Israel says fighting likely to continue for months

Pro-Palestinian protestors outside the Hilton Hotel in the US where President Joe Biden visited. Pic/AP

Israel pressed ahead Tuesday with an offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers that it says could go on for weeks or months. Ahead of a non-binding vote at the United Nations later Tuesday, Israel and the US faced global calls for a cease-fire in Gaza. The war ignited by Hamas' October 7 attack into southern Israel has already brought unprecedented death and destruction to the impoverished coastal enclave, with more than 18,000 Palestinians killed, mostly women and minors, and over 80 per cent of the population of 2.3 million having fled their homes.

Much of northern Gaza has been obliterated, and hundreds of thousands have fled to ever-shrinking so-called safe zones in the south. The health care system and humanitarian aid operations have collapsed in large parts of Gaza, and aid workers have warned of starvation and the spread of disease among displaced people in overcrowded shelters and tent camps.

Strikes overnight and into Tuesday in southern Gaza - in an area where civilians have been told to seek shelter - killed at least 23 people. In central Gaza, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah received the bodies of 33 people killed in strikes overnight, including 16 women and four children, as per hospital records.

Norwegian-flagged ship hit by missile

A missile fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels slammed into a Norwegian-flagged tanker in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen near a key maritime chokepoint, the rebels and authorities said Tuesday. The assault on the oil and chemical tanker Strinda expands a campaign by the Iranian-backed rebels targeting ships close to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait into apparently now striking those that have no clear ties to Israel. That potentially imperils cargo and energy shipments coming through the Suez Canal. Houthi military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree issued a video statement saying the rebels only fired on the vessel when it "rejected all warning calls".

80%
Amount of Gaza's population displaced

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