TRANSCRIPT:
It has been six months since Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, and Israel launched an offensive in Gaza in response.
Thousands have gathered in Tel Aviv to urge the government to do more to free the hostages that remain in Gaza, and for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign.
Talks on a truce are making progress in Cairo, and Egypt's Al-Qahera News state-affiliated TV channel has said that all parties have agreed on basic points.
But Israel Defence Forces chief of staff Herzi Halevi has said the war in Gaza will continue.
"We are far from stopping. The heads of Hamas are still hiding, we will reach them, sooner or later. We will not leave any operative Hamas divisions, at any part of the (Gaza) Strip. We have plans and we will act when we decide.”
Israel has withdrawn almost all its troops from southern Gaza.
The United Nations top aid official says he's worried the IDF is regrouping to get ready for a proposed ground invasion of Rafah.
James McGoldrick is the Interim Deputy Special Coordinator and Resident Coordinator at UNSCO, the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.
He has warned the organisation is struggling to prepare for a mass migration of up to 800,000 people.
“We don't want to be part of any movement of population. But we have to be ready for the possibility of people leaving Rafah, because there's very few places for them to go. And for us, we really struggle to pre-position enough material, non-food items, shelter material, and water, especially at this time of year when the weather is becoming so hot and the ability to have mobile health support and protection. So, all of those things are really big issues for us, and we really don't have the capacity, resources and ability right now. And we're really struggling to get prepared.”
Personnel from the UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, have surveyed the devastated medical complex of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, which was once the biggest hospital in the Gaza Strip.
Deputy Head of the Office for Occupied Palestinian Territory, Jonathan Whittall, has filmed a video surveying the damage.
“We're here in what used to be Shifa Hospital in the north of Gaza and Gaza City. Hospitals should always be places of safety. Hospitals should always be protected places of healing. And yet, I'm standing around in the midst of utter devastation. Shifa has literally become a graveyard. There are bodies still in this courtyard. The buildings have been completely destroyed.”
Meanwhile, the deaths of seven humanitarian aid workers in an Israeli air strike has continued to stir international outrage.
In an interview with U-S broadcaster ABC, the founder of the World Central Kitchen ((WCK)) aid agency, José Andrés, has urged the United States to hold its close ally Israel to account for what he called a deliberate and targeted attack.
Mr Andrés says U-S president Joe Biden should use the relationship with Israel to do more to defend the human rights of Palestinians.
"I think both truths can live in the same place. You can be a friend of Israel and at the same time you can be telling your partner in the Middle East, you cannot be conducting war in such a way. You cannot be destroying every building, every hospital, every school, every university. You cannot be destroying just the future for decades of more than 2 million Palestinians, and in the process leaving them hungry, leaving them without water or what is even worse, you're shooting them in the middle of the street in the process of trying to have access to food."
The national security spokesman for the US, John Kirby, has told US Network ABC they expect to see Israel doing things differently.
"There's going to have to be some changes to the way the Israeli Defence Forces are prosecuting these operations in Gaza to make sure that this doesn't happen again. And some of the changes we talked about, certainly more humanitarian aid and assistance getting in, but just as critically, Martha, there's got to be changes in the deconfliction process, the information flow between aid workers on the ground and the IDF in their headquarters, so that this kind of targeting can't happen again."
Among those killed in the strike were Australian Zomi Franckom.
Former chief of the Australian Defence Force Mark Binskin has been named as the federal government's special adviser on Israel's response to the attack.
He is expected to advise on arrangements for independent investigations, I-D-F policies and procedures for operational incidents, and the mechanisms to hold those responsible to account.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has told the ABC he expects the Israeli government to fully cooperate with Special Adviser Binskin's work.
"We have made it very clear that these deaths are utterly inexcusable and that action is needed to ensure that such a tragedy is never repeated. And we also want full accountability for these deaths. Now, the information Israel has provided so far on the investigation hasn’t yet satisfied our expectations."
