Live: 54 Palestinians killed, 831 wounded in 24 hours

Wafa news agency is reporting that three Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks targeting Gaza City's al-Tuffah neighbourhood, as bombardment continues to pummel the city.

Wafa reported that Israeli fighter jets struck a group of civilians on al-Jaru Street, killing three, including two brothers.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera is reporting that Israeli bombardment of northern Gaza's border towns and villages, including Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia, Jabalia al-Balad, and the Jabalia refugee camp, is intensifying.

Journalist Tareq Abu Azzoum said that "massive bombardment" by the Israeli army has predominantly targeted "civilian infrastructure, turning [these areas] into lifeless wastelands".

In Gaza City, he said, "the atmosphere is one of sheer exhaustion mixed with constant fear".

"Residents told us they cannot sleep, as Israeli strikes shake the ground day and night. They live under relentless bombardment, never knowing when or where the next strike will hit", he said.

The British government faces mounting scrutiny over its military cooperation with Israel after the targeted killing of six journalists in an Israeli strike on Sunday.

Anas al-Sharif, Middle East Eye contributor Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal, who all worked for Al Jazeera, and freelancers Moamen Aliwa and Mohammed al-Khalidi were the latest among 238 journalists killed by Israel during its genocide in Gaza.

Aircraft from Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) have conducted hundreds of surveillance flights over Gaza in the last two years.

Last week, it emerged that the UK has recently been spending taxpayers' money to hire American contractors for surveillance flights over Gaza.

Scotland's The National reported on Wednesday that flight radar data shows a spy plane registered under the code N6147U was active at the RAF Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus two hours before the Israeli strike which killed the journalists on Sunday night.

Read more: Exclusive: MPs urge UK to disclose if it holds spy plane footage of Israel's journalist killings

The Israeli ambassador to the UK has met with an array of Labour donors, pro-Israel lobbyists and parliamentarians during Israel's genocide in Gaza, it has emerged.

Tzipi Hotovely's diary has been obtained and reported on by Declassified UK, after being released following a Freedom of Information request by lawyer Elad Man at Hatzlacha, an NGO promoting social justice in Israel.

Hotovely, who once called the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948, an "Arab lie" and is an avowed opponent of the creation of a Palestinian state, has become a prominent public figure in the UK and takes a markedly interventionist approach to British politics.

In recent months, for example, the ambassador issued an official complaint to the BBC over a documentary it aired on children in Gaza, because the child narrator was the son of a minister in the war-torn enclave. The film was ultimately pulled.

In July, she met Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, after complaining about the BBC iPlayer showing punk duo Bob Vylan chanting "Death to the IDF" during a performance at Glastonbury festival.

Read more: Israeli ambassador met with key UK Labour donors and lobbyists throughout Gaza genocide

Jordan's Foreign Ministry has issued a statement condemning comments made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backing the creation of "Greater Israel", which includes parts of Jordan and Egypt.

During an interview on Tuesday with i24 News, Netanyahu was presented with an amulet depicting “a map of the Promised Land” by interviewer Sharon Gal.

Gal then asked the prime minister whether he felt connected to this vision of Greater Israel.

“Very much,” Netanyahu replied.

While the amulet itself did not appear on screen, the term “Greater Israel” is widely understood to refer to a far-reaching expansionist vision. 

Jordan's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Sufyan Qudah, said the comments were a dangerous and provocative escalation, a threat to the sovereignty of states, and a violation of international law and the United Nations Charter.

He called on the international communty to intervene to stop similar provocative Israeli statements and actions, which threaten stability in the region.

Western leaders are now expressing “outrage”, as the media call it, at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to “take full control” of Gaza and “occupy” it. At some point in the future, Israel is apparently ready to hand the enclave over to outside forces unconnected to the Palestinan people. 

The Israeli cabinet agreed last Friday on the first step: a takeover of Gaza City, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are huddled in the ruins, being starved to death. The city will be encircled, systematically depopulated and destroyed, with survivors presumably herded southwards to a “humanitarian city” - Israel’s new term for a concentration camp - where they will be penned up, awaiting death or expulsion. 

At the weekend, foreign ministers from the UK, Germany, Italy, Australia and other western nations issued a joint statement decrying the move, warning it would “aggravate the catastrophic humanitarian situation, endanger the lives of the hostages, and further risk the mass displacement of civilians”. 

Germany, Israel’s most fervent backer in Europe and its second-biggest arms supplier, is apparently so dismayed that it has vowed to “suspend” - that is, delay - weapons shipments that have helped Israel to murder and maim hundreds of thousands of Palestinians over the past 22 months. 

Netanyahu is not likely to be too perturbed. Doubtless, Washington will step in and pick up any slack for its main client state in the oil-rich Middle East.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu has once again shifted the West’s all-too-belated focus on the indisputable proof of Israel’s ongoing genocidal actions - evidenced by Gaza’s skeletal children - to an entirely different story.

Now, the front pages are all about the Israeli prime minister’s strategy in launching another “ground operation”, how much pushback he is getting from his military commanders, what the implications will be for the Israelis still held captive in the enclave, whether the Israeli army is now overstretched, and whether Hamas can ever be “defeated” and the enclave “demilitarised”.

We are returning once again to logistical analyses of the genocide - analyses whose premises ignore the genocide itself. Might that not be integral to Netanyahu’s strategy?

Read more: Israel's plan for 'full control' of Gaza heralds a new Nakba - so the West is panicking: Opinion by Jonathan Cook

Israeli forces have killed at least 60 Palestinians in attacks across Gaza since dawn, Al Jazeera Arabic is reporting, citing medical sources.

It said that of that figure, 25 people were killed while trying to receive aid.

Al Jazeera recently reported that two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on southern Gaza's Khan Younis, according to Nasser Medical Complex staff.

The Times of Israel is reporting that Israeli military company Elbit Systems has inked a five-year contract worth $1.64bn to supply long-range precision strike artillery-rocket systems and unmanned aerial vehicles to an unnamed European country.

According to the report, the country ordered a suite of AI-powered unmanned aerial combat systems, including personally operated drones for tactical and operational use.

Under the deal, Elbit will supply long-range precision artillery rockets, and defence products equipped with its advanced intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance capabilities, known as ISTAR, as well as communications and signal intelligence systems.

We previously reported, citing a Wafa news agency report, that a Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank town of Duma, near Nablus.

The Israeli military has issued a statement saying that his killing was carried out by an off-duty soldier who was accompanying “an Israeli civilian” near Duma “during engineering works”.

The military claimed that the soldier was responding to Palestinians hurling rocks at them, saying “the soldier fired to remove the threat, and a hit was identified”.

“Upon receiving the report, additional IDF soldiers were dispatched to the scene. The incident has concluded. As a result of the rock hurling, the civilian and the soldier were lightly injured and received medical treatment at the scene,” the statement read.

Israeli settlers shot dead a Palestinian man in the village of Duma, south of Nablus, Wafa news agency is reporting.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that 35-year-old Thameen Khalil Reda Dawabsheh succumbed to his wounds after being shot by settlers during an attack on the village.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) also reported that its teams treated a critically wounded man following the attack.

According to Wafa, Suleiman Dawabsheh, the head of the village council, also confirmed that settlers had attacked residents and opened fire on them in the southern part of the village.

Ten Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers so far in 2025, according to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission. A total of 30 Palestinians have been killed in settler attacks since October 2023, according to the commission.

Spain signalled support on Wednesday for French President Emmanuel Macron's proposal of an international coalition under a United Nations mandate to stabilise Gaza, calling it "one of the tools" that could bring peace to the region.

Macron said on Monday that such a UN mission would be tasked with securing the Gaza Strip, protecting civilians and working in support of unspecified Palestinian governance. He said the UN Security Council should work on establishing the mission, while France would also work with its partners.

"The proposal ... is one of the tools that can help achieve peace and security in Gaza and the Middle East, as is the work of Unrwa as the UN agency for aid to the Palestinian people," the Spanish ministry said in an emailed reply to questions from Reuters.

"This force must be a step towards building the two-state solution," it added.

On Saturday, 54-year-old Zoe Cohen sat in London’s Parliament Square holding a cardboard sign that read, “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”, and waited patiently in the heat to be arrested under the UK's Terrorism Act. 

Police were working their way through some 1,000 people gathered there, displaying the same sign. When her turn came, she didn’t budge.

“Something just told me that I just wanted to lie there and be non-compliant,” she said.

When a young police officer crouched down and informed her she was under arrest under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act, she asked him simply, "Genocide is a crime isn't it?"

By that point, Cohen felt she had tried everything available to her to pressure the British government to do more to stop Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, which has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians since October 2023.

Read more: 'Frightening and surreal': Palestine Action and a Saturday of mass arrests

Israeli strikes have killed 123 Palestinians, including 21 aid seekers, wounding a further 437 in the past 24 hours, the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said on Wednesday.

At least eight people, including three children, have starved to death in the territory in the same period, bringing the total count of hunger-related deaths to 235, including 106 children, according to the ministry.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed a total of 61,722 Palestinians and injured 154,525 since 7 October, 2023, the ministry added.

A total of 1,859 Palestinians have been killed seeking aid, and more than 13,409 injured, since Israel introduced a controversial aid distribution mechanism through the US-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the statement said.

Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Sharren Haskel, is holding a series of meetings in South Sudan amid reports that Israel is discussing the forced transfer of Palestinians from Gaza to the East African country.

An Associated Press report, citing six sources familiar with the matter, said on Tuesday that Israel and South Sudan are discussing a potential plan to resettle Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to South Sudan.

While Netanyahu frames the relocation of Gaza’s population as “voluntary migration”, human rights organisations warn that the plan would result in the forced expulsion of Palestinians, in violation of international law.

In a statement announcing the visit, Haskel accused the international community of focusing “solely” on Gaza, saying South Sudan faces “a real humanitarian crisis”.

Israeli officials have been denying there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza during its siege and war on the territory, despite UN warnings that key food and nutrition indicators have exceeded famine thresholds.

The statement said Haskel's visit is focused on deepening cooperation in various areas and advancing joint initiatives and "exploring options for Israeli humanitarian aid" in the country.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday that chief of staff Eyal Zamir has approved the "main concept" for an attack plan on the Gaza Strip.

Israel has said it will launch a new offensive and fully occupy Gaza City, which it captured shortly after the war began in October 2023, before pulling out.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he feels “very” connected to the vision of a “Greater Israel”, which includes occupied Palestinian territory as well as parts of Syria, Egypt and Jordan.

During an interview on Tuesday with i24 News, Netanyahu was presented with an amulet depicting “a map of the Promised Land” by interviewer Sharon Gal.

Gal then asked the prime minister whether he felt connected to this vision of Greater Israel.

“Very much,” Netanyahu replied.

While the amulet itself did not appear on screen, the term “Greater Israel” is widely understood to refer to a far-reaching expansionist vision. 

Read more: Netanyahu says backs 'Greater Israel', which includes parts of Jordan and Egypt