Closing summary
Israeli air strikes have killed more than 60 Palestinians in southern and central Gaza, including one that hit an Israeli-declared “safe zone” crowded with thousands of displaced people. The day’s deadliest strike came on Tuesday afternoon, hitting near a fuel station outside the southern city of Khan Younis in Muwasi, a coastal region that is part of the humanitarian “safe zone” where the Israeli military has told Palestinians to take refuge to escape offensives elsewhere.
An Iranian television presenter, who was attacked in London by men believed to be acting for the Tehran regime, has fled to Israel saying that he no longer felt safe in the UK. Pouria Zeraati said the UK’s approach to the threat posed by Iran on British soil could not guarantee his safety.
Tehran remains open to resuming negotiations with Washington on restoring their participation in a nuclear agreement, Iran’s acting foreign minister told Newsweek magazine in an interview published on Tuesday. Ali Bagheri Kani’s remarks come as he prepares to address the United Nations Security Council in New York.
At least eight Palestinians were killed and several were wounded in an Israeli air strike on a school in central Gaza on Tuesday, Gaza health officials said. The strike hit Al-Awda school in Al-Nuseirat camp, the ministry said.
Israeli forces battled Hamas-led fighters in several areas across Gaza on Tuesday, while Palestinian health officials said at least 13 people were killed in Israeli bombardments in its southern and central areas. In Rafah, a southern border city where Israeli forces have been operating since May, five Palestinians were killed in an air strike on a house, while in nearby Khan Younis, a man, his wife and two children were killed, they said.
Several Palestinians were killed and wounded in an Israeli air strike which was targeting a car in Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Tuesday, Gaza health officials said. The air strike hit near a tented area housing displaced families in Attar Street, the ministry said.
At least 38,713 Palestinians have been killed and 89,166 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has used a meeting with two senior Israeli officials to voice concern over the recent deadly strikes by Israel in the Gaza Strip, his spokesperson has said. Blinken held a meeting with Israeli strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer and National Security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi “to express our serious concern about the recent civilian casualties in Gaza,” state department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters.
Israeli police said officers shot and killed a Palestinian after he stabbed a police officer in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday. Police said the officer was slightly injured in the attack and identified the Palestinian as a 19-year-old from the Gaza Strip. It was not immediately clear what he was doing in the West Bank, AP reported.
Israeli air and naval strikes continued to pummel Gaza as the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, reiterated his demand for a ceasefire during a visit to Jerusalem. Strikes on central Gaza followed two days of particularly deadly attacks including one in a humanitarian zone in southern Gaza that killed at least 90 people when Israeli forces targeted the head of Hamas’s military wing, Mohammed Deif.
In Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, the municipality issued an urgent statement saying it was no longer able to provide 700,000 people in the area with drinking water after running out of fuel.
In the southern Gaza city of Rafah, the main focus of Israel’s offensive since May, residents reported renewed fighting on Monday. The military also reportedly intensified aerial and tank shelling in central Gaza in the al-Bureij and al-Maghazi historic refugee camps.
David Lammy called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza during his first visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories as the UK’s foreign secretary.
Gaza’s health ministry updated the death toll from an Israeli airstrike on a school in central Gaza on Sunday, saying it had increased from 15 to 22. The Abu Araban school was run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, and housed “thousands of displaced people”, civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Yemen’s Houthis targeted three vessels, including an oil tanker, in the Red and Mediterranean seas with ballistic missiles, drones and booby-trapped boats, on Monday, the militant group reported. Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the latest Houthi military operations were a response to the Israeli airstrike on the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis on Saturday, an attack that killed at least 90 Palestinians and wounded 300 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
That’s all from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the Middle East crisis live blog for today. Thanks for following along.
Israeli air strikes have killed more than 60 Palestinians in southern and central Gaza, including one that hit an Israeli-declared “safe zone” crowded with thousands of displaced people.
The day’s deadliest strike came on Tuesday afternoon, hitting near a fuel station outside the southern city of Khan Younis in Muwasi, a coastal region that is part of the humanitarian “safe zone” where the Israeli military has told Palestinians to take refuge to escape offensives elsewhere.
Officials at Khan Younis’ Nasser Hospital said 17 people were killed. Nearby areas are packed with tent camps, AP reported.
It occurred in the same area where Gaza health officials said more than 90 Palestinians, including children, were killed by a strike on Saturday that Israel said was targeting Hamas’s top military commander, Mohammed Deif. His status remained unclear.
The new air strikes came as Israel and Hamas continued to weigh the latest ceasefire proposal. Hamas has said talks meant to wind down the nine-month war would continue even after Israel targeted Deif.
An Iranian television presenter, who was attacked in London by men believed to be acting for the Tehran regime, has fled to Israel saying that he no longer felt safe in the UK.
Pouria Zeraati said the UK’s approach to the threat posed by Iran on British soil could not guarantee his safety.
Zeraati, a presenter for Iran International, a Persian-language news channel, was stabbed by a group of men outside his home in Wimbledon, south London, in March.
Leading up to the attack, the London-based channel received repeated threats from Iran, with UK intelligence services foiling at least 15 plots to either kidnap or kill employees of the TV station.
Now, reluctantly, the 36-year-old has left London with his wife for the Middle East, saying the UK’s strategy towards the Iranian regime meant that it felt able to strike on British soil with few repercussions.
Speaking from a location in Israel he did not want publicise, Zeraati said: “The place I live right now is a little safer.”
Tehran remains open to resuming negotiations with Washington on restoring their participation in a nuclear agreement, Iran’s acting foreign minister told Newsweek magazine in an interview published on Tuesday.
Ali Bagheri Kani’s remarks come as he prepares to address the United Nations Security Council in New York.
The United States under president Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018 from the nuclear accord between Iran and six world powers which restricted Tehran’s nuclear programmes.
Indirect talks between the US and Tehran to revive the deal have stalled. Iran is still part of the agreement but it has decreased its commitments due to US sanctions imposed on it.
Newsweek said:
On the foreign policy front, he (Bagheri Kani) said that Tehran remained open to resuming negotiations with Washington toward restoring mutual participation in a nuclear deal.
Rubbish is piling up in Khan Younis, which is facing a growing hygiene crisis. Watch a video report here:
Here are some of the latest images coming through from photographers on the ground in Gaza:
Lunchtime summary
At least eight Palestinians were killed and several were wounded in an Israeli air strike on a school in central Gaza on Tuesday, Gaza health officials said. The strike hit Al-Awda school in Al-Nuseirat camp, the ministry said.
Israeli forces battled Hamas-led fighters in several areas across Gaza on Tuesday, while Palestinian health officials said at least 13 people were killed in Israeli bombardments in its southern and central areas. In Rafah, a southern border city where Israeli forces have been operating since May, five Palestinians were killed in an air strike on a house, while in nearby Khan Younis, a man, his wife and two children were killed, they said.
Several Palestinians were killed and wounded in an Israeli air strike which was targeting a car in Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Tuesday, Gaza health officials said. The air strike hit near a tented area housing displaced families in Attar Street, the ministry said.
At least 38,713 Palestinians have been killed and 89,166 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has used a meeting with two senior Israeli officials to voice concern over the recent deadly strikes by Israel in the Gaza Strip, his spokesperson has said. Blinken held a meeting with Israeli strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer and National Security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi “to express our serious concern about the recent civilian casualties in Gaza,” state department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters.
Israeli police said officers shot and killed a Palestinian after he stabbed a police officer in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday. Police said the officer was slightly injured in the attack and identified the Palestinian as a 19-year-old from the Gaza Strip. It was not immediately clear what he was doing in the West Bank, AP reported.
Israeli air and naval strikes continued to pummel Gaza as the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, reiterated his demand for a ceasefire during a visit to Jerusalem. Strikes on central Gaza followed two days of particularly deadly attacks including one in a humanitarian zone in southern Gaza that killed at least 90 people when Israeli forces targeted the head of Hamas’s military wing, Mohammed Deif.
In Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, the municipality issued an urgent statement saying it was no longer able to provide 700,000 people in the area with drinking water after running out of fuel.
In the southern Gaza city of Rafah, the main focus of Israel’s offensive since May, residents reported renewed fighting on Monday. The military also reportedly intensified aerial and tank shelling in central Gaza in the al-Bureij and al-Maghazi historic refugee camps.
David Lammy called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza during his first visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories as the UK’s foreign secretary.
Gaza’s health ministry updated the death toll from an Israeli airstrike on a school in central Gaza on Sunday, saying it had increased from 15 to 22. The Abu Araban school was run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, and housed “thousands of displaced people”, civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Yemen’s Houthis targeted three vessels, including an oil tanker, in the Red and Mediterranean seas with ballistic missiles, drones and booby-trapped boats, on Monday, the militant group reported. Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the latest Houthi military operations were a response to the Israeli airstrike on the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis on Saturday, an attack that killed at least 90 Palestinians and wounded 300 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
At least eight Palestinians were killed and several were wounded in an Israeli air strike on a school in central Gaza on Tuesday, Gaza health officials said.
The strike hit Al-Awda school in Al-Nuseirat camp, the ministry said.
Several Palestinians were killed and wounded in an Israeli air strike which was targeting a car in Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Tuesday, Gaza health officials said.
The air strike hit near a tented area housing displaced families in Attar Street, the ministry said.
Updated
At least 38,713 Palestinians have been killed and 89,166 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
Israeli strikes across Gaza kill at least 13 people, Palestinian health officials say
Israeli forces battled Hamas-led fighters in several areas across Gaza on Tuesday, while Palestinian health officials said at least 13 people were killed in Israeli bombardments in its southern and central areas.
In Rafah, a southern border city where Israeli forces have been operating since May, five Palestinians were killed in an air strike on a house, while in nearby Khan Younis, a man, his wife and two children were killed, they said.
