The latest developments from the Israel-Hamas war.
ADVERTISINGMore than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, according to the latest figures from the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.
The horrific figure includes more than 4,100 children and 2,640 women.
The development came 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 U.S. proposals to impose a humanitarian pause because of the relentless bombardment of Gaza and the rising civilian death toll.
In the occupied West Bank, more than 140 Palestinians have been killed by settler violence and Israeli raids.
More than 1,400 people in Israel were killed, most of them in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that sparked the bloody conflict, and 242 hostages were taken from Israel to Gaza by the militant group.
About 1,100 people have left the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing since Wednesday, apparently as part of an agreement between the United States, Egypt, Israel and Qatar, which is brokering with Hamas.
EU announces 25 million euros in aid for Gaza
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Monday an additional 25 million euros in aid 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 important that it does everything to avoid civilian casualties,” she stressed in a speech to European ambassadors.
Israel is carrying out heavy attacks on Gaza
Israel heavily bombed the Gaza Strip on Monday as ground fighting raged.
Hamas said overnight attacks had killed more than 200 people in the besieged Palestinian enclave, where the war with Israel has already left nearly 10,000 dead, half of them children.
“These are massacres! They destroyed three houses on the heads of their residents, women and children, we have already recovered 40 bodies from the rubble,” Mahmoud Mechmech, who lives in central Gaza, told AFP.
The Israeli army had previously announced that it would carry out “intense” attacks and warned that they would last “several days”.
Israel began attacking Gaza on October 7 after Hamas launched a deadly attack on its territory that killed 1,400 people.
According to Israel, heavy fighting is currently taking place in the north of the strip around Gaza City, which is now surrounded.
Israeli army spokesman General Daniel Hagari said his country’s soldiers had divided the area into two parts: “Gaza South and Gaza North.”
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The army again called on Palestinian civilians to leave the northern Gaza Strip on Monday morning, saying soldiers would soon be “less restricted” in their operations.
“We will then be able to dismantle Hamas, fortress by fortress, battalion by battalion, until we achieve the ultimate goal, which is the liberation of the Gaza Strip – the entire Gaza Strip – from Hamas,” a spokesman said.
The US “encourages” Israel to “kill” the Iranian president.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi accused the United States on Monday of “encouraging” Israel to “kill and commit atrocities” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
At a meeting with the Iraqi prime minister in Tehran, Raisi again called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza.
“We believe that the bombing must stop as soon as possible, that a ceasefire must be declared immediately and that assistance must be provided to the oppressed and proud people of Gaza,” he said at a news conference with Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani.
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“These terrible crimes against humanity are a genocide committed by the Zionist regime with the support of the United States and certain European countries,” Raisi claimed.
“American aid to the Zionist regime encourages it to kill the Palestinian people and commit atrocities against the Palestinian people. The Americans’ claim that they want to help Gaza is a false promise that is inconsistent with their actions,” he added.
Since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas, there have been rocket and drone attacks on Iraqi bases where US troops were stationed.
Washington accuses Iran of playing a vicarious role in these attacks, which also targeted American soldiers in neighboring Syria.
Iran and Iraq do not recognize Israel and the Iraqi government is close to Iran, a country that supports the Palestinian Hamas.
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Palestinian star arrested by Israel
The Israeli army announced on Monday that it had arrested Ahed Tamimi – an icon of the Palestinian cause around the world – during a raid in the occupied West Bank.
An army spokesman said the 22-year-old activist was “suspected of inciting violence and terrorist activities.”
Tamimi was arrested in the town of Nabi Saleh and “handed over to Israeli security forces for further questioning,” they told AFP.
Ahed Tamimi became famous at the age of 14. She filmed herself biting an Israeli soldier to stop him from arresting her little brother, who was lying on the ground with his arm in a cast.
Since then, she has become a global icon of the Palestinian cause and is seen by Palestinians as an example of courage in the face of Israeli oppression in the occupied Palestinian territories.
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A huge portrait of her was also painted on the Israeli separation wall in the occupied West Bank, in the Bethlehem sector.
Since the war began in October, Israel has cracked down on dissent in the West Bank, arresting and detaining Palestinians en masse.
In Israel itself, the government has stepped up its suppression of domestic criticism of the war, with activists, academics and citizens facing doxxing, firings, threats and arrests.
The crackdown on dissent in the occupied West Bank has been accompanied by a rise in violence that is already at its peak, with Israeli settlers attacking civilians and deadly raids by Israeli security forces.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, about 150 Palestinians have been killed by shelling by Israeli soldiers or settlers in the occupied West Bank.
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Far-right Israeli minister says nuclear bomb in Gaza is an option
Israel’s Culture 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 denied his cabinet minister’s comments 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.
“Their expectation is that tomorrow morning we will drop some kind of atomic bomb on all of Gaza, leveling it and destroying everyone there,” Radio Kol Berama interviewer said.
“That’s a possibility,” Eliyahu replied. “The second way is to figure out what’s important to them, what scares them, what scares them off… They’re not afraid of death.”
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When the minister was told that about 240 hostages were currently being held in the Gaza Strip, he doubled down on his statement.
“I pray and hope for their return, but war has its price,” 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 expressed objections to allowing any humanitarian aid into Gaza, saying: “We would not give humanitarian aid to the Nazis.”
Calls for an immediate ceasefire to stop “horrific” killings
The heads of eleven UN agencies and six humanitarian organizations jointly called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
They called for the protection of the civilian population and a rapid supply of food, water, medicine and fuel to the Gaza Strip.
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In a statement released Sunday evening, the group called Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 attacks in Israel “horrific.”
“However, the horrific killings of even more civilians in Gaza are a scandal, as is the deprivation of food, water, medicine, electricity and fuel to 2.2 million Palestinians,” the heads of the Interagency Standing Committee on the Situation in Israel said the occupied Palestinian territory.
According to the United Nations and humanitarian organizations, more than 23,000 injured people require immediate treatment and hospitals are overwhelmed.
“An entire population is under siege and attack, denied access to essentials, their homes, shelters, hospitals and places of worship bombed,” the joint statement said.
According to the United Nations and aid agencies, over a hundred attacks on health facilities were reported and 88 staff members of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, were killed – “the highest death toll the United Nations has ever recorded in a single case.” Conflict.”