War on Gaza: Thousands of Palestinians flee on foot as fighting rages in north

Thank you for following The New Arab's live blog on Israel's war on Gaza. The live blog will resume at 8 am GMT.

The Washington Post has taken down a cartoon depicting a Hamas leader using Palestinians as human shields following online outrage which called the image racist.

The cartoon was widely slammed as dehumanising to Palestinians, who are under great Israel suffering following the outbreak of the war on October 7.

In a note, editorial page editor David Shipley said that cartoon was initially "supposed to caricature a specific Hamas spokesperson". Shipley said the backlash made him realise that he had missed "something profound and divisive."

The image, drawn by Michael Ramirez, depicted the so-called Hamas spokesperson with a large nose, as he stood bound with ropes to four children and a hijab-wearing woman. The caption accompanying the drawing read: "How dare Israel attack civilians...".

It’s 2023 and this is a cartoon that the @washingtonpost decided was fit for print. It includes a portrait of the angry brown man (complete with a big nose), the ugly veiled docile Arab woman, and of course both the kids and the woman are being used as human shields. pic.twitter.com/EnQYGZyAPc

— Dalia Hatuqa🪬🤌 (@DaliaHatuqa) November 8, 2023

A large explosion has reportedly been carried out near the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, Reuters and Al-Jazeera said.

Reuters reported that people gathered outside the hospital could be seen running for cover following the sound of a huge impact.

The heads of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) said earlier that conditions at Al-Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital, were "disastrous" with emergency rooms overflowing with the sick and wounded.

France President Emmanuel Macron will on Thursday host a conference on humanitarian aid for Gaza although Israel, which has been relentlessly bombarding the territory since an October 7, will be absent.

All governments nevertheless have "an interest in the humanitarian situation improving in Gaza, including Israel", a Macron aide told reporters on condition of anonymity ahead of the gathering.

Thursday's aid conference has been put together in a hurry on the sidelines of the annual Paris Peace Forum on November 10-11.

"The idea is to go around all the major donors and speed up aid to Gaza," France's foreign ministry said last week, saying there would be sections on donations of goods such as food, fuel and medical supplies, financial support and humanitarian access.

Few Arab nations are expected to send delegates, although the Palestinian Authority will send its prime minister and Egypt a ministerial delegation.

At least 30 Palestinians have been reportedly killed by Israeli warcraft after it struck several homes in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, the Palestinian official news agency Wafa said.

According to the report, two residential buildings were destroyed in the camp, which is one of Gaza's largest.

Wafa also said that Israeli strikes hit the Al-Sabra neighbourhood in Gaza City, as well as the Al-Ikhlas Mosque in the al-Aqqad neighborhood, in the center of Khan Younis, south of Gaza.

 A civilian car next to Al-Yemen Al-Saeed Hospital in Jabalia camp was also struck, killing many civilians.

Israeli forces have shot and killed a Palestinian man in Hebron during another incursion in the occupied West Bank.

The man was identified as 29-year-old Anas Abu Atwan, and was recently married.

Abu Atwan was shot in the back and through the heart, according to doctors, reported Al-Jazeera.

British Foreign Minister James Cleverly on Thursday arrived in Saudi Arabia to drive diplomatic efforts to find a resolution to Israel's war in Gaza, the United Kingdom's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said in a statement.

Cleverly will meet with foreign ministers from the Middle East and will discuss efforts to prevent wider regional escalation, including in Lebanon and Yemen.

The FM will also discuss initiatives to increase the volume of aid reaching civilians in the war-torn, besieged Gaza, including medicines, fuel and water, and ensure a pipeline of funds and supplies to support the relief effort, the statement added.

The minister is set to reaffirm Britain's support for humanitarian pauses in the fighting as soon as possible to deliver aid and open a window for hostages, including British nationals, to be released.

(Reuters)

No wounded Palestinians or dual nationals were evacuated Wednesday from the Gaza Strip to Egypt via the Rafah crossing, a Palestinian official said.

The crossing point remained closed due to Israel's refusal to approve the list of wounded who were to be evacuated, a Hamas official told AFP.

