Israel will not agree to a ceasefire deal with Hamas that leaves its hostages in Gaza or the Islamist group in power in the enclave, Israeli government spokeperson Eylon Levy has said.

He added that efforts were ongoing to bring about the release of the hostages but declined to elaborate, saying lives were hanging in the balance.

Asked about reports of a ceasefire deal in Gaza, Levy said the goals of the war were unchanged:

“The destruction of Hamas’ governing and military capabilities in the Gaza Strip and the return of all the hostages. There will be no ceasefire that leaves the hostages in Gaza and Hamas in power,” he said.

Mediation efforts on ending the war in the Gaza Strip are ongoing, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman said on Tuesday in a press briefing.

Separately, he added that escalation in the Red Sea represented a “big danger”, a day after US and British forces carried out fresh strikes against Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, who have disrupted global shipping in protest over Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it targeted the Israeli army’s northern command centre Tuesday in response to “recent assassinations and repeated attacks on civilians” in Lebanon and Syria.

It said it had launched a “large number” of missiles at the Mount Meron base in its second such attack since Palestinian militant group Hamas led an unprecedented October 7 assault on Israel, sparking the war in Gaza.

The first Hezbollah attack on January 6 came in response to killing of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri in a strike in Beirut widely blamed on Israel.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday that very little food assistance has made it beyond southern Gaza since the start of the Israel-Hamas war and that the risk of having pockets of famine in the Palestinian enclave remained.

“It’s difficult to get into the places where we need to get to in Gaza, especially in northern Gaza,” said Abeer Etefa, WFP spokesperson for the Middle East.

“Very little assistance has made it beyond the southern part of the Gaza Strip … I think the risk of having pockets of famine in Gaza is very much still there.”

Israel’s army said on Tuesday its troops had surrounded the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, which has been the epicentre of fighting in recent weeks.

“Over the past day troops … have encircled Khan Younis and deepened the operation in the area,” a military statement said of the densely populated city where Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar was born.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza on Tuesday said at least 25,490 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory in the war between the militant group and Israel.

The latest toll included 195 fatalities in the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, while at least 63,354 people had been wounded since the war erupted on October 7.

Israel’s military said on Tuesday that it killed “dozens of terrorists” during fierce fighting in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, while its troops have encircled the city of Khan Younis, a remaining stronghold of the ruling Islamist group Hamas.

“Over the past day, IDF troops carried out an extensive operation during which they encircled Khan Younis and deepened the operation in the area. The area is a significant stronghold of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade,” the military said.

“Ground troops engaged in close-quarters combat, directed (air force) strikes, and used intelligence to coordinate fire, resulting in the elimination of dozens of terrorists,” it said.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel would push on with fighting in Gaza until “absolute victory” despite suffering one of its toughest days of the military offensive.

“Yesterday we experienced one of the most difficult days since the war erupted,” said Netanyahu. “In the name of our heroes, for the sake of our lives, we will not stop fighting until absolute victory.”

He said the military was “investigating the tragedy” in which 21 soldiers were killed when buildings exploded in central Gaza, , bringing the single-day Israeli death toll to 24.

Israel’s army says a total of 21 soldiers were killed in an attack in central Gaza, making it the largest single loss of life for the military in the Palestinian territory since the war began.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief military spokesperson, made the announcement Tuesday, updating an earlier toll.

He said the soldiers were preparing explosives to demolish two buildings on Monday when a militant fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a tank nearby, setting off the explosion prematurely. The buildings collapsed on the soldiers.

The Israeli military says 10 soldiers were killed in an attack in central Gaza.

It is one of the deadliest single incidents in the war against Hamas that erupted after the militant group led an October 7 attack on Israel.

Israeli media say the soldiers were preparing explosives to demolish two homes in central Gaza on Monday when a militant fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a tank nearby. The blast triggered the explosives.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with his counterparts from Iran, Turkey and Lebanon ahead of the United Nations Security Council meeting on Tuesday due to discuss the Middle East, the Russian foreign ministry said.

The bilateral meetings focused on the Gaza Strip, Syria and “the tense situation” in the Red Sea, the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app on Tuesday. The meetings took place in New York on Monday.

The ministry said Lavrov and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian agreed on the need for a swift ceasefire in Gaza and conditions for providing humanitarian assistance to civilians.

Israel has proposed to Hamas via Qatari and Egyptian mediators a pause in fighting of up to two months as part of a deal to free all the hostages being held in Gaza, the US news site Axios reported Monday.

The report, citing unnamed Israeli officials, said the deal would take place in multiple stages, the first of which would see the release of women, men over 60 and those in critical medical condition.

Subsequent phases would involve the release of women soldiers, younger civilian men, male soldiers and the bodies of dead hostages.

The officials said the deal would also see the release of an as yet undetermined number of Palestinian prisoners being held in Israel, but not all of them.

The United States and Britain launched new strikes on Yemen’s Houthis Monday, saying their second round of joint military action against the Iran-backed rebels was in response to continued attacks on Red Sea shipping.

The latest US-UK strikes were against “eight Houthi targets in Yemen in response to the Houthis’ continued attacks against international and commercial shipping as well as naval vessels transiting the Red Sea,” Washington and London said in a joint statement with other countries that supported the military action.

“These precision strikes are intended to disrupt and degrade the capabilities that the Houthis use to threaten global trade and the lives of innocent mariners,” the statement said.

The US Central Command said in a separate statement that the targets of the strikes “included missile systems and launchers, air defense systems, radars, and deeply buried weapons storage facilities.”