Four Hezbollah members killed in Israeli attacks
- Gaza’s Health Ministry says 126 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on Tuesday, the 95th day of the war.
- Three Hezbollah members killed in an air strike on their vehicle in the southern town of Ghandouriyeh, and another person killed in an Israeli attack on the funeral of a senior commander who was attacked on Monday.
Jordan to host summit with Egyptian and Palestinian presidents
Jordanian state media has reported that the country’s King Abdullah will host a tripartite summit with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday.
The meeting of the three regional leaders will focus on “serious developments” in Gaza.
Israel trying to ‘blunt Hezbollah’s edge’ with targeted strikes
A short time ago, Hezbollah confirmed the death of its fourth fighter today, Ali Hussein Burji. He was reportedly killed in a targeted Israeli strike on a car near the funeral of a commander killed yesterday.
The commander, Wissam Tawil, was the deputy head of a unit in the elite Radwan force.
Nicholas Blanford, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told Al Jazeera that the point of these strikes is not to “provoke Hezbollah into a harsher reaction”.
“It’s pretty clear after three months what Hezbollah’s strategy is in all this,” he said. “They are attacking the Israelis on a daily basis, but they’re keeping it within a certain threshold. I don’t think the Israeli military wants to go to war.”
Rather, he continued, Israel is trying to hurt Hezbollah’s military capabilities.
“Israel is doing what it can to blunt Hezbollah’s edge, to put the organisation off balance, and assassinating their senior field commanders is probably an effective way to do that,” Blanford said.
Saudi Arabia rejects Israeli attempts to displace Palestinians in Gaza: Minister
The kingdom’s information minister says Saudi expresses its categorical rejection of the displacement of the population of Gaza, the reoccupation of the besieged coastal enclave, and the construction of Israeli settlements.
Abdullah Alswaha also said that Saudi Arabia continues to call for “holding the occupation government [Israel] accountable for violating the rules of international legitimacy and humanitarian law”.
Meanwhile, the Saudi ambassador to the UK, Prince Khalid bin Bandar Al Saud, told BBC Radio 4: “The problem that we have today with the current government in Israel is there is an extreme, absolutist perspective, which does not work to achieve compromise and therefore you are never going to end the conflict.”
He said that he would like the UK to reconsider its position towards Israel because “the blindspot towards Israel is a real problem because it provides a blindspot to the peace”.
The ambassador also said Saudi Arabia was “close” to a normalisation deal with Israel before October 7 and that the kingdom still believes in such a deal.
Israel denies talking with African countries over ‘transfer’ of Palestinians
A spokesperson for the Israeli foreign ministry has denied recent media reports that the country is speaking with African countries about “transferring” Palestinians to various nations in Africa.
“In response to publications regarding this issue, it should be noted that Israel is not engaged in examining the feasibility of transferring Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to countries in Africa,” spokesperson Lior Haiat said in a social media post.
The denial comes as a number of high-level Israeli ministers have called for the forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, drawing accusations of promoting ethnic cleansing as Israel prepares to defend itself from charges of genocide at the ICJ.
An Israeli media outlet reported last week that the Israeli government was in discussions over the transfer of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza to Congo. “Congo will be willing to take in migrants, and we’re in talks with others,” a senior source in the security cabinet was quoted by the Times of Israel as saying.
Tensions high in northern Israel amid Hezbollah bombardment
Tensions continue to simmer along the border between Israel and Lebanon, with thousands displaced from border communities on each side amid concerns over further escalation between Israel and Hezbollah.
“I was along the border in northern Israel today in a small town called Shlomi and it was incredibly tense. We had sirens going off throughout the day, all along the 120 kilometre border with Lebanon, literally happening for hours,” Al Jazeera correspondent Laura Khan reported from the port city of Haifa in northern Israel.
“From Shlomi where we were, there’s usually around 9,000 people living there. There were about 150,” she added. “These places are ghost towns and they are pockmarked with some of the munitions that have been sent over.”
Israel to allow UN delegation access to northern Gaza
The delegation is to assess the state of infrastructure in northern Gaza, which has been devastated by Israeli attacks. It is to also study the needs on the ground for the return of Palestinians displaced from the area, according to the Israeli Walla web outlet.
Israel agreed to allow the delegation in after a request from the US with Blinken pushing for Palestinians to be allowed back into northern Gaza amid fears that Israel is trying to keep Palestinians who have been displaced out.
The Israeli government is trying to use the return of Palestinians to northern Gaza as leverage in negotiations on the return of Israeli captives in the enclave.
Israel’s war on Gaza has ‘immense’ effect on climate, says study
The projected emissions from the first 60 days of the Israeli war on Gaza were greater than the annual emissions of 20 individual countries and territories, says a study published in Social Science Research Network.
“The carbon costs of reconstructing Gaza are enormous. Rebuilding Gaza will entail total annual emissions figure higher than over 130 countries, putting on them par with that of New Zealand,” the study by researchers in the UK and US found.
“These numbers also demonstrate the asymmetry of offensive weaponry in Israel’s assault on Gaza,” it added.
UK sending warship to Red Sea for anti-Houthi patrols
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps says the HMS Richmond is “on its way to the Red Sea to ensure the UK maintains a formidable presence in the face of attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthis”.
The United Kingdom is part of a coalition announced by the United States last month to combat attacks on shipping on the internationally vital route by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The Houthis said the attacks are on ships linked to Israel as they seek to support the Palestinians.
“With the US, we’ll continue to lead the global response to the crisis & do what is necessary to protect lives and the global economy,” Shapps added in a social media post.
