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An Israeli official has told Reuters that Israel sees no sign of a breakthrough in Egyptian-mediated talks on a truce with Hamas that would free some Gaza hostages, but is keeping its delegation of what it describes as “mid-level” negotiators in Cairo for now.
It is 5pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv. We will be closing this blog soon, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Israel-Gaza war coverage here.
Here is a recap of the latest developments:
An Israeli official told Reuters that Israel sees no sign of a breakthrough in Egyptian-mediated talks on a truce with Hamas that would free some Gaza hostages, but is keeping its delegation of what it describes as “mid-level” negotiators in Cairo for now.
US President Joe Biden’s administration paused a shipment of weapons to Israel last week in opposition to apparent moves by the Israelis to invade the southern Gaza city of Rafah, a senior administration official told Reuters and two other news agencies. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that as Israeli leaders seemed to approach a decision on a Rafah incursion, “we began to carefully review proposed transfers of particular weapons to Israel that might be used in Rafah” beginning in April.
Israel will not agree to end the war and leave Hamas in power, an Israeli government spokesperson reiterated on Wednesday. According to Reuters the spokesperson declined to comment on reports of the US witholding arms.
Hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip have only three days of fuel left, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday, due to closed border crossings. “The closure of the border crossing continues to prevent the UN from bringing fuel. Without fuel all humanitarian operations will stop. Border closures are also impeding delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza,” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.
Tedros also said al-Najjar, one of the three hospitals in Rafah, was no longer functioning due to the ongoing hostilities in the vicinity and the military operation in Rafah.
Qatar called on the international community on Wednesday to prevent a “genocide” in Rafah after Israel’s seizure of the Gaza city’s crossing with Egypt and threats of a wider assault, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP). In a statement the Gulf state appealed “for urgent international action to prevent the city from being invaded and a crime of genocide being committed”.
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (Cogat), the Israeli military body in charge of Palestinian civilian affairs, said the Kerem Shalom crossing reopened early on Wednesday. But Juliette Touma, the director of communications for the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), said no aid had entered as of midday Wednesday and that the UN agency had been forced to ration fuel, which is imported through Rafah.
CIA Director William Burns was reported to be holding talks with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israeli officials on Wednesday. A source familiar with his travel shared the report with Reuters as Burns was headed to Israel from Cairo, where ceasefire negotiations had been taking place.
Aid for Gaza was being loaded on to a ship in Cyprus on Wednesday in what was expected to be the first cargo to be delivered using a US pier built to expedite supplies to Gaza. Konstantinos Letymbiotis, a Cyprus government spokesperson, said a US jetty built to handle aid shipments to Gaza had been completed. It was unclear when the vessel would depart.
António Guterres, the UN secretary general has said that a full-scale assault on Rafah “would be a human catastrophe”. Posting on X on Wednesday, Guterres wrote: “Countless more civilian casualties. Countless more families forced to flee yet again – with nowhere safe to go.”
The United Arab Emirates said on Wednesday it strongly condemns Israel’s takeover of the Rafah border crossing on the Palestinian side and warned of the consequences of military escalation.
At least 34,844 Palestinians have been killed and 78,404 injured in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. The Hamas-run health ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
A Palestinian was killed in Israeli shelling in the Brazil neighbourhood of eastern Rafah, according to Al Jazeera correspondents reporting from the area. The attack also injured several people, they said. Medical sources told the news outlet that over the past 24 hours, the Kuwaiti hospital, one of the few health facilities still operational in Rafah, had recorded 129 injured patients and the bodies of 35 people killed.
Hamas said its fighters were battling Israeli troops in the east of Rafah. Armed groups of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah said in separate statements that gunfights continued in the central Gaza Strip, while residents of northern Gaza reported heavy Israeli tank shelling against eastern areas of Gaza City and districts.
Australia, on Wednesday, reiterated its objections to a major Israeli ground offensive into Rafah. Foreign affairs minister of Australia, Penny Wong posted on X saying that Australia had “been clear” about its objections and had reiterated “this to Israel again today”.