The US has launched an airstrike on a facility in eastern Syria linked to Iranian-backed militants, in retaliation for what has been a growing number of attacks on bases housing U.S. troops in the region for the past several weeks, the Pentagon said.

The strike by two US F-15 fighter jets was on a weapons storage facility linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.

This is the second time in less than two weeks that the US has bombed facilities.

An armed drone targeted al-Harir airbase hosting US forces in northern Iraq, two security sources said on Wednesday, following sirens warning of a possible attack at the US embassy in Baghdad.

The sirens sounded at the US embassy on Wednesday evening, several people in Baghdad's heavily-fortified Green Zone that houses the embassy said, but there were no reports of projectile impacts or casualties.

US and international forces based in Iraq and across the border in Syria have been on high alert amid dozens of attacks on their bases in the weeks since Israel's brutal onslaught of Gaza began.

A group called the "Islamic Resistance in Iraq" has claimed many of the attacks, saying they were in response to US backing for Israel in its war in the besieged enclave, which has killed over 10,000 Palestinians, including children.

Israeli air strikes killed three pro-Iran fighters on Wednesday as they hit sites belonging to the powerful Lebanese Hezbollah group near the Syrian capital Damascus, a war monitor said.

"Three non-Syrian pro-Iran fighters were killed in Israeli strikes on farms and other sites belonging to Hezbollah near Akraba and Sayyida Zeinab," said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.

Israel also struck Syrian air defence sites in the country's south, he said.

Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said that Israeli jets have targeted Hezbollah positions in Lebanon, in response to rockets previously fired into Israeli territory.

The Israeli raids targeted “buildings and military positions” used by Hezbollah, Hagari said.

מטוסי קרב תקפו לפני זמן קצר תשתיות טרור של ארגון חיזבאללה בלבנון, בתגובה לשיגורים לעבר שטח ישראל ביממה האחרונה.

בין המטרות שנתקפו, מבנים ועמדות צבאיות בהם פעלו מחבלי הארגון, ומספר אמצעים טכנולוגים ששימשו להכוונת טרור נגד מדינת ישראל >> pic.twitter.com/Ir7UevoAPo

— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי - Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) November 8, 2023

A World Health Organization medical convoy containing much needed emergency medical supplies and medicines has reached Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, in a move facilitated by UNRWA.

The move was carried out despite "huge risks to staff" due to heavy Israeli bombardment, the agency said.

Wednesday's delivery is only the second to the hospital since the outbreak of the devastating war in Gaza. On 24 October, WHO delivered medical supplies to the hospital amid high insecurity, UNRWA said in a statement.

The UNRWA agency said that 92 members of its staff have been killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza, one month into the war in the besieged territory.

"This is the highest number of United Nations aid workers killed in a conflict in the history of the United Nations," the agency said.

The agency's commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini said that UNRWA will "never be the same" without the killed staff.

Children in Gaza who are not killed by Israeli strikes are at risk of dying from starvation, disease and dehydration, said Alexandra Saieh of Save the Children, as cited by Al Jazeera.

"The situation is catastrophic. Civilians, especially children, continue to pay the heaviest price of the ongoing violence," she said.

"Last week, Save the Children warned that the total number of children killed in just a few weeks in Gaza is higher than the annual number of children killed in all conflicts combined since 2019."

Saieh, like many heads of rights organisations, have urged a ceasefire in Gaza.

An alliance of 13 major aid groups including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Amnesty International and Oxfam has urged world leaders to push for a ceasefire in Gaza after one month of war between Israel and Hamas.

The organisations "call on French President Emmanuel Macron and heads of state... to do everything in their power to obtain an immediate ceasefire," they said in a statement, one day before a humanitarian conference on the Gaza Strip is due to be held in Paris.

Other priorities should include "concrete measures to free civilian hostages and protect all civilian populations, guaranteeing entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza and respecting international humanitarian law," the groups said.

As well as MSF, Amnesty and Oxfam, the signatories also include Action Against Hunger, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and the International Federation for Human Rights.

