Israeli strikes killed at least 23 people in the Gaza Strip overnight into Tuesday, Palestinian medics said, as hospitals are flooded with dead and wounded since Israel resumed heavy bombardment last week, shattering the ceasefire that had halted the 17-month war. The dead include three children and their parents who were killed in a strike on their tent.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, an Oscar-winning Palestinian director is set to be released a day after he was badly beaten by Jewish settlers and detained by Israeli forces, according to the director's lawyer. The lawyer said Hamdan Ballal had been wounded in the attack and was accused of throwing stones at a young settler, allegations he denies.
Israel’s parliament passed a crucial state budget on Tuesday, a move that shores up Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ’s governing coalition and grants the embattled leader the chance at months of political stability even as public pressure mounts over the war in Gaza.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 113,000, according to the Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Israel launched the campaign vowing to destroy Hamas after its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251. Israel says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because it operates in densely populated areas.
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Israel releases Oscar-winning Palestinian director after he was attacked by West Bank settlers
An Oscar-winning Palestinian director and two others have been released by Israeli authorities, a day after he says he was badly beaten by Jewish settlers and detained by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.
Associated Press journalists on Tuesday spoke with Hamdan Ballal after he left the police station in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba where he was being held. Ballal had bruises on his face and blood on his clothes.
Ballal and other witnesses say he was attacked by Jewish settlers before being detained by the Israeli army Monday evening. The Israeli military said Monday it had detained three Palestinians suspected of hurling rocks at forces and one Israeli civilian involved in a what it described as a violent confrontation.
Ballal is one of the other directors of “No Other Land,” which won the Oscar this year for best documentary. The film chronicles the struggle by residents of the Masafer Yatta area to stop the Israeli military from demolishing their villages.
Israeli strikes in southwest Syria kill 4 people as Israeli soldiers clash with residents
An Israeli strike Tuesday in southwestern Syria killed at least four people as Israeli troops occupying the area clashed with local residents, Syrian state media and a war monitor reported.
Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said troops fired back at gunmen who attacked them, before launching a drone attack.
Syrian state-run news agency SANA said several people were wounded, including a woman. The report said Israeli tanks in the southwestern village of Koayiah also fired several rounds.
Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at seven. The observatory and a town resident told The Associated Press that clashes had erupted between Israeli troops and residents when the Israeli troops fired.
Israel seized a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone inside Syria after Islamist insurgents toppled President Bashar Assad and seized power in December, with Israeli officials saying they will thwart any threats.
Israel will release the Oscar-winning Palestinian director detained in the West Bank, his lawyer says
The lawyer for an Oscar-winning Palestinian director who was attacked by Jewish settlers and detained by Israeli forces says he will be released.
Lea Tsemel, the attorney for Hamdan Ballal, said Tuesday that he and two other Palestinians spent the night on the floor of a military base while suffering from serious injuries sustained in the attack.
Israeli budget vote could also have implications on the war in Gaza, analyst says
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could feel free to move toward a lasting ceasefire with Hamas since his political allies, who oppose ending the war, have little incentive to trigger new elections while their polling numbers are down, said Gayil Talshir, a political scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
But the vote doesn’t mean Netanyahu will move in the direction to end the war, she said. She expected him to further his ultranationalist partners’ agenda to keep them as loyal allies and galvanize the nationalist right ahead of any future vote.
“Netanyahu is always thinking about the next elections,” Talshir said. “His goal is to make sure the extreme right will be in his government now and in the future.”
Israeli legislators pass state budget in a move that shores up Netanyahu’s government
Israel’s parliament on Tuesday passed a state budget, a move that shores up Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition and grants the embattled leader the chance at months of political stability even as public pressure mounts over the war in Gaza.
The budget vote was seen as a key test for Netanyahu’s coalition, which is made up of ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties who had demanded and largely received hefty sums for their constituents in exchange for support for the funding package. By law, the government would fall and elections triggered if a budget weren’t passed by March 31.
With its passing, Netanyahu buys himself what’s likely to be more than a year of political quiet that could see his government coast through to the end of its term in late 2026, a rare occurrence in Israel’s fractious politics. It’s a political win for Netanyahu, who faces mass protests over his decision to resume the war in Gaza while hostages still remain in Hamas’ hands, and over his government’s recent moves to fire top legal and security chiefs.
A 9-member Palestinian paramedics team still missing
Palestinian first responders say a nine-member ambulance crew is still missing days after being surrounded and targeted by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said the team was responding to airstrikes in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood of the southern city of Rafah when Israeli forces encircled the area early Sunday. It said Israel has refused access to the area since then.
The military said troops had fired on ambulances and fire trucks that it said had raised suspicion by moving without prior coordination and without headlights or emergency signals. It said those inside were militants, without providing evidence.
Israel says a Palestinian journalist killed in a strike was also a Hamas sniper
The Israeli military says a well-known Palestinian journalist killed in a strike on the Gaza Strip was also a Hamas sniper.
It shared what it said were internal Hamas documents purportedly showing that Hossam Shabat was a sniper in a Hamas battalion in northern Gaza and had received military training in 2019. The military said he had carried out attacks during the war, without providing evidence.
Qatar-based Al Jazeera said Shabat, a freelance reporter, was covering the war for the satellite news network when he was killed in an Israeli strike on Monday. It said he had been wounded in an Israeli strike in November.
Shabat, in his early 20s, was prolific on social media, sharing videos and other reports with more than 170,000 followers on the X platform.
Israel has banned Al Jazeera and accused several of its journalists in Gaza of being Palestinian militants. A number of them have been killed or wounded in Israeli strikes. The channel denies the accusations and says Israel is trying to silence journalists covering the war.
Palestinian co-director of Oscar-winning film is missing after being detained by Israeli military
One of the Palestinian co-directors of the Oscar-winning documentary “ No Other Land ” was still missing on Tuesday after being beaten by Jewish settlers and detained by the Israeli military.
Attorney Lea Tsemel told The Associated Press she had no information on filmmaker Hamdan Ballal’s whereabouts early Tuesday, around 12 hours after witnesses said he was attacked and detained in the occupied West Bank.
Ballal was one of three Palestinians detained in the village of Susiya late Monday, according to Tsemel, who is representing them. Police told her they’re being held at a military base for medical treatment, and she said she hasn’t been able to speak with them.
Basel Adra, another co-director, witnessed the detention and said around two dozen settlers — some masked, some carrying guns, some in Israeli uniform — attacked the village. Soldiers who arrived pointed their guns at the Palestinians, while settlers continued throwing stones.
The Israeli military said it detained three Palestinians suspected of hurling rocks at forces and one Israeli civilian involved in a “violent confrontation” between Israelis and Palestinians — a claim witnesses interviewed by the AP disputed.
The military said it had transferred them to Israeli police for questioning and had evacuated an Israeli citizen from the area to receive medical treatment.
Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 23
Palestinian medics say Israeli strikes killed at least 23 people in the Gaza Strip overnight into Tuesday.
Nasser Hospital said it received four additional bodies from two other strikes in addition to the family of five.
In central Gaza, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said it received the bodies of six people who were killed in three separate strikes. Three others were killed in a strike on a house in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, according to Al-Awda Hospital.
In Gaza City, an Israeli strike on a residential building killed 5 people, according to the Health Ministry’s emergency service. Another 12 people were wounded, it said.
