Troops are continuing their search in and around Gaza's biggest hospital.
A spokesman for the IDF, Daniel Hagari, wrote on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that Israeli intelligence led soldiers to the exact location of her body.
The IDF did not give further details on how Cpl Marciano died.
Hamas's military wing claimed she was killed in an Israeli air strike on 9 November, though this could not be independently verified.
Cpl Marciano was serving as a lookout at the Nahal Oz kibbutz when it was stormed by part of a wave of gunmen who had burst through the nearby Israel-Gaza border, attacking dozens of Israeli communities, several military bases and hundreds of young people attending a music festival.
According to Haaretz, Cpl Marciano's mother, Adi Marciano, said in an interview that she last spoke to her daughter on the morning of the attack.
"She told me she was in a protected space and that there had been an infiltration... She said that she had to end the call. I didn't hear shots or screams. Half an hour later, I sent her a message, but she didn't reply."
She had appeared in a video released by Hamas on Monday. The IDF called it "psychological terrorism".
So far, only four of the 240 hostages who were abducted by Hamas last month have been freed.
Israeli officials say that at least 1,200 people were killed in Hamas's cross-border attack.
Since Israel started its counter-attack, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry has said 11,400 people have been killed in the territory.
Al-Shifa, Gaza City's largest hospital, became the focus of fighting at the start of the week and was raided by the Israeli military on Wednesday morning.
The IDF says Hamas has been using the hospital as a command centre and has spent two days searching the complex for evidence of this. Hamas denies operating there and the BBC cannot independently verify claims by either side.
The country has been shaken by more than 800 small earthquakes, prompting fears that the tremors could disrupt the Fagradalsfjall volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula in the southwest of the country. Scientists have said an eruption at some point is ‘likely’.
It comes as a Caterpillar D11 - said to be Iceland’s biggest bulldozer - has been dispatched to help build defences. The huge piece of equipment is constructing trenches to reduce the damage caused by any eventual disaster.
Almost 4,000 people were evacuated from Grindavik over the weekend as authorities feared that molten rock would rise to the surface of the earth and potentially hit the coastal town and a geothermal power station.
Ragga Agustsdottir, who lives close to Grindavik, said residents were fearful of what could happen if an eruption struck.
Scientists have warned Iceland’s south-western peninsula could face “decades” of volcanic instability following eruptions along the peninsula.
There is a “high” chance of a volcanic eruption in Iceland, scientists have warned.
“The probability of an eruption is still considered high. Signs of shallowing micro-seismic activity and sudden slippage are being monitored, which may be signs that magma is making its way to the surface,” the Icelandic met office said.
It comes as a Caterpillar D11 - said to be Iceland’s biggest bulldozer - has been dispatched to help build defences. The huge piece of equipment is constructing trenches to reduce the damage caused by any eventual disaster.
A police officer talks to a local resident on a road leading to the fishing town of Grindavik
Over 50 cats rescued after residents asked to evacuate Grindavik
At least 52 cats have been rescued by an animal shelter in Kattholt after pets were left behind during the emergency evacuation of the Icelandic town of Grindavik.
Nearly 4,000 people in the small fishing town were evacuated last weekend amid fears of an imminent volcanic eruption.
Residents were told they could return the next day to pick up their pets, but that didn’t happen.“Since the evacuation, a total of 289 animals have been rescued, that is all animals from frogs to horses,” Hanna Everson for the animal shelter told The Mirror.
“And also a whole chicken farm with 15,000 chicks were rescued.”
But charities said so far four cats, nine fish and four canaries were still stranded.
Iceland earthquakes: Huge cracks appear on roads in volcano-threatened town
Around 900 earthquakes hit the south of the country on Monday 13 November, with tens of thousands of tremors reported in the region of Reykjanes in recent weeks.
“All roads to Grindavik are closed and traffic on them is forbidden,” the Road Administration of Iceland wrote on Facebook, sharing footage of the damage.
