Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip continues, with at least 32 more Palestinians killed in the past 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. One overnight strike by Israel on a home in Khan Younis killed 10 Palestinians and wounded several others. Another Israeli attack leveled a residential building in Gaza City, burying residents in their homes.

Ahmad Abu Hasira: “We heard the sound of an airstrike. We came to see what had happened, and we found that the Israeli military had hit the building. The building has civilians inside. He’s my cousin, him and his wife and his child. Unfortunately, we found their bodies in pieces, and we’re still looking for the child’s head.”

On Monday, a spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing said one Israeli hostage was killed and two other women captives were seriously wounded in two separate incidents in Gaza. Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council is set to meet today in the wake of Saturday’s devastating Israeli airstrike on a school in Gaza City that killed over 100 Palestinians. We’ll have more on Israel’s assault on Gaza — and growing calls for a ceasefire — later in the broadcast.

Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said Jews should be permitted to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque as he stormed the religious compound in occupied East Jerusalem with up to 2,000 Israeli settlers earlier today. Under the current status quo, non-Muslims are allowed to visit the holy site but are not allowed to pray there.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces killed an 18-year-old Palestinian during overnight raids. Elsewhere, Israeli settlers raided the Palestinian village of at-Tawani in large numbers.

Amid the mounting death toll and destruction, the U.S. State Department says it will resume funding to the Israeli military’s Netzah Yehuda Battalion after ending its probe into the ultra-Orthodox group. Despite acknowledging “gross human rights violations” against Palestinians, the U.S. State Department said the unit had done enough to improve their standing in recent months, and decided not to impose sanctions. Among other things, Netzah Yehuda was involved in the gruesome murder of a 78-year-old Palestinian American citizen, Omar Assad, near Ramallah in 2022.

In Burma, there are reports hundreds of Rohingya Muslims were killed, including children, in drone strikes last week in western Rakhine state. The attacks last Monday targeted members of the Rohingya community as they attempted to flee to Bangladesh via the Naf River. Others drowned while they tried to cross the river. Survivors and activists say the Arakan Army was behind the assault, while the AA says the military junta, which overthrew the elected government in 2021, is to blame. A new report from Human Rights Watch finds both parties guilty of extrajudicial killings, unlawful recruitment for combat, and widespread arson against Rohingya, Rakhine and other civilians in recent months.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised to retaliate after Ukraine’s military seized hundreds of square miles of Russian territory in a surprise offensive. On Monday, Putin accused the U.S. and its allies of “waging war” against Russia using Ukrainians and accused Ukraine’s army of committing war crimes. The governor of Russia’s Kursk region said the offensive had so far killed 12 civilians while displacing more than 120,000 others. Some evacuees said they barely escaped with their lives.

Anna Erokhina: “There was shelling. How do you call them? Shells. Shells were falling quite close, three meters from the house. And we were standing in the hallway like this, and we were appealing to God, 'Please don't let them hit the house. We have children sleeping here.’”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the offensive is aimed at forcing Russia to negotiate for peace. He added, “Russia brought war to others, and now it is coming home.” Zelensky’s comments came after a meeting with a bipartisan delegation of U.S. senators in Kyiv. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham called Ukraine’s surprise offensive “bold, brilliant and beautiful,” while Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal urged President Biden to lift all restrictions on Ukraine’s use of U.S.-made weapons.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal: “We want to convey to the administration a message that it should provide more flexibility and authority to Ukraine in using the weapons that have been provided to strike deeper behind the lines that exist right now. There are limits and issues of permission. We hope to cut through them.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross is calling for nations to respect the Geneva Conventions as the group marked the 75th anniversary of their signing Monday. The Geneva Conventions established international legal standards for humanitarian treatment and protection of civilians in war. Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the ICRC, spoke Monday.

Mirjana Spoljaric Egger: “Where are the peacemakers? As I look at the destruction in Gaza, the relentless conflict in Ukraine and the suffering in Sudan and elsewhere, I think, 'Where are the leaders championing negotiations?' Seize every chance to deescalate. The faithful application of international humanitarian law can foster peace initiatives.”

