hundreds killed.



Hundreds of Palestinians killed in deadly night of Israeli bombing in Gaza – video report

Israel-Hamas war

Israel hits Gaza with one of deadliest bombings so far in war against Hamas

At least 400 Palestinians killed in last 24 hours, including 70 in refugee camp and near hospitals

The blockaded Gaza Strip has been hit by one of the deadliest nights of Israeli bombing so far in the new war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

At least 400 Palestinians were killed in Gaza in the last 24 hours, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and 70 were killed overnight on Sunday in bombardments of the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp and streets close to two hospitals in Gaza City.

Gaza’s health authority has said at least 5,087 people have been killed in Israel’s two-week bombardment – many of them women and children. The conflict broke out after Hamas militants attacked southern Israeli communities on 7 October, killing 1,400 people and taking 222 into Gaza as hostages.

Early on Monday, the Israeli military said it had hit more than 320 “military targets” in the last 24 hours, and that ground forces had conducted “limited raids” to kill gunmen and search for hostages. Hamas said the day before that it destroyed an Israeli tank and two armoured bulldozers inside the territory, which it has ruled since 2007.

Doctors, poets, families, babies: victims of Israel’s war on Gaza

Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for the strip’s civil defence unit, told the independent Palestinian media organisation Wattan that rescue operations were becoming more difficult because of the scale of destruction and impeded access. “Our crews are recovering victims in the form of body parts, and the chances of recovering survivors are diminishing,” he said.

The intensified airstrikes come amid reports that on Sunday the US had pressed Israel to delay its expected ground assault on Gaza to allow time for the release of more hostages believed to be held in the exclave, and the delivery of more aid to Palestinians.

Mosque in West Bank hit as Israel intensifies attacks in north Gaza – video

A second aid convoy, of 14 trucks, entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt late on Sunday – a welcome development for the 2.3 million people who are trapped and running out of food and clean water – with a third arriving on Monday.

The UN has said the volume of aid that has entered Gaza so far is just 4% of the daily average before the hostilities, and a fraction of what is needed, as medicines and fuel run out and the healthcare system verges on collapse.

The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, on Monday urged faster aid deliveries to Gaza, and said the bloc was debating calling for a “humanitarian pause” in the conflict.

The release of two US-Israeli citizens, Judith and Natalie Raanan, on Friday, has raised the hopes of families of those people still missing, including several foreign and dual nationals, that more of them can be rescued before the window for negotiations closes and the ground offensive begins.

Pressure on Israeli officials increased after Abu Obeida, a spokesperson from Hamas’s military wing, Al Qassam brigades, said on Saturday that the group had also offered to free two Israeli citizens, “for humanitarian reasons and without expecting anything in return. However, the Israeli occupation government refused to accept them.”

The office of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, denied Hamas’s claim, describing it as “mendacious propaganda”. Truck carrying humanitarian aid arrives in Gaza after crossing Rafah border - Video

The White House pledged "continued support" for Gaza following the meeting with Netanyahu.

Kogat, the Israeli Defense Ministry agency responsible for Palestinian civil affairs, said Sunday's second round of aid included water, food and medicine, all of which was checked by Israel before being delivered to Gaza. Israel did not allow fuel imports.

Massive destruction occurred in the Nusseyrat refugee camp in central Gaza. Massive destruction occurred in the Nusseyrat refugee camp in central Gaza. Photograph: Adel Al Hwajre/ImagesLive/Zuma Press/Shutterstock

In a statement released on Sunday, the leaders of the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Britain urged Israel to adhere to international humanitarian law and protect civilians, while underscoring their support for Israel and its right to defend itself – calls that come amid growing fears that the war could balloon into a wider Middle East conflict.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said the US expected the conflict to escalate through the involvement of proxies of Iran. Washington has dispatched a significant amount of naval power to the Middle East, including two aircraft carriers, support ships and about 2,000 marines, to help deter attacks by Iran-affiliated forces.

The Palestinian Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, and the Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, talked by phone on Sunday about how to stop Israel’s “brutal crimes” in Gaza, Hamas said in a statement.

Israeli aircraft struck two cells of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon early on Monday, the Israel Defence Forces said. Israel on Sunday added 14 communities close to Lebanon and Syria to an emergency evacuation plan for the country's north as violence escalated along its heavily guarded border.

During a visit to military units in northern Israel, Netanyahu said he would "make the mistake of his life" if Hezbollah went to war. “We will harm him with a force he cannot even imagine, and the consequences for him and the Lebanese nation will be devastating.”

The Israeli government has also warned that anyone who remains in northern Gaza risks being considered "affiliated with a terrorist organization."