Israel-Hamas war: Biden optimistic over hostage deal

Gaza was hit with heavy rains on Tuesday, adding to the challenges faced by the thousands of Palestinian refugees living in tents after fleeing Israeli bombardment and a ground offensive.

The tents offer little protection from the rain and the cold, with the ground quickly turning to mud.

There are also fears the water will overwhelm the sewage system, increasing the risk of waterborne diseases.

"We've already got outbreaks of diarrhoeal diseases," World Health Organization spokesperson Margaret Harris said in Geneva. She said they had reported some 30,000 cases of diarrhea, more than 10 times as many as they would expect.

"We've got so much infrastructural damage. We've got a lack of clean water. We've got people very, very crowded together. This is another reason why we are begging for a cease-fire to happen now," she said.

The WHO has already warned that Israeli airstrikes and the blockade of fuel and medicine has severely disrupted the enclave's health care system.

The White House on Tuesday said the militant group Hamas had a command center at the Al-Shifa Hospital

 in Gaza.

"We have information that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad use some hospitals in the Gaza Strip including Al-Shifa and tunnels underneath them to conceal and to support their military operations and to hold hostages," John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesperson, told reporters. 

"We have information that confirms that Hamas is using that particular hospital for a command and control node," he said.

Kirby added that Hamas and Islamic Jihad "have stored weapons there and they're prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against that facility."

He did not provide more specific information about the intelligence or its source.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been categorized as terrorist organizations by the US, the EU and several other governments.

Kirby also said the US does not want to see "a firefight in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people are simply trying to get the medical care that they deserve."

"We do not support striking a hospital from the air," he added. "Hospitals and patients must be protected."

"We have been clear on multiple occasions - Hamas actions do not lessen Israel's responsibilities to protect civilians in Gaza, and this is something we're going to continue to have an active conversation with our counterparts about," Kirby added.

According to the United Nations, more than 2,300 people, including patients, staff, and displaced civilians, are trapped in the al-Shifa Hospital.

Tens of thousands of protesters marched in the US capital on Tuesday to show support for Israel and condemn antisemitism.

The rally's organizers estimated that 200,000 were in attendance.

The protesters were set to hear addresses from family members of the hostages taken by militant group Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the US, EU and others.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog, US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Mike Johnson were also due to address the rally.

The rally was major show of support for Israel after weeks of largely pro-Palestinian demonstrations in various US cities.

Mark Moore, 48, a Christian pastor from Chicago, told the AFP news agency that he considers Israel "the only bastion of freedom" in the Middle East.

"I'm praying for peace... secured through victory so it does not continue with this endless cycle of violence," he said.

Some protesters were originally from Israel themselves, like Marco Abbou, who now lives in New Jersey.

"We are here to show the world that we won't be exterminated again," he told the Reuters news agency.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen criticized United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday for his stance on Israel's war against the militant group Hamas.

"Guterres does not deserve to be the head of the United Nations," Cohen said.

Guterres had previously been condemned by Israeli officials after he said there was something "wrong" with Israel's military operation in Gaza, which has killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

The bombardment and ground operation are a response to the October 7 terrorist attacks, where Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people in Israel and took 240 others as hostages.

"I think that Guterres like all the free nations should say clearly and loudly: free Gaza from Hamas. Everyone said Hamas is worse than ISIS. Why can he not say it?" Cohen said. 

Cohen made the comments at a press conference in Geneva, where he was due to meet with the World Health Organization and International Committee of the Red Cross alongside families of Israeli hostages.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called accusations of fascism against Israel by Turkey's president "absurd."

On Friday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed that Israel's legitimacy was "being questioned" due to what he called "its own fascism."

On Tuesday, Scholz slammed Erdogan's comments because Israel is a democracy "that is bound to human rights and international law and acts accordingly."

The two leaders are due to meet in Berlin on Friday.

Families of the hostages kidnapped by militant group Hamas have begun a five-day march from Tel Aviv to the residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

Around 240 people in Israel were kidnapped by Hamas and taken to Gaza during the terrorist attacks on October 7.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said hundreds of people would make the 65-kilometer (40 mile) journey to demand "the immediate release of all the hostages."

"I demand from Benjamin Netanyahu and the cabinet to give us answers and actions," Shelly Shem Tov, whose 21-year-old son Omer was dragged into Gaza five weeks ago, told Reuters news agency.

Several of the protesters held signs that read "A deal for the hostages now."

"I don't feel like we are in good hands. We don't feel like we get enough information. We fell into the darkness. We want answers," said Amit Zach, the nephew of 72-year-old hostage Adina Moshe.

"I don't have a solution, but it's not my job to get a solution. It's my job to demand my family back," he told Reuters.

On Tuesday, the protesters also held a minute of silence for Israeli soldier Noa Marciano, who the Israeli military confirmed had died in Gaza. Hamas released footage purporting to show the 19-year-old "killed in an Israeli bombing."

US President Joe Biden has said he believes a release of hostages held by Hamas is going to happen.

