Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 31 in Gaza as UN Agencies Warn of Fuel Crisis

 Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis, in Gaza City, July 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis, in Gaza City, July 14, 2025. (Reuters)
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Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 31 in Gaza as UN Agencies Warn of Fuel Crisis

 Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis, in Gaza City, July 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis, in Gaza City, July 14, 2025. (Reuters)

Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight killed at least 31 people, according to local hospitals, as UN agencies warned on Monday that critical fuel shortages put hospitals and other critical infrastructure at risk.

The latest attacks came after US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held two days of talks last week that ended with no sign of a breakthrough in negotiations over a ceasefire and hostage release.

Twelve people were killed by strikes in southern Gaza, including three who were waiting at an aid distribution point, according to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, which received the bodies. Shifa Hospital in Gaza City also received 12 bodies, including three children and two women, after a series of strikes in the north, according to the hospital's director, Dr. Mohammed Abu Selmia.

Al-Awda Hospital reported seven killed and 11 wounded in strikes in central Gaza.

The Israeli military says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militants operate in densely populated areas.

Separately, three Israeli soldiers were killed in northern Gaza, according to the military. A military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said on Monday that they died in an explosion in their tank, apparently after it was hit by an anti-tank missile, though the incident was still being examined.

UN agencies, including those providing food and health care, reiterated a warning made at the weekend that without adequate fuel, they "will likely be forced to stop their operations entirely."

In a joint statement, they said that hospitals are already going dark and ambulances can no longer move. Without fuel, transport, water production, sanitation and telecommunications will shut down and bakeries and community kitchens cannot operate, they said.

The agencies confirmed that some 150,000 liters of fuel entered Gaza last week - the first delivery in 130 days. But they said it is "a small fraction of what is needed each day to keep daily life and critical aid operations running."

"The United Nations agencies and humanitarian partners cannot overstate the urgency of this moment: fuel must be allowed into Gaza in sufficient quantities and consistently to sustain life-saving operations," they said.

The agencies signing the statement were the UN humanitarian office OCHA, food agency WFP, health organization WHO, children's agency UNICEF, the agency helping Palestinian refugees UNRWA, population agency UNFPA, development agency UNDP, and UNOPS which oversees procurement and provides management services.

Israel's military said a June 19 strike killed Muhammad Nasr Ali Quneita, a senior Hamas fighter who it said had taken part in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack and held hostage Emily Damari, a dual Israeli-British citizen, in his home at the start of the war.

There was no comment from Hamas and no independent confirmation.

Thousands of Hamas-led fighters stormed into Israel that day, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 people, most of whom have since been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. The fighters are still holding 50 hostages, less than half of them believed to be alive.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed over 58,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which has said women and children make up more than half of the dead. It does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its tally.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and is led by medical professionals. The United Nations and other experts consider its figures to be the most reliable count of war casualties.

Israel's air and ground war has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and driven some 90% of the population from their homes. Aid groups say they have struggled to bring in food and other assistance because of Israeli military restrictions and the breakdown of law and order, and experts have warned of famine.

Israel's Knesset meanwhile voted to expel a prominent Arab lawmaker, but the measure failed to pass the threshold of 90 votes in the 120-member assembly. Seventy-three members voted in favor.

The attempt to remove Ayman Odeh from parliament was related to a social media post in January in which he welcomed the release of both Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners in a Gaza ceasefire.

The prisoners released in the agreement included scores of fighters convicted of deadly attacks against Israelis, and rival lawmakers accused Odeh of supporting terror, allegations he denied. Many Palestinians view those imprisoned by Israel as freedom fighters jailed for resisting Israel's decades-long occupation of lands the Palestinians seek for a future state.

Israel's Arab minority, which makes up some 20% of the population, has citizenship, including the right to vote, but faces widespread discrimination. Its members have close family ties to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, and largely support their cause, leading many Jewish Israelis to view them with suspicion or contempt.



Israel Orders Gaza Families to Move in First Forced Evacuation Since Ceasefire

A Palestinian girl walks past the rubble of houses destroyed in Israeli strikes during the war, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, January 17, 2026. (Reuters)
A Palestinian girl walks past the rubble of houses destroyed in Israeli strikes during the war, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, January 17, 2026. (Reuters)
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Israel Orders Gaza Families to Move in First Forced Evacuation Since Ceasefire

A Palestinian girl walks past the rubble of houses destroyed in Israeli strikes during the war, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, January 17, 2026. (Reuters)
A Palestinian girl walks past the rubble of houses destroyed in Israeli strikes during the war, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, January 17, 2026. (Reuters)

Israeli forces have ordered dozens of Palestinian families in the southern Gaza Strip to leave their homes in the first forced evacuation since October's ceasefire, as residents and Hamas said on Tuesday the military was ​expanding the area under its control.

Residents of Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Younis, said the leaflets were dropped on Monday on families living in tent encampments in the Al-Reqeb neighborhood.

“Urgent message. The area is under Israeli army control. You must evacuate immediately,” said the leaflets, written in Arabic, Hebrew, and English, which the army dropped over the Al-Reqeb neighborhood in the town of Bani Suhaila.

In the two-year war before the US brokered ceasefire was signed in October, Israel dropped leaflets over areas that were subsequently raided or bombarded, forcing some families to move several times.

Residents and a source from the Hamas group said this was the first time they had been ‌dropped since then. ‌The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

SIDES FAR ‌APART ⁠ON ​NEXT PHASES

The ‌ceasefire has not progressed beyond its first phase, under which major fighting has stopped, Israel withdrew from less than half of Gaza, and Hamas released hostages in return for Palestinian detainees and prisoners.

Virtually the entire population of more than 2 million people are confined to around a third of Gaza's territory, mostly in makeshift tents and damaged buildings, where life has resumed under control of an administration led by Hamas.

