Palestinians in Gaza reported Israeli airstrikes overnight into Saturday across the besieged enclave, including explosions in the south where Israel had told civilians to seek refuge as its ground operation intensifies in northern Gaza.
Calls for a humanitarian pause increased with the UNRWA, the United Nations’ agency for Palestinian refugees, reporting the average Palestinian in Gaza is surviving on two pieces of bread a day, and only one of three water supply lines from Israel is operational. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday, “We are going full steam ahead” unless the hostages held by Hamas are released.
The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has reached 9,227, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, more than 140 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids. The UNRWA says 72 of its staff members have been killed.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that started the fighting, and 242 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by the militant group.
Roughly 1,100 people have left the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing since Wednesday under an apparent agreement among the United States, Egypt, Israel and Qatar, which mediates with Hamas.
Currently:
1. Israel deports thousands of Palestinian workers back to Gaza’s war zone.
2. Honduras becomes the latest Latin American country to recall its ambassador to Israel.
3. Israel’s fortified underground blood bank processes unprecedented amounts as troops move into Gaza.
4. A U.N. official says the average Palestinian in Gaza is living on two pieces of bread a day.
5. Blinken warns Israel that humanitarian conditions in Gaza must improve.
6. Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
Here’s what is happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war:
SKIRMISHES PERSIST ALONG ISRAEL-LEBANON BORDER
JERUSALEM — Skirmishes along Israel’s northern border continued Saturday morning as the Israeli military said it had struck militant sites in Lebanon trying to fire at Israel.
The military said it also struck a Hezbollah lookout.
AIRSTRIKE LEVELS A FAMILY HOUSE IN KHAN YOUNIS
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — An Israeli airstrike early Saturday destroyed a house for the al-Najar family in central Khan Younis city in southern Gaza.
First responders rushed to the house searching for victims under the rubble. According to an Associated Press cameraman, first responders recovered three bodies and six injured.
AP footage showed rescuers retrieving the motionless body of a child. One worker is seen covering her face with a blanket as another took her apparently to a nearby ambulance. An injured woman is carried on a stretcher with the help of a bulldozer to an ambulance.
PALESTINIANS IN GAZA REPORT AIRSTRIKES OVERNIGHT
CAIRO — Palestinians in Gaza reported Israeli airstrikes overnight into Saturday across the besieged enclave, including the southern part where Israel had told civilians to seek refuge as its ground operation intensifies in northern Gaza.
Raed Mattar, who had fled northern Gaza early in the war and is sheltering in a school in the southern town of Khan Younis, said he heard explosions, apparently from airstrikes.
“People never sleep,” he said. “The sound of explosions never stops.”
Airstrikes were also reported in Gaza City, the focus of Israel’s campaign to crush Gaza’s ruling Hamas militants. Strikes hit the western outskirts of the city and near Al-Quds Hospital. The Israeli military repeatedly hit close to the hospital in recent days, said Adly Abu Taha, a Gaza City resident who has sheltered in the hospital grounds for the past three weeks.
“The bombardment get closer day by day,” he said over the phone. “We don’t know where to go.”
JAPAN ANNOUNCES $65 MILLION IN HUMANITARIAN AID FOR THE GAZA STRIP
TOKYO — Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa announced a $65 million in humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip on Friday as she condemned attacks on civilians and promised Japan’s continued support for a two-state solution for the conflict.
Kamikawa met with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and her Palestinian counterpart, Riyad al-Maliki, during her visit to the region Friday, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry. The aid will cover support for the Palestinians and supplies for the Gaza Strip, in addition to $10 million in emergency aid Japan announced earlier, she said.
Speaking to reporters in the Jordanian capital of Amman after her Israel visit, Kamikawa said she urged the Israeli and Palestinian ministers to improve humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip and to calm the situation as soon as possible.
INDONESIA SENDS ITS FIRST SHIPMENT OF AID FOR GAZA
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia dispatched a batch of humanitarian aid for people in Gaza on Saturday, its first since the latest Israel-Hamas war began.
The 51.5-ton aid was sent off directly by President Joko Widodo from Jakarta’s Halim Perdanakusuma Air Force Base. Widodo said the medical equipment, food, blankets, tents and other supplies came both from the government and from Indonesian civilians, collected by humanitarian agencies.
The aid will be transported Saturday by two Hercules aircraft and an Airbus cargo plane to el-Arish Airport in Egypt. Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, has long been a strong supporter of Palestinians. The country does not have formal diplomatic relations with Israel.
“This is a form of Indonesian solidarity, a form of Indonesians’ concern for humanity,” Widodo said, “because the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza is unacceptable and must be stopped as soon as possible.”
UN CHIEF RENEWS HIS DEMAND FOR A HUMANITARIAN CEASE-FIRE
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations chief renewed his demand for a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza, saying civilians “have been besieged, denied aid, killed and bombed out of their homes” for nearly one month in Israel’s retaliation after Hamas’ surprise attacks.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement late Friday that he is “horrified by the reported attack in Gaza on an ambulance convoy outside Al Shifa hospital,” calling the images of bodies strewn on the street “harrowing.”
The secretary-general said international humanitarian law must be respected, including protecting civilians and civilian infrastructure — and not using civilians as human shields. He also called for the delivery of humanitarian supplies across Gaza “at a scale commensurate with this dramatic situation.”
PEOPLE IN GAZA ARE DESPERATE FOR FOOD AND WATER, U.N. OFFICIAL SAYS
UNITED NATIONS — “Maya! Maya! Water! Water!” is now the refrain from people on Gaza streets, the Gaza director for the UNRWA, the United Nation’s agency for Palestinian refugees, said Friday.
Thomas White described Gaza as “a scene of death and destruction.” No place is safe now, he said, and people fear for their lives, their futures, and that they will not be able to feed their families.
UNRWA is supporting about 89 bakeries across Gaza aiming to get bread to 1.7 million people, White said in a video briefing to diplomats from the U.N.’s 193 member nations. The average person in Gaza is living on two pieces of bread made from flour the U.N. had stockpiled in the territory, he said.
But “now people are beyond looking for bread. It’s looking for water,” he said.
U.N. deputy Middle East coordinator Lynn Hastings, who is also the humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said only one of three water supply lines from Israel is operational and “many people are relying on brackish or saline ground water, if at all.”
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