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Israel's government voted on Wednesday to back a deal for Hamas to free 50 women and children held as hostages in Gaza in exchange for a four-day pause in fighting, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

A statement by the prime minister's office said 50 women and children will be released over four days, during which there will be a pause in fighting.

For every additional 10 hostages released, the pause would be extended by another day, it said, without mentioning the release of Palestinians in exchange.

Hamas confirmed in a statement that and it had agreed with Israel to stop all fighting in Gaza for four days as part of an agreement in which Hamas will release 50 women and children held as hostages in exchange for Israel releasing 150 Palestinian women and children from jail.

The deal will allow hundreds of humanitarian, medical and fuel aid trucks to enter all parts of the Gaza Strip, the statement added.

(With input from agencies)

The South African parliament on Tuesday voted in favor of a motion to shut down the Israeli embassy in Pretoria and suspend all diplomatic relations with Israel until it agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza.

A total of 248 members of the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, voted in favor of the non-binding motion, while 91 lawmakers opposed it.

At least 14,128 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza from Israeli strikes since October 7, according to Gaza's government media office on Tuesday.

Israel and Hezbollah exchanged fire near Israel-Lebanon border, Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) reported on Friday.

Israel's military called for all civilians of Gaza City, more than 1 million people, to relocate south within 24 hours, as it amassed tanks ahead of an expected ground offensive after a devastating attack by Hamas.

"Now is a time for war," Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said as Israeli warplanes continued pounding Gaza in retaliation for the weekend attacks by Hamas fighters that killed more than 1,300 Israelis, mostly civilians.

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The Israeli military said it would operate "significantly" in Gaza City in coming days and civilians should only return when advised. More than 1,530 Palestinians have already been killed in retaliatory attacks.

"Civilians of Gaza City, evacuate south for your own safety and the safety of your families and distance yourself from Hamas terrorists who are using you as human shields," the military said.

"Hamas terrorists are hiding in Gaza City inside tunnels underneath houses and inside buildings populated with innocent Gazan civilians."

'We're steadfast on our land'

Hamas rejected the Israeli order for 1.1 million residents to evacuate northern Gaza ahead of an expected ground incursion into the overcrowded Palestinian territory.

"Our Palestinian people reject the threat of the occupation (Israeli) leaders and its call for them to leave their homes and flee from them to the south or Egypt," Hamas said in a statement.

"We are steadfast on our land and in our homes and our cities. There will be no displacement," it said.

A Hamas official urged citizens not to fall for what it called "fake propaganda." Its military wing later said that 13 among scores of people it captured from Israel had been killed in the latest Israeli air strikes.

The Palestinian envoy to Japan accused the Israelis of seeking to completely destroy Gaza while the United Nations said it considered it impossible for such a movement of people to take place "without devastating humanitarian consequences."

Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, described the UN response to Israel's early warning to the residents of Gaza as "shameful."

The UN urged Israel to rescind the order.

Arab League Chief Ahmed Abul Gheit said Israel's order to Palestinians to evacuate the north of the blockaded Gaza Strip is a "forced transfer" that constitutes "a crime."

Egypt's Rafah crossing is the only route out of Gaza not controlled by Israel and has been bombed on several occasions this week.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Egypt remains committed to ensuring the delivery of aid to Gaza, but urged Palestinians to "remain on their land."

Israel has vowed to annihilate Hamas, and said Hamas tunnels, military compounds, senior operatives' residences and weapons storage warehouses were among 750 military targets struck overnight.

On Friday, fighters in the Gaza Strip fired hundreds of rockets towards Israel, a journalist reported, as the Israeli military continued pounding the Palestinian enclave with air strikes. A barrage of rockets were fired within 15 minutes, the correspondent said.

'Abhorrent human misery'

A ground incursion into the narrow and densely populated Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million people, poses serious risk, with Hamas threatening to kill its hostages.

Hours after the Israeli evacuation call, there were no signs people were leaving Gaza City, where dozens gathered at the al-Shifa Hospital, vowing to stay put.

Pro-Palestinian protests were expected around the world and the U.S. and regional leaders planned meetings amid fears that conflict could spread.

The UN humanitarian office (OCHA) said more than 400,000 people had fled their homes in Gaza and 23 aid workers had been killed.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said generators at hospitals in Gaza could run out of fuel within hours and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned food and fresh water were running dangerously low.

"The human misery caused by this escalation is abhorrent, and I implore the sides to reduce the suffering of civilians," ICRC regional director Fabrizio Carboni said.

The UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said it had moved its central operations center and international staff to Gaza's south and urged Israel to spare its shelters.

'U.S will always be by Israel's side'

In its efforts to build support for its response, Israel's government showed U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO defense ministers graphic images of children and civilians they said Hamas had killed in a weekend rampage in Israel.

Blinken said they showed a baby "riddled with bullets," soldiers beheaded and young people burned in their cars. "It's simply depravity in the worst imaginable way," he said.

Like others across the globe, Blinken urged Israel to show restraint. He also reiterated America's support, saying: "We will always be there by your side."

On Friday, he was in the Jordanian capital to meet King Abdullah and Mahmoud Abbas, Head of the Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Abbas told Blinken in Amman that humanitarian corridors into Gaza must be allowed immediately, adding that "we reject the forced displacement of our people in Gaza."

Iran urges U.S. to rein in Israel

Seeking to stop spillover from the conflict, Blinken also planned to visit key allies Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates – some with influence on Hamas.

Iran's Foreign Minister met the head of the powerful Hezbollah movement, Hassan Nassrallah, in Lebanon, where there have been cross-border clashes with Israel since the weekend, Lebanese media outlets reported.

The U.S. must rein in Israel to avert a regional spillover of the war with Hamas, Iran's top diplomat said in Beirut, adding Tehran was seeking to safeguard Lebanon's security.

The Foreign Minister of Türkiye, which has offered mediation over Gaza, talked with his counterpart from the UAE, a Turkish foreign ministry source said, and will visit Egypt.

The U.S. military is placing no conditions on its security assistance to Israel, U,S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, adding Washington expected it to "do the right things." Austin was due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel.

The U.S. and Japan were among countries offering charter flights for their citizens wanting to leave Israel.

'This war is harsh beyond imagination'

Police in Paris used tear gas and water cannons to break up a banned rally in support of the Palestinians.

Some Jewish schools in Amsterdam and London were set to close temporarily due to safety concerns and police in New York and Los Angeles stepped up their presence around synagogues and Jewish community centers.

The Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee, an Arab advocacy group, said that FBI agents had visited mosques and U.S. residents with Palestinian roots, calling it a "troubling trend."

In Jerusalem, scores of Israelis gathered at the Mount Herzl military cemetery to bury their dead. "I could not imagine this is how it would end," one mourner said.

In Gaza's main southern city Khan Younis, empty lots were being used to bury the dead – like the Samour family, killed on Wednesday night in a strike that hit their house.

"This war is harsh beyond imagination," said Ibrahim Hamdan, who has worked through a series of deadly conflicts since becoming a rescuer in 2007.

Gazans, mainly descendants of refugees who fled or were expelled from homes in Israel at its founding in 1948, have suffered economic collapse and repeated Israeli bombardment under a blockade since Hamas seized power there 16 years ago.

A peace process meant to create a Palestinian state collapsed a decade ago and Israel's right-wing government has cracked down in the West Bank and talked of seizing more land. Palestinian leaders say this left the population with no hope, strengthening Hamas.

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At least 1,799 people were killed and 6,388 others wounded in Gaza from retaliatory Israeli airstrikes since October 7, Palestinian Health Ministry said on Friday, adding that 44 others were dead and over 700 were injured in the West Bank. 

A total of 44 people have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank since last Saturday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said via Facebook on Friday.

The United Nations said early on Friday that it had been told by the Israeli military that some 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza should relocate to the south of the territory within the next 24 hours. "The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences," UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement. 

Israel has cut off electricity, water and fuel supplies to Gaza, which gets two-thirds of its electricity from Israel. This has left the local Al Shifa Hospital as the only source of drinking water, food and electricity for the residents of Khan Younis in Gaza. Local resident Ahmed Abu Radwan says: "No one knows what will happen in three days; the water tankers are running low on petrol, the hospitals are running low on spare water and the situation will only get worse."

Arab League (AL) Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit called on the United Nations Friday to prevent Israel's plan to "forcibly transfer" the people in the Gaza Strip.

In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Aboul-Gheit described Israel's proposed forced transfer of Gaza's people as a "flagrant violation" of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from relocating the population of an occupied territory, the Cairo-based pan-Arab organization said in a statement.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has deployed military forces to the Eastern Mediterranean to "support Israel and reinforce regional stability," the British Ministry of Defense said in a statement on Friday.

"Maritime patrol and surveillance aircraft will begin flying in the region from Friday to track threats to regional stability," the statement said, adding that a Royal Navy task group will be moved to the eastern Mediterranean next week as a contingency measure to support humanitarian efforts.

Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed on Friday that a long-range Hamas rocket from Gaza was intercepted over Israel's north, the Jerusalem Post reported.  

Clashes with Israelis across the West Bank have left at least three Palestinians dead, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry said on Friday.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that Israel will receive the second American aircraft carrier with military equipment on Friday and vowed to keep fighting Hamas as conflict continues for nearly a week.

Gallant made the remark at a joint press conference with visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in Tel Aviv.

For his part, Austin told reporters that U.S. support for Israel is ironclad, adding that Pentagon is fully ready to deploy additional assets.

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement on Friday said it would be "fully prepared" to join Hamas in the war against Israel when the time is right. 

"We are fully prepared, and when the time comes for action, we will carry it out," Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem told a pro-Palestinian rally in Beirut's southern suburbs.

He said that major powers, Arab countries and the United Nations had "directly and indirectly" told Hezbollah "not to interfere" in ongoing fighting between Israel and Hamas. 

China's special envoy on the Middle East issue talked with a senior diplomat of Saudi Arabia on the ongoing conflict between the Palestinians and Israel over phone on Thursday.

Zhai Jun's latest phone conversation with Saud Al-Sati, deputy minister for political affairs of Saudi Arabia, came following his recent talks with diplomats of Egypt, Palestine and Israel since the conflict broke out on October 7.

During Thursday's talks with Sati, the Chinese envoy reiterated that China opposes and condemns acts that harm civilians.

The fundamental way out of the conflict between Palestine and Israel is to implement the two-state solution, said Zhai.

China is ready to maintain communication and coordination with Saudi Arabia to promote both parties to the conflict to maintain calmness and restraint, and avoid escalation or more civilian casualties, he said.

China and Saudi Arabia will also work to advance the international community in conducting fair mediation and providing humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people to avoid a worsening humanitarian crisis in Palestine, especially in Gaza, said the Chinese envoy.

Sati said he appreciates China's long-standing, just stance on the Palestinian issue. He condemns acts that harm civilians, and calls on all parties to exercise restraint to prevent the situation from escalating.

The Palestinian issue should be resolved in accordance with relevant United Nations resolutions and on the basis of the Arab Peace Initiative and the two-state solution, he said.

Saudi Arabia is ready to work with friendly countries that include China to promote the resolution of the Palestinian issue, said Sati.

(Cover: File photo of Zhai Jun, China's special envoy on the Middle East issue. /Chinese Foreign Ministry)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday in Tel Aviv.

Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has declared the northern town of Metula a closed military zone, according to local authorities.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on social media on Friday that she had arrived in Israel with President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola.

Their visit is to express their "solidarity with the Israeli people in the wake of the horrific Hamas terrorist attack," von der Leyen said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

Gaza is facing a "humanitarian and health catastrophe," the Palestinian Health Ministry said in a Facebook post on Friday, calling for "immediate health support to hospitals in the Gaza Strip."

