Israeli bombardment across Gaza continues as the death toll in the besieged Palestinian territory reaches at least 10,022 since October 7.
At least 152 people have been killed in the occupied West Bank and more than 1,400 in Israel during the same period.
The Palestinian representative at the UN, Riyad Mansour, has demanded accountability for “crimes” committed by Israel and blamed the US for blocking the UN ceasefire deal.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would consider “tactical little pauses” in Gaza fighting to facilitate the entry of aid or the exit of hostages, but again rejected calls for a general ceasefire despite growing international pressure.
Speaking in a U.S. television interview, Netanyahu, whose country has vowed to destroy Gaza’s Hamas rulers, said he thought Israel would need security responsibility over the Palestinian enclave for an “indefinite period” after the war.
Asked about the potential for humanitarian pauses in fighting, an idea supported by Israel’s top ally the United States, Netanyahu said a general ceasefire would hamper his country’s war effort.
“As far as tactical little pauses – an hour here, an hour there – we’ve had them before. I suppose we’ll check the circumstances in order to enable goods, humanitarian goods to come in, or our hostages, individual hostages, to leave,” Netanyahu told ABC News on Monday.
“But I don’t think there’s going to be a general ceasefire.”
Both Israel and the Hamas militants who control Gaza have rebuffed mounting international pressure for a ceasefire. Israel says hostages taken by Hamas during its rampage in southern Israel on Oct. 7 should be released first. Hamas says it will not free them nor stop fighting while Gaza is under assault.
Since the attack in which Hamas killed 1,400 people in Israel and seized more than 240 hostages, Israel has struck Gaza from the air, imposed a siege, and launched a ground assault, stirring global alarm at humanitarian conditions in the enclave.
The health ministry in the Hamas-controlled enclave said at least 10,022 Palestinians have since been killed, including 4,104 children.
International organizations have said hospitals cannot cope with the wounded and food and clean water are running out with aid deliveries nowhere near enough.
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned on Monday that Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children calling for an urgent ceasefire in the enclave.
“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 told reporters.
“At the same time, Hamas and other militants use civilians as human shields and continue to launch rockets indiscriminately towards Israel,” he said.
The U.N. Security Council met behind closed doors on Monday. The 15-member body is still trying to agree a resolution after failing four times in two weeks to take action. Diplomats said a key obstacle is whether to call for a ceasefire, cessation of hostilities or humanitarian pauses to allow aid access in Gaza.
