Israel-Palestine live: US and Israel air differences over Gaza strategy

Leaders of six major humanitarian organisations have urged the US to change course in Gaza in a op-ed for the New York Times. 

"We are no strangers to human suffering - to conflict, to natural disasters, to some of the world’s largest and gravest catastrophes. We were there when fighting erupted in Khartoum, Sudan. As bombs rained down on Ukraine.

"When earthquakes leveled southern Turkey and northern Syria. As the Horn of Africa faced its worst drought in years...But as the leaders of some of the world’s largest global humanitarian organizations, we have seen nothing like the siege of Gaza," they said. 

'The Biden administration must stop its diplomatic interference at the United Nations, blocking calls for a cease-fire," the authors added. 

The Gaza Strip will be under Israeli military control after the war, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu told the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation. 

“The Strip will be under Israeli military control. After the war, a civilian administration will operate in Gaza and the Strip will be rehabilitated under the leadership of the Gulf states. We will not give in to international pressure,” Netanyahu told the broadcaster.

Netanyahu also said  his government did not rule out the possibility of a war against the Palestinian Authority forces in the occupied West Bank and was making contingency plans to respond to such an event.

There are reports of an Israeli bombardment on the southern Gaza city of Rafah which has left at least 20 people dead, including seven children and at least five women.

People are feared trapped under the rubble.

Thousands of displaced Palestinians have fled to Rafah after Israel told Palestinians they would be safer there. However, the UN has said nowhere is safe in Gaza and Rafah city has been subjected to heavy bombing in recent days.

In addition to the strikes on Rafah, there are reports that two people have been killed in a seperate Israeli attack in Khan Younis.

The Israeli military announced that a soldier died on Monday, while three more were seriously injured.

The latest announcement by the Israeli army brings the death toll of slain troops since the ground operations began to 105.

At least three people have been killed and several have been wounded by an Israeli drone attack in Jenin, occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said on Tuesday. 

Dozens of Israeli military vehicles, accompanied by bulldozers, stormed the city of Jenin at dawn today, and began tearing up the streets and Palestinian property, vandalising commercial shops and destroying their facades, the Palestinian news agency Arab48, reported. 

We will have more on this as details emerge.

Good Morning readers of Middle East Eye, the UN’s relief agency in Palestinian territories has said that humanitarian agencies in Gaza are finding “many areas are off limits and access to others is unsafe.”

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said that only 13 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are partially functioning.

People in Rafah, in the south of Gaza, where thousands have fled, are “in desperate need of food, water, shelter, health, and protection” added OCHA. 

Here are some other developments: 

• Israel conducts a series of raids across the occupied West Bank, with tensions in Jenin rising dramatically and casualties reported
• The Houthis stepped up attacks off the Yemeni coast with a missile hitting a Norway-flagged chemical tanker; the crew escaped injury
• Israel will screen humanitarian aid at Karem Abu Salem crossing with Gaza. There is scepticism whether Israel will speed up deliveries
• The US mission to the UN said it will submit an amendment to a draft ceasefire resolution under consideration by UN General Assembly members
   

Hello MEE readers. It is almost 2 am in Gaza on day 66 of the war between Hamas and Israel.

Israel has been laying siege to several hospitals in the north of the enclave. Kamal Adwan and al-Awda hospitals have been faced with an Israeli military siege for several days now, creating fears of starvation as food supplies dwindle.

Doctors Without Borders said on Monday that one of its surgeons at al-Awda was shot and injured inside the hospital.

In the US, the Biden administration has been faced with growing pressure and scrutiny over its continued support for Israel's military campaign in Gaza.

Monday saw a mass mobilisation of several grassroots organisations across Washington calling for a ceasefire and end to US military support to Israel.

Dozens of protesters were arrested in the US Senate as lawmakers were discussing a spending bill that included $14bn in aid to Israel. And a group of Jewish protesters handcuffed themselves to the fence in front of the White House demanding an end to Israel's bombardment of Gaza.

The administration has also said it is looking into reports of white phosphorus being used by Israel. For months, rights groups have raised concerns about Israel's use of white phosphorus in Gaza and southern Lebanon.

However, a Washington Post report on Monday outlined the most definitive evidence so far that Israel has been using US-supplied white phosphorus rounds on civilians in Lebanon.