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia is ready to mediate in the Palestinian-Israeli settlement, adding that the conflict should be solved by peaceful means, as he addressed the summit of the Council of Heads of State of the Commonwealth of Independent States in Kyrgyzstan's Bishkek on Friday.

He added that an Israeli ground operation in Gaza would result in unacceptable civilian losses and that the main thing was to stop the bloodshed.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called for immediate humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip, saying hospitals in the coastal enclave's health system are at a "breaking point."

Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades said on Friday that it launched 150 rockets towards the city of Ashkelon in Israel "in response to the displacement and targeting of civilians."

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday in Jordanian capital Amman.

Abbas told Blinken that he "completely rejects the forced displacement" of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza as a result of the cessation of all humanitarian services as well as the shutdown of the only power plant, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Jordanian King Abdullah II on Friday in Jordanian capital Amman.

Hamas on Friday rejected an Israeli order for 1.1 million residents to evacuate northern Gaza within 24 hours ahead of an expected ground incursion into the overcrowded Palestinian territory.

"Our Palestinian people reject the threat of the occupation (Israeli) leaders and its call for them to leave their homes and flee from them to the south or Egypt," Hamas said in a statement.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, also claimed on Friday that at least 13 Israeli and foreign hostages held in the northern Gaza Strip have been killed in Israeli air strikes in the past 24 hours.

"Thirteen prisoners ... including foreigners" were killed in five locations targeted by Israeli fighter jets, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said in a statement.

Gaza's only power station has run out of fuel, two days after Israel imposed a total blockade on the territory.

The ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, sparked by a surprise attack launched by the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on southern Israeli towns last week, followed by Israeli retaliatory strikes on Gaza, has claimed more than 2,700 lives. This toll includes over 1,500 Palestinians and 1,300 Israelis.

As the conflict persists, concerns have escalated over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza – a situation described by the United Nations as "extremely dire" and expected to deteriorate "exponentially."

Conflict persists

Israel stated on Thursday that it had dropped 6,000 bombs, totaling 4,000 tonnes in weight, on Gaza in the past six days.

During the extensive airstrikes on Gaza that led to the deaths of three senior Hamas members, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi mentioned that the Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, and the group's leadership were "dead men walking."

"Unlike other operations, we are seeking to topple Hamas," stated IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari in a televised announcement.

In the six days of Israeli airstrikes against Gaza, at least 1,500 Palestinians, including 500 children and 276 women, lost their lives, according to Palestinian health ministry. 

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned violence against civilians on both sides on Thursday, emphasizing that the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited governance in the occupied West Bank and has long opposed Hamas, stood against violence and would pursue political action to achieve its goals.

Israel has also mobilized 360,000 reservists on the Gaza border over the past few days, raising suspicions about the possibility of a ground attack on Gaza.

Humanitarian situation deteriorates 'exponentially'

The UN's World Food Program (WFP) has issued a warning that food and water in Gaza will run out very soon, plunging the besieged enclave into "a devastating situation."

"We are seeing shortages of fuel, water and electricity. We are seeing overcrowded shelters," the agency wrote in a post on the social platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Gaza's last functioning power plant ran out of fuel on Wednesday. A day later, the local health ministry stated that its health system had "begun to collapse."

Israel announced a total siege on Gaza on Monday, blocking the entry of food, fuel and water into the coastal territory and shuttering all crossing points. These measures, combined with the ongoing airstrikes by Israel, have exacerbated the crisis.

Read more: 
A 'total siege' on Gaza：No place safe 

The number of displaced people in Gaza has exceeded 263,000, with over 175,000 seeking refuge in UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East schools, as reported by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

"The humanitarian situation in Gaza was extremely dire before the onset of these hostilities; now it is set to deteriorate exponentially," warned UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier this week.

On Thursday, the organization issued an emergency appeal for $294 million to address "the most urgent needs" in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, aiming to assist more than 1.2 million people, according to OCHA.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has confirmed its engagement with both Hamas and Israel, working towards facilitating negotiations for the release of approximately 150 hostages recently taken to Gaza.

External forces

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on Thursday and held meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the members of Israel's wartime cabinet, a part of the new emergency government formed to respond to the Hamas attack.

The top U.S. diplomat pledged support and additional weapons deliveries for Israel's efforts in combating Hamas. During a live broadcast statement, Blinken mentioned that more shipments of U.S. arms were "on the way."

Earlier this week, the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group, including an aircraft carrier, arrived in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea "in order to deter any actor seeking to escalate the situation or widen this war," said the U.S. Central Command in a statement.

A second U.S. aircraft carrier is heading to the Mediterranean for a "long-scheduled deployment," according to the White House on Wednesday, while a U.S. cargo plane carrying the first shipment of advanced weaponry has landed in the country.

After their meeting, Netanyahu told Blinken that Hamas should be treated like the terrorist group ISIS. "No leader should meet them. No countries should harbor them, and those that do, need to be sanctioned," he said.

Additionally, Israeli missile strikes targeted both international airports in Syria's capital, Damascus, and its northern province of Aleppo on Thursday, temporarily rendering the airports out of service.

The Syrian army said in a statement that the attacks are diversionary tactics of Israel to shift attention away from its ongoing operations in Gaza.

Just a day before, Israeli shelling hit southern Lebanese towns in response to a fresh rocket attack by the armed group Hezbollah.

Hezbollah said it had fired precision missiles at an Israeli position in response to the killing of its members in Israeli shelling earlier this week.

At least three civilians were injured by Israeli strikes in south Lebanon, according to media agency Al Jazeera.

(With input from agencies)

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has arrived in Israel, AFP reported on Friday.

The Israeli army fired two missiles over Naqoura, southern Lebanon on Friday, Lebanon's National News Agency reported.

The United Nations said early on Friday that it had been told by the Israeli military that some 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza should relocate to the south of the territory within the next 24 hours.

"The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences," UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

The Palestine-Israel conflict once again proved in an extremely tragic manner that the way to solve the Palestinian question lies in resuming genuine peace talks as soon as possible and realizing the legitimate rights of the Palestinian nation, senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi said on Thursday.

Wang, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks when he talked with Celso Luiz Nunes Amorim, chief advisor of the Presidency of Brazil, on the phone, exchanging views on the conflict.

Pointing out that the Palestinian issue is the core of the Middle East issue, Wang, also director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, said the crux of the matter is that justice has not been done to the Palestinian people. 

Noting that China is deeply saddened by the rising tension between Palestine and Israel and the huge civilian casualties, he said China opposes acts that harm civilians and condemns violations of international law.

China calls on all parties to exercise restraint, de-escalate regional tensions as soon as possible and prevent further expansion of the conflict, Wang said, adding that the top priority is to ensure the safety of civilians, and open corridors for aid so as to avoid a serious humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Wang said China calls for a more authoritative and influential international peace conference as soon as possible to push the international community to reach a broader consensus based on the "two-state solution" and formulate a timetable and road map for it. 

Noting that the United Nations has the responsibility and obligation to play its due role on the Palestinian question, he said China supports the Security Council in holding an emergency meeting on the Palestine-Israel conflict, agrees to focus on humanitarian concerns, and clearly calls for practical measures to a ceasefire, an end to violence, protection of civilians, and the formation of a binding international consensus.

Wang stressed that China is willing to maintain communication, coordination and close cooperation with Brazil and relevant parties in this regard.

For his part, Amorim said that as the rotating president of the UN Security Council for the month of October, Brazil will host an emergency meeting of the Security Council on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on Friday, adding that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has issued an open letter calling on Israel to stop its air strikes and protect children.

Amorim added that the key to resolving the conflict is to resume peace talks, and Brazil is willing to closely coordinate with China to jointly de-escalate the situation.

(With input from Xinhua)

(Cover: A file photo of Wang Yi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs. /Chinese Foreign Ministry)

More than 423,000 people have now been forced to flee their homes in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations said.

As of late Thursday, the number of displaced people in Gaza had risen by an additional 84,444 people and reached 423,378, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Friday.

Far from Israel, families in Thailand are desperately awaiting word of their loved ones in Israel.  

At least 20 Thai migrant workers were among those killed in Israel on Saturday in a coordinated attack by Hamas militants, and many more are missing.

Thailand’s foreign ministry says as many as 6,000 Thais are seeking to return home from Israel.

Close to 30,000 Thais, mostly from rural areas, work in Israel’s agriculture sector, where many are underpaid and exposed to dangerous conditions. 

Thailand’s foreign ministry  said it did not have any information about the hostages’ conditions but believed that they would not be harmed.

Thailand and Philippines are among the largest sources of migrant workers for Israel.

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Lebanon will lodge an urgent protest against Israel at the United Nations Security Council, Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Thursday.

"Lebanon is in the eye of the storm, feels deep concern over what is happening at its southern border, which is a result of repeated Israeli provocations and repeated Israeli violations of UN Resolution 1701," Mikati added in a statement.

(With input from Reuters)

U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has offered Israel his condolences and says the country will never have to defend itself alone while the U.S. is an ally. But Blinken says steps must be taken to reduce the risk of civilian deaths during retaliatory attacks in Gaza.

Blinken made the comments during a press conference with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been criticized after the country's security defenses were breached by Hamas fighters during the attack over the weekend, which claimed the lives of 1,200 people.

On Thursday, The Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff admitted that there were security failings after speaking publicly for the first time since the attacks. 

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Trump criticizes Netanyahu

Former U.S. President Donald Trump says Netanyahu was under-prepared for Hamas's attack on the country.

Trump made his comments at a Republican party rally in Florida. He said that Netanyahu had been "hurt very badly" by the attacks, which have killed more than 1,200 people and resulted in 150 people being taken hostage. 

The 75-year-old's comments were labelled "dangerous and unhinged" by U.S. spokesman Andrew Bates. Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said Trump's comments showed he could not be relied on.

France says no evidence of Iran role in Hamas attacks

France has no formal trace implicating Iran in the Hamas attacks on Israel at the weekend, a spokesperson of the French foreign ministry said.

The comments reiterated similar remarks made by French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this week, following speculation that Iran helped to plan and orchestrate the attacks.

Iran's foreign minister, meanwhile, has accused Israel of seeking "genocide" by enforcing a siege against Gaza, according to Iranian state TV.

"Today, the continuation of war crimes by Netanyahu and Zionists against the civilians of Gaza, besieging, cutting off water and electricity, and denying entry of medicine and food, has created conditions where the Zionists are seeking a genocide of all people in Gaza," Hossein Amirabdollahian said.

"The war we witness today in the Gaza Strip is not just the Zionists' war against Hamas, it is the Zionists' war against all Palestinians."

Erdogan and Indian spokesman call for sovereign Palestinian state

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a call on Thursday that a sovereign Palestinian state should be established for a lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Turkish presidency said. 

Erdogan and Scholz also exchanged views on ways to halt the fighting and humanitarian crises in the conflict, the presidency said on social messaging platform X, adding that Erdogan renewed his offer to mediate the conflict.

India has also joined Türkiye in encouraging negotiations to establish an independent Palestinian state. Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said: "India has always advocated the resumption of direct negotiations towards establishing a sovereign, independent and viable State of Palestine living within secure and recognized borders, side-by-side at peace with Israel."

X removes hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts

The X social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, has removed hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts and taken action to remove or label tens of thousands of pieces of content since the militant group's attack on Israel, its chief executive Linda Yaccarino said on Thursday.

The move came in response to European Union industry chief Thierry Breton's 24 hour-ultimatum to Elon Musk to tackle the spread of disinformation on his X messaging platform since the Hamas assault to comply with new EU online content rules. The EU has also asked Facebook and TikTok to do the same.

