Palestinians described intense bombardments early Tuesday near two towns in southern Gaza, where Israel had ordered civilians to seek refuge. Hamas’ military wing said a separate attack on a refugee camp in central Gaza killed a top Hamas commander.
Thousands of people trying to escape Gaza are gathered in Rafah, which has the territory’s only border crossing to Egypt. Mediators are pressing for an agreement to let aid in and refugees with foreign passports out. The U.S. hoped to break a deadlock with President Joe Biden set to head to the region on Wednesday.
Aid workers warned that life in Gaza was near complete collapse because of the Israeli siege that followed a Hamas attack on Israel.
The war that began Oct. 7 has become the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Gaza Health Ministry said 2,778 Palestinians have been killed and 9,700 wounded. Another 1,200 people across Gaza are believed to be buried under the rubble, alive or dead. More than 1,400 Israelis have been killed, and at least 199 others, including children, were captured by Hamas and taken into Gaza, according to Israel.
Currently:
- U.S. President Joe Biden will visit Israel on Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced. He is also expected to meet authorities in Jordan and Egypt.
- A hospital in the southern Gaza city of Rafah says it has received an order to evacuate, even after Israel told residents they can take refuge in the city.
- A shortage of drinking water continues across Gaza, leading humanitarian workers to warn of the risk of disease from drinking untreated water.
- Hundreds of civilians killed in the Hamas attacks have yet to be identified by Israeli forensics teams.
Here’s what’s happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war:
Biden ‘outraged and deeply saddened’ by Gaza City hospital blas
U.S. President Joe Biden said he is “outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion at the Al Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza, and the terrible loss of life that resulted.”
Biden said he spoke “immediately” after hearing the news with King Abdullah II of Jordan and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and “directed my national security team to continue gathering information about what exactly happened.”
“The United States stands unequivocally for the protection of civilian life during conflict and we mourn the patients, medical staff and other innocents killed or wounded in this tragedy,” Biden said in a statement issued after he departed for the Middle East.
He is to visit Israel on Wednesday, but a meeting with Arab leaders in Jordan has been postponed following the destruction at the hospital.
Islamic Jihad group denies responsibility for hospital blast
JERUSALEM — The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group denied Israel’s claim that it was behind the deadly blast at Al-Ahli hospital. It accused Israel of “trying hard to evade responsibility for the brutal massacre it committed.”
“The accusations promoted by the enemy are baseless,” Islamic Jihad said, adding that the group “does not use places of worship or public facilities, especially hospitals, as military centers or weapons stores.”
The group said details such as “the angle of the bomb’s fall and the extent of destruction it left behind” confirm it was similar to Israeli strikes.
The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, also denied Israel’s claim, calling it “lies.”
4-way summit in Jordan of Biden and other leaders canceled
AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan has called off a four-way summit scheduled for Wednesday with U.S. President Joe Biden and other leaders, the country’s foreign minister told state-run television.
Ayman Safadi told al-Mamlaka TV that the war between Israel and Hamas was “pushing the region to the brink” and the summit would be postponed.
After visiting Israel Wednesday, Biden had planned to travel to Amman for the meeting.
The White House said Biden had hoped to use the summit to discuss the bloody Oct. 7 Hamas militant attack on Israel with the United States’ Arab allies and the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited autonomy in parts of the occupied West Bank.
Grief, condemnation after hundreds killed at Gaza hospital
JERUSALEM — Expressions of condemnation and grief are pouring in after hundreds of people were killed in an explosion at a Gaza City hospital that Hamas attributed to an Israeli airstrike but the Israeli military said was caused by a misfired militant rocket.
Countries such as Syria and Saudi Arabia blamed Israel for the blast, with Libya’s Foreign Ministry accusing Israel of “war crimes and genocide” in the Gaza Strip. Iraq declared three days of mourning, and there were protests there and in Lebanon.
Egypt’s President, Abdul-Fattah el-Sissi, condemned what he called Israel’s “deliberate bombing” of Ahli Arab hospital and “a clear violation of international law … and humanity.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that his country condemns “the attack on the Al-Ahli Arabi hospital” and there’s no justification for targeting a hospital or civilians.
