The death toll from an Israeli air strike that hit the Magazi refugee camp in central Gaza has risen to 70, Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Kidra said, adding that the death toll is likely to rise, Reuters reports.
The previous balance was 60, and the balance before that was 16 dead.
"What is happening in the Magazi camp is a massacre taking place in a crowded residential square," al-Kidra said.
The Israeli military spokesman's office said it was investigating the report.
The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which governs Gaza, issued a statement calling the airstrike a "terrible massacre" and said it was "a new war crime".
The death toll from an Israeli air strike that hit the Magazi refugee camp in central Gaza has risen to 60, Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Kidra said, adding that the death toll is likely to rise, Reuters reports.
"What is happening in the Magazi camp is a massacre taking place in a crowded residential square," al-Kidra said.
The previous toll was at least 16 Palestinians killed, and several houses were said to have been damaged.
This was also reported by Reuters, citing Palestinian health officials from the Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital, who then added that the death toll was likely to rise.
Five Israeli hostages killed in Hamas captivity have been pulled from a network of underground tunnels in the northern Gaza Strip, the military said today, showing footage of a white-tiled bathroom and a study connected by dark concrete passages.
The media said the question of how the hostages died remained open, and the chief military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said autopsies were pending.
"We will meet the families and then, depending on what they approve, the public," he said.
Three soldiers and two civilians were among 240 people taken back to the Gaza Strip by Hamas gunmen during the Oct. 7 cross-border rampage that sparked the war.
The army announced the repatriation of their bodies earlier this month.
Israel is reportedly considering the option of not killing but deporting Gaza Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Muhammad Deif to Qatar or another country in an effort to secure the release of all hostages from the Palestinian territory and end the war.
The Khan public service, citing several unnamed Israeli sources, reported that the security and political leadership is discussing the option of giving Hamas leaders some kind of immunity if the opportunity arises, although there are no concrete proposals at this time.
Emphasizing that this is a long-term option and not relevant now, Khan quotes a source as saying that any such plan must not undermine the proclaimed goal of destroying the Hamas leadership and its military capabilities.
Another source assessed that "deporting the leadership of Hamas abroad is not contradictory to the goals of the war", which began on October 7 after the sudden attacks of Palestinian extremists on the south of Israel, in which over 1.200 people died and about 240 hostages were taken.
Israel then began bombing Gaza, and ten days later launched a ground offensive in which more than 20.400 Palestinians died.
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The Secretary General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, assessed today that the "decimation" of the health system in Gaza is a "tragedy" and repeated the call for a ceasefire.
He also praised the health workers in Gaza who continue to work under increasingly difficult circumstances.
"The decimation of Gaza's health system is a tragedy. We persist in calling for a Cease Fire Now," he announced on the X platform.
"Faced with constant insecurity and an influx of wounded patients, we see doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and others trying to save lives," the WHO chief added.
In the north of the Gaza Strip, not a single hospital has been in operation since a few days ago because there is no fuel, supplies and enough employees.
Only nine out of 36 health facilities are partially functioning in the entire Gaza Strip and only in the south.
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Egypt has proposed a plan to release 40 hostages held in the Gaza Strip during the two to three weeks of the temporary truce, the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported today.
A Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations told the BBC that it was a new plan consisting of three phases, which would actually begin with a humanitarian truce that could be extended and that 40 hostages would be released in exchange. 120 Palestinian prisoners.
The second phase of the agreement involves discussions with the Palestinian Authority, which controls parts of the other Palestinian territory of the occupied West Bank, on the establishment of a technocratic government in Gaza.
In the third phase, a long-term ceasefire would come into force, and an agreement on the exchange of prisoners and the withdrawal of Israel from the Gaza Strip are also foreseen.
Sources cited by the Saudi newspaper stated that the Palestinian Islamic Hamas has already agreed to the Egyptian proposal.
The Qatari newspaper Al-Arabi al-Jadid announced that "Egypt's vision is based on the desire to include all Palestinian factions and find an alternative (to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas)."
Hamas last Sunday rejected a temporary ceasefire like the one in late November when 105 hostages were freed in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners, women and minors, from Israeli jails.
As stated, Hamas has refused to release the hostages until Israel agrees to a permanent and unconditional ceasefire and a complete withdrawal from Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday rejected demands by Hamas, which Israel considers a terrorist organization, that the two sides declare a ceasefire as a precondition for talks on the release of more hostages.
Instead, he reiterated that the goal of the war is the elimination of Hamas and again hinted that Gaza will not be controlled by the Palestinian Authority after the conflict ends.
"We are fighting until victory. We will not stop the war until we achieve all our goals, complete the elimination of Hamas and free all our hostages," Netanyahu announced in a video message.
Since the beginning of the war, Netanyahu has insisted that Israel will have full security control over Gaza after the war, Israeli media remind.
He also denied that the Palestinian Authority would control Gaza, which it ruled until 2007, when Hamas took control by force, defeating forces loyal to rival Abbas' more moderate Fatah.
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Israeli forces are moving deeper into the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today in a video statement, adding that they will fight until "total victory" over Hamas, reports Reuters.
