Herzi Halevi also said Gaza operation ‘will continue with strength’, without elaborating further

Welcome to our latest live blog on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis. I am Martin Belam and I will be with you for the next while.

Israel’s military chief of staff has said the country is “preparing for an offensive in the north” as he met troops on the Lebanon border. He also said the offensive operation in Gaza “will continue with strength”, without elaborating further on the remarks.

Israel’s leaders were under renewed pressure to allow more aid into Gaza on Wednesday after the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, told Benjamin Netanyahu to “accelerate and sustain improvements” seen during recent days in the amount of humanitarian assistance reaching the territory.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken has met leaders in Israel and also the families of some of those held hostage in Gaza. He told the families to “keep the faith”, and said after meeting president Isaac Herzog “Even in these very difficult times we are determined to get a ceasefire that brings the hostages home – and to get it now. And the only reason that that wouldn’t be achieved is because of Hamas.”

Hamas has asked Egyptian and Qatari mediators to provide clarity on the terms of the latest ceasefire proposal being discussed as part of negotiations with Israel, an Egyptian official told Associated Press on Wednesday. The official said Hamas wants clear terms for the unconditional return of displaced people to the north of Gaza and to ensure that the second stage of the deal will include discussing the gradual and complete withdrawal of all Israeli troops from the entire Gaza Strip.

Jordan said some Israeli settlers attacked two of its aid convoys that were on the way to Gaza on Wednesday. It said the attack resulted in the dumping of some of their cargo, which included food, flour, and other necessities, in the streets. Honenu, an Israeli legal aid agency, reported that four men who had “blocked aid trucks going to Gaza” as they were passing near the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim were arrested by Israeli police.

The Hamas-led health ministry has issued updated casualty figures, claiming that at least 34,568 Palestinians have been killed and 77,765 wounded in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.

The University of California in Los Angeles was reeling on Wednesday following a late-night violent attack by counter-demonstrators on a pro-Palestinian protest encampment , as the state’s governor condemned a slow response from law enforcement to some of the worst violence seen since students across the US intensified their protests in support of Gaza.

Crackdowns on pro-Palestinian protests at US colleges spread on Wednesday after campus hotspots intensified overnight , leading to some violence and hundreds more arrests amid widespread controversy over universities calling in police and claims about “outside agitators” driving escalation.

Colombia’s president has announced that his government will sever diplomatic relations with Israel , in the latest escalation of a furious row between the countries over the war in Gaza. Addressing a May Day rally in Bogotá on Wednesday, Gustavo Petro again described Israel’s siege of Gaza as “genocide”. “Tomorrow [Thursday] diplomatic relations with the state of Israel will be severed … for having a government, for having a president that is genocidal,” Petro said.

Father of Khaled Arouq, 16, joins calls to reform Palestinian Authority as IDF raids in West Bank leave rising death toll

Khaled Arouq was in his pyjamas when he was killed, shot by a sniper before dawn during a recent Israeli raid close to the centre of Ramallah. The 16-year-old, who had joined a group throwing stones at Israeli armoured vehicles, was shot in the chest and pronounced dead on arrival at the local hospital.

“My son was killed in cold blood,” said his father, Sulaiman, his voice heavy. “They shot him right next to our house.”

Antony Blinken holds two-hour meeting with Netanyahu while Hamas considers ceasefire proposal

Israel’s leaders were under renewed pressure to allow more aid into Gaza on Wednesday after the US secretary of state Antony Blinken told Benjamin Netanyahu to “accelerate and sustain improvements” during recent days in the amount of humanitarian assistance reaching the territory.

Humanitarian agencies say that though the number of lorries entering Gaza after being vetted by Israel has increased significantly, these deliver only a fraction of what is needed.

The European hospital is crammed with severely injured and dying children – a military offensive here will be catastrophic

• James Elder is Unicef’s global spokesperson

The war against Gaza’s children is forcing many to close their eyes. Nine-year-old Mohamed’s eyes were forced shut, first by the bandages that covered a gaping hole in the back of his head, and second by the coma caused by the blast that hit his family home. He is nine. Sorry, he was nine. Mohamed is now dead.

Over three visits to the European hospital’s ICU in Rafah, Gaza, I saw multiple children occupy the same bed. Each one arriving after a bomb had ripped through their home. Each one dying despite doctors’ immense efforts.

James Elder is Unicef’s global spokesperson

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Protests planned in Sheffield, Bristol, Leeds, Newcastle and other universities in show of solidarity with Palestinians

• Middle East crisis – live updates

A fresh wave of student demonstrations and encampments are under way at UK universities in protest over the war in Gaza, after violent scenes on campuses in the US where dozens have been arrested after a crackdown by police.

Protests were due to take place in at least six universities on Wednesday, including Sheffield, Bristol, Leeds and Newcastle, with others expected to follow suit, in a show of solidarity with Palestinians.

Comments from Martin Griffiths came after Israeli prime minister vowed to proceed with the attack regardless of how ceasefire talks progress

• See all our Middle East crisis coverage

Overnight Israel ’s military has said that it again struck inside southern Lebanon , claiming to have targeted “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure and a military structure in the area of Blida in southern Lebanon, as well as terrorist infrastructure and observation posts in the areas of Odaisseh and Meiss El Jabal.”

Israel and anti-Israeli forces have had near constant fire between them since 7 October. About 60,000 Israelis have been evacuated from their homes in northern Israel as a result of the skirmishing, while about 90,000 people in southern Lebanon have been forced from their homes by the fighting.

The UK’s deputy foreign secretary, Andrew Mitchell, has told lawmakers in London that in the present circumstances , it was “not easy to see” how an Israeli ground offensive in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip could be “compliant with international humanitarian law”.

António Guterres has said there has been “incremental progress” toward averting “an entirely preventable, human-made famine” in the northern half of Gaza , but much more is urgently needed. He specifically called on Israel to follow through on a promise to open “two crossing points between Israel and northern Gaza, so that aid can be brought from Ashdod port and Jordan.”

The top UN court has rejected a request by Nicaragua to order Germany to halt military and other aid to Israel and to renew funding to the UN aid agency in Gaza. The International Court of Justice said that legal conditions for making such an order weren’t met. However, it did not throw out the case entirely, as Germany had requested. The court said it remained deeply concerned about conditions in Gaza.

More than 34,535 Palestinians have been killed and 77,704 have been wounded during the Israeli military offensive in Gaza since 7 October, the Hamas-led Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. The Gaza Civil Emergency Service has estimated that the bodies of a further 10,000 Palestinians were under the rubble of hundreds of destroyed buildings. It said those figures had not been included in the updated health ministry death toll, which only registers bodies that are taken to hospitals.

Unrwa commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini has said that Unrwa staff who have been interrogated by Israeli security forces are being “pressured to state that the agency is politically affiliated”.

The UK said it was not ready to restore funding to the Palestinian relief agency Unrwa . Foreign secretary, David Cameron, said no UK decision on restoring funding will be made until the outcome of a UN internal investigation into Israeli allegations that 12 Unrwa staff took part in the Hamas assault on Israel on 7 October.

TV images showed police entering the university in New York which has been the focal point of student protests that have spread across the US

• Columbia students who took over school building now face expulsion

At an evening news conference held a few hours before police entered Columbia, mayor Eric Adams and city police officials said the Hamilton Hall takeover was instigated by “outside agitators” who lack any affiliation with Columbia and are known to law enforcement for provoking lawlessness.

Police said they based their conclusions in part on escalating tactics in the occupation, including vandalism, use of barricades to block entrances and destruction of security cameras.

We cannot and will not allow what should be a peaceful gathering to turn into a violent spectacle that serves no purpose. We cannot wait until this situation becomes even more serious. This must end now.”

The right has painted nonviolent protests against the war on Gaza as hotbeds of ‘woke’ terrorism. It’s a pretext for repression

Across the world people have been shocked by social media footage of heavily armed law enforcement officers arresting peacefully protesting students and professors at university campuses around the United States. The so-called “land of the free and home of the brave” looks neither free nor brave – except for the brave protesters who continue to stand up to state and university repression.

Although government repression of student protests is not unique to either the US or this particular period, the current orgy of state repression is very much an illustration of the current crisis of liberal democracy as it is squeezed by both illiberalism and neoliberalism.

An intense and organized effort to bring down personal and professional repercussions on participants is playing out online

As demonstrations over the war in Gaza have surged on campuses, around cities and in offices across the US in recent weeks, a visible tension has emerged between the desire for public protest and a fear of professional reprisals.

On the Columbia University campus, where the latest spike in protests began on 17 April, demonstrators have worn masks and used blankets to block counter protesters from filming students. Protesters at a tent encampment at the University of Michigan handed out masks upon entry, and students there refused to give reporters their full names in case the school took punitive action against them. At Harvard, the Palestine Solidarity Committee told the Guardian they had suspended doing press interviews out of regard for student safety.