Summary of the day …
It is approaching 7pm in Beirut, Tel Aviv and Gaza City. Here are the headlines …
The US wants “real and extended pauses” in fighting in Gaza so assistance can get to people who need it, but the best way to help people would be to end the war, US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Wednesday.
Donald Trump has chosen the former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee as the next US ambassador to Israel. Huckabee has a track record of hardline, pro-Israel rhetoric and has previously said Israel has a rightful claim to the West Bank Palestinian territory which it has occupied since 1967
The Biden administration had said on Tuesday that Israel has made some good but limited progress in increasing the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza and will not limit arms transfers to Israel as it had threatened to a month ago
Israeli military strikes killed at least 22 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, and the health ministry in Lebanon said a further 78 people had been killed there in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of people killed by Israel’s military campaign to 3,365
Israel’s plan to ban the UN Palestinian relief agency, Unrwa, within three months is impossible and unrealistic without causing further untold suffering to the Palestinian people, its director of operations in Gaza has warned
The mother of Sasha Troufanov, who was taken hostage during Hamas’s 7 October attack into Israel, has called for his immediate release after the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group released a new video showing him speaking, likely under duress
A man who worked for the US government has been charged with leaking classified information assessing Israel’s earlier plans to attack Iran
An Israeli court has extended the detention of Eli Feldstein, one of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aides, by a further day. Feldstein has been accused of selectively leaking intelligence reports to foreign media in a way that supported Netanyahu’s position on any potential ceasefire or hostage deal with Hamas
UK prime minister Keir Starmer resisted pressure from an independent MP in parliament to describe the war in Gaza as “genocide”
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said that his country has cut off all ties with Israel, and urged incoming US president Trump to “take very different steps towards the region”
Reuters reports that Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has arrived in Iran.
Iran’s state news agency IRNA carried a video showing Grossi meeting the spokesperson for Tehran’s state atomic energy agency, Behrouz Kamalvandi, shortly after his arrival.
Iran’s nuclear programme has remained contentious, with the Islamic Republic insisting it is only a peaceful programme for power generation, while many in the international community, particularly the US and Israel, view it as an attempt to obtain nuclear weapons technology.
Tehran is now believed to be enriching uranium to up to 60% fissile purity, close to the roughly 90% required for a nuclear bomb.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that Israeli security forces have detained its journalist Israa Gorani and a television crew in Tubas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The agency reported that the journalist was returning from covering the Israeli demolition of a house in the village of Kardala.
Israel’s military has reported that a drone which infiltrated Israel from the direction of Lebanon has fallen in an open area in Upper Galilee. It said “The event has concluded, no reports regarding injuries have been received.”
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the newswires from Gaza.
An Israeli court has extended the detention of Eli Feldstein, one of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aides, by a further day. Feldstein has been accused of selectively leaking intelligence reports to foreign media in a way that supported Netanyahu’s position on any potential ceasefire or hostage deal with Hamas. A gag order is in place in Israel preventing the reporting of some aspects of the case.
At least 3,365 killed by Israeli strikes on Lebanon – health ministry
Lebanon’s health ministry has issued updated casualty figures, stating that in the last 24 hours 78 people have been killed and 122 wounded by Israeli airstrikes in the country.
It takes the total number killed since Israel stepped up its military campaign to 3,365 according to the official figures, with 14,344 wounded.
Earlier Gaza’s Hamas-led health ministry claimed that at least 43,712 Palestinians have been killed and 103,258 injured in Israel’s offensive on Gaza since 7 October 2023.
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Israel’s military has reported further rocket launches from Lebanon, aimed at central Israel.
In a message on the Telegram app, it said “approximately five projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory. Some of the projectiles were intercepted by the IAF, fallen projectiles were identified.”
There were no immediate reports of any casualties.
My colleague Richard Luscombe has this report on a US intelligence official being charged with espionage relating to Israel:
A US intelligence official has been charged with espionage offenses following an investigation into the leak last month of highly classified documents detailing Israel’s plans for military attacks on Iran.
Asif W Rahman, who works for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), will appear in court in Guam on Thursday charged with two counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.
The newspaper said FBI agents arrested Rahman in Cambodia on Tuesday following his indictment last week in federal court in Virginia.
In October, the White House said it was “deeply concerned” by the unauthorized release of the papers, attributed to the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and National Security Agency, which were published on the Telegram messaging app.
Read more here: US intelligence official charged after Israel’s plan to attack Iran leaked
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that one Palestinian man has been wounded by Israeli security forces during a raid in Beit Furik, east of Nablus, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Defense minister Katz: Israel 'will not take our foot off the pedal' in Lebanon
Israel’s recently appointed defense minister, making his first visit to the IDF Northern Command since taking up the role, has said Israel “will not make any cease-fires, we will not take our foot off the pedal” in its battle with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Reuters quotes Israel Katz, who replaced Yoav Gallant last week, saying:
We will not make any cease-fires, we will not take our foot off the pedal, and we will not allow any arrangement that does not include the achievement of the war’s objectives - and above all Israel’s right to enforce and act on its own against any terrorist activity. Terrorist infrastructure is collapsing in Beirut - we will continue to hurt Hezbollah everywhere.
Al Jazeera reports that Hezbollah has claimed two attacks on an Israeli military base in the north of the country.
