Israel Palestine news LIVE: Rishi Sunak vows to ‘independently establish the facts’ after Gaza hospital explosion – despite Joe Biden telling Netanyahu the blast was carried out by ‘the other team’ amid claims of Hamas ‘lies’

At least seven British nationals have been killed and at least nine are missing since Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an attack on Israel, a spokesperson for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Wednesday.

‘I can sadly confirm that at least seven British nationals have been tragically killed,’ the spokesperson told reporters.

‘A further nine British nationals are missing, some of whom are feared to be among the dead.’

At least 3,478 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Israel began bombarding the coastal enclave, the Hamas-controlled health ministry said on Wednesday.

More than 12,000 others have been wounded in Israel’s response to a brutal assault launched by Hamas militants on Israel on October 7.

Founded 1882 and run by the Anglican church, described itself on its website as ‘a haven of peace in the middle of one of the world’s most troubled places’.

The hospital said it offered 80 beds with services such as a free programme to detect breast cancer, a centre for elderly women, and a mobile clinic offering free services to surrounding towns.

It is located in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, which lies in the northern region of the Gaza Strip.

Oil prices rallied and global stocks mostly fell on Wednesday amid fears that the Israel-Hamas conflict could spill over into a regional war.

Crude futures briefly vaulted three percent higher as fears grew over broadening unrest that could destabilise the crude-rich Middle East with some analysts predicting a possible return to $100 oil, while gold hit a four-week peak as investors sought the safe haven investment.

‘Last night’s explosion at a Gaza hospital, which killed hundreds, has raised the stakes of the conflict and, according to some analysts, reduced the chances of a negotiated solution,’ said ActivTrades analyst Ricardo Evangelista.

A woman spoke as an image of the US President was burnt during a protest in the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near the southern Lebanese port city of Sidon.

Dozens of people, including police officers, were injured during anti-Israel protests in Istanbul after a deadly strike on a hospital in the Gaza Strip, authorities said today.

Israel and Palestinian militants have traded blame for the hospital strike, which killed at least 200 people and triggered a wave of anti-Israel protests in the region.

Sixty-three people including 43 police officers were hurt during the protests outside the Israeli consulate in Istanbul late on Tuesday, the governor’s office said.

Hamas official Osama Hamdan told a news conference in Lebanon that the US and all Western countries that support Israel ‘hold full responsibility for the war against civilians in Gaza’.

His comments followed the blast at the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza.

‘The continued endorsement of the Zionist narrative by the US administration makes it complicit in the occupation’s massacres and the Baptist hospital massacre in Gaza,’ the group said in a statement.

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn told the Commons: ‘Can I ask the Prime Minister, will he join with us on these benches and call for an immediate ceasefire in the region?’

He added: ‘My ask for a ceasefire was done with all sincerity, sincerity to protect civilians, but also to ensure that we have the safe creation of humanitarian corridors, humanitarian corridors which will allow for food, for water and for vital medicines to get in to Gaza, but also for innocent civilians caught up in this terrible conflict to flee.’

• At PMQs, Rishi Sunak insisted the UK was working with allies ‘rapidly analysing’ what had happened after hundreds were killed at the al Ahli site
• He gave a veiled rebuke to those who immediately blamed an Israeli airstrike

• Hamas terrorists set the girl’s home on fire at the Be’eri kibbutz last Saturday
• A recording shows the girl whispering: ‘Help! They are burning us [out], please come now!’
• The girl made the plea to members of the close-knit community’s WhatsApp group

• Biden touches down in Israel and blames the ‘other team’ for Gaza hospital attack
• Rishi Sunak ‘stands united’ with Israel during Prime Minister’s questions
• Keir Starmer says ‘interntional law must always be followed’
• Relatives mourn over the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes
• People collect body parts from the ground in Gaza

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he has spoken with charities working in Gaza and heard their accounts of the ‘harrowing humanitarian crisis’, telling the Commons: ‘The lights are going out and the innocent civilians of Gaza are terrified that they will die in the darkness, out of sight.

‘International law must always be followed, Hamas are not the Palestinian people and the Palestinian people are not Hamas. Does he agree that medicines, food, fuel and water must get into Gaza immediately?

‘This is an urgent situation and innocent Palestinians need to know that the world is not just simply watching but acting to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe.’

He said: ‘It shames this whole house that British jews have been subject to such vile abuse and hatred in recent days.

‘Antisemitism flies in the face of British values and we should not allow events abroad to sew seeds of division in our country.

‘May I ask the PM to consider an immediate and specific policy of revoking the visas of any foreign national that commits an act of antisemitism or any other hate crime.’

Rishi Sunak has spoken about the ongoing conflict during the Prime Minister’s questions today – saying ‘we are doing everything in our power’ to make sure the British national is safe.

He added: ‘It is Hamas and Hamas alone that is responsible for this conflict.

‘We will not tolerate this hatred, not in our country, not in this century.’

He added: ‘Our intelligence services have been rapidly analysing the evidence to independently establish the facts.

‘We are not in a position to say more than that but I can say we are working at pace and cooperating with our allies as we look to get to the bottom of this situation.’

The protesters gathered in the centre of Tunis today for an anti-Israel demonstration.

At least 3,300 Palestinians have been killed and more than 13,000 wounded since Israel began air strikes on the Gaza Strip on Oct 7, Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila said.

Israel and Palestinian militants have traded blame for the Gaza hospital strike last night, with the Israeli army saying today it has ‘evidence’ that Palestinian militants were responsible.

But the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which both established ties with Israel in the Abraham Accords of 2020, condemned the ‘Israeli’ attack which came as Israel lays siege to Gaza.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the strike on Gaza hospital that killed hundreds was a ‘tragedy’ and showed the need to bring the conflict between Israel and Hamas to an end.

‘This is a terrible event… I really hope that this will be a signal that this conflict needs to end as soon as possible,’ Putin said at a televised press conference on the sidelines of a summit in Beijing.

• Airports across France are being evacuated following bomb threats
• The airports of Lille, Nice, Lyon and Toulouse have received bomb threats
• A Berlin synagogue was attacked with Molotov cocktails early on Wednesday
• It comes amid an increase in antisemitic incidents in the German capital

• The film director, 60, posed for photos at the camp in southern Israel
• Pictures surfaced of Tarantino with fans in Sde Boker, a kibbutz in the south, on Israeli social media

Wounded Palestinians are lying on the floor in al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City after the explosion.

Doctors with very little medical equipment have been performing surgery on the floor – sometimes with no anesthesia – in a desperare bid to save victims.

Rescue workers at the Gaza hospital have been scouring blood-stained debris for survivors.

‘People came running into the surgery department screaming, ‘Help us, help us, there are people killed and wounded inside the hospital!’ said Dr Fadel Naim, Head of the hospital’s Orthopedic Surgery Department.

WARNING DISTRESSING CONTENT

• Joe Biden’s visit to Israel was meant to provide reassurance to all sides
• He seemed to point the finger at Palestinian groups for the Gaza hosptial explosion – telling Israel it appears to have been done ‘by the other team, not you’
• He hugged Benjamin Netanyahu at the start of the trip in a very public display of solidarity with the Israeli leader

Mr Yousaf called for an independent investigation into the Gaza hospital blast – calling it a ‘complete and utter human tragedy’.

‘I think everybody has a responsibility to condemn it and condemn it in the strongest possible way,’ he said.

‘It’s a complete breach of international law – the targeting of a hospital.’

Joe Biden has told Netanyahu that the explosion at Gaza hospital appears to have been done ‘by the other team, not you’.

Hamas have blamed the deadly blast on Israel.

Benjamin Netanyahu has called the Hamas attack on Israel ‘another day that will live in infamy’ at a press conference with Joe Biden.

The attack left 1,300 civilians dead and many more injured.

• Grant Shapps criticised John Simpson for referencing the Nazis in a bid to explain why broadcaster is not calling Hamas terrorists
• Mr Simpson claimed BBC broadcasters were told ‘not to call the Nazis evil or wicked’ during WW2

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the destruction of al Ahli hospital has resulted in a ‘devastating loss of human life’ and insisted the UK will work to ‘protect innocent civilian lives in Gaza’.

Doctors in Gaza City with almost no medical supplies have been performing surgery on hospital floors, often without anesthesia, in a desperate bid to save badly wounded victims of the hospital blaze.

Iran’s foreign minister has declared that ‘time is over’ for Israel, as Joe Biden has just arrived in Tel Aviv to calm the conflict.

The foreign minister’s message echoes one posted by Iran’s embassy in Syria that tweeted ‘Time is Up’ in Hebrew.

It’s unclear what the messages referred to, but came after an air strike on a Gaza hospital on Tuesday killed at least 500 people, according to Palestinian authorities.

Pope Franics deplored the ‘desperate’ situation in Gaza today as he urged the faithful to take ‘only one side’ in the Israel-Hamas conflict, the side ‘of peace’.

