At least 42,010 Palestinian people have been killed and 97,720 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

Of those, 45 Palestinians were killed and 130 injured in the latest 24-hour reporting period, according to the ministry, which has said in the past that thousands of other dead people are most likely lost in the rubble of the enclave.

Tehran is still bracing for Israeli retaliation for Iran’s missile attack on the country last week. The strikes, which Iran said were aimed at military bases, were largely thwarted by Israel’s aerial defences with support from its western allies. Iran said the attack was launched in retaliation for Israel’s assassination of senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders and Israel’s war on Gaza and assault on Lebanon.

Gulf Arab states have sought to reassure Iran of their neutrality in the escalating conflict between Tehran and Israel, according to reports. Gulf states include Saudi Arabia, which has expressed interest in normalising relations with Israel after the war in Gaza, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar.

A senior Iranian official has told Reuters that Tehran has told Gulf Arab states it would be “unacceptable” if they allowed use of their airspace or military bases against Iran and warned that any such move would draw a response.

The senior official, who wished to remain anonymous, told Reuters:

Iran made it clear that any action by a Persian Gulf country against Tehran, whether through the use of airspace or military bases, will be regarded by Tehran as an action taken by the entire group, and Tehran will respond accordingly.

The message emphasised the need for regional unity against Israel and the importance of securing stability.

“It also made clear that any assistance to Israel, such as allowing the use of a regional country’s airspace for actions against Iran, is unacceptable,” the official added.

It is not clear yet how Israel will respond to Tehran’s ballistic missile attack. The US president, Joe Biden, has cautioned against striking Iranian oil facilities (after he had suggested Washington was “discussing” such action). Some of the other targets Israel could try to strike are Iran’s cluster of missile and drone bases, its economic infrastructure or its oil terminals.

As we mentioned in an earlier post, Biden is expected to hold a telephone call later today with his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, that will reportedly include discussion of any plans to strike Iran. Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, is heading to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states for talks later today.

The commissioner general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), Philippe Lazzarini, has warned that at least 400,000 people are essentially “trapped” in northern Gaza, where there is “no end to hell” because there is nowhere safe in the territory to flee to.

He said many people in Northern Gaza, particularly in the Jabalia refugee camp, the largest of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic urban refugee camps, are now refusing to comply with Israeli evacuation orders telling them to go southward.

The Israeli army has surrounded Jabalia since Sunday, as well as other nearby neighbourhoods, ordering residents to flee towards the so-called “humanitarian zone” of al-Mawasi, even though it has been targeted in deadly Israeli airstrikes and is severely overcrowded.

The Israeli military claims its forces are in Jabalia to fight Hamas militants, dismantle military infrastructure and prevent Hamas from regrouping.

In a post on X, Lazzarini added:

Unrwa shelters + services are being forced to shut. Some for the first time since the war began. With almost no basic supplies available, hunger is spreading & deepening again.

This recent military operation also threatens the implementation of the second phase of the polio vaccination campaign for children. Children are as ever, the first & most to suffer. They deserve so much better, they deserve a ceasefire now, they deserve a future.

The Syrian defence ministry said seven people, including women and children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in the capital Damascus on Tuesday.

At least 11 others were also wounded in the attack, the ministry said, adding that they were only preliminary figures as rescuers are still searching for survivors under the rubble.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said nine people were killed in the airstrike, including five civilians.

The strike obliterated the first three floors of a building in the Mezzeh neighbourhood, east of Damascus, according to an AP journalist at the scene. The AP report says:

The debris covered the surrounding area, crushing several cars. Ambulances and excavators arrived at the scene to rescue survivors and clear the wreckage.

Electrician Adel Habib, 61, who lives in the building which was hit, told AFP the strike was like “Judgment Day”.

I was on my way home when the explosion happened and communications and electricity were cut off so I could no longer contact my family.

These were the longest five minutes of my life until I heard the voices of my wife, children and grandchildren.

The Syrian foreign ministry condemned “in the strongest terms this brutal crime against defenceless civilians” calling for “immediate measures” to stop Israel from dragging the region “into a confrontation that will have disastrous consequences”.

Israel has not commented on the strike.

Joe Biden is expected to hold a phone call on Wednesday with Benjamin Netanyahu about any plans to strike Iran, Axios reported late on Tuesday, citing three unnamed US officials.

The call would be the first between Biden and Netanyahu since August, and comes as Israel considers major attacks that could significantly escalate its regional war.

“We want to use the call to try and shape the limitations of the Israeli retaliation,” a US official was quoted as saying by Axios.

The official said the US wants to make sure Israel attacks targets in Iran that are significant, without being disproportionate.

Reuters also has separate confirmation that the call will take place, citing an unnamed source, and reports the two leaders are also expected to discuss the conflicts with Hamas in Gaza and with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Biden said late last month that he would speak to Netanyahu in an effort to ward off all-out war in the Middle East. That conversation, however, did not immediately transpire, and when asked about it last week Biden said it was “because there’s no action going on right now”.

