Middle-East
Netanyahu says Israel must retain control of security in Gaza after the war
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that the military would have to retain open-ended security control over the Gaza Strip long after the war against Hamas ends.
The remarks came as Israel's military said its troops had entered Gaza's second-largest city in its its pursuit to wipe out the territory's Hamas rulers. The war has already killed more than 15,000 Palestinians and displaced over three-fourths of Gaza's 2.3 million residents, who are running out of safe places to go.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll in the territory since Oct. 7 has surpassed 16,248, with more than 42,000 wounded. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths, but said 70% of the dead were women and children. Israel says it targets Hamas operatives and blames civilian casualties on the militants, accusing them of operating in residential neighborhoods.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt, which mediated an earlier cease-fire, say they are working on a longer truce. Hamas said talks on releasing more of the scores of hostages seized by militants on Oct. 7 must be tied to a permanent cease-fire.
GAZA DEATH TOLL PASSES 16,000
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says 16,248 Palestinians have been killed and more than 42,000 wounded since the Israel-Hamas war broke out two months ago.
The ministry said Tuesday evening that the death toll included more than 6,000 children and more than 4,000 women. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
The figures show a sharp rise in deaths since a weeklong truce between Israel and Hamas collapsed late last week. Since the resumption of fighting on Friday, more than 1,000 Palestinians were killed, according to the Health Ministry.
Last week, the United States urged Israel to do more to protect Palestinian civilians as its air and ground campaign shifted to southern Gaza, particularly in and around Khan Younis, the territory’s second largest city.
LIMITED HUMANITARIAN AID IS GOING TO GAZA
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations says limited humanitarian aid is being delivered only to the Rafah region in southern Gaza because of intense hostilities. It also says that all telecom services have shut down due to cuts in the main fiber routes.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday that only 100 aid trucks with humanitarian supplies and 69,000 liters of fuel entered Gaza from Egypt on Monday, about the same amount as Sunday.
That is well below the daily average of 170 trucks and 110,000 liters of fuel that entered Gaza during the humanitarian pause from Nov. 24-30, he said.
Dujarric quoted Lynn Hastings, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in the Palestinian territories, saying “shelters have no capacity, the health system is on its knees, and there is a lack of clean drinking water, no proper sanitation and poor nutrition.”
He reiterated that there are no safe places in Gaza and that “those places that fly the U.N. flag are not safe either.”
Dujarric said the main telecommunication provider in Gaza announced the shutdown of all telecom services Monday night..
NETANYAHU, BIDEN SPEAK OUT ABOUT RAPE ALLEGATIONS
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused international human rights groups of turning a blind eye to rapes that Israel says were committed by Hamas militants during their Oct. 7 cross-border rampage.
Witnesses and medical experts have said that Hamas militants committed a series of rapes and other attacks before killing the victims in the attack, though the extent of the sexual violence remains unknown.
Experts have been piecing together evidence in recent weeks in a case that is complicated because there are no known victims to testify and limited forensic evidence.
Speaking at a news conference Tuesday, Netanyahu accused the international community of playing down the attacks and even ignoring them. He said he expects "all civilized leaders, governments, nations to speak up against this atrocity.”
Speaking at a campaign fundraiser in Boston, U.S. President Joe Biden called on the world to condemn the acts by Hamas “without equivocation” and “without exception.”
He also stressed that “Hamas’ refusal to release the remaining young women” is what ended a temporary truce and hostage agreement that the U.S. helped broker.
HOSTAGES' RELATIVES MEET WITH NETANYAHU
JERUSALEM — Family members of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza held a tense meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet Tuesday. Participants said the meeting ended after nearly half the room had left in disappointment with the government’s efforts to return their loved ones.
It was the first time the war cabinet had heard directly from recently released hostages. At least five shared harrowing details of their experience in Gaza and called on the government to do more to bring home some 138 still in captivity.
A group representing the hostages’ families said one recently freed hostage testified during the meeting to Hamas “touching” female hostages. Another hostage, according to the group, told the war cabinet the militants shaved off a male hostage’s body hair to humiliate him. Others said they were deprived of water.
Witnesses and medical experts have said Hamas militants raped women during the Oct. 7 cross-border rampage that triggered the war. The Associated Press has not been able to verify reports that hostages were sexually abused in captivity.
Some 110 hostages were freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners during a weeklong cease-fire that ended Friday. The Israeli army says 138 people remain in captivity in Gaza.
ISRAEL CONSIDERS FLOODING GAZA TUNNELS
JERUSALEM — Israel’s army chief has confirmed that Israel is considering flooding Hamas’ tunnels in Gaza with seawater to destroy the militant group’s underground network. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the army has assembled a system of large pumps that could flood the approximately 300 miles of Hamas tunnels in Gaza. Asked about the report, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said flooding the tunnels could be a “good idea” and that it was “one of a number of options we are considering.” Hamas is believed to have a sprawling network of tunnels it uses to move fighters, weapons and supplies throughout Gaza. Israel has said it already has destroyed hundreds of tunnel sections during the war. It is unclear if flooding the tunnels with seawater could threaten Gaza’s already overtaxed underground freshwater aquifer or potentially damage soil with salt and hazardous materials.
