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Reuters

Israel’s military intensified its assault on Hamas militants in Gaza, as the United States and other global powers called for aid to continue flowing into the besieged strip to prevent an already grave humanitarian crisis from worsening.
Israel’s military said it had hit more than 400 militant targets in Gaza overnight and killed dozens of Hamas fighters, including three deputy battalion commanders.
In a statement, the military said that among the targets hit was a tunnel which allowed Hamas to infiltrate Israel from the sea and Hamas command centres in mosques. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
The Ramallah-based Palestinian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that more than 120 Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes that targeted inhabited homes in different areas of the Gaza Strip.




Earlier, Israeli Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi suggested Israel had no intention of curbing its strikes.
“We want to bring Hamas to a state of full dismantling,” Halevi said in a statement late on Monday.
US rushes defences and advisers to Middle East as Israel ground assault looms
“We are well prepared for the ground operations in the south,” he added, referring to southern Israel, which abuts Gaza. “Troops who have more time are better prepared, and that is what we are doing now.”
French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, meeting with the families of French citizens who were killed or held hostage before heading to talks with top Israeli officials. He told them that he came “to express our support and solidarity and share your pain” as well as to assure Israel it is “not left alone in the war against terrorism.”
In a joint news conference with Macron, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would make every effort to fight the war quickly, “but it could be a long war.”
Macron said he stood by Israel and would do everything possible to bring back peace and stability to the region. He said it was an obligation to fight against the terrorist groups, but without increasing the conflict.

The Palestinian health ministry said the Gaza death toll had topped 5,000 in two weeks of Israeli air strikes in response to Hamas’ October 7 attack on southern Israel in which the Islamist militant group killed more than 1,400 people.
Hamas on Monday freed two Israeli women among the more than 200 hostages taken during its October 7 assault. They were the third and fourth hostages to be released.
US President Joe Biden welcomed the release of the hostages and underscored the need to sustain “a continuous flow” of humanitarian help into Gaza in a telephone call with Netanyahu, the White House said.
China, which along with Russia has found itself in a separate camp to the United States, called for a “more authoritative, wide-ranging and effective international peace conference” soon, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki in a telephone call.
A Cairo peace summit last Saturday saw Arab leaders condemn Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, but fail to agree on a joint statement. Absent were Israel and the United States.

In public, the United States has stressed Israel’s right to defend itself but two sources familiar with the matter said the White House, Pentagon and State Department have stepped up private appeals for caution in conversations with the Israelis.
A US priority is to gain time for negotiations to free other hostages, said the sources, who spoke before the hostage releases were announced on Monday.
Asked about the possibility of a ceasefire, Biden said: “We should have those hostages released and then we can talk”.
Third aid convoy enters Gaza as UN warns fuel about to run out
At least 10 British nationals have been killed in the conflict between Israel and Hamas and a further six remain missing, junior British finance minister Victoria Atkins told Times Radio on Tuesday.
Barack Obama, in a rare comment by a former US president on a foreign policy crisis, warned Israel’s military strategy could backfire it if continued to ignore the human cost.
In a written statement, he urged Israel to limit civilian casualties, adding that it would alienate generations of Palestinians, erode global support and undermine long-term peace efforts.
“Already, thousands of Palestinians have been killed in the bombing of Gaza, many of them children. Hundreds of thousands have been forced from their homes,” Obama said.

“The Israeli government’s decision to cut off food, water and electricity to a captive civilian population threatens not only to worsen a growing humanitarian crisis,” he added.
He also condemned Hamas’ attack and reiterated his support for Israel’s right to defend itself.
It was not immediately clear whether Obama coordinated his statement with Biden, who was his vice-president. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
China will ‘do anything’ for Mideast peace, but conflict is ‘worrying’: envoy
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken planned on Tuesday to attend a UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East, though it was unclear what action, if any, might be taken by the council, whose five veto-wielding powers appear divided.
Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has allowed China and Russia to burnish their credentials as the champions of the developing world, in contrast with the United States, which has squarely supported Israel. All three big powers hold Council vetoes.
With Gaza’s 2.3 million people running short of basics, European leaders looked set to follow the United Nations and Arab nations in calling for a “humanitarian pause” in hostilities so aid could reach them.
The UN said desperate Gazans also lacked places to shelter from the unrelenting pounding that has flattened swathes of the Hamas-ruled enclave.
Additional reporting by Associated Press, dpa


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Senior Lebanese minister backs Hezbollah disarmament, but warns it will take time

Israel-Gaza war

Israel bombs hundreds of targets as Gaza death toll passes 5,000

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

French President Emmanuel Macron shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Macron is travelling to Israel to show France’s solidarity with the country and further work on the release of hostages who are being held in Gaza. Photo: EPA-EFE

Palestinians look for survivors in the rubble after Israeli strikes in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: AFP

Palestinian boy in Rafah, Gaza, mourns his relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment. Photo: AP

US rushes defences and advisers to Middle East as Israel’s ground assault in Gaza looms

F/A-18 Super Hornets on the flight deck of the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford. Photo: US Navy via AFP


A US military outpost in al-Tanf, Syria in 2018. File photo; AP

A US Army Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) launching station. File photo: US Army

Third aid convoy enters Gaza as UN warns fuel about to run out

A Palestinian boy in Rafah mourns his relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Photo: AP

Palestinians get food at a UN-run school in Rafah, Gaza, where they have taken refuge. Photo: Reuters

A man unloads humanitarian aid in Gaza on Saturday. Photo: AFP

Hamas frees 2 more Gaza hostages as US advises delaying ground war

Yocheved Lifshitz and Nurit Cooper, who were held hostage by Hamas militants, being released. Photo: Al-Qassam Brigades, military wing of Hamas via Reuters

Israeli hostages Nurit Yitzhak and Yocheved Lifshitz arriving in Tel Aviv, Israel. Photo: AFP

Yocheved Lifshitz, left, and Nurit Cooper, who were held as hostage. Photo: Hostages and Missing Families Forum via AP

At least 222 people were captured on October 7 and dragged back to Gaza, including foreigners. Photo: AP

Israel-Gaza war: China will ‘do anything’ to restore peace, but ‘prospects are worrying’, envoy says

Zhai Jun (left), China’s Middle East envoy, meets Russia’s point man for the region, Mikhail Bogdanov, in Qatar on Friday. Zhai has called on “all relevant parties to keep calm and exercise restraint”. Photo: Handout 

News

World

Middle East

Israel says it hit more than 400 militant targets in Gaza overnight, killed three deputy battalion commanders
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which staged a brutal attack on October 7 that killed 1,400 Israelis


Israel’s military said it had hit more than 400 militant targets in Gaza overnight and killed dozens of Hamas fighters, including three deputy battalion commanders.


Israel

War and conflict

Islamic militancy