Roads have begun to crack and buildings buckle under the pressure of underground magma as Iceland prepares for a possible volcanic eruption. Around 900 earthquakes hit the south of the country on Monday 13 November, with tens of thousands of tremors reported in the region of Reykjanes in recent weeks. In the coastal town of Grindavik, where thousands of people have been evacuated, road surfaces have cracked and crumbled away. “All roads to Grindavik are closed and traffic on them is forbidden,” the Road Administration of Iceland wrote on Facebook, sharing footage of the damage.
No Iceland earthquakes above magnitude 3 recorded in past two days
While seismic activity continues in the affected region of Iceland, all the earthquakes that have hit the Reykjanes peninsula in the past two days were below magnitude 3 on the richter scale, according to state broadcaster RUV.
“Due to the release of tension, it is likely that the magma will have an easy way to the surface, and therefore it cannot be assumed that eruption turbulence will be visible on the meters before the eruption begins,” the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said.
Iceland earthquakes: Are flights still running amid fears of volcano eruption?
Despite fears of an impending volcanic eruption, flights from the UK to Keflavik international airport 10 miles north of the eruption site are going ahead as usual.
On Sunday 12 November, all scheduled flights from Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Stansted and Manchester landed without incident.
‘It’s like a dystopian movie’: Iceland residents describe ‘apocalyptic’ scenes as they flee volcano threat
Residents from a small Icelandic town under threat from volcanic eruption have described ‘apocalyptic’ existence as they fear for their future.
Last Friday, thousands of Grindavik residents were ordered to leave as the town was rocked by hundreds of earthquakes. The small fishing town is 34 miles from Reykjavík and is home to the famous tourist attraction the Blue Lagoon.
Grindavik could be obliterated if volcanic eruption strikes
A volcanic eruption could destroy the Icelandic town of Grindavik or lead to extensive ash clouds, experts have warned.
The country has been shaken by more than 2,000 small earthquakes in the past few days, prompting fears that the tremors could disrupt the Fagradalsfjall volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula in the southwest of the country.
Thousands have been told to evacuate Grindavik as a precautionary measure, while a magma tunnel stretches below the surface. If an eruption occurs in or close to the town, the consequences will be devastating, volcanologist Armann Hoskuldsson warned.
He told state broadcaster RUV: “This is very bad news. One of the most serious scenarios is an eruption in the town itself, similar to that in Vestmannaeyjar 50 years ago. This would be much worse.”
Biggest volcanic eruptions in the last decade as Iceland town faces devastation
Iceland is highly susceptible to natural disasters because it lies on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge – a divergent plate boundary where the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate are moving away from each other, leading to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
Three eruptions have taken place on the peninsula of Reykjanes near the Fagradalsfjall volcano in the last three years: in March 2021, August 2022 and July 2023.
However, previous eruptions did not cause damage, having occurred in remote valleys.
Israeli forces have warned people in some towns in the Khan Younis area to evacuate their homes and head to shelters.
Khan Younis is the largest city in southern Gaza - where people fled to after being told to evacuate the north.
Israeli forces on Wednesday night dropped leaflets over four towns - Bani Shuhaila, Khuzaa, Abassan and Qarara - which were home to more than 100,000 people before the south was overwhelmed with displaced people.
"For your safety, you need to evacuate your places of residence immediately and head to known shelters. Anyone near terrorists or their facilities puts their life at risk, and every house used by terrorists will be targeted," the leaflets said, according to Reuters.
Weeks ago, similar leaflets were dropped over northern Gaza ahead of Israel launching its ground offensive.
China has praised the “warm” meeting between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden in California, in a marked shift of rhetoric after months of negotiations aimed at restabilising what has been a testy relationship.
A readout from China’s foreign ministry said the US-China relationship was “the most important bilateral relationship in the world” and that “a stable and growing China is good for the United States and the whole world”.
Official rhetoric from Beijing has moved in recent months from a more aggressive stance on the US to a more conciliatory tone. A recent editorial in People’s Daily, the official Communist party newspaper, called the US an “old friend”.
Hua Chunying, China’s assistant minister for foreign affairs and a foreign ministry spokesperson, emphasised the warmth between the US and China at a personal and political level.
