Israel-Hamas war LIVE: Dozens reported killed in Gaza refugee camp blast

Bolivia’s government is breaking diplomatic ties with Israel over the Gaza conflict, the Bolivian foreign ministry said on Tuesday. The Bolivian government accused Israel of committing crimes against humanity.

Egypt is preparing to receive wounded Palestinians from the heavily bombarded Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing for medical treatment on Wednesday, reported AFP citing medical and security sources.

The White House on Tuesday said that 66 trucks of humanitarian assistance entered Gaza in the last 24 hours and that dozens more are expected to be cleared for deliveries.

The US secretary of state Antony Blinken said that there cannot be a “reversion of the status quo with Hamas running Gaza.” Read more

The United Nations chief said that 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.

Two Israeli soldiers were killed during combat operations in northern Gaza, the military said. “Two Israeli soldiers killed during combat in north Gaza,” the military said in a statement.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed for the protection of civilians caught in the conflict.

“Protection of civilians on both sides is paramount and must be respected at all times. International humanitarian law establishes clear rules that cannot be ignored. It is not an a la carte menu and cannot be applied selectively,” he said.

The FBI director made the remarks during a hearing before the US senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee. Read more

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian called for the “last political opportunities” to be used to halt the war.

In Los Angeles, a man screaming “kill Jews” attempts to break into a family’s home. In London, girls in a playground are told they are “stinking Jews” and should stay off the slide. In China, posts likening Jews to parasites, vampires or snakes proliferate on social media, attracting thousands of “likes”.

Israel is assuming a defensive posture on the Lebanese front in order to avoid overstretching its forces as it focuses on waging the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said.

“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 as per news agency AFP.

Israel said its troops are engaged in “fierce battles” with Hamas militants deep in the Gaza Strip as soldiers push further into the enclave and expand the ground operations that began late last week.

Israel Defense Forces said they also attacked a Hamas outpost in the Gaza Strip, according to a post on social media platform X.

Negating the notion of “you do not switch (leadership) during war”, several leading Israeli tech company leaders have called for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ouster as soon as possible “to cut down losses”.

The World Health Organization said services have been “severely reduced” at the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital in Gaza due to a lack of power and dwindling supplies. Writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, the agency said reports of airstrikes in the hospital’s vicinity over the past two days were “extremely concerning.”

“Services have been severely reduced because of cut-off of electricity and restricted entry of medicines, other medical supplies, fuel and water,” the agency said.

President Joe Biden’s two top advisers will try to convince US lawmakers on Tuesday that it is in the country’s best interest to provide billions more dollars to Ukraine and Israel despite huge budget deficits and divisions over his administration’s policies toward both countries, reports Reuters.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will testify to the Senate Appropriations Committee on Biden’s request for $106 billion to fund ambitious plans for Ukraine, Israel and U.S. border security.

Ambassador of Greece to India, Dimitrios Ioannou says, “First, we condemn the atrocities made by Hamas. Hamas is a terrorist organisation. We would not be able to have a solution on the Israel-Palestine conflict without a solution on the end of Hamas. It is a factor to play in this situation…Second, we believe in the solution of two states…The lives of innocent civilians should be saved and protected…”

As Israel stepped up its relentless bombing of Gaza, desperate Palestinian families scrabbled through debris searching for survivors and mourned over the bodies of some of the thousands killed, draped in white shrouds.

Israeli army footage showed soldiers, who are also seeking to free at least 240 hostages, advancing through a bomb-scarred landscape, with buildings reduced to a mangled mess of stone and twisted metal by weeks of withering air and artillery strikes.

Israel said it had struck 300 targets during the fourth night of land operations in Gaza, where troops came under Hamas anti-tank and machine-gun fire, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed mounting international calls for a ceasefire.

The Israeli military said, “A surface-to-surface missile was fired toward Israeli territory from the area of the Red Sea and was successfully intercepted by the ‘Arrow’ aerial defence system.”

WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier warned of the risk of civilian deaths not directly linked to Israeli bombardment.

“It’s an imminent public health catastrophe that looms with the mass displacement, the overcrowding, the damage to water and sanitation infrastructure,” Christian Lindmeier said.

8,525 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, news agency Reuters reports.

The tunnels are a key objective for Israel as it expands ground operations inside Gaza to wipe out the ruling Hamas movement.

More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians have fled their homes, with hundreds of thousands sheltering in packed UN-run schools-turned-shelters or in hospitals alongside thousands of wounded patients.

UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini accused Israel of “collective punishment” of the Palestinians, and of forcing their displacement from northern Gaza to the south, where they are still not safe.

As the Israeli troops making advancements into the main city of Gaza and beyond amid the ‘second phase’ of military’s retaliation gainst the surprise attack by Hamas militants, Kuwait Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah condemn the Israeli aggression on beseiged enclave and called for a seize-fire.

Israeli military on Tuesday suspected a drone infiltration in the country’s southermmost city.

The Israel Defense Forces said it is looking into the incident.

The alert comes after Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen were accused of attempting to launch drones and missiles at Israel in the past two weeks. The missiles were downed by the US and Saudi Arabia, while the drones crashed into towns in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

According to a data released by the Committee to Protect Journalists, 31 journalists have been killed so far amid the Israel-Hamas war which include 26 Palestinian, 4 Israeli and 1 Lebanese. Eight journalists have been reportedly injured and nine went missing or detained, reported the Times of Israel.

“CPJ is also investigating numerous unconfirmed reports of other journalists being killed, missing, detained, hurt, or threatened, and of damage to media offices and journalists’ homes,” the journalists’ body said in a press release.

The Times of Israel reported that the Israeli forces on Tuesday demolished a house owned by a top Hamas official as the Israel Defence Force (IDF) expands the ground operations into Gaza.

With shocking images and testimonies from Hamas’ attack on October 7, Israel is running a hard-hitting online campaign specifically targetting Europeans.

The idea is to keep fresh in the minds of the foreign public how Hamas fighters crossed from Gaza into Israel and, according to Israeli officials, killed some 1,400 people, mostly civilians, while also seizing more than 230 hostages.

Natalie and Judith Raanan, the mother-daughter duo released from Hamas’ captivity, has arrived back in US’ Chicago afteer ten days.

“Her family members have been anxiously waiting for her return, and today I am sharing their happiness,” Israel Consul General to the Midwest Yinam Cohen tweets.

“While we’re celebrating Natalie’s return, we remember the 239 hostages, among them babies, children, women, and the elderly, who are still held by Hamas in Gaza,” he adds.

Raanan was visiting family in Israel and was taken hostage into Gaza by Hamas terrorists during the October 7 onslaught.

The United Nations special envoy said the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas is spilling into Syria, fueled by growing instability, violence and a lack of progress toward a political solution to its 12-year conflict. Geir Pedersen, the UN official, said the Syrian poeple now face ‘a terrifying prospect of a potential wider escalation’ following the surprising October 7 attack.

Israeli ground forces pushed deeper into Gaza on Monday, advancing in tanks and other armored vehicles on the territory’s main city and freeing a soldier held captive by Hamas militants. The Israeli prime minister rejected calls for a cease-fire as airstrikes landed near hospitals where thousands of Palestinians are sheltering beside the wounded.

The military said a soldier captured during Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 incursion was rescued in Gaza — the first rescue since the weekslong war began. Military officials provided few details but said in a statement that Pvt. Ori Megidish, 19, was “doing well” and had met with her family.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed her home, saying the “achievement” by Israel’s security forces “illustrates our commitment to free all the hostages.”

Thailand’s foreign minister on Tuesday began an urgent visit to Qatar and Egypt to talk on the matter related to the release of 22 Thai nations taken hostage by Hamas after the October 7 attack.

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said Monday his government was working hard to get Thai citizens home.

He has dispatched Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara to meet the Qatari prime minister and foreign minister on Tuesday, before talks with the Egyptian foreign minister on Wednesday.

Parnpree will “discuss the situation of Thai nationals being held hostage as a result of the ongoing violence in Israel and Gaza”, the ministry said in a statement.

Israeli PM Netanyahu said he has no plans to step down from his position amid condemnation from citizens following the October 7 attack.

Another convoy of 39 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid has entered into Gaza through Egypt’s Rafah crossing, bringin the total number of trucks to 171. The US said yesterday 45 trucks have entered and it aims to surpass that number in future.

A fresh set of sanctions on individuals and firms linked with Hamas has been imposed by Japan, according to a statement by the country’s foreign ministry. The recent sanctions have been imposed in addition to those imposed by the United States government earlier.

The sanctions consist of freezing the assets of individuals and a company that have helped fund Hamas.

The Israeli Defence Force said it targetted a number of Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon in response to mortar fire and a missile attack on northern Israel today.

Senior minister Benny Gantz said in a special address to Israel’s Arab citizens that they are an ‘integral part of the Israeli society’, in an attempt to conduct an outreach initiative to the minority.

“Arab Israeli citizens are hurting just like all of us over the criminal massacre of innocent children, women and the elderly,” he said, as reported by Times of Israel.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees accused Israel of ‘collective punishment’ of Palestinians in an emergency meeting and added that an ‘immediate humanitarian cease-fire has become a matter of life and death for millions’.

Israel’s permanent representative to the UN Gilad Erdan termed Hamas ‘modern-day Nazis’ and added that they are interested in the annihilation of the Jewish people.

“Hamas are modern-day Nazis. From their appalling inhumane violence to identical genocidal ideologies, Hamas is not seeking a solution to the conflict. They are not interested in dialogue. The only solution Hamas is interested in is the final solution, the annihilation of the Jewish people and may I remind my colleagues, they are rulers of Gaza and not you,” he said.