Pressure is mounting on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end his brutal war on Gaza as thousands of military personnel and civilians, including doctors, academics and intelligence veterans, have signed urgent petitions demanding the government prioritise the release of Israelis held in the Palestinian enclave.

According to an Anadolu count, nearly 3,500 army veterans and active-duty soldiers have signed petitions for a ceasefire in Gaza since April 10, representing different units, brigades, elite forces, intelligence units and intelligence graduates.

Several former top army commanders have joined the petitions, including former army chiefs Dan Halutz and Ehud Barak, who was also a prime minister.

US President Donald Trump realises that Israel is "illogically" toughening its demands in Gaza ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, an Egyptian official said.

"The mediators are aware of these aspects. We are now in the real stages, and Trump knows the negotiations are difficult and that the Israeli side is raising its demands to a point that may seem illogical," Diaa Rashwan, head of Egypt's State Information Service (SIS), told Al-Qahera News channel on Monday night.

He added that Trump gave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu enough opportunities to release hostages held in Gaza.

"Now time has almost run out," he said.

Ongoing Israeli military raids in Lebanon continue to claim civilian lives and destroy critical infrastructure, raising grave concerns about the protection of civilians, the UN Human Rights Office said, urging an end to the violence.

"According to our initial review, at least 71 civilians have been killed by Israeli forces in Lebanon, since the ceasefire came into effect on 27 November last year," said spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan at a UN press briefing in Geneva.

"Among the victims are 14 women and 9 children. People remain gripped by fear, and over 92,000 are still displaced from their homes."

Israeli air strikes on Gaza killed at least 17 more Palestinians in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll from Israel’s genocidal war since October 2023 to 51,000, the Health Ministry has said.

A ministry statement said that 69 more wounded people were also transferred to hospitals, taking the number of injuries to 116,343 in the Israeli onslaught.

“Many victims are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.

The Israeli army has arrested a wounded Palestinian man after opening fire during a raid on Nablus, in the northern occupied West Bank, local sources have said.

According to the sources, Israeli forces raided the Al-Ta'awun neighborhood of the city, surrounded a house, and shot the young man inside before arresting him while he was still injured.

The Israeli military made no comment on the man’s condition.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported that during the army's raid, the Israeli forces physically assaulted an 86-year-old man. He was transferred to the hospital for treatment.

The Israeli army closed the Ibrahimi Mosque in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron to Muslim worshippers to allow illegal settlers to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Passover, a Palestinian official has said.

“The mosque will remain closed for two days due to Passover celebrations,” Akram al-Tamimi, Director of the Ibrahimi Mosque, said.

Tamimi said Palestinian worshippers were banned from approaching the site for two days amid tight security conditions.

The United Nations Human Rights Office is concerned about the protection of civilians in Lebanon as Israeli military operations have continued to kill civilians since the ceasefire.

"Israeli military operations in Lebanon continue to kill and injure civilians and destroy civilian infrastructure, raising concerns regarding the protection of civilians," the spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the High Commissioner of Human Rights, Thameen Al-Kheetan, told reporters in Geneva.

At least 71 civilians - including 14 women and nine children - have been killed by Israeli forces in Lebanon since the ceasefire came into effect on 27 November last year, and 92,000 are still displaced, according to OHCHR.

The Maldives has announced it was banning the entry of Israelis from the luxury tourist archipelago in "resolute solidarity" with the Palestinian people.

President Mohamed Muizzu ratified the legislation shortly after it was approved by parliament.

"The ratification reflects the government's firm stance in response to the continuing atrocities and ongoing acts of genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinian people," his office said in a statement.

"The Maldives reaffirms its resolute solidarity with the Palestinian cause."

At least seven more Palestinians have been killed as a result of the fresh Israeli strikes targeting displaced people's tents in areas across the war-devastated Gaza.

According to the Palestinian state news agency Wafa, three of the civilians have been killed and several others wounded in an Israeli strike on a tent for the displaced in the Al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.

Also in Khan Younis, a Palestinian woman was killed and several others injured in an Israeli air strike on a home.

In another air strike on a home in central Gaza City, one more Palestinian was killed.

The Palestinian news agency added that another Israeli strike on a tent in Beit Lahia town in northern Gaza left two more civilians from the same family dead.

US Senator Peter Welch has demanded the release of a Palestinian student from Columbia University who was arrested on Monday during a citizenship interview.

"This is immoral, inhumane, and illegal. Mr. Mahdawi, a legal resident of the United States, must be afforded due process under the law and immediately released from detention," Welch said on X.

His remarks came after Mohsen K. Mahdawi, a legal permanent resident and former leader of the campus protest movement, was taken into custody at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office in the state of Vermont.