She posted a photo on social media of the two leaders smiling together, with Biden apparently showing Xi a photo on his phone of the Chinese president as a young man in front of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Hua also posted an image of the Flying Tigers, a squadron of US fighter pilots who helped to defend China against Japan in the second world war, saying the American and Chinese people would “never forget” each other. In recent months, Beijing has revived the story of the Flying Tigers as an example of positive US-China cooperation.
Still, China’s readout of the Xi-Biden meeting noted that “the United States should not scheme to suppress and contain China”, language that analysts said echoed cold war rhetoric of “containment”. Beijing has previously accused Washington of perpetuating a “new cold war” but Thursday’s readout said Biden had reaffirmed that this was not his aim.
Speaking at a dinner on Wednesday hosted by the US-China Business Council and the National Committee on US-China Relations, Xi praised the Flying Tigers and said he had kept in touch with some of them via letters.
Xi said the biggest question for the US and China was “are we adversaries or partners?”.
He said: “China never bets against the United States, and never interferes in its internal affairs. China has no intention to challenge the United States or to unseat it. Instead, we will be glad to see a confident, open, ever-growing and prosperous United States. Likewise, the United States should not bet against China, or interfere in China’s internal affairs. It should instead welcome a peaceful, stable and prosperous China.”
Xi received a standing ovation after his speech at the dinner. Attenders reportedly included Apple’s Tim Cook and Tesla’s Elon Musk. Tickets for the event started at $2,000 (£1,612) per person. Analysts said Xi’s decision to address a business-focused audience reflected his desire to emphasise that China was open to foreign companies.
Behind the warm words exchanged between Xi and Biden, there are still several points of tension. One of them is the fact that with China’s economy struggling, the US has tightened restrictions on the export of advanced technology. Rules affecting the export of chipmaking technology, designed to limit China’s ability to develop the most advanced semiconductors, come into effect on Thursday.
At the meeting on Wednesday, Xi said such measures “seriously hurt China’s legitimate interests”.
There was little progress on the biggest point of tension between the two superpowers: Taiwan. Experts in China – and some in the US – are worried that the Biden administration’s rhetorical support for the self-governing island, which China claims as part of its territory, is deviating from the “one China” principle, which the US officially backs.
Xi said the US should “stop arming Taiwan and support China’s peaceful reunification”, adding that “the Taiwan question remains the most important and most sensitive issue” in the bilateral relationship. Biden said the US would continue to arm Taiwan as a deterrent.
Chinese concerns about US support for Taiwan reached a zenith last year when the outgoing speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, visited the island. That resulted in an angry backlash from Beijing and the suspension of several channels of communication, including on drugs control and the military.
Those tensions showed some signs of easing on Wednesday as the two leaders agreed to restore military dialogues and reached an agreement on fentanyl. A few days earlier, the US and China put out a new joint climate statement.
The Israeli military claims it has found rifles, grenades and military vests — but so far, no Hamas command centre.
Israel on Thursday raided Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital for a second day in a row.
On Wednesday, Israeli troops had raided the coastal enclave’s largest medical facility, starting at 2am. Israel has long claimed that Hamas was using the hospital as a command centre. The Israeli army has said the raid has helped it find evidence to back up its assertion.
So what does Israel claim to have found?
What was found in the hospital?
The Israeli military released video footage from inside an undisclosed building within the medical complex.
The video showed three duffel bags that the military claims were found hidden in an MRI lab, each containing an assault rifle, grenades, Hamas uniforms and flak jackets.
Additionally, the army showed assault rifles without ammunition clips and a laptop that it said were found.
Israeli military spokesperson Jonathan Conricus said: “These weapons have absolutely no business being inside a hospital,” adding that he believed the material was “just the top of the iceberg.”
What about Hamas tunnels and military command?
In the days leading up to the raid, Israel insisted that Hamas was operating tunnels underground al-Shifa Hospital. It also claimed that the hospital was a command centre and military post for Hamas.
Israel’s claims were also backed by United States President Joe Biden, who accused Hamas of committing war crimes by having its military headquarters under the hospital.
Yet, more than 24 hours after Israel’s raid started, the Israeli army has not shown evidence of either Hamas-run tunnels or a military command centre under the hospital.
