Israel-Palestine live: Week three ends with over 7,000 Palestinians killed
Live Updates
US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that there needs to be a “continuous flow” of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
Biden made the comments in a call with Netanyahu on Monday, according to a White House statement.
Biden also noted the release of two additional Israeli hostages by Hamas Monday, and reaffirmed his commitment to secure the release of all the remaining hostages taken by the group—including Americans – while providing safe passage for US citizens and other civilians trapped in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Biden and Netanyahu also discussed US support for Israel and the deployment of additional US military assets in the region.
At least 53 Palestinians were killed and dozens more injured by Israeli overnight strikes southern Gaza, including the city of Rafah, according to Arabic media.
Children were among the dead in strikes on Rafah and Khan Younis, according to Palestinian news agency, WAFA
The Palestinian officials also said Israeli airstrikes hit houses in Beit Lahia in the north.
Israel had earlier struck Gaza’s al-Shati refugee camp.
China’s foreign minister said Israel had the right to defend itself in a call with his Israeli counterpart Monday, but “should abide by international humanitarian law and protect the safety of civilians”.
The remarks acknowledging Israel’s right to self defence are a step up for Beijing, which has called the lack of justice for Palestinians the ‘crux’ of the conflict, after Hamas 7 October attack on Israel.
China's foreign minister Wang Yi also spoke Monday with his Palestinian counterpart, Riyad al-Maliki, where he reaffirmed Beijing’s support for a ceasefire and preventing forced displacement of Palestinians.
Yi is set to travel to Washington this week to meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
The European Union foreign policy chief says the bloc has plans to reinvigorate its efforts for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“We are entering a new phase in the hundred year old Israeli-Palestinian tragedy. It could be a very dangerous one for global peace, and the international community must mobilize to avoid it,” Josep Borrell said on Monday in a blog post
“For too long, we have tried to dismiss the Palestinian issue as if it no longer existed or as if it would resolve itself,” he added.
“Every day we call for a two-state solution, but as the Palestinian representative told me during the UN General Assembly: ’Apart from calling for it, what are you doing to get it?,’” he said.
Borrell’s comments come as the EU faces criticism that it has taken a backseat to the US in the Israel-Palestine war.
Israel’s energy minister said the government will not hold off on a possible ground invasion of Gaza for the sake of hostages, amid speculation the US is pressuring its ally to delay the incursion.
Energy minister Israel Katz told German tabloid newspaper Bild that everything will be done to bring the hostages home, “but that cannot hinder our actions including the ground offensive, if we decide on it.”
Israel has said that Hamas took 222 people hostage following its 7 October attack. On Monday the group released two elderly Israeli hostages.
A third convoy of humanitarian aid trucks arrived in the besieged Gaza Strip Monday, delivering badly needed water, food and medicine, but no fuel.
The UN has warned that the enclave will run out of fuel in the next two days, which means a water desalination plant, bakeries and hospitals will shutdown.
Twenty trucks entered Gaza via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Monday, taking the total to 54 trucks since Saturday, according to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The Israeli military released 43 minutes of raw footage of Hamas’ 7 October attack on Israel, amid frustration over how its attack on the Gaza Strip is being portrayed.
The footage is a collection from body cams, CCTV and the mobile phones of Hamas fighters, underscoring deadly attacks on Israeli civilians at home and in a music festival.
One clip shows a father and two sons, rushing into a shelter, just before a Hamas fighter threw a grenade in. An audio clip released with the footage also records a Hamas attacker bragging to his parents that he “killed at least 10 jews with my bare hands.”
MEE couldn’t independently verify the footage.
Good evening MEE readers,
As of Monday, the death toll of Palestinians in Gaza killed by Israeli air strikes now exceeds 5,000, around 70 percent of whom are children, women and elderly people.
Israel has killed over 2,000 children in 17 days, and doctors have warned that premature babies could die in "minutes" if incubators lose power.
Here's a recap of what you may have missed over the past few hours:
- Hamas said it has released two captives after mediation from Egyptian and Qatari authorities on "humanitarian and health" grounds.
- An Israeli air strike on Gaza's Al-Shati refugee camp has killed scores of Palestinians, and left many - including children and women - trapped under rubble.
- A Hamas figure has died in Israeli police custody, sparking protests in the occupied West Bank. While Israel said the death of Omar Hamzeh Daraghmeh, 58, was due to a sudden deterioration of his health, Hamas believes he was deliberately killed.
- Turkey asked Hamas' top leadership to leave the country on 7 October, when hundreds of Palestinian fighters attacked Israeli communities, according to sources who spoke to Middle East Eye.
- Almost 20,000 people have been internally displaced in Lebanon, mostly in the south, since the war broke out
At Middle East Eye, we're doing our best to continue providing you with up-to-date information around the clock. You can also find our coverage across Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube.
Former US President Barack Obama has weighed in on Israel's war on Gaza, publishing a statement on Monday in which he supported Israel's "right to defend itself", while also warning Israel and the US against ignoring the plight of Palestinians.
"Even as we support Israel, we should also be clear that how Israel prosecutes this fight against Hamas matters," Obama said.
The former president said that navigating the current conflict means "guarding against dehumanising language towards the people of Gaza, or downplaying Palestinian suffering - whether in Gaza or the West Bank - as irrelevant or illegitimate".
Obama also addressed some of the root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including the continued displacement of Palestinians since the creation of Israel in 1948.
"It means acknowledging that Palestinians have also lived in disputed territories for generations; that many of them were not only displaced when Israel was formed but continue to be forcibly displaced by a settler movement that too often has received tacit or explicit support from the Israeli government," Obama said.
Read more: Barack Obama warns against downplaying Palestinian suffering
An Israeli air strike on homes in Gaza's Al-Shati refugee camp has killed scores of Palestinians, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
"Many of the casualties are children and women who are still under rubble," according to the ministry's spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra.
Israel's military green lit the shelling of Israeli houses with both Palestinian fighters and Israeli hostages in them in the first days of the war, according to a report in Haaretz.
A volunteer member of Kibbutz Be'eri - where over 100 Israelis were killed by Palestinian fighters - said that on 9 October, Israel shelled the houses of members of his community without knowing whether hostages in the buildings were dead or alive, the report stated.
It adds to the testimony of Yasmin Porat, who was held hostage in Be'eri, who told state broadcaster Kan during a radio show that Israelis from the kibbutz were killed by Israeli troops in the "very, very heavy crossfire".
"So our forces may have shot them?" interviewer Aryeh Golan asked, to which Porat replied, "Undoubtedly".
Middle East Eye has not been able to independently verify the claims. Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, has published a report with what it has determined is verified video evidence of Palestinian fighters killing Israelis during its surprise attack on 7 October.
Khaled Meshaal, the head of the Palestinian group's office in the diaspora, has said that captives held by Palestinian groups in Gaza will be released if Israel stops bombing the beseiged enclave.
"Let them stop this aggression and you will find the mediators like Qatar and Egypt and some Arab countries and others will find a way to have them released and we'll send them to their homes," Meshaal told Sky News on Monday.
Meshaal said that 22 hostages had been killed by Israeli air strikes on Gaza.
Asked about the death of civilians on 7 October during Hamas's attack on Israeli communities, Meshaal said: "If there was any killing, this was definitely not intended. Definitely."
He added that crossings into Gaza should be opened and aid allowed to enter.
"If this happens, and there is a ceasefire, we come to the big question: what was the root cause of what happened? And we will say it's the occupation," Meshaal said.
"So, Israel should withdraw from all occupied lands and we will have a window of opportunity."
Students at the City University of New York (CUNY) are demanding the immediate termination of an adjunct faculty professor after she produced a parody video they say belittles and mocks Palestinians.
In the untitled video set to a relaxing piano score, Professor Tamy Ben-Tor, an Israeli performance artist and adjunct professor at Hunter College's MFA programme in CUNY, dresses up as what appears to be a brown, bearded academic mockingly showering praise on Hamas for their attacks on Israel.
"Dear Hamas, freedom fighters, hello. I'd like to start off by acknowledging I just had a cappuccino on the land of the Lenape people," Ben-Tor says, referring to the Native American group who lived on the northeastern coast of the US before European settlers arrived.
"I'd like to utter support for your freedom fight... I am still on the fence about the massacre of the babies," Ben-Tor continues.
"You are a freedom fighter, we are freedom fighters. I am sure you will support our LGBTQ library with the women's rights movement," the artist added.
You can read MEE senior reporter Azad Essa's story on the incident below.
Read more: 'Dear Hamas' parody video from college professor draws outrage
A Palestinian prisoner died in Israeli custody on Monday, according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Society.
Israeli authorities confirmed the death of Omar Hamzeh Daraghmeh, 58, which it attributed to a sudden deterioration of his health.
In a joint statement with the the Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission, the prisoners' society cast doubt on the Israeli version of his death.
"The [Israeli] occupation's story will remain a subject of doubt, especially since the detainee Daraghmeh attended his court session today, and was in good health according to his lawyer," the statement said.
Daraghmeh was detained on 9 October, two days after hostilities between Israel and Palestinian groups began.
Protests broke out in his hometown, the occupied West Bank city of Tubas, on Monday evening.
According to Al Jazeera, Hamas said in a statement that Daraghmeh was a leader in its movement, and that it believed his death was deliberate.
The White House said it has had frank discussions with Israel about its pending ground invasion of Gaza, but that the timing and other details were ultimately up to Israeli officials.
"It's our view that the [Israeli army] need to decide for themselves how they're going to conduct operations," White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.
"We're not in the business of dictating terms to them, and we're certainly not in the business here at the White House of previewing any future operations, one way or the other. That would be inappropriate."
