Israel-Hamas War Day 178: What is going on in Gaza, Lebanon?

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will hold talks in Paris on Tuesday after a Washington-based NGO was struck by an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza, adding pressure on the United States to toughen its stance in the war between Israel and Hamas.

Blinken arrived in the French capital before heading to Brussels for a NATO ministerial meeting on Wednesday.

He is scheduled to visit, with Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu, a weapons' factory providing howitzer canons to Ukraine, before meeting with Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne and with President Emmanuel Macron.

Macron has in recent weeks adopted a more hawkish stance towards Russia, amid fears that Ukraine is losing ground and support in the war, notably as the United States struggles to approve a multi-billion dollar military aid package for Kyiv.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that the destruction of Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza amounted to "ripping the heart out" of the health system of the war-torn Palestinian enclave.

"Destroying Al Shifa means ripping the heart out of the health system," said WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris .

"It was the place people go to for the kind of care that a really good health system provides, that we in all our societies expect to have should we be in need."

Israeli forces left Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Monday after a two-week operation by special forces, who detained hundreds of Hamas terrorists and left a wasteland of destroyed buildings.

A hostile drone crashed in Jordanian territory north of Ramon Airport, near Eilat, on Tuesday morning, according to local authorities and the IDF. No injuries or damage were reported.

The Eilat Municipality said the drone fell about 200 meters from the border. The Yoav Brigade said that the crash happened during an aviation exercise at Ramon Airport. The incident is being investigated and the exercise was halted.

Israel must clarify the circumstances surrounding the deaths of seven people working for Spanish celebrity chef Jose Andres' World Central Kitchen in an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Tuesday in Amman.

The IDF has begun sending draft orders to haredim who had, in the past, received service deferals, Walla reported on Tuesday.

This comes after the government decision deferring their draft expired on Monday

Lat week, the High Court of Justice ruled that the government would need to halt payments to yeshivas that were formerly meant for students who received deferrals. Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara also stated last week that the IDF would need to begin drafting haredim once the decision expired.

The IDF struck over 25 Hamas targets in Khan Yunis on Monday, including weapons depots, the IDF said.

The Oz Brigade, the 98th Division, and the 7th Brigade eliminated terrorists and terrorist squads throughout Khan Yunis in cooperation with the Air Force.

Spain will recognize Palestinian statehood by July, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told journalists during a Middle East tour, according to several reports published on Tuesday in Spanish media.

State news agency EFE and newspapers El Pais and La Vanguardia cited Sanchez as making the informal remarks to the traveling press corps late on Monday in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on the first day of visits to Jordan, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.

According to the reports, Sanchez said he expected events to unfold in the conflict ahead of the European Parliament elections in early June and highlighted ongoing debates at the United Nations.

While Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been attacking Israel since the war in Gaza began, he actually wants to improve diplomatic relations with Israel, Maariv reported on Tuesday.

Last week, the deputy ambassador for Turkey in Israel was summoned by Foreign Minister Israel Katz after Erdogan said that "[Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and his administration, with their crimes against humanity in Gaza, are writing their names next to Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin, like today’s Nazis."

Erdogan also said that he would "send Netanyahu to Allah."

During the dressing down of the Turkish deputy ambassador, the diplomat told Jacob Blitstein, the director general of the Foreign Ministry, that "Erdogan's harsh rhetoric against Israel stems from Erdogan's political considerations in the local elections in Turkey."

The US urged the new Palestinian Authority cabinet to implement necessary reforms in a call on Monday between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and PA President Mahmoud Abbas, a spokesperson for the State Department said. 

Blinken emphasized that a "revitalized PA is essential" to delivering results for Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza, according to the State Department. 

Blinken said that the US is continuing to advance a ceasefire as part of a hostage deal that would also facilitate a surge of crucial humanitarian assistance into Gaza and "create a pathway to a more enduring peace," the State Department said, also saying that "The Secretary underscored the US commitment to the realization of the creation of an independent Palestinian state with security guarantees for Israel."

Mohammed Reza Zahedi, the top commander in the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) for Lebanon and Syria was assassinated in an airstrike on Monday, along with his lieutenant and about five other officers, the IRGC said that night. 

Zahedi is the highest-ranking Iranian killed since the current war started, even higher than Sayyed Reza Mousavi, killed in December, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

Reuters reporters at the site in the Mezzeh district of Damascus saw emergency workers clambering atop the rubble of a destroyed building inside the diplomatic compound, adjacent to the main embassy building. Emergency vehicles were parked outside. An Iranian flag hung from a pole in front of the debris.