Top US diplomat Antony Blinken arrived in Israel Monday — his eighth trip to the region since October 7 — to speak to key players and call on partners in the Middle East to “press Hamas to say yes” to a proposal outlining a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and release of hostages taken by Hamas. He met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and is expected to meet Benny Gantz, a former war cabinet minister who resigned over the weekend.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution vote on the US proposal for a permanent ceasefire and release of the hostages in Gaza on Monday. Hamas said later Monday that it welcomed the resolution.
Here’s more of the latest headlines:
- Update on freed hostages: Two of the four hostages freed on Saturday have now left the hospital, the Hostages Families Forum in Israel said, adding that Shlomi Ziv and Andrey Kozlov would be staying in a hotel for the next few nights. The Israeli police and the Israeli Security Agency have released video recorded on a helmet camera of the moment the three male hostages were rescued in Gaza on Saturday.
- Update on Palestinian casualties: Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders said in statement Monday it “treated hundreds of severely injured patients, many of whom were children” after the Israeli operation at the Nuseirat camp killed at least 270 Palestinians and left about 700 wounded, according to Gaza health authorities.
- Aid operation were paused on US floating pier: The World Food Programme paused its operations at the US military’s floating temporary pier in Gaza pending the outcome of a comprehensive United Nations security assessment of aid worker safety, a spokesperson told CNN Monday. The pause went into effect after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) rescued four hostages and left hundreds of Palestinians dead. The Pentagon acknowledged there was some Israeli military activity near the staging area for the pier, but denied the pier was used in the operation.
- Middle East tensions: An Israeli drone operating over southern Lebanon was shot down by a surface-to-air missile on Monday, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Lebanon’s Iran-backed Islamist group Hezbollah said it carried out the attack against the Israeli drone “in support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.”
