Gaza live: Dozens killed and wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza and Yemen

Mohammed Obeid, a resident of the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of al-Issawiya, has been forced by Israeli authorities to demolish his own house, in which he lived with his wife.

Obeid had to carry out the demolition himself to avoid paying heavy fines if the municipality carried out the demolition.

The Israeli municipality issued the demolition order citing a lack of permits, which are notoriously difficult for Palestinians to obtain.

Former Israeli military sergeant Elor Azaria was hit by US visa restrictions for his alleged involvement in gross violations of human rights in the occupied West Bank, including an extrajudicial killing, the US State Department said on Wednesday.

Azaria “and any immediate family members are generally ineligible for entry into the United States", the State Department said in a statement.

Washington will also impose these visa restrictions on "an additional group of individuals for having been involved in or meaningfully contributed to undermining the peace, security, or stability in the West Bank”, the statement said, without elaborating on which group it planned to target.

Relatives of captives held by Hamas in Gaza have criticised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after he appeared to play down the seriousness of their situation in the besieged enclave.

During a cabinet meeting, Netanyahu reportedly said his government "shouldn't be stressed" by the situation in Gaza as the "the kidnapped are suffering, but they are not dying".

His comment were branded "deeply hurtful" by the organisation coordinating the families of those held in Gaza.

“The grim reality is undeniable: hostages have already been murdered in captivity. More hostages may be losing their lives at this very moment," said a statement from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

Labour MP Zarah Sultana has tabled an amendment to the upcoming king's speech, calling for an end to British arms sales to Israel.

The king's speech is used by the British government to outline its policies for the upcoming parliamentary session and will be the first under newly elected Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

In an opinion piece for the Guardian on Wednesday, Sultana said British made parts are used in Israeli F35 warplanes, which have been used to target Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

"This is just one example of Israel’s use of British-made arms in its assault on Gaza. But after almost 10 months and 38,000 Palestinians killed, to their eternal shame the Conservatives left office refusing to suspend arms sales," she wrote, adding: "This responsibility now falls to Labour."

With tens of thousands dead and much of Gaza laid to waste, Israel is now subject of two major international court cases. 

Read more: Labour MP Zarah Sultana tables amendment calling for end of Israel arm sales

A mental health NGO has found “alarmingly high” rates of mental health disorders among Palestinians in Gaza, particularly women and children.

In a report published on Tuesday, the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP) said that Israel’s ongoing war on the enclave has produced an “unprecedented mental health crisis” which could endure for “generations to come”.

The report found that Gaza’s children “live in a state of endless tragedy”, with many of them suffering from sleeplessness, sleepwalking, night terrors, constant shaking and bedwetting.

One father told GCMHP that one his children wets the bed at the sound of war planes and drones flying overhead.

Some children develop serious mental health disorders. A 13-year-old mentioned in the report suffers from visual and auditory hallucinations.

Read more: Palestinians suffering from 'unprecedented mental health crisis'

At least 38,794 people have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, the Palestinian health ministry said on Wednesday.

The toll includes 81 deaths in the past 24 hours, a ministry statement read.

Additionally, 89,364 people have been wounded since Israel launched its war on Gaza on 7 October 2023.

Israeli attacks on schools have become “an almost daily occurrence”, Unrwa chief Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on X. 

“At least eight schools hit in the last 10 days, including six Unrwa schools,” said Lazzarini.

“The war robbed the girls and boys in Gaza of their childhood and education. Schools must never be used for fighting or military purposes by any party to the conflict. Schools are not a target,” he emphasised. 

"The blatant and constant disregard of international humanitarian law continues unabated. All rules of war have been broken in Gaza," Lazzarini added. 

Thirteen Palestinians, illegally captured and detained by Israel, have been released back into the besieged Gaza Strip, reports the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS).

The Palestinians showed signs of torture or ill-treatment by Israel. At least two detainees had bruises on their wrists and wounds on their arms.