Breton, who said he had indications that X – formerly known as Twitter – was being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation in the EU, said his team would analyse Yaccarino's reply and decide on next steps.

The recently implemented Digital Services Act (DSA) requires large online platforms, including X and Meta's Facebook, to do more to remove illegal content and to take measures to tackle the risks to public security and civic discourse.

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The first Canadian military plane evacuating citizens from Israel has left Tel Aviv with 130 people on board, Defense Minister Bill Blair said in a social media post on Thursday.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned violence against civilians on Thursday in the wake of the devastating attack by Hamas gunmen on Israel and the relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip by Israeli jets that followed.

During his meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah II the same day in Jordan's capital Amman, Abbas called for "an immediate end to the all-out aggression against the Palestinian people and the need to provide humanitarian medical and relief aid, water and electricity and open urgent humanitarian corridors in the Gaza Strip," the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

Jordan's King Abdullah on Thursday ordered the government to allocate 3 million dinars ($4.23 million) for a UN body working with Palestinian refugees, according to the Jordanian state news agency Petra.

(With input from Reuters)

The U.S. military is not placing any conditions on its security assistance to Israel, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Thursday, adding Washington expected Israel's professional military to "do the right thing."

Aid organizations are begging Israel to reverse its decision to refuse a humanitarian break to its siege of Gaza until all its hostages are freed.

Abeer Etefa, spokesperson for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), told CGTN "the humanitarian situation is deteriorating by the moment. We plead for an immediate end to hostilities in Gaza."

The Red Cross has made similar requests, asking for fuel to be allowed in to prevent overwhelmed hospitals from "turning into morgues."

Etefa said that without replenishment WFP's emergency food supply operation would soon run out. She told CGTN: "Gaza is running out of food. The conflict has disrupted food production and distribution networks in Gaza and with the borders closed we don't have any way to replenish either the commercial supplies of food inside Gaza or our own stock of food commodities in our warehouses in Gaza."

This week the WFP launched an emergency operation to feed over 800,000 people in Gaza and the West Bank, communities currently lacking access to food, water and basic humanitarian supplies.

According to Etefa: "We've already started the distribution of fresh bread, canned food, and ready to eat meals to around 137,000 people, together with UNWRA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East)."

But she said stocks are dwindling. "The reality is that the food stocks we have 'in country' are only enough for 44,000 people, so if we don't replenish the food trucks our operations will come to a halt."

Etefa told the Israeli government the WFP needs two things. "We need the ability to access these areas inside Gaza to be able to replenish our stocks and the funding that would allow us to quickly procure more food that we can use in the next few days."

She also urged the international populace to help raise the $17 million it says it needs to fund its next four weeks of operations.

Gazan authorities say the Palestinian city's sole electric power station has been switched off and hospitals are running out of fuel for emergency generators.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said fuel powering emergency generators at hospitals could run out within hours. "The human misery caused by this escalation is abhorrent, and I implore the sides to reduce the suffering of civilians," ICRC regional director Fabrizio Carboni said in a statement on Thursday.

"As Gaza loses power, hospitals lose power, putting newborns in incubators and elderly patients on oxygen at risk. Kidney dialysis stops, and X-rays can't be taken. Without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues."

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'Gaza must be like Germany after WWII'

Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz said there would be no exceptions to the siege without freedom for Israeli hostages. "Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electrical switch will be lifted, no water hydrant will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli hostages are returned home. Humanitarian for humanitarian. And nobody should preach us morals," Katz posted on social media platform X.

Israel has vowed to annihilate the Hamas movement that rules the Gaza Strip in retribution for the deadliest attack on Jewish civilians since the Holocaust, when hundreds of gunmen poured across the barrier fence and rampaged through Israeli towns on Saturday.

Israel has responded so far by putting Gaza, home to 2.3 million people, under total siege and launching by far the most powerful bombing campaign in the 75-year history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, destroying whole neighborhoods.

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European airlines and countries are wrestling with the safety risk of evacuation operations from Israel, with Norwegian Air and Dutch KLM cancelling flights while the UK and Germany joined France, Italy and Poland in going ahead with flights.

Norwegian Air said it had canceled a planned evacuation flight from Tel Aviv to Oslo due to a lack of insurance cover. Dutch airline KLM said late on Wednesday it had retracted an offer to the Dutch government for a flight to Israel to take Dutch citizens out of the country, citing safety concerns.

However, KLM's sister airline Air France was pressing ahead with a flight from Paris on Thursday, a spokesperson said. The two airlines are owned by the same parent group Air France-KLM but are operationally separate. No explanation was available for the contrasting decisions.

KLM said "the most recent information on the situation in Israel indicates it is not sufficiently possible for a civilian airline to conduct a flight that's safe for crew and passengers." The Dutch foreign ministry said it would send a military plane to Israel on Thursday instead.

Norwegian Air had been due to fly Norwegian and other Nordic citizens stranded in Israel out of the country on Thursday evening on a flight already postponed from Wednesday. "The reason is that the insurance company that Norwegian and a number of other airlines use no longer cover flights to Tel Aviv," Norwegian said in a statement.

Airlines have faced warnings over insurance cover in the wake of the weekend attacks on Israel by Hamas militants. Norwegian said it was working with Norway's foreign ministry to find other solutions. On Tuesday it canceled regular flights from the Swedish and Danish capitals to Tel Aviv until December 19.

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While Norwegian and Dutch airlines have canceled evacuations, the UK and Germany are the latest European countries to announce flights to get their citizens out of Israel. A number of countries, including France, Italy and Poland have already completed flights to get people home.

The UK's Foreign Office says its first flight out of Israel will depart Tel Aviv on Thursday, with more planned in the coming days "subject to security." Those who are eligible to leave Israel will be contacted directly and UK citizens have been told not to go to airports unless they are contacted.

The Foreign Office has also added that families of British diplomats will be leaving Israel as a precaution and has urged travellers to avoid heading to Israel or territories occupied by Palestinian agencies.

A spokesperson for the Foreign Office said: "The FCDO continues to advise against all travel to parts of Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and to advise against all but essential travel to all other parts."

News of the evacuation flights comes just days after the UK government said it wouldn't be planning such flights as commercial routes were still available. But it has now performed a U-turn after British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, EasyJet, Ryanair, Wizz Air, Air France, Lufthansa and Emirates suspended flights.

While the Foreign Office will arrange the flights, they are still classed as commercial services and so each passenger will be charged $367. British nationals, including dual nationals, and dependants if travelling with a British national normally resident in the UK, will be invited to take up seats.

As the UK steps up its evacuation efforts, Germany is doing the same. German airline Condor announced two special flights to evacuate German citizens from Israel on Sunday, adding that it was in close coordination with the German foreign ministry.

The two Airbus planes, with a capacity of just under 500 passengers in total, departed from the Jordanian city of Aqaba near the Israeli border, a spokesperson for the airline said on Thursday.

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Special Envoy of the Chinese Government on the Middle East Issue Zhai Jun on Thursday had a phone call with Rafi Harpaz, the deputy director general in charge of Asia-Pacific affairs of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the Palestine-Israel situation, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

China calls for peaceful coexistence between Israel and Palestine and stands ready to work with the international community to promote a ceasefire and actively advance talks for peace, Zhai said.

Harpaz explained to Zhai Israel's perspective and stance on the current situation, promising that the Israeli side will ensure the safety of Chinese citizens in Israel.

(Cover: Israeli troops and artillery gather on the border with the Gaza Strip, October 12, 2023. /CFP)

At least 1,417 Palestinians have been killed from Israeli retaliatory airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, and 6,268 others have been injured since Saturday, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza on Thursday.

Israel says it will deny Gaza electricity, water and fuel until Hamas frees the hostages it captured during a weekend siege that saw 1,200 Israelis killed. At least 150 hostages were captured by Hamas during the shock attack and taken back to Gaza. Israel has retaliated by launching devastating bombing raids over Gaza. 

So far, 338,000 people living in Gaza have been displaced and 1,354 have been killed and 6,049 have been wounded according to figures released by Gaza's Health Ministry. On Wednesday, the last remaining power station in Gaza ran out of fuel, which means the area is now relying on generators to provide its people with power.  

On Thursday, the International Committee of the Red Cross released a statement warning that Gaza was likely to run out of fuel within a few hours, but Israel's Energy Minister, Israel Katz, says the country's armed forces will continue their air raids and blockade until their demands are met.

In a post published on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, he said: "Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electrical switch will be turned on, no water hydrant will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli abductees are returned home. Humanitarian for humanitarian. And no one will preach us morals."

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Blinken visits Israel

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Israel on Thursday on a trip to show solidarity with Israel, help prevent the conflict from spreading and push for the release of hostages, including American citizens.

He will also visit Jordan on Friday to meet King Abdullah and Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority that operates limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Abbas, whose Fatah movement lost control of the Gaza Strip to its Hamas rivals in 2007, has not condemned the attacks on Israel, has blamed the escalation on the neglect of Palestinian grievances, and has called for Palestinians outside Gaza to resist the Israeli military.

Israel could launch ground assault

Israel formed a new unity government on Wednesday, bringing opponents of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into his cabinet.

The country has called up hundreds of thousands of reservists in preparation for what could be a ground assault on Gaza. No decision to enter Gaza has yet been made "but we're preparing for it", military spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Hecht said early on Thursday.

The conflict has torn up diplomacy in the region, just as Israel was preparing to reach an agreement to normalize ties with Saudi Arabia, the richest Arab power, and months after Riyadh resumed ties with its regional rival Iran.

Tehran has celebrated the Hamas attacks but denied being behind them. U.S. President Joe Biden said a deployment of military ships and aircraft closer to Israel should be seen as a signal to Iran to stay out of the conflict.

Egyptian President urges humanitarian corridor

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi stressed in phone call with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak the need to ensure regularity of humanitarian relief services and aid to Palestinians in Gaza, the Egyptian presidency said in statement on Thursday.

Egypt said on Thursday it was directing international aid for the besieged Gaza Strip to Al Arish airport in the north of the Sinai Peninsula, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The nearby Rafah crossing between Sinai and Gaza remained open, the statement said, adding that Egypt had asked Israel to avoid targeting the Palestinian side of the crossing after strikes that prevented normal operations there.

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Editor's note: CGTN's First Voice provides instant commentary on breaking stories. The column clarifies emerging issues and better defines the news agenda, offering a Chinese perspective on the latest global events.

In the days following an unexpected Hamas assault on Israel that claimed the lives of hundreds of Israelis, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict continues to intensify. In response, Israel has launched airstrikes on Gaza, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian civilians. Meanwhile, the United States is reportedly contemplating the deployment of a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East region, even as other nations endeavor to reduce tensions.

Why do Palestine and Israel find themselves ensnared in the perpetual quagmire of conflict? Seeking insights from rational voices on all sides can illuminate the underlying factors rooted in both historical and present-day realities.

A viable alternative to endless bloodshed

As Richard Haass, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, emphasizes: "There is no solely military answer." He underscores the necessity of introducing a diplomatic element into the equation, "including a credible Israeli plan for bringing about a viable Palestinian state."

So, what hampers the inclusion of this "diplomatic element into the equation?" Israel's discriminatory policies may provide part of the answer.

According to Daoud Kuttab, an award-winning Palestinian journalist, "Israel frequently prevents Palestinians from engaging even in peaceful political activity." These discriminatory practices not only contravene international law but are "also being implemented with brute force and intimidation." Behind the sudden escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict lies the long-standing unresolved demands of the Palestinian people.

Violence threatens to spiral out of control unless substantial efforts are undertaken to ease the situation and provide political hope through a credible peace process.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once claimed to have his "two hands firmly on the steering wheel." But now the wheel seems out of his control. However, some critics argue that it is Netanyahu's policies that have led to the current situation.

