Israeli fire has killed eight Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and three more in the occupied West Bank over the past 24 hours, Palestinian officials said Tuesday, even as a fragile ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza has largely held since late January. During the ceasefire, Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinians in Gaza who the military says had approached its troops or entered unauthorized areas.
Israel is cutting off all electricity, food, medicine and other goods for Gaza's more than 2 million Palestinians. The United Nations and other humanitarian aid providers say Israel is violating international law in its bid to pressure Hamas to accept an extension of the first phase of the ceasefire.
Israel wants Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for a promise to negotiate a lasting truce. Hamas instead wants to start negotiations on the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase, which would see the release of remaining hostages from Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and a lasting peace. Hamas is believed to have 24 living hostages and the bodies of 35 others.
Here's the latest:
Israeli defense minister visits a strategic mountain in Syria and says his military is watching
He warned Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa that Israel “is watching him from the heights of Mt. Hermon,” which Israeli forces captured as part of a buffer zone inside Syria last year, and said Israel struck 40 military targets overnight in southern Syria.
Israel plans to allow members of the Druze minority from Syria to work in Israeli-controlled parts of the Golan Heights as soon as the coming week, Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement Tuesday issued from Mt. Hermon. He stressed that Israel plans to remain in the Syrian buffer zone for an “indefinite period” to ensure that southern Syria remains demilitarized and does not pose a threat to residents of Israel or the Golan Heights.
The Israeli minister’s comments come days after Syrian government-linked forces killed hundreds of civilians in revenge attacks primarily targeting members of the Alawite religious minority. The Druze minority straddles Israel, the Golan Heights, Syria, and Lebanon.
Hamas says a new round of ceasefire talks have started
The Palestinian militant group said Tuesday it was “dealing responsibly and positively with these negotiations, including the talks with the American envoy for hostage affairs.”
Hamas had said Sunday that it wrapped up the latest round of ceasefire talks with Egyptian mediators — without changes to its position.
Hamas wants to start negotiations on the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase, which would see the release of remaining hostages from Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and a lasting peace. Israel wants Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for a promise to negotiate a lasting truce.
Turkey's president cautiously praises deal between Syrian Kurds and Damascus
A breakthrough agreement to consolidate control of Syria under a single central authority in Damascus is a “step in the right direction,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday, but he said the deal must be fully implemented.
The deal between Syria’s interim government and the Kurdish-led authority in country’s northeast includes a ceasefire and would merge the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces into the Syrian army. Turkey deems the Kurdish forces in Syria as “terrorists” because of their links to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Part.
“We see every effort to cleanse Syria of terrorism as a step in the right direction,” Erdogan said during a Ramadan fast-breaking dinner on Tuesday.
The agreement aligns with Turkey’s interests, which has called for a stable and unitary Syria.
Israeli police raid a Palestinian bookstore in Jerusalem for a second time
One of the store’s owners was briefly detained Tuesday and books were seized by Israeli police, who said they received a tip about “books with inciteful content.”
The Educational Bookshop is a hub of intellectual life in east Jerusalem that's popular among researchers, journalists and foreign diplomats. The two Palestinian brothers who own the store were detained after a raid last month.
Imad Muna, one of the owners, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that police showed him no search or arrest warrant before taking him in for questioning along with around 40 books – all with some kind of “icon or keyword related to the conflict or related to Palestine or related to the Israeli occupation.”
He said police kept three books: two academic studies of the conflict written in English, and “a book about Palestine and South Africa.”
A police spokesperson said the confiscated books would be examined to determine if prosecutors need to investigate further.
PEN America condemns Israeli raid on Palestinian bookshop
The back-to-back Israeli police raids are a violation of free expression and a “blatant assault on Palestinian literature and culture,” said PEN America, a literary non-profit dedicated to protecting free speech.
The organization called on Israeli authorities to stop the “relentless harassment and intimidation” of the Educational Bookshop’s two Palestinian owners, one of whom was briefly detained again Tuesday. Police said the raid was spurred by complaints about “inciting content” at the store in east Jerusalem.
Israel says it killed a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon
The strikes Tuesday hit two areas of southern Lebanon, the Israeli military said, allegedly killing a commander in Nabatiyeh province and several militants in the Froun area.
Lebanon’s National News Agency reported two Israeli drone strikes in the Froun area on a vehicle, about 20 minutes apart. There were no immediate reports of casualties and Hezbollah did not immediately comment.
Israel has repeatedly launched deadly airstrikes in Lebanon during the ceasefire, saying it has the right to retaliate to unspecified ceasefire violations by Hezbollah and security threats.
Israel, Lebanon, France and the US meet to discuss sticking points
The Israeli prime minister’s office announced Israel will release five Lebanese detainees as a “gesture” to the new Lebanese president. The release follows a meeting Tuesday in Lebanon between representatives from Israel, Lebanon, France, and the United States.
Israel said the talks focused on bringing more stability to the region after a bruising war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has been paused by a ceasefire since late November. The four nations will continue meeting to discuss three major issues between Israel and Lebanon, including five locations in southern Lebanon that remain under Israeli military control, the border between Israel and Lebanon — which has never officially been determined — and the issue of Lebanese detainees held by Israel.
“Everyone involved remains committed to maintaining the ceasefire agreement and to fully implement all its terms,” said Morgan Ortagus, the deputy presidential special envoy at the U.S. State Department. According to the terms of the ceasefire, Israel must withdraw from all of Lebanon, including the five points along the border it's still occupying. The Lebanese government and Hezbollah did not have an immediate comment.
China, Iran and Russia hold joint naval drills in the Mideast as tensions rise between Tehran and US
The joint drills held Tuesday, called the Maritime Security Belt 2025, took place in the Gulf of Oman near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all crude oil traded worldwide passes.
The area around the strait in the past has seen Iran seize commercial ships and launch suspected attacks in the time since President Donald Trump first unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.
This is the fifth year the three countries took part in the drills, which come after a monthslong Iranian drill that followed a direct Israeli attack on the country, targeting its air defenses and sites associated with its ballistic missile program.
UN-backed rights experts hear Palestinians’ allegations of abuse in Israeli custody
Palestinians described alleged abuses by Israeli forces and settlers — punched in the genitals, held for days while naked, starved — to independent U.N.-backed human rights investigators on Tuesday during hearings on the treatment of detainees during the war in Gaza.
“This is not just my story. I’m just one person among many detained by the occupying Israeli power,” said one witness from Gaza, Abu Jidyan, according to a translator.
The Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory’s findings can be used as evidence for the International Criminal Court or other bodies that seek to prosecute war crimes and other violations in the context of the war.
Rights groups have alleged widespread abuse at a military detention facility, Sde Teiman.
Israel has refused to cooperate with the commission, accusing it of anti-Israel bias. Israel has repeatedly denied mistreatment of Palestinian detainees in its custody and said it takes action against any offenses.
US cautious about peace prospects in Syria
The White House is circumspect about the prospects for a peaceful Syria after clashes erupted last week that left hundreds dead.
Monitoring groups said hundreds of civilians were killed in the clashes that broke out last week. Revenge attacks primarily targeted members of the Alawite religious minority to which ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad belongs.
White House National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt said Tuesday that the attacks on religious minorities have raised concerns in the administration “about whether Syria’s interim governing authorities are ready to include a religiously and ethnically diverse population, and whether the interim authorities even have the legitimacy to do so.”
Syria’s interim government signed a deal Monday with the Kurdish-led authority that controls the country’s northeast, including a ceasefire and the merging of the main U.S.-backed force there into the Syrian army.
“Achieving a resolution at the negotiating table is preferable to achieving it on the battlefield and the United States will continue to watch Syria and the decisions its leaders make,” Hewitt added.
An Israeli airstrike kills 4 in Gaza
Palestinian first responders say an Israeli airstrike killed four people, including two brothers, in the Gaza Strip.
The Civil Defense, which operates under the Hamas-run government, said Tuesday’s strike was carried out near the Netzarim corridor, where Israeli forces had carved out a military zone bisecting the territory before withdrawing from the area as part of a fragile ceasefire.
The Israeli military said it carried out an airstrike against a group of militants “engaged in suspicious activity.”
The fragile ceasefire has held since it began on Jan. 19, even as Israeli strikes have killed dozens of Palestinians. Israel says it has struck Palestinians who approached its troops, entered unauthorized areas or otherwise violated the terms of the truce.
Palestinians say settlers attacked a garage in West Bank
Palestinians say settlers attacked a garage in the occupied West Bank overnight, torching three cars.
Rafaat Sabah, the owner of the garage, said the attack overnight was not the first. He said settlers had broken into his garage previously and stolen oil, tools and other things. This time they set fire to cars belonging to his customers, he said.
The Israeli military said it was investigating the episode.
Marwan Sabah, head of the Umm Safa village council, said settlers have recently brought livestock to graze on village lands with the aim of eventually taking them over.
The West Bank has seen a surge in violence, including settler attacks on Palestinians, since the war in Gaza began in October 2023.
Over 500,000 settlers with Israeli citizenship live in well over 100 settlements across the West Bank, ranging from hilltop outposts to fully-developed suburbs. The territory’s 3 million Palestinians live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority administering cities and towns.
Funeral held for a Palestinian struck by an Israeli military vehicle
Palestinians held a funeral on Tuesday for a 32-year-old man who died after being struck by an Israeli military vehicle in the volatile West Bank city of Jenin.
The military described Monday’s episode as an accident, saying the man rode a motorcycle into an intersection where it collided with the military vehicle.
Israel has been carrying out a major military operation in Jenin in recent weeks that it says is aimed at rooting out militants. Palestinians view such operations as a way of cementing Israeli control over the territory, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.
Israeli official says violence in Syria amounts to ‘ethnic cleansing’
Israel’s deputy foreign minister said Tuesday that deadly sectarian violence in neighboring Syria amounted to “ethnic cleansing” and said Israel was working to prevent a threat along its border from Syria’s new “jihadi regime.”
“Israel is committed to preventing what we saw in Syria this weekend from happening on our border,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel said at a news conference in Jerusalem.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said 1,130 people were killed in the clashes, including 830 civilians, most of them from ousted leader Bashar Assad's Alawite community. The Associated Press could not independently verify these numbers.
Since Islamist-led insurgents ousted Assad in December, Israel has voiced concern that the group could seize Syrian military assets and use them against it, or that instability could spill over into its territory.
Israel has deployed troops inside a buffer zone and vowed to prevent the new Syrian forces from entering the area south of Damascus. On Tuesday, the Israeli military said its fighter jets struck military targets in southern Syria, including radars and equipment.
3 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank
The Palestinian Health Ministry says three Palestinians, including a 58-year-old woman, were killed by Israeli fire in the volatile West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday.
The Israeli military said troops killed two militants in an exchange of fire in Jenin and arrested 10 others. It said its forces eliminated a third militant who had fired at them during the operation and destroyed two vehicles loaded with weapons.
Israel launched a large-scale military operation centered on Jenin shortly after reaching a fragile ceasefire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip in January. Troops have destroyed homes and infrastructure, and tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled their homes across the northern West Bank.
4 killed in Gaza in the past 24 hours, Palestinian officials say
The Gaza Health Ministry says four people have been killed by Israeli fire and another 14 wounded over the past 24 hours.
The ministry said Tuesday that rescuers had also retrieved 32 bodies from under the rubble.
The four killed included three brothers hit by a drone strike in central Gaza on Monday and a woman killed by a drone strike Tuesday in the southern city of Rafah, the ministry said.
The latest deaths brought the overall Palestinian death toll from the war to 48,503. More than 110,000 people have been wounded, according to the ministry.
The ministry says women and children make up most of the dead but does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its toll. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 people.
