributing to titles like The Jewish Chronicle. “The way I see the double act is to say whatever the audience of that paper don’t want to hear,” he said. “The comfort zone they are getting from plenty of other writers, so in The Jewish Chronicle I don’t particularly feel the need, because I think they are well served in this area,” he said, to laughter.

Anita Anand bought up the relationship between antisemitism and anti-Zionism, with both Jonathan and Mehdi pointing out that the label Zionist was often used interchangeably for Jew. “You can criticise the occupation since 1967 and still feel bound up with Israel as a Jew,” said Jonathan. “Zionism doesn’t commit you to the size and scope of Israel.”

“You can be critical of Israel without being anti-Zionist. You can be an anti-Zionist, and then you can be a flaming anti-Semite,” said Mehdi. “Are there overlaps? Of course there are, just like with Islamism.” British Jews should not be held responsible for the actions of Israel, he argued; and Jonathan agreed, saying whatever bonds exist between the British Jewish community and Israel do not amount to approval of the political situation.

Hatreds Old & New #debate with #JohnathanFreedland & #MehdiHasan on #antisemitism & #islamophobia An engaging debate which raised and discussed a diffcult and complex issue. One point which resonated is the importance of building relations no matter how small. #guardianlive

On Islamophobia, Mehdi acknowledged there was a gap between those with legitimate concerns about issues around Islam and bigotry, bringing up the actions of ISIS in Syria and Iraq. The media is Islamophobic, he argued, saying: “I really don’t want to get into competitive victimhood but I would argue that the rise of anti-semitism is, while horrible, still not mainstream; like Islamophobia unfortunately has been mainstreamed in recent years.”

Jonathan countered that he sees a similar denial of antisemitism in the media: “The minute any kind of incident happens, queue a sort of doctoral-level discussion on whether it is really anti-semitic or not.”

Anita Anand asked whether Jonathan or Mehdi ever felt they were arming Britain’s far right with counter arguments. Jonathan described his irritation when opponents of Israel used his disapproval of Operation Protective Edge as ammunition, when they would usually dismiss him as a Zionist. Mehdi explained how he felt when he saw his criticisms of Islam used by the far-right to support their racism. “You will not change people’s minds with data, facts and figures. What does change people’s minds is relationships, which is why we are here, fundamentally,” he said, to applause.

Karen Pollock MBE, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, was in the crowd at the event. She said afterwards: “This was an excellent forum for debate. It can be incredibly difficult to have a frank and open discussion about issues that so burn so deeply and create tension. This event allowed us to have meaningful discussion that concentrated on similarities and appreciated difference.”

Dr Shuja Shafi, the Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain also attended the debate. “It was a frank discussion and there was a genuine desire to talk about these things sensibly and appropriately,” he said after. “I was personally encouraged to see there was a genuine desire to go beyond slogans, to deal with issues and at the same time, acknowledge there are differences.”

“The relationship between the Jewish and Muslim communities in this country is generally good and we want to make sure it stays that way,” he continued. “I think this is the first step for future debates. We can see that the format and the way people conducted themselves was the right way - so away we go!”

After the event, both Mehdi and Jonathan thanked the audience for participating:

... and it seems the debate had a lasting effect on some.

I’ve got no time to indulge lazy prejudice - #mehdihasan- #jonathanfreedland #anitahill discuss how difficult it is to diffuse racist sentiment whilst honoring opposing political views. #guardianlive has inspired me to reinstall twitter on my phone and #jointhedebate.

Interested in Guardian Live events? Click here to see the full events listings.

Pro-Palestine protesters again thwart Israeli cargo ship in Oakland

Protesters demonstrating against the recent Israeli military operation in Gaza have launched a fresh picket at the Port of Oakland in California, preventing an Israeli-owned container ship from unloading its cargo.

A picket of about 200 pro-Palestinian demonstrators campaigning under the title “Block the Boat” assembled on Saturday alongside the Zim Shanghai, a massive, 300-meter commercial vessel. No cargo was unloaded after members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union refused to work on the ship, citing safety fears due to the crowd of protesters and police.

One of the protest organizers, Steve Zeltzer, said: “I think it was a big victory today for those who are opposed to the policies of Israel in Gaza.”

The successful action to frustrate the unloading of the Zim Shanghai follows similar protests last month in ports along the coast of California and in Florida. The Zim Shanghai’s sister ship, the Zim Piraeus, was blockaded for four days and prevented from unloading at the same port in Oakland. In the end, the vessel had to make its way to Los Angeles with its cargo still on board.

Further protests were staged in Seattle, Tacoma and Long Beach ports in California, and Tampa in Florida.

The frustrated shipments all belonged to the Zim Integrated Shipping Services, Israel’s largest cargo-shipping business and one of the biggest in the world. According to the company’s website, it has an annual turnover of almost $4bn and delivers to 180 ports around the world.

The picketers said they were protesting against Israel’s 50-day military intervention in Gaza this summer, which is said to have caused almost $8bn in damages and killed more than 2,000 Palestinians. The Israeli government said the action was necessary to destroy tunnels built by Hamas for launching attacks inside Israel; 70 Israelis died during the conflict.

A report posted on Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers accused the protesters of intimidating the dockers and said the action would harm the economy of Oakland.

“Who will pay the ultimate cost of this cheap symbolic ‘victory’?” the post asked. “The port will suffer for this. And the thousands of people who rely on the port for their livelihood will suffer. Ultimately, Oakland will suffer.”

According to marine trackers, by Sunday afternoon the Zim Shanghai had left Oakland with its cargo still on board and, like the Zim Piraeus last month, was making its way to Los Angeles.

Gaza war may be over but Jerusalem is still simmering

Tariq Abu Khdeir has been arrested twice this summer. The first time, Israeli police accused the 22-year-old of participating in the riots in July in East Jerusalem’s Shuafat following the kidnapping and murder by Jewish extremists of his 16-year-old cousin, Mohammed Abu Khdeir, whose burned body was found in the Jerusalem Forest.

Last week, the police came again for Tariq, this time at 1.30am, accusing him and two other cousins of throwing stones at the light railway trains that run through East Jerusalem – a charge he denies.

“They took me for interrogation to the police station in Neve Yaakov,” he says. “It was full. There were young guys in there accused of everything – from throwing stones and fireworks. Everything.”

Tariq Abu Khdeir is escorted by Israeli prison guards during an appearance at a Jerusalem court. Photograph: Oded Balilty/AP

Tariq Abu Khdeir is one of more than 700 Palestinians from East Jerusalem, 260 of them children as young as 13, who have been arrested in the continuing crackdown on what those on both sides have tried to define as the beginnings of a “kids’ intifada”.

But however the events are defined, the situation in Jerusalem is as tense and fraught as it has been in years, a state of affairs that has intensified since Mohammed Abu Khdeir’s murder, carried out in revenge for the kidnap and murder of three Israeli youths in the occupied West Bank.

But while those events may have been the trigger, many believe the current crisis has been far longer in the making.

Gunfire has been directed at the Israeli settlement of Pisgat Zeev on two occasions from Shuafat refugee camp, which, despite being within Jerusalem’s municipal boundary, is cut off by the Separation Wall. Stones have been thrown at the light railway and at Road 20 in the same part of the city.Two weeks ago, a petrol station was set alight in the Palestinian neighbourhood. While Israelis have been attacked after entering Palestinian neighbourhoods, Arabs too have been assaulted by Jewish extremists.

The focus of the problems has been the city’s east – the areas captured by Israeli forces in 1967 which, despite being claimed by Israel as part of its “undivided capital”, are regarded by the international community as under Israeli occupation.

If many of the more serious outbreaks of violence have had proximate causes for each flare-up, many now believe they are becoming part of a pattern of newly heightened antagonism in the city.

A common message on both sides is the anxiety around the ‘other’ – and the steps people have taken to protect their families.

After the murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, say Palestinian community leaders, parents responded by insisting their children are indoors by 8pm.

For Israelis living in areas such as the settlement of Pisgat Zeev it has also meant a change in behaviour.

