The 500th US airlift of military aid reaches Israel; truce talks move forward

The 500th flight carrying U.S. military equipment to Israel since the Israel-Hamas war began has landed, the Israeli Defense Ministry announced Monday.

That is an average of more than one flight per day, plus more than 100 sea shipments. They delivered armored vehicles, munitions, personal protection gear and medical equipment "crucial" to the Israeli military since the war started more than 10 months ago, the ministry said in a statement.

"This operation has delivered over 50,000 tons of military equipment to Israel," the ministry said in a statement.

Military flights are still flying to Israel, but U.N. humanitarian aid operations in Gaza ground to a halt Monday after Israel issued new evacuation orders for a swath of central Gaza, a senior U.N. official told Reuters. Israeli officials said the evaucations were necessary because the military was pursuing Hamas militants in the area. The U.N. official, said the agency's staff had to be moved so quickly that equipment was left behind.

Attacks by Israel, Hezbollah: Could they ease tensions instead of fueling war?

Developments:

∎ The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 40,435 Palestinians have been killed and 93,534 have been wounded in Israel’s war against Hamas that began after Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel, killed almost 1,200 people and seized more than 200 hostages.

∎ The Israeli military said it destroyed a Hamas tunnel the length of almost eight football fields in central Gaza.

US says cease-fire talks are making some progress

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Monday that Brett McGurk stayed in Cairo an extra day to help transition truce talks between Israel and Hamas to the working group level without top officials. All parties, including Hamas, will be represented. The U.S. expects those talks to take place over the next several days.

Kirby said the departure of McGurk and other top officials was a sign of progress in that "you didn't need that the mediators all there and the leadership there."

"The talks actually progressed to a point where they felt like the next logical step was to have working groups at lower levels sit down to hammer out these finer details," he said. "There's no truth at all to the fact that they broke down. Quite the contrary."

He could not provide specifics publicly on what form the progress had been taken, but he said that one issue the working group will be fleshing out is the exchange of hostages that Hamas is holding and prisoners by Israel. "What that exchange looks like, how many ... some of the details of exactly who will be released on either side and at what pace, those kinds of things," he said.

− Francesca Chambers

Israeli minister: Jews should be allowed to pray atop Temple Mount

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir drew outrage after telling Army Radio that Jews would not be prevented from praying atop Jerusalem's Temple Mount, home of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and one of Islam's holiest sites. An unwritten agreement allows Jewish visitors to visit the Temple Mount, but they must pray at the nearby Western Wall. Israel's tight restriction over the mosque were among reasons for the Oct. 7 attack, Hamas leaders say.

The Palestinian Authority issued a statement calling on international allies to "pressure Israel to force it to put an end to Ben Gvir’s practices, statements and provocative stances.”

Interior Minister Moshe Arbel called on Netanyahu to remove Ben Gvir from his post overseeing Israel police, warning that his “irresponsible comments put into doubt Israel’s strategic alliances with Muslim states" against Iran.

Hostage families, government at odds over attack remembrance

Tens of thousands of Israelis are expected to attend an alternative remembrance marking the first anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, Israeli Channel 2 reported. The event is being organized by victims of the attack and their families who do not want to participate in the government's ceremony. Families of hostages have repeatedly criticized Netanyahu’s efforts to free the hostages, and some accuse the government of using the official ceremony to avoid responsibility for the role it played in failing to prevent the attack and for failing to care for the communities in the attack's aftermath.

Transportation Minister Miri Regev, who is organizing the government event, drew added criticism when he dismissed the concerns of the families as "noise."

Contributing: Reuters

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Israeli war: 500th US aid flight arrives; truce talks move forward