US PROMISES MORE AID FOR GAZA
EL-ARISH, Egypt — The United States has pledged an additional $21 million in humanitarian assistance for Gaza to help establish a field hospital.
The aid was announced Tuesday by Samantha Power, who heads the U.S. Agency for International Development, during a visit to the Egyptian city of el-Arish.
The city is some 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Gaza’s western border and has become the drop-off point for international aid before it’s packed in trucks and transported to the besieged enclave. The war between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers has forced many of the territory’s hospitals to close.
Power also reiterated that the U.S was committed to boosting aid and protecting civilians as Israel presses ahead with its offensive.
“Military operations need to be conducted in a way that distinguishes fighters from civilians,” Power said.
The U.S., a close ally of Israel, has backed Israel’s offensive but urged Israel to reduce civilian casualties. It has also called for humanitarian pauses to ease the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.
A weeklong cease-fire that ended Friday saw an uptick in aid enter Gaza, including fuel. Since Oct. 7., a trickle of aid has flowed intermittently into Gaza through Egypt’s Rafah border crossing.
US ORGANIZES AID FLIGHT TO GAZA
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — White House Principal Deputy Secretary Olivia Dalton said Tuesday the U.S. had organized a second aid flight into Gaza with 36,000 pounds (16,329 kilograms) of food and medical supplies.
An Air Force C-17 aircraft delivered the items to Egypt, where they were to be transported into Gaza and distributed by United Nations agencies, Dalton said.
The aid came as USAID administrator Samantha Power arrived in Egypt to meet with local officials and Egyptian and international humanitarian organizations.
Dalton spoke as President Joe Biden traveled to Boston for a series of fundraisers for the 2024 campaign.
ISRAELI SHELLING KILLS A LEBANESE SOLDIER, ARMY SAYS
BEIRUT — Israeli shelling hit an army post in south Lebanon on Tuesday, killing one soldier and wounding three others, the Lebanese army said.
It was the first report of a death of a Lebanese army soldier during the clashes between the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the border against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war. The Lebanese army has not been an active party in the conflict.
The Israeli military said in a statement that the Lebanese soldiers were not the intended target of the strike, which it said was launched in “self-defense to eliminate an imminent threat.” It added that the Israeli army “expresses regret over the incident.”
Hezbollah said in a statement that it had fired guided missiles at a group of Israeli soldiers in Manara in northern Israel in retaliation for the killing. The militant group also claimed an earlier drone attack on an Israeli position in Metula.
Hezbollah started attacking Israeli positions on Oct. 8, a day after the Israel-Hamas war began, in the disputed Chebaa Farms area along the
RULER OF QATAR ACCUSES ISRAEL OF GENOCIDE
CAIRO — The ruler of Qatar, which has played a key role in mediating between Israel and Hamas, has accused Israel of carrying out “crimes of genocide” in Gaza.
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani lashed out at Israel at a summit of Gulf Arab leaders in Doha on Tuesday.
He said “all religious, ethical and humanitarian values have been violated in occupied Palestine through crimes the occupation forces are committing against humanity.”
Israel says it is acting in self-defense after Hamas launched an attack deep into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and capturing scores of men, women and children.
Qatar’s emir said self-defense “doesn’t permit the crimes of genocide that Israel is committing.”
The war has killed over 15,000 people in Gaza, 70% of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Israel says it makes every effort to spare civilians and accuses Hamas of using them as human shields.
Qatar has long hosted a Hamas political office, and some of the group’s top leaders are based there.
In an audio recording released this week, Ronen Bar, the head of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, threatened to target Hamas leaders everywhere, including in Qatar.
TURKISH PRESIDENT SAYS NETANYAHU GOVERNMENT IS ENDANGERING REGION'S SECURITY
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Israel should not be allowed to “get away” with alleged crimes committed in Gaza.
In an address Tuesday to a Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Doha, Erdogan also accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is entangle in legal troubles, of putting the entire region at danger for his alleged political survival.
“The Netanyahu administration is endangering the security and future of our entire region in order to extend its political life,” Erdogan said in televised comments.
“The loss of life of 17,000 Palestinians, mostly children and women, is a crime against humanity and a war crime. Israel should not get away with these crimes,” he said.
A vocal critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza, Erdogan has repeatedly called for Netanyahu to be put on trial for alleged war crimes.
FRANCE FREEZES HAMAS LEADER'S ASSETS
PARIS — France froze all assets belonging to Hamas’ top leader in Gaza starting Tuesday and lasting six months.
Yehya Sinwar is considered the mastermind of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. A decision published in the Official Journal of the French Republic said that “funds and economic resources owned, held or controlled” by Yehya Sinwar were being frozen. The total value of Sinwar’s assets in France was not provided.
In a rare action against Israel, US says extremist West Bank settlers will be barred from America
In a rare punitive move against Israel, the State Department said Tuesday it will impose travel bans on extremist Jewish settlers implicated in a rash of recent attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the step after warning Israel last week that President Joe Biden's administration would be taking action over the attacks. Blinken did not announce individual visa bans, but officials said those would be coming this week and could affect dozens of settlers and their families.
