Israel-Hamas war latest news: £3m fund to protect Jewish schools as UK deploys ships to eastern Mediterranean

The death toll of the Israel-Hamas war is believed to have risen to 2,600, after Hamas militants launched an attack on Israel at the weekend. During a major Jewish holiday, Hamas militants fired thousands of rockets and sent dozens of fighters into Israeli towns near the Gaza strip in a deadly attack on Saturday, October 7 which left hundreds dead.

At least 150 hostages were taken into Gaza during the attack, while Israel launched retaliatory air strikes, leaving 338,000 people displaced. Today, the UK government has confirmed it has organised flights for British nationals to leave the war-torn country, while Rishi Sunak has announced £3 million funding to protect Jewish communities in the UK.

The Prime Minister also confirmed the UK would be deploying military assets, including Royal Navy vessels and a company of Royal Marines, the eastern Mediterranean to support Israel.

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Meanwhile, King Charles held a talk with the Chief Rabbi at Buckingham Palace to personally express his deep care and concern for the Jewish community, as the British families of those taken hostage near the border of Gaza branded the Hamas attacks as a ‘second Holocaust’ and 'pure evil.'

Here is a breakdown of today's (Thursday October 12) updates.

The Prime Minister has announced £3m funding to protect schools, synagogues and other Jewish community buildings in the UK in response to Hamas’ attacks in Israel. The money will be given to the Community Security Trust (CST) after the group, which acts on the behalf of British Jews on matters of policing and racism, said it had recorded a 400% spike in antisemitic incidents in the UK since the weekend’s