Middle East crisis live: Harris joins 50-minute call between Biden and Netanyahu

5.26pm BST

Barak Ravid at Axios has this to say about the Biden-Netanyahu-Harris call. He writes :

The call was the first between Biden and Netanyahu since Aug. 21, and comes as Israel considers a major attack against Iran that could significantly escalate its regional war.

Netanyahu hunkered down for hours on Tuesday night with senior ministers and the heads of Israel’s military and intelligence services to discuss the scope and timing of Israel’s attacks, according to two Israeli officials.

Israeli officials say the retaliation is expected to be significant, and will likely include a combination of airstrikes on military targets in Iran and clandestine attacks like the one the killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. On Thursday, Netanyahu will convene the security cabinet.

Tehran said its [1 October missile attack] response would end there unless Israel attacked Iran. Israel, for its part, has vowed retaliation. Both US and Israeli officials believe the tit-for-tat will continue.

5.13pm BST

Earlier we reported that the Palestinian health authority said that four Palestinians had been killed by Israeli security forces in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Nablus .

In the last few moments a joint statement from the IDF, Israel Police and the Shin Bet has claimed that in an operation Nablus it killed “five wanted terrorists”, including the head of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade in the Balata refugee camp.

“The wanted individuals were involved in terrorist activities against Israeli civilians and forces and posed a threat to the forces,” the statement said.

More details soon …

4.55pm BST

Biden-Netanyahu-Harris call ends after 50 minutes – Israeli media reports

The White House has also now confirmed that the US president, Joe Biden, spoke with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone today. The Times of Israel reports , citing Netanyahu’s office, that the call has ended and lasted 50 minutes, and that US vice-president Kamala Harris participated.

Updated at 4.56pm BST

4.51pm BST

The Palestinian health ministry said on Wednesday that four Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the Israeli-occupied West Bank town of Nablus . Images from the city taken today appear to show a bullet-riddled car.

4.32pm BST

Reuters reports that Israeli officials have confirmed that Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken by phone with the US president, Joe Biden, in what is thought to be the leaders’ first chat since August. The White House did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Updated at 4.36pm BST

4.17pm BST

Biden-Netanyahu call begins, with Kamala Harris expected to join – reports

US vice-president Kamala Harris is expected to join president Joe Biden for his call with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters, with Netanyahu’s office reporting the call has started.

The talks are expected to include discussion of Israeli plans for a retaliatory strike on Iran, after Iran launched a wave of missiles against Israel on 1 October in response to Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Netanyahu has also said that Israel believes it killed Nasrallah’s most likely successor.

Harris, who is standing for election against former US president Donald Trump in November, is generally considered to be more lukewarm an ally to Netanyahu than Biden has been, although there is no sign that a Harris administration would not continue to provide financial and military assistance to Israel.

Biden has been anxious that any Israeli action against Iran is limited and avoids widening the crisis in the Middle East and starting a full blown regional war. Iran, for its part, has already promised that it will respond to any Israeli attack, and media reports in the Islamic Republic have said Tehran’s military has already prepared at least ten possible response scenarios.

4.08pm BST

OCHA report: 'One quarter of Lebanese territory now under Israeli military displacement orders'

The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA) has published a flash update about the latest situation in Lebanon . Among its key points are that it finds:

• 2,083 people killed and 9,869 injured

• 608,509 persons internally displaced

• 180,700 people seeking refuge

• 350,000 children have been displaced by the ongoing conflict

It says “Lebanon’s humanitarian crisis is deteriorating at an alarming rate” as “Israeli airstrikes have not only intensified but also expanded” and are “increasingly targeted critical civilian infrastructure.”

The report continues:

Now issued on a daily basis by the Israeli army, displacement orders for more than 100 villages and urban neighbourhoods across southern Lebanon continue to force people to flee. One quarter of Lebanese territory is now under Israeli military displacement orders. Lebanon’s health sector is under immense pressure of relentless attacks on healthcare facilities and personnel. The education sector in Lebanon similarly faces enormous challenges, with the majority of public schools currently repurposed as collective shelters.

3.46pm BST

Israel’s military, in a statement on its official Telegram channel, says that it has destroyed a launcher which was used to fire rockets at the northern city of Kiryat Shmona . Two Israelis were reported dead there earlier from an attack [ See 13.14 GMT ]

In addition, in the statement the military says approximately 90 projectile launches were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israel and Israeli-controlled territory in the Upper Galilee , western Galilee , and southern Golan Heights . It said “Israeli fire and rescue services are currently operating to extinguish fires” without specifying a location.

3.39pm BST

Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks inside the Gaza Strip has risen to 60, including in an incident which it reported as “15 civilians were killed today when the Israeli occupation forces bombed the tents of displaced people in Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip.”

