Gaza live: Biden moves ahead with military aid for Israel as it launches ground assaults on Rafah

The Israeli army said that 41 soldiers have been killed in friendly fire and operational accidents since the start of the current war on Gaza, while 630 have been injured.

Gaza's health ministry said that 55 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on the enclave in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 34,844 Palestinians killed since 7 October.

Additionally, 78,404 have been wounded since the start of the war.

Police have started clearing a pro-Palestine encampment in George Washington University in Washington, DC, hours after students left the site and marched to university president Ellen Granberg's home.

Police officers had told students that those who remain in front of the plaza would be arrested, while university officials warned students of possible suspensions for participating in protests on University Yard.

Dozens of protesters have been arrested according to community organisers.

A poll shown by Israel's Channel 13 showed that 52 percent of Israelis do not believe a large-scale operation in Rafah would achieve a decisive victory, while 30 percent believe it would.

The poll also showed that Benny Gantz's National Unity party would become the biggest bloc in Israel's Knesset should elections be held now, with 30 seats compared to 19 for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud.

Additionally, on the question regarding the hostage deal with Hamas, 44 percent of Israelis said they would oppose an approval of the deal accepted by Hamas, while 41 percent said they would endorse it.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was calling in vice-chancellors of universities to discuss the "unacceptable" rise in antisemitism and the "need for universities to be safe for our Jewish students".

The call comes as students at several UK universities - including Oxford, Cambridge and UCL - set up pro-Palestine encampments protesting against their universities' links to Israel and their alleged complicity in the war on Gaza.

Sunak's spokesperson said the prime minister expects universities to take "robust action" in dealing with the protests, as ministers are preparing new guidance for universities to follow in order to deal with what the Times called "potentially antisemitic protests and prevent outside groups from infiltrating campuses". 

Universities are also expected, under the conditions of registration, to have robust policies to prevent "harassment" of students on campus.

"Universities which breach their conditions of registration can be fined by the [Office of Students] and compelled to take the 'necessary actions' to address their concerns," the Times report.

A new mass grave was discover at the al-Shifa Medica Complex, the chairman of the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Ramy Abdu, said on Tuesday.

Abdu says the grave contains the bodies of "dozens of Palestinians, including women, children, and patients, executed by Israel".

Following Israel's announcement that it was reopening the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing into Gaza on Wednesday, Sky News said it had spoken to the UN, which told it the crossing was still closed as of 11.15am (8.15am GMT) that day.

Speaking at a conference hosted by the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, Israel's chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari appeared to play down the US hold-up of an arms shipment to Israel amid concerns over Israel's potential invasion of Rafah, saying the two allies resolve disagreements "behind closed doors".

He added that the coordination between Israel and the US is reaching "a scope without precedent, I think, in history".

Axios reporter Barak Ravid said that the shipment paused by the US included "1800 2000lb bombs and 1700 500lb bombs".

Students at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil have started their own pro-Palestine encampment, following in the footsteps of protesters at campuses in the US, Europe and beyond.

Video footage from the protest shows a big Palestinian flag unravelling with "ceasefire in Gaza" written on it.

A student filming the protest said they set up the encampment to demand that their university ends its relations with Israel.

Israeli bulldozers and vehicles began, with police protection, the demolition of 47 homes belonging to the Abu Assa family in the Hebron Valley, near the Umm Batin Bedouin village in the Negev region of southern Israel.

The Higher Steering Committee for the Arabs of the Negev said Israeli authorities are attempting to force the Abu Assa family to leave the area, in order to build the extension of a southward road.

The committee said Israel is not allowing residents to gather and hold protests against what it called an "unprecedented crime" against "the Arab citizens of the Negev".

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in its latest report that Israeli forces are unlawfully killing Palestinians in the West Bank, in cases that include executions of individuals who posed no apparent threat.

"Research into eight deaths in four incidents between July 2022 and October 2023 concluded that Israeli forces wrongfully fatally shot or deliberately executed Palestinians who posed no apparent security threat," the report says.

"According to the United Nations, Israeli security forces killed more than twice the number of Palestinians in the West Bank in 2023 than in any year since systematic data collection began in 2005, and the rate of killings was even higher during the first quarter of 2024."

Richard Weird, senior crisis and conflict researcher at HRW, said Israeli forces have been killing Palestinians in the West Bank "without a legal basis", adding that they are taking place in an environment with no precedent, in which Israeli soldiers "have no need to fear that their government will hold them accountable".

Israeli forces killed 492 Palestinians in the West Bank in 2023, including 120 children. While about 300 of them were killed after the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel, HRW says the increasing rate of killings dates back to 2022. 

In 2024, Between 1 January and 31 March, they have killed 131 Palestinians.

Qatar's foreign ministry said on Wednesday that it strongly condemns Israel's incursion into Rafah, and called for "for urgent international action to prevent the city from being invaded and a crime of genocide being committed".

Israel will reopen the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing on its border with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, according to a statement from the Israeli agency in charge.

The statement added that aid trucks routed from Egypt were already undergoing inspections there.

Israel closed the Karem Abu Salem crossing on Sunday after a nearby Hamas attack that killed four soldiers, and took over the Rafah crossing on Tuesday, essentially blocking off the entire Gaza Strip.

Andrea De Domenico, the head of the UN’s humanitarian aid office in the Palestinian territories, said that critical diesel supplies needed to power drinking water pumps and maintain communications and aid deliveries will run out today.

De Domenico says the UN normally uses 200,000 litres of diesel a day in Gaza, and that it had 30,000 litres remaining as of Tuesday night.

Since Israel took over the Rafah border crossing and denied the UN access, no fuel deliveries can be made.

De Domenico warns that this would shut down the main water production facility in northern Gaza, "depriving the entire population of access to drinking water".

The 16 UN-supported bakeries in Gaza will also have to shut down without fuel and flour supplies.

De Domenico, speaking at a news conference in East Jerusalem, added that the Israelis were not on the ground providing humanitarian services.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates:

• An Israeli strike on the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City killed seven people: a man, his wife, and their five children
• The US has confirmed that it paused a bomb shipment to Israel over concerns that the latter was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale invasion of Rafah
• CIA chief Bill Burns is expected to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today, as Israel insists on a full Rafah invasion and ceasefire talks continue in Cairo
• The Bahamas announced that it will formally recognise Palestine as a state