Richard Peeperkorn, World Health Organization representative for the West Bank and Gaza, expressed “our deepest grief at the horror that has unfolded,” calling it “unprecedented even in a region that has seen consistent attacks on healthcare.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement that it was “shocked and horrified by reports that Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza was destroyed.”
The United Arab Emirates and Russia called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday.
Israel denies involvement in bombing of Gaza City hospital
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says it had no involvement in an explosion that killed hundreds of people at a Gaza City hospital and that the blast was caused by a misfired Palestinian rocket.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza says an Israeli airstrike caused the blast, which killed some 500 people, many of whom had sought shelter from an ongoing Israeli offensive.
The Israeli military, however, said Palestinian militants fired a barrage of rockets near the hospital.
“Intelligence from multiple sources we have in our hands indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch,” it said.
Videos and photos capture scene at Gaza City hospitals
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A chaotic scene unfolded at Al Shifa hospital Tuesday night as Palestinians injured in an attack on another hospital in Gaza City arrived for treatment.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike killed at least 500 people at al-Ahli Hospital.
Photos purportedly taken at al-Ahli Hospital shared widely on social media showed fire engulfing the building, with bodies scattered among the wreckage. Those photos could not be independently verified.
Footage captured by The Associated Press showed ambulances and private cars converging on Al Shifa hospital, where medics and others rushed the injured inside on stretchers and a wheelchair.
One person had a bloody stump where their left leg was missing. Four men carried a body bag to a civil defense vehicle.
Inside Al Shifa, the wounded were laid out on bloody floors, screaming in pain, as shouting people surrounded them. Some of the injured were not moving. Workers in scrubs ran outside and sirens wailed as more Red Crescent ambulances arrived.
An Injured child is taken into a hospital after Israeli air strike hit a hospital, according to Hamas Health Ministry in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, in this screen grab obtained from video, October 17, 2023. Photo provided by Reuters TV/REUTERS
Palestinian official drops out of Biden meeting citing hospital airstrike
RAMALLAH, West Bank — A senior Palestinian official says President Mahmoud Abbas has canceled his participation in a meeting scheduled Wednesday with President Joe Biden and other Mideast leaders.
Abbas was scheduled to join Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi at Wednesday’s summit in Amman, Jordan, where they are to discuss the Israel-Hamas war with Biden.
But the senior official said Abbas was withdrawing to protest an alleged Israeli airstrike on a hospital in Gaza that health officials say has killed over 500 people.
“The president is very angry after the news of the Israeli massacre at the hospital in Gaza, and he decided to immediately return to Ramallah,” the official said.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the cancelation has not been formally announced.
UN chief to discuss Palestinian aid during Egypt visit
UNITED NATIONS — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will arrive in Cairo on Thursday, focused on reopening the Gaza border to allow in desperately needed aid for millions of Palestinians.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who made the announcement Tuesday, said the secretary-general will engage with Egyptian leaders including President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi and speak at an international conference on Saturday hosted by the president.
“This situation is becoming more than critical,” he said. “We are at a time of extreme tension, where we’re calling to move away from further escalation and any possible miscalculation.”
U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths is already in Cairo meeting with U.S. and other officials to try to get the most basic humanitarian aid — food, water, fuel and medicine — into Gaza, Dujarric said.
The U.N. spokesman told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York that humanitarian corridors are essential to move aid through Gaza safely, and there must also be distribution points to deliver aid safely, without fear of active bombardment.
Residents line up to collect scant water supplies in Gaza
NUSAIRAT, Gaza Strip — Palestinians desperate for water lined up to fill bottles and large jugs Tuesday at a desalination plant in Gaza.
Children and men took turns using a hose in Nusairat to fill containers that they hauled away using bicycles, a wheelchair and a cart pulled by a donkey.
Ismael Al-Hafi said people are rationing the water they can find and wait two or three days to clean themselves.
“This is suffering,” Al-Hafi said. “Gaza is in complete collapse. There is no solar to operate the desalination plants. This means that you have to struggle to fill two gallons of water. This is suffering. May God help the people.”
Hamas says 100s killed in Israeli attack on Gaza City hospital
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip says at least 500 people have been killed in an explosion that it says was caused by an Israeli airstrike on a Gaza City Hospital.
If confirmed, the attack on the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City would be by far the deadliest Israeli airstrike in five wars fought since 2008.
Hundreds of people were seeking shelter at the hospital at the time of the blast.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said he had no details on the hospital deaths.
“We will get the details and update the public,” Hagari said, adding that he couldn’t immediately confirm it was an Israeli airstrike.
Hamas authorities said most of the people killed were hospital patients and displaced families.
“A new war crime committed by the (Israeli) occupation by bombing the Al-Ahli Hospital in the center of Gaza City,” said Salama Marouf, a spokesperson for Hamas. ” The hospital was housing hundreds of patients, wounded, and those forcibly displaced from their homes due to the strikes.”
UNRWA says at least six killed in attack on school in Gaza
AMMAN — The U.N. agency for Palestinians says at least six people were killed when one of its schools in central Gaza Strip was hit Tuesday.
Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner General, said dozens of people were also injured, including agency staff, when the UNRWA school in the al-Maghazi refugee camp came under bombardment. He said the school — which has served as a shelter for some 4,000 displaced people since the latest hostilities began — is seriously damaged.
AP video of the aftermath shows where tank shells crashed through classroom walls, leaving concrete pockmarked by shrapnel and piles of rubble in the hallways. Blood was splattered on crumbling cinderblocks. Rooms where Palestinians had taken refuge were filled with debris and splintered school chairs.
“This is outrageous and it again shows a flagrant disregard for the lives of civilians,” Lazzarini said in a statement. “No place is safe in Gaza anymore, not even UNRWA facilities.”
Israeli intelligence chief admits failure in Hamas attack
JERUSALEM — The unprecedented Oct. 7 Hamas attack that killed over 1,300 Israelis and stunned the country was the result of a failure by Israel’s intelligence community and military, the nation’s military intelligence chief said.
“We did not fulfill our most important mission, and as the head of the Intelligence Directorate, I take full responsibility for the failure,” Gen. Aharon Haliva, the intelligence chief, wrote in a letter to the Israeli military. “The things that need to be investigated will be thoroughly investigated at the proper time, and conclusions will be drawn.”
Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar sent a similar admission to workers at the security service over the weekend, taking responsibility for the stunning operational failures and weaknesses that allowed Hamas to carry out its attack.
Israel warns Hezbollah against escalating border tensions
JERUSALEM — Israel’s military Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi is threatening aggressive retaliation if the Lebanese group Hezbollah escalates tensions on their shared border.
“This is a war on the home,” Halvey said after meeting with Israeli troops near the northern border. “If Hezbollah makes a mistake, it will be annihilated.”
Clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli troops along the tense border have escalated in recent days but remain largely controlled and limited to several border towns.
Italy confirms death of citizen in Hamas attack on Kibbutz
ROME — The Italian government says one of three Italian-Israeli citizens believed kidnapped by Hamas was killed in Israel during the militant attack on the Be’eri kibbutz in southern Israel.
The Italian foreign ministry reported Tuesday that DNA tests conducted by Israeli authorities confirmed the death of Eviatar Moshe Kipnis, 65. The ministry said it remained committed to locating Kipnis’ wife and another Italian-Israeli citizen who remain unaccounted for.
The Kipnis family sounded the alarm about Kipnis and his wife, 60-year-old Lilach Lea Havron, after their kibbutz was stormed by Hamas militants Oct. 7. At least 120 people were killed there and an unknown number was taken hostage.
The family initially believed the couple, plus eight members of Havron’s family, were among the hostages since their bodies weren’t initially recovered and their cellphones were traced to Gaza.
Germany urges Israel to provide access for aid to Gaza
TEL AVIV — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says he discussed ways to quickly get humanitarian help to civilians in Gaza during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“In contrast with Hamas, which wants to hold Gaza’s citizens as human shields, we are concerned about them too,” said Scholz, who visited Israel on Tuesday. “We want to protect civilians and prevent civilian victims.”
Scholz said he discussed “the possibility of improved humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip” with Netanyahu and that he planned to discuss the same issue with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo on Wednesday.
Scholz reiterated that Israel’s security is a core element of German policy, calling it a “responsibility that arises from the Holocaust.”
