Live: Israel dropped 153 tonnes of bombs on Gaza on Sunday
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Israeli forces dropped 153 tonnes (337,307 pounds) of bombs on Gaza on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told parliament.
"One of our hands holds a weapon, the other hand is stretched out for peace," Netanyahu told members of the Knesset. "You make peace with the strong, not the weak. Today Israel is stronger than ever before."
Israel said that it had launched a wave of air strikes in Gaza because two of its soldiers were killed in an alleged Hamas attack. The Palestinian group has denied any knowledge of the attack.
At least 45 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces over the past 48 hours.
Hamas' armed wing has said it will hand over at 1700 GMT on Monday the remains of an Israeli captive recovered a day earlier in Gaza.
Record numbers of Israelis have left the country since 2020, with policymakers enjoying little success in stemming the outflow over the past five years.
A report released by the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, has alarmed politicians who fear the impact of a declining Jewish population in the state.
The Knesset’s Research and Information Center (RIC) said between 2020 and 2024, some 145,900 more Israelis left the country for the long term than returned.
In 2020, 34,000 Israelis left the country for extended periods, followed by 43,400 in 2021, while 32,500 and 23,600 returned in those respective years.
There was a sharp jump in long‑term departures in 2022 and 2023, with 59,400 Israelis leaving in 2022 and 82,800 in 2023 – a surge partly linked to the start of the Gaza war in October that year.
Read more: Record number of Israelis leaving and not returning since 2020, Knesset report says
Israel allowed at least 66 Palestinians and Turkish citizens to leave the Gaza Strip earlier this month following a request from Turkey, Middle East Eye has learned. The group included 16 members of the late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s family.
Fourteen Turkish citizens and 40 close relatives of Turkish citizens, including spouses, sons, fathers and mothers, were released as part of a bilateral arrangement between Israel and Turkey, according to two separate sources.
The decision followed a Gaza ceasefire agreement reached in the first week of October, in which Turkey played a mediating role by helping to bring Hamas to the negotiating table.
Five of the 16 Haniyeh family members were relatives of Turkish citizens.
Turkey maintained longstanding contacts with Haniyeh, who headed Hamas’ political bureau until Israel assassinated him in July 2024 in Tehran.
Exclusive: Israel allows Haniyeh family members to leave Gaza after Turkish request
The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip has continued to rise despite a ceasefire, with the toll reaching 68,216 on Monday. Most of those killed since October 2023 are women and children. More than 170,361 others have been wounded since the war began, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The ministry said that 57 bodies, including 45 killed directly by Israeli forces and 12 recovered from under the rubble, along with 158 wounded Palestinians, were brought to hospitals in Gaza over the past 48 hours.
For two years, Amer Ali, a resident of the southern Yemeni city of Aden, joined rallies opposing Israel’s devastating war on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 68,000 people.
Ali viewed these demonstrations, held regularly across Yemen, as a moral duty to stand against what the United Nations and leading genocide scholars have condemned as genocide in Gaza.
To his dismay, however, the leadership of the Southern Transitional Council (STC) - the main separatist movement in southern Yemen - has recently signalled a willingness to normalise relations with Israel.
Ali has supported southern secession for a decade. He long regarded the STC as the movement most capable of restoring South Yemen’s independence from the north, which has been under Houthi control since the civil war erupted in 2014.
However, remarks made last month by STC leader Aidarus al-Zoubaidi have sparked outrage among Yemenis across the political spectrum, both in the north and the south.
Zoubaidi said the creation of an independent southern state could pave the way for normalisation with Israel.
"The STC was heading towards signing an alliance agreement with Israel before 7 October 2023," he added.
Read more: Yemen's southern secessionists face backlash over talk of ties with Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on Monday to discuss developments and updates in the region, according to an Israeli government spokesperson.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid on Monday said the country is going through the most serious political crisis in its history, and that Netanyahu made a mistake by not participating in the Egypt summit.
"Even after the signing of the Gaza agreement, the State of Israel remains in the midst of the most dangerous political crisis in its history. 142 countries have recognized a Palestinian state, while the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund has decided to withdraw its investments from Israel, including investments in Israeli banks," Lapid said.
"International companies have canceled their participation in projects inside Israel, and in Europe, Israeli products are being silently removed from store shelves," he said.
"Senior Israeli officials have left their posts, while the head of the commission, Tzachi Hanegbi, is about to step down due to a pending indictment against him," he added.
Lapid said that Netanyahu made a "grave mistake" by not participating in the international summit in Sharm el-Sheikh.
Israeli army on Monday launched a series of attacks on sites in southern Lebanon, newspaper Israel Hayom reported.
An Israeli warplane launched an air strike targeting the Jarmaq area in southern Lebanon, Al Jazeera reported.
Hezbollah and Israel reached a ceasefire agreement in November 2024, however, Tel Aviv has violated the agreement more than 4,500 times. As per official data, at least 276 have died as a result of the violations.
A Hamas delegation is set to meet Qatari and Egyptian officials in Cairo on Monday to discuss the Gaza ceasefire, AFP reported.
The reports said the delegation, headed by Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya, will discuss "the dozens of air strikes that killed dozens in the Gaza Strip" on Sunday.
The Israeli military conducted multiple strikes across Gaza on Sunday, during which two of its soldiers were killed. Hamas denied any knowledge of an attack and said Israel had broken the ceasefire deal in place since 10 October.
Meanwhile, US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv to discuss developments in Gaza and the West Bank, Israel's Channel 12 reported.
Over the past 24 hours, al-Awda Hospital said Israeli forces have killed at least 24 Palestinians and wounded 74 others. At least 97 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks across Gaza since the start of the latest ceasefire on 10 October.
Israeli forces violated the ceasefire again on Monday by bombing areas in the central Gaza Strip, Khan Younis and Rafah, Gaza's civil defence agency said.
US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff on Monday met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv to discuss developments in Gaza and the West Bank, Israel's Channel 12 reported.
Earlier, Kushner said that Israel must help the Palestinians succeed if it wants to integrate into the Middle East, and that Hamas is looking to fulfil its commitment.
Speaking to CBS News, Kushner, who has no formal role in the White House, but is working as Donald Trump’s emissary to the Middle East said: "When I visited Gaza, I asked where people were returning to. They told me that they were returning to their destroyed homes and setting up tents. It is very sad that people in Gaza are returning to destroyed homes.
"So far, we see that Hamas is looking to fulfil its commitment. We wanted the hostages released and we wanted a real ceasefire that both sides would respect. Both parties wanted to achieve the goal; we just had to find a way to help," he said.
Violent clashes erupted in Tel Aviv during a derby between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Tel Aviv, forcing the match to be cancelled as rival fans hurled flares and fought inside the stands.
Dozens were injured and police made multiple arrests, with Israeli authorities calling the scenes “one of the worst outbreaks of football violence in years.”
The unrest comes as UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer pushes to overturn a police ban preventing Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending their upcoming Europa Conference League match at Aston Villa.
Police imposed the restriction after assessing the fixture as high-risk, citing previous violent incidents involving Maccabi supporters.
Starmer called the ban “the wrong decision” and urged police to ignore the threat, but now critics say the Tel Aviv derby chaos proves the UK authorities were right to prioritise public safety.
Allowing the same fanbase to travel abroad so soon after violent clashes at home, they warn, could put both supporters and local communities at serious risk.
Maccabi supporters were also involved in violent attacks and racial slurs in Amsterdam in November 2024, where Dutch police made several arrests after confrontations with Ajax fans.
Israeli forces on Monday killed at least three Palestinians in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood east of Gaza City, Al Jazeera Arabic reported, citing medical sources.
Over the past 24 hours, al-Awda Hospital said Israeli forces have killed at least 24 Palestinians and wounded 74 others.
At least 97 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks across Gaza since the start of the latest ceasefire on 10 October.
Israeli forces violated the ceasefire again on Monday by bombing areas in the central Gaza Strip, Khan Younis and Rafah, Gaza's civil defence agency said.
Civil defence teams reported the Israeli army deliberately targeted schools housing displaced Palestinians, "exacerbating the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip".
Dozens of aid trucks entered Gaza on Monday through the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) and Kissufim crossings, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.
The trucks were carrying food and relief supplies, following Israel’s decision to resume the entry of humanitarian aid.
On Sunday, Israel halted aid deliveries to Gaza in a major breach of the ceasefire agreement. Israeli media said the decision followed a military recommendation to suspend aid deliveries into the Gaza Strip until further notice.
A security official confirmed the decision to AFP, which further tightened the blockade on a population already facing catastrophic humanitarian conditions under Israeli siege.
Israeli settlers on Monday stormed a school in Khirbet Ibziq, north of Tubas, Wafa news agency reported.
Abdul Majeed Khdeirat, head of the Khirbet Ibziq village council, said the settlers were under the protection of Israeli soldiers.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces fired artillery in areas east of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera reported.