Other were injured, it said, in the attack on the courtyard of the Al Yemen Assaeed hospital. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.

3.21pm BST

Israeli media reports that a home in Safed , to the north of the Sea of Galilee, has suffered a direct hit from a projectile fired into Israel from Lebanon. There were no immediate reports of any casualties.

2.47pm BST

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi , will discuss bilateral issues and efforts to secure a ceasefire in Lebanon and Gaza on his visit to Saudi Arabia today, a senior Iranian official has said. Araqchi arrived in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, earlier and is set to visit Qatar later in the day.

A source told Reuters:

Regional unity and cooperation to secure peace in the Middle East, ceasefire in Lebanon and Gaza as well as bilateral issues will be discussed during the Iranian foreign minister’s visit to Saudi Arabia.

The meeting comes as Israel considers options for a strike on Iran that could potentially escalate the war on yet another front. Iran, which backs Hezbollah and Hamas, launched a wave of some 180 ballistic missiles at Israel last week in retaliation for the killing of senior leaders from both groups.

2.32pm BST

Spanish PM urges world not to 'remain indifferent' to Israel's invasion of Lebanon

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez , has condemned Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, saying that the international community should not “remain indifferent” to it.

The Socialist leader was quoted by Al Jazeera as telling the Spanish parliament:

It is clear that there has been an invasion by a third country of a sovereign state such as Lebanon, and therefore, the international community cannot remain indifferent.

We denounced (this situation) in Ukraine, we also denounce it in Gaza and now we are also denouncing the invasion of Lebanon.

Since February 2022, Spain has commanded the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) and deployed 650 troops along the southern Lebanese border with Israel.

Sánchez has been one of the most persistent European critics of Israel’s war on Gaza, calling the number of Palestinians killed in the conflict “truly unbearable” and has said he has had “genuine doubts” about whether Israel is complying with international humanitarian law in its assault on the territory.

Spain – which has halted arms sales to Israel – is working to rally other European capitals behind the idea of recognising a Palestinian state.

Israel’s intense bombing campaign and ground invasion of Lebanon is estimated to have killed over 1,400 people in less than three weeks and displaced well over 1 million more.

Updated at 2.34pm BST

2.14pm BST

We have some more information on the reports that a man and a woman were killed in Kiryat Shmona , a border town in the north-east of Israel, after it was reported to have been hit by a rocket barrage from Hezbollah (see post at 13.34 ).

Israel’s emergency service provider, Magen David Adom, said in a statement:

We found a man and a woman aged around 40 years old, unconscious and injured by shrapnel.

We carried out medical examinations, but their injuries were serious and we had to declare them dead on the spot.

Hezbollah claimed the strike on Kiryat Shmona, saying it targeted “a gathering of enemy forces” with a rocket salvo. Ofir Yehezkeli, the town’s acting mayor, said the two people killed were a couple who were walking their dogs when a rocket fell near them.

Kiryat Shmona, Israel’s northernmost town, has been declared a closed military zone because of its proximity to the Lebanese border, and is a frequent target of Hezbollah rocket attacks.

The Israeli military said about 20 projectile launches were identified crossing from Lebanon after air raid sirens were activated in Kiryat Shmona.

Updated at 2.37pm BST

1.59pm BST

The governor of Akkar , in the far north of Lebanon , has said there are obstacles to delivering aid to the people who have sought refuge there after being internally displaced by Israeli strikes on Beirut and the south and the east of the country.

Lebanon’s National News Agency quotes Imad Labaki announcing that 54,102 people and 12,319 families were distributed between homes and shelters in the region, which has an estimated population of about 330,000.

He said “The aid is still late” and that an accumulation of waste around shelters was presenting a health hazard. “The municipalities of Akkar do not have the ability to confront this crisis,” he said.

1.52pm BST

Another wave of warning sirens has gone off across northern Israel .

1.34pm BST

Two people killed in northeast Israel by rockets fired from Lebanon - reports

Israeli media report that two people have been killed in Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel after a barrage of rockets was fired from Lebanon. Reports have described them as a man and a woman in their 40s.

More details soon …

Updated at 2.11pm BST

1.23pm BST

Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has been highly critical of Israel today, saying Benjamin Netanyahu’s government had a desire “expand the geography of armed escalation in the region.”

Raising Israel’s repeated airstrikes in the region, Zakharova said “Once again, Israel has grossly violated the sovereignty of Syria by launching a missile attack on a multi-storey apartment building in a densely populated area of Damascus. It is outrageous that such actions have literally turned into a routine practice applied to Syria, Lebanon, and the Gaza Strip.”

Zakharova also claimed, Reuters reports, that according to Russian assessments “Hezbollah, including the military wing, has not lost its chain of command and is demonstrating organisation.”

12.57pm BST

At least 25 Palestinians have been detained by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank over the past day, including a reporter and former prisoners, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society and the Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs said.

Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, reports that the detentions took place in Hebron , Qalqilya , Jenin , Ramallah , Nablus , Tulkarem , Tubas and Bethlehem .

Over 11,200 people from the occupied West Bank are reported to have been arrested by Israeli soldiers since last October.

Human rights groups and international organisations have alleged widespread abuse of inmates detained by Israel in raids in the occupied West Bank. They have described alleged abusive and humiliating treatment, including holding blindfolded and handcuffed detainees in cramped cages as well as beatings, intimidation and harassment.

12.50pm BST

Hezbollah has said its fighters have fired rockets and artillery shells “as Israeli troops tried to advance in the Mays al-Jabal area from several directions” it said, adding that “clashes are ongoing”.

Hezbollah said earlier today that its fighters had repelled two Israeli army attempts to infiltrate Lebanese territory near other frontier villages.

12.43pm BST

IDF orders closure of several hospitals in northern Gaza

Peter Beaumont is a senior Guardian foreign correspondent

Along with evacuation orders, the IDF has ordered the closure once again of several hospitals in northern Gaza, including the Kamal Adwan , Indonesia and al-Awda hospitals . The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights described the situation as “deja vu” on social media, adding: “We all know the horrors that follow such orders.”

Among those raising the alarm has been the international medical group Médecins Sans Frontières, whose staff described the situation in northern Gaza .

“All of a sudden, I was told that we had to move from the north,” said Mahmoud, an MSF guard, who left Jabaliya at night to find refuge at the MSF guest house in Gaza City.

“We left our home in despair, under bombs, missiles and artillery. It was very, very difficult. I would prefer to die than to be displaced to the south; my home is here, and I do not want to leave.”

Sarah Vuylsteke, an MSF project coordinator in Gaza, said:

The latest move to forcefully and violently push thousands of people from northern Gaza to the south is turning the north into a lifeless desert while aggravating the situation in the south.

Access to water, healthcare and safety is already almost nonexistent, and the thought of more people fitting into this space is impossible to imagine. People have been subjected to endless displacement and relentless bombing for the past 12 months. Enough is enough. This must stop now.

The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and dozens of humanitarian facilities had been affected by the Israeli military’s latest forced evacuations across north, central and southern Gaza.

Between Saturday and Monday, evacuations orders were in place for several areas in the north of the Palestinian territory as well as areas in central Deir al-Balah and southern Khan Younis .

“There are growing risks that humanitarian access will be further constrained, particularly between southern and northern Gaza,” OCHA warned.

You can read the full story here:

Related: At least 400,000 people trapped by Israel’s latest Gaza offensive, says Unrwa

12.34pm BST

Here are some of the latest images from Gaza that have been sent to us over the newswires:

12.22pm BST

Summary of the day so far...

• 400,000 civilians in northern Gaza remain trapped by the latest Israeli offensive centred on Jabaliya refugee camp, the commissioner general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), Philippe Lazzarini , said, as there is nowhere safe for them to flee to.

• At least 42,010 Palestinian people have been killed and 97,720 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said. Of those, 45 Palestinians were killed and 130 were injured in the latest 24-hour reporting period, officials said.

• Palestinian medics have described deadly Israeli military strikes on Gaza overnight. Two strikes hit tents for displaced people in the urban Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps in central Gaza.

• The Gaza health ministry said the army had ordered three hospitals in northern Gaza to evacuate. Hundreds of patients and medics were trapped inside those facilities, it said.

• The US president, Joe Biden , is expected to hold a telephone call later today with his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu , that will reportedly include discussion of any plans to strike Iran. Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi , is visiting Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states for talks later today.

• The International Rescue Committee warned that as much as 51,000 children in Gaza could be unaccompanied or separated from their parents or caregivers.

• At least six people were injured in a stabbing attack in the Israeli city of Hadera on Wednesday, Israeli authorities said.

Updated at 12.39pm BST

11.58am BST

Israel police say six people have been injured in 'terrorist attack' in city of Hadera

Israeli police said at least six people have been injured in a stabbing in four locations in the northern city of Hadera , describing it as a “terrorist attack”. We will bring you more details on this breaking news as we get it.

A police statement read:

The attack took place on four different sites where six people were stabbed... a short time ago, the police located the suspect and neutralised him by shooting.

In a statement, Israel’s Magen David Adom ambulance service said:

We treated several injured individuals in varying conditions, some of whom were in serious condition,” said emergency service provider Magen David Adom.

We provided life-saving medical treatment and began transporting them to Hillel Yaffe medical centre.

The attack comes more than a week after seven people were killed in a shooting and stabbing – which Hamas claimed responsibility for - in Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial capital.

11.43am BST

IDF footage of strikes on Gaza shows 'unprecedented rates of civilian harm' - investigation

Airwars , an investigative war monitor, has analysed hundreds of clips of Israeli strikes on Gaza released by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) over the past year. The footage was geolocated and linked to incidents in which Palestinians had publicly reported that civilians were injured or killed.

The investigation, which was conducted in collaboration with Sky News’ data and forensics unit, identified 17 incidents from the first month of the war – which broke out last October – in which the footage released by the IDF corresponded with the location of where Airwars had documented civilians being harmed.

Just from these 17 clips, over 400 Palestinian civilians, including more than 200 children, were reported to have been killed, Airwars said. You can view the interactive map with strike footage here and watch a short film based on Airwar’s reviewing of the devastating impact from three specific strikes here .

Airwars says the footage in the short film shows how the IDF’s bombing campaign has caused “unprecedented rates of civilian harm”.

Commenting on the investigation, Emily Tripp, Airwars’ director, said:

The Israeli military has shared hundreds of videos of their own strikes on social media in Gaza - grainy black and white clips with few details but captions declaring they were striking Hamas targets. The message they wanted the world to see was one of a precise campaign, a controlled narrative of careful and calculated warfare.

But by locating these clips and matching them to civilian harm allegations we uncovered a different story. Even in the strikes the Israeli military itself published footage of - the ones it chose to show the world - we found hundreds of civilians killed. This is yet more evidence that the practices of the Israeli military are leading to unprecedented levels of civilian harm.

An Oxfam analysis , published last week, found that more women and children have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military over the past year than the equivalent period of any other conflict over the past two decades. The charity cited “conservative figures” that estimated over 6,000 women and 11,000 children in Gaza had been killed by the Israeli military since last year. Gaza’s health ministry said earlier today that at least 42,010 Palestinian people have been killed and 97,720 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023. Israel has denied targeting civilians in its war on Gaza.

Updated at 12.05pm BST

11.12am BST

The Palestinian civil emergency service said it had received unconfirmed reports that dozens of Palestinian people may have been killed in Jabalia and other areas of northern Gaza, but is unable reach them because of Israeli bombardments.

The Israeli army has surrounded Jabalia since Sunday, as well as other nearby neighbourhoods, ordering residents to flee southward, even though there is nowhere area completely safe for them to go.

11.07am BST

Up to 51,000 children in Gaza could be unaccompanied or separated from parents, charity warns

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has shared a new report detailing the devastating impact Israel’s war on Gaza has had on the children in the territory.

Here are some of the main findings from the report :

• About 17,000 children are estimated to be unaccompanied or separated from parents and caregivers. The IRC thinks this figure could be three times as high (51,000).

• Frequent Israeli evacuation orders, detentions and attacks have contributed to more families being separated in Gaza over the past few months.

• Some children have been found living alone in hospitals.

• Unaccompanied and separated children face high risks of child labour, exploitation, neglect, starvation, and long-term mental health impacts.

• Every child, parent and caregiver in Gaza is experiencing trauma.

• IRC teams in Gaza are seeing increased rates of severe and acute malnutrition in children under five.

• Children in Gaza have now missed one year of education because of the collapse of the education destruction of school buildings caused by Israeli bombardment.

Bart Witteveen, the IRC’s country director for the occupied Palestinian territory, said:

Children are bearing the brunt of this war, and it’s clear that without an immediate and lasting ceasefire in sight, the long-term impacts will only become greater. Prolonged toxic stress from violence and displacement can lead to long-term health challenges for children.

Without support through psychosocial activities or safe spaces for children, there is a significant risk of long-term developmental impacts, including on brain development. The international community must act immediately to safeguard children, not just in the immediate term, but also taking into account their long-term health needs, whether related to mental health, healthcare or education.

Children in Gaza cannot wait any longer, prolonged restrictions on humanitarian aid and continued fighting means that a generation of children will now experience life-long health and developmental issues.

10.49am BST

Death toll in Gaza reaches 42,010, says health ministry

At least 42,010 Palestinian people have been killed and 97,720 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

Of those, 45 Palestinians were killed and 130 injured in the latest 24-hour reporting period, according to the ministry, which has said in the past that thousands of other dead people are most likely lost in the rubble of the enclave.

10.32am BST

One Syrian security personnel member was killed and another injured in an Israeli airstrike east of the southern city of Quneitra , Syria’s state news agency has reported. Israel has been carrying out airstrikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria for years but has intensified attacks since last October.

Updated at 10.36am BST

10.26am BST

Leaders from Hamas , the Palestinian militant group, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement will hold unity talks in Cairo today, a Hamas official has told Reuters.

“The meeting will discuss the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, and the challenges facing the Palestinian cause,” Taher Al-Nono, the media adviser of the Hamas political chief, said.

The meeting will be the first in months since the two groups held talks in Beijing in July, when they agreed on steps to form a national unity government at an unspecified point in the future. Similar rounds in the past have so far failed to make progress. You can read more on the Beijing declaration from my colleague, Amy Hawkins, in this story .

Hamas and Fatah have been long time rivals. The split came in 2007 when Hamas became the sole ruler in Gaza after violently routing out Fatah from the territory. This was a year after Hamas won legislative elections. Since then, the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority (PA), led by Abbas, runs parts of the West Bank not under full Israeli control.

Western states support the idea of post-war Gaza being run by a reformed PA, which receives security assistance from the US and the EU.

Hamas, which is proscribed as a terrorist group by Israel, the UK and other countries, recognises it cannot be part of any internationally recognised new government of the Palestinian territories when Israel’s war on Gaza finally ends, a source has told Reuters.

But it reportedly wants Fatah to agree to a new technocratic administration for the West Bank and Gaza as part of a wider political deal.

Israel vowed it would not accept any role for Hamas in post-war Gaza. It says it doesn’t trust the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority to do it either.

Updated at 10.33am BST

10.03am BST

The spokesperson of the Iranian foreign ministry has confirmed reports that Tehran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi , will arrive in Saudi Arabia later today.

In a post on X, Esmaeil Baghaei said:

Following the diplomatic consultations of the Islamic Republic of Iran and coordination with the countries of the region to stop the genocide and aggression of the Israeli regime and reduce the suffering of our brothers and sisters in Gaza and Lebanon, Dr. Araghchi, the minister of foreign affairs, is leaving for Saudi Arabia today. Genocide and rape must stop.

Iran is determined to further strengthen relations with its neighbours, to ensure stability and security, as well as to develop economic cooperation in order to benefit all the nations of the region.

Updated at 10.06am BST

9.18am BST

Gulf states must not allow use of airspace against Iran - official

Tehran is still bracing for Israeli retaliation for Iran’s missile attack on the country last week. The strikes, which Iran said were aimed at military bases, were largely thwarted by Israel’s aerial defences with support from its western allies. Iran said the attack was launched in retaliation for Israel’s assassination of senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders and Israel’s war on Gaza and assault on Lebanon.

Gulf Arab states have sought to reassure Iran of their neutrality in the escalating conflict between Tehran and Israel, according to reports. Gulf states include Saudi Arabia, which has expressed interest in normalising relations with Israel after the war in Gaza, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar.

A senior Iranian official has told Reuters that Tehran has told Gulf Arab states it would be “unacceptable” if they allowed use of their airspace or military bases against Iran and warned that any such move would draw a response.

The senior official, who wished to remain anonymous, told Reuters:

Iran made it clear that any action by a Persian Gulf country against Tehran, whether through the use of airspace or military bases, will be regarded by Tehran as an action taken by the entire group, and Tehran will respond accordingly.

The message emphasised the need for regional unity against Israel and the importance of securing stability.

“It also made clear that any assistance to Israel, such as allowing the use of a regional country’s airspace for actions against Iran, is unacceptable,” the official added.

It is not clear yet how Israel will respond to Tehran’s ballistic missile attack. The US president, Joe Biden , has cautioned against striking Iranian oil facilities (after he had suggested Washington was “discussing” such action). Some of the other targets Israel could try to strike are Iran’s cluster of missile and drone bases, its economic infrastructure or its oil terminals.

As we mentioned in an earlier post , Biden is expected to hold a telephone call later today with his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu , that will reportedly include discussion of any plans to strike Iran. Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi , is heading to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states for talks later today.

Updated at 10.30am BST

8.51am BST

Israeli forces launched a “raid” on the city of Sidon (or Saida), in southern Lebanon, killing one person and injuring several others, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported earlier today. We will give you more details on this as they come in.

Updated at 8.52am BST

8.32am BST

We have more reports coming in of deadly Israeli attacks on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza (see post at 07.54 ) and Bureij refugee camp , which is located nearby.

Two Israeli airstrikes hit tents for displaced people in the camps earlier, the Associated Press reports. The bodies of nine people, including three children, were brought to the al-Aqsa martyrs hospital in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah .

Al Jazeera is reporting that at least 20 Palestinian people were killed during the night and early hours of this morning in Israeli airstrikes. We have not been able to verify this figure yet.

8.19am BST

400,000 people 'trapped' in northern Gaza, Unrwa chief warns

The commissioner general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), Philippe Lazzarini , has warned that at least 400,000 people are essentially “trapped” in northern Gaza, where there is “no end to hell” because there is nowhere safe in the territory to flee to.