An Al Jazeera digital investigation found no grounds to the Israeli forces claim that there is a Hamas tunnel under Gaza's Sheikh Hamad Hospital ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/4640OprGwk
Mustafa Barghouti, the general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, said that what Israel had shown in videos from under al-Shifa Hospital so far could easily have been planted by the army itself.
“All they’ve shown is a Kalashnikov and a laptop that they could have put there easily and claim that it was found there,” the veteran Palestinian legislator told Al Jazeera.
On X, formerly Twitter, the Israeli army first posted a video of Conricus taking viewers on a tour through parts of al-Shifa, which it said was without any edits or cuts.
But it deleted that post and then republished a near-identical video, with some tweaks. On social platforms, that further fuelled questions about the veracity of Israel’s claims.
How has Hamas responded?
Hamas has denied and dismissed the latest statements by the Israeli military.
“The occupation forces are still lying … as they brought some weapons, clothes and tools and placed them in the hospital in a scandalous manner,” Qatar-based Hamas senior member Ezzat El Rashq said.
He added that Hamas has repeatedly called for a committee from the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross to verify Israel’s claims of Hamas tunnels under Gaza hospitals.
Barghouti said Israel has constantly rejected these calls for an independent, international team to investigate the situation in al-Shifa. “Israel doesn’t want that because they know that they are lying,” he said.
What is happening in al-Shifa now?
Israel’s military continues to attack al-Shifa, with troops deployed on all sides of the hospital, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reported from Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
The Israeli military has destroyed the specialised surgeries building in the medical facility. The partitions, walls between the rooms and all the medical equipment inside the building have been completely demolished, he said.
Hundreds of patients, doctors and nurses, and more than 2,000 others sheltering at al-Shifa are still believed to be at the hospital.
“What we see today is that this war is about attacking civilians and attacking hospitals and destroying medical facilities,” said Barghouti.
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The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday that the organisation has lost touch with health personnel at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza after Israeli forces began what they described as a “targeted operation” inside the facility.
“Reports of military incursion into al-Shifa hospital are deeply concerning,” the WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, wrote on social media, Reuters reports.
“We’ve lost touch again with health personnel at the hospital. We’re extremely worried for their and their patients’ safety.”
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNWRA, has said that “Our entire operation is now on the verge of collapse,” AFP reports, and that “By the end of today, around 70 percent of the population in Gaza won’t have access to clean water.”
In the last hour or so, the IDF has said warning sirens have sounded within Israel: at Ashkelon, at locations near the Gaza Strip, and in Misgav Am and Mattat in northern Israel. There are no reports of any casualties.
A senior official with Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health ministry says Israeli forces are still operating inside al-Shifa hospital, the territory’s largest, hours after entering it early on Wednesday.
Speaking by phone from the hospital, Munir al-Boursh told AP that Israeli soldiers had ransacked the basement and other buildings, including those housing the emergency and surgery departments.
“They are still here … patients, women and children are terrified,” he said. He added that doctors had vowed to stay with their patients “till the end.”
Al-Boursh called for the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross to secure a safe corridor for patients, medical staff and displaced families trapped in the facility to leave.
Al-Boursh said an Israeli official had spoken with him by phone early on Wednesday and asked him to join the forces searching the facility, but he had refused.
Israel claims its military has delivered medical supplies to the hospital, and alleges that Hamas operates a command centre from the basement of the complex, a charge which Hamas has denied.
Italy has made a statement about their side of the call between prime minister Giorgia Meloni and Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Italy said Turkey had a crucial role in efforts to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spreading to the rest of the region, and Meloni called for a rapid de-escalation.
Reuters reports that a statement from Meloni’s office said: “The prime minister called for a rapid de-escalation of the conflict, which must not spread to the rest of the region, and emphasised the crucial role Turkey plays in this context.”
Earlier the Turkish side said that it was expecting Rome to support a ceasefire.
The artist Ai Weiwei has defended the importance of free speech after a London gallery put his show on hold over a tweet about the Israel-Hamas war.
The exhibition of new works by the Chinese dissident, which was due to open at the Lisson gallery this week, was indefinitely put on hold after a tweet posted in response to a follower’s question on X which has since been deleted.
It read: “The sense of guilt around the persecution of the Jewish people has been, at times, transferred to offset the Arab world.”
It is not clear whether Ai’s show will be rescheduled. The artist told the Art Newspaper that his show has “effectively [been] cancelled” – but noted that the decision was taken “to avoid further disputes and for my own wellbeing”.
A spokesperson for the Lisson gallery said there had been extensive conversations with Ai following the comment he posted online.
A statement from the gallery, which represents the artist, said: “We together agreed that now is not the right time to present his new body of work.”
Ahmed Muhanna, director at al-Awda hospital in Jabalia, has spoken to Al Jazeera about the situation in that part of Gaza. It reports he told them:
All the time they are bombing around the hospital and close to the hospital. Today, we have found shrapnel inside the hospital, and the ambulance and cars were damaged. We are working with injured and pregnant women from the northern areas and Gaza City because all the hospitals in Gaza City and the northern area also are out of service.
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza and Israel.
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, told Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni in a phone call on Wednesday that Ankara expects Rome’s support for a ceasefire in Gaza, the Turkish presidency has told Reuters.
Earlier today, Erdoğan attracted fierce criticism after he called Israel a “terrorist state” and said Hamas was a political party elected by Palestinians and “resistance fighters” trying to protect their lands and people.
The Israeli opposition leader, Yair Lapid, said: “We won’t take lessons in morality from President Erdoğan, a man with an appalling human rights record. Israel is defending itself against brutal terrorists from Hamas-Isis, some of whom have been allowed to operate under Erdoğan’s roof.”
In parliament, Erdoğan had said: “Israel is implementing a strategy of total destruction of a city and its people. I say openly that Israel is a terrorist state.”
Qatari mediators were on Wednesday seeking to negotiate a deal between Hamas and Israel that includes the release of about 50 civilian hostages from Gaza in exchange for a three-day ceasefire, an official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters.
The deal would also involve Israel releasing some Palestinian women and children from Israeli jails and increase the amount of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza.
Hamas has to date released four of the estimated 240 hostages seized during its murderous rampage inside Israel’s borders on 7 October.
The officials told Reuters the deal has been coordinated with the US, and Hamas has agreed to the general outline, but Israel has not.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said on multiple occasions that there can be no ceasefire until all the hostages are released. Family and friends of the hostages are taking part in a five-day march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. They say Israel’s government has not done enough to secure the release of their loved ones.
Qatar’s foreign ministry has previously said that efforts to secure the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza required a “period of calm” and leaks from the negotiations were “harmful”, and made it more difficult for mediators to do their jobs.
The Israeli opposition leader, Yair Lapid, has addressed Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, on social media, saying Israel would support Trudeau’s nation if it was under attack, and Israel expects the same in return.
Trudeau said on Tuesday that the “killing of women, of children, of babies” in Gaza must end.
In his message, Lapid said:
Prime minister Trudeau, Israel is defending itself in difficult conditions against a brutal terrorist organization while trying to rescue babies, children, women and men who are being held hostage by Hamas-ISIS Responsibility for this terrible situation rests with Hamas-ISIS.
Hamas launched this war, Hamas hides in civilian buildings and Hamas abuses Gazans as human shields. If Canada ever found itself under a sustained and brutal attack like the one we face now, you would find Israel by your side. We expect the same support.
Trudeau had said: “I urge the government of Israel to exercise maximum restraint. The world is watching, on TV, on social media – we’re hearing the testimonies of doctors, family members, survivors, kids who have lost their parents. The world is witnessing this killing of women, of children, of babies. This has to stop.”
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had already issued a rebuke for Trudeau’s comments overnight, saying: “It is not Israel that is deliberately targeting civilians but Hamas that beheaded, burned and massacred civilians in the worst horrors perpetrated on Jews since the Holocaust. While Israel is doing everything to keep civilians out of harm’s way, Hamas is doing everything to keep them in harm’s way.”
More than 11,000 Palestinians are reported to have been killed in the Israeli campaign in the Gaza Strip.
Egypt’s state-run al-Qahera television station reported Wednesday that the first fuel truck to enter the Gaza Strip since the war started on 7 October has crossed the Egyptian gate of the Rafah crossing.
