Israel-Hamas war highlights: Israeli threat of ground invasion 'doesn't scare us', says Hamas

One person is lightly hurt by shrapnel in a recent rocket attack from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel, medics say.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service says a man in his 30s was hit by shrapnel in a community near the Gaza border and is being taken to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba.

Israel denies reports that it has agreed to halt fire in southern Gaza to allow the Rafah border crossing to open to let aid into the Strip.

“At the moment there is no ceasefire for humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip and the exit of foreigners,” says a terse statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyau’s office.

Earlier, the Reuters news agency, citing two Egyptian security officials, said Israel agreed to halt fire from 9 a.m. in a deal agreed on with Egypt and the US.

Israel Police name another three officers killed during fighting with Hamas terrorists in southern Israel since October 7.

They are: First Sergeant Boris Danilov, Staff Sgt. Gadif Mologota, and Staff Sgt. Dor Mengadi, all members of the coordination of enforcement operations unit.

Police have named 54 officers killed in the fighting.

Egypt, Israel and the U.S. agreed to a ceasefire in southern Gaza beginning at 0600 GMT coinciding with the re-opening of the Rafah border crossing, two Egyptian security sources said on Monday.

The sources said the ceasefire would last for several hours but they were not clear on the exact duration. They also said the three countries had agreed that Rafah would be open until 1400 GMT on Monday as a one-day initial re-opening.

Rafah, which is on the border between Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Hamas-governed Gaza, is the only crossing into the territory not controlled by Israel.

Reuters images showed aid trucks from Egyptian NGOs in the Sinai town of Al-Arish on Monday morning, waiting for permission to make the hours-long trip to Rafah.

Early this month, the main square and streets around Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity were bustling with tourists.

Now they are empty after a devastating attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas in Israel on Oct. 7.

"Business is at a standstill since the war started," said Essa Abu Dawoud, a tour guide in the Palestinian city. "The roads were cut off, no one is coming."

Across Israel and the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank, hotels have emptied and at least six companies have stopped trips to top destinations like Jerusalem and Tel Aviv as the conflict escalated. Two tour operators have called off trips until next year.

The Israel Defense Forces and Defense Ministry say they are planning to evacuate civilians who live in towns up to two kilometers from the Lebanese border amid repeated rocket and missile attacks by Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions in recent days.

The ministry’s National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) says the residents will be taken to state-funded guesthouses after the plan was approved by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

The IDF says it has notified the heads of the local authorities in the area of the upcoming implementation of the plan.

Israel has activated a plan to evacuate residents within 2 km (1.2 miles) of Lebanon, the military said on Monday. It follows exchanges of fire with Hezbollah in parallel to the conflict in southern Israel with Hamas.

In a statement, the Israel Defence Forces and the ministry of defence said the plan had been approved by defence secretary Yoav Gallant, and included the evacuation of 28 settlements. Residents will be moved to state-subsidised guest houses.

Egypt, Israel and the US agreed to a ceasefire in southern Gaza to begin at 0600 GMT coinciding with the re-opening of the Rafah border crossing, two Egyptian security sources said on Monday.

The sources said the ceasefire would last for several hours but were not clear on the exact duration. They also said the three countries had agreed that Rafah would be open until 1400 GMT on Monday as a one-day initial re-opening.

Asked for confirmation, the Israeli military and the U.S. Embassy in Israel had no immediate comment. This was not immediately confirmed by officials with Gaza's governing Hamas either.

Egypt-Gaza border crossing opens for aid amid 5-hour ceasefire

An Egyptian-controlled border crossing into Gaza is expected to reopen amid diplomatic efforts to get aid into the enclave that has been under intense Israeli bombing since the rampage by the militant group Hamas killed 1,300 people.

Shocked by the assault on towns and villages, Israel is carrying out the most intense bombardment Gaza has seen, has imposed a strict blockade, and is preparing a ground invasion.

Hundreds of metric tons of aid from several countries have been held up in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula for days pending a deal for its safe delivery to Gaza and the evacuation of some foreign passport holders through the Rafah crossing.

Israeli actor Rona-Lee Shimon, celebrated for her leading role in the popular web series 'Fauda,' has pledged her commitment to opposing Hamas in light of the terrorist group's attack on her country.

Deeply moved by the loss of innocent lives in attacks by Hamas, the actress is determined to take action.

In an exclusive interview with ANI, Shimon candidly discussed the Hamas brutality. When asked if she's ready to fight against Hamas, Shimon responded, "I will do everything in my power to have Israel win."

Amid the ongoing war with Hamas militants, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on Monday shared satellite images to show how Israel looked before and after Hamas' terror attacks on October 7.

While posting the satellite images on X (formerly Twitter) showing the widespread destruction caused by the surprise attack, the IDF said, “The lengths Hamas is willing to go in order to commit war crimes are visible even from outer space.” Read more.

For the first time since Hamas' assault on Israel, resulting in the loss of over 1,300 lives, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the families of those missing and held captive by the terrorist group on Sunday evening.

The office of the Prime Minister of Israel posted pictures of Netanyahu meeting the relatives of Israeli hostages on the social media platform X, in which he can be seen consoling them.

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met today with families of the captive and missing," his office posted.

Netanyahu's visit comes amid strong criticism from family members who claim the administration has abandoned those detained in Gaza.

In light of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) has said that the United States should not accept Palestinian refugees escaping from Gaza, The Hill reported.

His remarks come as Israel is anticipated to launch a ground operation against northern Gaza, which is under Hamas control. Palestinian civilians were given just over 24 hours by the Israeli military to leave the area.

"I don't know what [President] Biden's gonna do, but we cannot accept people from Gaza into this country as refugees," DeSantis, a GOP presidential candidate, said during a campaign stop in Iowa, reported The Hill.

Israel is on course “to destroy Gaza”, Lynn Hastings, the UN resident coordinator and humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian Territory, has warned.

She called for the unconditional and immediate release of hostages being held by Hamas, but also urged “immediate unconditional access” into Gaza for the delivery of lifesaving aid. In an interview with UN News she said that Israel should not be making the latter conditional on the former.

Israeli airstrikes overnight constituted the heaviest sorties since fighting began last week, Reuters reports, citing Palestinians on the ground.

The report claims bombardments were most intense in Gaza City, where bombs struck areas near two hospitals.

Israel is thought to be readying a ground invasion of the Strip.

The Israel Defense Forces says an officer was killed in one of the anti-tank guided missile attacks from Lebanon yesterday, against the Nurit post.

A civilian was killed in a separate missile attack against the town of Shtula.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Medics in Gaza warned on Sunday that thousands could die as hospitals packed with wounded people ran desperately low on fuel and basic supplies.

Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave struggled to find food, water and safety ahead of an expected Israeli ground offensive in the war sparked by Hamas' deadly attack.

Israeli forces, supported by a growing deployment of US warships in the region, positioned themselves along Gaza's border and drilled for what Israel said would be a broad campaign to dismantle the militant group.

A week of blistering airstrikes have demolished entire neighbourhoods but failed to stem militant rocket fire into Israel.

US President Joe Biden weighed a trip to Israel while he cautioned against long-term Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip on Sunday, as the White House sought to balance support for the country with fears that the regional crisis could escalate.

No decision about whether to travel to Israel had yet been made, according to two people familiar with the internal discussions. A spokesperson for the National Security Council said the White House didn’t have a trip to announce.

But the possible trip — and acknowledgment of concerns voiced by Palestinians in Gaza and Arab leaders across the region — were the latest signal that the US was trying to keep the crisis from further escalating. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will make an unscheduled return to Israel on Monday following talks with Arab officials, as administration officials warned Iran against any involvement.

An Illinois man was charged with hate crimes for stabbing a 6-year-old Muslim boy to death and wounding his mother in an attack that targeted them for their religion and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas, officials and Muslim rights activists said on Sunday.

The boy was stabbed 26 times with a military-style knife with a 7-inch (18-cm) serrated blade, the Will County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. The 32-year-old woman had multiple stab wounds and is expected to survive the attack that occurred on Saturday in Plainfield Township, about 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Chicago.

U.S. President Joe Biden said the boy's family were Palestinian Muslims who "came to America seeking what we all seek - a refuge to live, learn, and pray in peace."

UN chief Antonio Guterres has called on Hamas to immediately release all hostages without conditions and urged Israel to allow rapid and unimpeded access to humanitarian aid for civilians in the Gaza Strip.

The Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, home to about 2.3 million people, is under a total blockade. Israel has cut off all supplies of food, water and fuel in the wake of ongoing hostilities with Palestinian militant group Hamas.

On Monday, Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said it would impose a "complete siege" on the territory.

A battle that killed dozens of civilians and more than a dozen Israeli soldiers nearly a decade ago offers a glimpse of the type of fighting that could lie ahead if Israeli forces roll into Gaza as expected to punish Hamas for its rampage across southern Israel last week.

It was July 19, 2014, during Israel's third war against Hamas. The target was Shijaiyah, a densely populated neighborhood of Gaza City that the army said Hamas had transformed into a “terrorist fortress,” filled with tunnels, rocket launchers and booby traps.

The battle came on the third day of a ground offensive that had been preceded by a 10-day air campaign. Then, as now, Palestinian civilians had been told to leave the neighborhood, Then, as now, many stayed, either because Hamas told them to or because they had nowhere else to go.

As Israeli forces pushed into Shijaiyah, a jumble of squat concrete buildings and narrow alleys, militants unleashed a withering barrage of automatic gunfire, anti-tank missiles and rocket-propelled grenades, the army said at the time.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has slammed Islamic countries for not opening their gates for civilians from Gaza who are seeking to flee their homes in the face of an imminent ground invasion from Israel.

She also hit out at former US president Barack Obama, as well as incumbent President Joe Biden over the Iranian nuclear deal and accused Tehran of strengthening Hamas and Hezbollah.

"We should care about the Palestinian citizens, especially the innocent ones, because they didn't ask for this. But where are the Arab countries? Where are they? Where is Qatar? Where is Lebanon? Where is Jordan? Where is Egypt? Do you know we give Egypt over a billion dollars a year? Why aren't they opening the gates? Why aren't they taking the Palestinians?" Haley told CNN on Sunday.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' statement that the actions and policies of the terrorist group Hamas do not represent the Palestinian people and the subsequent removal of reference to the Sunni jihadist group in the published version shows the clout of extremists within the PLO and in the highly radicalized Middle-East. Read more

Oil prices fell on Monday, partly reversing Friday's rally as investors wait to see if the Israel-Hamas conflict draws in other countries, which could drive up prices and deal a fresh blow to the global economy.

Brent futures slid 34 cents, or 0.4%, to $90.55 per barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude dropped 41 cents, or 0.5%, to $87.28 a barrel by 0048 GMT.

Both benchmarks rose nearly 6% on Friday, posting their highest daily percentage gains since April, as investors priced in the possibility of a wider Middle East conflict.