Live: Palestinian death toll in Gaza nears 26,000

The Israeli occupation has deprived more than 625,000 students in the Gaza Strip of education, said the Palestinian Ministry of Education. 

As the world celebrates the International Day of Education, the death toll of students killed in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank since 7 October has reached at least 4,551, with 8,193 others wounded, the ministry added. 

All of Gaza's higher education institutions have been destroyed by Israel during the last four months of bombardment. 

In response to a news report by a South African news outlet, the country's Justice Department spokesperson, Chrispin Phiri, said: “We do not have an official communication from the court as to when the judgment will be delivered.”

Earlier on Wednesday, News24 stated that a government delegation has touched down in The Hague in anticipation of the judgment. The ICJ has not officially announced that it has made a preliminary judgment. 

In a press statement today, the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO) said that Palestinians, especially in the northern Gaza Strip, are living in catastrophic and inhumane conditions after they ran out of basic food supplies.

“The network holds the international community fully responsible for this crisis resulting from the occupation war and its siege imposed on our people,” the statement said.

The risk of death from starvation threatens about half a million citizens in Gaza City and northern Gaza, said the PNGO in a statement.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Wednesday that at least 25,700 people have now been killed in the besieged Palestinian territory since the war began on 7 October.

At least 210 people were killed over the past 24 hours, and nearly 400 others wounded.

A statement said the number of injured now stands at 63,740 since the fighting started.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is expected to rule on Friday on whether it will grant emergency measures to stop the war in Gaza, South African news website News24 reported on Wednesday. 

News24 stated that a government delegation has touched down in The Hague in anticipation of the judgment. The ICJ has not officially announced that it has made a preliminary judgment. 

In its application to the ICJ, South Africa accused Israel of violating the Genocide Convention. 

Earlier this month South Africa asked the ICJ to order an emergency suspension of Israel’s military campaign in the Palestinian enclave, accusing it of carrying out “a state-led genocide”.

For decades, Palestinians have become accustomed to death from above.

Israel’s arsenal of aerial platforms include warplanes, such as the F16, Apache attack helicopters and combat drones.

These have been used to great effect on the urban environment in both the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

The ongoing war on Gaza, however, has brought about a new development - one used to target individuals and groups of people from close quarters.

For the first time in the Palestinian territories, remote-controlled quadcopters have been deployed on a large scale against suspected Palestinian fighters and civilians.

Read more: Israeli quadcopters, the hi-tech weapon menacing Palestinian civilians

One of Germany's most renowned lawyers dealing with internal law, Stefan Talmon, has come out against the country's support for the US and UK attacks on the Houthis in Yemen. 

"The US and UK strikes against Houthi positions across Yemen are not covered by the right to self-defence and constitute a violation of international law," said Talmon in an article. 

"The attacks on the Houthis were neither necessary nor proportional to the stated armed attacks on the warships of the two countries," he said, adding that the "use of force by the United States and the United Kingdom was also disproportionate.

"The use of force by the United States and the United Kingdom must therefore be regarded more as an act of deterrence, as a warning to the Houthis not to continue their attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea or as retaliation and punishment, but not as self-defence," he added.

"The attacks on the Houthi positions in Yemen also were not proportionate to the stated attacks on the warships," he concluded.

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich demanded on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convene the cabinet, amid growing reports that Hamas and Israel have agreed on the contours of a pause that would see the fighting in Gaza stop for a month as part of a hostage-release deal.

"Stopping the war at such a sensitive stage, security-wise and politically, could endanger the whole system," Smotrich said, according to the Israeli daily Haaretz. 

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said on X that he is "in favour of returning the hostages, and against a bad deal".

Israel’s Channel 12 aired recordings of the increasingly embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telling relatives of captives held in Gaza that Doha acting as a mediator in the conflict is “problematic”.

Netanyahu appeared to express disappointment with Washington for not applying more pressure on the Gulf state, which hosts Hamas leaders, the Times of Israel reported. 

Netanyahu's political future would likely also end if the war in Gaza stops. 

A Palestinian with his hands raised in the air was shot dead minutes after speaking to a British journalist on Tuesday, according to footage captured by ITV News.

Ramzi Abu Sahloul, who was 51 years old, was amongst a group of five men “doing their utmost to appear non-threatening” and holding a white flag. 

