Famine spreading throughout Gaza, UN says, after more children die from malnutrition – as it happened | Israel-Gaza war

• The US has said that “gaps” remain between Israel and Hamas on a ceasefire and hostage release deal. Talks are set to continue in Doha on Wednesday and in Cairo on Thursday, after an Israeli delegation headed by Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar returned on Tuesday from Cairo. Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi discussed efforts for a Gaza truce with CIA director William Burns in Cairo on Tuesday

• Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that at least 26 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday by Israeli strikes on Gaza. The health ministry in Gaza, which is Hamas-led, now puts the casualty toll at 38,243 killed and 88,033 people wounded since 7 October

• The Palestine Red Crescent Society has said the latest forced evacuation orders from Israel’s military has put all of its medical facilities in Gaza City out of order

• Israel’s military claims that during a week of fighting in the Shejaiya area, it has “engaged in close-quarters combat with terrorist cells and eliminated more than 150 terrorists, dismantled terrorist infrastructure and encountered and destroyed booby-trapped buildings and explosives”

• The recent deaths of several more children from malnutrition in the Gaza Strip indicate that famine has spread throughout the territory, a group of independent human rights experts mandated by the United Nations has said. Gaza health authorities say at least 33 children have died of malnutrition, mostly in northern areas

• The family of Daniella Gilboa, an Israeli soldier being held captive in Gaza, have allowed the publication of a video featuring her which Hamas released in January. Although the release of the video had been reported at the time, it was not widely shown. In releasing the footage, her mother Orly Gilboa told Israeli media that she hoped it would underline the importance of securing a hostage release deal

• Two people were killed on Tuesday in an Israeli strike on a vehicle belonging to Lebanon’s Hezbollah group in the Damascus countryside near the Lebanese border. Earlier another Hezbollah member was killed in southern Lebanon. Israeli media reports that at least 350 Hezbollah operatives have been killed since 7 October

• Overnight Israel attacked targets in the northern Syrian city of Baniyas. The Syrian army reported no casualties but some slight damage to property

• Israel’s military has said it intercepted two explosive drones approaching Israel from Lebanon. It also said it intercepted an aerial target approaching Israel from the east, and a projectile fired into southern Israel from Rafah in the Gaza Strip

• Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm claim to have located 12 explosive devices and neutralised a booby-trapped car. Earlier Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, claimed to have detonated a high-explosive device aimed at Israeli security forces in the area

• Hezbollah has release drone imagery of Israeli military infrastructure in the occupied Golan Heights. If follows a previous release of video which showed that the Iran-backed militant group was able to carry out surveillance of Israeli infrastructure in the Haifa area

Two people were killed on Tuesday in an Israeli strike on a vehicle belonging to Lebanon’s Hezbollah group in the Damascus countryside near the Lebanese border, according to a war monitor.

AFP reports:

Hezbollah has traded almost daily cross-border fire from Lebanon with the Israeli army since October in support of Palestinian ally Hamas, with Israel targeting operatives from the group in both Lebanon and neighbouring Syria.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said:

At least two people were killed and one was wounded in an Israeli drone strike on a Hezbollah car.

The car was targeted near a Syrian army checkpoint on the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon, the monitor said.

Since the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in the country, mainly targeting army positions and Iran-backed fighters, including from Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

The strikes intensified after the Israel-Gaza war began on 7 October, killing at least 24 Hezbollah fighters in Syria since, according to an AFP tally.

The recent deaths of several more children from malnutrition in the Gaza Strip indicate that famine has spread throughout the territory, a group of independent human rights experts mandated by the United Nations has said.

Gaza health authorities say at least 33 children have died of malnutrition, mostly in northern areas which had until recently faced the brunt of the Israeli military campaign, says Reuters.

Since early May, the war has spread to southern Gaza, hitting aid flows into the territory amid restrictions by Israel, which has accused UN agencies of failing to distribute supplies efficiently.

In Tuesday’s statement, the group of 11 rights experts cited the deaths of three children aged 13, 9-years-old and six months from malnutrition in the southern area of Khan Younis and the central area of Deir Al-Balah since the end of May.

The experts said:

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.

Their statement, signed by experts including the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, condemned “Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people”.

Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva said the statement amounted to “misinformation”.

It added:

Israel has continuously scaled up its coordination and assistance in the delivery of humanitarian aid across the Gaza Strip, recently connecting its power line to the Gaza water desalination plant.

In a Khan Younis hospital on Monday, Palestinian woman Ghaneyma Joma told Reuters she feared her son would die of starvation.

While seated on the floor next to her motionless son, who had an intravenous drip attached to his wrist, she said:

It’s distressing to see my child … lying there dying from malnutrition because I cannot provide him with anything due to the war, the closing of crossings and the contaminated water.

Formally, whether or not a famine exists is determined by a UN-backed global monitor called the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which makes an assessment based on a set of technical criteria.

Last month the IPC said Gaza remained at high risk of famine as the war continues and aid access is restricted.

More than 495,000 people across Gaza – more than one-fifth of the population – are facing the most severe, or “catastrophic”, level of food insecurity, it said, down from a forecast of 1.1 million in the previous update.