The Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Tuesday that the military was “ready and determined” for the next stage in the war and was awaiting political instruction. In a social media post, the Israel Defence Force claims to have struck “over 400 terrorist targets in the past 24 hours” in what is described as “a wide-scale operation to dismantle Hamas’s terrorist capabilities”.
At least 5,791 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. It said the number included 2,360 children, and it said 704 Palestinians had been killed in the previous 24 hours. A spokesperson for the ministry, Ashraf al-Qidra, said they had received 1,550 reports of missing people, including 870 children, and suggested that those missing could still be under the rubble of collapsed buildings. The claims have not been independently verified.
Hamas released two more hostages from Gaza on Monday on “humanitarian and poor health grounds”. Nurit Cooper, also known as Nurit Yitzhak, 79, and Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, were kidnapped along with their husbands from the Nir Oz kibbutz near the Gaza border on 7 October. They were the third and fourth hostages to be released.
Lifshitz described her ordeal on Tuesday at a press conference in a Tel Aviv hospital. She told reporters she had “been through hell” after being captured by Hamas fighters on motorbikes and beaten with sticks and forced to walk. She went on to describe conditions in the tunnels where she had been held, where she said she said people treated her “gently” and “looked after our needs”. The captives were fed and they slept on mattresses. She said there were doctors and paramedics there to tend to wounds. She was critical of Israel’s military for not taking the threat of Hamas seriously enough before the attack.
On Monday, Israel said it had established that there were 222 hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas. The IDF said on Tuesday it was attempting to contact residents in Gaza to offer them “a better future for you and your child” by providing information “regarding the abductees in your area”.
UN secretary general António Guterres called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, saying the “appalling attacks” by Hamas cannot justify the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people” and that “no party to an armed conflict is above international humanitarian law”. He said at the UN in New York that he was “deeply concerned about the clear violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing in Gaza”.
In a joint media appearance with the French president, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, threatened “horrible consequences” for Hezbollah in Lebanon if it decided to join the war in a meaningful way.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, called for the release of hostages and said terrorism was a common enemy of Israel and France. He said terrorism must be fought without mercy but with rules.
Netanyahu said Hamas must be destroyed and warned that the war may take some time. He said that after it was finished, nobody would live “under Hamas tyranny”.
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, has described the 7 October Hamas attack as “one of the worst atrocities of modern times”, and accused Hezbollah in Lebanon of “playing with fire” in Israel’s north. He accused Iran of stoking tension between Hezbollah and Israel.
Israel’s air force said it killed someone in Lebanon who was trying to launch a rocket into northern Israel.
About 1.4 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million-strong population is now displaced, the UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA has said in its latest update, and the shortage of clean drinking water as well as overcrowding has become a “major concern”. Doctors in Gaza say patients arriving at hospitals are showing signs of disease caused by overcrowding and poor sanitation.
Tamara Alrifai, of the UN Palestine refugee relief agency UNRWA, has described the aid delivered to the Gaza Strip as a drop in the ocean. Just 54 trucks with relief supplies are reported to have crossed into Gaza since Saturday. Alrifai said urgently needed fuel was not supplied, and that some of the aid sent in – rice and lentils – was useless because people did not have clean water or fuel to cook them.
Overnight the UNRWA confirmed that another six of its staff had been killed in Gaza, bringing the total killed since 7 October to 35. It said 40 UNRWA installations had been damaged so far by Israeli airstrikes.
The Wafa news agency reported that in Jerusalem, Israeli police shut down access for Muslims to al-Aqsa mosque.
The UK said 12 British people were killed on 7 October in Israel and five remained unaccounted for. British-Israeli families of those thought to be held hostage held a press briefing at the Israeli embassy in London. People also took part in a vigil for children killed in Gaza in central London.
Germany’s antisemitism commissioner has condemned the country’s recent increase in anti-Jewish violence, warning that it risks transporting the country back to its “most horrific times”. In an interview with the Guardian, Felix Klein said he was also worried about an erosion of basic rights as officials sought to crack down on expressions of support for the Palestinian people.
The Biden administration does not believe the time is right for a ceasefire in Gaza, according to John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator for the national security council. Speaking to CNN, he said the US position was that all hostages held by Hamas in Gaza must be released first, echoing comments made by President Joe Biden earlier.
