Live updates: Israel-Hamas war

The US State Department found five units of the Israeli military responsible for gross violations of human rights in incidents that took place outside of Gaza before conflict broke out between Israel and Hamas in October, the State Department said.

Four of the units have effectively remediated the violations, while Israel has submitted additional information regarding the fifth unit and the US is continuing conversations with the government, State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday in Riyadh, where they discussed the urgent need to reduce tensions in the region, the US Department of State said in a statement.

Blinken also underscored the need for sustaining an increase in humanitarian assistance to Gaza, reaching an immediate ceasefire that secures the release of hostages and preventing the possible further spread of the conflict, the State Department said.

Blinken is in Saudi Arabia as part of a broader trip to the Middle East aimed at discussing with Arab partners post-war Gaza and to press Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take steps US President Joe Biden demanded this month to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday urged Hamas to swiftly accept an Israeli proposal for a truce in the Gaza war and the release of Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian resistance group.

Hamas negotiators were expected to meet Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Cairo on Monday to deliver a response to the phased truce proposal which Israel presented at the weekend.

"Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel," Blinken said at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

"The only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas. They have to decide and they have to decide quickly," he said. "I'm hopeful that they will make the right decision."

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Cameron, who was also in Riyadh for the WEF meeting, also described the Israeli proposal as "generous".

It included a 40-day pause in fighting and the release of potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners as well as Israeli hostages, he told a WEF audience.

"I hope Hamas do take this deal and frankly, all the pressure in the world and all the eyes in the world should be on them today saying 'take that deal'," Cameron said.

JERUSALEM: Israel is voicing concern that the International Criminal Court could be preparing to issue arrest warrants for government officials on charges related to the conduct of its war against Hamas.

The ICC — which can charge individuals with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide — is investigating Hamas' October 7 cross-border attack and Israel's devastating military assault on Hamas-ruled Gaza, now in its seventh month.

In response to Israeli media reports that the ICC might soon issue arrest warrants for senior Israeli government and military officials, Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Sunday warned Israeli embassies to bolster their security because of the risk of a "wave of severe antisemitism".

"We expect the court (ICC) to refrain from issuing arrest warrants against senior Israeli political and security officials," Katz said. "We will not bow our heads or be deterred and will continue to fight."

Columbia University's president asked the students protesting in support of Palestinians to voluntarily disperse, without questioning the possible consequences if the encampment continues.

President Nemat Minouche Shafik said that talks with pro-Palestinian protesters who began camping on the Ivy League campus two weeks ago have failed, Al Jazeera reported.

Shafik, whose administration was criticised by a campus oversight panel on Friday for its response to the protests, said in a statement that organisers and academic leaders could not reach an agreement that would break a stalemate over the encampment, which the administration says violates university rules.

She said Columbia would not divest assets that support Israel's military, a key demand of the protesters, but the school has offered to invest in health and education in Gaza, and to improve the transparency of Columbia's direct investment holdings, according to Shafik's statement.

UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said in Riyadh that a 40-day ceasefire was offered to Hamas in Gaza, in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages, terming it a "generous" offer.

"The current proposal before Hamas includes the release of potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners," Al Jazeera quoted Cameron.

"I hope Hamas accepts the proposal in front of them," he adds, saying that the war won’t end until all the captives are released.

Cameron also says that the Hamas leadership and those responsible for the October 7 attack need to leave Gaza in order "to have a political horizon for a two-state solution".

Hamas has repeatedly said that it wants a permanent end to the fighting, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians.

CAIRO: At least 34,488 Palestinians have been killed and 77,643 were injured in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since October 7, a statement by Gaza's health ministry said on Monday.

Some 34 were killed and 68 injured in the last 24 hours, the statement added.

RIYADH: Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Monday that Egypt was hopeful about a proposal for a truce and hostage release in the Gaza Strip but that it was waiting for a response on the proposal from Israel and Hamas.

Shoukry was speaking on a panel in Riyadh with Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, who said the war in Gaza had turned "Israel into a pariah state".

The United States has seen "measurable progress" in the humanitarian situation in Gaza over the past few weeks, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Monday, but urged Israel to do more.

Speaking in Riyadh at the opening of a US-Gulf Cooperation Council meeting, Blinken said the most effective way to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza was to achieve a ceasefire. He also said Washington continued efforts to prevent the Gaza war from expanding.