04.18 BST
Israel’s military is preparing “relentless attacks” to crush Hamas.
Israel’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, issued a statement late Monday suggesting that Israel had no intention of curbing its attacks on the densely populated Gaza Strip and suggested that it was well prepared for a ground attack.
“We want to completely destroy Hamas,” Halevi said. “The path is one of relentless attacks that harm Hamas everywhere and in every way.”
“We are well prepared for ground operations in the south,” he added, referring to Israel’s south, which borders Gaza. “Troops that have more time are better prepared, and that’s what we’re doing now.”
Updated at 04:18 BST
04.04 BST
Here’s a little more from the director of the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, Thomas White, who told the BBC that a lack of shelter, food and drinking water in southern Gaza has forced some residents to return to their homes in the North.
“People have left everything in the north… they’ve come to the south where they’re struggling to find shelter, food is scarce, a lot of people have to drink undrinkable water, so the situation in the south is dire,” White told BBC.
On October 13, Israel issued sweeping evacuation orders for nearly half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents. The United Nations estimates that nearly two-thirds of Gaza’s population has been displaced in the past two weeks.
Updated 04/04 BST
03.49 BST
The US has said now is not the time for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, as the United Nations reports that some Palestinians who had fled their homes in northern Gaza were fleeing due to lack of food and shelter in the south have returned.
On Monday, White House national security spokesman John Kirby told CNN that Israel still has “a lot of work to do to take over the leadership of Hamas,” echoing US President Joe Biden’s comments that Talks about a ceasefire could only take place if Hamas freed all of its hostages in Gaza.
The White House statement contradicted comments from UN and EU officials on Monday who called for a humanitarian pause in fighting so aid could be delivered to Gaza.
The director of the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, Thomas White, told the BBC on Monday that the lack of shelter, food and drinking water in the south had forced some residents to return to their homes in the north.
Here is our full report:
Not the time for a ceasefire in Gaza, says the US, as Hamas still holds hostages
Updated at 03:49 BST
03.26 BST
Biden calls on Netanyahu to keep the “flow of urgently needed” aid to Gaza
President Joe Biden “underscored the need to maintain a steady flow of urgently needed humanitarian assistance to Gaza” in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said.
The U.S. leader also briefed Netanyahu on U.S. support for Israel and “ongoing regional deterrence efforts, including new U.S. military operations,” the statement said.
The White House also said the president welcomed the release of two hostages from Gaza and reaffirmed his commitment to ensuring the release of the remaining hostages and safe passage for U.S. citizens and other civilians in Gaza.
Updated at 03:26 BST
03.00 BST
Even if all the hostages were released, Israel would not allow fuel into the Gaza Strip. Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told CNN. He said:
At the moment we have no interest in more fuel being used for Hamas’s military machine, and we have not approved fuel, we have approved medicine, we have approved water. We allowed food, we didn’t allow anything else.
Asked whether Israel would allow fuel to enter Gaza if all hostages were released, Regev said Israel’s position would not change.
The government’s decision is not to use fuel because it is stolen by Hamas and used by them to fuel rockets fired at Israel to kill our people.
Updated at 03:00 BST
02.44 BST
Israel will not delay a possible ground invasion of the Gaza Strip because of concerns about the more than 200 hostages held there by Hamas, the country’s energy minister told the German tabloid Bild.
Israel Katzwho had previously insisted that no “electric switch would be turned on, no water hydrant would be opened and no tanker truck would enter Gaza” until the hostages were released, told the newspaper:
We are doing everything we can and working with every possible interlocutor to bring the abductees home… But that cannot prevent our other actions, including the ground invasion, if we choose to do so, because that is what Hamas wants.
Updated at 02:44 BST
02.28 BST
Huge billboards line the main streets of the coastal city of Tel Aviv, showing leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah looking beaten and tied up while Israeli soldiers stand over them.
The words addressed to the Israeli army: “We love you, we trust you” and “Never again” are printed in large and bold letters. The graphic AI-generated images have provoked mixed reactions from the Israeli public. Some find the campaign repugnant, but many others have welcomed it.
