Summary of the day …
It is approaching 5pm in Gaza and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines …
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated that he plans to order a ground offensive inside Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Netanyahu, during discussions with Knesset members, said he had made “supremely clear” to US President Joe Biden “that we are determined to complete the elimination of Hamas in Rafah, and there is no way to do that except by going in on the ground.”
Qatar has said it remains cautiously optimistic about the Gaza ceasefire talks, but warned that an Israeli operation in Rafah would result in major destruction and “atrocities” that have yet to be seen in the conflict. The head of the Mossad, David Barnea, has left Doha and returned to Israel after talks, but has left a team behind to continue discussions. Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said it was too early to talk of any breakthrough.
The UN human rights office said on Tuesday that Israel’s restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza could amount to a war crime. UN human rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said “The extent of Israel’s continued restrictions on entry of aid into Gaza, together with the manner in which it continues to conduct hostilities, may amount to the use of starvation as a method of war, which is a war crime.”
Israel’s military has issued an operational update on what it claims is its “precise operations against Hamas terrorist infrastructure and operatives deliberately embedded in civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip”. It claims its troops have killed over fifty fighters and detained 180 suspects in the al-Shifa hospital complex. An Al Jazeera journalist, detained by Israeli troops at the hospital yesterday, has been released. The new network said he had been severely beaten.
At least 31,819 Palestinians have been killed and 73,934 injured since 7 October in Israel’s military offensive on the Gaza Strip, the territory’s health ministry said on Tuesday. About 93 Palestinians were killed and 142 injured in the past 24 hours, the Hamas-led ministry added. Palestinian news agency Wafa reports “numerous civilians, including children and women, were killed in various areas,” overnight including in Rafah, where at least 14 civilians died.
The IDF has announced the death of another soldier, a commander of the 401st Battalion who was, it says, killed in battle in the north of the Gaza Strip. It takes the total Israeli losses during its ground offensive to 251. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
White House official Jake Sullivan has said that senior Hamas figure Marwan Issa has been killed by Israel in Gaza. Sullivan confirmed that Israeli forces had killed Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’s military wing in Gaza, and one of the masterminds of the 7 October attacks, in an operation last week. Neither Hamas or Israel have officially commented on the reports.
In the US, Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, has said that Jews who vote for the Democratic Party “hate Israel” and hate “their religion”. The White House has criticized Trump for “vile and unhinged antisemitic rhetoric”.
Syria’s defence ministry said Israel launched missiles at military targets outside the Syrian capital Damascus on Tuesday. Syrian sources said the attacks were strikes on fortifications of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.
A military spokesperson for Yemen’s Houthis said today they have targeted a tanker, the Mado, in the Red Sea with naval missiles and Israel’s Eilat region with winged missiles.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken will visit Saudi Arabia and Egypt this week. During a visit to the Philippines, Blinken said the trip to meet senior leaders in the two countries would aim to “discuss the right architecture for lasting regional peace”.
We are closing this live blog for the day. I’m Martin Belam and I will be back with you tomorrow. In the meantime, you can find all our latest coverage on the Israel-Gaza war here and the latest wrap-up of the news from my colleague Peter Beaumont here:
Rainfall in the Gaza Strip has worsened the conditions for the huge numbers of displaced Palestinians being forced to live in makeshift tent camps by Israel’s five months of bombardment and military assault. Here are some images sent to us over the news wires from Deir Al-Balah.
