Increased Israeli airstrikes are devastating parts of the Gaza Strip, jeopardizing relief operations and leaving neighbourhoods in shambles. A strike in the Nusseirat refugee camp on Wednesday killed the wife, son and daughter of one of Al-Jazeera TV's chief correspondents, Wael Dahdouh. Strikes elsewhere destroyed homes and businesses and left many digging through the debris.
Health care facilities are doing their best to treat the wounded, but with supplies that are becoming scarce.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says its relief operations across the Gaza Strip will need to be curtailed amid the airstrikes.
The war, in its 19th day, is the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Hamas-run Health Ministry said Wednesday that at least 6,546 Palestinians have been killed and 17,439 others wounded. In the occupied West Bank, more than 100 Palestinians have been killed and 1,650 wounded in violence and Israeli raids since Oct. 7.
The Associated Press couldn't independently verify the death tolls cited by Hamas, which says it tallies figures from hospital directors.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, according to Israeli officials, mostly civilians who died in the initial Hamas rampage. Israel's military on Wednesday raised the number of remaining hostages in Gaza to 222 people, including foreigners believed captured by Hamas during the incursion. Four hostages have been released.
U.S. and other officials fear the fighting could spill over into a wider regional conflict.
Here's what's happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war:
ISRAELI STRIKES HIT A REFUGEE CAMP IN SOUTHERN GAZA STRIP, KILLING AT LEAST 15 PEOPLE
Israeli airstrikes hit a densely populated refugee camp in Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis on Thursday, levelling more than eight homes belonging to an extended family and killing at least 15 people.
Ambulances raced to the scene as dust from the collapsing buildings hung in the air.
The blast zone was like so many others in Gaza, a chaotic wasteland of crumbled concrete and twisted metal. People shouted instructions while others praised Allah as they searched through the rubble for casualties.
The injured, covered in gray dust, were carried on stretchers and in the arms of rescuers, who hustled to get them to vehicles waiting in the street. One body was covered in a blanket.
A lifeless body of a boy was dug out from beneath a concrete slab, where his head had come to rest next to the foot of a person entombed in the wreckage.
TURKISH PRESIDENT SLAMS EU, ACCUSES WEST OF INDIFFERENCE TOWARD SUFFERING OF MUSLIMS
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed the European Union on Thursday for failing to call for a cease-fire in Gaza and accused the West of indifference toward the suffering of Muslims.
"How many more children must die before the EU Commission calls for a cease-fire," he said in a televised speech. "How many more tons of bombs must fall on Gaza before the United Nations Security Council can take action?"
Erdogan accused the West of failing to see the violence unfolding in Gaza "because the blood being shed is Muslim blood."
In his speech, Erdogan also said Turkiye has so far dispatched 10 planeloads to Egypt carrying humanitarian aid, including generators, destined for Gaza. Twenty-five Turkish medical personnel have also left for Egypt, he said.
TURKIYE'S ERDOGAN TELLS POPE THAT ISRAEL'S BOMBARDMENT OF GAZA IS 'A MASSACRE'
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the Israeli-Hamas war with Pope Francis on Thursday, telling the head of the Catholic Church that Israel's attacks on Gaza have "reached the level of a massacre" and that the international community's silence was a "shame for humanity."
Erdogan was also quoted as telling Francis during their telephone conversation that everyone should support efforts to deliver "uninterrupted aid to innocent civilians" in Gaza. The statement from Turkiye's presidential communications directorate was posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Erdogan also reiterated Turkiye's position that a permanent solution to the conflict can only be achieved through the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
The Vatican said Francis' phone conversation with Erdogan, which was requested by the Turkish leader, focused on "the dramatic situation in the Holy Land."
In the call, the pontiff "expressed his pain for what is happening and recalled the position of the Holy See, wishing that a solution for two States and a special statute for the city of Jerusalem can be reached," said a Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni.
The Turkish leader, whose country recently normalized ties with Israel, has increased the tone of his criticism of Israel's military actions in Gaza. On Wednesday, Erdogan described Hamas militants as a group fighting for liberation -- and not a terrorist organization as it has been designated by the West. He also said he has shelved plans to visit Israel.
ISRAELI STRIKE KILLS FAMILY MEMBERS OF AL JAZEERA BUREAU CHIEF IN GAZA
An Israeli strike on Wednesday killed the wife, son and young daughter of Al Jazeera Arabic's bureau chief in Gaza, Wael Dahdouh.
Footage aired on the Qatar-based TV network showed the veteran journalist, still wearing his blue body armour marked "press," weeping over his son's corpse on a hospital floor.
"They take vengeance on us through our children?" he sobbed.
Another son, Yehia, was seriously wounded, and Dahdouh's grandson was also declared dead two hours later, the network reported. Other relatives survived the Israeli strike, including a toddler granddaughter.
"This is a series of targeted attacks on children, women and civilians," Dahdouh, looking stunned, told Al Jazeera as he left the hospital.
The media network released a statement condemning what it called an "indiscriminate assault" on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The camp is south of the area Israel has ordered civilians to evacuate.
In Gaza, Al Jazeera's Youmna Elsayed told the network: "It's heartbreaking to be reporting about Wael's family and to see how broken he is."
UN SECURITY COUNCIL FAILS AGAIN TO PASS RESOLUTION ON ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
The UN Security Council has failed again to address the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza, rejecting rival United States and Russian resolutions.
The U.S. resolution would have reaffirmed Israel's right to self-defence, urged respect for international laws -- especially protection of civilians -- and called for "humanitarian pauses" to deliver desperately needed aid to Gaza. Wednesday's vote in the 15-member council was 10 countries in favour, 3 against and 2 abstentions. The resolution was not adopted because both Russia and China cast vetoes.
The Russian resolution would have called for an immediate "humanitarian cease-fire," and unequivocally condemned Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks in Israel and "indiscriminate attacks" on civilians and civilian objects in Gaza. The vote was 4 in favour, 2 against and 9 abstentions. The resolution wasn't adopted because it failed to get the minimum nine "yes" votes.
The council is charged under the UN Charter with maintaining international peace and security. But Wednesday's rejections, following its rejections last week of a Russian resolution and a Brazilian proposal, leave the Security Council divided and paralyzed in taking action on the Israeli-Hamas war.
Malta's UN Ambassador Vanessa Frazier told reporters before the vote that if both resolutions failed she would attempt to draft a compromise resolution.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia of submitting its text with no consultations "in bad faith." Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia called the U.S. draft a "politicized" proposal to shore up Israel.
IRAQI MILITANT GROUP SAYS IT ATTACKED BASE HOUSING US FORCES IN SYRIA
An Iranian-backed group in Iraq claimed responsibility for an attack on a military base housing U.S. forces in eastern Syria Wednesday, as a string of attacks targeting U.S. military facilities in Iraq and Syria persist.
The Islamic Resistance group in Iraq, an umbrella organization for several Iran-backed militias, said in a statement Wednesday that it had struck the Kharab al-Jir base in the northeastern Hassakeh province with rockets. They said they hit their target, without making any mention of casualties.
Washington did not immediately comment on the attack. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a call Monday with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shiaa al-Sudani, urged Sudani "to pursue those behind the attacks and fulfill Iraq's commitment to maintain the security at these installations," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement Tuesday.
The past week has seen a spate of more than a dozen attacks on US military facilities in Iraq in Syria, most of them claimed by the same group, which has said it is retaliating against America's backing of Israel in its war with Hamas.
BIDEN CONDEMNS ATTACKS ON PALESTINIANS BY ISRAELI SETTLERS IN THE WEST BANK
President Joe Biden on Wednesday said there is no going back to the "status quo" in Israel and the region following the deadly attack by Hamas on Oct. 7.
"When this crisis is over, there has to be a vision of what comes next," Biden said during a press conference at the White House with the Prime Minister of Australia. "And in our view, it has to be a two-state solution."
Biden said again that he believed the Israelis had the right -- the "responsibility" -- to respond to the attack. "The anger, the hurt, the sense of outrage that the Israeli people are feeling" following the attack is "completely understandable," he said.
But he also decried the attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, and said it must stop and "stop now," and he said he remained focused on humanitarian aid into Gaza.
AIRSTRIKE IN GAZA CITY KILLS MORE THAN 2 DOZEN AND INJURES OVER 100, HAMAS SAYS
An Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on Wednesday killed at least 26 people and injured more than 100, Hamas' Interior Ministry said.
Bodies of dead men and women were scattered in streets that had relatively little damage while a block of buildings lay in ruins with people searching among the damage for survivors.
Two wounded young boys embraced each other and appeared to be crying as a first responder and three other men carried them to safety on a stretcher.