Also read: Israel strikes in and around Gaza's second-largest city in a bloody new phase of the war
"We have underscored to the Israeli government the need to do more to hold accountable extremist settlers who have committed violent attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank," Blinken said in a statement. "As President Biden has repeatedly said, those attacks are unacceptable."
"Today, the State Department is implementing a new visa restriction policy targeting individuals believed to have been involved in undermining peace, security or stability in the West Bank, including through committing acts of violence or taking other actions that unduly restrict civilians' access to essential services and basic necessities," Blinken said.
Also read: Israel’s military calls for more evacuations in southern Gaza as it widens offensive
He said the U.S. would continue to seek accountability for settler violence against Palestinians as well as Palestinian attacks against Israelis in the West Bank and Israel, particularly as tensions are extremely high due to the conflict in Gaza.
"Both Israel and the Palestinian Authority have the responsibility to uphold stability in the West Bank," Blinken said. "Instability in the West Bank both harms the Israeli and Palestinian people and threatens Israel's national security interests."
Tuesday's move comes just a month after Israel was granted entry into the U.S. Visa Waiver Program, which allows its citizens visa-free entry into the U.S. Those targeted will not be eligible for the program, and those who hold current U.S. visas will have them revoked.
Also read: Israeli military says ground offensive expanded to every part of Gaza
Israel strikes in and around Gaza's second-largest city in a bloody new phase of the war
Israel intensified its bombardment in and around Gaza's second-largest city early Tuesday, sending ambulances and private cars racing into a local hospital carrying people wounded in a bloody new phase of the war.
Under U.S. pressure to prevent further mass casualties, Israel says it is being more precise as it widens its offensive into southern Gaza after obliterating much of the north — but Palestinians say there are no areas where they feel safe, and many fear that if they leave their homes they will never be allowed to return.
Read: Israel’s military calls for more evacuations in southern Gaza as it widens offensive
Aerial bombardment and the ground offensive have already driven three-fourths of the territory's 2.3 million people from their homes — and new orders to evacuate areas around Khan Younis are squeezing people into ever-smaller areas of the already tiny coastal strip.
At the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, ambulances brought dozens of wounded people in. At one point, a car pulled up and a man emerged carrying a young boy in a bloody shirt, whose hand had been blown off.
“What’s happening here is unimaginable,” said Hamza al-Bursh, who lives in the neighborhood of Maan, one of several in and around the city where Israel has ordered civilians to leave. “They strike indiscriminately.”
Residents said troops had advanced following heavy airstrikes to Bani Suheila, a town just east of Khan Younis. Halima Abdel-Rahman, who fled to the town earlier in the war from her home in the north, said they could hear explosions through the night.
“They are very close,” she said. “It’s the same scenario we saw in the north.”
Satellite photos from Sunday showed around 150 Israeli tanks, armored personnel carriers and other vehicles just under 6 kilometers (4 miles) north of the heart of the city.
FEWER PLACES TO GO
Israel ordered the full-scale evacuation of northern Gaza in the early days of the war and has barred people who left from returning. In the south, it has ordered people out of nearly two dozen neighborhoods in and around Khan Younis. That further reduced the area where civilians can seek refuge in central and southern Gaza by more than a quarter.
Read: Israeli military says ground offensive expanded to every part of Gaza
“Nowhere is safe in Gaza, and there is nowhere left to go,” Lynn Hastings, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said Monday. “The conditions required to deliver aid to the people of Gaza do not exist. If possible, an even more hellish scenario is about to unfold.”
Israel says it must dismantle Hamas' extensive military infrastructure and remove it from power in order to prevent a repeat of the Oct. 7 attack that ignited the war. The surprise assault through the border fence saw Hamas and other Palestinian militants kill about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and capture some 240 men, women and children.
The military says it makes every effort to spare civilians and accuses Hamas of using them as human shields as the militants fight in dense residential areas, where they have labyrinths of tunnels, bunkers, rocket launchers and sniper nests.
Hamas is deeply rooted in Palestinian society, and its determination to end decades of open-ended Israeli military rule over millions of Palestinians is shared by the vast majority, even those opposed to its ideology and its attacks on Israeli civilians. That will complicate any effort to eliminate Hamas without causing massive casualties and further displacement.
Even after weeks of unrelenting bombardment, Hamas' top leader in Gaza, Yehya Sinwar, was able to conduct complex cease-fire negotiations and orchestrate the release of more than 100 Israeli and foreign hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners last week. Palestinian militants have also kept up their rocket fire into Israel, both before and after the truce.
AN UNPRECEDENTED TOLL
The fighting has meanwhile brought unprecedented death and destruction to the coastal strip.
The Health Ministry in Gaza said the death toll in the territory since Oct. 7 has surpassed 15,890 people — 70% of them women and children — with more than 42,000 wounded. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. It says hundreds have been killed or wounded since the cease-fire’s end, and many still are trapped under rubble.
Read: Israeli offensive shifts to crowded southern Gaza, driving up death toll despite evacuation orders
An Israeli army official provided a similar figure for the death toll in Gaza on Monday, after weeks in which Israeli officials had cast doubt on the ministry's count. The official said at least 15,000 people have been killed, including 5,000 militants, without saying how the military arrived at its figures. The military says 86 of its soldiers have been killed in the Gaza offensive.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday that it was too soon to pass judgment on Israeli operations, but that it was unusual for a modern military to identify precise areas of expected ground maneuvers and ask people to move out, as Israel has done in Khan Younis.