He said many people in Northern Gaza, particularly in the Jabalia refugee camp , the largest of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic urban refugee camps, are now refusing to comply with Israeli evacuation orders telling them to go southward.

The Israeli army has surrounded Jabalia since Sunday, as well as other nearby neighbourhoods, ordering residents to flee towards the so-called “humanitarian zone” of al-Mawasi , even though it has been targeted in deadly Israeli airstrikes and is severely overcrowded.

The Israeli military claims its forces are in Jabalia to fight Hamas militants, dismantle military infrastructure and prevent Hamas from regrouping.

In a post on X, Lazzarini added:

Unrwa shelters + services are being forced to shut. Some for the first time since the war began. With almost no basic supplies available, hunger is spreading & deepening again.

This recent military operation also threatens the implementation of the second phase of the polio vaccination campaign for children. Children are as ever, the first & most to suffer. They deserve so much better, they deserve a ceasefire now, they deserve a future.

7.54am BST

Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, has reports from the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, which has been the frequent target of Israeli attacks.

The outlet has been told by medical sources that three Palestinians were killed and others injured earlier today when the Israeli military bombed a tent housing displaced people in the northwest of the camp.

7.30am BST

In a statement issued after midnight, Hezbollah said its fighters detonated an explosive device targeting Israeli forces and engaged in combat with them as they “attempted to infiltrate the border town of Blida” in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah also said its fighters targeted Israeli soldiers with artillery “and rocket-propelled weapons” as they tried to advance towards the border area of Labouneh at 4:55am. These claims have not been independently verified by the Guardian yet.

The Lebanese militant group claims to have prevented a number of such infiltration attempts since the Israeli military launched its ground invasion of Lebanon on 30 September, which has sparked a humanitarian and refugee crisis.

Updated at 7.35am BST

6.56am BST

At least seven civilians killed in Israeli airstrike in Damascus, says Syrian defence ministry

The Syrian defence ministry said seven people, including women and children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in the capital Damascus on Tuesday.

At least 11 others were also wounded in the attack, the ministry said, adding that they were only preliminary figures as rescuers are still searching for survivors under the rubble.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said nine people were killed in the airstrike, including five civilians.

The strike obliterated the first three floors of a building in the Mezzeh neighbourhood, east of Damascus, according to an AP journalist at the scene. The AP report says:

The debris covered the surrounding area, crushing several cars. Ambulances and excavators arrived at the scene to rescue survivors and clear the wreckage.

Electrician Adel Habib , 61, who lives in the building which was hit, told AFP the strike was like “Judgment Day”.

I was on my way home when the explosion happened and communications and electricity were cut off so I could no longer contact my family.

These were the longest five minutes of my life until I heard the voices of my wife, children and grandchildren.

The Syrian foreign ministry condemned “in the strongest terms this brutal crime against defenceless civilians” calling for “immediate measures” to stop Israel from dragging the region “into a confrontation that will have disastrous consequences”.

Israel has not commented on the strike.

6.41am BST

Biden to hold phone call with Netanyahu over Iran – reports

Joe Biden is expected to hold a phone call on Wednesday with Benjamin Netanyahu about any plans to strike Iran, Axios reported late on Tuesday , citing three unnamed US officials.

The call would be the first between Biden and Netanyahu since August , and comes as Israel considers major attacks that could significantly escalate its regional war.

“We want to use the call to try and shape the limitations of the Israeli retaliation,” a US official was quoted as saying by Axios.

The official said the US wants to make sure Israel attacks targets in Iran that are significant, without being disproportionate.

Reuters also has separate confirmation that the call will take place, citing an unnamed source, and reports the two leaders are also expected to discuss the conflicts with Hamas in Gaza and with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Biden said late last month that he would speak to Netanyahu in an effort to ward off all-out war in the Middle East. That conversation, however, did not immediately transpire, and when asked about it last week Biden said it was “ because there’s no action going on right now ”.

The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant would not go ahead with a visit to Washington and a meeting with his US counterpart, Lloyd Austin , planned for Wednesday.

Biden also pulled out of scheduled talks between the leaders of the US, UK, France and Germany on the Middle East and Ukraine on Saturday. Biden will no longer be travelling to Berlin in order to focus on the response to Hurricane Milton, the White House said.

Updated at 6.46am BST

6.36am BST

The Israeli military says it has intercepted two projectiles fired from Lebanon on Wednesday shortly after air raid sirens sounded in and around the coastal town of Caesarea , south of Haifa .

Hezbollah has launched barrages of rockets towards the Israeli port of Haifa over the last two days. Haifa is Israel’s biggest port and contains petrochemical plants and oil refineries, making it a target for Hezbollah to try to strike.

Updated at 7.21am BST

6.27am BST

Nine members of same family killed in Israeli attack on northern Gaza as Israel steps up attacks

Nine members of the same family have been killed in an Israeli strike on a residential building in the Shejaia neighbourhood of Gaza City, Palestinian news agency Wafa is reporting, according to Reuters, as Israel steps up its attacks on the area.

The victims were from the Farhat family and their bodies were transferred to the Baptist hospital.

Meanwhile, three others were killed at Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, including a child, and several were wounded in an Israeli attack, Wafa reported.

Israel ordered the evacuation of all of northern Gaza on Sunday and has stepped up attacks in the area. Al Jazeera reported early Wednesday that dozens of bodies lay in the streets of Jabalia refugee camp and that rescue workers could not reach the area because of the continuous bombardment.

The Palestinian Civil Defence warned earlier of a worsening humanitarian situation in northern Gaza, saying that Israeli forces were “preventing the entry of water, food and medical supplies” to the area and “committing massacres, killing dozens and injuring hundreds”.

Medécins sans Frontières (MSF) said the evacuation and bombings had turned northern Gaza into an “unliveable wasteland” and that no humanitarian supplies had entered the area for more than a week.

Israel also ordered the evacuation of the three main hospitals on Tuesday: the Indonesian, Kamal Adwan and al-Awda hospitals.

Hossam Shabbat , one of the few remaining journalists in northern Gaza, said that the head of Kamal Adwan had been given 24 hours on Tuesday to evacuate the hospital, but that hundreds of injured people were unable to be moved. The Israeli order amounted to a “death sentence for all the sick and injured”, he wrote on X .

Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif reported that Israeli forces had also burned the only bakery in northern Gaza, as well as the area’s largest flour warehouse. It was not possible to independently verify either report as Israel does not allow foreign reporters into Gaza.

6.20am BST

Lebanese health ministry says 36 people killed, 150 injured in Israeli attacks on Tuesday

The Lebanese health ministry said late on Tuesday 36 people have been killed in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours. Another 150 people have been injured in Lebanon , it said.

The latest figure brings the total number of people killed in Lebanon since October 2023 to 2,119, most of them in the past two weeks, the ministry said.

Beirut’s southern suburbs have been the target of intense Israeli strikes for several consecutive days. Lebanese state media reported massive destruction from Tuesday’s strikes, including the collapse of four adjacent residential buildings in the Burj al-Barajneh area in Dahiyeh, the southern suburb of Beirut where Hezbollah’s longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed a week and a half ago.

“Beirut’s southern suburbs are still being subjected to a series of strikes, the latest of which hit the main road at Al-Kafaat, and caused massive destruction” in several south Beirut neighbourhoods, Lebanon’s National News Agency said.

Lebanon’s transport minister, Ali Hamieh, said his country has received “assurances” that Israel will not target its international airport but that those assurances fell short of guarantees.

Beirut “seeks to keep its public airport, seaports and land crossings – chief among them the Rafik Hariri International Airport – functional,” he told AFP on Tuesday.

“Ongoing international calls have given us a sort of assurance” the airport will be spared Israeli strikes, Hamieh added, however “there is a big difference between assurances and guarantees”.

On Monday, the US warned Israel not to attack the Beirut airport or the roads leading to it, after repeated Israeli strikes near the facility.

Hamieh denied Israeli accusations that Hezbollah was using the airport and border crossings to smuggle weapons. The airport “is subject to Lebanese laws and to the scrutiny of various relevant departments and security agencies”, he said.

6.06am BST

Opening summary

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Middle East crisis.

Nine members of the same family have been killed in an Israeli strike on a residential building in the Shejaia neighbourhood of Gaza City, Palestinian news agency Wafa is reporting, according to Reuters.

Israel ordered the evacuation of all of northern Gaza on Sunday and has stepped up attacks in the area. Al Jazeera reported early Wednesday that dozens of bodies lay in the streets of Jabalia refugee camp and that rescue workers could not reach the area because of the continuous bombardment.

The Lebanese health ministry said late on Tuesday that 36 people had been killed in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours, as Israel launched new strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs. After repeated Israeli strikes near Beirut’s international airport, Lebanon’s transport minister Ali Hamieh said his country has received “assurances” that Israel will not target the Beirut airport but that those assurances fell short of guarantees.

Lebanese state media reported massive destruction, including the collapse of four adjacent residential buildings in the Burj al-Barajneh area in Dahiyeh, the southern suburb of Beirut where Hezbollah’s longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed a week and a half ago.

It comes as the Israeli military said it was expanding its ground operation with the deployment of a fourth division.

At least seven people, including women and children, were meanwhile killed in an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in Damascus on Tuesday, the Syrian defence ministry said.

