Israel’s security cabinet expected to meet to sign off plans for expanded Gaza operation – Middle East crisis live | Israel-Gaza war

Andrew Sparrow

Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, urged UK prime minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday to call Donald Trump to encourage him to use his influence to block Israel’s plans for a “full occupation” of Gaza.

In a statement, Davey said:

[Israeli PM Benjamin] Netanyahu’s latest proposals for the occupation of all of Gaza are utterly horrifying.

If realised, they will only wreak yet more destruction on Gazans – while gravely endangering the lives of the hostages still held in Hamas’ captivity.

Keir Starmer needs to pick up the phone to President Trump ahead of the Israeli security cabinet’s meeting tomorrow, and get him to do the right thing – by placing genuine pressure on Netanyahu to drop these proposals. Only renewed diplomacy can end the suffering in Gaza and get the hostages home.

Rather than sitting on its hands, the UK government needs to show leadership in this moment.

Caitlin Cassidy

The University of Sydney has removed a Palestinian flag hanging outside an academic’s office after accusing him of breaching its new flag policy.

The 13-page flag policy, revised in June and formerly referred to as flag guidelines, sets out the university’s requirements for flying and displaying flags and using university flagpoles. Under the policy, “unapproved flags” must not be flown permanently, including flags that represent unlawful activities, are inconsistent with university values, represent a political party or are considered to be “otherwise unsuitable”.

Dr David Brophy, a senior lecturer in modern Chinese history, arrived on campus on Tuesday to find his flag, which had been hanging from an external window of a large campus building, had been taken.

Prior to this, he had received an email from the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Prof Lisa Adkins, advising him the university was “aware of a flag” they believed he had displayed on the outer wall of the A18 Brennan MacCallum building.

“We consider that the ongoing display of the flag is inconsistent with clause 2.8(1) of the Policy which confirms that unapproved flags can be displayed in such areas on a temporary basis only,” Adkins wrote on 26 June.

“To this end, we require you to remove the flag from the outer wall of the building by 4 August 2025. Should the flag not be removed by this time, it will be removed by Central Operations staff and will be treated as lost property.”

The policy notes flags must not be flown from university infrastructure without approval from the brand team, and that “no structure or fixture may be attached to any building to allow a flag to be displayed without approval”.

Staff will remove flags that are “unapproved”, considered “inappropriate, dangerous or offensive” or contravene “any university policy”, the policy notes. A breach of the rules can be considered as misconduct.

Adkins noted in her email to Brophy that if he wished to continue to display the flag he could do so in a “non-shared indoor space”, or apply for approval to display the flag outside.

William Christou

The family of Khamis al-Ayyad, a Palestinian American who died last week as a result of an Israeli settler attack in the occupied West Bank, has called for an investigation into his death, amid a rising number of US citizens killed in the territory.

Ayyad, a 40-year-old father of five and Chicago resident, died from smoke inhalation on Thursday after Israeli settlers attacked the town of Silwad, outside Ramallah, setting homes and cars on fire. Ayyad fainted while trying to put out the fires, his brother said, and died on the way to the hospital.

He was the latest in a string of Palestinian Americans to have died in the West Bank: five US citizens have been killed there since 7 October 2023, and Ayyad was the second to die in July alone.

So far, no one has been held accountable for any of the deaths.

“The government should protect citizens, this is what is written on the American passport. Why do they do nothing when it comes to their own citizens who live in the West Bank?” said Ayyad’s brother, Anas al-Ayyad, 39.

Anas al-Ayyad said that he had contacted the US embassy, who promised him they would look into his brother’s death.

In a statement to the Guardian, a spokesperson for the US state department acknowledged the death of a US citizen in Silwad and said they were providing consular assistance to the family.

Members of the US House and Senate called for the Trump administration to pressure Israel to carry out an investigation and ensure accountability for the death of Ayyad and the other Americans killed by settlers in the West Bank.

Only 1.5% of Gaza cropland left for starving Palestinians due to Israel’s war, UN says

Nina Lakhani

Israel’s destruction of Gaza has left starving Palestinians with access to only 1.5% of cropland that is accessible and suitable for cultivation, according to new figures from the UN.

