Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday said Israel will increase "military pressure" on the Palestinian militant group Hamas in a bid to secure the release of hostages held in Gaza. The announcement came after Israeli overnight strikes in the area of the southern Gaza city of Rafah killed at least 16 people, according to the Civil Defence agency in the war-torn Palestinian territory. Read our blog to see how the day's events unfolded.
This blog is no longer being updated. For more coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, please click here.
Summary:
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Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday said Israel will increase "military pressure" on the Palestinian militant group Hamas in a bid to secure the release of hostages held in Gaza.
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Israeli overnight strikes in the area of the southern Gaza city of Rafah killed at least 16 people, the Palestinian territory's Civil Defence agency said Sunday.
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Israeli forces killed at least 14 Palestinians during a multi-day raid in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent said on Saturday. An ambulance driver was also killed as he went to pick up wounded from a separate attack by Jewish settlers, the Palestinian health ministry said.
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The US House of Representatives approved a $26 billion military aid package for Israel on Saturday that includes around $9 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza.
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At least 34,097 Palestinians have been killed and an estimated 76,980 have been injured in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Some 1,170 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks that sparked the war and 250 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli figures, with 132 still missing.
Yesterday's key developments:
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The US House of Representatives passed billions of dollars in new military aid to Israel which continues to prosecute its war against Hamas, despite growing international concern for the fate of civilians in Gaza.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh held talks in Istanbul.
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One member of Iraq’s pro-Iranian Popular Mobilisation Forces was killed in an explosion on Saturday at its command post on the Calso military base 50 kilometres south of Baghdad, a military statement said on Saturday.
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Iran’s foreign minister has dismissed as inconsequential the reported Israeli retaliation near the central city of Isfahan for the unprecedented Iranian strike on Israel last weekend, and said Tehran would not respond unless Iranian “interests” were targeted.
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”.
The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Hamas-run health ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.
In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records. The UN's counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza health ministry’s, with small discrepancies.
For more on the Gaza health ministry’s tolls, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)