“It’s going to explode in our faces, like the tunnels in Gaza,” said Yael Antebi, a Jerusalem councillor who lives in Pisgat Zeev told the Associated Press earlier this month. Since then she has not modified her line. “It is a very serious problem,” she told the Guardian last week, questioning whether the government of prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu was willing to deal with the situation.

“Especially at night people don’t feel safe. They are avoiding certain roads or the light railway, which has been stoned.” In recent weeks there have been calls from some Israeli quarters to change the route of the railway line.

The latest flare-up occurred after a 16-year-old Palestinian, Mohammed Sunuqrat, died on 7 September after being severely wounded by an Israeli rubber-coated bullet in a clash the week before.

The issue of the unrest in Jerusalem and precisely how it should be defined has become an increasingly high profile issue in the Israeli media, prompting both news pieces and opinion pieces, including most recently in the rightwing Israel Hayom, alleging that the disturbances were being “organised” – an allegation most discount.

The simmering tensions are also being exploited, however, by those with their own agendas – not least on the Israeli right, like the author of the Israel Hayom piece, David Weinberg, who has insisted Israel is losing its claimed “sovereignty” over East Jerusalem.

Framing the issue in stark terms he, like others, has demanded the “re-securing [dare I say re-liberation] of Jerusalem”, calling on the government to “wield a big baton against Arab insurgents that are threatening the stability of the city”.

For Palestinians in flashpoint areas, the situation is defined differently: by what they say is a heavy-handed police presence and by the almost daily arrests.

In Silwan, a neighbourhood of steep, narrow streets beneath the walls of the Old City, Jawad Siyam runs a youth project. He meets the Guardian an hour or so after the latest arrests in the neighbourhood – a boy of 13 and a 19-year-old.

“It won’t stop,” Siyam says of the pattern of arrests and disturbances. “This isn’t just because of Gaza and the killing of Mohammed Abu Khdeir. There has been a growing feeling in East Jerusalem that people do not want to live under occupation. We want to be part of a Palestinian state. There are other causes: the increasing number of settlers who have been coming to the Aqsa mosque. Everyone said a third intifada would start in Jerusalem. For us it has already started.”

If Siyam is surprised by the events of the summer and autumn, it is how the disturbances have spread to areas such as Shuafat [an area separate from the refugee camp of the same name] and Beit Hanina.

“For me the people in Shuafat and Beit Hanina were like part of Israel. They didn’t care about the other side and what was happening in places like Silwan.” It is an old accusation: that wealthy neighbourhoods like Beit Hanina and Shuafat have historically remained more passive than other poorer neighbourhoods.

“But after the murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir and the slow Israeli police investigation the Israelis lost credibility there.”

Siyam says many of those involved are also increasingly critical of the Palestinian leadership of Mahmoud Abbas on the West Bank who has opposed any moves towards new intifada – accusing him “of protecting the occupation”.

The reality is that the growing problems in East Jerusalem have been fuelled by multiple factors, including a long-standing political vacuum at the leadership level under the continuing occupation. The closure of Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem by Israel during the second intifada coincided with the death Faisal Husseini 13 years ago – by general agreement the last effective leader and advocate for Palestinian issues in the city.

This has all contributed to a growing sense of political separation of East Jerusalemites from the Palestinian political leadership on the West Bank. That too has come amid an increasing incursion by Israeli settler organisations into the very heart of the city’s Arab neighbourhoods – including Wadi Joz, Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, amid a widespread view that the peace process is moribund. Many in the younger generation, Siyam argues, have instead taken their cue for activism from images it has seen on television from the recent war in Gaza.

Most who have used the word ‘intifada’ to describe recent events, however, insist that if does exist it is closer in nature to the first intifada from 1987 and 1991, which was characterised in Jerusalem by stone-throwing clashes, than the second intifada, which brought a string of suicide bombings to the city.

However, Israel’s police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld firmly rejects both the use of the word intifada and the idea that the disturbances have been organised. “We have seen sporadic problems including some more serious incidents including the attack on an Israeli motorist in Wadi Joz whose car was stoned,” he said.

He attributes much of the problems to the “atmospherics” of the summer including the war in Gaza, but added that security would be tightened ahead of the upcoming Jewish holidays across the country.

Daniel Seidemann, an Israeli lawyer and expert on Israeli-Palestinian relations in Jerusalem, also cautions against whether it is possible to define the current events as an intifada.

“For me, the first two intifadas were characterised by sustained incidents over a longer period of time. I am not sure whether we are there yet. I think there is a possibility that in a few months it may settle into a new and very fragile equilibrium.”

The biggest risk in the coming weeks and months, he believes, is that months of continuing and escalating pressure from rightwing religious Jews to gain more access to al-Aqsa mosque and Temple Mount, which the Israeli government has done little to check, will trigger a “non-routine violent event” in the site sacred to both religions with far reaching ramifications.

If there is one factor that may calm things down, says Abdul Majid al-Ramadan, a community elder, or mukhtar, from Beit Hanina, it is the ending of the school holidays. He does not, however, seem convinced.

“I don’t think it will calm down,” he says. “I think it will get worse. Things have been getting worse economically in East Jerusalem. The young people have lost hope.” And like Jawad Siyam he notes a younger generation taking inspiration from Hamas’s recent fighting in Gaza.

At his house on the edge of Shuafat overlooking a valley planted with vines and olive trees, Tariq Abu Khdeir, who was released last week, and his 63-year old father Abdel Aziz agree.

“The pressure has been growing for years,” says Abdel Aziz, who is angry both with the Israelis and with the Palestinian Authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas. “But the killing of Mohammed Abu Khdeir was a very ugly act. Something like that should spark a third intifada”

Conflicts in Ukraine, Syria and Gaza prove a turn-off for Today listeners

The editor of BBC Radio 4’s Today has said the programme needs to find new ways of covering “bad foreign news” stories after the summer of conflicts in Ukraine, Syria and Gaza proved a turn-off with listeners.

Jamie Angus said some listeners had stopped tuning in to Today and had told him they could not take any more of “this terrible thing that I can’t influence”. This follows a period when the news has been dominated by the escalating civil war in Ukraine, with the threat of Russia and Nato being drawn into a wider conflict, the Israeli assault on Gaza, and most recently the rise of Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

The difficulty in getting BBC journalists in to the conflict zones, he added, resulted in “a lot of argumentative phone interviews with angry people on either side”, which also proved a turn off.

Angus, a former acting editor of Newsnight who has been in charge of Today for a year, said the programme would not stop covering foreign news but had to investigate different ways of doing it at a time when BBC News has faced across the board cuts in funding.

“The confluence of Gaza and the Ukraine over the summer was a difficult listen for audiences,” Angus told a Broadcasting Press Guild lunch on Thursday, adding that the conflict in Syria posed similar problems journalistically.

“There was a burst of rather difficult foreign news and a lot of listeners who stopped listening said they stopped because of the preponderance of really difficult and distressing foreign news.

“People think ‘I cannot take this anymore, I can’t deal with this information, what I supposed to do about this terrible thing that I can’t influence’ and in frustration they turn off and go to Radio 2.”

He added: “One of the big challenges for us, if we can’t report on the ground which we couldn’t very easily in Gaza because the BBC only had two correspondents there, you end up doing a lot of argumentative phone interviews with angry people on either side and generally that’s an unrewarding listen and audiences will switch off after too much of it.”

Angus said if Today stopped doing foreign stories “we may as well pack up and go home. That would be a betrayal of the audience, we are not going to do it. What we are going to do is think about how we do the storytelling, how we do the interviews.”

Today had a weekly reach of 6.7 million listeners in the second quarter of this year, the last period for which figures are available, down from a high of more than 7 million in the previous three months.

Among its younger listeners – the so-called “replenisher” audience of 35 to 54-year-olds – total listening has dropped around 10% over five years.

Angus said the programme, which this week featured John Humphrys testing his hip-hop skills with BBC Radio 1Xtra DJ Charlie Sloth, had to find ways of being more inclusive without alienating its core audience.

“Younger audiences tell us sometimes they have to pay too much attention to Today, some of the items are difficult to understand, some of them are too long,” he said.

“The criticism of the programme, in common with all of Radio 4, sometimes made of it is that it sometimes sounds like a club that you don’t really know you should be a member of.”

Angus said he would look to address the concerns, looking at “where some features were too long” and whether the programme could “tell stories in shorter form more effectively and keep people’s attention”, as well as signposting up-coming features better in the programme.

However, Today “will always be the shop window for serious BBC News journalism”, he added.

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Fatah and Hamas agree deal for unity government to take control of Gaza

The two main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, have reached a “comprehensive” agreement that would turn over the civil administration of Gaza immediately to officials of a Palestinian unity government led by President Mahmoud Abbas.

The agreement, negotiated in Cairo, is designed to ease the long blockade of Gaza by Israel and Egypt and open the way to reconstruction of the war-ravaged coastal entity. A recent Palestinian Authority study estimated the cost of reconstruction in Gaza following this summer’s 50-day conflict with Israel at $7.8bn (£4.8bn).

Palestinian officials said the agreement would allow the Palestinian Authority to take control over the border crossings of the Gaza Strip, including the crucial Rafah crossing into Egypt – a key demand of Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.

According to sources in Egypt close to the talks, Palestinian Authority security forces would also control the Philadelphia corridor, a key strip adjoining the border with Egypt.

Officials from the rival factions began meeting in Cairo on Wednesday to try to overcome their differences and strengthen their hand for talks with Israel slated for late next month.

The breakthrough deal would formally bring an end to Hamas’s seven-year long rule of Gaza, during which time it has fought three wars with Israel. Hamas asserted its control over the Gaza Strip in 2007 after winning Palestinian legislative elections the year before.

“Fatah and Hamas have reached a comprehensive agreement for the unity government to return to the Gaza Strip,” said Jibril Rajoub, a senior official in Fatah.

Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk and Fatah’s head of delegation, Azam al-Ahmad, later confirmed a deal had been reached, the details of which are expected to be formally announced later on Thursday.

Although the two sides agreed to a unity deal before the recent war between Israel and Hamas, plans to implement the technocratic unity government’s – led by Abbas – were stalled over a series of disputes. Hamas formally stepped aside on 2 June, but Abbas accusing it of continuing to run a “parallel” administration as de facto ruler in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas in turn complained that Abbas’s Palestinian Authority was refusing to pay 45,000 Hamas employees in Gaza. “All civil servants will be paid by the unity government because they are all Palestinians and it is the government of all Palestinians,” said Azzam Ahmed, of Abbas’s Fatah movement.

Another key point of contention has been who will be allowed to declare war and manage any future conflicts.

Ceasefire negotiations that ended the conflict in Gaza in August stipulated that the Palestinian Authority led by Abbas should take over administration of Gaza.

Ceding effective control of Gaza, especially so soon after the end of the latest round of conflict with Israel, would be a significant step for Hamas. In the last seven years both Fatah and Hamas have clamped down on their rivals in their respective power bases in the West Bank and Gaza.

Years of attempted mediation had failed to bring the two sides closer until the signing of their reconciliation agreement in April, which despite being mired in bitter disputes has progressed further than many had anticipated.

On Friday Abbas is due to address the UN general assembly and unveil a new diplomatic initiative designed to bring an end to Israel’s 47-year occupation of the Palestinian territories.

“The United Nations will come to an agreement with Israel and the unity government on how to run the crossings [into Gaza],” Marzouk said.

The Palestinian agreement was crucial in order to present a unified strategy during talks with Israeli negotiators due in October.

Those talks, under Egyptian mediation, are aimed at reaching a durable ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians after the Gaza war, which killed more than 2,140 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and 73 on the Israeli side.

The Guardian view on the human, economic and political costs of the Gaza war | Editorial

A tortuous and tragic story which began in early June with the kidnap and murder of three Israeli teenagers ended in a dusty street in Hebron earlier this week when a special counter-terrorism unit of the Israeli police closed in on a safe house in which they believed the murderers were hiding. In the ensuing gun battle, the two men in the house were killed. Just deserts, some might say, if we assume the two were the guilty parties, and that the police had no alternative but to shoot back when they came under fire. Unfortunately, there is more to it than that. What came between the kidnap in June and the shootout in September was a bloody conflict in Gaza which killed more than 2,000 Palestinians, as well as 70 Israelis, smashed up the infrastructure of that already battered territory, and led to an international controversy about Israel’s reasons for going to war. What should have been a detective story, if a sad and vicious one – three boys dead, their alleged killers tracked and apprehended – became something quite different.

The full background to the crime may never be known, since the alleged perpetrators are now gone. But the evidence strongly suggests that the Israeli government’s claim that it had “unequivocal proof” that Hamas as an organisation was responsible was unjustified. Having decided that Hamas was to blame, Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, seems to have seen an opportunity to destabilise the just-created Palestinian national unity government, which had brought together Hamas and Fatah, and to undermine Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority. The Israelis charged through the West Bank picking up hundreds of Hamas members. Provoked, and sensing an opportunity to reverse its own faltering fortunes, Hamas in Gaza responded with rockets. Angered, the Israeli public, unaware of the full facts, clamoured for action over the rockets and newly discovered tunnels. Cornered, Mr Netanyahu sent in the troops. Frustrated, the Israeli Defence Forces found that, for all the tunnels and missile stores blown up and the commanders and officials killed, Hamas was still intact as a fighting force and was actually strengthened as a political movement when a ceasefire finally took hold.

The figures are telling. Mr Netanyahu’s popularity rating has collapsed, that of Hamas has risen. As many as 400,000 Gazans may have lost their homes. Rebuilding Gaza could cost as much as $6bn. Israel, meanwhile, may have lost as much as 0.5% of its GDP. The war has still not ended. Talks on a permanent truce stumble on in Cairo, and until there is one, the work of reconstruction cannot properly begin. This was a war that did not need to be fought and which should not have been fought. What a high price has been paid for this folly.

Obama calls for new regional talks to try to bring peace to the Middle East

Barack Obama has called for a meeting of regional powerbrokers in the Middle East to negotiate a broader political solution to current instability, in a potential glimpse into longer term US strategy for resolving the civil wars in Syria and Iraq.

Speaking before the United Nations general assembly, the president said it was “time for a broader negotiation in which major powers address their differences directly, honestly, and peacefully across the table from one another, rather than through gun-wielding proxies”.

Pressure is growing in Washington for Obama to explain how recent US strikes against Islamic extremists in Syria and Iraq will bring about a more lasting political settlement and his comments may indicate an eventual willingness to negotiate with Shia leaders in Iran over their involvement in both countries.

Earlier international talks in Geneva to end the Syrian civil war have foundered over the continued US insistence that president Bashar al-Assad must stand down, but negotiations did succeed in agreeing the destruction of his chemical weapon stocks.

It is hard to see the US administration dropping its opposition to Assad, but the government in Damascus claims it was given warning of US air strikes this week in a potential sign of new co-operation.

And Obama appeared to signal a tougher line with the Sunni countries in the region who have backed rebel groups fighting Assad – despite their support this week for US air strikes against Islamic State fighters in Syria.

In thinly-veiled criticism of Gulf states who the US believes allow funds to flow to Islamic extremists and hardline religious schools across the Middle East, the president said there would be no lasting peace until such radicalism was checked at its root.

“It is time for a new compact among the civilised peoples of this world to eradicate war at its most fundamental source: the corruption of young minds by violent ideology,” said Obama.

“That means cutting off the funding that fuels this hate. It’s time to end the hypocrisy of those who accumulate wealth through the global economy, and then siphon funds to those who teach children to tear it down.”

Obama’s wide-ranging UN speech even included fresh calls to Israel to re-open talks over a two-state solution to the Palestinian dispute, warning that “the status quo in the West Bank and Gaza is not sustainable”.

“As bleak as the landscape appears, America will never give up the pursuit of peace,” he said.

“The violence engulfing the region today has made too many Israelis ready to abandon the hard work of peace,” added Obama.

But the president argued that conflict across the Middle East showed it was not just Palestinian grievances fuelling radicalisation, and said it was “time to acknowledge the destruction wrought by proxy wars and terror campaigns between Sunni and Shia across the Middle East”.

“Ultimately, the task of rejecting sectarianism and extremism is a generational task – a task for the people of the Middle East themselves,” concluded the US president. “No external power can bring about a transformation of hearts and minds.”

Israeli forces kill two Palestinians suspected of murdering teenagers

Israeli forces have killed two Palestinians suspected of the kidnap and murder of three Israeli teenagers three months ago, an event which triggered a sequence of actions leading to the 50-day war in Gaza.

The two men, Marwan Qawasmeh, 29, and Amer Abu Aisha, 32, were Hamas members, said the Israel Defence Forces. They died in an exchange of fire before dawn on Tuesday after the IDF fired a rocket at a house in Hebron, in the West Bank, where they had been hiding. Three other men were arrested.

Only one was confirmed dead by the Israeli military. IDF spokesman Peter Lerner said the second suspect fell backward in a hail of fire and was presumed dead, although the body had not been recovered.

“We opened fire, they returned fire and they were killed in the exchange,” Lerner said. “We have visual confirmation for one. The second one, we have no visual confirmation, but the assumption is he was killed.”

Palestinian officials decided to proceed with talks in Cairo on a long-term ceasefire agreement with Israel following the end of the Gaza war despite the killing of the two men. “After consultations within the Palestinian delegation and brothers in Gaza and abroad it was decided to continue the Cairo meetings,” said Mahmoud al-Zahar, adding that Israel must not be given any pretext “to escape from commitments” of last month’s truce.

The Israeli military chief of staff, Benny Gantz, said: “On the eve of Rosh HaShanah [the Jewish new year] Operation Brother’s Keeper, which began on 13 June, has ended. We promised the Shaer, Frenkel and Yifrah families we would get the murderers of their sons, and this morning we did it.”

Israeli forces had been hunting the suspects since the Israeli teenagers’ abduction on 12 June. The bodies of Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaar and Naftali Frenkel, both 16, were found on 1 July. It emerged then that security forces had believed since the time of the abduction that the youths were dead.

In the aftermath of the kidnapping, Israel launched an operation codenamed Brother’s Keeper, during which more than 400 Palestinians – mostly Hamas members and supporters – were arrested in the West Bank and at least five were killed.

Hamas in Gaza responded to the wave of arrests by firing rockets over the border into Israel. Netanyahu ordered a military offensive on Gaza on 8 July, which lasted until 26 August. At least 2,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed, and on the Israeli side 66 soldiers and six civilians died.

In a statement issued after Tuesday’s operation in Hebron, the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, said: “We said from the start that Hamas is responsible for the kidnapping and murder. As we gathered proof, Hamas admitted it was behind the attack.”

Following the Israeli boys’ abduction, Netanyahu promised to make public the evidence collected by Israeli security forces that he said proved Hamas had ordered the kidnappings, but it has never been disclosed. With the death of the two Palestinian suspects, there can be no trial.

Hamas initially denied any connection to the abductions. But in August, Saleh al-Arouri, a Hamas figure living in Turkey, said Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, had imprisoned the Israeli teenagers. His claim was not supported by other Hamas officials.

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal later said that members may have been behind the killings, but that they were not acting on the orders of group’s political leadership. “We learned about these confessions from the Israeli investigation … Hamas political leadership was not aware of all these details,” he said.

On Tuesday, Hamas’s spokesman in Gaza, Sami Abu Zuhri, said: “Hamas praises the role martyrs Abu Aisha and Qawasmeh played in chasing down Israeli settlers and we stress that their assassination will not weaken the resistance.”

Meshaal’s spokesman in Qatar, Hussam Badran, praised the pair on his Twitter account. “The martyrdom of Marwan Qawasmeh and Amer Abu Aisha came after a long life full of jihad sacrifice and giving. This is the path of resistance, which we all are moving in,” he said.

The IDF said a recent breakthrough in the hunt for the two Palestinian men had led the Yamam, a special police counter-terrorism unit, to the hideout in an area of Hebron about a week ago. Early on Tuesday, Israeli special forces entered the ground floor of the two-story building and killed two Hamas operatives after coming under fire, Lerner said.

The governor of Hebron, Kamel Hmeid, confirmed on Palestinian radio that the two were dead.

“It’s clear now the two martyrs, Qawasmeh and Abu Aisha, were assassinated this morning during a military operation in the Hebron University area. We condemn this crime, this assassination, as deliberate and premeditated murder,” he said.

One month after the ceasefire, how is Gaza being rebuilt?

The recent war in Gaza has cost the agricultural and fisheries sectors more than $100m (£61m), according to a report published last month by the UN Refugee and Works Agency. This means thousands of families have lost their means of income.

Food insecurity levels were already at 57% before the 50-day war with Israel, and there is now increased food shortage in the region, says the report.

“Images coming out of Gaza show once fertile land now reduced to wasteland, farms and greenhouses destroyed and ancient fruit trees uprooted. All that work wiped out in a matter of weeks,” says Madeleine McGivern, programme officer at Christian Aid.

A month after the conflict ended, what can NGOs do to help kickstart growth? “Our partners will now have to work with farmers as a matter of urgency to support them to rehabilitate their land, rebuild their animal shelters, greenhouses and agricultural roads and repair the water and irrigation networks,” says McGivern.

There is no short-term solution: “This work will take many years as the devastation is huge, all the time many more thousands of people will be reliant on food aid.”

While there is no silver bullet for the issue, Rene Celaya, Care International’s country director in the West Bank and Gaza, believes charities should be providing Gazans with the ability to build their own future. “Beyond food and water, charities need to provide tools, training and economic opportunities. NGOs can support the economic recovery by the rehabilitation of land and the distribution of seeds and livestock - such as chickens, rabbits or sheep.”

Financial aid, of course, is also key to rebuilding local agriculture. “Charities have a double role in the recovery. First, they can provide immediate cash injections to the most vulnerable families. Second, they have an important role in starting up productive activities, including agricultural activities, irrigation projects and support to small local fisheries, and livestock,” points out Paolo Lubrano, country director of Action Against Hunger.

Lubrano adds: “The impact on the communities is really deep: besides providing them with the means to cope with the aftermath of the conflict, it generates a feeling of ownership of the local economy.”

Pernille Ironside, Unicef’s country representative in Gaza says that NGOs should focus on boosting the local economy. “There are opportunities for charities to encourage citizens to buy locally and stimulate growth following the conflict,” he says.

“For example, we partnered with the World Food Programme to provide families affected by the war with vouchers for local shops to buy food and hygiene products. NGOs can kickstart growth by starting initiatives to distribute economic opportunities locally in Gaza.”

McGivern says it will be a slow journey to recovery for the agriculture and fisheries sector in Gaza, but with the right support people can rebuild their industries. One Gazan women who was forced to flee her family’s farm told McGivern she is optimistic about nurturing her livelihood. “We have to be positive,” she said. “We are trying to see the glass half full. What else can we do?”

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Israel shoots dead two Palestinians suspected of killing teenagers

An Israeli army spokesman says two Palestinians suspected in the fatal abduction of three Israeli teenagers in June have been killed in a shootout with Israeli forces.

Israel had spent months searching for Marwan Kawasme and Amar Abu Aysha, militants in their 30s from the Hebron area, after naming them as the killers of the Israeli teenagers, grabbed and shot dead near a Jewish settlement on 12 June.

Hebron residents said troops had surrounded a house in the city before dawn on Tuesday and reported sounds of gunfire.

The forces were seeking to arrest Kawasme and Abu Aysha when a firefight erupted, in which the two wanted men were killed, Lt Col Peter Lerner said.