Just weeks ago, Netanyahu brushed aside the Palestinian issue during a speech at the United Nations, hailing the normalization of ties in 2020 with several Arab nations under the so-called Abraham Accords as "heralding a new era of peace."

Shlomo Ben-Ami, a former Israeli foreign minister, explained why this crisis was somehow doomed to happen. "By ruling out any political process in Palestine and boldly asserting that 'the Jewish people have an exclusive and inalienable right to all parts of the Land of Israel,' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's fanatical government made bloodshed inevitable."

China has called on relevant parties to remain calm, exercise restraint and immediately end the hostilities to protect civilians and avoid further deterioration of the situation.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson emphasized that the recurrence of the conflict between Palestine and Israel shows once again that the protracted standstill of the peace process cannot last. The fundamental way out of the conflict lies in implementing the two-state solution and establishing an independent State of Palestine, the spokesperson stressed.

The U.S. role behind the conflict

In previous Middle East peace negotiations, the United States has shown favoritism and connivance towards Israel, hurting the Palestinians' confidence in Palestinian-Israeli peace. On issues such as the status of East Jerusalem, the right of return of Palestinian refugees, and Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the United States has repeatedly proposed solutions that are beneficial to Israel, condoning and acquiescing to Israel's occupation of the Palestinian people's land, and undermining the foundation of Palestinian-Israeli peace dialogue.

"The United States not only failed to reflect on its Middle East policy but also discredited the resistance of the Palestinian people," said Wang Jin, an associate professor at Northwest University of China. After the conflict broke out, the United States immediately defined Palestinian militants as "terrorists."

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken directly asked Arab countries that have peace agreements with Israel to condemn Hamas' actions. Former U.S. President Donald Trump even used the "$6-billion prisoner swap deal" between the U.S. and Iran to attack Joe Biden, accusing that the same $6 billion financed the Hamas' attack on Israel. Some domestic public opinion in the U.S. also regarded Iran as the "chief culprit" of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The consequences of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict have resulted in the loss of innocent civilian lives including thousands injured and displaced, as well as massive destruction to property. This round of conflict will inevitably leave a fresh scar on the Palestinian-Israeli issue.

The United States should join hands with the international community to promote the early resumption of peace talks between Palestine and Israel and seek a path to peace. Ignoring one's own moral responsibilities, transplanting others' mistakes to regional countries, or even exploiting conflicts for personal gain will only further increase the risk of regional confrontation and conflict, and will do no good to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Wang Jin said.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com. Follow @thouse_opinions on Twitter to discover the latest commentaries in the CGTN Opinion Section.)

The Israeli army said Thursday it was preparing for a ground assault on Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip but that the country's political leaders had not yet taken a decision.

"We are waiting to see what our political leadership decides about a potential ground" incursion, army spokesperson Richard Hecht told journalists.

"This has not been decided yet... But we are preparing for a ground manoeuvre if it is decided," he added.

The army has deployed tens of thousands of troops to the border with the Gaza Strip as it continues with a withering air campaign it says targets Hamas infrastructure, commanders and operating centres in the enclave.

The air strikes came in response to a surprise attack on Israel on Saturday by Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), which included the firing of thousands of rockets and the infiltration ground attacks on the Israeli towns bordering Gaza. 

The number of fatalities in Israel since the beginning of Hamas' surprise attack has reached at least 1,300, Israel's state-owned Kan TV news reported on Thursday.

Over 3,268 people were injured, and 443 of them are still in hospitals, the Israeli Health Ministry said. Attempts to find bodies in southern towns and villages continued on Thursday, Israeli authorities said.

In Gaza, more than 1,200 individuals have been killed by Israeli airstrikes, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza.

On Thursday, Israel and Hamas traded more fire. Israel has also imposed a "complete siege" on the Palestinian enclave, cutting off electricity, water and fuel supplies into Gaza.

Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz said earlier on Thursday that the supplies will not be resumed until Hamas fighters free all the hostages held in the Gaza Strip.

Israel formed a unity government and a war cabinet on Wednesday to oversee the deadly conflict. The new war cabinet brings former defense minister and leader of the centrist-right National Unity party Benny Gantz to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's nationalist-religious coalition government. Members of the wartime cabinet also include Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Humanitarian crisis

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said on Wednesday that four of its paramedics were killed during Israeli airstrikes on Gaza. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) reported the loss of 11 employees in the Gaza Strip since the weekend.

According to United Nations figures, some 250,000 people were displaced or lost their homes in Gaza. The Palestinian Energy Ministry said the only power plant in Gaza ran out of fuel. The Health Ministry in Gaza said in a statement Wednesday all hospital beds in the Palestinian enclave had been occupied, and medicines were about to run out as the conflict continued.

Calls for peace

To resolve the conflict, an Arab League (AL) extraordinary meeting at the level of foreign ministers was held in Cairo on Wednesday. Participants of the meeting called for an immediate halt of the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict and the revival of the stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace process.

In the final communique of the meeting, the top Arab diplomats urged all parties to exercise self-restraint, warning of "the catastrophic humanitarian and security repercussions" of further escalation.

They also emphasized the necessity of lifting the Israeli siege imposed on Gaza and immediately providing humanitarian aid, food and fuel to the people there.

Egypt said, on Wednesday, it is in discussions with the United States and other countries to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza through a temporary ceasefire. The aid would be sent through the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

China is deeply concerned over the current escalation of tensions and violence between Palestine and Israel, and calls on relevant parties to remain calm, exercise restraint and immediately end the hostilities to protect civilians and avoid further deterioration of the situation, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a regular press briefing on Thursday.

The fundamental way out of the conflict lies in implementing the two-state solution and establishing an independent State of Palestine, the spokesperson said.

The international community needs to act with greater urgency and facilitate the early resumption of peace talks between Palestine and Israel, and find a way to bring about enduring peace, noting that China will continue to work relentlessly with the international community towards that end, the spokesperson added.

Li Shaoxian, head of the China Institute for Arab Studies at Ningxia University shared similar views about the conflict, saying that "The implementation of the 'two-state solution' through dialogue and peace talks is the fundamental way out to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict conflict, also a precondition to achieve peace in the Middle East."

"Scale of the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the number of casualties it caused have shocked the international community. The current situation is still in escalation and the situation could worsen," warned Wang Jin, a research fellow from Syria Research Center of Northwest University in China.

(With input from agencies)

Syria's media channel Sham FM said Syrian air defenses were activated in response to an Israeli attack targeted at the main airports in the capital Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo on Thursday.

Israel calls last week's devastating attack by Hamas its 9/11 moment. The secretive mastermind behind the assault, Mohammed Deif, calls it Al Aqsa Flood. That's the phrase Israel's most wanted man used in an audio tape broadcast as Hamas fired thousands of rockets out of the Gaza strip on Saturday, signaling the attack was payback for Israeli raids at Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque.

It was in May 2021, after a raid on Islam's third holiest site that enraged the Arab and Muslim world, that Palestinian Deif began planning the operation that has in the past few days killed more than 1,200 people in Israel, according to a source close to Hamas in Gaza.

"It was triggered by scenes and footage of Israel storming Al Aqsa mosque during Ramadan, beating worshippers, attacking them, dragging elderly and young men out of the mosque," the source said. "All this fueled and ignited the anger."

That storming of the mosque compound, long a flashpoint for violence over matters of sovereignty and religion in Jerusalem, helped set off 11 days of fighting between Israel and Hamas.

More than two years on, Saturday's assault, the worst breach in Israeli defenses since the 1973 Arab-Israeli conflict, pushed Israel to declare war and launch retaliatory strikes on Gaza that had killed more than 800 people by Tuesday.

A survivor of seven Israeli assassination attempts, the most recent in 2021, Deif rarely speaks and never appears in public. So when Hamas's TV channel announced he was about to speak on Saturday, Palestinians knew something significant was afoot.

"Today the rage of Al Aqsa, the rage of our people and nation is exploding. Our mujahedeen (fighters), today is your day to make this criminal understand that his time has ended," Deif said in the recording.

There are only three images of Deif: one in his twenties, another of him masked, and an image of his shadow, which was used when the audio tape was broadcast.

The whereabouts of Deif are unknown, though he is most likely in Gaza in the maze of tunnels under the enclave. An Israeli security source said Deif was directly involved in the planning and operational aspects of the attack.

Two brains, one mastermind

Palestinian sources said one of the homes Israeli air strikes hit in Gaza overnight belonged to Deif's father. Deif's brother and two other family members were killed in the strike, according to the sources.

The source close to Hamas said the decision to prepare the attack was taken jointly by Deif, who commands Hamas's Al Qassam Brigades, along with Yehya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, but it was clear who was the architect.

"There are two brains, but there is one mastermind," the source said, adding that information about the operation was known only to a handful of Hamas leaders.

Secrecy was such that Iran, Israel's sworn foe and an important source of finance, training and weaponry for Hamas, knew only in general terms that the movement was planning a major operation and did not know the timing or the details, according to a regional source familiar with the group's thinking.

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The source said that while Tehran was aware a major operation was being prepared, it was not discussed in any joint operation rooms involving Hamas, the Palestinian leadership, Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, and Iran.

"It was a very tight circle," the source said.

Iran's top authority Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday Tehran was not involved in the attack on Israel. Washington has said while Tehran was complicit, it had no intelligence or evidence that points to Iran's direct participation in the attacks.

The plan as conceived by Deif involved a prolonged effort at deception. Israel was led to believe that Hamas, an ally of Israel's sworn foe Iran, was not interested in launching a conflict and was focusing instead on economic development in Gaza, where Hamas is the governing power.

But while Israel began providing economic incentives to Gazan workers, the group's fighters were being trained and drilled, often in plain sight of the Israeli military, a source close to Hamas said.

"We have prepared for this battle for two years," said Ali Baraka, the head of external relations for Hamas.

Speaking in a calm voice, Deif said in his recording that Hamas had repeatedly warned Israel to stop its crimes against Palestinians, to release prisoners, whom he said were abused and tortured, and to halt its expropriation of Palestinian land.

"Every day the occupation storm our villages, towns and cities in the West Bank and raid houses, kill, injure, destroy and detain. At the same time, it confiscates thousands of acres of our land, uproots our people from their houses to build settlements while its criminal siege continues on Gaza."

'In the shadows'

For well over a year, there has been turmoil in the West Bank, an area about 100 kilometers long and 50 kilometers wide that has been at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since it was seized by Israel in 1967.

Deif said Hamas had urged the international community to put an end to the "crimes of the occupation," but Israel had stepped up its provocation. He also said Hamas had in the past asked Israel for a humanitarian deal to release Palestinian prisoners, but this was rejected.

"In light of the orgy of occupation and its denial of international laws and resolutions, and in light of American and western support and international silence, we've decided to put an end to all this," he said.

Born as Mohammad Masri in 1965 in the Khan Yunis Refugee Camp set up after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the leader became known as Mohammed Deif after joining Hamas during the first Intifada, or Palestinian uprising, which began in 1987. He was arrested by Israel in 1989 and spent about 16 months in detention, a Hamas source said.

Deif earned a degree in science from the Islamic University in Gaza, where he studied physics, chemistry and biology. He displayed an affinity for the arts, heading the university's entertainment committee and performing on stage in comedies.

Rising up the Hamas ranks, Deif developed the group's network of tunnels and its bomb-making expertise. He has topped Israel's most wanted list for decades, held personally responsible for the deaths of dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings.

For Deif, staying in the shadow has been a matter of life or death. Hamas sources said he lost an eye and sustained serious injuries in one leg in one of Israel's assassination attempts. His wife, seven-month-old son and three-year-old daughter were killed by an Israeli air strike in 2014.