The truck reportedly headed to Kerem Shalom crossing for screening, AP reports. Israel barred fuel shipments after Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October, saying the militant group would divert the supplies for military use.
In Ireland, Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy has condemned the international community’s response to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
“I am ashamed of the international community’s response to what we have seen in Gaza and particularly ashamed by the response of the EU,” he said.
“I think EU leaders have ensured that the European Union no longer has any credibility to be a voice for peace, international law and for the basic rules of humanity for so long as they refuse to take a stand.”
PA Media reports Carthy told minister of state James Browne that the world was “turning a blind eye” and “the EU, worse still, is providing cover”.
He criticised the Irish government’s failure to back the call for economic and diplomatic sanctions against Israel.
“Every single possible action that might help pressure Israel to stop the slaughter of innocent Palestinians is met with pathetic excuses,” he said.
“It’s not good enough, minister. It is well past time that Ireland shows leadership, not to follow the lead of a European Union that clearly isn’t willing or capable of providing the leadership that’s much needed in this instance.”
It has just gone 1.30pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines from the Israel-Hamas war …
Israeli troops entered al-Shifa hospital early on Wednesday, conducting what it called a “precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area” of the medical complex. Youssef Abu Rish, an official from the health ministry inside the hospital, said he could see tanks inside the complex and “dozens of soldiers and commandos inside the emergency and reception buildings”.
Fighting has raged around the Shifa compound for many days, trapping about 1,200 patients and staff. The hospital, Gaza’s biggest, has become a strategic objective for Israel, which says there is an Hamas command centre in bunkers underneath. Hamas denies this. The Israeli military said it had provided evacuation routes for civilians and delivered medical supplies to the hospital entrance.
The Times of Israel reported that “at least five Hamas gunmen were killed by troops during a gun battle outside the hospital”, and quoted the IDF claiming that “there has been no ‘friction’ between troops and patients and medical staff” and “there is no indication of hostages currently being held” at the location. The IDF said it had sent “medical teams and Arabic speaking soldiers” into the hospital.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday that the body has lost touch with health personnel at al-Shifa hospital.
UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths aid “Hamas must not, should not, use a place like a hospital as a shield for their presence”, but said the agencies’ chief concern was “protecting the people of Gaza from what’s being visited upon them.”
Thomas White, the director of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), has said that water pumps and sewage treatment in the south of the Gaza Strip have stopped due to lack of fuel.
Gaza’s two main telecommunications companies warned of a “complete telecom blackout in the coming hours” in the Gaza Strip. “Main data centres and switches are gradually shutting down due to fuel depletion,” the companies said in a joint statement.
The UN’s children’s agency says its top official visited children and their families in the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, in the south of the territory. “What I saw and heard was devastating. They have endured repeated bombardment, loss and displacement,” Unicef executive director Catherine Russell said in a statement. “Inside the Strip, there is nowhere safe for Gaza’s 1 million children to turn.”
Israeli minister Benny Gantz has said that Israel will track down and kill Hamas leaders wherever they are in the world, and threatened anti-Israeli forces in Lebanon, saying “what we are doing effectively in the south, can work even better in the north”.
The family and friends of some of the 240 hostages believed to have been seized by Hamas on 7 October from inside Israel have begun the second day of their protest march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The trip is expected to last five days and will finish at Benjamin Netanyahu’s office. The families have been critical of Netanyahu’s government for not doing enough to secure the release of the hostages.
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, told parliament Israel was a “terror state” committing war crimes and violating international law, while repeating his assertion that the Palestinian militant group Hamas was not a terrorist organisation. He said Hamas was a political party that had been elected by Palestinians.
Norway said 51 of its citizens have been allowed to leave Gaza on Wednesday, with the foreign minister, Espen Barth Eide, saying that those remaining “are in a very demanding situation”.
Ireland’s deputy prime minister, Micheál Martin, has expressed confidence that a significant number of Irish citizens will be able to leave Gaza on Wednesday via the Rafah crossing.
The UN humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, has issued a further statement about hospitals in Gaza, after Israel launched what it called a “targeted operation” against al-Shifa hospital, the largest in Gaza.
