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PremiumIsrael-Hamas War highlights: The war continued to rage in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas on the 29th day (Saturday). Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected US calls for a humanitarian pause. The Israeli troops have further closed in on Gaza City, launching targeted attacks within the city on militant cells. The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has reached 9,227, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them in a Hamas attack, launched on 7 October. Roughly 1,100 people have left the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing since Wednesday under an apparent agreement among the US, Egypt, Israel, and Qatar, which mediates with Hamas.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said four of its schools-turned-shelters were damaged by airstrikes in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours. The airstrikes reportedly killed 24 people.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel has not given approval for fuel shipments into the Gaza Strip. The United Nations and Gazan hospitals have warned that fuel supplies are quickly dwindling, threatening medical and humanitarian operations in the besieged area.
The firing of the rockets came amid major escalation along the Lebanon-Israel border with Hezbollah attacking an Israeli army position with two suicide drones.
Hamas on Thursday said it fired 12 rockets from Lebanon toward the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona. And by sunset Israel’s air force conducted airstrikes along the border area.
US president Joe Biden has suggested Israel for a humanitarian "pause" in the war. US Secretary of State Antony Blonken will be visiting ISrael for the second time since the conflict erupted on 7 October. Blinken will urge the Israeli government to agree to a series of brief cessations of military operations in Gaza to allow for hostages to be released safely.
The chief of staff of Israel Defence Forces (IDF) was asked about fuel supplies to Gaza during a televised appearance on Thursday.
“We have not brought fuel in to this point," Lt Gen Herzi Halevi said.
For more than a week now, they have been telling us that ‘tomorrow the fuel in hospitals will run out’. So far it has not run out.
Israel has barred all fuel shipments from entering Gaza since the war began, accusing Hamas of hoarding fuel and diverting it for military use.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff has said troops are operating inside Gaza City, and are surrounding it from several directions.
In a statement from an air force base, reported by the Times of Israel, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi said:
We have advanced another significant stage in the war. The forces are in the heart of northern Gaza, operating in Gaza City, surrounding it, and deepening [the ground offensive], and achievements.
Hezbollah has said it has used two drones packed with explosives to attack an Israeli army command position in the disputed Shebaa Farms, AL Jazeera reports.
In a statement, the Lebanese group said the drones were filled with “a large quantity of explosives" and had struck their targets.
Politico is reporting that Joe Biden and his top aides believe that Benjamin Netanyahu’s grip on political power is weakening, and that this sentiment has been relayed to Israel’s prime minister in a recent conversation between the two leaders.
Israeli bombing has killed at least 29 people and injured dozens others in the third Israeli bombing of Jabalia refugee camp in as many days.
A correspondent from the Palestinian WAFA news agency said Israeli forces fired missiles at a school in the camp killing 27 people and injuring many others. He said two other people were killed in an Israeli attack on a car in the camp.
This is the second Israeli attack on a school today. Earlier, Israeli forces bombed a school run by UNRWA in al-Shati refugee camp, in western Gaza City, where thousands of displaced people had sought refuge. Five people were killed in the Israeli attack.
Bahrain says it has recalled its ambassador to Israel and halted all economic ties with it.
In a statement, the parliament of the Gulf state said the moves were part of measures taken in support “for the Palestinian cause and the
legitimate rights of the Palestinian people".
Bahrain, which established diplomatic ties with Israel in 2020, said the Israeli ambassador to Manama had already left.
The announcement came a day after Jordan said it had also recalled its ambassador to Israel to protest against the “catastrophe" amid Israel’s attacks.
-256 civilians killed in Israeli airstrikes today
-The al-Shifa Hospital received 2,600 reports of missing people
-135 medical staff killed, 25 ambulances destroyed
-16 hospitals out of service in Gaza, and 32 medical care facilities are out of operation.
-Gaza's only cancer hospital has also shut down
The state-run Saudi Press Agency said Thursday that King Salman has donated about $8 million to the fund and the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has donated over $5 million.
The funds will be raised through the online donation platform Sahem, which the kingdom has used to contribute to relief efforts in other countries.
Before the outbreak of the war in Gaza, Saudi Arabia had been in talks with the US over normalizing ties with Israel. The kingdom has called for a halt to the violence and for progress toward establishing an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
The Israeli Army has informed that fighting continued overnight in northern Gaza where “many" Hamas fighters were killed.
They further said that more than 12,000 targets have been attacked across Gaza since the start of the war.
The army continues to attack Hezbollah targets along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.
Since the war started, 332 Israeli soldiers have been killed.
Gaza officials say 195 killed, 120 missing in Israel’s bombing of Jabalia refugee camp, which the UN says may be “disproportionate attacks that could amount to war crimes".
Hamas said 600 more foreigners and dual nationals, including 400 American citizens, are expected to leave Gaza on Thursday. That would be the second batch to exit since the border with Egypt was opened Wednesday — when people were allowed to leave for the first time since the Israel-Hamas war started Oct. 7.
Israel's ground troops advanced toward Gaza City on Thursday, as the U.S. and Arab countries intensified diplomatic efforts to ease the siege of the Hamas-ruled enclave and bring about at least a brief stop to the fighting to help civilians.
Hundreds more wounded and foreign passports holders hoped to escape war-torn Gaza on Thursday as Israeli forces bombed and fought intense ground battles with Hamas militants in the besieged Palestinian territory.
Ambulances were set to rush several dozen patients to Egyptian hospitals, and about 400 foreigners or dual nationals were expected to escape as the southern Rafah crossing was to open for a second day, said border officials on both sides.
Hamas said 600 more foreigners and dual nationals, including 400 American citizens, are expected to leave Gaza on Thursday. That would be the second batch to exit since the border with Egypt was opened Wednesday — when people were allowed to leave for the first time since the war started Oct. 7.
Israel’s ground troops were advancing toward Gaza City as diplomatic efforts intensified for at least a brief pause in the fighting in Gaza's deadliest war. President Joe Biden suggested a humanitarian “pause" and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected back in the region on Friday.
Egypt will help evacuate "about 7,000" foreigners and dual nationals from the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday. For the first time after weeks of deadly fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants since the Hamas attacks of October 7, the Rafah border crossing opened on Wednesday to let people out of Gaza.
Mourning his father and brother, Mohammed Wadi says armed Israeli settlers from outposts overlooking his olive-growing West Bank village no longer aim low when they shoot at Palestinian neighbours. "Now, they shoot to kill," he said.
Violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, already at a more than 15-year high this year, surged further after Israel hurtled into a new war in the separate enclave of Gaza in response to Palestinian militant group Hamas unleashing the deadliest day in Israel's history on Oct. 7.
The Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris met with the United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday and discussed the support for Israel's right to defend itself as well as the urgent need to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Just weeks after a frenzied trip to the Middle East, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is returning to the region with a somewhat more nuanced message than he offered in the immediate aftermath of Hamas' bloody October 7 attack on Israel and Israel's military response.
More foreigners prepared to leave the besieged Gaza Strip on Thursday as its Hamas-run government said at least 195 Palestinians died in Israeli attacks on the Jabalia refugee camp, strikes that Israel said had killed Hamas commanders.
At least 320 foreign citizens on an initial list of 500, as well as dozens of severely injured Gazans, crossed into Egypt on Wednesday under a deal between Israel, Egypt and Hamas.
Thai officials held direct talks with Hamas in Iran last week over the fate of 22 of the kingdom's nationals taken hostage by the Palestinian militant group in its attack on Israel, the head of the Thai delegation said.
Negotiators met Hamas officials in Tehran on October 26 and were given a pledge that the Thais would be released at the "right time", Areepen Uttarasin told reporters in Bangkok on Wednesday.
President Joe Biden's administration is developing a national strategy to combat Islamophobia as the White House faces skepticism from many Muslim Americans for its staunch support of Israel's military assault on Hamas in Gaza.
Twenty Australians were among the first group of foreign citizens to leave the Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip and enter Eygpt via the Rafah border crossing, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Tim Watts said on Thursday.
At least 320 foreign nationals left the Palestinian enclave to cross into Egypt on Wednesday, the first to benefit from a deal mediated by Qatar.
Japan's foreign minister said on Thursday she would meet Palestinian counterparts during a visit to Israel and Jordan, and would communicate Japan's readiness to provide aid to the Palestinians.
The minister, Yoko Kamikawa, is also set to meet Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen during her two-day trip from Friday, as the crisis in Gaza deepened after Israel conducted a strike on the Jabalia refugee camp and as foreigners, including Japanese nationals, leave.
More than 20,000 wounded people are still trapped in the Gaza Strip, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), despite initial evacuations of foreign passport holders and badly injured Palestinians across the border to Egypt.
MSF noted the evacuations of "a number of severely injured" people in a statement on Wednesday, saying that its 22 international staff members in Gaza had also been among those who left the territory via the Rafah border crossing.
Hamas is looking to release another batch of foreign nationals from Gaza as US President Joe Biden said Israel and the militant group should “pause" fighting to allow time to free hostages being held in the embattled region.
Israel hit Gaza's largest refugee camp with renewed air strikes Wednesday, prompting UN rights officials to warn that targeting densely populated residential areas "could amount to war crimes."
Bombs struck the Jabalia camp for a second time in two days, pulverising buildings and, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, killing dozens of people.
