Middle East crisis: UN security council to vote on granting membership to Palestine – as it happened | Israel-Gaza war

It is 4.15pm in Gaza, 5.15pm in Tel Aviv and 5.45pm in Tehran. We will be closing this blog soon, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here.

Here is a recap of the latest developments:

• The EU foreign policy chief has warned “we are on the edge” of “a regional war in the Middle East”. “I don’t want to exaggerate but we are on the edge of a war, a regional war in the Middle East, which will be sending shock waves to the rest of the world, and in particular to Europe,” he said. “So stop it.” Borrell, said the existing EU sanctions regime on Iran would be strengthened and expanded to punish Tehran for its attack and help prevent future ones on Israel. At the same time, he said, Israel needed to exercise restraint.

• The US on Thursday announced new sanctions on Iran targeting its unarmed aerial vehicle (UAV) production after its missile and drone strike on Israel last weekend. A US Department of the Treasury statement said the measures targeted 16 individuals and two entities enabling Iran’s UAV production, including engine types that power Iran’s Shahed variant UAVs, which were used in the 13 April attack.

• The UK placed sanctions on Iranian military entities, including the General Staff of the Armed Forces and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy, an official notice showed on Thursday. The British sanctions target 13 entities or individuals in total, according to the notice.

• Qatar said it was reassessing its role as a mediator between Israel and Hamas, according to comments made by the gulf state’s prime minister. “Qatar is in the process of a complete re-evaluation of its role,” prime minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani told a Doha news conference. “There is exploitation and abuse of the Qatari role,” he said, adding that Qatar had been the victim of “point-scoring” by “politicians who are trying to conduct election campaigns by slighting the State of Qatar”.

• The Chinese and Indonesian foreign ministers called for an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza after a meeting in Jakarta on Thursday, condemning the humanitarian costs of the ongoing war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. Indonesia’s minister of foreign affairs Retno Marsudi told reporters that the two countries share the same view about the importance of a ceasefire and of resolving the Palestinian problem through a two-state solution.

• European Union leaders have agreed to increase sanctions against Iran as concern grows that Tehran’s unprecedented attack on Israel could fuel a wider war in the Middle East and concern that Iran is supplying weapons to Russia in the war against Ukraine. In an official communique, the EU announced “will take further restrictive measures against Iran, notably in relation to unmanned aerial vehicles and missiles.”

• The UN security council is due to vote on Thursday on a Palestinian bid for full UN membership, diplomats said, a move that Israel ally the US is expected to block because it would effectively recognise a Palestinian state. The 15-member council had initially been scheduled to vote on the measure on Friday. It will now vote at 5pm EDT (9pm GMT/10pm BST) on Thursday, the diplomats said.

• The EU has edged closer to calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East after a meeting of the 27 bloc leaders on Wednesday night. Although piggybacking on a UN resolution, Ireland’s taoiseach indicated the significance of the hardened up language in the official communique issued last night. “I welcome the language that has been agreed around ceasefire, not pause but ceasefire, I think that is important,” said Simon Harris Ireland’s taoiseach.

• David Cameron has said it is clear Israel is “making a decision to act” in response to last weekend’s Iranian mass drone and ballistic missile attack, as Benjamin Netanyahu brushed off calls for restraint and said his country would make its own decisions about how to defend itself. Lord Cameron, the UK foreign secretary, speaking on a visit to Jerusalem, said he hoped the Israeli response would be carried out in a way that minimised escalation.

• Israeli artillery shelling and aircraft strikes again hit Gaza City overnight, said An AFP correspondent in Gaza. The Israeli military said it struck dozens of militant targets over the past day.

• Gaza’s civil defence said on Thursday it had recovered 11 bodies in the southern city of Khan Younis during the night.

• Gaza rescue crews recovered the corpses of eight family members, including five children and two women, from a house in Rafah’s al-Salam neighbourhood, the civil defence service said.

• Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Rafah, described an attack on southern Rafah as “one of the bloodiest” in “wide-ranging attacks on Gaza” overnight by the Israeli military. He also said airstrikes were also recorded in the al-Mughraqa and Deir el-Balah areas.

• Tareq Abu Azzoum also said that “the Israeli army, meanwhile, withdrew from Nuseirat refugee camp, leaving behind a trail of destruction” and that “civil defence crews are working to recover victims buried in the debris”.

• Israel has reportedly deployed extra artillery and armoured personnel carriers to the Gaza Strip periphery, suggesting that the military is preparing for its long-threatened ground offensive on Rafah.

• At least 33,970 Palestinians have been killed and 76,770 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry has said. The Hamas-led ministry figure has increased by 71 deaths since yesterday. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.

• Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (Unrwa), told the UN security council on Thursday that “Unrwa personnel detained by Israeli security forces” had “shared harrowing accounts of mistreatment and torture in detention”. Lazzarini demanded an independent investigation and “accountability for the blatant disregard for the protected status of humanitarian workers, operations, and facilities under international law.”

• Lazzarini also told the UN security council that Unrwa is “under enormous strain” and said that “an insidious campaign to end Unrwa’s operations is under way”. He said calls for the UN agency’s closure are “not about adherence to humanitarian principles”. Instead, he said, the calls are “about ending the refugee status of millions of Palestinians”.

• Senior US and Israeli officials will hold a virtual meeting on Thursday about Israel’s plans for the southern Gaza city of Rafah as Washington seeks alternatives to an Israeli offensive, a US official said. The meeting is a follow-up to a similar meeting held on 1 April.

• A Palestinian boy who survived an Israeli airstrike that destroyed his family’s home in November has died during a food aid drop. Zein Oroq was pinned under rubble after the airstrike last year that killed 17 members of his extended family. Although he was injured, he survived. Last week, during an airdrop of aid, 13-year-old Zein was struck by one of the packages and died in hospital on Sunday.

• Google said on Thursday it had terminated 28 employees after some staff participated in protests against the company’s cloud contract with the Israeli government. Google said it had concluded individual investigations, resulting in the termination of 28 employees, and would continue to investigate and take action as needed. In a statement on Medium, Google workers affiliated with the No Tech for Apartheid campaign called it a “flagrant act of retaliation” and claimed that some employees who did not directly participate in Tuesday’s protests were also among those Google fired.

• The former mayor of Barcelona Ada Colau has announced that she will be joining hundreds of people from around the world on a Gaza-bound flotilla, expected to set sail from the Mediterranean in the coming days, that will carry at least 5,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid. The flotilla, coined ‘Break the Siege’ is expected to include at least three vessels and is being organised by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.

• The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that, according to Egyptian sources, the US had agreed to the Israeli plan for a military operation in Rafah in exchange for a limited response against Iran. It cited an Egyptian source that spoke with the London-based Qatari newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed. The Guardian has been unable to independently verify the report.

• With no centralised relief effort in Egypt, Palestinians are relying on grassroots charities for food, rent and clothing. Unlike in neighbouring countries, no UN body has taken responsibility for Palestinians who have fled to Egypt, while Egyptian authorities stand accused of profiting from high border-crossing fees.

• Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi will visit Pakistan as scheduled next week despite increasing tension in the Middle East, Pakistan’s foreign minister said on Thursday. Ishaq Dar said Raisi will arrive in the capital, Islamabad, on 22 April on an official three-day visit.

The UK has placed sanctions on Iranian military entities, including the General Staff of the Armed Forces and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy, an official notice showed on Thursday, reports Reuters.

The measures follow Iran’s missile and drone attack on Israel last weekend.

The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak had said on Monday that the G7 nations was working on a package of coordinated measures against Iran.

The British sanctions target 13 entities or individuals in total, the notice showed.

The US on Thursday announced new sanctions on Iran targeting its unarmed aerial vehicle (UAV) production after its missile and drone strike on Israel last weekend, reports Reuters.

A US Department of the Treasury statement said the measures targeted 16 individuals and two entities enabling Iran’s UAV production, including engine types that power Iran’s Shahed variant UAVs, which were used in the 13 April attack.

According to Reuter’s report, the US Treasury said it was also designating five companies in multiple jurisdictions providing component materials for steel production to Iran’s Khuzestan Steel Company (KSC), one of Iran’s largest steel producers, or purchasing KSC’s finished steel products.

Three subsidiaries of Iranian automaker Bahman Group, which it said had materially supported Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, have also been targeted.

The statement said that concurrent with the US Treasury action, the UK was imposing sanctions targeting several Iranian military organisations, individuals and entities involved in Iran’s UAV and ballistic missile industries.

Reuters reports that the US statement came after finance ministers and central bank governors of the G7 industrial democracies said, after a meeting on Wednesday, that they would “ensure close coordination of any future measure to diminish Iran’s ability to acquire, produce, or transfer weapons to support destabilizing regional activities.”

EU leaders also decided on Wednesday to step up sanctions against Iran after Tehran’s missile and drone attack on Israel left world powers scrambling to prevent a wider conflict in the Middle East.

Tehran says it launched the 13 April attack in retaliation for Israel’s suspected 1 April strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus. Israel has said it will retaliate, while a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said on Thursday Iran could review its “nuclear doctrine” after Israeli threats.

The UN security council is due to vote on Thursday on a Palestinian bid for full UN membership, diplomats said, a move that Israel ally the US is expected to block because it would effectively recognise a Palestinian state, reports Reuters.

The 15-member council had initially been scheduled to vote on the measure on Friday. It will now vote at 5pm EDT (9pm GMT/10pm BST) on Thursday, the diplomats said.

Senior US and Israeli officials will hold a virtual meeting on Thursday about Israel’s plans for the southern Gaza city of Rafah as Washington seeks alternatives to an Israeli offensive, a US official said, according to a report by Reuters.

The meeting is a follow-up to a similar meeting held on 1 April.

US president Joe Biden has urged Israel not to conduct a large-scale offensive in Rafah to avoid more Palestinian civilian casualties in Gaza, where Palestinian health authorities say more than 32,000 people have been killed in Israel’s assault.

Ashifa Kassam

Ashifa Kassam is the Guardian’s European community affairs correspondent.

The former mayor of Barcelona Ada Colau has announced that she will be joining hundreds of people from around the world on a Gaza-bound flotilla, expected to set sail from the Mediterranean in the coming days, that will carry at least 5,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid.

The flotilla, coined ‘Break the Siege’ is expected to include at least three vessels and is being organised by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.

In announcing her participation on social media, Colau thanked organisers for inviting her to be a part of it. “Because there are many of us who do not want to continue to feel powerless,” she wrote.

The coalition has organised similar initiatives since 2010. One of its initial efforts to bring aid to Gaza made global headlines after Israeli troops intercepted the convoy, setting off a violent encounter that resulted in the death of nine activists. The deadly raid sparked international outcry and jolted the relationship between Israel and Turkey.

This latest mission will see “civilians bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza,” the coalition noted on its website. “We are doing what is just, humane and necessary.”

Google said on Thursday it had terminated 28 employees after some staff participated in protests against the company’s cloud contract with the Israeli government, reports Reuters.

The Alphabet unit said a small number of protesting employees entered and disrupted work at a few unspecified office locations.

“Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and completely unacceptable behavior,” the company said in a statement.

According to Reuters, Google said it had concluded individual investigations, resulting in the termination of 28 employees, and would continue to investigate and take action as needed.

The news agency also reported that in a statement on Medium, Google workers affiliated with the No Tech for Apartheid campaign called it a “flagrant act of retaliation” and claimed that some employees who did not directly participate in Tuesday’s protests were also among those Google fired.

“Google workers have the right to peacefully protest about terms and conditions of our labor,” the statement added.

The protesting faction says that Project Nimbus, a $1.2bn contract awarded to Google and Amazon.com in 2021 to supply the Israeli government with cloud services, supports the development of military tools by the Israeli government.

In its statement, Google maintained that the Nimbus contract “is not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services.”

According to a report by the Associated Press (AP), the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said the existing EU sanctions regime on Iran would be strengthened and expanded to punish Tehran for its attack and help prevent future ones on Israel. At the same time, he said, Israel needed to exercise restraint.

“I don’t want to exaggerate but we are on the edge of a war, a regional war in the Middle East, which will be sending shock waves to the rest of the world, and in particular to Europe,” he warned. “So stop it.”

On Wednesday, EU leaders meeting in Brussels vowed to ramp up sanctions on Iran to target its drone and missile deliveries to proxies in Gaza, Yemen and Lebanon.