Israel ‘attacks gunmen inside Hamas tunnels’ as Gaza faces ‘public health catastrophe’
Israel said its forces have attacked Hamas gunmen inside the militant group’s vast tunnel network beneath Gaza as fighting shows no sign of stopping.
After the first successful rescue of a hostage held by Hamas, Israeli troops appeared to push further into Gaza, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejecting calls for a ceasefire.
Hamas has so far released four civilians from the 240 hostages Israel says it captured during the militant group’s attack on 7 October – with many thought to be held in the tunnel network.
Israel releases images of troops inside Gaza – follow live
Amid fears of a widening conflict, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militant group has claimed it launched a “large number” of ballistic missiles and drones towards Israel in what it described as its third attack on the country.
A spokesperson for the group warned there are “more to come”.
In other key developments:
• A British teacher trapped in Gaza was told by the UK Foreign Office it ‘can’t do anything more’;
• Urgent ceasefire in Gaza is a ‘matter of life and death for millions’, a UN official has said;
• Sir Keir Starmer says a ceasefire could leave Hamas ’emboldened’;
• More than 420 children are being killed or injured in Gaza each day, UNICEF has said.
As Israel’s Gaza offensive continues, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and Israel Security Authority (ISA) claimed to have killed a Hamas commander who directed the attack on their country.
In a statement shared on Telegram, the two agencies said the militant was Nasim Abu Ajina, the commander of Hamas’s Beit Lahia Battalion.
Meanwhile, Gaza faces an “imminent public health catastrophe” as the area struggles with mass displacement and damage to water infrastructure, the World Health Organisation warned on Tuesday.
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The IDF released footage claiming to show its ground operation in Gaza
The IDF also said it has struck about 300 targets over the past day “including anti-tank missiles and rocket launch posts below shafts” as well as military compounds underground.
Hamas said militants clashed early on Tuesday with Israeli forces “invading the southern Gaza axis, (including) with machine guns”.
A Sky News producer in Gaza said bombing continued in the north and west of Gaza City overnight, with different parts of a refugee camp also hit.
According to calls received by the producer, the situation in Shifa Hospital, in Gaza City, is “getting worse and worse” while heavy bombing was reported around al Quds hospital in Tel al Hawa, in the south of the city.
An ongoing fuel shortage is also forcing people to use donkey carts, they added, to take injured people to hospital and even dead bodies to graveyards.
Bakeries are also struggling to produce enough bread, the producer said, and are unable to cope with the demand.
The hospitals among the latest hit in Israeli strikes, according to a Sky News producer in Gaza
Ceasefire ‘matter of life or death’
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, says nearly 672,000 Palestinians are sheltering in its schools and other facilities, which is four times their capacity.
UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini accused Israel of “collective punishment”, and of forcing the Palestinians’ displacement from northern Gaza to the south, where they are still not safe.
At a UN emergency meeting on Monday, he also warned “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire has become a matter of life and death for millions”.
A Palestinian rescuer works at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Gaza City October 30, 2023. REUTERS/Mutasem Murtaja
The agency added 64 of its staff have been killed since the war began, including a man killed with his wife and eight children late on Monday.
“This is the highest number ever of UN aid workers killed in any conflict around the world in such a short time,” spokesperson Juliette Touma said.
“UNRWA will never be the same without these colleagues.”
At least 8,525 Palestinians, including 3,542 children, have been killed in Israeli strikes since the war began, the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza said on Tuesday.
The health ministry spokesman, Ashraf al Qudra, also claims 130 healthcare staff have been killed, with 15 hospitals now out of service along with 32 healthcare centres.
Read more on this story:
Nowhere to hide in Gaza as bombing campaign splits area
Families of hostages say they are ‘constantly thinking’ about them
Few trust Netanyahu in Israel and he will struggle to convince West
Meanwhile, air raid sirens sounded in the Red Sea city of Eilat on Tuesday and Israel’s military said it downed an incoming “aerial target”.
Later on Tuesday, the military said it used the “Arrow” aerial defence system for the first time since the war to intercept a surface-to-surface missile in the Red Sea fired towards its territory.
“There was no threat or risk to civilians,” it said earlier in the day.
More than 1,400 people have been killed on the Israeli side, according to the country’s government, since Hamas’s initial attack.
World
‘At least 798 killed’ at Gaza aid points – as medical charity warns acute malnutrition at all-time high
At least 798 people in Gaza have reportedly been killed while receiving aid in the past six weeks – while acute malnutrition is said to have reached an all-time high.
The UN human rights office said 615 of the deaths – between 27 May and 7 July – were “in the vicinity” of sites run by the controversial US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
A further 183 people killed were “presumably on the route of aid convoys,” said Ravina Shamdasani, from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Its figures are based on a range of sources, including hospitals, cemeteries, and families in the Gaza Strip, as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs), its partners on the ground, and Hamas-run health authorities.
Aid agency Project Hope said on Thursday that 10 children were among at least 15 people killed as they waited for its clinic in Deir al Balah to open.
Ten children were reportedly killed when Israel attacked near a clinic on Thursday. Pic: AP
The GHF has claimed the UN figures are “false and misleading” and has repeatedly denied any violence at or around its sites.
Meanwhile, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) – also known as Doctors Without Borders – said two of its sites were seeing their worst-ever levels of severe malnutrition.
Cases at its Gaza City clinic are said to have tripled from 293 in May to 983 in early July.
“Over 700 pregnant or breastfeeding women and nearly 500 children are now receiving emergency nutritional care,” MSF said.
