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Israeli strikes have killed at least 58 people overnight in Gaza, according to three hospitals, with the Associated Press reporting that airstrikes hit homes in the middle of the night – killing men, women and children as they slept.
Israel resumed heavy strikes across Gaza on Tuesday, shattering a ceasefire that had halted the war and facilitated the release of more than two dozen hostages. There has been a scale of destruction and death rarely seen since the early weeks of the war in 2023.
More than 400 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday alone, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, taking the death toll close to 50,000 people, mostly civilians.
What has Israel said about the airstrikes? The Israeli government argues that Hamas has broken the ceasefire by refusing new hostage releases. Meanwhile, Hamas says Israel has broken the deal by reneging on its earlier commitment to move to the scheduled second phase.
Are the renewed attacks related to legal troubles of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu? That’s what some observers suggest. Netanyahu is on trial for corruption. If found guilty, he could face prison. On Tuesday, a court approved his request not to appear at a hearing “due to the renewal of the war”, Israeli media reported.
This is a developing story. Follow our live coverage here.
Trump and Zelenskyy share ‘very good’ call as Ukraine accepts partial ceasefire
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a “very good” call yesterday, according to Trump, in the first conversation since the US and Ukrainian presidents’ disastrous showdown three weeks ago.
Zelenskyy described the call as “positive, very substantive and frank,” and said he had signed up to a partial ceasefire that Trump agreed with Vladimir Putin a day earlier.
What does this mean for the ceasefire? Trump, on Truth Social, said the partial ceasefire would apply to “energy and infrastructure.” Previously, Ukrainian and US negotiating teams had agreed on a full ceasefire, but Putin turned that down, suggesting instead pausing mutual strikes on energy infrastructure and a ceasefire in the Black Sea.
What about Putin’s motives? There remains no indication that Putin has abandoned any of his most hardline objectives, according to Kommersant, a well-connected Russian newspaper. It reported that Putin told a meeting of senior business leaders on Tuesday that he intends to continue the fighting until he gets full control of the four regions Moscow annexed in 2022.
Trump administration attempting to deport pro-Palestinian student at Georgetown University
Donald Trump’s administration has detained an Indian man studying at Washington’s Georgetown University and is seeking to deport him after deeming him a harm to US foreign policy, the student’s lawyer said on Wednesday.
The case comes as Trump seeks to deport foreigners who took part in pro-Palestinian protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, including Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia graduate. The measures have sparked outcry from civil rights and immigrant advocacy groups who accuse his administration of unfairly targeting political critics.
What are the details of the case? The Department of Homeland Security accused Badar Khan Suri of ties to the Palestinian militant group Hamas and said he had spread Hamas propaganda and antisemitism on social media, according to Fox News.
In other news …
Trump will sign a long-anticipated executive order on Thursday – that aims to shut down the Department of Education, according to reports.
UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, is facing a backlash from many of his own Labour MPs, after his government announced welfare changes that will deliver cuts for 1.2 million disabled people.
The Trump administration paused $175m in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania, over its inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s college sports.
Turkish police arrested the mayor of Istanbul and scores of others in dawn raids yesterday. The mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, is a primary challenger to the country’s strongman president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
A man buried by an avalanche in Norway was rescued after seven hours beneath the snow, due to a rare air pocket, with authorities calling it a “miracle.”
Six dead and 40 missing in Mediterranean after boat disaster – as 2,200 died trying to reach Europe in 2024
Six people have died and 40 are missing after a boat disaster off the Italian island of Lampedusa. The latest deaths come as the UN says more than 2,200 people either died or went missing in the Mediterranean while trying to reach Europe in search of refuge in 2024.
Don’t miss this: ‘I’m the Canadian who was detained by Ice for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped’
“I was taken to a tiny, freezing cement cell with bright fluorescent lights and a toilet. There were five other women lying on their mats with the aluminum sheets wrapped over them,” writes Jasmine Mooney, a Canadian entrepreneur and actor. Mooney is one of a string of cases of people with US visas being denied entry or detained since Donald Trump returned to office.
Climate check: Greenpeace must pay at least $660m over Dakota pipeline protests, says jury
A jury in North Dakota decided that Greenpeace must pay at least $660m to the pipeline company Energy Transfer, and is liable for defamation and other claims, over protests in the state nearly a decade ago. The case has been closely watched for the potential chilling effect on peaceful protest.
Last Thing: Acts of kindness 10% higher than before 2020
The annual World Happiness Report found that in 2024, acts such as donating and volunteering were more frequent than in 2017–19 in all generations and almost all global regions, although they had fallen from 2023. For instance, helping strangers was still up by an average of 18% from the pre-pandemic era, it found.
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