Key Points
- Both Israel and Hamas have rebuffed mounting international pressure for a ceasefire.
- Palestinian health authorities said the death toll from Israeli strikes had exceeded 10,000.
- Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu discuss potential for tactical pauses in Gaza strikes for humanitarian reasons.
Gaza is becoming a "graveyard for children", UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday, calling for an in the enclave, where Palestinian health authorities said the death toll from Israeli had exceeded 10,000.
Both Israel and the Hamas militants who control Gaza have rebuffed mounting international pressure for a ceasefire.
Israel says during its rampage in southern Israel on 7 October should be released first. Hamas says it will not free them or stop fighting while Gaza is under assault.
"Ground operations by the Israel Defence Forces and continued bombardment are hitting civilians, hospitals,, mosques, churches and UN facilities – including shelters. No one is safe," Guterres told reporters.
"At the same time, Hamas and other militants use civilians as human shields and continue to launch rockets indiscriminately towards Israel," he said.
Earlier Israel said 31 soldiers had been killed since it began expanded ground operations in Gaza on 27 October and reiterated that Hamas was hiding with civilians and at hospitals.
Hamas has urged the UN to verify the "false narrative" that Hamas is based in hospitals.
A Reuters journalist in Gaza said Israel's overnight bombardment by air, ground and sea was one of the most intense in its offensive prompted by the 7 October attack in which Hamas killed 1,400 people and seized more than 240 hostages.
The health ministry in the Hamas-controlled enclave said at least 10,022 Palestinians have since been killed, including 4,104 children.
"Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children," Guterres said.
"Hundreds of girls and boys are reportedly being killed or injured every day."
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Source: Getty / Fatih Aktas
"It's been 30 days. Enough is enough. This must stop now," said an earlier statement from 18 signatories including UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and UN aid chief Martin Griffiths.
Gaza health ministry says one killed in hospital strike. Israel denies
The health ministry in the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip said on Monday an Israeli air strike hit a building in the Al Shifa hospital complex, killing one Palestinian, but Israel denied it attacked the hospital.
Gaza's health ministry spokesman said 170 patients and hundreds of displaced Palestinians were in the hospital building at the time.
He said several Palestinians were wounded in the strike.
But an Israeli military spokesperson, when asked about the claim, said, "There was no IDF (Israel Defence Forces) strike on the Shifa hospital."
Biden, Netanyahu discuss potential for tactical pauses in strikes
US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the potential for tactical pauses in strikes on Gaza for humanitarian reasons and possible hostage releases during talks on Monday, according to a spokesperson.
said the US and Israeli governments would continue to be in touch on such temporary pauses and that Biden and Netanyahu agreed to continue talks in the coming days.
Those conversations came as more Americans are expected to leave Gaza on Monday and as more aid enters the territory, Kirby said.
Biden and Netanyahu also discussed the situation in the West Bank. Kirby told reporters that not enough aid is getting into Gaza, adding that fewer than 30 aid trucks entered Gaza in the last 24 hours.
Israel says it's closing in on Hamas
The Israeli military said its forces had taken a militant compound and were poised to attack Hamas fighters hiding in underground tunnels and bunkers in the northern Gaza Strip, having isolated the area with troops and tanks.
It released video of tanks moving through bombed-out streets and groups of troops moving on foot.
"Now we are going to start closing in on them," Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Hecht told reporters.
Hamas's armed wing said it had damaged 27 Israeli military vehicles in 48 hours and inflicted significant losses in direct engagements with Israeli troops.
The health ministry in Gaza said dozens of people were killed by Israeli air strikes in the north and south, with eight killed in an air strike that hit Gaza City's Rantissi cancer hospital. Israel's military said it was looking into the report.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had escorted a four-ambulance convoy of patients from Gaza City to the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
Evacuations had been suspended since an Israeli strike on an ambulance on Friday but three Egyptian security sources said dozens of foreign passport holders also left on Monday.
US Central Command, which covers the Middle East, said on X a nuclear missile submarine had arrived in the region - an unusual announcement seen by some analysts as a message to Iran, an Israeli foe.
Israel said on Monday it had detected about 30 rocket launches from Lebanon in an hour. Hamas said it had launched 16 missiles towards Nahariyya and Southern Haifa in Israel.
People searched for victims or survivors at the Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza, where the health ministry said Israeli forces had killed at least 47 people in strikes early on Sunday.
"All night I and the other men were trying to pick the dead from the rubble. We got children, dismembered, torn-apart flesh," said Saeed al-Nejma, 53. Asked for comment, the Israeli military said it was gathering details.
The Israeli military said a four-hour window for civilians to leave the north would be repeated daily.
UN monitoring showed fewer than 2,000 people used the corridor on Sunday, citing fear and road damage. Between 350,000 and 400,000 people are still in the north, a US envoy said on Saturday.
Hamas is a Palestinian military and political group, which has gained power in the Gaza Strip since winning legislative elections there in 2006. Its stated aim is to establish a Palestinian state, while refusing to recognise Israel's right to exist.
Hamas, in its entirety, is designated as a terrorist organisation by countries including Australia, Canada, the UK and the US.
New Zealand and Paraguay list only its military wing as a terrorist group. In 2018, the United Nations General Assembly voted against a resolution condemning Hamas in its entirety as a terrorist organisation.
