Palestinians mourn by the bodies of relatives who were killed in overnight Israeli air strikes on the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, at Rafah's Najjar hospital on February 27, 2024. Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images
Summary of the day …
It is 5pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv, and 6pm in Doha and Sana’a. Here are the headlines …
A Hamas official has told Reuters that US president Joe Biden’s words about a halt to fighting in Gaza are premature, and do not match the situation on the ground. Biden had seemed confident that a truce would be agreed by Monday, but as well as the words from Hamas, a senior Israeli official has also said that he does not understand where Biden’s optimism is coming from. Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson said the country remains “upbeat and optimistic” about the prospects for a deal.
Unifil, the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, has said it is witnessing “a disturbing shift” in the exchanges of fire between Israel and anti-Israeli forces across the UN-drawn blue line that separates northern Israel and southern Lebanon. On Tuesday morning Israel said it had struck several targets inside Lebanon in response to a barrage of 35 rockets fired at one of its military installations in northern Israel.
The health ministry in Gaza has issued updated casualty figures, reporting that in the last 24 hours, 96 Palestinians were killed and 172 were injured by Israel’s military actions in the territory. This brings the total death toll inside Gaza since 7 October from Israeli military action to a reported 29,878, with 70,215 injured. In its latest briefing, Israel’s military said it had “located a weapons manufacturing facility, rocket launchers, and systems used by Hamas in combat with the IDF” in Zaytun, and continued to operate in Khan Younis, where it said it was working to “to secure areas adjacent to the Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip”.
Three Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in clashes in the occupied West Bank early on Tuesday. At least 400 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers and settlers in the occupied West Bank since the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas.
Yemen’s Houthis said they could only reconsider their missile and drone attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea once Israel ends its “aggression” in the Gaza Strip. The US says it has targeted Iranian and Houthi commanders in a new round of sanctions, and the UK has also issued new sanctions against Iran and Yemen.
The UN humanitarian office has accused Israeli forces in Gaza of stalling a medical evacuation convoy in Khan Younis and forcing paramedics to strip for searches before detaining them. In comments made in Geneva, Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the United Nations humanitarian office (OCHA) appealed for the release of all detained health personnel.
Families of those being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza are staging a protest today at 134 polling stations during Israel’s municipal elections.
Jordan’s King Abdullah has said the international community must put more pressure on Israel to increase the flow of aid into Gaza. Oxfam has raised concerns about access to agricultural land in the north of the Gaza Strip, and said that “the risk of genocide is increasing in northern Gaza” because of Israel’s failure to facilitate access for humantiarian aid.
US treasury secretary Janet Yellen has told reporters in São Paulo that Israel has agreed to resume transferring tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority to fund basic services.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for today. We are pausing our live coverage. I will be back with you tomorrow. Here is Bethan McKernan’s report from Jerusalem on the latest developments: Hamas and Israel pour cold water on Biden’s hopes of imminent ceasefire
Yemen's Houthis: 'no halt' to Red Sea attacks until Israel's seige of Gaza ends
Yemen’s Houthis said on Tuesday they could only reconsider their missile and drone attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea once Israel ends its “aggression” in the Gaza Strip.
Asked if they would halt the attacks if a ceasefire deal is reached, Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam told Reuters the situation would be reassessed if the siege of Gaza ended and humanitarian aid was free to enter.
“There will be no halt to any operations that help Palestinian people except when the Israeli aggression on Gaza and the siege stop,” he said.
The Houthis have sent shipping officials and insurers formal notice of what they termed a ban on vessels linked to Israel, the US and Britain from sailing in surrounding seas.
Updated
The US says it has targeted Iranian and Houthi commanders in a new round of sanctions.
Reuters reports that a UK government notice shows it has added five new designations under its Iran sanctions regime and one under its Yemen sanctions regime.
In the UK, opposition foreign spokesperson David Lammy has said that the opposition parties and the UK government should “speak together” on the war in Gaza to “send a powerful signal”.
Lammy told lawmakers in Westminster:
I hear the minister when he says simply calling for a ceasefire will not make one happen, but neither will calling for a pause, which confuses our shared desire for fighting to stop, not restart.
