Live updates: Israel-Hamas war

At least 18 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on different areas of Gaza, Al Jazeera reported quoting its correspondent and Wafa news agency.

As per the report, at least 13 people wee killed in Israeli strikes on northern Gaza’s ravaged Jabalia refugee camp, while five other Palestinians were killed in an attack that targeted a residential home in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia. 

Several others were wounded in the attack.

The United States rejects the International Criminal Court prosecutor's application for arrest warrants for Israeli officials and Hamas, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

"We reject the prosecutor's equivalence of Israel with Hamas," Blinken said on Monday.

The ICC arrest decisions could jeopardise efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement, hostage deal and to increase humanitarian aid in Gaza, Blinken said in the statement.

CAIRO: Gaza Strip residents criticised on Monday the International Criminal Court prosecutor's decision to seek the arrest of Hamas leaders, saying it falsely equated them with the Israeli leaders waging war in the Palestinian enclave since October.

Prosecutor Karim Kahn has applied for arrest warrants for Hamas' leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, the commander of the group's military wing Mohammed Deif, and its Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh, as well as for Israel's prime minister and defence minister.

"The world is unjust, they see with one eye. How come they equate between us and the occupation?" said Um Samed, a mother of six displaced by the war between different neighbourhoods of Gaza City.

"Did Hamas use planes to bomb Tel Aviv? Did they kill 35,000 people and still thousands more are missing? This is insane," she told Reuters on a messaging app.

Another resident of Gaza City, 25-year-old Mohammad Farouq, said it was "a joke" that the ICC had requested a warrant against Deif alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

"Let them arrest Netanyahu and Gallant, in their first of many trips abroad. And if they can come into Gaza to arrest Deif, who never leaves and is busy fighting the occupation, let them do it," he said.

DUBAI: More than 35,562 Palestinians have been killed and 79,652 injured in the Israeli military offensive on Gaza since October 7, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Monday.

One hundred and six Palestinians were killed and 176 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.

RAMALLAH: Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official Wasel Abu Youssef said on Monday the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor's office requesting arrest warrants for Hamas leaders was a "confusion between the victim and the executioner".

"The ICC is required to issue arrest warrants against Israeli officials who continue committing genocide crimes in the Gaza Strip," he added.

JERUSALEM: Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ignore the International Criminal Court and its prosecutor on Monday, deeming both antisemitic, and ramp up war in Gaza. 

"Gaza war should be ramped up until Hamas' defeat," he said. 

The International Criminal Court is reportedly mulling release of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas top leaders over war crimes in Gaza since the start of Israel's offensive against Palestinian resistance group, AFP reported.

The development came as ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan pursued arrest warrant for not only Netanyahu, but also Yahya Sinwar, who is the resistance force's chief in the embattled territory. 

Khan told CNN in an interview he was seeking the warrants on charges of "crimes against humanity over the October 7 attacks and the subsequent war in Gaza. 

He said the ICC was also seeking warrants for Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as two other top Hamas leaders — Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, the leader of the Al Qassem Brigades and better known as Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ political leader.

The warrants against the Israeli politicians mark the first time the ICC has targeted the top leader of a close ally of the United States. 

Israel intends to broaden its military operation in Rafah, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday told a senior aide to US President Joe Biden, who has warned against major action in the southern Gazan city that may risk mass civilian casualties.

Israel describes Rafah, which abuts the Gaza Strip's border with the Egyptian Sinai, as the last stronghold of Hamas fighters whose governing and combat capabilities it has been trying to dismantle during the more than seven-month-old war.

After weeks of public disagreements with Washington over the Rafah planning, Israel on May 6 ordered Palestinian civilians to evacuate parts of the city and began troop and tank incursions.

"We are committed to broadening the ground operation in Rafah to the end of dismantling Hamas and recovering the hostages," a statement from Gallant's office quoted him as telling visiting US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.