Israel Gaza latest: IDF hits West Bank with drone strike

Eight Syrian military officials have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on their positions in the south west of the country, according to state media.

The IDF targeted several positions near the city of Deraa, wounding seven more people, Syrian state news agency Sana reported.

It comes after the Israel Defence Forces said its fighter jets had struck military infrastructure and mortar launches belonging to the Syrian Army following “rocket launches” from the country.

Israel has refused a visa to UN humanitarian affairs chief Martin Griffiths due to comments made at the UN by secretary-general António Guterres.

“Due to his remarks we will refuse to issue visas to UN representatives. We have already refused a visa for under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs Martin Griffiths. The time has come to teach them a lesson,” Israeli ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said.

Mr Guterres claimed there had been “clear violations of international humanitarian law” in Gaza and argued that “the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum”.

Soon after, Israel demanded Mr Guterres’s resignation and said his comments were “shocking” and “horrible”.

The UK is “not asking for a ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas, a minister has said.

Minister for immigration Robert Jenrick added he “doesn’t believe” Israel has broken international law and that it was “impossible” to reach an agreement with a terrorist organisation.

“It’s impossible to reach an agreement with a terrorist organisation hell-bent on the destruction of your country and your people,” Mr Jenrick told Sky News.

It comes after the US and Russia led international calls yesterday for a pause in fighting to allow for the delivery of humanitarian supplies into the enclave.

Aid workers could be forced to halt humanitarian operations in Gaza if Israel does not lift its blockade on fuel supplies, the UN warned.

“If we do not get fuel urgently, we will be forced to halt our operations in the Gaza Strip. Time is running out,” UNRWA spokesperson Tamara Al-Rifai told the BBC.

“We need fuel so that our trucks can pick up that aid. We need fuel for our water desalination plants so that people can have access to clean water. Hospitals need fuel, for life-saving machines without which people can die.”

The IDF rejected the UN body’s demands and said fuel would “not enter” the Gaza strip as Hamas needed it for its “operational infrastructure”.

The prospect of Israeli forces launching an assault into Gaza’s dense urban neighborhoods, where militants use civilians as human shields, brings back searing memories of the deadly battles the U.S.-led coalition fought against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

For U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his military leaders, that intense combat and the thousands of civilians killed in airstrikes and neighborhood gunfights in Mosul and Raqqa are lessons to be shared as Israel prepares for a possible ground invasion against Hamas.

“In our conversations with the Israelis, and as we’ve made very clear, we’re continuing to highlight, the importance of mitigating civilian casualties and ensuring that … things like safety corridors are thought through,” Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, said Tuesday.

The U.S. can paint a vivid picture of civilian slaughter.

During the eight-month siege to liberate Mosul from Islamic insurgents, as many as 10,000 people were killed, including at least 3,200 civilians from airstrikes, artillery fire or mortar rounds between October 2016 and the fall of the Islamic State group in July 2017, according to an Associated Press investigation.

About the same number of civilians were killed or taken hostage by militants and used as human shields as they fled the city.

The United Nations secretary-general issued his toughest statement so far on Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza at a UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday as Israeli troops awaited orders to invade Gaza in the next stage of the war on the Palestinian militants.

According to Gaza’s health ministry more than 700 Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes between Monday and Tuesday – the highest 24-hour death toll since Israel began its bombardment of the Strip in an effort to crush Hamas after the group launched a surprise attack on 7 October.

My colleague Alisha Rahaman Sarkar reports:

Israel’s foreign minister defended his country’s attack on Gaza as a proportionate response to the 7 October attack by Hamas as he swore “a total destruction to the last one” of the militants. “It is not only Israel’s right to destroy Hamas. It’s our duty,” he said.

The Israeli military said it thwarted an assault by a group of Hamas underwater divers who tried to infiltrate Israel on a beach just north of Gaza. They were attacked by air, naval and ground forces.

Across central and south Gaza, where Israel told civilians to take shelter, there were multiple scenes of rescuers pulling the dead and wounded out of large piles of rubble from collapsed buildings. Graphic photos and video shot by the AP showed rescuers unearthing bodies of children from multiple ruins.

A father knelt on the floor of the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah next to the bodies of three dead children cocooned in bloodied sheets. Later at the nearby morgue, workers prayed over 24 dead wrapped in body bags, several of them the size of small children.

Israel escalated airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, crushing families in the rubble of residential buildings, as health officials said hundreds of Palestinians were killed in the past day and medical facilities were shut down because of bomb damage and lack of power.

The massive air bombardment continued through the night as Israeli jets hit sites across Gaza, the Hamas-run interior ministry said.

The soaring death toll from the bombardment is unprecedented in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It augurs an even greater loss of life in Gaza once Israeli forces backed by tanks and artillery launch an expected ground offensive aimed at crushing Hamas militants.

Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been running out of food, water and medicine since Israel sealed off the territory following the devastating 7 October attack by Hamas on towns in southern Israel.

The White House scrapped plans to have the new wave band the B-52s perform at Wednesday’s state dinner for Australia’s prime minister after deciding that it would be inappropriate at a time when “so many are facing sorrow and pain,” in the words of first lady Jill Biden.

Without directly referencing the devastation of the Israel-Hamas war, the first lady announced Tuesday that “we’ve made a few adjustments to the entertainment portion” of the dinner. Instead of the band best known for “Love Shack” and other hits, the entertainment will be instrumental music provided by the Marine band and the Army and Air Force Strolling Strings.

“Nurturing our partnerships and relationships with our allies is critically important, especially in these tumultuous times,” she said. “Food is comforting, reassuring and healing, and we hope that this dinner provides a little of that as well.”

Russia has issued carefully calibrated criticism of both sides in the war between Israel and Hamas. But the conflict is also giving Moscow bold new opportunities – to advance its role as a global power broker and challenge Western efforts to isolate it over Ukraine.

While Moscow lacks leverage to mediate a settlement in the Middle East, it could try to play on some perceived credibility problems with the West’s response to the crisis.
It also expects the Israel-Hamas war to distract attention from the fighting in Ukraine and erode support for Kyiv.

There are risks for Moscow, however. It could damage its relationship with Israel, which until now has kept it from sending weapons to Ukraine.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has condemned the 7 October attack by Hamas militants on towns in southern Israel. At the same time, he warned Israel against blockading the Gaza Strip, likening it to Nazi Germany’s siege of Leningrad during World War II.

He has cast the war as a failure of US diplomacy, charging that Washington has opted for economic “handouts” to the Palestinians and abandoned efforts to help create a Palestinian state.

Mr Putin declared earlier this month that Moscow could play the role of mediator, thanks to its friendly ties with both Israel and the Palestinians, adding that “no one could suspect us of playing up to one party.”