“The Israelis came to us and told us to evacuate but they didn’t let my brother out,” he told an ITV cameraman. “We want to go and try to get them, God willing,” Sahloul told the ITV cameraman. 

Moments later, as the cameraman filmed from across the street, a volley of gunfire rang out. Video aired by ITV showed the group ducking and beginning to move quickly in the opposite direction.

The footage then shows the group gathered around a member who’d dropped to the ground.

Sahloul had been shot and fatally wounded by an Israeli soldier. 

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the UN Security Council, “The right of the Palestinian people to build their own fully independent state must be recognised by all – and a refusal to accept the two-state solution by any party must be firmly rejected.”

Without a two-state solution the war on Gaza will be prolonged indefinitely said Guterres. 

The conflict is threatening global peace and emboldening anti-Western armed groups everywhere, the UN chief said.

The alternative of a one-state solution “with such a large number of Palestinians inside without any real sense of freedom, rights and dignity … will be inconceivable”.

Risks of regional escalation “are now becoming a reality”. Guterres urged all parties “to step back from the brink and consider the horrendous costs” of a wider war.

New York City public schools are expanding training on antisemitism and Islamophobia to middle and high schools as a result of tensions over the war in Gaza, underscoring how fallout over the conflict is trickling down to everyday life.

The city’s public schools chancellor, David Banks, said on Monday that all middle and high school principals would be required to receive training on “navigating difficult conversations” among US teenagers and address tensions over the war.

NYC public schools will also expand access to teaching materials on antisemitism and Islamophobia and offer anti-discrimination workshops to members of parent organisations amid reports that parent council meetings have descended into fighting matches over the war.

The public school measures are the latest that underscore a sharp divide among Americans over the war in the Middle East.

In a New York Times poll released late last year, 44 percent of US respondents said Israel should stop its military campaign to protect against civilian casualties, while 39 percent said Israel should continue its offensive in the besieged enclave.

Read more: Gaza war divide hits New York public schools with new antisemitism and Islamophobia training

Israel and Hamas broadly agree in principle that an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners could take place during a month-long ceasefire.

But the framework plan is being held up by the two sides' differences over how to bring a permanent end to the Gaza war, three sources said speaking to Reuters. 

Intense mediation efforts led by Qatar, Washington and Egypt in recent weeks have focused on a phased approach to release different categories of Israeli hostages - starting with civilians and ending with soldiers. 

Two Egyptian security sources said that there was work underway to convince Hamas to accept a one-month truce to be followed by a permanent ceasefire. However, Hamas is requesting guarantees that the second phase of the deal would be carried out, in order to agree to the initial truce, the sources said.

One offer by Israel is to end the war if Hamas removes six senior leaders from Gaza, said a seventh source, a senior Hamas official. However, Hamas "absolutely" rejected the proposal, he said speaking to Reuters.

Heavy Israeli bombardments are reported in close proximity to three hospitals in Gaza’s Khan Younis – Nasser, Al Amal, and Al Aqsa hospitals – as fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian continues. 

Now the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) situation report also notes:

• Almost 90,000 residents and 425,000 displaced people have been ordered by the Israeli military to leave more than 4sq km residential areas in Khan Younis
• The massive clearance order in Khan Younis affects 24 UN shelters for people displaced by Israel’s war, three hospitals, which represent 20 percent of all partially, still-functioning medical centres in Gaza, and three other health clinics

Good morning readers of Middle East Eye,

We are on day 110 of the Israeli war on Gaza and the Palestinian death toll in the besieged strip stands at 25,490, the vast majority women and children.

In its latest update the Palestinian Health Ministry has said that  at least 63,354 have been wounded in attacks by the Israeli military.

More than 8,000 missing who are believed to be dead and buried under rubble. 

Here are some of the major developments from the last few hours: 

• Israeli forces have ordered more than 500,000 people to leave Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says
• UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron will “progress sustainable Gaza ceasefire”, the Foreign Office says, as he departs for Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories, Qatar and Turkey
• “We remain clear about not encroaching on [Gaza’s] territory,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken insists as the Israeli military says it is attempting to create a new “buffer zone”
• The Council on American-Islamic Relations condemns Israeli “murder” of a Palestinian with a group waving a white flag in Gaza’s Khan Younis.
• US destroys two Houthi anti-ship missiles
• Two-state solution ‘only way’ to achieve peace in Palestine, Israel: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres