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

The Lebanese health ministry said one person has been killed by an Israeli air strike in Wadi al-Hujeir in southern Lebanon.

Israeli forces carried out a drone attack on a vehicle in the Nabatieh district, according to the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA).

The keffiyeh and watermelons are antisemitic symbols. 

That’s according to training that the New York Police Department received in January from outfits closely associated with the pro-Israel community. The US magazine Jewish Currents, which obtained details about the training, questioned the focus of the presentation. 

“They are actively conflating any care for Palestinian humanity or rights - and in some cases, Palestinian existence itself - with antisemitism,” Dove Kent, the US senior director for Diaspora Alliance, a group that battles antisemitism and its weaponisation, told Jewish Currents. “None of this does anything to increase Jewish safety.” 

Barely a week goes by without mainstream media and Zionist groups telling the public that antisemitism is at record highs. 

The head of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Jonathan Greenblatt, recently went on CNN to detail his organisation’s new research, which asserts that antisemitic incidents have skyrocketed by 10 times since 2015. 

Read more: Trump isn't fighting antisemitism. He's targeting critics of Israel Opinion by Antony Loewenstein

Harvard University expanded its lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's moves to cut off billions of dollars in federal funding to the Ivy League school on Tuesday after officials said they are terminating an additional $450m in grants.

Harvard filed the amended complaint in federal court in Boston hours after eight government agencies cancelled additional grants on top of the $2.2bn in funding President Donald Trump's administration had already terminated.

Trump's Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism accused Harvard of failing to confront "antisemitic harassment plaguing its campus" after pro-Palestine protests at the school.

Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the government wrongly conflates their criticism of Israel's actions in Gaza with antisemitism and their advocacy for Palestinian rights with support for extremism.

Harvard argues the administration's sweeping demands violate the free speech guarantees of the US Constitution, also challenging a decision to freeze billions of dollars in future research grants and other aid until the college concedes to the administration's demands.

At least 60 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since dawn, Al Jazeera reported, citing medical sources.

At least 50 people were killed in attacks on northern Gaza, including on Jabalia refugee camp.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen towards its territory. The launch coincides with US President Donald Trump's visit to the Gulf.

Trump announced earlier in May that he had reached a ceasefire with Yemen's Houthis that will halt attacks on US vessels. Trump declared that the US would stop bombing the Ansar Allah group in Yemen as the group, which controls most of the country, had agreed to stop attacking US ships.

The Houthis said they will continue to fire missiles and drones towards Israel.

The Houthis have attacked numerous vessels in the Red Sea, disrupting global trade, in a campaign that they say is aimed at showing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Good morning, Middle East Eye readers,

Here are some of the latest updates on Gaza and across the region:

• Israeli attacks have killed at least 56 Palestinians since the early hours of this morning, Al Jazeera reported, citing medical sources.

• Russia slams US-Israeli aid distribution mechanism plan for Gaza, saying that it can be hardly expected that "it will be possible to effectively provide assistance to the 2 million Palestinians" who are hostage to political and military decisions.

• China’s envoy, too, has criticised the US-Israeli plan for Gaza aid distribution during a speech at the UN Security Council, said aid "must not be weaponised".

• The United Kingdom’s envoy to the UN, Barbara Woodward, told journalists outside the meeting that Israel must lift its blockade on Gaza, rejected US-Israeli plan for aid distribution in Gaza.

• United Nations relief chief Tom Fletcher on Tuesday called on the UN Security Council to take action "to prevent genocide" in Gaza, delivering a scathing account of Israel's actions in the Palestinian territory.

• US President Donald Trump, speaking in the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, said he is working to end Israel’s war on Gaza as soon as possible, adding that the people of the enclave “deserve a much better future”.

Our live blog will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are the day's key developments:

- Israel has killed 35 people across Gaza since dawn on Tuesday, health officials said. 

- Hours after bombing Nasser Hospital overnight, Israel bombed the vicinity of the European Hospital, killing at least six people and leaving 70 others wounded. 

- Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the army is planning to enter Gaza "with full force" in the coming days, according to a statement from his office.

- Netanyahu also said that his government is "working" to find countries that will receive Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

- United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher slammed a plan by Israel to sidestep the UN for the distribution of aid in the Gaza Strip as a "cynical sideshow, a deliberate distraction, a fig leaf for further violence and displacement".

- French President Emmanuel Macron has said Europe should consider sanctions against Netanyahu for his aid blockade in Gaza.

- Hamas was the side that began the outreach to US President Donald Trump toward a deal to free a US-Israeli dual national from captivity in Gaza, Axios has reported, and the group did it via an Arab-American Trump contact with no role in the administration. 

