In Jerusalem, Israelis held a vigil to mark 30 days since the Hamas attack on Israel in which 1,400 people were killed, with a candle lit for each victim. Relatives of the dead gathered at Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall to mark a month of mourning. We don’t have other ways to commemorate them except with prayers, lighting candles, and having them in our heart,” said Yossi Rivlin, who lost two brothers at a music festival massacre during the Hamas attack. Standing before a giant Israeli flag, army chief cantor Shai Abramson gave a prayer for the departed, modified to include a blessing for security forces. The ceremony was the first religious commemoration organised at the Wailing Wall since 7 October. It was attended by Benny Gantz, a member of the war cabinet formed by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the wake of the attack, the deadliest the nation has suffered since its founding in 1948.
More than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military action in Gaza in response to the 7 October attacks, according to figures released by the health authority in the territory. The total number of deaths now stands at 10,022, including 4,104 children. The number of casualties in Gaza has not been independently verified.
Israeli forces said they had severed northern Gaza from the rest of the besieged territory and pounded it with intense airstrikes on Monday, setting the stage for an expected push into the dense confines of Gaza City and an even bloodier phase of the month-old war.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said the protection of civilians “must be paramount” in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, warning that the Gaza Strip was becoming “a graveyard for children”. Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, responded by saying: “Shame on you.”
More than half a million people in northern Gaza face death by starvation as food supplies run “perilously” low, an international charity has warned. Riham Jafari, coordinator of advocacy and communication for ActionAid Palestine, said “Cases of dehydration and malnutrition are increasing rapidly.”
Fuel reserves for generators powering the al-Quds hospital in Gaza City are at a critical level and will run out within 48 hours, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a tweet. The head of al-Awda Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip also told Al Jazeera that it could completely shut down by Wednesday night due to the lack of fuel.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, ended his tour of the Middle East admitting that his efforts to secure a sustained humanitarian pause and greater constraint in Israel’s assault on Gaza was still “a work in progress”.
US state department employees have signed a dissent memo arguing that the Biden administration should be willing to publicly criticise the Israeli government, according to a report. The memo, obtained by Politico, suggests a growing loss of confidence among in US diplomats in President Joe Biden’s approach to the Middle East crisis, the outlet writes.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has said it is carrying out airstrikes against sites belonging to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The IDF said it had identified about 30 launches from Lebanon towards northern Israel earlier on Monday, and that it was “responding with artillery fire toward the origin of the launches”.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they launched a fresh drone attack against Israel which they claimed temporarily halted activity at Israeli military bases and airports. A Houthi military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said on social media that Yemeni armed forces “launched a batch of drones during the past hours at various sensitive targets of the Israeli enemy in the occupied territories”.
The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces on Monday in the West Bank city of Tulkarm has risen to four, the Palestinian health ministry said. Previous reports said three people were killed and a fourth injured during an exchange with Israeli forces in the occupied territory.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has once again rejected the idea of a ceasefire in Gaza unless hostages are released, but suggested a series of “tactical little pauses” may be possible. In an interview with ABC News, Netanyahu said: “There’ll be no ceasefire, general ceasefire, in Gaza without the release of our hostages. As far as tactical little pauses, an hour here, an hour there. We’ve had them before, I suppose.”
A Hamas commander believed to be among those who ordered the 7 October attacks in Israel was killed in an airstrike, according to reports. The reports named him as Wael Asefa, commander of Hamas’s Deir al-Balah battalion of the group’s central camps brigade.
About 80 dual nationals and 17 medical evacuees had left Gaza to Egypt through the Rafah crossing by early Monday evening, Reuters reported, citing Egyptian security sources, after evacuations were suspended for two days after an ambulance was hit by an Israeli strike in Gaza on Friday.
The European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the EU was increasing its humanitarian aid to Gaza by another €25m, bringing total aid to €100m ($107m / £86.5m).
South Africa is recalling diplomats from Israel to assess its relationship with the country, its foreign minister has said, saying that Israel was involved in the “collective punishment” of Palestinians.
The UK’s Labour party has issued its most direct criticism of the Israeli government since the Hamas attacks on 7 October, criticising the remarks of rightwing Israeli ministers over the West Bank and saying they have been responsible for “unacceptable and offensive rhetoric about Palestinians”.
Organisers of pro-Palestine marches that have brought hundreds of thousands of people to the streets of London have raised fresh concerns that a major protest planned for Saturday could be banned.