"We are getting increasingly desperate appeals for protection and aid from our humanitarian workers inside the locked-down Gaza Strip," NRC chief Jan Egeland said in the statement.

"It is unacceptable that there is still no humanitarian ceasefire, no humanitarian corridor and no end to the suffocating siege" of the enclave, he added.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has issued a updated guide detailing its targeted consumer boycotts, divestment and pressure campaigns amid Israel's war on Gaza.

The movement has set out comprehensive lists accordingly, as more and more people have expressed desire to boycott companies or products with direct links to Israel.

The updated guide also comes amid confusion on social media over which products to boycott, which could negatively affect the maximum impact BDS seeks in its goals.

Many of you have written to ask us about the accuracy of lists of companies being spread on social media.

We have put together this definitive explainer to help focus our collective efforts on ending complicity with Israel's apartheid regime.#BDShttps://t.co/iXBj8HwQXo

— BDS movement (@BDSmovement) November 8, 2023

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again rejected the prospect of a ceasefire in Gaza on Wednesday, amid reports of negotiations for a temporary ceasefire with Hamas.

"I'd like to put to rest all kinds of false rumours we're hearing from all kinds of directions, and reiterate one clear thing: There will be no ceasefire without the release of our hostages," he said.

The White House said more than 80 humanitarian trucks have entered Gaza in the past 24 hours and roughly 500 to 600 Americans have yet to get out of the Palestinian enclave.

"We know we had 400 or so out so far, that leaves a population of about five to 600 left when you count family members in there," White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.

Thousands of Palestinian civilians trudged in a procession out of the north of Gaza on Wednesday seeking refuge from Israeli air strikes and fierce ground fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants.

(Reuters)

A pro-Palestinian rally looks set to take place in London on Saturday, despite government concerns that it could clash with the solemn annual commemorations for Britain's military war dead.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's government had put pressure on the Metropolitan Police to ban the protest in the British capital, with the PM saying he would 'hold the Met Police commissioner accountable' for his decision allowing the protest to go ahead.

Sunak met with Scotland Yard chief Mark Rowley to secure assurances that Armistice Day memorial services would not be disrupted and that the public would be safe from disorder.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to take to the streets of London to demand a ceasefire in the month-old conflict.

The Conservative leader says a march on Armistice Day would be "provocative and disrespectful" but organisers have resisted his pleas and those from the Met Police to postpone the demonstration.

The Rafah border crossing into Gaza was closed on Wednesday due to an unspecified "security circumstance," US State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said.

The United States expects the Egypt-controlled crossing will be reopened at "regular intervals" so that aid can enter the Gaza Strip and foreign nationals can continue to depart, Patel said during a regular press briefing.

(Reuters)

Yemen's Houthi's announced they shot down a US drone over Yemen's territorial waters.

In an announcement made on Telegram, the Houthi's stated that "we shot down an American plane in Yemeni territorial waters and as part of the US military support for the Israeli entity."

"Hostile moves will not discourage our forces from continuing to carry out military operations against the Israeli entity," the statement added.

An attack on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza has killed 19 people, according to Gaza's interior ministry.

The ministry stated that the airstrike targeted a home "near the al-Yemen al-Saeed hospital."

Jabalia refugee camp has been struck by the Israeli military multiple times since the beginning of siege and bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

The spokesperson for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam brigades, Abu Obaida, has said that "we continue to prioritise the prisoners case, and we stress that the only way to free them is through [a] complete or gradual swap of prisoners."

As well as reaffirming a call for a prisoner swap, Abu Obaida also stated that 136 Israeli military vehicles had been damaged or destroyed during Israel's ground offensive into the Gaza Strip. 

An Israeli raid on Bethlehem has injured 64 Palestinians and caused the evacuation of 100 children from an orphanage because of tear gas inhalation, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

According to local journalists speaking with Al Jazeera, Israeli forces had surrounded and fired live ammunition and tear gas into the house of a wanted man, as well as detaining his family as a means to pressure him into surrendering.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that the number of civilians killed in the Gaza Strip shows that there is something "clearly wrong" with Israel's military operations against Hamas Palestinian militants.

