Key events
The Biden administration has told Israel that it must work to avoid “significant further displacement” of Palestinian civilians in southern Gaza if it renews its ground campaign after the current pause in fighting, the AP news agency reported senior US officials as saying on Tuesday.
Separately, White House national security council spokesperson John Kirby said the Israelis had been receptive when US officials have raised the issue.
The White House, seeking to avoid more large-scale civilian casualties or mass displacement like that seen before the current temporary pause in the fighting, underscored to the Israelis that they must operate with far greater precision in southern Gaza than they did in the north, said officials who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, according to AP.
The White House has begun to put greater pressure on Israel that the manner of the coming campaign must be “carefully thought through,” AP reports.
Kirby, told reporters separately, “Now you have an added population of hundreds of thousands more in the south that you didn’t have before [the Israelis] moved into Gaza City.”
“And so it’s even all that more of an added burden on Israel to make sure … that they have properly accounted for … the extra innocent life that is now in south Gaza.”
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made clear that Israeli Defense Forces will eventually restart military operations after the conclusion of the current, temporary ceasefire.
President Joe Biden has said he would like to see the pause – which has also allowed a surge of much-needed humanitarian aid to get into Gaza – continue as long as feasible.
Israeli military raid West Bank city of Jenin – reports
There are reports that parts of the city of Jenin, in the West Bank, have been closed off with checkpoints set up at routes into the city.
Al Jazeera says that armed clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters have taken place, with at least eight people injured. They report that hundreds of Israeli troops have taken part in the raid, supported by more than 50 armoured vehicles.
The Palestinian Red Crescent has said that one of its medical teams was detained by Israeli troops outside a Jenin hospital, preventing them from transferring a patient with a gunshot wound in the leg to the hospital. They later said that the patient was arrested.
Christos Christou, the international president of Médecins Sans Frontières, is in Jenin and says that the Israeli army “conducted an incursion on Jenin refugee camp.”
In a video posted to X, he says that he has been trapped in the Khalil Suleiman hospital for more than two hours, while Israeli forces “operated in Jenin camp”.
Egyptian media reports that a preliminary understanding has been reached to extend the truce
Egypt’s Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper is reporting that a preliminary understanding has been reached to extend the truce for two more days, under the same conditions that are currently being observed. The paper has quoted Egyptian officials as its source.
Israeli officials confirmed to the Haaretz newspaper that the proposal was being examined, but has not yet been confirmed. Haaretz reports an Israeli source as saying the agreement on an extension depended on whether Hamas is able to release 10 additional Israeli hostages a day.
As we reported earlier, with fewer women and children remaining in captivity extending the truce may require Hamas to free at least some Israeli men for the first time.
Attention now turns to Qatar which mediated indirect talks between Hamas and Israel that resulted in the ceasefire.
On Tuesday, Qatar hosted spy chiefs from Israel’s Mossad and the United States’ CIA. The meeting sought to “build on the progress of the extended humanitarian pause agreement and to initiate further discussions about the next phase of a potential deal”, a source briefed on the visits told Reuters.
Welcome and summary
Welcome to our continuing coverage of the war between Israel and Hamas.
There’s just over 24 hours before a prolonged six-day truce between Israel and Hamas is set to expire. On Tuesday, Hamas released 12 hostages who had been held in Gaza since 7 October in exchange for 30 Palestinian prisoners who were freed from Israeli jails.
It’s thought that another exchange will take place on Wednesday, with Israeli media reporting that Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has received a list with the names of the Israeli hostages that Hamas intends to release.
It’s hoped that the truce could be extended further, after spy chiefs from Israel’s Mossad and the United States’ CIA travelled to Qatar for discussions about “the next phase of a potential deal”.
Israel has said the truce could be extended further, provided Hamas continues to free at least 10 Israeli hostages a day and Egyptial media are reporting that a deal has been agreed in principle.
We’ll have more on all of this shortly, first, here’s a summary of the day’s other main events.
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The latest exchange of hostages in Gaza for Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails took place on Tuesday night. 12 hostages, including 10 Israelis and two Thai nationals, are now in Israel. The 30 Palestinians to be released from Israeli prisons on Tuesday include 15 children and 15 women. In a statement, the Israel Prison Service said the 30 Palestinians were released from Ofer prison, near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, and from a detention centre in Jerusalem.
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There were reports that the West Bank city of Jenin had been raided by Israeli troops. Al Jazeera says that armed clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters have taken place, with at least eight people injured. Christos Christou, the international president of Médecins Sans Frontières, said that the Israeli army “conducted an incursion on Jenin refugee camp.”
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There were reports of some fighting in Gaza, depite the extension of the truce. Israel said a number of soldiers were lightly injured in Gaza after “three explosive devices were detonated adjacent to IDF troops in two different locations”. In a Telegram message on Tuesday, the IDF said: “In one of the locations, terrorists also opened fire at the troops, who responded with fire.” Hamas accused Israel of a “blatant breach of the ceasefire” in the northern Gaza Strip but said it was “still committed to the ceasefire so long as the enemy is committed to it”.
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The UN’s aid chief, Martin Griffiths, will travel to Jordan on Wednesday for talks on the possibility of opening a second crossing, the Kerem Shalom crossing, to allow for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza from Israel. Since the temporary truce between Hamas and Israel came into force last week, about 200 trucks carrying aid have entered Gaza on a daily basis, but the amount is nowhere enough to need the needs of its population.
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The Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) has said Israeli forces are preventing a fuel truck from entering the north of Gaza. The truck, which was passing through a checkpoint which separates the north of the strip from the south, was carrying fuel to support the work of seven PRCS ambulances operational in northern Gaza, it said on Tuesday. In a later post, it said Israeli forces prevented its emergency medical team from transferring a wounded patient to the hospital in Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
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The population of Gaza, especially women and children, are at “high risk of famine” if humanitarian food supplies do not continue past the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has warned. In an update on Tuesday, the WFP said it had delivered food to 121,161 people in Gaza since the truce began on Friday. “Six days is simply not enough to provide all the assistance needed,” it said.
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There is a risk that more people could die from diseases than from bombings in Gaza if the territory’s health system is not put back on its feet quickly, a World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson said on Tuesday. “Eventually we will see more people dying from disease than from bombardment if we are not able to put back together this health system,” the WHO’s Margaret Harris said.