The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant would not go ahead with a visit to Washington and a meeting with his US counterpart, Lloyd Austin, planned for Wednesday.

Biden also pulled out of scheduled talks between the leaders of the US, UK, France and Germany on the Middle East and Ukraine on Saturday. Biden will no longer be travelling to Berlin in order to focus on the response to Hurricane Milton, the White House said.

Nine members of the same family have been killed in an Israeli strike on a residential building in the Shejaia neighbourhood of Gaza City, Palestinian news agency Wafa is reporting, according to Reuters, as Israel steps up its attacks on the area.

The victims were from the Farhat family and their bodies were transferred to the Baptist hospital.

Meanwhile, three others were killed at Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, including a child, and several were wounded in an Israeli attack, Wafa reported.

Israel ordered the evacuation of all of northern Gaza on Sunday and has stepped up attacks in the area. Al Jazeera reported early Wednesday that dozens of bodies lay in the streets of Jabalia refugee camp and that rescue workers could not reach the area because of the continuous bombardment.

The Palestinian Civil Defence warned earlier of a worsening humanitarian situation in northern Gaza, saying that Israeli forces were “preventing the entry of water, food and medical supplies” to the area and “committing massacres, killing dozens and injuring hundreds”.

Medécins sans Frontières (MSF) said the evacuation and bombings had turned northern Gaza into an “unliveable wasteland” and that no humanitarian supplies had entered the area for more than a week.

Israel also ordered the evacuation of the three main hospitals on Tuesday: the Indonesian, Kamal Adwan and al-Awda hospitals.

Hossam Shabbat, one of the few remaining journalists in northern Gaza, said that the head of Kamal Adwan had been given 24 hours on Tuesday to evacuate the hospital, but that hundreds of injured people were unable to be moved. The Israeli order amounted to a “death sentence for all the sick and injured”, he wrote on X.

Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif reported that Israeli forces had also burned the only bakery in northern Gaza, as well as the area’s largest flour warehouse. It was not possible to independently verify either report as Israel does not allow foreign reporters into Gaza.

The Lebanese health ministry said late on Tuesday 36 people have been killed in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours. Another 150 people have been injured in Lebanon, it said.

The latest figure brings the total number of people killed in Lebanon since October 2023 to 2,119, most of them in the past two weeks, the ministry said.

Beirut’s southern suburbs have been the target of intense Israeli strikes for several consecutive days. Lebanese state media reported massive destruction from Tuesday’s strikes, including the collapse of four adjacent residential buildings in the Burj al-Barajneh area in Dahiyeh, the southern suburb of Beirut where Hezbollah’s longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed a week and a half ago.

“Beirut’s southern suburbs are still being subjected to a series of strikes, the latest of which hit the main road at Al-Kafaat, and caused massive destruction” in several south Beirut neighbourhoods, Lebanon’s National News Agency said.

Lebanon’s transport minister, Ali Hamieh, said his country has received “assurances” that Israel will not target its international airport but that those assurances fell short of guarantees.

Beirut “seeks to keep its public airport, seaports and land crossings – chief among them the Rafik Hariri International Airport – functional,” he told AFP on Tuesday.

“Ongoing international calls have given us a sort of assurance” the airport will be spared Israeli strikes, Hamieh added, however “there is a big difference between assurances and guarantees”.

On Monday, the US warned Israel not to attack the Beirut airport or the roads leading to it, after repeated Israeli strikes near the facility.

Hamieh denied Israeli accusations that Hezbollah was using the airport and border crossings to smuggle weapons. The airport “is subject to Lebanese laws and to the scrutiny of various relevant departments and security agencies”, he said.

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Middle East crisis.

Nine members of the same family have been killed in an Israeli strike on a residential building in the Shejaia neighbourhood of Gaza City, Palestinian news agency Wafa is reporting, according to Reuters.

Israel ordered the evacuation of all of northern Gaza on Sunday and has stepped up attacks in the area. Al Jazeera reported early Wednesday that dozens of bodies lay in the streets of Jabalia refugee camp and that rescue workers could not reach the area because of the continuous bombardment.

The Lebanese health ministry said late on Tuesday that 36 people had been killed in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours, as Israel launched new strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs. After repeated Israeli strikes near Beirut’s international airport, Lebanon’s transport minister Ali Hamieh said his country has received “assurances” that Israel will not target the Beirut airport but that those assurances fell short of guarantees.

Lebanese state media reported massive destruction, including the collapse of four adjacent residential buildings in the Burj al-Barajneh area in Dahiyeh, the southern suburb of Beirut where Hezbollah’s longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed a week and a half ago.

It comes as the Israeli military said it was expanding its ground operation with the deployment of a fourth division.