“We opened fire, they returned fire and they were killed in the exchange,” Lerner said. “We have visual confirmation for one. The second one, we have no visual confirmation, but the assumption is he was killed.”

Palestinian officials have not confirmed the men were killed, however.

The two men were affiliated with the Hamas militant group which runs Gaza, and a group leader praised their deed in August, though other top officials denied any advance knowledge.

The teenagers’ abduction in the West Bank sparked a huge manhunt, leading to the arrest of hundreds of activists of the Islamic militant group Hamas and eventually sparking the summer war in Gaza.

The bodies of Naftali Frankel, Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach – who went missing in while returning from their religious schools in settlements on the West Bank – were found three weeks later and a suspected mastermind was arrested.

But the two main suspects believed to have abducted and killed the teenagers had remained fugitives.

Egypt to host Gaza talks between Palestinian factions

Palestinian Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmed (right) and delegation members leave the hotel where the mediation is taking place. Photograph: Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty

Egypt will host talks between rival Palestinian factions within days, followed by indirect negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis on the ceasefire in Gaza, the state news agency Mena said on Saturday.

The report quoted an Egyptian official as saying that delegations from the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction and the Islamic militant group Hamas, which dominates Gaza, would meet on Monday "to complete the Palestinian reconciliation".

The official said Palestinian negotiators would then meet with their Israeli counterparts starting on Wednesday to continue talks on a ceasefire in Gaza that resulted from Egyptian-mediated talks in Cairo last month.

Israel's delegation will travel to Cairo on Tuesday, an Israeli official said.

Azzam Ahmed, a Fatah official and head of the Palestinian delegation to last month's talks, confirmed the plan for reconciliation talks to take place this week.

He said he expected negotiations with Israel to follow, in comments reported by the Palestinian WAFA news agency.

At last month's talks, the two sides did not meet face-to-face but conducted their negotiations through Egyptian officials who shuttled back and forth.

The Palestinians want an end to the blockade of Gaza by Israel and Egypt, which view Hamas as a security threat and are seeking guarantees that weapons will not enter the small, densely populated territory of 1.8 million people.

The Palestinians are expected to press for construction of a sea port for Gaza and Israel's release of Hamas prisoners in the occupied West Bank, possibly in a trade for the remains of two Israeli soldiers believed to be held by Hamas.

Fatah and Hamas, whose popularity soared in Gaza after the fighting, appeared to have healed a bitter seven-year-old rift in April when they announced plans to form a unity government with agreed policies.

But tensions have grown in recent weeks.

The ceasefire struck last month included stipulations that Abbas's Palestinian Authority should take over civil administration in Gaza from Hamas.

Hamas thought that would mean its 40,000 employees in Gaza, who have not been paid for months, would be taken care of via the Palestinian Authority payroll.

But Fatah is loath to give any support to Hamas until it stops running what Abbas has described as a "shadow government" in Gaza and commits itself fully to the agreed unity government.

In addition, international donors including the European Union who support the Palestinian Authority's budget first want a thorough audit of workers, and cutbacks to the bloated payroll.

Three weeks ago, Israel's internal security service said it had foiled a Hamas plot to launch a coup in the West Bank, an allegation Hamas denied.

Fatah also accused Hamas of putting hundreds of its supporters in Gaza under house arrest during the war, and shooting at those who tried to flee Israeli bombings.

The 20 photographs of the week

The referendum in Scotland, the Californian fires, the ongoing crisis in northern Iraq and Syria – the best photography in news, culture and sport from around the world this week

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  Photographer Noah Berger has been with firefighters in California this week battling the King fire in the Sierra Nevada mountains. By Wednesday, the out-of-control wildfire had burned through 111 square miles and was threatening more than 2,000 homes. Here, a firefighter battles the King fire as a backfire burns along Highway 50

  
  
  
  


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  The remains of a house destroyed by the Boles fire in Weed, California, is photographed by Justin Sullivan in front of Mount Shasta. Fuelled by high winds, a fast-moving wildfire swept through the town, burning 100 structures that included the high school and a lumber mill

  
  
  
  


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  Marko Djurica continued his strong reportage from Donetsk this week. Here, a man carries out a coffin from an undertaker's showroom which had been shelled. Ukraine's parliament passed a law this week that will give 'special status' to the separatist-minded eastern regions including a degree of self-governance for a three-year period

  
  
  
  


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  Scotland voted this week in an independence referendum that could have broken up the centuries-old United Kingdom and created Europe's newest state since the collapse of Yugoslavia. Here, piper Ryan Randall leads a pro-Scottish independence rally in the suburbs of Edinburgh

  
  
  
  


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  Photographer Murdo MacLeod produced sterling work from the referendum. Here, Kayla and Kacey Campbell join Orange Order marchers in a pro-union parade. An estimated 55% of voters rejected Scottish first minister Alex Salmond’s plans for Scotland to become a separate nation and decided to stay part of the 307-year-old union with England and Wales

  
  
  
  


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  A model walks down the runway during the Simone Rocha spring/summer 2015 collection during London fashion week

  
  
  
  


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  Members of the President's Own Marine Band stand during a fireworks display commemorating the bicentennial of the writing of the Star-Spangled Banner at Fort McHenry National Historic Park in Baltimore, Maryland. The poem verses were written by Francis Scott Key in the War of 1812, during a British naval bombardment of Fort McHenry from the Chesapeake Bay

  
  
  
  


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  A photograph from the European Space Agency shows an illustration of the supermassive black hole located in the middle of the very dense galaxy M60-UCD1. It weighs as much as 21 million times the mass of our sun. Lying about 50 million light years away, M60-UCD1 is a tiny galaxy with a diameter of 300 light years

  
  
  
  


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  Palestinian teachers carry a table in a classroom at a UN-run school in Gaza City the day before children returned to school after a three-week delay caused by the war between Israel and Hamas. Schools run by the UN Palestinian refugee agency are occupied by more than 300,000 internally displaced Gazans, half of whom are children

  
  
  
  


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  A Palestinian Bedouin from the Jahalin tribe stands in the doorway of his home in the Judea desert, east of Jerusalem, West Bank. According to media reports, Israel is planning to relocate Palestinian Bedouins from the area surrounding East Jerusalem to a new town in the Jordan Valley

  
  
  
  


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  A rebel fighter holds a position in Aleppo. The conflict in Syria began as a popular revolt demanding the removal of president Bashar al-Assad but quickly escalated into a brutal civil war that brought jihadists streaming into the country

  
  
  
  


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  Shia fighters, who have joined the Iraqi army to fight against militants of the Islamic State, take part in field training in Najaf, Iraq

  
  
  
  


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  The horizon is seen through a telescopic rifle belonging to a Kurdish Peshmerga sniper on the frontline near Arbil, Iraq

  
  
  
  


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  A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter launches mortar shells towards the city of Zummar, northern Iraq, which is controlled by Islamic State mlitants

  
  
  
  


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We must remember antisemitism is far from the whole UK Jewish experience | Giles Fraser

As the UK’s Jewish community settles down to its Rosh Hashanah celebrations next week, many will be dipping their apples in honey in anticipation of a sweet new year. And let’s hope it is. Because, for many, this has been a time of increased anxiety with much talk of the sleeping giant of antisemitism rearing its ugly head once again. Recently, two schoolboys were refused entry to a well-known sports chain by the security guard with the words: “No Jews. No Jews.” The guard was quickly fired. But the Community Security Trust, which monitors these things, said that antisemitic incidents are up 400% on last year. And legitimate hostility to the Gaza war has given this historical racism an unfortunate alibi, even among the chattering classes.

This country has a very mixed history when it comes to the Jews. It was in Norwich, back in the 12th century, that the whole blood libel slur was invented – the idea that Jews murder little Christian children and use their blood in the making of Passover matzah. This sounds like ancient history. But, unfortunately, it is not. Earlier this month a former Jordanian MP, Sheikh Abu Zant said this on TV: “On their religious holidays, if they cannot find a Muslim to slaughter, and use drops of his blood to knead the matzahs they eat, they slaughter a Christian in order to take drops of his blood, and mix it into the matzos that they eat on that holiday.” This matzahs of wicked rubbish was dreamed up on these shores and exported to the world.

