Closing summary
Israel has published plans for one of its proposed new settlements in the occupied West Bank, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Wednesday, upping the ante a day before planned new Gaza peace talks seen as vital to preventing a regional war. The far-right minister said the move was a response to actions by the Palestinian West Bank leadership and countries which have recognised a Palestinian state, Reuters reported.
The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas said on Wednesday it would not take part in a new round of Gaza ceasefire talks slated for Thursday in Qatar, dimming hopes for a negotiated truce that Iranian sources say could hold back an Iranian attack on Israel. The US has said it expects indirect talks to go ahead as planned in Qatar’s capital Doha on Thursday, and that a ceasefire agreement was still possible, Reuters reported. However, Axios reported that US secretary of state Antony Blinken has postponed a trip to the Middle East that had been expected to begin on Tuesday.
Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 39,965 Palestinians and wounded 92,294 since 7 October the Palestinian health ministry said on Wednesday. A total of 36 Palestinians have been killed and 54 wounded in the past 24 hours, the ministry said in a statement.
US envoy Amos Hochstein said on Wednesday that he believes a war between Israel and Lebanon’s powerful militant group Hezbollah can be avoided. When asked at a news conference after meeting Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a strong Hezbollah ally, whether Israel and Hezbollah could avoid a war, Hochstein replied: “I hope so, I believe so.”
Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Wednesday killed at least 17 people, including five children and their parents, Palestinian health officials say. The latest strikes came on the eve of new talks aimed at reaching a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the 10-month-long war. One strike hit a family home late on Tuesday in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, which dates back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.
United States president Joe Biden said achieving a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was “getting hard” but he expressed his resolve at securing an end to the hostilities. Leaders in the US, Egypt and Qatar had hoped ceasefire talks, to reach a deal between Israel and Hamas to pause the conflict in Gaza and see Israeli hostages returned to their families and Palestinian civilians returned to their homes, would begin in Doha or Cairo on Thursday.
The US has approved the sale of $20bn in fighter jets and other military equipment to Israel, as the Pentagon says it is “committed to the security of Israel”. Secretary of state Antony Blinken approved the sale of F-15 jets and equipment worth nearly $19bn along with tank cartridges valued at $774m, explosive mortar cartridges valued at over $60m and army vehicles worth $583m, the Pentagon said in a statement.
Scotland’s first minister has said a meeting between a senior figure in his government and Israel’s deputy ambassador was “necessary”. After criticism from the Scottish Greens that discussions between Scottish external affairs Secretary Angus Robertson and Daniela Grudsky were “shameful”, John Swinney said the talks gave his Government the chance to press the need for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza.
Three-month-old baby Reem Abu Hayyah is the only member of her family to survive an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip late on Monday. A few miles to the north, Mohamed Abuel-Qomasan lost his wife and their twin babies - just four days old - in another strike.
A former hostage whose husband is still captive in Gaza said she does not expect to see him again unless Israel agrees a ceasefire deal. Aviva Siegel was freed after 51 days in captivity, under a week-long agreement last November. Her fears for her husband, Keith Siegel, were sharpened by her own ordeal of hunger, deprivation, violence, isolation and psychological torture, she said.
The US military said on Tuesday it destroyed two Houthi vessels in the Red Sea.
In Australia, Peter Dutton has escalated the Coalition’s rhetoric against Palestinians fleeing the Gaza war zone, claiming that none should be allowed to Australia “at the moment” due to an unspecified “national security risk”. The comments from the opposition leader on Wednesday contradict the assessment by the Asio spy chief, Mike Burgess, that rhetorical support for Hamas should not be an automatic bar to Palestinians receiving visas.
Iran has rejected western calls not to retaliate against Israel for the killing in Tehran of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, late last month. “Such demands lack political logic, are entirely contrary to the principles and rules of international law, and represent an excessive request,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanani, said.
Only a ceasefire deal in Gaza stemming from hoped-for talks this week would hold Iran back from direct retaliation against Israel for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on its soil, three senior Iranian officials have told Reuters. A ceasefire in Gaza would give Iran cover for a smaller “symbolic” response, one of the sources said.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s ultranationalist national security minister, defied longstanding rules to lead hundreds of Israelis in singing Jewish hymns and performing religious rituals on the raised compound in Jerusalem’s Old City known as al-Haram al-Sharif to Muslims. Under a longstanding but fragile arrangement, Jews can visit the site but not pray there.
That’s all from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the Israel-Gaza live blog. Thanks for following along.
Scotland’s first minister has said a meeting between a senior figure in his government and Israel’s deputy ambassador was “necessary”.
After criticism from the Scottish Greens that discussions between Scottish external affairs Secretary Angus Robertson and Daniela Grudsky were “shameful”, John Swinney said the talks gave his Government the chance to press the need for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza.
The SNP leader intervened after Green MSP Ross Greer accused his government of adopting a “two-faced approach”. Greer said of the SNP: “They publicly condemn Israel’s war crimes whilst holding secret meetings with its representatives to discuss so-called ‘mutual interests’.”
Swinney said Robertson had pressed Grudsky on “the killing and suffering of innocent civilians”.
In a series of posts on social media site X, he said: “As first minister and SNP leader, I will never hold back in expressing support for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages, an end to UK arms being sent to Israel, and the recognition of a sovereign Palestinian state within a two-state solution.”
Grudsky has claimed the meeting took place to discuss the “unique commonalities” between Scotland and Israel. She said she had “emphasised the urgent need to bring back” Israelis taken hostage by Hamas.
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