The latest updates from the Israel Hamas war.
UN says no second convoy entered Gaza, despite reports
ADVERTISEMENTThere were conflicting reports from various media sources and the United Nations on whether humanitarian aid entered Gaza on Sunday.
Egypt’s state-run media reported that 17 aid trucks were crossing into Gaza on Sunday - but the United Nations said no trucks had crossed.
“Until now, there is no convoy,” said Juliette Touma, spokeswoman for UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
On Saturday, 20 trucks entered in the first shipment into the territory since Israel imposed a complete siege two weeks ago.
Associated Press journalists saw seven fuel trucks head into Gaza, but Touma and the Israeli military said those trucks were taking fuel that had been stored on the Gaza side of the crossing deeper into the territory and that no fuel had entered from Egypt.
Then on Sunday evening, Israeli media sources quoted Israel's military liaison to the Palestinians as saying that humanitarian aid did enter the Gaza Strip via Egypt at the request of US President Joe Biden.
“At the request of the American administration and in accordance with the instructions of the political echelon, humanitarian aid from the United Nations containing only water, food, and medical equipment was brought into the southern Gaza Strip today, through the Rafah crossing in Egypt,” the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said in a statement.
Israeli army claims it mistakenly struck an Egyptian position
The Israeli army has announced that one of its tanks had “mistakenly” hit an Egyptian position on the border between the two countries.
“A short time ago, an Israeli army tank mistakenly hit an Egyptian position near the border in the Kerem Shalom sector,” the army announced in a statement, saying it “deplored” this incident and announced the opening of an “investigation”.
Biden: ‘We can’t ignore the humanity of innocent Palestinians'
Joe Biden has reiterated that Israel has a right to defend itself but called on the country to “operate by the laws of war” in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
The US President wrote: “We can’t ignore the humanity of innocent Palestinians who only want to live in peace.”
Biden has yet to call for a humanitarian ceasefire in the besieged Gaza Strip - a move which has drawn significant criticism from the international community.
France rallies behind Israel
The President of France's National Assembly,Yaël Braun-Pivet, visiting Israel on Sunday, indicated that Paris "fully supports Israel ", believing that nothing should "prevent it from defending itself" in the war between it and the Hamas militant group.
“France fully supports Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, a democracy which has been attacked in a terrible way. So we must make no mistake, neither in combat nor in words,” declared Pivet.
She visited the Beeri and Re'im villages on Sunday with her Israeli counterpart in a show of solidarity. "France is linked to the pain of #Israël through mourning and the wait for the return of the hostages" she tweeted on the the social media platform X.
Second humanitarian aid shipment enters Gaza at Rafah Crossing
A convoy of 17 trucks bringing aid to besieged Palestinians crossed into Gaza on Sunday, Egypt’s state-run media reported.
The delivery will be the second shipment into the territory in the past two days - but the UN says it’s not enough.
Netanyahu: Hezbollah would make “the mistake of its life” by going to war against Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Lebanese Hezbollah on Sunday that it would "make the mistake of its life" if it decided to go to war against Israel.
ADVERTISEMENT"It will make them regret the Second Lebanon War [in 2006]... we will strike with a power that they cannot imagine and which will be devastating for the State of Lebanon," Mr Netanyahu declared during a visit to troops in the north of the country.
4,651 dead since the start of the war with Israel - Hamas Health Ministry
At least 4,651 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on 7 October, the Palestinian Islamist movement's health ministry said on Sunday.
At least 1,873 children are among the dead, according to the ministry, which also recorded 14,245 injured - with 70% of them being children and women.
Gaza Strip: at least 55 dead in overnight Israeli bombings - Hamas
At least 55 people were killed in the Gaza Strip overnight from Saturday to Sunday after the announcement of the intensification of Israeli bombardments, Hamas has announced.
At least 55 people were killed "in the night until 6 a.m. and more than 30 homes (were) destroyed," a Hamas statement said.
ADVERTISEMENTIn its latest report on Saturday, Hamas reported nearly 4,400 deaths, mostly civilians, in Israeli strikes triggered by the bloody attack it launched on 7 October against Israel which left 1,400 dead.
Israel will intensify strikes on Gaza - army
The Israeli army announced that it will “increase” its bombings on the Gaza Strip, in preparation for the next phase of its offensive against the Palestinian territory controlled by Hamas.
“From today we will increase strikes [on the Gaza Strip]”, warned General Daniel Hagari, spokesperson for the Israeli army.
General Hagari also confirmed the presence of at least 210 hostages in the Gaza Strip, most of them Israelis.
