Key events
The US military said on Tuesday it destroyed two Houthi vessels in the Red Sea.
More to follow on this as we get it.
Three-month-old baby Reem Abu Hayyah is the only member of her family to survive an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip late on Monday.
A few miles to the north, Mohamed Abuel-Qomasan lost his wife and their twin babies – just four days old – in another strike.
More than 10 months into its war with Hamas, Israel’s relentless bombardment of the isolated territory has wiped out extended families, AP reported.
The Israeli strike on Monday destroyed a home near the southern city of Khan Younis, killing 10 people.
The dead included Reem Abu Hayyah’s parents and five siblings, ranging in age from five to 12, as well as the parents of three other children.
All four children were wounded in the strike.
“There is no one left except this baby,” said her aunt Soad Abu Hayyah.
“Since this morning, we have been trying to feed her formula, but she does not accept it, because she is used to her mother’s milk.”
The strike that killed Mr Abuel-Qomasan’s wife and newborns – a boy, Asser, and a girl, Ayssel – also killed the twins’ maternal grandmother.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.
The US has approved the sale of $20bn in fighter jets and other military equipment to Israel, as the Pentagon says it is “committed to the security of Israel”.
Secretary of state Antony Blinken approved the sale of F-15 jets and equipment worth nearly $19bn along with tank cartridges valued at $774m, explosive mortar cartridges valued at over $60m and army vehicles worth $583m, the Pentagon said in a statement.
The Boeing Co F-15 fighter jets were expected to take years to produce, and deliveries were expected to begin in 2029. Other equipment would begin delivery in 2026, according to the Pentagon.
The US, Israel’s biggest ally and weapons supplier, has sent Israel more than 10,000 highly destructive 2,000-pound bombs and thousands of Hellfire missiles since the start of the Gaza war in October, US officials told Reuters in June.
The approval comes as western diplomats have scrambled to prevent a major conflagration in the Middle East, after Iran and its allies blamed Israel for the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month.
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Iran has rejected western calls not to retaliate against Israel for the killing in Tehran of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, late last month. “Such demands lack political logic, are entirely contrary to the principles and rules of international law, and represent an excessive request,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanani, said. A report on Tuesday from the official IRNA news agency said President Masoud Pezeshkian, in a phone conversation late on Monday with the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, said that the west’s silence about “unprecedented inhumane crime” in Gaza, and Israeli attacks elsewhere in the Middle East, was “irresponsible” and encouraged Israel to put regional and global security at risk.
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Only a ceasefire deal in Gaza stemming from hoped-for talks this week would hold Iran back from direct retaliation against Israel for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on its soil, three senior Iranian officials have told Reuters. A ceasefire in Gaza would give Iran cover for a smaller “symbolic” response, one of the sources said.
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Asked on Tuesday if he thought Iran might forgo a retaliatory strike if a Gaza ceasefire was reached, Joe Biden said: “That’s my expectation.” The US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said Washington’s goal in the Middle East is to “turn the temperature down,” deter and defend against any future attacks, and avoid regional conflict. “That starts with finalising a deal for an immediate ceasefire with hostage release in Gaza. We need to get this over the finish line,” she told a UN security council meeting.
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Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s ultranationalist national security minister, defied longstanding rules to lead hundreds of Israelis in singing Jewish hymns and performing religious rituals on the raised compound in Jerusalem’s Old City known as al-Haram al-Sharif to Muslims. Under a longstanding but fragile arrangement, Jews can visit the site but not pray there. The compound is the third holiest site in Islam and the holiest for Jews, who call it the Temple Mount. Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Ben-Gvir’s visit “deviated from the status quo” and that Israel’s policy on the Temple Mount remained unchanged.