In a video statement, AFP reports Griffiths said:
Hamas must not, should not, use a place like a hospital as a shield for their presence That is as strong a statement under humanitarian law, as is the statement that the hospitals should not become a war zone.
I understand the Israelis’ concern for trying to find the leadership of Hamas. That’s not our problem. Our problem is protecting the people of Gaza from what’s being visited upon them.
Griffiths added that his agency’s main concern was “for the welfare of the patients of that hospital, which is, of course, in great peril at the moment”.
“We have no fuel to run it. The babies have no incubators, newly born. Some are dead already. We can’t move them out. It’s too dangerous,” he said.
“Our concern is for the patients of a hospital that doesn’t function.”
The Israeli minister Benny Gantz has said that Israel will track down and kill Hamas leaders wherever they are in the world, and threatened anti-Israeli forces in Lebanon, saying “what we are doing effectively in the south, can work even better in the north”.
The Times of Israel quotes Gantz, a member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s national unity war cabinet, saying:
There will be no sanctuary cities, no sanctuary houses. We will go wherever we need to in order to eradicate child murderers – above and below ground. In Gaza and around the world. We will reach the heads of government just as we reached the centres of government.
Addressing today’s military action, Gantz said: “IDF soldiers continue to operate deep inside Gaza City against those who have turned hospitals into command centres, from which war crimes are committed.”
Israel has repeatedly claimed that Hamas uses hospitals as bases, a charge that Hamas has denied.
Thomas White, the director of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), has said that water pumps and sewage treatment in the south of the Gaza Strip have stopped due to lack of fuel.
About an hour ago White posted to social media:
In Rafah all (10) water wells have stopped pumping – the only source of water in the city – why? – no fuel. The Khan Younis desalination plant has stopped working – supplies drinking water for 100,000s of people – why? – no fuel. No sewage pumping in Rafah all (3) sewage pumps have stopped working – simply because they ran out of fuel.
In the last few minutes he posted an additional statement, saying:
Just received 23,027 litres of fuel from Egypt (half a tanker) – but its use has been restricted by Israeli authorities – only for transporting aid from Rafah. No fuel for water or hospitals. This is only 9% of what we need daily to sustain lifesaving activities.
Gaza’s two main telecommunications companies Paltel and Jawwal warned on Wednesday of a “complete telecom blackout in the coming hours” in the Gaza Strip.
“Main data centers and switches in the Gaza Strip are gradually shutting down due to fuel depletion,” Reuters reports the companies said in a joint statement.
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said on Wednesday Israel was a “terror state” committing war crimes and violating international law in Gaza, while repeating his assertion that the Palestinian militant group Hamas was not a terrorist organisation.
He said Hamas was a political party that had been elected by Palestinians.
Speaking to lawmakers in parliament, Reuters reports Erdoğan also called on Benjamin Netanyahu to announce whether Israel had nuclear bombs or not, adding that the Israeli leader was finished in his post.
Erdoğan went on to say that Turkey would work on the international stage to ensure that Israeli settlers are recognised as terrorists.
Turkey has withdrawn diplomats from Israel in the wake of Israel’s response to the 7 October Hamas attack.
Israel has never disclosed in public whether it possesses nuclear weapons, although earlier in the war against Hamas a junior minister in Netanyahu’s government stated that dropping a nuclear weapon on the Gaza Strip was an option.
The Turkish health minister, Fahrettin Koca, is in Cairo on Wednesday, meeting his Egyptian counterpart, Khalid Abdel Ghaffar, to discuss aid supply to Gaza, and the transfer of some patients to Turkey.
The IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari has issued an update on what Israel has called its “targeted operation” at al-Shifa hospital.
He said:
IDF forces continue to operate in a targeted manner in a part of the Shifa hospital area where they are scanning for infrastructure and terrorist means of the terrorist organization Hamas.
Hagari’s post claimed that “the forces delivered humanitarian equipment and placed it at the entrance to the hospital”, accompanied by an image of an Israeli soldier next to some boxes labelled “medical supplies” in English.
Earlier a doctor inside the hospital told Al Jazeera it had been six days since water and food had been able to get into the hospital, and the World Health Organization said it had lost contact with health professionals within the hospital complex.