His survival while running Hamas's armed wing has earned him the status of a Palestinian folk hero. In videos he is masked, or just a shadow of him is seen. He doesn't use modern digital technology such as smartphones, the source close to Hamas said.

"He is elusive. He is the man in the shadows."

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Egypt said on Thursday it was directing international aid for the besieged Gaza Strip to Al Arish airport in the north of the Sinai Peninsula, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The nearby Rafah crossing between Sinai and Gaza remained open, the statement said, adding that Egypt had asked Israel to avoid targeting the Palestinian side of the crossing after strikes that prevented normal operations there.

The death toll from Israeli retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza has risen to 1,354, with 6,049 others injured, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry on Thursday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Thursday that the blockaded Gaza Strip still had some fuel to operate generators, including in hospitals, but that it could run out in a few hours.

"Our understanding is that there is still fuel - but probably only for a few hours - to allow generators to work, including in hospitals," said Fabrizio Carboni, ICRC's regional director for the Near and Middle East, told reporters.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Israel was preparing for an extensive military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Times of Israel reported on Thursday.

"It will be a long and drawn-out campaign against Hamas, which is basically a long and drawn-out campaign on ISIS," he said at a news briefing.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman held a phone call on Thursday over the situation in Gaza, according to a statement from the Saudi Foreign Ministry on X, formerly Twitter.

Pro-Palestinian organization Samidoun will be banned in Germany, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Thursday. 

Three Chinese nationals were killed, two were missing and several others were injured during the Palestinian-Israeli conflict since last week, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Thursday. 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on Thursday for a visit.

At least 1,203 Palestinians have been killed and 5763 others injured from Israeli retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry on Thursday.

Jordan on Thursday sent off the first aid delivery destined for Gaza since the start of the latest conflict, state television said on social media platform X.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad discussed the situation in the Gaza Strip in a phone conversation with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday night, Syrian Arab News Agency reported on Thursday.

At least 1,300 Israelis have been killed and 3,300 injured since Hamas launched an attack on Saturday morning, local media reported on Thursday.

The Israel Defense Forces said on social media on Thursday that it had killed a senior official from the Hamas naval formation in the Rafah Brigade during its overnight attacks.

Officials in Gaza say the besieged enclave is facing an imminent humanitarian catastrophe, as the only power station has stopped working. Israel has imposed a total blockade on the Gaza Strip, preventing food, fuel and water from crossing the border. As Israeli strikes continue, people in Gaza seek shelter in schools and hospitals. Air raid sirens have been heard in Israel, five days after the Palestinian armed group Hamas launched its unprecedented attack.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday in Jordan, a Palestinian official said on Thursday.

Hussein Al-Sheikh, secretary general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, also said on messaging platform X that Abbas will meet with Jordan's King Abdullah in Amman on Thursday.

The death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to 1,200 people, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Thursday, following an increase in Israeli bombardments on the sixth day since Hamas's surprise attack. 

"The number of martyrs has risen to around 1,200, and the number of wounded to around 5,600," a spokesperson for the health ministry in Gaza said.

In Jerusalem, UN human rights chief Volker Turk has condemned the blockade of Gaza by Israel and "the horrifying mass killings by members of Palestinian armed groups." He said the abductions were also forbidden under the international law. CGTN reporter has more on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

More than 338,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the Gaza Strip as of Wednesday night, the United Nations said.

"The cumulative number of displaced people increased by 30 percent over the past 24 hours, now totaling 338,934," the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in an statement on Wednesday.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman discussed the Palestine-Israel conflict on Wednesday in their first phone call since the restoration of diplomatic ties between Tehran and Riyadh.

According to the Iranian state media, the two leaders discussed the "need to end war crimes against Palestine.”

Prince Mohammed told Raisi that Riyadh is "communicating with all international and regional parties to stop the ongoing escalation," the official Saudi Press Agency said.

The United States has confirmed the deaths of at least 22 U.S. citizens following Hamas' attack on Israel, a State Department spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Eleven employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Saturday, the agency said in a statement on Wednesday.

"They included five teachers at UNRWA schools, one gynecologist, one engineer, one psychological counselor and three support staff," said the statement. "Some were killed in their homes with their families. UNRWA mourns this loss and is grieving with our colleagues and the families."

Juliette Touma, director of Media and Communication at the UNRWA, told the UN News that UNWRA was forced to decrease its operations on the ground in the Gaza Strip since Saturday.

But many staff were still working, responding to the needs of the people in the shelters, she added. 

Israel kept up its bombardment of Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a political rival announced an emergency government for the duration of the conflict that has already killed thousands.

The veteran right-wing leader was joined by the centrist Benny Gantz, a former defense minister, in the government and war cabinet as both put aside bitter political divisions that have roiled the country and sparked mass protests.

Their joint announcement came after Israeli soldiers sweeping battle-torn southern towns said they had found a total of 1,200 bodies, mostly civilians slain in the Hamas fighters' onslaught, the worst attack in Israel's 75-year history.

Israel's military also confirmed there are 2,700 wounded.

Gaza's health ministry reported at least 1,100 people killed and another 5,339 wounded in Israel's withering campaign of air and artillery strikes on the crowded Palestinian enclave, where black smoke billowed into the sky and entire city blocks lay in ruins. 

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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called for urgent international action to protect children and civilians in the conflict, urging Hamas to free child hostages and Israel to halt its air strikes.

"Children must never be held hostage, anywhere in the world," Lula wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

"Hamas needs to free the Israeli children who were kidnapped from their families. Israel needs to stop its bombing so Palestinian children and their mothers can leave the Gaza Strip via the Egyptian border," he said. "There needs to be a minimum of humanity in the insanity of war."

Israel has massed forces, tanks and other heavy armor around Gaza in its retaliatory operation against what Netanyahu labeled "an attack whose savagery... we have not seen since the Holocaust."

Israeli strikes kill paramedics and UN staff

Nine United Nations staffers working with the UN Palestinian refugee agency have been killed in air strikes on the Gaza Strip since Saturday, the United Nations wrote on X social media platform.

The Red Cross also said five members of the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) network had been killed in the conflict between Hamas and Israel, including four paramedics as ambulances were hit.

U.S. President Joe Biden has pledged to send more munitions and military hardware to its close ally Israel and expressed revulsion at the "sheer evil" of the slaughter of civilians in the unprecedented assault Hamas unleashed since Saturday.

A first U.S. aircraft has delivered "advanced armaments" to southern Israel's Nevatim Airbase, the Israeli army said, declaring that "our common enemies know that the cooperation between our militaries is stronger than ever."

Meanwhile, the U.S. has collected intelligence showing that key Iranian leaders were surprised by the unprecedented attacks on Israel by Hamas, the New York Times reported, citing American officials.

'Israel before anything else'

Amid the crisis that has been called "Israel's 9/11," Netanyahu struck the political deal with Gantz and pledged to freeze for now his government's flashpoint judicial overhaul plan that has sparked an unprecedented wave of mass protests since the start of the year.

However, Netanyahu's extreme-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies will remain in government.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid has not joined the temporary alliance, although the joint statement said a seat would be "reserved" for him in the war cabinet.

"Israel before anything else," Gantz wrote in a social media post while the far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote that he "welcomes the unity, now we must win."

As the conflict has raged, fears have been intense in Israel for the fate of at least 150 hostages - mostly Israelis but also including foreign and dual nationals - being held in Gaza by Hamas. 

The group has claimed that four of the captives died in Israeli strikes and has threatened to kill other hostages if civilian targets are bombed without advance warning from Israel.

Concern has mounted over the worsening humanitarian crisis in war-torn Gaza, where Israel had leveled over 1,000 buildings and imposed a total siege, cutting off water, food and energy supplies for 2.3 million people.

Will Qatar mediate?

Germany called on Qatar to mediate the release of hostages.

"Various actors in the region, including Qatar, must play an important role, because they have channels that we do not have," Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told MPs.

Qatar, which has hosted a Hamas political office for more than a decade, has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in financial aid to Gaza and previously brokered deals between Israel and Hamas.

On Tuesday, though, Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed bin Mohammed Al-Ansari said it was too soon to start arranging talks on a potential prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas.

The enclave's sole power plant shut down after running out of fuel, Gaza's electricity provider said.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Hassan Khalaf, the medical director of Al-Wafa Hospital in Gaza City, said hospitals in the besieged enclave are relying on generators, which are not equipped to power many medical devices.

He predicted the generators have only "maximum: a few days," and may be as short as a day or two, amid dwindling fuel supplies resulting from the "complete siege" announced by Israeli Defense Minister Gallant.

Khalaf said there are currently 100 newborn babies relying on medical equipment in Gaza.

The doctor also said there were about 1,100 patients who rely on dialysis machines for survival in Gaza.

No safe passage for refugees

More than 260,000 Gaza residents have been forced from their homes, a UN aid agency said, while the European Union called for a "humanitarian corridor" to allow civilians to flee the enclave's fifth war in 15 years.

Egypt has discussed plans with the U.S. and others to provide humanitarian aid through its border with Gaza Strip but rejects any move to set up safe corridors for refugees fleeing the enclave, Egyptian security sources said.

Israel appeared to be readying for a possible ground invasion of Gaza, but faces the threat of a multi-front war after also coming under rocket attack from militant groups in neighboring Lebanon and Syria.

Israel again struck targets in southern Lebanon, an area controlled by Hezbollah, an ally of Israel's arch enemy Iran.

Israel's efforts to "uproot" Hamas will deter its fighters from carrying out attacks across the world, the country's Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel told reporters.

"We have to uproot it so it doesn't happen, there won't be any option, even a thought, to others in the world that they could use what happened (in Israel) as a model" for future attacks, Gamliel said.

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British Airways said on Wednesday it was suspending its flights to and from Tel Aviv amid safety concerns as Israel intensifies its military response to Hamas's weekend attack.

The move came hours after the UK airline turned around one of its flights from London's Heathrow Airport to Tel Aviv in mid-air, citing fears over the security situation in Israel and the region.

Israel maintained its bombardment of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday while also striking targets in southern Lebanon, as armed wings of Hamas movement continue to fire rockets.

"Safety is always our highest priority and following the latest assessment of the situation we're suspending our flights to and from Tel Aviv," British Airways said in a statement.

"We're contacting customers booked to travel to or from Tel Aviv to apologize for the inconvenience and offer options including a full refund and rebooking with another airline or with British Airways at a later date.

"We continue to monitor the situation in the region closely," it added.

Numerous major airlines, including Air France-KLM, Lufthansa and the big U.S. international carriers, have all suspended flights to Tel Aviv since Hamas launched its assault on Israel on Saturday. 

British airline Virgin Atlantic continues to fly between London Heathrow and the Israeli city, however.

Special envoy of the Chinese government on the Middle East issue, Zhai Jun, spoke on the phone with First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Palestine, Amal Jadou, on Wednesday, according to a statement released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Zhai said that the Chinese side is deeply saddened by the intensification of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which has resulted in the deaths and injuries of many innocent civilians, and is deeply concerned about the serious deterioration of the security and humanitarian situation in Palestine.

It is imperative that an immediate ceasefire be put in place to protect civilians, he said, calling on the international community to play an effective role in promoting the cooling of the situation and in providing humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people.

The Chinese envoy noted the way out of the cycle of conflict between Palestine and Israel lies in the resumption of peace talks on the basis of the two-state solution, the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and the realization of peaceful coexistence between Palestine and Israel.

China will continue to promote a ceasefire to stop the violence, help alleviate the humanitarian crisis, and actively promote peace and negotiations, so as to play a constructive role in promoting a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the question of Palestine, Zhai added.

Jadou appreciated China's long-standing just position on the Palestine question and its active promotion of peace talks. Palestine hopes that China will continue to play a constructive role under the current situation, he said.

