Gaza death toll rises to 2,750 as Arab League demands end to Israeli aggression

The death toll from Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip has risen to around 2,750 since Hamas's deadly attack on southern Israel last week, the Gaza health ministry said Monday.

Some 9,700 people have also been injured as Israel continued its withering air campaign on targets in the Palestinian coastal enclave, the Hamas-controlled ministry added.

Meanwhile, 11 Palestinian journalists have been killed in the war in Gaza since Israel launched its blistering air campaign on the coastal enclave, the Palestinian journalists' union said Monday.

Twenty other journalists have also been injured in the conflict since it erupted on October 7 after Hamas militants carried out a deadly attack on Israel that triggered a devastating war.

Arab League chief demands end to Gaza attacks

The Arab League chief on Monday called for an immediate end to military operations in the Gaza Strip and for aid to be allowed into to the impoverished Palestinian enclave.

"We demand the immediate end of military operations and the opening of safe corridors to bring aid to the population," Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said during a meeting with Arab justice ministers in Baghdad.

Meanwhile, Israel on Monday denied reports of any temporary Gaza ceasefire to allow foreign nationals to flee the enclave to neighbouring Egypt.

However, the army pledged to refrain from striking routes within Gaza designated for evacuating people from the enclave's north to the south during a limited time window, from 8:00am to noon (0500 GMT to 0900 GMT).

Media reports had said Israel, Egypt and the United States had agreed the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt would be opened for several hours Monday in a one-off move to allow foreign nationals to flee and aid goods to enter.

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement that "there is currently no ceasefire and humanitarian aid in Gaza in return for removing foreigners".

Aid convoys have waited on the Egyptian side but, according to witnesses, had not left the town of El-Arish, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of Rafah on Monday.

"There is no ceasefire and we are continuing with our operational activity," military spokesman Daniel Hagari told journalists.

Izzat al-Rishq, chief of Hamas's media office, also said there was "no truth" to the media reports.

The Israeli military said earlier Monday it would refrain from striking two roads in the Gaza Strip marked for residents to move south and out of the way of a possible ground offensive.

"The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) will refrain from targeting the designated axis from 8:00 am until 12:00 pm," military spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X, formerly Twitter.

"For your safety take advantage of this short period of time to move south from the north of the strip and Gaza City."

Military spokesman Jonathan Conricus pledged in a separate statement that the two designated roads "would be safe to use" for that duration.

UN relief chief Martin Griffiths said he was hoping to get aid through the Rafah crossing into Gaza to "help those million people who have moved south as well as those who live there already".

A surprise attack on October 7 by Gaza's Hamas militants on southern communities in Israel left more than 1,400 dead, and retaliatory Israeli air strikes on Gaza since then have killed around 2,750 in the Palestinian territory.

An estimated one million people have been displaced within Gaza, the United Nations agency supporting Palestinian refugees has said.

Israel has also carried out air strikes in the southern parts of Gaza in the areas of Khan Yunis and Rafah.

UN chief warns Mideast on 'verge of the abyss'

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Sunday for Hamas to release all hostages and for Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, warning that the Middle East was "on the verge of the abyss."

"Gaza is running out of water, electricity and other essential supplies," Guterres said in a statement.

UN stocks of food, water, medical supplies and fuel in Egypt, Jordan, the West Bank and Israel "can be dispatched within hours," he continued, adding that staff "need to be able to bring these supplies into and throughout Gaza safely, and without impediment."

And he called for Hamas to release hostages "immediately" and "without conditions."

"Each one of these two objectives are valid in themselves. They should not become bargaining chips and they must be implemented because it is the right thing to do," said Guterres, who claimed it was his duty to make both appeals "in this dramatic moment, as we are on the verge of the abyss in the Middle East."

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Israel has cut off all water, electricity and food supplies to the densely-populated coastal enclave, before resuming water to the south on Sunday.

Israel's army has told people in the north of the Gaza Strip -- nearly half of its 2.4-million population -- to head south to safety, ahead of an expected ground offensive.

Aid groups have warned of a humanitarian disaster there, with some one million people displaced and Palestinians complaining of water running out.

The Israeli military said Sunday it had confirmed 155 people were being held hostage by Hamas since the group staged its deadly attack last week.

- One million Gazans flee as Israel readies for ground attack –

More than one million people have fled their homes in Gaza in scenes of chaos and despair as Israel bombarded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and continued amassing troops Monday in preparation for a full-blown ground invasion.

Israel declared war on Hamas group a day after waves of its fighters broke through the heavily fortified border on October 7, killing more than 1,400 people.

