EU foreign affairs chief tells Israel not to be ‘consumed by rage’ in response to Hamas attacks

Josep Borrell says ‘one horror does not justify another’ and calls for unconditional release of hostages

The EU foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, has urged Israel not to be “consumed by rage” in its response to the Hamas attacks of 7 October as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, acknowledged splits in Europe on the conflict.

Speaking from Kibbutz Be’eri – where at least 85 of the 1,200 people killed that day died and from where about 30 of the more than 240 were kidnapped – Borrell said “Israel must be defended”, but, “one horror does not justify another: innocent civilians, including thousands of children, have died in recent weeks.

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Tensions build behind the scenes between US and Israel over Gaza

Western officials continue to ask searching questions about future strategy as diplomatic pressure mounts

US wasn’t always Israel’s strongest ally – what changed and why?

On the surface, Joe Biden gave Israel a clear green light to continue its military campaign in Gaza on Wednesday night, and endorsed its claim that Hamas has been using the al-Shifa hospital as a command and control headquarters.

His remarks in San Francisco after a meeting with Xi Jinping will delight Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister.

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Israel drops leaflets warning people to flee southern Gaza towns

Flyer campaign raises fears war could spread to areas IDF previously said were safe

Israel has dropped leaflets into southern Gaza telling Palestinian civilians to leave four towns on the eastern edge of Khan Younis, raising fears that its war against Hamas could spread to areas it previously said were safe.

The flyers told civilians in Bani Shuhaila, Khuza’a, Abassan and al-Qarara that anyone in the vicinity of militants or their positions was “putting his life in danger”, local people told Reuters.

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Israel-Hamas war live: UN agency says no aid deliveries into Gaza from tomorrow; Gaza hospital completely shut down, announces director

All communications are down in Gaza because of lack of fuel, UNRWA says; Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza has been completely shut down

Thai Muslim politicians said they had received assurances from Hamas that all of the Thai hostages being held would be among those released if mediators succeed in brokering a truce in Gaza, Reuters reports.

The Islamist militants took an estimated 240 people hostage on 7 October, and Thailand’s foreign ministry says 25 Thais were among those abducted, and 39 were among those killed that day.

Any ceasefire either three days or five days … Hamas will release hostages, including all Thais being held, which they promised.

This could be in less than 10 days or in the next two to three days.

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Joe Biden issues strident defence of refusal to call for ceasefire in Gaza

US president says Hamas has said it will not stop attacking Israel and said Israeli forces had switched from aerial bombardment to more targeted operations

Joe Biden has presented an unapologetic defence of his refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, arguing that Hamas presented a continuing threat to Israel and that Israeli forces were seeking to avoid civilian casualties.

After a summit meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Apec summit in San Francisco, Biden told reporters on Wednesday night that Hamas had pledged to continue its attacks on Israel.

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‘Disgusted and horrified’: protesters in LA stage sit-in urging for Gaza ceasefire

More than 1,000 people gather in the rain, shutting down a stretch of Hollywood Boulevard

Hundreds of demonstrators in Los Angeles shut down a stretch of Hollywood Boulevard on Wednesday afternoon in a protest demanding Joe Biden and US lawmakers call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

In the heart of Hollywood, along the palm tree-lined streets near Ripley’s Believe It or Not! and the Walk of Fame, protesters waved Palestinian flags and held signs – “not in our name” and “let Gaza live”. More than 1,000 people gathered in the rain, including a group that staged a sit-in at the intersection with flowers in hand and shirts reading “Jews say ceasefire now” as tourists watched.

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UN security council backs resolution calling for humanitarian pause in Gaza

Resolution calls for release of hostages held by Hamas and for humanitarian corridors across the Gaza Strip

Six weeks after the start of the war in Gaza, the UN security council has come together to back a resolution calling for “urgent extended humanitarian pauses for [a] sufficient number of days to allow aid access” to the embattled territory.

The vote late on Wednesday overcame an impasse which saw four unsuccessful attempts to adopt a resolution.

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Israel-Hamas war: Israel launches strikes on Hezbollah-linked sites in Lebanon – as it happened

This blog has closed. You can read all our coverage of the Israel-Hamas war here and our latest full report here

Here is the Israeli announcement from early on Wednesday morning announcing that it was carrying out an operation inside al-Shifa hospital.

The IDF said on its english-language account on X:

Operational Update: IDF forces are carrying out a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area in the Shifa Hospital, based on intelligence information and an operational necessity. The IDF is conducting a ground operation in Gaza to defeat Hamas and rescue our hostages. Israel is at war with Hamas, not with the civilians in Gaza.

