Israel’s evacuation orders now cover 2/3 of Gaza

Humanitarian aid provided by Jordan and The Netherlands being loaded onto a military plane for airdrops over the Jordanian field hospital in the Gaza Strip. Pic/AP

Israel's evacuation orders in the Gaza Strip now cover two-thirds of the territory, or 246 square kilometres, United Nations humanitarian monitors said on Tuesday. More than half of Gaza's population of 2.3 million people is now crammed into the town of Rafah on the border with Egypt and surrounding areas, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

The Health Ministry in Gaza said the Palestinian death toll is at 27,478 people after nearly four months of war. A quarter of Gaza's residents are now starving and 85 per cent of the population has been driven from their homes, with hundreds of thousands crammed in makeshift tent camps. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman shortly after arriving in the kingdom Monday. It's Blinken's fifth visit to the Mideast since the war in Gaza broke out.

Ceasefire deal progress

Antony Blinken was in Cairo on Tuesday for a meeting with Egyptian leaders that US officials said would concentrate mainly on the task of negotiating a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in exchange for the release of hostages held by the militants. Blinken's visit also comes amid growing concerns in Egypt about Israel's stated intentions to expand the combat to areas along the Egyptian border.

Ship targeted in suspected Yemen Houthi rebel drone attack

A ship travelling through the southern Red Sea was attacked by a suspected Yemen Houthi rebel drone early Tuesday, authorities said, the latest assault in their campaign targeting vessels over Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The attack happened west of Hodeida, Yemen, and the projectile caused "slight damage" to the vessel's windows on the bridge, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said. A small vessel had been nearby the ship before the attack, it added. The private security firm Ambrey identified the vessel as a Barbados-flagged, United Kingdom-owned cargo ship.

No one was hurt onboard the vessel, which suffered "minor damage," the firm said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. However, suspicions immediately fell on the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Since November, the rebels have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea over Israel's offensive in Gaza against Hamas. But they have frequently targeted vessels with tenuous or no clear links to Israel, imperiling shipping in a key route for trade among Asia, the Mideast and Europe.

27,478
Death toll of Palestinians

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