A series of overnight Israeli attacks killed at least 13 people across Gaza, including three children in a strike on a tent near Nuseirat in the central Strip. At least six Palestinians, including a woman and four children, were also killed in an Israeli attack on a home in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood. Palestinian mourners held a funeral for a 12-year-old boy shot and killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank town of al-Yamoun. 

Israeli settlers shot five Palestinians, as well as set farmland and buildings on fire, in the village of Bardala in the northern Jordan Valley. On Wednesday, the foreign ministers of Germany, France, and Britain jointly called on Israel to adhere to international law and allow the unhindered passage of humanitarian aid into Gaza. They also urged for the ceasefire to be restored and for remaining hostages held by militant group Hamas to be released. 

“Humanitarian aid must never be used as a political tool and Palestinian territory must not be reduced nor subjected to any demographic change,” the ministers said in a statement. Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein rejected the statement, asserting that there was no shortage of aid in Gaza, even though doctors and civilians say that medical supplies and food are running low. Medics said at least 36 people had been killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza on Wednesday.

The Gaza Health Ministry said an Israeli missile hit the upper building of the Durra Children’s Hospital in Gaza City, damaging the intensive care unit and destroying the solar panel system that feeds the facility with power. No one was killed. Gaza’s healthcare system is close to collapse due to Israel’s blockade, which it says is aimed at pressuring the Hamas militants who run Gaza to release 59 remaining Israeli hostages captured in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that triggeredthe war. 

Hamas says it is prepared to free them only as part of a deal that ends the war, but it has rejected demands to lay down its arms. The group on Wednesday released an edited video of hostage Omri Miran, 48, pleading for a deal to be made. Throughout the war, Hamas has released similar videos of hostages, which Israeli officials dismiss as psychological warfare.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)