Summary of the day so far
It’s currently 4:42am in Gaza and Tel Aviv and this blog is now closing, but first, a summary of the main developments:
Senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri was killed in an explosion in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, reportedly caused by a targeted Israeli drone strike. Israel has not accepted responsibility, but says “whoever did this… [it was] a surgical strike against the Hamas leadership”.
Six people were killed in the explosion, reports say, including al-Arouri, a founder of Hamas’s military wing long targeted by Israel, and two leaders of Hamas’s elite military al-Qassam Brigades. Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned a “new Israeli crime” and said the country was filing a complaint to the UN security council.
Israel’s military forces are in a state of “high readiness” after the assassination, a senior spokesperson without acknowledging his country’s involvement in the incident. Rear Adm Daniel Hagari told reporters “We are focused and remain focused on fighting against Hamas. We are on high readiness for any scenario”.
Hezbollah said its finger “is on the trigger” as it promised vengeance for Arouri’s death, and later claimed it had launched a so-far unconfirmed missile attack on Israeli troops. The group said the attack in Beirut was “a serious assault on Lebanon… that will not go without a response or punishment” in a statement posted to Telegram.
The French President Emmanuel Macron has called on Israel to avoid escalation, “particularly in Lebanon”, after the strike. Agence France-Presse (AFP) is reporting that Macron spoke by telephone with Israeli minister and war cabinet member Benny Gantz. The presidency said: “It was essential to avoid any escalatory attitude, particularly in Lebanon, and that France would continue to pass on these messages to all players directly or indirectly involved in the area.”
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has posted on X a number of hours ago about meeting families of the hostages who remain in Gaza, saying “The effort is continuing. The contacts are being held; they have not been cut off. There was an ultimatum from Hamas; now it has been softened.”
Meanwhile Hamas said it won’t release any more hostages it took during the 7 October attacks on Israel, except under its own terms. The group’s political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, told Reuters he laid out the Hamas position to officials of Egypt and Qatar, countries trying to broker a ceasefire similar to the one in November that saw more than 100 hostages freed. Haniyeh is demanding “a complete cessation of the aggression” by Israel.
There’s growing friction between the US government and far-right ministers in Israel who have called for the rebuilding of Israeli settlements in Gaza, and for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to relocate to southern Lebanon. Such proposals, voiced by Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, two senior members of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, are abhorrent, the US state department said in a statement on Tuesday.
Turkey arrested 34 people on suspicion of spying for Mossad on behalf of Israel. “The Israeli intelligence service is recruiting personnel to be used in acts against Palestinians residing in our country and their families.,” a government official said. Without providing evidence, the official said the suspects were also spreading fake news and disinformation, carrying out robberies and blackmail for Israeli intelligence.
Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant said military operations in the south of the Gaza Strip around Khan Younis were focused on areas above what he said was a tunnel network where Hamas leaders were believed to be hiding. “We are reaching them all ways. There already is engagement and there are hostages there too sadly,” he told Israeli troops in footage shown on Israeli television, Reuters said.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society reported “several fatalities and wounded” at its headquarters in Khan Younis as a result of Israeli missile. “The occupation renews its bombardment of the PRCS headquarters in Khan Younis for the second time, resulting in several fatalities and wounded among the 14,000 displaced individuals housed in the PRCS’s premises and the adjacent Al-Amal hospital,” the group said in a statement.
The United Nations office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (Ocha) has released its latest update on the situation in Gaza, describing the number of aid trucks coming into Gaza as “woefully inadequate”
At least 22,185 Palestinians have been killed and more than 57,000 wounded by Israel’s military action in Gaza, according to updated figures from the health ministry. It says that 207 Palestinians were killed and 338 were wounded in the past 24 hours. The Gaza health ministry is run by Hamas. The figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Separately, the Israeli military has claimed to have killed about 8,000 fighters in the Gaza Strip during its campaign. Additionally, since 7 October, at least 321 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Reuters news agency is reporting on what it says is declassified US intelligence on Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital.
It says US spy agencies have assessed that Hamas and another Palestinian group fighting Israel used Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital to command forces and hold some hostages – but largely evacuated the complex days before Israeli troops entered it, according to a US official.
The complex was used by both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to command forces fighting against Israel, the US official said, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
But US intelligence agencies obtained information that Hamas fighters had largely evacuated the complex days before Israel’s operation and destroyed documents and electronics as they left, the American official told the news agency.
US intelligence agencies have not disclosed the evidence on which they based their assessment. The official told Reuters the US had independently confirmed the information.
Israel has said al Shifa, which it had occupied earlier in the war in Gaza, had been used by Hamas. Troops entered in November and the targeting of the hospital had stoked global alarm over the fate of civilians and patients who were inside.
Read our analysis from November by Julian Borger on what the IDF presented as evidence that the hospital was being used as Hamas headquarters.
Updated
