Israel-Hamas war live updates: Israeli troops ‘in the heart of Gaza City’, surround Hamas leader
Aid groups are calling for an end to the death and suffering in Gaza as Israel says forces have surrounded Hamas’s leader “in his bunker”. Warning Graphic.
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Israeli troops are “in the heart of Gaza City”, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said, as the nation marked one month of war with Hamas in the Palestinian territory.
“We are in the heart of Gaza City,” Mr Gallant said at a press conference. “Gaza is the largest terrorist base ever built.” “We are going to destroy Hamas,” he said.
He also revealed that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar “is hiding in his bunker and is without contact with his associates”, although he did not say where the bunker was located.
Mr Gallant rejected calls for a ceasefire and vowed there was “no going back” on its offensive into the “largest terror base mankind has ever built”.
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Ground troops had stormed the terror stronghold of the Gaza Strip “from all directions” and were “tightening the chokehold” around Gaza City, he said.
His defiance comes amid calls for an end to hostilities with Hamas, which continues to attack Israel and prevent Palestinian civilians from evacuating the war zone.
“Humanitarian pauses, to me, means first and foremost the captives held by animals. There will be no humanitarian truce without [the return of] the hostages,” Mr Gallant said.
The Israel-Hamas war started on October 7 when fighters from the Islamist group burst out of the Gaza Strip and into southern Israel, killing some 1400 people and seizing more than 240 hostages, according to Israel.
In response, Israel launched an assault on Hamas in the Palestinian enclave, killing more than 10,300 people, mostly civilians, the Hamas-run health ministry said.
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160 KIDS KILLED IN GAZA EVERY DAY
The World Health Organisation said an average of 160 children are killed every day in Gaza by the war.
“The level of death and suffering is hard to fathom,” WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told reporters in Geneva.
The International Committee of the Red Cross demanded an end to the suffering of civilians, especially children.
“Children have been ripped from their families and held hostage. In Gaza, ICRC surgeons treat toddlers whose skin is charred from widespread burns,” the organisation’s president Mirjana Spoljaric said.
“This is a moral failing,” she added.
RED CROSS CONVOY HIT BY GUNFIRE
The International Committee of the Red Cross said a humanitarian convoy carrying lifesaving medical supplies came under fire in Gaza City.
The convoy of five trucks and two Red Cross vehicles was carrying supplies to health facilities, including to Al-Quds hospital on Tuesday local time, when it was hit, an ICRC statement said, adding that two trucks were damaged and a driver lightly wounded.
The ICRC did not specify who had fired at its convoy or from what direction the fire came.
“These are not the conditions under which humanitarian personnel can work,” said William Schomburg, the head of the ICRC sub-delegation in Gaza.
“We are here to bring urgent assistance to civilians in need. Ensuring that vital aid can reach medical facilities is a legal obligation under international humanitarian law.”
After the gunfire the convoy altered its route and reached Al-Shifa hospital where it delivered the medical supplies, the ICRC said.
Later the ICRC convoy accompanied six ambulances with critically wounded patients to the Rafah crossing to Egypt, it added.
US OPPOSES GAZA OCCUPATION
Washington said it opposed a new long-term occupation of Gaza by Israel.
“Our viewpoint is that Palestinians must be at the forefront of these decisions and Gaza is Palestinian land and it will remain Palestinian land,” said State Department spokesman Vedant Patel.
“Generally speaking, we do not support the reoccupation of Gaza and neither does Israel.” Israel withdrew from the territory, which it captured in the 1967 Six-Day War, in 2005.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, after a Middle East tour of crisis diplomacy, was in Tokyo for a meeting of G7 foreign ministers set to seek a common line on Gaza as calls mount for a ceasefire.
In the occupied West Bank on Sunday, he suggested the Palestinian Authority under president Mahmud Abbas should retake control.
Abbas said the PA could return to power in Gaza in the future only if a “comprehensive political solution” is found for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
ISRAELI TROOP TOLL RISES
Around 30 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the offensive, the latest on Monday, according to a report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, citing Israeli sources.
