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At least 15,523 Palestinians have been killed and 41,316 others injured in the Gaza Strip from Israeli strikes since October 7, the health ministry in Gaza said in a Telegram post on Sunday.

Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shiite military group, on Sunday claimed responsibility for hitting a military vehicle in Beit Hillel, Upper Galilee in northern Israel with an anti-tank missile, shortly after Israel said "a number of soldiers" were slightly injured from missile shrapnel.

Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border escalated after Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets toward Shebaa Farms on October 8 in support of the Hamas attacks on Israel the day before, prompting the Israeli forces to respond by firing heavy artillery toward southeastern Lebanon. 

Israel orders Palestinians to evacuate Khan Yunis

On Sunday morning, the Israeli military posted a statement on X (formerly Twitter) ordering Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to immediately evacuate half a dozen areas in and around Khan Yunis.

The military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee instructed them to move to what he described as "well-known IDP (internally displaced person) shelters" west of the city, including south toward Rafah, and included a map highlighting the areas.

A CGTN crew was present on Saturday as a series of Israeli bombs landed on Khan Yunis and filmed the blasts and the terror of civilians as they fled for their lives. (SEE VIDEO ABOVE)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that Israel was coordinating with the U.S. and international organisations to define "safe areas" for Gaza civilians.

But U.N. officials and people in Gaza say it is difficult to heed Israeli evacuation orders in real time because of patchy internet access and no regular supply of electricity amid Israel’s military offensive.

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Death toll rising

Seven Palestinians were killed and several injured in an Israeli raid on a house east of Rafah city in southern Gaza, the Hamas-led interior ministry said on Sunday.

Planes also destroyed several houses in Al-Karara town near Khan Yunis overnight, killing several people, including children, according to Palestinian health officials.

Gaza's health ministry said earlier at least 193 Palestinians had been killed since the week-long truce ended on Friday, adding to the more than 15,000 Palestinian dead since the start of the war. Israel has sworn to annihilate Hamas following its Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel, in which it says 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 taken hostage.

Israel targets southern Gaza

Gaza health officials said that in addition to the death toll, 650 people had been wounded since the truce collapsed.

The first aid trucks since the end of the truce entered from Egypt through the Rafah crossing on Saturday, Egyptian security and Red Crescent sources said. Some 100 trucks passed through, they said.

The warring sides blamed each other for the collapse of the truce, during which Hamas had released hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

Israel said it had recalled a team from Qatar, host of indirect negotiations with Hamas, accusing the Palestinian faction of reneging on a deal to free all the women and children it was holding.

But Saleh Al-Arouri, deputy head of Hamas, said none of the people the group was holding would be exchanged with Israel unless there is a ceasefire and all Palestinian detainees in Israel are released.

Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks stall

Al-Arouri told Al Jazeera TV that Israeli hostages held by Hamas were soldiers and civilian men who previously served in the army.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he was heading to Qatar to work on a new truce.

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More than 700 people were killed in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, Gaza's government media office said on Sunday.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Sunday that it eliminated five Hamas militants using a drone over the past 24 hours as Israel resumed its operation in the Gaza Strip.

The IDF said Israeli forces targeted weapons storage facilities, command centers, tunnel shafts and other infrastructure and vessels that belong to Hamas's naval forces.  

It also said the military detected and identified a rocket launch from Syria towards Israel and the IDF forces responded by targeting the launch site.

Seven Palestinians were killed and several others were injured in an Israeli raid on a house east of Rafah city in southern Gaza, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing the Hamas-led interior ministry.

Israel did not immediately respond to the claim.

Israel will facilitate provision of humanitarian aid to Gaza's civilians as fighting there resumes, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday.

Addressing reporters' questions about whether Israel seeks a buffer zone on the Palestinian side of the Gaza Strip after the conflict is over, Mark Regev said Israel will not allow a situation in which Hamas militants are positioned on the border. 

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said it targeted Israel's Tel Aviv with a barrage of missiles in response to its killing of Palestinian civilians.

The claim of responsibility came shortly after Israeli media reported that sirens went off in the south of Tel Aviv due to possible missile attacks. 

Earlier on Saturday, Palestinian media reported "civilian massacres" by Israel in Jabalia camp in the Gaza Strip and a neighborhood in Gaza City.

Hundreds of people were killed after Israeli airstrikes targeted Al-Shuja'iya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City on Saturday as more than 50 residential buildings and houses were bombed, Palestinian media reported, citing the local authorities.

Israel has not commented on the reports yet.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday that he will go to Qatar to try to engage for a new truce that could lead to ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

"This situation requires stepped-up efforts to reach a lasting ceasefire," to free all hostages held by Hamas, allow more urgently needed aid into Gaza, and to assure Israel of its security, he told a news conference on the sidelines of the UN's COP28 climate talks in Dubai. 

(With input from AFP and Reuters)

Israel’s Mossad head ordered his team in Doha to return to Israel following the impasse in the negotiations and at the direction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Netanyahu’s office announced on Saturday.

At least 193 Palestinians have been killed and 650 wounded in Gaza since a Hamas-Israel truce ended on Friday morning, a spokesman for the Gaza health ministry said on Saturday.

So far, the total death toll in the Gaza Strip from Israeli retaliatory strikes since October 7 has reached 15,207 and 40,652 people were injured, spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qudra said, adding that 389 wounded have left the Strip via the Rafah Crossing. 

The spokesperson also accused Israel of deliberately targeting 130 health institutions and putting 20 hospitals out of service in the Strip. 

"We lose large numbers of wounded every day due to the lack of treatment for them in Gaza hospitals," he said. "More than 800,000 people in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip are without food or medicine."

Fighting resumed on Friday after a temporary truce in Gaza ended and Israel reissued calls for Gazans to move south.

A delegation from Israel's Mossad visited Doha on Saturday to hold discussions with Qatari mediators regarding resuming the truce with Hamas, Reuters reported, citing sources. 

Israel bombed a house for families and displaced people in the Jabalia camp in the northern Gaza Strip, killing more than 100 people, Palestinian TV and other media outlets reported Saturday.

There's no immediate comment from Israel yet. 

Two fuel trucks and 50 aid trucks have entered the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing on Saturday following the collapse of a temporary truce in the region on Friday, according to local media and the Palestine Red Crescent.

"The Palestine Red Crescent teams received 50 aid trucks through the Rafah crossing today. The trucks contain food, water, relief assistance, medical supplies and medicines," the group said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter. 

Some local media reported that two fuel trucks also entered the besieged enclave on Saturday. 

Noor Harazeen has plenty to worry about. Her husband. Her two children. Her elderly parents. And the deadly battle raging all around them. 

Harazeen is CGTN's correspondent in Gaza. She covers a conflict that's claimed the lives of more than 15,000 people in just under 60 days. She knows she could be next, but that's one thing she's not worried about. "I understand it's not safe," says Harazeen. "But journalists here have lost that sense of being afraid. And it's my responsibility to stand in front of the camera, and share what's happening - no matter what.”

Harazeen has worked as a journalist in Gaza for nearly a decade, but nothing could have prepared her for the events of October 7. Hamas militants launched surprise attacks inside Israel, killing more than 1,200 people. The country's defense force began a series of airstrikes later that day. "It took me a while to understand what was happening," says Harazeen. "At first, we just heard the bombing. Then, I realized this would be a long-term conflict.”

Israel's military issued a statement on October 13, urging residents to flee northern Gaza before it started a full-scale assault. Harazeen decided to head south with her husband and children. She asked her parents to join them, but they refused. "They said they would not leave. I begged them. I even fought with them, just to come with us," says Harazeen. 

But they stayed behind, eventually taking shelter in a hospital. The building offered respite from the bombing, but it soon became clear that it wasn't safe. Harazeen wasn't sure how they would get out, or even if they were still alive. "We had no communication - no networks, no landlines, no internet. I spent days trying to get answers.”

Harazeen says her parents were part of a group of 80 people who managed to flee the hospital. She met them in southern Gaza, embracing her father before breaking into a sprint when she saw her mother. She nestled her head under the elderly woman's shoulder, sobbing as the reality set in - finally, her family was safe. "This was one of the hardest moments - getting my parents here," says Harazeen. "It was hell.”

There have been other moments that have tested Harazeen's strength. Her 13-year-old cousin suffered critical injuries to both legs, his right hand and stomach. She's also watched people rush their loved ones to hospital in the aftermath of a missile strike. Harazeen almost broke down in tears while reporting live from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza. Ambulances raced to the entrance, delivering young children - burned, battered and maimed. For many, it was too late. "We witness the injuries of the children day and night. And it reminds me, actually, of my two kids. And it leaves a very deep pain in my heart.”

That pain may linger for some time. Harazeen thinks most Gaza residents will struggle with the effects of trauma when the conflict is over. She says she already has her own psychological scars. "I reached a point where I could see hundreds of bodies and not shed a tear. Then I would go to bed that night, and think about it, and then cry.”

The past seven weeks have been some of the most difficult of Harazeen's life. But she says she's never thought of quitting the profession. "Millions of people are hearing what I'm saying about the latest in Gaza. They're hearing the real news on the ground. This is my responsibility. And this is more than a job for me.” 

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Lebanon's Hezbollah paramilitary group said it fired at an Israeli position using rockets, Reuters reported on Saturday.

Meanwhile, two more Hezbollah fighters were killed in the ongoing skirmishes with Israel, bringing the total fatalities in the group since October 7 to 90, local media outlet L'Orient Today reported on Saturday.

The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip said Saturday that 240 people had been killed in the Palestinian territory since a pause in the fighting expired on Friday.

Israel has not made response to the claim.

Chinese permanent representative to the United Nations Zhang Jun on Thursday said the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has topped the agenda of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in November, when China was the rotating president of the council.

Under China's presidency, Resolution 2712, the first resolution since the latest round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict broke out on October 7, was adopted by the UNSC on November 15. It was also the first UNSC resolution on the Palestinian-Israeli issue since the end of 2016.

Also under China's initiation, the UNSC held a high-level meeting on the issue on November 29, which was also the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi chaired the meeting.

"On the Palestinian-Israeli issue, China has always stood on the side of peace, the side of justice, and the side of conscience, and has actively pushed the Security Council to take responsible and meaningful actions," Zhang said in reviews of the country's presidency at a briefing.

The UNSC held more than 30 meetings and adopted seven resolutions in November, he said. "These are hard-won outcomes given the current situation."

During a meeting with the Chinese foreign minister at the UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed appreciation for China's constructive role in pushing for a political solution to the Palestinian-Israeli issue and alleviating the humanitarian situation in Gaza during its Security Council presidency.

Guterres thanked China for convening the high-level Security Council meeting on the Palestinian-Israeli issue.

(Cover: Chinese permanent representative to the United Nations Zhang Jun speaks at the UN Security Council emergency meeting on the Palestinian-Israeli situation at the UN headquarters in New York, November 10, 2023. /Xinhua)

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said at least 100 people had been killed Friday after a truce between Israel and Hamas militants expired and hostilities resumed.

Rocket sirens have been heard in some towns in northern Israel, the Israeli military said on social media on Friday.

The Biden administration has informed Israel that Washington will impose visa bans in the next few weeks on Israeli extremist settlers engaged in violence against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank, a senior State Department official said.

Israeli warplanes resumed pounding Gaza, Palestinian civilians fled for shelter and rocket sirens blared in southern Israel on Friday as war resumed after a week-long truce ran out with no deal to extend it. As the deadline lapsed, cities in southern Gaza came under intensive bombardment, sending columns of smoke rising into the sky as residents took to the streets looking for shelter in areas not yet being targeted by the Israeli Defense Forces. 

In the north of the enclave, the main war zone for weeks, huge plumes of smoke rose above the ruins, seen from across the fence in Israel. Barely two hours after the truce expired, Gaza health officials reported that 35 people had already been killed and dozens wounded in air strikes that hit at least eight homes.

Medics and witnesses said the bombing was most intensive in the cities of Khan Younis and Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, and also targeted houses in central and northern areas.

"Anas, my son, I don't have anyone but you my son!" cried the mother of Anas Anwar al-Masri, a boy lying on a stretcher with a head injury in the corridor of Nasser hospital in Khan Younis. "He is my only boy!"

UNICEF on Friday appealed for a lasting ceasefire to be implemented in Gaza, describing inaction as "an approval of the killing of children." 

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The Israeli military announced it had "resumed combat operations" and its warplanes were striking the enclave, accusing Hamas of violating the truce first by firing rockets and failing to free all the women it was holding hostage.

"With the resumption of fighting we emphasize: The Israeli government is committed to achieving the goals of the war - to free our hostages, to eliminate Hamas, and to ensure that Gaza will never pose a threat to the residents of Israel," the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Hamas said Israel bore responsibility for the end of the truce, for rejecting terms to free more hostages and extend it.

"What Israel did not achieve during the fifty days before the truce, it will not achieve by continuing its aggression after the truce," Ezzat El Rashq, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said on the group's website.

Negotiations upended

The seven-day pause, which began on November 24 and was extended twice, had allowed for the exchange of hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners and facilitated the entry of humanitarian aid into the shattered coastal strip.

Eighty Israeli women and children hostages were freed in return for 240 Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails, all women and teens. An additional 25 foreign hostages, mainly Thai farmworkers, were also released under parallel deals.

But mediators failed at the final hour to extend the truce by finding a formula for hostage releases to continue, possibly to include Israeli men now that fewer women and children remained in captivity.

Qatar, which has played a central role in mediation efforts, said negotiations were still ongoing with Israelis and Palestinians to restore the truce, but that Israel's renewed bombardment of Gaza had complicated its efforts.

Doha went on to urge swift international action to stop the violence against Gazans, adding "its condemnation of all forms of targeting civilians, the practice of collective punishment, and attempts to forcibly displace and displace citizens of the besieged Gaza Strip."

Israel has sworn to annihilate Hamas, the political group elected to rule the strip, in response to the October 7 attack by the Palestinian resistance group, when Israel says gunmen killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages. 

Israel's bombardment and ground invasion has killed at least 15,000 Palestinians, thousands of them children, with thousands more missing and feared buried under rubble.

'War on children'

Speaking from an unnamed hospital in Gaza, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said in a video posted to X, formerly Twitter, on Friday that a bomb had landed "literally 50 meters (yards) away."

"This is a war on children," he stated. "I cannot overstate how much the capacity of hospitals has been reduced... "We cannot see more children with the wounds of war, with the burns, with the shrapnel littering their body, with the broken bones."

The United Nations says as many as 80 percent of Gaza's 2.3 million have been driven from their homes, with no way to escape the narrow territory, many sleeping rough in makeshift shelters. Israel has imposed a total siege, and residents and humanitarian agencies say aid that arrived during the truce was trivial compared to the vast needs of so many displaced people.

"I cannot overstate how much the capacity of hospitals has been reduced," he said. "We cannot see more children with the wounds of war, with the burns, with the shrapnel littering their body, with the broken bones."

"This is a war on children," he added.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who had met Israeli and Palestinian officials on Thursday on his third trip to the region since the war began, declined to comment on the collapse of the truce to reporters travelling on his plane.

The day before, Blinken had called on Israel to do more to protect civilians once fighting resumes. He had praised the truce and said Washington hoped it would be extended.

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The entry of aid and fuel trucks for Gaza at Rafah crossing were stopped after resumption of Israeli bombardment, Reuters reported, citing medical sources on Friday.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 65 people had been killed Friday after a truce between Israel and Hamas militants expired and hostilities resumed.

At least 54 Palestinians were killed Friday after a truce between Israel and Hamas expired and hostilities resumed, Palestinian official radio reported.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday he regretted that military operations had resumed in Gaza after the collapse of a week-long truce between Israel and Hamas.

"The return to hostilities only shows how important it is to have a true humanitarian ceasefire," Guterres wrote on the X social media platform.

Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement, said it attacked Israeli cities and towns on Friday morning in response to "crimes against our people," Al-Ahed News reported.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 32 people had been killed Friday in the initial hours after a truce between Israel and Hamas militants expired and hostilities resumed.

Fourteen Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since a temporary truce between Israel and Gaza's Hamas militants expired on Friday, a spokesperson of the health ministry in Gaza said.

Dozens of people were killed and injured after Israel resumed military operations in Gaza, Xinhua reported, citing sources.

Hamas said three people were killed in Israeli air raids in Rafah on Friday, local media reported.

There is no immediate comment from Israel.

The Israeli military said on Friday that its warplanes are now attacking targets of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military said it resumed combat against Hamas in Gaza on Friday after accusing the Palestinian militant group of "violating a seven-day temporary truce."

The seven-day pause, which began on November 24 and was extended twice, had allowed for the exchange of dozens of hostages held in Gaza for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and facilitated the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Palestinian media reported Israeli air and artillery strikes after the truce expired.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it intercepted a rocket launched from Gaza early on Friday morning, as the truce with Hamas is due to expire within hours.

The IDF said in a statement that "one launch was detected and intercepted by air defense fighters." Local media outlet Kann News said that this was the first such instance since the beginning of the ceasefire.

Media affiliated with Hamas reported that explosions and gunfire were heard in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

Israel and Hamas agreed to extend truce for an eighth day, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing Egyptian officials.

There was no immediate comment from Israel or from Hamas.

A total of 11 Israelis were released by Hamas on Monday in the fourth batch of hostage swaps with Israel. Thirty-three Palestinian prisoners were also released in the exchange.

On Tuesday evening, 30 Palestinian prisoners were released from Israeli jails in the fifth swap. The Israeli government also confirmed on the same day it had received 12 hostages released from the Gaza Strip.

On November 30, Hamas and Israel completed the seventh batch of prisoner-hostage swap under the current Gaza truce.

CGTN Stringer filmed the moments a bus carrying released Palestinians made its way through the streets as it was greeted with loud cheers. A released Palestinian prisoner said she heard the news of her release on the radio, and suffered great distress since she was imprisoned in the Ofer Prison. A relative of former Hamas hostages also said they will continue to speak out for the remaining hostages until all are returned to their families.

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas continued on Thursday for the seventh day as more hostages were freed from the Gaza Strip and mediators pressed ahead with the efforts to further extend the fragile truce.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived early on Thursday in Israel, marking his fourth visit to the Middle East since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas conflict on October 7.

Blinken held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and attended the Israeli wartime Cabinet, which was discussing the Qatari-mediated proposals to prolong the ceasefire in Gaza, as well as Israel's plans to resume military operations against Hamas after the hostages were returned.

In remarks to reporters alongside Israeli President Isaac Herzog before their meeting, Blinken expressed his hope that the truce, which started on November 24, could be extended.

Blinken stressed the importance of increasing the desperately needed humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza and the release of more hostages. "This process is producing results. It's important, and we hope that it can continue," he said.

Blinken also met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, during which Abbas highlighted the urgent need to implement a "complete" ceasefire in Gaza, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

Speaking at a press conference in Tel Aviv, Blinken said that he urged Israel to put civilian protection plans in place to minimize civilian casualties once it resumes operations in Gaza.

The truce persisted following diplomatic efforts throughout the night between Wednesday and Thursday. Late on Wednesday, Hamas stated that Israel rejected a list of hostages slated for release on Thursday. Israel maintains its stance, demanding that Hamas releases a minimum of 10 hostages daily to sustain the ceasefire.

After intensive diplomatic endeavors overnight, Israel abandoned plans to resume fighting at dawn. The Israeli military released a statement just minutes before the truce was set to expire at 0700 (0500 GMT) that "the operational pause will continue."

Following the diplomatic efforts, Hamas released six more Israeli hostages from the Gaza Strip late on Thursday in addition to two female hostages released earlier in the day, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Prisoners Society published a list of eight Palestinian women and 22 children held in Israeli custody, who are slated to be released on Thursday.

On Thursday morning, a deadly shooting attack in Jerusalem served as a stark reminder of the volatile atmosphere and raised concerns about further escalation.

Two Palestinian gunmen opened fire near the entry of Jerusalem, killing three civilians, according to a police statement. Israel's Shin Bet internal security service later identified the two as residents of East Jerusalem linked to Hamas.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, stating it was "a natural response to crimes of occupation in Gaza, the killing of children in Jenin, and the harm to prisoners."

The Palestinian Health Ministry said that more than 15,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since October 7, and over 6,500 others are missing. In Israel, about 1,200 people were killed, mostly in the October 7 Hamas surprise attack on Israel that triggered the conflict.

(With input from agencies)

Hamas released six more Israeli hostages from the Gaza Strip late on Thursday in addition to two female hostages released earlier in the day, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

The eight hostages are the latest batch to be released under a temporary four-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which started last Friday and has been extended for three days.  

The Israel Prison Service said 30 Palestinians had been released in the seventh swap of Gaza truce, Reuters reported.

(With input from Xinhua)

China has reiterated that the only way out of the crisis and conflict between Israel and Hamas is through a two-state solution. 

The country's Foreign Minister, Wang Yi was in New York on Wednesday to preside over a high-level security council meeting on the Middle East.

Jody Jacobs reports from the United Nations in New York.

For more, check out our exclusive content on CGTN Now and subscribe to our weekly newsletter, The China Report.

Two Israeli abductees have been handed over to the Red Cross and are on their way to Israeli territory, Israeli military said Thursday.

"In the coming hours, additional Israeli hostages are expected to be handed over to the Red Cross," it added.

Trucks with life-saving humanitarian aid have continued to arrive at the Gaza Strip from Egypt through the Rafah border crossing. A convoy of 50 trucks lined up at the Rafah border crossing, waiting to enter the Gaza Strip. These trucks, escorted by staff from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, were heading directly to northern Gaza.

Since last Friday, more humanitarian aid has been allowed into the Palestinian enclave. It comes after 48 days of Israel's siege and airstrikes. With many roads in northern Gaza destroyed or damaged, aid delivery there has been impeded.

Israel and Hamas struck a last-minute agreement on Thursday to extend their ceasefire for a seventh day.

The truce has allowed much needed humanitarian aid into Gaza after much of the coastal territory of 2.3 million people was reduced to wasteland by seven weeks of Israeli bombardment in retaliation for a deadly rampage by Hamas militants on October 7.

Morning broke over northern Gaza's war zone, quiet for the seventh day as seen from across the fence in Israel, although a deadly shooting in Jerusalem was a potent reminder of the potential for violence to spread.

Israel, which has demanded Hamas release at least 10 hostages per day to keep the ceasefire going, said it received a list at the last minute of those who would go free on Thursday, allowing it to call off plans to resume fighting at dawn.

"In light of the mediators' efforts to continue the process of releasing the hostages and subject to the terms of the framework, the operational pause will continue," the Israeli military said in a statement, released minutes before the truce was due to expire at 0500 GMT.

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Two killed in Jerusalem attack

Shortly after the agreement, Israeli police said two Palestinian attackers opened fire at a bus stop during morning rush hour at the entrance to Jerusalem, killing at least three people. Both attackers were "neutralized," police said.

"Two terrorists arrived at the scene in a vehicle armed with firearms," the police said. "These terrorists opened fire towards civilians at the bus station and were subsequently neutralized by security forces and a nearby civilian."

The conditions of the ceasefire, including the halt of hostilities and the entry of humanitarian aid, remain the same, according to a Qatar foreign ministry spokesperson. Qatar has been a key mediator between the warring sides, along with Egypt and the United States.

Hamas had earlier said Israel had refused its offer to hand over seven women and children plus the bodies of three others. It did not name the dead but said on Wednesday the youngest hostage, 10-month-old Kfir Bibas, had been killed along with his four-year-old brother and their mother in Israeli bombardment, a claim Israel said it was checking.

Israel has sworn to annihilate Hamas, which rules Gaza, in response to the October 7 rampage by the militant group, when Israel says gunmen killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages.

Spain PM Sanchez questions Israel's conduct 

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Thursday that, given the number of casualties among civilians in Gaza, he doubts Israel is respecting the international humanitarian law.

"The footage we are seeing and the growing numbers of children dying, I have serious doubt (Israel) is complying with international humanitarian law," he said in an interview with Spanish state-owned broadcaster TVE.

"What we are seeing in Gaza is not acceptable," he added.

Until the truce, Israel bombarded the territory for seven weeks. Palestinian health authorities deemed reliable by the United Nations say more than 15,000 Gazans have been confirmed killed, around 40 percent of them children. A further 6,500 are missing, many feared still buried under rubble.

Israel intercepts missile from Lebanon

The Israeli military said it intercepted an "aerial target" that crossed from Lebanon on Thursday, in an incident that jolted the calm prevailing at the frontier since Hamas and Israel agreed a temporary truce.

Reuters witnesses heard blasts along the southeastern Lebanese frontier. There were no immediate claims of responsibility for any attacks from Lebanon.

Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, had been trading fire across the border for weeks following the eruption of the Hamas-Israel conflict on October 7, in their worst fighting since 2006.

Other groups, including Hamas and the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad, also launched attacks from Lebanon against Israel during the conflict.

The Israeli army said on Thursday it had "successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory".

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Israel summoned Spain's ambassador for a reprimand and recalled its own envoy from Madrid for consultations after Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Thursday that he doubted Israel was respecting international humanitarian law in the Gaza Strip. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he instructed his foreign minister to call in Spain's ambassador for a reprimand "after the shameful statement by the Spanish prime minister on the same day that Hamas terrorists are murdering Israelis in our capital Jerusalem."

Earlier on Thursday, Sanchez said during an interview with Spanish state-owned broadcaster TVE that he doubts Israel is respecting international humanitarian law, given the number of casualties among civilians in Gaza. "What we are seeing in Gaza is not acceptable," he added.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Ramallah in the central West Bank on Thursday, local media reported. 

It came after Blinken visited Israel earlier on the day, holding meetings with Israeli president and prime minster. 

Egyptian and Qatari negotiators are pushing for a new two-day extension to the truce in Gaza along with more prisoner releases and an increase in the delivery of humanitarian aid, a statement from Egypt's state media body said on Thursday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet met with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday, the prime minister's office said. 

Netanyahu expressed thanks for the U.S. government's support during the meeting. 

"I want to express our appreciation for your support from the beginning in the war of eliminating Hamas and releasing, securing the release of our hostages. You've been very, very helpful. We appreciate it deeply," he told Blinken. 

The top U.S. diplomat arrived in Israel on Thursday for his third trip to the region since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. He also held talks with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv.

Blinken reiterated the United States' ongoing support of Israel's right, in compliance with international humanitarian law, to ensure that Hamas can never repeat the October 7 attacks, statements from the U.S. State Department said after he met with Israeli leaders.

He urged Israel to take every possible measure to avoid civilian harm and discussed efforts to secure the release of all remaining hostages, as well as the need to accelerate the delivery of critical, life-saving humanitarian assistance to Gaza.

Blinken also stressed the need to de-escalate tensions in the West Bank and urged Israel to take immediate steps to hold settler extremists accountable for violence against Palestinians in the area.

He "emphasized the U.S. commitment to taking tangible steps to advance a Palestinian state living in peace, freedom and security alongside Israel," the statements said.

Seventeen Thai hostages held by Hamas were released and have returned to Thailand, local media reported

Hamas confirmed on Thursday that the temporary truce with Israel has been extended for a seventh day, the Hamas-affiliated Shehab news agency reported.

The truce between Israel and Hamas will continue "in light of the mediators' efforts to continue the process of releasing hostages, and subject to the terms of the agreement," according to the Israeli ministry on Thursday as the deal was set to expire at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) local time.

Hamas said on Thursday that Israel refused to receive a new batch of seven hostages and bodies of three hostages who were killed in the bombing of Gaza in exchange for extending the temporary truce, the Hamas-affiliated Shehab news agency reported.

There has been no immediate confirmation from Israel.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday that the implementation of Security Council Resolution 2712, which calls for urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout Gaza, is "woefully insufficient."

"I welcome the adoption of Resolution 2712. But its implementation by the parties matters most," he told a high-level meeting of the Security Council. "So far, it is clear that implementation has been only partial at best, and is woefully insufficient."

"Ultimately, the measure of success will not be the number of trucks dispatched or the tons of supplies delivered – as important as these are. Success will be measured in lives that are saved, suffering that is ended, and hope and dignity that is restored," he said.

"The people of Gaza are in the midst of an epic humanitarian catastrophe before the eyes of the world. We must not look away. Intense negotiations are taking place to prolong the truce, which we strongly welcome. But we believe we need a true humanitarian cease-fire," said Guterres.

There is also a need to ensure the people of the region finally have a horizon of hope – by moving in a determined and irreversible way toward establishing a two-state solution, on the basis of UN resolutions and international law, with Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security, he said.

"Failure will condemn Palestinians, Israelis, the region and the world to a never-ending cycle of death and destruction," he warned.

Guterres briefed the council on the implementation of its Resolution 2712, which was adopted two weeks ago.

"Civilians, including UN personnel, must be protected. Civilian objects, including hospitals, must be protected. UN facilities must not be hit. International humanitarian law must be respected by all parties to the conflict at all times," he said.

The humanitarian pause currently in effect has enabled the world body to enhance the delivery of aid into and across Gaza. However, the level of aid remains completely inadequate to meet the huge needs of more than 2 million people. Although the total volume of fuel allowed into Gaza has also increased, it remains utterly insufficient to sustain basic operations. Civilians in Gaza need a continuous flow of life-saving humanitarian aid and fuel into and across the area. Safe and unimpeded humanitarian access to all those in need is critical, he said.

Much, much more is required to begin to address human needs in Gaza. Water and electricity services must be fully restored. Food systems have collapsed and hunger is spreading, particularly in the north. Sanitary conditions in shelters are appalling, with few toilets and sewage flooding, posing a serious threat to public health. Children, pregnant women, older people and those with weakened immune systems are at greatest risk, said the UN chief.

"Gaza needs an immediate and sustained increase in humanitarian aid, including food, water, fuel, blankets, medicines and health care supplies. It is important to recognize that the Rafah border crossing does not have enough capacity, especially taking into account the slow pace of security procedures. That is why we have been urging the opening of other crossings, including Kerem Shalom, and the streamlining of inspection mechanisms to allow for the necessary increase of life-saving aid," he said.

Guterres stressed that humanitarian aid alone will not be sufficient. There is also a need for the private sector to bring in critical basic commodities to replenish completely depleted shops in Gaza.

Hamas handed over 16 more hostages to Israeli officials on Wednesday, the last day of an extended truce in the Gaza conflict, the Red Cross and other authorities said.

In a repeat of scenes over the past six days during a humanitarian pause in hostilities, the civilians were released to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and driven in vehicles to Israel.

Under the terms of the Qatar-mediated deal, 30 Palestinians, 16 minors and 14 women, will be released on Wednesday in exchange, Majed Al-Ansari, spokesperson for the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

Two Russian citizens and four Thai citizens were released outside the framework of the agreement while the 10 Israeli citizens freed include five dual citizens, Ansari said. They were a Dutch dual citizen, who is also a minor, three German dual citizens and one U.S. dual citizen, he said.

The hostages freed were among some 240 people seized by Hamas militants during a rampage in southern Israel on October 7 in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed. Israel's bombardment of Gaza in retaliation has killed more than 15,000 Gazans, according to health authorities in the Palestinian enclave.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier identified two Russian-Israeli women freed on Wednesday night as Yelena Trupanov, 50, and Irena Tati, 73. Video from Hamas' armed wing showed the women being handed over to the ICRC and driven out of the Gaza Strip.

(With input from Reuters)

Israel on Thursday released a new batch of 30 Palestinian prisoners on the last day of the extended truce with Hamas.

A total of 12 more hostages - 10 Israelis and two Thais - were released by Hamas on Tuesday night, as Israel released another 30 Palestinian women and minors from its prisons.

Wednesday, November 29, is the last day of the extended pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas. Calls for a permanent ceasefire resounded at the UN Security Council meeting in New York, chaired by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.  

Talks between Israel and Hamas to extend the temporary truce in Gaza were also underway.Israel believes Hamas has enough women and children hostages to allow the current pause in fighting to be extended in Gaza for another two to three days, an official involved in the negotiating process said Wednesday.

The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement said Wednesday that it had handed over a number of civilian hostages as part of an exchange deal with Israel.

The United Nations called for the international community to move towards a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, saying Jerusalem should serve as the capital of both states.

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said aid entering Gaza was far less than needed and said if “this truce expires we will return to the killing at the scale that we have seen, which is unbearable.” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the Gaza Strip was in the midst of an “epic humanitarian catastrophe.”

Addressing the Security Council, Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan said Hamas “is a genocidal terror organization - they don’t hide it - not a reliable partner for peace.”

Family members of Israelis still held by Hamas gathered in Tel Aviv this week to call on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration to further extend the temporary truce so their loved ones can be returned safely.

Israel will consider every serious proposal to extend the truce “inasmuch as there is a serious offer on the table to release the remaining hostages”, a government spokesperson said on Wednesday. 

Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel will continue fighting Hamas in Gaza “until the end.”

Nearly 40 percent of the 15,000 people confirmed killed in the fighting are under the age of 18, according to health authorities deemed reliable by the United Nations. 

Many more are feared buried under the ruins.“The truce must become a ceasefire, a permanent ceasefire. The massacres cannot be allowed to resume,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told the Security Council.

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UNICEF says a prolonged ceasefire is essential to prevent widespread disease among the Gaza population, among whom "every single child" now has "mental health issues."

Spokesman James Elder told CGTN the worsening conditions in the enclave were creating a "perfect storm" for disease. He spoke from Gaza as attention focused on whether mediator Qatar could negotiate another extension of the delicate truce between the warring sides.

According to Elder: "It gets cold at night now. The municipalities and government and obviously the sanitation services have broken down. UNICEF for five weeks has been warning about the threat of disease outbreaks. It's very, very real, the lack of clean water and children not getting enough food. This is a perfect storm."

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Elder said aid agencies like UNICEF (The United Nations Children's Fund) were making a difference in Gaza, but desperately needed a truce extension. He said: "There remains a critical lack of water and food. These are the things that aid agencies right now are getting in, and we'll continue getting them in as long as this pause turns into a ceasefire. This cannot be just a moment in time. It has to be prolonged."

Having spent more than two decades at UNICEF, Elder is no stranger to children's suffering but he painted a particularly bleak picture of the situation in Gaza.

He explained: "It can be dangerous to make blanket statements but I think every single child in Gaza has some sort of mental health issues now. I've seen deeply traumatized children."

He added: "An hour ago I was in a hospital with a seven-year-old girl who lost her right arm, her right leg and the entire 15 minutes I was there with her she shook. I've spoken with dozens of children like this, like the 15-year-old in Khan Younis who kept pleading for her home, her bedroom, her laptop, and now she's sleeping with three siblings, while her father sleeps in the car."

Elder spoke of hospitals as "literally war zones," with emergency wards set up in car parks.

Israel has said the truce could be prolonged further, provided Hamas continues to free at least 10 Israeli hostages per day. But with fewer women and children still in captivity, keeping the guns quiet beyond Wednesday may require negotiating to free at least some Israeli men for the first time.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas and allied group Islamic Jihad freed 12 hostages on Tuesday, bringing the total released since the truce began on Friday to 81. Those have been mostly Israeli women and children, along with foreign citizens.

Elder said: "Getting Israeli children home, bringing back Palestinian children who have been detained, these are very good moments, but they have to be sustained. We cannot for a moment think that the destruction of Gaza and the killing of children is in any way going to bring peace to this region."

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UN facilities are sheltering more than one million civilians seeking protection, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at a UN Security Council high-level meeting on the Palestinian-Israeli issue in New York on Wednesday.

All hostages held in Gaza must be released immediately and unconditionally, added the UN chief.

The Resolution 2712 was approved in a context of widespread death and wholesale destruction unleashed by the conflict in Gaza and Israel, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told UN Security Council on Wednesday.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday said that China has submitted a position paper to the United Nations on the resolution of the Palestine-Israel conflict.

Wang, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, presented China's position while chairing a high-level meeting of the UN Security Council at the UN headquarters in New York.

According to the position paper released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry following the meeting, China has made a five-point proposal that covers a comprehensive ceasefire and ending the fighting, effectively protecting the civilians, ensuring humanitarian assistance, enhancing diplomatic mediation and securing political settlement.

Speaking at the meeting, Wang said the latest round of conflict has claimed a large number of innocent lives and caused an unprecedented humanitarian disaster, and its spillover effects are still emerging.

"War tests conscience and justice while peace calls for reason and wisdom," he said.

The Chinese foreign minister urged the international community to "revitalize the political prospects of a two-state solution with firmer determination" and advance the Security Council to "take responsible and meaningful actions."

"Fairness and justice for the Palestinian issue lies in the two-state solution, which is irreplaceable," said Wang.

Only when the two-state solution is truly and comprehensively implemented can peace in the Middle East be achieved, the countries of Palestine and Israel peacefully coexist, and the Arab and Jewish nations develop together, he said.

The Chinese side calls for the convening of a larger scale, broader and more effective international peace conference, and supports Palestine to become a full member of the UN, Wang added.

Read more:

Full text: China's position paper on resolving Palestinian-Israeli conflict

Wang Yi urges complete ceasefire in Gaza, supports UN's leading role

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Wang said China will provide another batch of emergency humanitarian supplies to the Gaza Strip.

The Chinese side will continue to strengthen coordination with relevant parties, build consensus and make unremitting efforts to bring stability back to the region and tranquility to the people, he said.

Foreign ministers and senior representatives from nearly 20 countries, including Brazil, Palestine, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Indonesia, Türkiye, Slovenia and Malaysia, and all members of the Security Council, attended Wednesday's meeting.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland briefed the meeting on the current situation of the Palestine-Israel conflict.

The high-level meeting comes as China holds the rotating presidency of the UNSC for November. It also comes amid an extended humanitarian truce between Hamas and Israel, which entered into force last Friday.

China welcomes the truce, Wang told reporters.

"But there should be no restriction for peace, or expiry date for truce," he said. "Once the window of opportunity is opened, it should not be closed, and once the fire of war is extinguished, it should not be reignited."

Rong Ying, vice president of the China Institute of International Studies, a think tank in Beijing, told CGTN that China is playing its role in promoting the resolution of the conflict.

In the position paper, China has reiterated the importance of formulating a concrete timetable and road map for the implementation of the two-state solution, Rong said.

The armed wing of Hamas said on Wednesday that 10-month-old child Kfir Bibas, his 4-year-old brother and their mother were killed in previous Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army said it is checking the claim by Al Qassam Brigades. 

An informed Palestinian source said Wednesday that an extension of the current humanitarian truce between Hamas and Israel is expected to be announced later in the day.

The source, who required anonymity, told Xinhua that Hamas has prepared a new list with the names of 20 Israeli hostages for the Qatari and Egyptian mediators with the purpose of extending the truce for at least two days.

Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy said that Israel has prepared a list of 50 Palestinian prisoners for release on Wednesday, and 161 people are still held hostage in Gaza, Al Jazeera reported.

Gazans, who have been living in fear before the long-awaited truce, have joined in the call for the extended six-day truce between Hamas and Israel to be transformed into a permanent ceasefire.

Foreign ministers of the Group of Seven countries support the further extension of the pause and future pauses as needed in fighting in Gaza to increase assistance and facilitate the release of all hostages, they said in a joint statement.

Hamas on Monday released a fourth batch of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, and more are expected to be freed in the coming days as Israel and Hamas agreed to extend the current truce for another two days.

A Palestinian source, who required anonymity, told Xinhua that a total of 11 hostages were delivered to Red Cross officials in the fourth phase of the ceasefire swap with Israel.

On Monday night, updating its statements on the social media platform X, the Qatari Foreign Ministry said the 11 released hostages were all dual nationals, comprising three Israeli-French citizens, two Israeli-German citizens and six Israeli-Argentinian citizens.

The Israeli military confirmed in a statement that the newly released hostages had arrived in Israel after being transferred by Hamas to the Red Cross.

"IDF (Israel Defense Forces) special forces and ISA (Israel Security Agency) forces are currently accompanying 11 released hostages in Israeli territory," the statement read, adding that "after they undergo an initial medical assessment, our forces will escort them until they are reunited with their families."

They were released 52 days after being taken hostage by Hamas militants in a deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7.

Egypt's Al-Qahera TV news reported that six Thai nationals would also be released on Monday night.

Of the about 240 hostages captured by Hamas, less than one-third have been released so far, according to IDF figures.

Hours after the release of Israeli hostages, Israel's prison authority said that 33 Palestinian prisoners had been released "during the night" under the terms of the truce deal, bringing the total number of detainees freed by Israel during the initial, four-day pause in the fighting to 150.

The latest swap came amid news that the ceasefire, originally set to expire on Tuesday, will be extended for an additional two days. The extension was confirmed by Hamas and Qatar, a key mediator of the truce.

Under the initial four-day deal, Hamas will release 50 Israeli hostages in exchange for some 150 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.

Israel did not immediately comment on the ceasefire extension but had said previously that the release of every additional 10 hostages would result in one additional day in the pause.

Hamas said in a statement to Xinhua that the extension of the truce will be carried out "under the same conditions as listed in the previous ceasefire deal."

(With input from Xinhua, AFP)

At least 15,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza from Israeli strikes since October 7, according to Gaza's government media office on Monday.

Thirty-three Palestinian prisoners, including children, were released "during the night" under the terms of a truce deal that returned hostages from the Gaza Strip, Israel's prison authority and Hamas-affiliated media confirmed early on Tuesday.

The release brought the total number of detainees freed by Israel during the initial, four-day pause in fighting to 150. 

The announcement also came after the Israeli military confirmed late on Monday that 11 more hostages released in the Gaza Strip had safely arrived back in Israel.

According to the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel, the Israeli government has also approved the inclusion of 50 female prisoners in the list of prisoners eligible to be released in the event that a release of additional Israeli hostages is carried out.

(With input from agencies)

A truce between Israeli and Hamas forces in Gaza has been extended by two days, according to Qatar and Hamas, continuing a pause in seven weeks of warfare that has killed thousands and laid waste to the Palestinian enclave.

"An agreement has been reached to extend the humanitarian truce for an additional two days in the Gaza Strip," a Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson said. 

There was no immediate comment from Israel, but the U.S. confirmed an agreement had been reached. Hamas said it had agreed a two-day extension to the truce with Qatar and Egypt, who have been facilitating indirect negotiations between the two sides.

"An agreement has been reached with the brothers in Qatar and Egypt to extend the temporary humanitarian truce by two more days, with the same conditions as in the previous truce," a Hamas official said.

None of the announcements specified how many hostages would be released, but earlier the head of Egypt's State Information Service, Diaa Rashwan, said the deal being negotiated would include the release of 20 Israeli hostages from among those seized by Hamas during its October 7 assault on southern Israel. In exchange 60 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails would be freed, he added.

The initial four-day truce was due to end on Monday night. With the release of 11 Israeli hostages expected on Monday, negotiations remain ongoing for the release of 33 Palestinians, Rashwan added.

The truce agreed last week was the first halt in fighting in the seven weeks since Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages back into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. 

In response to that attack, Israel has bombarded the enclave and mounted a ground offensive in the north. Some 14,800 Palestinians have been killed, Gaza health authorities say, and hundreds of thousands displaced.

Wide areas of the Hamas-ruled enclave have been flattened by Israeli air strikes and artillery bombardments, and a humanitarian crisis has unfolded as supplies of food, fuel, drinking water and medicine run out. The truce agreement also allowed for aid trucks to enter Gaza.

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On Sunday, Hamas freed 17 people, including a four-year-old Israeli-American girl, bringing the total number the militant group has released since Friday to 58, including foreigners. Israel freed 39 teenage Palestinian prisoners on Sunday, taking the total number of Palestinians freed under the truce to 117.

Under the terms of the current deal, Hamas is due to release in total 50 Israeli women and children held hostage in Gaza. There is no limit in the deal on the number of foreigners it can release.

An Israeli government spokesperson said the total number of hostages still held in Gaza on Monday was 184, including 14 foreigners and 80 Israelis with dual nationality. An Israeli government spokesperson said the total number of hostages still held in Gaza on Monday was 184, including 14 foreigners and 80 Israelis with dual nationality.

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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the dialogue that led to the agreement between Israel and Hamas must continue and result in a full humanitarian ceasefire for the benefit of the people of Gaza, Israel and the wider region, Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the Secretary-General said in a statement on Monday.

Guterres urges all parties to "use their influence to end this tragic conflict and support irreversible steps towards the only sustainable future for the region: a two-state solution, with Israel and Palestine living side by side, in peace and security," according to the statement.

Negotiators are close to agreeing an extension to Gaza truce, Reuters reported on Monday, citing Egyptian security sources.

The truce between Israel and Hamas entered its final 24 hours on Monday, with the militant group saying it was willing to extend the pause after freeing more hostages, including a four-year-old orphaned by its attack.

The pause that began on Friday has seen dozens of hostages freed, with over 100 Palestinian prisoners released by Israel in return.

Attention has now turned to whether the truce will be extended before its scheduled end early on Tuesday morning. U.S. President Joe Biden said he is hoping the pause continues "to see more hostages come out and surge more humanitarian relief into those in need in Gaza."

There will also be ambitions for more progress in New York on Wednesday when China Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosts the UN's Security Council session on the Israel-Hamas issue. "China hopes that by hosting this meeting, we can do our part to help realize a ceasefire," spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.

Hamas has signaled its willingness to extend the truce, with a source saying the group told mediators they were open to prolonging it by "two to four days" with the potential of releasing of "20 to 40 Israeli prisoners."

Under the truce, 50 hostages held by the militants were to be freed over four days in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners. A built-in mechanism extends it if at least 10 Israeli captives are released each extra day. One potential complicating factor is the fact that some hostages are believed to be held by groups other than Hamas. 

Israel faces enormous pressure from the families of hostages, as well as allies, to extend the truce to secure more releases.

"It would be good, helpful and necessary" to extend the truce until all hostages, who include French nationals, are freed, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told French TV on Sunday.

Three successive days of hostage releases have buoyed spirits in Israel, with tearful reunions weeks after Hamas militants poured across the border on October 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials. In response, Israel launched a military campaign to destroy Hamas, killing nearly 15,000 people, mostly civilians and including thousands of children, according to Gaza's Hamas government. 

The third group of hostages released on Sunday included a four-year-old American citizen called Abigail whose parents were both murdered in the Hamas attacks.

Also freed was an 84-year-old woman who was rushed to intensive care in critical condition "after serious neglect," medical officials said.

Thirteen hostages were freed under the terms of the truce on Sunday in exchange for 39 Palestinian prisoners, who have been received by rapturous crowds waving Palestinian and Hamas flags. Hamas separately freed three Thai nationals and a Russian-Israeli citizen, Ron Krivoy, who the group said was released "in response to the efforts of Russian President Vladimir Putin" and his "support of the Palestinian cause."

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Netanyahu visits Gaza

Israel has faced mounting pressure to extend the pause mediated by Qatar, the U.S. and Egypt, though its leaders have been keen to dismiss any suggestions of a lasting halt to the offensive. "We continue until the end - until victory," Netanyahu said in Gaza on Sunday, on the first visit by an Israeli premier since 2005.

His office has proposed a war budget of 30 billion shekels ($8 billion) for 90 days. Israel has told Palestinians in Gaza to leave the north for the relative safety of the south, but it has now sent text messages to those in the southern city of Khan Yunis warning it knows hostages are being held there.

"The army will neutralize anyone who has kidnapped hostages," the message said.

The UN estimates that 1.7 million of Gaza's 2.4 million people have been displaced by the fighting. The pause in fighting has allowed more aid to reach Palestinians struggling to survive with shortages of water and other essentials.

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Israel has received the list of 11 hostages expected to be released in the fourth round of releases from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip on Monday, according to the Times of Israel.

Hamas released a third group of hostages on Sunday in exchange for Palestinian prisoners on day three of a truce, which multinational efforts are mediating to prolong.

"Within the framework of the humanitarian truce, we handed over to the Red Cross 13 Israeli detainees, three Thais, and one Russian," Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said in a press statement.

The Israeli army confirmed receiving the 13 hostages from the International Committee of the Red Cross, including four women and nine children, the youngest being four years old.

In exchange, 39 Palestinian prisoners were freed on Sunday evening, including 21 from Jerusalem, one from the Gaza Strip, and the rest from the West Bank.

Sunday's releases bring the total number of Israeli hostages freed under the deal to 39 since Friday.

There were 24 and 17 hostages released in the first two batches respectively on Friday and Saturday. Those released were among around 240 people Hamas captured on the October 7 attack.

The truce deal reached between Israel and Hamas also stipulates the release of 50 Israeli female and teen hostages from Gaza in exchange for some 150 Palestinian women and children freed from Israeli prisons, with provisions for increasing the number of releases at subsequent stages of the agreement.

Mediation efforts ongoing

Mediation efforts have been intensified to extend the current Israel-Hamas humanitarian cease-fire.

"Qatar and Egypt conveyed a draft agreement to Israel and Hamas aiming to extend the current four-day cease-fire and facilitate a larger prisoner exchange between the two sides," Xinhua reported, citing Palestinian sources.

Hamas has shown initial willingness regarding the Qatari-Egyptian proposal. According to a statement from a representative of the group on Sunday night, "Hamas is seeking to extend the cease-fire beyond the four days that were initially agreed upon with Israel."

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he might agree to extend the truce with Hamas by a few days if Hamas would free more hostages.

In a phone call with U.S. President Joe Biden, Netanyahu said he would "welcome" the truce extension on the basis of an additional day for every additional ten hostages released, as outlined in the Qatari-mediated truce deal, according to an Israeli video statement.

On Sunday, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told BFMTV that "it would be good, helpful and necessary" to extend the truce until all hostages, who include French nationals, are freed.

More humanitarian aid needed

The temporary ceasefire in Gaza, entering its third day, entails a cessation of hostilities and an increased flow of aid trucks into the Palestinian enclave.

Since Friday, over 500 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid, including food, medical equipment, water, fuel, and cooking gas, have entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing, according to United Nations reports.

Though more aid is reaching Palestinians struggling to survive with shortages of water and other essentials, Adnan Abu Hasna, a spokesman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, warned of "unprecedented" humanitarian needs.

"We should send 200 lorries a day continuously for at least two months," he said.

The UN estimates that 1.7 million of Gaza's 2.4 million people have been displaced by the fighting.

"We need such humanitarian aid, but we also need security. We hope the international community could pressure Israel to stop the conflict against us in Gaza," said Mohammed Afana, a Beit Lahia-based Palestinian man.

(With input from agencies)

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, released on Sunday the third batch of 17 hostages from the Gaza Strip under a temporary ceasefire agreement with Israel.

"Within the framework of the humanitarian truce, we handed over to the Red Cross 13 Israeli detainees, three Thais, and one Russian," Al-Qassam said in a press statement.

Meanwhile, 39 Palestinians were released on the third day of truce.

(With input from Xinhua)

Hamas said on Sunday it wanted to extend its 4-day truce with Israel in Gaza to facilitate more exchanges of captives.

Fourteen Israeli and three Thai hostages were returned to Israel on the third day of the ceasefire, and Israel freed 39 Palestinian detainees from Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank.

Two of the Israelis were dual citizens - a man with Russian citizenship and an Israeli American girl, Abigail Edan, who turned 4 in captivity. Israel said Hamas militants killed her parents in front of her during their Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.

A fourth exchange is expected on Monday - the last day of the truce. Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel said it would grant a one-day extension for every 10 additional Israeli hostages. Hamas said for the first time on Sunday that it would seek an extension by looking to release a larger number of hostages.

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Hamas has handed over 17 hostages including a four-year-old American girl who have been held in Gaza on the third day of a truce with israel.

The release of some of the hostages captured when Hamas fighters rampaged through southern Israel on October 7 is expected to be mirrored by the Israelis freeing another group of 39 Palestinian prisoners as on previous days in the truce.

The hostages released on Sunday are 13 Israeli women and children, one man with Russian-Israeli citizenship and three Thai nationals, according to statements from different governments involved.

According to a list issued by the Israeli prime minister's office, there were nine children and four women among the released Israelis, including a four-year-old girl called Abigail Edan whose case had been highlighted by U.S. President Joe Biden. "What she endured is unthinkable," Biden said at a news conference.

The four-day truce is the first halt in fighting in the seven weeks since Hamas killed 1,200 people and took about 240 hostages back into Gaza.

In response to that attack, Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, bombarding the Gazan enclave and mounting a ground offensive in the north. Some 14,800 Palestinians have been killed, Gaza health authorities say, and hundreds of thousands displaced.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday met security forces inside the Gaza Strip and indicated that the campaign was far from over.

"Nothing will stop us, and we are convinced that we have the strength, the power, the will and the determination to achieve all the goals of the war, and that is what we will do," he said.

Farmer killed

The killing of a Palestinian farmer in the central Gaza Strip had earlier added to concerns over the fragility of the truce. He was targeted by Israeli forces east of Gaza's long-established Maghazi refugee camp, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.

The armed wing of Hamas also said on Sunday that four of its military commanders in the Gaza Strip had been killed, including the commander of the North Gaza brigade, Ahmad Al Ghandour. It did not say when they had been killed.

Qatar, Egypt and the United States are pressing for the truce to be extended beyond Monday but it is not clear whether that will happen. Israel had said the ceasefire could be extended if Hamas continued to release at least 10 hostages a day. A Palestinian source had said up to 100 hostages could go free.

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West Bank violence

Earlier on Sunday, 13 Israelis and four Thai nationals arrived in Israel after a second release of hostages held by Hamas following an initial delay caused by a dispute about aid delivery into Gaza. Egypt and Qatar acted as mediators on Saturday to maintain the truce. 

Six of the group of 13 Israelis released on Saturday were women and seven were teenagers or children. The youngest was three-year-old Yahel Shoham, freed with her mother and brother, although her father remains a hostage.

Israel freed 39 Palestinians – six women and 33 teenagers – from two prisons, the Palestinian news agency WAFA said. Some of the Palestinians arrived at Al-Bireh Municipality Square in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where thousands of citizens awaited them, a Reuters journalist said.

Violence flared in the West Bank where Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians, including two minors and at least one gunman, late on Saturday and early Sunday, medics and local sources said.

Saturday's swap followed the previous day's initial release of 13 Israeli hostages, including children and the elderly, by Hamas in return for the release of 39 Palestinian women and teenagers from Israeli prisons.

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Hamas announced the release of a Russian hostage on Sunday, Reuters reported.

A group of 200 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered Gaza on Sunday through the Rafah crossing, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed in a statement on social media platform X.

The aid contains food, water, shelter supplies and medical supplies, the statement added.

Hamas' military wing on Sunday confirmed the commander of its northern brigade, Ahmed Al-Ghandour, and three other senior leaders had been killed during Israel's offensive in Gaza.

In a statement, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades said Ghandour was a member of its military council and named three other leaders who had died, including Ayman Siyyam, who Israeli media reports said was head of the Brigades' rocket-firing units.

Six Palestinians, including one minor, were shot dead by Israeli forces in the West Bank late Saturday and early Sunday, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

There has been no confirmation from Israel. 

Four Thai nationals were freed on Saturday in the second round of hostage releases from Gaza, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin confirmed on Sunday.

All four are healthy, Srettha said in a social media post.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has confirmed in a statement that 61 trucks of aid, including food, water and emergency medical supplies, were delivered to northern Gaza on Saturday, the largest number since October 7.

Another 200 trucks were dispatched from Israel's Nitzana, 187 of which entered Gaza by 7:00 p.m. local time, the statement said, adding that 129,000 liters of fuel also crossed into Gaza.

Thirty-nine Palestinian prisoners released from an Israeli prison as part of an ongoing prisoner-hostage swap agreement between Israel and Hamas have arrived in Jerusalem, Palestinian news agency WAFA reported on Sunday.

Thirteen Israeli and four Thai hostages released from Hamas captivity in Gaza have arrived in Israel, the Israeli military said on Saturday.

The 17 people are the second group of hostages to be sent back to Israel in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. The exchange was scheduled to take place around 4 p.m. local time Saturday, but was delayed for several hours after Hamas accused Israel of failing to meet the terms in a four-day humanitarian ceasefire agreement, which was agreed upon by the two sides on Wednesday after more than six weeks of bloody conflict.

Hamas alleged that the aid deliveries permitted by Israel fell short of what was promised and that not enough of it was reaching northern Gaza – the focus of Israel's ground offensive and main combat zone. Hamas also said not enough veteran prisoners were freed in the first swap on Friday, according to the AP.

"This is putting the deal in danger," Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, said in Beirut. But Egypt, Qatar and Hamas itself later said obstacles had been overcome, and Hamas listed six women and 33 teenage boys it said were expected to be released by the Israelis.

Under mediation by Qatar and Egypt, Hamas and Israel on Wednesday agreed to a four-day humanitarian ceasefire to force a temporary halt to the fighting between the two sides. After the truce deal went into effect Friday, Hamas released 24 hostages – 13 Israelis, 10 Thai and one Filipino – while Israel freed 39 Palestinian prisoners. The release of non-Israeli nationals was separate to the truce deal.

(With input from agencies)

(Cover: An International Red Cross vehicle, reportedly carrying the first batch of hostages released by Hamas, crosses the Rafah border point in the Gaza Strip towards Egypt, November 24, 2023. /CFP)

Israel and Hamas began their second exchange of captives late Saturday, Nov. 25.

Hamas turned over 13 Israelis - six women and seven minors - and four Thai nationals to the Red Cross, which drove them to Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

The transfer was delayed briefly when Hamas complained that Israel was not honoring aid commitments.

In exchange for the 13 Israeli hostages, Israel agreed to release 39 Palestinians from Ofer Prison in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. The group is believed to comprise women and teenage boys.

In the first exchange on Friday, Israel released 39 Palestinians, and Hamas freed 13 Israelis and 11 foreigners - 10 Thais and one Filipino.

Both sides have been observing a ceasefire planned to last at least four days.

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Aid workers are "prioritizing the most vulnerable communities" with relief trucks entering Gaza during the truce – but "it is not enough" says the International Red Cross.

For many of the 2.3 million people who live in the tiny Gaza Strip, the four-day pause in the near-constant air and artillery strikes has offered a first chance to safely move around, take stock of the devastation and seek access to aid imports. 

More than 50 trucks carrying food, water, shelter equipment, and medical supplies, have been deployed to the northern Gaza Strip and to shelters in non-evacuated areas of the Palestinian enclave, Israel said. This was the first time since the start of the war that a significant amount of aid was deployed to northern Gaza, according to the Israeli Defence Ministry agency that coordinates with the Palestinians.

Tommaso Della Longa, International Federation of Red Cross spokesman, tiold CGTN that the aid coming in was a "first step." 

"Of course, we cannot underestimate the positive news that hundreds of trucks are entering… almost 60 trucks are going to the north for the first time in the last weeks, and they are in this convoy of our colleagues of the Palestine Red Crescent," he said.

"Now, if the question is, 'Is this enough?' No, it is not enough. And if it's 'This will give the proper and dignified answer to the needs of the Palestinians.' No. But then again, it's a first step. And we do hope that these will continue next coming days."

Della Longa said that aid workers have been working on which parts of Gaza need the relief most.

"Our colleagues of Palestine Red Crescent told us since day one, that they were facing some impossible dilemmas when treating patients in the hospital, for instance, or in the emergency room, when you don't have medicines, when you don't have medical equipment," he said.

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"And of course, you have to make some choices that a doctor or a nurse should never face. Now, the reality is that there are some assessments already done by UN colleagues and, of course, the Palestine Red Crescent colleagues, so we are prioritizing the most vulnerable communities – shelter the displaced. But again, their needs are so immense that four days of some hundreds of trucks will not be the proper transport for millions of people."

‌Logisitics are also a problem now, both in terms of the road structure with all the bombing and finding out how badly affected are different areas.

"I would say that in the south, I would say that we have a very good picture because we had access. The real issue is the north. So with this convoy today, I'm sure that we'll get some more information on the needs on the ground and what exactly happened," said Della Longa. 

"And also in terms of logistics ... the roads, for instance, bridges, how to move around, where to go, where also to think about distribution points of relief items and food and water... So I think that the real game changer in these days is the access to the north. And again, we do hope that we'll continue having this safe access everywhere in Gaza because this was the problem since day one: without safety, it's almost impossible to carry on a humanitarian operation."

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The armed wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas said on Saturday that it had decided to delay the second round of hostage releases until Israel is committed to letting aid trucks enter northern Gaza.

A Qatari delegation visited Israel on Saturday to discuss a possible extension of a four-day truce between Hamas and Israel that started on Friday, an official briefed on the visit said.

The Qatari operations team also coordinated with Israeli officials to ensure the truce and hostage releases continue smoothly, the official said.

Hamas is due to release 13 Israeli hostages on Saturday in exchange for 39 Palestinians, Israeli military spokesperson Olivier Rafowicz told France's BFMTV.

Egyptian security sources said earlier they had received a list from Hamas of 14 hostages to be released on Saturday.

Egypt received positive signals from all parties to extend the four-day truce period for one or two days, local media reported.

A four-day truce between Israel and Hamas came into effect on Friday. Twenty-four hostages were released by Hamas and 39 Palestinian detainees walked free from Israeli jails after the truce deal took effect. 

Under the deal, 200 trucks carrying aid are permitted to enter the Gaza Strip daily. Israel had imposed a total blockade since the outbreak of the war. 

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that on Friday, Gaza received the largest humanitarian convoy since October 7, with 137 trucks offloading goods.

Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez: The moment has come to recognize the State of Palestine.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com. Follow @thouse_opinions on Twitter to discover the latest commentaries in the CGTN Opinion Section.)

Israel is to release a further 42 prisoners on Saturday – but here's what we know about the Palestinians and their crimes.

A four-day truce started on Friday after seven weeks of fighting between Israel and Hamas with 39 jailed Palestinians allowed to return home – three for each hostage freed. And now 14 more hostages are going back to Israel along with the further Palestinian prisoner releases.

There are believed to have been 17 children who were released from Israeli prisons, while the other 22 freed on Friday were women. They were gathered at Israel's Ofer military jail, near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and handed over to the iInternational Committee of the Red Cross before going home.

Some headed back to Jerusalem and those who were from the West Bank went to Betunia Municipal Council.

Many Palestinians are anxiously waiting for information on whether their family members will be released. Yusif and Fida Abu Maria said they are listening to the news and hopeful that their son Ubay is freed.

"We are monitoring the news, following up by the second, and waiting for the moment of traveling (to go pick up Ubay), the moment when he is released from prison," sais Yusif. "Same as we heard yesterday and the day before – there is no proof until now between yes and no. But hopefully, and as we were told 'Your son is within the deal' and among the first names along with two other youngsters from Beit Ummar, in the first group (to be released) while we await the news."

Sawsan Bkeer – the mother of 24-year-old Palestinian prisoner Marah Bkeer, jailed for eight years on knife and assault charges in 2015 – said that there was little celebration after she was freed. She stated: "There is no real joy, even this little joy we feel as we wait." Israeli police were seen raiding her Jerusalem home before her daughter was released. She added: "We are still afraid to feel happy and at the same time, we do not have it in us to be happy due to what is happening in Gaza."

While much of the focus has been on the dire situation in Gaza with the desperate humanitarian situation brought about by missile raids, there has also been rising tension in the West Bank following the attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7.

There are around three million Palestinians in the West Bank, who live alongside half a million Israelis settlers. Palestinian detainees and officials say Israel has conducted mass arrests in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and that prisoners were increasingly facing physical assaults and humiliating treatment in Israeli detention facilities.

Amnesty International said this month that Israel had dramatically increased its use of administrative detention, a form of incarceration without charge or trial. The Israeli military has said it operates in the West Bank against suspects involved in militant activity.

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The number of Palestinians held by Israel has risen to more than 7,800, including some 300 children and 72 women, said Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian Authority Commission for Prisoners' Affairs. He said the number did not include prisoners from Gaza, which he said Israel refuses to disclose.

There have been around 3,000 Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank who have been arrested since October 7, including 145 children and 37 journalists.

Palestinians can be imprisoned for a variety of crimes from threatening security and supporting terrorism to throwing stones and entering Israel without a permit.

"The main alleged crime for these detentions is stone-throwing, which can carry a 20-year sentence in prison for Palestinian children," said a report published in July by children's rights organization Save the Children.

When the truce was brought in, Israel released a list of 300 Palestinians who it said would be eligible for release which included 123 children – with the youngest aged 14.

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Israel and Hamas entered a four-day pause in fighting with the Palestinian group releasing a first group of hostages later in the day and increased aid to flow into the besieged Gaza Strip, the first such break in a nearly seven-week-old war. A number of Palestinians are also being released from Israeli jails later in the day as part of the ceasefire.

The move has been welcomed by world leaders as well as many analysts.

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"It's very good news because it initiates the process of a ceasefire. It breaks two Israeli taboos, which were held by Netanyahu. The first was that there will never be any ceasefire… and that he will bring the Israeli prisoners only by force," Mustafa Barghouti, Secretary General and Co-founder of the Palestinian National Initiative, told CGTN. 

"Now, he [has] had to accept an exchange of prisoners, something that he denied he would do in the past. And 50 Israeli children and women will be released and 150 Palestinian children and women also will be released."

Israel's 'three war crimes'

Barghouti said it is "very likely" the pause might be extended "because it is clear that the Israeli military operation is not succeeding." 

He said that world can see the "three war crimes that Israel is committing – genocide, collective punishment and ethnic cleansing," and this has tested many of the world leaders' support for Israel, including President Biden. 

He also highlighted that the families of other Israeli prisoners are now exercising greater pressure. 

"They see that 50 will be released. They want all the rest of them to be released, and that is achievable. If Israel accepts to release all the 7,200 Palestinian prisoners, including 250 children that they are holding in their jails," added the former Palestinian unity government minister.

'Hamas turned Gaza into one big military bunker'

Danny Ayalon, former Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister and the country's ambassador to the United States between 2002 and 2006, however, laid the blame squarely on Hamas. 

"We left Gaza in 2005, 2007. Hamas took over and they have since turned Gaza into one big military bunker of terrorist war crimes that they have perpetrated, aiming at our own civilian population and hiding behind their own," alleged the former minister.

He said that the underlying humanitarian issues stem from Hamas not wanting to surrender, and keeping the hostages, including infants and the elderly, in effect holding "two million people of Gaza hostage." 

He believes that if Hamas surrenders and disarms, the resolution of the broader problem is likely.

"No country would allow Hamas, a terrorist organization, to be on its border, creating an imminent threat on a constant basis. We would like to see a peaceful Palestinian leadership that believes in coexistence," stressed Ayalon.

"This may take time, but this cannot happen before Hamas is ousted off the Gaza Strip. The entire international community should just come up against Hamas and eradicate it just as they did and are still with ISIS," he added.

Qatar 'holds the most influence over Hamas'

Ayalon acknowledged that the Qatari government, having mediated the truce deal, "holds the most influence and leverage over Hamas," so if the Gulf emirate facilitates the "safe exit" of Hamas leaders then Israel will allow it "although they are all murderers."

The key condition would be that Hamas leaves Gaza alone, and if Qatar accepts them, there would be a willingness to work towards future peace.

Some analysts are seeing the current truce deal as a step towards longer lasting peace, and Barghouti believes it is a possibility.

"They should do that because the continuation of this war is a continuation of massacres against Palestinians," said the Palestinian leader. "So far, we have lost more than 14,700 Palestinians, including not less than 7,000 children, and there are 9,000 others who are missing so the number of casualties will increase. 

"There are about 35,000 Palestinians already injured, and many of them could die because of lack of treatment and lack of proper medical care. So it is essential now to impose a ceasefire to stop this terrible war. Nobody is safe today in Gaza. Every place is bombarded. 60 percent of all homes have been destroyed, it's one massacre after the other."

'True ceasefire' needed

Barghouti also warned of the situation on the ground. He said Israel has allowed only a limited number of aid trucks, approximately 1,200 to 1,300, containing aid but no fuel, which he says is insufficient compared to the 24,000 trucks needed by Gaza for essentials like fuel, food, electricity, and water. 

He highlighted that the scarcity of clean water poses a severe risk of outbreaks, including diseases like typhoid, dysentery, cholera, and potentially measles due to Israel's restrictions on vaccination programs. 

The Israeli army has already targeted 25 out of 36 hospitals, including vital facilities like Al Shifa Hospital, the largest in Palestine, he said. This destructive approach has significantly undermined the medical care system, leaving patients without proper care. Barghouti urged for more aid to be allowed in because "200 trucks a day is not enough, but it's better than nothing."

He said what we need is a "true ceasefire" to end the suffering of the people of Gaza.

Ayalon also welcomed the four-day truce saying, "This is news in the right direction because Israel will abide by it. We'd very much like to see all our hostages, elderly people and toddlers and babies. It's inhuman to just keep them. 

"The fact that we even needed to negotiate for that is a real stain on the Palestinian people. But we are dealing with a murderous organization, so we take what we need. Human suffering is what we need to alleviate in the most urgent way," he added.

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Israel received a list of hostages to be freed from Gaza on Saturday by Palestinian militant group Hamas, officials said, following the release of 24 hostages the previous day, the first of a planned four-day truce.

Israeli security officials were reviewing the list, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement, after his government's vow to work for the release of all hostages taken by Hamas in an attack on Israel on October 7.

The pause in the fighting was the first such break, with both sides saying hostilities would resume as soon as the truce ends. 

The released hostages, including Israeli women and children and Thai farm workers, were transferred from Gaza and handed to Egyptian authorities at the Rafah border crossing, the organization said.

They were then taken to Israel for medical checks and reunions with relatives.

UN agencies voiced hope that the truce would allow for a ramping-up of aid and the first flows to northern Gaza in weeks as fresh hospital rescue efforts got under way.

Aid agencies have said they are aiming to deliver supplies to the northern part of the Palestinian enclave where hospitals have collapsed due to bombings and lack of fuel and where there are major concerns about dehydration and disease in a situation described as a siege within a siege.

But they say a more permanent ceasefire is required to deliver the mass amount of aid to address Gaza's full needs, with nearly three-quarters of the population or some 1.7 million people displaced, thousands killed and many more, both dead and alive, thought to be trapped beneath the rubble.

"The north has suffered brutally so it's one of our big priorities across UN agencies, irrespective of what the delivery is, is to get to the north," said James Elder, a spokesperson for the UN children's agency in Gaza.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is aiming to get 30 trucks a day into Gaza during the truce and is prioritizing delivering water and blankets, he said, describing scenes of people drinking salty water and sleeping in their cars with smashed-out windows.

(With input from agencies)

Israeli authorities said that a total of 42 Palestinian prisoners would be released on Saturday under a truce deal, local media GLZ Radio reported, and Hamas will release 14 of its detainees.

The Barcelona City Council decided to suspend its relations with Israel on Friday, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Israeli officials have reiterated that fighting in Gaza will resume after the current ceasefire, with the country's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying the conflict will not stop until all of Israel's aims have been accomplished, including the release of all hostages and the eradication of Hamas, Al Jazeera reported on Friday. 

Hamas fighters released 24 hostages on Friday during the first day of the war's first truce, including Israeli women and children and Thai farm workers, after guns fell silent across the Gaza Strip for the first time in seven weeks.

The hostages were transferred out of Gaza and handed over to Egyptian authorities at the Rafah border crossing, accompanied by eight staff members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in a four-car convoy, the ICRC said.

Qatar, which acted as mediator for the truce deal, said 13 Israelis had been released, some with dual nationality, plus 10 Thais and a Filipino. Thirty-nine Palestinian women and children detainees were released from Israeli jails.

"We have just completed the return of the first batch of our hostages. Children, their mothers and other women. Each and every one of them is a world in itself," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "But I stress to you, the families, and to you, citizens of Israel: We are committed to returning all our hostages."

The Israeli hostages released included four children accompanied by four family members, and five other elderly women.

Corinne Moshe, daughter-in-law of 72-year-old Adina Moshe, said her husband and his siblings were waiting at a hospital to be reunited with their mother. "I miss her very, very much, I want her to be back already. I want to have dinner with her and the entire family again," she said.

Medical checks for released hostages

The Israeli military said the released hostages underwent a medical assessment inside Israeli territory before being taken to hospitals to be reunited with their families.

Under the terms of the four-day Israel-Hamas truce, 50 women and children hostages are to be released in return for 150 Palestinian women and children among thousands of detainees in Israeli jails. Israel says the truce could be extended if more hostages are released at a rate of 10 per day.

Those released on Friday were exchanged for 24 jailed Palestinian women and 15 teenagers. In at least three cases, before the prisoners were released, Israeli police raided their families' homes in Jerusalem, witnesses said. Police declined to comment.

A source briefed on the negotiations said the release of the Thai workers, who were all men, was unrelated to the truce talks and followed a separate track mediated by Egypt and Qatar.

Thai and Filipino farm workers employed in southern Israel were among around 240 hostages taken to Gaza by gunmen when Hamas fighters launched a killing spree on October 7.

Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on social media that 12 Thai workers had been freed, two more than the figure given by the Qataris. No reason for the discrepancy was given.

No big bombings, artillery strikes or rocket attacks were reported, although Hamas and Israel both accused each other of sporadic shootings and other violations. Both said the war would resume on full throttle as soon as the truce was over.

In Khan Younis in southern Gaza, people ventured out of homes and shelters into a landscape of buildings reduced to rubble. Displaced families carried belongings in plastic bags, hoping to return at least temporarily to the homes they had abandoned.

Columns of Israeli tanks rolled away from the Gaza Strip's northern end in the morning, while aid trucks entered from Egypt at the southern end.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 137 trucks of goods were offloaded in Gaza on Friday, the biggest humanitarian convoy received since October 7.

At least 31 Palestinians were injured by Israeli forces on Friday near Ofer prison in the West Bank, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said its staff dealt with 31 injured people in front of the prison. It said three were injured by live fire, four by rubber-coated metal rounds and 22 suffered suffocation-related injuries as a result of tear gas inhalation.

Red Cross handed over 13 Israeli hostages to Egyptian authorities, Israeli Broadcasting Authority reported.

Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on social media on Friday that 12 Thai citizens who were previously held as hostages in Gaza have already been released.

Israeli hostages in Gaza have been transferred to Red Cross, and on way to border crossing with Egypt, Israeli TV reported, and 39 Palestinians were also transferred to Red Cross and en route to West Bank or East Jerusalem. 

Hamas started to release the first batch of 13 hostages on Friday under a temporary ceasefire deal reached with Israel.

The Red Cross representatives arrived with a bus at Ofer Prison in the West Bank on Friday to pick up the 39 Palestinian prisoners set to be released by Israel as part of truce deal to free hostages from Hamas, the Times of Israel reported.

The first temporary humanitarian truce between Hamas and Israel entered into force in the Gaza Strip on Friday.

The agreement entered into force at 7:00 a.m. local time (0500 GMT), and it was reported that there were no Israeli aircraft flying over the Gaza Strip.

This is scheduled to be followed by the release of 13 Israeli detainees in the Gaza Strip at 4:00 p.m. local time (1400 GMT).

The agreement is the first truce between the two sides since October 7 after weeks of mediation by Qatar and Egypt. 

What will happen in Gaza during the truce?

Confirming the truce agreement had taken effect, Diaa Rashwan, chairman of Egypt's State Information Service (SIS), said in a statement that 130,000 liters of diesel and four trucks of gas from Egypt will enter the Gaza Strip daily.

Some 200 trucks, loaded with food, medicine and water, can enter daily for the first time since the start of the war on October 7, he said.

Egypt will continue to receive wounded and injured children from Gaza for treatment in Egyptian hospitals, helping foreigners and dual nationals detained in the Gaza Strip travel to their own countries, the SIS's chairman said.

He added that the Egyptian side will also allow the entry of Palestinians stranded in the country into the Gaza Strip at their will.

Palestinians stranded in Egypt have begun entering the Gaza Strip for the first time since the beginning of Israeli military operations, Egypt's Al Qahera News reported on Friday.

Lebanon's Al-Mayadeen TV reported that since the start of the truce, no sounds of bombing were heard in Gaza. But it said Israeli forces were preventing residents from returning to their homes in the densely populated northern part of the enclave.

For Palestinians in Gaza, 1.7 million of whom have fled their homes according to the United Nations, a respite in the brutal fighting cannot come soon enough.

Hostages to be released

Under the deal, at least 50 hostages, mainly children and women, would be freed for the release of about 150 women and teen Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons, according to a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.

It also offered Hamas an incentive to release more, saying "the release of every additional 10 hostages will result in one additional day in the pause."

The 50 hostages, expected to be released in four batches, will be Israeli nationals or dual nationals, rather than foreigners.

Majid al-Ansari, a spokesperson for Qatar's foreign ministry, told reporters in Doha on Thursday afternoon that the first group of hostages to be released on Friday would comprise 13 children and women, some of them elderly. "Hostages from the same family will be put together in the same batch," he noted.

A senior Israeli official said on Tuesday afternoon that Hamas could also unilaterally release the 26 Thai nationals believed to be among the hostages.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been designated to receive the hostages in Gaza, as its staff did when Hamas freed two Israeli-American women and two Israeli women last month.

Israel is currently holding about 7,000 Palestinians accused or convicted of security offenses, according to Israeli and Palestinian rights groups. Almost 3,000 Palestinians are reported to have been arrested in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, where violence has also surged, since October 7.

(With input from agencies)

(Cover: A UN-provided tent camp for Palestinians displaced by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip is seen in Khan Younis, November 19, 2023. /CFP)

A total of 39 Palestinians have been moved to Ofer prison facility near West Bank city of Ramallah in preparation of prisoner swap with Hamas, Israeli media reported on Friday. 

Israeli forces damaged the radiology department of Al Shifa Hospital during a military operation on November 16, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA). The Israeli military said it had discovered a tunnel shaft used by Hamas in the hospital, Gaza's largest. Israel recently returned the bodies of more than 100 Gazans held at the hospital, the release of which had been delayed while the Israeli army checked the bodies for Hamas members. The local Red Crescent and civil society organizations arranged funerals.

Palestinians stranded in Egypt have begun entering the Gaza Strip for the first time since the beginning of Israeli military operations, Egypt's Al Qahera News reported on Friday.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Friday that the military has completed its operational preparations according to the defensive positions of the pause in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military sounded sirens in two villages near the Gaza Strip on Friday, warning of possible Palestinian rocket attacks from the Hamas-ruled enclave just minutes after a truce came into force.

There was no immediate confirmation that rocket attacks had occurred or caused any damage, however.

After more than six weeks of bloody conflict, a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza went into effect on Friday, with Hamas set to release about 13 hostages at 4 p.m. local time as the first stage of the deal.

Hamas, which has been governing Gaza since 2007, will hand over the hostages to Egypt. In turn, Israel will release 150 Palestinians, including women and children, from Israeli jails.

Israel is expected to stop all its military operations in the Gaza Strip as part of the four-day ceasefire. Meanwhile, at least 200 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid and medical supplies, including four fuel trucks, will be allowed into the Gaza Strip, Hamas explained.

The ceasefire will also facilitate the reopening of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt to allow the return of stranded Palestinians waiting in the Arish area, according to the Palestinian Embassy in Cairo.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office confirmed receiving an "initial list of names" of detainees set for release.

The Israeli army said it was ready to implement the ceasefire but warned Hamas that "even the slightest violation would result in a severe response."

Additional aid would start flowing into Gaza, and the first hostages, including elderly women, would be freed at 4 p.m. (1400 GMT), with the total number rising to 50 over the four days, Qatar's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said in Doha, according to Reuters. 

Egypt said 130,000 liters of diesel and four trucks of gas will be delivered daily to Gaza when the truce starts and that 200 trucks of aid will enter Gaza daily.

The ceasefire was originally due to start on Thursday but was delayed as the two sides were finalizing the details of hostage release. Meanwhile, Israel continued its airstrikes on various areas of Gaza, resulting in more casualties and injuries.

(With input from agencies)

At least 27 people were killed and 93 more injured in an Israeli strike on a United Nations school in Gaza, AFP reported on Thursday, citing a Palestinian doctor in Gaza.

Thousands of displaced Palestinians were sheltering in the school in Jabalia, the largest refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, the doctor at a hospital in the camp said.

The Egyptian State Information Service said on Friday that 130,000 liters of diesel and four trucks of gas will enter the Gaza Strip daily from Egypt under the framework of the truce agreement in Gaza.

German police launched pre-dawn raids across the country on properties allegedly linked to Hamas and another pro-Palestinian organisation, Samidoun. Both groups are banned in the country, with Hamas listed as a terrorist organization by Berlin and the European Union.

The raids targeted 15 properties across four states - Berlin, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Schleswig-Holstein. Eleven of the raids were in the capital, according to information released by the German Interior Ministry which ordered the investigation.

In an official statement Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said: "We are carrying out action against radical Islamists. By banning Hamas and Samidoun in Germany, we have sent a clear signal that we will not tolerate any apology or support for Hamas's barbaric terror against Israel." 

She added: "Islamists and antisemites must not feel safe anywhere."

On November 2, the Interior Ministry took the step of banning both organisations. The Ministry says there are 450 Hamas members currently in Germany whose activities include raising money for the group and shaping Hamas's message in the country.

Reichsbuerger Return

Also on Thursday, around 280 police carried out separate raids across eight of the German Federal States targeting the far-right Reichsbuerger Movement.

Twenty homes were targeted, according to Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann, who said that officers had retrieved alarm guns, riot control agents, smartphones and data storage devices during the raids.

The raids were based on plans that prosecutors say were circulated using the Telegram messaging app. Joachim Herrmann told the press these plans "massively threatened" state institutions. No new arrests were made on Thursday.

The organizers of the Telegram channels encouraged followers to engage in "mass contacting" of authorities by phone and email. In a statement, prosecutors say this was "in order to force them to make decisions in favour of the members of the association."

Prosecutors say "the overriding aim... was to destabilise Germany and its institutions and to prevent, or at least hinder, lawful state action."

Those contacted faced death threats and were bombarded with far-right conspiracy theories. The raids on Thursday were launched as part of a further investigation into the formation of a criminal organisation.

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Ten properties in southwestern Baden-Württemberg state were searched, while raids also took place in Bavaria, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein, Brandenburg, Hamburg and Lower Saxony.

It is understood that these raids are directly linked to the arrest in 2021 of a 58-year-old man identified as the operator of the Telegram accounts in question.

The Reichsbuerger Movement brings together elements of the far right with conspiracy theorists and gun rights fanatics. In 2021, the German Interior Ministry estimated there were as many as 21,000 members.

The general belief of the group is that the Federal Republic of Germany is illegitimate, and they pledge allegiance to the German Empire (Reich) instead. 

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Hamas armed wing confirmed that the truce will go into effect from 7 a.m. local time on Friday and the truce will continue for four days.

The Qatari Foreign Ministry announced that the truce between Israel and Hamas will begin at 7 a.m. local time on Friday, and the first batch of 13 captives will be released at 4 p.m.

A truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza will start on Friday at 7 a.m., with a the first batch of hostages to be released at 4 p.m., a spokesperson for Qatar's foreign ministry said.

Majed al-Ansari told reporters in Doha the lists of all civilians that would be released from Gaza had been agreed.

Qatar says the truce includes a comprehensive ceasefire in both north and south Gaza, and that it expects Palestinians to be released from Israeli jails as a result of the release of hostages from Gaza.

The Qatari spokesperson also confirmed that humanitarian aid will start flowing into Gaza as soon as the truce begins.

Prior to this announcement, columns of black smoke could be seen rising above northern Gaza's war zone from across the fence in Israel as daylight broke over the strip. Israel said the release of hostages, meant to be accompanied by the war's first ceasefire, would be delayed at least until Friday.

The Israeli military said it had launched 300 air strikes in the past day, and sounded sirens warning of cross-border rocket launches by Palestinian armed groups. 

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad's armed wing, al-Quds Brigades, said it targeted 11 Israeli military vehicles in Gaza.

Palestinian media reported at least 15 people killed in air strikes on Khan Younis, Gaza's main southern city, where hundreds of thousands of Gazans are sheltering from the Israeli advance in the north. Reporters could not immediately verify the toll there. 

In northern Gaza witnesses reported strikes on Kamal Adwan hospital and nearby homes.

Medical workers treated bloodied, dust-covered survivors as other residents fled through debris-strewn streets to safety.

At Gaza's biggest hospital, Al Shifa, Israeli soldiers escorted journalists into a tunnel shaft they said was part of a vast underground network Hamas has used for military purposes, a claim the group denies.

The army charged that Hamas "uses hospitals as a human shield" and led reporters into below-ground facilities with air-conditioning units, a kitchen and bathrooms, also showing piles of weapons outside it said it had recovered from battlefields.

Israeli forces arrested Al Shifa's director Mohammad Abu Salmiya along with other medical personnel, Khalid Abu Samra, another doctor and chief of the department at the hospital, told journalists.

A total of 190 patients were relocated from Al Shifa Hospital to the southern part of Gaza. Dialysis patients were transferred to Abu Youssef Al Najjar Hospital in Rafah, while the remaining individuals were moved to the European Hospital in Khan Younis, as reported by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Release of hostages imminent

The first truce in the seven-week-old war is meant to be accompanied by the release of 50 women and children hostages captured by Hamas who raided Israel on October 7, in exchange for 150 Palestinian detainees from Israeli jails.

The agreement was announced on Wednesday morning, but more than a day later an expected announcement of the official start time had yet to materialize. Mediator Qatar said it could make an announcement within hours.

Israel has said the truce could last beyond the initial four days as long as Hamas free at least 10 hostages per day. A Palestinian source has said a second wave of releases could allow as many as 100 hostages to go free by month's end.

Both sides have said they will go back to fighting once the truce is over.

Israel launched its war in Gaza after Hamas fighters burst across the border fence, killing 1,200 people and seizing about 240 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, more than 14,000 Gazans have been killed by Israeli bombardment, 5,600 of them children, according to health authorities in the Hamas-ruled territory.

Israel's public broadcaster Kan, citing an unidentified Israeli official, reported the delay in the truce had been because the agreement was not signed by Hamas and Qatar.

"No one said there would be a release tomorrow except the media ... We had to make it clear that no release is planned before Friday, because of the uncertainty that hostages' families are facing," Kan quoted a source in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office as saying.

Displaced Gazans remain skeptical

Israel's list of eligible Palestinian prisoners included 123 detainees aged under 18 and 33 women, among them Shrouq Dwayyat, convicted of attempted murder in a 2015 knife attack.

Displaced Gazans remained skeptical about the Israel-Hamas deal.

Tensions rose on Israel's northern border, after Hezbollah said five fighters, including the son of a senior lawmaker, had been killed.

Israel's army said on Wednesday evening that it had struck a number of Hezbollah targets, including a militant "cell" and infrastructure.

The White House said President Joe Biden had spoken to Netanyahu on Wednesday and "emphasized the importance of maintaining calm along the Lebanese border as well as in the West Bank."

The White House has pressed Israel not to escalate clashes with Hezbollah, for fear of sparking a wider war. 

Biden also spoke to the leaders of Qatar and Egypt Wednesday, pushing for the truce to be "fully implemented" and to "ultimately secure the release of all hostages."

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British Foreign Secretary David Cameron has arrived for a visit in Israel, according to the Times of Israel.

He is also expected to meet with Israeli and Palestinian officials during his trip.

The Israeli forces have arrested Mohammad Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa hospital, Al Jazeera reported on Thursday.

There is no immediate response from the Israeli military.

Editor's note: Abu Naser Al Farabi, a special commentator for CGTN, is a Dhaka-based analyst focusing on international politics, especially Asian affairs. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily those of CGTN.

As civilian casualties in Gaza soar, the call for an immediate ceasefire finds little traction in the corridors of Western powers who are among the key backers of Israel. Moreover, there appears to be a glaring absence in discussions regarding durable paths to bringing enduring peace to the region.

Amidst this unsettling backdrop, the BRICS extraordinary virtual summit on the Palestinian-Israeli issue on November 21 emerged as a distinctive beacon of hope for peace. The gathering has not only shed light on the pressing need for a peaceful resolution but also underscored the position widely shared by the Global South in their support for "an immediate, durable, and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities."

During the virtual summit, leaders from the BRICS countries convened to address the escalating violence in Gaza. The primary objective of the meeting was to establish a unified and urgent ceasefire in Gaza. In the summit chaired by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the leaders reaffirmed their "strong support for regional and international efforts aimed at achieving an immediate cessation of hostilities, ensuring the protection of civilians and the provision of humanitarian aid."

Addressing the summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated his country's principled position on the conflict that China has consistently called for de-escalation and for both parties to pursue a "two-state solution" that includes an independent Palestine. He emphasized that "only a two-state solution could bring lasting peace."

For an immediate halt to the escalation of the violence and the humanitarian disaster, Xi stressed that Israel should cease inflicting "collective punishment" on the people of Gaza and continue efforts to free hostages and evacuate civilians. Besides, he urged for an international summit to be held as soon as possible to build a world consensus for peace and find a "comprehensive, just and sustained" solution to the question of Palestine.

The summit is highly significant in at least two ways. Firstly, it signifies the unprecedented changes underway within the global geopolitical and power paradigm, with the once prevalent thread of unilateralism progressively losing way to a more egalitarian system characterized by multilateralism. The contours of a new world order are being shaped by the interplay of diverse interests, alliances, and the shared pursuit of global stability.

As we navigate this transformative journey, countries in the Global South are pressing for more coordinated, inclusive, and diversified approaches to addressing global crises that directly affect their destinies. Through the summit, the BRICS, a widely embraced platform representing the Global South on the international stage, has pushed forward the perspectives on the crisis universally shared by the region.

Secondly, the summit's collective endorsement in the pursuit of a "two-state solution" for the establishment of an independent Palestine is uniformly shared by the Global South. The global southern countries have a long history of being crushed under the boot of colonialism and imperialism. This is exemplified by the enduring plight of the Palestinian people, who have been subjected to a form of settler colonialism enforced by Israel and supported primarily by its G7 allies in the Western world.  

That is why there is overwhelming support in the Global South in favor of Palestinian self-determination, coupled with widespread censure of Israel's recent offensive on the Palestinian population in Gaza. At present, most United Nations member states, namely 139 out of 192, have extended recognition to the state of Palestine against the expressed wishes of the U.S. and Israel. Those countries encompass almost all of Asia, Latin America, and Africa, collectively called the Global South.

With an unwavering commitment to promoting an immediate ceasefire, safeguarding civilians, and facilitating essential humanitarian aid, the leaders of BRICS have underscored the urgency of collective action during this unparalleled humanitarian crisis. A unified strategy for promoting peace and stability is reflected in the summit's emphasis on supporting regional and global initiatives. Simultaneously, it has subtly communicated a strong message to those who hold onto an arrogant notion that determining how to tackle the world's most pressing problems is the exclusive domain of a select few nations.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com. Follow @thouse_opinions on Twitter to discover the latest commentaries in the CGTN Opinion Section.)

The release of hostages under a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas will not happen before Friday, Israel's national security adviser said.

Head of Israel's National Security Council, Tzachi Hanegbi, confirmed in a statement that talks on the specific details of the deal were still ongoing. "The (hostage) release will begin according to the original agreement, and not before Friday," he said.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the Israeli government voted to accept the Qatar-mediated deal with Hamas for hostage release and a temporary ceasefire.

Hamas also confirmed an agreement had been reached, calling it a “humanitarian truce” in which 150 Palestinian women and children would be freed from Israeli jails.

The hostages will be released in smaller groups over four days, during which "there will be a pause in the fighting," said the statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, adding that the release of every additional 10 hostages will result in one additional day in the pause.

Israel announced on Wednesday that it will resume its offensive in the Gaza Strip immediately after the implementation of the newly clinched truce deal to release hostages.

"We are at war with Hamas, a war that was launched with the October 7 Hamas massacre and that will continue," said Eylon Levy, spokesperson for the Israeli government, during a press conference.

Levy said that the war will "immediately" resume after the full implementation of the truce deal and the release of the hostages planned under the agreement. 

During the truce, both Israel and Hamas will cease fighting. The conflict inflicted massive destruction in Gaza, including entire neighborhoods razed by Israeli strikes and the reported death toll of at least 14,532 people, primarily civilians, according to official Palestinian figures. Israeli data indicate approximately 1,200 casualties, with around 240 others held as hostages during the Hamas attacks in southern Israel that triggered the conflict.

International support on truce deal

China welcomes the temporary ceasefire agreement reached by relevant parties and hopes this will help ease the humanitarian crisis, deescalate the conflict and cool down the tensions, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Wednesday.

"We welcome the agreement and hope this will help ease the humanitarian crisis, deescalate the conflict, and cool down the tensions," Mao said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomes the agreement reached by Israel and Hamas on the release of hostages, with the mediation of Qatar supported by Egypt and the United States, said his spokesman on Wednesday.

"This is an important step in the right direction. But much more needs to be done," said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for Guterres.

Qatar's prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, expressed hope that the deal would lead to a permanent ceasefire and initiate "serious talks" on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

Arab League (AL) Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit welcomed the newly reached humanitarian truce between Israel and the Palestinian armed faction Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. He also expressed hope that it would evolve into "a comprehensive ceasefire" in the besieged enclave. 

Aboul-Gheit emphasized that "the only way" to break the recurring cycles of violence in the Middle East is to pursue a comprehensive political solution to the Palestinian issue based on the two-state solution.

(With input from agencies)

The release of hostages under a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas militants will not happen before Friday, Israeli national security adviser said on Wednesday night.

The Syrian army said Israel has launched aerial strikes on outposts in the vicinity of the national capital, Damascus, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

No one was injured or killed, the army said.

Earlier, explosions were heard in the city, local media reported.

The truce in the Gaza Strip will begin at 10 a.m. local time on Thursday, Al Arabiya reported on Wednesday, citing Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook.

Israeli foreign minister said the exchange of detainees between the two sides will begin on Thursday, Sky News reported on Wednesday. 

At least nine people were killed in an Israeli strike that targeted a house in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza on Wednesday, Palestine's WAFA news agency reported.

There has been no immediate response from Israel.

The Qatari Foreign Ministry confirmed that a four-day humanitarian pause in Gaza hostilities, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the U.S., has been agreed, according to a statement published on Wednesday.

The starting time of the pause will be announced within the next 24 hours and last for four days, subject to extension, the statement said.

The agreement includes the release of 50 civilian women and children hostages currently held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of a number of Palestinian women and children detained in Israeli prisons, and the number of those released will be increased in later stages of implementing the agreement, according to the statement.

The humanitarian pause will also allow the entry of a larger number of humanitarian convoys and relief aid, including fuel designated for humanitarian needs.

Israel's government voted on Wednesday to back a deal for Hamas to free 50 women and children held as hostages in Gaza in exchange for a four-day pause in fighting, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

A statement by the prime minister's office said 50 women and children will be released over four days, during which there will be a pause in fighting.

For every additional 10 hostages released, the pause would be extended by another day, it said, without mentioning the release of Palestinians in exchange.

Hamas confirmed in a statement that and it had agreed with Israel to stop all fighting in Gaza for four days as part of an agreement in which Hamas will release 50 women and children held as hostages in exchange for Israel releasing 150 Palestinian women and children from jail.

The deal will allow hundreds of humanitarian, medical and fuel aid trucks to enter all parts of the Gaza Strip, the statement added.

(With input from agencies)

At least 14,128 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza from Israeli strikes since October 7, according to Gaza's government media office on Tuesday.

An Israeli strike on a car in southern Lebanon killed four people on Tuesday near the southern city of Tyre in the second deadly incident near the Israel-Lebanon border, Lebanese state news agency NNA reported.

The strike took place about five miles south of Tyre and seven miles north of the border with Israel, NNA reported.

Israel has not responded to the accusation yet.

A World Health Organization spokesperson said on Tuesday that three hospitals in Israeli-besieged Gaza had requested help with evacuating patients and that planning had started.

Hospitals have come under bombardment in the Israel-Hamas conflict and all hospitals in the northern part of the enclave have effectively ceased functioning normally, although continue to house some patients that could not flee and displaced Gazans.

Negotiations to free hostages seized in Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel are at their "closest point" to a deal and have reached the "final stage", mediator Qatar said on Tuesday. 

"We are at the closest point we ever had been in reaching an agreement," foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said, adding negotiations have reached a "critical and final stage".

Hamas officials were "close to reaching a truce agreement" with Israel, and the group has delivered its response to Qatari mediators, the chief of Hamas Ismail Haniyeh said on Tuesday.

(With input from AFP)

The chief of Hamas told Reuters on Tuesday that the Palestinian militant group was near a truce agreement with Israel, even as the deadly assault on Gaza continued and rockets were being fired into Israel.

Hamas officials were "close to reaching a truce agreement" with Israel and the group has delivered its response to Qatari mediators, Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement sent to Reuters by his aide.

The statement gave no more details, but a Hamas official told Al Jazeera TV that negotiations were centered on how long the truce would last, arrangements for delivery of aid into Gaza and the exchange of Israeli hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

Both sides would free women and children and details would be announced by Qatar, which is mediating the negotiations, said the official, Issat el Reshiq.

Israel has generally avoided giving commentary on the status of the Qatar-led talks. Israel's Channel 12 television quoted an unidentified senior government source saying "they are close" but giving no further details.

Hamas took about 240 hostages during its October 7 rampage into Israel that killed 1,200 people.

Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), met Haniyeh in Qatar on Monday to "advance humanitarian issues" related to the conflict, the Geneva-based ICRC said in a statement. She also separately met Qatari authorities.

The ICRC said it was not part of negotiations aimed at releasing the hostages, but as a neutral intermediary ready "to facilitate any future release that the parties agree to."

Talk of an imminent hostage deal has swirled for days. Reuters reported last week that Qatari mediators were seeking a deal for Hamas to release 50 hostages in return for Israel freeing some prisoners and a three-day ceasefire.

Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday that he hoped for an agreement "in the coming days," while Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said that the remaining sticking points were "very minor." U.S. President Joe Biden and other U.S. officials said on Monday a deal was near.

The Hamas raid on October 7, the deadliest day in Israel's 75-year-old history, prompted Israel to invade Gaza to annihilate the militant group that has ruled there since 2007.

Since then, Gaza's Hamas-run government says at least 13,300 Palestinians have been confirmed killed, including at least 5,600 children, by Israeli bombardment that has turned much of Gaza, especially its northern half, into wasteland.

Around two-thirds of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been made homeless, with thousands a day still trekking south on foot with belongings and children in their arms. The central and southern parts of the enclave, where Israel has told them to go, have also regularly come under attack.

20 reported dead in Nuseirat strike

Gaza health authorities said on Tuesday at least 20 Palestinians were killed in Israeli bombing of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza at midnight. There was no immediate comment from Israel.

The already crowded Nuseirat district, which grew out of a camp for Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Israeli-Arab war, is just south of the wetlands that bisect the strip and has been the first arrival point for huge numbers escaping the fighting further north.

Tens of thousands of civilians are believed to remain in the north despite an Israeli order to flee. All hospitals there have ceased functioning normally, though many are still housing patients and displaced Gazans. Israel says Hamas uses hospitals as shields for its fighters, which Hamas and the hospitals deny.

Gaza's health ministry said on Monday that at least 12 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded by firing into an Indonesian-built hospital encircled by Israeli tanks. Israel says it shot back at fighters who opened fire from the inside.

Health officials said 700 patients along with staff were under Israeli fire, and have denied any fighters being present.

The head of the nursing department, Issam Nabhan, told Al-Jazeera Live on Tuesday that patients were dying and there were 60 dead bodies that needed to be buried in courtyards on the grounds. He called for patients and staff to be evacuated.

"There is no oxygen to supply the patients. All those on artificial respiration have died. We speak out to the free world. The Indonesian hospital has become a cemetery, not a hospital."

Israeli forces attacked Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza and destroyed parts of it, Palestinian media reported on Tuesday.

Editor's note: Moulik Jahan, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is a strategic and security affairs analyst. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Proactive international diplomacy is desperately needed, as shown by the continuous humanitarian disasters in Gaza brought on by the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. These kinds of international diplomacy will surely exert pressure on Israel, help to facilitate a quick ceasefire, and advance humanitarian relief in order to avert a more serious humanitarian catastrophe. In keeping with this, a delegation of foreign ministers from the Arab-Islamic worlds is in China from November 20 to 21 in an attempt to resurrect international diplomacy in support of an immediate ceasefire to the crisis.

The tour will be the first action taken to implement the decisions made at the last Arab-Islamic summit in Riyadh. To end the situation, Arab-Islamic nations need to cooperate with China and the rest of the international community. The ministers will follow up with other capitals in an effort to encourage the admission of humanitarian supplies into Gaza and a quick ceasefire. Nonetheless, this international diplomacy aims to foster shared comprehension and agreement among the nations to help bring an end to the conflict. As of November 19, over 14,400 people have died in the conflict, with the majority being civilians, including a sizable number of children.

Regarding the possibility of a thorough and equitable settlement to the Palestine-Israel crisis, China's recent attempts to keep up collaboration with certain Arab nations on the matter can make sense. China has been actively involved in de-escalation since the current Palestine-Israel conflict erupted. It has worked with the international community to spare efforts to put a stop to the violence, protect civilian lives, and provide humanitarian relief.

In an attempt to defuse the situation and lessen tensions, the Chinese government's Special Envoy to the Middle East, Zhai Jun, has been visiting nonstop to Middle Eastern nations recently. He supported the two-state solution as the only workable way out of the current conflict, joining the rest of the world in demanding an end to suffering and the pursuit of enduring peace.

The readiness of foreign ministers from Arab-Islamic countries to collaborate with China in order to advance peace and stability in the region speaks volumes about how international diplomacy is needed. Fostering meaningful engagement in the Middle East requires China's approach, which is characterized by a balance between pragmatism and values. China took a practical stance, joining the majority of nations in their fundamental agreement to enhance humanitarian assistance and avert humanitarian catastrophes.

The delegates who are seeking Chinese cooperation may be able to start a productive conversation. A just settlement depends on China's strategy, which is distinguished by non-interference and respect for the sovereignty of other countries. China's backing for the two-state solution is a welcome contribution to the global consensus, and the solution is still a feasible possibility. China has already made a name for itself in Middle East issues by diplomatically mediating disagreements between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

The leadership of China is adamantly in favor of an early cessation of hostilities and the proactive involvement of the international community in order to prevent this war from intensifying further. Since the beginning of the crisis, it has emphasized how urgent it is to stop this terrible conflict from continuing and maybe spreading.

As the Security Council's rotating president this month, China took the initiative to help the UNSC approve a resolution on November 15, which called for an immediate halt to hostilities in Gaza. Furthermore, on October 27, the UNGA adopted a resolution that called for an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce. China backed this resolution as well. All these developments and events demonstrated China's resolute support for the necessity of international diplomacy and a peaceful resolution of the Palestine-Israel conflict in accordance with UN resolutions and international law.

Engaging in meaningful discourse with the Chinese leadership is not only vital but also strategically and diplomatically necessary. A commitment to peaceful cohabitation based on respect and understanding between the two parties is necessary for a long-term resolution of the Palestine-Israel issue. Instead of isolating itself by hostile acts, Israel ought to actively look for opportunities for cooperation and coordination.

In addition, the international community has to understand that international diplomacy is a call to action as well as a forum for discourse. A proactive role is desperately needed to put an end to the carnage in Gaza and deal with the crisis. The world community's stated commitment to upholding ideals of justice, humanity, and peace must be fulfilled.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com. Follow @thouse_opinions on Twitter to discover the latest commentaries in the CGTN Opinion Section.)

Editor's note: Mariam Shah, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is an Islamabad-based independent researcher in the field of conflict studies and military psychology. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

November 20 is World Children's Day but amid the chaos of conflict in Gaza and Ukraine, where the children, being the most vulnerable, are caught in the crossfire of war.

War inflicts deeper wounds than mere flesh; it engraves traumatic imprints on the fragile souls of children, scarring their innocence and impacting their lives forever. The narrative of conflict often overshadows the silent victims, which are the innocent children robbed of their childhood. The psychological wounds inflicted by war's traumatic events run deeper and leave a permanent mark, shaping the entire lives of children who witnessed the horrors and uncertainties.

Conflict and children

Recent conflicts have involved fighting within highly populated urban areas where large civilian and child populations got involved. As per a report released by the UN International Children's Emergency Fund, global conflict, violence, and other crises left nearly 36.5 million children displaced from their homes at the end of 2021 – the highest number recorded since World War II. These figures do not include children displaced by climate and environmental disasters or those newly displaced between 2022 to 2023.

A recent study highlights a concerning global trend: an escalating burden on children and women due to armed conflicts. In 2017, approximately 630 million women and children – 10 percent of women and 16 percent of children worldwide – were displaced by or living perilously close to conflict zones. Shockingly, nearly half a billion children, or about one in six globally, are growing up in regions experiencing political violence or armed conflict.

Psychological scars of conflict

The prolonged exposure to war and constant uncertainty means the children are in a state of "toxic stress," especially in regions like Gaza, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Ukraine, and many other war-torn countries that share the same experiences of loss and destruction.

Globally, children residing in conflict zones endure bombings, starvation, loss of loved ones, and the destruction of essential infrastructures like schools and hospitals. Their struggle starts with the uncertainty of each passing day. They see unexplainable horrors of war, blood, and destruction, and all these have a detrimental effect on their long-term well-being.

Since children are still developing their coping mechanisms, they may struggle to regulate their emotions, leading to outbursts of anger, anxiety, and loneliness. These experiences also hinder typical emotional and cognitive development in affected children. Various studies have shown the consequences of war exposure on the mental health of these children.

Unfortunately, despite the sheer importance of the well-being of children amidst conflict, it is often overlooked in both care and research. In a study published last year on the impact of conflict on Palestinian children, it was found that children who did survive the wars do not emerge unharmed and can pay a high price psychologically, emotionally, and behaviorally.

As per another research, children aged five to 12 during wartime face significant challenges in readjusting to post-war life. Exposure to war-related violence strongly correlates with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Moreover, the depressive symptoms are primarily linked to stressors related to displacement. Importantly, failing to address traumatic responses may have long-term consequences, hindering children's ability to function well in social, academic, professional, and personal aspects of life.

In armed conflicts, children often bear the most lasting scars, carved not only on their bodies but imprinted on their minds and souls. The children who grew up in conflict-ridden environments like Gaza and Syria are unfortunately expected and compelled to face a reality that demands bravery, strength, and resilience beyond their years. Instead of experiencing a typical childhood, these children are forced into life's realities too early. These children should be able to enjoy childhood innocence, unburdened by the demands of life beyond their years.

Unfortunately, the more urgent the need to address this issue, the more frequently it tends to be neglected.

What needs to be done?

It is crucial to recognize the profound impact of conflict on the mental health of children and take measures to support their mental well-being. There is an urgent need for a global paradigm shift, urging policymakers, humanitarian organizations, and the international community to prioritize the mental well-being of children affected by conflict. It's our shared responsibility to talk about the mental health of these vulnerable children.

It is imperative to counter the societal stigma surrounding mental health in war-torn regions. This can include providing access to mental health services, creating safe spaces for children to express their emotions, and promoting peace-building efforts to prevent future conflicts.

But more than anything, it is high time to talk about dialogue instead of war and confrontation. No psychological intervention can undo trauma suffered by children, nor can it provide a solution. The world needs justice and peaceful political resolutions of armed conflicts.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com. Follow @thouse_opinions on Twitter to discover the latest commentaries in the CGTN Opinion Section.)

Hamas officials are "approaching a truce agreement" with Israel and the group delivered its response to Qatari officials, the leader of the Palestinian group, Ismail Haniyeh, said in a statement sent to Reuters by his aide.

There were no further details about the terms of the potential agreement.

At least 17 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli bombardment in the Nuiseirat camp in central Gaza Strip at midnight on Monday, Palestine's WAFA news agency reported.

At least 13,300 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza from Israeli strikes since October 7, according to Gaza's government media office on Monday.

An Israeli official said on Monday that progress has been made in the Qatar-mediated talks aimed at freeing some of the 240 hostages held by Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

According to Israel's state-owned Kan TV news, the proposed deal includes the release of about 50 women and children, who would be released in several stages. In exchange, Palestinian women and minors currently held in Israeli prisons would be released, in addition to a few-day pause in the relentless Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian officials said a field hospital sent by Jordan entered the Gaza Strip on Monday, the first since the conflict between Israel and Hamas erupted on October 7.

A first group of prematurely born babies who were evacuated from hospital in the Gaza Strip crossed into Egypt for medical treatment on Monday, according to Egypt's Al Qahera TV. 

The death toll in the Gaza Strip has reached 12,300, according to the Gazan government's media office. More than 5,000 children are among the casualties. 

As November 20 marks World Children's Day, CGTN Stringer recently visited a circus inside a school in Rafah City on the Gaza Strip. Despite the shadow of death and continuing chaos, the circus was trying to bring the fleeing children a moment of happiness.

"We have faced many difficulties, but we hope to empower the children and to relieve them from the pressure of war and chaos," Youssef Khoder, a coach with the circus said.

At least 15 people were killed on Monday in an Israeli strike that targeted two houses in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, Palestine's WAFA news agency reported.

There has been no immediate response from Israel.

Israel is hopeful that a significant number of hostages could be released by Hamas "in coming days," Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog said in an interview with ABC's "This Week" on Sunday.

"I'm hopeful we can have a deal in the coming days," Herzog said.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani on Sunday told a press conference in Doha that the main obstacles to a deal were now "very minor," with mainly "practical and logistical" issues to surmount.

The Washington Post reported on Saturday that Israel, the U.S. and Hamas were close to an agreement that the conflict would freeze combat operations for at least five days while an initial 50 or more hostages are released in batches every 24 hours, citing people familiar with the provisions.

Hamas took about 240 hostages during its assault on Israeli communities on October 7, which prompted Israel to lay siege to Gaza and invade the Palestinian territory.

So far, only four hostages taken by Hamas have been released, in two tranches. It is thought 239 people from 26 different countries are still being held, including some dual nationals.

Reuters on November 15 reported that Qatari mediators had been seeking a deal between Israel and Hamas to exchange 50 hostages in return for a three-day ceasefire, citing an official briefed on the talks. At the time, the official said general outlines had been agreed but Israel had still been negotiating details.

Hopes of a breakthrough in diplomacy were high last week, but two officials in the region noted that the Israeli military's move on Al-Shifa Hospital complicated the situation, according to CBS News.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday night that no deal had been reached, but U.S. President Biden's top Mideast adviser Brett McGurk in Manama described the hostage talks as intensive and ongoing before heading to Doha for meetings with the Qatari prime minister that night.

McGurk has publicly echoed Israel's call for the release of a "large number of hostages" in order to lead to a "significant pause in fighting" and what he described as a "massive" surge of humanitarian relief.

He acknowledged that one of Hamas' demands has been to receive fuel and humanitarian supplies, but didn't mention an earlier request by Hamas for the release of an undetermined number of Palestinian women and children from Israeli detention centers.

Humanitarian agencies, both NGOs and government-run, have vowed to rush emergency aid into Gaza if a humanitarian pause is agreed, but they have expressed concerns over huge difficulties since they do know how long the pause may extend, or how many crossings will be open. The logistical difficulties, given the needs and the indefinite brief pause, are described as a nightmare.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday once again called for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza in response to the increasing number of deaths in the region.

(With input from agencies)

(Cover: The Israeli flag and a banner calling for release of hostages taken by Hamas in Jerusalem, Israel, November 18, 2023. /CFP)

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday once again called for a humanitarian ceasefire in response to the increasing number of deaths in Gaza.

"This war is having a staggering and unacceptable number of civilian casualties, including women and children, every day," the top UN official said in a statement. "This must stop. I reiterate my call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire."

Since October 7, over 11,000 individuals have lost their lives in the beleaguered region of Gaza. Spikes in casualties, attacks on schools and shelters, including the death of a UN worker, and crippling fuel shortages blocking aid deliveries rippled across Gaza over the weekend, as the World Health Organization helped to evacuate 31 babies in critical condition at the besieged Al-Shifa Hospital.

"I am deeply shocked that two UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) schools were struck in less than 24 hours in Gaza. Dozens of people – many women and children – were killed and injured as they were seeking safety in United Nations premises," the secretary-general said.

He added that hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians are seeking shelter at United Nations facilities throughout Gaza due to the intensified fighting. "I reaffirm that our premises are inviolable."

(Cover: Smoke rising above buildings during an Israeli strike on the Gaza Strip, November 19, 2023. /CFP)

At least 13,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza from Israeli strikes since October 7, Gaza's government media office announced on Sunday.

Gaza's Health Ministry said 31 premature babies have been evacuated from Al-Shifa hospital and they will receive further treatment in Egypt.

The ministry also said roughly 250 patients are still in the hospital, Al Jazeera reported on Sunday.

Currently no deal has been reached yet on the release of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a press conference on Saturday night.

Netanyahu denied "incorrect reports" about a deal of releasing part of about 240 hostages held in Gaza is approaching, adding that the Israeli public will be updated if such an agreement is reached.

"All the people of Israel are marching with you," Netanyahu told the families of hostages, as some of them just completed a five-day march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, urging the government to do more to secure the release of hostages.

Netanyahu said he invited the representatives of the families to meet his cabinet in the coming days "to clarify how important this issue is to everyone."

He also vowed Israel will "keep fighting until Hamas is destroyed," despite growing international pressure to stop the war.

Hamas said Saturday evening that the Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip have severed its contact with some of its squads "guarding Israeli prisoners."

Abu Ubaida, spokesperson for the Hamas military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said in a press release that the fate of the prisoners and detainees remained unknown, without providing further details.

Israeli troops have been carrying out attacks on Gaza over the past weeks to retaliate against the Hamas surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7, during which Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people and took more than 200 hostages. 

The ongoing conflict has also killed more than 12,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's government media office.

(With input from Xinhua)

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani on Saturday condemned Israeli attacks on hospitals in the Gaza Strip as violations of human rights principles and international law.

In a post on social media platform X, Kanaani said attacking medical centers was also in violation of the Geneva Conventions.

"After Israeli officials' failure in proving their false claims about Al-Shifa Hospital (in Gaza), the Israeli army has resumed attacks on other hospitals in Gaza. Striking the hospitals of Indonesia and Jordan is another manifestation of Israel's aggressive and brutal nature," he said.

Israeli forces raided Al-Shifa Hospital a number of times over the past days, claiming that a Hamas military headquarters was concealed below the medical compound, for which they have not provided any evidence yet.

Both Hamas and the health ministry in Gaza denied Israel's accusations.

Israel on Wednesday carried out a strike on a Jordanian military hospital in Gaza, in which seven Jordanian medics were wounded.

The Israeli army has also shelled the vicinity of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza over the past days. The hospital, according to its director Atef al-Kahlout, "has gone completely out of service" due to a lack of supplies and an overwhelming number of patients amid Israelis attacks on the coastal enclave.

In addition, Palestine TV reported on Saturday morning that the Israeli army had demanded the evacuation of Al-Shifa Hospital within an hour.

Israel has been carrying out attacks on Gaza over the past weeks and has imposed a siege on the enclave to retaliate Hamas attacks on southern Israel on October 7. The conflict has so far led to the deaths of over 11,500 Palestinians in Gaza. On the Israeli side, about 1,200 people lost their lives, the majority of whom were killed in the Hamas attacks.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen rejected on Saturday the displacement of the residents of the Gaza Strip, whether inside or outside the enclave, particularly to the Egyptian territories.

During a meeting in the Egyptian capital Cairo, Sisi and von der Leyen discussed the latest developments of the Israeli military escalation in the Palestinian territories, the Egyptian Presidency said in a statement.

Sisi underscored the importance of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the protection of civilians, and the delivery of relief aid to the people in Gaza, who are being subjected to enormous human suffering.

He also emphasized the need for the international community to assume its responsibilities and for the implementation of the resolutions of the UN Security Council and the General Assembly in this regard.

Sisi reviewed Egypt's efforts and role in the reception of wounded Palestinians and the evacuation of foreign nationals.

For her part, von der Leyen offered an overview of her assessment of the developments in Gaza.

The two sides both recognized the only solution to the Palestinian issue is to achieve just and comprehensive peace, based on the two-state solution, in accordance with the adopted international terms of reference.

Israel has been carrying out an all-out attack on Gaza to retaliate against the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on October 7, during which Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people and took more than 200 hostages.

According to Gaza's government media office, the total number of Palestinian deaths in the enclave has exceeded 12,000 since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict on October 7.

The White House has said no deal has yet been reached between Israel and Hamas, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing a White House spokesperson.

The Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip has climbed to 12,300, including 5,000 children, amid Israel's persistent air strikes following Hamas' attack in southern Israel on October 7, according to the Hamas-run health authorities in Gaza.

Many Americans have participated in demonstrations voicing their support for the Palestinians after Israel unleashed its deadliest air strikes on the Gaza Strip. Thousands of people have marched across New York City, with the headquarters of Fox News being one of their destinations.

Amid fears that Palestinians would be pushed out of the Gaza Strip as the Israeli military steps up its offensive into the coastal enclave, European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has made a trip to the region, articulating the EU's position on the Palestine-Israel conflict.

Gaza must be governed by a reinforced Palestinian Authority once Israel completes its war against Hamas, Borrell said on Friday in a joint press statement with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh in Ramallah.

There can be no "forced displacement of Palestinian people out of Gaza, no territorial changes, no reoccupation by Israel or a safe haven for Hamas," he said.

Shtayyeh expressed regret that Borrell had not been able to visit the Palestinian enclave.

"I know that you have been visiting certain areas in Israel and you have seen what you have seen," he said. "It's a pity that you did not ... see Gaza. It's a pity that you did not" see the tens of thousands of Palestinians who were killed and injured by Israeli air strikes.

A number of countries have been trying to evacuate their citizens from Israel and Gaza as the ongoing war puts many foreign nationals at risk. The Netherlands on Friday deployed its navy vessel Zr.Ms. Holland to the Mediterranean Sea.

Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank have intensified since October 7. A major incursion launched by Israeli security forces in the city of Jenin has destroyed roads and killed several Hamas militants. Escalating violence in the West Bank has added to fears that the territory could spiral out of control.

Israel, the United States and Hamas are close to an agreement to free dozens of women and children held hostage in Gaza, in exchange for a five-day pause in fighting, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.

Under the terms of a detailed, six-page agreement, all parties to the conflict would freeze combat operations for at least five days while an initial 50 or more of what are believed to be a total 239 hostages are released in batches every 24 hours, the report continued, citing people familiar with the provisions.

The release could begin within the next several days and "it remained unclear until now that Israel would agree to temporarily pause its offensive in Gaza, provided the conditions were right," according to the report. 

The World Health Organization said Sunday it had led an assessment mission to Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City and determined it was a "death zone", urging a full evacuation.

"WHO and partners are urgently developing plans for the immediate evacuation of the remaining patients, staff and their families," the United Nations health agency said in a statement, adding that 291 patients and 25 health workers remained inside the hospital.

Dozens of people have been killed after Israeli forces bombed the Al-Fakhoura school in Gaza on Saturday, Palestine's WAFA news agency reported.

The school, which is run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), is located in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

An official of the Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip said "at least 50 people" were killed in the bombing at the UN school, where displaced people have taken shelter. The strike happened at dawn, the official told AFP. 

There has been no response from Israel so far.

(With input from AFP)

The Israeli army denied claims that it ordered the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza to be evacuated, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said in a statement on Saturday.

The statement said that the hospital's medical staff can remain in place and attend to the patients. Those who wish to leave the premises can do so through a secured route. 

Earlier, the Hamas-affiliated Shehab News Agency reported that the IDF demanded doctors, patients and displaced individuals to evacuate from Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital within one hour.

Hundreds of people evacuated the hospital on foot on Saturday, according to an AFP journalist at the scene, after the hospital director said the Israeli army ordered the hospital to be emptied. The Hamas-run health ministry said in a statement 120 wounded were still at the facility, along with an unspecified number of premature babies, adding it was in touch with the Red Cross about the infants.  

According to an Al Jazeera report, thousands of Palestinians who have been forced to leave the hospital are travelling to the south of the Gaza Strip.

(With input from AFP)

The death toll after the Israeli bombing of a residential neighborhood in Khan Yunis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, has risen to 26, according to Al Jazeera. 

- Telecom services have been partially restored in the Gaza Strip after the entry of a limited quantity of fuel via UNRWA, Gaza's main telecommunications companies Paltel and Jawwal said in a statement on Friday.

- Israel's war cabinet has agreed to allow 140,000 liters of fuel into Gaza every two days after a request from Washington, amid acute shortages that threatened aid deliveries and communications in the besieged strip.

- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reaffirmed that a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip is possible only if "we can get our hostages back."

- According to the Media Office of the Gaza Government, more than 12,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict on October 7, while nearly 30,000 people have been injured. 

Israel will allow two fuel trucks per day to enter Gaza to support collapsing water and sewage systems and to avoid the spread of disease following an appeal by the U.S. to allow fuel to be delivered into the region.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Security Advisor, Tzachai Hanegbi confirmed the news in a press conference on Friday, in a move that could give Israel diplomatic breathing space as it comes under increasing pressure from the international community to agree to a ceasefire and spare civilian lives.

But shortly after that announcement, the Hamas-controlled health ministry said that 24 patients at a hospital in war-torn Gaza had died within 48 hours due to power outages, as Israeli forces searched the complex for Hamas hideouts.

"Twenty-four patients... have died over the last 48 hours" at Al-Shifa hospital "as vital medical equipment has stopped functioning because of the power outage," Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.

Gaza evacuations into Egypt suspended

Evacuations from the Gaza Strip into Egypt for foreign passport holders and for Palestinians needing urgent medical treatment were suspended on Friday, three Egyptian security sources and a Palestinian official said.

The Palestinian official and an Egyptian medical source said the suspension was due to problems bringing medical evacuees to the Rafah border crossing from inside Gaza.

Limited evacuations from Gaza to Egypt began on November 1 and were paused twice in the past week due to bombardments that aid staff said hit or targeted medical convoys.

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The Egyptian sources said several dozen foreign passport holders and their dependents as well as a small number of medical evacuees had entered Egypt on Friday before crossings were suspended.

On other days, several hundred foreign passport holders, dual nationals and dependents had been crossing.

Early on Friday, Gaza border authorities published a list of those newly authorised to cross, including groups from Canada, Romania, Russia, Brazil and Poland.

Aid agencies call for ceasefire

International organizations and aid agencies called on Thursday for an immediate ceasefire to end a "haemorrhage of human lives" in Gaza, warning that the situation could quickly spiral out of control. 

They made their appeals at a conference in Paris intended to coordinate aid and assess how to help people wounded in Gaza since Israeli launched its ground and air offensive in response to an attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel on Oct. 7. 

Representatives of Arab nations, Western powers and members of the Group of 20 major economies were among those attending the conference, but Israel was not invited and few heads of state, government or foreign ministers were there. Expectations for concrete results are low if there is no pause in fighting. 

Participants were set to discuss a proposal to create a maritime corridor to ship humanitarian aid into Gaza or evacuate the wounded, the establishment of field hospitals and financial assistance to ease the growing humanitarian crisis. 

WHO warns against forced hospital evacuations

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday the forced evacuation of hospitals in the Gaza Strip would put the lives of hundreds of patients at risk as he called the situation on the ground "indescribable".

"Twenty-three hospitals have been ordered to evacuate in Gaza City and north Gaza, and forced evacuation in these circumstances would put the lives of hundreds of patients in a life threatening situation," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

At a press conference in Geneva, Tedros also reiterated the call for a humanitarian pause in the Israel-Hamas war to help the thousands injured, as well as the chronically sick.

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Israel's war cabinet unanimously approved allowing two diesel tankers a day to enter Gaza to support water and sewer infrastructure for the needs of the UN, the Jerusalem Post reported on Friday.

Hamas stopped negotiations with Israel on the release of hostages, RIA reported on Friday, citing Israeli ambassador in Moscow.

At least 11 people were killed after Israel launched strikes on Jabalia camp in northern Gaza, Palestinian news agency WAFA reported on Friday.

Several people were also killed in Israeli bombing targeting displaced people in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, the report added.

Israel did not immediately respond to the claims.

Nine people were killed and dozens injured in an Israeli strike that targeted a petrol station housing displaced people in central Gaza, Al Jazeera reported on Thursday.

There has been no immediate response from Israel.

The UN Security Council on Wednesday adopted a resolution calling for urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors in Gaza.

The resolution won the support of 12 of the 15 council members. Britain, Russia and the United States abstained.

The Israeli military reported conducting an operation against Palestinian Hamas militants at Gaza Strip's Al Shifa Hospital on Wednesday, urging all members of the group in the hospital to surrender.

Less than an hour earlier, around 1 a.m. local time, Ashraf Al-Qidra, Gaza's health ministry spokesman, said Israel had told officials in the enclave that it would raid the Shifa hospital complex "in the coming minutes."

Five weeks into Israel's assault on Gaza, the fate of Al Shifa has garnered international concern due to deteriorating conditions in the facility. The plight of Gazan civilians has sparked calls for a humanitarian ceasefire.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said: "Based on intelligence information and an operational necessity, IDF forces are carrying out a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area in the Shifa hospital."

The military added: "The IDF forces include medical teams and Arabic speakers, who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment, with the intent that no harm is caused to the civilians."

Israel has said that Hamas has a command center underneath Al Shifa hospital, the biggest in Gaza, and uses the hospital and tunnels underneath to conceal military operations and to hold hostages. Hamas denies it.

The U.S. said on Tuesday that its own intelligence supported those conclusions.

Israeli forces have waged fierce street battles against Hamas fighters over the past 10 days before advancing into the center of Gaza City and surrounding Al Shifa.

Dire conditions

Hamas says 650 patients and 5,000 to 7,000 other civilians are trapped inside Al Shifa hospital grounds, under constant fire from Israeli snipers and drones. Amid shortages of fuel, water and supplies, it says 40 patients have died in recent days.

Thirty-six babies are left from the neo-natal ward after three died. Without fuel for generators to power incubators, the babies were being kept as warm as possible, lined up eight to a bed.

Palestinians trapped in the hospital dug a mass grave on Tuesday to bury patients who died, and no plan was in place to evacuate babies despite Israel announcing an offer to send portable incubators, Qidra said.

Qidra reported approximately 100 bodies decomposing inside and no way to get them out.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was deeply disturbed by the "dramatic loss of life" in the hospitals, his spokesman said. "In the name of humanity, the secretary-general calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire," the spokesman told reporters.

Medical officials in Hamas-run Gaza say 11,320 people are confirmed dead amid Israeli strikes, around 40 percent of them children, and countless others trapped under rubble.

Around two-thirds of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been made homeless, unable to escape the territory where food, fuel, fresh water and medical supplies are running out.

U.S. President Joe Biden discussed ongoing efforts to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas, including children and Americans, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone conversation on Tuesday, the White House said in a statement.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Wednesday that its forces are carrying out "a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area in the Al-Shifa Hospital," based on intelligence information and an operational necessity.

Israel has officially informed the health authorities in Gaza of its intention to storm the Al-Shifa hospital "in the coming minutes," the authorities told Al Jazeera early on Wednesday.

There has been no confirmation from Israel.

An informed Palestinian source said on Tuesday that delegates of Israel and Hamas had reached an initial agreement to implement a temporary humanitarian ceasefire under international and Arab sponsorship.

The source, who requested to remain anonymous, told Xinhua that the delegates had to report to senior authorities on both sides for approval and the agreement could be "implemented at any moment."

The source refused to talk about the details of the agreement, but said that "it will be implemented in stages."

He added that a humanitarian truce was expected to be announced soon, under which civilian hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip will be released in exchange for the release of women and children detained by Israel.

Palestinians trapped inside Gaza's biggest hospital were digging a mass grave on Tuesday to bury patients who died under Israeli encirclement and said no plan was in place to evacuate babies despite Israel announcing an offer to send portable incubators. 

Israeli forces have surrounded Gaza City's Al Shifa hospital, which they say sits above the underground headquarters of Hamas militants. 

Hamas, Gaza's ruling Islamist group, denies fighters are present and says 650 patients and 5,000-7,000 other displaced civilians are trapped inside the hospital grounds, under constant fire from snipers and drones. It says 40 patients have died in recent days, including three premature babies whose incubators were knocked out. A Hamas official in Beirut said 25 of Gaza's 35 hospitals were out of use because of Israel's assault. 

Five weeks after Israel swore to destroy Hamas in retaliation for a cross-border assault by militants, the fate of Al Shifa has become a focus of international alarm, including from Israel's closest ally, the United States. 

Ashraf Al-Qidra, Gaza's health ministry spokesman, said there were about 100 bodies decomposing inside and no way to get them out. 

"We are planning to bury them today in a mass grave inside the Al Shifa medical complex. It is going to be very dangerous as we don't have any cover or protection from the ICRC," he told Reuters, referring to the International Committee of the Red Cross/Crescent. 

Thirty-six babies are left from the neo-natal ward after three died. Without fuel for generators to power incubators, the babies were being kept as warm as possible, lined up eight to a bed. 

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Israel announced on Tuesday that it was offering portable, battery-powered incubators so the babies could be moved. But Qidra said that so far no arrangements had been established to carry out any such evacuation. 

"We have no objection to having the babies moved to any hospital, in Egypt, the West Bank or even to the occupation (Israeli) hospitals. What we care most about is the wellbeing and the lives of those babies," he said. "The occupation [Israeli army] is still besieging the hospital and they are firing into the yards from time to time." 

Israel denies the hospital is under siege and says its forces allow exit routes for those inside. Medics and officials inside the hospital deny this and say those trying to leave come under fire. Reuters news agency could not verify the situation independently. 

'Thousands trapped in hospitals' 

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said shots were fired on Tuesday at one of its bases near Al Shifa, where MSF staff and their families, more than 100 people in total, were sheltering. 

"They ran out of food last night," MSF said on X, formerly Twitter. "We have been trying to evacuate them for three days. MSF is asking the Israeli army and Hamas to provide safe passage... Thousands of civilians, medical personnel and patients are currently trapped inside hospitals and other sites under fire in Gaza City." 

Medical officials in Hamas-run Gaza say more than 11,000 people are confirmed dead from Israeli strikes, around 40 per cent of them children, and countless others trapped under rubble. Around two thirds of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been made homeless, unable to escape the territory where food, fuel, fresh water and medical supplies are running out. 

'It will take hours and hours to bury bodies' 

Ahmed El Mokhallalati, a surgeon, said the main risk now was from decomposing bodies. "We are sure that all kind of infections will be transmitted. Today we had a little bit of rain. It was really horrible, nobody could even open a window, or just walk around the corridors with a really bad smell," he said. 

"Burying 120 bodies needs a lot of equipment, it can't be by hand efforts and by single person efforts. It will take hours and hours to be able to bury all these bodies." 

Doctors performed surgery without any oxygen on Monday, he said, making general anesthesia impossible. 

Israel's military has released video and photos of what it said were weapons Hamas had stored in the basement of another hospital, Rantissi, specialising in cancer treatment for children. Hamas said the images were staged. 

The armed wing of Hamas said it was ready to free up to 70 women and children held in Gaza in exchange for a five-day ceasefire. Al-Qassam Brigade spokesman Abu Ubaida said Israel had asked for 100 to be freed. 

There was no immediate public response from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, which has generally avoided commenting on negotiations over the release of captives, possibly in a swap for security prisoners held by Israel. 

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Tuesday he believed a release of hostages was going to happen. "Hang in there, we're coming," he said at the White House. 

Israel's foreign minister said on Tuesday that United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was not fit to head the global body, saying he had not done enough to condemn militant group Hamas and was too close to Iran. "Guterres does not deserve to be the head of the United Nations," Eli Cohen said.

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The United States and Britain imposed a fresh round of sanctions on Tuesday targeting Hamas as they seek to cut off funding for the militant Palestinian group following its deadly attack on Israel last month.

The United States announced its third round of sanctions since the attack, targeting key Hamas officials and the mechanisms through which Iran provides support to Hamas and its ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), another militant group.

Britain added six new designations to its counter-terrorism sanctions list, including four individuals linked to Hamas, an update to the UK government website showed.

A Hamas official said on Tuesday that Israel's bombardment and ground operations of the Gaza Strip had put 25 of the besieged territory's 35 hospitals out of use.

"It has also destroyed 94 government buildings and 253 schools," Osama Hamdan, a Beirut-based Hamas official, told a news conference in the Lebanese capital. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has admitted Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City "is not functioning as a hospital any more" as U.S. President Joe Biden called for the region's largest medical center to be protected amid ongoing fighting.

Israel has accused Hamas of running a command centre under Al-Shifa, which the hospital and Hamas deny. The medical facility, Gaza's biggest, is "nearly a cemetery," the WHO has warned. 

"My hope and expectation is that there will be less intrusive action relative to hospitals and we remain in contact with the Israelis," Biden told reporters. "Also, there is an effort to get this pause to deal with the release of prisoners and that's being negotiated, as well, with the Qataris... being engaged. So I remain somewhat hopeful but hospitals must be protected." 

Al-Shifa hospital's director said on Tuesday 179 people, including babies and patients who died in the intensive care unit, had been buried at the complex. "We were forced to bury them in a mass grave," said Mohammad Abu Salmiyah, adding that seven babies and 29 intensive care patients were among those buried after hospital fuel supplies ran out. 

A spokesman for the Gaza health ministry said on Tuesday there was no objection to having babies evacuated from the centre but there was no mechanism for an evacuation to take place. "What we care most is about the wellbeing and the lives of those babies," Ashraf Al-Qidra said.

Eight Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said on Tuesday. Seven Palestinians were killed during an Israeli military raid on the northern city of Tulkarem, the health ministry and a local hospital said. Witnesses reported clashes in the area and a large deployment of Israeli soldiers seeking to make arrests. 

Hamas' armed wing prepared to release hostages

Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, posted an audio recording on Telegram saying the group was ready to release as many as 70 women and children hostages in return for a five-day ceasefire, an offer Israel is unlikely to accept. 

"We told the (Qatari) mediators that in a five-day truce, we can release 50 of them and the number could reach 70 due to the difficulty that the captives are held by different factions," said al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Ubaida said, saying Israel had asked for 100 to be freed. 

Israel, which effectively blockades Gaza, has rejected a ceasefire, arguing Hamas would simply use it to regroup but has permitted brief humanitarian "pauses" to allow food and other supplies to flow in and foreigners to flee. 

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Washington would "like to see considerably longer pauses – days, not hours – in the context of a hostage release." 

Israeli forces bombarded southern Gaza on Tuesday after tanks advanced to the gates of the enclave's biggest hospital in the north where health officials say dozens of patients, including babies, have died due a lack of power and the heavy fighting. 

At least 13 people were killed when Israeli forces targeted their homes in the southern city of Khan Younis, Gaza health ministry officials said. The military has also positioned tanks outside Al Shifa, Gaza City's main medical center. 

Israel's military on Tuesday confirmed the death of a soldier held captive in Gaza after Hamas issued video of her alive followed by images of what the Palestinian faction said was her body after she was killed in an Israeli strike. 

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British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel were motivated not just by "hatred" but also by an unease that Israel was forging new ties within the region. 

Referring to meetings with Israelis, he said "I sat with them, held their hands and saw the profound pain in their eyes. I heard the existential fear that the Israelis are feeling." 

David Cameron, the former prime minister who was appointed the UK's new foreign secretary on Monday, has spoken to his American counterpart Antony Blinken about the Israel-Gaza conflict. 

According to a social media post from his new office, Cameron and the U.S. Secretary of State discussed "Israel's right to self-defense and the need for humanitarian pauses to allow the safe passage of aid into Gaza."

Meanwhile in France, more than 1,500 anti-Semitic acts and comments have been recorded since the escalation between Israel and Hamas, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Tuesday. There have been growing tensions in France, home to large Jewish and Muslim communities, as the conflict rages in the Gaza Strip.

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The Israeli army said on Tuesday that it seized Hamas' legislative council, government complex and other Hamas authority centers in Gaza, according to a statement from Avijaa Adraei, Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson, on social media platform X.

At least 11,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza from Israeli retaliatory strikes, according to Al Jazeera on Tuesday citing Gaza authority.

Eight Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli army in the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said on Tuesday.

Patients and premature babies in Gaza are stranded without supply, or forced to flee the hospitals as battles between Israel and Hamas escalate.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society reported that attempts to evacuate the al-Quds Hospital, the second-largest hospital in Gaza, failed due to "continuing shelling and shooting."

"The convoy was forced to return due to the dangerous conditions in the Tal al-Hawa area, where the hospital is located," said the Red Crescent in a statement. "The medical staff, patients and their companions are still trapped inside the hospital without food, water or electricity," it said.

Israel denied it was attacking hospitals. In a statement, the military said that a militant squad embedded itself in the area of the al-Quds Hospital and shot RPG fire and gunfire from the hospital entrance at soldiers.

The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had "initiated a humanitarian effort to coordinate transfer of incubators" from Israel to Al-Shifa Hospital but none of the devices, often used to keep pre-mature newborns warm, had been received by the facility.

Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said that it has informed mediators of its readiness to release 50 women and children hostages held in Gaza in exchange for a five-day ceasefire.

Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson for Al-Qassam Brigades, said in a message on its Telegram channel that the continued Israeli ground, naval, and aerial aggression threatens the lives of the detainees held by them and by other armed Palestinian factions in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday doubled down on Israel's war against Hamas, vowing that Israel will see the "war to the end."

Hamas media office in Gaza said on Monday that the Palestinian death toll had risen to 11,240, with over 40 percent of them children.

U.S. President Joe Biden expressed concern for hospitals in Gaza on Monday, expressing hope that "there will be less intrusive action relative to the hospitals."

Fuel crisis

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said it has no fuel to fill its trucks in Gaza and will not be able to facilitate aid deliveries through the Rafah crossing on Tuesday. 

Thomas White, director of the UNRWA, warned that all of the group's aid operations in Gaza will be shut down in the next 48 hours unless fuel is allowed into the besieged territory.

The agency's fuel depot in Gaza has run dry and within a few days UNRWA will no longer be able to resupply hospitals, remove sewage and provide drinking water, the UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini, told donors on Monday.

Palestinian health officials said hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip went out of service as a result of the ongoing Israeli attacks and the outage of fuel needed to operate generators.

"The exhaustion of fuel in the last generator at Al-Shifa Medical Complex caused the deaths of at least five newborns and seven other patients," said Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesperson of the health ministry. 

(With input from agencies)

At least 179 people, including babies and patients who died in the intensive care unit, have been buried in the Al-Shifa hospital compound in Gaza, AFP reported on Tuesday, citing the hospital's director.

Ten people were killed and several others injured in an Israeli strike on two houses in the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip early Tuesday, Palestine's WAFA news agency reported.

Earlier, WAFA also reported six deaths in Jabalia camp in northern Gaza and five deaths in Tulkarm camp in the northern West Bank during clashes with Israeli forces.

There has been no response from Israel.

The armed wing of Hamas said on Monday it told Qatari mediators the group was ready to release up to 70 women and children held in Gaza in return for a five-day truce with Israel.

"Qatari mediators have made efforts to release Israeli detainees in exchange for releasing 200 Palestinian children and 75 women," Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson for the armed wing of Hamas, al-Qassam Brigades, said in an audio recording posted on the group's Telegram channel.

"The truce should include a complete ceasefire and allow aid and humanitarian relief everywhere in the Gaza Strip," he said.

(With input from agencies)

At least 11,240 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza from Israeli strikes since October 7, the Hamas-run government media office in Gaza said Monday.

At least three Palestinians have been killed and 20 others injured after an Israeli air strike hit Bani Suhaila, a town east of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, health officials on Monday said.

There's no immediate response from Israel yet.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees warned Monday its operations in Gaza would shut down within two days due to fuel shortages as fighting rages between Israel and Hamas. 

"The humanitarian operation in Gaza will grind to a halt in the next 48 hours as no fuel is allowed to enter Gaza," UNRWA's Gaza chief Thomas White wrote on social media platform X.

At least 32 hospital patients from Gaza's Al Shifa hospital have died over the past three days, the spokesman for the Palestinian health ministry, Ashraf Al Qidra, said on Monday. The dead include three premature babies, Al Qidra added, as the facility suffers continued fuel shortages.

The hospital, Gaza's largest, has suffered energy shortages for days as it has been caught amid intense fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants.

Youssef Abu Rish, deputy health minister in the Palestinian territory ruled by Hamas, said all the hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip are "out of service." Conditions are worsening for hundreds of patients and thousands of others sheltering in Al-Shifa, which has become a flashpoint in the war that has raged for more than five weeks.

Israel pledged to help evacuate babies from the facility, but that has not happened as the hospital remains caught in Israel's ground offensive. The Israeli army also said its ground soldiers had hand-delivered 300 liters of fuel to the hospital "for urgent medical purposes."

But that was not collected by authorities in the facility as fierce fighting rages, with Israel claiming that Hamas prevented the hospital from taking it. Al-Shifa director Mohammad Abu Salmiya contested the Israeli claims.

He said the Israeli army called him and stated the fuel would be dropped off 500 meters from Al-Shifa. "I told them 'if you want to help, I need at least 8,000 litres to run the main generators and save hundreds of patients and injured'," he said.

"They refused and we no longer have any idea" of the status of the fuel that was dropped off, he added. Israel is facing intense international pressure to minimize civilian suffering amid a massive air and ground operation that Hamas authorities say has already killed more than 11,000 people, including thousands of children.

The military campaign came after Hamas fighters broke through the militarized border with Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 240 people hostage, according to the most recent Israeli figures.

Israel sharpens warning to Lebanon

Israel said it was poised to impose quiet on the Lebanese front as hostilities spiked on Sunday, with Hezbollah wounding civilians in a cross-border missile attack and the Israeli air force bombing sites linked to the Iranian-backed group.

The chief Israeli military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, described Hezbollah as "the defender of Hamas-ISIS."

Hezbollah, whose rocket arsenal is widely believed to dwarf that of Hamas, has been carrying out relatively limited attacks in solidarity with the Palestinians. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday described the Israel front as "active."

But with at least 70 of the group's fighters, along with several Lebanese civilians, having been killed in Israeli counterstrikes, Hezbollah's tactics have expanded to include rockets with 300kg-500kg warheads and kamikaze drones.

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Gaza's biggest hospital attacked

On Sunday, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a guided missile attack that Israel said wounded at least two electrical company workers sent to carry out repairs at a border community.

A mortar attack wounded seven Israeli soldiers, the military said. A rocket set off sirens near the Israeli port city of Haifa, 27 km (17 miles) from the Lebanese border, but caused no casualties. A Lebanese wing of Hamas took credit for the launch.

Israel said its air force and artillery struck Hezbollah and other targets in Lebanon in response, saying it was holding the group and the Beirut government responsible for all hostilities.

"The IDF (military) is focused on Gaza but we are at a very high state of readiness in the north," Hagari said. "Lebanon's citizens will bear the cost of this recklessness, and of Hezbollah's decision to be the defender of Hamas-ISIS."

"The IDF has operational plans for changing the security situation in the north. The security situation will not remain one in which northern residents do not feel secure in returning to their homes," he said in a televised briefing.

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At least 32 hospital patients from Gaza's Al Shifa hospital have died over the past three days, the spokesman for the Palestinian health ministry, Ashraf Al Qidra, said on Monday.

The dead include three premature babies, Al Qidra added. Operations in Al Shifa hospital complex, the largest in the Palestinian enclave, were suspended on Saturday after it ran out of fuel.

The largest hospital in Gaza has ceased to function and fatalities among patients are rising, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday, as a fierce Israeli assault continues in the Hamas-controlled strip.

Hospitals in the north of the Palestinian enclave, including the al-Shifa complex, are blockaded by Israeli forces and barely able to care for those inside, with three newborns dead and more at risk from power outages amid intense fighting nearby, according to medical staff.

Israel says it is homing in on Palestinian Hamas militants who launched deadly attacks in southern Israel on October 7, and says the group has command centers under and near the hospitals.

The WHO managed to speak to health professionals at al-Shifa, who described a "dire and perilous" situation with constant gunfire and bombing exacerbating the already critical situation, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

"Tragically, the number of patient fatalities has increased significantly," he said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, adding that al-Shifa was "not functioning as a hospital anymore".

Tedros joined other top United Nations officials in calling for an immediate ceasefire.

"The world cannot stand silent while hospitals, which should be safe havens, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation, and despair," he said.

The president of Indonesia, home to the world's biggest Muslim population, also called for a ceasefire ahead of meeting U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington on Monday.

"A ceasefire must be implemented soon, we also must accelerate and increase the amount of humanitarian aid, and we must begin peace negotiations," President Joko Widodo said in a video recorded after he took part in an Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Riyadh.

He said the world seemed "helpless" in the face of the suffering of the Palestinians. The extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit also urged the International Criminal Court to investigate "war crimes and crimes against humanity that Israel is committing" in the Palestinian territories.

Israel says it is trying to free the more than 200 hostages taken by Hamas militants on October 7 and says the hospitals should be evacuated.

The European Union condemned Hamas for using "hospitals and civilians as human shields" in Gaza, while also urging Israel to show "maximum restraint" to protect civilians.

"These hostilities are severely impacting hospitals and taking a horrific toll on civilians and medical staff," European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Sunday in a statement issued on behalf of the 27-nation bloc.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Hamas was using hospitals and other civilian facilities to house fighters and weapons, which he said was a violation of the laws of war.

"The United States does not want to see firefights in hospitals where innocent people, patients receiving medical care, are caught in the crossfire and we've had active consultations with the Israeli Defense Forces on this," Sullivan told CBS News.

Israel declared war on Hamas more than a month ago after militants rampaged through southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, according to Israeli officials.

Palestinian officials said on Friday that 11,078 Gaza residents had been killed in air and artillery strikes since then, around 40 percent of them children.

The Israeli military response has also prompted outrage in several cities across the world, where hundreds of thousands of people held protests demanding a ceasefire.

Israel's supporters, including in Washington, say a ceasefire would allow Hamas to prepare for more attacks, but the Biden administration has pushed Israel to allow pauses in the fighting for civilians to flee and for aid to enter.

Biden, who spoke on Sunday with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani about developments in Gaza, agreed that all hostages held by Hamas must be released "without further delay", the White House said in a statement.

The conflict has raised fears of a broader conflagration. Lebanon-based Hezbollah, which like Hamas is backed by Iran, has traded missile attacks with Israel, and other Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria have launched at least 40 separate drone and rocket attacks on U.S. forces.

The United States carried out two air strikes in Syria against Iran-aligned groups on Sunday, a U.S. defense official told Reuters, in what appeared to be the latest response to the attacks.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday urged immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to protect civilians and step up aid amid "extremely severe humanitarian situation".  

Responding to questions regarding attacks on medical facilities in the conflict zone, spokesperson of Chinese Foreign Ministry Mao Ning said relevant parties of the international community should also take concrete measures and make greater efforts to this end.

The Israel Defense Forces on Monday announced the death of two more soldiers in northern Gaza, raising the military death toll "inside Gaza during the war" since October 7 to 44. 

None of the hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip are operational, the Hamas-run health ministry said Monday, as intense fighting rages between Israeli troops and Hamas militants. 

Youssef Abu Rish, deputy health minister in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, told AFP all hospitals in the north of the enclave were "out of service."

Fifteen lives were lost, including six premature babies and nine patients at a Gaza hospital due to a power outage, Al Arabiya reported on Monday, citing the health ministry in Gaza.

Flags flew at half-mast at United Nations compounds across Asia on Monday, as staff observed a minute's silence in memory of colleagues killed in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas conflict. 

The Israeli cabinet has approved regulations that allow the closure of any foreign media channel whose broadcasts harm the security of the state, Israeli public radio station KAN news reported on Monday.

Most departments at Al Shifa Hospital, the largest hospital in Gaza, have ceased operations due to ongoing airstrikes in the vicinity of the hospital, where thousands of injured and displaced people are trapped, Al Arabiya TV reported, citing the hospital's head.

The injured Palestinians at Al-Shifa Hospital are in pain and desperately crying for help. A young Palestinian girl mourns the loss of her father in the bombing. As she continues to grieve his separation, her mother remains in critical condition.

All hospitals in Gaza are out of service except for the Al-Shifa and Indonesian hospitals, Al Arabiya reported on Monday.

Two more major hospitals in Gaza closed to new patients on Sunday, with staff saying that Israeli bombardment plus lack of fuel and medicine meant more babies and others could die.

Gaza's largest and second largest hospitals, Al Shifa and Al-Quds, said they were suspending operations. With more people killed and wounded daily but half of the territory's hospitals now out of action, there are ever fewer places for the injured.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has managed to restore communication with health professionals at Shifa, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, adding that the situation was "dire and perilous" with constant gunfire and bombing exacerbating the already critical circumstances.

Hamas on Sunday said it is suspending hostage negotiations because of Israel's handling of the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza, a Palestinian official briefed on the hostage talks told Reuters.

The hospital has come under intense fire as Israeli forces close in on the facility. 

Israel accuses Hamas of using the hospital as a cover for a command center without providing proof. Hamas has denied the accusations.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society announced on Sunday that the Al-Quds hospital in Gaza is out of service and no longer operational due to fuel depletion and power outage.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday his country offered fuel to Gaza's Al Shifa hospital, which has suspended operations amid fierce fighting with Hamas, but that the group refused to receive it.

"We just offered Shifa hospital the fuel, they refused it," Netanyahu said, without providing details. 

Palestinians sheltering inside Gaza's al-Shifa hospital are pleading for help from the international community as Israeli tanks continue to lay siege to the facility amid nearby battles between Israeli and Hamas fighters in the enclave's capital. Meanwhile, fuel has run out at the key medical site, leading to the shutdown of essential equipment and the consequent deaths of newborn babies, according to the hospital's staff.

As the death toll in Gaza hit over 11,000 over the weekend - with around 40 percent of the victims being children - the enclave's health ministry announced that al-Shifa, Gaza's largest hospital, had ceased to function since Saturday due to fuel shortages. With electricity running out, two babies died in an incubator as a result, with dozens more at risk.

"We are using all and primitive means to try not to lose more lives," said Ashraf Al-Qidra, a representative of Gaza's health ministry. "But unless a solution is found to provide us with fuel or electricity the patients and injured are at risk of death."

Israel's military said on Sunday it would help evacuate babies from the hospital, at the request of the staff at al-Shifa, where according to one Doctors Without Borders surgeon, there is no water, power, food or internet access for about 600 post-operative patients, 40 babies and 17 people in intensive care. Asked about such evacuations for the infants, Al-Qidra said: "We have not been informed about any mechanism to get the babies out to a safer hospital. So far we are praying for their safety and not to lose more of them."

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Gaza's biggest hospital attacked

With the al-Shifa hospital caught up in Israel's ground invasion of Gaza, its military has denied it is deliberately targeting the site. However, its tanks and armored vehicles have closed in on the health facility and according to Palestinian reports have been attacking it with continuous bombardment for more than 24 hours. Health officials said on Sunday that its cardiac ward had been destroyed by the strikes, as Israeli troops, who have been set the task of destroying Hamas after its deadly cross-border assault on October 7, clashed with Palestinian fighters near the hospital. 

The World Health Organisation expressed "grave concern" for the safety of everyone trapped by the surrounding fighting, announcing on Sunday that it had lost communications with its last contacts at the medical site. Most hospital staff and people sheltering at al- Shifa have left, but 500 patients remain, with the facility's director saying that any person moving within the hospital compound was being attacked by Israeli snipers.

Israel has said doctors, patients and thousands of evacuees who have taken refuge at hospitals in northern Gaza must leave so it can eliminate Hamas fighters who it claims have placed command centers under and around them. Hamas denies using hospitals this way, stating that even if its fighters were located at medical facilities, it would not warrant the bombardment of civilians taking refuge there. Meanwhile, medical staff say patients could die if they are moved and Palestinian officials claim that Israeli fire is making it almost impossible to evacuate such sites. 

Twenty of Gaza's 36 hospitals are "no longer functioning," according to the UN's humanitarian agency, while very little aid has made it into Gaza in the five weeks of war, with the densely populated coastal territory effectively sealed off by a total blockade that Israel has vowed to maintain until Hamas frees Israeli hostages.

Reports of possible hostage deal

Israel's three major TV news channels, without citing named sources, have said there was some progress toward a deal to free the hostages. Some 200 Israelis were taken prisoner during the Palestinian political organization's deadly attack on Israel last month, which killed 1,200 people. Some of the hostages have already been freed, while Gaza authorities say others were killed during Israeli aerial attacks on the Strip.

At a news conference late on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would not discuss details of any possible deal, which according to N12 News would involve 50 to 100 women, children and elderly being released in stages during a three to five day pause in fighting. According to the reports, Israel would release women and minor Palestinian prisoners and consider letting fuel in to Gaza, while reserving the right to resume fighting.

Netanyahu in his address also ruled out a role for the current Palestinian Authority (PA) government in Gaza once the war is over. "There will have to be something else there," he said, when asked whether the PA, which has partial administrative control in the occupied West Bank, may govern Gaza after the conflict.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, in a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this month, said the PA could only assume power in Gaza if a "comprehensive political solution" is found for the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict encompassing the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu, in an interview earlier this week, said that Israel would assume "overall security" over Gaza "for an indefinite period" after the war.

Hundreds of thousands flee south

Israel's ground incursion into northern Gaza has accelerated an exodus of people toward the Strip's south. In total, the Israeli army said Saturday that in the past three days around 200,000 Palestinians had left southwards from the area of the northern Gaza Strip where fighting is heaviest. As the humanitarian situation worsened, Gaza's border authority said the Rafah crossing into Egypt would reopen on Sunday for foreign passport holders. 

In Gaza's south, arriving people were no longer able to find tents or improvized shelter, with some sleeping in the streets, as Israeli trikes continued to hit buildings in Rafah, the area to which civilians have been urged to evacuate. A strike in nearby Bani Souheila destroyed a dozen houses on Sunday, killing at least four people and wounded at least 30, said an AFP reporter at the scene.

Several leaders of Muslim countries called on Saturday for an immediate end to Israel's military operations in Gaza, rejecting its justification of its actions against Palestinians as self-defense. The extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit in Saudi Arabia's Riyadh urged the International Criminal Court to investigate "war crimes and crimes against humanity that Israel is committing" in the Palestinian territories, according to a final communique.

As the conflict continues to stoke regional tensions and fears of the war expanding into neighboring countries, Israel fighter jets carried out strikes against "terror infrastructure" targets inside Syria in response to cross-border fire directed at the Golan Heights, the military said on Sunday.

Exchanges of cross-border fire have also taken place regularly along the frontier with Lebanon. Speaking at the Riyadh summit on Saturday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi called on Islamic governments to designate Israel's military a "terrorist organisation." Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned Iranian ally Hezbollah that joining the war would result in widespread destruction in Lebanon similar to that in Gaza.

Large marches calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza have been held in cities around the world including New York, Paris, Baghdad, Karachi, Berlin, and Edinburgh. In London, where at least 300,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched, police were forced to arrest over 120 people as far-right counter-protesters attempted to ambush the rally. 

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The first group of foreigners and injured Palestinians evacuated after the Rafah border crossing re-opened arrived in Egypt from Gaza on Sunday, Reuters reported citing Egyptian security sources.

Several injured Palestinians arrived on Egyptian soil to receive medical treatment, plus 80 foreign nationals and dependents, with more undergoing border procedures, the sources said. 

All communications services including internet and communications will be completely cut off in the Gaza Strip next Thursday due to lack of fuel and continuing Israeli operations, Palestinian media reported Sunday citing Palestine's communications minister as saying.

Several civilians were injured in an anti-tank guided missile attack in the northern Israeli community of Dovev near the border with Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Sunday.

The IDF said it had responded with artillery shelling toward the source of the missile fire.

An Israeli ambulance service spokesperson told Israel's N12 News that one person was critically wounded and between three to five others injured.

Lebanon's Hezbollah group claimed responsibility for the attack, but said they used guided missiles to target a bulldozer belonging to the Israeli army, according to Lebanon's TV channel Al Jadeed. However, the Israel Electric Corporation said its employees were hit in the attack while repairing power lines. 

(With input from agencies)

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Sunday it is enabling a passage from the Shifa, Rantisi and Nasser hospitals in the Gaza Strip amid Palestinian reports of Israeli bombing of the facilities.

"IDF soldiers opened and secured a passage which enables the civilian population to evacuate, on foot and by ambulances, from the Shifa, Rantisi and Nasser hospitals," the IDF said on social media platform X.

It also accused Hamas of using civilian structures in the Gaza Strip, including hospitals, for its "terrorist activity."

Three infants and five patients in intensive care at the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza died due to lack of oxygen, Palestine's WAFA news agency reported on Sunday, citing medical sources.

Also, the cardiac ward of Al-Shifa hospital, the biggest hospital in Gaza, was destroyed during an Israeli air strike, according to AFP news agency. 

"The occupier (Israel) completely destroyed the cardiac department of Al-Shifa hospital. The two-storey building has been completely destroyed in an air strike," Youssef Abu Rish, deputy health minister in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip told AFP on Sunday.

There's no immediate response from Israel yet on the claims.  

(With input from AFP)

The death toll from the Israeli bombing of a house in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip has risen to 13, Palestinian media reported Sunday. 

Israel has not yet responded to the claim.

The office of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Gaza City was shelled, which "reportedly resulted in a significant number of deaths and injuries" among those seeking refuge within the compound, stated the UNDP in a late Saturday issued statement.

The compound was managed by UNDP's Program of Assistance to the Palestinian People until October 13 when UN staff vacated the premises, the agency said.

"Civilians, civilian infrastructure, and the inviolability of UN facilities, must be respected and protected at all times," the agency added.

Israeli army on Sunday announced "a temporary tactical cessation of military activities" for humanitarian purposes in the village of Jabalia and Ezbet Mlin in the Gaza Strip from 10:00 a.m. to 14:00 p.m. local time.

"We call on residents to take advantage of this temporary suspension of fires and move south from the humanitarian corridor via Salah al-Din Street," Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on social media platform X, adding that the street will also be open to traffic on Sunday from 9:00 in the morning until 16:00 local time.

Thousands more people have fled northern Gaza, heading for the south as Israeli troops continue to strike the coastal enclave. Due to an interruption in fuel supplies, Gazans, including the elderly, children and pregnant women, can only walk or take horse-drawn carriages, carrying limited belongings with them. In addition, they face the threat of air strikes. A local resident who was evacuated to the Gaza Valley in the central strip said that he had walked 15 kilometers to get there. His wife was expecting to soon give birth, but she had to walk too.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday it had lost contact with Gaza's largest medical complex Al-Shifa Hospital, where Palestinian officials said two newborns died and dozens more were at risk after fuel ran out amid intense fighting in the area, as the humanitarian situation in Gaza worsened.

In a post on social media platform X, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted reports suggesting the hospital was surrounded by tanks and some of those who fled the hospital have been shot at, wounded, or killed.

"WHO is gravely concerned about the safety of health workers, hundreds of sick and injured patients, including babies on life support, and displaced people who remain inside the hospital," he said.

Israel's chief military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said the Israeli military would help evacuate babies from the hospital.

Israel has said doctors, patients and thousands of evacuees who have taken refuge at hospitals in northern Gaza must leave so it can tackle Hamas gunmen who it says have placed command centers under and around them. Hamas denied such claims.

Only seven out of 18 ambulances run by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) are still working, according to a statement from the PRCS on Saturday.

The few remaining ambulances still working are at risk of "completely ceasing operations in the coming hours" due to a lack of fuel, the statement said.

Hundreds of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through central London on Saturday, the biggest yet in a series of rallies in the UK's capital to call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. 

Despite of growing international call for a ceasefire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that Israel's battle to crush Hamas militants will continue with "full force."

A ceasefire would be possible only if all 239 hostages held by militants in Gaza are released, Netanyahu said in a televised address.

Arab-Islamic summit condemns Israel's 'war crimes'

On Saturday, participants in the Joint Arab Islamic Extraordinary Summit hosted by Saudi Arabia denounced Israel's "war crimes" in the Gaza Strip and rejected Israel's claim that its actions against Palestinians in the coastal enclave were self-defense.

The final communique released after the one-day summit, which took place in the Saudi capital of Riyadh and gathered the leaders of a number of Islamic and Arab countries as well as international organizations to discuss the situation in Gaza, called for an end to the military operations and siege of Gaza to allow the entry of humanitarian aid.

Participants in the meeting vowed to support Egypt's humanitarian relief efforts in Gaza and condemned attempts to displace Palestinians from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip or outside Gaza.

The leaders demanded that the UN Security Council adopt "a binding resolution" to stop the ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza.

In his opening speech, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud reiterated "demands for an immediate halt to military operations, for the provision of humanitarian corridors to aid civilians, and for enabling international humanitarian organizations to perform their roles."

(With input from agencies)

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said its office was shelled in Gaza on Saturday night with reports of deaths and injuries, according to a post on social media platform X on Sunday.

Israeli warplanes have launched a strike on "terror infrastructure sites in Syria" in response to an attack on the Golan Heights area, Israel Defense Forces said on Sunday on social media platform X. 

Israel faced growing calls on Saturday to protect civilians in Gaza as its fighting with Hamas encircled the territory's main hospital. Huge explosions rang through the night in heavy battles between Hamas and Israeli forces near Gaza's biggest hospital, Al-Shifa. A spokesperson for the Gaza health ministry said operations in the hospital were suspended after it ran out of fuel, while an aid agency described the situation as "catastrophic."

The Hamas government and the hospital's director said a strike on the key health facility on Friday killed 13 people. Aid agency Doctors Without Borders said it was "extremely concerned" about the safety of patients and medical staff at Al-Shifa hospital.

"Over the last few hours, the attacks against Al-Shifa Hospital have dramatically intensified," it said in a statement on Saturday morning. "Our staff at the hospital have reported a catastrophic situation inside just a few hours ago."

The Israeli military says Hamas militants who rampaged through southern Israel last month have placed command centers under Shifa hospital and others in Gaza, making them vulnerable to being considered military targets.

Hamas has denied using civilians as human shields and health officials say growing numbers of Israeli strikes on or near hospitals put at risk patients, medical staff and thousands of evacuees who have taken shelter in and near their buildings.

According to the UN's humanitarian agency, 20 of Gaza's 36 hospitals are "no longer functioning."

Macron makes plea to Israel

French President Emmanuel Macron has said Israel had the right to defend itself after last month's Hamas attacks which killed 1,200 people and led to 239 hostages being taken. On Friday, Macron told the BBC that civilians were dying as a result of Israel's air and expanding ground campaign.

"These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed," the French leader said. "So there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So we do urge Israel to stop."

The Gaza health ministry says Israeli fighting has killed more than 11,000 people, mostly civilians and many of them children, figures that cannot be independently verified.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also expressed concern over the civilian toll. "Far too many Palestinians have been killed," he said during a visit to New Delhi. Blinken repeated his support for Israel and welcomed "progress" after the country formally agreed to four-hour pauses in its campaign in parts of Gaza where tens of thousands have fled in search of safety.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in response to Macron's comments that Hamas, not Israel, was to blame for the civilian deaths. Netanyahu repeated that Israel was trying to avoid harming civilians but that Hamas was preventing them from moving to safe areas and using them as "human shields."

Israel's Defence Force said its 401st Brigade had killed about 150 "terrorists" and gained control over Hamas strongholds in northern Gaza. Palestinians reported strikes or sniper fire at two hospitals and a school in Gaza on Friday.

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Gaza's biggest hospital attacked

After five weeks of conflict, the Gazan health system was "on its knees", the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told the UN Security Council. The International Committee of the Red Cross echoed his comments: "Overstretched, running on thin supplies and increasingly unsafe, the healthcare system in Gaza has reached a point of no return."

Riyadh hosts Gaza summit

Saudi Arabia will gather Arab and Muslim leaders on Saturday for an extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh, as the kingdom wields its influence to press the U.S. and Israel for an end to hostilities in Gaza.

Dozens of leaders including Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi are attending the summit, which is expected to strongly condemn Israel's campaign in Gaza and call for a halt to forced displacement of Palestinians there.

Raisi said on Saturday that time had come for action over the conflict rather than talk. Raisi's trip to Saudi Arabia is the first visit by an Iranian head of state since Tehran and Riyadh ended years of hostility under a China-brokered deal in March.

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Israel faced mounting international pressure to do more to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza as the death toll rose and fighting intensified near hospitals.

The number of Palestinians killed during the bombardment of the coastal enclave in the past five weeks rose above 11,000, according to Gaza health officials, as Israeli forces waged war on Hamas militants who carried out the deadly October 7 attack in southern Israel.

'Far too many Palestinians have been killed'

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on a visit to India on Friday, "Far too many Palestinians have been killed; far too many have suffered these past weeks."

But Blinken reaffirmed U.S. support for Israel's campaign to ensure that Gaza can no longer be used "as a platform for launching terrorism."

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that Israel must stop bombing Gaza and killing civilians. France, he said, "clearly condemns" the "terrorist" actions of Hamas, but recognizes Israel's right to protect itself.

"We do urge them to stop this bombing," Macron said.

In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said world leaders should be condemning Hamas, and not Israel. "These crimes that Hamas (is) committing today in Gaza will be committed tomorrow in Paris, New York and anywhere in the world," Netanyahu said.

Israel has said that Hamas militants, who are holding as many as 240 hostages of different nationalities taken in last month's attack, would exploit a truce to regroup if there were a ceasefire.

Saudi Arabia was set to host an extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit on Saturday. The Saudi foreign ministry said "countries feel the need to unify efforts and come out with a unified collective position."

Israeli army surrounds Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza

The Israeli army has besieged the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza amid heavy clashes with the Palestinian militants in the territory, Palestinian security sources said Saturday.

"Tanks and military vehicles of the Israeli army have been encircling the vicinity of the Al-Shifa Hospital from all main axes for hours, coinciding with heavy artillery shelling in the area," said the Palestinian security sources.

They said that ambulances were unable to leave the Al-Shifa Medical Complex and transfer the wounded amid fears that they might become a moving target.

Local eyewitnesses said that they heard massive explosions during the night from violent armed clashes between Israeli army forces and militants of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, in several areas of Gaza City, especially in the vicinity of the Al-Shifa Hospital.

Established in 1946, the Al-Shifa Medical Complex is the largest health institution in the Gaza Strip. It includes three specialized hospitals and employs 25 percent of hospital workers across the strip.

Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy said the Hamas headquarters was in Al-Shifa Hospital's basement, which meant the facility could lose its protected status and become a legitimate target.

Israel says Hamas hides weapons in tunnels under hospitals. Hamas denies that.

'No one is safe'

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that health workers the group was in contact with at Al-Shifa had been forced to leave the hospital in search of safety.

"Many of the thousands sheltering at the hospital are forced to evacuate due to security risks, while many still remain there," Tedros wrote on social media.

In an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council Friday, Tedros said that "nowhere and no one is safe" in Gaza, where the health system is "on its knees." The situation on the ground is grim, said the WHO chief, from hospitals conducting operations without anesthesia to the fact that a child is killed every 10 minutes.

Tedros said the best way to show support is by providing what health workers need to save lives, adding that, the WHO continues to call for a ceasefire.

(With input from agencies)

Saudi Arabia hosted an extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit in capital Riyadh on Saturday in response to the "unprecedented circumstances" in Gaza.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Saturday on social media that it had killed a member of Hamas who "held about 1,000 residents of the Gaza Strip as hostages in the Al-Rantisi hospital."

There was no immediate response from Hamas.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said on Saturday that 39 babies at Al-Shifa Hospital are at risk of dying due to electricity cutoff.

Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila was formerly quoted by local media as saying the 39 babies had died. In a later statement, the Health Ministry said the babies are "at risk of death."

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Saturday that it is extending humanitarian pauses in the northern Gaza Strip to enable civilians to evacuate south.

The IDF's Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on social media that the Salah a-Din road will be open for southbound movement for seven hours on Saturday, adding that civilians were allowed to evacuate to southern Gaza via the strip's coastal road.

The Israeli army has besieged the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza amid heavy clashes, Xinhua New Agency reported on Saturday, citing Palestinian security sources.

"Tanks and military vehicles of the Israeli army have been encircling the vicinity of the Al-Shifa hospital from all main axes for hours, coinciding with heavy artillery shelling in the area," Palestinian security sources said.

There has been no immediate response from the Israeli military.

Operations in the hospital complex, the largest in the Gaza Strip, were suspended on Saturday after it ran out of fuel, according to health authorities in Gaza.

Muhammad Abu Salmiya, the director of the Al-Shifa hospital, told Al Jazeera that the hospital has no power, internet, water or medical supplies.

(With input from agencies)

A spokesperson for Israel's Foreign Ministry said on Friday that the death toll from the October 7 Hamas attack in southern Israel had been revised to around 1,200 from a previous government estimate of 1,400.

"Around 1,200 is the official number of victims of the October 7 massacre," spokesperson Lior Haiat said in a written statement.

Haiat said the figure had been updated on Thursday. He did not provide a reason for the revision.

The death count, which includes foreigners, "is not a final number. It (is) an updated estimate. It might change when (they) identify all the bodies," Haiat said.

Around 50 people were killed Friday in strikes that hit a Gaza City school, said the Director of Al-Shifa hospital Mohammad Abu Salmiya where the casualties had been taken.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a statement on Friday Israeli snipers were shooting at Gaza City's Al-Quds hospital, reporting at least one death and 20 injuries.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it "cannot discuss potential locations relating to the operations" because it could "compromise the troops."

South Africa has called in Israel's ambassador to discuss what it described as his recent "unfortunate conduct" linked to the conflict in Gaza, the foreign ministry in Pretoria said on Friday.

At least 11,078 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza from Israeli retaliatory strikes, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza on Friday.

A total of 101 employees of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) have been confirmed killed in Gaza since the conflict began on October 7, the UNRWA said on social media on Friday.

The biggest hospital in the Gaza Strip came under bombardment on Friday, the World Health Organization said, adding that 20 hospitals in Gaza were now out of action entirely. 

Asked about the Gaza health ministry's allegation of an Israeli strike on the courtyard of Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City, WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris said: "I haven't got the detail on Al Shifa but we do know they are coming under bombardment." Asked to elaborate, she said there was "intense violence" at the site, quoting colleagues on the ground. 

Gaza families have been sheltering at the hospital, the territory's largest, which is inside Gaza City encircled by Israeli troops. Israel says Palestinian fighters have headquarters in the area and has told residents to leave and go south. 

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At the same briefing, the UN humanitarian office said that there had been some "issues" getting aid into Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, which it said had been designed for pedestrians, not trucks. Only 65 trucks carrying food, medicine, hygiene supplies and water, and seven ambulances, crossed from Egypt into Gaza on Wednesday, it said.

None of that aid can reach northern Gaza, he added. "We cannot drive to the north at the current point which is of course deeply frustrating because we know there are several hundred thousand people who remain in the north," said OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke.

"If there is a hell on earth today, its name is northern Gaza," he said. "It is a life of fear by day and darkness at night and what do you tell your children in such a situation, it's almost unimaginable – that the fire they see in the sky is out to kill them?" he said.

UN human rights group urges Israel weapons probe

The UN human rights chief on Friday urged an investigation into what he called Israel's use of "high-impact explosive weapons" in Gaza, which he said was causing indiscriminate destruction in the besieged Palestinian enclave.

Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said Israel must end its use of such weapons in the densely populated area, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, half of whom have been displaced by fighting in the last month.

Turk was not specific about what weapons he was referring to. Asked for comment, the Israeli military said it was making checks and would respond later.

The head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency also revealed on social media platform X on Friday that over 100 United Nations workers had been killed since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

"Devastated. Over 100 UNRWA colleagues confirmed killed in 1 month. Parents, teachers, nurses, doctors, support staff. UNRWA is mourning, Palestinians mourning, Israelis mourning," Philippe Lazzarini said, reiterating a call for a humanitarian ceasefire.

Iran says conflict spread "inevitable"

Iran warned the scale of civilian suffering caused by Israel's war on Hamas would inevitably lead to an expansion of the conflict, as officials in Gaza reported Israeli air strikes on or near several hospitals in the Palestinian enclave.

The comments from Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian could ramp up concerns over whether Washington's diplomatic efforts and deployment of U.S. naval forces to the eastern Mediterranean will be able to keep the conflict from further destabilizing the Middle East.

"Due to the expansion of the intensity of the war against Gaza's civilian residents, expansion of the scope of the war has become inevitable," Amir-Abdollahian told his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Thursday night.

Iran's state-run Press TV reported the comments, made during a telephone conversation, on Friday.

Palestinian economy devastated by conflict

A report released by the UN Development Programme paints a bleak picture of the devastating impact the war is having on the Palestinian economy. 

On the conflict's one-month mark, Palestinian gross domestic product (GDP) was expected to have declined by about 4.2 percent compared with pre-war estimates for 2023, a loss of about $857m. 

If the war continues for a full second month, the estimated economic loss would rise to 8.4 percent of GDP, or $1.7bn. On third month, the loss would rise to 12.2 per cent of GDP, or $2.5bn. 

About 390,000 jobs have been lost since the start of the war across the Palestinian territories. Of these, 182,000 jobs were lost in Gaza and 208,000 in the occupied West Bank. 

Poverty is also expected to rise sharply by 20 to 45 percent depending on the duration of the conflict.

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Evacuation of Polish citizens from Gaza has started, Polsat News reported on Friday.

A World Health Organization spokesperson said on Friday that the Al Shifa hospital had been "coming under bombardment", adding that 20 hospitals in Gaza were now out of action entirely.

Asked about the Gaza health ministry's allegation of an Israeli strike on the hospital courtyard, WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris said: "I haven't got the detail on Al Shifa but we do know they are coming under bombardment".

Asked to elaborate, she said there was "intense violence" at the site, quoting colleagues on the ground.

The poverty rate in Palestine will soar by 34 percent, thrusting nearly half a million additional people into poverty, if the war in Gaza continues for a second month, warns a United Nations (UN) report.

In such a scenario, Palestine's gross domestic product (GDP) will plummet by 8.4 percent – a loss of $1.7 billion, according to initial estimates by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).

It is estimated that, as the war hit the one-month mark, poverty had risen by 20 percent and economic growth had declined by 4.2 percent, said the two agencies in their report on the socio-economic impacts of the Gaza war on Palestine, which was released on Thursday.

The assessment warns of a sharp decline in the Human Development Index, the UNDP's summary measure of well-being, setting development in Palestine back by between 11 to 16 years, and in Gaza by 16 to 19 years, depending on the intensity of the conflict, according to the report.

According to projections, a third month of war would see poverty increase by almost 45 percent, raising the number of additional people pushed into poverty to more than 660,000, while the GDP will fall by 12.2 percent with total losses of $2.5 billion.

Currently, 1.8 million Palestinians are living in poverty, said Rola Dashti, executive secretary of ESCWA.

The poverty rate in Gaza was 61 percent before the latest escalation on October 7. The poverty rate in the West Bank was 30 percent, said Abdallah Al Dardari, UN assistant secretary-general and director of UNDP's regional bureau for Arab states.

The assessment also underscores that the International Labour Organization estimates that 390,000 jobs have already been lost in the first month of war.

"The unprecedented loss of life, human suffering, and destruction in the Gaza Strip is unacceptable," said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner in a press release. "This assessment alerts us that the impacts of this war will also have long-lasting effects and will not be confined to Gaza. On top of the humanitarian catastrophe we see unfolding, there is also a development crisis. The war is rapidly accelerating poverty in a population already vulnerable before this crisis hit."

Dashti, who launched the report together with Al Dardari, warned that economic recovery in Gaza following a cease-fire will not be immediate, considering the large-scale displacement of the population, the massive levels of destruction and uncertain access to resources, including materials and equipment owing to the siege on Gaza.

She also warned that the consequences of the war are even more severe given the fact that the projected poverty increase is about income only.

"It's not only the money-metric poverty. It is the multidimensional poverty that is more important," she said, noting that almost all Gazans (96 percent) are currently multidimensionally poor.

Multidimensional poverty means the deprivation of essential services for livelihood, including health, utilities, transport and freedom of movement, she said.

Even if there is a cease-fire today, the multidimensional poverty situation will not improve quickly, she said.

With almost 1.5 million people in Gaza internally displaced since the beginning of the war and the massive destruction of houses reportedly destroyed or damaged, the assessment predicts that the economic downturn will further exacerbate the catastrophic humanitarian situation and will make recovery prospects challenging and slow, according to the report.

(Cover: Palestinians crowded together as they wait for food distribution in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, November 8, 2023. /CFP)

Palestinians said a deadly strike on Friday hit Gaza's largest hospital compound as medical facilities sheltering tens of thousands were caught in intense combat between Israel and Hamas. Gaza's Hamas government, which reported a death toll of 13, and the director of Gaza City's Al Shifa hospital blamed Israeli forces for the strike.

Israel did not immediately comment.

Israeli military said on Friday it struck Syria in response to Thursday's drone strike on the Israeli city of Eilat.

Loud explosions are being heard in the center and south of Israel, the Jerusalem Post reported on Friday.

At least 10,812 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza from Israeli retaliatory strikes, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza on Thursday.

Israel will begin four-hour pauses in northern Gaza to allow people to flee hostilities, the White House announced in what it called a step in the right direction.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said the pauses emerged from discussions between the U.S and Israeli officials in recent days, including talks U.S. President Joe Biden had with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"We've been told by the Israelis that there will be no military operations in these areas over the duration of the pause, and that this process is starting today," Kirby said.

"We understand that Israel will begin to implement four-hour pauses in areas of northern Gaza with an announcement to come three hours in advance," he said.

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Biden has asked for a three day pause for Gaza, and a pause much longer than that to get hostages out.

Israel unleashed its assault on Gaza in response to a cross-border Hamas raid on southern Israel on October 7 in which gunmen killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and took about 240 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. It was the single worst day of bloodshed in Israel's 75-year history.

Palestinian officials said 10,812 Gaza residents had been killed as of Thursday, about 40 percent of them children, in air and artillery strikes while basic supplies are running out and areas laid waste by unrelenting Israeli bombardments.

Trilateral talks in Qatar

Israeli and U.S. spy chiefs are in Qatar for talks on "a potential humanitarian pause" to the conflict raging in Gaza since October 7, an official with knowledge of the visit said.

CIA director Bill Burns and David Barnea, head of Israel's Mossad spy agency, "are both visiting Doha for trilateral talks with the Qataris to work through the details of a potential humanitarian pause that would see the release of hostages and more aid entering Gaza", the official told journalists, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

"Talks have been progressing well towards a deal in the past few days," the official said.

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyanin in Abu Dhabi and discussed the situation in Gaza, according to a statement released by Qatari Emiri Diwan.

And Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh arrived in Egypt for talks, the group said.

Hamas said in a statement that its delegation had met with Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel "for discussions on the current situation in the Gaza Strip."

Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad released a video it claimed showed two hostages, a woman in her 70s and a 13-year-old boy, held in Gaza.

"We are ready to release them on humanitarian grounds when the security conditions on the ground are met," said Abu Hamza, spokesman for the group's military wing, which is believed to hold some of the 240 hostages Israeli officials say were seized during Hamas's October 7 attacks.

Fifteen Palestinians were killed and at least 20 others were injured by Israeli forces in a raid on Jenin city and refugee camp and in other Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Israel's military said it was conducting counter-terrorism raids in Jenin, but gave no further details.

At least 178 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian Health Ministry figures.

A total of 106 aid trucks and ambulances entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing on Wednesday, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, which said the supply still does not meet the enclave's needs. 

An Israeli military official denied there is a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, even as he acknowledged the Palestinian territory faces several challenges amid the ongoing conflict.

Evacuations from the Gaza Strip into Egypt for foreign passport holders and Palestinians needing medical treatment resumed through the Rafah crossing on Thursday after being suspended for a day, Egyptian security and medical sources said.

Humanitarian conference on Gaza

In Paris, officials from about 80 countries and organizations were meeting to coordinate humanitarian aid to Gaza and find ways to help wounded civilians escape the siege.The conflict in Gaza is a wildfire that could spread across the region, UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said, adding that allowing the situation to continue in Gaza would be a "travesty."

"The United Nations cannot be part of a unilateral proposal to push Palestinians into so-called safe zones," he said in Paris.

Also speaking at the conference, French President Emmanuel Macron said there must be a humanitarian pause very quickly in Gaza and that countries must also work for a ceasefire.

"Civilians must be protected, that's indispensable and non-negotiable and is an immediate necessity," Macron said.

"Without a ceasefire, lifting of siege and indiscriminate bombardment and warfare, the hemorrhage of human lives will continue," Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said before the White House announcement.

Israel, which has vowed to wipe out Hamas, says 33 of its soldiers have been killed in its ground operation.

Bombs hit near hospitals

Türkiye-based TRT news reported that Israeli aircraft have bombed the vicinity of Al Shifa Hospital and Al Nasr Children's Hospital in Gaza. 

According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, Al Shifa Hospital, which houses thousands of patients and refugees, was targeted by missiles intermittently fired from Israeli aircraft.

And an airstrike near Al Nasr Children's Hospital in the western part of the city killed three Palestinians and left dozens more wounded.

Israel is "crushing all humanitarian values" as it continues its attack on Gaza that have killed more than 10,000 people since October 7, Türkiye's President Erdogan said.

"Israel continues to bomb schools, mosques, churches, hospitals, crushing all humanitarian values," Erdogan said, adding that 73 percent of those killed are women and children.

He added that Türkiye has sent 10 planes carrying 230 tonnes of humanitarian aid to El Arish airport for Gaza with the help of Egypt.

Meanwhile, UK's interior minister Suella Braverman faced criticism after accusing police of double standards on what she called "pro-Palestinian mobs" before a political rally on Armistice Day.

Police have said they cannot legally ban Saturday's march in support of Palestinians under Israeli bombardment.

Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has described the planned march as "provocative and disrespectful," heaping pressure on the Metropolitan Police to ban it.

WHO warns of rapid spread of infectious diseases

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has crossed the region on a diplomatic mission, outlined Washington's expectations for Gaza when the conflict ends. He pushed back at Israeli comments that it would be responsible for security in Gaza indefinitely.

The Palestinian Authority (PA), which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, says the Gaza Strip, where Hamas has ruled since 2007, is an integral part of what it envisions for a future Palestinian state. 

Israeli officials have said they do not intend to occupy Gaza after the war, but have yet to articulate how they might ensure security. Israel withdrew its forces from Gaza in 2005. 

Tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians have fled the north of Gaza over Wednesday and Thursday seeking refuge from Israeli air strikes and the fierce ground fighting. 

Israel has told residents to evacuate encircled northern parts of Gaza or risk being trapped in the violence.

Huge numbers of displaced people from among Gaza's 2.3 million population are already crammed into schools, hospitals and other sites in the south. Thousands of others remain in the north, including at Gaza City's main Al Shifa hospital.

"As deaths and injuries in Gaza continue to rise due to intensified hostilities, intense overcrowding and disrupted health, water, and sanitation systems pose an added danger: the rapid spread of infectious diseases," the World Health Organization said.

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WATCH: The current strategies for battle in Gaza are analysed on CGTN Europe

While air strikes continue to pound the Gaza Strip and the ground offensive targets Hamas's tunnel network beneath the besieged Palestinian enclave, Israel will have to prepare itself for a new brutal set of challenges as the war enters its next phase.

That's the warning by the Director of Policy and Research at The Soufan Group, a global intelligence and security consultancy, headquartered in New York.

Gaza City, the Hamas militant group's main stronghold in the territory, is encircled by Israeli forces. The military said troops have advanced to the heart of the densely-populated city, while Hamas says its fighters have inflicted heavy losses.

"What we're seeing right now is what I would call an encirclement strategy," Colin Clarke told CGTN Europe. "The Israelis are attempting to surround Gaza City, doing short kind of penetrating, ambush style incursions. In terms of counterinsurgency, it's a clear stage of what's typically 'clear, hold and build.'

"We're talking about fighting in what we call dense urban environments, which is among the most difficult types of combat that militaries have engaged in historically, whether it's Grozny or Chechnya as the Russians found out, or as the U.S. found out in Mosul in Iraq against the Islamic State. 

"There are a number of challenges that go with this, including militants hiding in the rubble, using tunnels, improvised explosive devices, and also bringing with that more modern tech like drones. So combining old school with new school, it makes for a really difficult fight for the Israelis in the days and weeks ahead."

With the war entering its second month, UN officials and G7 nations stepped up appeals for a humanitarian pause in the hostilities to help alleviate the suffering in Gaza, where buildings have been flattened and basic supplies are running out. 

Palestinian officials say more than 10,000 people have been killed, 40 percent of them children. Israel struck at Gaza in response to Hamas killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, on October 7, according to Israeli tallies, as well as taking 240 hostages.

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The war has descended into the bloodiest episode in the generations-long Israel-Palestinian conflict and Clarke fears it may not have a swift solution.

"In my own research, we looked at 71 insurgencies from the end of World War Two to 2009," he said. "The median length was 10 years. Some lasted 30, some lasted a couple of months. It could be anywhere in that range. 

"My sense, given the diplomatic pressure that's being applied and the U.S. is really investing a lot of resources in attempting to negotiate some kind of a humanitarian pause in the ceasefire, I'm hoping this one's down in weeks, but it could very well go much longer."

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In times of armed conflict, the focus is understandably on the danger to humans, and particularly civilians. But what about the animals in a war zone?

The Sulala Society for Animal Care – roughly translated, sulala means 'animals' in Arabic – is the only Gazan organization established to help stray animals in the Gaza Strip. It was founded by Saeed Al Err, who was born and grew up in Gaza. 

An animal lover since childhood, for decades he has fed, housed and helped stray and wounded animals. In 2000, he got together with a couple of friends and registered Sulala to change the lives of animals in Gaza.

In the last five years, he has built a dog shelter the size of a football field with a covered area for the dogs to sleep and a big open area where they can run around. The shelter houses around 400 dogs. Alongside this, he secured funding to rent apartments that he could use as cat shelters. Each houses a volunteer and about 30-40 cats – and he also lives with around the same number of cats in his home. 

In 2019, Annelies Keuleers, an Arabic-language student living in Belgium, came across the Sulala Instagram account. 

"I thought the work he was doing was amazing," Keuleers tells CGTN – but she had an idea to help. She noticed he was posting in Arabic and using Google Translate for English, and the social posts weren't always making sense. She offered to help with Sulala's social media – and this was just the start. 

"I've also become involved with communication and reporting for our donor organization Animals Australia," Keuleers explains. "I write a monthly report and send them stories about the animals that we rescued that month." 

Other volunteers help with IT, financial reports, bookkeeping and of course care for the animals themselves. Keuleers says the Gaza shelters are badly needed. 

"The rehoming of animals in Gaza is quite difficult," she says. "A lot of people have cats in their house, while dogs are generally not allowed inside the house." 

This culture has led to a lot of stray dogs in the streets – but, thanks to Sulala, that was beginning to change. The organization recently started to offer 'awareness sessions' – school visits to explain the importance of helping and looking after animals. As Keuleers says, "In an ideal world, we would have more adoptions each month."

A sudden conflict

But the world is not ideal, and it has veered much further from it since October 7. On that day, Hamas forces entered Israel, killing more than 1,400 people and taking more than 200 hostage. Keuleers learned about it from her colleague and friend in Gaza.  

"I woke up to a text from Saeed saying, 'Good morning. A war has started very suddenly,'" she recalls. "The situation is very difficult and the next days are going to be very difficult. Of course, Israel's going to respond.'"

Keuleers watched the news in blank disbelief.

"We used the word crazy, like Saeed used the word crazy so much. How was it possible that this was happening? We absolutely thought it was impossible – and everybody was terrified of the response."

The mood among Sulala workers was one of shock and fear.

"I asked him if he slept that night. He said, 'No, I didn't'. And said you have to sleep. So Saeed said 'I'm going to make sure that I get a lot of extra food for the animals now and then I will sleep."

As Israel formulated its response, Keuleers again heard of developments through the Sulala network. 

"I saw a text from the Australian donor organization saying, 'What's going on? They're telling all of the people in the north of Gaza to go south.' I'm thinking, 'No, it's not possible…' I texted Saeed 'Did you see this news?' Saeed was saying 'It's just rumors, we don't know if that's true.' 

"And then his internet got cut." 

Such outages became increasingly common. "The internet from Gaza was often down after October 7 – it became much harder to communicate with the shelter," says Keuleers, who worried about the effect of a Gazan exodus on the animals.

"We knew that if they (Gazan citizens) have to go away from their houses, they might not return. So I didn't know what Saeed was going to do." 

An echo from history

Watching the footage of Gazans moving south, Keuleers was acutely aware of an echo from history: "It looked exactly like the Nakba – the expulsion of Palestinians in 1948." 

Nakba – Arabic for catastrophe – is the word many people use for the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Al Err's grandmother lived through the Nakba, so Keuleers knew the images were deeply distressing for him and other Gazans.

But the animals' hero was busy leading another group: "That night, I called Saeed and he said, 'I am safe. I got all the animals out and we are south of Wadi Gaza.'"

He and his family had managed to relocate all 120 cats to an apartment further south, mindful of the Israeli order. But as the bombing intensified over the next few days, the dogs became terrified.

"They are traumatized and conditioned to the war," says Keuleers. "They know that they have to hide. They know the sound the plane makes. And they're absolutely terrified and hiding all day."

With aid trucks denied access to Gaza and fuel running out, Sulala workers were worried that soon they may not be able to reach the dogs. Sa'ed Al Err, Saeed's son, decided to evacuate the dogs to Saeed's family home, 500 meters north of the evacuation line. 

It was in Al Zahra, an area with a lot of schools and hospitals and now a lot of refugees. Everyone was confident people would be safe there. With fuel very scarce, Sa'ed took on the mammoth task of migrating the dogs in convoy by foot for miles to their new home.

Two days later, the whole area of Al Zahra felt the full power of Israeli airstrikes. 

A neighborhood laid to waste

All the buildings surrounding the house were completely destroyed, as the neighborhood was laid to waste. The family home harboring Al Err and his dogs was badly damaged but miraculously stayed standing; however, with the windows and doors blown out during the night of bombing, most dogs fled for their lives. 

"Saeed was there that night with the dogs and I think this was truly a traumatic, life-changing experience – to be there in the shelter with those dogs while it was being bombed," says Keuleers.

Many of the dogs made their way back to the shelter and Sulala has now decided to let them stay there. Al Err secured food for the animals for about a month but that is set to run out soon. 

Now Gazans are running out of food, water and fuel, standing in line for water and bread and the UN is already unable to secure aid. The outlook is grim for the animals of Gaza.

"He had gas for two more days," says Keuleers. "Gaza has a desalination plant for its water, but they're not letting in fuel to run the generators so it's not working any more. So the water is quite salty… he's scavenging every day looking for these things.

"It's all very painful and very confusing and helpless. And it's very scary not to know what the future holds for everybody."

Keuleers has been calling on Sulala to write messages to international organizations to secure food for Gaza's animals in the midst of the chaos of war: "We understand that humans need food most, but there can maybe also be space to put animal food there." 

Taking its toll 

While obviously horrific for Palestinians, the situation is also taking a toll on Keuleers and the other helpless followers of Sulala outside Gaza. 

"I feel like he really deserves the world and he doesn't deserve this suffering, so it's incredibly painful. And I see this also in the people who contact us on social media. They want to help so badly. 

"It's so difficult, this helplessness. It's killing Saeed, it's killing the animals, it's killing me that I can't help Saeed, it's killing our followers or people watching it. They can't do anything to stop the suffering in Gaza right now."

As the war drags on, Keuleers is increasingly worried about not just the animals but Al Err's safety: "Now that he's saying everybody is waiting for their turn to die. So, first of all, I hope he survives." 

But that's not the only hope Keuleers holds, like a flickering candle from afar. 

"I hope for a future in which I can visit him – that I would be able to go to Gaza and actually help him on the ground. I've no bigger dream than that – to be able to physically help these animals. It's absolutely my dream. 

"Maybe what comes after the war is better than what was before. We don't know how, but maybe Gaza will open – maybe I will meet him somewhere safe."

With thanks to the Sulala Society for Animal Care. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi discussed the humanitarian crisis in Gaza during their meeting in Uzbekistan, according to the Turkish Presidency on Thursday.

French President Emmanuel Macron urged nations Thursday to "work towards a ceasefire" between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, as he opened a conference on aid to the Palestinian territory.

"In the immediate term, we need to work on protecting civilians. To do that, we need a humanitarian pause very quickly and we must work towards a ceasefire," Macron told delegates.

Youssef Al-Hindi, 30, has been working as an ambulance driver for nearly a decade in the Gaza Strip. He says he's been working non-stop since the outbreak of the Palestine-Israel conflict. The hospitals in northern Gaza have been working round the clock. He transports victims by night and spends his daytime assisting in the removal of bodies from under the rubble. Most of the bodies he has dealt with are of women and children.

No wounded Palestinians or dual nationals were evacuated on Wednesday from the Gaza Strip to Egypt via the Rafah crossing, AFP reported Thursday, citing a Hamas official.

The crossing point remained closed due to Israel's refusal to approve the list of wounded who were to be evacuated, the report added. 

Israel's chief military spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said that 50,000 Palestinians left the Gaza City area on Wednesday after Israeli forces again opened a main road to southern Gaza Strip. 

Yemen's Houthi militia on Wednesday said it shot down a U.S. MQ-9 drone in the Red Sea, saying it was conducting hostile activities in Yemeni airspace.

"Hostile activities will not prevent us from continuing to carry out military operations against Israeli targets," Houthi military spokesman Yehya Sarea said in a statement aired by the group's al-Masirah TV. 

Thousands of Palestinian civilians trudged in a forlorn procession out of the north of Gaza seeking refuge from Israeli air strikes and fierce ground fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants.

The exodus took place in a four-hour window of opportunity announced by Israel, which has told residents to evacuate the north encircled by its armored forces or risk being trapped in the violence.

Already, more than 1.5 million people in Gaza have fled their homes in search of safety, and the exodus has grown as Israel's air and ground campaign intensifies, according to UN observers.

About 15,000 people fled on Tuesday, compared with 5,000 on Monday and 2,000 on Sunday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

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Hamas has accused the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) of "colluding" with Israel in the "forced displacement" of residents of Gaza.

"UNRWA and its officials bear responsibility for this humanitarian catastrophe, in particular the residents of the Gaza (City) area and north of it" who are following Israeli military orders to flee south, said Salama Maruf, head of the Hamas media bureau.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the number of civilians killed in the Gaza Strip shows that there is something "clearly wrong" with Israel's military operations against Hamas fighters.

'Humanity will lose its meaning'

While strongly condemning the Hamas attack on Israel, Guterres said that "we need to distinguish – Hamas is one thing, the Palestinian people (are) another. If we don't make that distinction, I think it's humanity itself that will lose its meaning."

Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, after the militants killed 1,400 people and took more than 240 hostages in the October 7 attack. Israel has attacked Gaza – an enclave of 2.3 million people – from the air, imposed a siege and launched a ground invasion. 

"There are violations by Hamas when they have human shields. But when one looks at the number of civilians that were killed with the military operations, there is something that is clearly wrong," Guterres said.

Palestinian officials said 10,569 people have now been killed in Gaza, 40 percent of them children. 

An independent UN expert said the widespread and systematic bombardment of housing and civilian infrastructure in Gaza amounts to a war crime and a crime against humanity. But Israel says it will not agree to a ceasefire before the hostages are released. Hamas says it will not stop fighting while Gaza is under attack.

Qatar mediating brief ceasefire

Qatar is mediating negotiations between Israel and Hamas for the potential release of a number of hostages held in Gaza in exchange for a humanitarian pause, a source briefed on the talks told reporters.

"Negotiations mediated by the Qataris in coordination with the U.S. are ongoing to secure the release of 10-15 hostages in exchange for a one- to two-day ceasefire," the informed source said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the talks' sensitivity.

Meanwhile, the central and southern parts of the besieged Palestinian enclave also came under fire again as the war between Hamas fighters and Israel entered its second month.

At least 19 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a house near a hospital in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, the Palestinian interior ministry said.

Palestinian health officials said an airstrike that hit houses in the Nuseirat refugee camp killed 18 people. In Khan Younis, six people, including a young girl, were killed in an air strike.

"We were sitting in peace when all of a sudden an F16 air strike landed on a house and blew it up, the entire block, three houses next to each other," said a witness, Mohammed Abu Daqa.

"Civilians, all of them civilians. An old woman, an old man and there are others still missing under the rubble."

Qatar-based Al Jazeera media network reported a "massive" spike in Israeli attacks. 

Reporting from Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the network's correspondent Abu Azzoum said a car was targeted near al-Yemen Hospital in northern Gaza.

'Relentless attacks'

Artillery bombardments also continued in the Shati refugee camp, he added.

"These relentless attacks that took place during the last hour [are] … massive," Abu Azzoum added.

An Israeli raid on Bethlehem has left at least 64 Palestinians injured and led to the evacuation of around 100 children from an orphanage that was tear gassed, according to the Palestine Red Crescent.

Chief Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said combat engineers were using explosive devices to destroy a Hamas tunnel network that stretches for hundreds of kilometers (miles) beneath Gaza.

In a statement, the military said it had destroyed 130 tunnel shafts so far. 

"Combat engineers fighting in Gaza are destroying the enemy's weapons and are locating, exposing and detonating tunnel shafts," it said.

Israel says 33 of its soldiers have been killed.

Thousands of Palestinians flee

UN officials and G7 world powers stepped up appeals for a humanitarian pause in the conflict to help alleviate the suffering of civilians in Gaza, where whole neighborhoods have been razed by Israeli bombardment and basic supplies are running out.

Thousands of Palestinians fleeing from the north wearily made their way in a long line past wrecked and bomb-scarred buildings, witnesses said.

The Israeli military had told them they should move south of the Wadi Gaza wetlands along the main Salah al-Din Road. Huge numbers of displaced people from among Gaza's 2.3 million population are already crammed into schools, hospitals and other sites in the south.

Thousands of others remain inside the encircled north, including at Gaza City's main Al Shifa hospital.

Israel has so far been vague about its long-term plans if it achieves its stated objective of vanquishing Hamas.

A senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters in Washington that Israel has no intention of reoccupying the Gaza Strip or controlling it for "a long time."

"We assess that our current operations are effective and successful, and we'll continue to push," the official said. "It's not unlimited or forever."

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Air strikes on the Gaza Strip killed a Hamas weapons maker and several fighters, the Israeli military said, as its air and ground offensive targeted the group's tunnel network beneath the besieged Palestinian enclave.

Gaza City, Hamas's main stronghold in the territory, is encircled by Israeli forces. The military said troops have advanced to the heart of the densely-populated city while Hamas says its fighters have inflicted heavy losses.

With the conflict now entering its second month, UN officials stepped up their appeals for a humanitarian pause in the hostilities to help alleviate the suffering in Gaza, where buildings have been flattened and basic supplies are running out. 

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Palestinian officials say more than 10,300 people have been killed, 40 percent of them children.

The level of death and suffering is "hard to fathom," UN health agency spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said in Geneva. "Every day, you think it is the worst day and then the next day is worse."

A humanitarian aid convoy came under fire in Gaza City, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Two trucks were damaged and a driver lightly injured as the ICRC convoy, which was carrying "lifesaving medical supplies to health facilities including to Al Quds hospital of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society," was hit by fire, the medical NGO said.

Alyona Synenko, ICRC spokesperson told Al Jazeera the organization was "shocked to see this happening."

Israel attacked Gaza in response to a Hamas raid on southern Israel on October 7 in which gunmen killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and took about 240 hostages. The war has descended into the bloodiest episode in the generations-long Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Israel faces heavy resistance

Israel's stated intention is to wipe out Hamas, the group that rules Gaza, pounding it from air, land and sea while ground troops have moved in to divide the narrow coastal strip in two in fierce urban fighting amid the ruins of buildings.

The Israeli military said two separate strikes eliminated a leading Hamas commander, Mahsein Abu Zina, and fighters engaged in anti-tank or ground-to-ground rocket fire.

Palestinian media reported clashes between militants and Israeli forces near al-Shati (Beach) refugee camp in Gaza City. Reporters were unable to verify the battlefield claims of either side.

There was no further word from Israel on the possible fate of Yahya Sinwar, the most senior Hamas leader in Gaza and believed to be a key planner of the October 7 attacks. Israel said he had been cornered in his bunker. 

Chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said combat engineers were using explosive devices to destroy a tunnel network built by Hamas that stretches for hundreds of kilometers (miles) beneath Gaza.

Israeli tanks have encountered heavy resistance from Hamas fighters using the tunnels to stage ambushes, according to sources with Hamas and the separate Islamic Jihad militant group. Israel says 32 of its soldiers have been killed.

Israelis have voiced fear that military operations could further endanger the hostages, who are believed to be held in the tunnels. Israel says it will not agree to a ceasefire until the hostages are released. Hamas says it will not stop fighting while Gaza is under attack.

'Gaza is unbreakable'

"I challenge (Israel) if it has been able, to this moment, to record any military achievement on the ground other than killing civilians," senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad told Al Jazeera television. "Gaza is unbreakable and will remain a thorn in the throat of the Americans and the Zionists."

In a televised statement Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there would be "no entry of gasoline... no ceasefire without the release of our hostages."

Netanyahu also warned Hezbollah "it will be making the mistake of its life" if it opens a new front in the war from its base in Lebanon.

The fighting is concentrated in the north of the Gaza Strip and Israel has told civilians to flee to the south, but it has been bombing southern areas as well. In the main southern city Khan Younis, ambulances brought to a hospital the bodies of three Palestinians, including a young girl, killed in a house that was hit. 

Nearly two-thirds of Gaza's 2.3 million residents are internally displaced, according to UN figures, with thousands seeking refuge at hospitals including in makeshift canvas shelters in their car parks. 

About 15,000 people fled on Tuesday, compared to 5,000 on Monday, and 2,000 on Sunday, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Civilians escape during a four-hour window set daily by the Israeli military. Most people fleeing are children, the elderly and people with disabilities.

U.S. urges Israel to not reoccupy Gaza

Israel has so far been vague about its long-term plans if it achieves its stated goal of vanquishing Hamas. In some of the first direct comments on the subject, Netanyahu said Israel would seek security responsibility for Gaza for an indefinite period after the conflict. 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Israel not to reoccupy Gaza once the conflict ends.

Speaking to reporters after G7 foreign ministers held talks in Japan, Blinken said: The United States believes key elements should include: no forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, not now, not after the war; No use of Gaza as a platform for terrorism or other violent attacks; No reoccupation of Gaza after the conflict ends."

Saudi Arabia will host summits of Arab and Islamic nations in coming days to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a Saudi investment minister said.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will travel to Saudi Arabia for the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit, Etemaad Online news website reported, the first visit by an Iranian head of state since Tehran and Riyadh ended years of hostility under a deal brokered by China in March.

Foreign ministers from the G7 have warned Iran about escalation during Israel's war on Gaza, saying Tehran must rein in its allied armed groups.

'No food, no water'

At Gaza City's Al Shifa hospital, Um Haitham Hejela, a woman sheltering with young children in an improvised tent, said they fled their home because of air strikes. 

"The situation is getting worse day after day," she said. "There is no food, no water. When my son goes to pick up water, he queues for three or four hours in the line. They struck bakeries, we don't have bread."

The UN says Gaza's health system is close to collapse, battered by air strikes, flooded with trauma patients, and running out of medicines and fuel. 

There are 350,000 patients with chronic conditions in Gaza, including cancer and diabetes, as well as 50,000 pregnant women, according to data from UN organizations, and many are no longer receiving treatment.

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Ill-equipped rescue teams in Gaza have been struggling to save survivors and victims from the rubble amid ongoing Israeli air strikes, which have even hit the rescuers themselves.

Heavy bombardment takes place all day long in the coastal enclave, and teams across the region have been using what little fuel they have to rush ambulances toward the scenes where they must dig out survivors by hand.

Israeli troops were fighting on Tuesday "in the heart of Gaza City," a senior Israeli commander said, on the 32nd day of the Israel-Hamas conflict that has claimed the lives of 10,328 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

In an interview with ABC News, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not rule out "tactical little pauses" in the fighting to allow aid to reach Gaza or facilitate the release of some of the around 240 hostages kidnapped by Hamas during its October 7 attacks on Israel.

However, Netanyahu rejected any general cease-fire unless all hostages were freed.

After the conflict in Gaza ends, Israel will take "overall security responsibility" in Gaza "for an indefinite period," Netanyahu said.

The ground troops of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have continued to move forward in the northern Gaza Strip, reaching central Gaza City. "For the first time in a decade, the IDF is fighting in the heart of Gaza City," the Commanding Officer of the Southern Command Yaron Finkelman said in a press statement near the Gaza Strip border.

"Our soldiers are eliminating terrorists, discovering tunnels, destroying weapons and continuing to advance into the center of the enemy," he said.

Israelis observed a moment of silence across the country to remember the victims of Hamas' attacks on October 7. Candle-light ceremonies were held in Tel Aviv and other major cities. The surprise Hamas attack that took place one month ago killed about 1,400 people in Israel.

An Israeli military spokesperson said in a statement early in the day that troops had secured a military stronghold in the northern Gaza Strip that belonged to Hamas. Anti-tank missiles and launchers, weapons, and various intelligence materials were found in the compound.

The spokesperson said Israeli forces made an air strike on a building where "a number of" militants had barricaded themselves. The building was located adjacent to the Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said in a statement that Israeli forces had shelled areas about 50 meters away from the Al-Quds Hospital, where more than 14,000 displaced Palestinians have sought shelter. The shelling injured at least 60 people and significantly damaged the hospital building and ambulances, the Society said.

The PRCS also warned that fuel reserves at the hospital were expected to run out by Wednesday as Israel had been preventing the entry of fuel into Gaza since October 7.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi government said on Tuesday that they would donate 10 million liters of gas to hospitals in the Gaza Strip.

A statement issued by the government said that the donation was "to help alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people and to show the solidarity of the Iraqi people with the people of the Gaza Strip."

Confrontations on the Lebanon-Israel borders continued on Tuesday, killing two Hezbollah fighters, and raising the death toll of the Shiite military group to 68.

Lebanese military said that around 20 surface-to-surface missiles were fired from southern Lebanon toward northern Israel, targeting Israeli positions in Zaoura and Amfit emplacements at the southern end of the Golan.

The military added that Israel fired four patriot missiles in return, which fell in Lebanon's southern villages of Hasbaya and Arqoub. 

Meanwhile, international diplomatic efforts led by Egypt and other parties, the Rafah crossing was intermittently opened to evacuate foreign nationals and transport the wounded from Gaza to Egypt for medical treatment.

Ambulances transported approximately 30 injured individuals to the Rafah crossing, accompanied by teams from the International Committee of the Red Cross on Monday, as part of new agreements facilitated by Egypt and the United Nations.

The World Food Programme on Monday issued an urgent appeal to expand the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, as humanitarian needs have significantly increased, and essential food supplies have reached critically low levels in the besieged enclave.

(With input from agencies)

At least 10,569 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza from Israeli retaliatory strikes, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza on Wednesday.

G7 foreign ministers said in a joint statement on Wednesday that they support "humanitarian pauses and corridors" in the Gaza Strip. 

The Israel Defense Forces announced on Wednesday that it has killed "one of the leaders of weapons production" for Hamas who specialized in the production of strategic ammunition and rockets.

There has been no response from Hamas.

Israeli forces have severed northern Gaza from the rest of the besieged territory and pounded it with intense air strikes overnight, setting the stage for an expected push into the dense confines of Gaza City and an even bloodier phase of the conflict. Take a look back at this past month of CGTN coverage, as the new round of the Palestine-Israel conflict reaches its second month.

At least nine people were killed and a number of others wounded after Israel bombed a house in the Jabalia camp in the northern Gaza Strip, Hamas-affiliated Shehab News Agency reported Wednesday.

Israel has not yet responded to the claim.

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a pause in fighting in Gaza during a call on Monday.

"I didn't get a chance to talk to him today. I did ask him for a pause in the past — yesterday," Biden told reporters traveling with him in Washington, D.C. He did not say how long of a pause he requested.

A White House spokesperson previously said the two leaders discussed the potential for "tactical pauses" in fighting in Gaza for humanitarian reasons and possible hostage releases during their conversation on Monday.

Netanyahu on Tuesday reiterated in a televised statement that there will be no fuel delivered to the Gaza Strip and no ceasefire in Israel's fighting with Hamas unless hostages seized by the Palestinian militants are freed. 

(With input from agencies)

Since the latest round of Hamas-Israel conflict broke out a month ago, 89 United Nations (UN) aid workers have been killed, which is the highest number of UN employees killed in a conflict in the history of the organization, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said Tuesday.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it was deeply troubled that its humanitarian convoy in Gaza City came under fire on Tuesday.

A convoy of five trucks and two ICRC vehicles was carrying lifesaving medical supplies to health facilities when it was hit by fire, the organization said in a statement, adding that two trucks were damaged and a driver was lightly wounded.

"These are not the conditions under which humanitarian personnel can work," William Schomburg, head of the ICRC sub-delegation in Gaza, said. "We are here to bring urgent assistance to civilians in need. Ensuring that vital aid can reach medical facilities is a legal obligation under international humanitarian law." 

Israeli ground forces were "in the heart of Gaza City", Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Tuesday.

At least 10,328 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza from Israeli retaliatory strikes, according to the health ministry in Gaza on Tuesday.

A World Health Organization spokesperson said on Tuesday that over 16 healthcare workers have died on duty in Gaza.  

At least 163 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank since October 7, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

A Chinese envoy to the United Nations on Monday urged Israel to immediately lift blockade of the Gaza Strip, withdraw its evacuation order and restore water, electricity, food and fuel supply to the area.

Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, made the remarks at a UN meeting deliberating the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

Geng said China condemns all forms of violence and attacks on civilians and all actions violating the international law. The red lines stipulated in the international humanitarian law cannot be touched, and the bottom line of international morality and human conscience cannot be breached, he said at the meeting.

Geng also reiterated China's call for an immediate ceasefire in the area. Without a lasting ceasefire, any humanitarian aid is negligible, he said. 

(Cover: A man sits in the rubble of buildings destroyed in Israeli air strikes in Gaza City, November 4, 2023. /Xinhua)

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the protection of civilians "must be paramount" in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas, warning that the Gaza Strip was becoming "a graveyard for children."

"Ground operations by the Israel Defense Forces and continued bombardment are hitting civilians, hospitals, refugee camps, mosques, churches and U.N. facilities – including shelters. No one is safe," Guterres told reporters.

"At the same time, Hamas and other militants use civilians as human shields and continue to launch rockets indiscriminately towards Israel," he said.

UN agency leaders saying "enough is enough" demanded a humanitarian ceasefire, as health authorities in the enclave said the death toll from Israeli strikes now exceeded 10,000.

Israel has rebuffed mounting international pressure for a ceasefire, saying hostages taken by Hamas militants during their rampage in southern Israel on Oct. 7 should be released first.

"An entire population is besieged and under attack, denied access to the essentials for survival, bombed in their homes, shelters, hospitals and places of worship. This is unacceptable," the UN chiefs said in a joint statement.

"We need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. It's been 30 days. Enough is enough. This must stop now."

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The 18 signatories include the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths.

The reported number of fatalities in Israeli strikes on Gaza since Oct. 7 has now surpassed 10,000, with the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled enclave saying at least 10,022 Palestinians were killed including 4,104 children.

At least 88 people who worked for the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, have also been killed since 7 October.

Four Palestinian 'militants' killed in West Bank

Four Palestinians whom Israel labeled 'militants' were killed and another seriously wounded after Israeli forces shot at their car in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm, the Palestinian health ministry said on Monday.

Israeli military and police said in a statement that it had killed four Palestinian militants who it said were part of a cell in the West Bank that was directed by Hamas and behind numerous shooting attacks.

A statement by the Fatah-affiliated Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said three of the militants, whose ages ranged between 20 and 25, were from its Tulkarm arm while the fourth was from Hamas' armed wing, the Al Qassam Brigades.

A 14-year-old boy was seriously wounded in the shooting but his condition was stable, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Türkiye calls for ceasefire

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told his U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken in a meeting in Ankara that a ceasefire needed to be declared urgently in Gaza, a Turkish foreign ministry source said.

Blinken made an unannounced visit to the West Bank on Sunday to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who joined international calls for an immediate ceasefire. Blinken reiterated U.S. concerns that a ceasefire could aid Hamas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled one out for now.

U.S. CIA Director William Burns was also set to visit Israel on Monday to discuss the war and intelligence with officials, the New York Times reported. Burns also will make stops in other regional states, it quoted an unnamed U.S. official as saying.

Jordan considers Israel response

Jordan said on Monday it was leaving "all options" open in its response to what it called Israel's failure to discriminate between military and civilian targets in its intensifying bombardment and aggression of the Gaza Strip. 

Prime Minister Bisher al Khasawneh did not elaborate on what further steps Jordan would take, days after it recalled its ambassador from Israel in protest at Israel's offensive against Gaza launched after a cross-border October 7 attack by Hamas. 

Jordan also announced last week that Israel's ambassador, who left Amman shortly after Hamas' attack, would not be allowed to come back to resume his duties for now, effectively declaring him persona non grata. 

"All options are on the table for Jordan in our dealing with the Israeli aggression on Gaza and its repercussions," Khasawneh, whose country signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, told state media. 

Khasawneh said Israel's siege of the densely populated Gaza was not self-defence as it maintains. "The brutal Israeli attack does not discriminate between civilian and military targets and is extending to safe areas and ambulances," he said.

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Israel Defense Forces say they struck 450 Hamas targets in Gaza on Sunday night and seized a military compound, while Palestine's health ministry claim that multiple civilians were killed in the aerial bombardment.

Health officials in Hamas-controlled Gaza said 10,022 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting, which began when Hamas killed 1,400 people and seized more than 240 hostages on October 7. 

Jordan revealed its air force dropped urgent humanitarian aid into Gaza on Sunday, while the EU has announced it will increase its humanitarian aid to Gaza by $26 million. On Monday, France revealed it's in talks with Egypt to establish a military medical facility on the ground, which would include surgical capacities for people seriously wounded in the neighboring Gaza Strip.

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is continuing his tour of the Middle East aiming to prevent the conflict from escalating. After an expected meeting with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan did not materialise, Blinken instead held a meeting with his counterpart Hakan Fidan. Fidan called for an urgent ceasefire, contrasting with the U.S.'s appeal for more temporary humanitarian pauses, and said that Israel had to be prevented from targeting civilians.

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Tunnel strikes

Senior Hamas commander Jamal Mussa, who had headed the group's special security operations, was among those killed in overnight strikes, the IDF said. Israel said 31 soldiers have been killed since it began expanded ground operations in Gaza on October 27, fighting thousands of Hamas fighters who believe they can hold off Israel's advance in a warren of tunnels under the enclave. 

A spokesman for Israel's military told CNN late on Sunday that bombardments in northern Gaza were halted for several hours for two days in a row to allow civilians safe passage to move to the south of the narrow coastal strip. Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus added there was access to water and humanitarian goods in the south of Gaza, but Hamas was impeding convoys by firing on them. His account could not immediately be verified. 

Search for victims at refugee camp

People searched for victims or survivors at the Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza, where the health ministry said Israeli forces had killed at least 47 people in strikes early on Sunday. 

"All night I and the other men were trying to pick the dead from the rubble. We got children, dismembered, torn-apart flesh," said Saeed al-Nejma, 53. 

Asked for comment, the IDF said it was gathering details. 

In a separate attack, 21 Palestinians from one family were killed in strikes, the health ministry said. The IDF declined to comment. 

Reuters could not independently verify these accounts. 

"We demand that you stop them from committing these crimes immediately," Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas told Blinken, during a meeting on Sunday, urging an "immediate ceasefire" from Israel. 

Palestinians were facing a war of "genocide and destruction", news agency WAFA quoted Abbas as saying. 

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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Monday said it has killed Hamas' Deir al-Balah battalion commander Wael Asfeh.

The Hamas side has not responded to the claim yet.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is convening all the ambassadors stationed in Israel now, Israeli media reported on Monday. 

Several countries have recalled or decided to recall their ambassador to the county in the wake of the Israeli conflict with Hamas.

Six ambulances carrying wounded Palestinians arrived in Egypt on Monday through the Rafah border crossing with the war-torn Gaza Strip, a border official told AFP.

The patients were undergoing medical examinations at the border before being transferred to hospitals, the official said, adding the passage of foreigners trapped in Gaza was also expected to resume on Monday.  

At least 155 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank since October 7, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said on Monday.

The border authority in Gaza said the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza reopened on Monday to evacuate foreigners and dual nationals on the Egyptian-Israeli exit list.

The authority said those not listed will not be able to cross the border, per the notification from the Egyptian authorities.

The terminal opened for three days last week – on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday – to allow dozens of wounded Palestinians and hundreds of foreign passport holders to cross before closing on Saturday and Sunday amid a dispute over the passage of ambulances.

(With input from agencies)

At least 10,022 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza from Israeli retaliatory strikes, according to the health ministry in Gaza on Monday.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told his U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken on Monday that a ceasefire needed to be declared urgently in Gaza, Reuters reported citing a foreign ministry source. 

Following Fidan's talks with Blinken in Ankara, the source said Fidan had also told the U.S. secretary of state that Israel had to be prevented from targeting civilians and displacing people in Gaza.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday said the EU is increasing its humanitarian aid for Gaza by 25 million euros ($27 million).

"By doing so the European Union will spend a total of 100 million euros in humanitarian aid for the civilians in Gaza," von der Leyen told EU diplomats in Brussels.

Von der Leyen said flows of aid into Gaza from Egypt "remain too small" and the EU was working on setting up other possible routes including deliveries via sea from Cyprus.

China will do its utmost to restore peace in Palestine as it takes over the presidency of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) this month, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

The remarks were made by the ministry's spokesperson Wang Wenbin at a regular press briefing in response to what China will do to prevent the actions in Gaza that violate international humanitarian law.

Over the weekend, an Israeli strike hit a medical convoy, a school, refugee camps and other civilian facilities in Gaza, resulting in heavy casualties, with children included. Israel said its military targeted Hamas fighters.

The disastrous humanitarian situation in Gaza tests the conscience of mankind and tramples on the basic norms governing international relations, said Wang.

China will push the UNSC to fulfill its responsibilities, build consensus and take responsible and meaningful action as soon as possible to ease the current crisis and safeguard the safety of civilians, Wang noted.

He added that China will continue to work with the international community to make unremitting efforts to mediate conflicts and bring the Palestinian question back to the track of the two-state solution.

Since the fresh round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict started on October 7, more than 11,000 people have been killed, the majority being civilians.

(Cover: A view of Chinese Foreign Ministry. /CFP)

South Africa will recall its diplomats from Israel for further consultations on the situation in Gaza, the Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni announced on Monday, local media reported.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Monday said Israel has opened a corridor for civilians in the north of the Gaza Strip to escape south.

IDF spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on social media platform X that Israel opened Salah-al-Din Street for southward traffic between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. local time on Monday.

More than 200 people were killed in overnight Israeli strikes on Gaza, Asharq News reported on Monday, citing the Hamas Health Ministry. 

The French death toll from Hamas attacks in Israel has reached 40, French media reported on Monday citing Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Ankara, Türkiye on Monday, Turkish media TRT World reported.

They discussed efforts to expand humanitarian aid in Gaza and to prevent the conflict in the region from spreading, Blinken said after talks with Fidan.

Displaced people in a refugee camp are suffering a worsening humanitarian crisis as water, food and medical supplies are almost completely depleted in the southern Gaza Strip.

The escalating Palestine-Israel conflict has led to the cutting of power and water supplies to Khan Younis, forcing residents to abandon their homes, with many of them gathering at the beach for survival. The poor conditions force them to cook over firewood, and the price of wood for cooking and heating is soaring as winter approaches.

Britain's Foreign Office said on Monday that it is temporarily withdrawing some British embassy staff from Lebanon. 

Two border police officers were injured, one seriously, in a stabbing and shooting "terror attack" in Jerusalem's Old City on Monday morning, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Hebrew news outlets said a Palestinian youth who allegedly carried out the attack was killed.

Efforts were under way on Sunday to resume evacuations of foreign nationals and injured Gazans through the Rafah crossing to Egypt, suspended since Saturday after a deadly attack on an ambulance, Egyptian, U.S. and Qatari officials said.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas demanded an immediate Israeli ceasefire at a meeting with U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Ramallah.

Blinken, who has dismissed the idea of a ceasefire by Israel for fear it would benefit Hamas, was making an unannounced visit to the occupied West Bank as part of efforts to prevent the Israel-Hamas war spreading.

Blinken said the Palestinian Authority should play a central role in the future of the Gaza strip, a U.S. official said after the visit.

(With input from Reuters)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected growing calls for a ceasefire in Gaza until all of the more than 240 hostages captured by militant Palestinian group Hamas during its Oct. 7 attacks are returned.

"There will be no ceasefire without the return of the hostages. This should be completely removed from the lexicon," Netanyahu told crews at the Ramon air force base in southern Israel, reiterating the government's long-standing position.

"We say this to our friends and to our enemies. We will simply continue until we defeat them. We have no alternative."

Foreign ministers from Qatar, Saudi, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates met U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Amman, Jordan on Saturday and urged him to persuade Israel to agree to a ceasefire.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, for his part, demanded an immediate ceasefire earlier when he met Blinken during the U.S. secretary's unannounced visit to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

(With input from Reuters)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has rejected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's request for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, according to a Palestinian official.

The official told Xinhua that Blinken reaffirmed during his meeting with Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah "Israel's right to defend itself and continue its military campaign" in Gaza.

Blinken's visit to Ramallah lasted for about an hour, during which he met with Abbas and his senior aides to discuss the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, said the official who wished to remain anonymous.

He said Blinken had promised to pressure Israel to avoid harming civilians and provide safe corridors for humanitarian relief, but refused to discuss cease-fire mechanisms at this stage.

The official added that Abbas and Blinken agreed to adhere to the two-state solution and work on it after the end of the conflict in Gaza.

The Israel-Hamas conflict, raging for nearly a month, has killed at least 9,488 Palestinians in Gaza. On the Israeli side, more than 1,400 people lost their lives, the vast majority in the Hamas military attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, which triggered the ongoing conflict.

Israel's military said its forces reached on Sunday the coast of Gaza City and encircled Hamas in the city, as the Palestinian death toll in the enclave rose to 9,770 amid Israel's relentless bombardment.

The Israeli military said in a statement that the armored 36th Division reached "positions along the coast of Gaza," and the troops were "encircling" Hamas forces in the city.

The military added that their goal is "to strike and destroy select targets, including significant assets and command and control centers belonging to the Hamas."

"The forces divided the Strip to Gaza-north and Gaza-south and control the shoreline," Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a briefing, adding that "massive attacks are currently being carried out in the northern Gaza Strip, including the killing of Hamas commanders."

Hagari repeated the calls to Gazans to evacuate themselves from northern Gaza through "a one-way corridor for civilians" to the south as more Israeli strikes are expected in the Gaza City.

Hagari also demanded on Sunday that Hamas stop the "systematic exploitation of medical facilities for terrorist activity." In a briefing in English, Hagari presented audio footage and images that he said were evidence that the Hamas underground infrastructure was embedded beneath hospitals located in the northern enclave.

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, announced on Sunday that its fighters "trapped Israeli forces penetrating east of Khan Younis into a tight ambush after striking them with Al-Yassin 105 shells, heavy sniper weapons, medium weapons, and mortar shells, which led to the destruction of two tanks."

As the conflict has continued for 30 days, Israeli strikes killed at least 9,770 people and injured at least 24,808 others, the Gaza-based health ministry said in a statement.

Internet and telephone lines were again cut in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian communication company Paltel said in a statement. The blackout marked the third time that the communication in the enclave was cut off since the beginning of the conflict.

Meanwhile, Iran confirmed on Sunday that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has met with Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the Iranian capital Tehran, without specifying the date of the meeting.

During the meeting, Haniyeh presented a report of the latest developments in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank as well as the Israeli "crimes" against the coastal enclave, according to a statement published on the leader's website on Sunday, while Khamenei stressed Iran's "permanent policy" of supporting the Palestinian resistance forces against Israel.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Sunday that the logistic difficulties imposed by Israel and its repeated bombing of the Rafah border crossing delayed the delivery of aid to the besieged Gaza Strip and placed additional burdens on Egypt.

Earlier on the day, Egypt sent 75 trucks loaded with food, water, and medical supplies through the Rafah crossing to Gaza, raising the total number of aid trucks sent to the enclave since October 21 to nearly 500, a security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Confrontations on the Israel-Lebanon border continued on Sunday, killing two Hezbollah fighters and four civilians while injuring five others on the Lebanese side, local media reported. Lebanese military sources told Xinhua that the Israeli army expanded its military operations to areas outside the borderline in southern Lebanon, in a remarkable escalation that came in the wake of Hezbollah's use of new surface-to-surface missiles.

King Abdullah II of Jordan said that the country’s air force airdropped urgent medical and pharmaceutical supplies to the Jordanian field hospital in the Gaza Strip around Monday midnight, Petra news agency reported.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Sunday evening and held talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani over the ongoing Israeli-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip, according to a statement by al-Sudani's media office.

Al-Sudani reiterated Iraq's call for an immediate ceasefire and the opening of safe corridors to prevent deterioration of the humanitarian crisis, which has tragically affected civilians, including women and children, said the statement.

For his part, Blinken affirmed his country's willingness to continue bilateral coordination and cooperation with Iraq to enhance regional and international stability.

The Hamas-run Gaza Strip health ministry has claimed Israeli military struck a refugee camp on Saturday night, killing at least 38 people, while calls by the Arab world for a ceasefire were rejected by the United States and Israel. 

With the death toll in Gaza mounting, pro-Palestinian demonstrators staged protests in cities around the world on Saturday, calling for an end to the nearly month-old conflict. 

Gaza health officials said on Saturday more than 9,488 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, which began when Hamas fighters launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,400 people and taking more than 240 others hostage. 

Israel continued to strike the Gaza Strip by air, sea, and ground overnight. Gaza health officials said Israeli air strikes destroyed a cluster of houses in the Maghazi refugee camp. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Israel says it is targeting Hamas, not civilians, and that the Palestinian group is using residents as human shields. The Palestinian Red Crescent said there was also intense bombardment, violent artillery explosions, and air strikes in the vicinity of the Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza's Tal Al-Hawa area. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected growing calls for a ceasefire in Gaza until all of the more than 240 hostages captured by militant Palestinian group Hamas are returned. "There will be no ceasefire without the return of the hostages. This should be completely removed from the lexicon," he said.

Efforts were under way on Sunday to resume evacuations of injured Gazans and foreign nationals through the Rafah crossing to Egypt, suspended since Saturday after a deadly attack on an ambulance, Egyptian, U.S. and Qatari officials said.

Blinken visits West Bank 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Sunday despite the stop-off not being announced in the initial itinerary for his diplomatic tour. 

Blinken said the Palestinian Authority (PA) should play a central role in the future of the Gaza strip, a U.S. official said after a visit to the occupied West Bank on Sunday, as Blinken tours the region amid spiraling tensions over Israel's conflict with Hamas.

Blinken passed through Israeli checkpoints to meet PA President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on his second visit to the region since Palestinian Hamas fighters launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7.

He is trying to kickstart discussions on how Gaza could be governed after the complete destruction of Hamas that Israel says is its aim. Blinken told Abbas Washington believes the PA "should play a central role in what comes next in Gaza," said a senior State Department official, who added the future of Gaza was not the focus of the meeting but that PA officials appeared willing to play a role.

More than 300 Americans and their family members have left Gaza but U.S. citizens remain in the besieged enclave and difficult negotiations continue on securing the release of hostages taken by Hamas, a White House official said on Sunday.

Those released included U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents and their family members, Jonathan Finer, deputy national security adviser, said.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators staged protests on Saturday in cities including London, Berlin, Paris, Istanbul, Jakarta and Washington, calling for a ceasefire. Tens of thousands gathered in Washington to denounce President Joe Biden's policy on Gaza and demand a ceasefire. 

In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told tens of thousands gathered in Jakarta on Sunday that the government reaffirmed its support for the struggle of the Palestinian people and would send a second shipment of aid. 

'A serious problem that has only worsened' 

Worsening violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has fuelled concerns that the flashpoint Palestinian territory could become a third front in a wider escalation, in addition to Israel's northern border, where clashes with Lebanese Hezbollah forces have mounted. 

In Abu Dis, a Palestinian village near Jerusalem, Israeli police conducting an arrest raid were fired on by a gunman and killed him, a police spokesperson said. 

The Palestinian health ministry said three Palestinians were killed in the incident. Another Palestinian was killed by Israeli troops in the West Bank city of Hebron, the ministry said. The Israeli military did not immediately comment. 

"This has been a serious problem that's only worsened since the conflict," Blinken said, adding that he raised it on Friday in his meetings with Israeli officials. "Perpetrators must be held accountable." 

This year had already been the deadliest for West Bank residents in at least 15 years, with some 200 Palestinians and 26 Israelis killed, according to UN data. Since the conflict in Gaza began, 121 West Bank Palestinians have been killed.

Palestinian telecommunications company Paltel said on Sunday that all communications and internet services have been cut again within the Gaza Strip.

"The main routes that were previously reconnected (were) cut off again from the Israeli side," it said.

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Israeli minister suspended 

An Israeli minister was suspended from government meetings "until further notice" on Sunday, Netanyahu's office said, after suggesting in an interview dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza. 

Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu, an ultranationalist politician and part of Netanyahu's ruling coalition, told Israel's Kol Barama radio he was not entirely satisfied with the scale of Israel's retaliation in the Palestinian territory after Hamas fighters carried out a deadly attack on October 7 inside southern Israel. 

When the interviewer asked whether the Israeli minister advocated dropping "some kind of atomic bomb" on the Gaza Strip "to kill everyone," Eliyahu replied: "That's one option". 

Netanyahu's office quickly responded to the minister's remarks, issuing a statement in which it described them as "disconnected from reality," adding that Israel was trying to spare "non-combatants" in Gaza.  

Following the outcry over his remarks Eliyahu later said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that his statement about the atomic bomb was "metaphorical." 

Zelenskyy: 'Focus is now not on Ukraine' 

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has insisted the escalation in Gaza is "taking away the focus" away from his own ailing nation's conflict with Russia. 

Zelenskyy insisted this was "one of the goals" of neighboring Russia, whose conflict with Ukraine began in February 2022. The Ukrainian leader also denied that fighting in the country had reached a stalemate. 

Speaking at Saturday's briefing in Kyiv with visiting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Zelenskyy said: "It's clear that the war in the Middle-East is taking away the focus" from Ukraine. He added: "Everyone is getting tired and there are different opinions. But this is not a stalemate."

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At least 9,770 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza from Israeli retaliatory strikes, according to the health ministry in Gaza on Sunday.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan discussed the situation in Gaza with his Egyptian and Jordanian counterparts in separate phone calls, Reuters reported, citing a Turkish diplomatic source on Sunday.

Fidan had exchanged views on "stopping the attacks targeting the civilian population in Gaza" and on achieving an urgent ceasefire, the source said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah in the central West Bank on Sunday, the Israeli Haaretz newspaper reported.

At least 152 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank since October 7, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Sunday.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Sunday that it has attacked over 2,500 targets so far in its combined ground and air operations in the Gaza Strip.

Former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrived in Israel on Sunday to show support as the conflict with Hamas, which began on October 7, continues. 

Protests in favour of Palestine took place around the world over the weekend. Crowds gathered to march outside the White House in Washington, D.C., whilst demonstrators at sizeable rallies in numerous cities, such as London, Paris, Berlin and Sydney, called for a cessation of hostilities in Gaza. The demonstrations took place as Israeli ground forces reinforced their blockade of the Gaza Strip in an effort to eradicate Hamas.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Sunday in what will be the top American diplomat’s first trip to the West Bank since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, The Times of Israel reported, citing a Palestinian official.