Live: Israel kills more than 430 Palestinians on Tuesday

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem called upon US President Donald Trump to hold back from supporting the “extreme Zionist right”.

Qassem welcomes Trump’s statements saying that “no one is expelling any Palestinians,” retreating his earlier remarks about “owning” Gaza and displacing Palestinians in other states to reconstruct the Strip.

Hundreds of activists in America demonstrated on Wednesday against the detention of the Palestinian Columbia University graduate and activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested for organising a protest supporting Palestine on campus.

The protests to support Khalil were organised in front of a court in New York City, with slogans chanted against suppression of student movements and freedom of expression.

The demonstrators called for the immediate release of Khalil and home.

Earlier, a US judge ruled that the Palestinian activist should be allowed to make private phone calls with his legal team during detention.

Meanwhile, Khalil’s lawyers updated the protestors on the efforts exerted to secure his release.

A 35-year-old Palestinian died on Wednesday of a serious injury after he had fallen from a construction site while trying to flee an Israeli attack, in the occupied city of Jerusalem, according to Wafa news agency

Raafat Abdulaziz Abdullah Hammad, a worker, was being chased by Israeli troops and fell from a height of five stories at a construction site in the city.

The Israeli authorities are withholding Hammad’s body to authenticate his identity, whereas his family are rejecting their demand to carry out an autopsy on the body.

Hammad’s body shall be buried in the town of Silwad, located east of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, according to his brother.

The Jerusalem Governorate denounced the incident, stating it comes as a part of a systematic policy against Palestinian workers who risk their lives climbing Israel’s "apartheid wall" to reach their workplaces, as they are attacked with Israeli gunfire.

Middle East Eye reported earlier that Arab foreign ministers have agreed to resume consultation talks about Egypt’s Gaza reconstruction plan with US special envoy Steve Witkoff during a meeting in Doha.

A statement issued by the Qatari foreign ministry has just confirmed that Arab states have presented their plan to Witkoff.

“The Arab ministers emphasized the importance of establishing a ceasefire in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories, stressing the need for genuine efforts to achieve a just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution, ensuring the fulfillment of the Palestinian people’s aspirations for freedom and independence,” the statement read.

It added, “The Arab ministers reiterated their commitment to maintaining dialogue to reinforce the ceasefire and to work jointly to establish security, stability, and peace in the region, through intensified diplomatic efforts and coordination with various regional and international parties.”

Hamas and Israeli delegations are currently in the Qatari capital to resume Gaza ceasefire talks, with Witkoff joining Egypitan and Qatari mediators.

A US judge ordered on Wednesday that the detained Palestinian Columbia University graduate, Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested on Saturday night, would be allowed to have private phone calls with his lawyers.

Judge Jesse Furman’s ruling came at a court hearing in Manhattan federal court, where Khalil’s lawyer Ramzi Kassem said the Palestinian activist had been only allowed to make one call with his legal team during detention, which was cut off and recorded by the authorities.

Khalil and his lawyers are now allowed to make one call on Wednesday and Thursday without any government monitoring their conversations.

A federal judge temporarily blocked his deportation, and Khalil is currently awaiting proceedings in a federal jail in Louisiana.

On Monday, in a post on Donald Trump's Truth Social platform, the US president described Khalil as a "Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student" and announced that his arrest was "the first arrest of many to come".

Israeli forces have arrested three Palestinian sisters in Hebron, Wafa news agency reported on Wednesday.

They are named as Iman, Afnan and Inas Abdul Mahdi al-Zohour.

It said the three women, all teachers, were detained after Israeli soldiers had stormed and inspected their house in the town of Neit Kahil.

The sisters’ father was quoted as saying to Wafa that the husband and son of one of his daughters are imprisoned in Nafha and Ofer prisons.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) reports that more than 35,000 children in Gaza are receiving face-to-face education in temporary locations supervised by the organisation.

Another 250,000 children are currently relying on remote learning, with 70 percent of them learning online.

In January of last year, Israel placed a ban on Unrwa activities in its territory and the occupied West Bank.

The war on Gaza has completely destroyed the education system in the strip, leaving hundreds of thousands of children out of education. Schools and universities, including Unrwa institutions, have been reduced to rubble in Israeli air strikes.

Arab foreign ministers said on Wednesday that they will continue consultations with US President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, on Egypt's Gaza reconstruction plan, in a meeting in Doha.

According to a joint statement, “consultations will continue on the plan with the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff, as a basis for the reconstruction efforts in the Gaza Strip”.

Hamas and Israel delegations are currently meeting in Doha for a new round of talks on the Gaza ceasefire, with Witkoff joining alongside Egyptian and Qatari mediators.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is holding a security assessment meeting with Israeli army seniors and ministers, according to Haaretz.