Israel then unleashed a relentless bombing campaign of Gaza that has flattened neighbourhoods and left at least 2,670 people dead in the territory, mainly civilians.

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Palestinians carrying whatever belongings they can, in bags and suitcases, or packed onto three-wheeled motorbikes, battered cars, vans and even donkey carts have become a common sight.

Fleeing the bombardment and following an Israeli order to move to the south of the Gaza Strip, people have had to find shelter wherever they can, including on the streets and in UN-run schools.

"No electricity, no water, no internet. I feel like I'm losing my humanity," said Mona Abdel Hamid, 55, who fled Gaza City to Rafah in the south of the enclave, and is having to stay with strangers.

- Arab League, African Union warn invasion can lead to "a genocide of unprecedented proportions" -

An infuriated Israel has massed forces outside the long-blockaded enclave of 2.4 million in preparation for what the army has said would be a land, air and sea attack involving a "significant ground operation".

Hamas backer Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah, which is also supported by Tehran, have warned that an invasion would be met with a response.

"No one can guarantee the control of the situation and the non-expansion of the conflicts" if Israel sends its soldiers into Gaza, said Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

Fire along the Israeli-Lebanese border has intensified in the last week, prompting Israel to shutter the area to civilians.

On Sunday, a rocket hit the UN peacekeeping base in southern Lebanon, while Hezbollah attacks killed one person in Israel, the Israeli military said.

More than 10 people have been killed in Lebanon and at least two in Israel in the past week.

Among those killed in Lebanon was a Reuters journalist, Issam Abdallah.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due back in Israel on Monday after a crisis tour of Middle Eastern countries in a frantic attempt to avert a wider crisis in the volatile region.

But as Israel seeks to avenge the worst attack in its history, the Arab League and African Union warned the invasion could lead to "a genocide of unprecedented proportions".

- Escalation risk -

Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said his country had "no interest in a war in the north, we don't want to escalate the situation".

The United States, which has given unequivocal backing to Israel, has sent two aircraft carriers to the eastern Mediterranean as a deterrent.

The White House has voiced fears at the prospect of Iran becoming "directly engaged", after it praised the Hamas attack but insisted it was not involved.

The United States has also appealed to China to use its influence in the region to ease tensions.

On Sunday Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Israel's response had "gone beyond the scope of self-defence", and demanded that it "cease its collective punishment of the people of Gaza".

- Aid agencies' alarm -

Massing thousands of troops and heavy weaponry in the desert south of the country, the Israeli military has said it is awaiting the "political" green light to go into northern Gaza.

The army has told 1.1 million Palestinians in the north of the Gaza Strip to head to the south of the enclave.

But Israeli air strikes were continuing in the south, including in Khan Yunis and Rafah, where one resident said a doctor's house was targeted.

"All the family was wiped out," said Khamis Abu Hilal.

The UN said Monday that 47 entire families, amounting to around 500 people, have been wiped out in Israel's bombing campaign.

Foreign governments and aid agencies, including the UN and Red Cross, have repeatedly criticised Israel's evacuation order.

The UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees said Sunday that some one million Palestinians had already been displaced in the first week of the conflict -- but the number was likely to be higher.

Lynn Hastings, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, decried that Israel was connecting humanitarian aid into Gaza with the release of scores of hostages seized during the Hamas attack.

"Neither should be conditional," she insisted in a video posted by the UN.

"They have said they want to destroy Hamas, but their current trajectory is going to destroy Gaza."

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- Evacuations -

In Gaza, hospitals are becoming overwhelmed with increasing numbers of dead and injured.

Health officials on Sunday said some 9,600 people have been wounded.

Israeli energy minister Israel Katz on Sunday said water supplies to southern Gaza had been switched back on.

But power outages threaten to cripple life-support systems, from sea water desalination plants to food refrigeration and hospital incubators.

Even everyday functions -- from going to the toilet, showering and washing clothes -- are almost impossible, locals said.

Gazans are effectively trapped, with Israeli-controlled crossings closed and Egypt also having shut the Rafah border in the south.

Blinken said he was confident the crossing "will be open" for aid into the strip, amid reports that Egypt was blocking the passage of Gazans with foreign passports until relief supplies are allowed in.

He categorically rejected the idea floated of expelling Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

- Hostages -

The mood in Israel has swung between collective grief, fury and a strong desire to punish Hamas, which Netanyahu has likened to the Islamic State group.

There are deep fears about the safety of 155 hostages that Hamas has taken to the Gaza Strip.