Reuters reports that about 100 students in Turin have staged a protest at the headquarters of Italian defence group Leonardo.
The students, who unfurled a Palestinian flag on the roof of the offices, said the company was supporting Israel by providing remote technical assistance and spare parts to Israel’s air force.
Images released by the students show them in Leonardo’s offices waving Palestinian flags and carrying spray cans. Outside they hung banners on the buildings saying “no arms to Israel” and accusing the group of complicity in genocide.
Italian defence minister Guido Crosetto condemned the protest, saying “These people must be treated for what they are, dangerous subversives. Criminals have no political colour, they are just criminals.”
Israel’s military, posting on its official Telegram channel, states that as of 4.30pm local time (2.30pm GMT) “approximately 40 projectiles” have been fired at Israel from inside Lebanon today.
Summary of the day so far
It is approaching 5pm in Gaza City, Tel Aviv and Beirut. Here is a summary of the key developments so far today:
The US wants “real and extended pauses” in fighting in Gaza so assistance can get to people who need it, but the best way to help people would be to end the war, US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Wednesday. “Israel, by the standards it set itself, has accomplished the goals that it set for itself,” Blinken told reporters during a visit to Brussels. Blinken added: “This should be a time to end the war.”
Senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, said Blinken’s comments showed: “We are facing one enemy and that the US enmity against the Palestinian people is no less than that of the occupation.”
On Tuesday, after the expiry of a 30-day US deadline for Israel to take steps to address the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Washington said Israel was not blocking aid to Gaza and therefore not violating US law. However, eight international aid groups said Israel had failed to meet the US demands to improve access for assistance.
The Biden administration said on Tuesday that Israel has made some good but limited progress in increasing the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza and will not limit arms transfers to Israel as it had threatened to a month ago if the situation had not improved. Relief groups say conditions are worse than at any point in the 13-month-old war.
Donald Trump has chosen the former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee as the next US ambassador to Israel. Huckabee has a track record of hardline, occasionally provocative, pro-Israel rhetoric and previously said Israel has a rightful claim to the West Bank, which he refers to by its Hebrew and biblical name of Judea and Samaria. Posting on his Truth Social network, Trump predicted Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, would “work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East”.
Israeli military strikes killed at least 22 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, as Israeli forces deepened their incursion into Beit Hanoun town in the north. Residents said Israeli forces besieged shelters housing displaced families and the remaining population, which some estimated at a few thousand, ordering them to head south through a checkpoint separating two towns and a refugee camp in the north from Gaza City.
Lebanese state media reported on Wednesday a third wave of Israeli raids on Hezbollah’s south Beirut bastion in 24 hours, after the health ministry said another strike south of the capital killed six people. Earlier on Wednesday, an Israeli strike on Aramoun, south of Beirut, killed six people, Lebanon’s health ministry said giving a preliminary toll for the attack on the densely packed area which is located outside Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds. The Israeli army on Wednesday told residents of parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs to leave, the third such warning in 24 hours/
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he hopes US president-elect Donald Trump would take a different approach on the Middle East during his term, but that some of the messages coming from his side were concerning, broadcaster NTV reported on Wednesday. “It seems too early to me to make observations about this,” Erdoğan told reporters on a return flight from Baku, Azerbaijan. “Our hope is that Trump takes very different steps toward the region this term because the messages being given from time to time concern us,” he was cited as saying. Asked about Turkey’s decision to halt all trade with Israel in May, Erdoğan said Ankara had no trade ties with Israel at the moment and no desire to develop them
Israel’s plan to close the UN Palestinian relief agency, Unrwa, within three months is impossible and unrealistic without causing further untold suffering to the Palestinian people, its director of operations in Gaza has warned. Just returned from Gaza, where he said he had seen levels of suffering unprecedented since the war started, Sam Rose warned that Unrwa could collapse, with severe implications for schools and hospitals not just in Gaza but in the West Bank if Israel went ahead with its plan.
The mother of Sasha Troufanov, who was taken hostage during Hamas’s 7 October attack into Israel, has called for his immediate release after the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group released a new video showing him speaking, likely under duress. “I am relieved to see my son alive, but I am very worried to hear what he is saying,” said Lena Trufanov, in comments reported by the Times of Israel. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said, in response to the video: “The hostages have no time left – a deal for their release is the only way to bring them all back to us.”
Palestinian medics say an Israeli strike on a home in northern Gaza killed three siblings that were six years old or younger. They were among at least six people killed in Israeli strikes on Tuesday in the territory. The Gaza health ministry’s emergency service said the three children were killed in a strike on a home near a clinic in the Jabaliya refugee camp, where Israel has been waging an offensive for over a month. In the central city of Deir al-Balah, a strike hit a tent in the western side of the city, killing at least two people, including a 15-year-old boy, al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said. Another strike on a tent in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp killed a man, the hospital said. An AP journalist counted the three bodies at the hospital.
A man who worked for the US government has been charged with leaking classified information assessing Israel’s earlier plans to attack Iran, according to court papers filed on Wednesday. The man, identified as Asif William Rahman, was arrested by the FBI this week in Cambodia and was to due to make his first court appearance in Guam. The charges stem from the documents, attributed to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, appearing last month on a channel of the Telegram messaging app.
