Israel-Hamas war live: UN human rights chief calls for ‘immediate humanitarian ceasefire’; Hamas releases two more hostages, Red Cross says

The Biden administration does not believe the time is right for a ceasefire in Gaza, a senior official said on Monday evening.

Speaking to CNN, John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator for the National Security Council, said the US position was that all hostages held by Hamas in Gaza must be released first.

His words echoed comments from Joe Biden earlier on Monday that “we should have those hostages released and then we can talk”. Kirby said:

I thought the message was pretty clear to Hamas: ‘release all the hostages’. That needs to be the first move here. We’re not talking about a ceasefire right now. In fact, we don’t believe that this is the time for a ceasefire.

Israel has a right to defend themselves. They still have work to do to go after Hamas leadership. We’re gonna keep supporting them … our focus is on making sure that they have what they need to carry on this fight.

The United Nations says a third convoy of humanitarian aid, consisting of 20 trucks, delivered water, food and medicine to Gaza on Monday, but warned that fuel was not included and reserves will run out within the next two days.

Humanitarian deliveries through the Rafah crossing from Egypt began on Saturday. According to UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, cited by Reuters, 54 trucks have entered in the three days since then.

UN officials have said about 100 aid trucks would be needed daily to meet essential needs in Gaza, home to 2.3 million people, some 1.4 million of which are now homeless. Wrangles over procedures for inspecting the aid, and ongoing aerial attacks in Gaza, left the aid stuck in Egypt.

Joe Biden received an update on the situation during a briefing at the White House on Monday afternoon.

The US president, who has submitted a $106bn request to Congress including humanitarian aid for Ukraine and Gaza, tweeted his government’s commitment to sending humanitarian relief.

“The United States remains committed to ensuring that civilians in Gaza will continue to have access to food, water, medical care, and other assistance, without diversion by Hamas,” Biden said.

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, meanwhile, has called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to allow more aid in. No fuel will mean water desalination and energy generating plants cannot function, and hospitals and other essential services will be without power, the UN said.

Dujarric said the UN was pushing for fuel deliveries that were essential to its agency providing aid to Palestinians in Gaza.

“They can see the bottom of the fuel tank. We’re talking days. And when that happens, that will be truly devastating, on top of what is already a devastating humanitarian situation,” he said.

Volker Türk, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, called on Monday for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza.

In a statement, he said “far too many civilian lives, many of them children, have already been lost”:

The first step must be an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, saving the lives of civilians through the delivery of prompt and effective humanitarian aid.

This violence will never end unless leaders stand up and take the brave and humane choices that are required by fundamental humanity.

Israel has launched repeated airstrikes against Hamas in Gaza in response to its attack on the country that killed more than 1,400 earlier this month and appears to be preparing a massive ground invasion.

Palestinian authorities have said more than 5,000 civilians have been killed from the Israeli bombardment, while the international community remains divided over halting the fighting to facilitate an infusion of aid.

Türk’s statement continued:

Far too many civilian lives, many of them children, have already been lost – on both sides – as a consequence of these hostilities. And unless something changes, coming days will see more civilians on the brink of death from continuing bombardment.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that they helped facilitate the release of two hostages held by Hamas, in a new post to X.

In the statement posted online, ICRC confirmed that they transported the two hostages out of Gaza Monday evening.

“Our role as a neutral intermediary makes this work possible & we are ready to facilitate any future release,” the ICRC post read.

“We hope that they will soon be back with their loved ones.”

It’s just after 10pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv, and here are the developments we’ve been following today in the Israel-Hamas conflict:

• Hamas says it has released two more hostages from those it’s holding in Gaza. The group named them as Nurit Yitzhak and Yochved Lifschitz, and said they were release on “humanitarian and poor health grounds”. There is no independent confirmation of their release yet, and their whereabouts are currently unknown. Hamas released American mother and daughter Judith and Natalia Raanan on Friday. Earlier today, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said it believed Hamas was still holding 222 hostages in Gaza.

• Reports from Israel suggested that the release of about 50 hostages held by Hamas could be imminent. The Tel Aviv news channel I24 reported “sources within Gaza” as saying “the finalization of a potential deal” brokered by Qatari was under way for the release of about 50 abductees who hold dual citizenship. Officials of Red Cross are believed to on their way to receive the group, I24 said, and the release could be concluded “in the hours ahead” if there are no obstacles.

• The White House said Iran is behind attacks by proxy on US troops in the Middle East after a barrage of drone and missile attacks over the weekend. At a media briefing on Monday, John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator for the National Security Council said the US was ramping up its military capabilities in the Middle East and warned Iran or other nations seeking to use the conflict as an excuse to attack US interests: “Don’t do it”.

• Almost 20,000 people have been internally displaced in south Lebanon and elsewhere since early October, a United Nations agency said on Monday, reflecting escalating violence on the Lebanese-Israeli border. The UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) said 19,646 people had been displaced inside Lebanon since it began tracking movements on 8 October, the day after the assault on Israel by Hamas militants, the AFP news agency reported.

• The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said at least 5,087 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since 7 October. It said the dead included 2,055 children. Additionally, it said 15,273 people had been wounded. The ministry put the death toll in the past 24 hours at 436, including 182 children. It said most of the fatalities had occurred in the southern Gaza Strip, to where Israel’s military has ordered Palestinians to evacuate. The claims have not been independently verified.

• Israel’s military said on Monday that ground forces mounted limited raids into the Gaza Strip overnight to fight Palestinian gunmen, and that airstrikes were being focused on sites where Hamas was assembling to attack any wider Israeli invasion. The IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said: “During the night there were raids by tank and infantry forces. These raids are raids that kill squads of terrorists who are preparing for our next stage in the war. These are raids that go deep.”

• Washington has advised Israel to delay its expected ground invasion of Gaza in order to buy time to negotiate the release of hostages held by Hamas and allow more aid in to Palestinian civilians, the New York Times reported, citing US officials.

• A third convoy of aid trucks entered the Rafah crossing from Egypt on Monday bound for the besieged Gaza Strip, an aid worker and two security sources have told Reuters. On Saturday and Sunday 34 trucks passed through. The number of trucks in Monday’s convoy was similar to each of those days, the aid worker and security sources said. UN officials say about 100 trucks would be needed daily to meet essential needs in Gaza.

• The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, joined calls on Monday for a humanitarian pause in the conflict to let more aid supplies into Gaza.

• The leaders of the US, UK, France, Canada, Germany and Italy have called on Israel to adhere to international law and protect civilians, while also reiterating Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorism. In a statement put out after a phone call, the leaders’ offices said: “The leaders reiterated their support for Israel and its right to defend itself against terrorism and called for adherence to international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians.”

• Benjamin Netanyahu thanked the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, for his country’s support as the latter visited Tel Aviv. Netanyahu said of the conflict: “It’s a battle against civilization. It’s civilization against barbarism. We’re on the side of civilization. We have to unite, all together, against Hamas, which is Isis.”

• The Palestinian prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, has said the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip are exposed to “the Israeli murder and criminal machine”.

• A Palestinian photojournalist, Roshdi Sarraj, has been killed in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, Radio France reported. The French broadcaster said Sarraj was killed on Sunday in Israeli strikes on Tel al-Hawa, in Gaza City. His wife and one-year-old daughter were injured.

• Israel’s military has claimed to have fired at a “suspicious aerial target” attempting to enter Israel from the direction of Lebanon.

• Turkey sent two cargo planes to Egypt on Monday carrying further medical equipment and supplies for Gaza, the health minister Fahrettin Koca said. He said two more aircraft would be sent with more supplies.

• A 33-year-old Dutch woman has been killed in an explosion in Gaza, the Dutch foreign ministry has said. Named locally as Islam al-Ashqar, she was visiting relatives at the Nusairat refugee camp in central Gaza and was one of 22 Dutch nationals that the ministry was trying to help leave, the broadcaster NOS said.

Hamas has said it released two more hostages Monday, Reuters is reporting.

It comes as reports in Israel suggest a deal may be imminent to secure the release of about another 50 abductees with dual nationality. The group released Americans Natalie and Judith Raanan on Friday.

No more details were immediately available about Monday’s reported release, but Reuters said it was announced by the armed wing of Hamas and involved “mediation” by Qatar and Egypt.