Gaza live: Israel continues bombing central Gaza
Live Updates
Good evening Middle East Eye readers,
Israeli forces have killed at least 32 Palestinians and wounded 59 more over the past 24 hours in three "massacres", according to the Palestinian health ministry.
This brings the Palestinian death toll in over six months to more than 34,183, with at least 77,143 wounded and an estimated 7,000 missing and presumed dead.
More than 70 percent of the victims are children and women, according to health officials.
In other developments:
- Police arrested dozens of people at pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Yale University in Connecticut and New York University in Manhattan on Monday, as the Israeli war in Gaza continued to reverberate through US university campuses.
- Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted by media as saying on Tuesday that he does not believe the Palestinian group Hamas will leave Qatar, where some of its leadership is based, adding he had seen no such signs from Doha either.
- Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades, urged for heightened action on all fronts in a televised address commemorating the 200th day since the start of the Israel-Palestine war in the Gaza Strip on 7 October.
- An Israeli air strike on Tuesday killed at least two and injured six in the southern Lebanese town of Hanin, Lebanon's official news agency NNA said.
- The White House said on Tuesday that it would have to "have to see real progress" before considering reinstating the funding it previously halted for the UN agency assisting Palestinians (Unrwa).
- The United States intensified sanctions against Iran, labelling four individuals and two companies as participants “involved in malicious cyber activity” on behalf of the country’s military.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for firing numerous rockets into northern Israel on Tuesday, retaliating against the killing of at least two civilians in a strike attributed to Israel in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah fighters fired "dozens of Katyusha rockets" at northern Israel "as part of the response to the Israeli enemy's attacks on... civilian homes, specifically the horrific massacre in Hanin and the killing and injuring of civilians," the group said in a statement.
On Tuesday, the US military urged the Iraqi government to enhance security measures to protect American troops in Iraq and Syria following attempted attacks on Monday by Iran-aligned militia groups.
"These attacks put coalition and Iraqi personnel at risk. We call on the government of Iraq to take all necessary steps to ensure the safety of US forces in Iraq and Syria against attacks from these groups," Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder told a news briefing.
"If these attacks continue, we will not hesitate to defend our forces, as we have done in the past."
Foreign aid totalling billions of dollars for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan advanced in the US Senate on Tuesday, poised for a final vote after the House of Representatives recently resolved a months-long deadlock and endorsed the aid on Saturday.
The Senate voted 80 to 19 in favour of advancing the package of four bills previously approved by the House, surpassing the 60-vote threshold required to proceed to a final passage vote, potentially as early as Tuesday or Wednesday.
One of the bills provided $61bn for Ukraine, a second $26bn for Israel, and a third $8.12bn "to counter communist China" in the Indo-Pacific. A fourth includes a potential ban on the social media app TikTok, measures for the transfer of seized Russian assets to Ukraine, and new sanctions on Iran.
Democratic President Joe Biden has promised to sign it into law as soon as it passes the Senate.
"This is an inflexion point in history. Western democracy perhaps faced its greatest threat since the end of the Cold War," Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in the Senate after the procedural vote.
On Tuesday, the US State Department said that reports on mass graves in Gaza were "troubling".
Palestinian authorities discovered hundreds of bodies in mass graves at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis this week, which had been abandoned by Israeli troops.
Additionally, bodies were found at the al-Shifa medical site after an Israeli special forces operation.
UN rights chief Volker Turk said earlier on Tuesday he was "horrified" by the mass grave reports at Gaza hospitals.
On Tuesday, the United States intensified sanctions against Iran, labelling four individuals and two companies as participants “involved in malicious cyber activity” on behalf of the country’s military.
“These actors targeted more than a dozen US companies and government entities through cyber operations, including spear phishing and malware attacks,” the US Treasury Department said in a statement.
The individuals and companies were working on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Cyber Electronic Command, the Treasury said.
“Iranian malicious cyber actors continue to target US companies and government entities in a coordinated, multi-pronged campaign intended to destabilise our critical infrastructure and cause harm to our citizens,” the Treasury’s under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence Brian Nelson said in a statement.
The White House said on Tuesday that it would have to "have to see real progress" before considering reinstating the funding it previously halted for the UN agency assisting Palestinians (Unrwa).
"In terms of our funding of Unrwa, that is still suspended. We're gonna have to see real progress here before that gets changed," said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
Washington's special regional envoy for humanitarian issues warned on Tuesday that the risk of famine in Gaza, particularly in the north, is "very high".
David Satterfield told reporters that Israel must maximise efforts to prevent a famine and urged increased aid distribution, especially in Gaza's northern region.
An Israeli air strike on Tuesday killed at least two and injured six in the southern Lebanese town of Hanin, Lebanon's official news agency NNA said.
"Israeli warplanes struck a two-story house with two air-to-surface missiles, completely destroying the building which was inhabited by a family that had not left the town since Israeli attacks began," NNA said.
