The Gaza health ministry, run by Hamas, said Israeli airstrikes have killed 6,546 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since 7 October, including 2,704 children. The figure includes 756 people – 344 of whom were children – killed in the last 24 hours, it said, adding that 17,439 had been wounded in total. Joe Biden, the US president, said he accepted “innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war … [But] I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using”, writes The Guardian.

Biden made a fresh call for two-state solution at some point after the current Israel-Hamas battle is over, calling for Israelis and Palestinians to work out living in peace together. The US president added that he “did not demand” that Israel delay a ground invasion of Gaza.

Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s military was “getting prepared” for the ground invasion of Gaza with the goal of destroying Hamas’s military and governmental capabilities. In a televised statement, the Israeli prime minister said his war cabinet was “working around the clock” to reach victory.

Israel has agreed to a request to let the US get its air defences to the region before an expected ground invasion of Gaza, according to a report, which said the Pentagon is working to deploy systems to protect US troops in Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister, Riyad al-Maliki, met senior international criminal court (ICC) officials in The Hague. Maliki’s visit came a day after he deplored inaction by the UN Security Council. The Palestinian Authority is controlled by Fatah and partially governs the West Bank; it also claims Gaza but has no control there.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday called for Hamas to provide proof of life of the hostages it is holding and release them all on health grounds. The WHO said the International Committee of the Red Cross should be allowed immediate medical access to ascertain their health status.

Relief efforts in Gaza will be forced to stop on Wednesday night unless fuel supplies get in, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) warned. Hospitals, bakeries and water pumps may also cease to function. Oxfam accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war against Gaza civilians.

A school sheltering Palestinians in Gaza sustained “severe collateral damage” due to a “close proximity strike”, UNRWA said. One civilian was killed and 44 more were injured, including nine children, it said. The UN says about 1.4 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are now internally displaced.

A Red Cross mission to assess the state of Gaza’s hospitals has described scenes of chaos and exhaustion in the face of a total blockade, a critical fuel shortage and relentless Israeli bombing.