The IDF forces include medical teams and Arabic speakers, who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment, with the intent that no harm is caused to the civilians being used by Hamas as human shields.

In recent weeks, the IDF has publicly warned time and again that Hamas’ continued military use of the Shifa hospital jeopardizes its protected status under international law, and enabled ample time to stop this unlawful abuse of the hospital.

Yesterday, the IDF conveyed to the relevant authorities in Gaza once again that all military activities within the hospital must cease within 12 hours. Unfortunately, they did not.

The IDF has also facilitated wide-scale evacuations of the hospital and maintained regular dialogue with hospital authorities. We call upon all Hamas terrorists present in the hospital to surrender.

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Turkey’s Erdoğan calls Israel ‘terror state’ as he condemns Gaza hospital raid

International pressure grows for proof of Hamas HQ at al-Shifa as military operation continues

Turkey has led international diplomatic condemnation of Israel after its troops entered the Shifa hospital complex in Gaza, as the UN and aid agencies expressed concern about the impact of the Israeli operation on staff and patients.

Speaking in parliament, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, described Israel as a “terror state” that was committing war crimes and violating international law in Gaza, and he repeated his view that Hamas was not a terrorist organisation.

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French court issues arrest warrant for Bashar al-Assad for complicity in war crimes

Three others also subject to warrants over use of sarin gas in two attacks in Syria in August 2013 that killed more than 1,000 people

A French court has issued an international arrest warrant for the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for complicity in war crimes against humanity linked to chemical weapon attacks on civilians.

Three others – including Assad’s brother Maher, head of an elite army unit – are also subject to warrants over the use of banned sarin gas in two attacks in August 2013 that killed more than 1,000 people, including hundreds of children.

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Israeli soldiers raid al-Shifa hospital in escalation of Gaza offensive

Head of the World Health Organization calls decision to send troops into hospital ‘totally unacceptable’

Israeli soldiers were inside Gaza’s largest hospital on Wednesday after an early morning raid that drew fierce condemnation from the head of the World Health Organization, who called it “totally unacceptable”.

The decision to send troops into al-Shifa hospital marked an escalation of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, amid increased calls for a ceasefire. Witnesses reported seeing tanks and masked soldiers in the grounds of the hospital around 3am as patients and civilians remained trapped inside.

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Russia and Israel lead global surge in attacks on civilian water supplies

Exclusive: at least 228 water conflicts were recorded in 2022 – an 87% rise on the year before, Pacific Institute database shows

Water-related violence surged to an all-time high in 2022 – driven in large part by Russia’s war in Ukraine and Israeli attacks against Palestinian water resources in the West Bank.

At least 228 water conflicts were documented in 2022 – an 87% rise since 2021, according to research by the Pacific Institute shared exclusively with the Guardian.

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Wednesday briefing: Why Israeli forces are raiding Gaza’s biggest hospital

In today’s newsletter: Attack on alleged Hamas command centre beneath hospital is a key test for Israel’s military and its ability to protect civilians

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Good morning. In the last few hours, Israeli soldiers have stormed Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital. Israel says that the raid, which is still underway, is a “precise and targeted operation against Hamas”, which it accuses of operating a command centre beneath the medical facility, a claim Hamas denies.

The attack at al-Shifa is militarily significant – but it is also taking place in the arena of an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe that has drawn huge global attention, with conditions rapidly deteriorating on the site since the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) surrounded it last week. And so whether Israel is able to carry out the pinpoint attack it has promised is likely to be a critical test of the international community’s view of its conduct of the war.

Conservatives | Suella Braverman has launched an astonishing attack on Rishi Sunak the day after he sacked her as home secretary, claiming he had “betrayed” the country by failing to deliver on secret promises he made her last year. Braverman indicated she will spearhead a Tory rebellion over the government’s Rwanda asylum plan, which faces a crucial legal test on Wednesday.

Cyprus confidential | Chelsea FC is facing questions over how its former owner Roman Abramovich funded the club’s success, after leaked files revealed a string of secret payments that may have breached football’s strict “financial fair play” rules. The disclosures are part of an international investigation into a cache of 3.6m leaked offshore records in Cyprus.

Cost of living | The UK inflation rate has dropped to 4.6%, down from 6.7% in September, it has just been announced. That is an even larger fall than was expected. Head to the business live blog for more.

Ukraine | The Ukrainian president’s chief of staff has said for the first time that Ukraine’s forces in the Kherson region have a foothold on the eastern bank of the Dnipro river, potentially opening a new line of attack towards Crimea. Andriy Yermak claimed that the advance was part of a developing counteroffensive.

