Some 100,000 residents trapped in Israel's north Gaza assault, Palestinians say

Israeli tanks thrust deeper on Monday into two northGazatowns and a historic refugee camp, trapping around 100,000 civilians, according to the Palestinian emergency service, in what the military said were operations to root out regrouping Hamas militants.

The Israeli military said soldiers captured around 100 suspected Hamas militants in a raid into Kamal AdwanHospital in the Jabalia camp.It did not provide any evidence.Hamas and medics havedenied any militant presence at the hospital.

TheGazaStrip's Health Ministry said at least 19 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes and bombardment on Monday, 13 of them in the north of the shattered coastal territory.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said around 100,000 people were marooned in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun without medical or food supplies. Reuters could not verify the number independently.

The emergency service said its operations had ground to a halt because of the three-week-long Israeli assault back into the north, an area where the military said it had wiped out viable Hamas combat forces earlier in theyear-long war.

Israeli troops raid north Gaza hospital

NorthGaza'sthree hospitals, where officials refused orders by the Israeli army to evacuate, said they were hardly operating. At least two had been damaged by Israeli fire during the assault and had run out of medical supplies as well as food and fuel stocks.

At least one doctor, a nurse and two child patients had reportedly died in those hospitals due to a lack of treatment in the past week.

On Monday, theGaza Health Ministry saidonly one of roughly 70 medical staff a pediatrician was left at Kamal Adwan Hospital after Israel "detained and expelled" the others.

The Israeli military said soldiers who raided the hospital "apprehended approximately 100 terrorists from the compound, including terrorists who attempted to escape during the evacuation of civilians. Inside the hospital, they found weapons, terror funds, and intelligence documents."

NorthGazaresidents said Israeli forces were besieging schools and other shelters housing displaced families, ordering them out before rounding up men and ushering women and children out of the area towardGazaCity and the south.

Only a few families headed to southernGazaas the majority preferred to relocate temporarily inGazaCity, fearing they could otherwise never regain access to their homes.

Residents writing their death notices

Some said they had written their death notices in case they died from the constant bombardment, saying they would prefer death to displacement.

"While the world is busy with Lebanon and new nonsense talk about a few days of ceasefire [inGaza], the Israeli occupation is wiping out northGazaand displacing its people," a resident of Jabalia told Reuters by a chat app.

"[But]neither [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu nor Eilandwill be able to take us out of northernGaza."

Giora Eiland, a former head of Israel's National Security Council, was the lead author of a much-debated proposal dubbed "the generals' plan," that would see Israel rapidly clear northernGazaof civilians before starving out surviving Hamas fighters by cutting off their supply of food and water.

This month's Israeli tank assault drew Palestinian accusations that the military has embraced Eiland's concept, which he envisaged as a short-term step to defeat Hamas in the north, but which Palestinians fear is meant to clear the area for good to carve out a buffer zone for the military after the war.

The Israeli military has denied pursuing any such plan. It says its forces operate in keeping with international law and that it targets militants who hide among the civilian population which they use as human shields, a charge Hamas denies.

NorthGazawas the first part of the enclave to be hammered by Israel's ground offensive into the territory after Hamas's cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, with intensive bombing largely flattening towns like Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya.

Nevertheless, Hamas-led militants continue to attack Israeli forces in hit-and-run operations with anti-tank rockets, mortar salvoes and bombs planted in buildings, streets and other areas where they anticipate Israeli forces taking up positions.

The war erupted after Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7 last year, killing some 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according toIsraeli tallies.

The death toll from Israel's retaliatory air and ground onslaught inGazahas reached 43,020, theGaza Health Ministry said in an update on Monday, with the densely populated enclave widely reduced to rubble.

More than 60 dead after airstrikes in Lebanon

Israel continued battering Lebanon on Monday, including an early morning airstrike on a district in the southern port of Tyre that left seven dead, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.

At least 60 people werekilled and dozens wounded in Israeli strikes on Lebanon'seastern Bekaa Valley later in the day, two security sources and the mayor ofBaalbek told Reuters on Monday.

The Israeli military issued an evacuation order for large swathes of Tyre, including areas that have not been previously asked to evacuate and that included neighbourhoods near a seaside hotel where journalists are usually based.

In an update, the Israeli military said it bombed Hezbollah anti-tank missile depots and other arms assets in Tyre for the second time in several days. It did not provide any evidence.

Israel's expanding evacuation warnings have made ghost towns out of much of southern Lebanon,including Tyre, and the bombing campaign has left many towns along the borderin ruins.

Hezbollah carried out a string of attacks on Israeli troops within Lebanese territory and on military targets within Israel. It said it had struck a military equipment factory southeast of Acre, but there were no reports of damage or casualties.

Ceasefire talks continue

Talks led by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar to broker a ceasefire resumed on Sunday after multiple abortive attempts, with Egypt's president proposing an initial two-day truce to exchange four Israeli hostages of Hamas for some Palestinian prisoners, to be followed by talks within 10 days on a permanent ceasefire.

Israel's Netanyahu said on Monday the latest meetings in Doha focused on a new outline that takes into account previous proposals and regional developments.

He said mediators would resume talks in coming days "in a continued attempt to advance a deal," without elaborating.

To date, Israel has repeatedly said the war will go on until Hamas is eradicated while the Islamist movement has ruled out an end to fighting until Israeli forces leaveGaza.

WATCH |Israel's weekendattack on Iran kills 4 soldiers:

Iran says it has right to self-defence after Israel attack kills 4 soldiers

20 days ago

Duration 8:00

Iran reported that Israeli airstrikes in the country killed four soldiers early Saturday but said the attack caused only limited damage otherwise. Israel said its attack was in retaliation for the barrage of missiles Iran fired at the country earlier this month itself a response to Israels killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon and Hamas chairman Ismail Haniyeh in Iran.

Gaza's war has kindled wider conflict in the Middle East, raising concern about global oil supplies, with Israel carrying out bombings across Lebanon and sending forces into its south in an offensive to disable Iran-backed Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas.

It has also triggered rare direct clashes between regional arch-foes Israel and Iran. At the weekend, Israeli warplanes pounded missile production sites in Iran in retaliation for an Oct. 1 Iranian missile volley at Israel.

Iran's Foreign Ministry said on Monday Tehran would"use all available tools"to respond to Israel's weekend attack.

The United States warned Iran at the United Nations Security Council on Monday of "severe consequences" if it undertakes any further aggressive acts against Israel or U.S. personnel in the Middle East.

Iran's UNAmbassador Amir Saied Iravani accused Washington of being "complicit" through military support for its ally.

"Iran has consistently championed diplomacy," he told the council. "However, as a sovereign state, the Islamic Republic of Iran reserves its inherent right to respond at a time of its choosing to this act of aggression."