As Israeli ground forces continued operations in the northern Gaza Strip, airstrikes bombarded the enclave’s southern region and an army raid in the occupied West Bank sparked a fierce exchange of fire between troops and Palestinian militants.
Israeli airstrikes hit at least two homes in southern Gaza late Thursday and Friday morning, survivors told the Associated Press. Mohammed Zaqout, the head of Gaza’s hospitals, said a total of 35 people were killed in airstrikes in Khan Younis and the nearby town of Rafah overnight. Al Jazeera reported on Friday that at least 18 people were killed in attacks late Thursday in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
In a statement posted on Telegram on Friday, an Israeli military spokesman said the forces had “attacked numerous terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip.” The statement gave no further details about the location of the attacks.
In the West Bank, a battle broke out between Israeli forces and militants in the city of Jenin. The Israeli military said it killed five militants and arrested 15 Palestinians in the raid. According to Palestinian health authorities, at least three Palestinians were killed and 15 injured in the raid.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces in northern Gaza appear poised to expand their ground operations to the south, a region filled with hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians. On Wednesday, Israel dropped leaflets over Bani Suheila and other nearby areas, urging residents to flee the area. Similar leaflets were dropped in northern Gaza ahead of Israel’s first ground offensive.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, over 11,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began last month.
About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Israel in Hamas’ brutal attack on Israeli border communities on October 7. About 240 people were captured by militants.
Developments:
∎ Palestinian Red Crescent emergency medical teams are stuck at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, while Israeli tanks and forces are stationed around the facility. said the independent aid group on X.
∎ Muhammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Al-Shifa Hospital, told Al-Jazeera that all patients in the facility’s intensive care unit had died. Salmiya told the outlet that around 7,000 people, including patients, staff and civilians seeking shelter, remain at the facility without water and electricity.
∎ According to CNN, about 250 foreigners and two injured Palestinians entered Egypt via the Rafah border crossing on Friday. On the same day, more than 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid were allowed to enter the besieged enclave.
∎ An Israeli military spokesman said troops encountered and killed Hamas militants at a school in Gaza overnight. The statement Posted on Friday on X said several weapons were found at the school.
∎ According to Syria’s state news agency, Israeli airstrikes hit locations near Damascus, the capital of Syria. No injuries or deaths were reported.
The bodies of two of the approximately 240 people kidnapped during Hamas’ Oct. 7 rampage in Israel were found near Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Thursday and Friday, according to the Israeli military.
The body of Noa Marciano, a 19-year-old sergeant in the Israeli military, was discovered on Friday near the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip and returned to Israel. said the military on X. An Israeli military spokesman said she was killed by Hamas but gave no further details. Hamas said Marciano was killed in an Israeli airstrike.
A day earlier, the body of 65-year-old Yehudit Weiss was found in a building near the Al-Shifa complex. Her husband, Shmulik Weiss, was killed in the Hamas attack. They had five children, Israeli officials said.
Israel’s war cabinet unanimously approved the import of 60,000 liters of fuel into Gaza over the next two days to support the enclave’s water, communications and sewage infrastructure, officials say.
Tzachi Hanegbi, Israel’s national security adviser, described the deliveries as “very minimal” in a news conference on Friday and said they also served to stop the spread of disease.
“We don’t want diseases that could harm the civilians living there and our armed forces. “If there are diseases, the fighting will stop,” Hanegbi said. “In the event of a humanitarian crisis or an international outcry, we cannot continue the fighting.”
The lack of fuel following Israel’s declaration of war on Hamas has hampered the distribution of humanitarian aid and knocked out critical infrastructure, including sewage plants and water desalination plants, aid groups say.
Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, a U.N. official, accused Israel on Friday of “using water as a weapon of war,” a day after the aid agency warned that Gaza’s 2.2 million people were at risk of starvation.
“Every hour that passes while Israel brazenly violates international law and prevents the supply of clean drinking water to the Gaza Strip puts Gazans at risk of dying from thirst and disease caused by the lack of clean drinking water said Arrojo-Agudo, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation.
According to the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees, around 70% of the Gaza Strip population drinks salty and contaminated water.
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) released a statement on Thursday pleading for another aid passage to be opened as only 10% of necessary food supplies have arrived in Gaza since the war began on October 7.
“Food and water supplies are virtually non-existent in Gaza and only a fraction of what is needed arrives across the borders,” WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain said in a statement. “Winter is approaching, the emergency shelters are unsafe and overcrowded. Due to the lack of clean water, the civilian population is at imminent risk of starvation.”
According to the largest Palestinian telecommunications provider, communications in Gaza appeared to have been down for a second day, effectively cutting the enclave off from the rest of the world after a lack of fuel knocked out all internet and phone networks on Thursday.
Contributors: The Associated Press; John Bacon, Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY