Israel-Hamas War Day 18 Live | Israel steps up attack; death toll rapidly rising

The UN Security Council’s monthly meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Tuesday is turning into a high-level event, with ministers flying to New York and the US pushing for adoption of a resolution that would condemn the Hamas attacks in Israel and violence against civilians, and reaffirm Israel's right to self-defence.

The new US-drafted resolution was still being negotiated late Monday afternoon, but a recent draft obtained by The Associated Press also demands the immediate release of all hostages, urges respect for international laws on conducting war and protecting civilians, urges all countries to intensify efforts to prevent a spillover, and demands immediate humanitarian access to Gaza.

Among those expected at Tuesday’s meeting are the foreign minister of Israel, the Palestinians, Iran, Jordan, France and Brazil, council diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of any announcement.

A resolution proposed by Russia, which called for a “humanitarian ceasefire” and would strongly condemn all violence and acts of terrorism didn't mention the Hamas attacks. It failed to get the minimum nine “yes” votes needed for approval by the 15-member council.

Diplomats said one issue in the US draft resolution is Russia's demand for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. (AP)

Iran-backed militias in Iraq on Monday said they attacked two US bases in eastern Syria, their fourth attack in one day.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iranian-backed militias, said two drones attacked US military bases by the Al-Omar oil field in Deir el-Zour province and in al-Shaddadi further north. Officials in Washington did not immediately comment on the attack.

The attack came hours after the group claimed responsibility for drone attacks on the al-Tanf garrison near the Jordanian and Iraqi borders, and a stone's throw away from the desert Rukban camp home to tens of thousands of Syrians.

There have been a string of similar attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria over the past week. In one attack, the same group attacked two US bases in Iraq with drones, causing minor injuries among US forces. (AP)

The International Committee of the Red Cross says Hamas militants have released two hostages who had been held captive in the Gaza Strip.

It was the second time the group has freed hostages seized in its bloody October 7 cross-border incursion into Israel.

The hostages were identified by Israeli media as Yocheved Lipshitz and Nurit Cooper of the Israeli kibbutz of Nir Oz.

In a statement, Hamas said it had released them for humanitarian reasons.

Israel has demanded the unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas.

The Islamic militant group is believed to be holding over 200 people, including an unconfirmed number of foreigners and dual nationals.

Hamas released two other hostages — an American mother and daughter — on Friday. (AP)

French President Emmanuel Macron is traveling Tuesday to Israel to show France's solidarity with the country and further work on the release of hostages who are being held in Gaza, according to the French presidency.

Macron will have talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and also meet with Israeli-French nationals who have lost loved ones, as well as families of hostages.

Macron may also seize the occasion to have talks with some Arab partners in the region, the French presidency said, without providing further details. (AP)

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has confirmed the death of a second Italian-Israeli citizen from the October 7 Hamas attack.

Tajani, writing on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, said on Monday that Liliach Le Havron, the wife of Evitar Kipnis, whose body was recovered last week, was confirmed dead.

The couple had lived in Be-eri Kibbutz. Both had been reported missing by their loved ones.

“For Italy, another day of mourning,'' Tajani wrote. A third Italian-Israeli citizen, a young man who was attending the music festival that Hamas assaulted, remains missing. (AP)

Mahmoud Shalabi, an aid worker with the Medical Aid for Palestinians group, said the aid shipments that Israel allowed to cross into Gaza were a “drop in the ocean of the needs” required to address the rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis there.

Speaking to The Associated Press Monday evening from his home in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, Shalabi said that the aid had not arrived in the northern part of the strip, which Israel wants to empty ahead of its looming ground invasion.

He said the supplies in the first convoy on Saturday were distributed only to bakeries in the southern parts of Gaza, leaving the northern half struggling amid extremely dire conditions.

“The north didn't receive anything. It's like a death sentence for the people in the north of Gaza there,” he said. (AP)

A hospital in Gaza City was overrun with patients from airstrikes Monday with people lying on a blood-covered floor and two children at a time being treated on exam tables.

While a girl stared up at the ceiling from a table at Shifa Hospital, a boy who appeared to be unconscious lay at her feet with an IV drip in his arm and gauze wrapped around his head.

An older child and a man wearing oxygen masks lay on their backs on the floor below as a fifth person in a bright striped top was spread out on the floor nearby.

Medics also worked on a boy covered in gray soot whose legs were splinted and who lay at the foot of another child covered partly with a sheet.

Several other children and adults lay on a tile floor in another area of waiting for care. (AP)