Just weeks after a frenzied trip to the Middle East, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is returning to the region with a somewhat more nuanced message than he offered in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ bloody Oct. 7 attack on Israel and Israel's military response.
Hundreds of foreign passport-holders and dozens of other seriously wounded Palestinians desperate to escape Israel's bombardment of Gaza crowded around the black metal gate on the Egyptian border Wednesday, hoping to pass through the enclave’s only portal to the outside world for the first time since the war began.
Israel Defence Forces spokesperson Jonathan Conricus has said that Jabalya, which saw a barrage of Israeli airstrikes a day ago, is the permanent residence of Palestinians under Palestinian rule and there are not any refugees there.
Taking to social media app X, Conricus said, "Jabalya is the permanent residence of Palestinians under Palestinian rule," adding that it is about time to put the "fictional" refugee claims to rest.
"No refugees there, just as my grandparents from Morocco and Poland who fled to Israel in 1948 are no longer refugees. Time to lay these fictional and hereditary refugee claims to rest @UNWRA @cnni," he added.
At least 195 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Hamas-run government media office said. Some 120 were still missing under the rubble, and at least 777 more were wounded, the office said in a statement.
Palestinians search for casualties a day after Israeli strikes on houses in Jabalia refugee camp.
President Joe Biden said Wednesday that Israel and Hamas militants ought to “pause" fighting in order to allow time to free hostages held in the Gaza Strip, but stopped short of supporting a full ceasefire.
Biden made the comments while replying to a protester during a political fundraiser in Minneapolis. The president had traveled to Minnesota to garner support for his economic policies and raise money for his reelection.
A senior member of Hamas hailed the attack it carried out in Israel on October 7 and stressed that if given a chance, the terror group will repeat similar assaults many times in the future until Israel is exterminated, reported The Times of Israel.
Ghazi Hamad, a member of Hamas's political bureau shared his remarks in an interview with Lebanese Television channel LBC, which was later translated and published on Wednesday by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), according to The Times of Israel.
Lebanon's Hezbollah said on Thursday it destroyed an Israeli drone over south Lebanon with a surface-to-air missile, an account disputed by Israel's military which confirmed the missile launch but said its aircraft suffered "no damage".
All 10 Japanese nationals and their eight Palestinian family members wishing to leave Gaza have evacuated to Egypt, the top government spokesperson said on Thursday.
Speaking at a regular press conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno added that one Japanese national living in Gaza remains there with family.
Israel-Hamas war entered its 27th day on Thursday resulting in thousands of deaths and leaving lakhs of Gaza citizens homeless. US President Joe Biden has exerted pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to give Palestinians at least a brief reprieve from the relentless military operation. Israeli ground troops have advanced near Gaza City.
More than 3,600 Palestinian children were killed in the first 25 days of the war between Israel and Hamas, according to Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry. They were hit by airstrikes, smashed by misfired rockets, burned by blasts and crushed by buildings, and among them were newborns and toddlers, avid readers, aspiring journalists and boys who thought they'd be safe in a church.
The Israeli Embassy in New Delhi on Wednesday displayed the posters of its citizens who were kidnapped and held hostage by Hamas terrorists following the October 7 attack.
On October 7, over 2000 terrorists breached the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip. More than 200 innocent civilians were abducted from Israel into the Gaza Strip. Their whereabouts remain unknown.
Palestinians gather at the site of Israeli strikes on houses in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, November 1.
More foreign nationals prepared to leave the besieged Gaza Strip on Thursday as the enclave's Hamas-run government said at least 195 Palestinians died in Israel's attacks on the Jabalia refugee camp, strikes that U.N. human rights officials said could be war crimes.
At least 320 foreign citizens on an initial list of 500, as well as dozens of severely injured Gazans, crossed into Egypt on Wednesday under a deal among Israel, Egypt and Hamas.
Israeli ground troops have advanced to “the gates of Gaza City" in heavy fighting with militants, the military said Wednesday, as hundreds of foreign nationals and dozens of seriously injured Palestinians were allowed to leave Gaza after more than three weeks under siege.
More than 3,600 Palestinian children were killed in just 3 weeks of the Israel-Hamas war.
US President Joe Biden said Israel and Hamas militants ought to “pause" fighting in order to allow time to free hostages being held in the Gaza Strip, but stopped short of supporting a full cease-fire.
Walmart Foundation, the philanthropy arm of the U.S. retailer, has pledged $1 million to an Israeli disaster relief and emergency medical service organization.
Walmart's donation, reported by the Jerusalem Post on Friday, joins a list of similar funding efforts by big U.S. corporations to provide relief for Israelis injured after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas. UBS, Goldman Sachs and Jefferies are among companies to have pledged aid to Israel.
