Israel-Hamas War: Intense Israeli Strikes Rock Northern Gaza; Hamas Says Internet, Communications Cut

The UN chief warned Friday that Gaza faces “an unprecedented avalanche of human suffering” due to lack of food, water and power during Israeli bombing in response to the Hamas attack. “I repeat my call for a humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages, and the delivery of life-saving supplies,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement. “Misery is growing by the minute. Without a fundamental change, the people of Gaza will face an unprecedented avalanche of human suffering.” AFP

Hamas said late Friday it had fired “salvos” of rockets at Israel after intense Israeli bombing of the Palestinian territory. “Salvos of rockets in the direction of the occupied territories (Israel) in answer to the massacre of civilians,” Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said on its Telegram channel. AFP

The Hamas government said Israel “cut communications and most of the internet” across the Gaza Strip on Friday. The government’s media office accused Israel of taking the measure “to perpetrate massacres with bloody retaliatory strikes from the air, land and sea,” as heavy strikes hit northern Gaza. AFP

Nearly 29,000 Lebanese civilians have fled communities near the border with Israel because of deadly artillery exchanges between Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters and the Israeli army, a UN agency said Friday. A total of 28,965 Lebanese have fled their homes, the International Organization for Migration said in an update, adding that the figure had risen by 37 percent since its last report on October 24. In Lebanon, at least 58 people have been killed in the cross-border exchanges of fire, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including at least four civilians, one of them Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah. AFP

Intense Israeli strikes rocked the northern Gaza Strip on Friday evening, live footage filmed by AFP showed. The Israeli military told AFP it is “continuously striking in the Gaza Strip” against the militant group Hamas that rules the Palestinian territory.

The UN said it was concerned that war crimes were being committed on both sides in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. The human rights office cited forcible transfer, collective punishment and the taking of hostages. “We are concerned that war crimes are being committed. We are concerned about the collective punishment of Gazans in response to the atrocious attacks by Hamas, which also amounted to war crimes,” spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a press conference in Geneva. She said it was for an independent court of law to determine if war crimes had been committed. AFP

Hamas fired back on Friday at an accusation by the Israeli army that it was abusing hospitals to shield its war effort, calling the charges unfounded. “There’s no basis in truth in what the spokesman of the enemy army stated,” said Izzat al-Rishq, a senior member of the Hamas political bureau. He accused Israel of making the allegations to “pave the way for a new massacre to be committed against our people”. AFP

The Israeli army Friday accused Hamas of using hospitals in the Gaza Strip as operational centres for directing attacks against Israel, as the war rages in the Palestinian territory. “Hamas wages war from hospitals” in Gaza, military spokesman Daniel Hagari told journalists, adding that the Islamist group was also using fuel stored in these facilities for carrying out its operations. AFP

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday called for a “humanitarian truce” in the conflict between Hamas and Israel to ensure the protection of civilians in the Gaza Strip. Recognising Israel’s “right” to “fight against terrorism”, Macron pointed to “the complete blockade, the indiscriminate bombardment and even more the prospect of a massive ground operation” as risks for civilians. He called for a “humanitarian truce” to protect people in Gaza who have faced bombardment from Israel prompted by the October 7 attack by Hamas. AFP

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Friday the death toll given by the health ministry in Gaza had proved to be “credible” in previous conflicts after Washington raised doubts about figures from the current war. “In the past, the five, six cycles of conflict in the Gaza Strip, these figures were considered as credible and no one ever really challenged these figures,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Jerusalem. The fatalities in Gaza are the highest since Israel withdrew from the Palestinian territory in 2005. Lazzarini said 57 UNRWA staff had been killed since the conflict began, explaining how the agency’s toll reflected the broader casualty rate in Gaza. He suggested the ratio of UNRWA staff killed to the total number of agency workers was in line with the ratio of Gazans killed to the territory’s overall population, as provided by the health ministry. “We have more or less the same percentage,” he said. AFP

The Israeli military said Friday its ground forces backed by fighter jets and drones carried out a “targeted raid” in Gaza as it prepares for a land invasion. “During the last day, IDF (Israeli military) ground forces, accompanied by IDF fighter jets and UAVs, conducted an additional targeted raid in the central Gaza Strip,” an army statement said. “The IDF identified and struck numerous terror targets, including anti-tank missile launch sites, military command and control centres, as well as Hamas terrorists,” it said, saying troops “exited the area at the end of the activity”. But Hamas said Israeli troops had also tried to stage an incursion by sea by the southern town of Rafah early on Friday, which it said was thwarted by its armed wing. “The enemy tried to carry out a large-scale amphibious operation on Rafah’s coast at dawn on Friday, where the attempt was discovered and confronted by fighters,” an Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades statement said. AFP

The health ministry in Gaza said Friday 7,326 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since the eruption of war with Israel on October 7. The latest death toll includes 3,038 children killed, a ministry statement said, while 18,967 people have been wounded across Gaza. AFP

A senior Iranian envoy met with Hamas representatives in Moscow following talks with Russian diplomats that underscored the country’s efforts to expand its clout as a power broker in the latest Israel-Hamas war, Russian and Iranian media said Friday. During the meeting with Hamas representative Moussa Abu Marzouk, Iran’s deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani stressed on the need for a ceasefire, lifting the blockade of the Gaza Strip and providing humanitarian aid. AP

Israel’s defence minister said Friday that it expects to launch a ground offensive into Gaza soon that will be long and difficult, and aim to destroy a vast network of tunnels used by the territory’s militant Hamas rulers. AP

As distant as the prospect of peace might seem, EU leaders believe it is time to start laying the foundations for a future relationship between Israel and the Palestinians where the militant group Hamas doesn’t control Gaza. The 27-nation bloc has begun exploring ways to realise a long-held EU ideal — two states living peacefully side by side. As the Palestinian death toll climbed beyond 7,000 and Israel carried out airstrikes on Friday in response to the Hamas incursion into its southern territory, EU leaders meeting in Brussels for a second day encouraged broader diplomatic and security initiatives to stop the conflict from spreading, and ultimately from ever starting again. A peace conference and political settlement would be part of that. AP

External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Friday spoke to his Omani counterpart Badr Albusaidi and discussed the ongoing crisis in West Asia. In a post on ‘X’, Albusaidi said he stressed on the critical need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The minister described the conversation as “good”. “A good conversation with Omani Foreign Minister @badralbusaidi. Discussed our bilateral relations and exchanged views on the crisis in West Asia,” he said in a post on ‘X’.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Joe Biden administration was imposing sanctions on eight persons with alleged ties to the Hamas militant group, including those who have played a key role in facilitating evasion of such sanctions by Hamas-affiliated companies, as well as sanctioning four entities for their ties to Hamas and other designated terrorist organisations.

The United Nations warned Friday that “many more will die” as a result of Israel’s ongoing siege of Gaza, which has also caused sewage to flow on the streets of the Palestinian territory.

Israel laid a total siege on Gaza following the October 7 attacks by Hamas, cutting off food, fuel, water and power supplies to the territory.

“As we speak people in Gaza are dying, they are not only dying from bombs and strikes, soon many more will die from the consequences of (the) siege imposed on the Gaza Strip,” said Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

India is setting up a surveillance system equipped with drones along its borders with China and Pakistan to avoid surprise attacks like the one from Hamas in Israel. Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a multi-pronged attack on unsuspecting Israelis via land, sea and air on October 7. After over two weeks of devastating airstrikes that have left thousands dead, and more than 1 million displaced in Gaza.

Quoting people familiar with the matter who did not wish to be named, a Bloomberg report said defence officials met with six home-grown vendors of surveillance and reconnaissance drones last week and an order is expected to be announced as soon as next month. READ MORE

IDF spokesperson says that Hamas now holds at least 229 hostages, according to a report by The Spectator Index.