Alluding to the announcement of the deaths of 15 soldiers over the weekend, Netanyahu said war exacts a heavy price: "We are doing everything to protect the lives of our warriors."
Israeli forces have killed about 8.000 Palestinian fighters in the Gaza war, a military spokesman said today, adding that the figure was drawn from reports of targeted strikes and battlefield calculations, as well as interrogations of prisoners, Reuters reports.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that his country is "paying a heavy price for the war" after the death of 14 soldiers since Friday in fighting with the Palestinian movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
"We are paying a very heavy price for the war, but we have no other choice but to continue fighting," Netanyahu said at the beginning of the Cabinet meeting when he paid tribute to the fallen soldiers.
He added that "the war will be long".
The death of 14 Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip since Friday is one of the worst casualties in the short period since the ground offensive began on October 27.
According to the data published by the Israeli army, a total of 153 of its members have died in that Palestinian territory since the beginning of the war on October 7 due to the Palestinian Hamas attack on Israel.
Another Israeli soldier was killed on Friday in the north of the country in an attack by the Lebanese movement Hezbollah from Lebanon. With his death, the total number of Israeli soldiers killed in that sector since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas, which is an ally of Hezbollah, increased to eight.
"Let it be clear - the war will be long. We will fight until the end, until the hostages are released, until Hamas is eliminated, until we restore security, both in the north and in the south," Netanyahu said.
During the Hamas attack on October 7, about 250 people were kidnapped in Israel and taken to the Gaza Strip. There are still 129 hostages in Gaza, some of whom may be dead, according to the Israeli military.
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The Palestinian Hamas Health Ministry announced today that 20.424 people have been killed in Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war on October 7.
The new balance of victims includes 166 people who died in the last 24 hours, the ministry said.
The ministry also announced that 54.036 people were wounded in that period.
As previously reported by the world media, after the attack by Hamas on October 7, Israel stated that it had two goals, to destroy Hamas and free 129 hostages, who are still being held captive by extremists in Gaza.
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The Israeli army announced today that 152 of its soldiers have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war with Hamas.
Nine soldiers were killed in the fighting in Gaza yesterday, the army said in a statement.
This is one of the highest daily casualties in the Palestinian enclave since the beginning of the conflict on October 7.
The fighting has been some of the bloodiest since Israel's ground offensive began in late October, indicating that Hamas is still resisting despite weeks of brutal war.
The rise in the number of Israeli soldiers killed is expected to affect public support there for the war, which was triggered by an incursion by Hamas militants into communities in southern Israel on October 7, when 1.200 people were killed and 240 taken hostage.
During the war, parts of the Gaza Strip were destroyed, where more than 20.000 people died and almost 85 percent of the 2,3 million inhabitants of that Palestinian enclave were displaced.
Israelis remain staunchly supportive of the authorities, who say the goal is to destroy Hamas's governing and military capabilities and secure the release of the remaining 129 hostages. Support is largely unabated, despite growing international pressure against the Israeli offensive and the increasing number of Palestinians killed.
However, according to AP, the increase in the number of dead Israeli soldiers could undermine that support. The death of a soldier is a sensitive and emotional issue in Israel, where military service is mandatory, adds AP.
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In a telephone conversation, US President Joe Biden called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "protect" civilians in the Gaza Strip, where Israel continues its artillery attacks and ground offensive, the White House announced.
"The president pointed out the crucial need to protect the civilian population, among whom there are those who provide humanitarian aid, as well as the importance of allowing civilians to safely leave the zones where the fighting continues," the statement reads.
Biden and Netanyahu spoke yesterday, a day after the UN Security Council adopted a resolution asking all parties to approve and facilitate the immediate delivery of large-scale humanitarian aid, but which did not call for a truce between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
Earlier yesterday, Biden told reporters at the White House that he had a "long conversation" with Netanyahu, stating that it was a "private conversation."
When asked by a journalist, Biden said "I did not ask for a ceasefire".
According to a statement from the White House, the two leaders discussed the goals and phases of the Israeli military operation, as well as security issues.
At least 20.258 people have died in Gaza since the start of the Israeli military offensive, according to Hamas.
The war was launched in response to attacks carried out by Hamas on October 7 in Israeli territory in which about 1.140 people were killed, according to the latest Israeli toll, and about 250 were taken hostage.
Humanitarian aid, whose entry into Gaza is controlled by Israel, has been trickling in from Egypt and recently through Israel's Kerem Shalom border crossing, but it falls far short of the enormous needs in the Palestinian territory, devastated by more than two months of war.
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Conflict between Israel and Hamas - 79th day.
The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas has called for an international investigation into the executions of 137 civilians allegedly carried out by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip since the war began on October 7.
The government of Hamas, the movement that has been in power in the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip since 2007, says it has collected testimonies according to which "the Israeli occupation army carried out the summary execution of 137 Palestinian civilians in Gaza City and in the northern parts of the Gaza Strip."
The Hamas government accused the Israeli army of "digging a large pit east of Gaza City and placing dozens of citizens there whom it detained before executing them with firearms." It was not specified when this happened.
Those allegations have not been independently verified.
The Israeli army has not yet responded to these claims.
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