Israel-Hamas war live: IDF defends Jabalia refugee camp strike

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem denied any senior commander was in the Jabalia camp at the time of an Israeli strike. Palestinian health officials said at least 50 Palestinians were killed and 150 wounded in the air attacks.

A Hamas statement said there were 400 dead and injured in Jabalia, which houses families of refugees from wars with Israel dating back to 1948. Reuters could not independently verify the reported casualty figures.

The blast left large craters surrounded by wrecked buildings. Israel repeatedly warned Gaza residents to evacuate northern areas and while many have gone south, many have stayed.

Israel besieged Gaza after the Hamas attack, and the UN and other aid officials said civilians in the enclave were living in a public health catastrophe, with hospitals struggling to treat casualties as electricity supplies petered out.

Israeli airstrikes hit a densely populated refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 50 Palestinians and a Hamas commander, and medics struggled to treat the casualties in the enclave where food, fuel and basic supplies are running scarce.

Israeli tanks have been active in Gaza for at least four days following weeks of air bombardments in retaliation for an attack by Palestinian Hamas militants on southern Israeli towns on 7 October and the taking of more than 200 hostages.

An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) statement said the strike by fighter jets on Jabalia, Gaza’s largest refugee camp, had killed Ibrahim Biari, a Hamas commander it said was “pivotal” in the planning and execution of the attack.

Dozens of Hamas combatants were in the same underground tunnel complex as Biari and were also killed when it collapsed in the attack, IDF spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said, adding: “I understand that is also the reason why there are many reports of collateral damage and non-combatant casualties. We’re looking into those as well.”

The Rafah border crossing will be opened today for a number of Palestinians who were injured in Gaza to complete their treatment in Egyptian hospitals, Egyptian medical and security sources as well as a Palestinian border official said on Tuesday.

The country will take 81 seriously wounded people from Gaza and treat them in Egyptian hospital, reported the New York Times citing Gaza’s General Authority for Crossings and Borders.

During testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee in support of the White House’s request for $14bn in additional military aid to Israel, Mr Blinken said nearly 1,000 people with ties to the US, comprising American citizens and their family members, are still trapped in the bombarded Palestinian territory.

“We are working on every single day,” he testified on Tuesday, saying the State Department has sent 5500 communications including phone calls and WhatsApp messages to Americans stuck behind the siege line.

“I’m focused on this intensely,” he added. “My entire department is as well, both in the region and here, we are working with various parties to try to facilitate their departure from Gaza.”

Nine soldiers have been killed in Gaza fighting, Israeli mislitary has said in a statement today. There are more than 20,000 IDF troops in Gaza.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken was repeatedly interrupted by protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza as he told a US Senate hearing that the Palestinian Authority should retake control of the enclave from Hamas. The president has said that the militant group should be eliminated and that he supports a two-state solution in the region.

Mr Blinken and US defense secretary Lloyd Austin testified about the White House’s $106bn funding request for national security, including $14.3bn for Israel.

My colleague Graeme Massie has more:

The human rights group Amnesty International yesterday said that civilians in southern Lebanon were injured this month when Israeli forces hit a border village with shells containing white phosphorus, a controversial incendiary munition.

The organization said it verified three other instances of Israel’s military dropping white phosphorus on Lebanese border areas in the past month, but Amnesty said it did not document any harm to civilians in those cases.

Human rights advocates say the use of white phosphorus is illegal under international law when the white-hot chemical substance is fired into populated areas. It can set buildings on fire and burn human flesh down to the bone. Survivors are at risk of infections and organ or respiratory failure, even if their burns are small.

Israel is defending its decision to launch an airstrike against Jabalia, a densely settled refugee camp in northern Gaza, claiming the operation was necessary and proportionate to go after an important Hamas commander.

The attack, which levelled buildings and left a massive crater, killed over 50 people, according to separate estimates from the health ministry in Gaza and the director of the local Indonesian Hospital, Al Jazeera reports. Civilians are among the dead, according to the health ministry.

“It was not only a legitimate military target but an important military target to strike – and all things were factored in including the possibility of non-combatants being affected,” IDF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said at the briefing.

Some observers criticised the strike as an unacceptable attack on civilians.

“Egypt strongly condemns the Israeli inhumane targeting of an entire residential square in Jabalia camp northern Gaza and left hundreds killed and injured,” the Egyptian Foreign Ministry told Turkish state media.

French prime minister Elisabeth Borne yesterday vowed a “merciless fight” against surging antisemitism after residents of the French capital discovered anti-Jewish graffiti on buildings in several districts.

“The situation in the Middle East does not justify antisemitism,” Ms Borne told the National Assembly during a regular questioning session. “Nothing ever excuses antisemitism … my government is determined to wage a merciless fight against it.”

More than 50 Palestinians have been killed and over 150 wounded in Israeli airstrikes on the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, the director of Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital has said. He told Al Jazeera he feared the numbers would rise after several residential buildings were destroyed in the bombardment.

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem denied the IDF’s claim, saying it was trying to justify “its heinous crime” against civilians, report Bel Trew and Maira Butt: