Israel-Hamas War Highlights: Israel will not block aid coming from Egypt into Gaza, says Netanyahu’s office

According to news agency Reuters, Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinian teenagers near Ramallah in the West Bank on Wednesday during widespread protests against Israel's bombing of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said.

A statement from the Palestinian Authority's health ministry said Israeli forces shot a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old in the village of Shuqba west of Ramallah. It did not elaborate.

Residents told Reuters the two boys were trying to set fire to tyres in protest against Israel when they were shot. Israel's defence forces, asked for comment, said they were looking into the incident.

The deaths brought the toll of Palestinians killed in the latest flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence to at least 64 in the West Bank. 

US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken left Israel on Wednesday after a visit that lasted less than eight hours. 

Biden and Blinken are travelling back to Washington. After the explosion at Gaza's Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital that killed hundreds of Palestinians, Jordan had cancelled the second half of Biden’s itinerary: a planned summit in Amman with the leaders of Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority to shore up aid to Gaza and avert wider war.

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced $100 million for humanitarian assistance in Gaza and the West Bank.

“I just announced $100 million for humanitarian assistance in Gaza and the West Bank. This money will support over 1 million displaced and conflict-affected Palestinians,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

“And we will have mechanisms in place so this aid reaches those in need – not Hamas or terrorist groups,” he further said.

The United States vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution on Wednesday that would have called for humanitarian pauses in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants to allow humanitarian aid access to the Gaza Strip.

The vote on the Brazilian-drafted text was twice delayed in the past couple of days as the United States tries to broker aid access to Gaza. Twelve members voted in favor of the draft text on Wednesday, while Russia and Britain abstained.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to allow for the release of hostages and humanitarian aid access to Gaza.

The draft resolution also urged Israel - without naming it - to rescind its order for civilians and U.N. staff in Gaza to move to the south of the Palestinian enclave and condemns "the terrorist attacks by Hamas." (Reuters)

According to a Reuters news report, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's office has said that the country would not prevent Egypt from delivering food, water and medicine to civilians in South Gaza.

Israeli PM’s office also said that there would be no humanitarian aid allowed from Israel into Gaza without the return of the hostages.

U.S. President Joe Biden, wrapping up a rapid trip to Israel on Wednesday to offer assurances following a deadly attack by Hamas, said the United States would do everything it could to ensure the country was safe.

Biden urged Israelis not to be consumed by rage and said the vast majority of Palestinians were not affiliated with Hamas. The Palestinian people are suffering as well, he said.

In remarks after meeting Israeli leaders, Biden said he would ask Congress for an "unprecedented" aid package this week. The president made reference to the Nazi Holocaust of World War Two when saying that Israel had the backing of its friends.

"We will not stand by and do nothing again. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever," he said. The United States has urged Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Earlier he said he had asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tough questions during their meeting on Wednesday in Tel Aviv, where they also discussed humanitarian needs, security assistance and information on unaccounted Americans.

"I asked tough questions as a friend of Israel. We will continue to deter any actor wanting to widen this conflict." Biden said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. (Reuters)

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday said that he came to Israel with a single message “You are not alone.”

Holding a press conference in Tel Aviv, Biden said that the Hamas attack left a deep wound among Israelis. “Israel must again be a safe place for Jewish people,” he said.

Biden also stated that he will ask the US Congress for an unprecedented support package for Israel later this week. “Other nations, hostile actors should not think of attacking Israel,” he said.

Biden said that there is also an agreement with Israel to allow humanitarian ais to move from Egypt to Gaza. Hundreds of tons of aid from several countries have been waiting in Egypt's Sinai peninsula for days pending a deal for its safe delivery to Gaza and the evacuation of some foreign passport holders through the Rafah crossing.

The head of orthopaedic surgery at Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital in Gaza, Fadel Naim, had just finished a procedure when he heard a huge explosion and his department filled with people screaming for help.

"People came running into the surgery department screaming help us, help us, there are people killed and wounded inside the hospital," he said. "The hospital was full of dead and wounded, dismembered bodies," he said. "We tried to save whoever could be saved but the number was too great for the hospital team."

Doctor Ibrahim Al-Naqa was proud of the 100-year-old baptist hospital. In a region of conflict, it welcomed all faiths and offered patients a church and a mosque.

"This place created a safe haven for women and children, those who escaped the Israeli bombing into this hospital, those who saw this place as a safe haven," said Naqa. "Without warning this hospital was targeted. We don't know what the shell is called but we saw the results of it when it targeted children and ripped their bodies into pieces."

Palestinian officials blamed an Israeli air strike for the blast. Israel said the blast was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, which denied blame. (Reuters)

Israel's military said it was responding to shots fired at its military posts in the area of Zar'it along the Lebanon border on Wednesday.

"An anti-tank fire was fired a short time ago in the Dvornit area on the Lebanese border, the IDF forces respond with artillery fire at the source of the fire," the IDF tweeted. 

The United States on Wednesday announced sanctions against a group of 10 Hamas members and the Palestinian militant organization's financial network across Gaza, Sudan, Turkey, Algeria and Qatar, a report by news agency Associated Press said.

Targeted for Wednesday's sanctions action by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control are members who manage a Hamas investment portfolio, a Qatar-based financial facilitator with close ties to the Iranian regime, a key Hamas commander and a Gaza-based virtual currency exchange.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the US “is taking swift and decisive action to target Hamas’s financiers and facilitators following its brutal and unconscionable massacre of Israeli civilians, including children.”

Gaza Health Ministry’s spokesperson, Ashraf Al-Qidra, on Wednesday, said that 471 Palestinians were killed and more than 314 wounded in what he called “an Israeli Massacre” at the Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian officials have blamed an Israeli air strike for the blast at the hospital on Tuesday. Israel has said the blast was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, which denied blame.

The Palestinian health ministry on Wednesday said that at least 3,478 Palestinians were killed and 12,000 wounded in Gaza in Israeli strikes since October 7.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told visiting U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday that Israel would try to avoid civilian casualties in its Gaza war, which he described as challenging due to the tactics of Palestinian Hamas.

"This will be a different kind of war because Hamas is a different kind of enemy," Netanyahu said in televised remarks. "As we proceed in this war, Israel will do everything it can to keep civilians out of harm's way." (Reuters)

Hamas said in a statement on Wednesday that the US was 'blindly biased to Israel,' after Biden appeared to blame a blast at a hospital on Palestinian militant group Hamas. (Reuters)

According to a Reuters report, UK PM Rishi Sunak on Wednesday said that the  British intelligence services are analysing evidence to independently establish the facts about Tuesday's deadly blast at a Gaza hospital.

"We should not rush to judgements before we have all the facts," Sunak told lawmakers. "Our intelligence services have been rapidly analysing the evidence to independently establish the facts. We are not in a position at this point to say more than that."

Israel Gaza Conflict: World leaders have joined together in condemning the tragic attack on a Gaza hospital that claimed the lives of at least 500 individuals. While Palestinian authorities attribute the incident to an Israeli airstrike, the Israeli military assigns blame to a rocket misfired by other Palestinian militants. Key responses from global leaders include, the US President Joe Biden, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that the Gaza hospital blast was a terrible catastrophe that showed the conflict should be ended through negotiations.

"As for the strike on the hospital, the tragedy that happened there is a terrible event," Putin said after talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. "Hundreds of dead and hundreds of wounded are of course a catastrophe."

"I really hope this will be a signal that we need to end this conflict as soon as possible. In any case, we need to focus on the possibility of starting some contacts and negotiations." Putin said he had formed the impression that no major players wanted the conflict to escalate.

Russia, which has relationships with Iran, Hamas, major Arab powers as well as with the Palestinians and with Israel, has repeatedly said the United States and the West have ignored the need for an independent Palestinian state within 1967 borders. (Reuters)

Gaza Hospital Blast: The Indian Express' Diplomatic Editor Shubhajit Roy explains what unfolded after a deadly blast at a Gaza hospital complex left at least 500 dead. Israeli authorities claimed Hamas 'misfired' rocket which caused the blast. However, Palestinian authorities claim Israel was lying. 

According to a Reuters news report, the German government spokesperson today said that Israel must decide how long the anti-Hamas operation should last.

"We are in a situation in which a terrorist organisation has not only attacked but continues to attack Israel," the spokesperson told a regular government press conference in response to a question about U.N. calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.

"It is for now an issue for the state of Israel to assess when this terrorist threat so to speak is no longer so great that Israel can end its defence position," the spokesperson said.

Hamas representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, on Wednesday said that the U.S. and all Western countries that support Israel "hold full responsibility for the war against civilians in Gaza".

Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila on Wednesday said that at least 3,300 Palestinians have been killed and more than 13,000 wounded since Israel began air strikes on the Gaza Strip.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian today said that the members of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) should sanction and implement an oil embargo on Israel, in addition to expelling Israeli ambassadors.

An urgent meeting of the OIC took place on Wednesday in the Saudi city of Jeddah for Islamic countries to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

? He said Hamas was worse than Islamic State for its killings of Israeli civilians in the surprise attack on October 7 which triggered the latest Israel-Palestinian violence.

? Biden said Washington would provide Israel with everything it needed to defend itself as it wages war against Hamas, which he appeared to blame for a devastating blast at a Gaza hospital.

? He said he was 'sad and outraged' by an explosion at a hospital in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday which Hamas said killed hundreds of people.

? 'Based on what I've seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you. But there's a lot of people out there not sure, so we've got a lot — we've got to overcome a lot of things,' Biden said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned Tuesday evening's air strikes on a Gaza Hospital, that left at least 500 people dead. "Deeply shocked at the tragic loss of lives at the Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza. Our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims, and prayers for speedy recovery of those injured," he wrote on X. 

US President Joe Biden has arrived in Israel, where he was greeted by Benjamin Netanyahu. Take a look:

US President Joe Biden has landed in Tel Aviv, where he is scheduled to hold talks with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Apart from expressing his support for the country in its war with Hamas, Biden is also likely to push Israel to restart humanitarian aid to war-torn Gaza. His arrival comes a day after the deadly blast at a Gaza hospital complex, that left at least 500 dead. Following the attack, Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, cancelled a summit his country was to host in Amman with Biden and the Egyptian and Palestinian leaders. Biden will now visit only Israel, a White House official said.

Israel's military said on Wednesday it had seen no evidence of a direct hit by aerial munitions on a hospital in the Gaza Strip the day before, where hundreds of Palestinians were killed in an explosion.

Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza, has blamed the blast on Israel. Israel says it was a result of a failed rocket launch by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another militant group in the enclave.

In an English-language briefing, chief Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said an investigation had "confirmed that there was no IDF (Israel Defence Forces) fire from the land, sea or air that hit the hospital". He said there was no structural damage to buildings around the Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital and no craters consistent with an air strike. Asked to explain the size of the explosion at the site, Hagari said it was consistent with unspent rocket fuel catching fire.

"Most of this damage would have been done due to the propellant, not just the warhead," he said. Hagari also accused Hamas of inflating the number of casualties from the explosion and said it could not know as quickly as it claimed what had caused the blast.

The death toll from the hospital explosion was by far the highest of any single incident in Gaza during the current violence, triggering protests in the occupied West Bank and in the wider region, including in Jordan and Turkey. (Reuters)

Over the last 12 days, both Israel and Hamas have been accused of violating several international laws on war and conflict. 

International conflict is governed by internationally recognised laws such as the United Nations Charter and the Geneva Conventions. 

Under the Geneva Conventions, murder, torture, hostage-taking and “humiliating and degrading treatment” are banned. These conventions also require fighters to treat the other side's sick and wounded.

According to Article 18 of the Geneva Conventions No IV: “Civilian hospitals organised to give care to the wounded and sick, the infirm and maternity cases, may in no circumstances be the object of attack, but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties to the conflict”

Article 19 also calls for the protection of civilian hospitals “unless they are used to commit, outside their humanitarian duties, acts harmful to the enemy.”

Meanwhile, the Rome Statue of International Criminal Court offers a definition of war crimes as acts including intentional attacks on civilians, civilian settlements or humanitarian workers, destroying property where not militarily necessary, sexual violence and unlawful deportation. (With inputs from agencies)

Days after stepping up its bombardments near Southern Gaza, the Israeli military has issued fresh orders for the residents of Gaza, urging them to relocate southward on Wednesday. In a new evacuation advisory, Israel alleged there was a "humanitarian zone" with aid available in Al-Mawasi, 28 km down the coast of the Palestinian enclave, news agency Reuters reported. 

Leaders from around the world condemned the recent attack on a Gaza hospital that killed at least 500 people. Palestinian authorities blamed an Israeli airstrike, while the Israeli military blamed a rocket misfired by other Palestinian militants.

Here's how world leaders reacted: 

US President Joe Biden

"I am outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion at the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza, and the terrible loss of life that resulted," Biden said in a statement as he headed on a visit to Israel.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi

The Iranian President declared a day of public mourning. "The flames of the US-Israeli bombs, dropped this evening on the Palestinian victims injured at the... hospital in Gaza, will soon consume the Zionists," he said, according to news agency AFP. 

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau 

Trudeau said he was "horrified by the incident". "My thoughts are with those who lost loved ones. It is imperative that innocent civilians be protected and international law upheld," he added. 

French President Emmanuel Macron 

"Nothing can justify a strike against a hospital. Nothing can justify targeting civilians. France condemns the attack on the Al-Ahli Arabi hospital in Gaza which caused so many Palestinian victims. We think of them," French President Emmanuel Macron said on X.

The UN Security Council scheduled a Wednesday vote on a resolution that initially condemned “the heinous terrorist attacks by Hamas” on Israel as well as all violence against civilians, while calling for “humanitarian pauses” to deliver desperately needed aid to millions in Gaza.

Negotiations on wording of the draft resolution sponsored by Brazil continued throughout Tuesday, and the final version to be voted on had not been released by late Tuesday.

The vote follows the council's rejection Monday evening of a Russian-drafted resolution that condemned violence and terrorism against civilians and called for a “humanitarian cease-fire” but made no mention of Hamas. Russia has proposed two amendments to the Brazil resolution that will be voted on first. One calls for a “humanitarian cease-fire.”

The other would condemn indiscriminate attacks on civilians and assaults on “civilian objects” in Gaza like hospitals and schools that deprive people of the means to survive. Brazil holds the Security Council presidency this month and its UN mission said the vote would be followed by an emergency meeting to discuss Tuesday's huge explosion and fire at a Gaza City hospital packed with patients, relatives and Palestinians seeking shelter. The Hamas-run health ministry said at least 500 died. Russia, the United Arab Emirates and China called for the emergency session, at which UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo and UN Mideast envoy Tor Wennesland were to brief council members. Israel and the Palestinians accused each other of being responsible for the hospital carnage. Hamas said it was from an Israeli airstrike.

Israel blamed a misfired rocket by the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad. Islamic Jihad denied any involvement. (AP)

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "horrified" by hundreds of people killed in Tuesday's strike on a Gaza hospital. Guterres said he had appealed to Hamas for the immediate and unconditional release of hostages, and to Israel to allow immediate unrestricted access to humanitarian aid for Gaza.

Congress leader P Chidambaram shared a post on social media platform X this morning, where he condemned the recent Gaza hospital blast. 'If reports are true that Israeli air strikes yesterday killed hundreds of people in a hospital in Gaza, that is condemnable,' he wrote. Stating that 'war is no solution to disputes,' the Congress leader called for countries like India to step in and 'prevail upon both sides to stop the fighting and explore ways to begin negotiations'. 

US President Joe Biden is currently on his way to Tel Aviv, where he will meet with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. However, the Gaza hospital blast, which took place a day before his visit, seems to have upended some of his plans. 

Following the attack, Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, cancelled a summit his country was to host in Amman with Biden and the Egyptian and Palestinian leaders. Biden will now visit only Israel, a White House official said.

Apart from showing his support for Israel, the US President is also likely to make a case to allow humanitarian aid in to help civilians. This comes after Israel declared a complete siege on the Gaza strip, which essentially halteed the supply of food, medicines, fuel and other resources. 

A massive blast rocked a Gaza City hospital packed with wounded and other Palestinians seeking shelter on Tuesday night, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said. The death toll from the incident stands at least 500, according to Palestinian officials. Meanwhile, while Hamas has blamed an Israeli airstrike, the Israeli military alleges that a rocket was misfired by other Palestinian militants.

According to a report by the Associated Press, the Israeli military blamed Islamic Jihad, a smaller, more radical Palestinian militant group that often works with Hamas. The military said Islamic Jihad militants had fired a barrage of rockets near the hospital and that “intelligence from multiple sources" indicated the group was responsible.

At least six people have been killed in an Israeli air strike that hit a school run by the United Nations' Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) in Gaza's Al-Maghazi refugee camp, UNRWA posted on X social media platform. The UN agency said that dozens were injured (including UNRWA staff) and severe structural damage was caused to the school. 

“The numbers are likely to be higher. This is outrageous, and it again shows a flagrant disregard for the lives of civilians.  No place is safe in Gaza anymore, not even UNRWA facilities,” the UNRWA statement read.

“At least 4,000 people have taken refuge in this UNRWA school turned shelter. They had and still have nowhere else to go,” they said.

US President Joe Biden is scheduled for a brief visit to Israel, lasting approximately five hours, before heading to Jordan, where he will hold talks with King Abdullah II, reported The Times of Israel citing Channel 12.

Following this meeting, President Biden will join a summit hosted by King Abdullah, featuring the participation of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, as reported by The Times of Israel.

The primary focus of this summit, as per reports, is to address the ongoing humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people. (ANI)

? Clashes erupted along the Lebanon-Israel border that left five Hezbollah fighters dead, marking the largest number of casualties for the militant group in a single day as tensions with Israel escalated.

? Egypt is still negotiating with Israel on the delivery of humanitarian assistance and fuel to Gaza from its crossing points, Rafah and Kerem Shalom. An official said Israel is searching all aid deliveries and wants to “ensure that such aid won’t benefit Hamas.”

? Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, said that an Israeli airstrike on the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza killed top militant commander, Ayman Nofal

? The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based watchdog, says at least 13 Palestinian journalists in Gaza and three journalists in Israel have been killed since the war erupted. 

? A hospital in the southern Gaza city of Rafah says it has received two Israeli warnings to evacuate even though it is in the area where Israel told civilians to take refuge.

? The chief of Israeli military intelligence circulated a letter to his subordinates in which he acknowledged that the corps failed to anticipate the Oct. 7 Hamas onslaught from Gaza and that he took full responsibility.

? Israel has attacked around 5,000 Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip since Oct 7 and has cancelled a "large number" of other strikes in an effort to avoid Palestinian civilian casualties, a senior Israeli official said on Tuesday. 

The chief of Israeli military intelligence circulated a letter to his subordinates on Tuesday in which he acknowledged that the corps failed to anticipate the Oct. 7 Hamas onslaught from Gaza and that he took full responsibility.

The letter by Major-General Aharon Haliva was published by Israeli media and confirmed to Reuters by a military spokesperson. (Reuters)

According to a Reuters report, Israeli air strike killed senior Hamas armed commander Ayman Nofal in Gaza, the Hamas armed wing Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam Brigades said on Tuesday.

A member of the higher military council of Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam Brigades, Nofal was in charge of the Central Gaza area in the armed wing.

Israeli shelling killed four people in southern Lebanon on Tuesday near the village of Alma Al-Shaab, security sources in Lebanon said Further details were not immediately available. (Reuters)

Eighty Palestinians have died in the last 24 hours due to the Israeli air strikes in southern Gaza,  Hamas-run Government Media Office said on Tuesday.

Palestinians described intense bombardments early Tuesday near two towns (Khan Younis and Deir al Balah) in southern Gaza, where Israel had ordered civilians to seek refuge.  

The UN human rights office is decrying “appalling reports” that civilians who were trying to flee to southern Gaza were hit and killed by a military strike. Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani urged Israeli forces to avoid “aerial bombardments, indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks” and to “take precautions to avoid – and in any case, to minimize – loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects.”

She said those who managed to evacuate are now trapped in southern Gaza with scant access to shelter, food, water, sanitation and medicine.

Shamdasani also reiterated the call from the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to Palestinian armed groups “to immediately and unconditionally release all civilian hostages and to halt the use of inherently indiscriminate projectiles against Israel.” (AP)

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday announced that he will visit Israel following the fatal terror attacks by Hamas terror group in Israel, reported The Jerusalem Post. 

Earlier today, Macron said the situation of hostages is “absolutely odious and unacceptable” after Hamas’ military wing released a hostage video showing a dazed woman having her arm bandaged.The woman identified herself as Mia Schem, 21, a French-Israeli national.

Gaza is running out of food stocks with only a few days worth of supplies remaining in shops, the World Food Program says.

Shops only have four or five days' worth of essential food stocks available, said spokeswoman Abeer Etefa. There is enough food in warehouses to last about two weeks, but these are difficult to access because they are located in Gaza City, where Israel has ordered residents to evacuate.

Out of five mills in Gaza, only one is operating due to security concerns and the unavailability of fuel and electricity. Etefa said the primary challenge for WFP is being able to get food to shops amid the constant bombardment. (AP)

The mother of a young Israeli woman held by Hamas appealed for her release on Tuesday, calling the seizure of some 200 hostages by the Palestinian militant group “a crime against humanity.”

