At least 21,000 children disabled in Gaza during war, says UN committee – Middle East crisis live | Israel

It is coming up to 5pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. This blog will be closing shortly but you can find all the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here.

Here is a summary of the developments on today’s blog:

• At least 21,000 children in Gaza have been disabled since the war between Israel and Hamas began on 7 October 2023, a United Nations committee said on Wednesday. About 40,500 children have suffered “new war-related injuries” in the nearly two years since the war began, with more than half of them left disabled, said the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

• The Israeli military moved deeper into Gaza City on Wednesday, with soldiers and tanks pushing into Sheikh Radwan, one of the urban centre’s largest and most crowded neighbourhoods. The military dropped grenades on three schools in the Sheikh Radwan area that had been used to shelter displaced Palestinians, setting tents ablaze, according to residents who spoke to Reuters, who said Palestinians had fled before the bombing.

• The military also detonated armoured vehicles laden with explosives to destroy homes in Sheikh Radwan’s east and bombed a medical clinic, destroying two ambulances, according to witnesses that spoke to Reuters. The Israeli military said in a statement on Wednesday it would continue to operate against “terrorists organisations” in Gaza and to “remove any threat” posed to Israel.

• Hospital officials told the Associated Press (AP) at least 24 people were killed in strikes overnight into Wednesday. Nasser hospital said it received 10 bodies, including one aid-seeker in Rafah and a child killed by a strike in southern Gaza. Al-Shifa hospital said the bodies of 14 people, including two children and four women, arrived on Wednesday. Additionally, the al-Quds hospital said it received another person killed by Israeli strikes.

• Five adults and one child have died from malnutrition over the past day, the Gaza health ministry said on Wednesday. Hospital officials and Gaza’s health ministry said on Wednesday that the death toll in the territory kept climbing, with people killed in airstrikes while trying to reach aid, or from hunger.

• Site Management Cluster, a joint humanitarian body that coordinates assistance for people in displacement sites, said on Wednesday that Palestinians in and near Gaza City were “reluctant to move due to the fear of not being able to return or exhaustion from repeated displacement”. It said families were trapped by the prohibitively high cost of moving, logistical hurdles and a lack of places to go. Since Israel declared Gaza City a combat zone on Friday, a small fraction – 14,840 Palestinians of the nearly 1 million the UN estimates are in Gaza City – have left their homes in the city as of Monday, most to flee south, it added.

• France has condemned an Israeli drone attack near UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, and called for the security of the Unifil troops to be respected. The peacekeeping force known as Unifil described the Tuesday morning incident as “one of the most serious attacks on Unifil personnel and assets” since the cessation of hostilities in November that ended the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war. No one was hurt in the attack. The Israeli military did not immediately comment.

• Protesters took to Israel’s streets for what they called a “day of disruption” on Wednesday, denouncing the call-up of tens of thousands of reservists for an offensive that has drawn global condemnation and fueled fears in Israel it could endanger hostages still held in Gaza. Protesters were also pictured on top of the National Library of Israel, Jerusalem, staging a demonstration and demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, the release of Israeli hostages and the resignation of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government.

• Europe and the west’s double standards over the wars in Ukraine and Gaza threaten to undermine its global standing, the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has warned, describing the response to Israel’s assault on the Palestinian territory as one of the darkest episodes of international relations in the 21st century. In an interview with the Guardian before talks with UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, in London on Wednesday, the socialist leader also said he was pleased that other European nations were following Spain’s lead in recognising a Palestinian state, but accepted Europe’s response had been poor.

• The commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) has warned that Gaza is “becoming the graveyard of international humanitarian law”. In an interview with El País, Philippe Lazzarini, said Unrwa had been “warning about the signs of famine and sounding the alarm bells for months” but that its warnings had “fallen on deaf ears”. Lazzarini added: “We have made the Geneva convention[s] almost irrelevant. What is happening and being accepted today in Gaza is not something that can be isolated; it will become the new norm for all future conflicts.”

• Opposition leaders in Israel condemned the torching of bins, cars and tyres in Jerusalem by anti-government protesters. Yair Lapid, the opposition leader, posted on X: “I condemn the torching of vehicles in Jerusalem, but I condemn much more a government that abandons hostages to their deaths in Gaza.”

• Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich called on Wednesday for the annexation of swathes of the occupied West Bank after a series of governments signalled their intention to recognise a Palestinian state. The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited control over Palestinian urban areas in the West Bank, swiftly condemned the Israeli minister’s annexation call.

• The United Arab Emirates (UAE) warned Israel on Wednesday that any annexation of the West Bank would constitute a red line for Abu Dhabi that would severely undermine the spirit of the Abraham accords that normalised relations between the two countries. The comments marked the UAE’s strongest criticism of Israel’s conduct since the start of the Gaza war in 2023.

• Israel has launched a new spy satellite that defence officials described as a strategic cornerstone, saying it will strengthen their surveillance capacity across the Middle East in the years ahead. Defence minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that it was “also a message to all our enemies, wherever they may be – we are keeping an eye on you at all times and in all situations”.

• A group of demonstrators disrupted a major cycling race in Spain on Wednesday in a protest against one of the teams participating: Team Israel-Premier Tech. Protesters held banners and flew Palestinian flags at the start of the La Vuelta in Bilbao, Spain. A Spanish left wing party previously called for Team Israel-Premier Tech to be excluded from the race.

• Yemen’s Houthis claimed responsibility on Wednesday for a missile launched at Israel, saying they fired two ballistic missiles at Tel Aviv in what they said was an initial response to Israeli attacks on Yemen. The Israeli military said on Wednesday it intercepted the missile launched from Yemen, as sirens were activated in Tel Aviv and several other areas across the country,

Hospital officials and Gaza’s health ministry said on Wednesday that the death toll in the territory kept climbing, with people killed in airstrikes while trying to reach aid, or from hunger, reports the Associated Press (AP).

The ministry said 113 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday – more than half in Gaza City – over the past 24 hours.

The toll reported was a casualty count seen regularly in recent weeks and came a day after Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli commanders told reservists the offensive was entering what they hoped would be a “decisive stage” of the war.

The ministry reported on Wednesday that five adults and one child died from malnutrition over the past day, bringing the total toll to 367, including 131 children throughout the war.

Part of the Hamas-run government but staffed by medical professionals, the ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says women and children make up around half of the dead. UN agencies and many independent experts consider the ministry’s figures to be the most reliable estimate of war casualties. Israel disputes them, but has not provided its own toll, reports the AP.

Hospital officials told the Associated Press (AP) at least 24 people were killed in strikes overnight into Wednesday.

Nasser hospital said it received 10 bodies, including one aid-seeker in Rafah and a child killed by a strike in southern Gaza. Al-Shifa hospital said the bodies of 14 people, including two children and four women, arrived on Wednesday. Additionally, the al-Quds hospital said it received another person killed by Israeli strikes.

The AP reports that Israel says that Gaza City – the largest Palestinian city in either the besieged strip or the occupied West Bank – remains a Hamas stronghold above what military officials claim is a vast underground tunnel network, even after raids earlier in the war.

Israel has intensified air and ground assaults on the outskirts of Gaza City, particularly in western neighbourhoods where people are being driven to flee toward the coast, according to humanitarian groups that coordinate assistance for the displaced.

Site Management Cluster, one such group, said on Wednesday that families were trapped by the prohibitively high cost of moving, logistical hurdles and a lack of places to go. “Palestinians are also reluctant to move due to the fear of not being able to return or exhaustion from repeated displacement,” it said.

A group of demonstrators have disrupted a major cycling race in Spain in a protest against one of the teams participating: Team Israel-Premier Tech.

Protesters held banners and flew Palestinian flags at the start of the La Vuelta in Bilbao, Spain, pictures show. It is not the first time the cycling race has been disrupted by a demonstration against Team Israel-Premier Tech. According to reports, it is the third incident of pro-Palestinian protesters directly disrupting La Vuelta, after protesters entered the road in front of Israel-Premier Tech during the team time trial.

Cycling Weekly reports that a Spanish left wing party previously called for Team Israel-Premier Tech to be excluded from the race. There were also disruptive actions at both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France this year, it added.

Protesters took to Israel’s streets for what they called a “day of disruption” on Wednesday, denouncing the call-up of tens of thousands of reservists for an offensive that has drawn global condemnation and fueled fears in Israel it could endanger hostages still held in Gaza.

According to the Associated Press (AP), the demonstrations accuse prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet of failing to secure a ceasefire deal and instead intensifying an invasion that hospitals in Gaza say in its initial stages is already accelerating a rise in fatalities.

“We have to take an extreme action so that someone will remember. There’s no such thing as a state abandoning its citizens,” Yael Kuperman, a protester near the Knesset told Israeli public broadcaster Kan.

Here are some more images coming in today via the newswires:

Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich called on Wednesday for the annexation of swathes of the occupied West Bank after a series of governments signalled their intention to recognise a Palestinian state, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Belgium on Tuesday became the latest western country to say it will recognise the state of Palestine at the UN general assembly this month, after similar announcements by Australia, Canada and France.

“The time has come to apply Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” Smotrich said, using the name Israel applies to the West Bank, which it has occupied since 1967. He said the move would “take the idea of dividing our tiny land and establishing a terrorist state at its centre off the agenda once and for all”.

The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited control over Palestinian urban areas in the West Bank, swiftly condemned the Israeli minister’s annexation call.

The Palestinian foreign ministry said it “condemns in the strongest terms the statements and positions made by the extremist minister Smotrich, particularly with regard to his inflammatory calls to deepen settlement activity and annex the occupied West Bank”.

Smotrich called for Israeli annexation of “all open areas” of the territory, saying “the supreme principle of applying sovereignty … is the slogan: maximum land with minimum [Palestinian] population”. He added that the settlements administration within the defence ministry had in recent months drawn up maps which would apply Israeli sovereignty to approximately 82% of the West Bank.

France is leading a push to recognise a Palestinian state at the UN general assembly this month and revive a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians.

Smotrich described the upcoming meeting in New York as an attempt by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority “to harm the state of Israel”.

“The application of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria is a preventive step against the political attack planned against us and against the attempts to endanger our existence and the future of our children,” he said.

France has condemned an Israeli drone attack near UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, and called for the security of the Unifil troops to be respected.

“The protection of the peacekeepers, as well as the security of United Nations personnel, equipment and premises must be ensured,” the foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that the UN force had “an essential role for the stability of Lebanon and the region”.

No one was hurt in the attack on Tuesday when Israeli drones dropped four grenades near UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon.

At least 21,000 children in Gaza have been disabled since the war between Israel and Hamas began on 7 October 2023, a United Nations committee said on Wednesday.

About 40,500 children have suffered “new war-related injuries” in the nearly two years since the war began, with more than half of them left disabled, said the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) warned Israel on Wednesday that any annexation of the West Bank would constitute a red line for Abu Dhabi that would severely undermine the spirit of the Abraham accords that normalised relations between the two countries, reports Reuters.

“From the very beginning, we viewed the accords as a way to enable our continued support for the Palestinian people and their legitimate aspiration for an independent state,” Lana Nusseibeh, assistant minister for political affairs and envoy of the minister of foreign affairs of the UAE, told Reuters. “That was our position in 2020, and it remains our position today.”

The comments marked the UAE’s strongest criticism of Israel’s conduct since the start of the Gaza war in 2023.

The Abraham accords, signed during President Donald Trump’s first term in office, saw the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco normalise diplomatic relations with Israel after US mediation.

Nusseibeh said:

We call on the Israeli government to suspend these plans. Extremists, of any kind, cannot be allowed to dictate the region’s trajectory. Peace requires courage, persistence, and a refusal to let violence define our choices.

Those who have left Gaza City over the past few months have found dire conditions elsewhere in Gaza, reports the Associated Press (AP). Their arrival has crowded already overflowing tent camps and sent prices of basic goods up.

Iman El-Naya, from Khan Younis, fled Gaza City three months ago. El-Naya told the AP:

The beach is crowded. Everywhere is crowded. There’s no hygiene. It’s a struggle to get water and food.

I go and stand in line for water. Getting bread is a struggle. Everything is even more expensive after the people from the north came here.

Shorouk Abu Eid, a pregnant woman from Gaza City, was displaced to Khan Younis four months ago, reports the AP. She said the arrival of more people from the north is creating an even more tragic situation:

There is no privacy, no peace of mind. Places I used to walk to in five or 10 minutes are taking me around an hour now because of the congestion. There’s barely 10 centimeters between tents.

Jamal Abu Reily lamented that the bathrooms are overflowing and that there’s so little room for new arrivals:

How are we going to all fit here? Where are they going to stay? In the sea?

Since Israel declared Gaza City a combat zone on Friday, a small fraction – 14,840 Palestinians of the nearly 1 million the UN estimates are in Gaza City – have left their homes in the city as of Monday, most to flee south, according to the Site Management Cluster, a joint humanitarian body that coordinates assistance for people in displacement sites, reports the Associated Press (AP).

A fraction of them, about 2,200, have moved to new places within Gaza City after being displaced by Israeli attacks.

Alkurdi, a project manager and consultant, told the AP that he can hear Israeli forces from the apartment where he’s sheltering as they “erase the area completely.”

Zeitoun was once Gaza City’s largest neighbourhood, filled with markets, schools and clinics. Over the last month, large swaths of it and the neighboring area of Sabra have been flattened, according to satellite photos reviewed by the AP from early August and early September. The photos show that entire blocks that have been pummeled or bulldozed into empty, sandy lots, says the news agency.

“It’s not something partial like before. It’s 100%,” Alkurdi told the AP. “The house, I’m telling my friends, it keeps dancing all the day. It keeps dancing, going right and left like an earthquake.”

Many of the people in the city moved back to the north during a ceasefire in January, hoping to find their homes intact. Alkurdi’s home was completely destroyed, so he is now living alone in a western area of the city. His children and wife were able to leave Gaza last year. He told the AP that he would flee south if his home fell under an evacuation order.

Amjad Shawa, the director of the Palestinian NGO network, left his home in the Rimal neighbourhood in the early days of the war and also returned there with his family in January. He, like Al Kurdi, said his family would probably leave Gaza City if their area receives an evacuation order. But leaving this time would be different, he said. “Gaza will be leveled and destroyed. Last time, I had my car. There was fuel. Everyone had his income, his money.”

Back then, the cities of Rafah and Khan Younis still stood in southern Gaza. Now, after months of bombardment, “there is no Rafah. Almost no Khan Younis,” Shawa told the AP.