Israel-Hamas war live: Hamas leader says ‘we are close to reaching a truce’ but Israel yet to comment | Israel-Hamas war

German authorities on Tuesday raided the homes of 17 people in the state of Bavaria accused of spreading antisemitic hate speech and threats targeting Jews online.

According to the Bavarian criminal police, the suspects were 15 men and two women, aged between 18 and 62, German news agency dpa reported. Police questioned the suspects and confiscated evidence from their homes, including mobile phones and laptops, the agency said.

The suspects were said to have celebrated the attacks by Hamas on Israel on 7 October, and were accused of spreading hate speech against Jewish people on social media, using symbols of banned terrorist organizations, AP reports.

The police operation focused on Bavaria’s capital city of Munich.

“Unfortunately, antisemitism has an impact on the daily life of many Jews in Germany,” Michael Weinzierl, the Bavarian police commissioner against hate crime said, “the terrorist attack by Hamas against Israel also has an impact on their lives in Germany,”

Summary of the day so far …

Reuters has a quick snap that Lebanese state media is reporting two journalists and one other person have been killed in southern Lebanon near the UN-drawn boundary between Israel and Lebanon.

Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has already produced the deadliest month for journalists since statistics began more than three decades ago.

More details soon …

Interfax reports that the Russia’s ministry of emergency situations says it has delivered more humanitarian aid to Egypt for Gaza, with a plane departing for El-Arish airport at 6.20am Moscow time.

The ministry said it had sent seven previous shipments, including “mattresses, pillows, personal hygiene products, food and baby food.”

Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesperson for the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, has spoken to Al Jazeera. It reports he told them:

Israeli airstrikes targeted the house of the deputy undersecretary of the health ministry this morning. There were 56 of his relatives in the house who were displaced from different areas of Gaza. Rescue teams managed to find 17 bodies while the rest are still under the rubble.

The claims have not been independently verified.

Israel’s military has issued a statement to say that fire is again being exchanged over the UN-drawn blue line boundary between Israel and Lebanon.

On the Telegram messaging app it wrote:

A short while ago, IDF aircraft identified and struck three armed terrorist cells in the area of the border with Lebanon. In addition, IDF fighter jets struck a number of Hezbollah terror targets, including military infrastructure and structures used for directing terrorist activity. A short while ago, terrorists fired mortar shells at an IDF post in northern Israel. No injuries were reported. IDF artillery is currently striking the source of the fire.

Toby Fricker of Unicef has spoken to the BBC, saying the agency would act to bring in aid to Gaza if there was a deal on a truce. He told the broadcaster from Amman:

If there’s an immediate humanitarian ceasefire which Unicef and many others have been calling for, then yes, then we need to bring in the supplies as quickly as we can and to get them to shelters, to get them to people wherever they are inside the Gaza Strip, wherever they are in need, which is pretty much everywhere.

A newly formed group made up of senior officials from several Muslim countries will visit the UN security council’s five permanent members and others to urge an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, a Turkish foreign ministry source told Reuters on Tuesday.

The group will meet British prime minister Rishi Sunak and French president Emmanuel Macron during visits to Britain and France on Wednesday, the source said.

The group includes foreign ministers and representatives from Turkey, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, the Palestinian Authority, as well as the Organisation of Islamic cooperation (OIC) secretary general.

“The primary goal of the contact group is for a ceasefire to be announced as soon as possible and for humanitarian aid to be sent to Gaza,” the source told Reuters.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society has just posted to social media to say that on average it has been receiving “around 42 trucks per day” of humanitarian aid, and that since 21 October, “a total of 1353 trucks have been received.”

The Times of Israel is reporting that Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has issued a statement warning against a deal to swap hostages.

It quotes him saying “I’m very concerned because there is talk of some deal. We are being kept out, and we’re not being told the truth. The rumours are that Israel is again going to make a major mistake in similar vein to the Shalit deal.”

In a 2011 deal, Israel released over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners it held in return for the hostage Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Ben-Gvir said, according to the Times of Israel report, that Israel might be about to make “a deal that might bring disaster”.

