According to the military, a rocket from Lebanon also landed in an open area in the Israeli border town of Metulla. The Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack. According to its own statements, the Israeli army then attacked targets in Lebanon. The military announced this Tuesday that the point of origin of the shot had been reached.
According to the health authority controlled by Islamist Hamas, at least 214 more people were killed and around 300 injured in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip. Many victims were still buried under the rubble, authority spokesman Ashraf al-Kudra said on Tuesday.
At least 13 people were killed in an airstrike on the contested refugee settlement of Jabalia in the north of the coastal strip. Another 75 people were injured there. The information could not initially be independently verified. The number of casualties in the Gaza Strip since the start of Israeli counterattacks has risen to 19,667 dead and 52,586 injured.
The hospitals in the Gaza Strip that are still functioning are completely overwhelmed by the number of injured people, al-Kudra said. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), only eight of what used to be 36 hospitals are still functioning properly. The team is almost unable to move, even in intensive care units, because there are patients lying on the floor.
In recent weeks, tens of thousands of Palestinians have sought protection in the north of the Gaza Strip, in the supposedly safe south, at Israel's request. They are now exposed to Israeli attacks, said the WHO representative for the Gaza Strip, Richard Peeperkorn.
Between 95,000 and 120,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed. This emerges from an ongoing analysis by the Decentralized Damage Mapping Group (DDMG), in which a group of North American scientists are examining coastal attacks using satellite data.
So far, 60 to 72 percent of all buildings in the northern Gaza Strip have been damaged or destroyed. For analyses, DDMG uses open access data from satellite and radar technology. The UN's Palestinian aid agency, UNRWA, said 60 percent of infrastructure in the Gaza Strip had been damaged or destroyed. Furthermore, more than 90 percent of the population has been displaced.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stated the aim of destroying Hamas. With the campaign in the Gaza Strip, his government is responding to the massacre carried out by Hamas fighters on October 7, in which around 1,200 people – most of them civilians – were killed and around 240 others were taken hostage.
At an international level, however, criticism of the actions of the armed forces is growing in light of the suffering of the civilian population. “We call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire to reach a ceasefire,” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said after a meeting with her British counterpart David Cameron in Paris on Tuesday. She also spoke out in favor of tightening EU sanctions against Hamas and “terror financing”.
The Gaza war is, in the words of the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), a “moral failure”. Both sides are called upon to re-enter negotiations, Mirjana Spoljaric told journalists in Geneva. The suffering of the people will have an impact for generations, not just in the Gaza Strip.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is working around the clock to release more hostages kidnapped from Israel to the Gaza Strip by terrorists. Spoljaric said on Tuesday in Geneva that he was in constant contact with the Israeli government and the Palestinian organization Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip. The hostage taking violated international humanitarian law, which the ICRC was supposed to uphold. She demanded unconditional release. She made it clear: “We do not negotiate. We are not involved in political discussions.”
Release must be preceded by an agreement between the conflicting parties. The ICRC is ready to organize the transfer, as is the case with the 109 hostages who have already been released. These are complex and potentially fatal operations. She objected to reports in which the ICRC operation was condescendingly described as a “taxi service” for hostages. Spoljaric had just returned to ICRC headquarters in Geneva after a trip to Gaza, Tel Aviv and Doha, among other places. In Doha, she spoke with Hamas leadership. These conversations are always specific and detailed, she said. The ICRC is strictly neutral and discussions are always confidential, so she declined to provide any information about the content.
Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog indicated his country's willingness to agree to another ceasefire in the Gaza Strip in order to free hostages held by radical Islamist Hamas and bring more aid to the besieged Palestinian enclave. “Israel is ready for a new humanitarian pause and additional humanitarian assistance to allow for the release of the hostages,” Herzog told a meeting of ambassadors, according to his office. “And the responsibility lies entirely with (Hamas chief Jahja) Sinwar and (other) Hamas leaders.” The president plays a largely ceremonial role in Israel.
Hamas rejects negotiations for new hostage and prisoner exchanges during the war with Israel. However, Hamas representative Basem Naem says he is open to any initiative to end the war. “We reiterate our position and categorically refuse to enter into prisoner exchange negotiations in light of the ongoing genocidal war in Israel,” Naem said.