Gaza live: Concerns about all-out regional war rise following Golan Heights deadly attack

US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet in Washington despite a series of diplomatic spats between the leaders since Israel's war on Gaza began last October.

The two are slated to meet at the White House on Monday.

While the visit is unlikely to have a major impact on the actual US-Israel relationship, the Biden-Netanyahu meeting will take place as the two leaders, who have known each other since the 1980s, have drifted farther apart since Biden took office in 2021.

As it stands, Biden's Democratic voter base disapproves of his approach to Israel and the war on Gaza. At the same time, Netanyahu and members of his government coalition have repeatedly criticised the Biden administration and its hostility to its far-right government - with little consequence.

Read more: Netanyahu’s US visit solidifies Israel’s upper hand in Washington

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu landed in Washington on Monday ahead of his speech to Congress and a possible meeting with US President Joe Biden.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on the grounds of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Gaza’s government media office said on Telegram that an Israeli attack killed journalist Haider Ibrahim al-Masdar.

This death brings the total number of journalists killed since 7 October to 163.

Al-Masdar worked as a media researcher and specialist in media affairs, according to the statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has requested an in-person meeting with former President Donald Trump during his visit to the US this week, according to a report from Politico on Monday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The report added that Netanyahu's and Trump's teams have discussed the possibility of a meeting recently, but Trump has not yet agreed. 

Trump's relationship with Netanyahu has become increasingly fraught after the Israeli premier congratulated Biden on winning the 2020 election.

Trump, who claimed that Biden was the illegitimate victor, was reportedly frustrated that Netanyahu didn’t show him more loyalty.

Progressive US lawmakers mainly lined up behind Vice President Kamala Harris after US President Joe Biden endorsed her candidacy on Sunday, even as pro-Palestinian groups and other activists criticised the move.

In a post on X, Democratic lawmaker Ilhan Omar endorsed Harris on Sunday, and thanked Biden for his "years of service". Omar has been critical of Biden over his support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

“Thrilled to support @KamalaHarris as our Democratic nominee and remain committed to working alongside her to defeat Donald Trump in November,” she wrote.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, another member of the so-called progressive “Squad” group in Congress, also endorsed Harris, saying on X that Harris "will be the next President of the United States. I pledge my full support to ensure her victory in November”.

Read more: Progressive lawmakers endorse Harris, pro-Palestinian groups hold out

Israel’s parliament has passed three bills, in their first readings, to close the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) and designate it a “terrorist organization”.

The first bill, which prohibits Unrwa from operating, providing services, or conducting activities on Israeli territory, was passed with a vote of 58-9, according to The Times of Israel.

The second bill, approved by a 63-9 vote, aims to strip Unrwa personnel of the legal immunities and privileges typically granted to UN staff in Israel.

The third bill, which designates Unrwa as a “terrorist organization” and requires Israel to cut ties with it, passed by a 50-10 vote.

These three bills will now go to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee for further deliberation. They will need to pass two more readings to become law.

Israel has strongly advocated for the closure of Unrwa, especially since the onset of its war on Gaza in October.

In the long shadow of the First World War, one of the greatest titles for an epochal work - Parade’s End, by Ford Madox Ford - definitively marked the final acts of the British empire, that hung on for decades until coming to total demise in, of all places, Yemen.

In the same period, TS Eliot, the transplanted American, put it a little differently: “This is the way the world ends / not with a bang but a whimper.”

Perhaps the current American equivalent would be “no gas left in the tank”, or “end of the line”.

Unfortunately, no well-known enough North American cultural figures come to mind who might be able to describe this particular moment.

An enfeebled president, suffering from dementia and possibly Parkinson’s, and amid an ongoing genocide, fully documented in real time, that his administration has paid for, approved and enabled - and closer to a third world war than at any moment since 1945 - has seemingly made a “personal decision” to not pursue a second term in office. 

Read more: Even the US propaganda machine can't whitewash Biden's sordid record

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa), has posted photos on X showing the aftermath of a visit to the agency’s headquarters in Gaza City. A week ago, Unrwa announced that its headquarters had been “flattened and turned into a battlefield”.

