Israel’s siege of Gaza, that began after the Hamas attacks on October 7, is still underway. Hospitals in the beseiged strip are surrounded and running out of resources. However, reports are emerging that a ceasefire could be close.

Here are the latest updates

• More than 11,200 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. In Israel, the official death toll from Hamas’s attacks stands at more than 1,200.
• More than 30 people have been killed in northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp after Israeli strikes hit at least 12 homes in the Nadi Khadamat district.
• The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says operations will “grind to a halt” if no fuel is allowed into the besieged Palestinian enclave by Wednesday.
• Hospitals in northern Gaza have been forced to shut down as Israeli forces continue to attack medical facilities. -Some Indonesians are boycotting US businesses including McDonald’s after the fast food chain’s Israeli franchisee announced it had donated meals to the Israeli army.
• Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva blasted Israel’s “brutality and violence” as he personally welcomed home Brazilian and Palestinian nationals who were trapped in the Gaza Strip. -At least 100 young Filipino protesters, carrying banners supporting Palestinian rights, clashed with police in the capital Manila as they pushed their way towards the US embassy.
• Over 200,000 people have moved from North Gaza to South
• The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza did not update its casualty figures for the third consecutive day on Monday due to “the collapse of services and communications at hospitals in the north”.
• Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians “who are either unwilling or unable to move to the south remain in the north” amid continued fighting. “They are struggling to secure the minimum amount of water and food for survival.”
• A total of 115 trucks – carrying food, medicines, health supplies, bottled water, blankets, tents and hygiene products – crossed from Egypt into Gaza on Monday, bringing the total number of trucks entering the enclave since October 21 to 1,096.
• About 600 foreign nationals and dual citizens, as well as four injured people, were able to leave Gaza through the Rafah crossing on Monday.

Hostages for ceasefire?

Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, posted an audio recording on its Telegram channel saying the group was ready to release as many as 70 women and children hostages in return for a five-day ceasefire, an offer Israel is unlikely to embrace.

“We told the (Qatari) mediators that in a five-day truce, we can release 50 of them and the number could reach 70 due to the difficulty that the captives are held by different factions,” said al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Ubaida said, saying Israel had asked for 100 to be freed.

Israel, which effectively blockades Gaza, has rejected a ceasefire, arguing that Hamas would simply use it to regroup, but has permitted brief humanitarian “pauses” to allow food and other supplies to flow in and foreigners to flee.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Washington would “like to see considerably longer pauses - days, not hours - in the context of a hostage release.”

A Washington Post opinion writer on Tuesday quoted an unnamed high-ranking Israeli official as saying Israel and Hamas are close to a deal to free most of the kidnapped Israeli women and children with Israel simultaneously releasing Palestinian women and youths held in its prisons. An agreement could be announced within days if the details are worked out.

There was also fighting on Monday at a second major hospital in northern Gaza, al-Quds, which has stopped functioning.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said there was heavy gunfire around the hospital and a convoy to evacuate patients and staff could not get through.

Israel said it killed “approximately 21 terrorists” at al-Quds in return fire after fighters shot from the hospital entrance. It released footage it said showed men at the hospital gate, one of whom appeared to carry a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

Israel’s military and security services also said they had killed a number of Hamas commanders and officials in the last day, including Mohammed Khamis Dababash, who they described as the group’s former head of military intelligence.

Hamas media said more than 30 people were killed and scores injured in an Israeli air strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. An Israeli military spokesperson said the army was checking the report on Jabalia.