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has sentenced a California man to 20 years in prison for his role in the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. Video shows David Nicholas Dempsey repeatedly struck Capitol police officers with a flag pole, metal crutch and pepper spray as a mob of Trump supporters, incited by the outgoing president, tried to push their way past police barricades to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. It’s the second-longest sentence handed down so far against a January 6 rioter.

The FBI says it’s investigating attempts by Iran to hack the campaigns of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. The FBI’s announcement came after a Trump campaign spokesperson claimed an Iranian cyberattack was to blame for the release of internal documents to Politico and other news outlets, including a so-called dirty laundry dossier on Trump’s running mate, JD Vance.

On Monday evening, Trump returned to the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, for the first time since he was banned for inciting the January 6 Capitol insurrection. The live stream hosted by CEO Elon Musk was delayed by 40 minutes due to technical malfunctions. Trump’s return to X came after he rallied thousands of supporters in Montana over the weekend.

Donald Trump: “If comrade Walz and comrade Harris win this November, the people cheering will be the pink-haired Marxists, the looters, the perverts, the flag burners, Hamas supporters, drug dealers, gun grabbers and human traffickers.”

Trump left Montana aboard a private jet after his Boeing 757 experienced a mechanical problem. The Trump campaign later confirmed press reports that the Gulfstream jet was once owned by Jeffrey Epstein. A spokesperson said the Trump campaign had “no idea” the plane used to belong to the serial sexual predator. Trump was a longtime high-profile friend of Epstein who previously flew aboard his private planes at least seven times.

In Greece, at least one person is dead and thousands have been forced to evacuate their homes as firefighters battle wildfires around the capital Athens. Survivors recall fleeing their homes as the flames approached.

Sakis Morfis: “My house, it was utterly destroyed. Even the walls fell down. … There’s nothing left. There’s no morale, no courage. There’s no money anymore. Everything was destroyed.”

The Greek fires have been fanned by strong winds and record high temperatures, following the hottest June and July ever recorded in Greece, which also logged its warmest winter on record this year. 

In Uganda, a massive landslide Friday at Kampala’s Kiteezi landfill has killed at least 22 people. The landslide, which buried people, livestock and homes, came after weeks of heavy downpours. Rescue workers are continuing to search the area as grieving family members await news of their loved ones, including this man who lost two grandsons in the disaster.

Makumbi Samuel Musoke: “The other day, they recovered a motorcycle belonging to one of my grandsons from there. That is why we are convinced he is right there. That is where he used to stay. His neighbor was trying to get out his motorcycle when the mud started coming down. He ran and left the motorcycle behind. That is why he remembers that my grandson should be in this area. His brother, too, was retrieved from the same place last evening.”

The Italian coast guard and the Spanish nonprofit Open Arms rescued 110 migrants at sea off the Italian island of Lampedusa Monday. One refugee died during the journey. This is rescue worker Esther Camps, speaking after Monday’s mission.

Esther Camps: “Once again, these operations make evident that it’s necessary to have more operations and vessels that are willing to help these people.”

This comes as a contested Italian plan to transfer tens of thousands of refugees to detention camps in Albania has been delayed. Rights advocates have condemned the plan by far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, which they have compared to the now-defunct agreement between the U.K. and Rwanda. 

Randy Kehler, the antiwar activist whose speech inspired whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg to release the Pentagon Papers, has died at the age of 80. Randy Kehler was a self-proclaimed “war tax resister” who refused to pay federal income taxes beginning with the Vietnam War, during which he was jailed for draft resistance for 22 months. He was also in jail for some three months in 1992 for refusing to pay some federal income tax. In 1989, the IRS seized the house he shared with his wife Betsy Corner. Speaking to Democracy Now! on Tax Day in 1998, Kehler said he and his family instead paid the money they withheld from income taxes to victims of U.S. wars abroad and also to groups serving hungry and unhoused people in their community in western Massachusetts.

Randy Kehler: “Where we’ve drawn that line is in paying for nuclear weapons, weapons of mass destruction, weapons of genocide. And also we’ve drawn the line at the creation of a massive so-called conventional arsenal and its use in dominating and in invading and overpowering and destroying people and nations around the world that oppose U.S. policies.”

That was peace activist Randy Kehler, speaking to Democracy Now! in 1998. He’s died at the age of 80.