Ambulances awaited the detainees and transported them to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Among those released was an elderly Palestinian woman who showed signs of pain and struggled to walk.

All the detainees showed signs of fatigue and pain while walking. There have been countless reports by human rights organisations that Palestinians captured by Israel in Gaza have been tortured.

Israeli bombing that targeted the Shakoush area, north-west of the city of Rafah has killed at least two Palestinians. 

After an assassination attempt against former US President Donald Trump on Saturday, the headline of a New York Times editorial read: “The Attack on Donald Trump Is Antithetical to America.”  

In a similar vein, President Joe Biden gave a nationally televised speech in which he told Americans: “We debate and disagree. We compare and contrast the character of the candidates, the records, the issues, the agenda, the vision for America. But in America, we resolve our differences at the ballot box. You know, that’s how we do it, at the ballot box - not with bullets.”  

One can perfectly understand such fine and refined, and entirely delusional, sentiments at a time of national strife, with the president aiming to settle nerves and restore calm, even as conspiracy theories and blame games heat up.

Delusions can be useful; even in Plato’s philosophy, myths and deceptions can assume the status of “noble lies”. But if Americans were to be honest with themselves, was this violent act targeting a political figure out of character and “antithetical to America” - or was it definitive to the entire history of the US, written, as it were, into the very DNA of its violent political culture?    

Read more:  Donald Trump assassination attempt: How is this 'antithetical to America'?

A member of parliament from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party says he won’t support the government if it agrees to withdraw Israeli troops from the Gaza-Egypt border which Israel refers to as the Philadelphi Corridor. 

“Put simply, if we won’t be at the Philadelphi Corridor, we won’t be in the State of Israel,” said the Likud parliamentarian Moshe Saada speaking to Radio 103FM, describing the border strip as Hamas’s “oxygen pipe”.

“Leaving the Philadelphi Corridor is an existential threat to the Jewish nation’s life in the Land of Israel. This is one of the red lines because unfortunately, it has been written in blood,” he says.

Over the last few weeks, the Israel lobby has been increasingly featured in the news in the context of the ongoing election seasons in the UK, France, and the US.

News articles proliferate about the huge funds the UK's Israel lobby contributed to candidates in the recent elections, the Israeli ministerial interference in the recent French elections, or the defeat of US Congressional Representative Jamaal Bowman due to the support of his opponent by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), the most influential pro-Israel lobby group in the US.

This is in addition to media coverage of the role the lobby has played since 7 October in silencing critics of Israel and its genocide in Gaza.

As I have argued previously, there is often an excitement that afflicts many pro-Palestine supporters in the US and the Arab world when the Israel lobby's machinations are exposed in the western press.

Read more: Why blaming the Israel lobby for western Middle East policies is misguided

In a session headed by Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi Council of Ministers has condemned the continuation of genocidal massacres against the Palestinian people.

The also reiterated their demand for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and the protection of unarmed civilians in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The Council also reiterated the need for an international accountability mechanisms for the continuous Israeli violations of international humanitarian law.

Israeli far-right groups accused of attacking aid convoys to the Gaza Strip have raised more than $200,000 on crowdfunding sites from donors in the US and Israel, where the contributions can be deducted from the individuals’ taxes.

Donations to the groups have poured in on Givechack, an Israeli crowdfunding site, and JGive, a US and Israeli crowdfunding site, according to a report by the Associated Press and the Israeli investigative site, Shomrim, based on open source inspections of the websites and other public records.

Charitable contributions are tax deductible in the US and Israel.

Groups working to get aid into the besieged Palestinian enclave told the AP and Shomrim that "incentivizing these donations by making them tax-deductible runs counter to America’s and Israel’s stated commitments to allow unlimited food, water and medicine into Gaza".

One of the groups, Mother’s March, raised the equivalent of over $125,000 on Givechack and $13,000 on JGive.

Read more: Far-right groups attacking Gaza aid receive $200,000 from US, Israeli donors