Israeli fire guns near diplomats in West Bank — as it happened

“I have asked my officials to summon Israel’s ambassador to convey Canada’s serious concerns. We expect a full investigation and accountability,” Anita Anand said on X.

It comes after the British Middle East minister calling for a “full investigation” and a number of other countries summoning their Israeli ambassadors, including Portugal, France, Italy and Spain.

The head of the World Health Organisation has warned that Israel’s intensified military operation in Gaza has pushed the territory’s health system to breaking point.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Indonesian, Kamal Adwan and Al-Awda hospitals in northern Gaza were inside an evacuation area.

He added that Al-Awda hospital, while still functioning, was “totally under siege”, telling the BBC: “Nobody can move out and we can’t receive any cases from outside the hospital.”

There had been drone “shooting in the surroundings of the hospital and the outdoor area of the hospital”, he said, adding: “We also hear shooting from the tanks … maybe 400 or 500 metres [away].”

The Ethiopian health chief also said Kamal Adwan was out of service due to hostilities in the surrounding area while the Indonesian hospital was inaccessible, with Israeli forces blocking entry.

Israel’s opposition leader has accused Binyamin Netanyahu of lying, saying the prime minister lacks a plan to end the war in Gaza.

“The meaning of Netanyahu’s words is military rule over Gaza for many years,” Yair Lapid said of Netanyahu’s comments that Israel would maintain security control after defeating Hamas, adding that troops would continue to die and Israeli taxpayers would have to pay for education, healthcare and other services in the territory indefinitely.

“Netanyahu lied today when he said he is fully co-ordinated with the American administration,” Lapid added. “He has lost Trump’s support and attention.”

Israel has said 100 aid trucks have now entered the Gaza Strip, while two merchants told Reuters at least 15 aid trucks had entered the territory.

The World Food Programme said the movement of supplies was underway but that no aid had yet been distributed.

The UN confirmed this evening it had been unable to distribute any of its supplies. This was despite two days having passed since Israel lifted an 11-week blockage, allowing “basic” food to enter the territory.

In the Oval Office President Trump answered questions about South Africa’s case alleging genocide by Israel in the International Court of Justice.

Asked what he wanted to see happen with the case, Trump said “I don’t know” during a meeting with the South African president.

Trump added: “There’s a lot of anger there. I don’t expect anything. We’ll see what happens.”

During the meeting, Trump ambushed Cyril Ramaphosa with a video that he said proved white farmers in the country were being murdered and their land confiscated. Ramaphosa, who Trump had accused of not doing enough to cool racial tensions in his country, sat impassively throughout the video but refused to look at the screen.

The Middle East minister said the warning shots fired at diplomats in the West Bank were “unacceptable”.

Hamish Falconer said: “Today’s events in Jenin are unacceptable. I have spoken to our diplomats who were affected.

“Civilians must always be protected and diplomats allowed to do their jobs. There must be a full investigation and those responsible should be held accountable.”

By Edmund Fitton-Brown, a former UK ambassador to Yemen

I worked at the United Nations in New York for five years as a co-ordinator for counterterrorism. I cherish those years at the UN, an organisation capable of doing great things for the world and full of brilliant people.

But it has lost its way. Now I hear of recriminations between colleagues, disenchantment with the leadership and a belief that serious reform is needed to break the UN out of its malaise.

In Gaza we see these problems playing out in real time. Israel has lost trust in the organisation as an honest broker in the conflict with Hamas and is now seeking to provide aid to the territory through third-party companies instead of the UN. It’s a plan that has received much condemnation.

• Read in full: It’s no wonder Israel doesn’t trust UNRWA

In the last hospital in south Gaza, which was struck twice over the past two weeks, doctors have run out of supplies.

Dr Atef Al-Hout, the director of the Nasser Medical Complex, said there were 500 patients in the hospital condemned to go without essential medical care.

“We heard that they would allow the entry of medical aid and medicine into Gaza but we have not seen anything until now,” Al-Hout said. “The stock of IV solutions for patients, including dialysis patients, was targeted — essentially sentencing them to death.”

“None of the aid trucks that entered the Palestinian side of the Abu Salem commercial crossing have managed to cross and enter the Gaza Strip, or reach the UN warehouses which are supposed to receive these supplies,” Amjad Al-Shawa, a humanitarian worker, said from inside the Rafah Charitable Kitchen.

