Israel-Palestine live: Biden urges Egypt, Qatar to press Hamas for hostage deal

The UN expects famine to hit northern Gaza by May, according to a new report.

The report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said about half the population of the enclave now face "catastrophic hunger".

“Famine is now projected and imminent in the North Gaza and Gaza Governorates and is expected to become manifest during the projection period from mid-March 2024 to May 2024,” it said.

Around 300,000 people are thought to be trapped in northern Gaza as a result of fighting and are now facing disaster.

The head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency said on Monday the hunger in the Gaza Strip is "man-made".

"We are engaged in a race against the clock to try to reverse the impact of the spreading hunger and the looming famine in the Gaza Strip," Unrwa chief Philippe Lazzarini said during a press conference in Cairo with Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry.

The crisis can be resolved and reversed through proper political will and Gaza can be "flooded" with food through the crossings, he added.

Reporting by Reuters

Mohammed Eliwa, a journalist reporting from al-Shifa hospital, told Al Jazeera Arabic that Israeli forces are shooting anyone moving in the courtyards. 

Hamadah Abdel Hadi, an activist also inside the hospital, said Israeli forces broke into the hospital and immediately targeted Al Jazeera staff. 

Ismail Alghoul, the network's correspondent, was beaten and dragged before getting arrested. 

Broadcast vehicles in the hospital were also destroyed, Al Jazeera said. 

Israeli forces arrested Al Jazeera Arabic's main correspondent in Gaza City from al-Shifa hospital on Monday, the Qatar-based network said. 

Ismail Alghoul, one of the last remaining journalists in the besieged city, was "severely beaten" before he was arrested, Al Jazeera said. 

An Israeli soldier was killed in Gaza City in fighting with Palestinian groups on Monday, according to the military. 

This brings the death toll in the army to nearly 600 since 7 October, including 250 killed inside the Gaza Strip by Palestinian fighters.

Israeli air strike in the west Gaza City al-Jalaa street have killed and wounded a number of Palestinians on Monday morning, according to initial local media reports. 

Marwan Barghouti, one the most prominent Palestinian political prisoners, was beaten by Israeli prison guards "in recent days", according to the head of the Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs. 

Qadura Fares said the targeting of Barghouti, which is endangering his life, is part of a campaign of repression against Palestinian prisoners which has escalated since the start of the month of Ramadan.

Punitive measures include "severe beatings, insults, humiliation and confiscation of the Qur’an from cells". 

"The situation has become more dangerous than anyone could imagine, as the lives of the prisoners have become threatened in the true sense," Fares said. 

He added that another high-profile prisoner facing increased attacks recently is Thabet Merdawi, an Islamic Jihad leader in jail since 2002.

The head of Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, will meet Qatar's prime minister and Egyptian officials in Doha on Monday for another round of ceasefire talks, according to several news reports. 

The meeting "is expected to take place today", a source told AFP on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of talks.

According to Reuters, an Israeli official estimated this stage of the negotiations could take at least two weeks.

Israel is provoking famine in Gaza and using starvation as a weapon of war, the EU's foreign policy Chief Josep Borrell said on Monday.

"In Gaza we are no longer on the brink of famine, we are in a state of famine, affecting thousands of people," Borrell said at the opening of a conference on humanitarian aid for Gaza in Brussels.

"This is unacceptable. Starvation is used as a weapon of war. Israel is provoking famine."

Reporting by Reuters

The Israeli military dropped leaflets Monday morning ordering Palestinians in  west Gaza City to flee south after launching a ground assault in the area.

The leaflets addressed residents in the Rimal neighbourhood and those living or staying near al-Shifa hospital, telling them to head towards the "humanitarian zone" in Mawasi, where troops previously attacked displaced people and killed some of them.  

A senior official at the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) accused Israeli authorities of endangering the life of Marwan Barghouti in prison. 

Barghouti, one the most prominent Palestinian political prisoners, was reportedly attacked by prison guards on Sunday. 

Hussein al-Sheikh, the secretary-general of the PLO executive committee, said in a post on social media platform X that Barghouti was being exposed to "isolation, torture and attempts to coerce, humiliate and beat him, putting his life in danger". 

"We call on the international community, institutions and international organisations to intervene immediately and urgently in order to stop the repressive measures against our prisoners and our leaders in the occupation prisons, protect them, and release them immediately," al-Sheikh said. 

Reports of the prison assault come amid a renewed push by mediators to find an agreement between Israel and Hamas to end the war on Gaza and swap prisoners, which could potentially include the release of Barghouti. 

Israeli forces have killed at least 81 Palestinians and wounded 116 more over the past 24 hours in eight "massacres", according to the Palestinian health ministry. 

This brings the Palestinian death toll in over five months to more than 31,726, with over 73,792 wounded and an estimated 8,000 missing, believed to be dead and buried under rubble.

More than 70 percent of the victims are children and women, according to health officials.

Israeli troops forced Palestinians out of school shelters and al-Shifa hospital in western Gaza City amid an ongoing new ground assault in the  area.

According to Al Jazeera, two schools near al-Shifa were surrounded by Israeli forces. 

One of them, the American International School in Gaza, was later raided and men sheltering inside with their families were detained. 

Women were ordered to move south towards Deir al-Balah, according to the report. 

Hamas said the raid on al-Shifa hospital was an expression of "confusion, chaos and hopelessness" by the Israeli army amid inability to achieve the stated military goals. 

"The crimes of the occupation and the ongoing genocide war against our people and all components of life in Gaza will not create any image of victory for [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and his Nazi army," the Palestinian group said in a statement. 

"They are an expression of the state of confusion, chaos, and loss of hope in achieving any military achievement other than targeting defenceless civilians."

Hamas also renewed its call for the International Committee of the Red Cross and the World Health Organization to "protect what remains of medical facilities in the Gaza Strip". 

The Israeli military said it arrested 80 people from Gaza City's al-Shifa hospital during the ongoing raid. 

The hospital, where patients and thousands of families were taken shelter, came under attack just after 2:00 am local time (12:00am GMT)

The military repeated its claim the hospital was recently being used as a "command centre" by Hamas members without providing evidence to support its claim. 

According to Israeli media, the military says it has "established control" over the hospital.