Israel's army said several thousand troops would be taken out of Gaza in the coming weeks, though it has not said publicly whether the withdrawal reflects a new phase of the war. The move is in line with the plans that Israeli leaders have outlined for a low-intensity campaign, expected to last for much of the year, that focuses on remaining Hamas strongholds.
Still, fierce fighting was ongoing Tuesday in central and southern Gaza. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled to the southern portion of the cramped enclave, with more than 85% of the population driven from their homes.
About 1,200 people were killed after Hamas raided southern Israel on Oct. 7, with around 240 people taken hostage.
More than 21,900 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children, have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants among the dead.
Currently:
— Israel’s Supreme Court overturns a key component of Netanyahu’s polarizing judicial overhaul.
— The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier is returning home after extended deployment defending Israel.
— An Israeli who fought Hamas for 2 months indicted for impersonating a soldier and stealing weapons
— U.S. Navy helicopters fire at Yemen’s Houthi rebels, killing several in the latest Red Sea shipping attack.
— Find more of AP's coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
Here's what's happening in the war:
The Biden administration has spoken out against the comments of two far-right Israeli ministers who recently called for Palestinians to be resettled outside of Gaza.
In a statement Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller called Israeli Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir’s comments “inflammatory and irresponsible.”
On Sunday, Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister, said Israel should “encourage migration” from Gaza and re-establish Jewish settlements in the territory, where it withdrew settlers and soldiers in 2005. Ben Gvir has made similar comments about resettling Palestinians.
Miller said Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have “repeatedly” told the U.S. leaders that “such statements do not reflect the policy of the Israeli government.”
“Gaza is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian land, with Hamas no longer in control of its future and with no terror groups able to threaten Israel,” Miller said.
BEIRUT — Hamas and Hezbollah officials say top Hamas official Saleh Arouri has been killed in an explosion in a southern Beirut suburb.
Arouri, one of the founders of Hamas’ military wing, had led the group’s presence in the West Bank. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had threatened to kill him even before the Hamas-Israel war began on Oct. 7.
Israeli officials declined to comment about the Tuesday evening blast. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said it killed four people and was carried out by an Israeli drone.
JERUSALEM — Israel’s defense minister says it is “incorrect” to think that Israel will halt its war against Hamas anytime soon.
Yoav Gallant’s comments came a day after the military said it was pulling out several thousand troops from Gaza in the biggest drawdown of forces since the war erupted nearly three months ago. The redeployment comes as Israel prepares to enter a new phase of lower-intensity fighting.
During a visit to troops inside Gaza, Gallant said it would be a mistake to think that Israel is planning on halting the war.
“The feeling that we will stop soon is incorrect,” he said. “Without a clear victory, we will not be able to live in the Middle East.”
Gallant said Israel has destroyed 12 Hamas battalions in northern Gaza. He said this does not mean Hamas has been eliminated altogether, but its capabilities are limited. He estimated that several thousand fighters are left, out of 15,000 to 18,000 at the outset of the war.
But in southern Gaza, he said “the reality is different” and Israel is still fighting a tougher battle. Israel believes Hamas’ leaders are hiding in the area.
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Hamas’ supreme leader, Ismail Haniyeh, has thanked South Africa for launching a case at the United Nations’ top court accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
“We greet all those who support us, especially the state of South Africa,” Haniyeh said in a televised address broadcast on Al-Jazeera. “And we appreciate the political and legal importance of this complaint.”
Haniyeh also rejected U.S. and Israeli demands that Hamas will not have a role in the future of Gaza after the war, saying any solution of the Palestinian cause without Hamas “are mere illusions.”
“We are the ones who decide our present and future,” Haniyeh said.
Haniyeh, who lives in exile, said that Hamas and its leaders in Gaza are well and reiterated that there will be no exchange of prisoners between Hamas and Israel “until the aggression comes to a complete stop.” He said all Palestinians prisoners will have to be set free in return for the hostages.
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian health workers are vaccinating children in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands have fled to escape the Israel-Hamas war.
UNICEF said last week it delivered at least 600,000 doses of vaccines to the besieged enclave as illness spreads rapidly. The agency estimated that more than 16,600 infants have missed one or more routine vaccinations.
On Tuesday, war-weary women rushed to a health care center in the Tel Sultan area of Rafah to get their infants vaccinated. They stood in long lines.
Iman al-Khudary, a displaced mother from Gaza City, said it took her several attempts to get her baby daughter vaccinated. She said it appears not enough vaccines had reached Gaza and she is worried gaps in vaccinations will make her child more vulnerable to rapidly spreading disease.
Health worker Faten al-Amasssi said the recent shipment for vaccines included those against polio, pneumococcal pneumonia, measles, rubella, mumps as well as tuberculosis. She said her health center has continued to vaccinate children throughout the war.
She said that the spread of disease is mostly linked to unsanitary conditions in overcrowded shelters, rather than a lack of vaccines.
JERUSALEM — Israel says it will defend itself against genocide accusations filed by South Africa with the world court.
Eylon Levy, an official in the Israeli prime minister’s office, on Tuesday accused South Africa of “giving political and legal cover” to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that triggered Israel’s war against the militant group.
“The state of Israel will appear before the International Court of Justice at the Hague to dispel South Africa’s absurd blood libel,” Levy said.
South Africa launched the case Friday at the U.N.’s top court, accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and asking the court to order Israel to halt its attacks.
Israel dismisses international cases against it as unfair and biased and rarely cooperates. The Israeli response signals the government is taking the case seriously.
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says its forces killed four Palestinian militants early Tuesday during a raid in the West Bank, in the latest deadly violence in the occupied territory.
The military said the men opened fire on troops raiding the village of Azzun, in the northern West Bank, before barricading themselves in a home. It says an Israeli soldier was moderately wounded.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, an armed group loosely tied to President Mahmoud Abbas’ secular Fatah movement, claimed the dead as its fighters and said they died defending the village.
Israel has stepped up raids across the West Bank since Oct. 7, when an attack by the militant Hamas group triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.
More than 300 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since Oct. 7, mostly in confrontations with Israeli forces during raids or protests, though some have also been killed in attacks by armed settlers.
NICOSIA, Cyprus — The U.K. says its first maritime shipment of nearly 100 tons of thermal blankets, shelter packs and medical supplies for Gaza has reached Egypt’s Port Said, from where it will cross into the enclave.
The U.K. Foreign Office said Tuesday that the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Lyme Bay delivered the aid after departing from Cyprus. The aid will be distributed by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees.
The aid delivery was made possible following visits by British Foreign Secretary James Cameron and Defense Secretary Grant Shapps to Egypt and Cyprus last month. The aid includes 11 tons of medical supplies donated by Cyprus.
The British government said it would “explore other routes for aid deliveries,” including the Cypriot initiative to set up a maritime corridor to continuously ship large quantities of assistance to Gaza and the land corridor from Jordan.
BEIRUT — Several Israeli airstrikes hit the outskirts of Damascus early Tuesday, causing “material damage,” Syrian state media reported.
State news agency SANA, citing an unnamed military official, said the strikes came from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights at around 4:30 a.m.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based opposition war monitor, reported that the airstrikes hit a Syrian army artillery unit where members of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah were also stationed.
Israel for years has struck parts of government-held Syria. On the rare occasions it acknowledges the strikes, Israel says it's targeting Iranian-backed groups there that have backed President Bashar Assad’s government. The observatory said Israel carried out 76 attacks on Syrian territory in 2023.
On Monday, the Israeli military said it had identified five missiles launched from Syria that fell in open areas.