At least seven people, including women and children, were meanwhile killed in an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in Damascus on Tuesday, the Syrian defence ministry said.

The strike obliterated the first three floors of a building in the Mezzeh neighbourhood, east of Damascus, according to AP. Israel did not immediately comment on the attack.

More on that in a moment – first here’s a summary of the day’s other main events.

• Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Lebanese people that they could face “destruction and suffering” like the Palestinians in Gaza if they don’t “free” the country from Hezbollah. “You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza,” the Israeli prime minister said in a video address directed to the people of Lebanon.

• Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has cancelled plans for a visit to Washington scheduled for this week, according to a Pentagon spokesperson. The Israeli minister was expected to visit Washington and meet with his US counterpart, Lloyd Austin, on Wednesday. The announcement came after reports that Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered Gallant not to travel to the Pentagon for talks on Iran until the Israeli prime minister receives a phone call with Joe Biden and until the Israeli security cabinet approves the response to Iran’s missile attack.

• Israel said it is expanding its ground operation in Lebanon with the deployment of a fourth division. The number of Israeli troops on the ground is now likely to number 15,000. The rapid deployment of four divisions operating across south Lebanon, alongside evacuation orders for Lebanese villages on the coast upwards of 20 miles from the blue line and the intensive bombing of the country’s south and east and the capital, suggests Israel is preparing for a wider push north against the Lebanese militia.

• Fighting also continues to rage in Gaza. Israeli airstrikes killed 17 people in a refugee camp in the centre of the Palestinian territory on Tuesday, medics said. At least 15 people, including two women and four children, were killed on Tuesday in ground fighting in the Jabaliya neighbourhood of Gaza City, the nearby Kamal Adwan hospital said, after new Israeli evacuation orders for the city were issued on Monday.

• The Israeli military also ordered the full evacuation of all three main hospitals in northern Gaza – Al-Awda, Indonesian, and Kamal Adwan hospitals, the territory’s health ministry said. Israeli forces shot at the administration office at the Kamal Adwan hospital, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which said that the complex was being besieged.

• Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces have taken out the would-be successors of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, without naming them. The Israeli prime minister also warned the people of Lebanon they could face “destruction and suffering” like the Palestinians in Gaza.

• Hezbollah’s deputy secretary general, Naim Qassem, said that the question of who will succeed Nasrallah remains undecided. In a defiant speech on Tuesday, Qassem said the group’s military capabilities were still functional despite two weeks of heavy Israeli airstrikes.

• Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, warned Israel that any attack on Iran’s infrastructure will be met with retaliation, a week after Tehran fired a barrage of missiles at Israel. On Monday evening Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that Tehran’s military had prepared at least ten scenarios preparing for an expected Israeli attack.

• Hezbollah fired another barrage of rockets into Israel on Tuesday and warned that it would intensify attacks on Israel, including the northern port city of Haifa, if it continues to strike Lebanon. The IDF said Hezbollah launched more than 170 rockets across the border.

• Israel’s home front command tightened restrictions on civilians in the port city of Haifa on Tuesday in the wake of a barrage of rockets launched by Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah said it had fired rockets towards the Haifa and Krayot area in northern Israel, having launched “a large salvo of missiles”. About seven people were injured in the attack, according to reports.

• Hezbollah said it killed and injured Israeli soldiers crossing the Lebanese border near a UN position near the al-Labouneh forest, in the western section of the border area. Hezbollah said that the attack forced Israeli soldiers to withdraw behind the border.

• Ireland’s prime minister, Simon Harris, said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) withdrawal from a firing position next to Irish peacekeepers on the Lebanese border was “extremely welcome”. Harris said he had spoken to UN secretary general, António Guterres, about his deep concerns about their safety after the IDF requested them to vacate their positions to make way for their war on Hezbollah.

• António Guterres, the UN secretary general, warned that Lebanon is on the verge of “an all-out war” and Gaza is “in a death spiral.” Guterres, speaking to reporters on Tuesday, said that the Middle East “is a powder keg with many parties holding the match” and that the conflict is “getting worse by the hour”. He said he has written to Netanyahu warning him that draft Israeli legislation to prevent the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) from working in the occupied Palestinian territory would be a “catastrophe”.

• The World Food Programme country director in Lebanon voiced concern about the country’s food supply, saying thousands of hectares of farmland across the country’s south has burned or been abandoned. “Agriculture-wise, food production-wise, (there is) extraordinary concern for Lebanon’s ability to continue to feed itself,” Matthew Hollingworth told reporters on Tuesday.

• British foreign secretary David Lammy is to meet leaders in Bahrain and Jordan as part of efforts to prevent the conflict in the Middle East from escalating further, Reuters reports.

• Prosecutors in the Netherlands are considering a request to open a criminal case against senior Israeli intelligence officials for allegedly interfering with an investigation by the international criminal court (ICC).