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Two prominent Israeli rights groups on Monday said their country is committing genocide in Gaza. This marks the first time that local Jewish-led organizations have made such accusations against Israel during nearly 22 months of war.

The claims by B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel add to an explosive debate over whether Israel’s military offensive in Gaza — launched in response to Hamas’ deadly October 7 2023, attack — amounts to genocide.

But in Israel itself, founded in the wake of the Holocaust, even the government’s strongest critics have largely refrained from making these accusations.

The president, seen as one of Israel’s strongest supporters, signalled the United States would not object to such a move – giving Sir Keir the green light as pressure mounts on him politically to follow Emmanuel Macron, who last week announced France would do so.

In an apparent shift in US backing for Israel, the president also expressed his concern at images and reports of children starving in Gaza, as a ground blockade means only very limited aid is getting through.

And he joined calls for Benjamin Netanyahu to soften his tactics in Gaza, saying the Israeli PM “may have to do it a different way”.

AIPAC appears to have dropped its endorsement of Republican Congressman Randy Fine after he tweeted: “Release the hostages. Until then, starve away.”

“(This is all a lie anyway. It amazes me that the media continues to regurgitate Muslim terror propaganda.),” Fine added in the July 22 post.

AIPAC had backed Fine in his House race earlier this year, but by Monday evening, his name no longer appeared in the pro-Israel lobby’s list of endorsed candidates, according to The Times of Israel.

Fellow Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted: “A Jewish US Representative calling for the continued starvation of innocent people and children is disgraceful. It’s the most truthful and easiest thing to say that Oct 7th in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned, but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict is “further than ever before”.

Mr Guterres said actions “that would forever undermine the two-state solution” must stop, and he urged a two-day UN conference to be a “decisive turning point” rather than mere rhetoric.

French and Saudi foreign ministers on Monday opened the conference on a two-state solution to the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Palestinian activist and teacher Odeh Muhammad Hadalin, known for his work on the Oscar-winning film No Other Land, was shot and killed by an Israeli settler in the West Bank village of Umm al-Khair.

The alleged shooter, identified by residents as Yinon Levi, sanctioned by the EU and US, was arrested, though Israeli police also detained four Palestinians and two tourists, Al Jazeera reported.

Human rights group B’Tselem has accused Israel of genocide, citing a spike in settler attacks carried out with impunity.

Over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 2023.

Monday’s death toll of Palestinians in Gaza from Israeli strikes or gunfire has risen to 78, according to local health officials.

The dead included a newborn who was delivered in complex surgery after his mother was killed in a strike, according to the Nasser Hospital.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment about the latest strikes, which occurred outside the time frame for the suspension of military operations that Israel declared would be between 10am and 8pm local time.

Kier Starmer told the media on Monday that “people in Britain are revolted at seeing what they are seeing on their screens”, referring to the images of starving children in Gaza.

He called the humanitarian situation in Gaza “absolutely intolerable”.

“We need to galvanize other countries in support of getting that aid in, and, yes, that does involve putting pressure on Israel, because it absolutely is a humanitarian catastrophe,” he said.

The head of the opposition in Israel’s parliament has called on the government to immediately end the war in Gaza, calling it “not a complete victory, but a complete disaster”.

“If we don’t end the war now, the hostages will not return, the IDF will continue to lose its best fighters, the humanitarian disaster will worsen, the world will close itself off to Israelis,” Yair Lapid said.

He called on a coalition of moderate Arab countries, led by Egypt, to run Gaza.

“The management of humanitarian aid in Gaza has collapsed. It simply doesn’t work,” he said, claiming that Israel was helping Hamas’ campaign as the humanitarian situation continued to worsen.

US president Donald Trump said on Monday that he is “not particularly convinced” by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that there is no starvation in Gaza, adding: “Based on television, I would say not particularly, because those children look very hungry.”

Later, Trump asserted there was “real starvation” in the territory, saying: “You can’t fake that”, and pledged to set up “food centres” in Gaza amid growing global outrage over the humanitarian crisis.

Israel has denied widespread famine, calling the images of emaciated children misleading or isolated, but has begun daily 10-hour pauses in fighting to allow more aid to enter by land and air.

French and Saudi foreign ministers have opened a two-day UN meeting on a two-state solution to the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict, highlighting what they called “a growing international consensus” for a non-military solution.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot noted that the large attendance reflected global consensus to end the war in Gaza.

His Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan called it a “historic stage” to not only end the conflict but also to advance a two-state solution.