“These are the kinds of steps that we have asked them to undertake,” he said.
Leaflets dropped by the Israeli military over Khan Younis in recent days warn people to head farther south toward the border with Egypt, but they are unable to leave Gaza, as both Israel and neighboring Egypt have refused to accept any refugees.
The area that Israel ordered evacuated was home to some 117,000 people, and now it also houses more than 50,000 people displaced from the north, living in 21 shelters, the U.N. said. It was not known how many were fleeing.
Israel’s military calls for more evacuations in southern Gaza as it widens offensive
Israel's military called for more evacuations in southern Gaza as it widened its offensive aimed at eliminating the territory's Hamas rulers. The war has already killed thousands of Palestinians and displaced over three-fourths of Gaza's 2.3 million residents, who are running out of safe places to go.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll in the territory since Oct. 7 has surpassed 15,890, with more than 41,000 wounded. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths, but said 70% of the dead were women and children.
Israel says it targets Hamas operatives and blames civilian casualties on the militants, accusing them of operating in residential neighborhoods. It claims to have killed thousands of militants, without providing evidence. Israel says at least 81 of its soldiers have died.
After visiting Israel and Ramallah, the ICC prosecutor says he will intensify investigations
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court rounded off a historic first visit to Israel and Ramallah by posting video and written messages on Sunday, saying that a probe by the court into possible crimes by Hamas militants and Israeli forces “is a priority for my office.”
In a video message from Ramallah, where he met with top Palestinian leaders, Prosecutor Karim Khan said the investigation that was launched in 2021 is "moving forward at pace, with rigor, with determination and with an insistence that we act not on emotion but on solid evidence.”
There have been widespread claims of breaches of international law by Hamas and Israeli forces since war erupted after the deadly Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas and other militants that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel. Around 240 people were taken hostage.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said Saturday that the overall death toll in the strip since the start of the war had surpassed 15,200. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths, but it said 70% of the dead were women and children. It said more than 40,000 people had been wounded since the war began.
Khan said in a written statement issued after his visit that he witnessed “scenes of calculated cruelty” at locations of the Oct. 7 attacks. During the visit, he spoke to family members of Israeli victims and called for the immediate and unconditional release of hostages taken by Hamas and other militants.
“The attacks against innocent Israeli civilians on Oct. 7 represent some of the most serious international crimes that shock the conscience of humanity, crimes which the ICC was established to address,” Khan said in his written statement, adding that he and his prosecutors are working “to hold those responsible to account.”
In a statement released by the Forum for Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the families thanked Khan “for the extraordinary decision to come and stand by the families in the aftermath of the horrors perpetrated by Hamas in Israel on Oct. 7 and the continued detention of hostages. We expect him to work to bring Hamas terrorists to justice for crimes against humanity and genocide.”
Khan said he is ready to engage with local prosecutors in line with the principle of complementarity — the ICC is a court of last resort set up to prosecute war crimes when local courts cannot or will not take action. Israel is not a member state of the court and does not recognize its jurisdiction.
Khan also visited Palestinian officials in Ramallah, including President Mahmoud Abbas, and spoke to Palestinian victims. He said of the war in Gaza that fighting in “densely populated areas where fighters are alleged to be unlawfully embedded in the civilian population is inherently complex, but international humanitarian law must still apply and the Israeli military knows the law that must be applied.”
He said that Israel “has trained lawyers who advise commanders and a robust system intended to ensure compliance with international humanitarian law. Credible allegations of crimes during the current conflict should be the subject of timely, independent examination and investigation.”
In his video message, Khan also said that humanitarian aid must be allowed into Gaza.
“In Gaza, it is not acceptable — there’s no justification — for doctors to perform operations without light, for children to be operated upon without anesthetics," he said. "Imagine the pain of operations on children, on anybody, on any of us, without anesthetics. I also emphasized that Hamas must not divert any aid that’s given.”
Khan also expressed “profound concern” at what he called “the significant increase in incidents of attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.
“I emphasize, settler violence is unacceptable," he said in his video. "It’s something we are investigating. We have been investigating and we are accelerating investigations. No Israeli settler armed with an ideology and a gun can think it’s open season on Palestinians.”
Khan said he would seek to work with “all actors” in the conflict to “ensure that when action is taken by my office it is done on the basis of objective, verifiable evidence which can stand scrutiny in the courtroom and ensure that when we do proceed we have a realistic prospect of conviction.”
3 commercial ships hit by missiles in Houthi attack in Red Sea, US warship downs 3 drones
Ballistics missiles fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels struck three commercial ships Sunday in the Red Sea, while a U.S. warship shot down three drones in self-defense during the hourslong assault, the U.S. military said. The Iranian-backed Houthis claimed two of the attacks.
The strikes marked an escalation in a series of maritime attacks in the Mideast linked to the Israel-Hamas war, as multiple vessels found themselves in the crosshairs of a single Houthi assault for the first time in the conflict. The U.S. vowed to “consider all appropriate responses” in the wake of the attack, specifically calling out Iran, after tensions have been high for years now over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program.
