The latest developments from the Israel Hamas war.
ADVERTISEMENTMore than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October, according to the latest figures released by the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.
The grim toll includes more than 4,100 children and 2,640 women.
The development comes after Israeli airstrikes hit two refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing scores of people, health officials said.
Israel has so far rejected US suggestions that it take a humanitarian pause from its relentless bombardment of Gaza and the rising civilian deaths.
In the occupied West Bank, more than 140 Palestinians have been killed in settler violence and Israeli raids.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them in the 7 October Hamas attack that started the bloody conflict, and 242 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by the militant group.
Roughly 1,100 people have left the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing since Wednesday under an apparent agreement among the United States, Egypt, Israel and Qatar, which mediates with Hamas.
EU announces €25 million aid for Gaza
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Monday an extra 25 million euros of assistance for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, bringing the EU's total aid to 100 million.
From Brussels, von der Leyen also spoke of the establishment of a maritime corridor from Cyprus to transport humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
“Israel has the right to fight Hamas, but it is also essential that it does everything possible to avoid civilian casualties,” she stressed in a speech to European ambassadors.
Israel carries out intense strikes on Gaza
Israel bombarded the Gaza Strip heavily on Monday, as ground fighting rages.
Hamas said overnight strikes killed more than 200 people in the besieged Palestinian enclave, where the war with Israel has already left nearly 10,000 dead, half of whom are children.
"These are massacres! They destroyed three houses on the heads of their inhabitants, women and children, we have already taken 40 bodies out of the rubble," Mahmoud Mechmech who lives in central Gaza told AFP.
Israel's army previously announced it would carry out “intensive” strikes, warning they would last “several days”.
Israel began attacking Gaza on 7 October, after Hamas launched a deadly strike on its territory that killed 1,400 people.
Savage fighting is now taking place in the Strip's north around Gaza City, which is now surrounded, according to Israel.
Israeli army spokesperson General Daniel Hagari said his country's soldiers have cut the territory in two: “Gaza south and Gaza north”.
ADVERTISEMENTThe army launched a new call on Monday morning for Palestinian civilians to leave the northern Gaza Strip, saying soldiers will soon be "less limited" in their operations.
"We will then be able to dismantle Hamas, stronghold by stronghold, battalion by battalion until we achieve the ultimate goal, which is to rid the Gaza Strip - the entire Gaza Strip - of Hamas," said a spokesperson.
US 'encourages' Israel to 'kill' - Iran's president
Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi on Monday accused the United States of “encouraging” Israel to “kill and perpetrate cruel acts” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Meeting Iraq's prime minister in Tehran, Raisi once again called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza.
"We believe the bombings must stop as soon as possible, that a ceasefire must be declared immediately and that aid be provided to the oppressed and proud people of Gaza," he said at a press conference with Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani.
ADVERTISEMENT“These horrible crimes against humanity are a genocide, which is carried out by the Zionist regime with the support of the United States and certain European countries,” claimed Raisi.
"American aid to the Zionist regime encourages it to kill and perpetrate cruel acts against the Palestinian people. The Americans' claim that they seek to help Gaza is a false promise, which is not consistent with their actions,” he added.
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, rocket and drone attacks have targeted Iraqi bases housing US troops.
Washington accuses Iran of being involved by proxy in these attacks which also targeted American soldiers in neighboring Syria.
Iran and Iraq do not recognise Israel and the Iraqi government is close to Iran, a country which supports Palestinian Hamas.
ADVERTISEMENTPalestinian star arrested by Israel
The Israeli army announced on Monday it had arrested Ahed Tamimi - an icon of the Palestinian cause around the world - during a raid in the occupied West Bank.
A spokesperson for the army said the 22-year-old activist was "suspected of inciting violence and terrorist activities."
Tamimi was apprehended in the town of Nabi Saleh and "transferred to Israeli security forces for further questioning," they told AFP.
Ahed Tamimi became famous at 14, filmed biting an Israeli soldier to prevent him from arresting her little brother, who was pinned to the ground and had his arm in a cast.
She has since become a global icon of the Palestinian cause and is seen by Palestinians as an example of courage in the face of Israeli repression in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
ADVERTISEMENTA giant portrait of her was also painted on the Israeli separation wall in the occupied West Bank, in the Bethlehem sector.
Since the start of the war in October, Israel has severely cracked down on dissent in the West Bank, arresting and detaining Palestinians on mass.
In Israel itself, the government has ramped up repression of domestic criticism of the war, with activists, academics and citizens subjected to doxxing, job terminations, threats and arrests.
The crackdown on dissent in the occupied West Bank has accompanied an upsurge in violence - already at fever pitch - involving Israeli settler attacks on civilians and deadly raids by Israel's security forces.
Some 150 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank by fire from Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
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Far-right Israeli minister says nuking Gaza an option
Israel's heritage minister Amichai Eliyahu said on Sunday that one of Israel’s options could be to drop a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disavowed his cabinet minister's comment and suspended him from meetings.
Eliyahu, a member of the far-right Jewish Power party - made the comment in response to a question during a radio interview.
“Your expectation is that tomorrow morning we’d drop what amounts to some kind of nuclear bomb on all of Gaza, flattening them, eliminating everybody there,” the Radio Kol Berama interviewer said.
“That’s one way,” Eliyahu responded. “The second way is to work out what’s important to them, what scares them, what deters them… They’re not scared of death.”
ADVERTISEMENTWhen the minister was told there are around 240 hostages currently held in the Gaza Strip, he doubled down.
“I pray and hope for their return, but there is a price to be paid in war,” he said. “Why are the lives of the abductees, whose release I really want, more important than the lives of the soldiers and the people who will be murdered later?”
The Israeli minister also voiced objection to allowing any humanitarian aid into Gaza, saying “we wouldn’t hand the Nazis humanitarian aid".
Calls for an immediate ceasefire to stop 'horrific' killings
The heads of 11 UN agencies and six humanitarian organisations issued a joint plea for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
They called for the protection of civilians and swift entry of food, water, medicine and fuel into the Strip.
ADVERTISEMENTIn a statement issued Sunday night, the group called Hamas’ surprise 7 October attacks in Israel “horrific.”
“However, the horrific killings of even more civilians in Gaza is an outrage, as is cutting off 2.2 million Palestinians from food, water, medicine, electricity and fuel,” the heads of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee on the situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory said.
The UN and humanitarian organisations said more than 23,000 injured people need immediate treatment and hospitals are overstretched.
“An entire population is besieged and under attack, denied access to the essentials for survival, bombed in their homes, shelters, hospitals and places of worship,” the joint statement said.
The UN and aid organization leaders said over a hundred attacks against health care operations have been reported and 88 staff members from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, have been reported killed – “the highest number of United Nations fatalities ever recorded in a single conflict.”
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