Hamas Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar "hiding underground", says Israeli army The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, whose house they say they have surrounded, is hiding underground. Earlier today, Benjamin Netanyahu announced that troops “are encircling Sinwar’s house,” adding that “he can escape, but it’s only a matter of time before we get him.” Sinwar, a founding member of Hamas, grew up in a refugee camp of Khan Younis. Asked whether Netanyahu’s statement meant Israeli troops were closing in on the Sinwar home, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said: “The house of Sinwar is the area of Khan Younis.” “Sinwar is not above ground; he is underground,” Hagari said, adding: I don’t want to elaborate where and how and what we know in terms of intelligence. This is not the place to talk about such things in the media. Our job is to find Sinwar and kill him. Israel says it will allow "minimal" fuel into Gaza Israel’s security cabinet has agreed to allow a “minimal addition” of fuel for entry to the Gaza Strip “to prevent a humanitarian collapse and the outbreak of disease” in the territory’s south. In a statement, the Israeli prime minister’s office said: This minimal amount will be determined from time to time by the war cabinet, in accordance with the disease rate and humanitarian conditions in the Strip. Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have fled to Rafah, near Gaza’s border with Egypt, to escape Israeli bombardments, the UN has said. Most of those displaced people in Rafah have been sleeping rough because of a lack of tents, the UN humanitarian office said in a report. Israeli authorities have approved the construction of more than 1,700 new homes in a settlement partly in occupied East Jerusalem, according to reports. Half the “new neighbourhood”, known as the Lower Aqueduct project, will be in the city’s annexed east, the Israeli non-governmental organisation Peace Now told AFP. A representative told the news agency: If it weren’t for the war (between Israel and Hamas), there would be a lot of noise. It’s a highly problematic project for the continuity of a Palestinian state between the southern West Bank and east Jerusalem. The Ir Amim organisation, which tracks the construction of Jewish neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem, said an access road would be built over private Palestinian land, adding that this land would likely be expropriated, the Times of Israel reported. The Palestinian foreign ministry said on Tuesday that Israel was “taking advantage of international concern over the war in Gaza to approve the construction of a settlement in occupied Jerusalem”. It was part of a plan to “flood Jerusalem with settlements and settlers” and “separate it from its Palestinian surroundings”, the ministry said. Hamas Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar "hiding underground", says Israeli army The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, whose house they say they have surrounded, is hiding underground. Earlier today, Benjamin Netanyahu announced that troops “are encircling Sinwar’s house,” adding that “he can escape, but it’s only a matter of time before we get him.” Sinwar, a founding member of Hamas, grew up in a refugee camp of Khan Younis. Asked whether Netanyahu’s statement meant Israeli troops were closing in on the Sinwar home, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said: “The house of Sinwar is the area of Khan Younis.” “Sinwar is not above ground; he is underground,” Hagari said, adding: I don’t want to elaborate where and how and what we know in terms of intelligence. This is not the place to talk about such things in the media. Our job is to find Sinwar and kill him. Germany has called on the EU to consider sanctions on Israeli extremist settlers engaged in violence against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank. On Tuesday, the US announced it will impose travel bans on extremist Jewish settlers implicated in recent attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank in a rare punitive move against Israel. The German foreign ministry spokesperson, Sebastian Fischer, on Wednesday said Berlin welcomed the fact that the US “will now take concrete measures in the form of entry restrictions”. It was “important to drive this debate forward at European level too”, he said. He added that the violence by settlers against Palestinian communities in the West Bank had taken on “such alarming proportions” in recent weeks that many families had left their homes in fear. adding: “This is completely unacceptable.” UN refugee chief warns exodus of Palestinians from Gaza would be "catastrophic" An exodus of Palestinians from Gaza into other countries in the region would be “catastrophic”, the UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi has warned. Grandi, in an interview with AFP, said it was “very, very important to … prevent an exodus that would be really catastrophic” as he stressed the need for a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory. “One should never forget that two-thirds of the population of Gaza are already refugees from the original conflict,” he said, referring to the events of 1948 in which about 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homeland after the creation of Israel, in what is known as the Nakba. A fresh exodus “would be an additional burden on the refugee population, on the Palestinian population and on the region”, Grandi said. He said the priority should be to “go back to a pause... hopefully followed by a humanitarian ceasefire”, adding that this “has to end as soon as possible”. The high court has been urged to intervene and suspend UK arms sales to Israel in a legal challenge launched on Wednesday. The Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq and the UK-based Global Legal Action Network (Glan) have applied for a judicial review of the government’s export licences for the sale of British weapons capable of being used in Israel’s action in Gaza. Ahmed Abofoul, a lawyer at Al-Haq, said: The UK has a legal and moral obligation to not grant licences for the sale of British weapons to regimes that commit atrocity crimes. The legal challenge argues the government has granted licences for the sale of British weapons to Israel under a wide range of categories in recent years, including components for military radars and targeting equipment, components for military support, combat aircraft, naval vessels and more. Since 2015 there have been £472m in limited value “standard” licence grants and 58 unlimited value “open” licences to Israel, according to the organisations, which argue that open licences lack transparency and allow for unlimited quantities. Israeli forces and Hamas are fighting house-to-house battles along the length of the Gaza Strip, with devastating consequences for the civilian population amid a complete collapse in humanitarian relief. Here’s more from Wednesday’s Group of Seven (G7) nations virtual meeting, which earlier called for further humanitarian pauses in the fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. The group’s leaders have issued a joint statement reaffirming support for a two-state solution to the long-running Israel-Palestinian conflict, AFP reports: We remain committed to a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution that enables both Israelis and Palestinians to live in a just, lasting, and secure peace. The statement isn’t surprising. A two-state solution, partitioning Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, has long been favored globally. Last month, the United Nations called for the international community to move towards a two-state solution, stating that Jerusalem should serve as the capital of both states. “It is long past time to move in a determined, irreversible way towards a two-state solution, on the basis of UN resolutions and international law,” Tatiana Valovaya, director-general of the UN office in Geneva, said in a speech at the time. A spokesperson for the US state department says the Biden administration “has seen”, but isn’t yet ready to comment on a letter from United Nations secretary general António Guterres warning the UN security council that public order is set to break down in Gaza completely, and that there was no means of getting aid into the territory. Guterres wrote that the capacity of the UN to act had been decimated by supply shortages, lack of fuel, interrupted communications and lack of security. Matthew Miller, the state department spokesperson, told a lunchtime press briefing in Washington DC that the US will continue to consult with Guterres and security council members, Reuters reports: Of course there are threats to regional security and threats to global security that are presented by this conflict. We said that in the very aftermath of October 7th, and we made quite clear that one of the things that we are trying to do is prevent this conflict from spreading. Netanyahu advisor says Sinwar operation is "symbolic victory" for Israel A senior adviser to Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said it’s a “symbolic victory” that troops of the Israel Defense Forces have surrounded the Gaza home of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Mark Regev was speaking from Tel Aviv to CNN, the US network where he has become something of a regular mouthpiece for the Israeli government. He said: It’s a symbolic victory for Israel. But it will be a real victory very soon. It’s only a matter of time before we get the man who was directly responsible for the massacre of 1,200 Israelis on October 7, the brutal massacre, the atrocities, the rapes, the burnings, the beheadings. We will reach him and justice will be done. Israeli officials have described Sinwar as the architect of the 7 October Hamas attacks. Since then, more than 16,015 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. Regev was also asked about today’s vote in the US Congress, where it looks like Republicans will continue to block Joe Biden’s request for approval of a $106bn (£844m) budget package to include money for Israel and humanitarian aid for Gaza: Israel’s fight against Hamas is America’s fight too, because Hamas represents the sort of barbarism, this extremism, this terrorism. They might have attacked Israel on October 7, but that sort of extremism can attack Europe and it can reach America. It’s important that we win here not just for Israel, but for the whole free world. We have to show this sort of barbarism is destroyed. We have to nip it in the bud, so to speak, we can’t allow them to have a victory. Israel’s victory here will be America’s victory too. Israel"s military says its forces in Gaza operating in "heart" of Khan Younis The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its troops who have surrounded the city of Khan Younis are now operating “in the heart” of the southern Gaza city. An IDF statement said its soldiers It said soldiers “arrived at the center of Khan Younis and began targeted raids in the heart of the city,” which it identified as a symbol of Hamas’ military and administrative rule. Leaders of the Group of Seven nations (G7) have called for further humanitarian pauses in the fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. In a joint statement on Wednesday, the G7 said it was “deeply concerned with the devastating impact on the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza.” Leaders urged for “more effective action … be taken to prevent the displacement of additional people and protect civilian infrastructure” in the territory, as well as to ensure unhindered humanitarian assistance for civilians in Gaza. The statement said: More urgent action is needed to address the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Gaza and minimise civilian casualties. We support and encourage further humanitarian pauses to enable this. The leaders also condemned the rise in extremist settler violence committed against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, which they said “threatens prospects for a lasting peace.” Those who have committed crimes “must be held to account,” it added. Summary of the day so far It’s just past 9pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments: Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israeli forces were “encircling” the Gaza house of top Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar. “His house may not be his fortress and he can escape but it’s only a matter of time before we get him,” the Israeli prime minister said on Wednesday. Israeli officials have described Sinwar as the architect of the 7 October attacks. Israeli forces and Hamas are fighting house-to-house battles along the length of the Gaza Strip. As the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been fighting their way through badly bomb-damaged urban areas in northern and southern Gaza, Hamas has increasingly relied on improvised bombs to inflict casualties and slow down the assault. The focal points of the fighting over the past two days have been the Jabalia refugee camp and the Shuja’iyya district in northern Gaza, and Khan Younis and Bani Suheila in the south Gaza’s health ministry has said 1,207 Palestinians had been killed since the collapse of a temporary ceasefire at the beginning of the month, and that 70% of the dead were women and children. At least 16,248 people, including 7,112 children and 4,885 women, in Gaza since 7 October, according to a statement from the Hamas media office on Tuesday. There are reported to be more than 7,600 people missing. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify casualty figures issued during the conflict. The Gaza ministry said more than 100 bodies were currently awaiting burial inside the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, which it said was without fuel and was coming under fire. The IDF called on residents of Khan Younis to flee the city for safer areas on Wednesday morning, noting that there would be a pause until 2pm in the bombardment of Rafah, immediately to the south on the Egyptian border. The UN and aid agencies say nowhere in Gaza is safe any more. Israel’s military has said it found a major arms depot “in the heart of a civilian population” in Gaza. An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) statement on Wednesday described it as “one of the largest weapons depots in the Gaza Strip” and said it was “found near a clinic and school” in the north of the Palestinian territory. The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has invoked a rarely used clause in the UN charter to warn that the conflict “may aggravate existing threats to international peace and security”. Guterres, in a letter to the Security Council, said he expects “public order to completely break down soon due to the desperate conditions” in Gaza as the territory comes under constant bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The UN human rights chief has warned of a heightened risk of atrocity crimes in Gaza, urging parties involved to refrain from committing such violations. “My humanitarian colleagues have described the situation as apocalyptic. In these circumstances, there is a heightened risk of atrocity crimes,” Volker Türk said in Geneva on Wednesday. Benjamin Netanyahu has said the Israeli military will retain open-ended security control over the Gaza Strip long after its war against Hamas ends. In a news conference late Tuesday, Netanyahu said Gaza would have to remain demilitarized and that the only body capable of ensuring this would be the Israeli military. Israel has criticised the head of the UN children’s agency after she condemned acts of sexual violence committed against women during Hamas’s deadly assault on Israel on 7 October, as attention has focused on rapes and other atrocities in recent