Middle East crisis live: Hamas ‘seeking more clarity on terms of ceasefire deal’ | Israel-Gaza war

Israel’s military has provided an operational update on its activities in the Gaza Strip, where it claims it has “struck and destroyed a number of terror targets belonging to the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations, including weapon storage facilities, military structures, launch sites, and mortar launchers used to fire toward IDF troops.”

The statement also asserts that Isreal’s troops have “found weapons stockpiles, documents, and military equipment” while conducting searches within the territory.

The claims have not been independently verified.

Israel’s military says that since the beginning of ground operations in Gaza on 27 October, 263 soldiers have been killed, and 1,593 wounded. The IDF says that of the wounded, 250 are in hospital, with 25 of those “seriously wounded”.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said on Wednesday that US secretary of state Antony Blinken’s comments on a Gaza ceasefire are an attempt to put pressure on the Palestinian group and acquit Israel.

Abu Zuhri also told Reuters that the group was still studying the recent ceasefire offer.

The Hamas-led health ministry has issued updated casualty figures, claiming that at least 34,568 Palestinians have been killed and 77,765 wounded in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October.

It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.

Hamas has asked Egypt and Qatar for more clarity on terms of deal – reports

Blinken tells hostage families ‘keep the faith’ after speaking to Tel Aviv demonstration

Reporting for Al Jazeera from Rafah, Tareq Abu Azzoum has said that Israel appears to have “ramped up airstrikes and land bombardment”. He writes for the news network:

Israeli artillery units have been relentlessly pounding the Nuseirat refugee camp – in the northern part of that densely populated area – where thousands of Palestinians are. They have also been taking a systematic approach to destroying residential buildings in al-Mughraqa.

Here in Rafah in the south, the situation is also dire. A number of houses were attacked, with two Palestinian children killed. The children arrived at the Kuwaiti hospital alive, but they succumbed to their wounds.

Overnight, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued an English language video strongly critical of the international criminal court (ICC) and reports that it could be preparing charges of war crimes against Israel’s leaders.

In the address, Netanyahu described it as “an outrage of historic proportions” that a body set up “in the wake of the Holocaust committed against the Jewish people … is trying to put Israel in the dock.”

He said:

You have to hear this to believe this. The international criminal court in The Hague is contemplating issuing arrest warrants against senior Israeli government and military officials as war criminals.

This would be an outrage of historic proportions. International bodies like the ICC arose in the wake of the Holocaust committed against the Jewish people. They were set up to prevent such horrors, to prevent future genocides.

Yet now, the international court is trying to put Israel in the dock. It’s trying to put us in the dock as we defend ourselves against genocidal terrorists and regimes, Iran of course, that openly works to destroy the one and only Jewish state.

Branding Israel’s leaders and soldiers as war criminals will pour jet fuel on the fires of antisemitism, those fires that are already raging on the campuses of America and across capitals around the world. It will also be the first time that a democratic country fighting for its life according to the rules of war is itself accused of war crimes.

The Israeli army, the IDF, is one of the most moral militaries in the world. It takes endless measures to prevent civilian casualties, measures that no other army takes. It does so while fighting a terrorist enemy which uses its own civilians as human shields.

You know the truth. Hamas places its weapons, its terrorists, in hospitals, schools, mosques, and throughout civilian areas. They do this in order to win immunity and to maximize civilian casualties. So while Hamas shows no care for the lives of Palestinians and steals humanitarian aid meant for civilians, Israel is facilitating a surge of humanitarian assistance to Gaza.

Israel’s prime minister went on to say:

This ICC attempt is an attempt to paralyze Israel’s very ability to defend itself. The government and people of Israel reject outright this grave threat to our security, this grave threat to our very existence.

And I want to assure you, no ICC action will impact Israel’s ironclad determination to achieve the goals of our war with Hamas terrorists. We will destroy Hamas’ military and governing capabilities in Gaza. We will release all our hostages. And we will ensure that Gaza never poses a threat to Israel again.

Israel expects the leaders of the free world to stand firmly against the ICC’s outrageous assault on Israel’s inherent right of self-defence. We expect them to use all the means at their disposal to stop this dangerous move.

Six months after the terrible Hamas massacre of 7 October, eighty years after the horrors of the Holocaust, the Jewish state calls on decent people everywhere to reject this outrage by the ICC, to stand with Israel as we fight the barbarians of Hamas and Iran, and as we work to secure a more peaceful world.

Israel launched its assault on Gaza after the surprise 7 October attack inside southern Israel by Hamas, which killed about 1,120 people and during which about 250 people were seized and abducted as hostages.

The Hamas-led health authority in Gaza puts the death toll since Israel began its military campaign at over 34,500 Palestinians killed, with more than 77,700 wounded. Emergency services have said they believe another 10,000 boides may be trapped under rubble.

Aid agencies have warned of imminent famine in the territory, which is blockaded with Israel controlling access for humanitarian aid. Over 1.5 million people are estimated to have been displaced from their homes, many living in makeshift tent camps.

Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that several Palestinians have been killed this morning by an airstrike on Gaza City. It claimed “Israeli warplanes targeted a house on al-Jalaa Street, killing several Palestinian civilians and injuring others.”

The claims have not been independently verified.

Here is a video clip, via Kan, of the protest outside Antony Blinken’s hotel in Tel Aviv.

Israeli media reports that demonstrators have gathered in Tel Aviv outside the hotel where Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state is staying.

Haaretz reports that at the protest outside the Hotel Kempinski they have been chanting “In Blinken we trust, to bring them home to us” and “Bring them home, all of them, now”.

Rachel Fink reports that “One of the demonstrators is reading out the names of the 133 hostages still in Gaza, as the crowd responds ‘now’ after each name. Demonstrators are also temporarily blocking the road in front of the hotel, in coordination with the police.”

In Scotland, protesters have formed a blockade outside weapons manufacturer BAE Systems in Govan, Glasgow, in protest over the Israel-Gaza conflict and calling for an immediate ceasefire to halt the killing of civilians in Palestine.

France’s foreign minister Stéphane Séjourné will travel to Cairo on Wednesday in an unscheduled stop during his Middle East tour as efforts to secure a truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza reach a critical point, a French diplomatic source has told the Reuters news agency.

Blinken: US is ‘determined to get a ceasefire that brings the hostages home’

Overnight Israel’s military has said that it again struck inside southern Lebanon, claiming to have targeted “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure and a military structure in the area of Blida in southern Lebanon, as well as terrorist infrastructure and observation posts in the areas of Odaisseh and Meiss El Jabal.”

Israel and anti-Israeli forces have had near constant fire between them since 7 October. About 60,000 Israelis have been evacuated from their homes in northern Israel as a result of the skirmishing, while about 90,000 people in southern Lebanon have been forced from their homes by the fighting.

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