We must continue to remind ourselves of our antisemitic past. But the story that we don’t remind ourselves about often enough is our longish history of philosemitism. I say long-ish, because the explosion of pro-Jewish philosemitism was mostly a post-Reformation thing, and came especially with the translation of the Hebrew scriptures into English. Recall all those Puritans of the 17th century: why did so many of them have Hebrew names? Zechariah, Ezekiel, Daniel. Both sides in the English civil war looked back to the Hebrew scriptures for inspiration and it powerfully shaped the national consciousness. For the monarchists, the likes of David and Solomon provided a much-needed justification of kingship in the absence of the Roman church. And on the left, the revolutionary, world-turned-upside-down potential of the Old Testament became the very language of political dissent. England was seen as the new Jerusalem, the promised land. Think about it: even the unofficial national anthem of this country is named after a town in the Middle East.

It is impossible, for instance, to understand the Balfour declaration of 1917 – the British government’s game-changing support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine – without appreciating the historical background. As Lloyd George explained to the Jewish Historical Society in 1925: “It was undoubtedly inspired by natural sympathy, admiration and also by the fact that … we had been trained even more in Hebrew history than in the history of our own country.”

Of course, philosemitism is not an uncomplicated or universally positive phenomenon. Some argue that it is merely the sunny side-up cousin of its darker relative: both treating Jews as categorically different, as somehow “other”. So the historian Daniel Goldhagen dismisses philosemites as “antisemites in sheep’s clothing”. But that’s too cynical. Yes, from Cromwell’s readmission of the Jews to George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda, there was a certain degree of fantasy in the celebration of all things Jewish. But it’s a fantasy whose instincts are often benign and represent a powerful strain of anti-antisemitism. Yes, many Christians loved Jews in order to convert them – thus, they believed, to hasten the coming of the Messiah. Yes, the sleeping giant exists. But the past can be mined for the positive as well as for the negative. It is not true that the only thing that sleeps in our historical consciousness is a dormant hatred. So Shanah tovah. Happy new year.

Twitter@giles_fraser

Gaza war set to reverse Palestinian economic growth

A Palestinian family shelters amid the rubble of their destroyed house in Khan Younis, Gaza. Photograph: Khalil Hamra/AP

The recent war in Gaza will result in a reversal of seven years of growth in the Palestinian economy, which is now expected to shrink by nearly 4% this year, the World Bank has said.

It said Gaza would see a contraction of as much as 15%, while a slight recovery in the fourth quarter could push West Bank growth to about 0.5%.

The bank's report said the downturn was a result of the 50-day war between Israeli forces and militants in Gaza, restrictions on the flow of goods into the enclave by Israel and Egypt and a drop in foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA).

"The conflict and humanitarian tragedy in Gaza has made an already struggling Palestinian economy worse and put further stress on the fiscal situation of the Palestinian Authority," the report said.

This month the PA estimated that rebuilding Gaza after the conflict would cost $7.8bn (£4.8bn).

Egypt will host a donors' conference on 12 October with the aim of raising reconstruction funds, and donor nations are due to convene on the sidelines of the UN general assembly next week.

"The lack of a comprehensive peace agreement leads to a vicious cycle of economic decline and conflict," the report said of efforts to clinch a deal on Palestinian statehood, which collapsed in April.

Growth, spurred largely by international donor funds, has been decelerating since 2012 and slowed to less than 2% in 2013, but could rebound strongly in 2015 if Gaza reconstruction gets under way, the bank said.

A strong response to rebuilding needs could help growth top 4% in 2015, with Gaza growing by 11% if goods flow into the territory.

Even without additional spending resulting from the war, the PA would face a financing gap, due in part to a fall in donor aid of about $350m this year, the World Bank said.

It said a sustainable Palestinian economic future depended on international budget support for the PA and "sincere efforts" by Israel "to allow better and faster movement of people of goods", while taking into account its "legitimate security concerns".

While restrictions on Palestinians' mobility in the West Bank had been eased, Israel still effectively blocked exports from Gaza the bank said, and Egypt's destruction of smuggling tunnels under the border that had been a conduit for commercial goods as well as weapons had also hit the enclave hard.

Gaza children return to school after end of war with Israel

Palestinian teachers in a damaged classroom at a UN-run school in Gaza City. Photograph: Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images

Children in Gaza made a delayed return to school on Sunday after the 50-day war with Israel that killed more than 2,100 Palestinians and damaged hundreds of school buildings.

Gaza education ministry official Ziad Thabet said the opening is for 230,000 pupils attending public schools, 200,000 going to UN-run schools and tens of thousands enrolled in private institutions.

The opening had been delayed for two weeks because of damage to schools and the use of UN school buildings as temporary centres to house displaced people. About 50,000 people are still housed in UN schools, the UN Palestinian refugee agency said.

Early on Sunday Gaza City streets were crowded with children dressed in school uniform, many accompanied by parents or older siblings.

In al-Zaytoun boys elementary school, students pasted stickers with the names of fellow students killed during the war, as teachers struggled to cope with badly damaged facilities, including holes in ceilings and partially collapsed walls.

"I'm not as excited coming to school as I was in the past," said student Tamar Toutah, 11. "I feel that something is missing. I asked about my fellow students, but some were killed or wounded."

Thabet said that the first week in government schools will be given over to providing psychological counselling and recreational activities to help the war-weary children return to learning.

"We gave special training to more than 11,000 teachers and 3,000 principals and administrators about how to address students after the war," he said.

Thabet said 26 Gaza schools were destroyed during the war, and another 232 sustained damage.

He said government funding for education remains patchy, with no money provided for operational expenses since the formation of a unity government earlier this year between Hamas, the Islamic militant group that runs Gaza, and the western-backed Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank.

Unicef official June Kunugi echoed his concerns: "Investing in education is an investment for the future," she said. "Without increased support and commitment to their education and protection, an entire generation in Gaza could be lost."

The UN Palestinian refugee agency says it is providing 130,000 school bags and teaching aids for government schools, and has run training programmes for nearly 12,000 school counsellors, teachers and supervisors.

Despite the assistance, teacher Akram al-Fares, 45, said the mood among his colleagues was dour.

"We are in the same boat with the kids, we lived through the same very difficult days," he said. "But we are here together to prove that life continues, and not only can we teach, but also our kids can learn."

The war between Israel and Hamas-led militants stemmed from the abduction and killing of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank in June. Israel blamed the attack on Hamas and carried out a wave of arrests, which was followed by an increase in rocket fire from Gaza that prompted Israeli air strikes and then a ground invasion.

The fighting ended with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire on 26 August.

The Gaza war – the third in just over five years – left more than 2,100 Palestinians dead, the majority civilians, including hundreds of children, according to Palestinian and UN officials. Israel says the number of militants killed was much higher and accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields. On the Israeli side, 66 soldiers and six civilians were killed.

Antisemitism and criticism of Israel

I do not need Michael Gove to explain to me what antisemitism is (Gove attacks ‘antisemitic’ Israel boycotts, 10 September). I have been the object of antisemitism by two Conservative MPs, Sir Charles Taylor, who told me to “Get back to Tel Aviv”, and Sir Alec Douglas-Home, who admonished me that my loyalty should be to this country and not to Israel, bringing the proceedings of the House of Commons to a roaring halt. Harold Macmillan referred to me antisemitically in his diaries.

Of course the Holocaust, the Nazi slaughter of 6 million Jews, including many members of my family, was an atrocity unparalleled in human history. That does not provide justification for the Israelis murdering thousands of Palestinians. Since governments take no action against these massacres, it is right that communities and individuals should boycott Israeli products.

