Israel-Palestine live: Israel bombs Unrwa building in Gaza

The UK Labour Party has suspended its candidate for an upcoming by-election just weeks ahead of the vote after comments he made claiming Israel allowed the 7 October attacks to happen.

Azhar Ali was selected as the party's candidate to replace Tony Lloyd MP, who died last month.

Last week, recordings appeared in British media in which Ali argued that Israel had been warned a day before 7 October that an attack was planned by Hamas.

Ali said Israel "deliberately took the security off" so they would have the opportunity to "do whatever they bloody want".

The 7 October attack killed 1,140 people, almost 700 of whom were civilians, and saw around 240 people taken captive to Gaza.

Read more: UK Labour Party suspends candidate after comments alleging Israel let 7 October attack happen

Speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai, Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit warned that any seizure of the Gaza Strip or the West Bank by Israel would mean “a confrontation for the next thousand years”.

Gheit condemned the “Israeli mentality” of trying to seize land the Palestinians want for their future state.

“The United States must order Israel to stop these policies or otherwise the Middle East will explode in an unprecedented way,” he added.

He also called on Israel to “empty the settlements” on Palestinian land as well.

Church of England bishops in a statement on Tuesday called for an immediate ceasefire in Israel's war against Gaza. 

In a statement, the bishops said: "With the onset of Israel’s ground offensive into Rafah, we call for an immediate ceasefire. The relentless bombardment of Gaza and its huge cost in civilian lives and civilian infrastructure must stop. The manner in which this war is being prosecuted cannot be morally justified."

"We urge Israel to adhere to the ICJ order and to ensure that Palestinians have access to food, water, healthcare, and safety, that have long been denied to them. We welcome the [UK] foreign secretary’s recent call for an immediate pause in the fighting and would also welcome further representation to the government of Israel about the way that it is exercising its right to self-defence and to affirm adherence to international law," the statement said. 

Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, has urged states to stop arming Israel if they want to stop Palestinian civilians being killed in Gaza. 

Speaking on Monday, Borrell was responding to US President Joe Biden's statement that Israel's conduct in its military campaign in the besieged enclave was "over the top". 

"Well, if you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms in order to prevent so many people having been killed," the EU chief diplomate said. "Is [it] not logical?"

Borel was speaking in Brussels alongside Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa. 

"How many times have you heard the most prominent leaders and foreign ministers around the world saying too many people are being killed?" Borrell asked.

Read more: EU's Josep Borrell calls on states to 'provide less arms' to Israel

At least 28,473 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since 7 October according to Gaza’s health ministry, including more than 12,300 children and some 8,400 women.

More than 68,146 Palestinians have also been wounded the ministry added, including more than 12,300 children and some 8,400 women.

More than 11,000 of them are in critical need of evacuation, the ministry said.

If you asked me to name the most dangerous weapon that Israel possesses, my answer would not be bombs, shells or even nuclear arms.

Rather, it would be time. After four months of war and the resounding silence of the international community, Palestinians and their supporters around the globe have seen its devastating effects. But how does this work, and how can we resist being targeted by Israel’s weaponisation of time?

The single most effective tactic is awareness of Israel’s methods. For months now, Israeli forces have continued their relentless onslaught against Gaza, despite significant global opposition and calls for a ceasefire. 

This has worked to normalise the brutality of Israel’s war, as news stories begin to fall off the front page and global attention moves elsewhere.

Read more: Israel's deadliest weapon is time

Israel’s bombing of Rafah is a “deplorable and a grave violation of international law and human rights,” Pakistani Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani said on Tuesday.

“Pakistan condemns these acts of violence against innocent Palestinians and calls for an immediate ceasefire. The world cannot afford to look away," added Jilani in a post on X.

Israeli forces have steadily moved towards southwards in Gaza towards Rafah which is the last key city that troops have yet to enter.

There has been growing international alarm that Israel is planning a final assault on the city which would deepen the humanitarian crises in the besieged Strip.

Democratic US Senator Chris Van Hollen accused Israel of war crimes in the Gaza Strip in a powerful speech in the Senate on Monday.

“Kids in Gaza are now dying from the deliberate withholding of food. That is a war crime. It is a textbook war crime. And that makes those who orchestrate it war criminals.

“So now the question is what will the United States do?” he asked. “What will we do? What will President Biden do? President Biden must take action in response to what is happening.”

Van Hollen said “first and foremost the president must demand that the Netanyahu government” allow more aid into Gaza, and until that happens, Biden must cut off aid to Israel.

CIA Director William Burns is due in Cairo on Tuesday amid a new round of negotiations on a Qatari-mediated ceasefire that would temporarily halt fighting in exchange for Hamas freeing captives.

While weeks of talks have yet to bear fruit, a source close to the negotiations told AFP that Burns is expected in Egypt for more high-level negotiations. 

Following US pressure, Israel will reportedly also be sending a delegation to Cairo, which includes Mossad chief David Barnea and Shin Bet director Ronen Bar.

China has warned Israel that a “serious humanitarian disaster” will unfold in Gaza if it did not stop its military operation in Rafah “as soon as possible.”

“We call on Israel to stop military operations as soon as possible, do everything possible to avoid casualties among innocent civilians and prevent a more devastating humanitarian disaster in Rafah,” a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a statement.

It added China “opposes and condemns” actions that harm civilians and violate international law.

The Gaza chief of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa), Thomas White, has sounded the alarm over the high rates of diarrhoea, which can be deadly if there is not enough clean water, in addition to outbreaks of hepatitis A in Rafah. 

"These are the result of a million people jammed into a pretty small area without access to sanitation," White said, adding that the conditions in Rafah were grim.

"Hundreds of thousands of people are digging a hole in the sand adjacent to where they’re living, and that’s where they are defecating," he said.

"As an Israeli invasion of Rafah becomes imminent, White warned of “the reality of having a million people move in the Gaza Strip into areas that are not set up to accommodate them".

“Many of them will have to leave the shelters they have constructed here [in Rafah], White said. "We will have hundreds of thousands of people living in the open again."

The Palestinian Health Ministry in the occupied West Bank said that 20-year-old Mohammed Sharif al-Salmi, was killed in Qalqilyah by Israeli forces. According to the announcement, al-Salmi was shot in the head and chest.

Was it a gaffe or a freudian slip? The US president has referred to Israel’s planned military operation in Rafah as “our military operation”.

An official White House transcript of the speech shows Biden apparently changing his wording mid-sentence:

“Our military operation in Rafah – their – the major military operation in Rafah should not proceed without a credible plan for ensuring the safety and support of more than 1 million people sheltering there.”

The US provides Israel with billions of dollars in military support, backs its allies at diplomatic forums, sent its ships to protect Israel, is bombing Yemen for blocking Israeli ports and sent drones for surveillance over Gaza but Washington stresses that is not directly involved in the war on Gaza.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers, 

Here are the latest developments from Israel's war on Gaza, which enters its 130th day today: 

• At least five people were killed in an Israeli bombing of a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza
• The bodies of several people killed near Nasser Hospital have reportedly been lying on the ground for several days as it is too unsafe to reach them, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA says
• Most UN Security Council members support a draft ceasefire resolution put forward by Algeria, but the United States says it has “red lines”
• Israeli military announces death of 3 soldiers. At least 227 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since 7 October
• France delivers proposal for Israel-Hezbollah truce talks