Can we speak together, as we have on Ukraine, our words bring pressure and send a powerful signal that for once we can put the political game aside, meet as the Government and the official opposition to agree a shared position so we can put out a statement calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire now?
The issue of whether politicians are calling for a ceasefire or a temporary pause in fighitng in Gaza has become politically charged in the UK. Replying to Lammy, government minister Andrew Mitchell said Lammy’s position was close to the that of the government, but said:
We’ve been very clear, we are trying to negotiate … an immediate pause in order that we can get the hostages out and get incredibly badly needed aid in, leading to a sustainable ceasefire.
Here is a little more from US treasure chief Janet Yellen, who has been talking about the potential impact of Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping on the global economy at a press conference in São Paulo ahead of the G20 finance ministers meeting. She told reporters:
We’ve not seen a significant impact on the global economy, but we continue to monitor this closely. We’ve led efforts to counter the financing of Hamas and acted decisively in response to the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, launching Operation Poseidon Archer and coordinating with our allies to sanction leaders and supporters of multiple terrorist actors, including Hamas, the Houthis, and other Iranian proxies. The global economy cannot be undermined by terrorism.
Earlier today major shipping company Maersk said clients should expect disruption to last into the second half of the year.
Enemy aircraft infiltration alarms are sounding in northern Israel. Emanuel Fabian, military correspondent for the Times of Israel, has posted that some of the alarms are sounding near Mount Meron, where Israel’s military installation was recently attacked by a Hezbollah rocket barrage from Lebanon.
Suspected drone infiltration alarms sounding in the Upper Galilee, close to Mount Meron. pic.twitter.com/bnCcf1NM2g
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) February 27, 2024
Here are some of the latest images from the news wires:
Palestinian pop singer Bashar Murad hopes to represent Iceland at the Eurovision Song Contest in May, and bring a Palestinian voice to the event, which draws millions of television viewers, he said.
Eurovision, which this year takes place on 7-11 May in the Swedish city of Malmo, bills itself as a non-political event and can disqualify those it considers to be in breach of this rule.
The contest will take place amid protests and boycotts over the Gaza war that have affected cultural events across Europe.
Eurovision Song Contest organisers have resisted calls for Israel to be excluded from the competition but said last week they were scrutinising the Israeli submission’s lyrics as they might refer to the 7 October attack by Hamas.
Iceland will chose its contestant on Saturday, with Murad competing in the national final with a song co-written by Einar Stefansson of Icelandic band Hatari, known for raising a banner showing Palestinian flags during the 2019 Eurovision.
Murad told Reuters:
I wanted to illustrate how many obstacles as Palestinians we have to go through in order to be heard … we’re excluded from every mainstream platform.
Under the rules of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) which organises the competition, participants are chosen by EBU member broadcasters to represent their countries from across Europe and beyond. There is no Palestinian entry because there is no Palestinian member broadcaster of the EBU.
Russia was banned from the contest in 2022 over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Singers of any nationality are able to participate in Iceland’s domestic qualification if they sing their song in the first semi-final in Icelandic.
Murad, who was born in and lives in Jerusalem, said it was difficult to learn the song in Icelandic, but he saw some similarities to the Arabic language.
His entry “Wild West” tells the story of challenging boundaries and chasing dreams against all odds, he said.
Everyone has theories about my participation. And everyone is politicising my existence when I’m really just a human who had a dream and applied for this competition fair and square.
When asked if Murad wants Israel to participate in the competition he said:
Of course, I don’t want my occupier to be there.
But my main focus right now is to be able to bring, for the first time in history, a Palestinian voice to the main stage.
US treasury secretary Janet Yellen has told reporters that Israel has agreed to resume transferring tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority to fund basic services.
For months, the authority has been unable to pay full public sector salaries because of the refusal by the Israeli finance ministry to release part of the funds, which Israel claimed might be sent to Gaza to fund Hamas.
Reuters reports Yellen said the US was also working with the humanitarian sector to help assist innocent Palestinians and get legitimate aid to where it is most needed.
UN humanitarian office accuses Israel of strip-searching and detaining paramedics from medical evacuation convoy
The UN has accused Israeli forces in Gaza of stalling a medical evacuation convoy in Khan Younis and forcing paramedics to strip for searches before detaining them.
In comments made in Geneva, Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the United Nations humanitarian office (OCHA), told reporters:
Despite prior coordination for all staff members and vehicles with the Israeli side, the Israeli forces blocked the WHO-led (World Health Organization) convoy for many hours the moment it left the hospital.
The Israeli military forced patients and staff out of ambulances and stripped all paramedics of their clothes. Three Palestinian Red Crescent Society paramedics were subsequently detained, although their personal details had been shared with the Israeli forces in advance.
OCHA claimed one paramedic was later released, but appealed for the release of the two others and all other detained health personnel.
Reuters reports the Israeli military did not immediately comment, saying it was checking the details of the incident.
The incident occurred on Sunday during the evacuation of 24 patients from the city’s Al-Amal hospital, OCHA said. Laerke added that Sunday’s incident was not isolated, with aid convoys coming under fire, humanitarian workers harassed, intimidated or detained, and humanitarian infrastructure damaged by Israel’s ground offensive inside the Gaza Strip.
Summary of the day so far …
It has just gone 2pm in Gaza and in Tel Aviv, and 3pm in Doha. Here are the headlines …
A Hamas official has told Reuters that US president Joe Biden’s words about a halt to fighting in Gaza are premature, and do not match the situation on the ground. Biden had seemed confident that a truce would be agreed by Monday, but as well as the words from Hamas, a senior Israeli official has also said that he does not understand where Biden’s optimism is coming from. Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson said the country remains “upbeat and optimistic” about the prospects for a deal.
Unifil, the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, has said it is witnessing “a disturbing shift” in the exchanges of fire between Israel and anti-Israeli forces across the UN-drawn blue line that separates northern Israel and southern Lebanon. On Tuesday morning Israel said it had struck several targets inside Lebanon in response to a barrage of 35 rockets fired at one of its military installations in northern Israel.
The health ministry in Gaza has issued updated casualty figures, reporting that in the last 24 hours, 96 Palestinians were killed and 172 were injured by Israel’s military actions in the territory. This brings the total death toll inside Gaza since 7 October from Israeli military action to a reported 29,878, with 70,215 injured. In its latest briefing, Israel’s military said it had “located a weapons manufacturing facility, rocket launchers, and systems used by Hamas in combat with the IDF” in Zaytun, and continued to operate in Khan Younis, where it said it was working to “to secure areas adjacent to the Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip”.
Three Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in clashes in the occupied West Bank early on Tuesday. At least 400 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers and settlers in the occupied West Bank since the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas.
Families of those being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza are staging a protest today at 134 polling stations during Israel’s municipal elections.
Jordan’s King Abdullah has said the international community must put more pressure on Israel to increase the flow of aid into Gaza. Oxfam has raised concerns about access to agricultural land in the north of the Gaza Strip, and said that “the risk of genocide is increasing in northern Gaza” because of Israel’s failure to facilitate access for humantiarian aid.
Jordan’s King Abdullah: international community must put more pressure on Israel over aid access
Jordan’s King Abdullah said on Tuesday that humanitarian aid to Gaza must be doubled to prevent a deterioration in a hunger crisis affecting over 2 million people.
Reuters reports that in remarks carried by state media, the monarch was quoted as telling visiting USAID chief Samantha Power the international community had to put more pressure on Israel to ease restrictions on the flow of food into the territory.
There is also a protest taking place in Ramallah today in the occupied West Bank, where people have gathered to demonstrate against Israel’s detention of Palestinians.
Crowds have also gathered in Tubas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank for the funeral of three Palestinians killed there overnight by Israeli security forces.
There are municipal elections in Israel today. The Times of Israel reports that families of those being held hostage in Gaza are staging a protest to coincide with them. 134 relatives of hostages will be at 134 polling stations, where those who have been abducted would have voted.
Israel believes that of the about 134 people still held by Hamas in Gaza after being abducted on 7 October, about 32 have been killed.
UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon says there is 'disturbing shift' in exchanges of fire across blue line separating Israel and Lebanon
Unifil, the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, has said it is witnessing “a disturbing shift” in the exchanges of fire between Israel and anti-Israeli forces across the UN-drawn blue line that separates northern Israel and southern Lebanon.