Gerald Kaufman

Labour, Manchester Gorton

• Mr Gove creates the all-too-common (and deliberate?) confusion between antisemitism and anti-Zionism. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS) is symbol of opposition to the policies of the state of Israel’s policies, in relation to the occupation, the continued building of settlements, the imprisonment of children and the murderous attacks on Gaza.

There should never be any devaluation of the Holocaust, and antisemitism should always be resolutely resisted. Very unfortunately some protesters also confuse antisemitism and anti-Zionism. Where Mr Gove is right is that “we need to stand united against hate” – but that of course includes Palestinians, and even Hamas, who are at least partially a product of Zionism. BDS should continue and grow, including a total arms embargo, until Israel is willing to seriously negotiate with all Palestinians, including Hamas. That was how the original apartheid state was brought to the table, with the hated ANC, and that is what needs to happen again.

Rev David Haslam

Evesham, Worcestershire

• Michael Gove needs to be reminded that one case is not a reliable basis for generalisation. Yes, the Nazi boycott of Jewish goods was followed by the Holocaust but the campaign against South African apartheid was not followed by the mass killing of whites. He also needs to be more careful in his assertions: the Tricycle theatre did not reject “Israeli money” because it came from Israel but because it came from the government of Israel, which is instrumental in the denial of Palestinian human rights and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. The Palestinian call for the boycott of Israel is absolutely clear in its opposition to all forms of racism.

Professor David E Pegg

York

• Antisemites and defenders of Israel seem united in the delusion that opposition to Israel means hatred of Jews. Most people, I hope, can see the difference. Responsible politicians and commentators should make it clear that many Jews and non-Jews are critical of Israel’s policies without being antisemitic, and not fuel this dangerous fallacy.

Caryl Churchill

London

• Avi Shlaim (Israel will find wisdom when it admits its mistakes, 8 September) shamefully glorifies a designated terror group whose fighters, according to him, have “reasons for rejoicing”, for standing firm while their “spirit did not break”. Shlaim admits that Hamas “is guilty of terrorism”, yet says it should not be labelled as terrorist, because it is “also a legitimate political actor”. This argument makes little sense, and did not convince the European Union last year when it designated Hezbollah as a terror group, despite its role in the Lebanese government. Terror groups should be isolated, not “let off the hook”, as demonstrated just a few days ago when the president of the Palestinian Authority, Abu Mazen, harshly criticised Hamas for the group’s responsibility in instigating the Gaza conflict. It seems that while both Palestinians and Israelis are seeing the situation for what it is – a conflict between moderates and radical terror – Shlaim’s piece reflects an outdated narrative that is not only anti-Israeli but arguably anti-Palestinian.

Yiftah Curiel

Spokesperson, embassy of Israel, London

• Avi Shlaim’s excellent article explains why Israel’s current policies cannot bring it peace or security. The article’s flaw is the unspoken assumption that Israel wants peace and security. Since 1948, Israel’s aim has, demonstrably, been ever greater expansion by means of dispossessing Palestinians. The map of military conquests and settlements in the West Bank, including down the Jordan Valley, show over time how well that aim has been realised – and continues to be realised. Israel wants not peace and security but Palestinian, Arab and world acquiescence in this continual expansion. The various “peace processes” have nothing to do with peace and everything to do with providing a smokescreen to this end.

Mike Davies

Chair, Alliance for Green Socialism

• While the author’s intentions are no doubt good, articles such as this are detrimental to the cause of peace. Mr Shlaim admits that “Hamas is indeed guilty of terrorism” and that it “vehemently denies the legitimacy of Israel”. Surely, conferring any sort of political legitimacy to such an organisation (as the author suggests) would only reward terrorism, while weakening those Palestinians more amenable to a peaceful solution. Hamas – which has claimed responsibility for numerous suicide bombings – is no more “a legitimate political actor” than Isis, al-Qaida, al-Shabaab or Boko Haram. Peace has never been achieved by empowering extremists, or by placing demands on just one side; but by working with the moderates in both camps. Both sides need to recognise that this is a conflict of right v right, not right v wrong; that both peoples are there by right, not sufferance. This is key: once this is recognised, mutual concessions, accommodation and respect become the self-evident next steps.

Noru Tsalic

Coventry

• I am a Jew, committed to the Jewish religion and the ethical values of justice, mercy and compassion. As such, I deplore the Israeli aggression against the people of Gaza. I hope that the present ceasefire will eventually lead to a wider agreement.

It has come to my attention that the deputy lord mayor of Cardiff, Cllr Ali Ahmed, has been reported to the south Wales police by the Liberal Democrat opposition, on the grounds that he referred to rockets fired by Hamas against Israel as “toy rockets” and that this reference was offensive to the Jewish community.

It would have been preferable, that instead of using the words “toy rockets”, he has said that “the damage done by Israel is not comparable with the Israeli bombing on the people of Gaza”; that may have been more explanatory. However, the sentiments that he expressed are the sentiments shared, not only by many Jews like myself but also of some Israelis with regard to their own government.

There is no need for the deputy lord mayor to resign. He is a man who has a strong commitment to ethical principles.

Walter Wolfgang

Former member, Labour party NEC; vice-president, CND; national steering committee member, Stop the War Coalition

• One night, when I was 13, I was woken by the sound of a door being broken down. Boots stumbled up the stairs, there was loud shouting, and a terrifying series of crashes. Nazi stormtroopers had identified our house as the home of a Jewish family, and this was the night of 9 November 1938, when the Kristallnacht pogrom raged across Germany. Our entire home was destroyed before our eyes, with axes and sledgehammers.

I have a vivid recollection of my father, after the monsters had gone, sitting on the one chair that remained and weeping. I had never seen him weep before. I now realise that, but for the presence of myself and my younger sister, my parents might not have survived the raid. It was a brutal demonstration of our situation. My sister and I left Germany on the last Kindertransport from Düsseldorf in May 1939. We have never had a full account of our parents’ fate.

Even now, I sometimes start up in bed, reliving that night. But in recent weeks, it is more often images of devastation in Gaza – of homes and families destroyed in Israeli targetings of such “military objectives” as the homes of officials in the democratically elected Hamas government – that have recalled the terror of the Kristallnacht. For I can hardly believe that a Jewish government is doing these things. How can Jewish people, aware of their own history, undertake a campaign of collective punishment that kills a higher multiple of the casualties cited as justification, than did the Nazi reprisals for resistance in occupied Europe?

Surely we have reached the point where every government not composed of utter humbugs must join in insisting that an Israeli renunciation of ambitions for expansion beyond the 1947 boundaries is a prerequisite for progress towards reconciliation and peace within a two-state solution. The very doubtful prospect of a unified, multinational, secular state in Palestine appears to be the only alternative.

Karola Regent

Newport-on-Tay, Fife

Israeli military orders criminal investigations into Gaza attacks

A UN school in Beit Hanoun was hit by an Israeli tank shell in July. Photograph: Sameh Rahmi/NurPhoto/Rex

Israel's chief military prosecutor has ordered criminal investigations into two of the most high-profile incidents in the recent Gaza war, the killing of four children in an Israeli air strike at Gaza's port and the shelling of a UN school in Beit Hanoun that left 15 people dead and scores more injured.

They are among five cases being actively investigated for potential criminal misconduct, while dozens more are being considered for investigation.

The beach killings on 16 July, which were witnessed by the Guardian, and the attack on the UN school on 24 July – while it was being used as a shelter for refugees – sparked widespread international controversy and calls from the UN and the US for a prompt investigation.

While the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) admits it struck the port in two air strikes, a senior officer on Wednesday said it was still investigating the circumstances of the attack on the UN school.

The announcement of the criminal probe by senior officers in the IDF's military attorney general's corps comes only 10 days after Israel and Hamas agreed a ceasefire to end 50 days of conflict that claimed more than 2,000 lives.

The speed with which the military attorney general has launched the investigations is in marked contrast to the conflict between Hamas and Israel in 2008-09 – Operation Cast Lead. After that conflict Israel investigated 50 incidents, leading to three convictions.

The announcement of the criminal probe comes as Israel is facing pressure on multiple fronts over the recent war, with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, threatening to refer Israel to the international criminal court.