In central Gaza in Nuseirat, one of the enclave’s eight historic refugee camps, at least four Palestinians were killed in separate shelling and aerial strikes, medics said. Israeli tanks bombed the southern sector of Gaza City earlier on Tuesday, residents said.
The Israeli military said troops continued “intelligence-based” activities in Rafah, killing many Palestinian gunmen over the past 24 hours. It said air strikes had targeted militants, tunnels, and other Hamas military infrastructure.
It added that the Israeli air force had struck around 40 targets, including sniping and observation posts, military structures, and buildings rigged with explosives.
The armed wings of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said in separate statements their fighters attacked Israeli forces in several locations with anti-tank rockets and mortar fire.
The leafy streets of Kfar Rosh HaNikra are still and silent. This is not just a consequence of the sweltering July heat. The kibbutz is just a few hundred metres from the disputed boundary that separates Israel from Lebanon, at the westernmost point of what Israelis call their northern front in the ongoing war.
The kibbutz’s 1,000 residents were evacuated immediately after the surprise attacks launched into southern Israel from Gaza by Hamas on 7 October, killing 1,200, mostly civilians, and abducting 250.
Nine months later, all but half a dozen remain, others are scattered across northern Israel, staying with relatives, in rented apartments or hotels.
“They say they don’t want to come back home because they don’t feel secure,” said Janet Tass, 73, who left with the others last year but returned to her small home just a month or so later. “The feeling of missing this place was so deep and terrible I couldn’t stand it.”
With war possibly looming between Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has advanced posts on the ridge just north of Kfar Rosh HaNikra, few are hurrying home.
For months, the militant Islamist organisation has fired mortars, missiles and rockets and sent drones on bombing runs into Israel, mainly targeting the communities just south of the UN-controlled boundary line. The attacks have killed 16 soldiers and a number of civilians.
Israeli air and naval strikes continued to pummel Gaza as the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, reiterated his demand for a ceasefire during a visit to Jerusalem.
Strikes on central Gaza followed two days of particularly deadly attacks including one in a humanitarian zone in southern Gaza that killed at least 90 people when Israeli forces targeted the head of Hamas’s military wing, Mohammed Deif.
Hamas has maintained that Deif survived the attack despite public speculation among Israeli officials, but the attempt has further strained already fragile ceasefire negotiations that have dragged for months. “There is no doubt that the horrific massacres will impact any efforts in the negotiations,” the Hamas spokesperson Jihad Taha said on Sunday.
A source close to the negotiations said Qatari mediators remained determined to overcome this latest obstacle, despite the risk that the attempt on Deif’s life could stall talks. They pointed to notable examples where Hamas was reluctant to negotiate but did not disengage entirely, including after an Israeli strike in a Gaza refugee camp last October that killed 120 people, and the assassination of the founder of Hamas’s military wing, Saleh al-Arouri, in Beirut earlier this year.
Israeli police said officers shot and killed a Palestinian after he stabbed a police officer in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday.
Police said the officer was slightly injured in the attack and identified the Palestinian as a 19-year-old from the Gaza Strip. It was not immediately clear what he was doing in the West Bank, AP reported.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Israeli military said Palestinians opened fire on a car in the West Bank, slightly wounding a number of Israeli civilians.
Elsewhere in the territory, the military said forces opened fire on a “suspicious vehicle” that turned out to belong to an Israeli.
Two Israeli civilians were slightly injured as a result of the apparent mistaken fire, the military said.
Opening summary
Hello, we are restarting the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has used a meeting with two senior Israeli officials to voice concern over the recent deadly strikes by Israel in the Gaza Strip, his spokesperson has said.
Blinken held a meeting with Israeli strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer and National Security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi “to express our serious concern about the recent civilian casualties in Gaza,” state department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters.
On Saturday, Israeli strikes killed more than 90 people in Khan Younis, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said. Israel said it had been targeting Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif, one of Israel’s most wanted men for decades, and Rafa Salama, the Islamist movement’s commander in Khan Younis, believed by Israel to be one of the masterminds of the 7 October attack that triggered the current war.
Meanwhile, here’s a summary of the day’s other main events:
In Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, the municipality issued an urgent statement saying it was no longer able to provide 700,000 people in the area with drinking water after running out of fuel.
In the southern Gaza city of Rafah, the main focus of Israel’s offensive since May, residents reported renewed fighting on Monday. The military also reportedly intensified aerial and tank shelling in central Gaza in the al-Bureij and al-Maghazi historic refugee camps.
David Lammy called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza during his first visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories as the UK’s foreign secretary.
Gaza’s health ministry updated the death toll from an Israeli airstrike on a school in central Gaza on Sunday, saying it had increased from 15 to 22. The Abu Araban school was run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, and housed “thousands of displaced people”, civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Yemen’s Houthis targeted three vessels, including an oil tanker, in the Red and Mediterranean seas with ballistic missiles, drones and booby-trapped boats, on Monday, the militant group reported. Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the latest Houthi military operations were a response to the Israeli airstrike on the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis on Saturday, an attack that killed at least 90 Palestinians and wounded 300 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
