Israel launched a fresh wave of air strikes in Gaza on Friday morning leaving the Middle East on tenterhooks over a looming ground invasion.
Missiles hit areas in the south of the territory where Palestinians had been told to seek refuge as the Israeli military said it had struck more than 100 targets linked to terror group Hamas.
The bombardment came nearly two weeks after Hamas terrorists launched an attack on Israel, killing around 1,400 people, the vast majority innocent civilians. More than 200 people were kidnapped from Israel and taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip. At least nine Britons have been killed and seven remain missing, Downing Street said.
Around 3,000 people in Gaza have died in subsequent retaliatory strikes by Israel’s military. Palestinians today reported bombing in the town of Khan Younis. Nasser, Gaza’s second largest hospital, was overflowing with patients and people seeking shelter.
Israel’s defence ministry announced the evacuation of Kiryat Shmona, a town of more than 20,000 residents near the Lebanese border. Many saw this as a sign that a potential ground invasion of Gaza, that could trigger more regional turmoil, was imminent.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian health ministry said this morning that 13 people were killed, including five children, after Israeli forces raided and carried out an air strike on a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank yesterday.
More than a million people have been displaced in Gaza, with many heeding Israel’s orders to evacuate the northern part of the sealed-off coastal enclave.
Hospitals in the territory remain overwhelmed with dwindling medical supplies, fuel, food and water. Doctors have reported performing surgery by the light of mobile phones and using vinegar to sterilise wounds. Today authorities were continuing to work out the logistics for getting an aid delivery from Egypt into the area. An agreement to open the Rafah crossing remained fragile.
Israel said the supplies could only go to civilians and that it would “thwart” any diversions by Hamas. More than 200 trucks and some 3,000 tonnes of aid are believed to be positioned at, or near Rafah, as work began on repairing road crossings damaged in air strikes.
The United Nations humanitarian office said this morning that it was in advanced talks with all parties. “We are in deep and advanced negotiations with all relevant sides to ensure that an aid operation into Gaza starts as quickly as possible and with the right conditions,” said UN spokesman Jens Laerke. “We are encouraged by reports that the different sides are nearing an agreement on the modalities, and that a first delivery is due to start in the next day or so.”
Violence in Gaza has also sparked protests across the Arab world, including in countries allied with the US and Britain. US president Joe Biden again pledged unwavering support for Israel’s security, while saying the world “can’t ignore the humanity of innocent Palestinians” in Gaza.
Rishi Sunak and the Emir of Qatar “agreed on the urgent need” to get humanitarian aid into Gaza as they met this morning, Downing Street said.
Following talks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a No 10 spokesman said: “The leaders agreed that the loss of civilian life following Hamas’s attacks was shocking and tragic. They underlined the imperative of avoiding any escalation in the violence across the region and agreed that leaders had a responsibility to do everything possible to prevent it.
“The Prime Minister thanked Qatar for their efforts to secure the release of hostages taken by Hamas two weeks ago, including British nationals.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said “much more” progress is needed in getting humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Asked what he thought the Prime Minister should be doing in relation to the crisis, he said: “I think any effort to ensure there isn’t any escalation is obviously welcome. I think there are two priorities, now urgent priorities.
“The first is Hamas must release the hostages that are being held in Gaza.
“And secondly, urgently, we need that humanitarian aid to get in.
Sir Keir also denied he ever backed Israel withholding humanitarian aid from Gaza. In an interview with LBC in the wake of Hamas launching a murderous assault on Israeli civilians, he had appeared to suggest that Israel has “the right” to withhold energy and water from Gaza.
Today he said that food, fuel, water and medicines must urgently be allowed to pass into the territory as he acknowledged his earlier remarks caused “distress”.
A number of his councillors, including at least two in London, have quit the party over what they perceived as “horrifying” comments that he was “endorsing a war crime”.
“I know that clip has been widely shared and caused real concern and distress in some Muslim communities, so let me be clear about what I was saying and what I wasn’t saying,” he said.
“I was saying that Israel has the right to self-defence, and when I said that right I meant it was that right to self-defence. I was not saying that Israel had the right to cut off water, food, fuel or medicines.”