WFP sends food aid to Egypt for delivery to Gaza
ROME — The World Food Program says it has tons of aid arriving in Egypt from warehouses around the region, ready to enter Gaza.
The Rome-based agency warned earlier Tuesday that stores in Gaza only have four or five days’ worth of essential food stocks available.
Video provided by WFP showed crates of aid arriving by cargo plane at the Arisha airbase in Egypt from warehouses in Dubai, bound for the Rafah crossing. WFP said it has mobilized 310 metric tons (305 tons) of food so far, including fortified biscuits and ready-to-eat meals sufficient to feed 244,000 people for a week, as well as canned food and date bars.
WFP’s Palestine country director, Samer Abdeljaber, said the agency is waiting for the green light to enter Gaza and warned that food stocks are running out. He said the number of bakeries WFP works with in Gaza is decreasing daily because they don’t have enough water or electricity to bake bread.
Also Tuesday, the regional director of the International Organization for Migration in Cairo urged both sides to facilitate the delivery of aid to Gaza.
“The humanitarian situation in Gaza is horrifying,” Othman Belbeisi wrote Tuesday on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Rapid and unimpeded access for humanitarian aid must be granted.”
UNRWA says at least six killed in attack on school in Gaza
AMMAN — The U.N. agency for Palestinians says at least six people were killed when one of its schools in central Gaza Strip was hit Tuesday.
Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner General, said dozens of people were also injured, including agency staff, when the UNRWA school in the al-Maghazi refugee camp came under bombardment. He said the school — which has served as a shelter for some 4,000 displaced people since the latest hostilities began — is seriously damaged.
“This is outrageous and it again shows a flagrant disregard for the lives of civilians,” Lazzarini said in a statement. “No place is safe in Gaza anymore, not even UNRWA facilities.”
Lazzarini did not specify who was behind the attack, but the area has come under bombardment from Israeli air strikes in recent days.
Egypt still negotiating with Israel on allowing aid into Gaza
CAIRO — Egypt is still negotiating with Israel on the delivery of humanitarian assistance and fuel to Gaza from its crossing points, Rafah and Kerem Shalom, a senior Egyptian official said as trucks loaded with aid waited for permission to cross into the besieged territory.
The official said Israel still insists on searching all aid deliveries and wants to “ensure that such aid won’t benefit Hamas.” The official requested anonymity because he does not have permission to discuss the negotiations.
He said they’re also negotiating a compromise that would allow foreign passport holders to cross into Egypt. Egypt has proposed that the United Nations oversee the process with help from Egyptian forces, the official said. Israel has yet to respond to the proposal.
The U.S., Qatar, the U.N. and several European countries are involved in the talks, which are led by security agencies in Egypt and Israel, the official said.
Associated Press writer Sam Magdy contributed to this report.
WFP sends food aid to Egypt for delivery to Gaza
ROME — The World Food Program says it has tons of aid arriving in Egypt from warehouses around the region, ready to enter Gaza.
The Rome-based agency warned earlier Tuesday that stores in Gaza only have four or five days’ worth of essential food stocks available.
Video provided by WFP showed crates of aid arriving by cargo plane at the Arisha airbase in Egypt from warehouses in Dubai, bound for the Rafah crossing. WFP said it has mobilized 310 metric tons (305 tons) of food so far, including fortified biscuits and ready-to-eat meals sufficient to feed 244,000 people for a week, as well as canned food and date bars.
WFP’s Palestine country director, Samer Abdeljaber, said the agency is waiting for the green light to enter Gaza and warned that food stocks are running out. He said the number of bakeries WFP works with in Gaza is decreasing daily because they don’t have enough water or electricity to bake bread.
France says 21 citizens killed, 11 missing in attacks on Israel
PARIS — France’s foreign ministry has confirmed the death of 21 French citizens killed in the Hamas militants attacks on Israel. The ministry says 11 French citizens are missing.
French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking during a visit to Albania Tuesday, said his government was doing “everything possible” for the release of French and other hostages held in Gaza.
“This difficult moment for the Israeli people, the Palestinian civilians, for the whole region shows that the (unresolved) issue there is a political one which cannot be solved without a peaceful process,” Macron said.
Hamas’ military wing says top commander killed by Israeli airstrike
JERUSALEM — Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, said Tuesday that an Israeli airstrike on the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza killed top militant commander, Ayman Nofal.
