Hundreds of US Jewish activists peacefully occupied New York's Statue of Liberty on Monday to demand a ceasefire by Israel and an end to the "genocidal bombardment" of civilians in Gaza.

Dressed in black T-shirts emblazoned with the slogans "Jews demand ceasefire now" or "Not in our name," the protestors unfurled banners reading "The whole world is watching" and "Palestinians should be free" at the base of New York's iconic landmark.

The huge copper statue sits on Liberty Island at the entrance to New York Harbor.

The Israeli army is engaged face to face with Hamas fighters on the edges of Gaza City, foreshadowing what analysts describe as an extreme phase of urban combat with grave risks for both sides.

In the north of Gaza City, ground combat is well underway, according to Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari.

"We are talking about fighting where we see each other from one building to the other," he told the press.

Israel has launched ground troops into Gaza as it presses on in the month-long war that was sparked by Hamas's unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday warned that the bombarded Gaza Strip was becoming a "graveyard for children," as he urged an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

"The unfolding catastrophe makes the need for a humanitarian ceasefire more urgent with every passing hour," he told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York.

"The parties to the conflict -- and, indeed, the international community -- face an immediate and fundamental responsibility: to stop this inhuman collective suffering and dramatically expand humanitarian aid to Gaza," he said.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi has begun a hunger strike in her Iranian prison in protest at limits on medical care for her and other inmates, as well as the obligation for women to wear the hijab in the Islamic republic, her family said on Monday.

Veteran rights activist Mohammadi, 51, currently held in Tehran's Evin prison, was awarded the Nobel prize in October "for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran".

Tens of thousands of Gaza's residents live in eight refugee camps that were set up following the mass exodus of Palestinians during the war that followed the creation of Israel in May 1948.

Over 760,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes in what is referred to by Palestinians as the "Nakba" (catastrophe in Arabic).

Around 180,000 fled to Gaza, with the rest scattered across the West Bank and neighbouring Arab countries, specifically Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

With her mane of curly hair and piercing eyes Ahed Tamimi, arrested on Monday for allegedly inciting violence and terrorism, is for Palestinians and their supporters an icon of resistance to Israeli occupation.

Images of the now 22-year-old's defiance have been beamed across the world for over a decade: aged 11 brandishing her fist under the nose of Israeli soldiers, aged 14 fighting to free a detained boy, aged 16 in prisoner's clothing surrounded by Israeli police.

The bodies arrived through the night at the morgue of a hospital in Deir al-Balah in the centre of the Gaza Strip.

By Monday morning, hospital director Iyad al-Jabri had counted 58 dead, saying "dozens of women and children" may still be buried under the rubble.

Overnight, the skies over the Palestinian coastal territory were streaked with flashes of yellow and plumes of red.

When young Israeli Irene Shavit spoke to her mother after her first date with Netta Epstein, she said she was "already in love" but feared it could "end badly".

Shavit, 22, imagined that the romance, like so many others, might end in heartbreak.

Instead, it ended on October 7, when Epstein dived onto a Hamas grenade to save her life.

He was among the 1,400 people killed in the shock Hamas attack and its aftermath, according to Israeli authorities, most of them civilians who died on the first day.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi has begun a hunger strike in her Iranian prison in protest at limits on medical care for her and other inmates, as well as the obligation for women to wear the hijab in the Islamic republic, her family said on Monday.

Veteran rights activist Mohammadi, 51, currently held in Tehran's Evin prison, was awarded the Nobel prize in October "for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran".

In a convenience store in Bahrain, 14-year-old Jana Abdullah carries a tablet as she shops, checking a list of Western brands to avoid as Israel pounds Gaza in its campaign to destroy Hamas.

Jana and her 10-year-old brother, Ali, used to eat at McDonald's nearly daily but they are among many across the Middle East now boycotting products they believe support Israel.

With the campaign spreading on social media including TikTok, children as well as their parents are shunning major Western brands.