“We have about 150,000 tons of supplies waiting at the crossings, ready to enter Gaza to help support the humanitarian system and respond to the huge challenges of the humanitarian catastrophe we are currently going through. These supplies were meant to be distributed to bakeries and community kitchens and clinics, even this limited amount,” Al-Shawa said.

The Israeli prime minister has denied reports that President Trump is growing impatient with him.

Netanyahu told reporters he recently called Trump to tell him: “Don’t pay attention to the fake news spins about the rupture between us. It is not the truth, you know it is not the truth.”

There was a “tsunami of fake news coming” into Israel, he said.

“I won’t say there is a 100 per cent overlap [between America and Israel’s positions], but there is almost a full overlap,” Netanyahu added.

There was no problem with Trump “deepening ties with the Arab world”, Netanyahu told the press conference, saying he was “interested” in accords which would see Israel normalise relations with more Gulf states.

Binyamin Netanyahu said he would not allow European leaders to “influence” Israel after he was asked about the diplomatic row over the gunfire in Jenin and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

“We have to complete the war,” Netahayu said. “We are going to continue what is needed to end the war.”

He said it was a “mark of shame” that Britain was sanctioning Israel and not Hamas, calling the sanctions an “absolutely horrible thing”.

“We are intensely against their [Europe’s] intent … to recognise a Palestinian state,” Netanyahu said. “The European countries will not influence us.”

A delegation of 25 diplomats reacted to gunfire by Israeli soldiers in Jenin earlier, spurring countries to demand answers over the incident.

At his first press conference since December, Binyamin Netanyahu said that after today’s events, “I am getting a lot of criticism”.

The Israeli prime minister nevertheless doubled down on the military’s war aims, saying there was still much to do in the fight against Hamas.

He added that Israel was fighting a war on seven fronts, suggesting it was facing a taller task than “the UK and its allies” during the Second World War.

We are fighting “against a superpower called Iran”, he said, adding: “We are now the strongest force in the Middle East and this is a big change.”

Binyamin Netanyahu has said Israel would control all of Gaza “in the end” and Hamas would be totally defeated.

The Israeli prime minister said that his government was ready for a “temporary ceasefire” to secure the return of hostages held in Gaza, adding that 20 of them were “certainly” alive.

“If there is an option for a temporary ceasefire to free hostages, we’ll be ready,” Netanyahu added.

“All of [the] Gaza Strip will be under the security control of Israel.”

Israel “probably killed” the Hamas leader, Mohammed Sinwar, Binyamin Netanyahu has said.

In a televised address, the Israeli prime minister said that despite the death of the Hamas chief, who was the brother of the terrorist group’s former leader, Yahya Al-Sinwar, the military’s work “isn’t over yet”.

“We are committed to achieving [war] goals until the end,” Netanyahu added.

Binyamin Netanyahu will not be able to appoint a new chief of Shin Bet, the internal security agency, until the implications of today’s High Court decision have been examined.

Israel’s supreme court ruled as “unlawful” Netanyahu’s decision to fire the domestic security chief in March, which caused mass protests at the time, because of a conflict of interest.

The Israeli government said in late April it had cancelled its decision to fire Ronen Bar, a day after he announced he would stand down amid weeks of tension with Netanyahu.

The attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, has now told the prime minister he cannot be involved in “any action connected to the appointment of a new permanent or temporary Shin Bet head” until “a legal examination can be conducted” and its implications implemented.

Mamdouh al-Aram, 59, has eight children including a son who was killed in the war. “The food is stuck at the crossings. Israel isn’t letting it in. It spoils and expires before it reaches us,” he said, adding that he comes home with the pot he brought to fill, empty.

“I keep running from one place to another, anywhere that might be distributing aid, hoping to find something to bring home,” he said. “They talk about aid coming in, but in reality, nothing reaches us.

“No one in the world has the power to get even a handful of flour in for us.”

Stephane Dujarric, a UN spokesman, said supplies had not left the Kerem Shalom loading area.

He said Israeli authorities had only allowed access within Gaza “that we felt was insecure” and where looting was likely, due to the prolonged deprivation.

About 600 trucks a day were required to begin tackling the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the UN estimated.

By Amal Helles and Gabrielle Weiniger, Tel Aviv

As diplomatic ties with Israel are strained around the world, Gazans know that there are truckloads of food waiting to enter the territory.

Inside one of largest soup kitchens in Al-Mawasi, near Rafah, there is nothing. One grandmother has to find a way to break the news to her family.

