Israel-Hamas war live: Israel says Hamas is holding 222 hostages as Gaza says more than 5,000 people killed | Israel-Hamas war
Gaza health ministry: more than 5,000 killed by Israeli attacks, including more than 2,000 children
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said at least 5,087 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since 7 October. It said the dead included 2,055 children. Additionally, it said 15,273 people had been wounded.
The ministry put the death toll in the past 24 hours at 436, including 182 children. It said most of the fatalities had occurred in the southern Gaza Strip, to where Israel’s military has ordered Palestinians to evacuate. The claims have not been independently verified.
Israel began launching its retaliatory strikes after the 7 October Hamas attack inside southern Israel that killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians, including at a music festival and in communities near the Gaza border.
Key events
Al Jazeera reports that Hamas has said it encountered Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip overnight, after Israel said it had carried out limited raids.
Al Jazeera writes: “Hamas says its fighters encountered an Israeli armored unit infiltrating in southern Gaza. The group said the infiltration took place east of Khan Younis. It added that its fighters successfully destroyed some Israeli military equipment before returning to base.”
Summary of the day so far …
It has just gone 3.30pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here is a summary of the latest headlines in the Israel-Hamas conflict …
-
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said at least 5,087 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since 7 October. It said the dead included 2,055 children. Additionally, it said 15,273 people had been wounded. The ministry put the death toll in the past 24 hours at 436, including 182 children. It said most of the fatalities had occurred in the southern Gaza Strip, to where Israel’s military has ordered Palestinians to evacuate. The claims have not been independently verified.
-
Israel’s military said on Monday that ground forces mounted limited raids into the Gaza Strip overnight to fight Palestinian gunmen, and that airstrikes were being focused on sites where Hamas was assembling to attack any wider Israeli invasion. The IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said: “During the night there were raids by tank and infantry forces. These raids are raids that kill squads of terrorists who are preparing for our next stage in the war. These are raids that go deep.”
-
The number of confirmed hostages held by Hamas in Gaza after it captured them in southern Israel on 7 October has risen to 222. Hagari said the total included a not insignificant number of foreign nationals, and it had taken time to contact their families. He said: “We are working in all ways to free the hostages and bring them home,” adding that the raids inside Gaza had sought to gather information on them.
-
Washington has advised Israel to delay its expected ground invasion of Gaza in order to buy time to negotiate the release of hostages held by Hamas and allow more aid in to Palestinian civilians, the New York Times reported, citing US officials.
-
A third convoy of aid trucks entered the Rafah crossing from Egypt on Monday bound for the besieged Gaza Strip, an aid worker and two security sources have told Reuters. On Saturday and Sunday 34 trucks passed through. The number of trucks in Monday’s convoy was similar to each of those days, the aid worker and security sources said. UN officials say about 100 trucks would be needed daily to meet essential needs in Gaza.
-
The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, joined calls on Monday for a humanitarian pause in the conflict to let more aid supplies into Gaza.
-
The leaders of the US, UK, France, Canada, Germany and Italy have called on Israel to adhere to international law and protect civilians, while also reiterating Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorism. In a statement put out after a phone call, the leaders’ offices said: “The leaders reiterated their support for Israel and its right to defend itself against terrorism and called for adherence to international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians.”
-
Benjamin Netanyahu thanked the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, for his country’s support as the latter visited Tel Aviv. Netanyahu said of the conflict: “It’s a battle against civilization. It’s civilization against barbarism. We’re on the side of civilization. We have to unite, all together, against Hamas, which is Isis.”
-
The Palestinian prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, has said the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip are exposed to “the Israeli murder and criminal machine”.
-
A Palestinian photojournalist, Roshdi Sarraj, has been killed in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, Radio France reported. The French broadcaster said Sarraj was killed on Sunday in Israeli strikes on Tel al-Hawa, in Gaza City. His wife and one-year-old daughter were injured.
-
Israel’s military has claimed to have fired at a “suspicious aerial target” attempting to enter Israel from the direction of Lebanon.
-
Turkey sent two cargo planes to Egypt on Monday carrying further medical equipment and supplies for Gaza, the health minister Fahrettin Koca said. He said two more aircraft would be sent with more supplies.