The strike obliterated the first three floors of a building in the Mezzeh neighbourhood, east of Damascus, according to AP. Israel did not immediately comment on the attack.

More on that in a moment – first here’s a summary of the day’s other main events.

• Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Lebanese people that they could face “destruction and suffering” like the Palestinians in Gaza if they don’t “free” the country from Hezbollah . “You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza,” the Israeli prime minister said in a video address directed to the people of Lebanon.

• Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has cancelled plans for a visit to Washington scheduled for this week, according to a Pentagon spokesperson. The Israeli minister was expected to visit Washington and meet with his US counterpart, Lloyd Austin, on Wednesday. The announcement came after reports that Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered Gallant not to travel to the Pentagon for talks on Iran until the Israeli prime minister receives a phone call with Joe Biden and until the Israeli security cabinet approves the response to Iran’s missile attack.

• Israel said it is expanding its ground operation in Lebanon with the deployment of a fourth division. The number of Israeli troops on the ground is now likely to number 15,000. The rapid deployment of four divisions operating across south Lebanon, alongside evacuation orders for Lebanese villages on the coast upwards of 20 miles from the blue line and the intensive bombing of the country’s south and east and the capital, suggests Israel is preparing for a wider push north against the Lebanese militia.

• Fighting also continues to rage in Gaza. Israeli airstrikes killed 17 people in a refugee camp in the centre of the Palestinian territory on Tuesday, medics said. At least 15 people, including two women and four children, were killed on Tuesday in ground fighting in the Jabaliya neighbourhood of Gaza City, the nearby Kamal Adwan hospital said, after new Israeli evacuation orders for the city were issued on Monday.

• The Israeli military also ordered the full evacuation of all three main hospitals in northern Gaza – Al-Awda, Indonesian, and Kamal Adwan hospitals, the territory’s health ministry said. Israeli forces shot at the administration office at the Kamal Adwan hospital, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which said that the complex was being besieged.

• Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces have taken out the would-be successors of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, without naming them. The Israeli prime minister also warned the people of Lebanon they could face “destruction and suffering” like the Palestinians in Gaza.

• Hezbollah’s deputy secretary general, Naim Qassem, said that the question of who will succeed Nasrallah remains undecided. In a defiant speech on Tuesday, Qassem said the group’s military capabilities were still functional despite two weeks of heavy Israeli airstrikes.

• Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, warned Israel that any attack on Iran’s infrastructure will be met with retaliation, a week after Tehran fired a barrage of missiles at Israel. On Monday evening Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that Tehran’s military had prepared at least ten scenarios preparing for an expected Israeli attack.

• Hezbollah fired another barrage of rockets into Israel on Tuesday and warned that it would intensify attacks on Israel, including the northern port city of Haifa, if it continues to strike Lebanon. The IDF said Hezbollah launched more than 170 rockets across the border.

• Israel’s home front command tightened restrictions on civilians in the port city of Haifa on Tuesday in the wake of a barrage of rockets launched by Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah said it had fired rockets towards the Haifa and Krayot area in northern Israel, having launched “a large salvo of missiles”. About seven people were injured in the attack, according to reports.

• Hezbollah said it killed and injured Israeli soldiers crossing the Lebanese border near a UN position near the al-Labouneh forest, in the western section of the border area. Hezbollah said that the attack forced Israeli soldiers to withdraw behind the border.

• Ireland’s prime minister, Simon Harris, said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) withdrawal from a firing position next to Irish peacekeepers on the Lebanese border was “extremely welcome”. Harris said he had spoken to UN secretary general, António Guterres, about his deep concerns about their safety after the IDF requested them to vacate their positions to make way for their war on Hezbollah.

• António Guterres, the UN secretary general, warned that Lebanon is on the verge of “an all-out war” and Gaza is “in a death spiral.” Guterres, speaking to reporters on Tuesday, said that the Middle East “is a powder keg with many parties holding the match” and that the conflict is “getting worse by the hour”. He said he has written to Netanyahu warning him that draft Israeli legislation to prevent the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) from working in the occupied Palestinian territory would be a “catastrophe”.

• The World Food Programme country director in Lebanon voiced concern about the country’s food supply, saying thousands of hectares of farmland across the country’s south has burned or been abandoned. “Agriculture-wise, food production-wise, (there is) extraordinary concern for Lebanon’s ability to continue to feed itself,” Matthew Hollingworth told reporters on Tuesday.

• British foreign secretary David Lammy is to meet leaders in Bahrain and Jordan as part of efforts to prevent the conflict in the Middle East from escalating further, Reuters reports.

• Prosecutors in the Netherlands are considering a request to open a criminal case against senior Israeli intelligence officials for allegedly interfering with an investigation by the international criminal court (ICC).

Updated at 7.33am BST