Live: At least 75 killed in Israeli strikes on second day of Eid al-Adha

Pop star Dua Lipa joined some 300 UK celebrities in signing an open letter on Thursday urging Britain to halt arms sales to Israel, after similar pleas from lawyers and writers.

Actors, musicians, activists and other public figures wrote the letter calling on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to "end the UK's complicity in the horrors in Gaza".

British-Albanian pop sensation Dua Lipa has been vocal about Israel's war on Gaza and last year criticised the offensive as a "genocide".

Israel has repeatedly denied allegations of genocide and says its campaign intends to crush Hamas after the deadly October 2023 attack by the Palestinian militants.

Other signatories include actors Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton and Riz Ahmed, and musicians Paloma Faith, Annie Lennox and Massive Attack.

"You can't call it 'intolerable' and keep sending arms," read the letter to Starmer organised by Choose Love, a UK-based humanitarian aid and refugee advocacy charity.

Israel’s foreign minister has said that an arms embargo on his country would lead to the elimination of the Israeli state and “a second Holocaust”. 

Gideon Saar was speaking on Tuesday at an international conference on antisemitism in Jerusalem. 

"If, God forbid, the calls and actions of countries and politicians for an arms embargo on Israel succeed, the result will be the destruction of Israel and a second Holocaust," he said. 

The comments came as Spain this week called on European countries to suspend arms shipments amid Israel’s ongoing siege on Gaza. 

At a meeting of the “Madrid Group”, Spain’s foreign minister called for an immediate suspension of Europe’s cooperation deal with Israel and an embargo on arms shipments. 

Read more: Israeli foreign minister says arms embargoes will lead to 'second Holocaust' and end of Israel

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed 44 people on Thursday, including 23 in an attack on a home in the centre of the Palestinian territory.

"Twenty-three people were killed, others injured and several [are] missing following an Israeli air strike on the Qreinawi family's home east of Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza," civil defence official Mohammad Al-Mughayyir told AFP.

According to the latest update by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, at least 54,249 Palestinians have been killed and 123,492 wounded since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza.

The Israeli army has killed 3,986 Palestinians and wounded 11,451 others since violating the ceasefire agreement on 18 March.

The ministry said that 67 bodies and 184 injured people arrived at Gaza hospitals in the past 24 hours.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a ceasefire proposal mediated by a US envoy.

“Israel must publicly and immediately accept the outline published this morning by American mediator Steve Witkoff,” Lapid posted on X.

“I remind Netanyahu: He has a full safety net from me to accept the outline, even if [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir and [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich try to torpedo it.”

The third aid centre backed by the US and Israel will be opening up on Thursday in central Gaza, south of the Netzarim Corridor, according to Israel’s Army Radio.

The new distribution centre will provide food and humanitarian aid to 300,000 Palestinians every week and aims to push people from Gaza City and the northern part of the Strip to evacuate south, the report said.

The UN and international humanitarian groups criticise the US-Israeli aid centres run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, saying that the foundation weaponises aid.

What Israel is doing in Gaza is “morally wrong and unjustifiable”, its actions “intolerable” and “an affront to the values of the British people”.

These are not the words of a pro-Palestine activist, but of the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, who has now suspended negotiations on a new free trade agreement and vowed to review co-operation on the 2030 bilateral road map. 

But the UK government still won’t take the single fastest and most effective step: ending military cooperation with Israel and halting all arms sales. 

Lammy said in parliament that “arms are not getting to Israel that could be used in Gaza”. This is false. The UK government last year suspended a small number of arms export licences - around 10 percent - after determining that Israel is not committed to complying with international humanitarian law, but it allowed UK participation in the F-35 fighter jet programme to continue. 

In addition, new data from both Israel and the UK raises concerns about the scale and end use of UK-supplied weaponry. 

Read more: Why the UK refuses to do the one thing that could stop Israel's 'intolerable' war on Gaza Opinion by Anna Stavrianakis

Israeli attacks on residential buildings in Bureij refugee camp have killed 19 people in Gaza, according to Al Jazeera, citing officials.

