Israel-Hamas War LIVE: Turkey Prez Erdogan Says Hamas Not A Terror Organisation; 8 Syria Troops Killed in Israel Strikes

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Wednesday that “specific pauses” are needed in Israel’s war with Hamas to allow aid into Gaza, but again stopped short of calling for a ceasefire.

The foreign ministers of Turkey and Qatar accused the international community of “double standards” Wednesday in its reaction to the escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Qatar’s top diplomat Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said the two governments — both Western allies — “reaffirm our complete rejection of responding to the crisis with double standards when it comes to human life”.

Israeli strikes killed eight soldiers in southern Syria on Wednesday, later returning to bomb Aleppo airport for the fourth time in a fortnight, the defence ministry in Damascus said.

Israel said the first strike was in response to earlier rocket fire.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday accused the United States of “directing” strikes Israel has been carrying out on Hamas in Gaza in response to the October 7 attacks.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said Palestine will definitely be victorious in this current situation and in the future.

The Gaza Strip has lived through 16 years of de-development, the United Nations said Wednesday, adding that the economic consequences of the Israel-Hamas war were “impossible to determine”.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday he was cancelling plans to visit Israel because of its “inhumane” war against Hamas militants in Gaza.

“We had a project to go to Israel, but it was cancelled, we will not go,” Erdogan told ruling party lawmakers in parliament, adding that he viewed Hamas as “liberators” fighting for their own land. (AFP)

Turkey’s president Erdogan said Hamas is not a “terror organisation and said they are trying to save their people and homeland.

UNICEF has expressed its concern over the alarmingly increasing toll on children’s deaths in Gaza. So far, at least 2,360 kids have been killed in the Israeli air raids, an Aljazeera report said.

“Even more frightening is the fact that unless tensions are eased, and unless humanitarian aid is allowed, the daily death toll will continue to rise,” the UNICEF said.

French President Emmanuel Macron is set to hold talks with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, Macron’s office said.

IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that Iran had directly aided Hamas before the October 7 attack on southern Israel.

“Iran directly aided Hamas before the war, with training, supplying weapons, money, and technological know-how,” The Times of Israel quoted Hagari as saying in a press conference.

“Even now, Iranian aid to Hamas in the form of intelligence and online incitement against the State of Israel continues,” he said.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has said that nearly 600,000 Palestinians displaced in Gaza have been taking shelter under 150 UNRWA facilities.

The agency added that the shelters are four times over their capacities, wherein many people are having to sleep on the streets, since the facilities are overwhelmed.

Terror group Hamas’ founding leader Khaled Meshaal said all civilian hostages will be released if the right conditions are met while speaking to UK-based news outlet Sky News on Wednesday.

Meshaal, who headed the Kuwaiti wing of Hamas and chairman of the Hamas political bureau. He is also revered as a “living martyr”, the Sky News report said, citing that he survived an Israeli attempt to assassinate him almost 30 years ago.

“Let them stop this aggression and you will find the mediators like Qatar and Egypt and some Arab countries and others will find a way to have them released and we’ll send them to their homes,” Meshal was quoted as saying by Sky News.

The ongoing conflict between Israel-Hamas has already affected the economies of nearby countries, The Times of Israel quoted the managing director of International Monetary Fund as saying to a Saudi investor forum.

“You look at the neighbouring countries — Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan — there the channels of impact are already visible,” Kristalina Georgieva said at the Riyadh’s Future Investment Initiative.

The Israeli forces have eliminated senior Hamas terrorist Taysir Mubasher, commander of the Hamas’s North Khan Younis Battalion. Mubasher had previously served as commander of Hamas’s naval forces and held several positions in weapons manufacturing.

Israel has said that it has refused visa to the United Nations humanitarian affairs chief Martin Griffiths as a result of the comments made by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres at the UNSC debate, The Guardian said.

Due to his remarks we will refuse to issue visas to UN representatives. We have already refused a visa for under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs Martin Griffiths. The time has come to teach them a lesson, said Israel’s ambassador to the UN Gildad Erdan on army radio according to Israeli media.

The Syrian military has said that eight soldiers and seven others were injured in Israel’s overnight airstrike in the Daraa area, Syrian state-run news agency SANA said citing while citing military sources.

The militant group Hamas claimed that around 80 people were killed in Israel’s overnight airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.

“More than 80 people were martyred and hundreds wounded in massacres committed by the occupation raids overnight,” a statement from Hamas was quoted by The Times of Israel.