Here are Wednesday’s updates from Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and the Middle East:<\/p>\n
\u25a0 Israeli strikes have <\/strong>killed at least 24 Palestinians<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> including eight children<\/strong>, and wounded at least 38 in separate strikes across Gaza since Wednesday morning, medical officials said.<\/p>\n \u25a0 The Israeli military said that the strikes are a response to an Israeli officer being severely wounded in northern Gaza<\/strong> overnight into Wednesday, after armed gunmen opened fire on troops<\/strong> near the Yellow Line delimiting Israeli-controlled Gaza. It said strikes targeted senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad members.<\/p>\n \u25a0 About a hundred people are demonstrating<\/strong> in Tel Aviv in “solidarity with the girls and boys of Gaza,”<\/strong> holding photographs of children killed during the war<\/strong> or who have died of hypothermia in recent months, after the cease-fire took effect.<\/p>\n \u25a0 <\/a>Plans are being finalized for direct talks between Iran and the United States in Oman<\/strong> on Friday, a Gulf official told Reuters, saying that talks in Turkey are no longer under consideration. Iran’s \u200csemi-official ISNA news agency said earlier that Foreign Minister \u200cAbbas Aragchi and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff<\/strong> would take part in these discussions.<\/p>\n \u25a0 U.S. \u200dSecretary of State Marco \u200cRubio<\/strong> said \u2060that the venue for \u200ctalks with Iran was still being \u200dworked through, saying Iran’s government had previously agreed \u200dto a format for \u200ca meeting on Friday in Turkey but appeared to have changed its mind.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u25a0 A senior Iranian official told Reuters that U.S. insistence on “discussing non-nuclear”<\/strong> issues could jeopardize the talks in Oman.<\/strong> The official added that Tehran is “fully ready” to hold talks with the United States, but only on the nuclear issue.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u25a0 Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir<\/strong> said that the military must address nationalist crime<\/strong><\/a> committed by Israeli settlers<\/strong> in the West Bank, urging<\/strong> soldiers to “act and not stand idly by.”<\/strong><\/p>\n