Israel Hamas war live: Israeli troops push deeper into Gaza City

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out a ceasefire in Gaza, declaring a “time for war” amid continuing calls for a humanitarian pause in the conflict from the UK and other allies.

UK political leaders have called for the pause in the fighting to allow Palestinians to flee Gaza and for aid to be distributed.

Similar appeals have been made by the USA and other countries, but Mr Netanyahu told Israel’s allies it would not heed calls for ceasefire.

“The Bible says that there is a time for peace and a time for war. This is a time for war,” he said in a press conference, claiming that laying down arms would be akin to America doing the same after the 9/11 attacks.

Their ground operation in Gaza – a response to a deadly Hamas attack on Israeli soil on 7 October that killed more than 1,400 people – has never been carried out to this extent before.

Brief incursions in 2014 and 2009 were intended to take out concentrations of Hamas’ weapons, not to “destroy” the entire group, as prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated is the only objective this time around. It will be an exercise in urban warfare of the highest order.

A permanent ceasefire could risk more violence in Israel and Palestine at the moment, Sir Keir Starmer is expected to say.

The Labour leader will make a speech on Tuesday calling on global leaders to work towards restoring peace in the Middle East amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.

But Sir Keir will defend Labour’s calls for a humanitarian pause to allow Palestinians to flee the fighting, and for aid to be distributed.

He is expected to say that a permanent ceasefire at this stage could leave Hamas with the capability to carry out further attacks in Israel.

The Labour leader’s latest intervention on the conflict comes as several MPs on his frontbenches have broken ranks to call for a ceasefire, contradicting his support for a humanitarian pause.

Shadow ministers Yasmin Qureshi, Jess Phillips, and Imran Hussain are among the figures who have joined calls for an end to the fighting.

Labour has also been at odds over its stance on Israel with devolved mayors like Andy Burnham and Sadiq Khan, and with Labour-led councils across England.

But the party is not likely to sack its internal critics from frontbench roles, and will instead “continue engaging” with them, shadow science secretary Peter Kyle said on Sunday.

The Israel-Hamas war is spilling into Syria, fueled by growing instability, violence and a lack of progress toward a political solution to its 12-year conflict, the United Nations special envoy for the country said Monday.

Geir Pedersen told the Security Council that, on top of violence from the Syrian conflict, the Syrian people now face “a terrifying prospect of a potential wider escalation” following Hamas’ 7 October attacks on Israel and the ongoing retaliatory military action.

“Spillover into Syria is not just a risk; it has already begun,” the UN envoy for Syria said.

Pro-Palestine activists claim they have shut down a Boston arms company that supplies Israel.

Palestine Action US posted on X, alleging it has “completely halted” the business of Elbit Systems in Boston.

Video footage posted on social media appears to show activists from the group Palestine Action protesting outside the headquarters of Elbit Systems in Boston.

Protesters could be heard chanting “Elbit Systems has got to go”. Some protesters could also be heard telling officers “You’re defending genocide of children”, and calling them “f***ing pigs” as police shouted “get back”.

Japan has imposed a fresh set of sanctions on individuals and a company connected to the Gaza-based militant group Hamas, according to a statement released by the Japanese foreign ministry today.

The sanctions consist of freezing the assets of individuals and a company that have helped fund Hamas, and is in line with new sanctions announced by the United States government earlier this month.

It is the first set of sanctions Japan has imposed on Hamas since its deadly rampage on 7 October that Israeli authorities say killed over 1,400 people.

Individuals including Hamas operatives Muhammad Ahmad ‘Abd Al-Dayim Nasrallah and Ayman Nofal were newly added to the list of people and organisations deemed as terrorists by Japan.

An Israeli government ministry has drafted a wartime proposal to transfer the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million people to Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, drawing condemnation from the Palestinians and worsening tensions with Cairo.

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office played down the report compiled by the Intelligence Ministry as a hypothetical exercise – a “concept paper.” But its conclusions deepened long-standing Egyptian fears that Israel wants to make Gaza into Egypt’s problem, and revived for Palestinians memories of their greatest trauma – the uprooting of hundreds of thousands of people who fled or were forced from their homes during the fighting surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948.

“We are against transfer to any place, in any form, and we consider it a red line that we will not allow to be crossed,” Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesperson for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, said of the report. “What happened in 1948 will not be allowed to happen again.”

A mass displacement, Abu Rudeineh said, would be “tantamount to declaring a new war.”

So far more than 8,000 Palestinians, the vast majority of them civilians, have been killed since Israel went to war against Hamas after its 7 October attack.

Tennessee governor Bill Lee and US representative David Kustoff praised security measures at a Memphis Jewish school where a former student with a gun was stopped from entering the building in July, declaring strong safety procedures have become even more critical in light of the Israel-Hamas war.

Mr Lee and Mr Kustoff, both Republicans, spoke with students at Margolin Hebrew Academy-Feinstone Yeshiva of the South during a visit to the suburban school. Kustoff, who is Jewish and attended the school from kindergarten through 2nd grade, expressed support with Lee for Israel in the war that began when it was attacked by Hamas on 7 October.

Inside the one-story Memphis school, a sign saying “we stand with Israel” hangs on a hallway wall. Nearby, a bulletin board features names and photos of Israeli hostages as another sign of solidarity from the school’s students and staff.

Israeli ground forces pushed deeper into Gaza on Monday, advancing in tanks and other armored vehicles on the territory’s main city and freeing a soldier held captive by Hamas militants.

The Israeli prime minister rejected calls for a cease-fire as airstrikes landed near hospitals where thousands of Palestinians are sheltering beside the wounded.

The military said a soldier captured during Hamas’ brutal 7 October incursion was rescued in Gaza — the first rescue since the weekslong war began.

Military officials provided few details but said in a statement that Pvt Ori Megidish, 19, was “doing well” and had met with her family.

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed her home, saying the “achievement” by Israel’s security forces “illustrates our commitment to free all the hostages.”

He also rejected calls for a cease-fire to facilitate the release of captives or end the war, which he has said will be long and difficult. “Calls for a cease-fire are calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas,” he told a news conference. “That will not happen.”

Social media footage of a protest in Whitehall on 14 October showed two women with the image taped to their tops, while a third held a placard with it.

Two women, aged 29 and 44, came forward after recognising themselves in the pictures, which were widely shared, the Met Police said.

They were arrested on suspicion of inviting support for a proscribed organisation and are still being held in custody.

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