Hamas number three killed by Israeli operation, US says

Israel killed the Hamas militant group’s third-in-command Marwan Issa last week, the White House said Monday, after Israel previously said he had been targeted in a Gaza airstrike but did not confirm his death. In a phone call earlier Monday, US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu he was deeply concerned about a planned ground offensive in Rafah, adding that an operation in the overcrowded southern Gaza city would be a “mistake”.

Summary:

• Israeli forces launched another raid early Monday on the Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza, where tens of thousands of people have been sheltering. World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus voiced concern over the raid, noting “hospitals should never be battlegrounds”.
• Israel killed Hamas’s third-in-command, Marwan Issa, last week, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday. 
• In a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, US President Joe Biden said he was deeply concerned about a planned ground offensive in Rafah and warned it would be a “mistake”. 
• Israel‘s intelligence chief, Qatar‘s premier and Egyptian officials were expected to hold talks in Doha Monday on a potential Gaza truce and hostage exchange deal, according to sources.
• The UN food agency on Monday said “famine is imminent” in northern Gaza, where an estimated 70 percent of the population faces catastrophic hunger.
• Israel on Monday blocked UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini from entering Gaza in what Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry called “an unprecedented move”. 
• At least 31,726 Palestinians have been killed and 73,792 wounded since Israel started its offensive on Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave. Around 1,139 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks and 250 people taken hostage, according to Israeli figures, with 132 still missing.
• Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday agreed to send a team of Israeli officials to Washington to discuss a planned Rafah offensive with Biden administration officials, said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

France24