“Israeli security forces have unlawfully used lethal force in fatal shootings of Palestinians in the West Bank,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a new report based on the documentation of several cases. According to HRW, research into eight deaths in four incidents between July 2022 and October 2023 concluded that “Israeli forces wrongfully fatally shot or deliberately executed Palestinians who posed no apparent security threat”.
Russia said on Wednesday that the war in Gaza was escalating due to Israel’s incursion into Rafah and that Moscow so far saw no prospect for a peace settlement in Gaza or the wider Middle East. The Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters: “There are no prospects for resolving the situation in the Gaza Strip. On the contrary, the situation in the conflict zone is escalating daily.”
Police began clearing a pro-Palestinian tent encampment at George Washington University in Washington DC on Wednesday, hours after dozens of protesters left the site and marched to president Ellen Granberg’s home. According to event organisers, nearly 30 people were arrested as police used pepper spray to contain the crowd.
A police investigation is under way after alleged attacks on a pro-Palestine camp at Monash University, as protesters vow they “won’t be cowed or intimidated”. The Gaza solidarity encampment alleged repeated incursions have been made since it was established a week ago, with property destroyed, items stolen and students threatened and harassed.
Student protests demanding that universities sever ties with Israel over the Gaza war have spread across Europe, sparking clashes and arrests as new demonstrations broke out in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria. Students at various European universities, inspired by ongoing demonstrations at US campuses, have been occupying halls and facilities, demanding an end to partnerships with Israeli institutions because of Israel’s assault on Gaza.
The Israeli ambassador to the UK says antisemitism has never seen “such a big peak” around the world, with reference to ongoing student protests at university campuses in the US and in Britain, as demonstrators call for a ceasefire and divestment from companies linked to Israel’s war in Gaza.
The Israeli military said that its fighter jets struck Hezbollah military compounds overnight. In a post on Telegram and on X, the IDF lists the areas hit as “Kfarkela, Ayta ash Shab, Khiam, and Maroun El Ras”.
Tel Aviv is to cancel its annual Pride parade and will replace it with a march dedicated to the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, reported the Times of Israel. “This is not the time for celebrations,” Tel Aviv’s mayor Ron Huldai said on social media.
The US military said on Tuesday that Yemen’s Houthi rebels had launched three “uncrewed aerial systems”, commonly known as drones, but caused no injuries or damage.
Hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip have only three days of fuel left, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday, due to closed border crossings, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Despite international objections, Israel sent tanks into the overcrowded southern city of Rafah on Tuesday and seized the nearby crossing into Egypt that is the main conduit for aid into the besieged Palestinian territory.
“The closure of the border crossing continues to prevent the UN from bringing fuel. Without fuel all humanitarian operations will stop. Border closures are also impeding delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza,” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.
One of the three hospitals in Rafah, Al-Najjar, is no longer functioning due to the ongoing hostilities in its vicinity and the military operation in Rafah.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) May 8, 2024
The closure of the border crossing continues to prevent the UN from bringing fuel. Without fuel all humanitarian…
“Hospitals in the south of Gaza only have three days of fuel left, which means services may soon come to a halt.”
Tedros said al-Najjar, one of the three hospitals in Rafah, was no longer functioning due to the ongoing hostilities in the vicinity and the military operation in Rafah.
“At a time when fragile humanitarian operations urgently require expansion, the Rafah military operation is further limiting our ability to reach thousands of people who have been living in dire conditions without adequate food, sanitation, health services and security,” he said. “This must stop now.”
Pro-Palestinian protesters built barricades at the University of Amsterdam on Wednesday, using desks and railings to block off the canalside entrance in the heart of the city as they vowed to stay put until the institution severs all ties with Israel, reports Reuters.
Riot police used a bulldozer to knock down barricades at another University of Amsterdam site on Tuesday and detained 169 people, but said the university had not yet asked for similar intervention on Wednesday.
