Casualties
Gaza: 4,651 killed; 14,245 wounded
Occupied West Bank: 95 killed; 1,650 wounded
Israel: 1,405 killed; 5,431 wounded
Key Developments
- Four hundred Palestinians killed in the last 24 hours, according to Palestinian health officials.
- At least 120 newborn babies sustained by incubators at risk of death under relentless Israeli bombardment of Gaza, as hospitals run low on fuel, says UN.
- The Israeli military threatens to bomb Al-Quds Hospital, says the Palestinian Red Crescent, urging intervention by the international community.
- At least 18 Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza since October 7.
- At least 30 bodies recovered by emergency workers in Jabalia refugee camp, most of them women and children, following Israel’s most recent attacks on the camp. Gaza’s civil defense says several people still trapped under the rubble.
- Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian discuss stopping Israel’s “brutal crimes” in besieged Gaza in a phone call overnight on Sunday.
- At least 406,000 internally displaced people are sheltering in 91 UNRWA installations across Gaza — an increase of 22,000 people over the past 24 hours, says the organization. Since October 7, at least 12 internally displaced people seeking shelter at UNRWA schools have been killed and almost 180 injured, they included.
- At least 29 UNRWA staff have been killed since October 7, half of whom were teachers.
In the last 24 hours, Israel’s army hit the Gaza Strip with the deadliest round of relentless bombardment since it began 17 days ago, killing at least 400 Palestinians. Wafa reported at least 25 Israeli air attacks on residential areas, many of them hitting civilian homes with no warnings.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, 70 of those killed happened overnight on Sunday as Israel carpet bombed the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp near two hospitals in Gaza City, Al-Shifa and Al-Quds.
Israeli airstrikes were recorded near Al-Quds Hospital by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, causing fear and panic among internally displaced civilians and medical staff. Al Jazeera also reports that Israeli airstrikes were fired for hours in the vicinity of the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza’s northern city of Beit Lahia, causing what the hospital’s director described as “serious damage and injuries.”
Five residential towers were leveled in Rafah, killing at least 50 people, a number likely to rise as many have yet to be rescued from under the rubble, reported Al Jazeera on Monday morning.
Overnight on Sunday and early Monday, Wafa reported that Israeli airstrikes killed 23 people in Khan Younis, while killing 17 people in Al-Fallujah and injuing dozens of others in an Israeli attack on a residential apartment in the northern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army said it attacked over 320 military targets overnight in the Gaza Strip.
Civilians call for a ceasefire as collapsing hospitals demand fuel
Hospital staff are pleading with the international community to support them as they slowly collapse under the pressure of 17 days of siege and constant bombardment. Palestinians in Gaza say that humanitarian aid is insufficient and are demanding a ceasefire.
Since Israel cut off electricity, hospitals across the Gaza Strip are dependent on generators that are powered by fuel, which is quickly running out. Thirty-four trucks with humanitarian aid have arrived in Gaza through the Rafah crossing, none of which have included fuel and are nowhere near enough to meet the needs of the 2 million people living there.
On Sunday, the Indonesian Hospital hospital’s Director, Atef al-Kahlout, told Al Jazeera they were struggling and may have to halt surgeries if Israel doesn’t allow fuel into the Strip.
“We will face a catastrophe if we don’t get more fuel,” he said.
“Medical personnel are exhausted. They have been on duty 24 hours a day since the Israeli attack began to attend to patients who continue to arrive every minute,” al-Kahlout added.
Similarly, at Al-Shifa Hospital, where the highest number of wounded patients and medical staff are currently based, the director, Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya, says they are now on the brink of a “real disaster” as their fuel sources dwindle and may only last for another 48 hours.
The aid has been taken to a UNRWA-designated warehouse in Deir el-Balah. It is still unclear how they will be distributed, considering Israel’s preconditions on how and where they should be delivered.
In a statement from Biden on Sunday, he announced that Netanyahu has agreed to allow a “continued flow” of humanitarian assistance to Gaza under the condition that none of it reaches Hamas.
As Israeli aggression continues, fighting escalates in the region
Despite the U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s pressure on Israel to delay their ground invasion to allow time for more U.S. military assets to arrive in the region, as well as to allow diplomatic efforts to try and release captives inside Gaza, the military continues to launch smaller-scale raids on the area.
Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant says that the attack on Hamas could last “months.”
“It will take one month, two months, three months, and at the end there will be no more Hamas,” he declared.
On Sunday, the Israeli army raided the Gaza Strip to “thwart terrorist infrastructure” and locate Hamas captives in Khan Younis. During the raid, the Israeli military announced that one of its soldiers was killed by an anti-tank missile reportedly shot by Hamas.
Three Hamas fighters were also injured as they pushed Israeli forces out of the Gaza Strip, the Qassam Brigades announced on Telegram.
“Fighters engaged an armored Israeli force in a well-prepared ambush to the east of Khan Yunis, just moments after it crossed the border by a few meters,” they said.
“The fighters bravely engaged with the infiltrating force…and they returned to their bases safely,” the statement further noted.
Israel has also escalated its attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon. According to Al Jazeera, Israel’s newly introduced use of airstrikes targeting and killing Hezbollah cells may lead to Hezbollah’s escalation of tactics as rules of engagement continue to develop.
Early on Monday, the Israeli military said it hit two Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, claiming they were planning on launching anti-tank missiles and rockets toward Israel.
Hezbollah said one of their fighters was killed the same day, and Lebanese media reported an Israeli air attack in southern Lebanon; however, Reuters news agency says it is unclear if the two sides were referring to the same set of incidents.
On Sunday, Hezbollah announced that they have been attacking several Israeli posts along the border between Lebanon and Israel, adding that 12 of their fighters had been killed over 24 hours, bringing their death toll up to 25 since October 7.
On the same day, the Egyptian military reported shell fragments from an Israeli tank hitting the Egyptian border and injuring at least seven people, including Egyptian border guards. The Israeli military confirmed the report, saying it “accidentally” hit the Egyptian position near their border with Gaza.
Israel’s mass arrest campaign continues
Israeli forces continue to storm the West Bank, where they are arresting Palestinians at an alarming rate.
Wafa reports that Israeli forces arrested over 120 Palestinians on Monday alone, the majority of whom were detained after Israeli forces raided their homes.
Since October 7, Israel has detained approximately 1,300 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society and Detainees Commission. On top of that, Israeli forces have arrested 4,000 laborers from Gaza, effectively doubling the number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails from just over 5,000 to more than 10,000 in just two weeks.
The rights groups say that around 300 detainees are being held in administrative detention, allowing Israel to hold Palestinians indefinitely under “secret evidence” without charge or trial.
International community leaning toward de-escalation tactics
As Israel continues to bombard the Gaza Strip, the situation in the region intensifies, causing many international leaders to call for a de-escalation.
China’s state media has reported that Beijing is willing to do “whatever is conducive” to promote dialogue and achieve a ceasefire. Zhai Jun, a Chinese diplomat who described the situation as “very serious,” says China will continue their close communication with all international parties.
Zhai Jun has recently been in contact with various foreign ministers, including those from Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Norway, as well as representatives from the UN and EU.
Meanwhile, leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the UK, and the U.S. underscored their support for Israel in a joint statement in which they also called on Israel to follow international law and protect civilians.
In the statement, the leaders claim they want to “prevent the conflict from spreading” and find a “political solution and durable peace” in the region using diplomatic efforts that include “key partners in the region.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also discussed the captives taken by Hamas “and the need for their immediate release” with the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog.
“I also expressed my concern for the humanitarian situation in Gaza and my support for the right of both Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security,” Trudeau added.
According to Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, French President Emmanuel Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte will travel to Israel this week to meet with the Israeli prime minister.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin, announced plans late on Sunday that the U.S. would increase military resources in the region to enhance the U.S. presence in the region and bolster its support for Israel in response to “recent escalations by Iran and its proxy forces.”
“If any group or any country is looking to widen this conflict and take advantage of this very unfortunate situation…our advice is, don’t,” Austin warned on ABC’s This Week program.
The zionists are showing the world how vicious and brutal they are. They are still reeling from the attacks by Hamas, and it has shown the world that they do not have a brilliant military, that their Intelligence apparatus failed badly, that their Prime Minister is an incompetent fascist fool with a big mouth. He has been humiliated, and is taking his anger out of poor unarmed civilians, the number of casualties will show that.
He is responsible for not keeping his people safe, by inaction, and his refusal to end the Occupation and land theft.
It is unfortunate that US policies keeps supporting an apartheid nation that occupies and steals lands, while violating international laws. Israel has been accused of committing genocide, ethnic cleansing, collective punishment, and human rights abuses. Today the hatred against us has increased around the world because WE gave them the green light to kill civilians and children, and WE sent them the weapons to slaughter them.We showed the world that “there is no daylight between Israel and the US”. So we will alway be complicit in their crimes against humanity.
Israel has shown that it can be more violent than Hamas.
“UN experts condemn attacks on civilians in Israel, Gaza as ‘war crimes”
“We strongly condemn the horrific crimes committed by Hamas, the deliberate and widespread killing and hostage-taking of innocent civilians, including older persons and children. These actions constitute heinous violations of international law and international crimes, for which there must be urgent accountability,” the U.N. group said.
“We also strongly condemn Israel’s indiscriminate military attacks against the already exhausted Palestinian people of Gaza, comprising over 2.3 million people, nearly half of whom are children,” it added. “They have lived under unlawful blockade for 16 years, and already gone through five major brutal wars, which remain unaccounted for.”
“This amounts to collective punishment,” the experts continued. “There is no justification for violence that indiscriminately targets innocent civilians, whether by Hamas or Israeli forces. This is absolutely prohibited under international law and amounts to a war crime.”
https://thehill.com/policy/international/4251899-un-civilians-israel-gaza-war-crimes/