“You have the feeling that death is approaching at any time”: Displaced family flees Gaza
Naim Al-Khatib, a Palestinian from Gaza City, describes how he was forced to flee his home with his family as Israeli airstrikes increased.
Israel will pay a “heavy price” if it expands its war against Hamas to include the killing of militant leaders living in Turkey or elsewhere outside the Gaza Strip, Turkish President Erdogan says.
Hamas leaders have routinely sought safe havens in Qatar, Lebanon, Iran, Russia and Turkey. Israel has generally refrained from pursuing them to avoid diplomatic unrest. But since the murderous attack on Israel on October 7, Israel has warned that no place will be safe for Hamas leaders. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently said he had ordered Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad to “take action against Hamas leaders wherever they are.”
Erdogan warned that Israel would see the Turkish secret services and security agencies as a powerful opponent.
“If they dare to take such a step against Turkey and the Turkish people, they will be doomed to pay a price from which they will no longer be able to recover,” Erdogan told Turkey’s Anadolu news agency on Tuesday. “Anyone attempting something like this should not forget that the consequences can be extremely serious.”
Developments:
∎ The Israeli military expressed regret over the incident following an attack on a Lebanese Army base that left one soldier dead and several others injured. Israel clashed with Iran-backed Hexbollah fighters in Lebanon, but “Lebanese Army forces were not the target of the attack,” the Israeli military said in a statement.
∎ The Gaza Strip Health Ministry said the Palestinian death toll had exceeded 16,200 and more than 42,000 people were injured. The ministry said 70% of the dead were women and children. Israel has not disputed the figures but says it has killed more than 5,000 militants and accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields. Israel declared war on Hamas after the militant group killed 1,200 people and took about 240 hostage on October 7, according to Israeli authorities.
“In the Heart of Khan Younis”: Israel invades a major city in the south of the Gaza Strip
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi discussed the latest U.S. diplomatic efforts to end the war on Wednesday. Blinken reiterated the need for all parties to work to prevent the conflict from spreading, the State Department said in a statement.
The focus was on the discussion about the recent Houthi attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea. Blinken said the attacks posed an unacceptable threat to maritime security and international law “which all nations are obligated to uphold.”
On Gaza, both sides are largely in agreement, with both governments supporting a two-state solution. President Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed the need for an immediate ceasefire to ensure humanitarian corridors are safe and unhindered and to prevent the conflict from spreading.
Doctors Without Borders warned that fuel and medicine supplies at Al-Aqsa Hospital in the central Gaza Strip were at critically low levels due to road closures, even as hundreds of patients needed emergency care due to the Israeli bombardment. The hospital receives an average of 150 to 200 war wounded every day. Without electricity, ventilators would no longer work, blood donations would have to stop and sterilization of surgical instruments would be impossible, the group said.
“There are currently 700 patients hospitalized and new patients are constantly being added,” said Marie-Aure Perreaut Revial, the group’s emergency coordinator. “We are running out of vital supplies to treat her.”
According to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, nearly 1.9 million people, or 85% of Gaza’s population, have been displaced from their homes since the war began two months ago. About 1.2 million of them live in United Nations-provided shelters, the agency said. The death toll among UNRWA staff has risen to 130.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, again called for a ceasefire and referred to the “complete, increasing horror” in Gaza.
“As an immediate step, I call for an urgent cessation of hostilities and the release of all hostages,” he said. “The international community must insist with one voice on an immediate ceasefire on human rights and humanitarian grounds.”
US Navy ship battles in the Red Sea against Houthi fighters: what happened next
Contribution: The Associated Press