Live updates: After nearly 3 months of Israel's blockade, aid trucks enter Gaza

The war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251 others. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.

Here's the latest:

21 countries call on Israel to fully reopen humanitarian aid delivery to Gaza

The foreign ministers of Germany, Italy, Japan and 18 other countries have called for Israel to fully reopen humanitarian aid delivery to Gaza from the U.N. and non-governmental organizations.

The foreign leaders said the proposal approved by Israel’s security cabinet and the one backed by the U.S. is not one that their “humanitarian partners can support.”

“Whilst we acknowledge indications of a limited restart of aid, Israel blocked humanitarian aid entering Gaza for over two months. Food, medicines and essential supplies are exhausted. The population faces starvation. Gaza’s people must receive the aid they desperately need,” the joint statement read.

The statement said they have two messages for Israel: "Allow a full resumption of aid into Gaza immediately and enable the U.N. and humanitarian organizations to work independently and impartially to save lives, reduce suffering and maintain dignity.”

UK, France and Canada threaten ‘concrete actions’ against Israel

The U.K., France and Canada are threatening “concrete actions” against Israel, including sanctions, for its activities in Gaza and West Bank.

The joint statement on Monday sharply criticizes Israel’s decision to allow a limited, “basic” amount of aid into Gaza after nearly three months of an Israeli blockade “wholly inadequate.”

The statement also calls on Israel to stop its “egregious” new military actions in Gaza and to immediately allow in humanitarian aid.

The statement came shortly after Israel and the United Nations said the first few trucks of aid had entered Gaza — which the U.N. humanitarian chief described as a “drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed.”

Humanitarian says group slated to distribute aid in Gaza would be an accessory to displacement

The head of a French medical humanitarian organization operating in Gaza says the U.S.-backed group expected to distribute aid in the besieged territory will be an accessory to a massive displacement of the Palestinian population as planned by Israel.

Jean-Francois Corty, president of Medicins du Monde, a France-based medical humanitarian organization, sharply criticized plans by Israel, backed by the U.S., to use a private contractor, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, to distribute aid in Gaza.

The plans, as they are known so far, involve setting up four distribution hubs where Palestinians would have to go to collect food guarded by armed private contractors and near Israeli military positions.

It appears three of the four hubs will be in Rafah in the far south of Gaza and one in central Gaza, meaning much of the population will have to move to Rafah to obtain aid. Israeli authorities have been pressing for Palestinians to evacuate south.

Corty said GHF is “operating for American and Israeli authorities” and is “working for this project to support the massive deportation of the population which is planned by these authorities.”

Israeli official says flour, baby food, medical supplies will enter Gaza

An Israeli official says a shipment of flour, baby food and medical supplies will be allowed into Gaza.

Eden Bar Tal, the Foreign Ministry’s director general, said the baby food had started entering, but there was no sign of any aid on the Gaza side of the border. He did not say how much aid would enter, where it would enter or when.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would allow some aid to enter Gaza for the first time in nearly three months under pressure from Israel’s allies.

Aid groups say hunger is widespread and have warned of famine if Israel does not lift its blockade on Gaza’s 2 million Palestinians.

Gaza's Health Ministry says 136 died in Israeli strikes over the past 24 hours

The ministry says 136 bodies were brought to Gaza hospitals over the past 24 hours. The hospitals also received 364 wounded, according to the ministry's daily report.

The overall Palestinian death toll from the Israel-Hamas war is now at 53,486, said the ministry. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because the militants operate in densely populated areas.

Hamas says there's been no progress in ceasefire talks hosted by Qatar

A senior Hamas official says Israel insists on a partial deal to release some hostages without committing to ending the war.

Hamas will only release the remaining hostages in return for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The official was not authorized to brief media and spoke on condition of anonymity.

— By Samy Magdy in Cairo;

Israeli strike on a Gaza school-turned-shelter kills 5, a hospital says

Al-Awda Hospital says that among the dead in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp were a woman and a young girl. The strike also wounded 18 others, mostly children, said the hospital, which received the casualties.

The Israeli military said it struck militants in what it described as a Hamas command center in Nuseira.

Cyprus ready to ship tons food to the Israeli port of Ashdod for delivery to Gaza

A Cyprus foreign ministry official says some 600 tons of non-perishable food and shelter items remain in storage in the ports of Limassol and Larnaca.

The official says this could be dispatched by a chartered ship relatively quickly given Cyprus' proximity to Israel. He spoke of condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak about the issue publicly. Some 22,000 tons of aid were shipped to Gaza from Cyprus through a maritime corridor that was set up last year.

— By Menelaos Hadjicostis in Nicosia, Cyprus;

Lebanon's president urges halt to Israel's offensive in Gaza, backs disarming of Hezbollah

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun made the appeal during a meeting with his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo on Monday.

A U.S.-brokered ceasefire ended a monthslong Israel-Hezbollah war. The militants claim to have mostly pulled out of southern Lebanon in the deal but slam Israel for its continued military presence in Lebanese territory, near the border. Israel says it's targeting Hezbollah's infrastructure and militant figures.

The Israeli military orders evacuation for residents of Gaza’s second-largest city

The military ordered the evacuation of residents from Khan Younis, the enclave's second-largest city, and nearby towns, saying the entire area “will be considered a dangerous combat zone.”

Avichay Adraee, a military spokesperson, posted the order on his social media accounts.

A Palestinian militant group says its leader was killed in an Israeli raid in Gaza

The armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, a Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip, says Israeli special forces tried to capture one of its leaders on Monday but that he was killed in a shootout.

The group says that Ahmed Sarhan fought back when the troops tried to capture him. His wife and child were reportedly detained.

— By Samy Magdy in Cairo;

An AP photographer sees aid trucks at a Gaza crossing

An Associated Press photographer has seen at least three trucks loaded with humanitarian aid on the Israeli side of a crossing with Gaza. The trucks were parked just outside the Kerem Shalom crossing.

However, the trucks drove back into Israel a while later.

— By Ohad Zwigenberg in Kerem Shalom, Israel;

A UN official says aid trucks are to enter Gaza on Monday

A U.N. official says 20 aid trucks carrying mostly food are expected to go into the Gaza Strip on Monday.

There was no immediate comment from Israeli authorities. The official was not authorized to brief reporters and spoke on condition of anonymity.

— By Samy Magdy in Cairo;

A US-backed distribution group welcomes Israel announcement on Gaza aid resumption

A U.S.-backed group expected to run aid distribution in Gaza said Israel's announcement was an “important first step.”

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has said its four aid distribution sites would be up and running before the end of the month. It was not clear when the aid would resume.

The group’s head Jake Wood called late on Sunday on international aid groups to join in the new distribution mechanism.

But international aid groups say the mechanism is not practical and won't reach the most vulnerable Palestinians. They also say they won’t participate because it doesn’t align with their humanitarian principles.

Israel says a new aid distribution approach is necessary because it accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid to support its military activities, a claim aid groups dispute.

Palestinians say Israeli forces disguised as civilians killed a man in a Gaza raid

Palestinians in Gaza say Israeli forces disguised as civilians and under heavy air cover shot and killed a man and detained his wife and child in a raid Monday on a house in the enclave's south.

The Israeli forces drove a civilian vehicle and raided the home in the city of Khan Younis as airstrikes pounded the surrounding area, residents said.

“We thought that all houses would be bombed,” said Mohammed Sarhan, a relative of the man killed and a neighbor, who said the strikes lasted 10 minutes.

Mahmoud Safi, another neighbor, said the Israeli forces carried what appeared to be luggage and blankets on the top of their white vehicle.

The killed man was identified as Ahmed Sarhan. The reason he was targeted was not immediately known.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

Freed Israeli hostage pleads with lawmakers to end the war in Gaza

Arbel Yehoud, who was freed after 482 days in captivity in a ceasefire earlier this year, told lawmakers at a parliamentary committee on Monday that they will have blood on their hands “if you do not stop the war.”

Yehoud’s partner, Ariel Cunio, is still held in Gaza, along with 57 other hostages, 23 of whom are believed to be alive.

She said she was terrified by the sounds of missiles and bombs while she was held captive. She said she would be beaten if her captors’ relatives were harmed in Israeli strikes and held in isolation with food “unfit for human consumption and with a level of hygiene like in concentration camps of the Holocaust.”

“As someone who was there, I know that only through negotiations is (returning the hostages) possible,” she said.

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