A man with blood running from his scalp into his eye and down his cheek looked stunned as he sat on what remained of a sofa propped in the rubble while a girl, who was also wounded, hugged him.
MACRON ANGLES FOR INTERNATIONAL COALITION TO FIGHT HAMAS
French President Emmanuel Macron is promoting, with little success so far, the creation of an international coalition to fight the armed Palestinian group Hamas.
He pitched the idea during a two-day trip to the Middle East that started in Israel.
Leaders he met with in Israel, the West Bank, Jordan and Egypt didn't publicly address the issue.
The first response to the devastating Israel-Hamas war is "the fight against terrorism," Macron said Wednesday after his meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
"The right response is to cooperate, to draw lessons from the international coalition against the Islamic State group" that intervened in Iraq and Syria, he added.
Macron first proposed the idea Tuesday after his meeting with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, mentioning a "regional and international coalition" against the Hamas group that rules the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu did not specifically comment on the French offer.
U.S. EMBASSY IN KUWAIT TO LIMIT ACTIVITY ON US MILITARY BASES AFTER IRAQI MILITIA'S THREATS
The U.S. Embassy in Kuwait is acknowledging an Iraqi militia's threat to target U.S. military bases in the Mideast nation over the Israeli airstrikes targeting the Gaza Strip in its war on Hamas.
In a statement to American citizens, the embassy identified the threat as coming from Awliya Wa'ad al-Haq, or "The True Promise Brigades." That group, believed allied with Iran, has claimed an attack previously on the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
"As a result, the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait is limiting its activity on U.S. military bases to essential and official events only," the embassy said in an alert sent to Americans.
NETANYAHU SAYS HE WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR HAMAS' ATTACK
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will be held accountable for the bloody Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas militants, but that will only come after Israel's war against the Islamic militant group.
In a nationally televised address on Wednesday night, Netanyahu said that he was busy plotting a ground invasion of Gaza, though he refused to say when that might happen. He also expressed sorrow for the attack, which killed over 1,400 Israelis and saw over 200 others taken captive in Gaza.
"Oct. 7 is a black day in our history," he said. "We will get to the bottom of what happened on the southern border around Gaza. This debacle will be investigated. Everyone will have to give answers, including me."
ISRAEL'S UN AMBASSADOR CALLS AGAIN FOR RESIGNATION OF UN SECRETARY-GENERAL
Israel's UN ambassador says it's "a disgrace" that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres didn't retract and apologize for his comments to Security Council and is again calling for the UN chief's resignation.
Gilad Erdan was responding to the UN chief's comments earlier Wednesday saying he was "shocked" that parts of his council statement were misrepresented "as if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas."
"This is false. It was the opposite," Guterres told reporters, reiterating his condemnation "unequivocally of the horrifying and unprecedented 7 October acts of terror by Hamas in Israel."
Erdan countered that the secretary-general "once again distorts and twists reality," pointing again to his statement Tuesday that the Oct. 7 massacres "did not happen in a vacuum."
"Every person understands very well that the meaning of his words is that Israel has guilt for the actions of Hamas or, at the very least, it shows his understanding for the `background' leading up to the massacre," the Israeli ambassador said.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said anyone who listened to the secretary-general in the council Tuesday and earlier Wednesday knows that his position is "there is no justification for the horrendous and abhorrent acts of terrorism perpetrated by Hamas on the seventh of October."
Dujarric said Guterres stands by his words and "is not going to respond to one member state's call to step down."
FRANCE TO SEND NAVY SHIP TO BRING AID TO GAZA STRIP, MACRON SAYS
French President Emmanuel Macron said France is going to send a Navy ship to bring aid to hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
The ship will leave the French military port of Toulon, in the Mediterranean Sea, within 48 hours, he said. He didn't provide further details.
In addition, a French plane will arrive in Egypt Thursday to deliver medical equipment via a convoy to Gaza. "Others will follow," Macron said, adding that France wants to provide Gaza's civilian population access to medicine and medical care.
Macron's visit to Egypt Wednesday comes as part of a two-day tour to the Middle East that started with a visit to Israel meant to show France's support and solidarity following the Hamas attack on Oct. 7. The trip included a stop in Ramallah, in the West Bank, to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and another stop Wednesday morning in Jordan to have talks with King Abdullah II.
Macron in Egypt said, "There's no double standard...international law applies to everyone."
"All victims deserve our compassion, our commitment toward a fair and sustainable peace in the Middle East," he added.
