Israel’s evacuation orders in the Gaza Strip now cover two-thirds of the territory, or 246 square kilometres (95 square miles), UN humanitarian monitors said Tuesday.
More than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people is now crammed into the town of Rafah on the border with Egypt and surrounding areas, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. A quarter of Gaza’s residents are starving and 85% of the population has been driven from their homes, with hundreds of thousands surviving in makeshift tent camps.
The Health Ministry in Gaza said the known Palestinian death toll is at 27,478 people after nearly four months of war.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has returned to the Middle East, where he’s pushing for a deal to release some 100 Israeli hostages and a postwar plan for Gaza. Blinken met Tuesday with the leaders of Egypt and Qatar, after visiting Saudi Arabia a day earlier. Qatar and Egypt are key U.S. allies that often serve as mediators between Israel and Hamas.
It’s Blinken’s fifth visit to the Middle East since the war in Gaza broke out on Oct. 7 when Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel. The assault killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and militants abducted around 250 others.
Here’s the latest:
Israeli protestors block aid into Gaza
TEL AVIV — Israeli protesters have once again blocked humanitarian aid destined for Gaza despite the military declaring a closed zone around the main crossing.
The protesters say no more aid should enter Gaza until the over 100 hostages still held by Hamas following its Oct. 7 raid are released. The protesters, including some family members of hostages, say the aid should be used as leverage.
Last week, protesters blocked the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza for several days.
Aid groups say that even when the crossing is fully operational, the amount of aid entering is insufficient for the humanitarian catastrophe caused by nearly four months of war. UN officials say one in four Palestinians in Gaza are starving.
The Israeli military body responsible for civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories said over 120 trucks were able to enter before protesters blocked the crossing.
On Monday, 159 trucks passed through Kerem Shalom and another 74 entered via the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza. Before the war, an average of 500 trucks entered Gaza daily.
Israel imposed a complete siege of Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and only later relented under U.S. pressure.
New Argentinian president visits Israel
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli officials have warmly welcomed a visit by Argentina’s new president, who pledged to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Javier Milei, who was elected in November, arrived in Israel on Tuesday. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz embraced him on the tarmac and welcomed him with a Spanish-language message posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The right-leaning Milei portrays himself as a culture warrior shaking up the establishment and has adopted several positions shared by U.S. conservatives, drawing comparisons with former President Donald Trump.
Trump moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in an act that was hailed by Israel but harshly criticized by the Palestinians. Israel captured east Jerusalem, along with the West Bank and Gaza, in the 1967 Mideast war. It annexed east Jerusalem shortly thereafter and considered the entire city its unified capital.
The Palestinians seek an independent state in all three territories and view east Jerusalem as their capital. Israel occupies the West Bank and has built scores of Jewish settlements there. It withdrew soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005 but along with Egypt imposed a blockade on the territory after Hamas seized power there two years later.
Most countries do not recognize Israel’s claim to east Jerusalem and have their embassies in Tel Aviv.
Palestinian man shot in West Bank
TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli military says that soldiers shot and killed an armed Palestinian man in the West Bank after he threatened them.
Tuesday’s shooting took place at a military post near the city of Nablus. The military didn’t say what the man was armed with or whether he fired any shots. No soldiers were wounded.
The Israeli-occupied West Bank, which the Palestinians want as the main part of their future state, has seen a surge in violence since the start of the war in Gaza.
Israeli forces have carried out nightly arrest raids that often ignite gunbattle with local militants, and Palestinians have carried out a number of attacks targeting Israelis.
The Palestinian Health Ministry says that more than 380 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since Oct. 7, when Hamas launched the cross-border attack into Israel from Gaza that ignited the war.
The military says its forces try to avoid harming civilians and must make split-second decisions when operating in dangerous areas. The Palestinians and rights groups have long accused Israeli forces of using excessive force and of killing suspects that they could have safely arrested.
Israel’s evacuation order
JERUSALEM — Israel’s evacuation orders in the Gaza Strip now cover two-thirds of the territory, or 246 square kilometres (95 square miles), United Nations humanitarian monitors said Tuesday.
The affected area was home to 1.78 million Palestinians, or 77% of Gaza’s population, before the Israel-Hamas war erupted on Oct. 7, triggered by a deadly Hamas attack on southern Israel.
Early on in the war, Israel’s military began ordering Palestinians in the northern half of the territory to leave their homes, ostensibly to get out of the way of eventual ground combat. At the same time, Israeli aircraft continued to attack in the southern half, where residents had been told to take refuge. Israel says it only goes after Hamas targets and argues that Hamas is responsible for harm to civilians because it operates from within civilian sites.
Gaza health officials have put the Palestinian death toll in the territory at more than 27,000. They don’t differentiate between combatants and civilians in the count, but have said two-thirds are women and children.
Throughout the war, evacuation orders eventually expanded to parts of the south, including the city of Khan Younis and surrounding areas, the current focus of Israel’s ground offensive. Tens of thousands of people have fled and continue to flee from there, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Tuesday in its latest daily report on the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
More than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people is now crammed into the town of Rafah on the border with Egypt and surrounding areas, OCHA said.
