Israel-Gaza war live: Close to 40,000 Palestinians killed by military offensive in Gaza, health ministry says

British police on Wednesday arrested nine people during a protest against arms exports to Israel that briefly blocked the street outside the foreign ministry, highlighting pressure on the new Labour government over its stance on the Gaza war.

Pro-Palestinian protesters in Britain have been campaigning for a government ban on arms sales to Israel following its offensive on Gaza in response to the 7 October attack.

On the afternoon of 7 October, Nour Shahtout was busy doing her homework, when she received a text message from school, telling students not to come in the next day. She hasn’t been back since. “At the time, I thought I had the day off and could hang out with my friends,” says the 18-year-old. “Little did I know, everything was about to change.”

Two weeks later, Shahtout’s family home in Tel al-Hawa, a neighbourhood in the south of Gaza City, was bombed in an Israeli airstrike. “We had only 10 minutes to evacuate,” she recalls. “I grabbed my laptop, charger and as many books as I could fit into my bag.” Shahtout, a high-achieving student, had plans to study ICT and business at Al-Azhar University. “But the following month, the IDF destroyed that too,” she says.

The family evacuated to Khan Younis but the bombs followed. Over the next few months, they moved from one tent to the next, fled one city to the next, until they realised there was no safe place left in the Gaza Strip. After selling everything they owned to pay for their passage out, the family crossed into Egypt in March, like some 100,000 other Palestinians who have been able to get out of Gaza since the start of the conflict.

“I don’t like it here, I miss my friends and I want to go home,” says Shahtout, sitting cross-legged on a worn, blue rug in the one-bedroom apartment shared by two families. “I am stuck in this one room all day, where there is no space or privacy,” she adds. “I want to study and complete my degree but life has come to a standstill.”

The small living room serves as a bedroom for Shahtout, her parents and two brothers, with two large sofas, a table and a battered mattress leaning against one of the walls; Shahtout’s school books are piled in one corner.

• Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 39,145 Palestinians and wounded 90,257 since 7 October, the Palestinian health ministry said on Wednesday. A total of 55 Palestinians have been killed and 110 wounded in the past 24 hours, the ministry said in a statement.

• Pro-Palestinian demonstrators have blocked entrances to the Foreign Office in London in protest at the perceived failure of the new Labour government to do more to change UK policy towards Israel’s offensive in Gaza. As many as 300 people sealed off access to the Foreign Office on Wednesday morning with a large banner saying “Genocide Made in Britain”. Protesters said six demonstrators had been arrested.

• At least six protesters have been arrested as hundreds of demonstrators shut down access to the foreign, commonwealth and development (FCDO) headquarters in central London on Wednesday morning, demanding the government halts all arms exports to Israel. Organisers, Workers For a Free Palestine, said at least six protestors were arrested while blocking access to the foreign office at the Whitehall and St James’ Park entrances.

• There are also protests in Washington DC over the arrival of Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, including a sit-in at a congressional office building that ended with multiple arrests, according to the Associated Press. Some of the demonstrations have condemned Israel but others have expressed support while pressuring Netanyahu to strike a ceasefire deal and bring home the hostages still being held by Hamas.

• SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk said that his Starlink satellite internet service has been activated in a hospital in Gaza, where many medical facilities have been destroyed by the war, with the help of the United Arab Emirates and Israel. The Gulf Arab state’s foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, thanked the billionaire entrepreneur for supporting the UAE field hospital in Gaza, where many medical facilities have been demolished and medicines are scarce, Reuters reported.

• Doctors in the largest hospital in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis yesterday pleaded for supplies from a facility overwhelmed by wounded people, as Israeli airstrikes, artillery fire and fighting on the streets continued. “There’s no space for more patients. There’s no space in the operating theatres. There is a lack of medical supplies, so we cannot save our patients,” Mohammed Zaqout, the director of Nasser hospital, told AFP. The UN’s office for humanitarian affairs (OCHA) said the hospital was facing “a new mass casualty influx, amid a dire lack of blood units, medical supplies and hospital beds”.

• The German government has banned a Hamburg-based organization accused of promoting the Iranian leadership’s ideology and supporting Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, as police raided 53 properties around the country. The ban on the Islamic Center Hamburg, or IZH, and five suborganizations around Germany followed searches in November, AP reported. Interior minister Nancy Faeser said evidence gathered in the investigation “confirmed the serious suspicions to such a degree that we ordered the ban today.”

• The Palestinian Authority’s budget deficit is projected to surge by 172% in 2024 compared to 2023, according to a statement from the cabinet on Tuesday, Reuters reports. Revenues are also expected to drop by 21% due to the ongoing conflict in Gaza. The announcement followed President Mahmoud Abbas’ approval of the emergency budget for 2024, which includes austerity measures such as reducing salaries, operational and capital expenditures, and maintaining minimal development expenditures.

• Netanyahu has landed in Washington DC. Netanyahu’s first 24 hours have seen a series of small meetings with the families of hostages kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October, in which he said that progress was being made on negotiating a prisoner exchange of the remaining 120 hostages as part of a ceasefire deal but defended delaying for better terms.

• Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will host the Israeli prime minister on Friday at his resort in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump said on Tuesday. “Looking forward to welcoming Bibi Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida,” the former US president said in a post on Truth Social, using Netanyahu’s nickname. The meeting will be their first since the end of Trump’s presidency, during which the two forged close ties, and comes at a time of strains also between Netanyahu and Biden over Israel’s war against Hamas militants in Gaza.

• Leaders from Hamas, Fatah and other Palestinian factions have agreed after three days of talks in Beijing to form a national unity government at an unspecified point in the future, in a move that has bolstered China’s status as a global mediator, particularly in the Middle East.

• Vandals ransacked an Israeli-Palestinian restaurant in Berlin, smashing wine glasses and defiling the space with “disgusting acts” a week after it hosted a queer Jewish-Muslim brunch, its owners have said.

Amy Hawkins

In case you missed it, leaders from Hamas, Fatah and other Palestinian factions have agreed after three days of talks in Beijing to form a national unity government at an unspecified point in the future, in a move that has bolstered China’s status as a global mediator, particularly in the Middle East.

The “Beijing declaration”, signed by 14 Palestinian factions, also represents a significant step forward in negotiations between the groups, although it is light on detail about how to actually achieve Palestinian unification.

In a speech on Tuesday, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, said the declaration represented an “important historical moment in the cause of Palestinian liberation”.

Nicholas Lyall, a senior researcher at Trends, a research and advisory firm based in Abu Dhabi, said: “Today’s agreement goes much further than any other past agreements between the parties since their 2007 conflict.” He was referencing the fighting that led Hamas to oust Fatah from the Gaza Strip nearly 20 years ago.

The agreement states that the factions should work together on uniting Palestinian institutions in the West Bank and Gaza, and prepare for national elections. “It is hard to imagine that elections could be held in Gaza anytime soon given the state of the humanitarian crisis there,” said Raphael Angieri, an independent foreign policy analyst, adding that the agreement was “significant” nonetheless.

Geneva Abdul

At least six protesters have been arrested as hundreds of demonstrators shut down access to the foreign, commonwealth and development (FCDO) headquarters in central London on Wednesday morning, demanding the government halts all arms exports to Israel.

Organisers, Workers For a Free Palestine, said at least six protestors were arrested while blocking access to the foreign office at the Whitehall and St James’ Park entrances.

Tania, a Unite member and organiser for Workers for a Free Palestine, taking part in the blockade said:

We blocked all entrances to the Foreign Office, completely shutting down access to the building until the police started violently dragging people across the pavement on Whitehall.

We disrupted the department in solidarity with the Palestinian people and with civil servants who are raising concerns about being forced to carry out unlawful acts, which no worker should ever be asked to do.

Pro-Palestinian protesters block entrances to Foreign Office in London

Patrick Wintour

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators have blocked entrances to the Foreign Office in London in protest at the perceived failure of the new Labour government to do more to change UK policy towards Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

As many as 300 people sealed off access to the Foreign Office on Wednesday morning with a large banner saying “Genocide Made in Britain”. Protesters said six demonstrators had been arrested.

Workers for a Free Palestine, which organised the protest, said the aim was to make the foreign secretary, David Lammy, practise what he preached in opposition, and meet his own demands by publishing legal advice on UK arms to Israel.

A Workers for a Free Palestine activist said that if the advice “confirms Israel has breached international law as the shadow foreign minister, Alicia Kearns, says it does – the government should immediately halt arms exports to Israel”. They also called for the withdrawal of the legal attempt to block the international criminal court (ICC) issuing an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Ruth Michaelson

Doctors in the largest hospital in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis yesterday pleaded for supplies from a facility overwhelmed by wounded people, as Israeli airstrikes, artillery fire and fighting on the streets continued.

“There’s no space for more patients. There’s no space in the operating theatres. There is a lack of medical supplies, so we cannot save our patients,” Mohammed Zaqout, the director of Nasser hospital, told AFP.

The UN’s office for humanitarian affairs (OCHA) said the hospital was facing “a new mass casualty influx, amid a dire lack of blood units, medical supplies and hospital beds”.

