This is where we’ll close this blog. Our live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war continues here. Thank you for reading.
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Summary
It’s just turned 5.30am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a roundup of the latest major developments:
Palestinian medics have evacuated 31 premature babies from al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City and taken them to a hospital in southern Gaza for assessment and treatment, the World Health Organisation has said. Doctors found that “all the babies are fighting serious infections due to lack of medical supplies and impossibility to continue infection control measures in al-Shifa hospital”, it said. Preparations were under way for the babies to enter Egypt, said the director general of hospitals in Gaza, Mohammed Zaqut.
Israel and Hamas appear to be edging towards a deal that would see the release of a significant number of hostages, possibly in return for a limited ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Senior US and Israeli officials, as well as the Qatari prime minister, all suggested an agreement was close on Sunday, although observers have cautioned that public statements during such negotiations are often misleading and any potential deal could easily collapse.
A senior Israeli source and a senior member of Hamas rejected a report quoting an unnamed Hamas source as saying an agreement was reached on Sunday to start a ceasefire on Monday and release a number of hostages, according to a report in the Jerusalem Post.
Japan’s top government spokesperson says the country is appealing to Yemen’s Houthis who have captured a cargo ship in the southern Red Sea and is seeking the help of Saudi, Omani and Iranian authorities to work towards the swift release of the vessel and its crew. Twenty-two crew were onboard, including Bulgarians and Filipinos, Japan’s Nikkei newspaper said.
The Israel military has published video footage it says shows the first solid evidence of a sophisticated Hamas tunnel network underneath the al-Shifa hospital complex. It said on Sunday that its troops “exposed a 55-metre-long terror tunnel 10 metres deep” under the hospital complex. Hamas dismissed Israel’s claim, while the director of the Gaza health ministry, Mounir el-Boursh, reportedly called it “pure lie”.
At least 13,000 Palestinians have been killed and 30,000 injured by Israeli strikes across Gaza since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday. Nearly 884,000 internally displaced persons were sheltering in 154 installations in Gaza run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, the agency said.
France will send a warship to provide medical aid to Gaza, President Emmanuel Macron has said.
The head of a prominent media institution in the Gaza Strip and two other journalists were killed over the weekend in Israel’s offensive in the territory, their relatives have said. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said the weekend deaths raised to 48 the number of journalists and media workers it had confirmed killed in the region since 7 October.
The World Health Organisation, which led a second assessment visit to al-Shifa hospital on Sunday, commended the healthcare personnel working at the facility, which the WHO declared to be a “death zone”.
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