Human rights activists, relatives and ex-detainees allege the Israeli military has rounded up hundreds of Palestinians in northern Gaza, forced men to strip to their underwear and subjected them to hunger and cold. Experts say the roundups have laid bare an emerging tactic in Israel's ground offensive in Gaza, nearly 10 weeks after the deadly October 7th attack on southern Israel by Hamas.
This is being seen as a move for peace from the Hamas side as the Israel military is putting grave pressure on the militant group's leadership and the possibility of its ouster from the Gaza Strip. Hamas has always openly sought Israel’s destruction and vowed to commit similar onslaughts to the one carried out on October 7.
Israel is facing a security threat in north from Hezbollah which is backed by the Islamic Republic of Iran. There are also less possibilities of an all-out war between Hezbollah and Israel as the Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasarullah has not made any comments whether Hezbollah will join the war during his two public addresses since October 7.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday informed the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the Palestinian Authority (PA) wants to destroy Israel in stages. Hebrew media reported that Netanyahu has told the Knesset committee that the difference between Hamas and the PA is only that Hamas wants to destroy Israel now but PA wants to do it in stages.
Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qedra said on Monday during a press conference that the bodies of 208 dead Palestinians were transferred to hospitals in the Gaza Strip during the past 24 hours, and 416 Palestinians were wounded in the Israeli raids, Xinhua news agency reported.
The UK's Indian-origin British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, 43, was looking at an uncertain future on Monday afternoon, following a right-wing faction of his Conservative party being informed that a parliamentary Bill on which he has virtually staked his future was a "partial and incomplete solution" to the problem of sending back illegal asylum seekers from Britain. The UK government wants to deport such arrivals to Rwanda, with which it has signed a treaty.