The humanitarian medical charity said food prices were at extreme levels, with sugar at $766 (£567) per kilo and flour $30 (£22) per kilo, and many families surviving on one meal of rice or lentils a day.
It’s a major concern for the estimated 55,000 pregnant women in Gaza, who risk miscarriage, stillbirth and malnourished infants because of the shortages.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, after Israel eased its 11-week blockade of aid into the coastal territory.
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US aid contractors claim live ammo fired at Palestinians
It has four distribution centres, three of which are in the southern Gaza Strip.
The sites, kept off-limits to independent media, are guarded by private security contractors and located in zones where the Israeli military operates.
Palestinian witnesses say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire towards crowds of people going to receive aid.
The Israeli military says it has fired warning shots at people who have behaved in what it says is a suspicious manner.
It says its forces operate near the aid sites to stop supplies from falling into the hands of militants.
Read more:
GHF aid distribution linked to increased deaths
Gaza situation ‘apocalyptic’, says UN expert
After the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians trying to reach the aid hubs, the United Nations has called the GHF’s aid model “inherently unsafe” and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards.
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In response, a GHF spokesperson said: “The fact is the most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to UN convoys.”
The GHF says it has delivered more than 70 million meals to Gazans in five weeks and claims other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted” by Hamas or criminal gangs.
At least 798 people in Gaza have been killed while receiving aid in six weeks, the UN human rights office has said.
A spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said 615 of the killings were “in the vicinity” of sites run by the controversial US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
A further 183 people killed were “presumably on the route of aid convoys,” Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.
The office said its figures are based on numbers from a range of sources, including hospitals, cemeteries and families in the Gaza Strip, as well as NGOs, its partners on the ground and the Hamas-run health authorities.
The GHF has claimed the figures are “false and misleading”. It has repeatedly denied there has been any violence at or around its sites.
The organisation began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, after Israel eased its 11-week blockade of aid into the enclave.
It has four distribution centres, three of which are in the southern Gaza Strip. The sites, kept off-limits to independent media, are guarded by private security contractors and located in zones where the Israeli military operates.
Palestinian witnesses say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire towards crowds of people going to receive aid.
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US aid contractors claim live ammo fired at Palestinians
The Israeli military says it has fired warning shots at people who have behaved in what they say is a suspicious manner.
It says its forces operate near the aid sites to stop supplies falling into the hands of militants.
Read more:
GHF aid distribution linked to increased deaths
Gaza situation ‘apocalyptic’, says UN expert
After the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians trying to reach the aid hubs, the United Nations has called the GHF’s aid model “inherently unsafe” and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
In response, a GHF spokesperson told the Reuters news agency: “The fact is the most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to UN convoys.”
The GHF says it has delivered more than 70 million meals to Gazans in five weeks and claims other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted” by Hamas or criminal gangs.
Ten children and two women are among at least 15 killed in an airstrike near a Gaza health clinic, according to an aid organisation.
Project Hope said it happened this morning near Altayara Junction, in Deir al Balah, as patients waited for the clinic to open.
The organisation’s president called it a “blatant violation of international humanitarian law, and a stark reminder that no one and no place is safe in Gaza“.
“No child waiting for food and medicine should face the risk of being bombed,” added the group’s project manager, Dr Mithqal Abutaha.
“It was a horrific scene. People had to come seeking health and support, instead they faced death.”
Operations at the clinic – which provides a range of health and maternity services – have been suspended.
Some of the children were reportedly waiting to receive nutritional supplements, necessary due to the dire shortage of food being allowed into Gaza.
Israel‘s military is investigating and said it was targeting a militant who took part in the 7 October terror attack.
“The IDF [Israel Defence Force] regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and operates to minimize harm as much as possible,” added.
The deaths come as an agreement over a 60-day truce hangs in the balance – with President Trump cautiously saying it could happen “this week, or next week”.
Elsewhere in Gaza, the Nasser Hospital reported another 21 deaths in airstrikes in Khan Younis and in the nearby coastal area of Muwasi.
It said three children and their mother were among the dead.
Israel said its troops have been dismantling more than 130 Hamas infrastructure sites in Khan Younis over the past week, including missile launch sites, weapons storage facilities and a 500m tunnel.
On Wednesday, a soldier was shot dead when militants burst out of a tunnel and tried to abduct him, the military added.
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Do Trump and Netanyahu really get along?
Eighteen soldiers have been killed in the past three weeks – one of the deadliest periods for the Israeli army in months.
A 22-year-old Israeli man was also killed on Thursday by two attackers in a supermarket in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said the Magen David Adom emergency service.
People on site reportedly shot and killed the attackers but information on their identity has so far not been released.
Read more:
IDF chief says conditions ‘created’ for Gaza ceasefire
What is the possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal ?
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Lack of food and water ‘lethal’ for Gaza children
Negotiations over a proposed 60-day ceasefire are ongoing and President Trump reportedly put “heavy” pressure on Israel’s leader, who visited the US this week.
A major sticking point is said to be the status of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) inside Gaza during the 60-day ceasefire and beyond, should it last longer.
However, Sky News understands the Israeli government thinks the chances of a permanent truce are “questionable”.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
More than 57,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war – more than half are women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health ministry.
Its figure does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
The war began in October 2023 after Hamas killed around 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 251 others.
Some of them remain In Gaza and are a crucial part of ceasefire negotiations, which also include a planned surge in humanitarian aid into the strip.
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