Speaking during his weekly audience in St Peter’s Square, Francis did not mention the deadly Gaza hospital strike, for which Israelis and Palestinians are blaming each other.

Doctors in Gaza City are desperately trying to save severely injured victims of a massive explosion despite having very limited medical supplies.

The Hamas-run health ministry said at least 500 people were killed in the hsopital blast.

Joe Biden has just stepped off the plane in Israel and was greeted by Benjamin Netanyahu.

He has travelled to Tel Aviv today in a bid to contain the growing crisis.

Joe Biden has just arrived in Israel on a diplomatic scramble to prevent Israel’s conflict with Hamas spiralling into a regional war.

Watch as several professional pathologists break down in tears as they explain their vital work with victims of the Hamas terrorist massacre to the Daily Mail’s Sam Greenhill.

At the National Centre of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv, scientists charged with this grim task told the Mail that it is common to have to carefully separate the fused remains of two helpless people who, in their final moments, had found all they could do was embrace in death.

A military spokesperson told journalists that there was no structural damage to buildings around the Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital and no craters consistent with an air strike.

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said he understood the blast was caused by a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket, but claimed Hamas had launched a ‘global media campaign’ to blame Israel.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to offer condolences over a deadly blast at a Gaza hospital and voice support for Palestinians’ ‘legitimate aspirations,’ the State Department said today.

Blinken, who was in Amman on a regional tour, spoke late Tuesday by telephone with Abbas ‘to express profound condolences for the civilian lives lost in the explosion’ at the Ahli Arab Hospital, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

Israeli army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari accused Hamas of inflating the number of casualties from the explosion in Gaza and said it could not know as quickly as it claimed what caused the blast.

Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza, blamed the deadly blast on Israel.

The situation in the Gaza Strip is spiralling out of control, the head of the UN health agency warned on Wednesday, following a blast at a hospital that killed hundreds of people.

‘The situation in #Gaza is spiralling out of control,’ the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X, formerly Twitter. ‘We need violence on all sides to stop.’

‘Every second we wait to get medical aid in, we lose lives,’ he added. ‘We need immediate access to start delivering life-saving supplies.’

Israel’s military said on Wednesday it had seen no evidence of a direct hit on a hospital in the Gaza Strip the day before, where hundreds of Palestinians were killed in an explosion.

Israeli army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told journalists that there was no structural damage to buildings around the Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital and no craters consistent with an air strike.

Hagari said he understood the blast was caused by a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket, but launched a ‘global media campaign’ to blame Israel.

‘They went as far as inflating the numbers of casualties,’ he said. ‘They understood with absolute certainty that it was a rocket misfired by Islamic Jihad that damaged the hospital.’

He said aerial footage confirms there was no direct hit to the hospital itself and there was no damage to nearby buildings.

He said the only location damaged is the parking lot outside the hospital.

Joe Biden is on his way to Israel today to stand with victims of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

His trip to Jordan has been cancelled, after a leaders summit on humanitarian aid for Palestinians was abruptly cancelled on Tuesday.

Treasury minister Andrew Griffith said it remains unclear who was behind the ‘devastating’ blast at a hospital in Gaza City.

The economic secretary to the Treasury told Times Radio: ‘I’m not going to speculate or try and attribute. I don’t think any of us know at this particular point in time.

‘We’ll work with allies to try and work out what happened.

‘It’s important that we remember that the military in Israel is under civilian democratic control, it’s a uninformed military service.’

Thousands of people trying to escape Gaza are gathered in Rafah, which has the territory’s only border crossing to Egypt. Mediators are pressing for an agreement to let aid in and refugees with foreign passports out.

The U.S. hoped to break a deadlock with President Joe Biden headed to the region, but a planned summit in Jordan was postponed.

Watch this video released by Israel which it is claimed shows the moment a rocket misfired in Gaza at the same time the Baptist Hospital was blown up, killing at least 500 people.

The short clip was released as a furious war of words broke out between Israel and Palestinian militants over who is responsible for the bombing. Both sides have denied responsibility.

Horrified doctors stood among a sea of children killed after a massive blast tore through a hospital in Gaza with fears more than 500 people are dead and scores more are trapped under the rubble.

The huge explosion tore through the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday night while it was being used to treat and shelter thousands of civilians amid the ongoing conflict.

The devastating fireball has sparked a venomous blame game between Hamas and Israel, with both sides blaming armed forces across the border for the destruction and furiously denying it was their fault.