-
A 33-year-old Dutch woman has been killed in an explosion in Gaza, the Dutch foreign ministry has said. Named locally as Islam al-Ashqar, she was visiting relatives at the Nusairat refugee camp in central Gaza and was one of 22 Dutch nationals that the ministry was trying to help leave, the broadcaster NOS said.
Here are a couple of images sent over the news wires that show some aid being sorted before it is distributed to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
UN officials say about 100 trucks of aid would be needed daily to meet essential needs in Gaza. Just a fraction of that has been allowed to pass.
Reuters is carrying an interview with an 18-year-old Palestinian who claims to have lost 13 members of her family after they fled from the north of the Gaza Strip to the south – as ordered by the Israeli military – only to be caught up in the bombardment there.
Dima al-Lamdani said she had had to identify the bodies of her relatives at a makeshift morgue in Khan Younis after losing her parents, seven siblings and four members of her uncle’s family. She said her family and that of her uncle travelled in two cars across Gaza.
She said her family was staying at a temporary shelter when “at 4.30am I was awake and sitting with my aunt drinking coffee. Suddenly I woke up in the middle of ruins. Everyone around me was screaming, so I screamed.”
“This is a nightmare. It will never be wiped from my memory,” she said. “I had a sister, 16. They wrote my name on the white sheet they wrapped her body in, they thought it was me.
“They told us to evacuate your place and go to Khan Younis because it is safe. They betrayed us and bombed us.”
Turkey sent two cargo planes to Egypt on Monday carrying further medical equipment and supplies for Gaza, the health minister Fahrettin Koca said, Reuters reports. He said two more aircraft would be sent with more supplies.
Gaza health ministry: more than 5,000 killed by Israeli attacks, including more than 2,000 children
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said at least 5,087 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since 7 October. It said the dead included 2,055 children. Additionally, it said 15,273 people had been wounded.
The ministry put the death toll in the past 24 hours at 436, including 182 children. It said most of the fatalities had occurred in the southern Gaza Strip, to where Israel’s military has ordered Palestinians to evacuate. The claims have not been independently verified.
Israel began launching its retaliatory strikes after the 7 October Hamas attack inside southern Israel that killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians, including at a music festival and in communities near the Gaza border.
Israel’s government has issued a readout of the meeting between Benjamin Netanyahu and the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Israel’s prime minister said: “I always say that the best thing about standing with Israel is standing with Israel in Israel. And you’re doing that. I appreciate the solidarity of you, your government, the people of Greece, at this darkest hour. It’s a battle against civilization. It’s civilization against barbarism. We’re on the side of civilization. We have to unite, all together, against Hamas, which is Isis.”
Mitsotakis said: “I come here not just as an ally but as a true friend. What happened was truly horrible and we from the very first moment defended and supported the right of Israel to defend itself in line with international law. And we drew a very clear distinction between Hamas and the Palestinian people. We will continue to be able to support you and to hope that whatever happens, happens without too much of a humanitarian cost. But you can count on our support and our help.”
Reuters is carrying some further details of the limited raids that Israel claims it has carried out within the Gaza Strip.
It quotes the IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari as saying:
During the night there were raids by tank and infantry forces. These raids are raids that kill squads of terrorists who are preparing for our next stage in the war. These are raids that go deep.
Reuters reports that he also said the raids tried to gather information on the 222 hostages being held by Hamas.
The Palestinian prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, has said the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip are exposed to “the Israeli murder and criminal machine”.
Speaking before a cabinet session in Ramallah, he said the spectre of death threatened thousands of children and patients in Gaza’s hospitals, Al Jazeera reports.
Israel’s military has claimed to have fired at a “suspicious aerial target” attempting to enter Israel from the direction of Lebanon.
A third convoy of aid trucks entered the Rafah crossing from Egypt on Monday bound for the besieged Gaza Strip, an aid worker and two security sources have told Reuters.
On Saturday and Sunday 34 trucks passed through. The number of trucks in Monday’s convoy was similar to each of those days, the aid worker and security sources said. UN officials say about 100 trucks would be needed daily to meet essential needs in Gaza.
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza and Israel.
0 Comments