UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on Monday pleaded for “all parties” to “urgently de-escalate what has become a very precarious situation” amid growing fears of an Iranian attack on Israel. Regional tensions have soared since last week's assassination of Hamas's political leader in Tehran and Israel's killing of Hezbollah's military chief in Beirut. Read our liveblog to see how all the day's events unfolded.
This liveblog is no longer being updated. For more coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, click here.
Summary:
- UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on Monday called for an urgent de-escalation in the Middle East amid growing fears of an Iranian attack on Israel.
- US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are scheduled to consult later Monday with the White House national security team. Biden will also speak with King Abdullah II of Jordan, whose foreign minister made a rare visit to Iran over the weekend.
- A Palestinian official said Israel has returned more than 80 bodies to the Gaza Strip. The identities of the deceased and the cause of death were not immediately known.
- Lebanon's health ministry said two people were killed Monday in an Israeli strike on the country's south, where Hezbollah has been trading near-daily fire with Israel since the start of the Gaza war in October.
- At least 39,623 Palestinians have been killed and 91,469 injured in Israel's war in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave. The Hamas-led October 7 attacks resulted in the deaths of more than 1,190 people, mostly civilians, according to official Israeli figures. Some 250 people were taken hostage, with about 120 remaining in Gaza. Many have been declared dead by Israeli authorities.
Yesterday's key developments:
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The US urged citizens in Lebanon to leave on "any ticket available" amid growing fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East following the death of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh. The UK issued a similar warning to British nationals, telling them to “leave now”.
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Iran's Revolutionary Guards said that Israel killed Haniyeh using a "short-range projectile" launched from outside of his accommodation in Tehran, contradicting reports earlier in the week that Haniyeh had been killed by a bomb planted months before. Haniyeh was buried Friday at cemetery in Lusail, north of the Qatari capital Doha.
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent. For more on the health ministry’s casualty figures, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)
