Israel Hamas war live: Israeli tanks enter Gaza ahead of ground invasion

The UN has warned that unless there is an immediate delivery of fuel to Gaza, their support to Gaza’s hospitals, bakeries, and water systems “can stop tomorrow”.

World leaders including UK prime minister Rishi Sunak have joined urgent calls for temporary “pauses” in the fighting to allow delivery of aid and for foreign citizens to evacuate, as hospitals across Gaza shut down due to critical shortages.

The health ministry in the besieged enclave – run by Hamas – has said the healthcare system has “collapsed”.

Speaking to The Independent, Tamara el-Rifae, a spokesperson for UNRWA, the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, said that unless fuel arrives imminently their critical support across many facets of life in Gaza may stop.

“There has to be a way to get the fuel in otherwise everything can stop tomorrow, or we have to make extremely hard choices,” she said.

Bel Trew reports from Tel Aviv.

UK defence secretary Grant Shapps has said the call for a ceasefire is “to essentially say don’t go after Hamas”.

He said a ground invasion of Gaza would fall under Israel’s right to defend itself “as long as the people that they are going after are the Hamas terrorists”.

He told Sky News: “To call for a ceasefire is to essentially say to Israel hadn’t gone through that absolutely horrific, horrendous terrorist attack just two and a half weeks ago.

“You know, don’t go after Hamas. And I don’t think anyone thinks that would be right, because they have the perfect right to go after Hamas under international law.”

Mr Shapps also said UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres needed to withdraw his remarks suggesting the Hamas attacks should be seen in the context of “years of suffocating occupation”.

He told ITV: “I certainly thought his remarks were incredibly inappropriate and I really do hope that he finds a way to withdraw them or clarify them.”

More than 750 people in Gaza were killed over the past 24 hours, higher than the 704 killed the previous day, Gaza’s health ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, said on Wednesday.

Since the 7 October Hamas massacre, Israeli retaliatory strikes have killed more than 6,500 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the ministry.

Hospitals in Gaza struggled to treat masses of wounded with dwindling resources as the death toll soared due to Israel’s constant bombardment of the Strip.

Workers pulled dead and wounded civilians, including many children, out of landscapes of rubble in cities across the territory.

The fighting has killed more than 1,400 people in Israel, mostly civilians slain during the initial Hamas attack, according to the Israeli government.

Queen Rania of Jordan has accused Western countries of “aiding and abetting” the killing of Palestinians by supporting Israel’s war against Hamas.

The monarch also accused those backing Israel’s bombing of Gaza in response to Hamas’s terror attack as an example of Western “double standards”.

“The people all around the Middle East, including in Jordan, we are just shocked and disappointed by the world’s reaction to this catastrophe that is unfolding,” she told CNN.

“In the last couple of weeks, we have seen a glaring double standard in the world.”

The World Health Organization has demanded Hamas to release all of the hostages they are holding “on humanitarian and health grounds”.

Hamas must “provide signs of life, proof of provision of health care and the immediate release” of the kidnapped Israelis, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus demanded.

Some of the children, women anl elderly are in desperate need of urgent and sustained care and treatment. The mental health trauma that the abducted, and the families, are facing is acute and psychosocial support is of great importance.

The UN health agency would do “all we can to support the health and humanitarian needs of those being held captive”, he added.

Israeli troops moved armoured vehicles into the Gaza Strip in an overnight “targetted raid” to attack Hamas bases ahead of an anticipated large-scale invasion.

“Overnight, the IDF conducted a targeted raid using tanks in the northern Gaza Strip, as part of preparations for the next stages of combat,” the Israeli military said in a statement.

Videos of the overnight operation showed a bulldozer levelling part of a raised bank and tanks firing shells, while explosions were seen near or amid a row of damaged buildings.

The military said the raid was carried out “in preparation for the next stages of combat” as the Israeli defence forces prepared for a large-scale invasion that Israeli leaders have threatened as part of the war to destroy Hamas.

Following the raid, the “soldiers exited the area”, the military added.

Israel began localised ground incursions on Sunday as the war, triggered by a cross-border rampage by Hamas gunmen, entered its third week.

Israel’s Army Radio described Thursday’s incursion as the biggest yet.

The UN agency in Gaza on Wednesday said it would have to halt “lifeline” aid operations within a day if fuel is not delivered.

Israel has refused to allow fuel to enter Gaza as it laid siege on the Strip following Hamas’s 7 October attack.“We’re probably talking a day,” said spokesperson Tamara Alrifai for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) told CNN when asked how long would the agency function without fuel.

“We have already warned that if fuel runs out by tonight or tomorrow, we as UNWRA, the largest UN agency in Gaza, will no longer be able to work.”The agency initially said it would have to halt operations on Wednesday evening.

After the UN agency posted its warning on social media on Tuesday, the Israeli Defence Forces reposted it, claiming that the Hamas militants have more than 500,000 litres of fuel in tanks inside besieged Gaza.

“Ask Hamas if you can have some,” the IDF wrote.

The UN agency for refugees in Gaza is hours away from running out of fuel and is desperately trying to get a shipment around an Israeli blockade.

Juliette Touma, the UNRWA’s director of communications, told Al Jazeera that the coming hours were critical.

“If we do not get this shipment of fuel tonight, [by] tomorrow morning, Thursday morning, we are going to take very tough decisions, depriving people, depriving the communities that we serve, from humanitarian assistance,” Touma said.

Without fuel, the UNRWA would be unable to send wheat to bakeries, assist medical facilities and keep water pumping stations running, she said.

“It’s a chain,” Touma said. “Fuel for Gaza is life.”

More than half the estimated 220 hostages held by Palestinian group Hamas have foreign passports from 25 different countries, including 54 Thai nationals, the Israeli government said.

The government said 328 people from 40 countries were confirmed as dead or missing after the surprise 7 October attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel. In all, an estimated 1,400 people were killed in the assault

.Israel said 138 of the hostages had foreign passports, including 15 Argentinians, 12 Germans, 12 Americans, six French and six Russians.

Many were believed to have had dual Israeli nationality, however, some, like the Thais and five Nepalese hostages, almost certainly did not. There was also one Chinese hostage, one Sri Lankan, two from Tanzania and two from the Philippines.