More than 5,000 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed across Gaza in relentless Israeli bombardments in retaliation for Hamas’s October 7 attacks, the Hamas-run health ministry said on Monday.

Fighting has raged for more than two weeks in the Gaza Strip after Hamas gunmen stormed into Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,400 people, according to Israeli officials.

Meanwhile, sporadic fighting between Israel and Hamas’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah has also been taking place along Israel’s northern border.

Israel pounds Gaza

The Hamas government said Israeli strikes on Gaza overnight killed more than 60 people, including 17 who were killed in a single strike that hit a house in Jabaliya, in northern Gaza.

It said at least another 10 were killed on Monday morning.

The Israeli military said it pounded Gaza with hundreds of air strikes overnight, hitting “over 320 military targets” in the besieged enclave.

“The terror targets struck included tunnels containing Hamas terrorists, dozens of operational command centres,” it said.

New aid arrives

About a dozen trucks carrying desperately needed aid – the third convoy in three days – arrived inside Gaza from Egypt on Monday morning through the Rafah crossing.

The United States has vowed a “continued flow” of relief goods into Gaza, where Israel has cut off most water as well as food, power and fuel.

Read: ‘Sliver of hope’ as Hamas releases hostages, but Gaza aid stalled

On Sunday, 14 trucks made the crossing, and on Saturday 20 arrived in the war-torn enclave.

The United Nations estimates Gaza needs about 100 trucks a day to meet the needs of its 2.4 million people, almost half of whom are believed to have been displaced by Israel’s bombardment.

US warns Iran against ‘escalation’

The United States warned Iran or its allies against any “escalation” in the wake of Israel’s war with Hamas.

“We are concerned at the possibility of Iranian proxies escalating their attacks against our own personnel, our own people,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on CBS News.

Iran had on Sunday issued its own warning against Israel and the United States, with Foreign Minster Hossein Amir-Abdollahian saying the region was at risk of getting “out of control” as a result of the war.

EU wants ‘humanitarian pause’

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday urged faster aid deliveries to Gaza and said the bloc’s 27 foreign ministers would debate calling for a “humanitarian pause” in the war.

“Personally, I think that a humanitarian pause is needed in order to allow the humanitarian support to come in and be distributed, seeing that half of the population of Gaza has been moving from their houses,” Borrell said.

Diplomatic action

French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Tel Aviv on Tuesday for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his office has announced.

His trip will be the latest in a flurry of diplomatic activity that has seen US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also pay visits.