Live updates: Israeli troops divide north and south Gaza

Israeli troops divided the northern and southern parts of Gaza, as communications across the besieged territory were gradually restored Monday after being cut for a third time since the war started. The troops are expected to enter Gaza City on Monday or Tuesday, Israeli media reported.

The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war surpassed 10,000, including more than 4,100 children and 2,640 women, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.

The developments come as an Israeli strike hit the roof of Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, killing a number of displaced people sheltering on its top floor and destroying solar panels, said the general manager of all hospitals in Gaza. The panels have been helping keep the power on at the facility, which has been reduced to using one generator because of lack of fuel.

In the occupied West Bank, more than 140 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids. More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that started the fighting, and 242 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by the militant group.

Roughly 1,100 people have left the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing since Wednesday under an apparent agreement among the United States, Egypt, Israel and Qatar, which mediates with Hamas.

Currently:

— Israeli military says it has surrounded Gaza City and is preparing for expected ground battles.

— Hezbollah and Hamas’ military wings in Lebanon exchange fire with Israel.

— South Africa recalls diplomatic mission to Israel and accuses it of genocide in Gaza.

— These numbers show the staggering toll of the Israel-Hamas war.

— U.S. secretary of state ends Mideast tour with tepid support for pauses in Gaza fighting.

— A U.N. official says the average Palestinian in Gaza is living on two pieces of bread a day.

— Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.

Here’s what is happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war:

UNITED NATIONS CHIEF CALLS FOR CEASE-FIRE AND WARNS OF REGIONAL ESCALATION

UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations chief is again demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza and a halt to the “spiral of escalation” already taking place from the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria to Iraq and Yemen.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters Monday that international humanitarian law, which demands protection of civilians and infrastructure essential for their lives, is clearly being violated and stressed that “no party to an armed conflict is above” these laws.

“Ground operations by the Israel Defense Forces and continued bombardment are hitting civilians, hospitals, refugee camps, mosques, churches and U.N. facilities – including shelters. No one is safe,” Guterres said. “At the same time, Hamas and other militants use civilians as human shields and continue to launch rockets indiscriminately towards Israel.”

The secretary-general called again for the immediate unconditional release of the hostages taken by Hamas from Israel to Gaza, the speedy delivery of more food, water, fuel and medicine to the territory, and the end of the use of civilians as human shields. He stressed that none of these appeals should be contingent on the others but said freeing the hostages is “central to solving many other challenges.”

Guterres launched a $1.2 billion humanitarian appeal to help 2.7 million people – the entire 2.2 million population of the Gaza Strip and 500,000 in the West Bank.

NO AGREEMENT AFTER BIDEN ASKS NETANYAHU FOR HUMANITARIAN PAUSE IN GAZA FIGHTING

WASHINGTON – U.S. President Joe Biden did not reach an agreement during his call Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the need for a humanitarian pause in the Israel-Hamas war. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. would “continue to advocate for temporary, localized pauses in the fighting.”

The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has surpassed 10,000, including more than 4,100 children and 2,640 women, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.

Asked whether the toll gave the U.S. pause for its staunch support for Israel, Kirby said, “I think we all need to remember who they’re fighting,” and referenced Hamas’ Oct. 7 incursion into Israel that killed 1,400 people and started the war.

He insisted “no country” would tolerate such an attack “without a swift and aggressive response,” but said the U.S. having “frank” conversations with Israelis about trying to reduce the civilian death toll.

CIA DIRECTOR VISITS MIDDLE EAST TO MEET WITH INTELLIGENCE PARTNERS, US OFFICIAL SAYS

WASHINGTON -- CIA Director William Burns is in the Middle East meeting with intelligence partners and leaders of several countries on matters including ones related to the war between Israel and Hamas, a U.S. official said Monday.

Topics include the fate of some 240 foreigners being held hostage by the Hamas militant group in Gaza, and the U.S. commitment to prevent state and nonstate actors from widening the Israel-Hamas war regionally, the U.S. official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss Burns’ typically off-the-record travel plans.

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Associated Press writer Ellen Knickmeyer contributed.

US NAVY SUBMARINE IN MIDEAST IS NOT ARMED WITH NUKES, DEFENSE OFFICIAL SAYS

WASHINGTON — The Ohio-class submarine that U.S. Central Command announced had sailed into Middle East waters on Sunday is an SSGN, a guided missile submarine variant that is not capable of firing nuclear weapons, a defense official told The Associated Press.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

The vessel was photographed as it transited the Suez Canal into the Red Sea, the defense official said.

On Monday, Pentagon press secretary Brig . Gen. Pat Ryder said the submarine would provide “further support our deterrence efforts in the region.”

Although it’s not unusual for a U.S. submarine to transit the canal in Egypt, Central Command’s online statement acknowledging the location of an Ohio-class submarine is rare. There are Ohio-class submarines that can fire nuclear weapons known as SSBN, or ballistic missile submarine variants.

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Associated Press writer Tara Copp contributed.

RED CROSS SAYS IT ACCOMPANIED CRITICALLY ILL PATIENTS TO RAFAH CROSSING POINT

The International Committee of the Red Cross on Monday accompanied a convoy of four ambulances transporting seven critically wounded patients from al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City to the Rafah crossing point into Egypt, Jessica Moussan, a spokesperson for the ICRC told the AP.

The patients were evacuated to Egypt for treatment as part of a deal among Egypt, Israel and Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza. The deal also calls for foreign passport holders to exit the besieged territory to Egypt.

Monday’s evacuation was the first since the crossing was closed over the weekend because of a dispute among Israel, Egypt and Hamas.

HAMAS SAYS IT HAS FIRED 16 ROCKETS ON NORTHERN ISRAELI TOWN

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The military wing of Hamas says they have fired 16 rockets on the northern Israeli town of Nahariya and the southern outskirts of the city of Haifa in retaliation for Israeli attacks on Gaza.

The Qassam Brigades did not give further details in its statement released Monday but firing rockets toward Haifa is the furthest from Lebanon since clashes began along the border about a month ago.

Hamas fired rockets in the past on northern Israel including Nahariya from Lebanon.

FLEEING PALESTINIANS REPORT ISRAELI BOMBARDMENT OF REFUGEE CAMP

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinians who fled southward on Monday reported a heavy Israeli bombardment overnight of the Shati refugee camp. They said the Israeli military pounded the camp and the area around al-Shifa hospital during a communications blackout.

Houses across the sprawling camp were reduced to the ground, leaving many dead or wounded under the ruble, they said. First responders and medics worked overnight to retrieve the dead and wounded, they said.

Ghassan Abu Sitta, a surgeon at al-Shifa hospital, said the bombardment of the camp shook the hospital’s buildings.

“They pounded the camp all night. The buildings of the al-Shifa hospital were shaking all night, and we started getting the bodies and the wounded. It was horrendous,” he told The Associated Press.

ISRAELI STRIKE DAMAGES A ROOF AT GAZA’S LARGEST HOSPITAL; HAMAS DENIES USING HOSPITALS FOR MILITARY ACTIVITIES

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Mohamed Zaqout, general manager of all hospitals in Gaza, said the roof of a building at al-Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest, was damaged by an Israeli strike, resulting in deaths and injuries.

Speaking on Al-Jazeera, Zaqout said the strike killed displaced people who were sheltering on the top floor. Solar panels that were installed on the roof were destroyed in the attack, he said.

Al-Jazeera showed a video of bloodstained wreckage inside the top floor, where the beds of displaced families were still laid out. Other videos showed smoke rising from the building.

Meanwhile, a senior Hamas official on Monday denied Israeli charges that the militant group has located missiles and rocket launchers near a hospital in the Gaza Strip.

Osama Hamdan told reporters in Beirut that Israel is trying to destroy the medical sector in Gaza to force Palestinians out of their land.

Hamdan also denied Israeli military statements that the group has a tunnel near a hospital in Gaza, saying a hole shown in a photo presented by the Israeli military spokesperson is used for storing fuel.

Hamdan urged the U.N. to send an international committee to visit hospitals to confirm they are not being used by Hamas for military activities.

AT LEAST 2 KILLED AS AIRSTRIKE FLATTENS HOUSE IN SOUTHERN GAZA

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza — Dozens of civilians and emergency workers helped dig for survivors after an airstrike flattened at least one building in the densely populated al-Amal district of Khan Younis city in southern Gaza.

“There were no grown-ups, the house was full of children,” said local resident Soliman al-Faqawi, pausing momentarily from the communal dig.

Suddenly a teenage boy was pulled from the rubble alive, wincing in pain, his body completely covered in soot and dust. He was quickly placed on a stretcher and carried away for treatment,

At least two people were killed in the strike, according to Associated Press journalists at the scene.

GAZA HEALTH MINISTRY SAYS PALESTINIAN DEATH TOLL HAS SURPASSED 10,000

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza says the Palestinian death toll from the ongoing war with Israel has jumped over 10,000.

The figures, released Monday, mark a grim milestone in what has quickly become the deadliest Israeli-Palestinian violence since 1948.

The war erupted on Oct. 7 when Hamas militants stormed into Israel from Gaza and killed over 1,400 people and took some 240 others hostage in a rampage that Israel described as the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. Israel responded with a campaign of blistering airstrikes, followed by a ground invasion.

The Health Ministry said 292 people were killed in Gaza on Sunday, raising the death toll to 10,022, without distinguishing between fighters and civilians. The vast majority of the dead are believed to have been killed in Israeli airstrikes, though Israel says over 500 errant rockets launched by Palestinian militants have landed inside Gaza.

POPE DECRIES ANTISEMITISM, WAR AND TERRORISM

ROME — Pope Francis met with European rabbis on Monday and decried antisemitism, war and terrorism in a written speech he declined to read, saying he wasn’t feeling well.

Francis said in his prepared speech that his first thought and prayers goes “above all else, to everything that has happened in the last few weeks,” a clear reference to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel, including the taking away of hostages to the Gaza Strip, and the ensuring Israeli-Hamas war.

“Yet again violence and war have erupted in that Land blessed by the Most High, which seems continually assailed by the vileness of hatred and the deadly clash of weapons,” Francis wrote in the speech.

With France, Austria and Italy among the countries in Europe recently seeing a spate of antisemitic vandalism and slogans, Francis added, “The spread of antisemitic demonstrations, which I strongly condemn, is also of great concern.”

The pontiff said believers in God are called to build “fraternity and open paths of reconciliation for all.”