“My grandchildren are waiting for me outside the tent. They thought I was bringing food,” Fatima Sweid, 70, said. “How will I face my grandchildren with nothing to give them to eat?”

She and her family have been displaced to Al-Mawasi, where evacuated Palestinians were instructed to go by the Israeli military before a bombing campaign in the nearby Khan Younis.

“Our whole life has changed. I miss my old life. I miss my school. I just want to go back to Rafah, to our home even if it’s only rubble now. No aid has reached us. Nothing has come in,” said her nin-year-old granddaughter, Ghazal Mahmoud. “We go to sleep hungry every night, wishing we could have even just a little bit of something.”

As world leaders condemn Israel’s latest military offensive in Gaza, Binyamin Netanyahu has released video of himself talking to the country’s Eurovision contestant, Yuval Rafael.

Raphael, who survived the attacks on 7 October, 2023, finished second in last weekend’s competition held in Switzerland.

Netanyahu, in video posted on his X account, told the singer: “You brought immense pride to the people of Israel, you raised the country’s ray in a moment of light amidst darkness.”

He added: “You are the real winner.”

Raphael won the popular vote among viewers with her song New Day Will Rise. The contest was won by Austria.

The gunfire near a diplomatic delegation comes at a time of already mounting international pressure for Israel.

Britain suspended trade talks with Israel on Tuesday after Sir Keir Starmer, together with his French, German and Canadian counterparts, told Israel that it faced sanctions and said an Israeli decision allowing a “basic” quantity of food to enter Gaza was “wholly inadequate”. The EU said it would review an association agreement with Israel.

The patience of one of Israel’s strongest allies, President Trump, had been wearing thin, sources have previously told The Times.

Trump snubbed Israel on his recent Middle East tour, while his vice-president, JD Vance, skipped a visit to Israel this week. The president seemed concerned at the plight of the Palestinians in the territory, sources said.

Portugal has become the latest European country to summon its Israeli ambassador over shots fired during a diplomatic visit to the West Bank.

This afternoon Spain, France and Italy summoned the ambassadors in their respective countries.

Yesterday Britain did the same in relation to Israel’s expanding military operations in the Gaza Strip and the restriction of humanitarian aid into the territory.

Turkey has demanded there be an inquiry “without delay” into the warning shots fired over dozens of foreign diplomats in the West Bank.

“The targeting of diplomats constitutes a grave threat not only to individual safety but also to the mutual respect and trust that form the foundation of inter-state relations,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

“This attack must be investigated without delay,” it added.

The ministry said an official from the Turkish consulate in Jerusalem was among the diplomats fired at.

Israeli soldiers fired from inside a building around 100m away, according to a journalist among the delegation.

“The delegation was shown two areas of the Jenin camp. About 10 minutes after they reached the second area, the Israeli army fired at the delegation which led to fear and panic,” Mohammad S Abed said.

The group was immediately evacuated and no one was hurt, he added.

A senior British diplomat was among the delegation visiting the West Bank.

The individual is understood to be the deputy consul, who plays a crucial role in representing the British government and providing advice and briefings on key issues.

The diplomat was believed to have been among dozens of other officials from European and Asian countries.

The UN says no aid has reached people in Gaza, two days after the Israeli government said it had lifted an 11-week-old blockade that brought the Palestinian territory to the brink of famine.

The Israeli military said five aid trucks entered Gaza on Monday and 93 on Tuesday but supplies have not made it to soup kitchens, bakeries, markets and hospitals, according to UN aid officials and local bakeries that were standing by to receive supplies of flour.

“None of this aid — that is a very limited number of trucks — has reached the Gaza population,” said Antoine Renard, country director of the World Food Programme, who said the trucks appeared to be stopped in Kerem Shalom, the logistics hub at the southeast corner of the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli blockade has left Gazans in an increasingly desperate struggle for survival, despite growing international and domestic pressure on the Israeli government.

Two Irish diplomats were among those in the West Bank who fled from Israeli army fire, officials in Dublin have said.

“I am shocked and appalled at reports that the IDF fired shots in the vicinity of a visit to Jenin today by a group of diplomats, including two Irish diplomats based in Ramallah,” the foreign minister, Simon Harris, said.

“Fortunately, no one was hurt. This is completely unacceptable and I condemn it in the strongest terms.”

Britain has pledged 4 million pounds in humanitarian aid to Gaza, the government has said, as the development minister visited Israel and the Palestinian territories.

“The Israeli government’s failure to allow full humanitarian access to aid workers is abhorrent. Far too few trucks are crossing into Gaza,” Baroness Chapman of Darlington said.

“The UK is clear. Israel will not achieve security through prolonging the suffering of the Palestinian people.”

Britain paused on Tuesday free trade talks with Israel over its latest offensive in Gaza, with the foreign minister, David Lammy, calling for an end to the blockade of aid.

The British Red Cross would receive the fresh aid package and deliver it through the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, the government said.

Binyamin Netanyahu will give a press conference this evening, according to reports in the Israeli media.

It would be the prime minister’s first press conference since December and would come at a time of escalating international criticism of him and his government.

The conference will be held at the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem, according to the Times of Israel.

The French foreign minister has said he will summon the Israeli ambassador in Paris after diplomats came under fire from Israeli soldiers.

Jean-Noel Barrot wrote on X, describing the incident as “unacceptable” and said that the ambassador would be required to explain.

Israel’s supreme court has ruled as “unlawful” the prime minister’s decision to fire the domestic security chief in March as “unlawful”, a move which had triggered mass protests in the country.

“The Supreme Court ruled that the government’s decision to terminate the head of the Shin Bet’s tenure was made through an improper and unlawful process,” the court ruling said.

The Israeli government said in late April it had cancelled its decision to fire Ronen Bar, a day after he announced he would stand down amid weeks of tension with Binyamin Netanyahu.

Israel is believed to be preparing to strike Iran, even as the United States negotiates a nuclear agreement with the country.

American intelligence has intercepted communications and observed military preparations for a possible imminent strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, according to CNN.

The account comes as tensions rise between President Trump and Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister — who had been planning a strike on Iran before the US leader vetoed the idea and instead announced talks with Tehran in March.

• Read in full: Israel ‘preparing strike on nuclear facilities’

In this 10-minute podcast, Samer Al-Atrush, The Times Middle East Correspondent, explains why the Trump administration turning against Netanyahu would be particularly difficult for Israel.

In further remarks over the West Bank shooting incident, the Italian foreign minister said he had spoken to the deputy consul general of Italy in Jerusalem, who in Jenin and had to run when the Israeli military fired what it called warning shots.

Antonio Tajani said the diplomat Alessandro Tutino was “well” and “among the diplomats who were apparently shot at near the Jenin refugee camp”.

“We call on the government of Israel to immediately clarify what happened. Threats against diplomats are unacceptable,” he said.

David Chazan, Paris

Dominique de Villepin, the former French prime minister, has accused Israel of ethnic cleansing in Gaza and said that “the entire Israeli government and senior military officials” should be brought before the International Criminal Court.

“Benjamin Netanyahu is putting Israel’s security at risk. He is putting America’s security at risk as well as [that of] the western world,” Villepin, who served as the head of government between 2005 and 2007, told CNN.

He added there was a risk of genocide, which he said would be “a huge stain on Israel and all of us”.

De Villepin reiterated his call for the EU to suspend its trade agreement with Israel and for European countries to impose an arms embargo on Israel.

The Gaza health ministry claims that at least 82 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Wednesday, amid a surge in international anger at Israel’s widening offensive.

Among the dead, according to the Hamas-run ministry, were several women and a week-old infant. In the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israel recently ordered evacuations before an expected expanded offensive, 24 people were killed, 14 of them from the same family.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes but had previously said it was targeting Hamas infrastructure and accused militants of operating in civilian areas.

Madrid, which has been deeply critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza, has confirmed one of its diplomats was on the visit to the West Bank.

“We are in contact with other affected countries to jointly co-ordinate a response to what happened, which we strongly condemn,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Ministry said that “the delegation was undertaking an official mission to observe and assess the humanitarian situation and document the ongoing violations perpetrated by” Israel.

The ministry called the Israeli military’s actions a violation of international law.

Video on Israeli television showed people running to vehicles with diplomatic license plates as shots were heard in the distance.

The Israeli military has killed dozens of Palestinians and destroyed many homes in the West Bank since launching an operation in January in Jenin, claiming to root out militants.

Italy has summoned the Israeli ambassador in Rome to explain the incident in the West Bank.

Antonio Tajani, the foreign minister, posted on X that the envoy was summoned “to obtain official clarification on what happened in Jenin”.

As the diplomatic row grows over the warning shot incident in the West Bank, Belgium has demanded a “convincing explanation” from Israel.

A Belgian diplomat was part of the delegation when the Israeli soldiers fired the shots.

Maxime Prevot, the foreign minister, posted on X that he was “shocked” at the incident involving a delegation on a visit “co-ordinated with the Israeli army” and travelling in a “clearly identifiable” convoy.

“Belgium demands a convincing explanation from Israel,” he wrote, adding that the Belgian diplomat was unharmed.

The Israel Defence Forces said: “Earlier today, a co-ordinated entry of a diplomatic delegation into Jenin took place. As part of the co-ordination, an approved route was provided to the delegation members, which they were instructed to follow due to the area being an active combat zone.

“According to an initial inquiry, the delegation deviated from the approved route and entered an area where they were not authorised to be. IDF soldiers operating in the area fired warning shots to distance them away. No injuries or damages were reported.

“At the end of the incident, once it was clarified that the individuals were part of a diplomatic delegation, the commander of the Judea and Samaria Division, Brigadier General Yaki Dolf, immediately reviewed the incident. In addition, the head of the civil administration, Brigadier General Hisham Ibrahim, instructed unit officers to immediately speak with representatives of the relevant countries, and he will soon hold personal conversations with the diplomats to update them on the findings of the initial inquiry.

“The IDF regrets the inconvenience caused.”

The Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry reported that the group of diplomats involved representatives from the UK, Canada, France, China, Russia and the European Union, among others.

No injuries were reported.

Israel’s military has apologised after firing warning shots over a European diplomatic delegation, including a British representative, on a visit to the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, according to reports.

Brussels has called the incident “unacceptable” and called for a full investigation.

The Israel Defence Forces said it regretted “the inconvenience caused” and had reached out to the countries involved. It said the incident happened after “the delegation deviated from the approved route and entered an area where they were not authorised to be”.

Kaja Kallas, the EU foreign policy chief, called on Israel to hold those responsible for the incident “accountable”. “Any threats on diplomats’ lives are unacceptable,” Kallas said.

It comes a day after European countries, including the UK and the EU, voiced their strongest criticisms of Israel’s conduct in Gaza during the 19-month long war.

Israel’s defence minister claimed Hamas was preparing to attack border communities near the Gaza Strip, using information provided by Iran.

During a tour of the Ashdod Naval Base, Israel Katz said: “I came here from a visit to the Shin Bet headquarters, and all that Hamas is doing now is updating targets in the border communities through sources that provide it with information, like the Iranians and others.”

He added: “It is planning on how to continue, and we therefore must win here … We must make sure that [Hamas] does not stay here.”

Fewer than 100 aid trucks have entered Gaza since Monday, when Binyamin Netanyahu’s government agreed to lift the 11-week blockade, according to Israeli military figures. It means food aid is yet to reach many parts of the strip. Abdel-Nasser al-Ajramy, the head of the bakery owners’ society, said at least 25 bakeries promised flour from the World Food Programme had seen nothing.

“There is no flour, no food, no water,” said Sabah Warsh Agha, a 67-year-old woman from the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya sheltering in a cluster of tents near the beach in Gaza City, reported Reuters. “We used to get water from the pump, now the pump has stopped working. There is no diesel or gas.”

Germany’s new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, expressed “great concern” about Israel’s renewed military offensive in Gaza during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Berlin has been a steadfast backer of Israel during the war, and Merz’s comments are a rare rebuke. Merz’s spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said the chancellor was in close contact with other European nations to convey his worries to the Israeli government.

“It is always important for the German government to keep its lines of communication open with the Israeli government and to be able to make its points directly,” he said.

The Israel Defence Forces said a Hezbollah member was killed in a drone strike close to the Lebanese coastal city of Tyre.

The military added that Hussein Nazih Barji was a “significant source of knowledge” in the field of weapons production for the terror group and worked in Hezbollah’s weapons research and development division.

The IDF said the “experienced engineer” was taken out in an attempt to disrupt Hezbollah’s rearmament efforts.

A group of European and western diplomats came under fire while visiting Jenin, a city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Authority.

The diplomats were on official mission to observe the humanitarian situation in Jenin when shots rang out. There were no immediate reports indicating whether anyone was hurt, Reuters reported.

An aid worker, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisal, said a delegation of about 20 diplomats was being briefed about the situation in Jenin by the Palestinian Authority near the entrance of the city’s refugee camp when they heard gunshots, though it was unclear where the shots came from, she said.