Since 7 October there have been near continuous skirmishes between the Israeli military and Iranian-backed Hezbollah forces, and Unifil says it is now seeing “an expansion and intensification of the strikes”. Israel has evacuated several of its northern communities, and told Hezbollah it must “back off” to the north of the Litani river.
In a statement posted to social media, Unifil said:
Over the past few days, we have witnessed a disturbing shift in the exchange of fire. This conflict has claimed too many lives and caused extensive damage to homes and public infrastructure. It has also endangered the livelihoods and changed the lives of tens of thousands of civilians on both sides of the Blue Line.
However, we are now witnessing an expansion and intensification of the strikes. In recent days, we have continued our active work with the parties to ease tensions and prevent dangerous misunderstandings, but recent events have the potential to jeopardize a political solution to this dispute.
We urge all parties concerned to cease hostilities to prevent further escalation and leave room for a political and diplomatic solution that can restore stability and ensure the safety of people in this region.
This morning Israel said it had struck several targets inside Lebanon in response to a barrage of 35 rockets fired at one of its military installations in northern Israel.
In Haaretz, Amos Harel has written an analysis piece looking at some of the domestic political implictions for Israel in making any hostage/prisoner swap deal or pausing the campaign in Gaza. He writes:
Extreme right-wing finance minister Betzalel Smotrich and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir are hinting that they will not support the planned deal outline. But that does not necessarily mean that their factions will quit the coalition if a new agreement for the release of hostages is approved.
The police have been acting wildly in Tel Aviv, violently dispersing demonstrators on Saturday night at protests calling for elections and at a solidarity rally in support of the hostages’ families. Demonstrators present say that they had not encountered such violence since the outbreak of the war on 7 October and the resumption of protests in December.
Fourteen months after this government was established, it appears that the surgery has been successfully completed. The police are acting entirely like Ben Gvir’s police force and are suppressing demonstrations that are perceived as a political threat to the coalition. If a direct confrontation develops between the hostages’ families and the government over a delay in a deal by the Israeli side down the road, things might get even worse.
Qatar: no breakthrough on Gaza ceasefire but Qatar is 'upbeat and optimistic' about mediation
In another briefing about ongoing talks attempting to broker peace in Gaza, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokseperson has said that there has been no breakthrough, but the country remains “upbeat and optimisitc” about the prospect for mediation.
They said Israel and Hamas had failed to reach agreement on any of the main issues.
Reuters reports the spokseperson said Qatar could not comment on US president Joe Biden’s assessment that a ceasefire is expected to be agreed next Monday.
Earlier a senior Israeli official briefed that they did not know where Biden’s optimism came from, and a Hamas official told Reuters that Biden comments were “premature” and did not reflect the situation on the ground.
Oxfam has raised concerns about access to agricultural land in the north of the Gaza Strip, and said that “the risk of genocide is increasing in northern Gaza” because of Israel’s failure to facilitate access for humantiarian aid.
Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s Middle East and North Africa director, said “The risk of genocide is increasing in northern Gaza because the government of Israel is ignoring one of the key provisions of the International Court of Justice, to provide urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance.”
The aid agency has received reports of people in the north of the territory resorting to drinking toilet water, foraging for wild plants, and being forced to use animal fodder to make bread.
One of Oxfam’s partner organisations in the region is the Palestinian Agricultural Development Association, whose director of operations in Gaza, Hani Al Ramlawi, said:
These next two months should be the golden time of [agricultural] production. However, if farms haven’t already been destroyed then they have been made impossible to access, because any farmer trying to do so will be directly targeted by Israeli forces. And without water, without electricity, farmland means nothing.
Israel strikes multiple targets inside Lebanon in retaliation for Hezbollah rocket barrage
Israel says it has struck multiple targets inside Lebanon. In a message posted to its official Telegram channel, the IDF reported:
This morning approximately 35 launches were identified crossing from Lebanon into the area of Mount Meron in northern Israel. There were no injuries or damage to the IDF Aerial Control Unit in the area.
In response, IDF fighter jets struck a military site and Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in the areas of Hanniyeh, Jibchit, Baisariyeh, and Mansouri. IDF artillery also struck in the area of Yaroun in order to remove a threat.
