Israel pushed tanks deeper into Gaza City and detonated explosives-laden vehicles in one suburb as airstrikes killed at least 19 people on Monday, Palestinian officials and witnesses said.

Reports of the offensive came as the president of the world's leading genocide scholars' association said it had passed a resolution saying the legal criteria have been met to establish that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

There was no immediate response from Israel on the reported offensive or on the statement from the International Association of Genocide Scholars. Israel has in the past strongly denied that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide.

The Israeli military said its forces were continuing to fight Hamas across the enclave and over the past day had struck several military structures and outposts that had been used to stage attacks on its troops.

Residents said Israeli forces sent old armored vehicles into the eastern parts of the overcrowded Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, then blew them up remotely, destroying several houses and forcing more families to flee.

The Gaza health ministry said at least 98 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire across the enclave in the past 24 hours. It added that nine more people, including three children, have died of malnutrition and starvation over the past day.

Israel disputes the hunger fatality figures given by Gaza's Hamas-run government, arguing that the deaths were due to other medical causes.

Israel committing genocide in Gaza, scholars' association says

The world's leading genocide scholars' association has passed a resolution saying that the legal criteria have been met to establish Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, its president said on Monday.

Eighty-six percent of those who voted among the 500-member International Association of Genocide Scholars backed the resolution declaring: "Israel's policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide in Article II of the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948)".

There was no immediate response from the Israeli foreign ministry. Israel has in the past strongly denied that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide and says they are justified as self-defense. It is fighting a case at the International Court of Justice in the Hague that accuses it of genocide.

In Gaza, Hamas welcomed the resolution: "This prestigious scholarly stance reinforces the documented evidence and facts presented before international courts," said Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office.

The resolution "places a legal and moral obligation on the international community to take urgent action to stop the crime, protect civilians, and hold the leaders of the occupation accountable," he said.

The three-page resolution adopted by the scholars calls on Israel to "immediately cease all acts that constitute genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza, including deliberate attacks against and killing of civilians including children; starvation; deprivation of humanitarian aid, water, fuel, and other items essential to the survival of the population; sexual and reproductive violence; and forced displacement of the population."

The resolution also states that the Hamas attack on Israel which precipitated the war constituted international crimes.

"This is a definitive statement from experts in the field of genocide studies that what is going on on the ground in Gaza is genocide," said association president Melanie O'Brien, a professor of international law at the University of Western Australia who specializes in genocide.

Israel considers West Bank annexation if countries recognize Palestine

Israel is considering annexation in the occupied West Bank as a possible response to France and other countries recognizing a Palestinian state, according to three Israeli officials.

Extension of Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank - de facto annexation of land captured in the 1967 Middle East war - was on the agenda for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet meeting late on Sunday.

It is unclear when and where any such measure would be applied, and whether it would only be in Israeli settlements or in specific areas of the West Bank like the Jordan Valley and whether any concrete steps, which would likely entail a lengthy legislative process, would follow discussions.

Any step toward annexation in the West Bank would likely draw widespread condemnation from the Palestinians, who seek the territory for a future state, as well as Arab and Western countries.

Israel, facing mounting international criticism over the war in Gaza, is angered by pledges by France, Britain, Australia and Canada to formally recognize a Palestinian state at a summit during the UN General Assembly in September.

The United Nations' highest court in 2024 said that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories, including the West Bank, and its settlements there are illegal and should be withdrawn as soon as possible.

Israel argues the territories are not occupied in legal terms because they are on disputed lands, but the United Nations and most of the international community regard them as occupied territory.

Its annexations of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights decades ago have not won international recognition.

Members of Netanyahu's ruling coalition have been calling for years for Israel to formally annex parts of the West Bank, territory to which Israel cites biblical and historical ties.