Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and wider crisis in the Middle East. Here’s a snapshot of the latest to bring you up to speed.
Thousands of Israelis have protested across the country after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu sacked Yoav Gallant, calling on the defense minister’s successor to prioritise a deal to return the hostages in Gaza.
Demonstrators gathered in central Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening, blocking the city’s main highway and crippling traffic, while several thousands also protested outside the Netanyahu’s home in Jerusalem and elsewhere in the city.
In Tel Aviv some protesters held up signs with slogans such as “We deserve better leaders” and “Leaving no one behind!” while some wore T-shirts saying “Bring them home now!” in reference to the hostages.
Foreign minister Israel Katz took over the defense portfolio on Tuesday, after Netanyahu fired Gallant over what the prime minister said was eroded trust between them over the past months of the Gaza war.
In other developments:
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Gallant said after his dismissal that he believed “everyone of conscription age must serve in the IDF and defend the state of Israel” – including the Ultra-Orthodox – and that it was Israel’s “moral obligation and responsibility” to bring Israeli hostages home “with as many alive as possible”, adding there would not be any atonement for abandoning the captives and for “those leading this mistaken path”. He also spoke of the need for a state inquiry into any security failures that enabled the 7 October attacks
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Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, called Gallant’s dismissal “the last thing Israel needs”. Opposition leader Yair Lapid said the move was an “act of madness” in the middle of a war and that “Netanyahu’s is selling Israel’s security and the Israeli army soldiers for a disgraceful political survival”. The far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, praised Netanyahu for firing the defence minister, saying that “with Gallant … absolute victory cannot be achieved”
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Israel Katz vowed to prioritise the return of Israel’s hostages and the “destruction” of Hamas and Hezbollah, in his first post on X since accepting the defence minister’s role
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An Israeli strike targeting a residential building in the town of Barja, about 20km south of Beirut, killed at least 20 people on Tuesday, Lebanon’s health ministry said. The ministry said an earlier strike on the coastal town of Jiyeh killed one person and wounded 20
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Hezbollah claimed on Tuesday it fired rockets and drones into northern Israel and targeted Israeli troops near the border inside Lebanon
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Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians in the West Bank in separate operations, Palestinian officials said. The Israeli military told AFP it had targeted “terrorists”
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The Syrian town of Al-Qusayr came under air attack for the second time in a week, with the Israeli military saying it carried out “an intelligence-based strike on weapons storage facilities used by Hezbollah’s munitions unit”. Syria’s official Sana news agency said Al-Qusayr industrial zone was hit and Israel also targeted residential buildings surrounding the zone, near Lebanon’s border
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The World Health Organisation said a large-scale medical evacuation was planned from Gaza this week, with as many as 113 seriously ill and injured patients set to be evacuated on Wednesday and be taken to the United Arab Emirates or Romania. If it went ahead, it would be the largest evacuation from Gaza since October 2023, according to UN health agency data
Key events
In the last few minutes Palestinian news sources have said there has been a new Israeli airstrike on the Halima Saadia school in Jabalia, northern Gaza. The school, which has been sheltering displaced Palestinians, has been targeted before. Israel has claimed that Hamas has been using the building as a command and control centre. At least eight people were reported killed there by a strike in September.
More details soon …
Israel claims to have killed a Hezbollah commander amid 70 airstrikes on Lebanon and Gaza
Israel’s military has claimed to have killed another Hezbollah commander inside Lebanon, and said its air force had carried out 70 strikes on targets in Lebanon and Gaza in the last 24 hours.
It a statement posted to the official IDF Telegram channel, Israel’s military named Hussain Abd Al-Haleem Harb as killed, and said he had been Hezbollah’s Khiam region Commander, who they claimed “directed and executed many rocket attacks against communities in the Galilee, and against the area of Metula specifically.”
On Monday Israel’s military allowed a limited media presence into the empty Metula to show damage claimed to have been caused by Hezbollah rockets. Tens of thousands of Israelis have been displaced from their home in northern Israel by repeated rocket fire from inside Gaza.
The message from Israel’s military continued:
Over the past day, the IAF struck approximately 70 terror targets belonging to Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, including terrorist cells, terror infrastructure sites, weapons storage facilities, missile launchers, and additional terror infrastructure. In Gaza, IDF troops continue operational activity in Jabalia, and have eliminated approximately dozens of terrorists over the past day.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and wider crisis in the Middle East. Here’s a snapshot of the latest to bring you up to speed.
Thousands of Israelis have protested across the country after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu sacked Yoav Gallant, calling on the defense minister’s successor to prioritise a deal to return the hostages in Gaza.
Demonstrators gathered in central Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening, blocking the city’s main highway and crippling traffic, while several thousands also protested outside the Netanyahu’s home in Jerusalem and elsewhere in the city.
In Tel Aviv some protesters held up signs with slogans such as “We deserve better leaders” and “Leaving no one behind!” while some wore T-shirts saying “Bring them home now!” in reference to the hostages.
Foreign minister Israel Katz took over the defense portfolio on Tuesday, after Netanyahu fired Gallant over what the prime minister said was eroded trust between them over the past months of the Gaza war.
In other developments:
-
Gallant said after his dismissal that he believed “everyone of conscription age must serve in the IDF and defend the state of Israel” – including the Ultra-Orthodox – and that it was Israel’s “moral obligation and responsibility” to bring Israeli hostages home “with as many alive as possible”, adding there would not be any atonement for abandoning the captives and for “those leading this mistaken path”. He also spoke of the need for a state inquiry into any security failures that enabled the 7 October attacks
-
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, called Gallant’s dismissal “the last thing Israel needs”. Opposition leader Yair Lapid said the move was an “act of madness” in the middle of a war and that “Netanyahu’s is selling Israel’s security and the Israeli army soldiers for a disgraceful political survival”. The far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, praised Netanyahu for firing the defence minister, saying that “with Gallant … absolute victory cannot be achieved”
-
Israel Katz vowed to prioritise the return of Israel’s hostages and the “destruction” of Hamas and Hezbollah, in his first post on X since accepting the defence minister’s role
-
An Israeli strike targeting a residential building in the town of Barja, about 20km south of Beirut, killed at least 20 people on Tuesday, Lebanon’s health ministry said. The ministry said an earlier strike on the coastal town of Jiyeh killed one person and wounded 20
-
Hezbollah claimed on Tuesday it fired rockets and drones into northern Israel and targeted Israeli troops near the border inside Lebanon
-
Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians in the West Bank in separate operations, Palestinian officials said. The Israeli military told AFP it had targeted “terrorists”
-
The Syrian town of Al-Qusayr came under air attack for the second time in a week, with the Israeli military saying it carried out “an intelligence-based strike on weapons storage facilities used by Hezbollah’s munitions unit”. Syria’s official Sana news agency said Al-Qusayr industrial zone was hit and Israel also targeted residential buildings surrounding the zone, near Lebanon’s border
-
The World Health Organisation said a large-scale medical evacuation was planned from Gaza this week, with as many as 113 seriously ill and injured patients set to be evacuated on Wednesday and be taken to the United Arab Emirates or Romania. If it went ahead, it would be the largest evacuation from Gaza since October 2023, according to UN health agency data
