Live: UK halts trade deal talks with Israel, summons ambassador over Gaza

Israel will not change its course under external pressure after Britain paused free trade talks over the war in Gaza and imposed new sanctions on Israeli settler leaders in the occupied West Bank.

"If, due to anti-Israel obsession and domestic political considerations, the British government is willing to harm the British economy - that is its own prerogative," Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein said in a statement.

"The British Mandate ended exactly 77 years ago. External pressure will not divert Israel from its path in defending its existence and security against enemies who seek its destruction."

The UK has announced it is summoning the Israeli ambassador in London and suspending its free trade agreement with Israel in a landmark move that tears up friendly relations between the two countries.

Speaking in parliament on Tuesday afternoon, Foreign Secretary David Lammy condemned "this Israeli government's egregious actions and rhetoric", adding that the government is "isolating Israel from its friends and partners around the world".

He criticised Israel for expanding its military operations in Gaza and restricting the entry of humanitarian aid.

Lammy said: "I find this deeply painful as a lifelong friend of Israel and a believer in the values expressed in its declaration of independence."

He argued that Israel's approach is "incompatible with the principles that underpin our bilateral relationship, rejected by members across this house, and frankly it's an affront to the values of the British people".

Read more: UK summons Israeli ambassador and suspends free trade agreement with Israel

At least 87 Palestinians were killed and 290 others wounded by Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours.

By midday on Tuesday, hospitals in Gaza had received the bodies of 53 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks, along with at least 50 wounded, the Palestinian health ministry reported.

Israel killed more than 70 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday in a wave of intense bombardments.

The Israeli military targeted residential areas and shelters housing displaced Palestinians, with many children reportedly among the dead.

According to statistics from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), 92 percent of homes in the besieged enclave have been damaged or destroyed during Israel's war on Gaza. 

“Families in Gaza face unimaginable devastation,” the agency said in a post on X.

Several massacres have been reported across the Gaza Strip, with the Gaza government media office indicating earlier that over 50 people had been killed, including children, in just the first five hours since dawn on Tuesday. 

Read more: Israel kills over 70 as healthcare crisis deepens in Gaza

The United Kingdom announced it would sanction several prominent Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, including veteran settler activist and head of the Nachala movement Daniella Weiss.

The new sanctions also target Eliav Libi and Zohar Sabah, as well as two illegal settler outposts and two organisations "supporting violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank."

"These individuals and entities are now subject to measures including financial restrictions, travel bans, and director disqualifications, and will follow 18 other individuals, entities, and companies already sanctioned relating to serious violence against communities in the West Bank," the press release read.

At least 53,573 people have been killed and 121,688 have been wounded by in Israeli attacks since 7 October 2023, the Palestinian health ministry reported.

Since Israel broke a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on 18 March, 3,427 people have been killed and 9,647 wounded, according to the ministry.

One of the University of Cambridge's largest colleges has decided to divest from the arms industry and companies complicit in "the occupation of Ukraine and Palestinian territories", following months of student protests. 

King's College Cambridge, founded by Henry VI in 1441, announced this week that its governing body has agreed to "adopt a responsible investment policy" by the end of the calendar year.

As of March 2023, the institution invested £2.2m ($2.94m) in arms companies including Lockheed Martin, Korea Aerospace, and BAE Systems.

The college told its members on Tuesday that under the new policy, its financial investments will exclude companies that "are involved in activities generally recognised as illegal or contravening global norms, such as occupation".

Its investments will also exclude companies that "produce military and nuclear weapons, weapons restricted by international treaty, or companies that produce key or dedicated components of such weapons". 

Read more: King's College Cambridge to divest millions from 'occupation' and arms industry

A United Nations chief warned on Tuesday that up to "14,000 babies" in Gaza could die "within the next 48 hours" if humanitarian aid doesn't reach them promptly. 

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the UN's humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher emphasised the urgency of the situation, saying that thousands of trucks loaded with baby food and nutritional supplies are ready to enter Gaza but remain stalled at the border.

“This is not food that Hamas is going to steal,” Fletcher said. “We run the risk of looting. We run the risks of being hit as part of the Israeli military offensive. We run all sorts of risk trying to get that baby food through to those mothers who cannot feed their children right now because they’re malnourished.”

