Israel says it has refused a visa to the UN humanitarian affairs chief, Martin Griffiths, as a result of comments at the UN by secretary-general António Guterres. Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said on army radio: “Due to his remarks we will refuse to issue visas to UN representatives. We have already refused a visa for the under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs Martin Griffiths. The time has come to teach them a lesson.”
Israel called on UN secretary general Guterres to resign after he said the “appalling attacks” by Hamas against Israel on 7 October cannot justify the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people”, and spoke of “the clear violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing in Gaza”.
Guterres had said: “Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians – or the launching of rockets against civilian targets. All hostages must be treated humanely and released immediately and without conditions.”
Addressing the UN, the secretary-general went on to say the attack on Israel did not happen “in a vacuum” and followed “56 years of suffocating occupation” for the Palestinian people by Israel, adding: “They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.”
Erdan said Guterres should resign, calling the speech “shocking”, saying “he views the massacre committed by Nazi Hamas terrorists in a distorted and immoral manner”.
The Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki, a rival of Hamas, denounced inaction by the UN security council. “The ongoing massacres being deliberately and systematically and savagely perpetrated by Israel – the occupying power against the Palestinian civilian population under illegal occupation – must be stopped. It is our collective human duty to stop them,” he said.
The UN’s agency for the relief of Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) last night warned it would be forced to halt its operations in Gaza due to a lack of fuel as of Wednesday night. UNRWA also said that its shelters are now four times over-capacity, with more than 600,000 internally displaced people sheltering in 150 facilities. It said “many people are sleeping in the streets as current facilities are overwhelmed”. In response, Israel’s military posted a picture of what it said were fuel tanks inside Gaza. “They contain more than 500,000 litres of fuel,” it wrote. “Ask Hamas if you can have some.”
Israel’s ambassador to Australia has insisted the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “fair” after the Australian foreign minister Penny Wong’s warning that the besieged strip had “nowhere near enough” access to aid supplies.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said 6,546 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip by Israeli airstrikes since 7 October, including 2,704 children. The figure includes 756 people – 344 of whom were children – killed in the last 24 hours. It said 17,439 had been wounded in total. It has not been possible for media organisations to independently verify the casualty figures being issued from Gaza.
The rate of death and injuries of children in Gaza is “simply staggering”, Unicef’s regional director for the Middle East and north Africa has said. The UN’s children’s organisation said that a reported 2,360 children had been killed in Gaza due to “unrelenting attacks”. Adele Khodr said the number of child casualties were a “growing stain on our collective conscience”.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has told a group of MPs from his Justice and Development party (AKP) that Hamas is not a terrorist organisation, Israel’s actions in Gaza are “savage”, and that he has cancelled a planned trip to Israel. Turkey’s president was swiftly criticised for the comments, which Italian deputy PM labelled as “disgusting”.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani of Qatar expressed the hope that there might be some movement on the release of hostages “soon”. He condemned what he termed “the collective punishment policy” inflicted by Israel on Gaza, saying that the only way to reach a peaceful solution in Gaza is to keep communication channels open.
Eight aid trucks were allowed into Gaza late Tuesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said as the US President, Joe Biden, said efforts to deliver help via a crossing from Egypt were “not fast enough”. The UN had earlier said about 20 trucks had been unable to cross into Gaza from Egypt via the Rafah crossing.
Eight Syrian military personnel have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on Deraa, Syrian state media has reported. The strikes targeted the Daraa countryside overnight, and came from the direction of the Golan Heights.
Syrian state TV also reported an Israeli air attack targeted Aleppo international airport.
Three people were killed in the West Bank, medics have said, after the Israeli military launched a drone attack on what it said was a group of armed Palestinians who “fired and hurled explosive devices”.
The Israeli military has accused Iran of having ordered recent attacks by Tehran-backed militias in Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon. It also claimed Iran was providing Hamas in Gaza with intelligence, and helping stoke anti-Israel sentiment globally with an online messaging campaign.
Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has said the 2023-24 national budget was “no longer relevant” given the war against Hamas and would be amended. He put the direct cost of the war at $246m a day (£202m/€232m).
French president Emmanuel Macron will meet today the Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo. Czech prime minister Petr Fiala and Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer are to arrive in Israel. Commentators have speculated that the stream of international leaders arriving in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem may also be partly aimed at delaying the expected ground invasion of Gaza.
Pope Francis has renewed his calls for the release of hostages held by Hamas and for humanitarian aid to be allowed into the Gaza Strip.
The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, has written to prime ministers and presidents across the EU ahead of a summit tomorrow afternoon to express “grave concern” at the growing crisis in Gaza.
UK immigration minister Robert Jenrick has suggested that visitors to the UK will be removed if they incite antisemitism, even if their conduct falls “below the criminal standard”.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has said on social media that a plane delivering humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians is en route to Egypt.
A Palestinian American woman whose six-year-old son was killed in a Chicago suburb in what police called a hate crime has asked the public to “pray for peace” as she recovers from her injuries.
