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

Prabowo Subianto, the president of Indonesia, said on Wednesday that his country is ready to open diplomatic relations with Israel if Palestine is given independence.

He also said Indonesia must recognise and guarantee Israel's right to stand as a sovereign state, whose security needs to be guaranteed.

At least nine people were killed and 15 injured in an Israeli strike targeting the home of a journalist overnight in an area north of Gaza City, a spokesman for the civil defence authority said.

Reports say the unnamed journalist survived.

International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan was preparing to seek arrest warrants for far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir before going on leave amid a misconduct investigation, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Khan is the only ICC official to be named in the sanctions imposed by Washington in February. He has also been facing a sexual harassment investigation by an external UN body since late last year.

The cases against the Israeli ministers centre on their roles in expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the report said. Khan’s two deputies are to decide whether to pursue the cases now, but it is unclear how they plan to proceed.

The report said some officials and legal experts doubt the court would move forward without a chief prosecutor, given the political risks such a prosecution could bring.

Good morning, Middle East Eye readers,

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

- US President Donald Trump's administration has ordered its missions abroad to stop scheduling new appointments for student and exchange visitor visa applicants as the State Department prepares to expand social media vetting of foreign students, according to an internal cable seen by Reuters on Tuesday.

- Gaza rescuers said eight people were killed on Wednesday in an Israeli strike in the north of the besieged Palestinian territory.

- An Israeli drone struck a motorcycle, killing one person in the town of Yater in southern Lebanon, Al Jadeed reported.

- A new open letter by former and current Israeli military officers calling on the government to stop its war on Gaza circulated on Tuesday, receiving 1,200 signatures to date, Haaretz reported.

- Germany's foreign minister said his country will not be forced into solidarity with Israel, and that its "committed fight against antisemitism" cannot be "instrumentalised for the conflict" in the Gaza Strip.

Israel's military is blowing up residential buildings near Gaza City, Al Jazeera Arabic reported on Wednesday. 

Israel has demolished swaths of Palestinian homes throughout Gaza, as it pressed for a forced displacement of Palestinians from the enclave. 

The Irish government approved on Tuesday the drafting of a bill to ban the import of goods from Israeli settlements considered illegal under international law, an unprecedented move for a European Union member.

The move comes after the International Court of Justice last year said Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip was illegal under international law in an advisory opinion, which guided the Irish government's decision, it said.

"The government has agreed to advance legislation prohibiting trade in goods with illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory," a foreign ministry spokesperson told AFP.

"It is the government’s view that this is an obligation under international law," they added. 

Before the cabinet decision, Foreign Minister Simon Harris told reporters that he hoped other EU countries would follow Ireland's lead.

"What I hope today is when this small country in Europe makes the decision and becomes one of the first countries, and probably the first country, in the western world to consider legislation in this space, I do hope it inspires other European countries to join us," said Harris, who is also Irish deputy prime minister.

The Israeli military accused the UN of “failing to fulfil its role" in distributing aid inside Gaza.

“With the renewed entry of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, we have reached out to all humanitarian aid organizations and the international community, and called for them to take part in the distribution of aid to Gazan civilians,” Cogat, the military agency that handles administrative affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories, said on Tuesday. 

“However, in the past few days, the UN has avoided fulfilling its role and instead continues to spread false and incorrect information regarding civilian distress," Cogat said. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel and the US "momentarily" lost control of their aid site in southern Gaza as it was stormed by starving Palestinians on Tuesday. 

 "We worked out a plan with our American friends to have controlled distribution sites where an American company would distribute the food to Palestinian families," Netanyahu said.

"There was some loss of control momentarily. Happily, we brought it back under control,” he added. 

At least three Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire during an aid stampede on Tuesday, as throngs of starving people rushed to retrieve food packages. 

According to Al Jazeera Arabic, three were killed and 46 wounded when the Israeli army fired into crowds of starving people. 

The aid hub was controlled by an American private military contracting company, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. 

Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said that “only the word genocide” can describe Israel's war on Gaza. 

“As the foreign minister, it is not up to me to make such statements. But my personal opinion is that this is very close to genocide. I don’t know what other horrors have yet to occur before that word can be used,” Prevot said, according to an interview with Humo magazine.

“I have been saying since April that the humanitarian blockade is an absolute disgrace. Deliberately starving a population is a war crime,” he added. 

The US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is distributing Israeli food brands to starving Palestinians, according to photos shared on social media of the food packages. 

The fact that the US-backed group turned to Israeli companies for food provoked criticism on social media. 

"Israel is profiting big time from its genocide: the meagre aid packs a few Gazans received today were almost entirely Israeli products with visible Hebrew writing," one social media user wrote on X. 

The food also appears to be low in nutritional value. It includes pasta, white rice and canned food. 

At least 26 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip since dawn on Tuesday, according to the Gaza health ministry. 

The death toll comes amid chaotic scenes as starving Palestinians rushed into a food distribution centre guarded by Israeli soldiers and private military contractors. 

Israel has continued striking Gaza. The death toll since the war on Gaza started in October 2023 has surpassed 54,000. 

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the images of thousands of starving Palestinians in Gaza running for aid as they were met with Israeli gunfire were "heartbreaking".

“We and our partners have a detailed, principled, operationally sound plan supported by member states to get aid to a desperate population,” Dujarric told reporters on Tuesday. 

“We continue to stress that a meaningful scale-up of humanitarian operations is essential to stave off famine and meet the needs of all civilians, wherever they are," he added. 

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who was the leader of Israel from 2006 to 2009, said that Israel is "committing war crimes" in Gaza.

“The government of Israel is currently waging a war without purpose, without goals or clear planning and with no chances of success,” Olmert said in an opinions article published on Tuesday in Haaretz. 

Germany's foreign minister has issued a sharp rebuke of charges that Berlin's criticism of Israel's war on Gaza equates to a lack of support for the Israeli state or suggests it is antisemitic. 

"Our committed fight against anti-Semitism and our full support for the right to exist and the security of the state of Israel must not be instrumentalised for the conflict and the warfare currently being waged in the Gaza Strip," Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on Tuesday. 

"We are now at a point where we have to think very carefully about what further steps to take," he added.