Israeli forces and Hezbollah have engaged in continuous clashes for over six months, concurrent with the Gaza war, marking the most severe hostilities since their 2006 war.
A parliamentary committee examining UK weapons exports to Israel is facing criticism for giving a platform to an outspoken military commentator who has called the killing of civilians in Gaza “necessary”, and a controversial pro-Israel advocacy organisation.
MPs on the business and trade committee are set to hear evidence on Wednesday from Colonel Richard Kemp, a former British army officer who has been a vocal supporter of Israel’s war against Hamas, and Natasha Hausdorff, the legal director at UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI).
Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, told Middle East Eye: “It is extraordinary that this important committee when dealing with an issue of profound significance selects two of the most anti-Palestinian figures imaginable, but not one representative of a major agency that has expertise on the issue.”
The committee will also hear from two members of the House of Lords which have called on the government to halt weapons sales because of concerns about possible Israeli war crimes.
One of them, Lord Sumption, is among three former Supreme Court judges who have said they believe the government is breaching international law by continuing to permit arms exports to Israel.
Egyptian security forces dispersed a Gaza solidarity protest outside the headquarters of UN Women in Cairo on Tuesday and detained several activists who took part in the action, according to local media and activists.
Police forces detained most of the protesters, including Mahienour el-Masry, Lobna Darwish, Rasha Azab, Ragya Omran, Mai el-Mahdy, Israa Yusuf, and Farida al-Hifny, according to Egyptian activist Ahmed Douma.
During the demonstration, the protesters read a letter addressed to the UN agency for gender equality and women's empowerment, condemning the human rights violations and war crimes affecting women in Gaza and Sudan as a result of the conflicts there.
"Dear UN Women, we are a group of Egyptian women appalled by the atrocities committed against our sisters in Gaza as a result of the Israeli genocidal war on the Palestinian people since 7 October," the letter read.
"We are also appalled by the failure of the UN to protect the two peoples from the ongoing war crimes, especially sexual crimes, and in particular equivocating between the victims and culprits," it added.
On Tuesday, Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades, urged for heightened action on all fronts in a televised address commemorating the 200th day since the start of the Israel-Palestine war in the Gaza Strip on 7 October.
In a video broadcast by Al Jazeera TV, Abu Ubaida lauded Iran’s assault on Israel on 13 April, saying that the strikes using explosive drones and missiles “set new rules, drew important equations, and confused the enemy and those behind it”.
He also called for an escalation in the West Bank and Jordan, calling it “one of the most important Arab fronts”.
He mentioned that Hamas remained firm on its requirements during the ongoing ceasefire negotiations: Israel must cease its military aggression, withdraw forces from Gaza, permit the displaced to return to northern Gaza, and lift the blockade.
“The government of the occupation is stalling in reaching a hostages-swap deal and is trying to obstruct efforts by the mediators to reach a ceasefire agreement,” Abu Ubaida said.
The leader of the largest left-wing faction in the French parliament has been summoned for questioning by police over comments she made on the Gaza conflict.
Mathilde Panot heads the lower house of parliament faction of the France Unbowed (LFI) party, led by former presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon.
The party has taken a pro-Palestinian stance in comparison with other French political parties. They described the 7 October attack by Hamas in southern Israel "an armed offensive by Palestinian forces" that occurred "in a context of intensification of the Israeli occupation policy" in the Palestinian territories.
Melenchon and Panot both hit out at the summons, calling it an attack on freedom of speech.
said it was the first time in the history of modern France that a head of a parliamentary faction "was summoned on such serious grounds".
Panot said she was concenred about the "serious exploitation of justice aimed at suppressing political expression," while Melenchon said it was an "unprecedented event in the history of our democracy", and accused the authorities of "protecting a genocide".
Israel has ordered new evacuations in the Beit Lahia area of northern Gaza, describing it as a "dangerous combat zone" according to the army.
Earlier, Beit Lahia was struck by Israeli artillery shells.
Israel has claimed that evidence of mass graves found at a Gaza hospital were previously buried bodies that they had disinterred during their search for hostages.
"The claim that the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) buried Palestinian bodies is baseless and unfounded," the military said in a statement.
It also said its forces had returned bodies to where they had been buried, after they were examined.
"The examination was conducted in a careful manner and exclusively in places where intelligence indicated the possible presence of hostages. The examination was carried out respectfully while maintaining the dignity of the deceased."
The Palestinian civil defence on Sunday said it had found hundreds of bodies of Palestinians buried in mass graves by Israeli forces in the courtyard of Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.
At least 200 bodies had been retrieved from two mass graves in the medical compound as of Sunday noon local time.
As the search continued, rescuers estimated there to be at least 400 bodies.
The Gaza government media office said some of bodies found had been decapitated, and had their skin and organs removed. According to Al Jazeera, the bodies of children, elderly women and young men were among those found.