“These attacks represent a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security,” the U.S. military's Central Command said in a statement. “They have jeopardized the lives of international crews representing multiple countries around the world.”
It added: “We also have every reason to believe that these attacks, while launched by the Houthis in Yemen, are fully enabled by Iran.”
The attack began around 9:15 a.m. local time (0615 GMT) in Houthi-controlled Sanaa, Yemen's capital, Central Command said.
The USS Carney, a Navy destroyer, detected a ballistic missile fired from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen at the Bahamas-flagged bulk carrier Unity Explorer. The missile hit near the ship, the U.S. said. Shortly afterward, the Carney shot down a drone headed its way, although it's not clear if the destroyer was the target, Central Command said.
About 30 minutes later, the Unity Explorer was hit by a missile. While responding to its distress call, the Carney shot down another incoming drone. Central Command said the Unity Explorer sustained minor damage from the missile.
Two other commercial ships, the Panamanian-flagged bulk carriers Number 9 and Sophie II, were both struck by missiles. The Number 9 reported some damage but no casualties, and the Sophie II reported no significant damage, Central Command said.
While sailing to assist the Sophie II around 4:30 p.m. local time (1330 GMT), the Carney shot down another drone heading in its direction. The drones did no damage.
Read: Group of swing state Muslims vows to ditch Biden in 2024 over his war stance
The Carney, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, has shot down multiple rockets the Houthis have fired toward Israel during that nation's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It hasn't been damaged in any of the incidents and no injuries have been reported on board. The Defense Department initially described the assault as simply an attack on the Carney before providing more details.
Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed two of Sunday's attacks, saying the first vessel was hit by a missile and the second by a drone while in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Saree did not mention any U.S. warship being involved.
“The Yemeni armed forces continue to prevent Israeli ships from navigating the Red Sea (and Gulf of Aden) until the Israeli aggression against our steadfast brothers in the Gaza Strip stops,” Saree said. “The Yemeni armed forces renew their warning to all Israeli ships or those associated with Israelis that they will become a legitimate target if they violate what is stated in this statement.”
Saree also identified the first vessel as the Unity Explorer, which is owned by a British firm that includes Dan David Ungar, who lives in Israel, as one of its officers. The Number 9 is linked to Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, while the Sophie II is linked to Japan's Kyowa Kisen Co. Ltd. Managers for the three vessels could not be immediately reached for comment.
Israeli media identified Ungar as being the son of Israeli shipping billionaire Abraham “Rami” Ungar.
Iran has yet to directly address the attacks. However, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian threatened “that if the current situation continues, the region will enter a new phase” over the Israel-Hamas war.
Read: Israeli offensive shifts to crowded southern Gaza, driving up death toll despite evacuation orders
“All parties who are after igniting a war are warned, before it’s too late stop the killing of women and children, of which a new round has started," Amirabdollahian said.
Iran's top diplomat described his comments as coming after conversations with “resistance forces” in the region — a description Tehran uses for the Shiite militias it backs, including groups in Iraq, the Houthis and Lebanon's Hezbollah, as well as the Sunni fighters of Hamas. All have threatened or attacked Israel, Iran's regional archrival, during the war.
The Houthis have launched a series of attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, as well as launching drones and missiles targeting Israel. Analysts suggest the Houthis hope to shore up waning popular support after years of civil war in Yemen between it and Saudi-backed forces.
The U.S. has stopped short of saying its Navy ships were targeted, but has said Houthi drones have headed toward the ships and have been shot down in self-defense. Washington so far has declined to directly respond to the attacks, as has Israel, whose military continues to try to describe the ships as not having links to their country.
Global shipping had increasingly been targeted as the Israel-Hamas war threatens to become a wider regional conflict — even as a truce briefly halted fighting and Hamas exchanged hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. However, the collapse of the truce and the resumption of punishing Israeli airstrikes on Gaza and a ground offensive there had raised the risk of more seaborne attacks.
Read more: Israel strikes Gaza after truce expires, in clear sign that war has resumed in full force
In November, the Houthis seized a vehicle transport ship also linked to Israel in the Red Sea off Yemen. The rebels still hold the vessel near the port city of Hodeida. Missiles also landed near another U.S. warship last week after it assisted a vessel linked to Israel that had briefly been seized by gunmen. Separately, a container ship owned by an Israeli billionaire recently came under attack by a suspected Iranian drone in the Indian Ocean.
The Houthis had not directly targeted the Americans for some time, further raising the stakes in the growing maritime conflict. In 2016, the U.S. launched Tomahawk cruise missiles that destroyed three coastal radar sites in Houthi-controlled territory to retaliate for missiles being fired at U.S. Navy ships at the time.
Israeli military says ground offensive expanded to every part of Gaza
The Israeli military said Sunday its ground offensive had expanded to every part of Gaza, and it ordered more evacuations in the crowded south while vowing that operations there against Hamas would be “no less strength” than its shattering ones in the north.
