Photograph: Ebrahim Hajjaj/Reuters
Closing summary
It is coming up to 6pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. This blog will be closing shortly but you can find all the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here.
Here is a summary of the developments on today’s blog:
Israel’s defence minister has said the military would tighten its encirclement of Gaza City, issuing a final warning for residents there to flee south. Israel Katz said in a statement, shared with Israeli media on Wednesday, that “those who remain … will be considered terrorists and terrorist supporters”.
Katz’s comments came as the Israeli military said it would close the last remaining route for residents of southern Gaza to access the north on Wednesday. The military’s Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on X: “Al-Rashid Street will be closed to traffic from the southern sector area at 12:00 (0900 GMT). Movement southward will be allowed for those who were unable to evacuate Gaza City. At this stage, the [Israeli military] permits free movement southward without inspection.”
Israel pressed its offensive in Gaza on Wednesday, with at least 16 Palestinians reported killed across the strip as the world awaited Hamas’s response to US President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan. Hamas has said it would study the plan, both within the group and with other Palestinian factions, before responding.
A Palestinian source close to the group’s leadership told Agence France-Press (AFP) on Wednesday that Hamas officials want amendments to clauses in Trump’s Gaza plan including on disarmament. Hamas negotiators held discussions on Tuesday with Turkish, Egyptian and Qatari officials in Doha, the source said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters and adding that the group needed “two or three days at most” to respond.
The 16 dead in Gaza included people who had sought refuge in a school sheltering the displaced in Gaza City. Al-Falah school in the city’s eastern Zeitoun neighbourhood was hit twice, minutes apart, according to officials at al-Ahli hospital. Among the casualties were first responders, they said. Five Palestinians were killed later on Wednesday morning, when a strike hit people gathered around a drinking water tank on the western side of Gaza City, the same hospital said.
Also in Gaza City, the al-Shifa hospital said it received the body of a man killed in a strike on his apartment west of the city. Israeli strikes also hit the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing a husband and wife, the al-Awda hospital said. Another man was killed in a separate strike in the Bureij refugee camp, according to the same hospital.
A funeral was held on Wednesday for Yahya Barzaq, a Palestinian journalist working for Turkish broadcast outlet TRT who was killed in a strike in Gaza on Tuesday, according to the broadcaster. The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request by the Associated Press (AP) for comment on the killed journalist or Wednesday’s strikes.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that the “intensification of military operations in Gaza City” had forced the humanitarian organisation to temporarily suspend operations at its Gaza City office and relocate its staff to ICRC offices in southern Gaza “to ensure staff safety and operational continuity”. While first responders, including the Palestine Red Crescent Society and civil defence, had been working “relentlessly to provide relief”, the ICRC said their movement and ability to safely reach the civilian population had been “severely constrained”.
A pro-Palestinian flotilla heading to Gaza has said it has been approached and harassed by Israeli naval boats that cut one of its lead vessels’ communication systems as Italy and Greece reiterated calls for Israel to guarantee the safety of those onboard. The Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), carrying about 500 people including the climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau, said it had an encounter with Israeli navy vessels that circled the fleet’s “lead boat for around six minutes” while remotely disabling its communication systems.
The Australian government has said it is “deeply concerned” about the safety of its citizens on board the Gaza aid flotilla. Government officials have made representations to the Israeli government, over concerns Australians will be detained or arrested by the Israel Defense Forces.
The Prince of Wales has condemned the killing of aid workers in regions such as Gaza as a “cruel affront” to humanitarian principles. Speaking at the launch on Wednesday of the first, global memorial for humanitarian workers in west London, William paid tribute to their “courage and sacrifice” and honoured those who had died. The prince addressed guests including staff from aid organisations such as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and the Mines Advisory Group, as well as bereaved families and survivors of attacks.
On Wednesday, Egypt’s foreign minister Bader Abdelatty said Trump’s proposal for ending the nearly two-year war in Gaza requires more negotiations on certain elements, echoing remarks made by Qatar a day earlier. The comments by Qatar and Egypt, two key mediators, appeared to reflect Arab countries’ discontent over the text of the 20-point plan.
As Gaza’s humanitarian crisis grows, some women say they are being exploited by local men promising food, money, or other aid in exchange for sexual interactions, reports the Associated Press (AP). Six women have detailed their experiences to the news agency, each speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from their families or the men. The women said some of the men were associated with aid groups or approached them during aid registration.
The Israeli army said sirens sounded in communities near the Gaza Strip on Wednesday afternoon, after “two projectiles” crossed from there into Israel. No injuries were reported, it added.
Iranian authorities on Wednesday approved a bill toughening penalties for those convicted of spying on behalf of Israel and the US, months after the 12-day war between the foes. Iran’s president must sign off on the bill before it goes into effect. It comes after dozens of people were captured by authorities on suspicion of spying for Israel and the US in the aftermath of the war.
The US will regard “any armed attack” on Qatari territory as a threat to Washington and will provide the Gulf Arab state with security guarantees, the White House said, after an Israeli strike on the country last month. The agreement comes after an Israeli strike on the key US regional ally on 9 September, targeting officials from Hamas who were discussing a US peace proposal for the war in Gaza.
The Trump administration has filed a first-of-its-kind civil rights lawsuit against pro-Palestinian groups and activists, accusing the advocates of violating a law that has traditionally been used to protect reproductive health clinics from anti-abortion harassment and violence. The lawsuit, filed on Monday by the justice department’s civil rights division, alleges that two advocacy groups and six people broke the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (Face) Act when they protested against an event at a West Orange, New Jersey, synagogue in November 2024.
A mass protest against the ban on Palestine Action on Saturday in London could set a record for the number of people arrested at a single event of civil disobedience, organisers have said. Defend Our Juries said it had received 1,500 pledges to attend the demonstration in London and risk arrest and was expecting hundreds more to register by the weekend.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels early on Wednesday claimed the attack that left a Dutch-flagged cargo ship ablaze and adrift in the Gulf of Aden. The attack on Monday on the Minervagracht was the most serious assault in months by the Houthis in the Gulf of Aden.
Dozens of people attended a funeral service for a Palestinian freelance journalist, Yahya Barzaq, on Wednesday at the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah.
He was killed Tuesday along five other people in an airstrike while working for Turkish broadcast outlet TRT in Deir al Balah.
Updated
