Live updates | Thousands more flee northern Gaza as Israeli troops battle Palestinian militants

Fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants in northern Gaza caused another 200,000 people to flee south in the past 10 days, the UN humanitarian office said Tuesday.

The humanitarian office, known as OCHA, said only one hospital in the north is capable of treating patients. Some of the fighting is around hospitals where patients, newborns and medics are stranded with no electricity and dwindling supplies. Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals as cover for its fighters, alleging that Hamas has set up its main command centre in and beneath Shifa hospital, the largest in the besieged territory. Both Hamas and Shifa hospital staff deny the Israeli allegations.

The southern part of Gaza is not much safer. Israel carries out frequent airstrikes against what it says are militant targets that often kill women and children.

More than two-thirds of Gaza's population of 2.3 million have fled their homes since the war began.

Gaza City, the largest urban area in the territory, is the focus of Israel's campaign to crush Hamas following the militant group's deadly Oct. 7 incursion into southern Israel that set off the war.

More than 11,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and minors, have been killed since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths. About 2,700 people have been reported missing.

More than 1,200 people in Israel died, most of them in the Hamas attack, and about 240 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by Palestinian militants.

Here's what's happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war: US LAYS OUT RULES FOR DONATING TO HELP GAZA WITHOUT RUNNING AFOUL OF SANCTIONS ON HAMAS WASHINGTON — The US on Tuesday issued guidance for non-governmental organizations and the general public on how to provide humanitarian assistance to Palestinians while complying with existing and new sanctions targeted at Hamas.

The US Treasury and State Department have imposed three rounds of sanctions in the past two months on Hamas members, financiers and money exchange firms, dedicated to disrupting Hamas' fundraising network.

“Groups such as Hamas raise funds through entities that present themselves outwardly as legitimate charities but are in fact fronts for Hamas's illicit fundraising, often abusing the good will of donors,” Treasury's guidance states.

ISRAEL SAYS IT HAS SEIZED GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS IN GAZA CITY JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says it has seized a series of government buildings in central Gaza City as its offensive against the ruling Hamas militant group advances.

The army said Tuesday that it has captured Gaza's legislature building, the Hamas police headquarters and a compound housing Hamas' military intelligence headquarters.

“In every location, the enemy forces were eliminated, the location was demolished,” an Israeli commander identified only as Lt. Col. Gilad said in a video from Gaza released by the army. He said documents and other items taken from the locations were being studied.

The captured buildings carry high symbolic value, though it was unclear what their strategic value is. Hamas fighters are believed to be positioned in underground bunkers.

Israeli news sites showed pictures of Israeli soldiers hoisting the Israeli national flag and military flags in some of the buildings.

BRAZILIANS RETURN HOME FROM GAZA RIO DE JANEIRO-- Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has welcomed a group of 32 Brazilians and their families returning home from Gaza.

Many in the group, composed mostly of women and children, smiled as they got off the plane and stepped onto Brazilian territory late Monday night.

Their repatriation took weeks of negotiations and lobbying by Brazilian diplomats. Many in Brazil followed the drama surrounding their passage through the Egyptian border, which was postponed several times.

Lula used the opportunity to issue comments critical of Israel's actions in Gaza.

“If Hamas committed an act of terrorism, and did what it did, the state of Israel is also committing various acts of terrorism by not taking into account that children are not at war, by not taking into account that women are not at war,” Lula told journalists. “They're not killing soldiers; they're killing children.” HUNDREDS OF PROTESTERS IN CALIFORNIA CALL FOR CEASE-FIRE OAKLAND, California — Hundreds of protesters led by Jewish peace activists calling for a cease-fire in Gaza staged a sit-in inside of the federal building in Oakland, California, leading to multiple arrests.

People wore T-shirts reading “Jews Say Cease-fire Now” and carried banners that read “Not in Our Name” and “Let Gaza Live” in the rotunda of the Ronald V. Dellums Federal building on Monday evening.

Jewish Voice for Peace, one of the protest organizers, posted online that dozens of people had been taken into custody by 9 p.m.

“There is no other choice,” Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb of Berkeley told KNTV-TV when explaining why she was at the sit-in. “How many people do we have to kill before we arrive at a cease-fire?” The protest was part of a growing number across the country following fighting triggered by Hamas' October 7 surprise attack on Israel, whose response has led to more than 11,000 deaths — and much destruction — across Gaza.

On Monday, hundreds of Jewish peace activists and their allies converged at a major train station in downtown Chicago during rush hour, blocking the entrance to the Israeli Consulate and demanding US support for a cease-fire.

Jewish Voice for Peace led a similar sit-in in New York City's Grand Central Station on October 27, where protesters filled the main concourse during evening rush hour, chanting slogans and unfurling banners demanding a cease-fire. At least 200 demonstrators were detained by New York police officers.

US IMPOSES SANCTIONS ON HAMAS OFFICIALS WASHINGTON — The United States on Tuesday said it imposed a third round of sanctions on a group of Hamas officials, members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad who work to transfer money from Iran to Gaza, and a Lebanese money exchange service that facilitates the transfers.

The Treasury Department sanctions, coordinated with the United Kingdom, come in response to the surprise October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel that left about 1,200 people dead and about 240 others taken hostage. The sanctions block access to US property and bank accounts and prevent the targeted people and companies from doing business with Americans.

This and two previous rounds of sanctions against Hamas and its affiliates are aimed at protecting the international financial system from abuse by Hamas militants and their enablers, the Treasury Department said.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in an emailed statement that “together with our partners we are decisively moving to degrade Hamas's financial infrastructure, cut them off from outside funding, and block the new funding channels they seek to finance their heinous acts.” FAMILIES OF HOSTAGES BEGIN MARCH FROM TEL AVIV TO JERUSALEM TEL AVIV, Israel — Families of hostages held by Hamas since its Oct. 7 attack on Israel have begun a protest march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem demanding that the government do more to secure their release.

The marchers held a moment of silence for a 19-year-old Israeli soldier, among the approximately 240 people seized by Hamas, who was confirmed to have died in captivity. The Israeli military did not give a reason for her death, while Hamas said she was killed in an Israeli strike.

Among the participants in the 65-kilometre march was Shelly Shem Tov, mother of 21-year-old hostage Omer Shem Tov.

“Where are you, where are you, where are you? I am demanding from (Israel Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu and from all the Cabinet to give us answers, to give us answers and deeds,” the mother, wearing a T-shirt with a photograph of her son, said at the protest.

“We have no strength anymore. We have no strength. Bring back our children and our families home.”