The Israeli military expanded its ground operations deeper into the southern Gaza Strip, with dozens of Israeli tanks, armored personnel carriers and bulldozers entering Gaza near Khan Younis. Witnesses said Israeli military vehicles were traveling on the southern stretch of Gaza’s main north-south highway, “firing bullets and tank shells at cars and people trying to move through the area.” The Israeli military issued new orders to Palestinians in about 20 areas in the central Gaza Strip to move further south and published maps online.
The Israeli army has denied telling the World Health Organization to empty an aid camp in southern Gaza within 24 hours before ground operations in the region render it unusable. COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry’s body responsible for Palestinian civil affairs, said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on Monday on X: “Today WHO received notification from the Israel Defense Forces that we should remove our supplies from our medical camp in the southern Gaza Strip within 24 hours as ground operations would render it unusable…We call on Israel to withdraw the order and take all of them .” “Possible action to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and humanitarian facilities,” he wrote.
The White House said Hamas had broken an agreement to release more female hostages and that its refusal to do so was the cause of Friday’s collapse of a week-long ceasefire with Israel. In a briefing at the White House on Monday afternoon, the US national security adviser said Jake Sullivan said: “It is this refusal by Hamas that led to the end of the hostage-taking agreement and thus the end of the pause in fighting.” He said it was “too early” to judge whether Israel was giving enough notice or doing enough to stop Palestinians Informing civilians about where it would be safe if it moved into the southern Gaza Strip, but said the U.S. had warned that Israeli civilians needed to be protected.
Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the US State Department, said Hamas continued to hold Israeli hostages because it did not want them to reveal what they had experienced in captivity. Israeli police say Hamas militants committed widespread “gender-based atrocities and sexual violence” in the October 7 attacks. Israeli police say they have evidence of more than 1,500 incidents. “The fact [Hamas] “Continue to hold women hostage, the fact that they continue to hold children hostage… and the reason this break failed is because they don’t want these women to be able to talk about what happened to them during their time in custody.” Miller said at a media briefing.
Gaza’s Health Ministry released new casualty figures, saying 15,899 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip since October 7. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government in Gaza, says 70% of those killed were women and children. The numbers do not differentiate between civilians and combatants. The number of deaths is likely an underestimate because the collapse of Gaza’s health system has made it difficult to compile statistics and more than 6,000 Palestinians are missing in the territory.
Telecommunications company PalTel said Gaza was facing a communications blackoutwith all telecommunications services (landline, mobile and internet) lost in Gaza City and northern Gaza Strip due to the shutdown of the main elements of the network.
At least 60 Palestinians were arrested in the occupied West Bank overnight, while Israeli forces carried out raids in the cities of Qalqilya, Jericho, Jenin and Tulkarem, according to Al Jazeera. The station reported that at least 30 armored vehicles were deployed in Jenin following a dawn raid.