The Palestinian Health Ministry says three people have been killed in an Israeli strike on a home in the occupied West Bank.
It said the apparent strike was carried out overnight into Thursday in the Tulkarem refugee camp, a built-up residential area dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. It did not say whether those killed were fighters or civilians.
The Israeli military said aircraft struck “several” militants in Tulkarem as ground forces searched for buried explosives in an operation that was still ongoing.
The West Bank has seen a surge of violence since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza ignited the war there. Israeli forces carry out near-daily raids in the West Bank that often ignite gunbattles with Palestinians. Palestinian militants have carried out a series of attacks against Israelis.
The Palestinian Health Ministry says at least 637 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the start of the war.
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three for a future state. Israel has built scores of settlements across the West Bank that are home to over 500,000 Jewish settlers. They have Israeli citizenship, while the 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority administering population centers.
Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar seeking to secure a cease-fire in the war in Gaza, even as Hamas and Israel signaled that challenges remain. Diplomatic efforts have redoubled as fears grow of a wider regional war after the recent targeted killings of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, both blamed on Israel, and threats of retaliation.
Meanwhile, key mediator Egypt expressed skepticism Wednesday as more details emerged of the proposal meant to bridge gaps between Israel and Hamas.
Hamas is believed to still be holding around 110 hostages captured during the Oct. 7 attacks that started the war. Israeli authorities estimate around a third are dead. During the Oct. 7 attack, militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. The war has caused widespread destruction and forced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents to flee their homes, often multiple times.
Here’s the latest:
Rights groups express renewed concerns about humanitarian situation in Gaza as Israel issues more evacuation orders
BEIRUT — Rights groups on Thursday expressed renewed concerns about the humanitarian situation in Gaza after Israel’s latest evacuation orders in parts of the overcrowded central city of Deir al-Balah.
The polio virus has been circulating in the battered Palestinian enclave for the first time in 25 years, relief organization the International Rescue Committee said in a statement. It said the spread resulted from the destruction of hospitals and water infrastructure, along with overcrowded living conditions.
“The news of polio in Gaza should be an alarm bell that more infectious diseases are on the way,” Dr. Jude Senkugu, the group’s emergency health coordinator in the territory, said in the statement. “Without clean water, it is nearly impossible to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, as people do not have enough to drink, leaving them with no other choice but to drink contaminated water.”
Meanwhile, international medical organization Doctors Without Borders warned that shrinking living spaces would cause diseases to spread faster.
The majority of Gaza’s population of about 2 million have been displaced in the ongoing Hamas-Israel war since Oct. 7, often more than once. Israel has scaled up its evacuation orders over the past month.
“There is no room to put tents up. The overcrowding, severe lack of water, and minimal sanitation services are fueling the spread of diseases,” Doctors Without Borders’ project coordinator Jacob Granger said in a statement. “We are unable to keep up with the overwhelming needs.”
Both organizations have echoed calls from global aid agencies for an immediate cease-fire.
French destroyer in EU mission rescues 29 mariners from oil tanker stricken in Red Sea attacks
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A French destroyer rescued 29 mariners from an oil tanker that came under repeated attack in the Red Sea, officials said Thursday, while also destroying a bomb-carrying drone boat in the area.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels are suspected to have carried out the assault on the Sounion, though they have yet to claim responsibility for the attack.
The Sounion is now at anchor in the Red Sea and no longer drifting, the European Union’s Operation Aspides said. However, it wasn’t clear if the vessel was still ablaze. The vessel had been staffed by a crew of Filipinos and Russians.
Military officials did not name the French destroyer involved in the rescue.
Israeli strikes in Gaza kill at least 17
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israeli tank and drone strikes in Gaza on Wednesday killed at least 17 people, according to hospital staff and Associated Press journalists who counted the bodies.
In Khan Younis in the south, nine bodies, among them a woman and child, were rushed to Nasser Hospital. Meanwhile, the Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah received eight bodies.
The strikes in Deir al-Balah come as the Israeli military called for Palestinians in some parts of the central city to evacuate.
U.N. says Israel’s evacuation orders are pushing Palestinians into unsafe areas
UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. humanitarian office is warning that mass evacuation orders by the Israeli military this month are pushing Palestinians into overcrowded and unsafe areas along the Gaza coast.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters that the latest orders issued Wednesday for part of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and Khan Younis in the south affect 115 sites with more than 150,000 displaced men, women and children, including U.N. and many informal and makeshift shelters.
The orders also impact offices, warehouses and residences of the United Nations and humanitarian organizations, and have made three water wells serving tens of thousands of people inaccessible, he said.
“In Deir al Balah, the water supply has decreased by 70%, and there are also critical shortages of sanitation and hygiene materials,” Dujarric said.
The U.N. spokesman said Israel has issued 11 evacuation orders so far in August affecting about 250,000 people. Before August, he said, the U.N. estimated that some 90% of Gaza’s 2.1 million people had been displaced at least once since Hamas’ attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7 that sparked the ongoing conflict.
The Israeli orders have also cut of sections of the main Salah al-Din road, a key route for delivering humanitarian aid, Dujarric said.
Outgoing head of Israeli military intelligence says he’s haunted by the failures of Oct. 7
JERUSALEM — The outgoing head of Israeli military intelligence says the failures of Oct. 7 will haunt him for the rest of his life.
Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva said Wednesday that he bore responsibility for the intelligence breakdowns that allowed Hamas to carry out the cross-border attack that day that sparked Israel’s ongoing war against the militant group.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped 250 others in the deadliest attack in Israeli history. The army has come under heavy criticism in Israel for its failure to predict the attack and its slow response that day.
Haliva announced his resignation in April.
Speaking at a handover ceremony with his successor, Haliva said the bitter memories of Oct. 7 weigh on his conscience “day and night and will do so for the rest of my days.”
“We did not fulfill our most important mission, giving a warning of war” he added, breaking down in tears at one point while he spoke about his family. “The ultimate responsibility for the failure of the intelligence division rest with me.”
Blinken tells Jordan a cease-fire deal is urgently needed
WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has discussed with Jordan’s deputy prime minister, Ayman Safadi, “the urgent need to finalize the cease-fire deal” between Israel and Hamas, the State Department said.
The call Wednesday came the same day Blinken returned from a series of stops across the Middle East to talk with Israeli officials and other negotiators Egypt and Qatar about urging the sides to accept a proposal meant to bridge gaps in cease-fire talks.
Blinken noted that the bridging proposal “addressed the remaining gaps in a manner that allows for swift implementation of the deal,” the State Department said.
But Egyptian officials have expressed skepticism, saying Hamas won’t agree to the proposal for a number of reasons — ones in addition to the long-held wariness over whether a deal would truly remove Israeli forces from Gaza and end the war.
Mediators are scheduled to meet Thursday and Friday in Cairo for more talks on the proposal, before submitting it officially to Hamas.
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