We are going to be taking a pause in our coverage but will be back soon. To stay up to date on the latest news, follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

You can also read more about the latest news from Gaza on Monday in our story here.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a panel in the Knesset that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates would fund the reconstruction efforts of Gaza after Israel completes its war against Hamas, the Times of Israel reported on Monday.

“The first step in Gaza will be to defeat Hamas. After that, I believe that the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia will support the rehabilitation of the Strip,” Netanyahu said, in remarks the Israeli news site said were later leaked to some few Hebrew-language media outlets.

Neither the UAE nor Saudi Arabia has publicly said that they would be willing to foot the bill for Gaza's reconstruction.

The report also stated that Netanyahu believed that Israel could build on the normalisation agreements it signed with several Arab countries in 2020.

He specifically said he would continue to pursue a deal with Saudi Arabia, and use it to gain support for the reconstruction efforts in the enclave.

Prior to 7 October, the US under President Joe Biden had for months been working on getting Israel and Saudi Arabia to normalise ties.

But since the war in Gaza began more than two months ago, Riyadh has put the talks of normalisation on hold.

Last week, US energy envoy Amos Hochstein said he didn't think hope should be lost with regards to normalisation of relations between the two countries and it remains a goal for Washington.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said that one of its surgeons operating out of al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza was shot and injured as Israeli snipers continued to lay siege to the medical facility.

The siege has been going on since 5 December, and a staff member at the hospital told MEE over the weekend that the staff and patients inside were almost out of food and water.

"We are an independent NGO hospital and working to serve the people. I don't know why we are being targeted," the staff member said.

The government media office in Gaza has said that the number of journalists killed in Gaza since 7 October has now reached 86.

In addition to the journalists killed, some journalists have had their homes destroyed or had family members killed by Israeli bombardment.

US Senator Lindsey Graham defended Qatar's hosting of Hamas leaders, saying the group was in Doha “so they can be talked to”, as he issued full-throated support for Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Speaking at the Doha Forum in Qatar, Graham also said that he would speak to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres privately to criticise his invoking of a rarely used article in the UN to appeal for a ceasefire. The US was the only member to veto the resolution.

The US senator’s presence at the Doha Forum, an annual gathering where Qatar hosts officials, academics and diplomats to discuss current events, at times made for some awkward moments.

Read the full story by clicking here.

The Al Jazeera network released a statement that condemned the bombing of the home of one of its Gaza-based journalists, Anas al-Sharif, which resulted in the death of his father.

“The Network expresses its deepest condolences to our colleague Anas and his family. Al Jazeera urges the international community and humanitarian organisations to urgently intervene and halt the Israeli occupation forces’ brutal targeting of both journalists and civilians in the Gaza Strip,” the network said in a statement.

Al Jazeera further said that it plans to take legal measures to ensure that the perpetrators of the attack are held to account.

The attack comes just days after 22 family members of another Al Jazeera journalist, Moamen al-Sharafi, were similarly killed in an Israeli air strike.

The US State Department said that the images of Palestinian men in northern Gaza forced by Israel’s military to strip naked and stand outside were “deeply disturbing”.

Last week, images and videos emerged showing Israeli troops detaining dozens of Palestinian men, stripping them of their clothes and forcing them to sit lined up on the ground with their hands tied behind their backs.

Some Israeli media reports said that the men were Palestinian fighters, but provided no evidence.

MEE obtained a list of full names, ages, and professions of 25 people among those detainees.

That list indicates that those detained are academics, journalists, teachers at UN-run schools, school students, blue-collar workers, and employees with the Palestinian Authority.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet decided not to vote on whether to lift a ban on Palestinians from the West Bank working in Israel, effectively extending a ban on Palestinian labour.

The prohibition has led to a massive worker shortage in Israel, where many jobs are held by either West Bank Palestinians or foreign nationals.

The Defence ministry's coordinator of government activities in the Territories, or Cogat, has said that the Israeli economy required Palestinian workers, a source told Haaretz. It said that of the 109,000 Palestinian workers who ordinarily work inside Israel, 28,000 were urgently needed.

Meanwhile, inside the occupied West Bank, Palestinians launched a general strike and shut down shops, schools, and government offices in protest against the Israeli military's continued assault on Gaza.