- The British government assessed last year that there was “no serious risk” of a genocide occurring in Gaza, weeks before it imposed a partial suspension of arms exports to Israel which did not include parts that could end up in Israeli F-35 fighter jets.

A New York Times report on Tuesday said that within the Israeli military, there are already calls to lift the crippling aid blockade on Gaza that has been in place since early March.

"Israeli military officers who monitor humanitarian conditions in Gaza have warned their commanders in recent days that unless the blockade is lifted quickly, many areas of the enclave will likely run out of enough food to meet minimum daily nutritional needs," the NYT reported, citing Israeli defence officials.

"The military officials’ analysis has exposed a gulf between Israel’s public stance on the aid blockade and its private deliberations. It reveals that parts of the Israeli security establishment have reached the same conclusions as leading aid groups," the reporting added. 

On Monday, the popular American children's content creator, Ms Rachel, explained her decision to speak up for the children of Gaza, saying that the real controversy lies in remaining silent over their suffering.

In a conversation with British-American journalist Mehdi Hasan, she reflected on the pressure to stay quiet and said: "I think it should be controversial to not say anything." 

Rachel Griffin Accurso, best known for her YouTube series Songs for Littles, which teaches toddlers nursery rhymes and early learning concepts to an audience of 14.7 million subscribers. She has also used her social media platforms to speak out about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza that has unfolded since Israel launched its military campaign after the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attack on the southern part of the country.

Read more: ‘Being silent is what should be controversial,’ said the popular children’s educator and YouTube personality

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's aid blockade of Gaza, where half a million people are facing starvation, is "shameful" and that Europeans should consider increasing sanctions.

Macron was speaking to TF1 television, according to the Reuters news agency.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) announced on Tuesday that it has erected a billboard in Times Square, in the heart of New York City, demanding that US President Donald Trump let unconditional aid into Gaza.

"This visit to Riyadh—and the US–Saudi investment summit—must not be viewed as a business opportunity alone. At the heart of this historic trip must be a clear and immediate demand: end Israel’s unabated genocide in Gaza. Restore the rule of international law. Recognize the Palestinian people’s right to freedom, self-determination, and dignity. Return humanity to the center of US foreign policy," an ADC press release said.

"Get the aid to Gaza, and get it now! The United States possesses the resources and capability to deliver life-saving supplies immediately, without needing permission or 'coordination' from other countries. Our government must step up and act without hesitation. The world is watching," the ADC added.

The billboard quotes Trump's own words last month: “We’ve got to be good to Gaza. Those people are suffering. There’s a very big need for food and medicine. And we’re taking care of it.”

United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher on Tuesday slammed a plan by Israel for the distribution of aid in the Gaza Strip as a "cynical sideshow, a deliberate distraction, a fig leaf for further violence and displacement".

He told the UN Security Council that no food, medicine, water or tents have entered the war-torn Palestinian enclave for more than 10 weeks. 

"We can save hundreds of thousands of survivors. We have rigorous mechanisms to ensure our aid gets to civilians and not to Hamas, but Israel denies us access, placing the objective of depopulating Gaza before the lives of civilians," Fletcher said. 

Israel, backed by the US, wants a new mechanism that bypasses the decades-long infrastructure set up by the UN to distribute aid.

- with reporting by Reuters

The Ministry of Health in Gaza said on Tuesday that the Israeli bombing in the vicinity of the European Hospital in Khan Younis has killed at least 16 people and wounded 70 others. 

British surgeon Tom Potokar, who is currently working at the European Hospital, said the operating theatre has been damaged and it is no longer possible to take patients to surgery. 

The BBC reported on Tuesday that a British citizen will be deported from Israel after allegedly walking into a "closed military zone".

"After being questioned she was found to have posted anti-Israel Defense Forces (IDF) sentiments on social media and to belong to an organisation calling for the boycott of Israel," the BBC said, citing Israeli police. 

Janet Adyeri, 35, is currently being held at a detention centre. She was detained, after questioning on Monday, in the Southern Hebron Hills area of the occupied West Bank. 

Hamas was the side that began the outreach to US President Donald Trump toward a deal to free a US-Israeli dual national from captivity in Gaza, Axios has reported, and the group did it via an Arab-American Trump contact with no role in the administration. 

That contact was Bishara Bahbah, who previously led Arab Americans for Trump, and has since changed the name to Arab Americans For Peace after Trump proposed turning the Strip into a beach resort. 

Bahbah was key to building support for Trump among Arab Americans prior to the 2024 election. 

Axios, via Israeli intelligence sources, said that Bahbah was contacted by a Hamas official outside Gaza to initiate talks to release US-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander, who was captured by Hamas on 7 October 2023. 

It was through Bahbah that Hamas was able to reach Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Axios said.