Palestinian health officials said more than 70 people have been killed and more than 200 injured since Israeli forces launched a new ground invasion of Khan Younis, the enclave’s second city.

Residents told Reuters that Israeli tanks had advanced into Bani Suhaila, a town on the edge of central Khan Younis, as soldiers searched the town’s cemetery and others took over the rooftops of high-rise buildings, occasionally firing their weapons.

Israeli airstrikes targeted Khan Younis, which has already been reduced to little more than shattered concrete and rubble from months of fighting. The Israeli military described fighting in “close-quarters combat”, as Palestinian militants battled Israeli troops on the streets.

“Gaza is over, Gaza is dead, Gaza has gone. There is nothing left, nothing,” Hassan Qudayh, a local person forced to evacuate, told AFP.

SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk said that his Starlink satellite internet service has been activated in a hospital in Gaza, where many medical facilities have been destroyed by the war, with the help of the United Arab Emirates and Israel.

The Gulf Arab state’s foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, thanked the billionaire entrepreneur for supporting the UAE field hospital in Gaza, where many medical facilities have been demolished and medicines are scarce, Reuters reported.

“Starlink is now active in a Gaza hospital with the support of @UAEmediaoffice and @Israel,” Musk posted on X.

The announcement came more than five months after the Israeli government gave approval for Starlink’s use in the hospital in Rafah, a flashpoint city in southern Gaza.

Residents said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had blown up several homes in Rafah, near the Egyptian border, where Israel said its operation aimed to dismantle the last Hamas battalions.

The high speed internet would enable potentially life-saving medical consultations via real-time video calling, the UAE foreign ministry said in February.

The UAE, a major oil producer and regional finance and tourism hub, signed a normalisation deal with Israel in 2020 along with Bahrain and Morocco. Sudan later sealed a normalisation agreement with Israel.

Hello and welcome to the Middle East crisis live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the breaking news from the region throughout the day.

We begin with reports of protests in Washington DC over the arrival of Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, including a sit-in at a congressional office building that ended with multiple arrests, according to the Associated Press.

Some of the demonstrations have condemned Israel but others have expressed support while pressuring Netanyahu to strike a ceasefire deal and bring home the hostages still being held by Hamas.

Netanyahu’s visit includes meetings with president Joe Biden and a Wednesday speech before a joint session of Congress. The Israeli prime minister has also signalled that a ceasefire deal that would free dozens of hostages in Gaza could be taking shape.

The Vermont senator Bernie Sanders was among those criticising Netanyahu’s visit, calling him a “war criminal” presiding over a “rightwing extremist government” in comments in the Senate.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip says over 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in the nine-month war.

First though, a summary of the latest developments:

• Doctors in the largest hospital in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis pleaded for supplies from a facility overwhelmed by wounded people, as Israeli airstrikes, artillery fire and fighting on the streets continued for a second day. “There’s no space for more patients. There’s no space in the operating theatres. There is a lack of medical supplies, so we cannot save our patients,” Mohammed Zaqout, the director of Nasser hospital, told AFP. The UN’s office for humanitarian affairs (OCHA) said the hospital was facing “a new mass casualty influx, amid a dire lack of blood units, medical supplies and hospital beds”.

• The Palestinian Authority’s budget deficit is projected to surge by 172% in 2024 compared to 2023, according to a statement from the cabinet on Tuesday, Reuters reports. Revenues are also expected to drop by 21% due to the ongoing conflict in Gaza. The announcement followed President Mahmoud Abbas’ approval of the emergency budget for 2024, which includes austerity measures such as reducing salaries, operational and capital expenditures, and maintaining minimal development expenditures.

• Netanyahu has landed in Washington DC. Netanyahu’s first 24 hours have seen a series of small meetings with the families of hostages kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October, in which he said that progress was being made on negotiating a prisoner exchange of the remaining 120 hostages as part of a ceasefire deal but defended delaying for better terms.

• Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will host the Israeli prime minister on Friday at his resort in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump said on Tuesday. “Looking forward to welcoming Bibi Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida,” the former US president said in a post on Truth Social, using Netanyahu’s nickname. The meeting will be their first since the end of Trump’s presidency, during which the two forged close ties, and comes at a time of strains also between Netanyahu and Biden over Israel’s war against Hamas militants in Gaza.

• Leaders from Hamas, Fatah and other Palestinian factions have agreed after three days of talks in Beijing to form a national unity government at an unspecified point in the future, in a move that has bolstered China’s status as a global mediator, particularly in the Middle East.

• Vandals ransacked an Israeli-Palestinian restaurant in Berlin, smashing wine glasses and defiling the space with “disgusting acts” a week after it hosted a queer Jewish-Muslim brunch, its owners have said.