Jerusalem — More than 8,500 Palestinians have been killed, over 3,500 of them children, in the relentless bombardment by Israeli warplanes since Oct 7, when Hamas launched attack on Israel, killing at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians.
Here are the key developments in the past 24 hours.
Israel presses further into Gaza
Israeli forces were pushing deeper into Gaza, driving tanks and armored bulldozers through a devastated landscape, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out a ceasefire.
The premier told a press conference late Monday that a ceasefire in the Gaza war “will not happen” as it would mean “to surrender” to Hamas.
The United States also objected to a truce, with National Security Council spokesman John Kirby saying “we do not believe that a ceasefire is the right answer right now”.
Israel said it had struck 300 targets during the fourth straight night of land operations in Gaza, with its troops coming under Hamas anti-tank and machine-gun fire.
Two Israeli soldiers were killed during the Gaza invasion, according to the Israeli military.
50 killed in Israeli strike
The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said at least 50 people were killed Tuesday in Israeli bombardment of a refugee camp in the Palestinian territory.
“More than 50 martyrs and around 150 wounded and dozens under the rubble, in a heinous Israeli massacre that targeted a large area of homes in Jabalia camp in the northern (Gaza) Strip,” a ministry statement said.
AFP video footage from the scene showed at least 47 bodies recovered from the rubble after the strike hit several houses in the densely crowded camp.
Dozens of onlookers could be seen standing on the edges of two vast craters as people searched for survivors.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes when contacted by AFP.
Ragheb Aqal, a Jabalia resident, described the strikes as “an earthquake” which shook the entire refugee camp.
“I went and saw the destruction… homes buried under the rubble and body parts and martyrs and wounded in huge numbers,” the 41-year-old told AFP.
“There’s no exaggerating when they talk about hundreds of martyrs and wounded.
People were still “transporting the remains of children, women and elderly”, he added.
Yemen’s Houthis claim Israel strike
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels fired drones towards Israel on Tuesday in retaliation for its war against Hamas, a senior official from the group told AFP.
“These drones belong to the state of Yemen,” Abdelaziz bin Habtour, prime minister of the Houthi government, said when asked about the launch towards Eilat in southern Israel.
Israel’s military acknowledged a “hostile aircraft intrusion” but said there was “no danger”.
The attack is the third so far to be linked with the rebel group.
Aid ‘geared to fail’
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, warned late on Monday that the limited number of aid convoys entering Gaza were insufficient to meet the “unprecedented humanitarian needs” in the territory.
“The system in place to allow aid into Gaza is geared to fail unless there is political will to make the flow of supplies meaningful, matching the unprecedented humanitarian needs,” said UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini.
Soldier rescued
The Israeli army said a soldier, Ori Megidish, “was released during a ground operation after being kidnapped by Hamas on October 7”.
Netanyahu’s office published a photo of the young woman surrounded by family members.
Hamas released a video it said showed three other women from among the hostages seized on October 7, who Israel says number around 239.
In the video, one of the women starts shouting as she demands Netanyahu agree to a prisoner exchange.
In a statement, Netanyahu named the hostages as Yelena Trupanov, Daniel Aloni and Rimon Kirsht.
Resistance groups do not remain silent: Iran
Iran said on Tuesday it was “natural” for Tehran-backed groups to attack Israel in light of its war on Hamas, warning of a wider spillover if no ceasefire is reached.
The remarks were made by Iran’s top diplomat Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Qatar’s capital Doha where he met with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and his Qatari counterpart to discuss a push for a diplomatic breakthrough.
“It is natural that the resistance groups and movements do not remain silent against all these crimes” committed by Israel, Amir-Abdollahian said in remarks relayed by his ministry.
“They will not wait for anyone’s advice, therefore we need to use the last political opportunities to stop the war,” he said after talks with Sheikh Tamim, warning the situation could “get out of control”.
UN chief ‘alarmed’ by escalation
The United Nations chief said Tuesday he was “deeply alarmed by the intensification of the conflict between Israel and Hamas” as fierce fighting raged in Gaza.
The escalation includes “ground operations by the Israel Defense Forces accompanied by intense air strikes, and the continued rocket fire towards Israel from Gaza,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement.
“I remain deeply concerned about the risk of a dangerous escalation beyond Gaza,” he added.
PA should retake control of Gaza from Hamas: Blinken
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that the Palestinian Authority should retake control of the Gaza Strip from Hamas, with international players potentially filling a role in an interim.
As Israel bombards Gaza in retaliation for an October 7 assault by Hamas, Blinken endorsed the Israeli goal of destroying the Islamist militant movement that has ruled the impoverished territory since 2007.
“At some point, what would make the most sense would be for an effective and revitalized Palestinian Authority to have governance and ultimately security responsibility for Gaza,” Blinken told a Senate hearing.
“Whether you can get there in one step is a big question that we have to look at. And if you can’t, then there are other temporary arrangements that may involve a number of other countries in the region,” he said.
“It may involve international agencies that would help provide for both security and governance.”
Blinken said that there cannot be a “reversion of the status quo with Hamas running Gaza.”
“We also can’t have — and the Israelis start with this proposition themselves — Israel running or controlling Gaza,” Blinken said.
While Blinken backed Israeli goals against Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long sought to sideline the Palestinian Authority and its president Mahmud Abbas, which exercises limited autonomy in parts of the occupied West Bank.
Blinken on a recent trip to the Middle East met twice with Abbas and voiced appreciation for efforts in the West Bank to preserve calm, which has since deteriorated, with at least 122 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces or settlers since October 7, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Two members of the Israeli forces have been killed in the West Bank over the same period, one of them by friendly fire, the military said.
Blinken again repeated that the United States backed the creation of a Palestinian state, a goal bitterly opposed by members of Netanyahu’s hard-right government.
Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005. It imposed with Egypt a blockade of the territory after Hamas took over in 2007 following the militants’ conflict with Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority.