More than 30 people were killed while scores were injured in an Israeli bombardment of Jabalia camp, in northern Gaza, Hamas media reported on Monday.
The armed wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas said on Monday it told Qatari mediators the group was ready to release up to 70 women and children held in Gaza in return for a five-day truce with Israel.
"Last week there was an effort from the Qatari brothers to release the enemy captives from women and children, in return for the release of 200 Palestinian children and 75 women detained by the enemy" Abu Ubaida, the spokesman for the armed wing of Hamas, al-Qassam Brigades, said in an audio recording posted on the group's Telegram channel.
US President Joe Biden said hospitals in the Gaza Strip must be protected and he hoped for "less intrusive" action by Israel as Israeli tanks advanced to the gates of the besieged enclave's main hospital.
Israeli tanks have taken up positions outside Al Shifa Hospital, Gaza City's main medical center, which Israel says sits atop of tunnels housing a headquarters for Hamas fighters who are using patients as shields.
Hamas denies the Israeli claim.
In his first comments since the weekend's events, including patient deaths reported at Al Shifa, Biden said hospitals must be protected.
"My hope and expectation is that there will be less intrusive action relative to hospitals and we remain in contact with the Israelis," Biden told reporters at the White House on Monday.
"Also there is an effort to get this pause to deal with the release of prisoners and that's being negotiated, as well, with the Qataris ... being engaged," he added. "So I remain somewhat hopeful but hospitals must be protected."
At least six Palestinians were killed early on Tuesday in the occupied West Bank by Israeli forces, the Palestinian health ministry and Palestinian media said.
At least three of those were killed in an Israeli drone strike, the Palestinians' official news agency WAFA reported, citing a hospital in the western city of Tulkarm.
Israeli troops shot dead at least two Palestinians during earlier clashes in a refugee camp in the city, WAFA reported.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday welcomed 32 nationals that his government managed to rescue from the Gaza Strip this week following a month of negotiations, receiving them at the Brasilia Air Base after a nearly day-long flight.
The Brazilians crossed the Rafah border between Gaza and Egypt on Sunday and were taken to Cairo, where this morning they boarded an Embraer presidential airplane loaned by Lula and traveled to Brazil via Las Palmas, Spain.
Lula greeted passengers with hugs and kisses after their arrival late on Monday evening, offering his support to Brazilians still in or arriving from the Gaza Strip and condemning the killing of civilians in Gaza.
"I have never seen such brutal, inhumane violence against innocent people," Lula said in a short speech on the tarmac.
In October alone, more children were reported to have died in Gaza than the total number of children killed annually in all other conflicts since 2019. The awful statistic led to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres calling Gaza a “graveyard for children”.
Scores of schools have been shut due to security concerns, and movement between towns is significantly limited. According to a UNICEF briefing to the UN Security Council, the recent escalation could lead to “trauma which could last a lifetime” for children in both Palestine and Israel. Even before this crisis, however, the toll of the protracted conflict on Palestinian children has been clear.
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Iran's Foreign Minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, urged the international community to apply pressure in order to demand that the Israeli regime "cease its military aggression in Gaza".
Amirabdollahian advocated for the prompt implementation of an unconditional humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, coupled with the delivery of humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday it was coordinating the transfer of incubators into the Gaza Strip, in a possible measure to enable the evacuation of newborn babies from the Palestinian enclave's biggest hospital.
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An Indian woman from Kashmir who had sought immediate evacuation from the war-torn Hamas-ruled Gaza has safely reached Egypt with the help of Indian missions in the region, according to her husband.
Lubna Nazir Shaboo and her daughter Karima, crossed the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza on Monday evening.
"They are in al-Arish (a city in Egypt). Tomorrow morning (Tuesday) they will move to Cairo," Lubna's husband Nedal Toman said in a text message sent to PTI from Gaza.
The only exit route from Gaza, the Rafah crossing with Egypt, has been infrequently opened the past few weeks to let humanitarian supplies enter Gaza and also let some foreign nationals and wounded people cross over to the other side.
In a telephone call to PTI on Sunday, Lubna confirmed that her name was among the people who could leave Gaza and thanked profusely the Indian missions in the region -- in Ramallah, Tel Aviv and Cairo -- for making this possible.
On October 10, Lubna had reached out to PTI over the phone seeking help for evacuation.
"We are facing a brutal war here and everything is being destroyed and bombarded in a matter of seconds," she had told PTI.
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