Because the prime minister boarded his aircraft, the United Nations accused Israeli troops of firing on certainly one of its support convoys a day earlier because it traveled an agreed-upon path to northern Gaza. Previous assaults by Israeli forces on support staff have strained relations between Netanyahu’s authorities and the Biden administration, which has supplied Israel with a gradual stream of weapons all through the conflict.
After 9 months of battle, aid teams describe Gaza as one of the harmful locations to function on the planet, as greater than 1 million civilians shelter in tents from the summer season warmth. Famine is looming, in keeping with a U.N.-backed evaluation, and Israel’s Well being Ministry stated Friday that it has detected a pressure of the polio virus in Gaza’s sewage as a sanitation disaster mounts.
As a part of Israel’s operation Monday, its army ordered the evacuation of an japanese sector of the town of Khan Younis. The orders additionally included an space throughout the metropolis’s Mawasi neighborhood, which was beforehand throughout the boundaries of a chosen secure zone for displaced individuals. A whole lot of 1000’s of Palestinians are sheltering within the secure zone space.
Photographs from inside Gaza present 1000’s of individuals clutching their possessions as they push by means of streets filled with individuals and particles, in search of to flee areas that Israel stated would quickly see army motion.
In a press release, Hamas’s army wing stated it had fired upon three Israeli tanks and a bulldozer within the Bani Suheila space of Khan Younis, suggesting that fierce battles had been raging there. The Gaza Well being Ministry stated 70 individuals have been killed and 200 wounded up to now on Monday. The native civil protection power stated members of certainly one of its ambulance crews had been wounded as they tried to achieve casualties on the Bani Suhaila roundabout.
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In Nasser Hospital, one of the practical remaining medical services within the Gaza Strip, casualties streamed in and docs did what they may. Most of the sufferers had been kids, and a few arrived by themselves, medics stated. Javid Abdelmoneim, a medical workforce chief for Medical doctors With out Borders, stated he had handled ladies with burns and our bodies riddled with shrapnel, in addition to a younger boy with “horrific” facial accidents.
It was the hospital’s fourth mass casualty occasion of the week, and this time, Abdelmoneim stated, the employees’s households had been affected. “Two of them had been crying as they obtained calls from their household. They had been listening to the sound of violence exterior their properties, however the households couldn’t go away,” he stated.
At one level, one other physician “turned white as a ghost,” Abdelmoneim recalled. The person had acknowledged one of the grievously wounded. “I used to be working with that physician yesterday,” the person stated.
Out on the streets of Khan Younis, Iman al-Zeer, 34, a mom of 4, reached by cellphone, stated she was unable to go away as a result of heavy gunfire.
Zeer stated she might hear the sound of intense shelling and airstrikes shut by. “We had been listening to the sounds of the screams of individuals as they fled,” she stated. “At any time when we attempt to transfer, we’re shot at. It’s inconceivable for us to maneuver, as a result of we must stroll towards Bani Suhaila.”
Additionally Monday, Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. Aid and Works Company (UNRWA) that aids Palestinian refugees, stated that Israeli forces fired upon one of many group’s convoys a day earlier because it waited for the Israeli military to green-light its onward motion to the battle-scarred north.
“The groups had been touring in clearly marked UN armoured vehicles & carrying UN vests. One car obtained not less than 5 bullets,” Lazzarini stated in a message posted to X. “These accountable have to be held accountable.”
The Israeli army didn’t reply to a request for remark concerning the incident. Louise Wateridge, a spokeswoman for UNRWA, stated that, by probability, she had been sitting within the entrance passenger seat of the car that was fired upon. The bullets appeared to have come from an space of IDF operations to the east, she stated, and left fragments on the again seat.
“We had been extremely fortunate that there was no person within the again seat. That is the primary mission I’ve ever been on within the Gaza Strip the place there was no person within the again seat. Nevertheless it shouldn’t come right down to luck,” she stated.
She added that there have been no seen army targets within the space and that the volley of bullets cracked by means of the air after a displaced Palestinian mom handed the car, carrying a child in her arms whereas three younger kids trudged behind her within the baking warmth.
“They had been there actually moments earlier than,” Wateridge stated. “They might have been within the firing line, and for what?”
Greater than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel’s army operation started, in keeping with the Gaza Well being Ministry.
Netanyahu’s tense relationship with President Biden has deteriorated drastically in current months as Israel has defied quite a few White Home entreaties to extend the movement of humanitarian support in Gaza and do extra to guard civilians. The administration put a maintain on 2,000-pound bombs to Israel in Could, citing their use in populated areas.
Israeli army officers say probably the most intense part of their conflict in opposition to Hamas is nearing an finish. However on the bottom in Gaza, Palestinian and international medics say they’ve witnessed a surge in mass casualty assaults by Israeli forces in current weeks. The casualties have overwhelmed hospitals that would barely address the sheer variety of unhealed wounds they had been treating from earlier assaults, support teams say.
Analysts forged the shift as a part of an Israeli technique to strain Hamas in ongoing diplomatic negotiations geared toward securing a cease-fire and the discharge of the greater than 100 hostages nonetheless held by the group. As U.S.-backed talks in Cairo are reportedly gaining momentum, the Biden administration is urgent a reluctant Netanyahu to just accept a deal. He denies that he’s obstructing the method.
Netanyahu has been accused by critics of prolonging the conflict for his personal political profit, a cost he denies. He stays adamant that Israel should struggle till Hamas has been destroyed, a purpose his personal generals have stated is unachievable.
U.S. administration officers denied, earlier than Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race, that Netanyahu had been considerably emboldened by criticism of the president’s bodily potential to do his job. However they acknowledged that Biden’s mounting issues have coincided with a hardening of the prime minister’s place. Netanyahu lately got here ahead with last-minute calls for that U.S. negotiators feared would stymie the Cairo talks, in keeping with diplomats acquainted with the discussions.
The Israel Protection Forces stated Monday that two extra hostages, Alex Dancyg, 76, and Yagev Buchshtab, 35, have been killed within the Gaza Strip. “The circumstances of their deaths in Hamas captivity are being investigated by all related skilled our bodies,” army spokesman Daniel Hagari stated. “The IDF and different safety businesses will proceed to help the households of the hostages as wanted.”
The Hostages Households Discussion board, an umbrella group representing family members of the roughly 250 hostages kidnapped by Hamas and different armed teams on Oct. 7, described the information as “devastating.” Buchshtab, it stated, “was a humble and unassuming man who cherished life” within the kibbutz from which he was taken. “Hostages who had been held captive with him reported that [Dancyg] spent his time in captivity giving historical past lectures to fellow captives.”
“Their demise in captivity is a tragic reflection of the results of foot-dragging in negotiations. We reiterate our demand to the Israeli authorities and its chief: Approve the deal instantly.”
Right here’s what else to know:
- Vice President Harris won’t preside over the Senate chamber when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses Congress on Wednesday, two individuals acquainted with her plans, who spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate personal conversations, advised The Washington Publish. Harris and Netanyahu will meet individually through the Israeli chief’s go to.
- Israeli athletes on the Paris Olympics might be supplied with 24-hour safety, French Inside Minister Gérald Darmanin stated Sunday. The safety announcement got here after a far-left French lawmaker stated Israel’s delegation was not welcome on the occasion and known as for protests in opposition to the athletes taking part.
- A Canadian citizen tried to hold out a stabbing assault in southern Israel near the Gaza border, the IDF and Israeli police stated Monday. The suspect was neutralized by the fast response workforce he had reportedly threatened. Police described him as a Muslim from Canada who was visiting Israel as a vacationer.
- Not less than 39,006 individuals have been killed and 89,818 injured in Gaza for the reason that conflict began, stated the Gaza Well being Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants however says the vast majority of the lifeless are ladies and youngsters. Israel estimates that about 1,200 individuals had been killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 assault, together with greater than 300 troopers, and it says 326 troopers have been killed for the reason that begin of its army operations in Gaza.
Lior Soroka in Tel Aviv and Steve Hendrix in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
