Live: Six more Palestinians die of famine as Israel blocks Gaza aid

In a cramped corridor at Gaza's Eye Hospital, dozens of Palestinian patients stand packed together.

Around 10 are seated on chairs, while most lean against the walls, and some women rest on the floor.

The elderly and the young fill the space, their faces etched with exhaustion, emaciation and grief.

What binds them together is a desperate need for treatment for one or both eyes.

Among them is 11-year-old Maria Rihan.

Read more: ‘I lost my family, my home, my sight’: Israel blinds thousands in Gaza

The Israeli army has dropped leaflets over four villages in southern Lebanon, threatening residents to stay away from their local leaders, who it claims are “linked to Hezbollah.”

“Stay away from them, they’re in our crosshairs,” the flyers read, according to a report from the Israeli daily Haaretz.

The move coincided with US envoy Tom Barrack’s visit to Lebanon. He cancelled a planned stop in the village of al-Khiyam, one of the areas targeted by the leaflets, over fears his arrival could spark pro-Hezbollah protests.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has spoken with “the highest-level mediators” involved in ceasefire talks, as they try to understand why Israel’s government has not replied to the latest proposal.

“In recent days I spoke with the highest-level mediators in the negotiations, and they told me, ‘We don’t understand what happened - Hamas accepted the conditions Netanyahu set’,” Lapid told Israel’s Army Radio.

“They called to ask me if I know why he hasn’t gotten back to them,” he added.

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza has reported at least 10 deaths from famine and malnutrition over the past 24 hours, including two children.

The toll raises the total number of hunger-related fatalities in the Israeli besieged territory to 313, with 119 of the victims being children, underscoring the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The Palestine Red Crescent reported that 25 Palestinians were wounded after Israeli forces fired tear gas canisters during a raid in Nablus.

Medical teams say most injuries were caused by inhalation of tear gas and physical confrontations as the occupation forces moved through the city.

At least 982 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers since October 2023 alone, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, said on Wednesday in a post on X. 

“Over 42,000 [Palestinians] forcibly displaced by operations, home demolitions and settler attacks,” Turk said.

This weekend’s violence in al-Mughayyir is “yet another example of the ongoing oppression of and coercion against Palestinians,” he added.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said over the weekend that Israeli forces detained at least 14 Palestinians during three days of raids in al-Mughayyir village, near Ramallah. Those arrested include the head of the local council and the brothers of a child killed in a previous Israeli attack.

Turk urged an immediate end to such attacks, emphasising that “all such violence must stop and impartial accountability ensured”.

Just before his death, photojournalist Mohammed Salama had bought a new camera.

In October 2023, with the onset of Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, Salama was just starting, recording footage on an iPhone mounted on a gimbal.

He was one of the first Palestinian journalists documenting the genocide to publish his reports on TikTok.

Fiercely ambitious and committed to documenting the situation on the ground, he did not stop. 

On Monday, he was killed in a “double-tap” Israeli strike on Khan Younis’ Nasser Hospital along with five other colleagues, including fellow MEE contributor, Ahmed Abu Aziz. They are among at least 270 Palestinian journalists killed by Israel in Gaza since October 2023.

Read more: ‘I cannot imagine our coverage without him’: Read tributes to MEE Gaza correspondent

Gaza’s hospitals have reported that Israeli army fire has killed at least 21 Palestinians since dawn on Wednesday.

Among the dead are four people who were trying to receive humanitarian aid, according to local sources speaking to Al Jazeera Arabic.

Former US ambassador to Israel Jacob Lew, who assumed the post during the later half of the Biden presidency, told The New Yorker in an interview published on Tuesday that children of alleged Hamas members in Gaza can be considered legitimate Israeli targets.

"The general pattern was that in-the-moment stories were inaccurate, and that the Israeli military and government establishment were not in a position to fully explain yet what happened after any major attack in Gaza," Lew said.

"We could almost never get answers that explained what happened before the story was fully framed in international media, and then when the facts were fully developed, it turned out that the casualties were much lower, the number of civilians was much lower, and, in many cases, the children were children of Hamas fighters, not children taking cover in places," he added.

