Israel-Palestine live: Biden urges Egypt, Qatar to press Hamas for hostage deal

Al Jazeera Arabic has aired footage showing Israeli forces killing two Palestinians attempting to return to northern Gaza. The two men were killed along a beach, with the footage showing that one was killed by tank fire.

The video then goes on to show Israeli forces burying the bodies.

Israel asked the Biden administration to reschedule a meeting to discuss a potential military operation in Gaza's southern city of Rafah.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abruptly cancelled the meeting on Monday after the US abstained from a UN Security Council vote calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

"The prime minister's office has agreed to reschedule the meeting dedicated" to Rafah, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

"So we're now working with them to set [a] convenient date," she added.

Annelle Sheline, a State Department official working on human rights in the Middle East, resigned from her position citing Washington's support for Israel's war in Gaza.

Sheline becomes the most significant Biden official to resign from their position since Josh Paul, who oversaw arms transfers at the State Department, resigned in October.

“I wasn’t able to really do my job anymore,” Sheline told the Washington Post. “Trying to advocate for human rights just became impossible.”

Read the full story here.

The White House expressed condolences to the people who drowned while trying to retrieve aid that was airdropped into the water off a beach in Gaza.

Twelve people drowned trying to reach the aid, Palestinian health authorities said on Tuesday.

An Israeli strike has killed several people in southern Lebanon, according to multiple reports.

Reuters is reporting that five people have been killed in a strike, including Hezbollah fighters.

Hundreds of alumni from the prestigious New York University plan to withhold more than $3m worth of potential contributions from the institution's largest fundraising day on Wednesday over its suppression of students and faculty organising against what they call "genocide" in Gaza.

NYU Alumni for Palestine, the group that mobilised to deter alumni from donating to the university, told MEE that the stifling of pro-Palestinian voices and its refusal to condemn Israel's killing of Palestinians in Gaza had compelled them to take action against their alma mater.

The group cited an informal tracker created by NYU Faculty for Justice in Palestine, which documented retaliatory actions against an estimated 100 students as well as 25 staff and faculty over the past six months because of their comments or mobilising for Palestine.

These retaliations, the spokesperson for the group said, included protracted investigations, verbal and written warnings, threats to scholarships and financial awards, withdrawals of scholarships and financial awards, suspensions, expulsions, as well as termination of employment.

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Hundreds of New York University alumni refuse to donate to university over Palestine policy

Al Jazeera is reporting that a fourth Palestinian was killed by Israeli forces during a raid near the West Bank city of Jenin.

Medical sources told Al Jazeera that Walid al-Usta, who was wounded in the raid, has succumbed to his wounds and died.

Two other Palestinians were killed in the raid by drone, a 19-year-old and a 27-year-old, while nine others were injured at the time of the attack.

Israeli forces also shot and killed a 19-year-old youth in Jenin earlier on Wednesday.

Israel's military announced the name of another soldier who was killed while fighting in Gaza.

Nisim Kachlon, a 21-year-old staff sergeant, was killed in southern Gaza, the army said, without providing further details about what happened.

The majority of Americans now oppose Israel's military actions in Gaza, according to a new poll by Gallup. 

The survey found that 55 percent of respondents currently disapprove of Israel’s actions, a shift from November when 50 percent said they backed the assault. 

Support for Israel's campaign was down across major party groups, but the majority of Republicans still approved it at 64 percent. 

Ireland said on Wednesday it would intervene in South Africa's genocide case against Israel, in the strongest signal to date of Dublin's concern about Israeli war on Gaza since October.

Announcing the move, Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said that while it was for the World Court to decide whether genocide is being committed, he wanted to be clear that the initial Hamas attack and what is happening in Gaza now "represents the blatant violation of international humanitarian law on a mass scale."

"The taking of hostages. The purposeful withholding of humanitarian assistance to civilians. The targeting of civilians and of civilian infrastructure. The indiscriminate use of explosive weapons in populated areas. The use of civilian objects for military purposes. The collective punishment of an entire population," Martin said in a statement.

"The list goes on. It has to stop. The view of the international community is clear. Enough is enough."

Martin did not say what form the intervention would take or outline any argument or proposal Ireland plans to put forward.

Martin's department said such third party interventions do not take a specific side in the dispute, but that the intervention would be an opportunity for Ireland to put forward its interpretation of one or more of the provisions of the Genocide Convention at issue in the case.

Reporting by Reuters

A United Nations expert who published a report saying there were reasonable grounds to believe Israel has committed genocide in Gaza said on Wednesday she had received threats throughout her mandate.

Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the West Bank and Gaza, presented a report entitled "Anatomy of a Genocide" to the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday, which Israel said it "utterly rejects".

Asked whether her work on the report had caused her to receive threats, Albanese said: "Yes, I do receive threats. Nothing that so far I considered needing extra precautions. Pressure? Yes, and it doesn't change either my commitment or the results of my work."

Albanese, who has held the position since 2022, did not elaborate on the nature of the threats, nor did she say who had issued them.

"It's been a difficult time," she said. "I've always been attacked since the very beginning of my mandate."

Israel has harangued Albanese, saying she was "delegitimising the very creation and existence of the State of Israel." Albanese denied the accusation.

Albanese said one of her key findings was that Israel's executive and military leadership and soldiers have intentionally "subverted their protection functions in an attempt to legitimise genocidal violence against the Palestinian people".

"The only reasonable inference that can be drawn from the unveiling of this policy is an Israeli state policy of genocidal violence toward the Palestinian people in Gaza," she said.

Israel's diplomatic mission in Geneva said the use of the word genocide was "outrageous" and said the war was against Hamas and not Palestinian civilians.

Albanese, an Italian lawyer and academic, is one of dozens of independent human rights experts mandated by the United Nations to report on specific themes and crises. The views expressed by special rapporteurs do not reflect those of the global body as a whole.

Reporting by Reuters

An eyewitness to the ongoing Israeli assault on al-Shifa hospital and surrounding areas in Gaza recalled how he survived death after 10 days of relentless attacks. 

Salman's* home was hit by air strikes on Tuesday evening, trapping him and 25 other family members under rubble. 

After nearly 12 hours, he managed to get out with minor injuries. When he screamed if anyone else was still alive, he didn't hear back. 

A Middle East Eye correspondent who spoke to Salman said "the young man was still in shock".

The targeted house in which Salman was residing is located near al-Shifa hospital in west Gaza City. 

The area has been under intense Israeli attacks that have seen families displaced at gunpoint, widespread arrests and torture, as well as the indiscriminate burning of homes. 

"The entire streets are filled with dead bodies," Salman told MEE. "The [bad] smell is everywhere and cats are eating the dead bodies."

Name changed for safety purposes 

Torture remains a pervasive reality in Palestine, where countless individuals have endured unspeakable physical and psychological trauma at the hands of Israeli forces. 

This has been an especially serious problem since the Gaza war began on 7 October, with Palestinians telling Middle East Eye that they have been physically tortured with dogs and electricity, subjected to mock executions, and held in humiliating and degrading conditions. One man described how he was handcuffed, blindfolded and detained in a metal cage for 42 days.

Addressing such grave human rights violations demands a comprehensive approach, including the development of specialised skills for healthcare professionals tasked with documenting and treating survivors. 

Trained in the Istanbul Protocol for torture documentation, I have dedicated myself to equipping fellow professionals with the necessary tools to navigate this challenging terrain.

As violence continues to escalate - with torture not restricted to detention centres, but also witnessed in the streets of the occupied Palestinian territories and captured on video - it is more imperative than ever to bolster health workers’ capacities to document such incidents, thus amplifying the voices of survivors in their pursuit of justice.

Palestinians have been systematically oppressed for decades, with more than 800,000 arrested since 1967. Inside Israeli detention centres, many have faced brutal physical and psychological abuse that meets the stringent criteria for torture set forth by the United Nations.  

Key elements of torture include the intentional infliction of severe mental or physical suffering for a specific purpose, with the involvement of someone acting in an official capacity. The surge in cases since 7 October serves as a stark reminder of the urgent need to document these atrocities and hold perpetrators accountable before the international community.

Read more How to hold Israel accountable for torturing Palestinians by Samah Jabr

Former Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal has said the group will not release the Israeli captives it holds in Gaza until there's a permanent end to the war. 

Speaking at a Jordanian women's event, Meshaal said Hamas was involved in negotiations no less "fierce" than the fighting on the ground. 

However, he said the group insists on achieving its demands, which include an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli troops, the return of displaced families to their homes and providing necessary relief and shelter to Gaza. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday his cancellation of a planned visit to Washington by top aides this week was meant to show Hamas that Israel would not bend to growing international pressure to halt the war in Gaza.

"It was a message first and foremost to Hamas: 'Don't bet on this pressure, it's not going to work,'" he said in videoed comments at a meeting with visiting US Senator Rick Scott.

Reporting by Reuters