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Israel’s army says it has destroyed the largest Hamas tunnel discovered to date in the Gaza Strip. US Vice President Harris received Israeli Minister Gantz at the White House. All developments in the live blog.
United Nations experts accuse Israel of deliberately starving the civilian population in Gaza. The special rapporteurs in Geneva described the incident last Thursday, when the Israeli military fired into a crowd as food arrived in Gaza, as a “massacre” in the midst of an inevitable famine. This action by Israel is systematic.
The United Nations is now also considering supplying the Gaza Strip with food by air. This was said by the spokesman for the UN emergency relief office OCHA, Jens Laerke, in Geneva. Only a limited amount can be transported during such operations. This is not the most efficient way to get food to hungry people. That is why the United Nations continues to insist that the supply of trucks via land access be expanded.
Both the United States and neighboring countries have already airdropped food over the Gaza Strip.
According to Palestinian sources, at least 17 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the town of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. First responders from Civil Defense, which is controlled by the militant Islamist Hamas, circulated video footage showing rescue workers pulling the dead and injured from the rubble of a house.
The nearby European Hospital said 17 bodies had arrived overnight. The Israeli military said on Tuesday there were targeted raids in Khan Yunis targeting Hamas infrastructure. Meanwhile, attempts are being made to evacuate civilians from the area.
Conflict parties as a source
In the current situation, information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by the Palestinian and Israeli conflict parties cannot be directly verified by an independent body.
Israel’s army says it has destroyed the largest tunnel belonging to the militant Islamist Hamas ever discovered in the Gaza Strip. The tunnel with several branches found in the north of the coastal area in mid-December last year had been examined and dismantled in recent weeks, the military said. The army also released videos that show parts of the tunnel being blown up and emergency services pouring concrete into other sections.
The facility, through which vehicles can also fit, extends for more than four kilometers and at a depth of 50 meters underground, the Israeli army announced after its discovery in December. The tunnel system is located 400 meters away from the Erez border crossing between Israel and the coastal area.
Conflict parties as a source
In the current situation, information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by the Palestinian and Israeli conflict parties cannot be directly verified by an independent body.
Israeli President Izchak Herzog has praised the UN report on sexual violence in the massacre by the militant Islamist Hamas on October 7th. The report is of immense importance, wrote Herzog on the platform X (formerly Twitter).
The report “substantiates with moral clarity and integrity the systematic, deliberate and persistent sexual crimes committed by Hamas terrorists against Israeli women,” Herzog wrote. The world must now react decisively and condemn and punish Hamas.
Seven people suspected of spying for Israel’s secret service Mossad were arrested in raids in Turkey. The operation by the Turkish spy agency and the Istanbul anti-terrorism police revealed that the suspects had passed on information to the Mossad in exchange for money, the state news agency Anadolu reported.
Relations between Turkey and Israel have collapsed since the war between Israel and the militant Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas began five months ago.
The Israeli military says it has killed more opponents in the Gaza Strip. Over the past 24 hours, “around 20 terrorists” have been eliminated by snipers, tanks and drones, the army said this morning. More than 50 targets of the Islamist Hamas were also hit, including launch pads, weapons depots, tunnel shafts and other military infrastructure.
Conflict parties as a source
In the current situation, information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by the Palestinian and Israeli conflict parties cannot be directly verified by an independent body.
The terrorist organization Hamas and its allies most likely used sexual violence in their attack on Israel, according to a UN investigation.
There are reasonable grounds to believe that sexual violence, including rape and gang rape, has occurred in several places, said UN special envoy Pramila Patten in New York. According to them, there is also “clear and convincing information” about rape and sexualized torture of hostages
According to the US Central Command Centcom, one of two anti-ship missiles fired by the Houthis in Yemen hit the container ship “MSC Sky II” in the Gulf of Aden. The ship flying the Liberian flag was “damaged”. According to initial reports, there were no injuries and the ship did not request help and continued its journey, Centcom said.
Negotiations on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip between representatives of Egypt, Qatar, the USA and the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas are to continue today, according to a media report. This was reported by the TV channel group Al-Kahira News, which is close to the Egyptian secret service, citing a “high-ranking representative”. Egyptian state television had previously reported “significant progress” in the negotiations.
The mediators have been trying for weeks to reach an agreement for a ceasefire and the release of the 130 hostages still held by Hamas before the start of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan in a few days.
US Vice President Kamala Harris received Israeli Minister Benny Gantz for talks at the White House. Gantz is a member of the Israeli war cabinet, but is said to have traveled to Washington against the wishes of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli media reported. Accordingly, the head of government is said to have instructed the Israeli ambassador in the US capital not to provide his minister with any protocol support in order to essentially downgrade the visit to a private visit. An Israeli government spokesman simply said: “We wish him good luck!”
At the meeting, Harris expressed her “deep concern” about the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. She urged Israel to “take additional measures” so that more aid could reach the Gaza Strip, the vice president’s office said. At the same time, Harris welcomed the Israeli government’s constructive approach to negotiating a temporary ceasefire agreement. Addressing Hamas, the vice president said that it should “accept” the “conditions on the table” for a six-week ceasefire.
Caritas International has criticized the US military’s dropping of aid over the Gaza Strip as symbolic politics. A Palestinian teenager was apparently killed in an Israeli raid in the West Bank. All developments can be read in the live blog.