This is down from 4% in April, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), suggesting Israel has continued to target Palestinian farmland since initiating a complete blockade in early March, severely restricting aid from entering the Gaza Strip, where 2 million starved people are trapped.

Before the conflict, Gaza was a thriving agricultural hub, where farmers and ordinary Palestinians cultivated a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains for local consumption.

According to the FAO, agriculture accounted for around 10% of the Gaza Strip’s economy, and more than 560,000 people, or a quarter of the population, were at least partially supported by agriculture and fishing.

Israel has targeted food sources – orchards, greenhouses, farmland and fishers – since the beginning of its siege on Gaza in October 2023.

By 28 July 2025, Israel had damaged 86%, the equivalent of almost 13,000 hectares (32,000 acres), of farmland in the Gaza Strip – up from 81% in April, the FAO said. While just under 9% of cropland is still physically accessible, only 1.5% – the equivalent of 232 hectares – is both accessible and not damaged by the Israeli offensive.

“Gaza is now on the brink of a full-scale famine. People are starving not because food is unavailable, but because access is blocked, local agrifood systems have collapsed, and families can no longer sustain even the most basic livelihoods,” said FAO director-general Qu Dongyu. “We urgently need safe and sustained humanitarian access and immediate support to restore local food production and livelihoods – this is the only way to prevent further loss of life. The right to food is a basic human right.”

The humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to be very severe, an EU official told Reuters after the EU’s foreign policy and humanitarian arms updated member countries late on Wednesday on the status of an agreement reached with Israel last month on boosting humanitarian access to Gaza.

The official said on Thursday that there were some positive developments regarding fuel delivery, the reopening of some routes, and an upward trend in the number of daily trucks entering the territory and the repair of some vital infrastructure.

However, the official added that “significant obstructive factors continue to undermine humanitarian operations and aid delivery to Gaza, notably the lack of a safe operating environment to allow the distribution of aid at scale”.

Israel’s security cabinet is expected to meet on Thursday evening and sign off on plans for an expanded operation despite reported serious misgivings from senior military officers.

Yesterday, the Israeli military put parts of Gaza City and Khan Younis under new enforced displacement orders. The move comes amid fears that the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is preparing to order the full occupation of the Palestinian territory later this week.

Israeli online newspaper, the Times of Israel, citing various Hebrew media reports, added that the cabinet is expected to approve “a phased plan to conquer vast new areas of the Gaza Strip, potentially over five months, newly displacing around a million Palestinians”. Additionally, it would aim to destroy Hamas and pressure the group to release all remaining hostages, the publication reported.

Public broadcaster Kan also reported that mediators Egypt and Qatar were pressuring Israel, via the US, not to implement the plan, while also urging Hamas to resume negotiations.

In other developments:

• The humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to be very severe, an EU official told Reuters after the EU’s foreign policy and humanitarian arms updated member countries late on Wednesday on the status of an agreement reached with Israel last month on boosting humanitarian access to Gaza.

• Israel’s destruction of Gaza has left starving Palestinians with access to only 1.5% of cropland that is accessible and suitable for cultivation, according to new figures from the UN. This is down from 4% in April, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), suggesting Israel has continued to target Palestinian farmland since initiating a complete blockade in early March.

• On Wednesday, Gaza’s health ministry reported that five more people had died from starvation in the coastal strip, which has been plunged into a devastating hunger crisis owing to Israel’s complete block on aid entering earlier this year.

• Jordan reported, on Wednesday, that an aid convoy of 30 trucks that had left for Gaza had been attacked by militant Jewish settlers on entering Israel. After the attack, the second in days, Jordan accused Israel of failing to act to prevent repeated assaults.

• Naomi Klein and Angela Davis are among dozens of international scholars and writers who have signed a letter to the Guardian calling on the UK government to reverse the ban on Palestine Action. Signatories from major academic institutions around the world also say they are “especially concerned” about the ban’s possible impact on universities across Britain and beyond.

• The UK prime minister Keir Starmer has been urged by Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, to call Donald Trump to encourage him to use his influence to block Israel’s plans for a “full occupation” of Gaza. In a statement, Davey said: “[Israeli PM Benjamin] Netanyahu’s latest proposals for the occupation of all of Gaza are utterly horrifying.”