Gaza live: Concerns about all-out regional war rise following Golan Heights deadly attack

A group of prominent Israeli figures from the defence industry, academic, legal, and public service sectors wrote to US congressional leaders from both parties, warning about the potential damage Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Washington visit could cause, Haaretz has reported. 

"This visit prioritizes his personal political survival over our shared interests," they wrote, adding, "Congress will be hosting a leader without a mandate who is facing prosecution for major crimes."

They also said, "He remains unwilling to conceptualize a post-war plan and continues destabilizing the national security of both Israel and the US," warning that Netanyahu "poses an existential threat to the State of Israel" and "severely harms US national security interests".

Among the signatories are former Israeli army chief of staff Dan Haloutz, former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, and former Defence Minister Moshe Ya'alon, along with nearly two dozen other leading Israeli figures.

Palestinian residents of eastern neighbourhoods in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip fled their homes on Tuesday, as Israeli tanks advanced deep into the area after Israel ordered the population to be forcefully displaced, Reuters reported. 

Tanks pushed into the Khan Younis town of Bani Suhaila and several districts nearby were bombed for a second day, forcing tens of thousands of civilians to seek refuge elsewhere. Israel said its action was to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping. 

During a major military assault in the occupied West Bank in the 2000s, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government accused Israeli forces of acting more like the “Russian army than that of a civilized country”, according to newly released official files reported by The Guardian.

“The Israelis were trying to fight a 21st-century war with 20th-century techniques. Sending tanks into alleyways was simply a PR disaster," said the assessments revealed in papers released by the national archives.

A British officer who had observed Israeli military operations in the occupied territories said that despite its reputation as a “competent and effective” force, the reality was very different. His verdict was that it was “a second-rate, ill-disciplined, swaggering, and bullying force”.

This assessment has parallels with Israel's onslaught in Gaza, which has left more than 39,000 Palestinians dead, mostly women and children. 

The Palestine Olympic Committee has called on the head of the International Olympic Committee to exclude Israel from the Games, saying that the country has breached the Olympic truce.

A UN General Assembly Resolution mandates a global truce throughout the duration of the Paris 2024 Olympics.

In a letter to Thomas Bach, the committee said that Israel had violated the truce within the first 24 hours through its attack on Khan Younis on Monday, which killed over 70 people.

"This contravention underscores the urgent need for OIC and FIFA to act in line with its statutes and promote respect for international human rights law,” the letter read.

The Gaza government's media office has said that over 16,000 children have been killed in Israel's war on the encalve, while 10,000 others remain missing.

It added that 17,000 children in Gaza are living without one or both parents.

Other figures it gave included the deaths of 10,859 women, 500 medical staff, and 163 journalists. 

The Israeli military has claimed in a statement on X that its war planes struck a vehicle in southern Lebanon carrying members of Hezbollah.

The OHCHR has condemned "confusing mass evacuation orders" issued by the Israeli military on Monday to Palestinians in Khan Younis.

The UN agency said in a statement that the evacuation orders left "no time" for civilians to decide where to go, and that, despite the orders, Israeli military operations "continued in and around the area unabated".

On Monday, shortly after issuing the evacuation order, the Israeli military launched air strikes on a former humanitarian zone in Khan Younis, killing at least 70 people.

“There is no safe place in Gaza,” the OHCHR said. “Confusing mass evacuation orders issued by a party that is concurrently increasing the intensity of its attacks on the areas from which evacuation is ordered and through which people must move place civilians in more danger and may increase the harm to civilians.”

Nine Palestinians, including four children, have been killed in the Israeli incursion on Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, Al Jazeera is reporting.

Wafa news agency reported earlier that Israeli air strikes targeted a house at the entrance of the camp killing six people and injuring 10.

Al Jazeera has since updated the figure to nine, citing local sources.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has condemned the "reception and protection" of Israeli athletes at the Paris Olympics and demanded their exclusion over the war on Gaza.

The Israeli delegation departed for Paris on Monday, where it will receive 24-hour protection during the games, according to France's interior minister.

In a post on X, the ministry said the inclusion of Israeli athletes "means giving legitimacy to the child killers."

“They do not deserve to be present at the Paris Olympics because of the war against the innocent people of Gaza,” it added.

The Turkish foreign ministry has c0ndemned the Israeli parliament's efforts to classify Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, as a terrorist organisation.

In a statement, the ministry said the move was "unacceptable" after "targeting civilians sheltering in Unrwa schools in Gaza and killing nearly 200 UN employees in the last nine months."

It called on the international community to condemn the attacks on the agency.

On Monday, Israel's parliament passed three bills, in their first readings, to close  Unrwa and designate it a "terrorist organisation."

The Israeli government allocated millions of dollars in 2023 to securing illegal West Bank settler outposts, the anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now has revealed.

The Ministry of Settlements and National Mission confirmed it authorised the allocation of 75 million shekels ($20.5 million) last year for security equipment for "young settlements"- referring to unauthorised outposts in the West Bank.

According to Peace Now, the money has paid for vehicles, drones, cameras, generators, electric gates, fences and roads.

Six Palestinians have been killed and 10 others injured in an Israeli attack on Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, Wafa agency is reporting.

According to Wafa, Israeli war planes targeted a house at the entrance of the camp.

According to Gaza's health ministry, at least 84 Palestinians have been killed in the last 24 hours, with 73 people killed in Israel's latest offensive on the former humanitarian zone in eastern Khan Younis.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health has released the names of five Palestinians killed in an hours-long Israeli incursion on Tulkarm refugee camp in the occupied West Bank earlier on Tuesday. 

In a statement on Telegram, the ministry said that fatalities included a girl and a 50-year-old woman.

Ashraf Eid Zaher Nafeh, Muhammad Ibrahim Muhammad Awad and Muhammad Badie Muhammad Radwan were identified as the young men killed in the attack.

The girl was named as Muhammad Jumaa Salama Eid and the woman, Muhammad Jumaa.

The Israeli military claimed that Nafeh and Awad were "terrorists". Nafeh was a commander of the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.

The death toll of Palestinians killed in Gaza since 7 October has risen to 39,090, with another 90,147 injured, the Gaza health ministry said on Tuesday.

It added that around 84 Palestinians were killed and 329 injured in the past 24 hours.