Military analysts warned of weeks of gruelling house-to-house fighting ahead in Gaza.
“Hamas has had 15 years to prepare a dense ‘defence in depth’ that integrates subterranean, ground-level and above-ground fortifications,” said Michael Knights of the Washington Institute think-tank.
The operation is hugely complicated for Israel because of the hostages, including very young children and frail elderly people, who are believed to be held inside a tunnel network spanning hundreds of kilometres.
FRANCE PROBES RUSSIAN LINK TO GRAFFITI
Prosecutors in France are investigating a possible Russian connection to more than 200 Jewish stars spray painted on buildings, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The mysterious appearance of the blue stars on a seemingly random assortment of buildings last week sent a fresh bolt of concern through France, where anti-Semitic acts have been sharply rising since Hamas’s attack on Israel.
France is home to some of Europe’s largest Muslim and Jewish populations.
French prosecutors said they are probing whether a person based abroad may be behind the graffiti, after police detained a man and a woman, born in Moldova, who were seen painting a blue Star of David on a building in Paris late last month.
BIDEN PUSHING FOR CEASEFIRE FOR HOSTAGE RELEASE
US President Joe Biden is reportedly urging his Israeli counterpart to agree to a three-day ceasefire that could pave the way for up to 15 hostages to be released by Hamas.
According to US news outlet Axios, Mr Biden has privately pushed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to the temporary pause in fighting in Gaza.
The move is part of a proposal being discussed by officials from the US, Israel and Qatar that would see Hamas release 10 to 15 hostages and confirm the identities of everyone they kidnapped from Israel in the horrific October 7 attack.
But Axios reported that Mr Netanyahu told Mr Biden that he did not trust Hamas and did not believe the terrorist organisation was ready to agree to a deal.
‘ELABORATE PLAN’ TO PROTECT BORDER: ISRAEL
Israel has “an elaborate plan” to protect its northern border and confront rockets and other threats from militant groups in Lebanon, an Israeli commander has said.
Lieutenant Colonel Dotan of the 300th regional brigade, a commander for Israel’s forces on its northern border, told NBC News that the Israel Defense Forces “have multiple forces, tanks, infantry, artillery ready”.
“We have an elaborate plan. Some of it is digging holes, and waiting in the bush for anybody to attack. Some of it is a pillar of fire. But we’re ready.
He said he didn’t “see the difference between Hezbollah and Hamas” when he looked through his binoculars, saying: “Whoever fires at the northern part of Israel will get shot.”
ROCKET SIRENS HEARD IN TEL AVIV
Air raid sirens are sounding throughout central Israel, in Tel Aviv and its suburbs, as well as the Sharon area, Ashdod and the Gaza border area, The Times of Israel reports.
Hundreds of people had gathered at the square near the IDF’s headquarters to call on the Israeli government to do more to free hostages taken by Hamas.
There are no immediate reports of impacts or injuries.
NETANYAHU’S CHILLING WARNING
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said troops have been reaching deeper into Gaza than Hamas ever imagined, as he warned Lebanon’s Hezbollah that it would be making the “greatest mistake of its life” if it opens a new full-on war front.
Speaking from the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, Mr Netanyahu said in the south the war was “moving forward with force that Hamas has never seen”.
“Gaza City is surrounded. We are operating within it, we are deepening the pressure on Hamas every hour, every day,” he said.
He said thousands of terrorists had been eliminated, both above ground and in tunnels, including many of those involved in the October 7 attacks.
Mr Netanyahu said the ground operation had destroyed “countless” Hamas command centres, positions and tunnels.
“Hamas is discovering that we are reaching places they thought we would never reach,” he says.
ISRAEL MARKS A MONTH SINCE MASSACRE
Quiet sobs pierced memorial speeches and mourning crowds lit candles as Israel briefly fell silent on Tuesday, marking one month since the deadly Hamas attacks of October 7 plunged it into war.
At Jerusalem’s Hebrew University around 1000 people observed a minute of silence and recited prayers for the 1400 killed, mostly civilians, in the worst attack on Israel since its founding in 1948.
“The atrocities left a horrible mark,” said university president Asher Cohen.