There are unconfirmed reports that Israel has struck targets inside Lebanon as a response to a barrage of rockets launched into Israel by Hezbollah earlier this morning.
More details soon …
Israeli media is reporting that an unnamed senior Israeli official has said, in reference to Biden’s comments that a deal might be close to halt fighting in Gaza, that he doesn’t understand “what [Biden’s] optimism is based on”.
Earlier Reuters reported a Hamas source had told it the comments by the US president were “premature”.
Hamas: Biden comments on ceasefire are 'premature'
Reuters is reporting that a Hamas official has told it that US president Joe Biden’s words about a halt to fighting in Gaza are premature, and do not match the situation on the ground.
The official told the new agency there were still “big gaps that need to be bridged”.
Reported Gaza death toll from Israeli attacks since 7 October rises to 29,878
The health ministry in Gaza has issued updated casualty figures, reporting that in the last 24 hours, 96 Palestinians were killed and 172 were injured by Israel’s military actions in the territory. This brings the total death toll inside Gaza since 7 October from Israeli military action to a reported 29,878, with 70,215 injured.
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued by the health ministry, which is run by Hamas. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants in the figures, but says that the majority of those killed have been women and children. There are believed to be many more Palestinians missing, presumed buried under rubble from the Israeli aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after the 7 October Hamas attack inside southern Israel, in which about 1,140 people were killed and a further 8,730 were injured.
Since 7 October more than 400 Palestinians, including over 100 children, have also been killed in the occupied West Bank by Israel’s security forces or Israeli settlers.
Israel’s military has issued its daily operational briefing, in which it claims to have “located a weapons manufacturing facility, rocket launchers, and systems used by Hamas in combat with the IDF” in Zaytun.
The briefing also claims that IDF forces “eliminated several terrorists” in central Gaza and “destroyed dozens of strategic sites belonging to Hamas”.
Israel also claims to have “apprehended a number of terrorists who tried to flee under the cover of the civilian population” and to have “eliminated a number of terrorists at close range, including terrorist operatives who were identified observing the troops.”
It says Israeli ground forces continue to operate in Khan Younis, and are working to “to secure areas adjacent to the Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip”.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Hani Mahmoud is in Rafah for Al Jazeera, and in his latest report for the news network he says:
The situation in Khan Younis remains terrible and is only worsening with each passing day. While the Israeli military stated that it pulled out from Nasser hospital, snipers are still taking positions in surrounding buildings and shooting at every moving object. They are also blocking the entry of relief convoys that were bringing in water, food supplies and fuel for the power generators to get the hospital back on track. Conditions continue to worsen with each passing day despite talks about a ceasefire.
Reuters reports Hezbollah said on Tuesday it had launched a “large volley of rockets” at an Israeli aerial surveillance base in response to Monday’s Baalbek attack.
Details of draft Israel-Gaza ceasefire emerge
The US president, Joe Biden, says Israel has agreed to stop its military activities in Gaza for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, as Hamas studies a draft proposal for a truce.
Reuters reports that a senior source close to the talks in Paris says the draft includes a Palestinian prisoner-Israeli hostage exchange at a ratio of 10 to one.
The draft also reportedly states Hamas would free 40 Israeli hostages including women, children under 19, elderly over 50 and the sick, while Israel would release about 400 Palestinian prisoners and will not re-arrest them, the source told Reuters.
The draft proposal would also allow hospitals and bakeries in Gaza to be repaired and 500 aid trucks to enter the battered enclave every day, says Reuters.
Ramadan is expected to begin on the evening of 10 March and end on the evening of 9 April.
Biden said during an appearance on NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers”:
Ramadan is coming up, and there’s been an agreement by the Israelis that they would not engage in activities during Ramadan, as well, in order to give us time to get all the hostages out.
Biden, whose remarks were recorded on Monday and broadcast on Tuesday, said there was an agreement in principle for a ceasefire between the two sides while hostages were released. Asked when he thought a ceasefire could begin, Biden said “Well I hope by the beginning of the weekend. The end of the weekend. My national security adviser tells me that we’re close. We’re close. We’re not done yet. My hope is by next Monday we’ll have a ceasefire.”
Meanwhile, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani – whose country hosts Hamas leaders and helped broker a one-week truce in November – is due in Paris Tuesday, according to the French presidency.
The Qatari ruler is scheduled to meet French President Emmanuel Macron at 4 pm (1500 GMT) at the Élysée Palace, followed by a state dinner, the president’s office said.
According to the official Qatar news agency, sheikh Tamim previously met Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Doha and discussed efforts “aimed at reaching an immediate and permanent ceasefire agreement”.
Welcome and opening summary
It has just gone 9am in Gaza and Tel Aviv, and 8am in Paris, welcome to our latest Guardian live blog on the Middle East crisis. I’m Martin Belam and I’ll be with you for the next while.
Hamas has received a draft ceasefire deal from Gaza truce talks in Paris which includes a 40-day pause in all military operations and the exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages at a ratio of 10 to one, a senior source close to the talks told the Reuters news agency.
Hours earlier, the US president, Joe Biden, said it was his hope there would be a deal by Monday, adding that “we’re close, we’re not done yet”, reports Agence France-Press
More on that in a moment but first, here’s a summary of the latest developments:
Joe Biden has said he believes a new ceasefire between Israel and Hamas could take effect by the start of next week. The US president, during a visit to New York on Monday, was asked by reporters about the prospects of a ceasefire. “My national security adviser tells me that we’re close. We’re close. We’re not done yet,” Biden said. “My hope is by next Monday, we’ll have a ceasefire.”
An active member of the US air force has died after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington over the weekend in protest of Israel’s war in Gaza, the Agence France-Presse news agency quoted the Pentagon as saying.
Israeli officials headed on Monday to Qatar, where Hamas has its political office, to work on terms of a Gaza truce and hostage release deal, a source told Reuters. The source said the Israeli working delegation, made up of staff from the military and the Mossad spy agency, was tasked with creating an operational centre to support negotiations.
Israel mounted airstrikes west of the Lebanese city of Baalbek on Monday, killing at least two Hezbollah members, sources in Lebanon told Reuters. The Israeli military said it was striking Hezbollah targets deep inside Lebanon but provided no further details. Hezbollah said earlier on Monday it had shot down an Israeli Hermes 450 drone over Lebanese territory using a surface-to-air missile, the second time it has announced a downing of this type of unmanned aerial vehicle.
Israel’s military “presented the war cabinet with a plan for evacuating the population from areas of fighting in the Gaza Strip, and with the upcoming operational plan,” a statement from Benjamin Netayahu’s office said. Israel has threatened to launch a full-blown attack on Rafah, the last city at Gaza’s southern edge, despite international pleas – including from its main ally Washington – for restraint. Netanyahu, who has promised “total victory”, said an operation is necessary to root out four battalions of Hamas fighters based there.
The Israeli government has failed to comply with an order by the UN’s top court to provide urgently needed aid to desperate people in the Gaza Strip, Human Rights Watch said. “The Israeli government is starving Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians, putting them in even more peril than before the World Court’s binding order,” Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, said. “The Israeli government has simply ignored the court’s ruling, and in some ways even intensified its repression, including further blocking life-saving aid.”
Reuters is reporting that three Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in clashes in the occupied West Bank early on Tuesday. At least 400 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers and settlers in the occupied West Bank since the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas.
At least 29,782 Palestinians have been killed and 70,043 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said. In the past 24 hours, 90 Palestinians were killed and 164 injured in Israeli strikes, the ministry said.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has criticised the UN security council for failing to adequately respond to Israel’s war in Gaza and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which he said had “perhaps fatally” undermined its authority. He also said that a full-scale Israeli assault in Rafah would have devastating consequences. “An all-out Israeli offensive on the city would not only be terrifying for more than a million Palestinian civilians sheltering there, it would put the final nail in the coffin of our aid programmes,” the UN chief said in a speech.
The US military said on Monday it had destroyed three unmanned surface vessels and two anti-ship cruise missiles that were prepared to launch towards the Red Sea from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. The US military’s central command also said on X, that it destroyed an aerial drone that was over the Red Sea. All the weapons “presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and to the US Navy ships in the region,” it said.