"There are violations by Hamas when they have human shields. But when one looks at the number of civilians that were killed with the military operations, there is something that is clearly wrong," Guterres told the Reuters NEXT conference.

"It is also important to make Israel understand that it is against the interests of Israel to see every day the terrible image of the dramatic humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people," Guterres said. "That doesn't help Israel in relation to the global public opinion."

While strongly condemning the Hamas attack on Israel, Guterres said that "we need to distinguish - Hamas is one thing, the Palestinian people [are] another."

"If we don't make that distinction, I think it's humanity itself that will lose its meaning," Guterres said.

(Reuters)

Rashida Tlaib, the first women of Palestinian descent in Congress, was censured by the House on Tuesday. Below was her speech prior to the vote.

In a passionate speech to the US House of Representatives on Tuesday, @RashidaTlaib - confronted with becoming the 26th Rep to be censured in history - defended her criticism of Israel and demanded a ceasefire in Gaza.

The House ended up voting in favour of censuring her 👇 pic.twitter.com/L1gfZptiXB

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) November 8, 2023

Violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has been surging since 7 October, with international alarm growing over the role of Israeli settlers in said violence. Raids by Israeli forces have also been increasing.

Watch more below:

Since October 7, a surge in settler-related violence has unfolded across the occupied West Bank, while Israeli forces have stepped up the number of overnight raids in West Bank homes and refugee camps ⬇ pic.twitter.com/EIfWBtRWvv

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) November 8, 2023

Italy will send a hospital ship close to the coast of Gaza to help treat people in Gaza, Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said on Wednesday, as Israel's bombardment of the territory continues.

The ship is leaving on Wednesday from the western Italian port of Civitavecchia with 170 staff, including 30 people trained for medical emergencies, the minister said, adding that Italy was also working to send a field hospital to Gaza.

Crosetto suggested that two Italian naval vessels already sent to the region were likely to remain in place.

"We will evaluate whether to keep them in the area but I prefer to keep three ships there and not to have any regrets," Crosetto told reporters.

(Reuters)

The UN's Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths has said condemned the ongoing violence against Palestinians in the West Bank saying "enough is enough" in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The post also saw Griffiths state that the "situation is getting increasingly dire" as well as list the statistics of those killed, injured, and displaced in the West Bank since 7 October. 

The situation is getting increasingly dire in the West Bank.

Since October 7:

158 Palestinians were killed, including 45 children.

Over 2,400 were injured. At least 250 of them children

And over 1,000 were displaced - including 424 children.

Again, enough is enough.

— Martin Griffiths (@UNReliefChief) November 8, 2023

Hundreds gathered on Tuesday in the Lebanese border town of Blida for the funerals of four civilians, a grandmother and her three granddaughters, who were killed by an Israeli drone strike on the night of Sunday, 5 November.

The family was killed while driving away from the border town – a Blida town official and friend of the family told The New Arab that the family stopped the car when they heard an Israeli drone above them and had the children play outside so that it was clear that they were civilians.

Regardless, the drone hit the car, killing four and injuring two other family members.

Read the full article here

Gaza's Al Quds hospital is facing an acute shortage of fuel and is expected to run out of fuel on Wednesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent posted on its account on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

"Today, PRCS Al Quds hospital will be curtailing most operations in an attempt to ration fuel use and ensure a minimum level of services over the coming few days," the humanitarian organisation said.

"PRCS is urgently appealing to all international health and relief organisations to allow humanitarian aid, essential assistance, medical supplies and fuel to reach Al Quds hospital as well as Gaza and northern Gaza Governorates," the organisation added.

⭕️Today, PRCS Al Quds hospital curtailed most operations in an attempt to ration fuel use and ensure a minimum level of services over the coming few days.
🏥The hospital is facing an acute shortage of fuel and was expected to run out of fuel today.#Gaza#NotATarget pic.twitter.com/4YjNJgTLXV

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 8, 2023

(Reuters & The New Arab)

Qatar is mediating negotiations for the potential release of 10-15 hostages held in Gaza in exchange for a ceasefire of one or two days, a source briefed on the talks told AFP on Wednesday.

