Closing summary
An Israeli security cabinet meeting, which had been expected to discuss Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for the “full occupation” of Gaza, has been postponed amid mounting tensions over whether the plan is feasible. Amid a stalling of ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, Israeli officials had briefed local and international media that the prime minister was considering an expansive offensive, aimed at taking full control of the Palestinian territory after 22 months of war against the militant group Hamas.
At least 61,020 Palestinian people have been killed and 150,671 others injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. At least 87 Palestinian people, including 52 aid seekers, were killed and 644 others injured in the last 24 hours alone, the ministry said.
The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah warned Tuesday that if Israel intensifies its military operations against his group, the Iran-backed armed faction will resume firing missiles toward Israel. Naim Kassem’s comments came as Lebanon’s Cabinet was meeting to discuss Hezbollah’s disarmament.
The British consulate in Jerusalem has called for accountability for settler violence and the release of the body of Awdah Hathaleen, a Palestinian activist and journalist who was killed last week during an attack by Israeli settlers in the south Hebron hills. “We’re deeply saddened by the killing of Palestinian human rights defender Odeh Hathaleen,” the consulate posted on X on Tuesday.
Truck drivers trying to deliver aid inside Gaza say their work has become increasingly dangerous in recent months as people have grown desperately hungry and violent gangs have filled a power vacuum left by the territory’s Hamas rulers. Crowds of hungry people routinely rip aid off the backs of moving trucks, the local drivers said. Some trucks are hijacked by armed men working for gangs who sell the aid in Gaza’s markets for exorbitant prices.
More than 100 critically ill and injured children in Gaza hope to come to the UK as soon as possible after the government announced a scheme to provide those in severe need with NHS care. The British government announced on Sunday that it would evacuate children from Gaza to the UK for treatment under a scheme to be announced within weeks.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said 26 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and airstrikes on Tuesday, including 14 who were waiting near an aid distribution site. Civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal was told by the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency that 8 people were killed by Israeli gunfire while waiting for aid near the southern city of Khan Younis.
The UN humanitarian aid organisation for children, Unicef, has said that 28 children have been killed on average every day in Gaza. “Death by bombardments. Death by malnutrition and starvation. Death by lack of aid and vital services,” Unicef wrote in the social media post, referring to the relentless deadly Israeli bombardments Palestinians are subjected to and the severe restrictions on aid that has caused famine conditions across the Strip.
Gaza’s government media office has posted to Telegram to say that only 95 aid trucks entered the territory on Monday. The media office said most of the aid trucks were looted due to the “security chaos sowed” by Israel with the ultimate aim of undermining the “cohesion of society”.
More than a dozen Democratic members of Congress have signed on to a letter that urges the Trump administration to recognise Palestinian statehood, in a draft copy shared with the Guardian. Congressman Ro Khanna of California is leading the letter addressed to the president and secretary of state Marco Rubio, and is joined by several House progressives, including Greg Casar of Texas, Pramila Jayapal of Washington, and Maxwell Frost of Florida.
Footage taken by the Guardian’s international correspondent, Lorenzo Tondo, shows the extent of the destruction of Gaza.
The Guardian traveled on a Jordanian plane delivering aid as starvation worsens in the territory…