Iran’s top diplomat has said that communication channels with the US were still open, a week after Donald Trump was elected president. “The communication channels between us and the Americans still exist,” Abbas Araghchi said on the sidelines of a weekly cabinet meeting.
At least 43,712 Palestinians have been killed and 103,258 injured in Israel’s offensive on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said on Wednesday. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
Russia has asked Israel to avoid launching aerial strikes as part of its war against Hezbollah near one of Moscow’s bases in Syria, a top official said on Wednesday.
The US military said on Tuesday it had conducted strikes against an Iranian-backed militia group’s weapons storage facility in Syria. “These strikes were in response to a rocket attack on US personnel at Patrol Base Shaddadi. There was no damage to US facilities and no injuries to US or partner forces during the attack,” the US military said in a statement.
The Israeli military said its forces had killed hundreds of Hamas militants in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun during its new military offensive, which began more than a month ago. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad armed wing claimed killing several Israeli soldiers during ambushes and anti-tank rocket fire.
The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, resisted pressure from an independent MP during prime minister’s questions (PMQs) to describe the war in Gaza as “genocide”. When asked for his definition of the word, Starmer told the House of Commons he was “well aware of the definition of genocide, and that is why I have never described this as, and referred to it as, genocide”.
The Israeli military earlier issued a statement on social media saying it would act soon against targets in Beirut’s southern suburbs, which residents have largely evacuated. Israeli military had released an evacuation order on Wednesday warning residents they were located near Hezbollah facilities.
Israel has conducted many of its airstrikes on Dahiyeh at night-time, but on Tuesday and Wednesday carried out multiple strikes starting in the mid-morning. The airstrikes flattened around a dozen buildings in Dahiyeh on Tuesday, reports Reuters.
On Monday, Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Saar, said there had been “a certain progress” in ceasefire talks over Lebanon, though the main challenge would be enforcement.
Israel’s new defence minister, Israel Katz, said on Monday there would be no ceasefire in Lebanon until Israel achieves its goals there, including disarming Hezbollah and returning evacuated Israelis to their homes in northern Israel.
Egyptian foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty, speaking during a visit to Beirut, said Cairo was in near daily contact with western and Arab states as well as Russia and China.
“The main goal is the immediate cessation of this aggression and how to intensify pressure and all forms of influence on the Israeli government to stop its aggression,” he said.
Updated
The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, resisted pressure from an independent MP during prime minister’s questions (PMQs) to describe the war in Gaza as “genocide”, reports the PA news agency.
When asked for his definition of the word, Starmer told the House of Commons he was “well aware of the definition of genocide, and that is why I have never described this as, and referred to it as, genocide”.
His comments came in response to a question from Ayoub Khan, who argued that “genocide is not about numbers, it’s about intent”.
Khan, MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, said:
Article two of the United Nations genocide convention makes it explicitly clear that genocide is not about numbers, it’s about intent.
And the intent of the Israeli government and the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) has been explicitly clear in words and in actions over the past 400 days, more than 45,000 innocent men, women and children killed.
On 28 October, the foreign secretary denied that a genocide is even taking place and suggested that the Israeli army had not yet killed enough Palestinians to constitute a genocide. And last week at PMQs, the prime minister started that he has never referred to the atrocities happening in Gaza as a genocide. Will the prime minister share his definition of genocide with this House?
And will he state what further action he’s prepared to take to save the lives of desperate and starving men, women and children? Given that we now hold presidency of the UN security council.”
The prime minister replied:
It would be wise to start a question like that by reference to what happened in October of last year.
I’m well aware of the definition of genocide, and that is why I have never described this as, and referred to it as, genocide.”
The Associated Press (AP) has some more details on the news that Asif William Rahman has been charged with leaking classified information assessing Israel’s earlier plans to attack Iran (1.39pm GMT).
Rahman was indicted last week in a US court in Virginia on two counts of willful transmission of national defence information – felony charges that can can carry significant prison sentences.
It was not immediately clear whether Rahman had a lawyer or which federal agency employed him, but officials say he had top secret security clearance, reports the AP.
According to the AP, the charges stem from the documents, attributed to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, appearing last month on a channel of the Telegram messaging app. The documents noted that Israel was still moving military assets in place to conduct a military strike in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack on 1 October.
Israel carried out a retaliatory attack on multiple sites in Iran in late October.
The documents were sharable within the “Five Eyes,” which are the US, the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
US government employee charged in leak of classified documents assessing Israel's earlier plans to attack Iran
A man who worked for the US government has been charged with leaking classified information assessing Israel’s earlier plans to attack Iran, according to court papers filed on Wednesday, reports the Associated Press (AP).
The man, identified as Asif William Rahman, was arrested by the FBI this week in Cambodia and was to due to make his first court appearance in Guam.
It was not immediately clear whether he had a lawyer or which federal agency employed him, reports Reuters. The New York Times was first to report his arrest.
Updated
The Israeli military said its forces had killed hundreds of Hamas militants in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun during its new military offensive, which began more than a month ago, reports Reuters.
Hamas and the Islamic Jihad armed wing claimed killing several Israeli soldiers during ambushes and anti-tank rocket fire.