Nofal is the most high-profile militant to be killed so far in Israeli bombardments on the Gaza Strip. Residents said the barrage of Israeli airstrikes leveled an entire block of homes and caused dozens more casualties.
The Israeli military says it is targeting Hamas hideouts, infrastructure and command centers.
At least 16 journalists killed in Gaza and Israel since the war began
JERUSALEM — The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based watchdog, says at least 13 Palestinian journalists in Gaza and three journalists in Israel have been killed since the war erupted. Several Palestinian journalists were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza Tuesday, said the group.
Some Palestinian journalists were killed when Israeli airstrikes struck their homes in the Gaza Strip or the area housing their offices in the Rimal neighborhood, in central Gaza City. Others were killed while reporting on the evacuations of Palestinian houses under Israeli bombardment. Some were freelancers and others worked for local outlets. One of them worked for the Hamas-linked Al Aqsa Radio.
Three Israeli journalists, meanwhile, were killed during the brutal Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, including an editor for Israeli public broadcaster Kan, an editor for Hebrew-language daily Ma’ariv and a photographer for the Hebrew-language Israel Hayom newspaper.
The CPJ count did not include the death of Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah, who was killed on Friday in south Lebanon when an Israeli shell landed in a gathering of international journalists covering clashes on the border. Six other journalists were injured.
Southern Gaza hospital says it has received evacuation order
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — A hospital in the southern Gaza city of Rafah says it has received two Israeli warnings to evacuate even though it is in the area where Israel told civilians to take refuge.
Sohaib al-Hams, director of the Kuwaiti Specialist Hospital, said staff will not abandon the facility, which continues to receive patients amid relentless Israeli airstrikes.
“We will not leave our places and we will not let our people down,” al-Hams said in a video on the hospital’s official Facebook page, adding that Gazan hospitals are the final red line after Israel crossed all the others.
Israeli army spokesman were not immediately available for comment on the order.
U.S. responds to hostage video by urging immediate release of all held
WASHINGTON — The United States has responded to Hamas’ release of a hostage video by calling on the group to immediately release all hostages.
“There should be no reason for them to have any hostages in the first place,” said U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby on American TV Tuesday.
Asked if he believed the woman in the video, identified as 21-year-old Mia Schem, was being treated well, Kirby said she was “probably forced” to record the message.
“There’s no question in my mind that that woman gave that video testimony under duress, probably forced to do it,” Kirby said on NBC’s “Today.”
“It’s a propaganda video much more than it is proof of life or, certainly, proof of concept for Hamas. It’s despicable, deplorable that they would take these hostages and then advertise how well they’re treating them when they’re the ones who hurt them in the first place.”
Foreign passport-holders wait for Rafah crossing to open
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Dual Palestinian nationals’ hopes to leave the Gaza Strip were dashed for a third straight day as the border remained closed.
Jameel Abdullah, a Swedish passport holder, said he had been told by his embassy to return to the border, but after waiting many hours he turned back toward Gaza where Israeli airstrikes continue to pound densely populated residential areas.
A Palestinian with dual citizenship waits outside the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in the hope of getting permission to leave Gaza, amid the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip October 17, 2023. Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters
“We come to the border crossing hoping that it will open, but so far there is no information,” he said, with the echo of bombs falling in the distance. “We plead with the Egyptian people to look at us with compassion because frankly we are in a very dangerous place. There is shelling all around us, and even if I wanted to return home (to Gaza), I would be risking my life.”
Energy agency says war is bad news for markets
FRANKFURT, Germany — The Israel-Hamas war is affecting oil markets already stretched by cutbacks in oil production from Saudi Arabia and Russia and expected stronger demand from China, the head of the International Energy Agency said Tuesday.
“As we see the tensions in the Middle East, the market becomes much more jittery, and it is definitely not good news coming out of this crisis,” Fatih Birol, executive director of the Paris-based IEA, told The Associated Press.
“We may very well see much more volatile prices, and it can push prices higher, which is definitely bad news for inflation,” he added, adding that developing countries would be the most affected.
International benchmark Brent crude traded close to $90 per barrel on Tuesday, up from $85 on Oct. 6, the day before Hamas attacked Israel. Fluctuations last week pushed prices as high as $96.