“But there is hope. There will be rebirth.”
GAZA DEATH TOLL CLIMBS
Gaza’s health ministry said Tuesday that 10,328 people have been killed in the month-long war between Israel and the militant group Hamas which controls the Palestinian territory.
Thousands of children are among those killed in Gaza since October 7, when Israel launched a blistering assault in response to a deadly attack on southern Israel by Hamas militants.
DEATH OF JEWISH MAN INVESTIGATED AS HATE CRIME
The death of a 69-year-old Jewish man who died after he was allegedly struck in the head during a clash with Palestine supporters is being investigated as a possible hate crime and homicide.
Paul Kessler was struck and fell to the ground during duelling pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel protests in Los Angeles over the weekend.
He died a day later from his injuries, which the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles alleged were caused when he was hit with a megaphone and fell to the ground.
“Violence against our people has no place in civilised society. We demand safety,” the group said in a statement.
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said an autopsy determined the manner of death as homicide caused by blunt force head injury.
PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTERS DRAGGED OUTSIDE MELBOURNE CUP
A group of pro-Palestine protesters have blocked a major intersection outside Flemington Racecourse on Melbourne Cup Day.
Chaos unfolded just outside Flemington when a van with the words “Free Palestine” spray painted on the side began to block traffic, joined by dozens of people who sat down in the middle of the busy intersection.
Police were seen dragging protesters along the ground before arresting them.
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UAE TO SET UP FIELD HOSPITAL IN GAZA
UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan has directed Emirati authorities to establish a 150-bed field hospital inside Gaza to treat Palestinians wounded during the Israel-Hamas war, Emirates news agency WAM reports.
The hospital will be “established in multiple stages and include departments for general surgery, orthopaedics, pediatrics and gynaecology in addition to anaesthesia and intensive care units catering to both children and adults,” according to the report.
“The facility will also house clinics for internal medicine, dentistry, psychiatry, and family medicine. Supplementary services will include CT imaging, a laboratory, a pharmacy and other medical support functions.”
US SENDS WARNING TO IRAN, HEZBOLLAH
The White House has informed Iran and Hezbollah that the US is prepared to intervene militarily if they join Hamas to attack Israel, according to the New York Times, citing official sources.
It comes after US defence secretary Lloyd Austin on Sunday repeated the US was committed to deterring “any state or non-state actor seeking to escalate this conflict”.
IRISH-ISRAELI GIRL FEARED DEAD MAY BE ALIVE
An eight-year-old Irish girl whose father said it was a “blessing” she had died after Hamas’s invasion of Israel is apparently alive.
Emily Hand, eight, was believed to be among the dozens of civilians killed at Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7.
But now the Irish Embassy in Israel and Emily’s family say she could still be alive.
“We were told that she had been murdered. We were in mourning,” Emily’s half-sister, Natalie, 26, said according to the Times of Israel.
“On October 31, they told us that it was highly likely that she had been abducted.”
‘CEASEFIRE’: JEWISH NEW YORKERS OCCUPY STATE OF LIBERTY
Hundreds of US Jewish activists peacefully occupied New York’s Statue of Liberty on Monday local time to demand a ceasefire by Israel and an end to the “genocidal bombardment” of civilians in Gaza.
Dressed in black T-shirts emblazoned with the slogans “Jews demand ceasefire now” or “Not in our name,” the protesters unfurled banners reading “The whole world is watching” and “Palestinians should be free” at the base of New York’s iconic landmark.
The huge copper statue sits on Liberty Island at the entrance to New York Harbor.
“The famous words of our Jewish ancestor Emma Lazarus etched into this very monument compel us to take action supporting the Palestinians of Gaza yearning to breathe free,” Jay Saper of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), the gathering’s organiser, said in a statement, referring to the 19th-century activist who helped Jewish refugees fleeing to New York from Europe.
The statement quotes Lazarus’s poem “New Colossus,” which is engraved on the statue’s base as an ode to US immigrants.
REGIONAL TENSIONS EXPLODE
Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels claimed they had launched a fresh drone attack against Israel on Monday, escalating a campaign of disruptive strikes.
