Israel-Gaza live updates: Israel ready for another humanitarian pause, president says
1,500 tunnel shafts, underground passages found in Gaza since start of war
The Israel Defense Forces said it’s found about 1,500 tunnel shafts and underground passages in Gaza since the start of the war.
The IDF -- which has consistently accused Hamas of using civilians in Gaza as human shields -- said most tunnels were under schools, hospitals, mosques, United Nations facilities and civilian institutions.
-ABC News’ Dana Savir
40 trucks carrying commercial goods cross into Gaza for 1st time since war began
Forty trucks carrying commercial goods crossed into the Gaza Strip on Tuesday -- the first time commercial goods entered since the war began, Palestinian border crossing spokesman Wael Abu Omar told ABC News.
The trucks -- carrying items including flour, oil and salt -- entered through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing, the spokesman said.
-ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawy
Israeli president: ‘Israel is ready for another humanitarian pause’
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Tuesday that “Israel is ready for another humanitarian pause and additional humanitarian aid in order to enable the release of hostages.”
Herzog said to achieve this, “the responsibility lies fully with [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar and the leadership of Hamas.”
“It is really important for us to reiterate -- we are not fighting the people of Gaza. They are not our enemies,” the president said. “We are fighting Hamas, they are the enemy. And in this respect, we are taking all possible humanitarian steps according to international humanitarian law.”
Herzog said the amount of humanitarian aid for hard-hit Gaza “can be tripled instantaneously.”
“For the last two weeks, Israel has operated new scanning equipment in [the Israeli city of] Nitzana enabling the entry of 350 trucks a day. For the last two weeks there was a failure by the United Nations predominantly, and other partners, in the inflow of trucks into Gaza -- only about 125 or 100 trucks a day,” he said. “You can triple the amount of trucks easily, if there was only an effort by the United Nations and its partners. The world has to know that you could have had tens of thousands of tons a day more going into Gaza.”
A UNRWA spokesperson disputed Herzog's claim, saying, "That’s not at all accurate."
IDF will still operate deep in Gaza during ‘next stage in the fighting’
Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz said Tuesday that even when Israel moves "to the next stage in the fighting, the [Israel Defense Forces] soldiers will continue to operate deep in the [Gaza] Strip until we achieve all our goals.”
“We will continue to hold territory in the [Gaza] Strip in order to provide security to the Israeli settlements,” Gantz said. “Our operational plan is still long."