Efforts by Arab mediators, Qatar and Egypt, backed by the US, have so far failed to end the war in Gaza, with Hamas and Israel trading the blame for the lack of progress.
Speaking on Wednesday, US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said Israel “has accomplished the goals that it set for itself” by taking out Hamas’s leadership and ensuring the group is unable to launch another massive attack.
“This should be a time to end the war,” he said, adding:
We also need to make sure we have a plan for what follows, so that if Israel decides to end the war and we find a way to get the hostages out, we also have a clear plan so that Israel can get out of Gaza and we make sure that Hamas is not going back in.”
Senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, said Blinken’s comments showed:
We are facing one enemy and that the US enmity against the Palestinian people is no less than that of the occupation.”
The Associated Press (AP) is reporting that a US government employee has been charged in a leak of classified documents assessing Israel’s earlier plans to attack Iran.
More details to follow …
Updated
Israeli forces kill 22 people in Gaza, as Palestinians face new displacement in the north
Israeli military strikes killed at least 22 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, as Israeli forces deepened their incursion into Beit Hanoun town in the north, forcing most remaining residents to leave, reports Reuters.
Residents said Israeli forces besieged shelters housing displaced families and the remaining population, which some estimated at a few thousand, ordering them to head south through a checkpoint separating two towns and a refugee camp in the north from Gaza City.
Men were held for questioning, while women and children were allowed to continue towards Gaza City, residents and Palestinian medics said, according to Reuters.
Israel’s campaign in the north of Gaza, and the evacuation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the area, has fueled claims from Palestinians that it is clearing the area for use as a buffer zone and potentially for a return of Jewish settlers.
The Israeli military has denied any such intention, and prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he does not want to reverse the 2005 withdrawal of settlers from Gaza. Hardliners in his government have talked openly about going back, reports Reuters.
“The scenes of the 1948 catastrophe are being repeated. Israel is repeating its massacres, displacement and destruction,” Saed, 48, a resident of Beit Lahiya, who arrived in Gaza City on Wednesday.
“North Gaza is being turned into a large buffer zone, Israel is carrying out ethnic cleansing under the sight and hearing of the impotent world,” he told Reuters via a chat app.
Updated
Lebanese state media reported on Wednesday a third wave of Israeli raids on Hezbollah’s south Beirut bastion in 24 hours, after the health ministry said another strike south of the capital killed six people, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“Enemy aircraft targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs”, the official National News Agency (NNA) said, reporting six strikes.
AFPTV footage showed plumes of black smoke rising over the area after the strikes, about an hour after Israel’s army issued evacuation warnings.
People hastily drove away from the area after the evacuation calls, with residents firing gunshots in the air to warn civilians to flee, an AFP photographer said.
Earlier on Wednesday, an Israeli strike on Aramoun, south of Beirut, killed six people, Lebanon’s health ministry said giving a preliminary toll for the attack on the densely packed area which is located outside Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds. The NNA said the strike targeted a residential apartment at dawn.
An AFP photographer said they saw rescuers pulling bodies out of the rubble in Aramoun, where the four-storey building had partly collapsed.
Patrick Wintour is the Guardian’s diplomatic editor. He writes:
Israel’s plan to close the UN Palestinian relief agency, Unrwa, within three months is impossible and unrealistic without causing further untold suffering to the Palestinian people, its director of operations in Gaza has warned.
Just returned from Gaza, where he said he had seen levels of suffering unprecedented since the war started, Sam Rose warned that Unrwa could collapse, with severe implications for schools and hospitals not just in Gaza but in the West Bank if Israel went ahead with its plan.
He was speaking the day after the US government stepped back from taking any action against Israel for failing to meet most of its demands to improve the supply of humanitarian aid to Gaza. The Biden administration said the humanitarian aid operation into Gaza was “not pristine” but Israel was taking steps to meet the US demands, set out in a letter, including opening new crossings.
Mother of hostage Sasha Troufanov calls for his immediate release after new video released
The mother of Sasha Troufanov, who was taken hostage during Hamas’s October 7 attack into Israel, has called for his immediate release after the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group released a new video showing him speaking, likely under duress.
“I am relieved to see my son alive, but I am very worried to hear what he is saying,” said Lena Trufanov, in comments reported by the Times of Israel. Lena Trufanov was also taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, but was released last November.
“I urge that every effort be made to secure his immediate release and that of all other hostages. They have no time left,” she added.
The Hostages Families Forum said the “horrific” video show an urgent need for a deal to return the remaining 101 hostages. “With winter approaching, these hostages, who have been subjected to horrific conditions of abuse, starvation, and darkness for over a year, face an increasing risk of losing their lives,” the forum says.
Iran’s top diplomat has said that communication channels with the United States were still open, a week after Donald Trump was elected president.
“The communication channels between us and the Americans still exist,” Abbas Araghchi said on the sidelines of a weekly cabinet meeting, in comments reported by AFP.
“We have differences with the Americans, which are sometimes very fundamental and central and may not be resolved, but we must manage them to reduce their costs and decrease the tensions,” he added.
Araghchi, the minister for foreign affairs, said last month there was no ground for indirect nuclear talks with the United States.
Iran, subject to biting international sanctions, reached a deal with major powers including the United States in 2015 to limit its nuclear programme in exchange for a gradual lifting of sanctions. But the pact was torpedoed three years later under Trump whose administration withdrew from it and reimposed sanctions.
Why is only limited aid getting to Palestinians inside Gaza?
The Associated Press has a useful guide to the current situation relating to Gaza, aid, Israel and the US.
Background
The White House gave Israel 30 days to improve conditions or risk losing military support a month ago. Now the deadline has expired, leading international aid groups have said Israel has fallen far short, with the humanitarian situation in Gaza the worst it has been since the war erupted.
However, the US has said Israel has made limited progress and that it will not take punitive action.
After 13 months of war, aid groups accuse the Israeli military of hindering and even blocking shipments in Gaza. Almost the entire population of around 2.3 million Palestinians is relying on international aid for survival, and food security experts and rights groups caution that famine may already be under way.
Israel, which controls all crossings into Gaza, says it is committed to delivering humanitarian assistance. It says the UN and international aid groups need to do a better job of distributing supplies.
Where do aid levels stand?
Aid into Gaza is typically measured in terms of truckloads of food and supplies entering the territory. The US has demanded 350 trucks daily.
Israeli government figures show roughly 57 trucks a day entering on average in October and 75 a day in November. The UN counts trucks differently and says it has only received 39 trucks daily since the beginning of October.
In northern Gaza, where the Israeli military has been carrying out a major offensive over the past month, the figures were even lower. No aid entered the northernmost areas of Gaza – Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun – in October, the UN says.
Israel says it closed all the Gaza crossings for the Jewish high holidays in October and couldn’t send aid to the north because of the offensive against Hamas fighters.
Over the last two days, the military body handling aid deliveries to Gaza — Cogat — says it has allowed aid trucks to enter the hardest-hit northern areas. But only three of the trucks have made it to their destination successfully, according to the World Food Program.
Denial of passage and entry
Aid groups accuse the Israeli army of blocking aid trucks from reaching areas where the fighting is most intense, including northern Gaza, where hunger is most acute.
“There can be aid sitting at the border ready to come in. But if we are not provided a safe passage to go and collect it, it’s not possible for us to have it. And it will not reach the people who need it,” said Louise Wateridge, a spokesperson for Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Unrwa has been the main agency procuring and distributing aid in Gaza, and a feud between Israel and the agency, led Israel to take steps toward banning it last month. Israel says Hamas has infiltrated Unrwa - a charge the agency denies.
During October, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that Israeli authorities rejected roughly 43% of all humanitarian movement requests, and impeded a further 16%.
Israeli authorities have also prohibited some vehicles and goods from entering the enclave, aid groups say, often without explanation. Rachel Morris, of the aid group Mercy Corps, said trucks carrying the group’s tent supplies have been turned away more than five times. Israel says it denies entry to supplies that could be weaponised by Hamas.
Under intense international pressure, Israel has since taken measures to up aid delivery, with COGAT saying it was allowing trucks into the hard-hit north. On Tuesday, it said it had opened a fifth border crossing to increase the flow of aid.
But aid groups say access is still an issue.
Lawlessness along aid routes
Also stymying distribution is theft and criminality along aid routes. Israel accuses Unrwa of failing to pick up hundreds of trucks worth of supplies piling up at the territory’s main southern aid crossing. It says the aid has been waiting there for months.
But the military and aid agencies both acknowledge that aid deliveries are treacherous, because family-based crime groups are robbing the trucks. An Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, estimated that 30% to 40% of aid supplies are stolen by members of criminal families.
Cogat spokesperson Shani Sasson said that the Israeli army has tried to secure part of the route and find alternate routes for drivers, but can’t accompany each aid truck and the criminal groups are always moving.
Many aid groups that use the crossing now say it’s too dangerous for their staff to collect aid. Baidoun, with MAP, said that drivers sometimes have to pay fees to move their aid from the crossing into Gaza.
He said that the Israeli military was “failing to provide an enabling environment to bring in sufficient humanitarian goods to Gaza.”
Aid groups also say their warehouses and workers have come under attack from Israeli forces. OCHA says that at least 326 aid workers have been killed since the start of the war. It’s not clear how many have been killed while working.
At least 43,712 Palestinians killed in Israeli offensive since 7 Oct 2023, says health ministry
At least 43,712 Palestinians have been killed and 103,258 injured in Israel’s offensive on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said on Wednesday.
The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
Iran’s top diplomat said on Wednesday that communication channels with the US were still open, a week after Donald Trump was elected president, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“The communication channels between us and the Americans still exist,” Abbas Araghchi said on the sidelines of a weekly cabinet meeting. According to AFP, he said:
We have differences with the Americans, which are sometimes very fundamental and central and may not be resolved, but we must manage them to reduce their costs and decrease the tensions.”
Araghchi said last month that there was no ground for indirect nuclear talks with the US. “We don’t see any grounds for these talks, until we can get past the current crisis,” Araghchi said on 14 October during a visit to Oman as part of a regional tour.
Oman has long mediated between Iran and the US, which cut ties after the 1979 Islamic revolution that saw western-backed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi ousted.
The remarks by the Iranian top diplomat were echoed by the country’s president on Tuesday, reports AFP.
“Regarding America, whether we like it or not, we will eventually face this country in the regional and international arena, and it is better to manage this issue ourselves,” Masoud Pezeshkian said.
