Israel-Hamas war: Fatal ramming, stabbing near Tel Aviv

Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday said Palestinians will govern Gaza when the war ends.

"Palestinians live in Gaza, and therefore, Palestinians will govern it in the future. The future Gaza government must grow out of the Gaza Strip," Gallant said at a press conference.

"At the end of the war, there won't be a military threat from Gaza. Hamas won't be able to rule and function as a military force in the Gaza Strip," Gallant said.

Since 2007, Gaza has been under a strict land and sea blockade by Israel and partially by Egypt after the Hamas militant group took power from the Palestinian Authority.

Last week, the US called on Israel to cooperate with the Palestinian Authority on plans for post-war Gaza.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Israel should partner with the Palestinian leaders "willing to lead their people and live side-by-side in peace with Israel."

Israel's military said on Monday that the announcement by Hamas that Israeli forces were responsible for the deaths of two hostages in Gaza was a "lie."

Military spokesperson Daniel Hagari identified one of the hostages as one of the men in the latest Hamas video but refrained from naming the second hostage in accordance with the family's wishes.

"Itai was not shot by our forces. That is a Hamas lie. The building in which they were held was not a target, and it was not attacked by our forces," the Reuters news agency quoted Hagari as having said.

"We don't attack a place if we know there may be hostages inside," he said, adding that areas nearby had been targeted.

The comments came after Hamas released a video purportedly showing the bodies of two dead Israeli hostages.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday again called for an immediate halt in hostilities to allow enough aid to get to where it was needed.

"We need an immediate humanitarian cease-fire to ensure sufficient aid gets to where it is needed," Guterres said at a press briefing in New York.

The UN chief went on to say the cease-fire was needed to "facilitate the release of the hostages" and "tamp down the flames of wider."

"The longer the conflict in Gaza continues, the greater the risk of escalation and miscalculation."

Between November 24 and 30 last year, a temporary pause in fighting facilitated an exchange of hostages and Palestinian prisoners along with much-needed humanitarian aid.

Hamas's large-scale terror attack on October 7 left some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — dead and triggered the current war. Israel vowed to destroy the Islamist militant group and began bombarding the Palestinian territory before moving ground forces in to fight Hamas militants.

Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry said that since the start of the war, over 24,000 people have been killed.

Palestinian militant group Hamas on Monday announced the deaths of two Israeli hostages.

The Reuters news agency reported that the militant group aired a new video showing the dead bodies of the two hostages.

A third hostage, who was among those abducted on October 7, is reported to appear in the video saying that the two were killed by "our own IDF strikes," referring to Israel's military.

In a statement released with the video, the AFP news agency reported that Hamas's armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said the two men were killed in "the Zionist army's bombing" — the term Hamas uses to refer to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

DW has not been able to verify the authenticity of the video independently, and Israel has not yet commented on reports of the latest deaths.

A vessel believed to be a US-owned bulk carrier that was struck by a missile on Monday in waters south of Yemen is reportedly safe.

"Vessel and crew are safe," the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) posted on social media platform X, formerly Twitter. 

The UKMTO went on to say that the vessel was proceeding to the next port of call and continued to advise other vessels to proceed with caution and report any suspicious activity.

The US Central Command, which directs US military operations in the region, posted on X, "Iranian-backed Houthi militants fired an anti-ship ballistic missile from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and struck the M/V Gibraltar Eagle.

"The ship has reported no injuries or significant damage and is continuing its journey."

Numerous maritime companies are now avoiding the Red Sea route due to the continued attacks by the Houthis. A US-led international force was set up to protect passing commercial ships.

The families of several German-Israeli hostages whom Hamas is holding have called on Germany to push for renewed mediation efforts to secure the release of their loved ones.

The 21 relatives of the hostages visited Berlin on Monday and were planning to ask German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to help with negotiations.

"We hope negotiations will close a deal very soon," said Efrat Machikawa, whose uncle, 79-year-old uncle Gadi Moses, is among the hostages.

According to Israeli estimates, there are more than 130 hostages whom Hamas is still holding in the Gaza Strip. However, 25 of the remaining hostages are believed to be dead.

Germany, along with the US, the EU and others, consider Hamas to be a terrorist group.

Another ship sailing near the Red Sea was reportedly struck by a missile on Monday, which comes after the Iran-backed Houthi rebels vowed to attack vessels in the region in response to the conflict in Gaza.

The captain said the ship was hit from above some 95 nautical miles southeast of the Yemeni port city of Aden, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO).

The UKMTO said it is investigating the reports.

"Vessels are advised to transit with caution," it added.

Private security firms Ambrey and Dryad Global told the Associated Press that they identified the ship as the Eagle Gibraltar. This Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier is owned by the US-based owner-operator Eagle Bulk.

Neither the Houthis nor other groups immediately claimed responsibility. Eagle Bulk and the US Navy's Middle East-based 5th Fleet also did not immediately comment.

A day earlier, the US said it intercepted a Houthi anti-ship missile that had been fired at one of its vessels.

Israeli police have described fatal car-ramming and stabbing incidents in the city of Raanana as a terror attack.

The incidents left at least one woman dead and seriously injured several others.

Police have identified two suspects from a family in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Authorities alleged that they entered Israel illegally.

"They went out together and, in parallel, to two different locations, took two cars and launched a series of rammings," central district police chief Avi Biton told reporters in Raanana.

The chief negotiator for Yemen's Houthis said the group's position has not changed since US and UK airstrikes on Yemen, warning that it would still carry out attacks on ships headed to Israel.

Ali al-Qahoum said in an interview with Iran's state news agency IRNA that the group's demands were still for an end to the Israeli offensive in Gaza and for more humanitarian aid to be allowed into the north and south of the strip.

"Our communication ... continues to clarify our position and confirm that all commercial ships in the Red and Arabian Seas are safe, with the exception of Israeli ships or those heading to Israel," he said.

Meanwhile, al-Qahoum also threatened to turn Yemen into a "graveyard" for the United States, saying that Yemen was ready to enter a "direct and all-out war."

At least 13 people have been injured in Raanana, an Israeli town close to Tel Aviv, in a series of apparent car-ramming attacks, police said, with three of them in serious condition.

"A suspect in a stolen vehicle ran over several people, injuring 13," Israeli police said.

The victims included a woman in her 70s in critical condition, a 34-year-old man and a 16-year-old in serious condition, The Times of Israel newspaper cited the Magen David Adom ambulance service as saying.

The hospital that the older woman was taken to later said that she had died from her wounds.

The rammings took place at three separate locations, the newspaper said.

Police said the suspect was a Palestinian from the West Bank city of Hebron and that he had been arrested. Residents were being instructed to stay off the streets, with police saying it was still unclear how many people had been involved.

In a statement, the police said the man had stolen a total of three cars during the suspected ramming spree.

Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported that there had also been stabbings during the incident.

Police spokesperson Eli Levy told the broadcaster Army Radio it was still not possible to say for sure that a terrorist attack had taken place.

Three United Nations agencies are calling for Israel to allow access to the port of Ashdod, to the north of Gaza, so that they can deliver urgently needed humanitarian aid. 

In a joint statement, the World Food Programme (WFP), UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) also call for new entry routes into the territory to be opened. 

Ashdod, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of the Gaza border, is "critically needed by aid agencies," the agencies said in an appeal for a "fundamental step change in the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza."

Allowing humanitarian organizations to use that port "would enable significantly larger quantities of aid to be shipped in and then trucked directly to the badly affected northern regions of Gaza, which few convoys have managed to reach," the agencies said.

Turkish police have detained Israeli football player Sagiv Jehezkel and questioned him on Monday over his gesture, alluding to the passage of 100 days since the Hamas' October 7 attacks on Israel.

Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said Jehezkel was being investigated on a charge of "inciting people to hatred and hostility" with his gesture, which he displayed on his wrist after scoring in a top-tier match between his team, the southern Turkish club Antalyaspor and Trabzonspor.

Tunc said the probe was "due to his ugly gesture supporting Israel's massacre in Gaza after scoring a goal."

Turkey's state-owned Anadolu news agency cited an Antalyaspor spokesman as saying lawyers were in the process of annulling the Israeli player's contract.

Israel lambasted the Turkish reaction to Jehezkel's gesture. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant accused Ankara of serving as a "de facto executive arm of Hamas" in a social media post.

He reminded Turkey of Israel's swift aid to it following last year's earthquake, calling the treatment of their footballer by Ankara "a manifestation of hypocrisy and ingratitude."

Israeli former Prime Minister Naftali Bennet also condemned Jehezkel's detention.

"Shame on you, Turkish government," he said on social media.

Jehezkel denied accusations that he engaged in a provocative act during his questioning, the private DHA news agency said.

"I am not pro-war," DHA quoted him as telling police. "I want this 100-day process to come to an end. I want the war to end."

Turkish media said Jehezkel was later released after questioning.

The total number confirmed to have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war has increased to more than 24,000, with 132 people having been killed the previous day, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.

"A number of casualties remain under the rubble and on the roads, with ambulance crews and civil defense forces unable to reach them," the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said it had recorded nearly 61,000 wounded in Gaza since fighting erupted following Hamas' October 7 terror attack on Israel.

The Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilian and combatant casualties. A majority of the dead are women and children.

Last week a report published by Oxfam found the average number of deaths per day in Gaza far exceeds recent wars like those in Ukraine, Iraq, Syria and Sudan.

The Health Ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip has reported that at least 60 people were killed in overnight Israeli military strikes across the Palestinian territory.

The ministry added that dozens of others were wounded in what the militant group's media office described as "intense" Israeli strikes and artillery bombardments.

Strikes hit Gaza's southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah, as well as areas around Gaza City in the northern part of the territory. 

The ministry said two hospitals, a girls' school and "dozens" of homes had been among the targets.

There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces. 

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong has said a permanent cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip would be desirable.

"Our position is that we want to see a sustainable cease-fire and that we see an international humanitarian, immediate humanitarian cease-fire as a step towards that," Wong said.

Her comments came before she departed for a trip to Israel, Jordan, the West Bank, and the United Arab Emirates. 

However, Wong added that conditions would need to be in place before any cease-fire could become a reality. 

"No ceasefire can be one-sided and no cease-fire can be unconditional," she said.

The minister also called for there to be safe, unhindered and permanent access for humanitarian aid and better protection for the civilian population in the Gaza Strip. 

Officials say Wong plans to use her trip to campaign for a way out of the current conflict and toward a two-state solution.

She also plans to meet relatives of the hostages and survivors of the October 7 attacks on Israel committed by the Islamist militant organization Hamas and other extremists.