"Sorry, what did you just say?" the interviewer asked.

"They were often the children of the fighters themselves," Lew responded.

"And therefore what follows from that?" the interviewer asked.

"What follows is that whether or not it was a legitimate military target flows from the population that’s there... If you’re the commander of a Hamas unit and you bring your family to a military site, that’s different," Lew insisted.

Israeli politicians have regularly and publicly stated that there are no innocent people in Gaza, including children. A poll conducted by an Israeli organisation has revealed that the vast majority of Israeli Jews believe there are "no innocents" in the Gaza Strip.

During the interview, Lew faced accusations of shielding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition.

Lew defended his stance after an interviewer cited his recent essay in Foreign Affairs, which stated: “If the politics are hard, blame the United States… Allowing Netanyahu to cite a need to satisfy US demands was crucial then—and remains crucial today.”

Medical sources in Gaza told Al Jazeera Arabic that at least 12 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes across several parts of the besieged enclave since dawn.

Hospitals in the strip are struggling to treat the wounded as Israel’s bombardment continues to target densely populated neighbourhoods and shelters.

Israel’s military says its air force intercepted a missile fired from Yemen early on Wednesday, after sirens sounded across several areas.

“Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile that was launched from Yemen was intercepted,” the army posted on Telegram.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, though Yemen’s Houthi movement has regularly launched missiles and drones towards Israel, saying they are responding to Israel ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Nasser Medical Complex has confirmed that at least three Palestinians were killed when an Israeli air raid struck a tent sheltering displaced families in the Asdaa area, northwest of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.

Good morning, Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates from Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza, now in its 690th day:

• At least 64 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since dawn on Tuesday, among them 13 people gunned down while trying to collect desperately needed aid.

• French President Emmanuel Macron sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning that Israel’s plans for reoccupying Gaza City, displacing Palestinians and starving civilians “will never bring victory to Israel”.

• US envoy Thomas Barrack said Lebanon will present a proposal on Sunday aimed at convincing Hezbollah to disarm, with Israel expected to respond with its own plan for a military withdrawal.

• Despite the ongoing genocide in Gaza, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz declared that Germany will not recognise a Palestinian state for now.

• Churches in Gaza City will continue to act as shelters for displaced Palestinians, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said in a joint statement, as Israel prepares another assault on the city.

Our live blog is now closed until tomorrow morning.

Here are the day's key developments:

- US envoy Steve Witkoff has told Fox News that President Donald Trump is set to chair a White House meeting on Gaza on Wednesday. This comes as the Israeli foreign minister is set to visit Washington that same day. 

- Israel is "unwilling to reach an agreement", having yet to respond to the ceasefire proposal accepted by Hamas earlier this month, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.

- The Gaza Media Office, which serves as the enclave's information ministry, said that the Israeli army's claim that "Hamas targets" hid at Nasser Hospital and necessitated its bombing is "a pathetic attempt at deception". 

- The Israeli military will remain on Syrian territory near Mount Hermon, Defence Minister Israel Katz announced, leading to a wave of condemnations from Arab states. Israel also killed six Syrian soldiers via drone strikes near Damascus on Tuesday. 

- Lebanon will present its plan to persuade Hezbollah to disarm on Sunday, US envoy Thomas Barrack announced.

- Former US ambassador to Israel Jacob Lew told The New Yorker in a stunning interview that the children of members of Hamas in Gaza make for legitimate Israeli targets.

US envoy Steve Witkoff said on Tuesday that President Donald Trump will chair "a large meeting" on Gaza at the White House on Wednesday.

Asked if there is a day-after plan for Gaza, Witkoff told Fox News' Bret Baier: "Yes, we've got a large meeting in the White House tomorrow, chaired by the president, and it's a very comprehensive plan we're putting together on the next day."

This comes as Secretary of State Marco Rubio is also set to host his Israeli counterpart in Washington on Wednesday. 

- with reporting from Reuters