Among those known to have died is 20-year-old Nathanel Young, who was serving in the Israeli army when he was killed during Hamas’s charge.
Bernard Cowan, who grew up around Glasgow, also died while Jack Marlowe, 26, who went to the same London school as Mr Young, is believed to be missing.
Photographer Dan Darlington was confirmed to have died after a post from his sister, Shelley, on social media said he was “murdered” at Nir Oz, in southern Israel.
To outline the UK’s support for Israel, foreign secretary James Cleverly arrived in the country, where he will also meet survivors on Wednesday afternoon.
Image: Danny Darlington, Bernard Cowan and Nathanel Young
At least 1,200 Israelis are dead and more than 2,700 have been wounded, according to the latest figures supplied by the IDF (Israel Defence Forces).
The latest information from Gaza’s Health Ministry said that at least 1,055 Palestinians have been killed and 5,184 wounded in Israeli strikes, with authorities claiming two-thirds of those injured are women and children.
Israeli warplanes hammered the Gaza Strip through the night into Wednesday morning, reducing buildings to rubble and reportedly striking over 450 targets.
Its air force has also targeted southern Lebanon, with Israel claiming to have struck a Hezbollah lookout position in retaliation for cross-border fire.
Meanwhile, Israel has stopped entry of food, fuel and medicines into Gaza, and the sole remaining access from Egypt shut down on Tuesday after airstrikes hit near the border crossing, with the violence expected to escalate further.
Israel vows to ‘wipe out’ Hamas
To many of the 2.3 million residents in the Gaza Strip, the mobilisation and intense bombardment raise fears of a ground invasion that may surpass Israel’s incursions in 2008 and 2014.
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This video released by the Israeli Army shows strikes on what Israel says are Hamas targets.
One Israeli security source said a ground offensive now looked inevitable, while Sky News military analyst Michael Clarke believes Israel would prefer a multi-pronged attack into Gaza, probably from the land and sea simultaneously.
It comes as Israel vowed to “wipe out” Hamas after claiming children were burnt alive, beheaded and shot in the head, a government minister from the country told Sky News.
Israel’s economics minister Nir Barkat said its military operation would continue until there was a “clear white flag” and there was a “more moderate” replacement for the militant group that rules in the Gaza Strip.
“Just now, we have heard of 40 young boys, some of them were burnt alive, some were beheaded, some were shot in the head,” the minister told Sky’s Mark Austin – although the IDF has not confirmed this.
Sky News’ chief correspondent, Stuart Ramsey, spoke to two IDF majors – neither or whom mentioned children or babies beheaded, though it’s clear there was a “horrific attack” in Kfar Aza, one of the first places attacked by Hamas.
Image: The air strikes on Gaza have been widespread. Pic: AP
Mr Barkat added: “The whole country is united to take Hamas out of this world, to take them out. All the militants, all the infrastructure, the people supporting Hamas. We will wipe them out.
“We’re coming in to kill the militants, and any civilians [should] move aside. If you do not move aside and you’re giving cover to the Hamas militants, you’re risking your life.
“We do not want to hurt innocent people.”
Many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have no way of escaping, with the Egyptian border still closed in the south.
Gaza ‘running out of power’
Image: People gather near fire burning on rubble in the aftermath of Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip
A ground offensive carries risks for Israel, notably to the hostages held in the narrow and densely populated Gaza Strip, with Hamas threatening to execute a captive for each home hit without warning.
As violence escalates, residents in Gaza are facing an imminent loss of electricity as fuel supplies run dangerously low, while hospitals struggle with dwindling medical supplies.
Jalal Ismail, from Gaza’s energy authority, had said power will run out in the city by midday, which has now passed.
“The power plant will stop working completely today at 2pm (12pm UK time), due to the exhaustion of the amount of fuel needed to operate it,” he said.
Israel withdrew troops from Gaza in 2005 after 38 years of occupation, with Hamas seizing power in 2007.
Since then, Israel has kept it under blockade, creating conditions Palestinians say are intolerable.
“While we had hoped to bring Mr Doughty’s family better news, we are thankful to be able to provide them with some closure,” said special agent Kristin Rehler.
“This discovery is the direct result of our partnerships and special agents from FBI Jacksonville’s Cellular Analysis Survey Team (CAST), who were relentless in their efforts to narrow down potential search locations.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said Runcorn needs a new Labour MP after Mike Amesbury was jailed for beating up a constituent – and will keep his £91,000 MPs salary in prison.