"Negotiations mediated by the Qataris in coordination with the US are ongoing to secure the release of 10-15 hostages in exchange for a one-to two-day ceasefire," the informed source said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.

German defence export approvals to Israel so far this year have risen nearly tenfold from last year, with Berlin treating permit requests as a priority since Hamas's attack on southern Israel last month, a German government source said on Wednesday.

As of 2 November, the German government has approved the export of close to 303 million euros' ($323 million) worth of defence equipment to Israel. By comparison, 32 million euros' worth of defence exports were approved in all of 2022.

The majority of individual export permits - 185 out of 218 - were granted after the 7 October attack.

Germany primarily supplies Israel with components for air defence systems and communications equipment, according to the German press agency dpa, which first reported on the figures.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday called on Israel not to reoccupy Gaza once its war with Hamas ends.

Speaking to reporters after G7 foreign ministers held talks in Japan, Blinken listed what he said were "key elements" in order to create "durable peace and security."

"The United States believes key elements should include: no forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, not now, not after the war; No use of Gaza as a platform for terrorism or other violent attacks; No reoccupation of Gaza after the conflict ends," Blinken told reporters.

He added that other conditions included no "attempt to blockade or besiege Gaza" or any "reduction in the territory of Gaza."

Labour MP Zarah Sultana has tabled an amendment to the King’s Speech calling for an immediate ceasefire in order to "protect civilians in Israel and Palestine."

The amendment is supported by MPs from six different political parties and could be voted on next Wednesday.

"Every day Israel’s assault on Gaza continues, more innocent Palestinians will be brutally killed. So long as our government rejects a ceasefire, it is complicit in this slaughter," she wrote on X.

At least 19 Labour frontbenchers are calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Every day Israel’s assault on Gaza continues, more innocent Palestinians will be brutally killed.

So long as our government rejects a ceasefire, it is complicit in this slaughter.

I have tabled this amendment to the King's Speech, calling on the government to back a ceasefire: pic.twitter.com/xl1wHqC5iN

— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) November 8, 2023

Israel recorded a budget deficit of 22.9 billion shekels ($6 billion) in October, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday, citing a spike in expenses to fund Israel's war in Gaza.

As a percentage of GDP, the deficit over the prior 12 months rose to 2.6% in October from 1.5% in September, it said.

The ministry noted that revenue fell 15.2% last month due to tax deferments and lower social security income as a result of the war that began on 7 October.

Israel's deficit in September was 4.6 billion and in October 2022 it was 3.1 billion.

The widespread and systematic bombardment of housing and civilian infrastructure in Gaza amounts to a war crime and a crime against humanity, an independent United Nations expert said Wednesday.

A month of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have destroyed or damaged 45 percent of all housing units in the Palestinian territory, Balakrishnan Rajagopal said, warning the destruction comes at a "tremendous cost to human life".

The UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing stressed that systematic or widespread bombardment of housing, civilian objects and infrastructure are strictly prohibited under international law.

"Carrying out hostilities with the knowledge that they will systematically destroy and damage civilian housing and infrastructure, rendering an entire city - such as Gaza City - uninhabitable for civilians is a war crime," he said.

When such acts are "directed against a civilian population, they also amount to crimes against humanity", he said.

Rajagopal, an independent expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but who does not speak on behalf of the United Nations, had previously coined the term "domicide" to refer to the systematic and widespread attacks on civilian housing and infrastructure that cause death and suffering.

Domicide, he said, "is now being committed in Gaza".

Around 1.5 million people have been displaced in Gaza amid the destruction and Israeli calls to evacuate the entire north of the territory, according to UN figures.

Rajagopal said the Israeli evacuation order, issued despite a lack of adequate shelter and aid for those fleeing and while cutting off water, food, fuel and medicine and repeatedly attacking evacuation routes and "safe zones", was "a cruel and blatant violation of international humanitarian law".

He said international humanitarian law is based on the distinction between civilian and military objects.

The expert stressed that civilian housing in Israel was also not a military object, warning that Hamas's continuing indiscriminate launching of rockets from Gaza and elsewhere is also "a war crime".