(Cover: Palestinians search for survivors of Israeli aerial bombing on Jabaliya, near Gaza City, October, 2023. /CFP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, an opposition leader and former defense minister, announced on Wednesday the formation of "an emergency unity government" amid the fierce conflict between Israel and Gaza's ruling faction Hamas.

No flight arrivals or departures are allowed out of Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday following Gaza rocket launches, Israeli media reported.

Electricity in Gaza went out on Wednesday after the sole power station in the blockaded Palestinian enclave stopped working, Hamas media reported.

James Cleverly, the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs of the United Kingdom arrived in Israel, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing a spokesperson from UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the Palestinian-Israeli escalation, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

At least 1055 Palestinians have been killed from Israeli retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry on Wednesday.

Hezbollah said it was responsible for firing precision missiles on Israel on Wednesday, saying it was in response to Israeli attacks this week that left three of its fighters dead.

The Israeli military had said it had been targeted with anti-tank fire on Wednesday and had begun attacking Lebanon in return.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is now attacking Lebanese territory "in response to the anti-tank fire at the IDF force," IDF said on Wednesday.

The Gaza Strip's sole power plant and only current provider of electricity will run out of fuel in 10 to 12 hours, Palestinian Energy Authority Chairman Thafer Melhem told Voice of Palestine radio on Wednesday.

Israel cut off its own electricity supply to Gaza on Monday as part of what it called a "total siege" in response to a mass-infiltration by Palestinian gunmen.

Former Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal called for protests across the Arab world on Friday in support of Palestinians, in a recorded statement.

At least 1,000 militants who infiltrated from Gaza were killed since Saturday, the Israeli army said on Wednesday.

At least 950 Palestinians have been killed from Israeli retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry on Wednesday.

Sweden has temporarily suspended development aid to the Palestinian territories, its Development Minister Johan Forssell has said. Denmark also announced that it will pause its aid. 

Meanwhile, the Danish government said it will offer to evacuate its nationals from Israel and Palestinian territories.

Over 260,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the Gaza Strip, as heavy Israeli bombardments from the air, land and sea continue to hit the Palestinian enclave, the United Nations said.

Fierce fighting has left thousands dead on both sides since Hamas launched a surprise assault on Saturday, spurring Israel's reprisal bombing campaign. "Over 263,934 people in Gaza are believed to have fled their homes," said UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in an update Tuesday, warning that "this number is expected to rise further."

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he has spoken with Israel Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and expressed Washington’s support for "Israel’s right to defend itself and its citizens against terrorist attacks."

U.S. President Joe Biden said he discussed support for Israel in his call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday after meeting with U.S. national security teams "to direct next steps."

"We connected with Prime Minister Netanyahu to discuss coordination to support Israel, deter hostile actors, and protect innocent people," Biden said in a social media post before making public remarks on the situation in Israel.

- UN rights chief Volker Türk said on Tuesday all parties must stop targeting civilians and Hamas and other armed groups must immediately release their hostages, as the death toll on both sides of the conflict climbed to over 2,000, including 921 Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and at least 1,200 Israelis.

- A first transport plane with "advanced" American ammunition landed at the Nevatim airbase in southern Israel on Tuesday evening, according to the Israeli military.

- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Israel on Thursday in a show of "solidarity and support," the Times of Israel reported.

Gaza's sole border crossing with Egypt, the only entry point not controlled by Israel, was hit by an Israeli air strike for the third time in 24 hours, a journalist and an NGO said.

The third strike against the Rafah crossing consisted of "four missiles" which targeted the Palestinian side of the crossing, local Egyptian group Sinai for Human Rights reported.

Witnesses had said the second strike hit the no-man's land between the Egyptian and Palestinian gates, damaging the hall on the Palestinian side.

READ MORE

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The Israel military said it could "neither confirm or deny" any strike on the crossing "at this point." Sinai for Human Rights said the strikes had prompted the closure of the crossing, but there was no immediate confirmation from either side.

As part of continued strikes across Israel, Hamas claimed to have hit Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, which the Israelis have denied.

Soaring death toll

Israel's embassy in Washington said the death toll from the weekend Hamas attacks had surpassed 1,000, dwarfing all modern attacks on the West except for 9/11.

The victims were overwhelmingly civilians, gunned down in homes, on streets or at an outdoor dance party. Scores of Israelis and some foreigners were captured and taken to Gaza as hostages, some paraded through the streets.

Gaza's health ministry said Israel's retaliatory air strikes had killed at least 830 people and wounded 4,250. The strikes intensified on Tuesday night, shaking the ground and sending more columns of smoke and flames into the sky.

Israeli airlines El Al, Israir and Arkia added more flights to bring back reservists, according to their websites and Israel's airports authority, though the prospect of more conflict also stoked sector worries about staff shortages. 

The flights come after Israel said it had called up an unprecedented 300,000 reservists and warned residents of Palestinian enclave Gaza to evacuate in a sign it could be planning a ground assault in response to Palestinian militant group Hamas' unprecedented weekend attack.

Meanwhile, two members from Hamas's political office, Jawad Abu Shammala and Zakaria Abu Maamar, were killed in an air strike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip, an official from the group said.

In a statement, the Israeli military confirmed killing Abu Shammala, saying he had been struck "overnight."

Four Palestinian journalists were killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza City, media unions and officials said, as heavy fighting raged for a fourth day. The latest deaths bring the number of Palestinian journalists killed in the fighting since Saturday to eight, the Palestinian Press Union said in a statement.

The Red Cross said it stood ready in its role as a neutral intermediary to help clarify the fate of those missing after the surprise Hamas assault on Israel.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it was ready to help reunite families and called for all hostages to be freed immediately.

Israel pounded Hamas targets in Gaza and said the bodies of 1,500 fighters were found in southern towns recaptured by the army in battles near the Palestinian enclave.

Detainees must be treated 'humanely'

Hamas has held around 150 hostages since its surprise incursion on Saturday - among them children, elderly and young people who were captured at a music festival where some 270 died.

"Killing civilians and ill-treatment are prohibited by the Geneva Conventions. In addition, the conventions demand that the wounded and sick are cared for," said ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric.

"People detained must be treated humanely and with dignity. Hostage-taking is prohibited under international humanitarian law and hostages should be immediately released unharmed."

Qatar said it was too soon to start brokering talks on a potential prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas.

Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed bin Mohammed Al-Ansari said it was "too early" for mediation when asked about the prospects for a potential prisoner exchange.

"At this moment, it is a very difficult point to say that any party can start with mediation. I think we need to see developments on the ground," he told reporters.

French President Emmanuel Macron denounced "unacceptable blackmail" by Hamas after the Palestinian militant group threatened to execute some of the around 150 hostages it abducted in the weekend assault.

"The blackmail by Hamas after its terrorist acts is odious and unacceptable," Macron told reporters on a visit to Germany.

The French president added that he considered it "likely" that Hamas had received outside "help" in its attack against Israel. But he stressed there was "no formal trace" of any "direct involvement" by Iran, at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

'Failure of U.S. politics in the Middle East'

German federal prosecutors announced a probe into Hamas on suspicion of kidnap and murder of German citizens following the militant group's weekend assault on Israel.

Prosecutors "have opened an investigation against unidentified members of the radical Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas," a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor's office told AFP.

The probe is over suspicions "of belonging to a foreign terrorist group, hostage-taking and murder," she said. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Israel-Gaza conflict showed the "failure" of Washington's Middle East policy and called the creation of "an independent sovereign Palestinian state" a "necessity."

The Russian leader made the comments while meeting Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani in Moscow, days after Hamas launched a massive attack on Israel. 

"I think many people would agree with me that it's a clear example of the failure of U.S. politics in the Middle East," Putin said.

He spoke of the "necessity to implement the decisions of the UN Security Council on the creation of an independent sovereign Palestinian state."

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Norwegian Air is cancelling its flights from Copenhagen and Stockholm to Tel Aviv, as well as return flights, until December 19, it said on Tuesday.

"We are canceling until December 19 inclusive," said a company spokesperson.

On Monday, the company had said it was cancelling its flights to and from Israel scheduled to depart this week.

At least 849 Palestinians were killed and 4,360 others wounded from retaliatory Israeli airstrikes in Gaza and the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry on Tuesday.

Two members from Hamas' political office, Jawad Abu Shammala and Zakaria Abu Maamar, were killed in an air strike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip, an official from the group told Reuters on Tuesday.

At least 1,008 Israelis were killed, and 3,418 others were injured after Hamas launched an attack on Saturday morning, the Embassy of Israel to the United States said on Tuesday.

Sirens were sound across Israel on Tuesday, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Egypt has warned Gazans of imminent Israeli attacks on the only crossing point between the north African country and the Palestinian enclave and urged them to evacuate from the area, the Gaza-based Interior Ministry said on Tuesday. 

Josep Borrell, the European Union's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, said on social media on Tuesday that he had invited Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki to join the EU foreign ministers meeting on Tuesday afternoon.

At least 788 Palestinians have been killed, 4,100 others were injured from retaliatory Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry on Tuesday.

The World Health Organization (WHO) called on Tuesday for a humanitarian corridor to be established into and out of the Gaza Strip.

"WHO is calling for an end to the violence... A humanitarian corridor is needed to reach people with critical medical supplies," WHO Spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic told a press briefing in Geneva.

Israel's total siege of the Gaza Strip is banned under international law, the United Nations human rights chief said Tuesday.

"The imposition of sieges that endanger the lives of civilians by depriving them of goods essential for their survival is prohibited under international humanitarian law," Volker Turk said in a statement.

The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it had found around 1,500 bodies of Hamas fighters in Israel around the Gaza Strip. The statement was made as Israel continued its intensifying air strikes on the Palestinian enclave.

"Approximately 1,500 bodies of Hamas militants were found in Israel around the Gaza Strip," military spokesperson Richard Hecht told reporters, adding that security forces had "more or less restored control over the border" with Gaza.

Hamas has not yet responded to this assertion.

(With input from agencies)

Israel has retaken control of the Gaza border fence breached by Palestinian Hamas gunmen, chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Tuesday, quoted by local media N12 News.

Hagari said there had been no new infiltrations from Gaza since Monday. 

A number of journalists were killed in an Israeli bombing on a building housing media offices in western Gaza, Palestinian media reported on Tuesday. 

U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Brown Jr spoke on Monday with the Chief of the Israeli General Staff Herzi Halevi, discussing Hamas' attack and steps to strengthen U.S. military posture in the region, the Pentagon said.

- Israel intensified its air strikes in Gaza on Monday and imposed a "complete siege" on the Palestinian enclave on the third day of conflict following the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement's (Hamas) Saturday surprise attack on Israel, as over 900 Israelis were killed in the clashes.

- At least 704 Palestinians have been killed in the latest conflict, according to Palestine's Health Minister Mai al-Kaila.

- Hezbollah said in a statement that three of its members were killed in Israeli fire on south Lebanon on Monday, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas expanded to the Israeli-Lebanese border.

- U.S. President Joe Biden said Monday that Americans are likely being held hostage by Hamas after its surprise attack on Israel, and that at least 11 U.S. citizens were killed in the assault. 

(With input from agencies)

The surprise attack by Hamas on Israel and the lethal round-the-clock response from Israel is threatening broader violence in the region. Here is the latest on the three-day war.

Is Lebanon getting dragged into the Gaza-Israel conflict?

Both Lebanese and Israelis are beefing up their military presence on the border. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has expanded to Lebanon with four Lebanese killed on Oct. 9. Israeli bombardment killed four members of Hezbollah in Lebanon in cross-border raids. The raids on the Lebanese side were launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. A Hezbollah officials initially denied the group’s involvement in that attack but later returned fire when more people were killed.  

