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

The Israeli army announced the death of 20-year-old soldier Nadav Cohen and updated its death toll, saying 600 soldiers have now been killed since the start of the war in Gaza.

Of those 600, 256 have been killed since the beginning of the army's ground invasion.

The Israeli army confirms that it has withdrawn from al-Shifa hospital and its vicinity in Gaza City, ending a two-week-long siege on the medical complex in which they claim to have killed and detained hundreds of Palestinian gunmen and seized weaponry and intelligence documents.

The army claims it conducted its raid without harming civilians and medical personnel, but the WHO says that 21 patients were killed during the siege. 

Gaza's civil defence said that around 300 people were killed during the raid.

Gaza's civil defence said in a statement that around 300 people were killed in al-Shifa hospital and its vicinity in Gaza City following the Israeli army's two-week-long operation in the area.

The World Health Organization (WHO) also said that 21 patients in the hospital have died since the siege began on 18 March.

Israeli forces have reportedly withdrawn from the area overnight.

Quoting defence sources, The Times of Israel report that the Israeli police arrested a sister of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh from her home in Tel Sheva, southern Israel.

The police, who conducted the raid alongside Israel's Shin Bet, did not name the woman and identified her as a 57-year-old female relative of Haniyeh.

They claim they found documents, telephones and other evidence allegedly linking her to "serious security offences".

The woman will appear later on Monday in court for a hearing.

Gaza City's al-Shifa Medical Complex, the largest hospital in all of Palestine, is left in ruins following the Israeli army's two-week siege on the hospital and its vicinity.

Reporting from the hospital, Al Jazeera Arabic's correspondent said that all buildings in the complex have been burned, with people trying to take whatever remains from regular items to essential supplies.

The channel also quoted medical sources saying that "hundreds" of bodies are lying inside the complex and in the streets surrounding it.

Pictures from the scene show severe damages and destruction.

Israel's army radio said their forces killed over 200 people and arrested over 900 during their two-week-long siege on al-Shifa Medical Complex.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates:

• Israeli forces reportedly withdrew from Gaza City's al-Shifa hospital and its vicinity, leaving the complex severely damaged and burned
• Israel says a drone attack lightly damaged a building in Eilat, as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claims to have targeted the country
• Axios reports that the US and Israel are expected to hold a virtual meeting later today, in which they will discuss the Biden administration's alternative proposals to an Israeli military invasion of Rafah
• Veterans for Peace said a US Air Force senior airman Larry Hebert will go on a hunger strike to shed light on the plight of Gaza's children

Good evening, Middle East Eye readers.

Our live coverage of Israel's assault on Gaza will shortly be closing for the evening.

Here are the day's key developments.

The Gaza health ministry has updated the death toll in the besieged Strip, stating it has jumped to 32,782. It added that 75,298 people had been injured since the war broke out on 7 October. The toll included 77 people killed and 108 wounded in the past 24 hours.

Israel's military said it carried out an air strike against a command centre operated by the armed Islamic Jihad group in the courtyard of al-Aqsa hospital in the central Gaza Strip. Palestinian health officials said the strike hit several tents used by journalists and displaced Palestinians in the vicinity of al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, killing four people and wounding several, including five journalists. 

The Israeli military said it killed a Hezbollah commander in an airstrike on a vehicle in Lebanon on Sunday, identifying him as Ismail al-Zin, a significant commander in the anti-tank missile unit of Hezbollah's Radwan Forces.

Two civilians were injured in Israeli strikes on the outskirts of Damascus on Sunday, the Syrian defence ministry said, in the second such attack on the country in a few days.

Other major developments on Sunday included:

• Palestinian Christians in occupied East Jerusalem observed low-scale Easter celebrations. According to Al Jazeera, the Church of Holy Sepulchre in occupied East Jerusalem was relatively empty, contrary to previous years, when the courtyard would be packed. 
• Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Jerusalem on Sunday against Benjamin Netanyahu's government and against exemptions granted to ultra-Orthodox Jewish men from military service, in scenes reminiscent of mass street protests last year.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to undergo hernia surgery tonight. His hernia was discovered by doctors "during a routine examination". During the period of surgery, Justice Minister Yariv Levin will serve as acting prime minister.
• A new Palestinian government led by recently appointed Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa was sworn in on Sunday. 
• Three ships, carrying 400 tonnes of aid, sailed for Gaza earlier on Sunday, a World Central Kitchen (WCK) representative said on board an accompanying boat. This was the second maritime aid shipment by the WCK to Gaza.

Hamas has accused rivals with the Palestinian Authority of sending security officers into northern Gaza under cover of securing aid trucks, the Gaza Hamas-run interior ministry said.

A Palestinian Authority official denied the Hamas accusations.

A senior Hamas interior ministry official told the group's Al-Aqsa TV that the force's mission was supervised by Majed Faraj, the Palestinian Authority's chief of intelligence.

It said six members of the force, who escorted aid trucks coming through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, were arrested and police forces were in pursuit to round up all other members.

"The suspicious security force that entered yesterday with Egyptian (Red) Crescent trucks coordinated its operations entirely with the (Israeli) occupation forces,” the Hamas official said, without providing evidence.

"The statement by the so-called Hamas interior ministry over the aid entry into Gaza Strip is incorrect," a Palestinian Authority official in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said in a statement.

Two civilians have been injured in Israeli strikes on the outskirts of Damascus on Sunday, the Syrian defence ministry said, in the second such attack on the country in a few days.

Israel targeted several locations in the vicinity of Damascus with missiles launched from the occupied Golan Heights, the ministry said in a statement.

"The aggression resulted in the injury of two civilians and some material losses," it added.

On Friday, Israel carried out its deadliest strikes in months on northern Syria's Aleppo province as it stepped up its campaign against Iran's proxies in parallel with its war in Gaza.

Three security sources told Reuters that 33 Syrians and six fighters from the Iran-backed group Hezbollah had been killed in those strikes. It was the single highest death toll in Israeli strikes on Syria since 7 October.

An Israeli air strike on Al-Aqsa hospital in Gaza killed four people and wounded another 17, World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

The strike was witnessed by a WHO team who were at the hospital to assess needs and collect incubators, he wrote, adding: "WHO staff are all accounted for."

The Israeli military said it killed a Hezbollah commander in an airstrike on a vehicle in Lebanon on Sunday, identifying him as Ismail al-Zin, a significant commander in the anti-tank missile unit of Hezbollah's Radwan Forces.

"Al-Zin was a significant source of knowledge regarding anti-tank missiles and was responsible for dozens of anti-tank missile attacks against Israeli civilians, communities and security forces," the military said.

Three ships, carrying 400 tonnes of food, sailed earlier today, a World Central Kitchen (WCK) representative said on board an accompanying boat.

The aid contains a variety of food, including canned products, flour, rice and dates.

This is the second maritime aid shipment by the WCK to Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will undergo hernia surgery tonight, his office announced.

His hernia was discovered by doctors "during a routine examination".

During the period of surgery, Justice Minister Yariv Levin will serve as acting prime minister.

The timing of Netanyahu's surgery is deemed critical, as families of Israelis held hostage in Gaza are staging a protest outside the Knesset building in Jerusalem, calling for a deal to release their relatives and accusing Netanyahu of deliberately sabotaging efforts to secure an agreement with Hamas.

On Saturday night, thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets in Tel Aviv, chanting slogans against Netanyahu and calling for the government's resignation and early elections.

The Israeli news website Haaretz reported that the Israeli delegation that was sent to engage in ceasefire talks has arrived Cairo.

The talks are supposed to resume today in the Egyptian capital

Earlier, several news reports stated that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has allowed "limited" powers to the negotiating team, which includes representatives from the intelligence agency Mossad, the internal security agency Shin Bet, and the military intelligence agency Aman, according to the Israeli Channel 12.

Egypt, Qatar and the US have mediated previous rounds of negotiations, but an agreement is still proving difficult to reach.