Israel Gaza – live: ‘Extreme force’ unleashed by Israeli forces as civilians flee homes in wave of attacks

Hamas has published a propaganda video appearing to show Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was seized during Hamas’s attack on 7 October

The short, undated video showed the 23-year-old missing a lower arm, but otherwise apparently healthy. He was shown saying he had sustained serious injuries during the October attack “after I tried using my body as a shield to protect myself and other fearful civilians”.

His mother Rachel Goldberg-Polin has been campaigning for the release of her son, who was abducted at the Nova music festival and is one of 133 Israeli hostages still in captivity after more than 100 were released last year.

Responding to the video on Wednesday, his parents urged leaders involved in ceasefire negotiations to reach a deal. “Seeing a video of Hersh today is overwhelming. We’re relieved to see him alive but we’re also concerned about his health and wellbeing as well as that of all of the other hostages and all of those suffering in this region,” said his father Jonathan Polin in a video message.

“We’re here today with a plea to all of the leaders of the parties who have been negotiating to date. That includes Qatar, Egypt, the United States, Hamas and Israel. Be brave, lean in, seize this moment and get a deal done.”

Joe Biden met with a four-year-old American on Wednesday who had been held hostage by Hamas, the White House has said.

Abigail Edan, who turned four while in captivity, was freed by Hamas militants last November after being held for seven weeks in Gaza.

US officials have been in touch with Israeli counterparts about deeply disturbing reports of mass graves being found in Gaza, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan has said.

“Those reports were deeply disturbing,” Mr Sullivan told reporters. “We have been in touch at multiple levels with the Israeli government.

“We want answers. We want to understand exactly what happened.”

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan has said he expects to travel to Saudi Arabia in the next few weeks.

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He is to discuss with Saudi officials whether a deal to normalise relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia can be reached.

Mr Sullivan told reporters he was feeling much better after the rib injury which previously saw him postpone the trip.

Yemen’s Houthis claim to have attacked three ships in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean.

The Iran-aligned group’s military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a televised speech on Wednesday that they had targeted the Maersk Yorktown ship and an American warship destroyer in the Gulf of Aden as well as targeting the Israeli ship MSC Veracruz in the Indian Ocean.

Residents in Gaza City have spoken over the stepping up of attacks by Israeli troops across the region.

In the past 24 hours, Israeli strikes have killed 79 Palestinians and wounded 86 others, the Gaza Health Ministry said, adding many remain under rubble, or in the streets, where civil emergency and ambulance teams have not been able to reach them due to ongoing military operations and a lack of heavy earth moving machines.

“We don’t know why this is all happening. Is it because we returned home and we finally got some aid through after months of starvation and the Israelis didn’t like that?” said Mohammad Jamal, 29, a resident of Gaza City, near Zeitoun, one of Gaza’s oldest suburbs.

“It is as if the war started again. As if it is just happening, they burnt up the place,” he told Reuters via a chat app.

Asked about Wednesday’s developments, the Israeli military has not yet commented.

US plans to build a giant floating dock off the coast of Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid was accused of being a “smokescreen” to allow the Israeli army to invade Rafah.

The pier is expected to be in position by early May and was intended to bring in a “massive” increase of aid to Gaza by circumventing land routes controlled by the Israeli army.

However, UN officials have warned it won’t be positioned off northern Gaza, where the threat of famine is most severe, but at a point still overseen by an Israeli army checkpoint.

Some Palestinian civilians were fleeing their homes in northern Gaza on Wednesday just weeks after returning because of an Israeli bombardment which they said was as intense as at the start of the war.

Much of the shelling was focused for a second day on Beit Lahiya on the northern edge of Gaza, where the Israeli military gave evacuation orders to four neighbourhoods on Tuesday, warning they were in a “dangerous combat zone”.

Israel said its operations in Beit Lahiya targeted areas from where the armed wing of Hamas-aligned Islamic Jihad had launched rockets at two Israeli border settlements on Tuesday.

After a few weeks of relative calm, Israel has intensified its attacks overnight on Monday, focusing on areas, particularly in the north, from where it had previously withdrawn many of its troops, saying Hamas was no longer in control.

Israeli media said Israel was also poised to send troops into the southern town of Rafah, which it regards as Hamas’ last bastion. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office and the Israeli military spokesperson’s office had no immediate comment on the media reports.

As Israeli media report on an offensive on Rafah happening “very soon”, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office made no immediate comment.

But while not discussing specific battle plans, the Israeli military has increasingly signalled readiness to move on Rafah.

“Hamas was hit hard in the northern sector. It was also hit hard in the centre of the Strip. And soon it will be hit hard in Rafah, too,” Brigadier-General Itzik Cohen, commander of the 162nd Division operating in Gaza, told Kan public TV on Tuesday.

“Hamas should know that when the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) goes into Rafah, it would do best to raise its hands in surrender. Rafah will not be the Rafah of today… There won’t be munitions there. And there won’t be hostages there.”