Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to trap the west into a total war across the Middle East that would have incalculable consequences for the region and the world, Iran’s top diplomat in the UK has claimed, in his first interview since Tehran’s attack on Israel. Seyed Mehdi Hosseini Matin also warned that if Israel made “another mistake” by launching an attack on Iran, there would be a response from Iran that was stronger, more severe and administered without a warning like that issued before the weekend attack.
Israeli tanks pushed back into parts of the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday which they had left weeks ago, while warplanes conducted airstrikes on Rafah, the Palestinians’ last refuge in the territory’s south, killing and wounding several people, medics and residents said. In northern Gaza, residents reported an internet outage in the areas of Beit Hanoun and Jabalia. Tanks advanced into Beit Hanoun and surrounded some schools where displaced families had taken refuge, said the residents and Hamas media outlets.
An Israeli airstrike killed 11 Palestinians, including children, in the al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza later on Tuesday, Palestinian health officials and Hamas media said. The Israeli military did not immediately comment. In al-Nusseirat refugee camp, residents said Israeli planes had bombed and destroyed four multi-storey residential buildings.
Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon killed three people including a Hezbollah field commander on Tuesday, Lebanese security sources said – an uptick in violence after at least a week of relative calm in more than half a year of hostilities. The Israeli military said Ismail Baz, killed in a strike on a car near the southern town of Ain Ebel, was the commander of Hezbollah’s coastal sector and was involved in planning rocket and anti-tank missile attacks on Israel. Hezbollah issued a statement mourning Baz’s death but did not elaborate on his role in the organisation.
At least 33,843 Palestinians have been killed and 76,575 wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began on 7 October, according to the latest figures by the territory’s health ministry on Tuesday. The Hamas-led ministry said there had been 46 Palestinians killed and 110 injured over the past 24 hours.
More than 10,000 women have been killed in Gaza since 7 October, UN Women said in a new report. Among those were an estimated 6,000 mothers, leaving 19,000 children orphaned, the UN agency said.
The UN human rights office said Israel was still imposing “unlawful” restrictions on humanitarian relief for Gaza, despite assertions from Israel and others that barriers have eased. The amount of aid now entering Gaza is disputed amid reports famine has already taken hold in some areas, with Israel and Washington saying aid flows have risen in recent days but UN agencies say it is still far below bare minimum levels.
The UN and the UK have voiced grave concern over escalating violence in the West Bank, demanding that Israeli security forces “immediately” stop supporting settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied territory. The comments came hours after two Palestinian men were killed by Israeli settlers in a northern village south of Nablus. Palestinians said the incident followed a clash when settlers entered Palestinian-owned land and assaulted residents, while settlers said it began with an assault on a Jewish person.
Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly avoiding a call from the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, after the pair were scheduled to speak on Monday, according to a report. Sunak, addressing the House of Commons on Monday, said he would “shortly be speaking to prime minister Netanyahu” to “discuss how we can prevent further escalation” in the face of Iran’s attack.
A UN security council committee considering an application by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to become a full UN member “was unable to make a unanimous recommendation” on whether it met the criteria, according to the committee report. The PA is still expected to push the 15-member security council to vote, as early as this week, on a draft resolution recommending it become a full UN member, diplomats said. Such membership would effectively recognise a Palestinian state. But the application needs to be approved by the security council, where the US can block it, and then by at least two-thirds of the general assembly.
Vladimir Putin urged all sides in the Middle East to refrain from action that would trigger a new confrontation which he warned would be fraught with catastrophic consequences for the region, the Kremlin said. Putin spoke to Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, by phone about what the Kremlin called “retaliatory measures taken by Tehran”.
More than a dozen humanitarian groups have signed a letter warning that the escalating tensions in the Middle East are “threatening the lives of millions of civilians”. The groups including Save the Children, the International Rescue Committee and Norwegian Refugee Council urged de-escalation.
