Israel-Hamas war Israeli strikes kill 10 Hezbollah militants in Gaza, 3 in southern Syria

The Israel-Hamas war has entered its third month, causing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee the south. A week ago Israel expanded its ground offensive into central and southern Gaza, where the territory’s nearly entire population of 2.3 million Palestinians are crowded in, many of them cut off from humanitarian supplies.

As the war continues, Israel has said forces are rounding up Palestinian men for interrogation in northern Gaza, searching for Hamas militants. Underscoring Hamas’s fierce resistance, fierce urban fighting continues in the north, and thousands of residents are believed to remain in the area six weeks after the arrival of troops and tanks.

Israel–Hamas war

At least 10 people were killed and several others injured after Israeli forces bombed a family home in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, Palestinian health officials told news agency Reuters. Israel’s military also said that its forces in Gaza were operating for the first time “in the heart of Khan Younis”.

Early Friday, Israeli soldiers made an unsuccessful attempt to free Israeli hostages at a location in Gaza. The army said two soldiers were seriously injured in the ensuing clash with the militants and no hostages were freed. Hamas said its fighters repelled the attempt. Three Hezbollah militants and a Syrian were killed in an alleged Israeli drone strike in the south of Syria.

A Syrian and three Lebanese Hezbollah fighters from a surveillance and missile-launch unit were killed in an Israeli drone strike on their rented car” in the town of Madinat al-Baath in Quneitra province, close to the Israeli-held Golan Heights, a Britain-based Syrian Observatory Rami Abdel Rahman, head of For Human Rights, told news agency AFP.

In a separate incident, three Lebanese soldiers were wounded on Friday by Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese army reported no casualties in the second attack on the hospital. Hezbollah also announced the deaths of four of its fighters.

The United States kept up pressure on Israel to do more to protect Palestinian civilians during a fierce offensive against Hamas militants in Gaza, even as Washington appealed to the UN Security Council to demand an immediate ceasefire. Vetoed. Fighting escalated on Friday and the death toll in Palestine rose, with Israel attacking the territory from north to south in an expanded phase of the two-month-old war against the Islamist group Hamas.

Condemning a “growing humanitarian nightmare”, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres declared that nowhere in Gaza is safe for civilians, hours before the US called on the Security Council, backed by the majority of its members, to call for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The proposal was vetoed. The vote left Washington diplomatically isolated in the 15-member council. Thirteen members voted in favor of the draft resolution tabled by the United Arab Emirates, while Britain abstained.

Israel Defense Forces said they discovered a Hamas tunnel inside a classroom that leads to a mosque in the middle of Shejaiya (in the Gaza neighborhood). Hamas’ abuse of schools has turned children’s safe havens into terrorist bases, the soldiers said in an ex-post.

The Biden administration has asked Congress to approve the sale of 45,000 shells for Israel’s Merkava tanks for use in its offensive against Hamas in Gaza, according to four sources familiar with the matter. The request comes as concerns grow over the use of US weapons in the war, which has killed thousands of civilians in the Palestinian territories since Hamas militants responded to an attack on October 7.

The potential sale, worth more than $500 million, is not part of President Joe Biden’s $110.5 billion supplemental request that includes funding for Ukraine and Israel. It is subject to informal review by the Senate Foreign Relations and House of Representatives Foreign Affairs committees, which give members the prerogative to block the sale or have informal discussions with the administration about concerns.