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.
Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Rafah for Al Jazeera has described it as “another bloody day in Gaza City”. He writes:
We are talking about a series of houses in Gaza City being completely levelled to the ground. Fifteen Palestinians from the same family have been reported killed in Gaza City, without any kind of rescue operation being made for the injured who are still stuck under the rubble.
Jared Kushner has praised the “very valuable” potential of Gaza’s “waterfront property” and suggested Israel should remove civilians from the territory to the Negev desert region while it “cleans up” the strip.
The proposal, which would amount to a forced population transfer illegal under international law, was made by Donald Trump’s son-in-law in an interview at Harvard University on 8 March.
Kushner, a former property dealer married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, was a senior foreign policy adviser under Trump’s presidency and was tasked with preparing a peace plan for the Middle East. Critics of the plan, which involved Israel striking normalisation deals with Gulf states, said it bypassed questions about the future for Palestinians.
His remarks at Harvard gave a hint of the kind of Middle East policy that could be pursued in the event that Trump returns to the White House, including a search for a normalisation deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Read more of Patrick Wintour’s report here: Jared Kushner says Gaza’s ‘waterfront property could be very valuable’
Attack on Rafah would have 'most appalling humanitarian consequences', UK foreign office minister tells MPs
Andrew Mitchell, the Foreign Office minister, told MPs in parliament in London that if Israel launches an offensive against Rafah in Gaza, that will have “the most appalling humanitarian consequences”.
He was speaking in the Commons in response to an urgent question tabled by his Labour shadow, David Lammy, who urged the government to work to prevent such an attack.
Lammy also said levels of aid being supplied to Gaza were “woefully inadequate”. He said:
Famine in Gaza is imminent, half the population is expected to face catastrophic levels of hunger, the highest number of people ever recorded under this system. Only twice in 20 years have famine conditions been reached.
But what distinguishes the horror in Gaza from what has come before is this is not driven by drought or natural disaster – it is man-made. It is the consequences of war, it is the consequence of aid that is available not reaching those who need it. Food is piled up in trucks just a few kilometres away, while children in Gaza are starving. It’s unbearable, and it must not go on.
International law is clear, Israel has an obligation to ensure the provision of aid, the binding measures ordered by the ICJ [International Court of Justice] require this. The world has demanded it for months, yet still aid flows are woefully inadequate.
Lammy also said an attack against Rafah would risk “catastrophic humanitarian consequences” and he asked what the government was doing to stop that.
Mitchell replied:
The foreign secretary and the prime minister and indeed all our allies have consistently warned that an offensive against Rafah at this time would have the most appalling humanitarian consequences.
Mitchell also said the government was “deeply concerned about the growing risk of famine, exacerbated by the spread of disease and of course the terrible psychosocial impacts of the conflict that will be felt for years to come”.
Mitchell has to speak in the Commons on behalf of the UK’s Foreign Office, as current foreign secretary David Cameron is an unelected member appointed to the second chamber, the House of Lords, and so cannot be questioned by MPs in parliament.
My colleague Adam Gabbatt in New York has some reaction to those Donald Trump comments that Jewish people who vote for Democrats “hate Israel” and “hate their religion”:
The White House has criticized Donald Trump for “vile and unhinged antisemitic rhetoric”. In a statement, the White House spokesman Andrew Bates said:
President Biden has put his foot down when it comes to vile and unhinged antisemitic rhetoric. As antisemitic crimes and acts of hate have increased across the world – among them the deadliest attack committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust – leaders have an obligation to call hate what it is and bring Americans together against it.
Trump made his comments about Jewish people in an interview with Sebastian Gorka, a former aide. The claims prompted an angry response from Democrats and others.
Kathy Manning, a Democratic congresswoman from North Carolina, told Axios that Trump’s claims were “particularly disgraceful and dangerous at a time when Jews are facing dangerous levels of antisemitism nationwide”.
Jamie Raskin, a congressman from Maryland, said Trump had committed an “outrageous slander against the vast majority of American Jews”.
“Luckily I don’t know any Jews who look to Donald Trump for advice on how to be Jewish,” Raskin said, according to an Axios report.
In an interview on Monday Trump was asked about increased criticism by Democrats of Israel’s military action in Gaza, which has left more than 30,000 Palestinians dead.
“I think they hate Israel. And the Democrat party hates Israel,” Trump said.
He added: “Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion. They hate everything about Israel and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed.”
Read more from Adam Gabbatt here: White House criticizes Trump for ‘unhinged antisemitic rhetoric’
UN human rights body: one in five aid missions to northern Gaza denied access by Israeli authorities
In its latest report on the situation in Gaza, the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs has said that during the first two weeks of March, one in five humanitarian aid missions to northern Gaza were denied access by the Israeli authorities.
It said “humanitarian access constraints continue to severely affect the timely delivery of life-saving assistance, particularly to hundreds of thousands of people in northern Gaza.”
It reported:
During the first two weeks of March, 46% of humanitarian aid missions to northern Gaza (11 out of 24) were facilitated by the Israeli authorities, 21% were denied (five), and 33% (eight) were postponed.
It added that over the same period Israeli authorities denied 14% of planned missions in the south of Gaza.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has said at least 300 daily food trucks need to enter and be distributed across Gaza, particularly in the north. On 17 March, it delivered 18 trucks. The WFP reports missions are hindered by “limited entry points, complicated border controls, difficult road conditions, and high tensions and desperation.”
Israel has repeatedly denied it is limiting the crossing of aid into Gaza. A coalition of aid groups has warned famine is imminent in northern Gaza with people suffering “catastrophic levels of hunger”.
Haaretz is carrying an additional quote from Benjamin Netanyahu’s office about the current state of the relationship between Israel’s prime minister and US president Joe Biden, who spoke on Monday.
It quotes Netanyahu’s office saying:
We have a disagreement with the US regarding the necessity of operating in Rafah, not about the need to destroy Hamas. Out of respect for the president, we agreed on a platform for him to share their ideas, particularly in regards to the humanitarian aspect, and enabling a planned population withdrawal and assistance to civilians. We have been doing this from the start of the war. We can’t say ‘We’ll destroy 80% of Hamas,’ because the remaining 20% will retake the Gaza Strip.
Syrian sources: Israel launched missiles against Hezbollah targets inside Syria
Syria’s defence ministry said Israel launched missiles at military targets outside the Syrian capital Damascus on Tuesday.
Reuters reports Syrian sources said the attacks were strikes on fortifications of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group. Syrian air defences intercepted Israeli “missiles and shot down some of them”, the ministry said in a statement, adding they caused only material damage.
Two Syrian military sources familiar with the strikes said Israel targeted a Hezbollah ammunitions depot. It was the second strike within 48 hours on the same mountain range that spills over into Lebanon.
“These latest raids are clearly targeting Hezbollah’s infrastructure in Syria, especially its elaborate fortifications along the Lebanese-Syrian border,” the source who requested anonymity told Reuters.
Israel has not made any comment, and rarely acknowledges striking inside Syria.
Netanyahu: no way to eliminate Hamas in Rafah without ground offensive
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated that he plans to order a ground offensive inside Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Reuters reports the 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.”
The area is where Palestinians have been repeatedly ordered to evacuate to by Israel’s military, and is housing a huge number of displaced Palestinians living in makeshift tent camps.
The Palestinian Authority earlier today said Israel had already started an assault on Rafah after overnight airstrikes.
Hebrew news site Ynet quotes Netanyahu saying there can be no role for the Palestinian Authority in Gaza after the war. He said:
To bring the PA into Gaza? It is to bring in a body committed to the destruction of the state of Israel. There is no difference in its goal compared to Hamas. It is a body that educates and pays for terrorism. The ambition of the entire Palestinian leadership in all its guises is to bring about the elimination of Zionists.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has said that “civilians living in north Gaza have little access to medical services, shelter, or essential items.”
Civilians living in north #Gaza have little access to medical services, shelter, or essential items.
— ICRC in Israel & OT (@ICRC_ilot) March 19, 2024
The scenes our team witnessed in Gaza City only strengthens our call that more humanitarian assistance must be able to safely reach the north.
Countless lives depend on it. pic.twitter.com/UwNqkobibW
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, Reuters reported.
Updated
Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva has responded to earlier comments by the spokesperson for UN high commissioner for human rights Volker Türk.
Jeremy Laurence had 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.”
In response, Reuters reports that the diplomatic mission said “Israel is doing everything it can to flood Gaza with aid, including by land, air, and sea. The UN must also step up.”
Israel insists on inspecting all aid delivered to the Gaza Strip. On Monday, Oxfam accused it of controlling an “unpredictable and chaotic regime of approval, scanning and inspection” of humanitarian aid. A coalition of aid groups warned yesterday that famine is imminent in northern Gaza with people suffering “catastrophic levels of hunger”.
Summary of the day so far …
It has just gone 2pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines …
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.
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.
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”.
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”.
The foreign ministry of the Palestinian Authority has criticised the international community for a failure to act on increasing the level of humanitarian aid being delivered to Gaza, where a UN-backed report says that famine is “imminent”.
In a statement on social media, the ministry said “The flood of international statements will not conceal the failure to protect civilians and deliver aid as a non-negotiable or blackmail issue.”
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”.
In the statement, the IDF claims it is “continuing precise operations in the Shifa hospital to thwart terrorism”. It claims:
Troops eliminated terrorists in close-quarters combat and located weapons in the area while avoiding harm to civilians, medical staff, and medical equipment. Thus far, the troops killed over 50 terrorists and apprehended approximately 180 suspects.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Yesterday witnesses reported the “sounds of explosions, several bombings, and soon tanks started to roll” at the beginning of the assault on the medical complex, where thousands of Palestinians have been seeking shelter, living in makeshift tents in its grounds.
Hamas accused the Israeli military of directly targeting the hospital buildings without concern for patients, medical staff or displaced people in it.
Qatar-based TV network Al Jazeera reported that one of its journalists was beaten and arrested along with other journalists. The network said today that Ismail al-Ghoul was released after “being detained for 12 hours and severely beaten by Israeli forces”.
Reuters is carrying some fuller quotes from UN human rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence, who was addressing the media on behalf of UN high commissioner for human rights Volker Türk. It quotes Laurence saying:
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, as the occupying power, has the obligation to ensure the provision of food and medical care to the population commensurate with their needs and to facilitate the work of humanitarian organisations to deliver that assistance.
Everyone, especially those with influence, must insist that Israel acts to facilitate the unimpeded entry and distribution of needed humanitarian assistance and commercial goods to end starvation and avert all risk of famine.
There needs to be full restoration of essential services, including the supply of food, water, electricity and fuel.
The spokesperson described the crisis as “human-made” and “entirely preventable.”
Qatar warns an Israeli attack on Rafah would result in 'atrocities', says it remains cautiously optimistic on talk progress
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.
Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said it was too early to talk of any breakthrough in discussions, but his country remained cautiously optimistic. He stressed than any assault on Rafah would negatevily affect progress. Talks continue in Doha with a focus on humanitarian aid and securing a temporary ceasefire.
During the briefing Al-Ansari also said that a 20th group of wounded Palestinian people had arrived in Doha for medical treatment.
UN human rights office: Israel’s continued restrictions on Gaza aid 'may amount to use of starvation as method of war'
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.
“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,” Reuters reports UN human rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said.
Israel has denied obstructing the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. Yesterday, Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy insisted on social media that “There is no limit to: 1) the amount of aid that can enter Gaza 2) the lies people will tell to deny this.”
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN-backed group that includes the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization, said in a report yesterday that 1.1 million people, half of Gaza’s population, faced famine, and people were suffering “catastrophic levels of hunger”.
The IPC report came as Philippe Lazzarini, the head of Unrwa – the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees – said yesterday that he had been denied entry to Gaza, where he was due to work on improving the humanitarian response.
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. Emmanuel Fabien, military correspondent for the Times of Israel, reports this brings the total number of Israeli military losses during the ground offensive inside Gaza since 7 October to 251.
Head of the Mossad reportedly leaves Doha after ceasefire and hostage negotiations, talks set to continue
Israeli media reports that head of the Mossad, David Barnea, has left Doha and returned to Israel after talks over a potential ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas. Kan News reports:
According to a senior Israeli, the talks that the Israeli delegation in Qatar held until Tuesday were positive, but he expects the negotiations to be “long, difficult and complex”.
The source added that the head of the Mossad, David Barnea, held talks with the Qatari and Egyptian mediators during the night, and in the morning he returned to Israel for further meetings and discussions.
Work teams from the Mossad, the Shin Bet, the intelligence division of the IDF and the team of Maj Gen Nitzan Alon, remained in Doha.
It is still understood that the aim of the deal is to provide for a six-week pause in fighting that would facilitate Hamas returning women, children and elderly civilian hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinians detained by Israel, while negotiations continued for a second phase, which would involve the potential release of male civilian and military hostages.
Israeli authorities believe that Hamas and other groups still hold about 134 people in Gaza, having seized and abducted them from inside Israel on 7 October. It is not known how many of the hostages are still alive.
Updated
The Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry has accused Israel on social media of beginning “to destroy Rafah without announcing [it], to avoid international reactions and without waiting for permission from anyone.”
31,819 Palestinians killed by Israel's military offensive inside Gaza since 7 October – ministry
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.
In addition, in its latest update, the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs reports that since 7 October about 419 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, and about 4,690 Palestinians have been injured, including 724 children. The deaths and injuries are attributed to Israeli security forces and Israeli settlers.
Israel launched its military assault on Gaza after the Hamas 7 October attack inside southern Israel which killed about 1,140 people. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Associated Press reports that in the US, the presumptive Republican nominee for this year’s election, Donald Trump, has said that Jews who vote for the Democratic Party “hate Israel” and hate “their religion”.
In an interview, asked about criticism of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former president Trump said:
I actually think they hate Israel. I think they hate Israel. And the Democrat party hates Israel. Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion. They hate everything about Israel and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed.
Joe Biden’s administration have been one of Israel’s most vocal supporters since 7 October.
President Biden visited Israel 11 days after Hamas launched its assault in southern Israel, and issued a statement saying “As the President made clear during the trip, Israel is not alone – and with US support it will remain a safe, secure, Jewish, and Democratic state today, tomorrow, and for ever.”
Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah for Al Jazeera, says that airstrikes continue in the vicinity of the al-Shifa hospital complex. He writes “Residential buildings are being relentlessly bombed. We’ve heard of two buildings at the northern gate of al-Shifa hospital being completely destroyed. We’ve also heard from the southern part of the complex of one more residential building attacked, and a mosque to its west.”
Updated
Amos Harel in Haaretz offers this analysis of the political calculations that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be making around any possible hostage deal. Harel writes:
Political sources still believe that what motivates the prime minister above all is his political survival and hold on power as his criminal trial progresses. To this end, Netanyahu needs more time, and therefore any delay in indirect negotiations with Hamas serves his interests, despite his declared commitment to rescuing the hostages.
Netanyahu’s opposition to a possible hostage deal does not appear to be principled or sweeping. From his perspective, the major problem is a prolonged ceasefire that could herald the end of the war. The structure of the deal currently being discussed speaks of a six-week ceasefire, during which a first tranche of Israeli hostages will be returned in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, some of whom are considered high-profile. Even if talks run aground on a second phase of a deal – in which Israeli soldiers and younger men held by Hamas are expected to be released – it will probably be several more weeks before fighting resumes.
In other words, if an agreement on a hostage deal is reached, Israel will be headed to a ceasefire of at least two months. This does not serve Netanyahu since in that event, increased pressure to dissolve the Knesset can be expected, along with calls for a new election.
Palestinian health officials have reported that at least 20 people have been killed overnight by Israeli air raids on Rafah and the central Gaza Strip.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports “in a devastating series of Israeli airstrikes last night, numerous civilians, including children and women, were killed in various areas.”
It says that the strikes occurred in Rafah, where at least 14 civilians died, and at a house west of the Nusseirat refugee camp.
On additon Wafa reports that “Israeli artillery continued to shell areas east of the Jabalia refugee camp in the north.”
The claims have not been independently verified. Journalists have been able to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza.
The UK’s deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, has called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza.
Reuters reports that, speaking in Seoul in an interview, Dowden said the British government was “continuously” urging Israel to abide by international humanitarian law and had also raised concerns about getting aid into Gaza. Yesterday a UN-backed report warned that famine was “imminent” in northern Gaza.
“That’s why we are calling for an immediate ceasefire to allow that aid in, and crucially, the hostages to come out,” he said.
The semantics of whether politicians in the UK have been calling for an immediate ceasefire, temporary ceasefire or humanitarian pause has become a fiercely contested political issue in the UK, leading to chaotic and angry scenes in parliament in Westminster during a debate on the topic.
Blinken to visit Saudi Arabia and Egypt this week
US secretary of state Antony Blinken will visit Saudi Arabia and Egypt this week, Reuters reports the state department said on Tuesday.
The development comes after the White House announced that Israel will send a team of officials to Washington to discuss its planned offensive on Rafah. Blinken has made several visits to the region since the 7 October Hamas attack inside southern Israel.
During a visit to the Philippines, Reuters reports Blinken said his trip to meet senior leaders in Saudia Arabia and Egypt would aim to “discuss the right architecture for lasting regional peace”.
Providing more humanitarian aid into Gaza as well as discussing postwar planning for the territory are among the topics he will discuss with Saudi and Egyptian officials.
“One hundred percent of the Gaza population is in need of humanitarian assistance,” Blinken said, adding that it was “absolutely incumbent” upon Israel to prioritise assistance for those in desperate need.
US says that senior Hamas figure Marwan Issa was killed
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, one of thousands of Hamas fighters he said had been killed. But he added: “a military plan cannot succeed without an integrated humanitarian plan and political plan.”
Neither Hamas or Israel have officially commented on the reports. Issa had been linked directly to the decision to attack Israel on 7 October, a deadly assault which killed about 1,140 people and led to the current Israeli military offensive on Gaza.
At the weekend, my colleague Jason Burke in Jerusalem reported that Israeli officials believed Issa was dead. He wrote on Saturday that it was thought the deputy military leader of Hamas in Gaza died in an airstrike a week ago that targeted a tunnel complex under the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
All Hamas communications systems between senior leaders – which rely on encrypted apps and couriers – went silent for more than 72 hours after the strike, as has happened on several previous occasions when senior Hamas leaders have been killed.
The strike against Issa, one of the key organisers of the 7 October attack launched by Hamas on Israel, suggests Israel is getting information from a source high in the organisation, experts said.
“Israel would have needed to know where and when Issa was hiding, that he would remain there with time for the cabinet to approve and [Israeli’s military] to launch the operation, and would have needed to confirm that no Israeli captives were being held near him as human shields – something that could have only been confirmed via a human asset,” said Avi Melamed, a former Israeli intelligence official and regional analyst.
Welcome and opening summary
It is approaching 9.30am in Gaza and Tel Aviv. Welcome to our latest live blog on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis. I am Martin Belam and I’ll be with you for the next while.
The US has said that Marwan Issa, a key leader within Hamas’ ranks, has been killed in an Israeli operation last week. Issa has been described as third in command in the organisation.
More on that in a moment but first, here’s a summary of the latest developments:
Israel will send a team of officials to Washington to discuss its planned offensive on Rafah, the White House has said, as the Biden administration insists that an attack would be a “mistake” and seeks to persuade Israel to allow in more aid in the face of an imminent famine in Gaza. The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, announced the Israeli visit after a phone call on Monday between Joe Biden and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, focusing on the planned Rafah assault that Netanyahu has vowed to launch. It was their first call in more than a month.
The US secretary of state Antony Blinken will travel to Saudi Arabia and Egypt this week to discuss efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and increase humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory, a state department spokesperson said. This will be Blinken’s sixth trip to the Middle East since the start of the Israel-Gaza war, Agence France-Presse reports.
Fierce fighting has continued around al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, as Israeli troops battled Hamas militants after seizing control of the strategically situated medical complex in an early morning raid. Witnesses reported multiple airstrikes and ferocious firefights as fears rose for the safety of hundreds of civilians in the immediate vicinity of the hospital. Israeli military officials said troops were “continuing precise operations in the Shifa hospital to thwart terrorism” and had killed 20 Hamas militants there, including Faiq Mabhouh, whom they identified as the head of the operations directorate of Hamas’s internal security. At least 80 people were detained by the Israeli forces and one soldier killed in the raid.
Al Jazeera reports that Israeli forces detained one of its journalists, with witnesses saying Ismail al-Ghoul was beaten, and that a number of people were wounded during the assault on the hospital.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said he is “terribly worried about the situation” and that “hospitals should never be battlegrounds”.
Famine is imminent in northern Gaza with people suffering “catastrophic levels of hunger”, a coalition of aid groups has warned. The situation was called “man-made starvation”, as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a group that includes the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization, said that 1.1 million people, half of Gaza’s population, faced famine. Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy insisted on social media that “Israel is facilitating the delivery of unlimited quantities of aid by air, land, and sea.”
The EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell condemned Israel for creating what he said was a “man-made famine” in Gaza, and urged Israel to allow road deliveries of food immediately. He said European leaders have told Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu they cannot stand by and watch Palestinians starve to death. “This famine is not a natural disaster. It is not a flaw. It is not an earthquake. It is entirely man-made” he said in Brussels. Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz, told Borrell he should “stop attacking Israel”.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini has been refused entry to Gaza by Israel. He said his trip had been intended “to coordinate and improve the humanitarian response” in the territory, which he said is facing unprecedented levels of “man-made starvation”. Israel has accused members of UNRWA staff of participating in the 7 October attack by Hamas, although it is yet to hand over evidence to the agency.
Israel has launched missiles at several military targets outside the Syrian capital Damascus resulting in some “material damage,” Syria’s defense ministry said. Reuters reports that Syrian air defenses intercepted Israeli “missiles and shot down some of them,” the ministry added in a statement.
The US military said it destroyed seven missiles and three drones in areas of Yemen controlled by Houthi rebels that presented threats to merchant ships and US Navy vessels.