A day earlier, Hamas’ military wing released a video showing a dazed Mia Schem, 21, having her arm wrapped with bandages. It was the first sign of life from any of the hostages since Gaza-based gunmen smashed through border fortifications on October 7. 

Israel on Tuesday bombed areas of southern Gaza where it had told Palestinians to flee to ahead of an expected invasion, killing dozens of people.

In Gaza, people wounded in the airstrikes were rushed to the hospital after heavy attacks outside the southern Gaza cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, residents reported. Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official and former health minister, reported 27 people were killed in Rafah and 30 in Khan Younis.

An Associated Press reporter saw around 50 bodies brought to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Family members came to claim the bodies, wrapped in white bedsheets, some soaked in blood.

The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas hideouts, infrastructure and command centers. (AP)

Israel will face another shockwave by the resistance front if its "atrocities" do not stop in Gaza, a deputy commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards was quoted as saying by Iranian state media on Tuesday.

"The resistance front's shocks against the Zionist regimes (Israel) will continue until this 'cancerous tumour' is eradicated from the world map," said Ali Fadavi.

"Another shockwave is on the way, if Israel does not end atrocities in Gaza." (Reuters)

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Tueday said that the country is in talks with the Palestinian militant group Hamas on releasing foreigners, civilians, and children held hostage by the group.

He said that “many countries" had sent requests to Turkey to secure the release of their citizens held by Hamas. On Monday, a foreign ministry source said that Fidan spoke with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to discuss the issue.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Tuesday informed that Egypt will host a summit of state leaders to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Saturday.

He was speaking at a joint news conference with his Lebanese counterpart in Beirut. 

The United Nations human rights office said that Israel's siege of Gaza and its evacuation order for the north of the enclave could amount to a forcible transfer of civilians and be in breach of international law.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the U.N. human rights office, said Israel seemed to have made no effort to ensure the civilians temporarily evacuated in Gaza were provided with proper accommodation, as well as satisfactory conditions of hygiene, health, safety and nutrition. "We are concerned that this order, combined with the imposition of a complete siege of Gaza, may not be considered as lawful temporary evacuation and would therefore amount to a forcible transfer of civilians in breach of international law," she said.

The term "forcible transfer" describes the forced relocation of civilian populations and it is a crime against humanity punishable by the International Criminal Court (ICC). (Reuters)

The Islamist group Hamas released a video on Monday showing a statement from one of the captives seized in last week's devastating attack on Israel.

In the footage, the woman, whose injured arm is shown being treated by an unidentified medical worker, identifies herself as 21-year-old Mia Schem and asks to be returned to her family as quickly as possible. A representative of the family, which was among a group of French families that appealed last week to President Emmanuel Macron to help free their missing relatives, confirmed her identity to Reuters. 

The Israeli military issued a statement, saying it was in constant touch with Schem's family and condemning Hamas as a "murderous terrorist organization". It said it was using "all intelligence and operational measures" for the return of the captives.(Reuters)

More than 4,100 people have been killed and over 10,000 others have been injured in the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict so far. This includes at least 1,400 Israelis who were killed in the Hamas attack on October 7 and 2,750 Gazans who were killed in Tel Aviv's retaliatory air strikes. 

As many as 199 Israelis and foreigners are being held hostage by Hamas militants, as per Israeli military estimates. Hamas has claimed that it has 200-250 hostages. 

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israeli officials should face trial for their "crimes against Palestinians", state TV reported today, a day before US President Joe Biden was due to visit Israel.

"No one can confront Muslims and the resistance forces if the Zionist regime's crimes against Palestinians continue ... the bombardment of Gaza must stop immediately," Khamenei said. "The Zionist regime's officials should be tried for their crimes against Palestinians in Gaza," he added. (Reuters)

Three Israelis were injured in an anti-tank guided missile attack from Lebanon, reported local media today.

The missile was launched towards the northern town of Metula, said The Times of Israel in a report. Metula is a town close to the Blue Line that divides Israel from Lebanon. 

An Israeli military spokesman said on Tuesday that the status of the Gaza Strip after Israel's planned ground assault on the Palestinian enclave would be a "global issue" for discussion by Israel's politicians and with other countries.

"We've had all kinds of end games," Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told media during a news briefing, in response to a question about whether Israel's military planned to stay and govern Gaza after its ground invasion.

"The cabinet is also discussing what that could look like ... this is also a global issue, what the situation will look like in this region," he said. (Reuters)