"We must bring them back home alive," said a tearful Yrat Zailer, the aunt of children aged nine months and four years whom Hamas abducted along with their mother.

Israel said last week it had found the bodies of 1,500 fighters in southern towns near the Palestinian enclave recaptured by the army.

Planeloads of Israelis have returned from around the world to join the latest of the many wars in their country's 75-year history.

- Biden says Israeli occupation of Gaza would be 'big mistake' -

Any move by Israel to occupy the Gaza Strip again would be a "big mistake," US President Joe Biden said in an interview released on Sunday, as Israeli troops prepared for a ground invasion.

Israel, seeking vengeance for an attack by Hamas on October 7, has declared war on Hamas, launching a relentless bombing campaign and warning more than a million people in northern Gaza to move south ahead of the operation.

Asked by CBS news program 60 Minutes if he would support any occupation of Gaza by the American ally, Biden replied: "I think it'd be a big mistake."

Hamas "don't represent all the Palestinian people," he continued.

But invading and "taking out the extremists" is a "necessary requirement," he added.

Israel first occupied Gaza during the 1967 Six-Day War, and it was only fully returned to Palestinians in 2005.

A year later, Israel imposed an air, land and sea blockade on the 140 square mile (362 square kilometer) strip of land, which is also bordered by Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea.

In 2007 Israel tightened the blockade after Hamas took control of Gaza from the secular Fatah movement of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

When asked if Hamas -- whom Biden described as "a bunch of cowards" -- must be eliminated entirely, he replied: "Yes I do."

"But there needs to be a Palestinian authority. There needs to be a path to a Palestinian state," he continued, reiterating the long-standing US call for a two-state solution.

60 Minutes journalist Scott Pelley also asked Biden if he could foresee US troops joining the war.

"I don't think that's necessary," Biden, who pulled US troops out of Afghanistan and has insisted that none will be sent to aid Ukraine as it holds off a Russian invasion, replied.

"Israel has one of the finest fighting forces in the country. I guarantee we're gonna provide them everything they need," he said.

The United States has already deployed two aircraft carriers to the eastern Mediterranean in a powerful show of support for Israel.

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- Blinken says expelling Gazans 'non-starter' -

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has categorically rejected the idea floated of expelling Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, saying they should be able to stay as Israel battles Hamas.

Blinken is on a crisis tour of the Middle East after Hamas unleashed a brutal October 7 assault inside Israel that killed more than 1,400, mostly civilians, prompting reprisals that have killed at least 2,670 people.

With Israel telling more than one million Gazans to leave the north of the enclave ahead of a ground invasion, some Israeli politicians have proposed pushing Palestinians into neighbouring Egypt.

"I've heard directly from Palestinian Authority President (Mahmud) Abbas and from virtually every other leader that I've talked to in the region that that idea is a nonstarter, and so we do not support it," Blinken said in an interview in Cairo with the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television network.

"We believe that people should be able to stay in Gaza, their home.  But we also want to make sure that they're out of harm's way and that they're getting the assistance they need," he said.

Israel's former deputy foreign minister Daniel Ayalon has called for Egypt to cooperate and set up tent cities for Palestinians, saying there was "almost endless space" in Sinai, a vast desert region formerly occupied by Israel.

Egypt has rejected the idea and Blinken on his visit instead focused on ways to bring humanitarian aid into Gaza, the densely populated and impoverished enclave run by Hamas.

Abbas, a rival to Hamas based in the West Bank, warned Blinken on Friday that driving out Gaza's people would amount to a "second Nakba" -- the displacement and expulsion of more than 760,000 Palestinians when the Israeli state was created in 1948.

- Actions of Hamas 'do not represent Palestinian people': Abbas -

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas said Sunday that the policies and actions of Hamas "do not represent the Palestinian people", the news agency Wafa reported.

The Palestinian Liberation Organisations (PLO) was the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, he added, during talks with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Wafa added.

According to a Venezuelan Foreign Ministry statement, Maduro and Abbas discussed "the terrible situation" in the Gaza Strip following "indiscriminate attacks" by Israel.

Maduro reaffirmed "Venezuela's unconditional support for the Palestinian cause and its Authority", and offered 30 tonnes of humanitarian aid "for the Palestinian people" to be sent in the next few days, according to the statement.

It added that both leaders agreed to "demand an immediate ceasefire and the establishment of a humanitarian assistance corridor" as well as the return to "international legality".

- People rally across world in support of Palestinians -

People rallied across the world in support of Palestinians.

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