She told Wilfred Froston Sky News Breakfast: “Whether it is resigning or through recall, everyone’s clear – the people of Runcorn deserve better representation, and that would come by having a newly elected MP.”
Amesbury, who has been an MP since 2017, remains as the MP for Runcorn and Helsby after being jailed for 10 weeks on Monday.
He had at an earlier hearing pleaded guilty to assaulting Paul Fellows, 45 by punching him to the ground and hitting him five more times in Frodsham, Cheshire, after a night out last October.
He has not resigned, despite calls for him to do so.
The 55-year-old MP will keep receiving his £91,000 salary while in prison because parliamentary rules state a recall petition, which kickstarts a by-election, can only happen once an appeal period for a custodial sentence of a year or less is exhausted.
Amesbury’s lawyer stated in court he would be appealing the 10-week sentence, of which the MP will serve four weeks in HMP Altcourse in Liverpool.
There is also no mechanism to stop pay for MPs, unless they are suspended from the House of Commons, which has not yet happened for Amesbury.
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CCTV shows Labour MP punch man
Ms Cooper added: “It’s completely unacceptable what has happened. No matter who you are. No one is above the law.”
On whether the government is considering changing the law so MPs who receive a prison sentence can no longer serve as an MP, Ms Cooper said: “I think these are matters, obviously, for the parliamentary authorities and processes that is separate from the decisions government make.
“But we are clear we need a new representation in Runcorn.”
Conservative shadow minister Victoria Atkins told Sky News the public and MPs have been “disgusted” by Amesbury keeping his job and called for the rules to be changed.
“I find it extraordinary that someone can claim their salary from their prison cell when their job is to be here in parliament, representing their constituents,” she said.
“I think the government needs to look at this and we will look at these measures very, very carefully, whatever they bring forward.
“I share the public’s disgust that a Labour MP is sitting in prison, serving a prison sentence because he beat up a constituent.”
After the judge left the courtroom in Chester on Monday, following sentencing, Amesbury’s lawyer asked for him to return and requested bail while he appealed the sentence.
Judge Tan Ikram returned to the court, sat down, paused briefly and said: “Application refused.”
The head of NHS England has announced she is standing down.
Amanda Pritchard was the first woman to take on the role in 2021, having previously served as NHS England’s chief operating officer, and before that, the former head of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.
Her decision to step down comes weeks after MPs on the cross-party Commons public accounts and health and social care committees accused her of lacking the “drive and dynamism” to radically reform the service.
It has been a “hugely difficult decision for me to stand down”, she said in a statement on Tuesday.
“I believe now is the right time – with the NHS making continued progress in our recovery, and with the foundations firmly in place to deliver the 10 Year Health Plan.”
She said it had been “an enormous privilege to lead the NHS in England through what has undoubtedly been the most difficult period in its history”.
“The NHS is full of extraordinary people, who do extraordinary things every day for patients,” she said, adding: “I am confident they will continue to achieve incredible things for patients now, and into the future.”
Image: Ms Pritchard giving evidence to MPs in the House of Commons earlier this month. Pic: PA
MPs on the health and social care committee earlier this month said they were disappointed and frustrated by the “lengthy and diffuse answers” Ms Pritchard and other officials gave them under questioning.
Last week, she admitted “we’re not all brilliant performers at committee hearings” as she was challenged on the issue on BBC Breakfast.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Ms Pritchard could be “enormously proud” of her tenure.
He said: “Amanda can be enormously proud of the leadership she has given in the face of the biggest health emergency for our country in modern history, as well as steering NHS England during turbulent political waters and six secretaries of state in her time as chief executive.
“She has led with integrity and unwavering commitment.”
NHS England said that having discussed everything with Mr Streeting in recent months – and now that the NHS has “turned a corner on recovery from the pandemic and the foundations are in place to make the necessary changes to the centre to best support the wider NHS” – Ms Pritchard had “decided now is the right time to stand down”.
Sir James Mackey will take over as “transition” chief executive from the first of April on a secondment basis, it said.
He is the chief executive of Newcastle Hospitals Foundation Trust and national director of elective recovery.
Ms Pritchard, who is married with three children and studied modern history at St Anne’s College, Oxford, was also deputy chief executive at Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust.