There have been reports of a “massacre” at Kfar Aza kibbutz. Journalists were taken by the Israeli military into the kibbutz, an Israeli community on the frontier with Gaza, where people were killed when Hamas broke through the border on Saturday. Children were among the dead, according to the reports.
At least 30 people have been killed and hundreds wounded as Israel pounded the Gaza Strip with hundreds of airstrikes overnight, a Hamas government official has said.
The most recent update from the Gaza health authority has put the Palestinian death toll in the enclave at 1,055 since Saturday. Among the dead were 260 children and 230 women, it said. The number of wounded was said to be 5,184.
The Israel Defence Forces said they had hit hundreds of targets in Gaza, including 80 in the neighbourhood of Beit Hanon, a city on the north-east edge of Gaza, and more than 450 targets in Al-Furqan neighbourhood. The targets included banks and places the IDF says were used by Hamas to direct attacks against Israel.
More than 260,000 people have fled their homes in the Gaza Strip as heavy Israeli bombardments from the air, land and sea continue to hit the Palestinian enclave, the UN has said.
The sole power station in Gaza has stopped working. Israel cut off its own electricity supply to Gaza on Monday as part of what it called a “complete siege” in response to the Hamas attack.
Israel’s military aim is to destroy Hamas’s military capabilities, a spokesperson has said. Lt Col Jonathan Conricus said Israel’s mission was “to make sure that Hamas, at the end of this war, won’t have any military capabilities by which they can threaten or kill Israeli civilians”.
The death toll in Israel rose by 200 to 1,200. An IDF spokesperson said this rise was “not because there is ongoing fighting”.
The Palestinian envoy to the UN on Tuesday described Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip as “nothing less than genocidal”.
The Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, told soldiers “we will come from the ground”, in another clear sign that a ground offensive into Gaza is imminent.
Pope Francis called for the release of all hostages held by Hamas. He said he was very worried by the “total siege” imposed by Israel on Gaza.
Hezbollah said it was responsible for firing precision missiles on Israel on Wednesday, saying it was in response to Israeli attacks this week that left three of its fighters dead.
A spokesperson for Germany’s government said it currently had no valid evidence of Iranian direct involvement in the Hamas attack.
The BBC is reporting that after the weekend’s attack by Hamas, there are 17 dead or missing UK nationals, with children among them. The news site cites an “official UK source”. The previous estimate was “more than 10” British nationals dead or missing.
The French interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said 20 arrests had been made in France over antisemitic acts and threats since the weekend. Visiting a Jewish school in Sarcelles, north of Paris, on Wednesday morning, he said: “It’s important that all French Jewish people know they are protected.”
The US was discussing with Israel and Egypt the idea of a safe passage for Gaza civilians, the US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Tuesday.
Fourteen Thai nationals have been taken hostage. Thailand said it received reports that three more of its nationals had been taken hostage in the ongoing violence in Gaza.
Two Palestinians were fatally shot in East Jerusalem by Israeli border police, in a sign of increasing violence that is disproportionately targeting young people across the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