Israel and Hamas have accused each other of major breaches of the ceasefire and remain far apart on the more difficult steps planned for the next phase.

Mahmoud, a resident from the ⁠Bani Suhaila area, who asked not to give his family name, said the evacuation orders impacted at least 70 families, living in tents and homes, ‌some of which were partially damaged, in the area.

"We have fled ‍the area and relocated westward. It is maybe the ‍fourth or fifth time the occupation expanded the yellow line since last month," he told Reuters by phone ‍from Khan Younis, referring to the line behind which Israel has withdrawn.

"Each time they move it around 120 to 150 meters (yards) inside the Palestinian-controlled territory, swallowing more land," the father-of-three said.

HAMAS CITES STATE OF HUMANITARIAN DISRUPTION

Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, said the Israeli military had expanded the area under its control in eastern Khan Younis five times since ​the ceasefire, forcing the displacement of at least 9,000 people.

“On Monday, 19 January 2026, the Israeli occupation forces dropped warning leaflets demanding the forced evacuation of the Bani Suhaila area in eastern ⁠Khan Younis Governorate, in a measure that falls within a policy of intimidation and pressure on civilians,” Thawabta told Reuters.

He said the new evacuation orders affected approximately 3,000 people.

“The move created a state of humanitarian disruption, increased pressure on the already limited shelter areas, and further deepened the internal displacement crisis in the governorate,” Thawabta added.

Israel's military has previously said it has opened fire after identifying what it called "terrorists" crossing the yellow line and approaching its troops, posing an immediate threat to them.

It has continued to conduct air strikes and targeted operations across Gaza. The Israeli military has said it views "with utmost severity" any attempts by militant groups in Gaza to attack Israel.

Under future phases of the ceasefire that have yet to be hammered out, US President Donald Trump's plan envisages Hamas disarming, Israel pulling out further, and an internationally backed administration rebuilding Gaza.

More than 460 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers have been reported killed since the ceasefire took ‌effect.

Israel launched its operations in Gaza in the wake of an attack by Hamas-led fighters in October 2023 which killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's assault has killed 71,000 people, according to health authorities in the enclave.


Syrian Interior Ministry: 120 ISIS Members Escape from Prison amid Clashes

Civilians cross a collapsed bridge linking Raqqa with its western countryside of Tabqa, northern Syria, 19 January 2026. EPA/AHMAD FALLAHA
Civilians cross a collapsed bridge linking Raqqa with its western countryside of Tabqa, northern Syria, 19 January 2026. EPA/AHMAD FALLAHA
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Syrian Interior Ministry: 120 ISIS Members Escape from Prison amid Clashes

Civilians cross a collapsed bridge linking Raqqa with its western countryside of Tabqa, northern Syria, 19 January 2026. EPA/AHMAD FALLAHA
Civilians cross a collapsed bridge linking Raqqa with its western countryside of Tabqa, northern Syria, 19 January 2026. EPA/AHMAD FALLAHA

Syria's ministry of interior said Tuesday that 120 ISIS members escaped from a prison in northeast Syria a day earlier, amid clashes between government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which guards the prison.

Security forces recaptured 81 of the escapees, “while intensive security efforts continue to pursue the remaining fugitives and take the necessary legal measures against them,” The Associated Press quoted the statement as saying.

The SDF and the government have traded blame over the escape at a prison in the town of Shaddadeh, amid the breakdown of a ceasefire deal between the two sides.

Also Tuesday, the SDF accused “Damascus-affiliated factions” of cutting off water supplies to the al-Aqtan prison near the city of Raqqa, which it called a “blatant violation of humanitarian standards.”

The SDF, the main US-backed force that fought ISIS in Syria, controls more than a dozen prisons in the northeast where some 9,000 ISIS members have been held for years without trial.

Under a deal announced Sunday, government forces were to take over control of the prisons from the SDF, but the transfer did not go smoothly.

On Monday, Syrian government forces and SDF fighters clashed around two prisons housing members of ISIS in Syria’s northeast.

The clashes came as SDF chief commander Mazloum Abdi was said to be in Damascus to attempt to solidify a ceasefire deal reached Sunday that ended days of deadly fighting during which government forces captured wide areas of northeast Syria from the SDF.

Abdi issued no statement after the meeting and the SDF later issued a statement calling for “all of our youth” to “join the ranks of the resistance," appearing to signal that the deal had fallen apart.

Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa postponed a planned trip to Germany Tuesday amid the ongoing tensions in northeast Syria.


Egypt’s Sisi to Meet Trump on the Sidelines of Davos, Presidency Says

US President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi meet ahead of a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war, amid a US-brokered prisoner-hostage swap and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi meet ahead of a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war, amid a US-brokered prisoner-hostage swap and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025. (Reuters)
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Egypt’s Sisi to Meet Trump on the Sidelines of Davos, Presidency Says

US President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi meet ahead of a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war, amid a US-brokered prisoner-hostage swap and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi meet ahead of a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war, amid a US-brokered prisoner-hostage swap and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025. (Reuters)

Egypt's President Abdel ​Fattah al-Sisi will meet US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Egypt's presidency said on Tuesday.

This ‌will be ‌the first ‌meeting ⁠between ​the ‌two leaders since the US announced it was launching the second phase of its plan to end the war in Gaza.

Sisi and ⁠Trump met in the ‌Red Sea resort ‍of Sharm ‍el-Sheikh in October during a ‍summit convened by Egypt to sign a ceasefire deal aimed at ending the ​war.

On Friday, Trump said that he was also ⁠ready to restart US mediation between Egypt and Ethiopia to resolve the dispute over an Ethiopian dam, which both Egypt and Sudan consider a serious threat to vital water supplies.