Israel-Palestine live: US and Israel air differences over Gaza strategy

The emergency co-ordinator at Doctors Without Borders, Marie-Aure Perreaut, said that the Gaza healthcare system has now “completely collapsed”. 

Speaking to Al Jazeera, she said that there are only “extremely limited” services left in Gaza. 

“The healthcare system is completely collapsed at the moment. It is difficult for us to keep up with the constant influx of the wounded,” she said.

“On top of this, it’s extremely difficult for the colleagues to be coming through the emergency room (ER) because they are the ones who are being wounded. Just about an hour ago, one of our colleagues came to the ER badly injured together with his family,” she added.

“It is extremely traumatising.”
 

Israel used US-supplied white phosphorous in an attack on southern Lebonon on 16 October, the Washington Post revealed on Monday.

An analysis of shell fragments found in Dheira village near the border with Israel found lot production codes which match the nomenclature used by the US military. Arms experts identified the shells as white phosphorous rounds.

Nine civilans were injured in the attack, with three hospitalised.

Amnesty International has called for the attack to be investigated as a war crime.

Palestinians marched in Ramallah today to demand a ceasefire as part of the global strike called by National and Islamic forces, a coalition of Palestinian factions.

Protesters unfurled a banner emblazoned with the names of thousands of Palestinians killed by the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza.

In Ramallah's city centre, children wrote letters to their peers in Gaza.

The Palestinian presidency said in a statement today that the Israeli government's withholding of Palestinian clearance funds constitutes "piracy and collective punishment" of the Palestinian people, warning of serious consequences across all sectors, particularly the health sector.

In a statement, it condemned the decision to withhold the funds as a "war crime", adding that the US government "also bears direct responsibility for supporting the policy and the continuation of the war and the withholding and the stealing of the funds of the Palestinian people who face aggression, famine and destitution in Gaza and the West Bank, including Jerusalem".

The informal one-day trip is being organised by the United Arab Emirates and Egypt and comes just days after the US vetoed a Security Council resolution for a ceasefire, and the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate. The US and France did not send any representatives.

"There is no justification to turning a blind eye to the pain and suffering inflicted on the Palestinian people in Gaza," an Egyptian foreign ministry official told the envoys during a briefing following their arrival that the AFP reported. 

Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE's envoy to the Security Council, said the visit aims to help council ambassadors "understand not only the suffering and destruction experienced by the people of Gaza but also their hope and their strength".
 

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank observed a general strike on Monday to show solidarity with Gaza and demand a ceasefire.

The Israeli army confirmed that an additional four soldiers were killed in Gaza overnight. 

On Sunday three reserve soldiers were killed in a battle in the southern Gaza Strip. This brings the number of Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza since the ground operation began on 27 October to at least 104. 

Italy, France and Germany called on the European Union to impose ad hoc sanctions against Hamas and its supporters, the foreign ministers of the three nations wrote in a joint letter to the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

"We express our full support for the ... proposal to create an ad hoc sanctions regime against Hamas and its supporters," said the letter seen by Reuters.

"The swift adoption of this sanctions regime will enable us to send a strong political message about the European Union's commitment against Hamas and our solidarity with Israel," the letter said.

The forced displacement of 80 percent of Gaza's population has taken a particularly heavy toll on the plight of pregnant women, which the UN estimates to be around 50,000.

Khaled, a medical graduate from Gaza, described the dire situation pregnant women are facing.

He told Middle East Eye that around 300 pregnant women arrive daily in the maternity ward of the Al-Aqsa Hospital where he's been volunteering.

"Many of them had to travel long distances, some evacuated from the north to the south on foot just to get here. Those who live here often arrive on donkey-led carts or on foot, and very few by car," he said.

Khaled noted that many pregnant women suffer from malnutrition, dehydration or anaemia, pointing out that the constant sound of bombings, inhalation of white phosphorus, stress and anxiety pose serious risks, leading to an increase in miscarriages.

"I've seen cases where pregnant women, particularly those in the early months of pregnancy, had inhaled white phosphorus, resulting in the death of their fetus. Some of them had undergone IVF procedures after a long wait. Others experienced their amniotic fluid leaking while walking to the hospital as they couldn't find a ride," Khaled said.

The Israeli daily, Haaretz, reported that Israeli security officials warned on Sunday that the army’s strategy in Gaza is failing to create conditions for the release of further captives. 

The killing of Hamas officials is not progressing in the way the Israeli army thought it would at this stage of the war. Despite Israeli efforts to kill high ranking Hamas officials the group is still able to continue fighting. 

On Sunday the Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani speaking at the Doha Forum said that Israel's bombardment of Gaza is "narrowing the window" for a new truce and the release of captives. 

The Palestinian Red Crescent says Israeli jets launched several attacks in the morning near the al-Amal Hospital in southern Gaza.

“Occupation forces continued artillery shelling… in the northern areas of the association’s headquarters, which shelters 13,000 displaced people,” it said in a post on X.
 

The Lebanese Hezbollah announced the  two of its members were killed in the ongoing battles with the Israeli army on the Lebanese border.

Foreign Secretary David Cameron is threatening to close the Scottish government’s overseas offices over a breach of international protocol.

Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf met President Erdogan of Turkey at the COP 28 summit in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) without UK officials being present.

Following his meeting with the Turkish president, Yousaf posted a picture of himself shaking hands with Erdogan calling for “an immediate & permanent ceasefire now”. The UK government does not support a ceasefire.

Cameron said that foreign affairs are a policy area reserved to UK ministers and it was crucial “that we speak with one voice to the international community”.

Cameron warned that “further breaches” would result in the UK government would also withdraw support for Scottish ministers in arranging future meetings with overseas governments.

UN humanitarian coordinator Lynn Hastings has condemned the assaults on human rights on both Palestinians and Israelis as the world marked International Human Rights on Sunday.

Hastings called for the unconditional release of captives held by Hamas, while criticising Israel's "disproportionate" actions in Gaza.

"The air strikes against civilians and civilian infrastructure... cannot be justified. Nor can the siege, depriving the entire Gaza population of food, water, healthcare and hygiene," she wrote in a statement.

"In 2023, I should not have to issue such a statement. It is as if we have learnt nothing in the past 75 years," Hastings wrote.

The Israeli army has launched a website publishing its military casualties.

The website claims 430 soldiers have been killed since 7 October - 97 of whom have been killed since the launch of the ground operation on October 7.

At least 1,593 wounded according to the website. However, the Israeli daily Haaretz, which forced the government to release the data - which it had refused - found major discrepancies in the data.

Haaretz conducted an examination of the data released by the hospitals where wounded soldiers have been and are treated and found a “unexplained gap between the data reported by the military and that from the hospitals.”

The hospitals' data shows that the number of wounded soldiers to be twice as high as the army's numbers and the paper reported that is likely a undercount.