Live Updates: Blinken in Tel Aviv as Gaza sees another night of Israeli terror

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

07:31 GMT - Israeli soldiers' death toll surge amid Gaza invasion

The Israeli army has said four more soldiers were killed in fighting with Palestinian groups in southern and central Gaza.

Six other troops were seriously wounded in the battles, the military said in a statement cited by the Times of Israel news website on Tuesday.

180 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the besieged enclave since the start of the ground operation on Oct. 27.

The military death toll since the onslaught on Gaza in October, however, has risen to 514.

0726 GMT — Israel angered over genocide lawsuit, thanks US for support

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has said that "there is nothing more atrocious and preposterous" than the lawsuit filed in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of genocidal actions against Palestinians in the Gaza war.

Speaking to visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Herzog censured South Africa for bringing the case, which is due to begin hearings on Thursday, and thanked Washington for its support of Israel.

0712 GMT — Israeli army kills dozens of Palestinian fighters in Gaza: military

Israeli forces have killed around 40 Palestinian fighters and raided a compound and tunnel shafts during expanded operations in southern Gaza's Khan Younis, the military has claimed.

Khan Younis hosts one of the largest refugee camps in the enclave where civilians are taking shelter.

Summarising operations since Monday, it said on Tuesday that aircraft hit Hamas fighters in Al-Maghazi, central Gaza.

South and central Gaza have been a focus of the offensive by Israel, which on Saturday declared Hamas infrastructures in the north dismantled.

Israel has faced criticism for killing innocent civilians and falsely identifying them as fighters.

06:20 GMT — Blinken in Tel Aviv as Gaza sees another night of Israeli terror

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken has arrived in Tel Aviv as part of a regional tour as Israel pounded besieged Gaza and Lebanon, raising global fears that Israel could widen its war beyond Gaza.

US Secretary of State Blinken, on his fourth regional trip since Israel's war began, met on Monday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after talks in the United Arab Emirates and ahead of his visit to Israel.

Before leaving Al Ula in Saudi Arabia, Blinken said, "We agreed to work together and coordinate our efforts to help Gaza stabilise and recover ... and to work toward long term peace and security and stability."

Israeli leaders will tell Blinken that they will not allow Palestinians from northern Gaza to return if Hamas resistance group refuses to free more of the Israeli captives it seized on October 7, Axios reported, quoting two senior Israeli officials.

Washington, Israel's main ally and arms supplier, says it is concerned over the Israeli war's civilian death toll. But it continues to arm Tel Aviv and has never since October 7 called for a ceasefire in Gaza, where Israel's decimation campaign has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, wounded nearly 59,000 and flattened 60 percent of the enclave's homes and businesses. The US has also torpedoed multiple UNSC resolutions that would have called for truce in Gaza.

Israel is the largest recipient of US military aid. The US has reportedly provided Israel with over 70,000 weapons — aircraft, ground vehicles, missiles and bombs — via military aid between 1950 and 2022.

The US government recently used an emergency authority to allow the sale of about 14,000 tank shells to Israel without congressional review.

Amnesty International has tied some US-supplied munitions directly to Israeli strikes with extensive Palestinian civilian casualties in Gaza.