Israel-Hamas War LIVE: Multiple Targets of Hamas Attacked Overnight, Says IDF

At least 46 people were killed in Israel’s overnight air raids in Gaza. According to an Aljazeera report 24 were killed in the air raids at al-Motawwaq family in Jabalia, while another 10 were killed in the air raid on al-Ajrami family.

Five other persons — four children and one woman — from the Khader family were also killed. Additionally, seven persons were killed in the air raids at central Deir el-Balah and al-Bureij refugee camp.

Israel Defence Forces announced the death of one of their reserve soldiers, who was killed on Friday in an anti-tank missile attack along the border with Lebanon, The Times of Israel report said.

The 22-year-old soldier was identified as First Sgt. Omer Balva from the Herzliya region.

Israel Defence Forces spokesperson, Daniel Hagari said that the IDF warplanes — in a series of overnight attacks — struck many targets of the militant group Hamas across the Gaza Strip, including their operational headquarters, anti-tank launchers, etc.

Senior Israeli officials, according to The Times of Israel, said that the release of two US citizens by Hamas will not influence Israel’s plans of launching a ground offensive in Gaza against the militant group.

The Israel Defence Forces reiterated that Hamas must cease to exist, citing the horrors it has committed since the start of the war 14 days ago.

Gildad Erdan, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, while reacting to the release of the two American-Israeli hostages by Hamas said that the militant group is “launching a public relations campaign to present itseld as “humanitarian” and persuade people into forgetting the “monstrous and savage atrocities” it committed.

Erdan said that this is done “in order to weaken support for the essential operation to eradicate its military capabilities. The only way to prevent this from happening again is by obliterating Hamas’ terrorist capabilities.”

“At the same time it released two hostages for its PR, Hamas is still holding babies and the elderly. The atrocities this terror organization committed will never be forgotten and Israel remains committed to bringing the rest of the hostages home,” Erdan added.

After Hamas released two hostages from Gaza, the United States and other European governments are subtly pushing for Israel to delay the ground invasion of Gaza. This is in view of the thought that the militant group might release more hostages, but a ground offensive might come in the way of the efforts to do so, The Times of Israel reported.

The Western governments each have their citizens stuck in Gaza as hostages and to secure their release, they are pressing for the delay of the ground offensive plan by Israel. A senior diplomatic official noted that the governments are aware that a ground invasion is very likely and are asking for it to be called off, rather they are asking to delay it so that they can try and see whether additional diplomatic efforts can succeed.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday said that Qatar has played a key role in the release of two American hostages by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, adding that he was confident of further releases.

“This is a very good outcome obtained by the negotiators, in which Qatar played a very important role,” Macron told a group of reporters.

Macron said France wanted similar operations to continue in the next “hours and days” to continue “allowing hostages, in particular our hostages, to get out.”

“The discussions we are having…through various contacts and Qatar in particular, give us hope that we will be able to find solutions to get as many hostages out as possible.”

“We are confident: the channels we have are the right ones and are useful,” he added.

The Israeli Air Force has been attacking terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip since this morning. Anti-tank launchers, Hamas’s underground infrastructure were among the attacked targets, the Air Force said.

Was Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza hit by Israeli fire? Or did it become the victim of a misfired Palestinian rocket? How many civilians were killed?

Israelis and Palestinians have traded blame for the deadly strike on the Christian-run hospital this week.

AFP analysed verified images and interviewed analysts and weapons experts who did not definitively rule out any scenario.

WHAT DO THE IMAGES SHOW? A video from Gaza produced by the Al Jazeera news channel, which AFP was able to verify, shows the exact moment of an explosion at Ahli Arab hospital at 6:59 pm (1559 GMT) Tuesday. Videos from surveillance cameras on the Israeli side also captured the same scene.

The video, which has gone viral, shows a projectile flying into the sky before suddenly disappearing in mid-flight into a flash.

Less than 10 seconds later, two explosions occurred on the ground, including one on the premises of the hospital located in the north of Gaza, as AFP was able to verify using geolocation tools.

For the entire analysis, click here.

A massive blast rocked a Gaza City hospital packed with wounded and other Palestinians seeking shelter on Tuesday, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people. Hamas attributed the incident to an Israeli airstrike, while the Israeli military blamed it on a rocket misfired by Islamic Jihad Palestinian militants.

According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, at least 500 people were killed after an explosion shook a Gaza City hospital.

On the ground in Gaza, there were scenes of chaos as the injured and dead were taken to nearby medical centres. Al-Ahli was crowded both with victims of 10 days of Israeli airstrikes and with families and others who have taken refuge on hospital grounds. Hospitals in Gaza are seeing around 1,000 new patients per day, in a health system with only 2,500 hospital beds for a population of over 2 million people. After the airstrike, scores of bodies cloaked in blood-stained sheets and white plastic wrap lined the floors.

According to reports, the French intelligence has said that there are no evidence that the strike on the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital was conducted by the Israel Defence Forces.

Reacting to the aid help that needs to cross over the Rafah border crossing, US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken said, “As you know, when some of us were travelling together in the region over the past week, getting assistance moving was among my top priorities and we worked very hard with the governments of Israel and Egypt, to do just that. We secured an understanding that we would develop a plan to move assistance.”

He said that the understanding to move assistance was put in place by US President Joe Biden, when he was in Israel and also when he spoke to Egyptian President Al Sisi. “In the time since, we’ve been working relentlessly with Ambassador David Satterfield on the ground, working with the United Nations, Egypt and Israel, to put that into motion and my expectation is that you’ll see that moving soon,” Blinken added.

Israel Defence Forces spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that Hamas may have released the two American-Israeli hostages on ‘humanitarian ground’, but it is a ‘murderous terrorist organisation’.

“Hamas presents itself to the world as having returned the women they took hostage on humanitarian grounds, while Hamas is in fact a murderous terrorist organization that right now is holding infants, children, women and elderly people hostage in the Gaza Strip, and continuing to commit crimes against humanity,” Hagari said.

The terrorist group Hamas released two Americans on Friday out of some 200 hostages they abducted during the brutal October 7 attacks in Israel, news agency AFP reported. The terrorist group indicated that it could release more hostages in the future.

The Israeli government confirmed that Judith Tai Raanan and her daughter Natalie Shoshana Raanan returned to Israel late Friday night. US President Joe Biden spoke to both the women by phone and said he was “overjoyed” at the news. No details are available on their physical or health condition.

The Israel Defence Forces struck a Hezbollah post operated by a terrorist cell on Saturday. Additionally, a target, which was headed towards Israel’s airspace from Lebanon was also intercepted before it crossed over.

Reports suggest that internet outages are taking place across the Northern Gaza amid the war between Israel-Hamas since October 7.

According to the Israel Defence Forces, so far in the two week war with Hamas, over 6,900 rockets have been fired at Israel from Gaza, including over 450 failed launched within Gaza. The attacks have left over 1,400 Israelis killed with more than 4,600 people being injured. Additionally, IDF has neutralised more than 1,000 Hamas terrorists.