Middle East updates: Israel deepens Gaza City offensive
Published July 9, 2024last updated July 9, 2024
What you need to know
Israel has been pushing deeper into Gaza City where it says Hamas and other militants have regrouped.
Residents in some districts have reported some of the heaviest fighting since the beginning of the war.
Hamas has said the incursions could put planned cease-fire talks in jeopardy.
Meanwhile, Syria says Israel carried out a strike near the coastal city of Baniyas.
Here is a roundup of developments from the Israel-Hamas war and the wider Middle East region on Tuesday, July 9.
Palestinian Red Crescent says deadly Israeli airstrike hit tents housing families in Khan Younis
Dozens of Palestinians living in tents outside a school-turned-shelter in Khan Younis were killed or injured in an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent reported.
French news agency AFP reported that 10 people had been killed, citing a source at a local hospital, but this could not be independently verified.
Israel did not immediately comment on the strike, but has previously acknowledged three strikes on similar targets since Saturday.
Health officials in the Hamas-run enclave said that at least 20 people were killed in the previous strikes.
Negotiations in Cairo as el-Sissi meets CIA chief
Negotiations have been taking place in Cairo to bring closer a cease-fire-for-hostages deal between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns have been discussing efforts to reach a cease-fire, the presidency said.
"The president affirmed the Egyptian position rejecting the continuation of military operations in the Gaza Strip," a statement added.
Talks are ongoing as the Egyptian security delegation works intensively to bring the views of all parties closer together, Egyptian broadcaster al-Qahera News TV reported, citing a high-level source.
El-Sissi was reported to have reiterated Egypt's position rejecting Israel's continuation of military operations in the Palestinian coastal territory.
According to sources at Cairo airport, Burns left Egypt headed for Qatar, while White House Middle East Coordinator Brett McGurk traveled to Israel.
Israeli media reports say a meeting is scheduled in the Qatari city of Doha, that will involve the intelligence chiefs of the United States, Israel and Egypt as well as Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman.
Israeli strike on Syria vehicle kills two, monitoring group says
An Israeli drone strike targeting a car in Syria killed two people on the main road from Damascus to Beirut, a monitoring group has said.
The vehicle, affiliated with Iran-backed Lebanese political movement and paramilitiary organization Hezbollah, was completely burnt out, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Hezbollah as a whole is an deemed a terrorist organization by the US, Germany and several Sunni Arab countries, whereas the EU considers just its armed wing as a terror group.
It was not clear whether the people killed were members of Hezbollah, the group said.
A Lebanese security source says the car was hit when it was not far from the border.
Israel has ramped up its attacks in Syria since the Palestinian militant group Hamas's October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel sparked a war in the Gaza Strip.
UN experts say Gaza children dying in 'starvation campaign'
United Nations human rights experts say the recent deaths of several more children from malnutrition in the Gaza Strip show that famine has spread throughout the enclave.
The group of 10 independent experts mandated by the UN cited the deaths of three children from malnutrition in the southern area of Khan Younis and the central area of Deir Al-Balah since the end of May.
"With the death of these children from starvation despite medical treatment in central Gaza, there is no doubt that famine has spread from northern Gaza into central and southern Gaza," the experts said.
The experts, including the UN's Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Michael Fakhri, condemned "Israel's intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people."
However, Israel's diplomatic mission in Geneva denounced the statement as "misinformation."
"Israel has continuously scaled up its coordination and assistance in the delivery of humanitarian aid across the Gaza Strip," it said.
Hamas says Gaza City push puts cease-fire talks in danger
The Islamist militant group Hamas has said that Israel's push into Gaza City is jeopardizing cease-fire talks.
The militant group, listed as a terrorist organization in the United States, European Union, and numerous other jurisdictions, said Israel tanks deepened their presence into some Gaza City districts such as Shejaia, Sabra and Tel Al-Hawa on Tuesday.
The assault "could bring the negotiation process back to square one," Hamas quoted its leader Ismail Haniyeh as saying.
Both the armed wings of Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group said they were fighting Israeli forces with anti-tank rockets and mortar fire, and that they had inflicted casualties.
However, the Israeli military gave no immediate response to the claims.
Israeli forces advance in Gaza City
Israeli forces have moved deeper into Gaza City, saying they are pursuing Hamas and other militants said to have regrouped and to be hiding among civilians.
The Israeli troops are fighting in areas thought to have largely been cleared of militants months ago in northern Gaza.
Residents in several districts of the city reported the fiercest fighting since the war began on Monday as tanks advanced further into the territory.
The military said it had intelligence showing that militants from Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group were in the area. It urged residents to head south to the city of Deir al-Balah.
Israel ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza in the first weeks of the war and it has stopped most people from returning. However, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians stayed there, living in shelters or the shells of homes.
The Israel Defense Forces said, this time, the evacuation call was only made to civilians in specific areas.
Residents said there had been artillery and tank fire, as well as airstrikes.
Gaza's Health Ministry only has limited access to the north, and it did not immediately report casualties.
The IDF said that in the district of Shijaiyah, which has seen weeks of fighting, troops had raided and destroyed schools and a clinic.
Syria says Israel strikes target near coast
The Syrian Defense Ministry says an Israeli strike caused damage but no casualties near the coastal city of Baniyas.
Since the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011, Israel has launched hundreds of strikes, mainly against army positions and Iran-backed fighters, including those from Lebanon's Hezbollah.
The operation was the third such attack in the Baniyas area this year, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"Two Israeli missiles targeted at least two buildings, one of which belonged to an air defense battalion," the UK-based war monitor said.
The group added that Iranian military advisers were near the area, which is a stronghold of President Bashar Assad's government.
The Syrian Defense Ministry in May said an Israeli air strike in Baniyas had killed a girl and injured 10 other civilians.
Israel has ramped up its attacks in Syria since the Palestinian militant group Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel sparked a war in the Gaza Strip.
While Israeli authorities rarely comment on individual strikes, they repeatedly stressed that they will not permit arch-enemy Iran to grow stronger in Syria.
rc/lo (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)