Gaza live: Palestinian death toll passes 37,000 after brutal Israeli attack on Nuseirat

The Palestinian government in Gaza has accused Israel of inciting chaos after Israeli forces killed eight police officers in their latest attack. 

The officers were performing "their regular duties in maintaining security and order" in central Gaza's Deir al-Balah when they were killed on Tuesday, the government's media office said in a statement. 

"The occupation's goal is to disrupt the home front, cause chaos and prevent any attempt to manage daily life and provide relief to our people," the statement added. 

Since the onset of the war in October 2023, members of Gaza's police force have been frequently targeted by Israel. 

"Police members are protected under the Geneva Conventions and are only performing their humanitarian and professional duties," the media office stated. 

"The occupation’s bombing of police personnel reflects its disregard for international humanitarian law."

Mediator Qatar said on Tuesday that it was waiting for a "clear position" from Israel on a proposed Gaza ceasefire and prisoner swap deal outlined by US President Joe Biden.

"We have yet to see a very clear position from the Israeli government towards the principles laid out by Biden," Qatar's foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said at a press conference.

"We are waiting for a clear Israeli position that represents the entire government," he added. 

Al-Ansari urged both Israel and Hamas to clarify their positions and said communication was ongoing with both parties.

Reporting by Reuters and AFP

Iran's acting foreign minister Ali Bagheri discussed "proposed solutions" for ending the Israeli war on Gaza with Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday, the Lebanese armed group said.

The two men "reviewed the latest regional political and security developments, especially on the Gaza and Lebanon fronts, and the proposed solutions," a Hezbollah statement said.

Bagheri arrived in Lebanon Monday on his first foreign trip since being named caretaker minister following the death of his predecessor Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in a helicopter crash last month that also killed president Ebrahim Raisi.

At a press conference on Monday, Bagheri said the United States should halt all aid to Israel rather than propose a ceasefire.

He said he had chosen Lebanon for his first official visit "because Lebanon is the cradle of resistance" against Israel.

Bagheri was due to hold talks in Damascus later Tuesday with his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad and President Bashar al-Assad.

Iran's Tasnim news agency said Bagheri "talked with the leaders of the Palestinian resistance groups in Syria" at the Iranian embassy in Damascus.

Reporting by AFP

Israeli forces have killed at least 71 Palestinians and wounded 182 more in the past 24 hours in seven "massacres", according to the Palestinian health ministry. 

This brings the Palestinian death toll since 7 October 2023 to 36,550, including about 15,000 children and 10,000 women. 

Another 82,959 have been wounded and an estimated 10,000 are missing, likely dead and buried under rubble.

The Israeli ambassador to Japan has not yet been invited to Nagasaki's annual peace ceremony, said city officials who instead sent the embassy a letter calling for a Gaza ceasefire.

The city in southern Japan this week invited dozens of countries and territories to the 9 August event on the anniversary of the US nuclear attack in 1945 that killed 74,000 people.

But "as for Israel, the situation is changing day by day... so we have put sending an invitation letter on hold," mayor Shiro Suzuki told reporters on Monday.

Worries that pro-Palestine protests could disrupt the memorial for atomic bomb victims are partly behind the decision, said Suzuki.

"Given the critical humanitarian situation in Gaza, and public opinion in the international community, there are concerns about the risk of unexpected incidents during the ceremony," which should be "safe and smooth".

Reporting by AFP

Desalination plants in Gaza have been shut down due to a lack of fuel to run generators, leaving Palestinians with little water to survive, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, said on Tuesday. 

"Survival is a struggle. Families and children walk long distances in the heat for water," Unrwa said on X, formerly Twitter.

"People need water to live - Israeli authorities must provide access NOW."

With almost no fuel available in #Gaza, critical desalination plants have shut down. People don’t have near enough water

Survival is a struggle. Families & children walk long distances in the heat for water

People need water to live - Israeli authorities must provide access NOW pic.twitter.com/yh0peaM5XP

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) June 4, 2024

The UN rights chief on Tuesday demanded an end to surging Israeli violence in the occupied West Bank, saying it was "unfathomable" that more than 500 Palestinians had been killed there since 7 October.

"As if the tragic events in Israel and then Gaza over the past eight months were not enough, the people of the occupied West Bank are also being subjected to day-after-day of unprecedented bloodshed," Volker Turk said in a statement.

"It is unfathomable that so many lives have been taken in such a wanton fashion."

Reporting by AFP

The Israeli army has killed more than 15,000 Palestinian children in its eight-month-long war on Gaza, mostly students, the Palestinian education ministry said on Tuesday. 

