Closing summary
It has just gone 5pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv. We will be closing this blog soon, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Israel-Gaza war coverage here and on the Middle East here.
Here is a recap of the latest developments:
Bombs used in an Israeli airstrike that caused a huge blaze at a tented area for displaced people in Rafah on Sunday and killed at least 45 people, were made in the US, reported the New York Times (NYT). It cited visual evidence reviewed by the NYT and weapon experts, including “key” details in weapon debris and a unique identifier code that linked weapon fragments, seen in a video, to an aerospace manufacturer based in Colorado.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday hit out at the United Nations and called on the “Islamic world” to react after the latest deadly Israeli strikes in Gaza. “The UN cannot even protect its own staff. What are you waiting for to act? The spirit of the United Nations is dead in Gaza,” Erdoğan told lawmakers from his AKP party. “Israel is not just a threat to Gaza but to all of humanity,” he said, adding: “No state is safe as long as Israel does not follow international law and does not feel bound by international law.”
Algeria is circulating a proposed UN security council resolution that would demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and order Israel to halt its military offensive in the southern city of Rafah immediately. The draft resolution, obtained on Tuesday evening by the Associated Press (AP), demands that the ceasefire be respected by all parties. It also calls for the immediate release of all hostages taken during Hamas’s attack in southern Israel on 7 October.
The former head of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, allegedly threatened a chief prosecutor of the international criminal court (ICC) in a series of secret meetings in which he tried to pressure her into abandoning a war crimes investigation, the Guardian has revealed. Yossi Cohen’s covert contacts with the ICC’s then prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, took place in the years leading up to her decision to open a formal investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in occupied Palestinian territories.
The US state department said that it opposes “threats or intimidation” against members of the international criminal court (ICC) in the wake of the Guardian’s reporting on Israel’s secret “war” of surveillance, hacking and threats aimed at sabotaging The Hague’s Israel and Palestine investigation. Spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday that he had read the report, a joint investigation with the Israel-Palestinian +972 magazine and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call, and that the state department was examining the matter. Several members of the international law community have said that Israel’s actions may warrant new indictments.
The Biden administration said recent Israeli operations and attacks in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah do not constitute a major ground operation that crosses any US red lines, and that it is also closely monitoring a probe into Sunday’s deadly strike on a tent camp it called “tragic”. Speaking after Israeli tanks were seen near al-Awda mosque, a landmark in central Rafah, national security council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that the US was not turning a “blind eye” to the plight of Palestinian civilians.
Israeli tanks conducted a second day of probing attacks across Rafah on Wednesday. Rafah residents told Reuters that Israeli tanks mounted raids into Tel al-Sultan in western Rafah and Yibna and near Shaboura in the centre before retreating to positions near the border with Egypt.
Israel carried out fresh strikes in Rafah on Wednesday. AFP journalists in Rafah reported new strikes early on Wednesday, hours after witnesses and a Palestinian security source said Israeli tanks had penetrated the heart of the city. “People are currently inside their homes because anyone who moves is being shot at by Israeli drones,” resident Abdel Khatib told AFP.
Several people were injured on Wednesday morning by Israeli fire in the eastern area of Rafah, Palestinian health officials said. They said some stores of aid were set ablaze in the area.
According to Reuters, residents said constant Israeli bombardment overnight destroyed many homes in the area, from where most people have fled after orders by Israel to evacuate. Some residents reported seeing what they described as unmanned robotic armoured vehicles opening fire from machine guns in some parts of the city.
The pro-Hamas Shebab news agency, as well as some residents and journalists, reported internet and mobile communications blackouts in some areas of both east and west amid heavy Israeli air and ground bombardment. The Israeli military said it could not confirm the reports.
In northern Gaza, Israeli tanks shelled several Gaza City neighbourhoods, and forces thrust deeper in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight biggest historic refugee camps, with residents saying large residential districts were destroyed by the army.
The armed wings of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said they confronted Israeli forces with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs, as well as blowing up previously planted explosive devices.
The Israeli military said three soldiers had been killed and three others badly wounded in combat in southern Gaza on Wednesday, without elaborating. Israel’s public broadcaster Kan radio said the soldiers were hurt by an explosive device set off in a building in Rafah.
The Palestinian health minister said on Wednesday there was no indication from Israel that the Rafah crossing, used to bring in essential humanitarian and medical supplies, could be opened soon. “Since it was closed, we have no indication that the Israelis would like it to be opened any time soon,” the minister, Majed Abu Ramadan, told reporters on the sidelines of the World Health Assembly in Geneva.
US aid efforts for Gaza have suffered an embarrassing setback after the temporary pier built by the military broke apart in heavy seas, the Pentagon said on Tuesday. The pier will be pulled out and sent to the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, where US Central Command (Centcom) will repair it.
Israel’s military was in control of 75% of the Phildelphi corridor, a buffer zone between Gaza and Egypt, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said on Wednesday. He added that he expected fighting in Gaza to continue throughout 2024 at least. “Inside Gaza, the IDF is now in control of 75% of the Philadelphi corridor and I believe it will be in control of it all with time. Together with the Egyptians, we must ensure weapon smuggling is prevented,” he told Israel’s public broadcaster Kan.
An Israeli airstrike killed three people overnight in Khan Younis, including Salama Baraka, a former senior Hamas police officer, medics and Hamas media said on Wednesday.
The Palestinian health ministry said several hospitals in areas where the Israeli army is operating had stopped functioning. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said it had evacuated its medical teams from its field hospital in the al-Mawasi area, a designated civilian evacuation zone. It cited “the increased threat level from the Israeli occupation, continued artillery and air bombardments in its vicinity, and the complete evacuation of residents from the surrounding area” in its statement.
The PRCS said one of its staff, Issam Aqel, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on his house in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. It said his death rose to 30 the number of staff killed since 7 October, at least 17 of them killed on duty.
Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister, met officials from several counties in the Middle East on Wednesday, a day after Spain formally recognised a Palestinian state. “We share with the Arab countries the will and commitment to end violence and make the two-state solution a reality. We trust that recognition will restore hope to the Palestinian people that a future of peace, security and prosperity is possible for the region,” said Sánchez.
Spain’s far-right Vox leader came under fire on Wednesday after surprise talks in Jerusalem with Israel’s prime minister to denounce Madrid’s recognition of Palestinian statehood, with the government accusing him of “fuelling war”. The unexpected trip was only publicised on Tuesday night when Santiago Abascal published photos on X of himself and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The meeting took place on the same day that Spain, Ireland and Norway recognised Palestinian statehood.
Spanish foreign minister José Manuel Albares accused Abascal of inflaming the situation. “Abascal is embracing the policy of falsehoods, slander and insults coming from the most extreme elements of Netanyahu’s government,” he told RTVE public television late on Tuesday. “While some people are fuelling wars, others are trying to find solutions for peace.”
US Republican Nikki Haley met with Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant. In a post on X, Gallant thanked Haley for her solidarity and said they had had a “meaningful discussion … about the importance of strong US-Israel ties in the face of our common enemies, led by Iran”.
French members of parliament on the left have questioned the decision to suspend a lawmaker for two weeks after he held up a Palestinian flag during a parliamentary debate. Sébastien Delogu, a member of parliament for Marseille for the leftwing La France Insoumise party, stood up with the flag during a heated debate over whether France should recognise Palestinian statehood during questions to the government on Tuesday afternoon.
Three police officers were injured and 40 people arrested during a protest in Westminster on Tuesday night, Scotland Yard said. One officer was left with a serious facial injury after she was hit by a bottle thrown from the crowd, while two officers had minor injuries. Metropolitan police said the suspect who threw the bottle had not been identified but police were investigating. Most of the crowd, which was between 8,000 and 10,000 people, left Whitehall without incident.
Discord from last month’s mob attack on pro-Palestinian student activists encamped at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) flared again on Tuesday as academic workers staged a strike on campus protesting UCLA’s response to the violence. Unionised academic researchers, graduate teaching assistants and post-doctoral scholars at UCLA walked off the job over what they regard as unfair labor practices in the university’s handling of pro-Palestinian demonstrations in recent weeks, organisers said.
Tehran’s sea-launched ballistic missile Ghadr has been made available to Yemen’s Houthis, reported Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.
A flamenco dancer of Palestinian heritage whose image was used in an Israeli government video that accused Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, of helping Hamas by recognising the Palestinian state, has said she is shocked but amused to find herself used for propaganda purposes. “Although there’s no such thing as a coincidence, they chose me – a Palestinian,” she said, adding that it showed how “weak and low” the Israeli government was.
Updated
Algeria proposes UN security council resolution demanding Israel halt offensive in Rafah
Algeria is circulating a proposed UN security council resolution that would demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and order Israel to halt its military offensive in the southern city of Rafah immediately, according to the Associated Press (AP).
The draft resolution, obtained on Tuesday evening by the AP, also demands that the ceasefire be respected by all parties. It also calls for the immediate release of all hostages taken during Hamas’s attack in southern Israel on 7 October.
Some diplomats said they hoped for a quick vote, even as early as Wednesday, the AP reports.
“It is our hope that it can be done as quickly as possible because life is in the balance,” Chinese ambassador Fu Cong told reporters.
US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said: “We’re waiting to see it and then we’ll react to it.” The US has vetoed multiple resolutions demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.
According to the AP, the draft demands compliance with previous security council resolutions that call for the opening of all border crossings and humanitarian access to Gaza’s 2.3 million people who desperately need food and other aid.
The AP reports that the proposed resolution says that “the catastrophic situation in the Gaza Strip constitutes a threat to regional and international peace and security.” It also expresses grave concern at “famine spreading throughout the Gaza Strip” and the suffering of Palestinians who took refuge in Rafah.
The resolution, the AP report, would demand that Israel “immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in Rafah”.
The draft condemns what it calls “the indiscriminate targeting of civilians, including women and children, and civilian infrastructure” and reiterates the council’s demand for all parties to comply with international law requiring the protection of civilians.
Algeria’s UN ambassador, Amar Bendjama, who is also the Arab representative on the security council, told reporters after emergency closed council consultations on Tuesday that he would be sending the draft resolution to the 15-member council later in the evening.
