Israel-Gaza latest: Week old baby among 82 killed in military strikes, hospital says

Right-wing. Israeli protesters gathered at the Kerem Shalom crossing on Wednesday morning in an attempt to block humanitarian aid from entering Gaza.

Israel said it has let in dozens of UN trucks though this week, but is facing mounting international pressure to increase the aid flow and abandon its intensified military campaign.

A newborn baby and several women are among at least 82 who have been killed in Gaza after Israeli strikes overnight, hospital officials said.

Earlier, officials said 45 had been killed in strikes overnight in Gaza.

More aid trucks left Israel on Wednesday morning, but internal notes circulated among aid groups on Wednesday said that no humanitarian trucks had left Kerem Shalom, the border crossing in southern Gaza that is operated by Israel.

The notes said 65 trucks moved from the Israel side of the crossing to the Palestinian side, but had not made it into Gaza.

It comes after the UN said on Tuesday evening that although aid had entered Gaza, workers had not been able to take it to distribution points after the Israeli military forced them to reload the supplies onto separate trucks and workers ran out of time.

During his first Wednesday audience in St Peter’s Square, Pope Leo XIV appealed for aid to reach those who need it in Gaza.

“The situation in the Gaza Strip is increasingly worrying and painful,” he said.

“I renew my heartfelt appeal to allow the entry of dignified humanitarian aid and to put an end to the hostilities, the heart-rending price of which is being paid by children, the elderly and the sick.”

Two of northern Gaza’s last functioning hospitals have been encircled by Israeli troops, preventing anyone from leaving or entering them, hospital staff and aid groups said this week.

The Indonesian hospital and al-Awda hospital are among the region’s only surviving medical centres.

Both have come under fire this week, including shelling at al-Awda today.

A third hospital, Kamal Adwan, is out of service, its director said, citing Israeli troops and drones in its vicinity.

The Israeli Defence Force says it has killed a member of an elite Hamas military unit in overnight strikes on Gaza.

“Mohammad Shahin, a Nukhba terrorist in Hamas’ east Jabaliya Battalion was eliminated. Shahin infiltrated Israel and participated in the brutal October 7 massacre,” The IDF said on social media.

“Over the past day, the IDF struck over 115 terror targets throughout Gaza from the ground, sea and air. The targets included launchers, military structures, tunnels, terrorist cells, and additional terrorist infrastructure sites.”

Gazan hospital officials said more than 45 people were killed in the strikes, including several women and a week-old baby.

A group of pro-Palestine protesters have been demonstrating outside the Foreign Office today, calling for the United Kingdom to place more pressure on Israel to end its operations in Gaza.

Keir Starmer is on the verge of sanctioning senior members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government – and it’s understood that Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich are at the top of the list.

Ben-Gvir is a far-right politician, who earlier this year resigned from cabinet in response to approved plans to begin a three-phase ceasefire with Hamas. He returned to the government two months later when fighting resumed, as Israeli’s Haaretz reported.

Last week he said the “voluntary emigration” of Palestinians from Gaza should be promoted, the Times of Israel reported.

Smotrich did not resign as a minister alongside Ben-Gvir, but he is also a far-right politician and a settler living in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to Haaretz.

Earlier this month, he bragged that Israel was “finally going to occupy the Gaza Strip,” before saying the territory would be “totally destroyed” within months, the Times of Israel reports.

More recently he also vowed to only allow “the minimum necessary” amount of aid into Gaza, the Times said.

The joint statement by the UK, France and Canada – combined with UK sanctions and suspension of trade talks – shows the international community has finally run out of patience with Israel, writes chief international correspondent Bel Trew: