Closing summary
It has gone 5pm in Gaza, Tel Aviv and Beirut, and 6pm in Sana’a. We will be closing this blog soon, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here.
Here is a recap of the latest developments:
The aid ship, the Spanish-flagged Open Arms, which left Cyprus yesterday, is expected to reach Gaza’s shores tomorrow morning – about 48 hours after it departed Larnaca, the Mediterranean island’s southern port. The vessel is towing a barge with up to 200 tonnes of water, food and vital medicines. Cyprus, the EU, the United Arab Emirates, the US and UK are expected to make a joint statement “on what comes next,” a well-placed insider told the Guardian.
The UK should join the EU in considering whether to suspend its trade agreements with Israel in light of breaches of humanitarian law, a group of human rights NGOs including Amnesty International UK, Global Justice Now and ActionAid UK urged on Wednesday. The intervention by the group of eight UK NGOs is one of the first times any question has been raised by campaigners over the future of UK-Israel trade relations.
Violent clashes overnight have left multiple Palestinians dead in the West Bank. Israeli police said a Palestinian stabbed and wounded two people at a checkpoint near Jerusalem before being shot on Wednesday. Official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli forces killed two Palestinians during a raid in the occupied West Bank earlier the same day, bringing to five the number of Palestinians killed in different incidents within several hours.
Israeli forces shot dead a 13-year-old Palestinian from a refugee camp on the outskirts of Jerusalem on Tuesday night, and killed two others at a checkpoint, Israeli police said. The police said the boy was shot after aiming fireworks at forces stationed in an observation post.
EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell criticised the lack of aid entering Gaza as a “manmade” disaster on Tuesday, telling the UN security council that hunger was being used as a “war arm”. “This humanitarian crisis … is not a natural disaster, is not a flood, is not an earthquake, it is manmade,” said Borrell at UN headquarters in New York.
The Hamas-run government in Gaza said on Wednesday that sending an aid ship from Cyprus to the besieged territory was an inadequate response to the needs of its 2.4 million people. “According to what was announced, the ship’s cargo does not exceed that of one or two trucks, and it will take days to arrive,” Salama Marouf, spokesperson for the government press office, said in a statement. He said some logistical questions about the operation were unanswered and raised concerns about Israeli inspections.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) said one of its aid warehouses in the Gaza Strip was “hit” on Wednesday, injuring “scores” of people. An AFP photographer saw victims of the incident arriving at al-Najjar hospital in Rafah, at least one of whom was identified by other people at the hospital as a UN employee.
Four US army vessels departed a base in Virginia on Tuesday carrying about 100 soldiers and equipment needed to build a temporary port on Gaza’s coast to facilitate aid shipments. The new facility – which will consist of an offshore platform and a pier to bring aid ashore – is expected to be up and running “at the 60-day mark”, US army Brig Gen Brad Hinson told journalists.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday that it had delivered its ‘first successful’ aid convoy to northern Gaza since 20 February. In a post on social media platform X, the WFP said it had “delivered enough food for 25,000 people to Gaza City early Tuesday”, but called for “deliveries every day” and “entry points directly into the north”.
88 Palestinians were killed and 135 injured in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, said the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. According to the statement, at least 31,272 Palestinians have been killed and 73,024 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), said on Tuesday, that “the number of children reported killed in just over four months in Gaza is higher than the number of children killed in four years of wars around the world combined” and described it as “staggering”. In a social media post on X, Lazzarini wrote: “This war is a war on children.”
The Israeli army on Tuesday night announced a pilot project for delivering aid directly into the north, saying six WFP aid trucks had entered through a new crossing. The WFP did not specifically mention the new overland route in its post on X about Tuesday’s delivery.
Turkey views the airdrop of humanitarian aid to Gaza and a plan to deliver aid via a maritime route as positive developments, but thinks they fall short of resolving the core problem, the foreign ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday. Foreign ministry spokesperson Öncü Keçeli told a media briefing in Ankara that Turkey had sent 9,000 tons of medical equipment and aid for infants, as well as many parachutes to Jordan for the airdrops, but added these were not enough to alleviate the struggle of Palestinian people in Gaza.
An Israeli drone strike on a car outside the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on Wednesday killed a member of Hamas from the nearby Palestinian camp of Rashidieh. The Israeli military confirmed it had killed Hadi Mustafa in southern Lebanon and called him a “significant” Hamas operative. Hamas’s Al Aqsa television said Mustafa was a leader of the group’s armed wing.
The father of an Israeli soldier killed during the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October said has called for a hostage deal to ensure his son’s body is returned home. Itay Chen was serving as a soldier when Hamas carried out its surprise cross-border rampage through southern Israeli towns and military bases. The dual US citizen was believed to be have been held hostage but the military confirmed his death on Tuesday.
US officials are preparing for a pause on funding for Unrwa to become permanent due to opposition in Congress, even as the Biden administration insists the aid group’s humanitarian work is indispensable. The US – which is Unrwa’s largest donor, providing $300-$400m (£235-£313m) annually – said it wants to see the results of an inquiry into Israeli allegations against Unrwa and corrective measures taken before it will consider resuming funding.
Germany said on Wednesday it was joining an air bridge operation along with several other countries to drop desperately needed humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. The operation, initiated by Jordan, already has the participation of several other countries including France and the US.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II met Spain’s foreign minister José Manuel Albares Bueno on Wednesday. In a message posted to social media, Jordan’s royal household said that during the meeting, the king “stressed that the tragic humanitarian conditions in Gaza require international action to prevent further deterioration”, adding that Jordan appreciated Spain’s position on resuming Unrwa funding, the two-state solution and in calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
A Palestinian citizen of Israel has been granted UK asylum in a case said to be unprecedented. “Hasan”, whose real identity is not being disclosed for his own protection, claimed he would face persecution in his home country on the grounds of his race, his Muslim faith and his opinion that Israel “is governed by an apartheid regime”.
Irish artists including Soda Blonde and Mick Flannery have withdrawn from South by Southwest (SXSW) over opposition to the US army being a sponsor, citing US support for Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip. Irish Culture minister Catherine Martin has said she will still go, despite the boycott by Irish artists. Martin has said she respects musicians’ freedom of expression and will use the visit “to make clear her revulsion at the devastation that has been unleashed on Gaza”.
British maritime security firm Ambrey said on Wednesday it was aware of a missile-related sighting in the Gulf of Aden. The security firm advised vessels in the vicinity of Socotra “to minimise bridge manning and stop all crew deck movement”.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images on the newswires:
