Israel-Palestine live: US and Israel air differences over Gaza strategy

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Hello MEE readers. As Israel continues its military assault on Gaza, pressure on both the US and Israel to end the war is continuing to build both domestically and abroad.

After the US vetoed a resolution at the UN Security Council demanding an immediate ceasefire last week, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly in favour of a similar ceasefire resolution.

The US had still attempted to vote against the measure, but without its veto power, the resolution passed.

Here is a further recap of today's developments:

• The UN General Assembly's ceasefire resolution passed with 153 votes in favour, while 23 countries abstained.

• US President Joe Biden has said that Israel is losing international support due to its indiscriminate bombing campaign, and also called on Netanyahu to change its government.

• The prime ministers of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand issued a joint statement in which they said they supported efforts towards a ceasefire in Gaza.

• US national security advisor Jake Sullivan will travel to Israel for talks with Israel's war cabinet on the war in Gaza. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will also travel to the region.

• A group of 140 interns and fellows on Capitol Hill have signed a letter to Congress slamming senior staff and US lawmakers for suppressing demands for a ceasefire in Gaza.

• Israel says that its military has recovered the bodies of two captives who were held in Gaza, adding that a total of 19 captives of those still held in the enclave have died.

• Hamas' Qassam Brigades said its fighters killed 15 Israeli soldiers in Jabalia in northern Gaza.

• Meanwhile, Senior Hamas members have denied reports that the group's Gaza battalions have been significantly degraded. A Palestinian source close to Hamas's political leadership in exile told MEE that the total casualties have amounted to less than 10 percent of their forces.

• The United Nations Satellite Centre published a new assessment estimating that about 40,000 buildings, 18 percent of all buildings intact before the war, have been damaged or destroyed since 7 October.

We are going to be taking a pause in our coverage but will be back soon. To stay up to date on the latest news, follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

You can also read more about the latest news from Gaza on Tuesday in our story here.

Israel's military said its aircraft and tanks attacked Syrian army positions inside Syria, as well as a Hezbollah rocket position in Lebanon.

The announcement from Israel comes after three missiles were fired from Syria towards the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, the head of Yemen's Houthi supreme revolutionary committee, posted a message on the social media platform X telling cargo ships not to head towards the occupied Palestinian territories.

Houthi added that all ships passing Yemen should keep their radios turned on and quickly respond to Houthi attempts at communication.

He also advised ships not to falsify "their identity" or raise flags different from the country belonging to the cargo ship owner.

US President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday that his national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, will travel to Israel this week for talks with Israel's war cabinet on the war in Gaza.

Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin will also travel to the region, he said.

A group of 140 interns and fellows on Capitol Hill have signed a letter to Congress slamming senior staff and US lawmakers for suppressing demands for a ceasefire in Gaza.

In a letter shared with Middle East Eye on Tuesday, the group of congressional interns said they could no longer stay silent on the growing calls for a ceasefire both within the halls of Congress as well as among the American public.

"While we refrain from telling our bosses how to do their jobs, as congressional interns and fellows, we owe it to the American people to expose the patent malpractice of Congress," the letter said.

To read the full story, click below.

Interns, fellows on Capitol Hill say US Congress suppressing Gaza ceasefire calls

The UN General Assembly (UNGA) passed a resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, with more than three-quarters of the 193-member General Assembly backing the move.

Last week at the UN Security Council, the US vetoed a ceasefire call.

Washington does not have a veto in the General Assembly. It voted against the UNGA draft resolution, along with Israel and eight other countries. The text garnered 153 votes in favour, while 23 countries abstained from the vote.

General Assembly resolutions are not binding but carry political weight, reflecting a global view of the war.

Israeli forces have arrested more than 100 Palestinians in Jenin after Israel's military launched a raid on the West Bank city, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said in a statement.

Since 7 October, more than 400 Palestinians have been arrested in Jenin alone, the group added. The organisation said that only a small number of those arrested during the day have been released.

Israel says that its military has recovered the bodies of two captives who were held in Gaza, adding that a total of 19 captives have died.

The announcement from Israel did not elaborate as to how the captives were killed.

The list of 19 includes a Tanzanian national, the government press office said.

In a video statement shared by Palestinian news outlets, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad's al-Quds Brigades spokesman, Abu Hamza, said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu isn't seriously interested in rescuing the captives held by Palestinian armed groups in Gaza.

"He is working hard to evade and procrastinate, and his only aim in this war for him is to remain at the helm of power, and the price without a doubt are the lives of your children," the spokesman said in a message directed at the families of the captives.

He added that without indirect negotiations that lead to the freeing of more Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, in addition to a complete ceasefire, the captives held in Gaza will either be killed by Israel's aerial bombardment or its military's attempts to free them.

"Even if all the global powers came together, which they did, they won't free even one captive," he said.

Israel’s military has begun pumping seawater into Hamas’s tunnels in Gaza, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing US officials briefed on the Israeli military’s operations.

A spokesperson for the Israeli defence minister declined to respond to the newspaper's request for comment.

Critics have warned that flooding the tunnels could hurt Gaza’s freshwater supply.

US President Joe Biden will meet on Wednesday with family members of Americans being held captive by Hamas, Axios has reported, citing a White House official and a member of one of the families.

According to the report, it is the first time Biden is hosting families of captives at the White House after a temporary truce deal between Israel and Hamas saw the release of more than 100 captives.

Qatari mediators contacted Israeli officials over the weekend to see whether there was interest in relaunching talks on a new deal, Axios further reported, after the initial seven-day truce collapsed.

Senior Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan said during an address that Israeli forces have carried out 25 "massacres" in Gaza in just the past two days.

Speaking from Beirut, Hamdan said Israel has so far failed to take back its captives held in Gaza by armed Palestinian groups, indicating that Israel has failed in one of its major goals of its assault.

Hamdan added that Israel's military campaign is not only failing to secure the captives but endangering their lives altogether.

"Do not try as you will not succeed in freeing the captives alive," Hamdan said. "All you do is endanger their lives," he said.

The United Nations Satellite Centre (Unosat) published a new assessment estimating that about 40,000 buildings, 18 percent of all buildings intact before the war, have been damaged or destroyed since 7 October.

Israel's indiscriminate bombing campaign and ground invasion in Gaza have displaced around 1.9 million people, or about 85 percent of Gaza's population.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said that Israel and the US will never be able to eliminate Hamas.

Speaking at the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, Amirabdollahian said the only way Israel would be able to secure the release of the captives held by Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups is through a political negotiation.

The foreign minister added that Israel's military assault on the enclave must stop and humanitarian aid must be allowed to flow into Gaza.

"All the ministers agree that the strikes by the criminal Israeli regime and the genocide it is committing have to stop immediately," Amirabdollahian said.

"The Rafah border crossing has to be open, humanitarian aid has to reach every part of Gaza and the forced displacement of the people of Gaza must stop."

In a joint statement, the prime ministers of Canada, Australia and New Zealand said they support urgent international efforts towards a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza.

"We are alarmed at the diminishing safe space for civilians in Gaza. The price of defeating Hamas cannot be the continuous suffering of all Palestinian civilians," they said in the statement.

They added that a ceasefire cannot be one-sided and Hamas must release all captives held in Gaza.