Israel-Palestine live: Israel and Palestinians agree to truce, hostage deal

A Russian amendment to a United Nations Security Council motion, which called for an outright ceasefire in Gaza, was voted down by Security Council members. 

Five Security Council members voted in favour, with one voting against, and nine abstentions. 

The one vote which voted against the Russian amendment was the United States. 

British MPs voted against calls to support a ceasefire in Gaza, with several senior Labour Party members defying their leader and voting for the SNP's amendment. 

Two hundred and ninety-three MPs voted against the SNP's amendment to the King's Speech, which called for a ceasefire in Gaza, with 125 voting for it on Wednesday. 

 Fifty-six Labour MPs defied Starmer's calls to not back a ceasefire in Gaza.

Twelve Shadow ministers resigned from Starmer's cabinet to vote for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Among the MPs who resigned from Labour's frontbench are Jess Phillips, Yasmin Qureshi, Afzal Khan, Rachel Hopkins and Sarah Owens .

The resignations come amid reports that Starmer planned to fire any shadow cabinet minister who voted for a ceasefire in Gaza.  

Four shadow ministers resigned from the Labour Party's shadow cabinet after Keir Starmer refused to back calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. 

The MPs who resigned from Labour's shadow cabinet include Afzal Khan, Yasmin Qureshi, Paula Baker, and Naz Shah. 

Their resignation comes as Starmer continues to resist calls to back the Scottish Nationalist Party's amendment to the King's Speech, which calls for the UK to support a ceasefire in Gaza. 

Each MP, who resigned, posted their statement before the scheduled vote later this evening. 

Israel’s air force dropped hundreds of leaflets in some neighbourhoods, telling the residents of Khan Younus, in southern Gaza, to leave their homes. 

Leaflets dropped by Israeli warplanes told residents in parts of eastern Khan Younis the following: “For your safety, you must evacuate your place of residence immediately and evacuate to one of the known shelters.”

An announcement by Israeli radio confirmed the announcement, with residents in Gaza taking to social media to confirm they had received the leaflet. 

It remains unclear why Israel had dropped these particular leaflets, but analysts fear this indicates a further expansion of Israel’s operations in Gaza. 

Palestine's health ministry said Israeli forces had made a number of arrests during its raid of the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza. 

A spokesperson for the health ministry said the Israeli army arrested "two engineering health crews, the only electrical generator mechanic technician and the only technician for the hospital's oxygen station". 

The ministry's announcement came after eyewitnesses confirmed that Israel had withdrawn from the hospital but remained on the outskirts of the facility. 

Multiple eyewitnesses confirm that Israeli forces have withdrawn from al-Shifa hospital after searching Gaza's largest medical facility for several hours. 

Dr Ahmed Mokhallati, a surgeon at the al-Shifa hospital, confirmed to MEE's Maha Husseini that Israeli forces had withdrawn from the facility. 

"The Israeli forces have withdrawn from the hospital after hours of searching," said Mokhallati.

"After six days of tight siege and around six weeks of constant attacks, the Israeli military has apparently failed to prove their allegations. 

An AFP journalist inside al-Shifa also confirmed that Israeli forces had left the hospital, but redeployed around its outskirts. 

Malta's top diplomat, Ian Borg, confirmed on X that the UN Security Council vote on a ceasefire "is in the blue" and will happen today. 

Borg said the "vote on the humanitarian situation of children in Gaza" will take place at 3 PM (8 PM GMT) US East Coast time.

In a first indication of dissent among Labour MPs, Imran Hussain, who earlier this month stepped down as a shadow minister, said he would back the motion calling for an immediate ceasefire.

Hussain told the House of Commons: “It is clear to me, clear to the United Nations and clear to every single aid agency operating on the ground in Gaza that a humanitarian pause just doesn’t do enough and doesn’t go far enough.

“The innocent men, women, and children of Gaza, who are trapped in the never-ending nightmare of conflict which they did not start and which they have no power to end, do not need a pause. They need it to stop and the only way we can achieve this is with a real and immediate ceasefire.”

The continued use of air strikes on Gaza has left Palestinians languishing and dying under rubble in one of the world’s most densely populated areas.

But what does it feel like to be buried under rubble? 

Middle East Eye’s Aseel Mousa spoke to Palestinians like Waheed Mousa about their experiences of being trapped under rubble after Israel struck their neighbourhood. 

"I woke up terrified. I found more than two-thirds of my body buried under the rubble. I thought it was our house that had been targeted,” Waheed, 55, told Middle East Eye.

“For a moment, I thought I was in a grave.”

