Key events
Eight more Israeli soldiers killed, military says
Israel has announced the deaths of eight more soldiers in Gaza fighting, including a lieutenant-colonel who had commanded a Golani infantry regiment.
The military said a total of 114 soldiers had been killed since Israel began Gaza ground operations on 20 October, Reuters reports.
Opening summary
Welcome to our continuing live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war. This is Adam Fulton and I’ll be with you for the next while.
In our top story, Israel is facing growing diplomatic isolation over the war after a United Nations vote demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and US president Joe Biden told its longtime ally that its “indiscriminate” bombing of civilians was hurting its international support.
The UN general assembly resolution for a ceasefire passed by an overwhelming margin, with 153 members voting in favour, 10 – including Israel and the US – voting against and 23 abstaining.
The result – highlighting the toughening consensus around the world for the need to stop the war – came as Israeli forces carried out strikes across the territory. The Hamas-run health ministry said at least 50 people had been killed.
More on those stories soon. In other headlines as it turns 7.20am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv:
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The leaders of Canada, Australia and New Zealand called for a ceasefire, saying in a joint statement: “The price of defeating Hamas cannot be the continuous suffering of all Palestinian civilians.”
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Israeli tank shelling on Tuesday was focused on the centre of Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s main city, residents said. Israeli airstrikes there killed 11 Palestinians, including two children, health officials said. Further south in Rafah, bordering Egypt, strikes killed 22 people including children, officials said.
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Israeli forces killed six Palestinians in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday, Palestinian health officials said. Five were killed in an Israeli operation in the morning, the health ministry said, while a sixth died later. The Israeli military said it carried out an operation in Jenin targeting an explosives-manufacturing facility on Tuesday and uncovered “explosive devices planted under roads to attack the security forces”.
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A senior official from Yemen’s Houthis has warned cargo ships in the Red Sea to avoid travelling towards Israel and the occupied territories, after the Iran-aligned group claimed an attack on a commercial tanker earlier in the day.
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US president Joe Biden declined to directly answer a question on reports that Israel was pumping seawater into Hamas’s tunnel complex in Gaza, referring only to assertions that there were no hostages in the areas targeted. Citing unnamed US officials, the Wall Street Journal has reported that Israel recently began pumping seawater into the tunnels in a process that would likely take weeks. Responding in Washington to a question about the reports, Biden said on Tuesday: “With regard to the flooding of the tunnels. I’m not at lib – well, there [are] assertions being made that … there’s no hostages in any of these tunnels. But I don’t know that for a fact.”
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Biden will be speaking to the families of Americans who were taken hostage by Hamas on 7 October, his first in-person meeting with families, Reuters reported, citing a White House official. It is unclear how many families will be present for the Wednesday meeting and how many will be in person versus on video conference.
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Palestinians who have been injured during the war in Gaza are facing potentially fatal delays both in getting treatment within the territory as well as in being evacuated abroad, caused by Israeli bureaucracy and military checkpoints, the UN and aid organisations say. The delays come amid a claim by the UN World Health Organisation that Palestinian ambulance staff involved in a recent high-risk evacuation were detained at gunpoint, stripped and beaten by Israeli soldiers.