Israel strikes kill dozens overnight; Khan Younis under siege

Israeli strikes killed dozens more people overnight, the health ministry in Gaza, including in the territory's south where Israel has intensified operations. The renewed strikes came as medicine for hostages held by the militants and fresh aid for civilians entered the Palestinian territory on Thursday under a newly brokered deal.

The Hamas-run ministry said 93 people had been killed, including 16 in a single strike on a house in the southern city of Rafah, where many people have fled.

"The strike left 16 killed, among them women and children, and 20 injured," a statement confirmed.

The Hamas government reported dozens of strikes, including on the southern city of Khan Younis and Palestinian refugee camps in central Gaza.

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Khan Younis offensive

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the army was hitting Gaza's main southern city of Khan Younis particularly hard to dismantle the Hamas leadership, which the army says has already been achieved in northern Gaza.

Israel's army announced the death of one soldier on Wednesday, bringing the total number killed in Gaza to 193 since ground operations began in late October. At the Abu Yussef Al-Najjar hospital in Rafah, Palestinians stood in front of bodies wrapped in shrouds, mourning loved ones killed in Israeli bombardment.

Hassan Gebril Franjee, a resident of central Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp, returned to find his home had been destroyed.

"I wish they would stop the war because the situation is devastating. Our youth is gone. Our whole life is gone," he told AFP.

Humanitarian crisis

A broader humanitarian crisis in besieged Gaza is marked by the threat of famine and disease, fueling international calls for a ceasefire. Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari said on X that medicine for hostages and aid entered Gaza "over the past few hours" under the agreement announced on Tuesday following French and Qatari mediation.

Two planes arrived in the Egyptian city of El-Arish near the Gaza border with 61 tonnes of aid provided by Doha and France, including medicine and food, Qatar said. The International Committee of the Red Cross welcomed the deal as "a much-needed moment of relief", under which 45 hostages are expected to receive medication.

France said the drugs would be sent to a hospital in Rafah, given to the Red Cross and divided into batches before being transferred to the hostages.

West Bank violence

Since October 7 violence has also surged in the Israeli-occupied West Bank to a level not seen since the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, between 2000 and 2005. Israeli army raids and attacks by settlers have killed around 360 people in the territory, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Israeli forces killed 10 people in the West Bank on Wednesday, the Palestinian health ministry and the Israeli army said. Five were killed inside Tulkarem refugee camp, according to the ministry, while Israel's military confirmed an air strike that killed "a number of terrorists" during a raid there.

Separately, Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party, said five of its fighters died east of the city of Nablus. Among them was Ahmed Abdullah Abu Shalal, a Palestinian militant, both sides said.

The Israeli army said he was killed following intelligence "of his cell's intentions of carrying out an imminent terrorist attack."

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