Live: Over 200 Lebanese children killed in two months of Israeli attacks

Syria’s state news agency SANA reported that Israel launched an air strike targeting civilian sites south of Damascus.

Citing the Syrian defence ministry, the agency said the attack originated from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights and resulted in material damage only.

This marks the first reported strike near Damascus since early October, when an Israeli attack on a residential building left seven people dead.

The area hit, Sayeda Zeinab, is a known Hezbollah stronghold that has previously faced similar strikes. 

The Israeli military has not commented on this latest incident.

Over 100 queer Israeli activists have thrown their support behind the suspension of Israeli organisation The Aguda from a major global LGBTQ+ advocacy group.

In an open letter, the activists have called on the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, known as ILGA World, to "immediately expel organisations complicit in apartheid and genocide from its membership".

The letter, which welcomed ILGA World's recent decision to remove The Aguda’s bid to host its next conference in Tel Aviv, is signed by activists calling themselves "Queers Against Genocide". The signatories said they had withheld their identities because of safety concerns.

"As bi, trans, queer, lesbian and gay activists, it's our obligation to stand shoulder to shoulder with our Palestinian comrades, fight alongside them for decolonisation, life and liberation, and against any form of oppression," they write.

"Many of us have marched in the past decades under the banner 'No Pride in Occupation', and now continue to shout out: No Pride in Genocide!"

Read more: Queer Israelis back suspension of pro-Gaza war group from LGBTQ+ federation

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation reported that an Israeli reserve soldier took his own life after receiving a call-up to rejoin his unit.

Israeli air strikes have killed at least 12 Palestinians across Gaza, sparking fears among residents that new attacks and forced evacuations in the enclave’s northern areas may be aimed at creating buffer zones.

Medics reported that seven people died in a strike on two houses in Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza, while five others were killed in separate attacks in the central and southern parts of the territory.

Syria's state-owned SANA agency says that early reports indicate that an Israeli air strike hit the vicinity of the Sayyida Zainab area south of Damascus

Explosions were reportedly heard in the area earlier on Monday.

"For it came of the Lord to harden their hearts, that they [the Canaanites] should come against Israel in battle… but that they [the Israelites] should bring them to be exterminated, as the Lord had commanded Moses."

Bezalel Smotrich, finance minister and - in all but formal title – governor of the West Bank, had long been fond of citing this verse from the Book of Joshua to illustrate what he called his decisiveness, or subjugation, plan for Judea and Samaria, the biblical name of that territory.

Thus it was, Smotrich explained, that just as Joshua had warned the Canaanites of what would befall them should they stand in his way, so now he warned the Palestinians of what his plan would entail for them. They faced three choices: remain in situ as "resident aliens" with "inferior status in accordance with [ancient] Jewish law"; emigrate; or remain and resist.

If they chose the third course, he told them, the "Israeli defence forces" would know what to do. And what might that be? "Kill those that need to be killed." What, whole families, women and children? he replied: "In war as in war."

READ MORE: Gaza genocide: Is Israel going mad? Opinion by 
David Hirst

Gaza's health ministry released a statement, saying it may be its "last distress call" as Israeli forces continue carrying out their siege of northern Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital.

Israeli forces "continue to bomb and destroy" the hospital, affecting its facilities, according to the ministry.

"There are many injuries among the medical staff and patients. The medical staff cannot move between the hospital departments and cannot save their injured colleagues."

Jordan's foreign ministry issued a statement condemning Sunday night's Israeli settler arson attack on the city of al-Bireh, occupied West Bank.

The ministry says one of the car torched was used by a Jordanian field hospital for its operations in Ramallah.

Jordan holds the Israeli government responsible for the attack.

Armed Israeli settlers launched a wave of attacks on Palestinian properties in several areas of the occupied West Bank overnight, torching homes, vehicles and olive trees.

More than 20 vehicles were targeted in the central West Bank city of al-Bireh on Sunday night, in what has been described online as a "pogrom", with most set ablaze and left smouldering wrecks. 

Video footage posted online showed Palestinians attempting to put out fires enveloping buildings and cars, and roads left charred the morning after.

According to local news agency Wafa, the settlers opened fire at civil defence search-and-rescue workers attempting to extinguish the flames.

Settlers later set fire to a parking lot and scrawled offensive graffiti on walls in the nearby town of Deir Dibwan, east of Ramallah, before fleeing. 

READ MORE: Armed Israeli settlers torch Palestinian homes, cars and olive trees across West Bank

A Jewish academic who grew up in Israel was arrested by London's Metropolitan police following a speech he gave at a pro-Palestine demonstration in the British capital, during which he said that Israel "cannot win against Hamas".

Haim Bresheeth, a child of Holocaust survivors and the founder of the Jewish Network for Palestine, was arrested during a demonstration outside the residence of Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely in north London.

He faces charges of supporting a proscribed organisation, according to a statement given to media outlet Skwawkbox by a police spokesperson.

In a video recording of Bresheeth’s arrest, a police officer informs him that he is being arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 for “making a hate speech”.

READ MORE: UK police arrest Israeli academic Haim Bresheeth after pro-Palestine speech

Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati met with several ambassadors to Beirut today, including those of the five permanent UN Security Council states and the EU, in which he insisted on his country's commitment to Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.

"The Lebanese government has explicitly declared its commitment to Resolution 1701, its determination to strengthen the army in the south, and welcomed all positions calling for a ceasefire," he said after his meetings.

"However, the Israeli enemy has turned against all proposed solutions and has continued its war crimes against various Lebanese regions, even targeting archaeological sites. This in itself is an additional crime against humanity that must be confronted and stopped."

An Israeli air strike on two houses in the north Gaza town of Beit Lahia killed at least seven people and wounded several others on Monday, medics told Reuters.

Germany has called on Israel to let more humanitarian aid into northern Gaza, where a lack of supplies has led to a "desperate" and "unbearable" situation, a spokesperson for the German foreign ministry said.

"We call on the Israeli government urgently to meet its responsibilities under international law," the spokesperson said during a press conference in Berlin.

“Israel has the right to self-defence against Hamas within the framework of humanitarian international law,” he added.

The spokesperson was answering a question about an ultimatum from Washington that requires Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza this month or face restrictions on US military aid.

The UN agency for supporting Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, said on Monday that Israel's ban on its operations would lead to the "collapse" of humanitarian work in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

"If this law is implemented, it would be likely to cause the collapse of the international humanitarian operation in the Gaza Strip - an operation of which Unrwa is the backbone," Jonathan Fowler, an Unrwa spokesman, told AFP.

Israel formally notified the UN of its decision to sever ties with Unrwa, the agency supporting Palestinian refugees on Monday, after lawmakers voted to ban the organisation.