The developments come as the International Atomic Energy Agency director general, Rafael Grossi, is set to visit Tehran later today to hold talks with Iranian officials on the country’s nuclear programme.
“There are problems and disagreements about how to cooperate,” with the agency, Araghchi said on Wednesday. He expressed hope that during the Grossi’s trip, the two sides “can reach an agreement regarding some of the differences that exist and how to cooperate in the future”.
An Israeli group campaigning for the release of hostages held in Gaza said on Wednesday their loved ones had “no time left”, after the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group released a new video of an Israeli hostage, Sasha Troufanov, who has been held in Gaza for over a year (see 10.27am GMT).
According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said:
The hostages have no time left – a deal for their release is the only way to bring them all back to us.”
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he hopes US president-elect Donald Trump would take a different approach on the Middle East during his term, but that some of the messages coming from his side were concerning, broadcaster NTV reported on Wednesday.
“It seems too early to me to make observations about this,” Erdoğan told reporters on a return flight from Baku, Azerbaijan. “Our hope is that Trump takes very different steps toward the region this term because the messages being given from time to time concern us,” he was cited as saying, reports Reuters.
Asked about Turkey’s decision to halt all trade with Israel in May, Erdoğan said Ankara had no trade ties with Israel at the moment and no desire to develop them. He was cited as saying:
A Republic of Turkey that is headed by Tayyip Erdoğan can’t continue to develop its relationship with Israel.
We have no such intention. We have cut trade and ties with Israel, period.”
Turkey withdrew its ambassador in Israel for consultations after the Israel-Hamas war broke out, but has not officially severed its ties with Israel and its embassy remains open and operational.
Erdoğan also said China and Russia had signed an initiative that Turkey launched at the United Nations to impose a weapons embargo on Israel.
US wants 'real and extended pauses' in fighting in Gaza, Blinken says
The US wants “real and extended pauses” in fighting in Gaza so assistance can get to people who need it, but the best way to help people would be to end the war, US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Wednesday.
“Israel, by the standards it set itself, has accomplished the goals that it set for itself,” Blinken told reporters during a visit to Brussels, according to Reuters. Blinken added:
This should be a time to end the war.”
On Tuesday, after the expiry of a 30-day US deadline for Israel to take steps to address the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Washington said Israel was not blocking aid to Gaza and therefore not violating US law.
However, eight international aid groups said Israel had failed to meet the US demands to improve access for assistance. Food security experts have said it is likely that famine is imminent in parts of Gaza.
Blinken said Israel had taken multiple steps to address the humanitarian crisis ahead of the deadline set by outgoing president Joe Biden’s administration – but that more was needed.
Blinken told reporters on Wednesday:
We need to see real and extended pauses in large areas of Gaza, pauses in any fighting, any combat, so that the assistance can effectively get to people who need it.”
Last month, Blinken and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin sent a letter to Israel setting a 13 November deadline to comply with US law on permitting humanitarian assistance, or risk a cut to military aid. “The intent was to inject a sense of urgency with Israel to take necessary steps to address the dire humanitarian situation,” Blinken said on Wednesday.
Israel has since moved to implement 12 of the 15 steps the US urged action on, but “three big issues” still needed to be addressed. Enacting extended pauses in fighting was one.
The other two were allowing commercial trucks into the Palestinian territory and rescinding evacuation orders so that people could return to an area after Israel completed operations there, he said.
“Short of ending the war, which we believe now is the time to move to that, we have to see these humanitarian steps fully implemented,” Blinken said.
Biden, whose term ends in January and who will be replaced with his predecessor Donald Trump, has strongly backed Israel since Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel in October 2023.
Trump, a staunch supporter of Israel, has strongly backed Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s goal of destroying Hamas. Trump has promised to bring peace to the Middle East, but has not said how he would accomplish that.
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Three young siblings killed in Israeli strike in northern Gaza, Palestinian medics say
Palestinian medics say an Israeli strike on a home in northern Gaza killed three siblings that were six years old or younger, reports the Associated Press (AP). They were among at least six people killed in Israeli strikes on Tuesday in the territory.
The Gaza health ministry’s emergency service said the three children were killed in a strike on a home near a clinic in the Jabaliya refugee camp, where Israel has been waging an offensive for over a month.
In the central city of Deir al-Balah, a strike hit a tent in the western side of the city, killing at least two people, including a 15-year-old boy, al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said. Another strike on a tent in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp killed a man, the hospital said. An AP journalist counted the three bodies at the hospital.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad release video showing Israeli hostage in Gaza
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group has released a new video showing an Israeli hostage who has been held in Gaza for over a year, reports the Associated Press (AP).
The video shows Sasha Troufanov, likely speaking under duress, describing the harsh conditions inside Gaza, warning against military operations to free him and calling on Israelis to protest for his release.
According to the AP, it was the first such video to be released in several weeks. The news agency said it was not clear when it was filmed, but Troufanov appeared to refer to Israel’s war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and its recent exchange of fire with Iran, which occurred in October.
Islamic Jihad took part in Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack into Israel, in which militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 250 people hostage. Of those, 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Islamic Jihad released two previous videos of Troufanov earlier this year. He turned 29 on Monday, marking his second birthday in captivity. His mother, grandmother and girlfriend were also taken captive, but they were released during a November 2023 ceasefire. His father was killed in the 7 October 2023 attack.
