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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned Israel that an offensive on Rafah, the southern Gazan city sheltering more than one million people, would risk “further isolating” it.

Speaking after a US-sponsored ceasefire resolution was vetoed on Friday by Russia and China at the UN Security Council, Mr Blinken said he had taken part in “candid conversations” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A military ground operation in Rafah “risks killing more civilians,” the US secretary of state said as he departed Tel Aviv, his final stop in his sixth urgent trip to the region since the Israel-Hamas war started in October.

“It risks wreaking greater havoc with the humanitarian assistance. It risks further isolating Israel around the world and jeopardising its long-term security and standing,” Mr Blinken said.

The Israeli prime minister responded saying Israel would “do it alone” if necessary as it considers Rafah the last major stronghold of Hamas in the besieged enclave of Gaza.

Mr Blinken’s comments come as permanent UN Security Council members Russia and China vetoed a motion tabled on Friday which tied an immediate ceasefire to the release of hostages taken by Hamas during the 7 October attack.

Russia’s ambassador to the UN claimed the proposal was exceedingly politicised and would have effectively given the green light for Israel to launch a ground offensive in Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians have sought refuge.

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U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Greenfield-Thomas addresses a meeting of the U.N. Security Council.
Pic: Reuters
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US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield. Pic: Reuters

Israel-Hamas war latest: Three countries reject Gaza ceasefire resolution

Israel has been coming under increasing pressure to allow more humanitarian aid to reach over two million people in Gaza, and better protect civilians, 32,000 of whom are estimated by the local health ministry to have died during Israel’s offensive.

The draft had undergone “many rounds of consultations” with members of the 15-seat council, and marked a toughening of America’s stance towards Israel.

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Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, said the resolution’s failure was “really outrageous and below the dignity of the UN Security Council”.

She added: “There are two deeply, deeply cynical reasons behind this vote. First, Russia and China still could not bring itself to condemn Hamas’s terrorist attacks on October 7.

“Russia and China refuses to condemn Hamas for burning people alive, for gunning down innocent civilians at a concert, for raping women and girls, for taking hundreds of people hostage.

“This was the deadliest single attack on Jews since the Holocaust – and a permanent member of this council can’t even condemn it.”

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Head of UN agency says Israel blocked him from entering Gaza

Analysis: No resolution, but a significant day

There is no world crisis grave enough to forge unity at the UN, one that reaches beyond the political dynamic of vested interest.

It was never looking like the resolution would pass, not since the Russians had taunted the Americans over their loose language – the “imperative” around an immediate ceasefire. As the Russians put it, an imperative to put our $100 in our pocket doesn’t mean there’s $100 in our pocket.

There are solid arguments behind the Russia/China/Algeria veto. To state that Joe Biden has domestic political difficulties created by the US stance is to state a fact.

The US ambassador had other words for it – audacity and hypocrisy on the part of Russia. Not for the first time at the UN building in midtown Manhattan, the interests of the people of Gaza and a growing catastrophe suddenly felt a long way away.

So no resolution but it’s not a day without significance. America has shifted its position on a ceasefire and, incrementally, increased pressure on Israel.

As important as discussions were around the security council table, the more immediate impact, practically, is always going to come from talks in Qatar on an actual ceasefire and actual hostage release.

It’s a form of words presented to players at the UN that will resonate with the key players in Qatar.

Barbara Woodward, the UK’s permanent representative to the UN, warned: “Palestinians are facing a devastating and growing humanitarian crisis which will not improve until more aid can get into Gaza.

“So we are deeply disappointed that Russia and China were unable to support this council to clearly and unequivocally state the need for an immediate and sustained ceasefire.”

Washington had previously vetoed three draft resolutions since the war began – two of which would have demanded an immediate ceasefire.

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Climate-vulnerable islands storm out of COP29 negotiation room in row over funding

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Climate-vulnerable islands storm out of COP29 negotiation room in row over funding

Representatives of dozens of climate vulnerable islands and African nations have stormed out of high-stakes negotiations over a climate funding goal.

Patience is wearing thin and negotiations have boiled over at the COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan, which were due to finish yesterday but are now well into overtime.

After two weeks of talks, the more than 190 countries gathered in the capital Baku are still trying to agree a new financial settlement to channel money to poorer countries to both curb and adapt to climate change.

Talks have now run well into overtime at COP29, but a deal now feels much more precarious.

The least developed countries like Mozambique and low-lying island nations like Samoa say their calls for a portion of the fund to be allocated to them have been ignored.

Samoa’s minister of natural resources and environment Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster is one of the representatives who walked out.

“We are here to negotiate but we have walked out… at the moment we don’t feel we are being heard in there,” he said on behalf of more than 40 small island and developing states, whose shorelines are being lost to rising sea levels.

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Shortly after he made a veiled threat of leaving COP29 altogether, saying: “We want nothing more than to continue to engage, but the process must be INCLUSIVE.

“If this cannot be the case, it becomes very difficult for us to continue our involvement here at COP29.”

Evans Njewa, who chairs a group of more than 40 least developed countries, said the current deal is “unacceptable for us. We need to speak to other developing countries and decide what to do.”

The last official draft on Friday pledged $250bn a year annually by 2035.

This is more than double the previous goal of $100bn set 15 years ago, but nowhere near the annual $1.3trn that experts say is needed.

Sky News understands some developed countries like the UK were this morning willing to bump up the goal to $300bn.

Developing countries are angry not just about the finance negotiations, but also on how to make progress on a pledge from last year to “transition away from fossil fuels”.

A group of oil and producing countries, spearheaded by Saudi Arabia, have tried to dilute that language, while the UK and island state are among those that have fought to keep it in.

Mr Schuster said all things being negotiated contain a “deplorable lack of substance”.

He added: “We need to see progress and follow up on the transition away from fossil fuels that we agreed last year. We have been asked to forget all about that at this COP, as though we are not in a critical decade and as though the 1.5C limit is not in peril.”

“We need to be shown the regard which our dire circumstances necessitate.”

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At least 11 killed in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities say

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At least 11 killed in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities say

At least 11 people have been killed and 63 injured in an Israeli strike on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities have said.

Lebanon‘s health ministry said the death toll could rise as emergency workers dug through the rubble looking for survivors. DNA tests are being used to identify the victims, the ministry added.

State-run National News Agency (NNA) said the attack “completely destroyed” an eight-storey residential building in the Basta neighbourhood early on Saturday.

Footage broadcast by Lebanon’s Al Jadeed station also showed at least one destroyed building and several others badly damaged around it.

The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut, where four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike
Image:
The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut, where four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike

Map of Lebanon and Israel

The Israeli military did not warn residents to evacuate before the attack – the fourth targeting the centre this week.

At least four bombs were dropped in the attack, security sources told Reuters news agency.

The blasts happened at about 4am (2am UK time).

A seperate drone strike in the southern port cuty of Tyre this morning killed one person and injured another, according to the NNA.

The blasts came after a day of bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs and Tyre. The Israeli military had issued evacuation notices prior to those strikes.

Pic: AP
Image:
Pic: AP

Israel has killed several Hezbollah leaders in air strikes on the capital’s southern suburbs.

Heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is ongoing in southern Lebanon, as Israeli forces push deeper into the country since launching a major offensive in September.

Read more:
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‘Dozens’ of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike

US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region this week to try to end more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, ignited last October by the war in Gaza.

Mr Hochstein indicated progress had been made after meetings in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, before going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz.

According to the Lebanese health ministry, Israel has killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon and wounded more than 15,000.

It has displaced about 1.2 million people – a quarter of Lebanon’s population – while Israel says about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed in northern Israel.

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Vladimir Putin vows to increase production of Russia’s ‘unstoppable’ missile – as NATO and Ukraine to hold talks

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Vladimir Putin vows to increase production of Russia's 'unstoppable' missile - as NATO and Ukraine to hold talks

President Vladimir Putin has said Russia will ramp up the production of a new, hypersonic ballistic missile.

In a nationally-televised speech, Mr Putin said the intermediate-range Oreshnik missile was used in an attack on Ukrainian city Dnipro in retaliation for Ukraine’s use of US and British missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory.

Referring to the Oreshnik, the Russian president said: “No one in the world has such weapons.

“Sooner or later other leading countries will also get them. We are aware that they are under development.”

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Putin’s warning to the West

Russia war latest: Long-awaited US air defences arrive in Ukraine

He added: “We have this system now. And this is important.”

Detailing the missile’s alleged capabilities, Mr Putin claimed it is so powerful that using several fitted with conventional warheads in one attack could be as devastating as a strike with nuclear weapons.

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General Sergei Karakayev, head of Russia’s strategic missile forces, said the Oreshnik could reach targets across Europe and be fitted with either nuclear or conventional warheads – while Mr Putin alleged Western air defence systems will not be able to stop the missiles.

Mr Putin said of the Oreshnik: “There is no countermeasure to such a missile, no means of intercepting it, in the world today. And I will emphasise once again that we will continue testing this newest system. It is necessary to establish serial production.”

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How bionic limps are helping Ukrainian troops

Testing the Oreshnik will happen “in combat, depending on the situation and the character of security threats created for Russia“, the president added, stating there is “a stockpile of such systems ready for use”.

NATO and Ukraine are expected to hold emergency talks on Tuesday.

Meanwhile Ukraine’s parliament cancelled a session as security was tightened following the strike on Dnipro, a central city with a population of around one million. No fatalities were reported.

EU leaders condemn Russia’s ‘heinous attacks’

Numerous EU leaders have addressed Russia’s escalation of the conflict with Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk saying the war is “entering a decisive phase [and] taking on very dramatic dimensions”.

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Russia’s new missile – what does it mean?

Speaking in Kyiv, Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavsky called Moscow’s strike an “escalatory step and an attempt of the Russian dictator to scare the population of Ukraine and to scare the population of Europe”.

At a news conference, Mr Lipavsky gave his full support for delivering the additional air defence systems needed to protect Ukrainian civilians from the “heinous attacks”.

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