38 more killed as Israel steps up Gaza bombardment ahead of White House talks on ceasefire
At least 38 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Monday, health authorities said, including 10 people killed in Zeitoun and at least 13 killed southwest of Gaza City. Medics said most of the 13 were hit by gunfire, but residents also reported an airstrike.
Palestinians mourn over the shrouded bodies of people killed during a reported Israeli strike on a humanitarian aid distribution warehouse in Gaza City,. AFP
A day after US President Donald Trump urged an end to the 20-month-old war, a confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected at the White House for talks on a Gaza ceasefire, Iran, and possible wider regional diplomatic deals. But on the ground in the Palestinian enclave there was no sign of fighting letting up.
"Explosions never stopped; they bombed schools and homes. It felt like earthquakes," said Salah, 60, a father of five children, from Gaza City.
"In the news we hear a ceasefire is near, on the ground we see death and we hear explosions."
Palestinians pray over the shrouded body of a person killed during a reported Israeli strike in Gaza City. AFP
Israeli tanks pushed into the eastern areas of Zeitoun suburb in Gaza City and shelled several areas in the north, while aircraft bombed at least four schools after ordering hundreds of families sheltering inside to leave, residents said.
The heavy bombardment followed new evacuation orders to vast areas in the north, where Israeli forces had operated before and left behind wide-scale destruction.
Mourners react near the body of a Palestinian boy killed in an Israeli strike on a house late at night, according to Gaza's health ministry. Reuters
The military ordered people there to head south, saying that it planned to fight Hamas operating in northern Gaza, including in the heart of Gaza City.
NEXT STEPS
A day after Trump called to "Make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back," Israel's strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer, a confidant of Netanyahu's, was expected on Monday at the White House for talks on Iran and Gaza, an Israeli official said.
In Israel, Netanyahu's security cabinet was expected to convene to discuss the next steps in Gaza.
Palestinians inspect the damage at an UNRWA school sheltering displaced people that was hit in an Israeli air strike on Sunday, in Gaza City. Reuters
On Friday, Israel's military chief said the present ground operation was close to having achieved its goals, and on Sunday, Netanyahu said new opportunities had opened up for recovering the hostages, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive.
Palestinian and Egyptian sources with knowledge of the latest ceasefire efforts said that mediators Qatar and Egypt have stepped up their contacts with the two warring sides, but that no date has been set yet for a new round of truce talks.
A Hamas official said that progress depends on Israel changing its position and agreeing to end the war and withdraw from Gaza. Israel says it can end the war only when Hamas is disarmed and dismantled. Hamas refuses to lay down its arms.
A woman reacts while holding a child during the funeral of Palestinians killed in an overnight Israeli strike on a tent. Reuters
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that Israel has agreed to a US-proposed 60-day ceasefire and hostage deal, and put the onus on Hamas.
"Israel is serious in its will to reach a hostage deal and ceasefire in Gaza," Saar told reporters in Jerusalem.
'UNBEARABLE'
Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger, speaking in Jerusalem on Monday alongside her Israeli counterpart, told reporters that Vienna was very concerned about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, which she described as "unbearable.'
A Palestinian boy pulls salvageable items amid the rubble at the grounds of Yaffa School in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City following overnight Israeli strikes. AFP
"Let me be frank, the suffering of civilians is increasingly burdening Israel's relations with Europe. A ceasefire must be agreed upon,' she said, calling for the unconditional release of hostages by Hamas and for Israel to allow the uninterrupted flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Israel says it continues to allow aid into Gaza and accuses Hamas of stealing it. The group denies that accusation and says Israel uses hunger as a weapon against the Gaza population.
The US has proposed a 60-day ceasefire and the release of half the hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and the remains of other Palestinians. Hamas would release the remaining hostages as part of a deal that guarantees ending the war.
Reuters
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Ayeshah Behit pictured at her first case management hearing in August 2024 (Hannah Tottle/ The police told her that Davies-Jones had called them, reporting that the video she had posted on Instagram made her feel "unsafe." In the 20-second clip, Davies-Jones says she had not abstained from a November 2023 vote for a ceasefire in Gaza. The video cuts to evidence that she did not participate in the vote. However, Behit subsequently explained that Davies-Jones, a parliamentary supporter of Labour Friends of Israel, did not abstain, but paired her vote. Behit was told she would have to change in front of two female police officers in the bathroom. The activist said she was too scared to change in front of them, so male police officers barged into the room and arrested her as they said she was "taking too long." "When I put my hands on my phone, I remember one of the male cops shouting, 'She's resisting arrest,' and then they all just jumped on me. They grabbed me with such force that they broke my phone case. "They had me bent over my toilet and twisted my arms behind my back," she said. Behit was led out of the house in handcuffs and thrown on the floor of a police van. Before closing the van door, an officer taunted her, saying: "Let me make those more comfortable for you," referring to the cuffs, and proceeded to tighten them as much as possible. Behit was informed that she would be held "incommunicado." When she asked an officer what that meant, he responded: "No one will be notified that you're arrested, and no one's gonna know where you are." "That scared me, because I was home alone, and now I was on the floor of a police van," she said. "It was like a kidnapping." The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 stipulates that detainees are permitted an initial phone call, although this right may be delayed in cases relating to serious organised crime, terrorism or espionage. The line went dead Behit was taken to Merthyr Tydfil police station in south Wales, where she was held for 23 hours. She repeatedly asked for her mother to be notified of her arrest, but this was refused. About 13 hours in she was allowed to call her. "I got about three sentences in and said, 'Mum, I'm in Merthyr Tydfil', and then the line went dead," Behit said. As part of Behit's bail conditions, she was barred from associating with her housemate, Hiba Ahmed, who was also involved in the incident and arrested on the same charges. This rendered Ahmed briefly homeless. The pair were also barred from entering Pontypridd town centre, which they needed to access for grocery shopping and banking. In June 2025, Behit and Ahmed were convicted of harassing Davies-Jones. A criminal damage charge for stickering the MP's office was dropped, despite the Labour politician alleging the contrary in a post on Instagram. A bus stop stickered by the activists in Pontypridd, which a judge described as part of a 'sustained campaign' targeting MP Alex Davies-Jones (Supplied) In the full five-minute video seen by MEE, Davies-Jones is seen approaching Behit and Ahmed, who had been leafleting their neighbourhood and putting up stickers ahead of the 2024 general election, drawing attention to the MP's voting record on Israel's war on Gaza. "It wasn't a heated conversation until the very end, when she said we're going to have to agree to disagree and she started walking away," Behit recalled. "I shouted after her - 'How do you feel about the fact that police are arresting peaceful protesters?' And then I shouted, 'Alex Davies-Jones, you are supporting genocide.' But then I stopped, and I turned around and walked away. That was it." 'If we can't lobby our MPs during the genocide, what exactly does the government think a legal form of activism is?' - Kat Hobbs, Network for Police Monitoring Judge Paul Goldspring said the interaction, flyering and stickers amounted to "a deliberate and sustained campaign targeting the complainant" that was "designed to cause alarm and distress," which resulted in the MP abandoning her canvassing. This was contested by Behit and Ahmed, who said they saw her canvassing hours after their interaction. The flyers they distributed read: "Questions to ask Alex when she comes door knocking," while the stickers said "Labour = new Tory," "no ceasefire, no vote" and "Alex Davies-Jones, how many murdered children are too many?" Francesca Cociani, the lawyer representing Ahmed and Behit, argued in court that the flyers contained purely political commentary and were distributed with a view to influencing the election, rather than harassing Davies-Jones. "When politicians receive criticism, like personal criticism or criticism related to their political positions, they need to be able to withstand scrutiny from the public. And our point was even more so when it's for the purposes of an election," Cociani told MEE. Hobbs, a spokesperson at Netpol, said it was a "complete overreaction from an MP during a period where MPs showed that they were unable and unwilling to be lobbied. "If we can't lobby our MPs during the genocide, what exactly does the government think a legal form of activism is?" Both Behit and Ahmed received a conditional discharge and were ordered to pay court costs totalling £676 ($923). They intend to appeal against their convictions. In Britain, Palestine and climate activists face an 'unprecedented' wave of criminalisation Read More » Davies-Jones is a parliamentary supporter of Labour Friends of Israel and had made a paid trip to Israel earlier in 2024. She also has two family members who work for the police. She currently serves as the minister for victims and violence against women and girls, and previously worked in safeguarding against online violence against women and girls. The raid has left both Ahmed and Behit experiencing what they describe as symptoms of post-traumatic stress. They say this has been exacerbated by what they deem to be continued harassment by the South Wales police in the months following their arrests. This has involved police officers turning up to their home without prior warning to deliver letters in person, and being followed during a fundraiser in Cardiff. In one incident, a police officer driving past Behit slowed down and waved at her from his car. Hobbs said that Netpol has received reports of assault by the South Wales police, who she described as being "extremely hostile to Palestine solidarity activism." Netpol also documented multiple incidents of violence by the South Wales police against Black Lives Matter activists in 2021 following the death of Mohamud Hassan in January of that year, shortly after his release from Cardiff Bay Police Station. The South Wales police refused to comment on the raid at Behit's home, as they said no complaint had been submitted regarding the incident. Davies-Jones declined to comment. House raids 'becoming the norm' According to Hobbs, house raids are an increasingly common police tactic in the "pattern of intimidation" targeting Palestine activists. "We've had so many reports over the last year and a half of house raids," Hobbs told MEE. "They are increasingly becoming the norm as one of the arrest tactics across the board for Palestine activism, and it is clearly just trying to intimidate people out of being part of campaigns." 'They were literally laughing down the phone and saying: We're going to keep coming back and showing up on the doorstep' - Joe, Youth Demand activist In recent months, most of this activity has been concentrated on Youth Demand, a climate justice and pro-Palestine group. In April, the group called for a month of coordinated action in London to "Shut It Down for Palestine," demanding the UK government halts its arms sales to Israel. On 27 March, some 20 police officers raided a meeting of Youth Demand activists held at a Quakers' meeting house in London and conducted mass arrests on suspicion of conspiracy to cause public nuisance. This was followed by a wave of raids on a number of Youth Demand protesters' homes. According to Hobbs, this included one person who lives in supported accommodation for adults, a fact the police were not aware of until they arrived at his home. Joe, one of the targeted activists, was not involved in the meeting and had no plans to participate in the month of action. He reported that the police showed up at his family home on 3 April, shortly after he appeared in a video on X, calling for people to participate in a series of direct actions coordinated by the group across London to protest against Israel's war on Gaza. Starmer and Cooper urged by over 500 cultural figures not to ban Palestine Action Read More » Joe's father was at home and was advised by police that it was "in Joe's interests to turn himself in." The next morning, Joe handed himself in at Leyton police station, in east London, but was told there was nothing on record for him. Two weeks later, the police turned up at his house again. He wasn't at home, so they asked Joe's father for his number, which he refused to give. Minutes later, Joe received a call from a withheld number. It was the police, asking him to meet them at a specified location. "I thought, what the hell is this?" Joe told MEE. He refused, saying he had already tried to hand himself in. "They were literally laughing down the phone and saying, 'We're going to keep coming back and showing up on the doorstep. If you want to stay out, we'll be on the lookout for you'," Joe said. He then tried to hand himself in for a second time to Brixton police station, in south London. He said the response was sluggish. He was eventually arrested, held for four hours, interviewed and then released on bail with no charges. The Metropolitan Police declined to comment, as Joe's investigation is ongoing.
