Israel-Palestine live: Netanyahu rejects Hamas ceasefire proposal, vows ‘total victory’

The Israeli military has announced that three soldiers have died in combat in Gaza, while five more have been seriously injured, bringing the military death toll since the ground offensive began in October to 223.

Good morning readers of Middle East Eye,

We are on day 117 of the Israeli war on Gaza and the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza since 7 October now stands at 26,751, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

In its latest update the Palestinian Health Ministry has said that  at least 65,636 have been wounded in attacks by the Israeli military.

More than 8,000 missing who are believed to be dead and buried under rubble. 

Here are the major developments from the last few hours: 

• The Israeli army confirms it has been flooding tunnels in Gaza with seawater for several weeks
• Israel has issued evacuation orders for the west of Gaza City where the UN says 88,000 Palestinians are sheltering
• The “unlawful killing of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank” by Israeli forces must “immediately end”, the UN’s human rights office has said, after the “extrajudicial execution” of three men in a Jenin hospital
• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appealed for major donors to resume funding the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees
• The fate of six-year-old Hind Hamadeh and an ambulance crew in Gaza City is still “unknown”: Palestine Red Crescent (PRCS). Hind survived but her family were killed when their car was attacked by Israeli forces in Gaza City on Tuesday
   

Good evening MEE readers. An Israeli covert operation in the occupied West Bank early on Tuesday saw several agents disguised as doctors and patients enter a hospital in Jenin and kill three people, including a patient who was semi-paralysed.

Israel said it conducted a successful operation, and the US stood by Israel's claim that it was targeting Hamas operatives who were planning an action against Israeli forces. Human rights groups and experts, however, condemned the act as a war crime.

Meanwhile, Gaza's hospitals continue to face shortages of medical supplies. A delegation from the World Health Organisation attempted to reach Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis to deliver supplies but was unable to because of delays.

Al-Amal Hospital was faced with a barrage of Israeli attacks on Tuesday, leading to the death of one displaced person who was sheltering there. Israeli forces later stormed the hospital, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, which operates at the hospital.

Here's what else you need to know about today's developments:

• A new analysis by the BBC has found that more than 50 percent of the buildings in Gaza have been either damaged or destroyed since Israel's war in Gaza began.

• An international charity told MEE that they are being forced to pay $5,000 a truck to a company linked to Egypt’s General Intelligence Service to get aid into Gaza.

• Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Iraqi paramilitary group, announced that it would halt military and security actions against US forces.

• The White House said that the US could have a tiered response, that includes multiple actions, to the drone attack that killed three American troops in Jordan on Sunday.

• Israel's military said that it had flooded some Hamas tunnels with seawater.

• Yesterday, we reported that a young girl was trapped inside a car with the bodies of her family members who were killed by Israeli soldiers. It's now been well over 24 hours since the Palestine Red Crescent Society sent a rescue crew to find her. PRCS is still out of contact with that rescue crew, whose fate alongside the young girl is still unknown.

Israel's allegations that several members of Unrwa are affiliated with Hamas rippled through Congress on Tuesday, revealing a sharp partisan divide over whether the US should resume funding Unrwa.

In a congressional hearing on the matter, Republican and Democratic lawmakers clashed over the US decision to suspend funding to the aid agency.

Read the full story by clicking here.

Aurelie Godard, director of the Doctors Without Borders (MSF)’s medical activities in Gaza, has provided a new report on her visit to northern Gaza last week.

While there, she visited al-Shifa Hospital, the medical facility that was subject to a dayslong Israeli siege in November.

Godard painted a grim picture, noting that while the hospital's building is still there, the facility it is barely functioning.

"Al-Shifa hospital is still standing, but it is badly damaged and barely functional," Godard said.

"Staff at Al-Shifa are struggling to care for patients because the needs are huge … The number of patients is very high and medical staff have reported difficulties in many areas, whether with the supply of oxygen, electricity, medical equipment or simply food. All of this makes providing medical care extremely difficult, and they have enormous operating difficulties to overcome."

A new analysis by the BBC has found that more than 50 percent of the buildings in Gaza have been either damaged or destroyed since Israel's war in Gaza began on 7 October.

Using satellite imagery, the news agency showed the extent of the damage across the enclave.

Students at Harvard University submitted a civil rights complaint against the school on Monday, claiming that it failed to provide adequate support or protection to students facing harassment due to their Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim identities or for advocating for Palestinian rights.

“For months, students at Harvard have been targeted with rampant harassment and racist attacks including doxxing, stalking and assault simply for being Palestinian, Muslim and supporters of Palestinian rights,” the Muslim Legal Fund of America, which filed the complaint on the students' behalf, said in a statement.

Read the full story by clicking here.

The World Health Organisation said it was unable to deliver medical supplies for 1,000 patients at the Nasser Hospital in Gaza.

"Delays like these increase the health risks of vulnerable patients and hamper health personnel," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director, said on X, formerly Twitter.

Weeks after evacuating Gaza, 22-year-old Plestia Alaqad joins us from Australia where she now resides to speak about her experience on Real Talk - Online.

For weeks, the Palestinian journalist's coverage documented a raw account of the bombing and destruction of her own people, and showed the world the massive humanitarian toll that Israel’s assault has had on Gaza.

An international charity with extensive experience in the Middle East said that they are being forced to pay $5,000 a truck to a company linked to Egypt’s General Intelligence Service to get aid into Gaza.

"We have worked around the world in times of war, earthquakes and other disasters, but we have never been treated like this by a state who is profiteering from the dispatch of humanitarian goods. It’s draining a lot of our resources and the bribe being paid is per truck," said a spokesperson for the charity, which asked not to be named.

To read the full story from MEE's editor-in-chief, David Hearst, click below.

Charity says Egypt intelligence-linked firm charging $5,000 to get aid over border

In response to a question about Israel's undercover operation, in which agents disguised themselves as civilians and killed three people in a hospital in Jenin, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said it cannot make an assessment of the situation.

However, Miller added that "hospitals lose some of their protections if they're being used for the planning of terrorist operations", referring to a claim by Israel that the patients were planning an attack on its forces.

Attacking hospitals is a war crime under international law.

The director of the hospital said that one of the patients killed in the operation was suffering from semi-paralysis and "couldn't carry out basic functions".

The independent senator from Vermont said in a statement that the US and other countries need to restore their funding to the UN agency, which is providing critical and life-saving assistance to Gaza's population.

"Obviously, it’s not acceptable for any of the 13,000 UNRWA employees in Gaza to be involved with Hamas, and allegations against the 12 people charged must be investigated," Sanders said.

"However, we cannot allow millions to suffer because of the actions of 12 people. The US and other countries must restore funding to stave off this humanitarian catastrophe."

A deadly drone attack by an Iranian-backed militia on a US outpost in Jordan is raising questions in Washington about how far Iran and its allies will go in their bid to expel US troops from the region, as they force the Biden administration’s hand to conduct a powerful retaliatory strike that threatens to widen the Gaza war. 

The attack that killed three US soldiers and wounded more than 40 in Jordan came just as some officials in Washington assessed that leadership in Tehran and Iran's Quds Force were looking to reduce attacks on US assets, according to current and former US officials who spoke with Middle East Eye on condition of anonymity.

“Going into Jordanian territory is a serious escalation,” Bruce Riedel, a former senior Middle East analyst for the CIA and expert on Jordan-US ties, told MEE.

To read the full story, click below.

US officials see Iran escalating proxy war into uncharted terrain with Jordan strike

The Iran-backed Iraqi paramilitary group Kataib Hezbollah announced that it would halt military and security actions against US forces, saying it took the action to prevent "embarrassment" to Iraq's government.

On Monday, the US said that the drone strike that killed three American soldiers in Jordan had "the footprints of Kataib Hezbollah", and vowed it would respond.

Sigrid Kaag, the UN's senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, said that it is critical to recognise the central role that Unrwa plays in delivering humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.

Kaag added, as reported by Reuters, that there is no substitute for the role of Unrwa in the besieged enclave.

Several countries have cut funding to Unrwa after Israel alleged that several workers in the agency were involved in the 7 October attack on southern Israel.