Closing summary
It’s approaching 5.30am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv and we’ll shut this blog shortly. Our live coverage will resume later in the day. Here’s an overview of the latest developments. And you can see all our Israel-Gaza war coverage here. Thank you for reading.
The United Nations general assembly overwhelmingly voted to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The ceasefire resolution passed with 153 members voting in favour, 10 voting against and 23 abstaining. The US, Israel and eight other countries – including Austria, Guatemala and Liberia – voted against the resolution.
The US looked increasingly isolated on the world stage after the UN ceasefire vote, which highlighted the stiffening consensus around the world for the need to stop Israel’s relentless assault on Gaza. In contrast, the previous UN resolution calling for a “humanitarian truce” on 27 October attracted 120 votes in favour and 14 against, with 45 abstentions.
Joe Biden said Israel was starting to “lose support” from the international community due to its indiscriminate bombing in Gaza. The US president added that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu needed to change his hardline government.
Israeli tank shelling on Tuesday was focused on the centre of Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s main city, residents said. Israeli airstrikes there killed 11 Palestinians, including two children, health officials said. Further south in Rafah, bordering Egypt, strikes killed 22 people including children, officials said.
Israeli forces killed six Palestinians in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday, Palestinian health officials said. Five were killed in an Israeli operation in the morning, the health ministry said, while a sixth died later. The Israeli military said it carried out an operation in Jenin targeting an explosives-manufacturing facility on Tuesday and uncovered “explosive devices planted under roads to attack the security forces”.
A senior official from Yemen’s Houthis has warned cargo ships in the Red Sea to avoid travelling towards Israel and the occupied territories, after the Iran-aligned group claimed an attack on a commercial tanker earlier in the day.
US president Joe Biden declined to directly answer a question on reports that Israel was pumping seawater into Hamas’s tunnel complex in Gaza, referring only to assertions that there were no hostages in the areas targeted. Citing unnamed US officials, the Wall Street Journal has reported that Israel recently began pumping seawater into the tunnels in a process that would likely take weeks. Responding in Washington to a question about the reports, Biden said on Tuesday: “With regard to the flooding of the tunnels. I’m not at lib – well, there [are] assertions being made that ... there’s no hostages in any of these tunnels. But I don’t know that for a fact.”
Biden will be speaking to the families of Americans who were taken hostage by Hamas on 7 October, his first in-person meeting with families, Reuters reported, citing a White House official. It is unclear how many families will be present for the Wednesday meeting and how many will be in person versus on video conference.
Palestinians who have been injured during the war in Gaza are facing potentially fatal delays both in getting treatment within the territory as well as in being evacuated abroad, caused by Israeli bureaucracy and military checkpoints, the UN and aid organisations say. The delays come amid a claim by the UN World Health Organisation that Palestinian ambulance staff involved in a recent high-risk evacuation were detained at gunpoint, stripped and beaten by Israeli soldiers.
Updated
The Israeli military says it carried out an operation in Jenin targeting an explosives-manufacturing facility on Tuesday.
It said the operation in the West Bank city uncovered “explosive devices planted under roads to attack the security forces”, who subsequently seized weapons, ammunition and more explosives.
The comments, reported by Agence France-Presse, came as Palestinian health officials said Israeli forces killed six Palestinians in Jenin on Tuesday.
An Israeli military statement said of its operation:
The forces identified and dismantled a ready-to-use explosives manufacturing facility and located underground tunnel shafts and an observation control room.
This morning, IDF [Israel Defence Force] drones identified a terrorist cell hurling explosive devices and firing at the forces. The IAF [air force] targeted the threat and killed a number of the terrorists.
The military said “dozens” of arrests were made and operations were ongoing.