READ MORE: The nightmare for a family buried under rubble in Gaza

Ankara transferred at least 40 cancer patients and their relatives on Wednesday after they crossed the Rafah crossing from Gaza into Egypt. 

Turkey's Anadolu Agency said Turkish authorities had airlifted the cancer patients back to Turkey, where they will continue receiving treatment. 

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca personally visited Egypt’s Al Arish to coordinate the Turkish aid efforts and meet with the cancer patients. 

Good afternoon,

It’s 5:30 PM in Gaza, and here is your latest update as Israel continues its ground invasion into the Palestinian enclave.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Israeli forces called Palestinian health officials, warning that they intended to raid the Al Shifa hospital “within minutes” after besieging Gaza’s largest medical complex.

Since then, doctors from the Al Shifa hospital have told Middle East Eye that Israeli forces have turned the hospital into a “war zone.” 

Dr Ahmed Mokhallalati said the situation inside the hospital is "bad" as thousands of people seeking refugee inside continue to hear explosions.

"The Israeli army told everyone to move away from the windows because they shoot them,” Mokhallalati told MEE via the phone on Wednesday morning, nearly eight hours after the first Israeli soldiers broke into the hospital.

UNRWA chief Philip Lazzarini has also said his operation in Gaza is on the verge of complete collapse after several weeks of Israeli bombardment. 

Gaza’s sewage system has failed after rain struck the enclave, leading to sewage flooding parts of the besieged territory as people struggle to access clean water and risk dehydration. 

Outside of Gaza, Qatar said it was attempting to negotiate a deal on Wednesday between Hamas and Israel to release 50 Israeli hostages in exchange for a three-day ceasefire. 

One official who spoke to Reuters said Hamas had agreed to the deal, but Israel has not. 

Later this evening, Britain’s MPs will vote on whether the UK will endorse an emergency ceasefire in Gaza. The Scottish National Party has put forward an amendment to the King's Speech, which calls for an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. These calls for a ceasefire, however, are dividing members of the opposition Labour Party. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) chief said on Wednesday that Israel’s military incursion into al-Shifa Hospital is "totally unacceptable".

Tedros Ghebreyesus added that “for the past three days, there have been no updates on the number of deaths and injuries in Gaza, making it harder to evaluate the health system functioning”.

He also said that prior to the start of the war on 7 October, there were around 3,500 hospital beds across Gaza, and that today there are around 1,400. 
 

A doctor speaking to Middle East Eye from inside al-Shifa Hospital amid an ongoing Israeli raid said the medical facility has been turned into a "war zone".

Dr Ahmed Mokhallalati said the situation inside the hospital is "bad", as thousands of people seeking refugee inside continue to hear explosions.

"The Israeli army told everyone to move away from the windows because they shoot them,” Mokhallalati told MEE via the phone on Wednesday morning, nearly eight hours after the first Israeli soldiers broke into the hospital.

"Until now it's like a war zone in the hospital, which is already suffering from a lack of supplies, water, food, electricity and everything. The entire hospital doesn’t have basic hygiene items… everyone should help us protect the patients,” he added.

"You can tell that the shooting is from one side only, and it’s getting worse.

“With a lack of hygiene, resources and supplies, we won’t be able to help the wounded patients - anything we do will be injuring them further."

Doctors in southern Lebanon have raised concerns that already struggling hospitals could collapse if the war escalates.

"We’ve already had to treat 51 people wounded by explosions in the last month or so. Seventeen of those died, or arrived dead. More than that and we’d be overwhelmed,” Dr Mounes Klakesh told Reuters. 

Klakesh, director of the Marjayoun Hospital in southern Lebanon, said it serves nearly 300,000 people in the area. It has 14 emergency beds and struggles to operate because of a lack of staff and, crucially, lack of fuel.

The hospital runs on generators 20 hours a day and has to pay up to $20,000 a month for the fuel. 

“None of that money comes from the government any more. We rely on what funds the hospital has from one week to the next,” Klakesh said.

Dozens more public hospitals are in a similarly precarious state. Lebanon's economic collapse in 2019 left them barely able to cope in peacetime.

Now, an escalating conflict on the southern border with Israel is pushing the healthcare sector into a new crisis.

Footage shared by Al Jazeera Arabic on Wednesday showed Israeli tanks surrounding the al-Shifa Hospital during an Israeli raid. 

Doctors and journalists inside the hospital say they have seen and heard live fire and explosions while inside. 

Many of the hospital buildings have also sustained damage as a result of the raid, while the medicine store room has been destroyed.