The Israeli military says its troops and tanks briefly entered northern Gaza overnight into Thursday, marking the third Israeli raid since the war began more than two weeks ago. Airstrikes have ravaged swaths of the Gaza Strip during that time - leaving it looking like a wasteland from space - and residents are running out of food, water and other supplies.
Meanwhile, a senior Hamas official tells The Associated Press that the Palestinian militant group needs greater intervention from its allies, including Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, in its war with Israel.
The war, now in its 20th day, is the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Thursday that more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed so far - more than three times the number killed in the six-week-long Gaza war in 2014. In the occupied West Bank, more than 100 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids following Hamas’ surprise rampage on Oct. 7 in southern Israel.
The Associated Press couldn’t independently verify the death tolls cited by Hamas, which says it tallies figures from hospital directors.
The fighting has killed more than 1,400 people in Israel, according to Israeli officials, mostly civilians who died in the initial Hamas attack. Israel’s military has raised the number of remaining hostages in Gaza to 222 people, including foreigners believed captured by Hamas during the incursion. Four hostages have been released so far.
U.S. and other officials fear the fighting could spill over into a wider regional conflict.
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Here’s what’s happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war:
WASHINGTON - A White House spokesman said Thursday that that United States would respond at a “time of our choosing and a manner of our choosing” to a recent spate of attacks the U.S. says has been carried out by Iranian-backed groups against U.S. troops stationed in the Middle East.
The blunt warning from White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby came a day after President Joe Biden said Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been directly warned that the U.S. would respond if Iran or its proxies continued to attack U.S. troops. Attacks on U.S. troops in the region have increased since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7.
Speaking at a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the White House, Biden said: “My warning to the Ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond. And he should be prepared.”
Asked on Thursday to provide further details on how that message was delivered to Khamenei, Kirby declined to elaborate.
BAGHDAD - An Iranian-backed militia in Iraq claims that it has carried out an attack with two suicide drones against a base housing U.S. troops in northern Iraq.
The Islamic Resistance, an umbrella group for several Iran-backed militias, said in a statement that its fighters attacked on Thursday the “American occupation base” near the airport of the city of Erbil with two drones that directly hit their targets.
It gave no further details and there was no immediate comment from the U.S. military.
The past week has seen a spate of more than a dozen attacks on U.S. military facilities in Iraq and in Syria - most of them claimed by the same group, which has said it is retaliating against America’s backing of Israel in its war with Hamas.
NICOSIA, Cyprus - Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides says the island nation is ready to act as hub for humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
Christodoulides told reporters in Brussels Thursday that he pitched to fellow European Union leaders a proposal to establish a “humanitarian aid corridor” linking Cyprus’ main port of Limassol to Gaza. The Cypriot president said he discussed the idea with both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
Government spokesman Constantinos Letymbiotis told The Associated Press that EU leaders “showed interest” in the proposal.
PARIS - The absence of more than 200 people held hostage by Hamas is being felt - and seen - in places around the world.
Thirty empty baby strollers were displayed on a lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower on Thursday, each with a photo of one of the children being held. Two hundred empty plastic chairs were also lined up outside the United Nations’ European headquarters in Geneva with photos of the missing.
Family members and Jewish groups are keeping the spotlight on the people taken captive by Hamas militants Oct. 7 as Israel continues to pound the Gaza Strip with airstrikes and prepares for a large ground invasion.
“Our goal is to … raise the level of public awareness regarding the situation of these children,” Yonathan Arfi, President of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France, said of the Eiffel Tower display. “It is not acceptable to have hostages and it is even more unacceptable to have children hostages of Hamas.”
Arfi’s group also arranged empty baby carriages in the French coastal cities of Nice and Marseille.
A day earlier, blindfolded teddy bears with photos of the abducted children were placed in front of a fountain in Tel Aviv.
Demonstrators and family members of hostages taken from the kibbutz Kfar Azza called Thursday for their release in a street protest in Tel Aviv.
A poster said 62 people from the kibbutz had been slain, 17 kidnapped and one was missing. Hundreds others were wounded.
