Israel-Palestine live: Unicef says over 13,000 children killed in Gaza

Over the weekend, images of Yazan al-Kafarna, a 10-year-old Palestinian child hospitilised in southern Gaza's Rafah with acute hunger and malnutrition, spread widely online.

Kafarna has died, according to reports on Monday. He is the 16th child to die of malnutrition since the war began in October.

Kafarna and his family were displaced from northern Gaza's Beit Hanoun. The images circulating over the weekend showed Kafarna, who had cerebral palsy and required a particular diet, lying on a hospital bed with sunken cheeks.

In one video, his father shows a photo of his son before the war looking healthy.

“Before the war he was healthy, he had access to all the food and medical care he needed. When the war started, everything was cut off… this happened to him from the lack of nutrition and him not having important foods,” he said, adding that the photo of him was taken just a week before the war started.

Read more: Palestinian child dies from hunger and malnutrition in Gaza

Amos Hochstein, a US special envoy visiting Beirut, has warned that the escalating violence on the Lebanese-Israeli border may not reduce if a ceasefire is reached in Gaza.

Hochstein, who has previously worked as a mediator between Israel and the Lebanese government over maritime border issues, is visiting the Lebanese capital on Monday to address the growing tensions.

"Escalation of violence is in no one's interest, and there is no such thing as a limited war," he told reporters. "A temporary ceasefire is not enough. A limited war is not containable."

Hochstein said he was hopeful a diplomatic solution to Israel's war in Gaza would be reached soon.

Yet, he warned, "it does not necessarily happen that when you have a ceasefire in Gaza, it just automatically extends".

At least 296 people have been killed by Israeli attacks in Lebanon, including at least 46 civilians. On Monday, an anti-tank missiled fired into Israel killed a foreign worker, bringing the death toll on the Israeli side to 10 soldiers and eight civilians.

Israel has agreed to change the lyrics of its potential entry for the Eurovision Song Contest after organisers took issue with apparent references to the war in Gaza. 

National broadcaster Kan is responsible for choosing the country's submission for the competition, which takes place in Sweden's Malmo from 7 to 11 May.

The leading Israeli submission is October Rain, a ballad by solo artist Eden Golan. 

The original lyrics to the song, according to Kan, including lines such as "There’s no air left to breathe" and "They were all good children, each one of them."

The lyrics are apparent references to the surprise attack by Palestinian fighters on southern Israel on 7 October. 

Kan had initially said it would not change the lyrics, but agreed to do so after a request by Israeli President Isaac Herzog. 

Read more: Israel to change lyrics of Eurovision entry after its president weighs in

A foreign worker was killed and two Indian workers were seriously wounded by an anti-tank missile attack in northern Israel earlier on Monday, according to Israeli emergency services.

The nationality of the worker killed has yet to be confirmed.

The casualties had shrapnel injuries, and were evacuated from agricultural land near the border with southern Lebanon.

The family of an Israeli captive who was gunned down by Israeli soldiers in Gaza say that they were not notified that an audio recording of him pleading for help had been leaked to the media.

Alon Shamriz, 26, was shot dead along with two other captives, Yotam Haim, 28, and Samar Fouad Talalka, 24, after they had escaped their captors.

They were killed by Israeli forces as they approached them shirtless and waving a white cloth in the Gaza City neighbourhood of Shujaiya. A military spokesperson said that the men had been mistakenly identified as a threat.

An audio recording of Shamriz pleading for help amidst bursts of gunfire as he tried to alert troops to save them in December, was aired on Sunday by Israeli radio station, Kan.

Read more: Israeli captive's family condemn leaked recording

A distinctive feature of western political thinking is its astonishing capacity to justify and self-absolve when the West commits atrocities or tolerates those perpetrated by allies. 

This attitude is combined with a peculiar tendency to see everywhere enemies who are allegedly determined to destroy freedom and democracy.

This is nothing new; it is neither a byproduct of the Cold War era nor of the post-Cold War one. Its roots go back thousands of years, at least to the ancient Greeks facing the Persians, and fits with Edward Said’s observation that modern societies tend to “derive a sense of their identities negatively”. In other words, they affirm and reinforce themselves in comparison with other societies deemed to be opposite and inferior. 

To a certain extent, this is a binary distinction resulting from the dichotomous thinking inherited from Aristotelian philosophy, which continues to shape western political thought.

A recent political construct supporting this mindset is the “democracy versus autocracy” narrative incessantly promoted by the Biden administration, to the point that it was fully incorporated into the US national security strategy, and whose fundamental ideas have been promptly accepted by Washington’s lost and disoriented European allies, apparently unable to develop autonomous strategic thinking attached to their own national interests.

This narrative frames Russia, Iran and China as the three main autocracies threatening the US-led rules-based world order, which, regardless of how many western theorists try to portray it as international law, is actually something quite different. Rather, it could be aptly summarised by the motto: “For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.”

The test cases of the new western narrative are the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, in addition to issues with China over the South China Sea, Taiwan, and the latter's impressive technological accomplishments. 

Read more: The West's last gasp of global dominance - By Marco Carnelos

Israeli forces have detained dozens of Palestinians from a residential complex in Khan Younis, according to local media. 

Hamad City, a complex containing hundreds of flats housing people who lost their homes in earlier Israeli wars, came under attack over the weekend. 

Israeli tanks and ground troops surrounded the Qatari-funded buildings and forced thousands of residents out. 

Some 1,200 were detained from Khan Younis in recent days and taken to unknown locations, according to the Israeli military. 

Israeli forces have detained hundreds of Palestinians from "safe corridors" since invading Gaza in late October.

The detainees include doctors, journalists, women, children, and elders aged as young as six and as old as 82. 

They are taken to military detention facilities, held without charge, interrogated, and abused for weeks, according to a UN report reviewed by the New York Times.

Israeli soldiers have been killing Palestinian civilians in Gaza by running them over with tanks and armoured vehicles, a report by the Euro-Med Human Rights monitor states.

According to the report released on Monday, one of those killed was a Palestinian man in Gaza City's Zaytoun neighbourhood on 29 February.

Eyewitnesses told the rights monitor that the man had his hands restrained, was stripped, and that he was alive while he was run over on asphalt. 

Other similar incidents have also been carried out by the Israeli army, the rights monitor stated.

On 23 January, an Israeli tank ran over members of the Ghannam family while they were sleeping in a caravan in the Taiba Towers area of Khan Younis. 

The attack resulted in the deaths of the father and his eldest daughter, while the remaining three children and wife were wounded. 

The incident was confirmed by the 13-year-old daughter, Amina, who said that her father and older sister were killed when the tanks repeatedly drove over the caravan where the family had been sleeping. 

As a result of the attack, Amina experienced extreme pressure in her eyes, almost losing her vision. 

Read more: Israeli tanks deliberately ran over dozens of Palestinians, report says

The Israeli war on Gaza is a "powder keg" with the potential to spark broader conflict in the Middle East, UN human rights chief Volker Turk said on Monday.

Turk said it was imperative to do everything possible to avoid a wider conflagration.

"The war in Gaza has already generated dangerous spillover in neighbouring countries," he said in his global update to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

"I am deeply concerned that in this powder keg, any spark could lead to a much broader conflagration. This would have implications for every country in the Middle East and many beyond it."

He said that overlapping emergencies made the spectre of spillover conflict very real.

"The military escalation in southern Lebanon between Israel, Hezbollah and other armed groups is extremely worrying," Turk said.

The UN high commissioner for human rights said almost 200 people had been killed in Lebanon and some 90,000 internally displaced. 

There was also extensive damage to health facilities, schools and vital infrastructure.

"Incidents in which civilians, including children, paramedics and journalists, have been killed in attacks must be fully investigated," said Turk.

"It is imperative to do everything possible to avoid a wider conflagration."

A silent procession was held Monday in the Israeli parliament, or the Knesset, for captives held in Gaza.

The march was organised by the captives' families and supporters to mark 150 days since their captivity began. 

Participants counted to 150 outside the Knesset building before going inside and marching in silence through the corridors, holding photos of the captives, according to Israeli media. 

One person was killed and seven wounded in northern Israel from an anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon on Monday, according to Israel rescue service.

President Tayyip Erdogan is set to discuss Turkey's efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during talks this week in Ankara, a Turkish diplomatic source told Reuters Monday.

Speaking at a diplomatic forum in Turkey at the weekend, the Palestinian Authority's Foreign Minister Riyad-al Maliki said Abbas would pay a visit to Ankara on Tuesday and meet Erdogan.

Erdogan and Abbas will discuss recent developments in Gaza as well as the situation in the West Bank, the diplomatic source said.

"Turkey has been delivering extensive humanitarian aid to Gaza in coordination with Egypt since the beginning of Israel's attacks... Within this scope, humanitarian aid operations will also be discussed during the meetings with President Abbas," the source said.

Reporting by Reuters 

The Palestinian health ministry has provided an update on the destruction caused by Israeli forces to Gaza's health system after 150 days of war. Here are some of the key highlights: 

• 364 health professionals were killed and 269 others arrested

• 155 medical facilities destroyed

• 32 hospitals and 53 health centres put out of service

• 126 ambulances targeted and put out of service

Ashraf al-Qudra, the ministry's spokesperson, said: "The Israeli occupation deliberately caused an untold humanitarian and health catastrophe that contributed to the spread of epidemics and infectious diseases.

"We call on the United Nations to activate international humanitarian law to protect civilians, institutions and medical teams."

The deputy secretary of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement said the US is seeking only a temporary pause in fighting but not an end to the war. 

Speaking from Beirut, Muhammad al-Hindi accused the US of bias towards Israel in the ongoing ceasefire talks, saying Washington was motivated by fears of a regional escalation. 

"The goal of the current effort is to achieve a humanitarian truce and release captives only, not to stop the war," Hindi said.