Labour leadership hopeful Andy Burnham has refused to call the Israeli military’s actions in Gaza a genocide.
Asked about the violence in an interview with the Guardian, he said: “I can’t judge things of that enormity from where I am as mayor of Greater Manchester.”
He added: “But I do have concerns about the disproportionate nature of what has happened in terms of the destruction, and there has to be a full process of investigation and accountability.”
The world-leading International Association of Genocide Scholars last year declared that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Israel has killed at least 72,000 Palestinians there since 7 October 2023 and experts quoted by the BMJ say the actual toll is far higher.
Burnham became a member of Labour Friends of Israel in 2015 and during a Labour leadership bid the same year described the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel as “spiteful”.
He also promised to make Israel his first state visit if he won – calling the country a “democracy that has a long history of protecting minorities and promoting civil rights”.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Vote Labour for Genocide.
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Residents walk past colorful wall paintings as daily life continues under the shadow of destruction following the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Tehran, Iran, on April 5, 2026. [Fatemeh Bahrami – Anadolu Agency]
Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday condemned US strikes on radar and coastal surveillance facilities in the southern Sirik region and on Qeshm Island, describing them as a clear violation of the April 8 ceasefire agreement and an act of aggression against the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, Anadolu reports.
In a statement, the ministry said the facilities targeted in the early hours of Saturday were responsible for protecting Iran’s borders and ensuring the security of international shipping routes.
It said the attacks formed part of Washington’s continued hostile and provocative actions against Iran and reflected what it described as a disregard for the principles of international law and the UN Charter.
The ministry said Iran’s armed forces responded to the strikes within the framework of the country’s right to self-defense and thwarted the objectives of the attack.
The statement said repeated US violations of the ceasefire demonstrated Washington’s lack of commitment to reducing tensions and restoring stability, warning that the US would bear responsibility for the consequences of its actions and any further escalation.
Reaffirming Iran’s right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter, the ministry said Tehran would use all available means to defend its sovereignty, security, and national interests.
The ministry also called on regional countries to adhere to the principle of good neighborliness and refrain from allowing their territories or facilities to be used to plan or carry out hostile actions against Iran.
It further urged the UN secretary-general, the UN Security Council, and other international bodies to respond to what it described as continued ceasefire violations and unlawful US actions, and to prevent further threats to regional and international peace and security.
Earlier Saturday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it struck coastal surveillance radar sites in Sirik and on Qeshm Island following attacks targeting the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf countries.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) later announced that US military bases in the region had been targeted with missiles in response to the strikes.
Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Strait of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won. He’s challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up
Wide view of a large crowd holding a banner reading Free Hussam Abu Safiya during a pro Palestine demonstration in Paris Ile de France France on April 18, 2026. (Photo by Djoudi Hamani/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)
“The international community cannot remain silent while a respected physician is reportedly subjected to harsh conditions, denied adequate medical care, and isolated from the outside world.”
A prominent human rights group on Friday sounded alarms upon learning that Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, has been sent to solitary confinement.
As reported by Haaretz, Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) said it learned on Thursday that Abu Safiya was moved to solitary confinement this week without any explanation.
According to a report from The Palestine Chronicle, an attorney representing Abu Safiya claimed that his client was placed into solitary confinement in retaliation for appealing his continued detention.
Abu Safiya was first taken into custody by Israeli forces in December 2024 and has been held since then without being charged with any criminal offenses.
In a Friday statement, the Council of American-Islamic Relations said news of Abu Safiya’s solitary confinement was “deeply disturbing” and raised “even more urgent concerns about his welfare and basic human rights.”
“Congress must demand his immediate release and insist that Israel end the arbitrary detention, abuse, and mistreatment of Palestinian medical professionals and civilians,” CAIR added. “The international community cannot remain silent while a respected physician is reportedly subjected to harsh conditions, denied adequate medical care, and isolated from the outside world without any legal justification. Dr. Abu Safiya must be released immediately.”
PHRI has for months been raising concerns about Abu Safiya’s detention, long before he was transferred to solitary confinement.
While demanding the physician’s release in April, for instance, PHRI said Abu Safiya was being held “in harsh conditions, without access to medication or medical care, as his health continues to deteriorate.”
A 2025 report from Amnesty International, which has also called for Abu Safiya’s release, said that the Gaza-based physician “was detained in the course of caring for his patients and carrying out his medical duties.”
Amnesty also noted that, prior to his detention, Abu Safiya and other colleagues at the Kamal Adwan Hospital had “provided human rights and humanitarian organizations with reliable information about the health situation” in Gaza, which has been left devastated by years of Israeli attacks that have killed at least 72,000 Palestinians.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it’s fun to kill everyone …Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up
Palestinians carry the bodies of relatives who lost their lives in overnight Israeli airstrikes during a funeral procession in Gaza City on June 4, 2026. (Photo by Saeed M. M. T. Jaras/Anadolu via Getty Images)
As Israel ratchets up its attacks and conquers more territory in Gaza despite a ceasefire, May was the deadliest month for Palestinians there in 2026.
