Closing summary
Hamas has said Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions. But the Palestinian militant group also said on Tuesday it was considering a new framework for a truce proposed during the latest round of negotiations in Cairo. The three-part proposal would halt fighting for six weeks to facilitate an exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
Defying international condemnation over the proposal, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said a date had been set for an invasion of Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, without specifying when. Many western countries, including the US, have voiced strong opposition to the proposed Israeli ground invasion as any attack on Rafah is likely to cause many more civilian casualties and worsen an already acute humanitarian crisis across Gaza. Israel says it has a plan to evacuate civilians ahead of its offensive, and Israel’s defence ministry on Monday published a tender seeking a supplier of tents. The Israeli official later confirmed that the tents were part of the Rafah preparations.
At least 33,360 Palestinians have been killed and 75,993 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement.
Israel has, for the first time, used a seaborne missile defence system to shoot down a drone approaching from the Red Sea that had set off sirens in the port city of Eilat, the military said. “Overnight, for the first time ever, an IDF Sa’ar 6-class corvette missile ship successfully intercepted a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) that had approached from the east and had crossed into the area of the Gulf of Eilat,” the military said on Tuesday.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees must remain “the backbone of any humanitarian response” for the 2 million people in Gaza if mass starvation is to be avoided, the Unrwa director of planning, Sam Rose, has said. This warning came as Israel was accused of blocking far more convoys carrying food aid within Gaza, where famine is looming, than convoys carrying other kinds of aid. “Food convoys that should be going particularly to the north, where 70 percent of people face famine conditions, are … three times more likely to be denied than any other humanitarian convoys with other kinds of material,” Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN’s humanitarian agency, told reporters in Geneva.
Turkey will impose restrictions on the export of products from 54 different categories to Israel until a ceasefire is declared in Gaza, the Turkish trade ministry said. The ministry said the measures would take effect immediately, adding that the restrictions would include iron and steel products and construction equipment, among other things. In response, Israel vowed to take steps against Turkey, accusing it of violating trade deals between the two countries.
France’s foreign minister, Stéphane Séjourné, has suggested that the international community should pressure Israel by potentially imposing sanctions to force it to allow more aid into Gaza. “There must be levers of influence and there are multiple levers, going up to sanctions to let humanitarian aid cross checkpoints,” he told French outlets RFI radio and France 24.
Israeli warplanes struck a Syrian military position overnight in response to rocket fire on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, the military said on Tuesday. The Israeli military said on Tuesday that “warplanes attacked Syrian army military infrastructure overnight in the Mahajjah area” – about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the demilitarised zone separating the opposing forces. The Israeli army said it identified a rocket launch from Syrian territory on Monday that caused no casualties. It said artillery struck the source of the fire.
We are closing this blog now, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here.
Updated
The commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards navy said on Tuesday that Israel’s presence in the United Arab Emirates was a threat to Tehran and this “should not happen”.
Reuters reports:
Iran has threatened to retaliate for suspected Israeli airstrikes on its consulate in Syria’s capital last week that killed seven Revolutionary Guards officers including two senior commanders, stoking tensions between the Middle East arch enemies already simmering over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
The UAE, situated across the Gulf from Iran, became the most prominent Arab nation to forge diplomatic ties with Israel in 30 years under a U.S.-brokered accord in 2020, though Abu Dhabi also has normal diplomatic and commercial relations with Tehran.
“We know that the Zionists (Israel) were not brought to the UAE for economic purposes but rather for security and military work. This is a threat to us and should not happen,” Revolutionary Guards Navy Cmdr Alireza Tangsiri said, according to Iran’s semi-official Student news agency.
Tangsiri added that the Gulf, as well as the Gulf of Oman outside the strait of Hormuz through which a major amount of the world’s seaborne oil passes, were no places for Israelis.
He did not indicate whether Iran was considering any action in the region over Israel’s presence.
“We do not get hit without striking back, but we are also not hasty in our retaliation,” Tangsiri said, a few days after a senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader warned that Israeli embassies were no longer safe.
The UAE’s normalisation with Israel paved the way for several other Arab states to follow suit, breaking a taboo on diplomatic ties without the creation of a Palestinian state.
