Israel-Hamas War: What happened on Day 341?

The families of the seven American hostages are calling on the moderators of Tuesday night's presidential debate on ABC to question former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris on what they would do to bring the hostages home. 

“Our seven family members have been held against their will in Hamas captivity for nearly 340 days," the families said in a statement. "Last week, American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, along with five other hostages, was executed after months of torture, neglect, starvation, and isolation. Without a cease-fire deal, we ask ourselves: Will our loved ones be next?"

The families urged ABC's David Muir and Linsey Davis to ensure that the candidates "address the plight of the hostages" and request "specific questions about what each candidate would do differently to bring the hostages home."

"American citizens Omer, Edan, Keith, Sagui, Itay, Judy, and Gad, and the 94 other hostages need the United States and the world to overcome differences and disagreements and work together toward bringing them home," the families said. "Their time is running out.” 

The IDF eliminated several Hamas commanders of the ‘Tel Al-Sultan’ Battalion during operations in joint operations between the IDF and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), the military said on Tuesday.

The commander of Hamas’s Tel Al-Sultan Battalion, Mahmoud Hamdan, and three additional company commanders from the battalion were reportedly killed.

Hamadan played a significant role in the October 7 massacre, according to the IDF.

Soldiers from 401st Brigade identified terrorist squads using drones and directed air force aircraft towards them.

The IDF has announced that it will present video footage tonight of the tunnel where six hostages were killed in late August.

The killing of the hostages has been highly controversial as many political and defense officials believe they could have been saved in a hostage exchange deal as part of a ceasefire with Hamas if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had not, in their mind, held off a deal in order to hold onto the Philadelphi Corridor in Rafah. 

The White House said on Tuesday it will be closely watching what it called a "criminal" investigation by Israel into the killing of an American-Turkish activist in the West Bank last week.

Israel's military said it was highly likely its troops fired the shot that killed the woman at a protest in the West Bank, but said her death was unintentional and expressed deep regret.

Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court are looking into the reported death of Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif and will withdraw their case against him if they can confirm it, legal filings made public on Tuesday showed.

Deif, 58, was believed to be one of the masterminds of the Oct. 7, 2023 assault on southern Israel, which triggered the Gaza war, and since then, had directed Hamas military operations against Israeli forces in the Palestinian enclave.

Israel said he was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis on July 13. Hamas has neither neither confirmed nor denied that.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant oversaw the conclusion of the 9th Brigade's exercises in northern Israel on Tuesday, which involved simulating ground combat in Lebanese territory, and stated that the IDF would operate in Lebanon.

"I’m impressed by the determination and professionalism I’ve witnessed over nearly a year, both in the North and the South," Gallant remarked.

"The center of gravity is shifting to the north. While we are wrapping up our missions in the South, an important task remains in the North: to restore security and allow residents to return to their homes."

The killing of an American citizen during a protest last week in the West Bank was "unprovoked and unjustified" and shows that the Israeli security forces need to make some fundamental changes in their rules of engagement, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday.

"No one should be shot and killed for attending a protest," Blinken told a news conference in London, delivering his harshest comments to date against the Israeli military.

"In our judgment, Israeli security forces need to make some fundamental changes in the way that they operate in the West Bank, including changes to their rules of engagement," he said.

British foreign minister David Lammy described the supply of ballistic missiles from Iran to Russia on Tuesday as a "significant escalation."

"This is a troubling action that we're seeing from Iran. It is definitely a significant escalation and we are coordinating," he told a press conference alongside U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Lammy said he would not comment on "operational issues" when asked whether Britain would give the green light to Ukraine to use the Storm Shadow long-range missiles to strike targets inside Russia.

Aysenur Eygi, a 26-year-old American, was probably mistakenly killed during an altercation in the northern West Bank last Friday, according to an IDF statement released Tuesday.

An initial IDF probe said that soldiers were aiming for a "central instigator" but likely also struck and killed Eygi unwittingly.

The statement said that the altercation included dozens of Palestinians throwing rocks and burning tires at soldiers at the Bita junction in the West Bank.

In addition, the IDF said it had opened a criminal probe into the incident and would transfer the findings to the legal division when concluded, along with a request to perform an autopsy on Eygi's body.