Israel is also facing an investigation by the UN human rights council and a separate UN inquiry ordered by its secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, into the targeting of UN schools and how Hamas weapons came to be stored in some of them.

Israel has indicated it is unwilling to cooperate with the UNHRC inquiry led by Canadian judge William Schabas, accusing it of being biased.

The two incidents are the most prominent of five cases being investigated for possible criminal wrongdoing.

Those five also include the case of a 17-year-old arrested near the village of Khuzaa who complained of being mistreated and used as a human shield by Israeli soldiers, and an incident in which a Palestinian woman was shot dead by Israeli soldiers troops in Dahaniyeh, despite having coordinated her escape from an area of fighting with the Israeli military.

The last case involves an accusation – made by an Israeli commander – that one of his troops stole money from a private house during the fighting in Shujai'iya.

According to the officials some of the investigations began even while the war was continuing. Under a newly-enacted procedure, designed to speed up investigations, the Israeli military has created six fact finding teams, tasked with making initial inquiries into claimed breaches of the laws of war.

Among dozens of other cases on which the military attorney general's office has yet to rule are those that involve the question of whether Israel's heavy use of artillery in an urban area – said to have shocked US officials – was proportionate and justified and over the so-called invoking of the Hannibal Protocol, which saw large-scale destruction around Rafah during an attempt to rescue an Israeli officer who it was feared had been kidnapped.

Palestinians say 130 people, largely civilians, were killed in what they say was an indiscriminate bombardment.

Israeli officials say military attorney general, Major General Dani Efroni, has decided not to investigate seven other cases, including one in which a Palestinian media worker was killed during a strike on a car he was travelling in. The Israelis say the vehicle was transporting weapons.

The military attorney general's office, whose decisions can be overturned by civilian judges in the supreme court, both provides legal advice to the Israeli military as well as over seeing criminal investigations, including breaches of Israel's own military law and international humanitarian law.

Although the senior officer who briefed on the investigations promised they would be prompt, thorough and transparent, the military attorney general's office has been criticised over other investigations.

The announcement of the investigation comes only two days after two leading Israeli human rights NGOs announced that they would no longer cooperate with the military attorney general's office, accusing it of failing to properly investigate harm to Palestinians, including in the recent Gaza war.

B'Tselem and Yesh Din accused the military law enforcement system of being a complete failure, claiming that "after examining the results of hundreds of investigations, [we] assert that the existing investigation mechanism precludes serious investigations and is marred by severe structural flaws that render it incapable of conducting professional investigations".

They added: "The existing apparatus is incapable of investigating policy issues or breaches of law by senior ranking military officials, and fails to promote accountability among those responsible. The figures show that the Israeli authorities are unwilling to investigate human rights violations committed by security forces against Palestinians."

Julie Bishop criticises Israels decision to take over more West Bank land

Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, has accused Israel of undermining prospects for a two-state solution by claiming about 400 hectares of West Bank land south of Bethlehem.

The Australian government routinely expresses its strong support for Israel, but Bishop said the land announcement was “unhelpful so soon after the Gaza conflict”.

The US and UK had already expressed their concerns at Israel’s decision to designate 400 hectares (1,000 acres) near Bethlehem as state land, a move that cleared the way for further settlement construction.

Bishop said she had conveyed her concerns to Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, in a “warm and constructive” telephone call on Monday.

“I took the opportunity to inform foreign minister Lieberman that the Australian government is deeply concerned by reports that Israel has declared 1,000 acres of West Bank land south of Bethlehem as state land,” she said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

“The expropriation undermines prospects for a negotiated two-state solution, with Israel and a Palestinian state existing side-by-side in peace and security within internationally recognised borders – a goal to which Australia remains committed.

“Australia calls on Israel to reconsider the decision. The announcement is unhelpful so soon after the Gaza conflict. The priority for all parties must now be on working through the terms laid out in the ceasefire agreement.”

Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, Tanya Plibersek, said last week she was “disturbed” by the reported land claim and called on the Israeli government to “offer an immediate explanation”.

“Unilateral action, by any party, only undermines the peace process and the prospect of successfully negotiating a two-state solution,” Plibersek said last week.

The UK foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, was particularly forthright in his criticism last week, describing Israeli settlements as “illegal under international law” and “an obstacle to peace”.

In June, Bishop restated Australia’s support for a two-state solution amid efforts to defuse a row over the government’s description of “disputed” territory.

Arab nations raised serious concerns after the attorney general, George Brandis, told a Senate committee he would not use the description “occupied East Jerusalem”. The prime minister, Tony Abbott, said it was a “terminological clarification” and did not reflect any change to Australia’s long-standing support for a two-state solution.

These attacks on children are crimes against humanity | Gordon Brown

If the abiding image of the summer of 2014 will be the knives of hooded Isis executioners pointed at the necks of innocent victims, the abiding legacy is the torment of two million newly displaced children trapped in conflict zones, in Iraq, Syria, Gaza, Central African Republic and South Sudan. Both are unthinkable, but now we see them. Both are unacceptable, and we must not accept them.

In fact at 25 million boys and girls – the largest number in any of the 70 years since the end of the second world war – the world’s displaced children are now akin to the population of a medium sized state. The sight of children exiled from their homes, often for years on end, is now so common and their suffering so profound that the world seems frozen into inaction by the sheer enormity of their plight. Vulnerable children, whose right to be shielded from war is supposedly guaranteed in successive UN charters and resolutions, are being systematically violated, exploited, injured, raped and killed, in a succession of theatres of war. The summer of 2014 will go down in the history books as the summer of the child refugee.

Today the US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, took the issue to the United Nations security council, in an open debate on children and armed conflict. Hopefully a watching world will have heard there the whispers of innocent victims of the conflicts raging around the world. We need to act so that they may wear school not military uniforms, so that their school precincts will be safe zones not combat zones, and so that the innocence of children will be sacred and not sacrificed.

Yet the arithmetic of despair is worsening with every day that passes. During the week last month in which the UN observed World Humanitarian Day, we learned that a quarter of a million Iraqi children had been forced to flee from Mosul and surrounding areas. It is bad enough to discover that 8,800 of the 190,000 killed in Syria’s brutal civil war are wholly innocent children, and that 2,165 are under the age of 10. But the office of the UN high commissioner for human rights has reported that in 83.8% of deaths, the victims’ ages have yet to be recorded, and child deaths will inevitably be much larger.

In the first six months of 2014, in the Central African Republic, 277 children have been maimed and another 74 killed. And while the announcement of a long-term ceasefire in Gaza comes as an enormous relief to civilians on all sides, almost 500 children have died, with 250 schools shelled. Schools, like hospitals, are supposed to be oases of peace, sanctuaries where children are guaranteed protection even in times of conflict, and yet schools have been targeted by all sides as instruments of war.

There is not only an increasing trend for children to be put directly into the firing line, but they are more likely to become targets or to be cynically used and abused by abductors, as was the case in April when more than 200 girls were kidnapped from their school dormitories in northern Nigeria. Over the past five years, a pattern of targeted attacks against schools has been reported in 30 countries and five – Afghanistan, Colombia, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan and Syria – have each experienced 1,000 or more attacks on schools and universities and their staff and students. In Syria alone, by early 2013, 2,445 were reported as damaged or destroyed but, in addition, nearly 1,000 schools have allegedly been used as detention centres and in some cases torture centres. And an all too high number of children are taken from the school playground to be enlisted and brutalised as child soldiers.

In Syria and Iraq, children as young as seven, are reportedly being forced by Isis into taking up arms, while others have been forced to watch executions. Those who perpetrate such violence know that, in doing so, they sow fear and a deep sense of powerlessness among civilian populations.

It is not just boys who are brutalised: of an estimated 250,000 child soldiers in the world today, 100,000 are girls, many of whom are being used as sex slaves.

Whatever our chosen route to justice, today’s security council meeting must send a message after this summer of infamy and carnage that these attacks on children are crimes against humanity.