Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip have killed dozens of people, including two children ages 12 and 2, while the Israeli army said Monday its ground forces were fighting Hamas militants who remain in northern and central Gaza.
The Health Ministry in Gaza said 113 bodies were brought to hospitals in the last 24 hours alone, raising the known Palestinian death toll to 27,478 people after nearly four months of war. A quarter of Gaza’s residents are now starving and 85% of the population has been driven from their homes, with hundreds of thousands crammed in makeshift tent camps.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman shortly after arriving in the kingdom Monday. It’s Blinken’s fifth visit to the Mideast since the war in Gaza broke out on Oct. 7, when Hamas stormed into southern Israel. The assault killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and militants abducted around 250 others.