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.
Quick Read
- At least 21 reported wounded in airstrike near hospital
- Location: Cairo
- Incident: Palestinian Red Crescent says at least 21 wounded outside Al-Quds hospital in Gaza due to an Israeli airstrike.
- Response: Panic ensued among displaced families outside the hospital; Israel’s military has demanded evacuation of this and other medical facilities, a demand U.N. health agency and aid groups call impossible.
- Lebanon reports Israeli airstrikes and Hezbollah shelling
- Location: Rmeish, Lebanon
- Actions: Israeli airstrikes conducted along the border; Hezbollah launched attacks on several Israeli army posts.
- Statements: Hezbollah claimed it attacked six Israeli posts; Lebanese state-run agency reported airstrikes in border villages.
- Erdogan says he can no longer speak with Netanyahu
- Location: Istanbul
- Statements: Turkish President Erdogan refuses to speak with Israeli PM Netanyahu due to Gaza bombardment; Turkey could act as a peace guarantor between Israel and Palestine.
- Several reported killed after airstrikes hit shelter for displaced
- Location: Rafah, Gaza Strip
- Incidents: Israeli airstrikes targeted a U.N. shelter and al-Nasser Hospital, causing deaths and injuries.
- Israel criticizes Honduras for recalling ambassador
- Location: Jerusalem
- Diplomacy: Israel’s foreign ministry criticizes Honduras for recalling its ambassador; Honduras is the latest Latin American country to show unease with Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
- Skirmishes persist along Israel-Lebanon border
- Location: Jerusalem
- Military: Israeli military reports continued strikes on militant sites and Hezbollah positions in Lebanon.
- Airstrike levels a family house in Khan Younis
- Location: Khan Younis, Gaza Strip
- Incident: An Israeli airstrike destroyed the al-Najar family house; casualties and injuries reported.
- Palestinians in Gaza report airstrikes overnight
- Location: Cairo
- Situation: Palestinians across Gaza, especially southern areas, report continued Israeli airstrikes; disruptions and fears persist among civilians.
The Associated Press has the story:
Palestinians report Israeli airstrikes including in southern Gaza
NEWSLOOKS_ (AP)
AT LEAST 21 REPORTED WOUNDED IN AIRSTRIKE NEAR HOSPITAL
CAIRO — The Palestinian Red Crescent says at least 21 people taking shelter outside Al-Quds hospital in Gaza city were wounded Saturday afternoon when an Israeli airstrike hit a building close to the entrance of the emergency ward.
Writing on X platform, formerly Twitter, the charity said the bombing, the closest to the facility, stoked panic and fear among displaced families camping outside the hospital. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Israel’s military has repeatedly demanded the evacuation of the hospital and other medical facilities in northern Gaza. Such a demand was deemed impossible by the U.N. health agency and other aid groups given the increasing number of patients and thousands of people sheltering in the facilities.
LEBANON REPORTS ISRAELI AIRSTRIKES AND HEZBOLLAH SHELLING
RMEISH, Lebanon — Israeli warplanes conducted airstrikes along the border with Lebanon Saturday as the militant Hezbollah group attacked several Israeli army posts along the tense frontier.
The escalation came a day after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said his powerful group is already engaged in unprecedented fighting along the border and threatened a further escalation.
Hezbollah said in a statement that its fighters attacked at least six Israeli posts along the border with “suitable rockets and weapons.”
On the outskirts of the border village of Rmeish, an Israeli airstrike in a rugged area along the border caused thick gray smoke. Artillery shelling could be heard from a distance.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported airstrikes on the outskirts of several border villages including Labbouneh and Hibarieh.
ERDOGAN SAYS HE CAN NO LONGER SPEAK WITH NETANYAHU
ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he could no longer speak to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in light of the bombardment of Gaza, Turkish media reported Saturday.
“Netanyahu is no longer someone we can talk to. We erased him and threw him away,” Erdogan told journalists on a flight back from a summit in Kazakhstan.
Erdogan, however, added that his foreign minister and intelligence chief would continue to talk to “the Israeli side” as well as Hamas and other Palestinian groups.
Since Israel launched its attack on Gaza, Erdogan’s rhetoric against the operation has become increasingly critical, ending efforts for Turkey and Israel to reconcile after more than a decade of mostly hostile relations.
Erdogan, in remarks reported by state-run Anadolu news agency and other Turkish media, also reiterated the possibility of Turkey being a guarantor for any future long-term peace deal between Israel and Palestine.
“If Greece can be a guarantor country, England can be a guarantor country and Turkey is a guarantor country in Cyprus, why can’t there be a similar structure in Gaza?” the president said, referring to a 1960 treaty on the east Mediterranean island.
He added that Ankara was “taking initiatives and developing formulas” to find peace.
Criticizing international support for Israel, Erdogan said “the whole West, especially America, is currently on Israel’s side” and that people “should not expect a fair attitude” from the European Union over Gaza.
SEVERAL REPORTED KILLED AFTER AIRSTRIKES HIT SHELTER FOR DISPLACED
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Places where displaced Palestinians sought refuge from Israeli bombardment came under attack on Saturday, with Israeli strikes killing several people at a U.N. shelter and outside the gates of a major hospital.
The U.N. Palestinian refugee agency says that two strikes hit a shelter that it runs for internally displaced in the northern Gaza Strip, killing several people who had sought refuge in tents in the schoolyard as well as women baking bread inside the building.
The agency’s spokesperson, Juliette Touma, said that initial reports indicated that 20 people were killed by the strikes on Fakhoura School just west of the Jabliya refugee camp. She said the agency could not confirm the death toll. The Gaza-based Health Ministry reported that 12 people were killed at Fakhoura School and another 50 were wounded.
Some 18,000 Palestinians were sheltering at Fakhoura School, according to the agency’s most recent estimates.
Earlier on Saturday, an airstrike hit the gates of al-Nasser Hospital in Gaza City, where thousands had sought shelter. The strike killed at least two people, according to the Health Ministry.
ISRAEL CRITICIZES HONDURAS FOR RECALLING AMBASSADOR
JERUSALEM — Israel’s foreign ministry castigated the Honduran government for recalling its ambassador from Israel in protest of the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Lior Haiat, the spokesperson for Israel’s foreign ministry, wrote wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “We expect the Honduran government to condemn Hamas, to support Israel’s right to defend itself, and not to take decisions that provide support to Hamas’ terrorism.”
Honduras is the latest Latin American country to indicate unease with Israel’s operations in Gaza. Earlier in the week, Israel criticized Bolivia, Chile and Colombia for taking diplomatic steps in protest of its military operations.
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.”
