Israel-Hamas war live: Netanyahu says war cabinet ‘working around the clock’ ahead of potential ground invasion; Biden renews call for two-state solution

Aletha Adu

Keir Starmer has conceded to Muslim Labour MPs that his visit to a south Wales mosque could have been handled better, the Guardian understands, as he faces mounting pressure from all wings of the party to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The shadow women and equalities minister, Yasmin Qureshi, publicly broke Labour ranks on Wednesday and urged Rishi Sunak to call for a ceasefire during prime minister’s questions. She said the people of Gaza were subject to “collective punishment” for “crimes they did not commit”.

If I heard the question correctly … she was asking the prime minister what the conditions were that would lead the prime minister to support a ceasefire.

The Labour leader and his deputy, Angela Rayner, met more than a dozen Muslim politicians on Wednesday afternoon, who stressed that his positioning on the Israel-Hamas conflict was causing distress to many in the party.

Those in attendance were said to have argued that the disappointment felt by many in the party amounted to much more than a “Jewish-Muslim community issue”, the Guardian understands.

Sources described the meeting as “constructive” and “robust”, with Starmer and Rayner said to be in “full listening mode”.

Joe Biden has called into question the civilian death toll in Gaza being reported by the Palestinian authorities there.

Israeli retaliatory strikes have killed more than 6,500 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Gaza, AFP reports.

But the US president cast doubt on the figure being presented from Gaza:

‘I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s a price of waging war. But I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using,’ he said at the White House earlier today.

Joanna Walters

Joe Biden further said at the White House earlier that he “did not demand” that Israel delay a ground invasion of Gaza, Agence France-Presse reported.

The agency said that Biden told reporters in the Rose Garden:

Israel has a right and I would add responsibility to respond to the slaughter of its people.

Biden accused Gaza’s rulers Hamas of “hiding behind” Palestinian civilians, as Israel bombards the enclave, but said Israel must follow the “laws of war”. At the joint press conference with visiting Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, he said:

Israel has to do everything in its power, as difficult as it is, to protect innocent civilians. It’s difficult.

US media have reported that Biden has pushed Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on a ground invasion of Gaza while Hamas still holds hostages, but Biden denied it:

What I have indicated to him is that if that’s possible to get these folks out safely, that’s what he should do. It’s their decision. But I did not demand it. I put it out to him, if it’s real, it should be done.

Here’s a clip of part of those remarks:

Biden makes fresh call for two-state solution after Israel-Hamas war

Joanna Walters

Joe Biden on Wednesday spoke out against retaliatory attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank in the aftermath of the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel, the Associated Press reports.

The US president also said he was redoubling his commitment to working on a two-state solution to end the decades-long Israel-Palestine conflict.

Biden said that the attacks by “extremist settlers” amounted to “pouring gasoline” on the already burning fires in the Middle East.

‘It has to stop. They have to be held accountable. It has to stop now,’ Biden said at the start of a news conference with Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, who was being honored with a state visit to Washington DC.

Settler violence against Palestinians has intensified since the Hamas attack, and settlers have killed Palestinians, according to Palestinian authorities. Rights groups say settlers have torched cars and attacked several small Bedouin communities, forcing them to evacuate to other areas.

Biden again condemned the brutality of the Hamas attack that killed 1,400 Israelis and said that he was convinced that Hamas was driven in part by a desire to undo US-led efforts to normalize Israeli relations with some of its Arab neighbors, including Saudi Arabia.

Biden also said that after the Israel-Hamas conflict comes to an end, Israelis, Palestinians and their partners must work toward a two-state solution:

Israelis and Palestinians equally deserve to live side by side in safety, dignity and peace. When this crisis is over, there has to be a vision of what comes next. And in our view, it has to be a two-state solution.

Switzerland has suspended financial support to 11 Palestinian and Israeli non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in light of ongoing hostilities in the region.

A statement from the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) reads:

In view of the new situation that has prevailed since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October and the resumption of hostilities in the Middle East, the FDFA has decided to suspend its financial support to eleven local NGOs (six Palestinian and five Israeli).

The organisations are mainly active in the field of human rights, it said.

The department said the suspension would allow an “in-depth analysis” of whether these organisations’ communications comply with the FDFA’s code of conduct and anti-discrimination clause.

The FDFA’s cooperation activities in the Middle East must adapt to the new context that has prevailed since the resumption of hostilities. The relevance and feasibility of programmes will therefore have to be analysed in general terms.

French president Emmanuel Macron said he believed it would be an “error” if Israel launched a “massive” ground incursion into Gaza.

The warning came as Macron held talks in Cairo with his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, who also urged efforts “to avoid a ground invasion” in the Palestinian territory.

Speaking to reporters in Egypt, Macron said:

France recognises Israel’s right to defend itself. Regarding a ground intervention, if it is entirely targeted against terrorist groups, that is a choice that it has, but if it is a massive operation that would endanger civilian populations, in that case I think it would be an error for Israel.

The French leader said: “It would also be a mistake for Israel because it would be unlikely to offer long-term protection and because it is incompatible with protecting the civilian population or respecting international humanitarian law and the rules of war.”

Macron said France would be sending a navy ship to support Gaza’s hospitals within the next 48 hours.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said he asked Qatar’s prime minister to tone down the state-owned Al Jazeera’s rhetoric about the war in Gaza, according to a report.

Blinken, speaking to a group of US Jewish community leaders on Monday, said he asked the Qatari government to change its public posture towards Hamas, Axios reported, citing people who attended the meeting.

Blinken said he asked the Qataris to “turn down the volume on Al Jazeera’s coverage because it is full of anti-Israel incitement”, according to one source.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continue to carry out airstrikes in the Gaza Strip to “improve” the army’s situation for the upcoming ground offensive, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said.

In a statement, Hagari said the war “will be long, and to achieve the goals of the war, resilience, trust and patience are required” from the Israeli public.

We will continue to strike in Gaza to achieve the goals of the war. Every strike improves our situation for the next stages.

The US has agreed to send two Iron Dome missile defence systems to Israel, according to multiple reports.

“The US will be flowing additional Iron Dome support to Israel,” a defense department official told the Hill.

The Department of Defense is currently engaged in planning to support the provision of U.S. Iron Dome batteries to Israel.

It is unclear when the two systems will be sent, or if they have already been shipped.

Benjamin Netanyahu, in a televised statement, said Israel will carry out “soul-searching” and find out what took place during the Hamas attacks on 7 October.

The events of that day will be “fully examined” and “everyone will need to give answers”, the Israeli prime minister said. He added:

I, as the prime minister, am responsible to secure the future of this country. My role is to lead this country and its people to all-out victory over our enemies.

Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas is “doomed” during a televised statement on Wednesday.

Israel’s military are “getting prepared” for the ground invasion with the goal of destroying Hamas’ military and governmental capabilities, the Israeli prime minister said. The country’s war cabinet are “working around the clock” until it reaches victory, he said.

Netanyahu said he would not provide any details about the ground invasion to “secure the lives of our soldiers”. However, he said the timing of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operation is “unanimously” determined by Israel’s war cabinet.

The family of an Al Jazeera journalist has been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, according to the news outlet.

Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Wael Dahdouh’s wife, daughter and son are among his family members who were killed in a strike on a house they were sheltering in, Al Jazeera’s managing editor Mohamed Moawad said.

Footage shows the moment emergency services pulled a family from under the rubble after an airstrike hit their home in Gaza City.

The Hamas-run health ministry has said at least 6,546 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip by Israeli airstrikes since 7 October, including 2,704 children.

A doctor at one of Gaza’s biggest hospitals said the situation is “critical” with just hours to go before the facility is forced to close due to a lack of fuel.

Khaled, a doctor in al-Awda hospital, the main maternity provider in northern Gaza, said the hospital lacks medicines, especially emergency and anaesthesia drugs. In a statement through the charity ActionAid, he said:

The Israeli army called us six days ago to ask us to evacuate the hospital and evacuate the patients and the staff. They gave us two hours for evacuation. We told them that we would not evacuate the hospital.

We cannot evacuate. We have patients, critical patients. And some of them need special care and close observation. All the hospitals around here are overcrowded. I cannot move any patients.

“We are delivering babies here, during the attacks,” he added.

The organisation warned that many women are giving birth without any pain medication, and children are undergoing intensive surgery with no anaesthetic.

Hamas has stopped people from approaching the Rafah crossing, a US state department spokesperson said.

Speaking to CNN, Matthew Miller said the sporadic presence of Hamas at the crossing has made the situation “extremely difficult”.

At times, Hamas has had no one there manning the border station. At other times, we have seen Hamas militants actively there with guns preventing people from approaching the crossing.

He said there has been a problem getting people through Gaza into “the no man’s land” where they can ultimately get across to the Egyptian side. He added:

The Egyptians are — on their side — ready, they say, to accept people, foreign nationals, United States citizens, if they can get to Egyptian processing.

Harriet Sherwood

The prime minister of Qatar has said he hopes there will soon be a breakthrough in negotiations led by the Gulf state to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, although his government has warned that an invasion by Israel could jeopardise those efforts.

“There is some progress and some breakthrough and we remain hopeful,” said Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, who is also the foreign minister, at a press conference in the Qatari capital.

“If they are able to get along between the two parties I think we will see some breakthroughs hopefully soon,” he added.

Officials from Qatar’s foreign ministry have said an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza would complicate efforts to free the hostages.

Majed Al-Ansari, the foreign ministry’s spokesperson, said:

Obviously a land incursion into Gaza would make it difficult to maintain the safety of the hostages, and in our efforts at mediation with both sides we urge all parties in this conflict to de-escalate immediately.

After the release of four hostages in recent days, Qatar is now discussing a larger release of civilians, according to diplomatic sources. The talks do not include Israeli soldiers who are being held hostage.

A school sheltering Palestinians in Gaza sustained “severe collateral damage” due to a “close proximity strike”, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said.

One civilian was killed and 44 more were injured, including nine children, it said in a statement on Wednesday.

The school in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip had been sheltering 4,600 internally displaced people, it said. More than 613,000 internally displaced people are sheltering in UNRWA facilities across Gaza, the agency said.

Another three UNRWA staff members have been killed in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 38 staff killed since 7 October, it said.

The agency said last night that it would be forced to halt its operations in Gaza due to a lack of fuel as of Wednesday night.

UNRWA’s commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini, had already warned on Sunday that the organisation’s fuel would run out on Wednesday.

Without fuel, there will be no water, no functioning hospitals and bakeries. Without fuel, aid will not reach those in desperate need. Without fuel, there will be no humanitarian assistance. No fuel will further strangle the children, women and people of Gaza.

In response to last night’s warning, Israel’s military posted a picture of what it said were fuel tanks inside Gaza. “They contain more than 500,000 liters of fuel,” it wrote. “Ask Hamas if you can have some.”

A Royal Air Force plane carrying humanitarian supplies for Gaza has landed in Egypt.

Humanitarian aid “must continue to reach those who need it most”, Britain’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, posted on X.

The C-17 aircraft that left RAF Brize Norton on Wednesday morning carried 21 tonnes of humanitarian supplies, including medical equipment and water filters, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said.

The will be distributed by the Egyptian Red Crescent.