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that “no one is expelling anyone from Palestinian territory”, backing off his threats of a previous proposal where he suggested that Palestinians should be displaced to other states.

He made the statement while speaking alongside Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin in the White House before their meeting.

Ahead of the talks, Irish ministers had called for a ceasefire in Gaza, stressing the need for humanitarian aid to be allowed into the strip. Martin had also called for the release of captives in Gaza before meeting with Trump in Washington.

The Israeli army said on Wednesday that it had detained 12 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the detainees are “suspected of terrorism”. It added that Israeli forces have interrogated dozens of individuals and confiscated a “significant cache of weapons”.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer denounced on Wednesday Israel’s continuous blockage of aid to Gaza, during a Prime Minister’s Questions session in parliament.

“I’m really appalled by Israel blocking aid when it is needed at greater volume and speed than it’s ever been needed.

“Blocking goods and supplies and power entering Gaza risks breaching international humanitarian law, and it shouldn’t be happening and we are doing everything we can to alleviate that situation.”

His statements come as a reply to a question posted by Zarah Sultana, an independent MP for Coventry South, in which she described Israel’s prevention of aid into the Strip as “further evidence of genocide”.

She had asked: “Israel’s decision to also cut off electricity to a water plant supplying drinking water to half a million people is yet another blatant violation of international law and further evidence of genocide against the Palestinian people. In light of these facts, does the prime minister still maintain that Israel is not committing genocide?”

The killing of a resistance fighter by the Palestinian Authority (PA) has sparked widespread outrage, particularly as it occurred amid Israel's ongoing military assault on the occupied West Bank. 

Abdul Rahman Abu al-Muna, a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement's armed wing and wanted by Israel, was shot and abducted by Palestinian security forces at the al-Naseem roundabout in Jenin on Monday. 

His death was later confirmed after he was taken to a hospital.

Palestinian security spokesperson Anwar Rajab stated that security forces were fulfilling their duty to maintain order when they engaged Abu al-Muna, describing him as an "outlaw" who had previously fired on security service headquarters.

Rajab claimed that Abu al-Muna initiated the shooting, prompting security forces to respond in accordance with engagement protocols, which led to his injury and subsequent death.

Read more: PA’s killing of resistance fighter amid army raid signals its open coordination with Israel

The UK is “confident” in its position to continue licensing the export of spare parts that could end up in Israeli F-35 fighter jets even as Israel has halted aid and electricity entering Gaza, the UK’s Middle East minister Hamish Falconer said Tuesday.

In September, the Labour government suspended around 30 arms export licences to Israel after a review found that UK-made weapons might be used in the violation of international humanitarian law in Gaza.

One key factor was the review’s conclusion that Israel had not fulfilled its duty as an occupying power to ensure that supplies essential the survival of the population in Gaza.

Falconer told parliament's foreign affairs committee that, as a result of the assessment, weapons that could be used by Israel offensively had been restricted.

However, a specific carve-out was made for F-35 spare parts exported indirectly to Israel because it was “in the interest of international peace and security”, he said.

“We could not suspend those licences without impairing the overall F-35 supply chain which would have significant far-reaching ramifications given the importance of F-35s right across our allies and, indeed, in our own region in Europe,” Falconer said.

Read more: UK 'confident' in F-35 exports to Israel even as aid into Gaza halted

A ceasefire does not mean that Israel has dropped its goal to annihilate Gaza.

The mission remains the same, and the war crimes endure, including killings - the method just shifts. Now, the textbook starvation of the enclave is the weapon of choice.

But the British public will not be privy to such details - not if they rely on the mainstream media to report them accurately.

In early March, as the first phase of the ceasefire was ending and the full withdrawal of Israel's forces from Gaza was supposed to take place, Israel decided to block all aid from entering the territory. 

The media reported it but, characteristically, thinned out the details.

Writes Hamaza Yusuf.

Read more: Israel is continuing the genocide - but the UK media will not tell you

Hamas on Wednesdsay condemned Israel's continuation of blocking humanitarian aid and cutting off of electricity and water supplies to Gaza.

"The continued power cuts in the Gaza Strip for more than 16 months constitute a war crime and pose the threat of a catastrophic water crisis in the region," the Palestinian group which has de facto control of Gaza said in a statement.

"The use of water and food as a weapon represents a dangerous escalation within a systematic effort to deepen the humanitarian disaster in Gaza."

The group accused the government of Benjamin Netanyahu breaching the ceasefire agreement that came into effect on 19 January, and of overseeing "an unprecedented crime of collective punishment against more than two million people in the Gaza Strip."