The photos depict the wreckage of the compound, with the clearly identifiable UN logos on the exterior.

“This used to be home to our central offices and one of the largest UN compounds in the region. This is one of hundreds of UN buildings destroyed in this war,” Lazzarini wrote.

He added that those responsible for the destruction must be identified and brought to justice.

“Whether it’s Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas, or the Israeli Forces, those responsible must be held accountable for another blatant disregard of international humanitarian law.

The Gaza health ministry reports that at least 70 bodies have arrived at the Nasser medical complex since this morning after Israeli forces resumed their attacks on the city in the southern Strip.

The ministry added that over 200 wounded people, including serious cases, have been brought to the medical facility in Khan Younis.

The Gaza government office has reported that Israeli attacks on the Khan Younis governorate have killed 57 people and injured 172 within 10 hours.

In a statement, the media office said it had received over 1,200 appeals for help from besieged families seeking rescue.

“This morning, the Israeli occupation army launched a new aggression against Khan Younis governorate, committing crimes against humanity through indiscriminate bombing of citizens’ homes and groups of displaced people in the area,” the office said.

Of the 57 people killed, “49 were taken to Nasser Medical Complex, while other victims were transported to different hospitals,” it added.

The co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, Carla Denyer, has accused US President Biden of complicity in the “slaughter of innocent people in Gaza”.

Her comments come less than a day after she wished him well and thanked him for his “public service” after he withdrew from the presidential race.

Denyer, who was recently elected as MP for Bristol Central and campaigned on a heavily pro-Palestinian platform, said in a post on social media platform X on Sunday: “I wish President Biden well and thank him for his many years of public service.

“This cannot have been an easy decision for him. But to take a decision that is personally difficult, but that is in the public interest, is a true sign of leadership.”

Denyer apologised the next day after sparking widespread debate online, particularly among Green Party members and voters. 

Reas more: UK Green Party co-leader says Biden complicit in 'slaughter of innocent people'

An Israeli soldier was killed by a grenade explosion in the Gaza Strip this morning, but not during operational activity, the military has said.

The Israeli army has admitted that a Palestinian man with Down syndrome who died after being attacked and injured by an army dog was abandoned by its soldiers.

The army's admission comes two weeks after Middle East Eye originally reported on the death of Muhammed Bhar following a raid by Israeli soldiers on his family home in eastern Gaza City's Shujaiya neighbourhood on 3 July.

His family told MEE they had been forced at gunpoint to leave behind the 24-year-old after he was mauled by the dog. Relatives described Muhammed as "like a one-year-old", and said he needed help eating.

Family members contacted the Red Cross daily for a week, pleading for Muhammed's release or medical treatment, but were told that the Israeli army was not cooperating.

After a week, and once Israeli troops withdrew from Shujaiya, they returned to find his decomposing body at their home.

The Israeli army initially told journalists it was checking into reports about Muhammed. 

But an army spokesperson told +972, the BBC and other outlets this weekend that soldiers left a man fitting his description after an RPG missile hit their tank, injuring soldiers and killing one.

Read more: Israeli army admits abandoning Palestinian man with Down syndrome

At least 45 Palestinians have been killed in ongoing Israeli attacks on eastern Khan Younis, amid a new air and ground offensive in the southern governorate.

A spokesperson for the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the last remaining functioning hospital in southern Gaza, said the medical facility has been receiving a rising number of casualties since this morning, according to Al Jazeera.

A British doctor who was suspended by NHS London after appearing on Piers Morgan's show on Talk TV has been reinstated, his lawers said on Monday.

Dr Wahid Shaida was the UK chair of Hizb ut-Tahrir until it was proscribed by the British government in January.

Shaida appeared on Piers Morgan Uncensored last year after the 7 October attack by Hamas-led fighters in southern Israel, which killed at least 1,149 people and saw 250 people, including soldiers and civilians, taken captive.

In a heated exchange, Morgan and Shaida debated Islamic law and the justifications for the attacks.

Read more: Muslim doctor suspended after Piers Morgan appearance reinstated by NHS