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

The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on four more International Criminal Court judges or prosecutors, including from allies France and Canada, in a new effort to hobble the tribunal over Israel's genocide in Gaza. 

"The Court is a national security threat that has been an instrument for lawfare against the United States and our close ally Israel," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement, using a term popular with President Donald Trump's supporters.

Rubio said that the four people targeted from the tribunal based in The Hague had sought to investigate or prosecute nationals from the United States or Israel "without the consent of either nation."

The four include Judge Nicolas Guillou of France, who is presiding over a case in which an arrest warrant was issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

France on Wednesday expressed its "dismay" over the sanctions on its citizen, which would bar him from transacting in US dollars and travelling to the US. The sanctions, if enforced, could lead to secondary sanctions on EU banks. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the move. 

Israeli media on Wedneday reported large-scale fighting between Hamas's armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, and Israeli soldiers in Gaza on Wednesday. 

According to Israeli media, an Israeli army camp in Khan Younis came under heavy attack from Hamas fighters in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military said at least 18 Hamas fighters were involved in the attack and that three Israeli soldiers were wounded, one of them seriously. 

The scale of the fighting underscores how Hamas is still able to operate in Gaza and launch sizeable attacks despite 22 months of Israel's genocide in Gaza. 

US officials have previously said that Hamas has been able to recruit all new fighters to replace those killed by Israel. 

More than half of Americans believe that every country in the UN should recognise a Palestinian state, according to a new poll released by Reuters and Ipsos on Wednesday. 

According to the poll, 58 percent of Americans believe countries should recognise a Palestinian state. 

Just 33 percent of respondents did not agree that UN members should recognise a Palestinian state. 

The Palestinian Authority condemned Israel's approval of a key settlement project in the occupied West Bank.

Earlier on Wednesday, far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich described the project as “erasing” a Palestinian state “not with slogans but with actions”. 

The PA's foreign ministry said in a statement that the approval of the project in the area known as E1 "fragments... geographic and demographic unity, entrenching the division of the occupied West Bank into isolated areas and cantons that are disconnected from one another, turning them into something akin to real prisons."

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that Israel's "military offensive" to conquer Gaza City "can only lead to a complete disaster for both peoples," after Israel's defence minister authorised the call-up of around 60,000 reservists.

Israel's plan "will drag the region into a permanent war," the French president posted on social media, reiterating his call for an "international stabilisation mission".

Reporting by AFP

Nasser Medical Complex said three Palestinians were killed after an Israeli drone hit a tent sheltering displaced families in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, Al Jazeera Arabic reported. 

Israel has rubber stamped the construction of the E1 settlement project in the occupied West Bank, in a move that a minister described as “erasing” a Palestinian state “not with slogans but with actions”. 

The settlement subcommittee of the Civil Administration on Wednesday approved the building of 3,400 new housing units on occupied Palestinian territory.  

The majority of them will be built near an existing settlement in Maale Adumim, in an area that aims to connect settlements in the West Bank with occupied East Jerusalem. 

The plan also includes 342 units in a new settlement in Asael, in the south of the West Bank. 

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, said: “Today we are placing historical facts on the ground. In E1 we are finally realising what has been promised for years. This is a defining moment for settlement, for security, and for the entire state of Israel.”

Read more: Israel approves E1 settlement to 'erase' Palestinian state with 'actions not slogans'

Germany has strongly condemned Israel’s E1 settlement project, calling it a breach of international law and urging Tel Aviv to halt all settlement expansion immediately.

The German foreign ministry issued the statement on Wednesday after Israeli authorities approved plans to build more than 3,400 housing units in the E1 area east of Jerusalem. The project also includes a new settlement, “Ashahal”, with 342 units and public buildings.

Peace Now has warned that Israel’s fast-tracked approval of construction in E1 is “particularly fatal” to the future of a two-state solution, as it would split the West Bank in two.

Last week, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the E1 plan would connect Ma’ale Adumim to Jerusalem, cut off Ramallah from Bethlehem, and end the prospect of a Palestinian state.

The group noted that since the start of 2025, Israel has advanced plans for 24,338 new settlement units, including those in E1.

Since the mid-1990s, negotiations over natural gas between Egypt and Israel have oscillated between strict secrecy and political exploitation. 

In 1994, the first discreet talks began over the possibility of exporting Egyptian gas to Israel via undersea pipelines, at a time when the Egypt-Israel peace treaty was still hugely unpopular, and any such step was seen as a political gamble. 

Yet economic interests and deep security ties between the two countries’ intelligence services pushed the matter forward, culminating in a 2005 agreement to supply Israel with Egyptian gas at preferential rates. That deal later sparked a major scandal when it was revealed that the prices were far below global market levels.

The arrangement, implemented through the East Mediterranean Gas Company in direct coordination with Egypt’s General Intelligence Service (GIS), eventually led to one of the largest international arbitration cases brought against Egypt. Following the 2011 revolution, with repeated attacks on the Sinai pipeline, gas deliveries ceased.

Read more: How Egypt's reliance on Israeli gas could blow up in its face

Three more people have died of starvation in Gaza in the past 24 hours, raising the overall toll from hunger to 269, including 112 children, the Palestinian health ministry said on Wednesday.

The ministry added that since Israel introduced a new aid distribution mechanism through the US-based GHF on May 27, at least 2,018 Palestinians seeking food aid have been killed and more than 14,947 injured.

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza says at least 56 Palestinians have been killed and 185 wounded in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours.

Among the dead were 22 people who had gathered to collect aid, the ministry said. Two more bodies were also recovered from beneath rubble left by earlier strikes.

According to the ministry, Israel’s war on Gaza has now killed 62,122 people and wounded at least 156,758 since 7 October 2023.

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that 58 percent of Americans think all UN member states should recognise Palestine as a country.

According to the survey, 33 percent of respondents opposed recognition, while 9 percent gave no answer.

The poll, conducted over six days and ending on Monday, came shortly after Canada, Britain and France, all close allies of the US, announced plans to recognise the State of Palestine.

Israeli settlers have stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque courtyard in occupied East Jerusalem under the protection of Israeli forces, the Wafa news agency reports.

Citing local sources, Wafa said dozens of settlers performed provocative rituals inside the site.

Israeli settlers have repeatedly stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque in recent years, violating agreements and often encouraged by far-right politicians such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has himself carried out several provocative visits.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has shared video footage from inside a prison showing images of Gaza’s destruction displayed to Palestinian detainees.

The footage, posted on his Telegram account, shows Ben Gvir pointing to a large black-and-white photo of devastation in Gaza while standing alongside prison officials.

“In the prisons, they put pictures of the destroyed Gaza … so they know that the Israeli people are not to be underestimated,” Ben Gvir says in the video.

“This is what they see in the morning, if they look,” he adds, referring to Palestinian prisoners.

Jewish prayers recited loudly in groups. Singing and dancing. Men prostrating themselves, faces pressed to the ground. Israeli flags held aloft.

That was the scene inside Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites, during an Israeli raid earlier this month. 

A few years ago, such a display would have been unimaginable. But since 7 October 2023, everything has changed, say Palestinians.

"There were terrifying numbers of people [Israeli settlers] present and some were important figures," Aouni Bazbaz, the director of international affairs at the Islamic Waqf, the organisation that administers Al-Aqsa Mosque, told Middle East Eye at the time.

"What happened… represents a pivotal stage aimed at forcibly imposing Jewish sovereignty over Al-Aqsa Mosque and dividing it spatially between Muslims and settlers,” he added. 

Read more: Why Israel is closer than ever to building the Third Temple