Israeli representatives will not participate at a Thursday "humanitarian conference" for Gaza in Paris organised by French President Emmanuel Macron, his office said.

Yemen's Houthis have released footage of what the rebel group said was the launching of a number of drones targeting Israel on 6 November, after media opposed to the rebels cast doubt over the credibility of their claims.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya al-Sarea posted a one-minute video on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday, which he said showed the attack carried out by the rebels on the previous day. He had said the attack had halted movements at Israeli bases and airports targeted "for several hours".

The video showed drones being fired into the night sky, with the Yemeni and Palestinian flags seen flying in the foreground.

The Israeli army announced that a solider from the Shaldag special forces unit was killed in fighting northern Gaza.

This brings the toll to 32 Israeli soldiers who have been killed since the start of the Israeli army's ground operation in Gaza, according to official tallies from the Israeli military.

55 Palestinians were arrested during early morning raids on Wednesday in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA.

The raids occurred in the regions of Hebron, Bethlehem, Qalqilya, Tubas, Nablus, Jenin, Jerusalem, Ramallah and Tulkarm. 

The Israeli Army has stated that the Salah al-Din Road will be open between 10am and 2pm for residents of north Gaza to move into southern Gaza as fighting in Gaza City intensifies.

The road is one of two main roads leading to the south alongside the coastal al-Rashid Road. 

Avichay Adaree, the Israeli army's Arabic spokesperson posted on X, formerly known as Twitter that "the northern Gaza Strip area is considered a fierce combat zone, and time is running out to evacuate it. They join hundreds of thousands who have responded to calls and moved south in recent days.

"If you care about yourself and your loved ones, head south according to our instructions," he added. 

Israel has previously bombed evacuation routes, including the Salah al-Din Road. 

The al-Quds brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) said that they fired rockets at the Israeli towns of Sderot, Gush Dan and Mefalsim, as Israel continues to push into Gaza City. 

US diplomat Amos Hochstein, who mediated talks between Lebanon and Israel over their shared maritime border, visited Beirut yesterday.

A report by Nidaa al-Watan newspaper said this morning that Hochstein had relayed a message to Lebanese officials to the effect that the US wanted Lebanon to distance itself from the war in Gaza.

Hochstein suggested that Lebanon's official stance at the 11 November Arab summit should not offer support for Hamas, according to the daily.

The paper also said that "one of the figures" Hochstein met had told him that the escalation on the Lebanon-Israel border "is essentially the result of the Israeli decision to launch war on Gaza", and that the US should "convince Israel to stop this war in order for tension to ease everywhere".

Israel has targeted seven hospitals within the previous few hours late on Tuesday, the spokesman for the health ministry in Gaza Strip has said.

Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra urged "the UN and the International Committee of the Red Crescent to immediately work to activate international humanitarian law and the Geneva Convention IV to protect the health system".

The ministry also said that the toll of casualties had risen to 10,328 people killed - including 4,237 children, 2,719 women and 631 elderly - and 25,956 others injured since the start of the Israel-Gaza war.

Top diplomats from the G7 leading industrial democracies have announced a unified stance on the Israel-Gaza war after meetings in Tokyo, condemning Hamas, supporting Israel’s right to self-defence and calling for “humanitarian pauses” to speed aid to civilians in the Gaza Strip.

In a statement, the nations sought to balance criticism of Hamas’s attacks against Israel and a push for “urgent action” to help civilians in the besieged Palestinian enclave in need of food, water, medical care and shelter.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and foreign ministers from the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Italy emphasised that they “support humanitarian pauses to facilitate urgently needed assistance, civilian movement and release of hostages”.

There was also condemnation of “the rise in extremist settler violence committed against Palestinians,” which the ministers said is “unacceptable, undermines security in the West Bank, and threatens prospects for a lasting peace”.

A humanitarian aid convoy has come under fire in Gaza City, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Two trucks were damaged and a driver lightly wounded as the ICRC convoy, which was carrying “lifesaving medical supplies to health facilities including to Al Quds hospital of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society,” was hit by fire, the medical NGO said on Tuesday.