“I want my brother back,” said Ido Shamriz, brother of Alon Shamriz. “I want him (back) now. Bring all the kidnapped people now to Israel, now.”
UNITED NATIONS - Iran’s foreign minister says Hamas is ready to release civilian prisoners abducted from Israel and is stressing that the international community must take responsibility for releasing 6,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
Hossein Amirabdollahian told an emergency meeting of the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday that Iran “stands ready to play its part in this very important humanitarian endeavor, along with Qatar and Turkey.”
Iran is a key backer of Hamas and Qatar has already played a key role in the release of four Israeli civilians, among the more than 200 still held captive.
Amirabdollahian accused the United States of directly participating in the Israeli-Hamas war and what he called a “genocide” against the Palestinians.
He also issued a strong warning “against the uncontrollable consequences of the unlimited financial, arms and operational support by the White House to the Tel Aviv regime.”
“I say frankly to the American statesman, who are now managing the genocide in Palestine, that we do not welcome to expansion of the war in the region,” Iran’s top diplomat said in English at the start of his remarks.
“But I warn, if the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from this fire,” Amirabdollahian said. “It is our home and west Asia is our region. We do not compromise with any party and any side, and we have no reservation when it comes to our home security.”
MOSCOW - A senior Iranian diplomat on Thursday discussed the situation in the Gaza Strip with a Kremlin Mideast envoy.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri met with Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, who serves as the Kremlin envoy for the Middle East.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a terse readout of the talks that they emphasized “the need for a cessation of hostilities in and around the Gaza Strip and the prompt provision of humanitarian assistance to the affected Palestinian population.”
The diplomats also reaffirmed a shared commitment by Moscow and Tehran to “continue close coordination of efforts in the interests of stabilizing the situation in the Middle East.”
MOSCOW - The Russian Foreign Ministry said it discussed the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip and the evacuation of Russian nationals and other foreign citizens with a Hamas representative who visited Moscow Thursday.
The ministry said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that talks with Abu Marzouk, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, were part of Moscow’s efforts to secure the immediate release of foreign hostages held in Gaza. It said that issues related to organizing the evacuation of Russian and other foreign citizens from Gaza were also discussed.
The ministry noted that the Russian side “reaffirmed its unwavering position in favor of implementing the well-known decisions of the international community, including the relevant resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and the U.N. General Assembly, which envisage the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital and coexisting in peace and security with Israel.”
BRUSSELS - Spanish Acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called Thursday for an international peace conference on the Middle East conflict to take place within six months with the aim of resolving the Israel-Hamas war.
“From Spain, we propose that an International Peace Conference be held within six months so that the entire international community feels involved, is involved and we can definitively find a two-state solution to Israel and Palestine,” he said in Brussels ahead of a European Union Council meeting.
Sánchez also called for a humanitarian cease-fire in order to get aid into Gaza and called on Hamas to release the people who are being held hostage.
JERUSALEM - Juliette Touma, the chief spokesperson for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, said that an urgent shipment of fuel needs to enter the Gaza Strip as soon as possible, as UNRWA’s supplies have almost run out.
Speaking to The Associated Press, Touma said that if UNRWA runs out of supplies they will have to significantly reduce some of their aid operations, and in some cases, “bring it to a total halt.”
“We need fuel for the U.N. cars, we need fuel for the trucks to be able to go and bring the little supplies that are coming in. We also need it for the water pumping station,” Touma listed. UNRWA’s other needs for fuel included desalination stations and the transportation of wheat to local bakeries, she said.
Touma did not give an estimated deadline as to when UNRWA will run out of fuel.
CAIRO - A Hamas delegation led by former government minister, Basem Naim, and senior Hamas official, Musa Abu Marzouk, met with Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, in Moscow on Thursday, discussing the latest in the war between Hamas and Israel.
According to a statement issued by Hamas, Bogdanov expressed his support for Palestinian rights and called for both a cease-fire and humanitarian aid to enter the enclave.
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