The war between Israel and Hamas, which entered its 42nd day on Friday, was sparked by the Palestinian Islamist movement’s bloody Oct. 7 attack on Israeli soil from the Gaza Strip, where it seized power in 2007.
• Also read: Seven Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army in the West Bank
• Also read: The Israeli army says it has found the remains of a soldier held hostage in Gaza
In retaliation, Israel vowed to “destroy” Hamas and relentlessly shell the besieged area, home to 2.4 million Palestinians. The Israeli army launched a ground operation in the Gaza Strip on October 27.
Here are the latest developments:
The Israeli army announced on Friday that it was continuing operations at the Al-Khifa hospital complex in the northern city of Gaza, portrayed by Israel as a strategic and military center of Hamas, which the Palestinian movement denies.
Mohammed Abou Salmiya, director of Al-Chifa Hospital, said the situation at his facility was “catastrophic” for the patients, caregivers and displaced people who took refuge there – around 2,300 people, according to the UN – without electricity. “Neither water nor…” food”.
“Israeli bombardments caused hundreds of deaths and injuries across the Gaza Strip overnight and in the morning,” he added.
The Israeli army announced Friday that it had recovered the remains of a 19-year-old soldier, Noa Marciano, from “a building next to Chifa Hospital.”
This is the second hostage remains the army has announced its discovery in Gaza in less than 24 hours, following the announcement of the body of 65-year-old Yehudit Weiss.
For Egypt, which says it is in contact with Hamas, Israel and other concerned parties, negotiations over the hostage issue are “very sensitive.”
The head of the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said communications with the Gaza Strip had again been “completely disrupted” due to fuel shortages.
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) warned the world on Thursday of the “imminent threat of famine” in the Gaza Strip, where there is “almost no food and water.”
The U.N. agency’s executive director, Cindy McCain, reported that as winter approached, “unsafe and overcrowded shelters” as well as “shortages of drinking water” occurred.
According to the United Nations, 1.65 of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents have been displaced by the war.
Violence continues in the occupied West Bank, where the Israeli army announced on Friday that it had killed “five terrorists” in particular in Jenin, a stronghold of Palestinian armed movements. The day before, Hamas claimed responsibility for an attack on a security checkpoint near Jerusalem in which an Israeli soldier was killed and three others were injured.
According to the Hamas government, at least 11,500 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip since the war began, including 4,710 children and 3,160 women.
According to Israeli authorities, the Hamas attack claimed about 1,200 lives on the Israeli side, most of them civilians killed on October 7.
The Israeli military estimates that around 240 people were taken hostage in the Hamas attack. According to them, 51 soldiers have been killed in Palestinian territory since October 7th.