Five members of the same Palestinian family were killed in a burning building after Israel bombed four residential apartment buildings in Gaza City on Thursday morning. Eight months after the October “ceasefire” began, the death toll from continued Israeli attacks is rapidly approaching 1,000.
A single nine-year-old girl, identified as Hala Hassan Rabah Labad by local reports, survived the strike on an apartment on Intelligence Street in northwestern Gaza and was taken to the hospital. Five members of her family—her father, mother, and three siblings—were all killed.
Nine people were killed in total and dozens more wounded in other strikes on residential buildings throughout the night, according to medical sources who told the Anadolu Agency that bodies arrived at Al-Shifa Hospital—some dismembered and others severely burned.
Other attacks were reported on Al-Salam Tower in Tel al-Hawa, the Mahna family home near Al-Qouqa Roundabout in Al-Shati refugee camp, and a residential apartment in the Abu al-Amin and Abu Iskandar area of Sheikh Radwan.
Local journalists reported that many of the targeted buildings were sheltering displaced families.
One resident recorded video of a burning building near her home and posted it to social media.
“Israel bombed the house next to me at 2 am,” she said. “People are burning alive and screaming.”
Israel bombed the house next to me at 2 AM. People are burning alive and screaming!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/pkewE4XdhK
Rescue workers are still reportedly picking through the rubble and have been deployed across multiple locations, according to journalists on the ground, who described the series of attacks as a “major massacre.”
“We were woken up by the strike at 2:30 am. We found pieces of flesh, and people were sleeping. They say the war is over, but the war is not over,” Khalil Batran, a neighbor of the deceased family, told Reuters. “There is no safety in Gaza… Every day, they fire at us from there and strike us with missiles. It’s futile.”
The Israeli military has not commented on the strikes as of Thursday morning.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Thursday’s strikes bring the number of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks up to 947 since a so-called ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was reached in October. Nearly 3,000 other Palestinians have been wounded.
The Gaza Government Media Office has accused Israel of violating the ceasefire more than 3,000 times through the targeting of civilians, the destruction of entire residential blocks, repeated gunfire, and incursions into residential areas, as well as restrictions on humanitarian aid entering the strip.
Since Israel’s genocidal military campaign in Gaza began in October 2023, nearly 73,000 people have been killed, according to official figures from the Gaza Health Ministry, though independent analyses suggest the true death toll could be much higher.
As Israel fortifies and expands its military control of the strip, with leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahupledging to push forward and conquer more territory, May was the deadliest month for Gaza thus far in 2026, with 119 Palestinians killed.
Thursday’s attacks come a day after Israel continued to bomb several sites in Lebanon despite the announcement of a US-brokered ceasefire, which has not yet gone into effect. During a previous truce, Israel launched numerous attacks, demolished villages, and ordered the forced evacuation of civilians in Lebanon, in clear violation of the agreement. Israeli attacks during that ceasefire period killed more than 600 people, according to the World Health Organization.
🇵🇸 “The term ceasefire has been used as a surrender cudgel against the Palestinians in Gaza,” Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill explained on Sky News.
In Gaza, Israel has justified continued attacks and deeper encroachment into Gaza by saying that Hamas has failed to “fully disarm.” But while that is part of a framework laid out by US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, Drop Site News journalist Jeremy Scahill points out that it was not part of the deal agreed to in October.
“Netanyahu has a PhD in violating ceasefires,” said Scahill on SkyNews Wednesday. “The term ‘ceasefire’ has been used as a surrender cudgel against the Palestinians in Gaza.”
“The Palestinians signed a deal with Israel. Israel has violated it every day, killed 1,000 Palestinians, has moved deeper into Gaza. They say, ‘Hamas agreed to disarm.’ Hamas never signed a disarmament agreement,” he continued. “Now the so-called ‘Board of Peace’ is demanding that the Palestinians surrender their liberation cause as a condition for Netanyahu to abide by the terms that he signed.”
“They signed a ceasefire with Hamas,” he said. “Not with the children in tents that they continue to burn alive.”
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it’s fun to kill everyone …Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up
Article by republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
US service members conduct an Armed Forces Full Honors Arrival Ceremony for the outgoing head of the Israeli military, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, in Conmy Hall at Fort Myer, Virginia on February 18, 2025. (Photo by Sgt. Nathan Winter/US Army)
“At a time when Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza… Congress should be cutting off military support—not integrating the US military and Israeli defense sector,” said one critic.
