Summary of the day …
It has just gone 5pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv, 6pm in Doha and Sana’a. Here are the headlines.
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said on Wednesday the group is showing flexibility in negotiations with Israel but at the same time it was ready to continue fighting. Another Hamas official, Basem Naim, told Al Jazeera “The gap is still wide”. The two sides have been negotiating around a draft framework that would reportedly see a six week pause in fighting and the release of hostages held in captivity by Hamas for Palestinians who have been detained by Israel.
Qatar has accused Israel of facilitating “the deliberate starvation of the Palestinian people” and called on the international community to apply more pressure on Israel, saying it was “painful” that the delivery of aid was still an issue. Foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said “There are two and a half million people living in complete absence of health and emergency services. Aid should be freely provided without restrictions.”
Israel’s military has claimed it struck “eight significant terror targets” in Gaza overnight which it said had been responsible for rockets fired towards the Israeli city of Ashkelon. The IDF also announced that two further soldiers had been killed during its ground operation inside Gaza.
At least 29,954 Palestinians have been killed and 70,325 injured in Israel’s military assault on Gaza since 7 October, the Hamas-led health ministry in Gaza said in a statement on Wednesday. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Houthi leaders have denied they have targeted critical underwater sea telecommunication cables, as Yemen’s UN recognised government warned of an imminent marine environmental disaster if a cargo ship struck by the rebels last week was not quickly rescued. The stricken Belize-flagged Rubymar, which was en route from the UAE to Europe via the Red Sea when she was hit by a Houthi attack, has been drifting and begun to sink.
Families of some of the hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza have started a four-day march to demand their release. The route started at the site of the Nova music festival, scene of some of the worst atrocities during the 7 October attack, and will finish in Jerusalem.
Russian media is reporting that representatives of Hamas and Fatah will meet in Moscow on Thursday to discuss the possibility of a united Palestinian government across both Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for the day. We are pausing our live coverage for now. You can find all our latest coverage of the Israel-Gaza war here.
Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki has said he does not expect “miracles” at talks in Moscow scheduled for tomorrow to discuss the formation of a unified Palestinian government.
On Monday Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh resigned. Maliki said the move was designed to build support for an expanded role for the Palestinian Authority.
Reuters reports that, speaking on the sidelines of the UN human rights council in Geneva, Maliki said:
We hope that there we might be good results in terms of mutual understanding between all factions about the need to support such a technocratic government that will emerge. Of course, we don’t expect miracles to happen in just a simple meeting in Moscow, but I believe that the meeting in Moscow should be followed by other meetings in the region soon.
Representatives of Hamas and Fatah will meet in Moscow. The two factions have been divided since Hamas threw the Fatah movement out of Gaza in 2007.
Maliki also accused the UN security council of “failing” the Palestinian people in its inability to agree on a ceasefire, saying “Now in Gaza, it seems that the ceasefire is a farfetched objective to be attained.”