"Hang in there, we're coming," Biden said at the White House on Tuesday.

The president did not immediately expand on his statement. 

Israel has said Hamas militants took more than 240 people hostage during the terror attacks on October 7, which killed 1,200 people.

Al-Shifa hospital, the largest hospital in Gaza, has had to bury dead patients in a mass grave, the AFP news agency reported, citing the hospital's director.

"There are bodies littered in the hospital complex and there is no longer electricity at the morgues," AFP quoted Mohammed Abu Salmia as saying.

The agency reported that 179 bodies had been interred so far.

The Reuters news agency cited a surgeon and a Hamas-run Health Ministry spokesman as saying the hospital was planning to bury more than 100 bodies in the hospital compound.

"We are planning to bury them today in a mass grave inside the al-Shifa medical complex. It is going to be very dangerous as we don't have any cover or protection from the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross], but we have no other options, the corpses of the martyrs began to decompose," said Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra. "The men are digging right now as we speak."

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Tuesday said water supplies in southern Gaza had been halted due to a fuel shortage.

"Due to lack of fuel, public sewage pumping stations, 60 water wells in the south, the two main desalination plants in Rafah and the Middle Area, the two main sewage pumps in the south, and the Rafah wastewater treatment plant have all ceased operations," OCHA said in a statement, citing the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

"Coupled with the shutdown of municipal sanitation work, this is posing a serious threat to public health, increasing the risk of water contamination and the outbreak of diseases," OCHA said.

On Monday, UNRWA warned that its humanitarian operations, including aid distribution, would halt within 48 hours due to "the total depletion of its fuel reserves." 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Tuesday said it had captured the parliament building along with other institutions run by the Hamas militant group in Gaza City.

"The battle team of the 7th Brigade took over the Hamas legislature, the government building, the Hamas police headquarters and an engineering faculty that served as an institute for the production and development of weapons," IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari posted on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

The IDF spokesperson went on to say that Israeli forces had seized control of the "Gizat" facility which he said contained Hamas training facilities, operations headquarters and interrogation and detention facilities.

Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the US and the EU, among other states.

The Israeli army on Tuesday confirmed the death of a soldier who had been held captive by the Hamas militant group since the October 7 terror attacks.

Hamas issued a video of 19-year-old Noa Marciano showing her alive, followed by images which appeared to show her body along with closeup shots of a head wound.

Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas's military wing, said Marciano was killed in an Israeli strike.

Marciano's death brings the number of Israeli soldiers killed since the start of the war to 47.

Israel's military did not say how Marciano was killed but said she had been posthumously promoted to corporal following her death. 

More than 240 people are being held hostage by Hamas, according to Israeli officials.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in the occupied West Bank has reported the deaths of eight people, killed in an air strike during an Israeli military operation.

The Israeli military said forces were sent into Tulkarm near the boundary with Israel to detain suspected militants and came under fire. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that "an armed terrorist squad was eliminated from the air, firing and throwing explosives at our forces."

The Palestinian Authority partly manages the West Bank — which is under Israeli military occupation — but has no control over Gaza, which has been dominated by Hamas since 2007. 

Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by the German government, the EU, the US and some Arab states amongst others. It took control of Gaza following a brief armed conflict with the Palestinian Authority, run by Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party, that year.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the air force had "struck 200 terror targets, including terrorist weapon operatives, weapon production sites, anti-tank launchers and operational command centers."

This had taken place over a 24-hour period, and Israeli forces had also struck a camp it said was used by "Hamas' naval forces for training and weapons storage."

The IDF posted the information along with video footage of the strikes on the Telegram messaging service.

Israel's military has been attacking Hamas targets in Gaza since the militant group launched a terror attack on southern Israel on October 7.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was in the process of "coordinating the transfer of incubators from a hospital in Israel to Gaza."

In a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, the IDF said that it was "doing everything we can to minimize harm to civilians, assist in evacuation, and facilitate the transfer of medical supplies and food."

Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry on Monday said that all hospitals in northern Gaza were no longer operational due to fuel shortages.

The ministry also said 32 patients had died at the Al-Shifa hospital over a three-day period, including three newborns.

Brazil's president has accused Israel of "killing innocent people without any criteria" in the Gaza Strip, saying its actions are "as grave" as the October 7 attacks by Islamist militant group Hamas.

"After the act of terrorism provoked by Hamas, the consequences, the solution of the state of Israel, is as grave as that of Hamas. They are killing innocent people without any criteria," Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Monday. 

The leader of Latin America's largest country also accused Israel of "dropping bombs where there are children, hospitals, on the pretext that a terrorist is there."

Representatives of Brazil's Jewish community denounced these remarks as "erroneous", "unfair" and "dangerous", adding that they "put Israel and Hamas on the same level."

Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed 11,078 people, mostly civilians, according to figures released on Friday from the Hamas-run Gazan Health Ministry.

Israel on Friday revised the official estimated death toll of the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas, lowering the number to about 1,200 people from more than 1,400.