Gaza lost communications in its third total outage of the conflict so far, as Israel’s military said it had divided the Palestinian territory into two.
Israeli media reported the country’s troops are expected to enter Gaza City within 48 hours, having encircled the area.
Strong explosions were seen in northern Gaza overnight, with the conflict now in its fifth week after Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel on 7 October.
Image: Fire and smoke rises from buildings in Gaza City on Sunday. Pic: AP
At the British embassy in Lebanon, some workers and their family members have been temporarily withdrawn as fears grow the war could spiral into a regional conflict – with Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group having traded fire along their border.
The UK Foreign Office has advised against “all travel to Lebanon” and warned of “civil unrest”.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters on Sunday the war has reached a “significant stage” as Israeli troops operate in Gaza, adding: “Today there is north Gaza and south Gaza.”
Image: Israel says Gaza has now been divided in two as its troops operate in the north
The temporary collapse in connectivity across Gaza on Monday, reported by internet access advocacy group NetBlocks.org and confirmed by Palestinian telecom company Paltel, has made it difficult for Palestinians and aid workers to contact people outside the territory.
Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the UN Palestinian refugee agency, said it had “lost communication with the vast majority” of its members.
It came after Israeli warplanes were reported to have struck two refugee camps on Sunday.
The Maghazi refugee camp was one of those hit, with at least 40 people killed and 34 wounded, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said.
An Associated Press reporter at a nearby hospital saw eight dead children, including a baby, brought in after the strike.
The second airstrike was reported to have hit a house near a school at the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. Staff at al Aqsa Hospital told the AP at least 13 people were killed.
Israel has not confirmed it carried out the strikes.
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3:04
Man loses four children in Gaza
Israel has said it will press on with its offensive with the aiming of crushing Hamas, despite US appeals for even brief pauses to get aid to civilians.
On the ground, Israeli forces in Gaza have reported finding stashes of weapons, at times including explosives, suicide drones and missiles as they operate in the territory.
Gaza’s health ministry has said more than 9,700 Palestinians have been killed, with more than 4,000 of them children and minors.
Officials in Israel have said 1,400 people have been killed in the country during the conflict.
Meanwhile, US secretary of state Antony Blinken met his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan on Monday.
Speaking at the airport in the Turkish capital Ankara, Mr Blinken said they discussed efforts to expand humanitarian efforts in Gaza and to prevent the conflict in the region from spreading.
The US secretary of state said it would be seen in the coming days whether humanitarian assistance can expand in significant ways.
It comes after he met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, a day after meeting Arab foreign ministers in Jordan.
Mr Abbas, who has had no authority in Gaza since Hamas took over in 2007, said the Palestinian Authority would only assume control of Gaza as part of a “comprehensive political solution” establishing an independent state that includes the West Bank and east Jerusalem, lands Israel seized in the 1967 war.
His remarks seemed to further narrow the already slim options for who would govern Gaza if Israel topples Hamas.
The Israeli military will show Greta Thunberg and other activists footage of the 7 October attacks after a Gaza-bound aid boat was diverted to Israel, the country’s foreign minister has said.
Early on Monday, the Israeliforeign ministry said that the British-flagged yacht Madleen – operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) – “is safely making its way to the shores of Israel”.
All passengers were safe and unharmed, the ministry added, sharing footage of the activists being handed sandwiches and water.
In a statement via his spokesperson, defence minister Israel Katz said that he has instructed the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) to screen footage of the 7 October attacks for those aboard when they arrive at Ashdod Port.
Image: Greta Thunberg was ‘safe and in good spirits’ while en route to Israel, the foreign ministry said. Pic: Israel Foreign Ministry
“Antisemitic Greta and her Hamas-supporting friends should see exactly what the Hamas terrorist organisation – which they came to support and act on behalf of – truly is,” he said.
“They should see the atrocities committed against women, the elderly, and children, and understand whom Israel is fighting to defend itself.”
He then added, “I commend the IDF for its swift and safe takeover” of the vessel, and said the Israeli military “will continue its just and moral fight against the Hamas murderers until their defeat, the release of all hostages, and the full restoration of Israel’s security”.
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Image: Ms Thunberg and other activists after their boat was diverted to Israel. Pic: Israel Foreign Ministry
Israel’s foreign ministry said earlier that those aboard the Madleen “are expected to return to their home countries,” and that the humanitarian aid aboard the ship would be transferred to Gaza through established channels.
Ms Thunberg was “safe and in good spirits” while en route to Israel, it added, calling the vessel “the ‘selfie yacht’ of the ‘celebrities'”.
The FFC claimed the passengers on the yacht had been “kidnapped by Israeli forces” and released pre-recorded messages from them after previously saying that the “Israeli army had boarded” the vessel.
Climate campaigner Ms Thunberg, 22, was one of a dozen activists aboard the Madleen, which set sail from Sicily on 1 May on a mission aiming to break Israel’s sea blockade.
Image: Ms Thunberg pictured in a pre-recorded video, released after the Madleen was diverted to Israel. Pic: FFC
Image: The climate campaigner aboard the Madleen on 2 June. Pic: Freedom Flotilla Coalition/Reuters
Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament, who is of Palestinian descent, was also on the boat.
She has been barred from entering Israel because of her opposition to Israel’s policies towards Palestinians.
Ms Hassan wrote on X as the FFC’s yacht was allegedly surrounded by other vessels: “The crew of the Freedom Flotilla was arrested by the Israeli army in international waters around 2am.”
The diversion of the Madleen came after Mr Katz said that he had instructed the IDF to prevent the vessel from reaching the shore and to “take whatever measures necessary”.
Image: The Madleen was heading for Gaza
Addressing Ms Thunberg and the other activists on Sunday, he said: “You should turn back – because you will not reach Gaza.”
But humanitarian workers have warned of famine unless there is an end to the blockade and the 20-month war, which began after a Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, that killed more than 1,200 people.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, more than 54,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of Israel’s military campaign.
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Why is Greta sailing to Gaza?
An attempt last month by Freedom Flotilla to reach Gaza by sea failed after another of the group’s vessels was attacked by two drones while sailing in international waters off Malta.
The group blamed Israel for the attack, which damaged the front section of the ship.
Francesca Albanese, United Nations’ special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, also urged other boats to challenge the Gaza blockade.
She said on social media: “Madleen’s journey may have ended, but the mission isn’t over.
“Every Mediterranean port must send boats with aid & solidarity to Gaza.”
A 15 year-old-boy has been arrested after a Colombian senator running to be the country’s next president was shot and “critically” injured at a campaign rally in Bogota, authorities have said.
Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, 39, was targeted during the campaign event in a park in the Fontibon area of the Colombian capital, according to the Attorney General’s office.
He suffered two gunshot wounds when armed assailants shot him from behind and appeared to be bleeding from his head as he was helped by aides and people in the crowd, in a video posted on social media.
According to a medical report at the Santa Fe Foundation hospital, he was admitted there in a “critical condition” and is still undergoing a “neurosurgical and peripheral vascular procedure”.
Image: Opposition senator Miguel Uribe Turbay on 13 May. Pic: AP
His wife Maria Claudia Tarazone wrote on X that he is “fighting for his life” and urged Colombians to pray for him.
She later said he survived an initial operation for the injuries.
Ms Tarazone said: “Miguel came out of surgery, he made it. Every hour is a critical hour. He fought his first battle, and it went well. This will take time.”
The hospital said Mr Uribe Turbay had procedures on his head and his left thigh, and remained in intensive care as doctors try to stabilise his condition.
Two other people were injured in the attack but the nature of their injuries has not been made public.
A suspect, a 15-year-old boy, was arrested at the scene with a firearm and is being treated for a leg injury, police chief General Carlos Triana said.
The government is offering a $730,000 (£540,000) reward for information and President Gustavo Petro said the investigation will focus on who ordered the attack.
“For now there is nothing more than hypothesis,” he said, adding that failures in security protocols would also be looked into.
Image: People gather outside the hospital where Mr Uribe Turbay is ‘fighting for his life’. Pic: Reuters
Mr Uribe Turbay, who announced his presidential bid for the right-wing Democratic Center Party in March, was accompanied by a team of 21 people at the time of the shooting, his office said, including councilman Andres Barrios.
He was hoping to run in the presidential elections taking place on 31 May next year – and succeed Mr Petro, the country’s first leftist leader.
His mother, who was a journalist, was kidnapped and killed in 1991 during one of the most violent periods in Colombia’s history.
Image: Forensic investigators at the scene of Mr Uribe Turbay’s shooting in Bogota. Pic: AP
His party described it as an “unacceptable act of violence”, while US secretary of state Marco Rubio condemned it in the “strongest possible terms”.
Writing on X, Mr Rubio also urged Colombia’s current president to “dial back the inflammatory rhetoric and protect Colombian officials”.
Image: Police outside the hospital where Mr Uribe Turbay is being treated. Pic: AP
Former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe, who is not related to Mr Uribe Turbay, said the gunman had “attacked the hope of the country, a great husband, son, brother, and a great colleague”.
He cancelled a planned trip to France due to the “seriousness of the events”, his office said in a statement.
Messages of support poured in from elsewhere in Latin America, with Chilean President Gabriel Boric saying: “There is no room or justification for violence in a democracy.”
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa added: “We condemn all forms of violence and intolerance.”
Israel’s defence minister has threatened to “take whatever measures necessary” to stop an aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg from reaching Gaza.
The climate campaigner, 22, is one of a dozen activists aboard the Madleen, which set sail from Sicily last Sunday on a mission aiming to break Israel‘s sea blockade.
The activists have said they plan to reach Gaza‘s territorial waters as early as Sunday to deliver humanitarian aid.
But in a post on X, Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said he has instructed the IDF to prevent the vessel reaching shore and to “take whatever measures necessary”.
Addressing Thunberg and the other activists, he said: “You should turn back – because you will not reach Gaza.”
He wrote: “I have instructed the IDF to act so that the “Madeleine” hate flotilla does not reach the shores of Gaza – and to take any means necessary to that end.
“To the anti-Semitic Greta and her fellow Hamas propaganda spokespeople, I say clearly: You should turn back – because you will not reach Gaza.
“Israel will act against any attempt to break the blockade or assist terrorist organizations – at sea, in the air and on land.”
Image: Latest known position of the vessel
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2:38
Why is Greta sailing to Gaza?
Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament, who is of Palestinian descent, is also on the boat, which is operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.
She has been barred from entering Israel because of her opposition to Israel’s policies towards Palestinians.
Israel started allowing some basic aid into Gaza last month after a three-month total blockade aimed at pressuring Hamas and preventing the group from importing arms.
But humanitarian workers have warned of famine unless there is an end to the blockade and the 20-month war, which was ignited by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 Oct 2023.
An attempt last month by Freedom Flotilla to reach Gaza by sea failed after another of the group’s vessels was attacked by two drones while sailing in international waters off Malta.
The group blamed Israel for the attack, which damaged the front section of the ship.