Middle East conflict live updates: Biden says Israel would halt fighting during Ramadan if hostage deal is reached

Israeli officials say they are closing in on Hamas leader Yehiya Sinwar, but that an effort to capture or kill him could endanger hostages who are believed to be with him.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas accepted the resignation of his prime minister and cabinet on Monday, according to the president’s office, opening the door for a new technocratic administration that the United States and Arab allies hope could take a role in governing a postwar Gaza.

The Israel Defense Forces presented the war cabinet with a plan for evacuating people from “areas of fighting” in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli prime minister’s office said Monday. The statement did not specifically mention Rafah, the last refuge for civilians in Gaza, where Israel has promised a ground operation despite warnings from allies.

An all-out Israeli offensive on Rafah “would put the final nail in the coffin of our aid programs,” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said Monday in remarks to the Human Rights Council.

At least 29,782 people have been killed in Gaza and 70,043 injured since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack and says 240 soldiers have been killed since the start of its military operation in Gaza.