Heavy bombardment followed the evacuation orders, and Palestinians said they were running out of places to go in the sealed-off territory bordering Israel and Egypt. Many of Gaza's 2.3 million people are crammed into the south after Israel ordered civilians to leave the north in the early days of the war, which was sparked by the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack in Israel that killed about 1,200, mostly civilians.
The United Nations estimates that 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced. Nearly 958,000 of them are in 99 U.N. facilities in the south, said Juliette Toma, director of communications at the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees.
After dark, gunfire and shelling were heard in the central town of Deir al-Balah as flares lit the sky. In Gaza’s second-largest city of Khan Younis, Israeli drones buzzed overhead. U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk urged an end to the war, saying civilian suffering was “too much to bear.”
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll there since Oct. 7 has surpassed 15,500, with more than 41,000 wounded. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths, but said 70% of the dead were women and children.
A Health Ministry spokesman asserted that hundreds had been killed or wounded since a weeklong cease-fire ended Friday. “The majority of victims are still under the rubble,” Ashraf al-Qidra said.
Fears of a wider conflict intensified. A U.S. warship and multiple commercial ships came under attack in the Red Sea, the Pentagon said. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed attacks on two ships they described as being linked to Israel but did not acknowledge targeting a U.S. vessel.
Hopes for another temporary truce in Gaza were fading. The cease-fire facilitated the release of dozens of the roughly 240 Gaza-held Israeli and foreign hostages in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. But Israel has called its negotiators home, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war will continue until “all its goals” are achieved. One is to remove Hamas from power in Gaza.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said resuming talks with Israel on further exchanges must be tied to a permanent cease-fire.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told NBC’s “Meet the Press” the U.S. was working "really hard” for a resumption of negotiations.
Israel's military widened evacuation orders in and around Khan Younis in the south, telling residents of at least five more areas to leave. Residents said the military dropped leaflets calling Khan Younis "a dangerous combat zone" and ordering them to move to the border city of Rafah or a coastal area in the southwest.
But Halima Abdel-Rahman, a widow and mother of four, said she won’t heed such orders anymore. She fled her home in October to an area outside Khan Younis, where she stays with relatives.
“The occupation tells you to go to this area, then they bomb it,” she said by phone. "The reality is that no place is safe in Gaza. They kill people in the north. They kill people in the south.”
Read: After visiting Israel and Ramallah, the ICC prosecutor says he will intensify investigations
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, has urged Israel to avoid significant new mass displacement and to do more to protect civilians. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris told Egypt's president that “under no circumstances” would the U.S. permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, an ongoing siege of Gaza or the redrawing of its borders. As Harris flew from Dubai and an appearance at the U.N. climate conference back to Washington, she spoke by phone with Israeli President Isaac Herzog. They discussed the situation in the West Bank, with Harris reiterating U.S. concerns with steps being taken that could escalate tensions — including extremist settler violence, according to a summary provided by Harris’ office.
Harris also spoke by phone during the flight to Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, and again stated U.S. support for the Palestinian peoples’ right to security, dignity and self-determination, according to the summary.
The vice president’s national security adviser, Phil Gordon, stayed behind in Dubai, and planned to travel to Israel and the West Bank this week to continue to discuss U.S. commitment to a two-state solution in post-war Gaza.
On the ground in Gaza, there was fear and mourning. Outside a Gaza City hospital, a dust-covered boy named Saaed Khalid Shehta dropped to his knees beside the bloodied body of his little brother Mohammad, one of several bodies laid out after people said their street was hit by airstrikes. He kissed him.
“You bury me with him!” the boy cried. A health worker at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital said more than 15 children were killed.
Israel's military said its fighter jets and helicopters struck targets in Gaza including “tunnel shafts, command centers and weapons storage facilities." It acknowledged "extensive aerial attacks in the Khan Younis area."
The bodies of 31 people killed in the bombardment of central Gaza were taken to the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, said Omar al-Darawi, a hospital administrative employee. One woman wept, cradling a child’s body. Another carried the body of a baby. Later, hospital workers reported 11 more dead after another airstrike. Bloodied survivors included a child carried in on a mattress.
Read: 3 commercial ships hit by missiles in Houthi attack in Red Sea, US warship downs 3 drones
Outside a hospital morgue in Khan Younis, resident Samy al-Najeila carried the body of a child. He said his sons had been preparing to evacuate their home, “but the occupation didn’t give us any time. The three-floor building was destroyed completely, the whole block was totally destroyed.” He said six of the bodies were his relatives.
“Five people are still under the rubble,” he said. “God help us.”
In a video from the same crowded al-Nasser hospital, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said: “I feel like I’m almost failing in my ability to convey the endless killing of children here.”
Israel says it does not target civilians and has taken measures to protect them, including its evacuation orders. In addition to leaflets, the military has used phone calls and radio and TV broadcasts to urge people to move from specific areas.
Israel says it targets Hamas operatives and blames civilian casualties on the militants, accusing them of operating in residential neighborhoods. It claims to have killed thousands of militants, without providing evidence. Israel says at least 78 of its soldiers have been killed,
The widening offensive likely will further complicate humanitarian aid to Gaza. Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority, said 100 aid trucks entered Sunday, but U.N. agencies have said 500 trucks per day on average entered before the war.
