Teddy Bear protest in memory of Palestinian children held in Glasgow

During the event, children laid cuddly toys in the city's civic centre in memory and acknowledgement of the 3100 children who have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) this month.

A spokesperson for the event said it was held "to express our utter heartbreak and devastation for the thousands of children’s lives lost, and extend our deepest solidarity to Palestinian parents and carers."

She added: "More than 600 parents, carers and children are expected to join this peaceful protest and vigil, designed to help make a space for the grief experienced by people and to remember and mark the lives of the children lost.

"We also express disgust to the UK government about their continued inaction.

"We demand that the UK government calls for a ceasefire, withdraws its support for Israeli war crimes and immediately ends arms sales to Israel.

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Nearly half - around one million - residents of Palestine are children. On Saturday last week, October 28, Israel imposed a telephone and internet blackout in Gaza, leaving residents unable to contact friends and family outside the territory.

The protest came as it emerged the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt has opened for the first time in more than three weeks to allow the evacuation of dozens of injured Palestinians requiring hospital treatment and hundreds of foreign passport holders.

Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes have hit apartment buildings in a Gaza refugee camp for the second day in a row, Palestinian officials said.

Al-Jazeera television, one of the few media outlets still reporting from northern Gaza, aired footage of devastation in the Jabaliya camp near Gaza City and of several wounded people, including children, being taken to a nearby hospital.

The Hamas-run government said the strikes killed and wounded many people but the exact toll is not yet known.

Al-Jazeera footage showed nearly identical scenes as the day before, with dozens of men digging through the grey rubble of demolished multi-storey buildings in search of survivors.

The toll from Tuesday's strikes was also unknown, though the director of a nearby hospital said hundreds were killed or wounded.

Israel said those strikes killed dozens of militants, including a senior Hamas commander involved in the militants' bloody October 7 rampage that ignited the war, and destroyed militant tunnels beneath the buildings.

In a sign of increasing alarm over the war among Arab countries, Jordan on Wednesday recalled its ambassador from Israel and told Israel's ambassador to remain out of the country.

Jordan, a key US ally, signed a peace deal with Israel in 1994, the second Arab country after Egypt to do so.

The strikes came as Israeli ground forces pushed to the outskirts of Gaza City, days after launching a new phase of the war that Israel's leaders say will be long and difficult.

As when Israeli troops first pushed into Gaza in larger numbers over the weekend, internet and phone service was cut for several hours on Wednesday.

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The isolated Palestinian enclave, home to 2.3 million people, is in the grip of a severe humanitarian crisis amid a siege imposed by Israel in the wake of the October 7 attack.

More than half the population have fled their homes and supplies of food, medicine, water and fuel are running low.

A territory-wide blackout has left hospitals reliant on generators that could shut down soon as Israel has barred all fuel imports.

The strikes in Jabaliya underline the anticipated surge in casualties on both sides as Israeli troops advance toward the outskirts of Gaza City and its dense residential neighbourhoods.

Israeli officials say Hamas's military infrastructure, including hundreds of miles of underground tunnels, is concentrated in the city, which was home to some 650,000 people before the war.

Despite the deteriorating circumstances, no one has been allowed to leave Gaza, except for four hostages released by Hamas.

Another captive was rescued by Israeli forces earlier this week. But a limited agreement appeared to have been reached on Wednesday.

The Palestinian crossing authority said more than 400 foreign passport holders would be permitted to leave for Egypt, as would some wounded people. Egypt, however, has said it will not accept an influx of Palestinian refugees because of fears Israel will not allow them to return to Gaza after the war.

Dozens of people could be seen entering the Rafah crossing - the only one currently operating - and ambulances carrying wounded Palestinians exited on the Egyptian side.

More than 80 Palestinians - out of many thousands wounded in the war - will be brought in for treatment, Egypt's Health Ministry said, and a field hospital has been set up in an Egyptian town near the crossing.

The Palestinian Health Ministry, meanwhile, said that Gaza's only hospital offering specialised treatment for cancer patients was forced to shut down because of lack of fuel, leaving 70 cancer patients in a critical situation.

More than 8500 Palestinians have been killed in the war, mostly women and children, and more than 21,000 people have been wounded, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Tuesday, without providing a breakdown between civilians and fighters.

The figure is without precedent in decades of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

More than 1400 people have died on the Israeli side, mainly civilians killed during Hamas's initial attack, also an unprecedented figure.

Palestinian militants also abducted around 240 people during their incursion and have continued firing rockets into Israel.

The Israeli military confirmed on Wednesday that nine soldiers have been killed in fighting in northern Gaza, bringing the total number of soldiers killed since the start of the ground operation to 11.

The UK government has twice vetoed a UN resolution for a ceasefire.