At least 11,240 Palestinians have been killed, including 4,630 children and 3,130 women, within the Gaza Strip by Israeli military actions since 7 October, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said on Monday.
Israeli forces have reached the gates of Gaza’s largest hospital as hundreds of patients, including dozens of babies, remained trapped inside. Thousands of people have fled al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, but health officials said the remaining patients were dying due to energy shortages amid intense fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants. At least 32 patients, including three premature babies, had died over the past three days, Gaza’s health ministry said.
There are between 600 and 650 inpatients at Shifa, as well as 200 to 500 health workers, and about 1,500 displaced people seeking shelter there, according to information shared with the World Health Organization. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have repeatedly said that Hamas operates from bunkers underneath Shifa. This has been denied by Hamas and hospital staff.
Joe Biden has said that Gaza’s largest hospital “must be protected” and called for “less intrusive action” by Israeli forces. Speaking from the Oval Office, he said: “It is my hope and expectation that there will be less intrusive action.”
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said that an attempt to reach al-Quds hospital from Khan Younis in order to evacuate patients has been abandoned due to “continuing shelling and shooting”.
All of the hospitals in northern Gaza are “out of service” amid fuel shortages and intense combat, the health ministry said on Monday.
The director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) Thomas White has warned that all of the group’s aid operations in Gaza will be shut down in the next 48 hours unless fuel is allowed in. UNRWA’s commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, said the agency’s fuel depot in Gaza has run dry and will no longer be able to resupply hospitals, remove sewage and provide drinking water.
The IDF issued an update on its military operation in Gaza, saying its forces had conducted 4,300 strikes to date. It claims to have struck “approximately 300 tunnel shafts” and “approximately 3,000 terrorist infrastructure sites”. Israel’s campaign was launched on 7 October after the Hamas massacre inside Israel’s border which killed 1,200 Israelis.
UNRWA also reported that one of its buildings in Rafah had been struck by Israel’s navy. Rafah is in the south of the Gaza Strip, within the area that Israel has insisted that Palestinians move to. In a statement, UNRWA said there were no casualties.
At least three Palestinians have been killed and 20 others injured after an Israeli airstrike hit Bani Suheila, a town east of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, health officials have said on Monday.
Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, has acknowledged the growing international pressure for a ceasefire. He also estimated that Israel has a “diplomatic window” of between two and three weeks before pressure on the country seriously begins to increase, local media reported.
Haaretz reports that an Israeli civilian hit by anti-tank missile fire from Lebanon inside Israel’s north on Sunday has died of their wounds. Israel’s military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that fire was again being exchanged Monday between Israel and anti-Israeli forces in Lebanon.
UN workers observed a minute’s silence on Monday for the more than 100 colleagues killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began last month, marking the deadliest conflict ever for UN workers.
The archbishop of Canterbury has called for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, saying the scale of civilian deaths and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza cannot not be “morally justified”.
A vessel from Turkey carrying materials for field hospitals arrived on Monday in Egypt’s port of El Arish, near the Rafah border crossing. A Turkish health official told AFP that the vessel was carrying “materials, generators, ambulances to establish eight field hospitals”.
Authorities in France on Monday detained eight minors over antisemitic chants on the Paris metro that were filmed and widely shared on social media, prosecutors said.
In the UK, former prime minister David Cameron has unexpectedly been appointed as the new foreign secretary in a reshuffle of Rishi Sunak’s government. Cameron replaces James Cleverly, who visited Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and southern Israel on 11 October, just days after the Hamas attack.
Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, has let it be known that he is available if needed to help in an effort to end the growing crisis in Israel and Palestine.
Ireland’s deputy premier has announced he is to travel to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories later this week. Micheál Martin, who is also foreign affairs minister, will also travel to Egypt as part of the visit.