Jenin has been the site of Israel’s widespread crackdown against West Bank militants since earlier this year.

Israel Defence Forces say they have killed a participant in the October 7 attack: Mohammad Shahin, from Hamas’s East Jabalia Battalion.

In the the past 24 hours, the IDF said it had “struck over 115 terror targets” in Gaza.

Close to 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas massacre in 2023, and more than 250 people taken hostage.

There has been criticism of Israel’s conduct in Gaza at home as well as abroad.

Yair Golan, the centre-left politician, has warned that Israel risks becoming an “outcast among nations” because of Binyamin Netanyahu’s government’s approach to the war.

“A sane country doesn’t engage in fighting against civilians, doesn’t kill babies as a hobby and doesn’t set for itself the goals of expelling a population,” Golan, a retired general and leader of the opposition Democrats party, told Reshet Bet radio.

His comments were rare criticism from inside Israel of its conduct in Gaza. Many Israelis have criticised Netanyahu throughout the war, but that has been mostly limited to what opponents argue are his political motives to continue the war. Criticism over the war’s toll on Palestinian civilians has been almost unheard.

Netanyahu criticised Golan’s remarks, calling them a “wild incitement” against Israeli soldiers.

Hospitals in Gaza say Israeli strikes overnight and into Wednesday have left at least 45 dead, according to the Associated Press.

Israel killed 11 in an airstrike at a bus station in Jabalia, Gaza’s civil defence agency said. A further two people, including a child, were killed in a separate strike on the town in northern Gaza. In two different strikes in areas to the east of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, two more people died, and others were injured.

Earlier reports suggested at least 19 people were killed overnight.

Since the October 7 incursion into Israel by Hamas militants, Israel has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli prime minister, has said that his country’s actions in Gaza are “very close to a war crime”.

Olmert, who was prime minister between 2006 and 2009, called for more pressure to be applied on the government of Binyamin Netanyahu and said that the criticism so far was “not insignificant” but “not sufficient yet”.

Last year, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, among others, accusing him of using starvation as a weapon of war. The charge has been vehemently denied by the Israeli leader.

Olmert told BBC Radio 4 that President Trump “maybe” could tip the balance for Netanyahu. Trump is said to be growing frustrated by what he sees as Israel’s refusal to end the war.

On the British condemnation of Netanyahu, Olmert said the UK government should not “punish the Israeli citizens with economic sanctions”, as many were calling for an end to the war.

Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, has hailed the international criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, including Britain’s.

“We reiterate our welcome for the joint statement issued by the leaders of Britain, France, and Canada, as well as for the positions of the European Union countries, the joint statement of the donor countries and the statement of the Arab-Islamic ministerial committee on this matter,” Abbas said. “They all rejected the policies of blockade, starvation, displacement and land seizure.”

A Gazan woman described the situation in the strip on Wednesday as “unbearable”.

Umm Talal al-Masri, 53, a displaced Palestinian living in an area of Gaza City, told the AFP news agency: “No one is distributing anything to us. Everyone is waiting for aid, but we haven’t received anything. We’re grinding lentils and pasta to make some loaves of bread, and we barely manage to prepare one meal a day.”

A statement released on Wednesday by UAE state media said the Emirates had reached an agreement with Israel to allow the delivery of “urgent humanitarian aid” to Gaza.

“The aid will address the food needs of approximately 15,000 civilians in the Gaza Strip in the initial phase,” it said.

It was not immediately clear when the UAE’s aid would be sent to Gaza.

A Palestinian paracyclist who lost a leg and was wrongly presumed dead during the 2014 Gaza war has been killed in an Israeli airstrike, his team said.

Ahmed al-Dali was killed on Monday in Khan Younis, where the Israeli military had announced an “unprecedented” operation as part of a campaign that has prompted Britain to suspend trade talks with Israel.

“We are devastated by the death of our very own, Ahmed al-Dali,” the Gaza Sunbirds, the paracycling team al-Dali was part of, said on Instagram.

The team said he had been presumed dead and taken to a morgue before anyone realised he was still alive in 2014, during the last major war between Israel and Gaza before the attack Hamas launched in October 2023 sparked the current conflict.

“We are heartbroken. But we are also furious. This cannot continue,” the team said.

The Pope has pleaded for more aid to be allowed into Gaza, describing the situation in the Palestinian territory as “worrying and painful”, in his first general audience since his election.

