Live: Gaza officials accuse Israel of ‘blackmail’ over aid delays

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates from Israel's war on Gaza:

• Gaza’s health ministry says at least 45 Palestinians were killed in the past 24 hours by Israeli fire, despite the ceasefire still officially in place.

• The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip has continued to rise despite a ceasefire, with the toll reaching 68,216 on Monday.

• Most of those killed since October 2023 are women and children. More than 170,361 others have been wounded since the war began, the Palestinian health ministry said.  

• The White House is reportedly alarmed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could move to collapse the truce, according to sources quoted by The New York Times.

• Trump administration envoys, Vice President JD Vance, Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, are expected in Israel on Tuesday to push Netanyahu not to resume the assault on Gaza.

• US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has urged far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to “fully embrace President Trump’s landmark peace deal,” warning against any escalation.

Hamas says it believes the Gaza war has effectively ended, after receiving firm assurances from mediators and US President Donald Trump.

Dr Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas leader, said the group is “fully confident and determined to implement the Gaza agreement in full”, stressing that they remain committed to the ceasefire endorsed by all Palestinian factions.

He confirmed Hamas is pushing to recover the bodies of all detainees, acknowledging that “we are finding it very difficult to retrieve the bodies and we are continuing our attempts.”

Al-Hayya said the priority now is to secure more humanitarian support. “We hope that the amount of aid will increase to meet the needs of the people of Gaza,” he added, as the besieged enclave continues to face crippling shortages of food, fuel and medical supplies after Israel’s devastating assault.

“We are serious about extracting the bodies of all detainees,” he emphasised, signalling Hamas intends to honour every term of the ceasefire arrangement.

And in a key line that will pile pressure on Israel, al-Hayya said: “What we heard from the mediators and the US president reassures us that the war in Gaza is over.”

Palestinian sources say Israeli settlers set fire to agricultural tents used by local farmers east of the village of Karmel, south of Hebron in the occupied southern West Bank.

The structures were reportedly used for farming and shelter by residents of the area. There were no immediate reports of injuries, but the attack comes amid a surge in settler violence against Palestinian communities, often under the protection of Israeli forces.

Israeli and Hamas negotiators were still haggling over the final details of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan as we arrived in Taybeh.

Villagers greeted news that progress was being made with relief. But they had more urgent problems.

The village, which has a predominantly Christian population of around 1,300 people, is subject to a reign of terror. October is the olive harvesting season, but its residents risk settler assault if they go into their land to pluck the fruit.

As with all Palestinian villages, gates have been installed at the village entrance to enable the Israeli army to cut off access at a moment's notice.

Youssef Moussa, a 64-year-old Bedouin man, told us how a settler militia broke into his tent while his family was asleep two weeks ago.

Read more: How the war in Gaza fuelled a wave of settler violence against West Bank Palestinians

Hamas says its teams are struggling to recover the bodies of detainees killed during Israel’s war on Gaza, describing the situation on the ground as extremely challenging.

Khalil al-Hayya, the head of Hamas’s negotiating delegation, said the movement is “serious about extracting the bodies of all detained prisoners”, despite the difficult conditions inside the destroyed enclave.

“We are finding it extremely difficult to retrieve the bodies, but we continue our efforts with confidence and determination to implement the ceasefire agreement,” he said, reaffirming that Hamas remains committed to the terms agreed with other Palestinian factions.

Al-Hayya added that aid flow must rapidly increase to meet the scale of humanitarian need.

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has accused Israel on Tuesday of committing genocide in Gaza and condemned its ongoing violations of the ceasefire agreement.

“What happened in Gaza was genocide,” he said, stressing that the Gaza Strip is an inseparable part of a future united Palestinian state.

He said Israel is not only breaching the truce, but also accelerating settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and pushing ahead with attempts to Judaise the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound - all in violation of international law.

“The international community must provide protection for the Palestinian people and ensure that perpetrators of genocide do not escape accountability,” the emir said, criticising the UN for failing to uphold international legitimacy “when it comes to the tragedy of the Palestinians”.

He sharply denounced Israel for attacking “a state that is acting as a mediator”, calling the assault a violation of sovereignty and “state terrorism”.

Sheikh Tamim said Qatar’s continued humanitarian and mediation efforts have strengthened its international status, adding that even after attacks from both Iran and Israel, the country has “emerged stronger and more resilient”.

A US-wide coalition is calling for the immediate release of a Palestinian-American teenager being held in Israeli military detention since February of this year. 

The coalition, comprising a diverse range of activists, distributed on Saturday more than 2,000 flyers at the "No King" protests across six US states, urging people to contact their representatives and demand the release of Mohammed Ibrahim, 16, from Tampa, Florida.

The group has been raising awareness about Mohammed's incarceration and lobbying their congressional representatives. In August, the group sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio to secure his release.