Israeli authorities did not immediately confirm the attack.
Hamas militants in Lebanon said they had fired 16 rockets towards Israel earlier on Monday, targeting areas south of the coastal city of Haifa.
Israel’s army reported about 30 projectiles had been fired from Lebanon and said it had fired back in the direction of the launches.
WEST BANK VIOLENCE
A sixth Palestinian was killed in the occupied West Bank on Monday.
The 18-year-old was shot by Israeli soldiers in Beit Fajar, in the southern West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry reported.
Earlier, the Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man in the town of Halhul and four in Tulkarem, both in the occupied West Bank.
Separately, a Palestinian stabbed an Israeli border policewoman in annexed east Jerusalem who later died of her wounds on Monday, police said, adding that the assailant was shot dead after the attack.
ISRAEL SEALS UP HAMAS TUNNELS
Hamas terrorists have gone underground – literally into a 500km network of tunnels under Gaza – as Israeli tanks and troops split the Palestinian territory in two.
Israeli Defense Force (IDF) infantry and their Merkava 4 tanks are now scouring the rubble around decimated northern Gaza with heat-sensing cameras looking for any sign of movement.
They have reported Hamas fighters popping up every now and then, attracting air or land strikes but the militants have been largely confined to below ground.
Their sanctuary hideouts are now likely to be their tombs as the IDF set about controlling the territory, destroying tunnel by tunnel.
“We will take the fight to Hamas wherever they are – underground, above ground,” Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said, referring to Hamas tunnels, and repeating calls for civilians to leave the urban war zone.
“We will be able to dismantle Hamas, stronghold after stronghold, battalion after battalion, until we achieve the ultimate goal, which is to rid the Gaza Strip – the entire Gaza Strip – of Hamas.”
Armoured Israeli military bulldozers have been deployed to plough choked roads clear of bombed buildings and vehicles to allow tanks through on their “seek and destroy” mission.
IDF troops are not entering the tunnels, dubbed “the terror Metro”, but rather when they find an entrance, they seal it up with artillery strikes.
RAFAH BORDER CROSSING TO EGYPT REOPENS
The Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt reopened on Monday to allow the evacuation of foreigners, dual nationals and wounded Palestinians, the Hamas government said.
The terminal was opened for three days last week before closing over the weekend amid a dispute over the passage of ambulances.
Six ambulances arrived at the Egyptian side of the crossing on Monday carrying wounded Palestinians to be transported to hospitals, followed by the week’s first group of dual nationals, an Egyptian border official told AFP.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had accompanied some of the ambulances, and the head of its Gaza office, William Schomburg, described “an immense relief to know that these patients are safe and will receive urgent medical care”.
ISRAEL TO OPEN HUMANITARIAN CORRIDOR AGAIN
The IDF’s spokesperson, Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, says Israel will again open a corridor for Gazan civilians in the north of the Strip to escape south.
“For your safety, take advantage of the time to move south beyond Wadi Gaza,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
The humanitarian corridor was opened for several hours on Sunday, despite coming under attack by Hamas.
Some 800,000 people are thought to have fled south so far, though many have insisted on staying in the enclave’s north.
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PROOF OF LIFE FOR THAI HOSTAGES
Thailand’s government claims to have seen photographic evidence that Thai hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are alive.
“I understand, at the very least, they are alive,” Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said.
“Our next point of consideration is the period when there is a temporary ceasefire, let’s say a day or two, that could be a window to evacuate (hostages).”
The PM did not state if all 24 of the Thai hostages were seen in the photos.
Last week, Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said it had secured “full support” from Iran, Qatar and Egypt to help negotiate the release of Thai hostages.
JORDAN AIR DROPS AID TO GAZA
The Israeli army co-ordinated with Jordan to air-drop vital medical supplies to a field hospital in the Gaza Strip.
“Overnight, in co-ordination with the IDF, a Jordanian aeroplane dropped medical equipment and food to the Jordanian Hospital in the Gaza Strip. The equipment will be used by the medical staff for patients,” the army says in a statement.
– with AFP
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