Ofer Rosenbaum, 36, whose public relations work has previously caused controversy, is behind the provocative campaign launched last week that he hopes will help restore trust in Israel’s security forces.
Ofer Rosenbaum, the PR man behind a poster campaign aimed at restoring trust in the Israeli army. One of his controversial billboards can be seen in the background. Photo: Rick Findler/The Guardian
As retired accountant Simona Yaloz, 65, looked at a billboard from across the street, she said she was disgusted by the image. “I really hate it, it’s not the Israeli attitude,” Yaloz said. “It’s very extreme, it’s too violent. There are extreme people here, but we try to avoid that.”
Fashion designer Shiran, who gave only one name, said she and her husband supported the poster campaign. “We both smiled when we saw it. I think we’ve been too friendly and too nice for too long. We let people outside Israel tell us what we can and cannot do,” said the 30-year-old.
“Never again”: Poster campaign supporting the army in Tel Aviv divides Israelis
Updated at 02:28 BST
02.09 BST
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was in Israel on Monday as international leaders continued diplomacy to show solidarity with Israel while calling for restraint in its response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
It is “of existential importance for Israel to eliminate the threat from Hamas,” said Rutte a statement after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (r.) meets Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in Jerusalem. Photo: GPO/Kobi Gideon HANDOUT/EPA
However, he added that aid arriving in Gaza was “not nearly enough” and that “civilian casualties and regional escalation must be prevented.”
This requires Israel to exercise restraint in the use of force.
He also called for a return to talks on a two-state solution:
Although it may seem distant, peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians are only possible if the prospects of a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel are renewed.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (r) meets Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Photo: PPO/AFP/Getty Images
Updated 09/02 BST
01.53 BST
The US is sending military advisors and air defense systems to Israel
The Pentagon is sending military advisers and sophisticated air defense systems to Israel ahead of an expected Israeli military ground attack on Gaza.
One of the officers leading the aid is Marine Corps Lt. Gen. James Glynn, who previously helped lead special operations forces against the Islamic State and played a prominent role in intense fighting in Fallujah, one of the Islamic Republic’s bloodiest and most contentious fighting centers US forces during the war in Iraq.
Glynn will also advise on how to reduce civilian casualties during urban warfare, a U.S. official told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Glynn and the other military officers advising Israel “have experience appropriate to the types of operations that Israel conducts,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at a White House briefing on Monday.
Pentagon sends military advisers and air defense systems to Israel
Updated at 01:53 BST
01.37 BST
According to Portal, the Israeli military has confirmed Palestinian reports of an airstrike on a refugee camp in northern Gaza.
The Israeli airstrike targeted a Hamas base Al-Shati refugee campa military spokesman said, without giving further details.
Palestinian media reported that five people were killed, while a spokesman for the Hamas-run health ministry said children and women were among the victims.
Updated at 01:37 BST
01.31 BST
Washington is concerned that Israel has no achievable military objectives in Gaza and does not yet have a viable plan for a ground invasion, The New York Times reported, citing senior Biden administration officials.
Minister of Defense Lloyd J Austin has stressed in discussions with his Israeli counterpart that careful thought would need to be given to how a ground invasion would be carried out Yoav Gallantwrote the newspaper.
It added that Biden officials still insist they support an invasion and that they are not telling Israel what to do.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (r) is greeted by Israeli Defense Minister Gallant upon his arrival in Tel Aviv earlier this month. Photo: Office of the Secretary of Defense Public Affairs/Portal
However, the NYT also said that in discussions with Israeli officials about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s goal of rooting out Hamas, Americans had not yet seen a viable plan of action and that there were concerns that a ground operation would be extremely bloody for both civilians and troops could .
“The first thing that everyone should know, and I think everyone knows, is that urban combat is extremely difficult,” Austin told ABC News on Sunday.
There was no immediate Israeli reaction to the report, but a diplomat at the Israeli embassy denied that the US government had advised the Israelis to postpone the ground invasion, the newspaper reported on Sunday.
