Israel-Palestine live: Week three ends with over 7,000 Palestinians killed

In his latest column for Middle East Eye, former Italian diplomat Marco Carnelos argues that US complicity in Israeli atrocities in Gaza is a reflection of "die-hard imperialism". 

"Biden completely misled his audience by equating Hamas attacking Israel to Putin attacking Ukraine. He forgot to mention that in the Israel-Palestine conflict, since 1967, there has been an occupier (Israel) and an occupied (the Palestinian people)," Carnelos writes. 

"As Ukraine, occupied by Russia, retaliates inside Russian territories, even reaching Moscow, this has not raised a single eyebrow among western democracies. But Palestinians doing the same is considered 'terrorism', while Israel's disproportionate retaliation is seen as normal by western governments."

He argues that US behaviour "can be explained only as moral bankruptcy, typical of a die-hard imperial attitude". 

You can read the full column below. 

Opinion: Washington has lost the plot

The World Health Organisation said on Tuesday that it was no longer able to distribute life saving supplies to several hospitals in Gaza, due to lack of security guarantees. 

It said that several hospitals had closed as a result of damage from attacks, as well as due to lack of fuel. 

Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City reached a bed occupancy close to 150 percent on Monday night, it said. 

Images taken in the hospital show the devastation of Israel's air strikes and seige, as wounded Palestinians - including scores of children - take shelter and wait to be treated.  

The Israeli military said that it had detected two launches from Syria, which landed in an open area. 

Emergency alerts have since been activated in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights. 

Israel responded with artillery fire towards the "sources of the fire", a military spokesperson said.

A week after the war began, the Israeli military warned more than one million Palestinians in north Gaza to leave their homes and head south "for their own safety".

Hundreds of thousands of people did, and among them was Palestinian novelist and poet Heba Abu Nada. 

But Gaza's south was no safer than its north, and a week later, the 32-year-old poet was killed in an Israeli strike.

"To God, we in Gaza are either martyrs or witnesses to liberation, and we all wait to see where we will be. We are all awaiting, oh God, your true promise," Abu Nada wrote on 20 October, the day she was killed.

Read more: The beloved Gaza novelist killed after fleeing south

The United Nation Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) said that a lack of fuel may mean they will have to stop their operations by Wednesday night, the group posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The message was posted on Tuesday, saying: "UNRWA will run out of fuel TOMORROW night - forcing us to halt operations and delivery of humanitarian aid to people in need."

Unwra reported on Sunday that 29 of its staff members, half of them teachers, had been killed in Gaza since 7 October.

US President Joe Biden was asked by reporters at the White House on Tuesday whether humanitarian aid to Gaza was being delivered as fast as needed. 

"Not fast enough," was his response.

The UN said that none of the 20 trucks that had been due to deliver aid to the besieged enclave had entered via the Rafah crossing from Egypt on Tuesday.

"We hope the materials can enter Gaza tomorrow," a UN spokesperson said. 

Israel's ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan has called for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' to resign following remarks at the Security Council session about Hamas' attacks on Israeli communities.

Earlier today, the UN chief said that attacks by Hamas "did not happen in a vacuum". 

"The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation," he said. 

"They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements, plagued by violence, their economy stifled, their people displaced, and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing."

Eli Cohen, Israel's foreign minister, said he would refuse to meet with Guterres during summit. 

"After October 7th, there's no room for a balanced approach," Cohen wrote on X. "Hamas must be eradicated from the world."

Israeli bombs have killed 704 Palestinians in the past 24 hours, and 5,791 in total since the war began.

The Saudi and Palestinian foreign ministers called for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Palestine war during the UN Security Council session in New York on Tuesday.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki accused the international community of "selectivity and double standards" during his address.

"Doesn't this wholesale killing offend you?" he asked. "Where is the outrage for the killing of civilians in the Gaza Strip?"

Meanwhile, Jordan's foreign minister called for humanitarian aid to be urgently delivered in a "sustainable way" to Palestinians in Gaza.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington was working with Egypt and the UN to build a mechanism to enable "sustained humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza".

Malaysia's prime minister joined around 16,000 pro-Palestine supporters at a rally in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday. 

"It's a level of insanity to allow people to be butchered, babies to be killed, hospitals to be bombed, and schools to be destroyed... it's the height of barbarism in this world," PM Anwar Ibrahim told crowds gathered at an indoor stadium in the capital.

"We are with the Palestinian people yesterday, today and tomorrow," he said, adding that US and European support was bolstering Israel's position.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that 33 Americans were killed during Hamas' attack on Israeli communities on 7 October.

He also said that the US was not seeking a wider conflict with Iran and its allies, but would respond if attacked.

"The United States does not seek conflict with Iran. We do not want this war to widen. But if Iran or its proxies attack US personnel anywhere, make no mistake. We will defend our people - we will defend our security - swiftly and decisively," he said. 

Blinken added that he would work with China's top diplomat Wang Yi to prevent the Israel-Palestine conflict from spreading.

Over 700 Palestinians were killed during overnight Israeli strikes on Gaza - the highest 24-hour death toll since the war began. 

A total of 704 were killed over the past day, the Palestinian health ministry said on Tuesday. 

At least 5,791 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli bombardment since 7 October, including 2,360 children. 

The Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission identified Arafat Hamdan, 25, as the prisoner who died in Israel's Ofer prison on Tuesday.

Hamdan, who is from the town of Beit Sira, in the northern occupied West Bank, was arrested on Sunday. 

"The occupation has begun a systematic assassination operation against prisoners amid a total aggression campaign against our people," the Commission said.

Israeli authorities earlier said that the prisoner had felt unwell and was transferred to the prison's clinic for tests, "where the doctor declared his death".

Read more: Second Palestinian dies in Israeli prison in two days

While Hezbollah fighters have been clashing with Israeli troops along the border, its leader Hassan Nasrallah is noticeably absent, much to people's surprise.

Qassim Qassir, a political analyst close to the movement, told MEE that Hezbollah’s officials are “keeping pace” with developments on the political and media scenes, and haven’t yet found the need for Nasrallah to appear.

“He will appear when necessary,” Qassir said, claiming that a ceasefire or a declaration of “total war” might be the catalyst.

MEE reporter Nader Durgham takes a closer look at Nasrallah's absence.

Read more: Where's Nasrallah? Hezbollah leader silent amid Gaza attacks

A 25-year-old Palestinian detainee died in Israel's Ofer prison on Tuesday, the prison authority said.

The Israel Prison Service did not identify the prisoner, but said he was from the northern occupied West Bank and had recently been detained.

On Monday, Palestinian prisoner Omar Darghmeh, who Hamas claimed as a member, died in prison under unclear circumstances.

UN chief Antonio Guterres has said that attacks by Hamas "did not happen in a vacuum", sparking criticism from Israel's ambassador to the UN.

"The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation," Guterres told a session of the UN Security Council.

"They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements, plagued by violence, their economy stifled, their people displaced, and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing."

He added that such grievances could not justify "appalling attacks" by Hamas, and those attacks subsequently could not justify "collective punishment of the Palestinian people" by Israel.

The comments were heavily criticised by Gilad Erdan, Israel's ambassador to the UN. 

"The Secretary-General is completely disconnected from the reality in our region and that he views the massacre committed by Nazi Hamas terrorists in a distorted and immoral manner," Erdan wrote on X. 

"His statement that, 'the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,' expressed an understanding for terrorism and murder. It’s really unfathomable," he added. 

"It’s truly sad that the head of an organization that arose after the Holocaust holds such horrible views. A tragedy!"