🔴Live: 26 EU countries call for immediate 'humanitarian pause' in Gaza

European Union Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell arrives for a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels, Belgium on February 19, 2024. © Yves Herman, Reuters

EU countries, except Hungary, on Monday called for an "immediate humanitarian pause that would lead to a sustainable ceasefire" in the Gaza war, the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. The European Union has struggled for a united response on Israel's military operation following the October 7 attack by Hamas. Read our liveblog for all the latest developments in the Israel-Hamas war. 

Summary:

• The United Nations' top court on Monday opens a week of hearings on the legal consequences of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories, with more than 50 states due to address the judges.
• The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 29,092 people have been killed and 69,028 wounded in Israeli strikes on the enclave since October 7, the vast majority women and children. Israeli officials say about 1,140 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks in southern Israel. Militant fighters took some 250 hostages during the attack and 132 are still in Gaza, according to Israeli figures.

Yesterday's key developments:

• The Gaza Strip's second-largest hospital has been put "completely out of service", a spokesperson for the Gaza health ministry said on Sunday. "There are only four medical teams – 25 staff – currently caring for patients" inside the Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra told Reuters.
• Israel threatened Sunday to invade Gaza's Rafah by the start of Ramadan if Hamas does not return the remaining hostages by then, despite international pressure to protect Palestinian civilians sheltering in the southern city.
• Norway has agreed to help facilitate the transfer of frozen tax funds earmarked for the Palestinian Authority (PA) that were collected by Israel, the Norwegian government said on Sunday.
• Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has condemned Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's comment comparing the war in Gaza to the Holocaust.
• Russia has invited Palestinian factions to meet in Moscow on Monday, February 26, for talks on the Israel-Hamas war and other issues in the Middle East. The factions include the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad as well as representatives of Fatah and the broader Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). 

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP, Reuters)

About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:

Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.

The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”.

The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. 

Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Hamas-run health ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.

In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records. The UN's counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza health ministry’s, with small discrepancies. 

For more on the Gaza health ministry’s tolls, click here.

(FRANCE 24 with AP)