“I renew my heartfelt appeal to allow the entry of sufficient humanitarian aid and to put an end to the hostilities, the heartbreaking price of which is paid by children, the elderly, the sick,” the pontiff told a crowd of thousands in St Peter’s Square on Wednesday morning.

Israel is facing pressure to allow more aid into Gaza, where aid agencies warn inhabitants risk famine, after the country announced it would allow aid distribution to resume following pressure from the US and other allies.

Israel had imposed a total blockade in March, after talks to extend a ceasefire with Hamas and release the hostages held by the militant group unravelled.

Britain could impose sanctions on senior members of the Israeli government and its far-right settler movement.

The UK government is drawing up plans with other countries to impose sanctions on Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, and Israel Katz, the defence minister, among others. It also announced sanctions on Daniella Weiss, known as the “godmother” of the settler movement.

David Lammy, the foreign secretary, said the sanctions demonstrate “our determination to hold extremist settlers to account as Palestinian communities suffer violence and intimidation”.

Weiss, the leader of the radical settler organisation, Nachala, responded to the sanctions by saying hundreds of families “are prepared and ready to implement settlement in Gaza — immediately”.

The UK sanctions sheet stated Weiss was involved in “threatening, perpetrating, promoting and supporting, acts of aggression and violence against Palestinian individuals”.

A man and a woman were reported to have been arrested after attempting to stop aid trucks from entering Gaza.

Footage posted on social media showed protesters waving Israeli flags blocking the road at the Kerem Shalom border crossing.

The two arrested were taken to the police station in the city of Netivot in southern Israel, according to Avi Moskoff, a journalist from the Israeli radio station, Kol BaRama.

President Trump has demanded that Binyamin Netanyahu’s government put a stop to the humanitarian suffering in Gaza.

The US president was reported to have become increasingly frustrated with what he sees as Israel’s refusal to bring about an end to the war. Trump has told officials that he expects Netanyahu to “wrap it up”, Axios reported.

After his tour of the Middle East — in which he conspicuously left Israel off the itinerary — Trump has pledged to help the “starving” people in Gaza.

• Read in full: Trump frustrated with Netanyahu and calls to ‘wrap up’ war in Gaza

Britain suspended trade talks with Israel and summoned its ambassador to London over Israel’s “intolerable” military expansion in Gaza.

David Lammy criticised Israel’s “egregious actions” on Tuesday. Speaking to the House of Commons, the foreign secretary accused Binyamin Netanyahu’s government of “isolating Israel from its friends and partners around the world”.

His comments represent Britain’s strongest condemnation of Israel since the war with Hamas started. Lammy told MPs: “We are now entering a dark new phase in this conflict.”

Strikes by Israeli warplanes overnight killed at least 19 people, including a week-old baby, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.

“Our crews transported 19 dead, most of them children, and dozens of injured following air raids carried out by the Israeli warplanes in various areas of the Gaza Strip last night and early today,” Mahmud Bassal, the Gaza civil defence spokesman, told AFP.

Israeli aid is “a smokescreen to pretend the siege is over”, Doctors Without Borders’s emergency co-ordinator in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis said on Wednesday.

“The Israeli authorities’ decision to allow a ridiculously inadequate amount of aid into Gaza after months of an airtight siege signals their intention to avoid the accusation of starving people in Gaza, while in fact keeping them barely surviving,” Pascale Coissard said.

“The current authorisation for 100 per day, when the situation is so dire, is woefully inadequate,” Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) said. “Meanwhile, evacuation orders are continuing to uproot the population, while Israeli forces are still subjecting health facilities to intensive attacks.”

The UN has described Israel’s response to allow only a “basic” amount of food into Gaza after an 11-week blockade as a “drop in the ocean”.

As of Tuesday evening, the organisation had been unable to distribute any of its supplies, although Israel had permitted for 100 emergency lorries to enter the strip. Israel claimed 93 trucks had entered Gaza from Israel on Tuesday.

The Israeli military’s Coordinator of the Government Activities in the Territories said the aid was transferred through the Kerem Shalom crossing “only after a thorough security inspection”.

“The IDF will continue to facilitate humanitarian assistance in the Gaza Strip while making every effort to ensure that the aid does not reach the hands of the Hamas terrorist organisation,” it said.

Israel imposed a total blockade on March 2, causing severe shortages of food and medicine.