Yesterday Ben-Gvir was involved in angry exchanges with families of those being held hostage by Hamas.

Israel’s air force has posted to social media to claim that in the last 24 hours it has “struck approximately 250 Hamas terror targets”.

The Israeli military has also issued a video of its troops in action within the Gaza Strip, claiming that “division 162 completed the encirclement of Jabalia tonight and is ready for the continuation of the attack”.

Al Jazeera is reporting that people are trapped under rubble after Israeli air raids targeted eight houses near Kamal Adwan hospital in the northern Gaza Strip.

The network reports:

Images from site, verified by Al Jazeera, show widespread destruction as rescuers searched for victims. One man crying loudly can be seen searching under the rubble for friends and family using the phone flash. According to an ambulance official at the site, they only had two ambulances to carry those killed and injured. One paramedic said the houses had more than ten people residing in there, with one home having up to 18 people.

It is unclear how many people remain in the north of Gaza after over a month of Israeli bombardments and repeated instructions by Israel’s military that civilians should flee to the south of Gaza, which has also been repeatedly bombed.

AP notes the UN agency for Palestinian refugees estimates that about 160,000 people are still in its shelters there, even though it is no longer able to provide services. About 1.7 million Palestinians, about three fourths of Gaza’s population, have fled their homes.

Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza, Israel and Egypt.

Israel’s military has issued its latest update on the operational situation, and has said that it is “operating against terrorist infrastructure and operatives in the Jabalia area in the northern Gaza Strip”.

In the update posted to social media and to the Telegram messaging app, the IDF claimed “during the battle, the division struck three tunnel shafts in the area of Jabalia, in which terrorists were hiding” and that “troops killed dozens of terrorists with air support, captured enemy weapons in various locations, including private houses and children’s bedrooms, and located and destroyed tunnel shafts.”

The claims have not been independently verified.

Hamas says truce agreement is ‘close’: what we know

Here is the beginning of the latest entries from Ziad’s diary in Gaza:

I have been having nightmares. I believe it is due to a variety of reasons: fear, stress, the cold weather and lack of proper sleep. I would manage to sleep for a few minutes or an hour from time to time. At first, my nightmares were about me or a loved one dying by a bomb. But now they are different, they are about not being able to find food. I have been so lucky that, till now, we have food, regardless of what it is; today one thing is available and tomorrow another. This is a blessing.

This night, I dreamed about going to many shops, fancy ones. None of them had anything edible. The last one did have, but the seller refused to sell to me. I kept screaming at him: “I have money, I have money.” I woke up with half of my body off the couch I was sleeping on.

Jack the cat’s health has deteriorated suddenly. We don’t know why. He feels cold even though we are covering him properly. My sister held him all night, he had his arm around hers. He refused to even drink water. I hope he gets better.

If you’re just joining us: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has said his militant movement is nearing a truce agreement with Israel, more than six weeks after its deadly assault sparked retaliatory strikes on Gaza in which thousands have been killed.

“We are close to reaching a deal on a truce,” Haniyeh said, and the group has delivered its response to Qatari mediators.

Hamas official Izzat el Reshiq told Al Jazeera that ongoing talks were for a truce that would last “a number of days” and include arrangements for the entry of aid in to Gaza, and a swap of hostages taken by Hamas for people imprisoned by Israel. Reshiq said the deal would include the release of Israeli women and children from Gaza in exchange for Palestinian women and children from “occupation prisons”.

Negotiators have been working to secure a deal to allow the release of around 240 mostly Israeli hostages who were seized on 7 October. Qatar, where Hamas has a political office and where Haniyeh is based, has been mediating.

Talk of an imminent agreement has swirled for days. Qatar’s prime minister said on Sunday that a deal to free some of the hostages in return for a temporary ceasefire hinged on “minor” practical issues, while on Monday, US president Joe Biden said he believed a deal to free the hostages was close. “I believe so,” Biden said when asked whether a hostage deal was near, and crossed his fingers.

The White House said the negotiations were in the “endgame” stage, but refused to give further details, saying it could jeopardise a successful outcome.