ACTIVISTS have slammed the scheduled visit of United States President Joe Biden to Israel on Wednesday as the relentless bombardment of Gaza leaves Palestinians searching desperately for food, water and shelter.

The visit was announced just as Iran issued a stern warning to the Israelis that it may intervene in the conflict.

Israel bombed areas of southern Gaza where it had previously told Palestinians to flee, killing dozens of people on Tuesday.

Israel claims the attacks are targeted at Hamas fighters, but hundreds of defenceless people are victims of the attacks.

The strikes have killed at least 2,778 people and wounded 9,700, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Another 1,200 people across Gaza are believed to be buried under the rubble, alive or dead, health authorities said.

The Health Ministry added that nearly two-thirds of those killed by the bombardment were children.

Meanwhile, anti-war groups in Britain accused the government and the arms industry of complicity in Israel’s war crimes.

British companies provide 15 per cent of the components for the F-35 stealth combat aircraft that Israel is currently using in the bombardment of Gaza, in contracts worth £336 million, Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) said.

The group is demanding the government revoke all licences for arms exports and is backing calls from Palestine trade unions for workers to refuse to build or export weapons to Israel.

CAAT’s Emily Apple said: “There should be no hierarchy when it comes to the killing of civilians.

“However, in continuing to arm Israel, this government is showing that it does not value Palestinian lives.

“Through its arms sales, and particularly through the supply of components for the F-35s, the UK is complicit in war crimes in Gaza.

“The situation in Gaza is catastrophic and is only set to get worse. The only people profiting from this escalation in conflict are arms dealers.”

The Peace Pledge Union (PPU) said its members have “decried the hypocrisy of the Western response” of condemning Hamas while showing “enthusiastic support” for Israel.

PPU campaigns intern Ellen Martin said: “We must be braver in denouncing the UK government’s complicity in Israeli war crimes and in promoting non-violent resistance to the occupation.”

Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), one of the organisers of Saturday’s protest in London, has called on the public to join the national march in the capital this weekend.

A spokesperson said: “With an Israeli ground invasion imminent, the people of Gaza are facing the stark reality of two choices — ethnic cleansing or mass slaughter.

“We join all those calling for an immediate ceasefire, the lifting of the siege to restore electricity, fuel, water, food; and unimpeded humanitarian access in order to protect Palestinian lives, in line with international law.”

The demonstration will assemble at Marble Arch at noon on Saturday.

Health workers with the NHS Workers Say No campaign group have also urged the British government to “do everything it can” to ensure civilians in Gaza are given access to medical humanitarian aid, water, food and fuel.

The group said in a statement: “We were appalled by the initial response from the UK government, echoed by the Labour Party, that gave uncritical support for the Israeli state’s brutal collective punishment of civilians in the Gaza Strip.

“It is unacceptable that our colleagues in Gaza face having to treat patients under indiscriminate bombardment and the threat of forced displacement.”

And more than 2,000 British artists, including actors Tilda Swinton, Charles Dance, Steve Coogan and Maxine Peake, have signed a letter accusing governments of “aiding and abetting” Israel’s “war crimes” in Gaza.

The letter said Palestinians face “collective punishment on an unimaginable scale” and that governments should “end their military and political support for Israel’s action.”

Mr Biden prepared today to head to the region but remained silent about the need for a ceasefire.

Instead, the US president sent his Secretary of State Antony Blinken on a mission across the Middle East in an attempt to prevent the war from sparking a broader regional conflict.

But Tricontinental Institute for Social Research director Vijay Prashad said: “Biden is to go to apartheid Israel to stand with Israel, which is committing a war crime in Gaza against the Palestinians.

“Plainly, then, Biden stands with the war crime.”

Journalist and activist Rania Khalek said: “We will never forget how the president of the US travelled to a settler colony in 2023 to show his support for those carrying out a genocide in the Gaza death camp.”

The visit by Mr Biden follows a plea by 13 members of his own Democratic Party in the House of Representatives, led by Cori Bush, Rashida Tlaib, Andre Carson, Summer Lee and Delia Ramirez, for the president to call for an “immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Israel and occupied Palestine.”

They also called on the president to send humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Ms Tlaib said through tears during a press conference on Monday: “They are running out of body bags.

“We all know collective punishment of Palestinians is a war crime. The answer to war crimes can never be more war crimes.”

She said it was a disgrace that Mr Blinken and the majority of Congress have not even mentioned the possibility of a ceasefire.

Women-led peace organisation Codepink said: “A ceasefire is the bare minimum.”

They urged US citizens to contact their representatives in Congress to “stop arming Israel.”

Irish MEP Mick Wallace slammed the European Union president Ursula von der Leyen for visiting Israel and not condemning the Israeli killing of more than 1,000 Palestinian children in just 10 days.

He contrasted this with the 545 Ukrainian children that have been killed in 500 days of war in Ukraine.

Progressive International co-ordinator Parwel Wargan said: “Israel killed twice as many children in 10 days as the war in Ukraine claimed — on both sides — since February 2022. Let that sink in.”

The United Nations human rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani urged Israeli forces to avoid “aerial bombardments, indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks.”

Violence flared today along Israel’s border with Lebanon, where Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters operate.

Iran warned Israel that it would face consequences in the coming hours for the actions it is taking against the Palestinians and said it may take “pre-emptive action.”

Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said that “all options are open” to respond to Israel’s “war crimes,” against the Palestinians.

Israel sealed off Gaza since the attack by Hamas and other groups on southern Israel on October 7 killed over 1,400 people and resulted in some 200 being taken captive in Gaza.