Summary of the day so far
It is 5.20pm in Gaza, Tel Aviv and Beirut, and 6.50pm in Tehran. Here is a recap of the latest developments from today:
European Commission president Usrula von der Leyen is due to travel to Cyprus later this week as the bloc is working towards establishing a possible humanitarian corridor in support of the population in Gaza through the Mediterranean island, her spokesperson said on Wednesday.
Three days of negotiations with Hamas over a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages failed to achieve a breakthrough on Tuesday, Egyptian officials said. According to AP, two Egyptian officials said Hamas presented a proposal that mediators would discuss with Israel in the coming days. One of the officials said that mediators would meet on Wednesday with the Hamas delegation, which had not left Cairo.
US President Joe Biden called on Hamas on Tuesday to accept a Gaza ceasefire deal by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Envoys from Hamas and the US have been meeting Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Cairo for negotiations over a six-week truce.
It came as Republican presidential frontrunner and former US president Donald Trump expressed his support for Israel’s war in Gaza on Tuesday, in his most explicit comments yet on the fighting. When asked during an interview on Fox News if he was “in Israel’s camp.” he responded “Yes”.
A 14-truck food convoy – the first by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) since it paused deliveries to northern Gaza on 20 February – was turned back by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Tuesday after a three-hour wait at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint. According to the WFP, it then turned to airdrops: “Earlier today, with the help of the Royal Jordanian air force, WFP food supplies for 20,000 people (6 tons) were dropped in northern Gaza.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday that hunger and malnutrition were on the rise among children, breastfeeding women, and pregnant women in Gaza. It added: “The need for access to humanitarian aid is dire.”
International development charity ActionAid has warned that the aid system in Gaza is “at the brink of total collapse” and reported that a “sharp increase in malnutrition” in Gaza had led to an increase in deaths among children and cases of stillborn babies. In a statement from the charity, Dr Mohammed Salha, director of al-Awda hospital, ActionAid’s partner in northern Gaza, said: “There are many operations that have been performed, like caesarean sections to remove foetuses, [which] died due to malnutrition among women.”
UN experts condemned the violence they say was unleashed by Israeli forces last week on Palestinians gathered in Gaza City to collect flour as a “massacre”. In a statement, a group of UN special rapporteurs accused Israel of “intentionally starving the Palestinian people in Gaza since 8 October,” adding: “Now it is targeting civilians seeking humanitarian aid and humanitarian convoys.”
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the WHO, posted a video to social media about malnutrition affecting the youngest children in Gaza, alongside the message “children who survived bombardment but may not survive a famine”. He called for more aid for the beseiged Gaza Strip and a ceasefire.
86 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, said the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry on Wednesday. According to the statement, at least 30,717 Palestinians have been killed and 72,156 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
The US called on Iran on Wednesday to dilute all of the uranium it has enriched to up to 60% purity, close to the weapons-grade level of roughly 90%, in a statement denouncing many of Tehran’s recent nuclear moves. The news agency, Reuters said it had seen a confidential report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
David Cameron is to tell the Israeli cabinet minister Benny Gantz that UK patience is wearing thin at the lack of humanitarian aid reaching the people of Gaza at a meeting in London on Wednesday. The UK foreign secretary said that Israel, as the occupying power, had a duty under international humanitarian law to supply aid.
An internal UN report describes widespread abuse of Palestinian detainees in Israeli detention centres, including beatings, dog attacks, the prolonged use of stress positions and sexual assault. The report was compiled by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA).
23 Palestinians were detained by Israeli security forces in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Wednesday, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Canada will restore funding to the UN relief agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), a government official has told the Associated Press. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation first reported that Canada will restore funding and that international development minister, Ahmed Hussen would announce the decision on Wednesday, but the unnamed government official told the AP that the announcement had been delayed.
Israel has again insisted that the failure to get humanitarian aid into Gaza is being caused by issues with supply, rather than any delays caused by Israeli inspections, reported Al Jazeera. Speaking on Israel’s I24NEWS, Shimon Freedman, a spokesperson for the Israeli COGAT unit, said “Israel is inspecting more aid than the international community can distribute. The real issue is for the organisations to increase their capacity so we can see more humanitarian aid making its way to the people of Gaza.”
One civilian was killed and ten wounded by US-UK airstrikes in Yemen in February, the first recorded instances of non-combatants being killed during the Anglo-American bombing campaign against the Houthis that began on 12 January.
The Houthis mistakenly sank a ship, the Rubymar, in the Red Sea it believed to be British owned when its only link to the UK was an insurance cover that is now being disputed by the insurers. The cargo ship sank on Saturday with 21,000 metric tonnes of ammonium phosphate sulphate fertiliser on board. It had been taking on water since a Houthi missile strike on 18 February damaged its hull.
Maritime security firm Ambrey on Wednesday reported an “explosion” near a Barbados-flagged, US-owned bulk carrier transitting south-west of the Yemeni port city of Aden. Ambrey cautioned other ships to steer clear of the bulker which matches the “targeting profile” of Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) received a report of an incident 54 nautical miles south-west of Aden, in Yemen, according to a post on its X account. The UKMTO said authorities are investigating.
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One civilian was killed and ten wounded by US-UK airstrikes in Yemen in February
One civilian was killed and ten wounded by US-UK airstrikes in Yemen in February, the first recorded instances of non-combatants being killed during the Anglo-American bombing campaign against the Houthis that began on 12 January.
According to figures compiled by the Yemen Data Project, a conflict monitoring group, a civilian was killed and seven injured in a single strike on a telecommunications site in Maqbanah district of Taiz on 24 February.
A further 2 civilians were recorded injured in a strike on a pesticide factory in Sana’a, also on 24 February, while another injured civilian recorded on 2 February in a strike on a farm in the Abs district of Hajja. The descriptions appear to match strikes conducted by the US, rather than the UK.
In total the NGO counted 79 US and UK strikes compared with 33 in January. The maximum number of individual munitions used similarly rose from 69 in January to 186 a month later.
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