Israel has intensified its ground assault on the northern Gaza Strip, where an estimated 400,000 people remain trapped amid a dire humanitarian situation. Over the past 24 hours, Israeli attacks have killed at least 55 Palestinians, including 10 people who were killed by an Israeli tank shell as they lined up for food at a distribution center in Jabaliya. Dozens more were wounded in the assault, children among them.

On Monday, the World Health Organization began its second round of an emergency polio vaccination campaign, after Israel’s assault decimated Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure, prompting a polio outbreak. Parents who brought their children to receive a booster dose said they have much more to fear than the spread of disease.

Alaa Afana: “Today, I came to vaccinate my children against polio. We administered the first dose, and now we’ve administered the second dose, as we are scared of diseases that are widely spread here in Gaza. However, with disease and this fear, we fear the occupation more, because even though we are protecting them and vaccinating them, the occupation is still bombing them.”

One of the victims who burned to death after Israel bombed Al-Aqsa Hospital early Monday has been identified as 19-year-old Sha’ban al-Dalou. He was an engineering student at Gaza’s Al-Azhar University who just started his studies in September 2023. He had built the tent shelter his family was living in when Israel bombed them. At least four others were also killed in the fire.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces killed two Palestinians, including a child, and injured four others during an hourslong assault Monday on the city of Jenin and its refugee camp. Twenty-three-year-old Mahmoud Ma’moun Abu al-Rub died of gunshot wounds, as did 17-year-old Rayan Ibrahim al-Sayyed. Their killings bring the death toll from Israeli assaults on the West Bank over the past year to 755, including 165 children.

In Lebanon, at least 21 people were killed Monday when Israel bombed a four-story apartment building in the northern village of Aitou. The U.N. Human Rights Commission reports 12 women and two children were among the victims. On Monday, a top UNICEF official warned of a “lost generation” of children in Lebanon, with some 400,000 youths among the estimated 1.2 million people displaced by Israel’s bombs. This is Jalal Ferhat, a 40-year-old father of five whose family crossed Lebanon’s border into Syria Monday seeking refuge.

Jalal Ferhat: “There are strikes in our neighborhood and destruction, and they struck near my house. I have children. You can’t just stay where you are. We tried going to another place. We moved from Baalbek, where they struck near my house. We had to leave again. I have children. You can’t stay. We are going to Syria because it could be safer than where we are.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubled down Monday on his warnings to the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, telling U.N. peacekeepers to “heed Israel’s request and to temporarily get out of harm’s way.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “The charge that Israel deliberately attacked UNIFIL personnel is completely false. It’s exactly the opposite. Israel repeatedly asked UNIFIL to get out of harm’s way.”

Netanyahu’s remarks came after Israeli troops fired on a UNIFIL watchtower and destroyed part of a UNIFIL base near the Israeli border. At least five UNIFIL members have been injured by Israel’s assaults. Despite the repeated attacks, UNIFIL’s chief has said peacekeepers would remain in their positions. On Monday, Britain, France, Germany and Italy issued a joint statement calling Israel’s attacks on peacekeepers a violation of international law, and the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemned Israel’s attacks on UNIFIL as “unacceptable.”

Josep Borrell: “The 27 members agreed on asking Israelis to stop attacking UNIFIL. Many European members are participating in this mission. Their work is very important. It’s completely unacceptable, attacking United Nations troops.”

The Guardian is reporting USAID officials have been holding regular meetings with Israeli counterparts at Israel’s notorious Sde Teiman prison since late July, after the Israeli agency overseeing aid relocated to the military base. Sde Teiman has been labeled a “torture camp” where Palestinians abducted by Israeli soldiers in Gaza have described harrowing physical, sexual and psychological abuse. The Guardian says it’s not clear if the USAID employees have observed the part of the base that is used as a torture camp, but affected officials told the newspaper, “I can’t sleep at night knowing that it’s going on,” and that Israel’s relocation of its aid coordination group to the prison “seems like trolling.” Click here to see our past coverage of Sde Teiman and the reports on it.

Here in New York City, hundreds of Jewish activists and their allies rallied outside the New York Stock Exchange Monday demanding an Israeli arms embargo and an end to war profiteering by companies like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. Police forcibly removed peaceful protesters as they blocked the entrance to the stock exchange, arresting over 200 people. After headlines, we’ll speak with Elena Stein, director of organizing and strategy for Jewish Voice for Peace, who was detained at Monday’s action.

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., activists with CodePink disrupted an annual conference at the Association of the U.S. Army.

CodePink protester: “The blood of hundreds of thousands of people is on your hands. Your pockets seep in the blood of Palestinians, of people in the Global South. From the Philippines to the Congo to Haiti, we have 800 military bases decimating the planet and decimating people. The future that you talk about, we have no future. You all are making a killing off of killing.”

Canada has expelled six Indian diplomats amid mounting tensions over the murder last year of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia. India responded by announcing it was also expelling six Canadian diplomats this week. New Delhi has rejected Canadian accusations that Indian government agents were involved in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar and the targeting of other Indian dissidents in Canada. This is Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: “Canada is a country rooted in the rule of law, and the protection of our citizens is paramount. That’s why when our law enforcement and intelligence officials began pursuing credible allegations that agents of the government of India were directly involved in the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, on Canadian soil, we responded.”

In North Carolina, the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Department has arrested a man who allegedly used an assault rifle to threaten workers helping with relief efforts from Hurricane Helene. Investigators charged 44-year-old William Jacob Parsons with the crime of “going armed to the terror of the public,” a misdemeanor. The incident — and other cases of threats and harassment against federal workers — prompted FEMA to briefly suspend some of its North Carolina relief operations. FEMA pulled back its workers from going door to door in areas hard hit by Hurricane damage. This comes after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance spent weeks spreading lies and conspiracy theories about FEMA, falsely claiming the agency sent aid meant for hurricane victims to immigrants while withholding aid to people in Republican areas.