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Palestinian medical sources announced late on Tuesday that over 40 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes across the enclave, with most of them in the north where an Israeli siege has now continued for 18 days. 

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, reiterated that water supplies in Gaza’s Jabalia have now run out entirely, as living conditions worsen for those trapped there by Israeli forces.

At least 400 Palestinians have been killed in the north in the over two-week siege, Gaza’s civil defence has said.

On Tuesday, Israeli authorities also denied an “urgent request” by rescue teams from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to access those trapped under the rubble for a fifth consecutive day, despite Palestine’s civil defence stating dozens are trapped under the rubble in Jabalia.

Israeli attacks continued across the rest of the enclave, with at least four people killed in Khan Younis, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.

Air strikes on south Lebanon

Israel continued to pummel Lebanon with airstrikes on Tuesday, with attacks on the eastern Hermel region killing five. An additional five were killed in separate strikes in the southern city of Nabatiyeh, the country’s health ministry said.

The fresh strikes on Lebanon come after the health ministry announced strikes on Monday outside the country’s largest public hospital killed at least 18 people, including four children.

According to the Lebanese government, at least 63 people have been killed in Lebanon in the last 24 hours, bringing the total death toll since October 2023 to 2,530.

It added that more than 11,800 people have been wounded in the same time frame.

Late on Tuesday, the Israeli army said it had killed Hashem Saifeddine, who was set to take over as the next Hezbollah chief, in an air strike earlier this month.

"Hashem Safieddine has been eliminated," the Israeli army's spokesperson to Arabic media, Avichay Adraee, wrote on X, however, Hezbollah has not yet commented on the matter. 

Blinken pushes for ceasefire

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken landed in Israel on Tuesday for renewed talks for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Blinken is currently on his 11th trip to the Middle East since Israel launched its war on Gaza more than a year ago, and his first since Israel's intensified its strikes on Lebanon in mid-September. 

The top US diplomat told Israel's leaders that the army's killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week presented an "opportunity" for a truce and the release of the captives Hamas seized during the 7 October 2023 attack.

"I believe very much that the death of Sinwar does create an important opportunity to bring the hostages home, to bring the war to an end and to ensure Israel's security," Blinken said as he met Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv.

During an earlier discussion with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Blinken pressed for more aid to be allowed into the besieged Palestinian territory as concerns rise for tens of thousands of civilians trapped by the major Israeli assault in the north.

A US official said that Netanyahu had recognised the "seriousness" of Blinken's warnings to ramp up aid access to Gaza, "but it's the results that matter".

Washington has warned it may suspend some of its military assistance if Israel does not quickly improve humanitarian access to the area.

Netanyahu also denied claims that Israel was implementing a controversial plan for an intense siege to starve out northern Gaza, the US official said.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 42,718 people and wounded an additional 100,282 others since 7 October 2023.