Several Israeli army officials visited the troops on Saturday, emphasising the preparation of the armed forces for a likely ground intervention in the Gaza Strip.
ADVERTISEMENT“We are going to enter Gaza, we are going to do it for an operational purpose, to destroy the infrastructure and the Hamas terrorists and we are going to do it in a professional manner”, Major Herzi Halevi, the IDf’s Chief of the General Staff said.
“Gaza is complex, Gaza is densely populated, the enemy is preparing a lot of things there, but we are also preparing,” warned Halevi, adding, “We will keep in mind the photographs and images, as well as the deaths of two weeks ago.”
Israeli airstrikes hit airports in Damascus and Aleppo
Syrian state media reported that Israeli airstrikes early on Sunday targeted the international airports of the Syrian capital Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo, killing one person.
The runways were damaged and put out of service.
The attack is the second this month on the Damascus International Airport and the third on Aleppo’s airport as tensions increase in the Middle East over the Israel-Hamas war.
ADVERTISEMENTSyrian state media quoted an unnamed military official as saying the airports were struck by the Israeli military from the Mediterranean to the west and from Syria’s Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in the south.
It said one employee was killed and another wounded in Damascus in addition to material damage.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
Hezbollah is ‘dragging Lebanon into war’ - Israeli army
The Israeli army has accused Hezbollah of seeking military escalation at the risk of dragging Lebanon into a war, after new clashes at the border, where tension has been high since the attack launched on 7 October.
“Hezbollah is attacking and dragging Lebanon into a war from which it will not benefit, but in which it risks losing a lot,” warned a spokesperson for the Israeli army, Jonathan Conricus, on the social network X - formerly Twitter.
ADVERTISEMENTThe international community fears a spillover from the war and especially a greater involvement in particular of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
The Israeli army has been on alert on its northern border with Lebanon since 7 October.
Cross-border clashes left six Hezbollah fighters and a Palestinian Islamic Jihad member dead in Lebanon this weekend, while three Israeli soldiers were injured, one seriously, as well as two Thai agricultural workers.
Since 7 October, people have died on the Lebanese side, the majority combatants, but also civilians, including a journalist from the Reuters news agency.
Europeans in support of the besieged Gaza Strip
Thousands of people took part in a pro-Palestinian protest in London for the second consecutive weekend on Saturday. The Met Police estimated up to 100,000 people joined the march which ended near Downing Street.
ADVERTISEMENTIn Germany, despite a ban on demonstrations issued by Berlin police, several hundred pro-Palestine demonstrators marched unhindered through the streets of the capital. Police officers on duty surrounded the demonstrators and finally allowed the procession to move on.
German police have recorded more than 1,100 offences in relation to the Israel-Gaza conflict in the last two weeks.
"Over 100 police officers have been injured by thrown bottles and fireworks," said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser on Friday.
"This violence... is in no way acceptable," she added.
Moving south to Rome, a few hundred people demonstrated on Saturday calling for a stop to Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.
ADVERTISEMENTWaving Palestinian flags, the demonstrators chanted "Free Palestine!" and held a red banner reading "No peace until we get freedom".
"Israel carries out war crimes there, crimes against humanity there, and the international community has never acted," said Maya Issa, president of the Movement of Palestinian Students in Italy, which organised the demonstration.
Israel strikes underground compound at West Bank mosque, military says
The Israeli Defence Forces said a military aircraft launched a strike early Sunday on the Al-Ansar mosque at the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
The IDF said via X, formerly known as Twitter, that Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants had been using an “underground terror route” beneath the mosque. One Palestinian was killed in the shelling, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
US Defence Secretary orders more defence systems in Middle East
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin announced late Saturday he was sending additional air defence systems to the Middle East as well as putting more troops on prepare-to-deploy orders.
ADVERTISEMENTAustin said the US would be delivering a Terminal High Altitude Area Defence, or THAAD, battery along with additional Patriot missile defence system batteries “to locations throughout the region to increase force protection for US troops.” Bases in Iraq and Syria have been repeatedly targeted by drones in the days since hundreds were killed in a hospital blast in Gaza, and the destroyer USS Carney intercepted land attack cruise missiles in the Red Sea shot from Yemen on Thursday.
Austin said he had also placed additional forces on prepare-to-deploy orders, “part of prudent contingency planning” as the US and others brace for the potential of a wider regional conflict and as Israel prepares to launch a ground assault into Gaza. He said he gave the orders after detailed discussions with President Joe Biden on the recent escalations by Iran and its proxy forces across the region.