Read more: Palestinian death toll in Gaza tops 15,200
The renewed hostilities also heightened concerns for the 137 hostages the Israeli military believes are still being held by Hamas. During the recent truce, 105 hostages were freed, and Israel released 240 Palestinian prisoners. Most of those released by both sides were women and children.
Elsewhere in the region, Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group said it struck Israeli positions near the tense Lebanon-Israel border. Eight soldiers and three civilians were wounded by Hezbollah fire in the area of Beit Hillel, army radio reported. The military said its artillery struck sources of fire from Lebanon and its fighter jets struck other Hezbollah targets.
Iraqi militants with the Iran-backed umbrella group the Islamic Resistance in Iraq said they struck the Kharab al-Jir U.S. military base in Syria with rockets. A U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said rockets hit Rumalyn Landing Zone in Syria but there were no reports of casualties or damage.
Later Sunday, officials with Iranian-backed militias in Iraq said five militia members were killed in an airstrike blamed on the U.S. near Kirkuk. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a military operation not yet made public said the U.S. had carried out a “self-defense strike” near Kirkuk targeting a drone staging site.
Palestinian death toll in Gaza tops 15,200
A total of 15,207 Palestinians have died as a result of Israeli attacks in the war-torn Gaza Strip since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict on Oct. 7, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said on Saturday.
Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said during a press conference in Khan Younis that the number of injured people in the Palestinian enclave had surpassed 40,000, with 70 percent of them being children and women.
Read: Israeli offensive shifts to crowded southern Gaza, driving up death toll despite evacuation orders
Al-Qidra also said that Israeli attacks had killed 280 medical personnel and targetted 56 ambulances in Gaza, accusing Israel of deliberately destroying the healthcare system in the Strip.
On Oct. 7, Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, firing thousands of rockets and infiltrating Israeli territory, while Israel responded with airstrikes, ground operations and punitive measures that included a siege on the Gaza Strip.
Read: Group of swing state Muslims vows to ditch Biden in 2024 over his war stance
More than 1,200 have been killed in Israel, mostly during Hamas's attack on Oct. 7 that triggered the conflict.
Group of swing state Muslims vows to ditch Biden in 2024 over his war stance
Muslim community leaders from several swing states pledged to withdraw support for U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday at a conference in suburban Detroit, citing his refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Democrats in Michigan have warned the White House that Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war could cost him enough support within the Arab American community to sway the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.
Leaders from Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona, Wisconsin, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania gathered behind a lectern that read “Abandon Biden, ceasefire now” in Dearborn, Michigan, the city with the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the United States.
More than 13,300 Palestinians — roughly two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza — have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war. Some 1,200 Israelis have been killed, mostly during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war.
Biden’s unwillingness to call for a ceasefire has damaged his relationship with the American Muslim community beyond repair, according to Minneapolis-based Jaylani Hussein, who helped organize the conference.
"Families and children are being wiped out with our tax dollars," Hussein said. “What we are witnessing today is the tragedy upon tragedy.”
Hussein, who is Muslim, told The Associated Press: “The anger in our community is beyond belief. One of the things that made us even more angry is the fact that most of us actually voted for President Biden. I even had one incident where a religious leader asked me, 'How do I get my 2020 ballot so I can destroy it?" he said.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates previously said the Biden administration has pushed for humanitarian pauses in the fighting to get humanitarian aid into Gaza, adding that “fighting against the poison of antisemitism and standing up for Israel’s sovereign right to defend itself have always been core values for President Biden.”
Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania were critical components of the "blue wall" of states that Biden returned to the Democratic column, helping him win the White House in 2020. About 3.45 million Americans identify as Muslim, or 1.1% of the country's population, and the demographic tends to lean Democratic, according to Pew Research Center.
But leaders said Saturday that the community's support for Biden has vanished as more Palestinian men, women and children are killed in Gaza.
“We are not powerless as American Muslims. We are powerful. We don’t only have the money, but we have the actual votes. And we will use that vote to save this nation from itself,” Hussein said at the conference.
The Muslim community leaders' condemnation of Biden does not indicate support for former President Donald Trump, the clear front-runner in the Republican primary, Hussein clarified.
“We don't have two options. We have many options. And we're going to exercise that," he said.
Israeli offensive shifts to crowded southern Gaza, driving up death toll despite evacuation orders
Israel pounded targets in crowded southern Gaza on Saturday and ordered more neighborhoods designated for attack to evacuate, driving up the death toll as the United States and others urged it to do more to protect civilians a day after a truce collapsed.
The prospect of further cease-fires in Gaza appeared bleak, as Israel recalled its negotiators and Hamas’ deputy leader said any further swap of Gaza-held hostages for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel would only happen as part of ending the war.
“We will continue the war until we achieve all its goals, and it’s impossible to achieve those goals without the ground operation,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an address Saturday night.
At least 200 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting resumed Friday morning following the weeklong truce with the territory’s ruling militant group Hamas, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. Several multi-story residential buildings were hit on Saturday, engulfing neighborhoods in huge clouds of smoke.
Separately, the ministry said the overall death toll in Gaza since the Oct. 7 start of the war had surpassed 15,200, a sharp jump from the previous count of more than 13,300 on Nov. 20. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths, but it said 70% of the dead were women and children. It said more than 40,000 people had been wounded since the war began.
“Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. Frankly, the scale of civilian suffering and the images and videos coming from Gaza are devastating,” U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters during the COP28 climate conference in Dubai.
Appeals from the U.S., Israel's closest ally, to protect civilians came after an offensive in the first weeks of the war devastated large areas of northern Gaza. Some 2 million Palestinians, almost Gaza's entire population, are now crammed into the territory's southern half.
Israel’s military said it had hit more than 400 Hamas targets across Gaza over the past day, including more than 50 in Khan Younis city and surrounding areas in the south.
Palestinian Red Crescent spokesman Mahmoud Basal told broadcaster Al-Jazeera that there were more than 300 “martyrs” in Gaza City’s Shujaia neighborhood and that homes were flattened. Israel's military said it killed Hamas’ Shujaia battalion commander but gave no details on the operation. Residents could not be reached.
In northern Gaza, an airstrike flattened a building hosting families in the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya on Gaza City's outskirts. It left dozens dead or wounded, said residents Hamza Obeid and Amal Radwan.
“The building turned into a pile of rubble,” Obeid said. AP video showed smoke rising as men, some in sandals, picked their way over debris. The Israeli military confirmed it was operating in Jabaliya and said it had found and destroyed Hamas tunnels in the surrounding area.
A powerful strike hit a cluster of multi-story buildings in Hamad City, a Qatari-funded housing development on the outskirts of Khan Younis. Smoke engulfed the complex. There was no immediate word on casualties.
“Where is it safe? I swear to God, no one knows, where are we going?” asked Zohair al Raai, who said his family received a recorded message saying their building should evacuate.
Also in the south, at least nine people, including three children, were killed in a strike on a house in Deir al-Balah, according to the hospital where bodies were taken.
Meanwhile, Palestinian militant groups in Gaza said they fired a barrage of rockets on southern Israel. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli army spokesperson, said Hamas had launched more than 250 since the cease-fire ended. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
During a Saturday visit to Israel and the West Bank city of Ramallah, an International Criminal Court prosecutor said his office is serious in moving forward to investigate allegations of war crimes on both sides.
“Every actor should be without doubts that they must comply with the law now,” Karim Khan told broadcaster Palestine TV. “And if you don’t comply with the law now, don’t complain later.”
With the resumption of fighting, the Israeli military published an online map carving up Gaza into hundreds of numbered parcels and asked residents to familiarize themselves with the number of their location ahead of evacuation warnings.
On Saturday, the military listed more than two dozen parcel numbers around Gaza City and east of Khan Younis. Separately, it dropped leaflets with evacuation orders over towns east of Khan Younis.
One Khan Younis resident said a neighbor received a call from the Israeli army warning that houses in the area would be hit. “We told them, ‘We have nothing here, why do you want to strike it?’" said the resident, Hikmat al-Qidra. Al-Qidra said the house was destroyed.
The maps and leaflets generated panic and confusion in the crowded south, where people cannot go to northern Gaza or neighboring Egypt and are left to move around within the 220-square-kilometer (85-square-mile) area.
“There is no place to go,” said Emad Hajar, who fled to Khan Younis a month ago. “They expelled us from the north, and now they are pushing us to leave the south."
Mark Regev, a senior advisor to Netanyahu, said Israel was making “maximum effort" to protect civilians and the military has used leaflets, phone calls, and radio and TV broadcasts to urge Gazans to move from specific areas. He added that Israel is considering creating a security buffer zone that would not allow Gazans direct access to the border fence on foot.
Israel says it targets Hamas operatives and blames civilian casualties on the militants, accusing them of operating in residential neighborhoods. It claims to have killed thousands of militants, without providing evidence. Israel says 77 of its soldiers have been killed in the offensive in northern Gaza.
Also Saturday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said it had received the first convoy of aid trucks through the Rafah crossing with Egypt since fighting resumed. Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority, said 100 trucks entered including three carrying 150,000 liters (nearly 40,000 gallons) of fuel.
Meanwhile, Harris told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in a meeting that “under no circumstances” would the U.S. permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, an ongoing siege of Gaza or the redrawing of its borders, according to a U.S. summary.
The Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and other militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel. Around 240 people were taken captive.
The renewed hostilities have heightened concerns for 137 hostages, who the Israeli military says are still being held after 105 were freed during the truce. A 70-year-old woman held by Hamas was declared dead on Saturday, according to her kibbutz. She is the eighth hostage known to have died.
At a rally of tens of thousands in Tel Aviv, released hostages called for the rest to be freed. In a video address, Yaffa Adar, 85, spoke up specifically for children being held, saying, “I want to see them now — not when I’m in a coffin."
Hamas and Israel differed on who was still being held.
Hamas' deputy leader, Saleh Arouri, told Al-Jazeera that any remaining hostages are men who served in the Israeli military. That contradicted another top Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, who told The Associated Press on Friday the group was willing to trade more hostages but rebuffed an Israeli demand to release 10 female soldiers.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Hamas violated the truce agreement by refusing to return two children and 15 women.
During the truce, Israel freed 240 Palestinians. Most of those released by both sides were women and children.