US President Joe Biden arrived in Israel today hours after a horrific explosion at a hospital in Gaza reportedly killed nearly 500 people on Tuesday as the conflict between Israel and Palestine continues to escalate.The deadly explosion received global condemnation even as both Palestine and Israel traded blame over it. While Palestinian authorities pinned the blamed on Israel's ruthless ongoing retaliation, Israel claimed Hamas-supported Islamic Jihad misfired a rocket that landed on the hospital.
Here are the LIVE updates on Israel-Palestine Conflict:
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will arrive in Israel on Thursday and meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog, before travelling on to other regional capitals, his office said.
US President Joe Biden will give a speech from the Oval Office on Thursday about the conflict between Israel and Hamas and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the White House said Wednesday.
Saudi Arabia on Wednesday called for all citizens to leave Lebanon "immediately" as tensions mount along Lebanon's southern border with Israel.
The Gulf kingdom's embassy in Beirut said it was "closely following the developments" in southern Lebanon, where at least 18 people have been killed in exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Palestinian militants on one side and Israel on the other.
- The United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Wednesday calling for a "humanitarian pause" in the raging Israel-Hamas conflict as the text did not respect Israel's right to defend itself, the US ambassador said.
- Twelve out of 15 Council members voted in favor of the resolution put forward by Brazil and negotiated over several days, while Russia and the United Kingdom abstained.
- The United States was the only vote against, but as one of the body's five permanent members its vote counts as a veto.
US President Joe Biden said Tuesday that an "errant rocket" fired by a "terrorist group" caused a devastating explosion at a Gaza hospital that left hundreds dead.
Gaza Hospital Attack: US intelligence based on aerial images and intercepted communications shows Israel was not to blame for a strike on a Gaza hospital that killed hundreds, the White House said Wednesday.
US President Joe Biden said Wednesday that Israel has agreed to allow aid into the impoverished Gaza Strip even as it wages a military campaign in response to Hamas attacks.
"Israel agreed the humanitarian assistance can begin to move from Egypt to Gaza," Joe Biden said on a visit to Israel, adding that the United States was working with partners to get "trucks moving across the border as soon as possible".
US President Joe Biden cautioned Israelis not to be blinded by rage after suffering their deadliest ever attack, warning that the United States made mistakes after September 11.
"I caution this while you feel that rage, don't be consumed by it. After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States. While we sought justice and got justice we also made mistakes," Joe Biden said on a visit to Tel Aviv. Read here
Egypt's president said Wednesday he would not allow any mass influx of refugees from Gaza, saying it would set a precedent for "the displacement of Palestinians from the West Bank into Jordan".
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 Wednesday.
- Turkey is in talks with Hamas to secure the release of hostages it seized in Israel and took to Gaza, but there "is nothing concrete" for now, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said.
- "Talks, work on the prisoner swap continue. There are talks and meetings held through intelligence units, but, in the heat of the first days, it was not possible to create a framework for this," Mr Fidan said.
- Officials say Hamas has nearly 200 hostages in Gaza.
- Hakan Fidan added that other countries, namely Qatar, were also engaged in talks with Hamas leaders, who are currently in Qatar.
A Gaza hospital strike that killed at least 200 people has unleashed a torrent of condemnation across the Arab world, with even allies blaming Israel for the attack, despite its denials.
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 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.
British foreign minister James Cleverly on Wednesday urged people to wait for the facts about a blast at a hospital in Gaza and said too many people had already jumped to conclusions.
Israel has told its citizens to leave Turkey immediately amid fears of reprisal attacks after a deadly strike on a hospital in the Gaza Strip, a consular spokesperson confirmed to AFP Wednesday.
"All Israelis staying in Turkey must leave as soon as possible," Israel's National Security Council announced late on Tuesday.
Lebanon's Hezbollah denounced what the group said was Israel's deadly attack on a Gaza hospital and called for "a day of unprecedented anger" on Wednesday, as protests erupted outside the U.S. embassy in Beirut just hours after the incident.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that attacks by militant group Hamas on Israel did not justify the "collective punishment" of Palestinians, and called for an immediate ceasefire.
The shock October 7 massacre by Hamas gunmen has rallied Israelis to one another. But there is little love shown for a government being widely accused of dropping the country's guard and engulfing it in a Gaza war that is rattling the region.
US President Joe Biden will pose "tough questions" in meetings with Israeli leaders during a Middle East trip that has been upended by a strike on a Gaza hospital on Tuesday in which hundreds of Palestinians were killed.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the Gaza hospital explosion incident and said that he is "horrified" by the killings of Palestinian civilians.
A health ministry spokesman, Ashraf Al-Qudra, told news agency Reuters on on Wednesday that hundreds were killed and rescue workers were still removing bodies from the rubble. In the first hours after the blast, a Gaza civil defence chief said 300 people were killed, while health ministry sources put the figure at 500.
US President Joe Biden said Tuesday he was "outraged and deeply saddened" by a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital.