Seven Israeli soldiers killed in armoured vehicle blast in Gaza, says military
Among the 79 reported killed in Gaza were 33 people who died while trying to access aid.
Israel has been operating in Gaza since the Hamas militant group's October 7 2023 attack on Israel.
US-led ceasefire efforts have repeatedly stalled.
Brigadier General Effie Defrin, the army's chief spokesman, said the soldiers were attacked on Tuesday in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, where the army has operated on and off throughout much of the war.
'Helicopters and rescue forces were sent to the spot. They made attempts to rescue the fighters, but without success,' he said.
The army said another soldier was seriously wounded in a separate incident in Khan Younis.
It gave no further details, but Hamas claimed on its Telegram channel it had ambushed Israeli soldiers taking cover inside a residential building in the area.
More than 860 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the war began with the October 7 2023 Hamas attack, including more than 400 during the fighting in Gaza.
The initial Hamas attack killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and 251 others were taken hostage.
Some 50 hostages remain in captivity, at least 20 of whom are believed to still be alive.
The Israeli offensive has devastated Gaza and killed more than 56,000 people, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, a branch of the Hamas government.
The death toll is by far the highest in any round of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.
The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says more than half of the dead were women and children.
The ministry said the dead include 5,759 who have been killed since Israel resumed fighting on March 18, shattering a two-month ceasefire.
Israel says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, which operates in heavily populated areas.
Israel says more than 20,000 Hamas militants have been killed, though it has provided no evidence to support that claim.
Hamas has not commented on its casualties.
Israeli forces shot and killed a 66-year-old Palestinian woman during a raid on Wednesday in east Jerusalem, her husband and a local Palestinian official said.
Joudah Al-Obeidi, a 67-year-old resident of the neighbourhood's Shuafat refugee camp, said his wife Zahia Al-Obeidi was standing on the roof of their home when Israeli forces stormed the camp and shot her in the head.
He said she had posed no threat.
'It is a crime,' he told The Associated Press. 'What danger did a sick 66-year-old woman pose to them?'
Israeli police said they were investigating the incident, saying a woman had arrived at a military checkpoint with 'serious penetrating injuries' and was pronounced dead.
They said Israeli forces fired at 'rioters' who threw rocks and heavy objects at them during the operation, with one officer admitted to hospital with a head injury from a large rock.
Marouf Al-Refai, the Palestinian official, said Israeli forces stormed the Shuafat refugee camp overnight, killing Ms al-Obeidi with a shot to the head at around 10pm local time and took her body away.
Israel captured east Jerusalem, including the Old City and its holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, in the 1967 Middle East war.
It considers the area to be part of its capital – a move that is not internationally recognised.
Palestinians want an independent state with east Jerusalem as its capital.
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NBC News
7 minutes ago
- NBC News
Strikes kill 94 Palestinians in Gaza, including 45 people waiting for aid, authorities say
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More than 500 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds more wounded since the food-distribution sites opened in May. The Israeli military, whose forces are deployed on the roads leading to the sites, says it fires warning shots to control crowds or at Palestinians who approach its troops. Armed U.S. contractors guard the sites. Amnesty International on Thursday issued a report saying Israel was continuing to 'use starvation of civilians as a weapon of war … as part of its ongoing genocide.' It said the GHF distribution system appeared intended only to 'placate international concerns' even as Israel allows in only a small amount of food for the U.N. to distribute separately. 'By maintaining a deadly, dehumanizing and ineffective militarized 'aid' scheme, Israeli authorities have turned aid-seeking into a booby trap for desperate starved Palestinians,' it said. 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Israel cut off all food and other supplies to Gaza for more 2 ½ months this year, driving its population toward famine, in what it said was a move to push Hamas to make concessions in negotiations and release hostages. It eased the blockade in March. The Foreign Ministry and COGAT, the Israeli defense body in charge of coordinating aid to Gaza, said Wednesday that Israel has facilitated the entry of over 3,000 aid trucks into the Gaza Strip since May 19. That amounts to around 28 trucks a day, a fraction of the hundreds of trucks a day aid workers say are needed. In a statement Tuesday, GHF rejected criticism of its operations and said it has delivered the equivalent of more than 52 million meals. GHF distributes boxes of food staples such as lentils and rice, saying one box holds the equivalent of more than 50 meals. Witnesses have reported scenes of chaos at GHF sites as desperate crowds race to pick up food boxes, with some taking more than one while many others go empty-handed. 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The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 hostages. The war has left the coastal Palestinian territory in ruins, with much of the urban landscape flattened in the fighting. More than 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million population has been displaced, often multiple times.
The Independent
23 minutes ago
- The Independent
Israeli strikes kill 15 in Gaza, while shootings kill 20 people waiting for aid
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BBC News
32 minutes ago
- BBC News
Gaza: Hamas says it is consulting other groups on ceasefire plan
Hamas says it is consulting other Palestinian groups before giving a formal response to the latest proposal for a new Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal put forward by the Donald Trump said on Friday morning that expected to know within 24 hours whether Hamas has agreed to the Tuesday, Trump said Israel had accepted the conditions necessary for a 60-day ceasefire, during which the parties would work to end the 20-month war. Meanwhile, the Israeli military is continuing to bomb targets across the Gaza Strip. Local journalists reported hearing explosions and gunfire as Israeli helicopter gunships and artillery struck the southern Khan Younis area on Friday at least 15 Palestinians were killed in strikes on two tents housing displaced people in Khan Younis, the local Nasser hospital Israeli military has not yet commented on the strikes, but it did say its forces were "operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities". In a statement issued early on Friday, Hamas said it was discussing with the leaders of other Palestinian factions the ceasefire proposal that it had received from regional mediators Qatar and said it would deliver a "final decision" to the mediators once the consultations had ended and then announce it proposal is believed to include the staggered release of 10 living Israeli hostages and the bodies of 18 other hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Fifty hostages are still being held in Gaza, at least 20 of whom are believed to be of Hamas's key demands is the resumption of unrestricted food and medical aid into Gaza, and the proposal reportedly says sufficient quantities would enter the territory immediately with the involvement of the United Nations and Red is said the plan would also include a phased Israeli military withdrawal from parts of all, Hamas wants a guarantee that Israeli air and ground operations will not resume after the end of the 60-day proposal is believed to say that negotiations on an end to the war and the release of the remaining hostages would begin on day Trump told reporters early on Friday that he expected to know "over the next 24 hours" whether the proposals would be accepted by hope then would be the resumption of formal, indirect, talks ahead of a planned visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington next week."We sure hope it's a done deal, but I think it's all going to be what Hamas is willing to accept," US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told Israel's Channel 12 TV on Thursday."One thing is clear: The president wants it to be over. The prime minister wants it to be over. The American people, the Israeli people, want it to be over."Netanyahu meanwhile promised to secure the release of all the remaining hostages during a visit to Kibbutz Nir Oz, a community near the Israel-Gaza border where a total of 76 residents were abducted during the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023 that triggered the war."I feel a deep commitment, first of all, to ensure the return of all of our hostages, all of them," he said. "We will bring them all back."He did not, however, commit to ending the war. He has insisted that will not happen until the hostages are freed and Hamas's military and governing capabilities are Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken least 57,130 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