At least 64 more pupils were killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank in the same period.

According to the ministry, the Israeli war on Gaza has deprived 620,000 schoolchildren and 88,000 university students of education in the past year. 

The ministry urged international rights groups to put an end to the violence against Palestinian children, according to news agency Wafa.

Israeli strikes killed eight Palestinian policemen in Deir al-Balah on Tuesday, the news website Arab48 reported.

The officers were targeted while "carrying out their duties" in the central Gaza Strip city, the outlet added. 

Another fire broke out in a forest in northern Israel on Tuesday caused by an interceptor missile, Israeli media has reported.

A suspected drone infiltration from Lebanon had set off air defences north of Safed earlier on Tuesday.

Shrapnel from the interception caused the fire but rescue teams were quickly dispatched to contain the fire.

Massive fires engulfed large areas in northern Israel for hours on Monday night caused by the ongoing fighting between Hezbollah and Israel. 

Israeli strikes near a shelter for displaced people in central Gaza's Deir al-Balah have killed at least seven people and wounded many more, according to Al Jazeera Arabic. 

Children were among those injured in the attack in which two suspected drone strikes hit a car and a group of civilians.

Al Jazeera said there was a "large number" of injuries as people were being transferred to al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital for treatment. 

pic.twitter.com/CCLT1xhbn9

— وكالة صفا (@SafaPs) June 4, 2024

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office on Tuesday denied American media reports that he will address the US Congress on 13 June, amid mounting pressure to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas.

Netanyahu's office told Israeli media the date of his speech to Congress had "not been finalised", but it would not be on 13 June because it interferes with a Jewish holiday.

The date had been reported by Punchbowl News and Politico.

Speculation about the visit comes with Netanyahu facing intense criticism over the civilian death toll in the Israeli war in Gaza, which has ratcheted tension with President Joe Biden's administration.

Reporting by AFP

The Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir said the annual provocative ultranationalist "flag march" will go through the Muslim quarter Jerusalem's Old City on Wednesday, according to the Israeli Army Radio.

The march will include a stop at the Damascus Gate and participants will also storm Al-Aqsa Mosque, he said.

"Tomorrow we will march at the Damascus Gate and Jews will go up to the Temple Mount (Al-Aqsa Mosque)," the far-right minister told Army Radio. "We need to hit them where it's most important to them."

מצעד הדגלים • השר בן גביר ל-@efitriger: "נצעד מחר בשער שכם ויהודים יעלו להר הבית. כל המח"טים בעזה מספרים לי שכל בית שנכנסים אליו רואים בו את הר הבית אז צריך להכות אותם במקום שהכי חשוב להם" pic.twitter.com/oUOBQ7foON

— גלצ (@GLZRadio) June 4, 2024

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

It's just after 7:30 in Palestine and Israel. Here are the latest updates from Israel's ongoing war on Gaza now on its 242nd day:

• Israeli fighter jets bombed Gaza City on Tuesday morning, killing at least three Palestinians and wounding others, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa. Air strikes in Bureij refugee camps in central Gaza killed three more people.

• In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinians inside their car near a checkpoint west of Tulkarm. 

• The United States said it wants the United Nations Security Council to adopt a resolution backing the proposal outlined by President Joe Biden to end the fighting in Gaza through a ceasefire and a prisoner swap deal, according to Reuters.

• A massive fire set off by Hezbollah rockets in northern Israel has been brought under control after nine hours of efforts by firefighters overnight, according to Israeli media. 

Hello MEE readers.

Our live coverage from Gaza will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are the day's key developments:

• The Israeli military has forcibly displaced over one million Palestinians from Rafah after expanding its aerial and ground attacks there last month, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. 

• More than 3,500 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip are at risk of death due to the "Israeli policy of starvation," the government media office in the besieged Gaza strip said

• At least 40 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip died in Israeli custody since 7 October, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he is not ready to end the war on Gaza, adding that US President Joe Biden's description of the proposed ceasefire agreement was "not accurate"

• Satellite image analysis by the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNSOAT) has revealed that 55 percent of all Gaza's buildings have been destroyed or damaged by Israel's ongoing war on the besieged enclave

• Over 9000 Palestinians, including 300 women and 635 children, have been detained by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank since 7 October, the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoner's Society (PPS), and Palestinian NGO, Addameer said in a joint statement

• Palestinian authorities have filed an application with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to join South Africa as a party in its Gaza genocide case against Israel, the court said on Monday

• Chris Van Hollen has called for the Biden administration to sanction far-right Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich due to his policies against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank

• Far-right Israeli minister calls for Lebanon to be sent back to 'stone age'