Health | A vaccine to protect against chickenpox should become a routine childhood jab in the UK, government advisers have said, adding that it would not only reduce the number of children who become sick from the virus, but also cut the number of cases that can become fatal.

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White House seeks to restrain Israel in Gaza amid growing internal dissent

More than 500 appointees and staff members criticized Biden’s unwavering support for Israel in letter demanding ceasefire

The Biden administration is increasingly seeking ways to restrain the Israeli military in an effort to slow the civilian toll and limit the risk of a wider conflict, while it faces a rising level of internal dissent over its Middle East policy.

In a letter presented to Biden and his cabinet on Tuesday, more than 500 political appointees and staff members from about 40 agencies across the administration criticised the extent of the president’s support for Israel in its war in Gaza.

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Woman who fled Saudi Arabia with daughter wins court battle to stay in US

Bethany Alhaidari granted permission to defy custody order because of serious risk of death if she returned to Saudi Arabia

A US court has ruled that an American activist who fled Saudi Arabia with her daughter in 2019 will be allowed to defy a Saudi custody order and remain in the country with her child because she would face a serious risk of being put to death if she returned to the kingdom.

The case represents the first time that Saudi rules governing child custody and its use of the death penalty against female activists have faced judgment in a US court.

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UK rows back on ex-PM’s claim Israel is outside remit of international criminal court

Government appears to withdraw from past assertion by Boris Johnson amid shift to more pointed criticism of Israeli campaign in Gaza

The British government appears to have withdrawn an assertion made by the former prime minister, Boris Johnson, that the international criminal court has no jurisdiction in Israel, amid a wider western shift to more pointed criticism of the way Israel is conducting its campaign to remove Hamas from Gaza.

In a statement to MPs on Tuesday, the Foreign Office minister, Andrew Mitchell, said: “It is not for ministers to seek to state where the ICC has jurisdiction; that is for the chief prosecutor. The chief prosecutor has not been silent on this matter, and I am sure he will continue to express his views.”

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Palestinians digging mass graves inside al-Shifa hospital, health official says

Another 200,000 people flee northern Gaza as fighting rages around territory’s biggest health facility

Palestinians trapped inside Gaza’s biggest hospital are digging mass graves, with no means of keeping corpses from decomposing due to Israel’s siege, an official there says.

“We are planning to bury them today in a mass grave inside al-Shifa medical complex,” said a health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qidra. “The men are digging right now as we speak.”

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Winter rains bring further suffering to besieged people in Gaza

Rain and cold will lead to further increase in waterborne diseases, bacterial infections and diarrhoea in children, says WHO

The winter rains have finally arrived in Gaza, bringing new challenges for the besieged exclave’s 2.3 million people who have already suffered through six weeks of war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

After a warm and dry autumn, a Mediterranean thunderstorm broke across the 25-mile by 7-mile (41km x 12km) strip early on Tuesday morning. The rain washed away the grey rubble dust from airstrikes that clings to buildings in every neighbourhood, and dispersed the smoke and fire from the most recent overnight bombings. Water consumption in Gaza has fallen by 90% since the conflict started, according to the latest data from the UN, and many families rushed outside to enjoy the respite from the unseasonable humidity.

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Canadian peace activist confirmed killed in Hamas attack

Officials confirm ‘lifelong advocate for peace’ Vivian Silver, 74, killed after initial reports suggested she had been taken hostage

Vivian Silver, a Canadian-born activist who spent decades working to foster peace between Israelis and Palestinians, has been confirmed killed after initial reports suggested she had been kidnapped during the 7 October Hamas attacks.

In a statement on Tuesday, Idit Shamir, Toronto’s Israeli consul general, confirmed the 74-year-old had been killed by Hamas during the assault on Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel.

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Israel-Hamas war live: Israeli military says it is carrying out operation inside Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital

IDF forces say they are targeting Hamas ‘in a certain part of the Shifa hospital’ after Gaza’s health ministry said it was warned by Israel that it would raid the facility ‘within minutes’

Israel’s military has said that it again will open a corridor for people to move south within the Gaza Strip from 9am (7am GMT) to 4pm, and will also pause hostilities for a limited period of time between 10am and 2pm “in the neighbourhoods of al-Daraj and al-Tuffah”.

The message implores residents of Gaza “Please, for your safety, join the hundreds of thousands of residents who have moved south in recent days,” adding: “Residents of Gaza, do not surrender to Hamas, which has lost control over the northern Gaza Strip area and is trying to do everything it can to prevent you from moving south and protect yourselves.”

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