days. Israel said the comments by Catherine Russell, the executive director of Unicef, were insufficient and were issued only as a result of international pressure. Al Jazeera said one of its employees lost 22 members of his family in an Israeli air attack on a home they were sheltering in the Gaza Strip. The family members of Momin Alshrafi, a correspondent for Al Jazeera Arabic, were killed early on Wednesday morning at Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, the network said. Vladimir Putin has arrived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on a rare overseas trip to discuss the Israel-Hamas war as Moscow seeks to reassert Russia’s role in the Middle East. The Russian president is due to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday, after holding talks with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi. An EU commissioner has condemned an attack by Israeli settlers on a school in Zanuta, a Palestinian village situated in the occupied West Bank. Janez Lenarčič, the EU’s commissioner for crisis management, described the destruction of the EU-funded school as “intolerable” and a violation of international humanitarian law. Daily settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank have more than doubled, UN figures show, since the Hamas attacks on Israel no 7 October. Al Jazeera said one of its employees lost 22 members of his family in an Israeli air attack on a home they were sheltering in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. The family members of Momin Alshrafi, a correspondent for Al Jazeera Arabic, were killed early on Wednesday morning at Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, the network said. Among those killed were Alshrafi’s parents Mahmoud and Amina, his siblings and their spouses, it said. Several children in Alshrafi’s family were also killed in the attack, it said. In a statement, Al Jazeera said it “demands that the Israeli military is held accountable for the daily crimes committed against journalists and innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip”. It added: Al Jazeera reaffirms that it will pursue all legal steps to holding accountable all those responsible for this crime. On the Sabbath morning of 7 October, Sigalit Cohen could hear alarms sounding from her home in Tzur Hadassah, just outside Jerusalem. Hours later she learned of the unprecedented attack by Hamas in southern Israel, in which more than 1,200 people were killed and 240 taken hostage – including her son. Eliya Cohen, 26, was at the Supernova music festival with his girlfriend, Ziv, three miles from the Gaza border when Hamas militants attacked partygoers. At least 260 people were killed in the festival grounds, in one of the deadliest attacks on Israel in decades. “It was a very bad dream, I didn’t know what to do, I was in shock,” Cohen, 55, said. I just sat in the chair and slapped my face to see if I’m in the real world or if it’s a dream. Within hours of the alarms, Cohen received a phone call from Ziv’s sister telling her of the attack. Ziv was missing but Eliya was said be OK, confirmed by a photograph of him in hospital. But an hour later she received a Facebook message from Eliya’s high school friend asking if she knew that her son had been abducted. “That was the message when I understood that something’s wrong with Eliya,” said Cohen. She was sent the same photo of her son, this time overlaid with Arabic text saying he was in Gaza. At the first moment, I think it’s fake. I tried to call all the hospitals in the south and when I had no answer from the hospital that Eliya is there, I understood that he’s kidnapped. Three days later, confirmation came from Israeli soldiers. Read the full interview: ‘I just want my son home’: agony of hostage’s family amid Gaza fighting UN chief says he expects public order in Gaza to "completely break down" Here’s more on the UN secretary general António Guterres’ letter to the Security Council, as he invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter which allows him to bring to attention any event that threatens the security of the world. Guterres, in his letter, said he expects “public order to completely break down soon due to the desperate conditions” in Gaza as the territory comes under constant bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The humanitarian system in Gaza is “facing a severe risk of collapse,” he wrote. The situation is fast deteriorating into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole and for peace and security in the region. Such an outcome must be avoided at all cost. Guterres urged members of the Security Council to “press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe”, and reiterated his appeal for “a humanitarian ceasefire to be declared”. The UN heard accounts of sexual violence during the 7 October attacks by Hamas, in a meeting on Monday where speakers criticised women’s rights activists and UN officials for not doing more to investigate or condemn these crimes. France will send 600 tonnes of extra food aid over to the civilian population of Gaza, the French foreign ministry has said. France will “relentlessly pursue its efforts to help the civilian population of Gaza”, a statement from the office of foreign minister Catherine Colonna said.