The students in the Dutch capital are joining a wave of sit-ins and other actions at universities throughout Europe against Israel’s war in Gaza, after larger-scale disturbances at US universities.
According to Reuters, the University of Amsterdam management are hoping talks on Wednesday will bring an end to the protests, but the students were digging in, pulling up bricks from the streets and pavements near to the 19th century campus and forming human chains to send them to the barricade.
Geneva Abdul is a reporter and feature writer for the Guardian.
The Israeli ambassador to the UK says antisemitism has never seen “such a big peak” around the world, with reference to ongoing student protests at university campuses in the US and in Britain, as demonstrators call for a ceasefire and divestment from companies linked to Israel’s war in Gaza.
“Antisemitism was never in such a big peak and height around the world, we see that in American campuses, we see that in British campuses,” Tzipi Hotovely said, speaking at the Israeli embassy in London on Wednesday.
“And whoever thinks that it will just go away without fighting it just doesn’t learn anything from history. We need to fight back,” she said.
The ambassador’s remarks come as university students around the world have been staging protests demanding academic institutions divest from companies supplying arms to Israel. The protests, which first gained traction in the US, have since reached universities in the UK, as well as in Europe, Lebanon and India.
On Tuesday, US president Jo Biden decried antisemitic posters and slogans on college campuses, as student protesters strongly pushed back against the implication that pro-Palestinian encampments were driven by hatred. On Tuesday more than 750 Jewish students from 140 US campuses issued a joint letter calling for a ceasefire and rejecting Biden’s warning against a “surge of antisemitism”.
Hotovely spoke at the launch of an immersive virtual reality tool documenting the 7 October attacks, including footage of Millet Ben Haim, 28, who spoke on Wednesday on a panel of having survived the Nova dance festival attack, where as many as 360 young Israelis were murdered.
Also speaking on the panel on Wednesday was Mazal Tazazo, 33, who also survived the Nova dance festival attack after faking her own death, and 37-year-old Remo Salman El-Hozayel, a police officer who rescued partygoers by driving them to a nearby greenhouse.
During Hamas’s 7 October attacks, 1,200 people in southern Israel were killed and more than 200 others were taken hostage. Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed more than 34,700 people.
Israel has drawn international condemnation after pressing ahead with its campaign on Gaza’s southernmost city this week, where more than a million Palestinians are taking refuge.
Speaking with the Guardian afterwards, Hotovely said Israel is “obligated” to release their 132 hostages, and said “the world forgets that”.
“When the world says Israel cannot do the Rafah operation for instance it’s like saying Hamas can keep on controlling the Gaza Strip,” Israel’s former deputy foreign minister said. Hotovely has previously rejected the long-suggested plan of a two-state solution.
“We are now in a point where Hamas needs to understand we want our hostages back and we want to make sure that they won’t be able to commit terrorism again,” she said.
Israel will not agree to end the war and leave Hamas in power, an Israeli government spokesperson reiterated on Wednesday.
According to Reuters the same spokesperson declined to comment on reports of the US witholding arms.
More details soon …
António Guterres, the UN secretary general has said that a full-scale assault on Rafah “would be a human catastrophe”.
Posting on X today, Guterres wrote:
A full-scale assault on Rafah would be a human catastrophe.
Countless more civilian casualties. Countless more families forced to flee yet again – with nowhere safe to go.
Meanwhile, the repercussions will be felt far beyond, in the occupied West Bank, and across the region.
A full-scale assault on Rafah would be a human catastrophe.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) May 8, 2024
Countless more civilian casualties.
Countless more families forced to flee yet again – with nowhere safe to go.
Meanwhile, the repercussions will be felt far beyond, in the occupied West Bank, and across the region.
An Israeli official has told Reuters that Israel sees no sign of a breakthrough in Egyptian-mediated talks on a truce with Hamas that would free some Gaza hostages, but is keeping its delegation of what it describes as “mid-level” negotiators in Cairo for now.
The Times of Israel is reporting that Tel Aviv is to cancel its annual Pride parade, and will replace it with a march dedicated to the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza. “This is not the time for celebrations,” Tel Aviv’s mayor Ron Huldai said on social media.
The United Arab Emirates said on Wednesday it strongly condemns Israel’s takeover of the Rafah border crossing on the Palestinian side and warned of the consequences of military escalation, Reuters reports.
Our graphics team has produced this updated map of the situation in southern Gaza and Rafah.
My colleagues Neha Gohil and Jon Henley have put together this explainer about student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.
Aid for Gaza was being loaded on to a ship in Cyprus on Wednesday in what was expected to be the first cargo to be delivered using a US pier built to expedite supplies to Gaza, Reuters reports.
Containers were being stacked on the US flagged Sagamore, docked at the port of Larnaca, on Wednesday. Some containers to the ship were labelled as aid from the United Arab Emirates.
Konstantinos Letymbiotis, a Cyprus government spokesperson, said a US jetty built to handle aid shipments to Gaza had been completed. It was unclear when the vessel would depart.
At least 34,844 Palestinians have been killed and 78,404 injured in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Hamas-run health ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
Police have begun to clear a pro-Palestinian tent encampment at George Washington University in Washington DC, hours after dozens of protesters left the site and marched to president Ellen Granberg’s home, reports the Associated Press (AP).
GW Hatchet, the university’s student-run newspaper said officers gave a third and final warning to demonstrators at about 3.30am (EDT) on Wednesday that all who remained at the encampment would be arrested.
According to event organisers, nearly 30 people were arrested as police used pepper spray to contain the crowd.
Mayor Muriel Bowser and Washington DC’s Metropolitan police department (MPD) chief Pamela Smith are set to testify about the District’s handling of the protest at a House committee on oversight and accountability hearing on Wednesday afternoon, reports the AP.
Here are some of the latest images on the newswires:
Further to the earlier statement by the Israeli military that the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza was reopened on Wednesday (see 07.23 BST), the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) said no aid has yet entered and there is no one to receive it on the Palestinian side, reports the Associated Press (AP).
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (Cogat), the Israeli military body in charge of Palestinian civilian affairs, said the Kerem Shalom crossing reopened early on Wednesday. But Juliette Touma, the director of communications for Unrwa, said no aid had entered as of midday Wednesday and that the UN agency had been forced to ration fuel, which is imported through Rafah.
The Rafah crossing has been a vital conduit for humanitarian aid since the start of the war and is the only place where people can enter and exit. Kerem Shalom is Gaza’s main cargo terminal.
Russia said on Wednesday that the war in Gaza was escalating due to Israel’s incursion into Rafah and that Moscow so far saw no prospect for a peace settlement in Gaza or the wider Middle East, reports Reuters.
“An additional destabilising factor, including for the entire region, was the launch of an Israeli military ground operation in Rafah,” Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters.
“About one and a half million Palestinian civilians are concentrated there. In this regard, we demand strict compliance with the provisions of international humanitarian law.”
According to Reuters, speaking more broadly about efforts to find a lasting settlement in the Middle East, Zakharova said: “I would like to call it a settlement, but, alas, it is far from a settlement.”
“There are no prospects for resolving the situation in the Gaza Strip. On the contrary, the situation in the conflict zone is escalating daily.”
Australia has reiterated its objections to a major Israeli ground offensive into Rafah.
Foreign affairs minister of Australia, Penny Wong posted on X saying that Australia had “been clear” about its objections and had reiterated “this to Israel again today”.
Australia has been clear about our objections to a major Israeli ground offensive into Rafah, and we have reiterated this to Israel again today. pic.twitter.com/Rx1SAe5erC
— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) May 8, 2024
She shared a post reading:
More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are sheltering in Rafah, from the fighting elsewhere.
The impacts on Palestinian civilians from an expanded military operation would be devastating.
That’s why our call remains for a humanitarian ceasefire to enable hostages to be released and unimpeded aid to flow.
We support the continued work of Qatar, the US and Egypt to broker a deal.”