Closing summary
It is approaching 6pm 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:
The head of a UN inquiry accused the Israeli military of carrying out the “extermination” of Palestinians. In a meeting of the UN human rights council in Geneva, the head of a UN Commission of Inquiry, Navi Pillay, said the scale of Palestinian civilian losses amounted to “extermination”. Israel, which does not cooperate with the inquiry and alleges an anti-Israel bias, chose the mother of a hostage to speak on its behalf and criticised the report on the grounds that it did not give due attention to hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October.
In a report published on Wednesday, the United Nations human rights office (OHCHR) concluded that Israel’s use of heavy bombs in Gaza raised “serious concerns” under laws of war. The OHCHR provided details on six Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, which it said were emblematic of a concerning pattern, involving the suspected use of up to 2,000-pound bombs on residential buildings, a school, refugee camps and a market.
In its reports, the OHCHR also said that Israeli forces may have repeatedly violated fundamental principles of the laws of war and failed to distinguish between civilians and fighters in their Gaza Strip military campaign. “The requirement to select means and methods of warfare that avoid or at the very least minimise to every extent civilian harm appears to have been consistently violated in Israel’s bombing campaign,” said UN high commissioner for human rights Volker Türk.
Israel’s permanent mission to the UN in Geneva characterised the OHCHR analysis as “factually, legally, and methodologically flawed.” The Israeli diplomatic mission said: “Since the OHCHR has, at best, a partial factual picture, any attempt to reach legal conclusions is inherently flawed.”
Lebanon’s Hezbollah fired a fresh barrage of more than a dozen projectiles into northern Israel on Wednesday, the Israeli army said, a day after Israel warned of a “total war” with the Iran-backed militant group. “Approximately 15 projectiles were identified from Lebanon toward the area of Kiryat Shmona, several of which were intercepted by IDF (army) aerial defence array,” the military said in a statement.
Hezbollah said on Wednesday it fired “dozens of Katyusha rockets and artillery rounds” at a barracks in Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel in retaliation for the “Israeli enemy attacks” on Yarun and Khiam.
A bulk carrier sank in the Red Sea sank days after an attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels which was believed to have killed one mariner on board, authorities said early on Wednesday. The Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned-and-operated Tutor is the second ship sunk in the rebels’ campaign.
Europe has a duty to host children hurt and traumatised by war in Gaza for as long as the conflict continues, Greek foreign minister George Gerapetritis has said. Gerapetritis is seeking partners in what he hopes would be a project to temporarily bring the children to the EU, and said he discussed the idea with Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Mustafa this week.
Urgent action must be taken in the Red Sea to stop attacks on merchant shipping by Houthi rebels, leading industry groups said on Wednesday, after the sinking of a second ship. “It is deplorable that innocent seafarers are being attacked while simply performing their jobs, vital jobs which keep the world warm, fed, and clothed,” the world’s top shipping associations said in a joint statement.
Israeli airstrikes and clashes between troops and Palestinian militants in Gaza took place on Wednesday. Witnesses and the civil defence agency in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip reported Israeli bombardment in western Rafah, where medics said drone strikes and shelling killed at least seven people.
Israel sent a column of tanks into the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City and residents reported heavy fire from tanks and warplanes but also sounds of gun battles with Hamas-led fighters.
In another Gaza City suburb, Sheikh Radwan, an Israeli airstrike on a house killed four Palestinians, including a child, medics said.
The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said fighters battled Israeli forces with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs, and in some areas detonated pre-planted explosive devices against army units. Later on Wednesday, Palestinian gunmen fired rockets at the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Gaza, Reuters reported, citing the Israeli military.
Residents told Reuters that heavy shelling and gunfire by Israeli forces had hit the tents of displaced families in the Al-Mawasi area, on the southern coast of the Gaza Strip. They also said Israeli tanks had moved into five neighbourhoods after midnight. Medics and Hamas media said eight Palestinians were killed in Al-Mawasi and many families fled north in panic. They did not identify the fatalities and the Israeli military said it was looking into the report.
Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 37,396 Palestinians and injured 85,523 since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry said on Wednesday.
A Syrian army officer was killed on Wednesday in an Israeli airstrike in the country’s south, the Syrian state news agency Sana reported, citing a military source. “The Israeli enemy carried out an aggression using drones against two military positions of our armed forces in the provinces of Quneitra and Daraa,” it reported.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday claimed the US is withholding weapons and implied this was slowing Israel’s offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Netanyahu, in a short video, spoke directly to the camera in English as he lobbed sharp criticisms at US president Joe Biden over “bottlenecks” in arms transfers.
The US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that the only pause in delivering weapons to Israel was related to a delay of certain heavy bombs since May over concerns about Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza. “We, as you know, are continuing to review one shipment that president Biden has talked about with regard to 2,000-pound bombs because of our concerns about their use in a densely populated area like Rafah,” Blinken said during a state department news conference. “That remains under review. But everything else is moving as it normally would.”
The US news website Axios and Israeli media said that Washington had cancelled a high-level meeting with Israeli officials on Iran after Netanyahu’s comments about the US withholding weapons.
A series of Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday resulted in the deaths of at least 17 Palestinians in two of the Gaza Strip’s historic refugee camps, as tanks advanced further into the southern city of Rafah, according to reports from residents and medics.
Updated
Hezbollah fires more projectiles at Israel despite warning
Lebanon’s Hezbollah fired a fresh barrage of more than a dozen projectiles into northern Israel on Wednesday, the Israeli army said, a day after Israel warned of a “total war” with the Iran-backed militant group, reports Agence France-Presse (AP).
“Approximately 15 projectiles were identified from Lebanon toward the area of Kiryat Shmona, several of which were intercepted by IDF (army) aerial defence array,” the military said in a statement.
“IDF artillery struck the sources of fire,” it said, adding the incoming fire did not cause any casualties.
According to AFP, the military said its warplanes also struck a Hezbollah military structure in the area of Tyre and infrastructure in Khiam in Lebanon.
Hezbollah said on Wednesday it fired “dozens of Katyusha rockets and artillery rounds” at a barracks in Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel in retaliation for the “Israeli enemy attacks” on Yarun and Khiam.
Wednesday’s clash came a day after the Israeli military said it had approved operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon.
“As part of the situational assessment, operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon were approved and validated,” the military said in a statement.
US presidential envoy Amos Hochstein visited Israel and Lebanon this week, calling for an “urgent” de-escalation on the border.
The Israel-Lebanon clashes have killed at least 473 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters but also including 92 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
Israeli authorities say at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed in the country’s north, reports AFP.
Updated
