Live: Israel dropped 153 tonnes of bombs on Gaza on Sunday

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he may travel to the Middle East this weekend as his negotiators seek to seal a Gaza ceasefire deal.

Trump said at the White House that a deal is "very close", and that he may depart on Saturday for the region. He spoke after talking to his team about the talks.

Negotiators have been meeting in Egypt to try to complete an agreement.

- Reporting by Reuters

A Spanish arms embargo was voted into law on Wednesday that bans all weapons sales and fuel transits to Israel, and also the adveritising of products that come from the occupied Palestinian territories, Al Jazeera reported. 

There will be exceptions made to the law if anything is deemed harmful to the Spanish national interest. 

The prime minister said Wednesday's vote "consolidates into law" the previous weapons ban made two years ago. 

Health officials in Gaza said eight people have been killed in Israeli air strikes since dawn, local time, on Wednesday. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in Ankara on Wednesday that "a lot of headway" has been made in the current talks on a Gaza ceasefire being held in Egypt.

He added that a ceasefire could even be declared this evening, local time in Egypt, if a deal is agreed upon. 

“If the consensus is reached today, the ceasefire will be brokered,” Fidan said.

Negotiators from all involved parties have been meeting since Monday. 

The head of Turkish intelligence joined the talks on Wednesday, along with the Qatari prime minister, signalling significant progress. 

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Wednesday stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem for the second time in a day, declaring an Israeli "victory" there, AFP reported.

Hamas condemned his visit as a "deliberate provocation". 

He stormed the mosque earlier on Wednesday with 1,300 other Israelis.

It is Ben Gvir's 11th visit as minister to the complex, which is one of the holiest places in Islam.

Police clashed with protesters in Boston at a pro-Palestinian rally on Tuesday evening. 

Boston police say that four of their officers were injured. 

They charged 13 protestors, aged between 19 and 27, with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and disturbing the peace.

The protesters are due to be arraigned on Wednesday and Thursday.

Two NGOs spoke out on Wednesday about the dire levels of malnutrition in the Gaza Strip.

 Action Against Hunger and Doctors of the World documented that there was a 700 percent increase in malnutrition cases in July compared to October 2023.

And now the situation is far graver. Vincent Stehli, the director of operations at Action Against Hunger, said the NGO’s teams treated between 300 and 400 children under the age of five in September. A few months ago, he said, the number of cases was under 100.

Stehli, who recently returned from Gaza, said: “I saw a seven-year-old child who weighed only 6.5kg”.

The UN has declared a state of famine in Gaza, which has been under an Israeli blockade of food, water and humanitarian aid. A UN report found that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza.

The White House drafted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's apology for launching unprovoked air strikes on Doha to Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Al Thani, Politico reported on Wednesday, citing three sources familiar with the matter.

A Qatari official was in the Oval Office to ensure that Netanyahu did not deviate from the draft the White House prepared.

A Palestinian scientist who grew up in a refugee camp in Jordan has been awarded the Nobel prize in chemistry for his work developing a new form of molecular architecture which has the potential to limit the impacts of climate change.

Omar Yaghi was awarded the prize along with Susumu Kitagawa and Richard Robson for "the development of metal-organic frameworks" (MFOs) - constructions between molecules that could be used to capture and store or break down harmful gases and chemicals.

The academy said in a statement that the MFOs can be used to "harvest water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide, store toxic gases or catalyse chemical reactions", adding that the discoveries "may contribute to solving some of humankind’s greatest challenges".

After the news, Yaghi said in a telephone interview with Adam Smith, the chief scientific officer for Nobel Prize Outreach, that "he was astonished, delighted, overwhelmed". Smith noted that Yaghi, 60, is probably the first Nobel laureate to be born in Jordan.

Yaghi was born and raised in a Palestinian refugee camp in Amman, Jordan's capital, before moving to the US when he was 15.

Read more: Omar Yaghi, a Palestinian refugee, wins Nobel prize in chemistry

Israeli forces closed the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, to Palestinians on Wednesday until Thursday evening, according to Palestinian media. 

Amjad Karajeh, the director of the Hebron Waqf (Islamic endowment) criticised the closure - which was under the pretext of security for Israeli settlers celebrating the Jewish Sukkot holiday - deeming it a provocative assault on the right of Muslims to access their places of worship.

Israeli troops closed all military checkpoints and electronic gates leading to the mosque to secure the settlers' celebrations, Wafa news agency reported. Markets in the Old City were also closed.

A curfew was also imposed in a number of districts in Hebron for a third consecutive day. 

Students were prevented from reaching their schools amid tightened security, Wafa reported. 

Israeli settlers have assaulted a Palestinian man in the northern Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank, according to Wafa news agency. 

Wafa reported, citing local sources, that a group of settlers sprayed the man with pepper spray near the area of Khirbet al-Farisiya and physically assaulted him.

Universities in the UK told arms companies that they would monitor students’ chat groups and social media accounts after firms raised concerns about protests on campus, according to a report in the Guardian citing internal emails.

One university stated that it would conduct “active monitoring of social media” for any plans to protest against Rolls-Royce at a careers event.

Another university appeared to agree to a request from Raytheon UK to “monitor university chat groups” before a campus visit.

The emails were obtained after a freedom of information request by the Guardian and Liberty Investigates. 

The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 2023 has risen to 67,183, according to the Palestinian health ministry. The majority of those killed were women and children.

At least 169,841 others have been wounded during that time.

The ministry added that 10 bodies and 61 wounded people were brought to hospitals in Gaza over the past 24 hours.

Saudi Arabia has condemned Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir's incursion into Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.

Riyadh voiced its "condemnation of the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound by Israeli officials and settlers under the protection of the occupation forces, reiterating its strongest condemnation of the continued attacks on the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque," the foreign ministry said in a statement. 

Under the protection of heavily armed forces, the minister of national security took part in religious rituals alongside many others.

The raid - along with the performance of prayers in the mosque’s courtyards - violates the long-standing status quo.

This set of rules, recognised internationally and upheld by world powers, designates Al-Aqsa Mosque as an exclusively Islamic site, where only Muslims are permitted to worship.

Israeli minister Itamar Ben Gvir led hundreds of ultra-nationalists in a raid on Al-Aqsa Mosque on Wednesday, the second day of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. 

Under the protection of heavily armed forces, the minister of national security took part in religious rituals alongside many others.

The raid - along with the performance of prayers in the mosque’s courtyards - violates the long-standing status quo.

This set of rules, recognised internationally and upheld by world powers, designates Al-Aqsa Mosque as an exclusively Islamic site, where only Muslims are permitted to worship.

In a post on his X account, Ben Gvir claimed that Israelis are "winning on the Temple Mount" - the Jewish term for the raised plateau on which Al-Aqsa Mosque stands.

“We are the owners of the house on the Temple Mount. I only pray that our Prime Minister will allow a full victory in Gaza as well - to destroy Hamas, God willing, to return the hostages, and we will achieve an absolute victory,” he added.

Read more: Ben Gvir leads 1,300 Israelis in Al-Aqsa Mosque incursion