United Nations warns of ‘explosion’ in child deaths in Gaza

Summary:

• The United Nations Security Council is set to vote on a resolution, drafted by Algeria, that calls for a ceasefire in the Gaza strip. The US has indicated it will not support the resolution and has proposed a rival draft calling for a temporary pause in the fighting. It is unclear if or when the US draft would come to a vote. 
• The United Nations’ top court is holding a week of hearings on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.
• The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 29,092 people have been killed and 69,028 wounded in Israeli strikes on the enclave since October 7, the vast majority women and children. Israeli officials say about 1,140 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks in southern Israel. Militant fighters took some 250 hostages during the attack and 132 are still in Gaza, according to Israeli figures.

• EU countries, except Hungary, on Monday called for an “immediate humanitarian pause” in the Gaza war, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.
• The European Union also warned Israel against launching an offensive in Rafah that the bloc’s foreign ministers said would create a disaster for the roughly 1.5 million refugees crammed into the city on the southern edge of Gaza.
• Israel’s military on Monday published new images and voiced concern about a mother and her two boys — including a baby who is the youngest hostage seized by Hamas militants.
• Brazil said Monday it had summoned the Israeli ambassador in a tit-for-tat move escalating a row that erupted when President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday compared Israel’s military campaign in Gaza to the Holocaust.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP, Reuters)