Israeli troops and tanks have attacked Gaza's main northern city from the east and west, three days after it began ground operations in the Palestinian enclave.
Israel's military said it had struck more than 600 militant targets over the past few days as it expanded ground operations in the Gaza Strip.
Israel began a big push into Gaza late on Friday and renewed calls for civilians to move from the north of the tiny, densely populated coastal enclave to the south as it goes after Hamas militants it says are hiding in a labyrinth of tunnels under Gaza City.
Israeli forces carried out dozens of air strikes on its eastern side, residents said on Monday, with some reporting the roar of tanks rolling in amid heavy exchanges of fire.
Later, residents and the Hamas-run government's media office said the tanks had pulled back towards the heavily fortified fence around Gaza.
The armed wing of Hamas — which is listed as a terrorist organisation by the Australian government — said intense mortar fire had pushed them back.
Palestinian civilians in Gaza are in dire need of fuel, food and clean water as the war enters its fourth week.
To the west, where Israel on Sunday showed tanks on the Mediterranean coast, the north-south coast road was hit several times from the air and sea, residents said.
Reuters could not immediately verify the reports and Israel made no immediate comment.
Many Palestinians have remained in Gaza City, afraid to lose their homes and concerned by news of Israeli air strikes further south.
Netanyahu rejects calls for ceasefire with Hamas
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel would not agree to a cessation of hostilities with Hamas in the Gaza Strip and would press ahead with its plans to wipe out the group.
Mr Netanyahu said all wars have unintended civilian casualties and Israel's assault on Gaza, which Hamas controls, was a battle between "civilisation and barbarism", calling on allies to back Israel.
"Just as the US would not agree to a ceasefire after the bombing of Pearl Harbour or after the terrorist attack of 9/11, Israel will not agree to a cessation of hostilities with Hamas after the horrific attacks of 7 October," he said.
"Calls for a ceasefire are calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terrorism".
"The Bible says 'there is a time for peace, and a time for war'" he said. "This is a time for a war."
Israel says forces freed soldier held captive in Gaza
Israel said on Monday its forces had freed a soldier from Hamas captivity during the ground offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The soldier, identified as Ori Megidish, was kidnapped by Hamas gunmen who rampaged through southern Israeli communities on October 7.
She had since undergone medical checks and was "doing well", the military said.
Israel says that over 200 hostages are being held by Hamas, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the ground campaign in Gaza creates the possibility for their rescue.
"Hamas will not do it unless they are under pressure," he told reporters.
"We obviously greeted one hostage with open arms after yesterday's successful action … but we're committed to getting all the hostages back home.
"We think that this method stands a chance."
Air strikes hit near hospitals, Palestinians say
Palestinian health officials said air strikes had hit near hospitals in the city on Monday, including Al-Shifa, Al-Quds and the Turkish Friendship Hospital.
UN humanitarian office OCHA said 117,000 civilians were sheltering alongside thousands of patients and doctors in hospitals in the north.
Israel has accused Hamas of locating command centres and other military infrastructure in Gaza hospitals, which the group denies.
Medical authorities in Hamas-run Gaza, which has a population of 2.3 million people, said on Monday that 8,306 people — including 3,457 minors — had been killed.
Israel has said 1,400 people were killed when Hamas-led militants stormed through the south of the country on October 7 and took over 200 hostages.
Hamas has released four so far and said 50 have been killed in retaliatory strikes.
German-Israeli hostage confirmed dead
A German-Israeli woman who was snatched by Hamas from a music festival during the October 7 attacks and paraded around by the militant group is dead, the Israeli government said on Monday.
"I am really sorry to report that we have now received news that Shani Nicole Louk has been confirmed murdered and dead," Israeli President Isaac Herzog told Germany's Bild newspaper.
"What we saw on the Gaza-Israel border goes far beyond a pogrom. We saw a slaughterhouse."
Ms Louk, 23, was one of scores of people taken by Hamas during a deadly terror attack on the Israeli military and civilian communities.
Hamas has not commented on Ms Louk's fate.
The circumstances of her death were not immediately clear.
The German government confirmed on Monday that a German national had died but did not offer specifics.
A family source told Reuters that a part of a body had been found which was matched to Ms Louk's DNA.
Her family initially thought she was alive but injured when she was snatched from the music festival but now believe she was killed on the same day, possibly shot in the head, German broadcaster RTL/ntv said.
"At least she didn't suffer," her mother Ricarda Louk told RTL/ntv.
Hostages berate Netanyahu in new video Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned as "cruel psychological propaganda" a video released on Monday by Hamas that shows three of the hostages seized by the Islamist movement on October 7.
The video shows three women — identified by Mr Netanyahu as Yelena Trupanob, Danielle Aloni and Rimon Kirsht — sitting side by side against a bare wall, with Aloni addressing an angry message to the prime minister.
In a statement, Mr Netanyahu repeated a pledge to make every effort to bring the hostages home.
"Abducted by Hamas, which is committing war crimes, I embrace you. Our hearts are with you and with the other captives. We are doing everything to bring home all the captives and the missing," he said.
The short video is the second hostage message to be issued by Hamas, following an earlier clip of 21-year-old Franco-Israeli woman Mia Schem that was released on October 17.
According to Israeli authorities, at least 239 hostages, both Israeli and foreign, were taken captive by Hamas gunmen during the attack, which killed at least 1,400 people.
The presence of the hostages in Gaza has complicated the ground operation in the enclave begun by Israeli forces last week, following an intense campaign of air strikes that Palestinian authorities say has killed more than 8,000 people.
Four hostages have been released so far but efforts to secure additional releases through back-channel efforts coordinated by Qatar appear to have been put on hold following the start of the ground operation.
Four killed in West Bank raid
Four Palestinians were killed during an early-morning Israeli raid in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, the Palestinian health ministry said as violence escalated in the restive area.
According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, "more than 100 military vehicles and two bulldozers" took part in the raid that took place in the city and its refugee camp — a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups and the target of frequent military incursions.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they were also fighting Israeli forces in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
The four were aged between 23 and 28, and another nine people were wounded, a ministry statement said.
Military drones hovered over the area during the raid, while snipers were positioned on buildings around Jenin's main hospital, Wafa said.
Part of the hospital's perimeter wall was also demolished by military bulldozers.
Israel's military said one of its aircraft had killed several militants in West
The deaths come a day after five Palestinians were killed by army fire during several military incursions into the West Bank.
The West Bank was already a hotbed of tension before the war with frequent Israeli army raids, a surge in assaults by Jewish settlers, and Palestinian attacks on settlements fanning the unrest.
Israel occupied the West Bank during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and its forces regularly carry out raids on Palestinian militants there.
[Source: Reuters/AFP]
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