The recent killings bring today’s death toll to at least 37.

The Gaza Journalists Syndicate said that Palestinian journalist Moataz Raja was “assassinated” by the Israeli army while covering its war on Gaza, according to Al Jazeera.

The syndicate said that an Israeli strike targeted Raja's vehicle on al-Nafaq Street in Gaza City, killing him instantly.

Israeli attacks have killed at least 221 journalists in Gaza since 7 October 2023.

Israeli attacks have killed 16 people since the early hours of this morning, Al Jazeera reported, citing medical sources and reporters on the ground.

At least seven people sheltering in a kindergarten in Jabalia, north Gaza, were among those killed by Israeli bombs on Thursday.

Lebanon’s army has largely disarmed Hezbollah in its southern strongholds - in part with the help of Israeli intelligence - as the country’s new government moves to enforce a ceasefire that halted an intense wave of fighting with Israel last year, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“All over the Lebanese territory, the state should have a monopoly on arms,” Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said in an interview with the outlet.

The Lebanese government has achieved approximately 80 percent of its objectives in disarming militias in the southernmost areas of the country, Salam said.

Good morning, Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates on Israel’s war on Gaza and the region:

- The Trump administration's bid to deport Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil is likely unconstitutional, a US judge said on Wednesday, finding that the little-used provision of immigration law invoked by the government was too vague.

- Israeli police said that 62 people were arrested after protesters broke into Likud headquarters in Tel Aviv and barricaded themselves inside to protest the government's handling of the ongoing war in Gaza, according to Haaretz

- The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation on Thursday denied media reports of deaths and violent disruptions at its distribution sites after reports that two people had died and several more were injured at the central Gaza warehouse.

- A new US-backed proposal for a ceasefire and captive agreement between Israel and Hamas would involve the release of nine living captives and the return of the bodies of 18 others in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners and a 60-day truce, according to Channel 12, citing unnamed sources.

- The Israeli Defence Ministry said that ministers approved the construction of 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank.

- London police have arrested five people for trying to disrupt the filming of a movie starring Israeli actress Gal Gadot, a statement said.

Good evening Middle East Eye readers, 

Wednesday was an especially bloody day in Gaza with at least 46 Palestinians killed since dawn. Starvation is deepening in the enclave with Palestinians storming a UN warehouse for food. Meanwhile, at least 10 Palestinians were killed and 62 injured over two days as they scrambled to retrieve aid from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution centre, the Gaza media office said. 

Here are the other developments: 

• Israel attacked the Red Cross's field hospital in al-Mawasi
• At least five Palestinians were killed and more were wounded in an Israeli raid on a house in the Jabalia refugee camp
• Germany's ruling coalition had an internal discussion about restricting arms exports to Israel over its war on Gaza, Bloomberg reported 
• Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, slammed Israel at the UN Security Council for using aid as "a weapon of war" 

At least 7 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday by an Israeli strike on a house and a kindergarten housing displaced people in Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera Arabic reported. 

Israel has killed dozens of Palestinians in strikes across the country on Wednesday. 

At least 221 journalists have been killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza since the war erupted on 7 October 2023, the Gaza Media Office said on Wednesday. 

The death toll was updated after the killing of Moataz Mohammed Rajab, a cameraman and editor for Al-Quds al-Youm TV channel, in an Israeli strike on Gaza City on Wednesday. 

Rajab was killed in an Israeli air strike on Gaza City earlier today, alongside several others.

The Gaza Media Office condemned the “systematic targeting and assassination” of Palestinian journalists by Israeli soldiers. 

Ireland, Norway, Spain, and Slovenia released a joint statement on Wednesday reaffirming their call for a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.

The governments said that a June conference to be chaired on Palestine by France and Saudi Arabia offers an opportunity to "advance the implementation of the two-State solution".

They called for “individual recognition of Palestine and Israel by those who have not yet done so, UN membership of Palestine and support of an agreement between the parties, with eventual mutual recognition between Palestine and Israel".