Summary of the day so far
Here is a summary of today’s developments:
The UK suspended trade negotiations with Israel over its Gaza blockade, the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, told parliament on Tuesday. He said the Israeli ambassador had been summoned. The UK’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, described the situation in Gaza as “horrific” and “utterly intolerable”. It comes after the UK, France and Canada on Monday issued their strongest condemnation yet of the way Israel is conducting its war on Gaza and repeated calls for a ceasefire.
Israel said external pressure will not change its course after the UK paused free trade talks over the war in Gaza and levelled new sanctions on settlers in the occupied West Bank. “External pressure will not divert Israel from its path in defending its existence and security against enemies who seek its destruction,” an Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.
The European Union has agreed to review its trade agreement with Israel over alleged human rights abuses in Gaza, the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said on Tuesday. The decision comes almost 15 months after Irish and Spanish leaders called on the European Commission’s chief, Ursula von der Leyen, to make such a move. The change comes after a proposal from the Netherlands last week gained widespread support amid growing alarm about the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza and the West Bank.
No humanitarian aid has been distributed yet in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, according to a spokesperson for the United Nations, Stéphane Dujarric. Separately, Cogat, the Israeli defence ministry body that oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, claimed 93 UN aid trucks entered Gaza on Tuesday.
As many as 14,000 babies in Gaza could die in 48 hours if aid does not reach them in time, the UN’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, warned. “I want to save as many as these 14,000 babies as we can in the next 48 hours,” he told the BBC. Fletcher said five trucks of aid went into Gaza yesterday but described this as a “drop in the ocean”. A UN spokesman later provided more detail, saying: “We are pointing to the imperative of getting supplies in to save an estimated 14,000 babies suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Gaza, as the IPC partnership [Integrated Food Security Phase Classification] has warned about. We need to get the supplies in as soon as possible, ideally within the next 48 hours.” The IPC recently estimated that 14,100 children under five would be severely acutely malnourished over the next 11 months.
At least 87 Palestinians were killed and more than 290 injured by Israeli attacks in Gaza over the past 24 hours, Gaza’s health ministry said on Tuesday. At least 53,573 Palestinian people have been killed and 121,688 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the ministry said. Gaza City, Deir el-Balah, the Nuseirat refugee camp, the Jabalia refugee camp and the Bureij refugee camp were among the places targeted in deadly Israeli strikes on Tuesday, according to reports.
Benjamin Netanyahu ordered part of his country’s delegation negotiating a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Doha to return to Israel, according to Israeli media reports. Separately, Qatar’s prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani said Israel’s continuing assault on Gaza had undermined peace efforts. “This irresponsible, aggressive behaviour undermines any potential chance for peace,” the Qatari leader said.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said Washington has not discussed the deportation of Palestinians from Gaza to Libya, but he said Washington had asked other countries in the region if they would be open to accepting Palestinians who want to move voluntarily. Rubio was testifying before the Senate foreign relations committee on Tuesday on Tuesday, when a pro-Palestine protester disrupted the hearing.
Australia joined 22 other nations in condemning Israel over its decision to allow limited aid into Gaza while announcing a military expansion to “take control” of the besieged strip. 23 countries, including the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, urged Israel not to politicise humanitarian aid for the starving population.
The Lebanese health ministry said an Israeli airstrike injured nine people in a drone attack on the coastal Tyre district in the south of the country. Three people are now in “critical condition”, the ministry said, adding that two children were among the injured.
• This post was amended on 22 May 2025 to include that the IPC figure of 14,100 children under five being severely acutely malnourished was an estimate over the next 11 months.
Updated
Footage from Gaza shows thousands of people scrambling to get food outside a soup kitchen while only five aid trucks have been allowed into Gaza after an 11-week blockade.
The UN says 14,000 babies will die in the next 48 hours if the aid does not reach them in time. This comes after mounting international pressure.
Israel has said it will allow a further 100 trucks into Gaza, but this is only a fifth of what was arriving into Gaza before the war.
