Israel-Hamas war live: dozens of Palestinians reported killed in central Gaza strike; Biden decries Hamas sexual violence allegations
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war with me, Helen Livingstone.
Dozens of people sheltering at homes in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah were among those killed in Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday, as the Israeli military reported its “most intense day since the beginning of the ground operation”.
Dr Eyad Al-Jabri, head of the Shuhada Al-Aqsa hospital, told Reuters at least 45 were killed in the strike. A reporter for the Associated Press who was at the hospital and counted the bodies said at least 34 people were killed, including at least six children. It was not possible to verify either report.
Israel’s military is meanwhile assaulting southern Gaza’s main city, Khan Younis, in what the commander of the Israeli military’s Southern Command, General Yaron Finkelman, said was the fiercest combat since it began its ground invasion of Gaza.
Finkelman said Israeli forces, backed by war planes, on Tuesday reached the heart of Khan Younis and also surrounded the city. Hamas’ armed wing, the al Qassam Brigades, said its fighters engaged in violent clashes with Israelis.
In other key developments:
The UN’s top aid official has said the Israeli military campaign in southern Gaza has been just as devastating as in the north, creating “apocalyptic” conditions and ending any possibility of meaningful humanitarian operations. “What we’re saying today is: that’s enough now. It has to stop,” Martin Griffiths said in an interview with the Guardian, adding that the small amount of aid being allowed into Gaza could no longer be distributed.
Israeli forces have reported the most intense day of fighting in Gaza since the ground attack began nearly six weeks ago. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Tuesday they had mounted an attack into the “heart” of Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, and that paratroopers and navy commandos had raided the Hamas general security headquarters there. Heavy fighting was also reported in Shujai’iya, another Hamas stronghold in the north.
Israeli forces have killed at least 16,248 people, including 7,112 children and 4,885 women, in Gaza since 7 October, a statement from the Hamas media office has said. At least 43,616 people have been injured and at least 7,600 people are missing, according to the statement on Tuesday.
A “catastrophic hunger crisis” is intensifying in Gaza, the World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday. “Only a lasting peace can end the suffering and avert the looming humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza,” it said in a statement calling for a humanitarian ceasefire.
The UN has heard accounts of sexual violence during the 7 October attacks by Hamas, in a meeting where speakers also attacked women’s rights activists and UN officials for not doing more to investigate or condemn these crimes. Joe Biden also spoke about “horrific” reports of sexual violence by Hamas on 7 October, urging: “The world can’t just look away at what’s going on.”
Recently released hostages and relatives of Israelis still held by Hamas in Gaza have confronted Benjamin Netanyahu at an angry meeting in which some of those present reportedly called on the Israeli prime minister to resign. By the latest count, 138 Israelis and other nationals are still being held by Hamas in Gaza. During a week-long ceasefire that expired on Friday, 105 civilians were freed from Hamas captivity in Gaza – including 81 Israelis, 23 Thai nationals and one Filipino – in return for the release of 240 Palestinian women and minors held in Israeli jails.
The US state department has announced it will impose visa bans on Israeli extremist settlers engaged in violence against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank. The restrictions will target those who have committed acts of violence or taken other actions that restrict civilians’ access to essential services and basic necessities and may also apply to those individuals’ family members, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said. The move comes just a month after Israel was granted entry into the US’s visa waiver programme. Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said only Israeli military and security forces and the police have the right to use violence.
The US aid chief has announced new support for the Palestinian people during a visit to Egypt’s Sinai peninsula on Tuesday. Samantha Power, the administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAid), announced $21m (£16.7m) in new US assistance that will include hygiene and shelter supplies and food for people in Gaza, as she travelled to the Egyptian town of El-Arish, the gateway to the Rafah crossing into Gaza.
The Israeli military (IDF) issued a rare apology after an IDF strike killed a Lebanese soldier and injured three others on Tuesday, saying it had been targeting Hezbollah militants on its northern border with Lebanon.
A Hamas official has said there will be no negotiations or exchange of detainees until the Israeli assault against the Gaza Strip stops. Speaking to reporters in Beirut on Tuesday, Osama Hamdan also said that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was “responsible” for the lives of Israeli hostages in Gaza, adding that his true objective is to “eliminate the Palestinian people”.
Israel revoked the visa of the top UN humanitarian aid official for the Palestinian Gaza Strip and West Bank, according to foreign minister Eli Cohen. In a post on X, Cohen accused Lynn Hastings of failing to condemn Hamas for the 7 October massacre and instead of condemning Israel. He said she “cannot serve in the UN and cannot enter Israel!”
It is not good for the US to be “identified with so much killing, former Irish president Mary Robinson has told CNN in the wake of a statement by the Elders group calling on the US and other countries to reconsider their military aid to Israel.
Qatar’s prime minister has said mediation talks were still ongoing with an objective to end the war. “Qatar continues to make efforts to restore the truce, release hostages, and exchange prisoners,” Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said on Tuesday.
Rishi Sunak expressed his “disappointment” about the breakdown of the pause in fighting in Gaza during a call with Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, Downing Street said. The two leaders also discussed “urgent efforts to ensure all remaining hostages are safely freed and to allow any remaining British nationals in Gaza to leave”, a No 10 spokesperson said.