A US congressional committee on Thursday rejected an amendment to strip a provision from next year’s Pentagon funding bill aimed at deepening integration of the US and Israeli militaries under the guise of reducing aid.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) introduced an amendment to strike Section 224—which would establish a formal “United States–Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative”—from the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act. The proposed NDAA authorizes $1.15 trillion in baseline military spending, while the Trump administration’s full defense request seeks an unprecedented, debt-exploding $1.5 trillion in armed forces and related funding for the coming fiscal year.
Section 224 would require the US defense secretary to designate a Pentagon executive agent responsible for coordinating and expanding US-Israel defense technology cooperation.
In Thursday’s voice vote, members of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) from both parties rejected the amendment to remove Section 2024 from the NDAA, with only Khanna and Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) backing the measure.
The House voted today on a new measure to fuse elements of the Israeli and US militaries, particularly on the cyberweapons front. Section 224, as its known, is included in the National Defense Authorization Act. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., introduced an amendment to strip it from… https://t.co/xWAiZQ03BCpic.twitter.com/rLUViMeKLv
While proponents of Section 224 contend that the measure would reduce US taxpayer funding for Israel, Khanna argued that the provision amounts to a blank check for a country that most Americans oppose sending more aid to.
“The American people are tired of the arrogance and insolence of Prime Minister Netanyahu telling America what we should do,” the congressman said Thursday while promoting his amendment. “The entire country of Israel has a GDP that is less than a single town in my district, yet somehow Netanyahu thinks he could tell the American people what we should do.”
“I am for Team America,” Khanna added. “I am for the interests of this country, and I believe that’s what [President] Donald Trump ran on. That includes American interests against any foreign country. We should have American sovereignty and make it clear that we strike 224. If we want to give aid to Israel, if we want to sell them weapons, that should be a vote for the entire Congress.”
This is a simple question. Do we do more for Israel now or less? I introduced an amendment to strike 224 because I am for the American people calling the shots, not Netanyahu. I am for Team America. pic.twitter.com/FTWToXOl2T
In a letter to Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.)—who is not on the HASC—Netanyahu said he is “heartened” by Section 224’s plan to “develop a new Memorandum of Understanding with the United States government” that will reduce “US financial military assistance over the next decade” and replace it with “a new framework of joint defense cooperation, codevelopment, coproduction, and mutual investment.”
The US has provided more than $20 billion in armed aid to Israel during the Biden and Trump administrations since Netanyahu launched the genocidal war on Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023. The current 10-year Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Israel, signed in 2016 during former President Barack Obama’s tenure, provided Israel with $38 billion in US military aid and expires in 2028.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.)—who has partnered with Khanna on introducing or supporting war powers resolutions aimed at curbing Trump’s ability to wage unconstitutional wars in countries including Yemen, Venezuela, and Iran—said last month that if Section 224 made it out of committee, he would work with Khanna to “offer an amendment to strip it from the bill on the floor.”
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is urging Americans to contact their members of Congress to tell them to reject Section 224.
U.S. tax dollars have bene funding Israel’s war crimes. Section 224 would make that funding automatic, classified, and permanent.
Demand congress to reject section 224!
📢 TAKE ACTION: 👉 Send a letter to your representative: [https://t.co/R00bzrtYrZ] 👉 Call the House Armed…
“This is not ‘America First.’ It is Israel First,” ADC argues on its website. “The resolution languageattached to this proposal gives it away: it expresses support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s initiative to transition the US–Israel relationship toward mutual defense cooperation and joint economic investment. This language turns Congress into a vehicle for advancing Netanyahu’s agenda and asks the American people to treat it as their own national security policy.”
“Section 224 would move US support for Israel away from the more transparent foreign aid framework and into a maze of Pentagon procurement, licensing, data-sharing, and backdoor deals that are harder for Congress, taxpayers, and future administrations to monitor, cap, condition, or unwind,” the group continued. “Concerns of undefined ‘network integration’ and ‘data fusion’ should alarm every American who cares about sovereignty, privacy, civil liberties, and democratic oversight.”
“At a time when Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, exporting surveillance technologies used against activists and journalists around the world, marketing military technology tested on Palestinians, and carrying out terrorist attacks as seen in the cell phone [bombings] in Lebanon, Congress should be cutting off military support—not integrating the US military and Israeli defense sector and making accountability harder than ever,” ADC added.
In an opinion piece published this week by Common Dreams, Ben Freeman, director of the Democratizing Foreign Policy Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, wrote that “lawmakers should reject Section 224 from the NDAA to avoid deep integration with Israel’s military at a time when a growing number of Americans oppose Israel’s actions in the region.”
“This unprecedented level of US-Israeli military integration stands in stark contrast to the traditional aid model of defense cooperation, in which Israel already stood out as the top recipient of US military assistance,” Freeman said.
Article by republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it’s fun to kill everyone …Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up