On Monday evening, Israel allowed five aid trucks carrying baby food and other essential supplies to enter Gaza through the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing, situated at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip, marking the first such delivery in nearly three months.

Fletcher however described the delivery as a "drop in the ocean" and added that the aid had not yet reached the communities in need.

Read more: 14,000 babies could die in Gaza within 48 hours without aid: UN

The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital says the facility is “suffering from a severe shortage of supplies”.

He added that the hospital, located in northern Gaza, received on Tuesday four bodies and dozens of casualties due to several Israeli attacks.

“Israeli forces continue to fire at the hospital’s surroundings. We have been calling on international organisations to intervene for a year and a half, to no avail,” he said.

Britain, France and Canada have threatened Israel with sanctions if it fails to stop its military operations in Gaza and immediately allow humanitarian aid to enter. 

The unprecedented move marks a dramatic shift in policy for all three countries, which have until now been key backers of Israel.

In response, enraged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on social media platform X on Monday night that "the leaders in London, Ottowa and Paris are offering a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on October 7 while inviting more such atrocities". 

A joint statement from Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, France's President Emmanuel Macron and Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday called Israel's expanded military operations in Gaza "wholly disproportionate".

"We will not stand by while the Netanyahu Government pursues these egregious actions," the statement said.

Read more: UK, France and Canada threaten sanctions against Israel over fresh Gaza onslaught

At least two people were killed by Israeli drone fire in Gaza’s al-Tuffah neighbourhood in eastern Gaza, Al Jazeera English reports

Separately, another two people were killed by Israeli shelling in Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

The UN’s humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said on Tuesday that 14,000 babies in Gaza could die in the next 48 hours if aid doesn’t reach them.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Fletcher denounced the limited amount of aid entering the Strip, saying that only five trucks of aid were allowed into the enclave on Monday, which he described as only “a drop in the ocean”.

Although aid lorries are technically in Gaza, the UN chief said supplies, which contain baby food and nutrition, are not reaching civilians.

“I want to save as many as these 14,000 babies as we can in the next 48 hours,” he told the BBC.

“We have strong teams on the ground - and of course many of them have been killed … we still have lots of people on the ground - they’re at the medical centres, they’re at the schools ... trying to assess needs,” Fletcher replied to a question on how the UN learned about this figure.

Fletcher said he hopes that 100 trucks well enter Gaza on Tuesday.

“It’ll be tough ... but we’ll load those up with baby food and our people will run those risks,” he added.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel would allow basic aid into Gaza to prevent a “starvation crisis”.

Former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin urged the West on Tuesday to "economically and strategically isolate" Israel to oppose the goal of "deporting" the population of Gaza.

"We are facing an Israeli plan ... After the reoccupation of Gaza, the second step will be deportation. The political objective of Benjamin Netanyahu and his government is the deportation of the population of Gaza, which is the hallmark of ethnic cleansing, of territorial cleansing," Dominique de Villepin told France Info radio.

He added: "The Europeans know this perfectly well, and they are there with wooden swords, even though there are three things that must be done immediately."

First, "immediately suspend the European agreement with Israel. Most of Israel's trade is with Europe. Second, impose an arms embargo on all European countries. Third, refer the entire Israeli government and key Israeli military authorities to the International Criminal Court ... by writing collectively to the court," he proposed.

"If you want to stop what is happening today, you must make it clear to Israel that there will be a before and an after," he added.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, said on Tuesday that Gaza is probably facing its “worst humanitarian crisis since October 2023”.

In a post on X, Unrwa said: “For 11 weeks, Israeli authorities have deliberately blocked all supplies to Gaza. The only thing entering Gaza right now are bombs. Nowhere is safe.”

It added: “Intensified Israeli bombardments from air, land, and sea have resulted in hundreds of casualties and mass displacement.”

Israeli forces have carried out several raids in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, the Wafa news agency reported.

The Palestinian news agency said Israeli troops have stormed several homes in the town of Anabta, in east of Tulkarem, and detained three young men.

In the town of Kobar, near Ramallah, two people were arrested, as Israeli forces closed the main entrance to a nearby town.

An elderly Palestinian was injured by Israeli live ammunition in al-Ein refugee camp near Nablus.