WFP warns food is running out in Gaza
CAIRO — In addition to dire water shortages, only a few days’ worth of food remains in Gazan stores, the World Food Program says.
Shops only have four or five days’ worth of essential food stocks available, said spokeswoman Abeer Etefa. There is enough food in warehouses to last about two weeks, but these are difficult to access because they are located in Gaza City, where Israel has ordered residents to evacuate.
Out of five mills in Gaza, only one is operating due to security concerns and the lack of fuel and electricity. Etefa said the primary challenge for WFP is getting food to shops amid the constant bombardment. Long lines have formed outside the few bakeries that are still open.
U.N. human rights office condemns reported killing of fleeing civilians
GENEVA — The U.N. human rights office is decrying “appalling reports” that civilians trying to flee to southern Gaza were hit and killed by a military strike.
Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani urged Israeli forces to avoid “aerial bombardments, indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks” and to “take precautions to avoid — and in any case, to minimize — loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects.”
She said those who evacuated are now trapped in southern Gaza with scant access to shelter, food, water, sanitation and medicine.
Shamdasani reiterated a call from the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to Palestinian armed groups “to immediately and unconditionally release all civilian hostages and to halt the use of inherently indiscriminate projectiles against Israel.”
A cruise ship carrying foreign nationals from Israel docks in Cyprus
A cruise ship carrying some 160 U.S. citizens and other foreign nationals who opted to leave Israel has arrived in Cyprus’ main port of Limassol.
The Rhapsody of the Seas docked at dawn Tuesday and were met by the U.S. ambassador to Cyprus, Julie Fisher. Passengers were processed by Cypriot authorities and local U.S. embassy officials before being bussed to temporary accommodation prior to their flight back home.
Barbara Zwillick, 73, was escorting her granddaughter to New York City at the request of her daughter, who has stayed behind to continue her work as a nurse.
“She doesn’t want to leave. I don’t want her to leave. But she wants her daughter out,” Zwillick told The Associated Press.
Naama Kopelman, who has relatives believed to be Hamas hostages, said she decided to leave Israel for the sake of her daughter.
“It’s a big relief to be out of there in a safe place. No alarms, no sounds of the planes going about all the time,” Kopelman said.
Iranian leader calls Israel’s assault on Gaza ‘genocide’
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s supreme leader Tuesday has insisted that his country will not stop Hamas, and repeated a call for Israeli leaders to be tried for war crimes.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, “If the crimes continue, Muslims will be impatient, resistances forces will be impatient, and nobody will be able to prevent them.”
“Bombardments should be immediately stopped, Muslim nations are angry,” said Khamenei.
He reiterated Iran’s stance in calling Israel’s assault against Hamas,” genocide” and urged the prosecution of the Israeli government for its killing of civilians in Gaza.
He also urged the U.S. to “pay attention to its responsibility” in the war.
Families killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinians in Gaza are taking stock of the latest deadly airstrikes from Israel.
A strike in Deir al Balah, south of Gaza City, reduced a house to rubble, killing nine members of the family living there, mostly women and children. Three members of another family that had evacuated from Gaza City were killed in a neighboring home. Witnesses said there was no warning before the strike.
In Khan Younis, in a neighborhood just a few hundred meters away from Nasser Hospital, Samiha Zoarab looked around at the destruction in shock as children rummaged through the piles of debris and detritus around a leveled home, which lies within a dense cluster of buildings. At least four people from the same family were killed in the attack, locals said. “There are only two survivors,” Zoarab said.
Anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon into Israel, which responds with shelling
BEIRUT — An anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon landed in the town of Metula in northern Israel Tuesday morning. Three people were injured in the attack, according to the Ziv Medical Center in Safed, which was expecting to receive them.
No group in Lebanon immediately took responsibility for the rocket. It was not immediately clear if the injured were civilians or soldiers, but Israel has ordered civilians to evacuate from the area near the Lebanese border.
Israel responded by striking several areas along the border in southern Lebanon with shelling and white phosphorus, the state-run National News Agency in Lebanon reported. The Israeli military said its tanks fired back into Lebanon over the anti-tank missile fire it received.
Source : PBS New Hour