Updated at 02.13 BST
01.10 BST
Here’s a little more from Obama’s statement on the Israel-Hamas conflict, in which he said it was important that “Israel’s military strategy is consistent with international law, including laws aimed at preventing the death or suffering of human beings.” To avoid as much as possible “civilian population”. He wrote:
Upholding these values is important for its own sake – because it is morally just and reflects our belief in the inherent value of every human life.
Upholding these values is also crucial for building alliances and shaping international opinion – all critical to Israel’s long-term security.
He noted that this represented an “enormously difficult task” in which the United States had “failed at times.” And after an attack that brought back “some of the darkest memories of the persecution of the Jewish people,” Israeli citizens understandably demanded their government “do whatever is necessary to root out Hamas and ensure that such attacks never happen again,” he said he. However, he continued:
When dealing with an extraordinarily complex situation in which so many people are in pain and passions understandably run rampant, we must all do our best to showcase our best values and not our worst fears.
That meant opposing anti-Semitism and “efforts to minimize the terrible tragedy that the Israeli people have just suffered, as well as the morally bankrupt claim that any cause can somehow justify the deliberate slaughter of innocent people.”
It also means rejecting anti-Muslim, anti-Arab or anti-Palestinian sentiments, he said.
It means refusing to lump all Palestinians with Hamas or other terrorist groups. It means guarding against dehumanizing statements toward the people of Gaza or downplaying the suffering of Palestinians – whether in Gaza or the West Bank – as irrelevant or illegitimate.
Updated at 01.10 BST
00.55 BST
Israel’s response to Hamas risks eroding global support, Obama says
The Israeli siege and bombing of the Gaza Strip following the October 7 Hamas attack risks backfiring and ultimately undermining long-term efforts for peace and stability in the region, Barack Obama said.
“Even as we support Israel, we should also be clear that the way Israel pursues this fight against Hamas is a matter,” the former US president said in a statement in which he also Israel’s “right to defend its citizens against such wanton violence.” He continued:
The world is closely watching events unfold in the region, and any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human cost could ultimately backfire.
Thousands of Palestinians, including many children, have already been killed by Israeli attacks on Gaza, while hundreds of thousands have been driven from their homes, Obama wrote.
The Israeli government’s decision to cut off food, water and electricity to a trapped civilian population not only threatens to worsen a growing humanitarian crisis; It could further harden Palestinian attitudes for generations, undermine global support for Israel, play into the hands of Israel’s enemies and undermine long-term efforts for peace and stability in the region.
Updated at 00:55 BST
00.42 BST
China calls on Israel to respect humanitarian law
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Beijing was “deeply concerned” about the escalating war between Israel and Hamas and called on Israel to respect international humanitarian law in a phone call with its Israeli counterpart Eli Cohenreported Chinese state media.
All countries have the right to self-defense, but China condemns any actions that harm civilians and opposes any violation of international law, Wang said, according to Xinhua.
The conflict affects the entire world, he added, and “involves an important choice between war and peace.” Xinhua wrote that he emphasized:
The painful lesson from the repeating cycle of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict shows clearly: only adhering to the concept of common security can contribute to sustainable security, and only adhering to the direction of the political solution can facilitate the thorough resolution of Israel’s legitimate security concerns.
The two-state solution is the consensus of the international community.
Wang said he hoped both sides could take into account “the long-term interests of peace and security for future generations” and that they would resume peace talks.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Photo: Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images
Updated at 00:42 BST
00.27 BST
According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, Israel attacked a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip late on Monday, Portal reported. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
In a statement on Facebook, Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said the Israeli bombing targeted the Al-Shati camp in Gaza, which borders the Mediterranean coast.
Palestinian media reported that five people were killed in the camp. Portal could not immediately confirm the reports.
An image taken on October 23 from the southern Israeli city of Sderot shows smoke and debris rising over the northern Gaza Strip following an Israeli attack. Photo: AFP/Getty Images
Updated at 00:29 BST