The US, Egypt and Qatar have spent most of this year trying to broker a ceasefire and the release of the remaining hostages. Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in return for a lasting ceasefire, the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retain Israeli control over parts of Gaza and to continue the war until “total victory” over Hamas and the return of the remaining captives.
The US wants real and extended pauses in fighting in Gaza so assistance can get to people who need it, US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, told reporters on Wednesday.
More details to follow …
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Israel carried out a series of strikes across southern Lebanon, damaging several buildings and levelling a multi-storey building in Beirut on Tuesday, saying it was targeting Hezbollah installations.
Evacuation orders were posted on social media by an Israeli army spokesperson. Here is a video report on the strikes:
US military says it carried out strikes on Iran-backed militia facility in Syria
The US military said on Tuesday it had conducted strikes against an Iranian-backed militia group’s weapons storage facility in Syria, according to Reuters.
“These strikes were in response to a rocket attack on US personnel at Patrol Base Shaddadi. There was no damage to US facilities and no injuries to US or partner forces during the attack,” the US military said in a statement.
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Biden administration will not limit arms transfers to Israel
The Biden administration said on Tuesday that Israel has made some good but limited progress in increasing the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza and will not limit arms transfers to Israel as it had threatened to a month ago if the situation had not improved, reports the Associated Press (AP).
Relief groups say conditions are worse than at any point in the 13-month-old war.
State department spokesperson, Vedant Patel, told reporters the progress to date must be supplemented and sustained but “we, at this time, have not made an assessment that the Israelis are in violation of US law”. It requires recipients of military assistance to adhere to international humanitarian law and not impede the provision of such aid, reports the AP.
“We are not giving Israel a pass,” Patel said, adding that the steps Israel has taken have not yet made a significant enough difference. He said:
We want to see the totality of the humanitarian situation improve, and we think some of these steps will allow the conditions for that to continue to progress.”
Russia asks Israel to avoid airstrikes near Syrian base
Russia has asked Israel to avoid launching aerial strikes as part of its war against Hezbollah near one of Moscow’s bases in Syria, a top official said on Wednesday, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Syrian state media in mid-October claimed that Israel had struck the port city of Latakia, a stronghold of president Bashar al-Assad, who is supported by Russia and in turn backs Hezbollah. Latakia, and in particular its airport, is close to the town of Hmeimim that hosts a Russian airbase.
“Israel actually carried out an airstrike in the immediate vicinity of Hmeimim,” Alexander Lavrentiev, Russian president Vladimir Putin’s special envoy in the near east, told the RIA Novosti press agency. “Our military has of course notified Israeli authorities that such acts that put Russian military lives in danger over there are unacceptable,” he added. “That is why we hope that this incident in October will not be repeated.”
Israel has carried out intensive bombing of Syria but rarely targets Latakia, to the north-west of Damascus. Israel accuses Hezbollah of transporting weapons through Syria.
AFP reports that Lavrentiev said Russia’s airbase was not being used to supply Hezbollah with weapons.
Israel army issues new evacuation calls for south Beirut
The Israeli army on Wednesday told residents of parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs to leave, the third such warning in 24 hours, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“You are located near facilities and interests affiliated with Hezbollah, against which the Israel Defense Forces (military) will act in the near future,” army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a post on X that included a map of the areas in question.
The report listed 19 measures of compliance with the US demands. It said Israel had failed to comply with 15 and only partially complied with four.
“Israel not only failed to meet the US criteria that would indicate support to the humanitarian response, but concurrently took actions that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground,” the report said. “That situation is in an even more dire state today than a month ago.”
The US ultimatum, signed by US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, called on Israel to allow a minimum of 350 truckloads of goods to enter Gaza each day, open a fifth crossing into the territory, ensure access for aid groups to northern Gaza and halt legislation that would hinder the operations of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa.
Global food security experts have warned of imminent famine in parts of northern Gaza. The amount of food aid reaching Gaza has dropped to the lowest level since December, official Israeli figures show, with only 8,805 tonnes of food aid crossing through Israeli checkpoints into the territory so far this month.
“The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is the result of systemic obstruction of aid, relentless bombardment and an alarming failure to protect civilians,” said Katy Crosby, a senior director of US policy and advocacy at Mercy Corps.
“The worst-case scenario for northern Gaza is now a devastating reality … The US government must hold Israel accountable and take decisive action to ensure unrestricted aid delivery. Without this, preventable suffering and deaths will escalate and erode the United States’ moral and legal credibility,” Crosby said.
Israel said on Monday it had met most of the US demands and that a fifth crossing into Gaza would open within days, but it would press ahead with its laws against Unrwa.
Matthew Miller, a US state department spokeperson, said last week that Israel had made some progress but needed to do more to meet the US conditions.
Israeli officials reject the charge that aid is deliberately restricted and accuse humanitarian agencies of failing to organise its distribution. UN agencies say ongoing fighting and lawlessness makes it difficult to collect and distribute aid on the Gaza side.
The news website Axios reported earlier on Tuesday that the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, had decided not to reduce military assistance to Israel due to the humanitarian situation in Gaza, according to two US officials.
In an apparent last-minute concession, Israeli authorities announced an extension of the designated “humanitarian zone” in Gaza, adding inland areas which could partially relieve intense overcrowding and allow some displaced people to move away from the coast as winter approaches.
Aid officials in Gaza describe the situation as “apocalyptic” in much of the territory, where more than 80% of the population of 2.3 million have been displaced and more than two-thirds of buildings have been destroyed or damaged in 13 months of war.
Israeli attacks in Gaza continued this week, killing at least 14 people, including two children and a woman, according to Palestinian medical officials.
A strike late on Monday hit a cafeteria west of Khan Younis, killing at least 11 people, including two children, according to officials at Nasser hospital, where the casualties were taken.
Another strike early on Tuesday hit a house in central Gaza, killing three people including a woman, according to al-Awda hospital, which received the casualties.
Israeli forces launched a major operation in northern Gaza last month, sealing off three towns and ordering the evacuation of civilians. Military officials said they were fighting Hamas militants who had regrouped in the area.
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Donald Trump picks Mike Huckabee as Israel envoy
Donald Trump has chosen the former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee as the next US ambassador to Israel.
Huckabee has a track record of hardline, occasionally provocative, pro-Israel rhetoric and previously said Israel has a rightful claim to the West Bank, which he refers to by its Hebrew and biblical name of Judea and Samaria.
The territory is claimed by Palestinians as part of a putative future state but is dotted multiple Israeli settlements that are not recognised under international law. Huckabee has refused to call the settlements by that name, insisting that they be called “communities” or neighbourhoods. He has also denied that the West Bank, seized by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 six-day war, is under military occupation.
Posting on his Truth Social network, Trump predicted Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, would “work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East”.
“He loves Israel and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him,” wrote Trump, who called Huckabee “a great public servant.”
Huckabee’s appointment is likely to signal a return to the explicitly pro-Israel posture of Trump’s first administration, when he relocated the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in a move decried by Palestinians as damaging to peace prospects.
While Israel claims Jerusalem as its indivisible capital, Palestinians lay claim to the eastern part of the city as their future capital.
Speaking to CNN in 2017, Huckabee – who has paid several visits to Israeli settlements – made his position clear.
“The only people who have ever had Yerushalayim [Jerusalem’s Hebrew name] as a capital have been the Jews,” he said. “Nobody else has ever made this city a capital, ever. So it shouldn’t even be controversial.”
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Aid groups hit out at Israel as US ultimatum expires
A coalition of international aid organisations have accused Israel of ignoring a US ultimatum that threatened sanctions if Israel did not implement a series of measures to counter the acute humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The 30-day ultimatum – which was due to expire yesterday or today – was delivered on 13 October, and almost none of its demands have been met, the humanitarian groups say.
It is unclear what measures Israel’s apparent failure to comply will trigger, but they may include a temporary halt to the supply of some munitions or other military assistance.
Washington has not yet said whether it deems Israel to have complied. The US state department said on Tuesday that the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, had told a senior Israeli official the previous day that the steps Israel had taken must lead to actual improvement on the ground.
Asked how the US would urge Israel to improve the humanitarian situation, the state department spokesperson Vedant Patel said on Tuesday there was “no new policy or new assessment to offer but we’ll continue to have our conversations with the Israeli government”.
“We have not made an assessment that Israel is violating US law,” Patel said.
More on that in a moment. In other developments:
Donald Trump has chosen the former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee as the next US ambassador to Israel. Huckabee has a track record of hardline, occasionally provocative, pro-Israel rhetoric and previously said Israel has a rightful claim to the West Bank, which he refers to by its Hebrew and biblical name of Judea and Samaria.
Palestinian medical officials say Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 46 people in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, including 11 at a makeshift cafeteria in an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone.
In Lebanon, warplanes struck Beirut’s southern suburbs and killed 33 people elsewhere across the country on Tuesday. Large explosions shook Beirut’s southern suburbs – an area known as Dahiyeh, where Hezbollah has a significant presence – soon after the Israeli military issued evacuation warnings for 11 houses there.
Lebanese state-run media reported an Israeli strike on an apartment south of the capital Beirut on Wednesday that injured an unspecified number of people. “Israeli warplanes launched a strike at dawn targeting a residential apartment in a building in the Dawhet Aramoun area, injuring people,” the official National News Agency said.
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi will visit Tehran on Wednesday for crucial talks on Iran’s nuclear programme. His visit comes only two days after the Israel defence minister warned that Iran was “more exposed than ever to strikes on its nuclear facilities”.
US forces on Tuesday carried out strikes against targets linked to an Iranian-backed militia in Syria in response to a rocket attack on Washington’s troops in the country, the US military said. The strikes targeted the group’s “weapons storage and logistics headquarters facility … in response to a rocket attack on US personnel,” the US Central Command (Centcom) said in a post on social media that did not identify the militia by name.
Australia will not change its laws on the supply of weapons or ammunition to Israel if the coalition wins the next federal election, opposition foreign spokesperson Simon Birmingham says. The Liberal senator said the coalition had “no plans” to change the rules, as it emerged during a parliamentary hearing Australia had amended or lapsed at least 16 defence-related export permits to Israel after a review.
