Israeli troops and Palestinian militants exchanged fire in the town of Jenin in the occupied West Bank during an army raid overnight into Friday, which ended at a hospital where the Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli forces detained and searched paramedic crews.
Meanwhile in Gaza, aid agencies said they had to call off deliveries of basic necessities on Friday, warning of the looming possibility of widespread starvation a day after internet and telephone services collapsed in the besieged enclave because of a lack of fuel. They said most people in the Gaza Strip already do not have adequate food or clean water.
At least 11,470 Palestinians — two-thirds of them women and minors — have been killed since the war began, according to Palestinian health authorities, who do not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths. About 2,700 people are reported missing.
Israel vowed to wipe out Hamas after the militant group launched its Oct. 7 incursion. Some 1,200 people have been killed in Israel, mostly during the initial attack, and around 240 were taken captive by militants.
Currently:
— At a Global South summit, Modi urges leaders to unite against challenges from the Israel-Hamas war
— Thousands of bodies lie buried in rubble in Gaza. Families dig to retrieve them, often by hand.
— As the battle for Gaza rages, families of hostages wait with trepidation.
— Under a communication blackout, Gaza’s 2.3 million people are cut off from each other and the world.
— Turkey’s Erdogan is visiting Germany as differences over the Israel-Hamas war widen.
— Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Here’s what’s happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war:
BATTLE IN THE WEST BANK LEAVES AT LEAST 3 DEAD AND 15 WOUNDED
JERUSALEM — Israeli troops and Palestinian militants exchanged fire in the town of Jenin in the occupied West Bank during an army raid and at least three Palestinians were killed, the Palestinian health ministry said Friday.
Jenin has long been a flashpoint, and the military has carried out near-nightly operations there since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza six weeks ago.
Gunbattles erupted in several locations, also drawing in fighters from Hamas, the militant group battling Israeli forces in Gaza. At one point, an Israeli aircraft targeted militants who threw explosives toward Israeli forces, the Israeli military said. The military said it killed five militants in the raid and arrested 15 Palestinians.
Airstrikes were once a rare attack mode in the West Bank but have grown increasingly common since war began.
Israel said its forces unearthed explosives under some streets and confiscated weapons, ammunition and surveillance equipment from a vehicle and two militant command centers.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said that once at the hospital, Israeli forces detained and searched paramedic crews. Videos posted to social media by the organization showed Red Crescent paramedics with their hands raised in surrender, leaving the hospital building and walking slowly to stand in front of several Israeli military trucks lined up outside the hospital.
Palestinian health officials, who do not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths, said that 15 Palestinians were injured in the raid, four of them seriously.
DOZENS ARE KILLED OR INJURED FROM STRIKES OVERNIGHT IN SOUTHERN GAZA
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israel bombarded two homes in southern Gaza late Thursday and Friday morning, according to survivors accompanying those killed and wounded in the strikes to the main hospital in Khan Younis.
An Associated Press journalist witnessing the arrivals said he saw three dead and dozens injured, including babies and young children, from Friday’s strike. The attack late Thursday killed 11 members of a family who had fled the main combat zone in Gaza City in the northern part of Gaza earlier in the war.
The strikes hit Bani Suheila, an area east of Khan Younis, located in the southern half of Gaza. Early in the war, now in its sixth week, Israel told civilians to flee the north and head south for their safety.
On Wednesday, Israel dropped leaflets over Bani Suheila and other nearby areas, calling on residents to leave yet again and seek shelter elsewhere. The leaflets triggered fears that Israel is expanding its offensive, which is currently focused on northern Gaza. The south of Gaza is already crammed with hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians who have nowhere else to go.
The Israeli army rarely comments on individual airstrikes but says the attacks are aimed at Hamas operatives and targets.
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.
AFGHANISTAN DENOUNCES ISRAEL’S ONGOING STRIKES IN GAZA
ISLAMABAD — Afghanistan’s Taliban-led administration denounced the ongoing Israeli strikes in Gaza, including the raid on Shifa Hospital. In an overnight statement, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Israeli forces were continually breaking all rules of war.
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan called on the United Nations and other human rights bodies, saying that “if they genuinely believe in their stated values, they must prevent the ongoing brutalities by adopting an honest, transparent & just position vis-a-vis crimes against humanity carried out by the zionists against the people of Gaza,” the statement read, referring to Jews who seek to regain and retain their biblical homeland.
It also asked Arab and Islamic countries “to respond to the cries of the oppressed Muslims of Gaza, & to fulfill their religious & human responsibility through effective & meaningful positions & steps.”
The Taliban-led administration seized power in 2021, and since then the U.N. and other human rights groups have blamed it for human rights violations.
In September, the U.N. said it documented more than 1,600 cases of human rights violations committed by authorities in Afghanistan during arrests and detentions of people. At the time, it urged the Taliban government to stop torture and protect the rights of detainees. The report by the mission’s Human Rights Service covered 19 months — from January 2022 until the end of July 2023 — with cases documented across 29 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. It said 11% of the cases involved women.
SEVERAL ISRAELI AIRSTRIKES HIT NEAR DAMASCUS, SYRIA’S STATE NEWS AGENCY SAYS
DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria’s state news agency says Israel’s military has carried out strikes that hit several posts near the capital, Damascus, causing material damage but no casualties.
SANA quoted an unnamed military official as saying that Syrian air defenses shot down most of the missiles before they reached their targets early Friday.
There has been no confirmation from the Israeli military.
In the weeks since the latest war between Israel and Hamas broke out, Syria reported Israeli airstrikes that hit the international airports in Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo, damaging their runways and putting them out of service.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, including attacks on the Damascus and Aleppo airports, but rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations.
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