In the middle of the night in February, the Israeli military forcibly took Mohammed, who was 15 at the time, from his family home in the occupied West Bank, and accused him of throwing rocks at a car - a charge he has denied. He is being held without trial at the notorious Ofer military prison. 

Read more: US coalition calls for immediate release of American teenager detained by Israel

Al Jazeera’s correspondent reports that Israeli settlers have stormed the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, performing provocative rituals directly in front of the Dome of the Rock.

The incursion took place under heavy protection from Israeli forces, a move Palestinians see as part of Israel’s ongoing attempts to assert control over one of Islam’s holiest sites.

Gaza’s Government Media Office says aid deliveries remain far below the levels promised under the ceasefire, accusing Israel of using relief as “humanitarian blackmail”.

It says just 986 trucks have entered the besieged enclave since 10 October - despite 6,600 being scheduled to arrive by Monday evening.

Officials warned that the average number of daily trucks since the ceasefire began has not exceeded 89 - a fraction of the 600 that were supposed to enter each day.

This, they said, reflects “the continued policy of strangulation, starvation and humanitarian blackmail practised by the [Israeli] occupation”.

They stressed that the current trickle of supplies does not meet even the basic needs of Gaza’s population, adding that at least 600 trucks daily, carrying food, medical aid, fuel, and cooking gas, are urgently required to ensure a minimum standard of survival.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) has documented 71 attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and their property in the occupied West Bank, in just one week.

Ocha says half of those assaults targeted the ongoing olive harvest, impacting residents from 27 villages across multiple governorates.

The settler violence left 99 Palestinians injured and caused extensive damage to farmland and harvesting equipment, a deliberate blow to one of the region’s most vital economic lifelines.

The UN says the data points to a dangerous escalation compared to previous olive harvest seasons, with settlers acting with increasing impunity under Israeli military protection.

Hundreds of Israeli settlers, escorted by heavily armed occupation police, stormed the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Tuesday.

According to the Jerusalem Governorate, a total of 693 settlers entered the holy site under police protection and carried out provocative rituals directly in front of the Dome of the Rock.

US Vice President JD Vance has arrived at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel for a two-day visit.

According to The New York Times, the trip aims to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to uphold the ceasefire agreement and prevent any new military assault on Gaza.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza says hospitals in the strip have received 13 martyrs and eight wounded in the past 24 hours.

The ministry confirmed that the death toll from Israel’s assault has now reached 68,229, with more than 170,369 people wounded since 7 October 2023.

Egypt’s intelligence chief Hassan Rashad is expected to arrive in Israel on Tuesday for talks with Israeli officials in an effort to reinforce the fragile US-backed ceasefire in Gaza, according to state-linked media.

Extra News reported that Rashad will also hold talks with US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who is currently in Israel.

The visit comes just over a week into a shaky truce between Israel and Hamas, agreed during talks hosted in Egypt’s Red Sea city of Sharm el-Sheikh, which Tel Aviv has violated dozens of times.

The UN recently published a report unequivocally documenting the fact that Israel is committing genocide in Palestine. It concluded last month: “Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have committed and are continuing to commit genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.” 

The UN is not the first, nor will it be the last, institution to empower the world to hold the murderous settler colony accountable for its crimes against humanity. Every Israeli official during this genocide, like every German Nazi during the Holocaust, must be held accountable for their actions - and punished to the fullest extent of international law. 

A forum like the Nuremberg Trials (1945-46) must be convened to hold Israeli authorities to account for their deadly deeds. At the same time, all decent Israelis who oppose this carnage must begin to imagine themselves in a world beyond the vicious calamities of Zionism.  

Countless Jews around the globe, including in Israel, are at the forefront of opposing the Gaza genocide. Jews are not committing this genocide; Zionists are. Not all Zionists are Jews, and not all Jews are Zionists. 

Read more: How the Gaza genocide is redefining world cinema

The United Nations has warned that maintaining the Gaza ceasefire is crucial to prevent famine, urging Israel to fully open all border crossings to allow life-saving food aid into the besieged territory.

The US-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas began on 10 October, but Israeli forces carried out deadly strikes on Gaza on Sunday, claiming alleged violations by the Palestinian resistance.

“Sustaining the ceasefire is vital; really it's the only way we can save lives and push back on the famine in the north of Gaza,” said Abeer Etefa, the UN World Food Programme’s Middle East spokeswoman.

“We know it's a fragile ceasefire; the most important thing is that it lasts,” she added.

Etefa confirmed that 530 WFP trucks had entered Gaza since the truce began, carrying over 6,700 tonnes of food, enough to feed nearly half a million people for two weeks.

But she warned that the current flow of around 750 tonnes per day is still far below the required 2,000 tonnes needed daily to avert starvation.

“Convoys are pushing through, food is getting to the warehouses and distributions are happening in an organised and dignified manner,” she said, stressing that this progress will collapse if Israel resumes its blockade or attacks.