On Oct. 8, Hezbollah fired dozens of shells and rockets on Israeli positions in the Shebaa Farms. The Shebaa Farms are a disputed area that was captured by Israel from Syria in 1967. There were no casualties from the Oct. 8 cross-border shelling.

Officials from Hezbollah endorsed the operation by Hamas and backed the group. Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah has not given the green light yet for his group to join the fighting. While Hezbollah supporters are ready to engage in war, that hasn’t been the case for the rest of Lebanon. Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati said his country doesn’t want to engage in war with Israel.

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The U.S. is watching the Israel-Hamas conflict closely, as the situation continues to intensify in Gaza and the surrounding Israeli territories. 

CGTN’s Jim Spellman reports.

For more, check out our exclusive content on CGTN Now and subscribe to our weekly newsletter, The China Report.

Hamas' armed wing said it fired a rocket at Jerusalem in response to Israel bombing civilian houses, Reuters reported on Monday.

The EU has halted development aid payments to the Palestinians and is placing 691 million euros ($728 million) of support "under review" after the Hamas attack on Israel, an EU commissioner said Monday.  

"All payments immediately suspended. All projects put under review. All new budget proposals, including for 2023 postponed until further notice," European Union Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi said on X, formerly Twitter. 

(With input from Reuters)

At least 10 Britons are believed to be dead or missing in Israel, local media reported on Monday.

The U.S. State department spokesperson confirmed the death of nine Americans in Israel, Reuters reported on Monday.

Gunfire and explosions were reported on the Lebanon border, as the IDF responded to the infiltration of several suspects into Israel. 

“The IDF neutralized a number of terrorist infiltrators who crossed from Lebanon into Israel. We are defending our country and stand ready on all borders,” the IDF said.

Local media reported that two of armed infiltrators from Lebanon into Israel have been killed.

Residents of several towns in the area have been instructed to remain locked in their homes.

The death toll from Israeli retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza has risen to 560, with 2900 others injured, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza on Monday.

At least 800 Israelis were killed after Hamas launched attack since Saturday morning, the Jerusalem Post reported on Monday.

Sirens sound across Israel on Monday, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

More than 123,000 people have been displaced in the Gaza Strip after Hamas launched attack, the United Nations said on Monday.

"Over 123,538 people, have been internally displaced in Gaza, mostly due to fear, protection concerns and the destruction of their homes," said the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The death toll from Israeli retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza has risen to 493, with 2,751 others injured, said the health ministry in Gaza on Monday.

The first military plane carrying Polish citizens evacuated from Israel landed in Warsaw on Monday with 120 people aboard.

Iran's mission to the United Nations said on Sunday that Tehran was not involved in Hamas attacks on Israel.

"We emphatically stand in unflinching support of Palestine; however, we are not involved in Palestine's response, as it is taken solely by Palestine itself," Iran's UN mission said. 

Hungary has evacuated 215 people from Israel by air on two planes overnight and they have safely landed in Budapest, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a Facebook post on Monday morning.

The death toll from Israeli retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza has risen to 436, with 2,271 others injured, Palestine's news agency WAFA reported on Monday, citing hospitals in the Gaza Strip.

Israel hit over "500 Hamas targets" overnight in Gaza as conflict continues since Saturday, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Monday morning in an update.

There are still six sites of active fighting in southern Israel near the border with Gaza, IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters on Monday, adding that the IDF has hit a total of 1,148 targets across Gaza so far since Hamas' surprise attack. 

He also revealed that the IDF is drafting hundreds of thousands of reservists.

Thailand's foreign ministry on Monday said 12 Thai nationals had been killed in unrest in Israel, plus 11 more kidnapped and eight injured.

"We are working to help all Thai citizens in Israel," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Kanchana Patarachoke told reporters.

An escalation of violence between Palestinian militants and the Israeli military has caused over 1,100 deaths in Gaza and Israel since Saturday morning. 

CGTN stringer talked to some Gaza residents evacuated from a destroyed building on Sunday. They were trying to find their belongings in the ruins. "We honestly couldn't go out because of the extreme danger and fear," said Shadi Al-Hassi, a local resident.

Over 1,100 people have been killed in the escalation of tensions and violence in Palestine and Israel that began on Saturday morning. The death toll from Hamas' surprise attack on Israel has reached over 700 while Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have killed 413 people, including 78 children and 41 women, according to the latest data from the Israel Defense Forces and the health ministry in Gaza.

China's permanent representative to the United Nations Zhang Jun called on relevant parties to exercise restraint over the recent escalation of tensions and violence between Palestine and Israel as the UN Security Council met to discuss the conflict on Sunday.

Read more:

Live blog: Israel declares war on Hamas after surprise attack from Gaza

Backgrounder: The decades-old Palestinian-Israeli conflict

At the UN emergency meeting, Zhang said the Chinese side is gravely concerned about the outbreak of fierce conflict between Israel and the armed groups in the Gaza Strip and is deeply worried about the prospect of further deterioration of the situation.

China condemns all violence and attacks against civilians, and calls on all parties concerned to exercise maximum restraint, avoid further escalation of the conflict situation and realize a ceasefire as soon as possible, the Chinese ambassador noted.

All parties are obliged to abide by international humanitarian law and to refrain from attacking and destroying civilians including civilian facilities, he added.

Noting the current situation on the ground remains very fragile, Zhang said China supports the good offices of the secretary-general of the United Nations and the countries concerned in their efforts to cool down the situation as soon as possible.

The Security Council should be ready to take the necessary actions to promote dialogue, realize a ceasefire and restore peace, he added.

Zhang also pointed out that the frequent conflicts between Palestine and Israel are largely due to the fact that the Middle East peace process has deviated from the right track, that the basis of the two-state solution has been eroded and relevant UN resolutions have not been effectively implemented.

He called for efforts to advance the two-state solution with the greatest sense of urgency.

(Cover: Fire and smoke rise above buildings in Gaza City during an Israeli air strike, October 8, 2023. /CFP)

Several U.S. nationals have been killed since Hamas' surprise attack on Israel on Saturday, a spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council said Sunday, adding that U.S. officials continue to monitor the situation closely and remain in touch with their Israeli counterparts.

Earlier in the day, U.S. President Joe Biden held a phone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said that "additional assistance for the Israeli Defense Forces is now on its way to Israel with more to follow over the coming days," the White House said in a statement.

(With input from Reuters)

Over 1,100 people have been killed in the escalation of tensions and violence in Palestine and Israel that began on Saturday morning. 

The death toll from Hamas' surprise attack on Israel has reached over 700 while Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have killed 413 people including 78 children and 41 women, according to the latest data from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the health ministry in Gaza.

The IDF added that 2,150 Israelis had been wounded in the attacks while Gaza authority said 2,300 people were treated at hospitals. 

Among the Israeli victims, more than 250 bodies were found at the site of Israeli Supernova festival, Israeli media reported citing rescuers. 

On October 7, Hamas, which controls Gaza, launched a surprise attack on Israeli towns adjacent to the Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later announced that Israel was "in a state of war" and initiated massive airstrikes on Gaza.

According to the Palestinian media, 130 Israelis including IDF officials were being held captive in Gaza as conflict continues into Monday.  

The IDF also said the Israeli Navy's elite Shayetet 13 commando unit had taken into custody senior Hamas member Abu Ghali.

(With input from agencies)

The U.S. response to what Hamas and Israel are describing as a war has been swift and unequivocal support for Israel.

But beneath the bipartisan statements reaffirming a decades-old alliance, Republican candidates for next year's presidential election are using the crisis to attack President Biden and his Democrats for their Middle East policies.

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Over 1,000 Palestinians and Israelis have been killed in the escalation of tensions and violence that began on Saturday morning. 

The death toll from Hamas' surprise attack on Israel has reached 659 while Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have killed 370 people, according to media accounts.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday spoke with the leaders of Germany, Ukraine, Italy and Britain, who all expressed support of Israel's right to defend itself "as much as it takes," said a statement from Netanyahu's office.

Poland will send military planes to evacuate its citizens from Israel, Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Sunday. 

"We are sending air force transport planes to carry out the evacuation of Poles currently staying in Israel. Soldiers from our special forces will ensure loading protection and safety on board," Duda wrote on X social media platform.

The death toll from Israeli retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza has risen to 370, with 2,200 others injured, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry on Sunday.

An escalation of violence between Palestinian militants and the Israeli military has caused over 700 deaths in Gaza and Israel since Saturday morning. Exclusive footage from CGTN Stringer on Saturday shows damaged vehicles and casualties in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, where Hamas fighters entered and clashed with Israeli forces.

Israeli forces battled Hamas fighters and pounded targets in the Gaza Strip on Sunday as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of a "long and difficult" war ahead sparked by the Palestinian militant group's massive surprise attack.  

The Israeli army said tens of thousands of soldiers were deployed to fight militants in southern desert regions near the coastal enclave, to rescue Israeli hostages and then evacuate the entire region within 24 hours.

"We'll reach each and every community till we kill every terrorist in Israel," vowed military spokesman Daniel Hagari, a day after hundreds of Hamas fighters crossed into Israel using vehicles, boats and even motorised paragliders. 

"Our mission for the upcoming 24 hours is to evacuate all residents" from communities around the Gaza Strip, he told journalists amid the fighting that has left hundreds dead on both sides.

Israel also came under attack from the north on Sunday when Lebanon's Hezbollah movement launched missiles and artillery shells "in solidarity" with the unprecedented Hamas offensive.

Israel was shocked when Gaza's rulers Hamas launched a multi-pronged assault at dawn on Saturday with thousands of rockets and ground, air and sea forces, attacking and infiltrating Israeli towns and kibbutz communities.

The worst fighting in decades has killed more than 200 Israelis and wounded over 1,000, leaving bodies of civilians strewn on roads, while on the Gaza side at least 313 have died and over 1,700 were reported wounded.

What is the cause of the conflict?

It comes against a backdrop of surging violence between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where a Palestinian authority exercises limited self-rule, opposed by Hamas that wants Israel destroyed.

The attack was launched the day after the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, when the Israeli army was surprised by Syrian and Egyptian tank columns.

The Jewish state considers Hamas, which advocates the destruction of Israel, as its sworn enemy. But since the ten-day war between the two camps in 2021, and the significant damage inflicted on the Gaza Strip, relative stability has been maintained in the Palestinian territory, controlled by the Islamist group since 2007, while violence has been shaking the West Bank for eighteen months.

Only sporadic clashes were reported on the border between the territory and Israel, claimed by Islamic Jihad - but Hamas generally kept away. To ensure a certain economic peace, Israel had distributed thousands of work permits to residents of the enclave, while maintaining a strict blockade of the territory.

Why is Hamas doing it now?

The United States has been seeking a deal to normalise ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, seen by Israelis as the biggest prize yet in their decades-long quest for Arab recognition. Palestinians fear any such agreement could sell out their dreams of an independent state.

Osama Hamdan, the leader of Hamas in Lebanon, told Reuters that Saturday's operation should make Arab states realize that accepting Israeli security demands would not bring peace.

Across the Middle East, there were demonstrations in support of Hamas, with Israeli and U.S. flags set on fire and marchers waving Palestinian flags in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. Iran and Hezbollah, Iran's Lebanese allies, praised the Hamas attack.

Hamas said the attack was driven by what it called escalated Israeli attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem and against Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

The conflict could undermine U.S.-backed efforts to broker a normalisation of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia - a regional security realignment that could threaten Palestinian aspirations for statehood and the ambitions of Hamas's main backer, Iran.

Joost Hiltermann, Middle East director of the International Crisis Group, said Hamas may have acted in part due to fear of a "looming further marginalization of the Palestinian cause in Palestinian eyes" if Saudi Arabia recognizes Israel.

With Israel expected to respond forcefully to Saturday's attacks, Arab states will likely feel obliged to take a harder stance in line with public sentiment, he said. "If that all happens, then I would foresee a scenario where, just like we have a cold peace between Israel and Jordan, between Israel and Egypt, we end up with a cooling of the relationship between Israel and the Emirates and probably a delay, at least, of any sort of deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia," he said.

How did it start?

At about 6.30 a.m. (0430 GMT) Palestinian Islamist group Hamas fired a huge barrage of rockets across southern Israel, with sirens heard as far away as Tel Aviv and Beersheba.

Hamas said it had fired 5,000 rockets in a first barrage. Israel's military said 2,500 rockets were fired.

Smoke billowed over residential Israeli areas and people sheltered behind buildings as sirens sounded overhead. At least one woman was reported killed by the rockets.

The barrage served as cover for an unprecedented multi-pronged infiltration of fighters, with the Israeli military saying at 7.40 a.m. (0540 GMT) that Palestinian gunmen had crossed into Israel.

Most fighters crossed through breaches in land security barriers separating Gaza and Israel. But at least one was filmed crossing on a powered parachute while a motorboat was filmed heading to Zikim, an Israeli coastal town and military base.

Gunmen killed at least 250 Israelis in clashes throughout Saturday and into Sunday, and escaped back into Gaza with dozens of hostages. More than 300 Gazans were killed when Israel responded with one of its most devastating days of retaliatory strikes.

Israel caught unaware

Just weeks ago Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brushed aside the Palestinian issue during a speech at the United Nations and said normalization in 2020 with three other Arab nations in the so-called Abraham Accords had "heralded a new age of peace."

And the offensive carried out by Hamas on Saturday in Israeli territory fuels questions about the role of the Jewish state's intelligence and defense forces, completely taken by surprise by the commandos of the Palestinian Islamist group.

"It's very similar to what happened back then," said retired Gen. Giora Eiland, former head of the National Security Council, referring to the 1973 Yom Kippur war, "As we saw, Israel was completely surprised by a very well-coordinated attack."

An army spokesman said discussions on the effectiveness of intelligence services would take place in due course but for now the priority was on fighting. "We will talk about it when we need to talk about it," he told reporters.

Hundreds of armed Hamas men entered Israeli territory by crossing security barriers before attacking border towns. "It's an intelligence failure. You can't call it anything else," said Jonathan Panikoff, former head of US services in the Middle East. "It is a failure of the security apparatus, which calls into question what was thought to be a successful proactive approach by Israel towards Gaza."

But when the time came, Israel's security apparatus appeared to break down as a force of Hamas gunmen estimated in the hundreds by the military broke through security fences and scattered into towns. For Israelis, images of dead bodies lying in the streets or groups of civilians being driven or marched into captivity in Gaza came as a profound shock.

What is Israel's response?

Israeli air strikes battered Gaza overnight, killing more than 300 Palestinians and smashing buildings, tunnels and the houses of Hamas officials, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed "mighty vengeance for this wicked day."

An Israeli military spokesperson said operations were going on in eight areas around Gaza on Sunday, while Al Hadath TV cited the Palestinian Red Crescent as saying 18 people had been killed in Israeli targeting of two homes in Gaza's Beit Hanoun district.

Palestinian health officials said 20 children were among at least 313 civilians killed. Nearly 2,000 people were wounded, they said. In southern Israel, Hamas gunmen were still fighting Israeli security forces in several places 24 hours after their incursion in the early hours of Saturday, both sides said, as more rockets were fired from Gaza, sparking air raid sirens.

"We're going to be attacking Hamas severely and this is going to be a long, long haul," a military spokesman told a briefing with reporters. Jets resumed strikes on Gaza in the morning and troops were conducting clearing operations around the blockaded enclave, including at a military base in the area of Zikim that was overrun on Saturday.

Hostage impact

Israeli troops have been battling "hundreds" of Palestinian militants at 22 locations inside Israel after they infiltrated from Gaza, the army said.

"There are still 22 locations where we are engaging with terrorists that came into Israel from the sea, from the land and from the air," army spokesman Richard Hecht told journalists, adding the Hamas attack included a "robust ground invasion."

Asked by journalists how many militants had entered Israel, Hecht said "hundreds" had "invaded" the country, adding that "hundreds" were still fighting troops inside Israel. He said there was a "severe hostage situation in Beeri and also in Ofakim", two Israeli communities in the Negev Desert, the latter 20 kilometres (more than 12 miles) from the Gaza border.

Israeli hostages have also been taken back to Gaza by the Hamas groups following their raid on Saturday.

Escalation

In the north, Hezbollah said in a statement it had carried out a rocket and artillery attack on three posts including a "radar site" in the Shebaa Farms, a slice of land occupied by Israel since 1967 that Lebanon claims. Israel responded with artillery fire on southern Lebanon. There were no reports of casualties.

"We recommend Hezbollah not to come into this and I don't think they will," Israel's army spokesperson said. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the assault that began in Gaza would spread to the West Bank and Jerusalem. Gazans have lived under an Israeli blockade for 16 years.

In a speech, Haniyeh highlighted threats to Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque, the continuation of an Israeli the blockade on Gaza and Israeli normalization with countries in the region. He said: "How many times have we warned you that the Palestinian people have been living in refugee camps for 75 years, and you refuse to recognise the rights of our people?"

Netanyahu's office said his security cabinet had approved steps to destroy the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another militant group, "for many years," including cutting electricity, fuel supplies and the entry of goods into Gaza.

In Gaza, black smoke, orange flashes and sparks lit the sky from explosions. Israeli drones could be heard overhead. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on Saturday with Egypt, a key intermediary between Israel and Hamas, to seek an immediate end to the offensive by the militants, the State Department said.

In a telephone call with Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Blinken raised "the urgency in achieving an immediate halt to the appalling assault by Hamas terrorists against Israel," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

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International response

Western countries, led by the United States, denounced the attack. At the White House, President Joe Biden went on national television to say Israel had the right to defend itself, issuing a blunt warning to Iran and other countries: "This is not a moment for any party hostile to Israel to exploit these attacks to seek advantage. The world is watching," he said.

The Chinese foreign ministry urged relevant parties "to remain calm, exercise restraint and immediately end the hostilities to protect civilians and avoid further deterioration of the situation." The foreign ministry said: "The fundamental way out of the conflict lies in implementing the two-state solution and establishing an independent State of Palestine."

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned Saturday of a "vicious cycle" of violence after Hamas launched a deadly attack on Israel, which responded with devastating air strikes on Gaza. 

Sisi received a call from French President Emmanuel Macron, Egypt's presidency said, and the two discussed "coordinating efforts to stop the escalation in the Gaza Strip between the Palestinian and Israeli sides."

Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry called for an "immediate cessation of violence." While adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday congratulated Palestinian fighters, the semi-official ISNA news site reported. "We will stand by the Palestinian fighters until the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem," it quoted Yahya Rahim Safavi as saying.

EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell said: "Using civilians as hostages is a blatant violation of all laws. I will do my utmost to contribute to their freedom." He added he was travelling to Muscat, Oman to meet Arab counterparts. "Even at this tragic moment, we recall the importance of working towards a lasting and sustainable peace through reinvigorated efforts in the Middle East Peace Process," he said.

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The Israeli military has fired its Patriot missile defense system in northern Israel, Channel 12 TV reports.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi held phone calls with Ziyad al-Nakhalah, leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and Ismail Haniyeh, senior political leader of Hamas, according to a report by the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) on Sunday.

Israeli security cabinet approved a declaration of war on Saturday night in accordance with Article 40 of the Basic Law, Israeli prime minister's office said on Sunday. 

At least 600 Israelis were killed, 2,000 others were injured in the attack Hamas launched on Saturday morning, Israeli media Channel 13 reported on Sunday.

At least 400 Israelis were killed after Hamas launched attack since Saturday morning, local media reported on Sunday.

The Palestinian Authority submitted a memorandum on Sunday calling for an emergency Arab League meeting at the foreign ministerial level, according to WAFA, the Palestinian news agency.

Editor's note: Wang Jin, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is an associate professor at Northwest University of China. The article reflects the author's opinion and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Five decades after the Yom Kippur War in 1973, which began with a surprise attack on Israel by Egypt and Syria, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza have launched another surprise attack on Israel. The new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict has shocked the world with an intense barrage of rockets and raids. 

This round of clashes has shattered Israel's "solid defense" mentality. Israel has always promoted the idea that Hamas in Gaza poses a limited threat to Israel and that it can intercept rockets through air defense systems such as the Iron Dome and combat illegal border crossings and underground tunnels from Gaza to southern Israel through intelligence monitoring.

However, after the outbreak of the conflict, not only was it difficult for the air defense and interception systems to withstand the saturation rocket attacks, but the interception of infiltrators in Gaza was also ineffective. Israel's national emergency services agency Magen David Adom indicated that at least 250 people have been killed and 1,500 injured in the conflict, the worst attack in Israel in decades. The capture of an unknown number of Israeli civilians and soldiers into Gaza by Hamas militants is a very sensitive issue for Israel.

This round of conflict will disrupt the reconciliation process between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Under the force of the United States, the Saudi-Israeli relationship may have taken a new turn. Before the outbreak of the conflict, it seemed that Saudi Arabia and Israel were on the verge of normalizing their relations. In an exclusive interview with the U.S. media Fox News aired in September, Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman said that a breakthrough in Saudi-Israeli relations was imminent. "Every day we get closer," he said in the interview. Israel has also been optimistic that bilateral Saudi-Israeli relations may be on the verge of normalization.

However, this goal has in fact broken the principle of "Palestinian-Israeli peace before Arab-Israeli peace" insisted on by Saudi Arabia. As a leading Arab country, the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel will inevitably lead to the launch of contacts between a number of Arab countries and Israel.

Recently, Hamas and Jihad in Gaza have held a number of large-scale rallies against the normalization of Saudi-Israel relations. This conflict is likely to be an extreme reaction of the Palestinian armed factions against the normalization of the relationship between the two countries.

In Israel, the Yom Kippur War in 1973 led to a deep reflection on the relationship between security and war, and further led three former Israeli prime ministers, Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin and Menachem Begin, to enter into a dialogue with Egypt, culminating in the United States-brokered Camp David Accords with Egypt in 1978, which led to the end of the state of war between Israel and Egypt.

Currently, Benjamin Netanyahu is also facing enormous pressure from the Israeli domestic public opinion. On the one hand, at the beginning of the attack, Hamas fired more than 5,000 rockets in an hour, and such a large-scale military activity wasn't detected by the Israeli intelligence agencies in time. On the other hand, a large number of Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip crossed the border into southern Israel to launch an attack. The Israeli patrols and camera probes also failed to detect in time, resulting in huge casualties.

More importantly, Israel faces military threats not only in the south from Gaza, but also in the north from Lebanon's Hezbollah and pro-Iranian militant groups in Syria, and in the West Bank from emerging militant groups in towns such as Jenin and Nablus. How to ensure that the long borders won't be breached in the future? And whether Israel is as "secure" as it claimed to be? Facing the questions, the confidence of the Israeli public in the security of the country is bound to be challenged. 

In the current round of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, although the armed factions in Gaza, represented by Hamas and Jihad, have the upper hand, in the future, Israel's counter-attack is bound to cause more casualties among Palestinians in Gaza. In the coming days, the good offices of Egypt and other countries will be crucial to peace, but the huge casualties, the Israeli hostages, and the shattered political confidence of Israel will become new scars on the Palestinian-Israeli issue.

As the longest-serving Israeli prime minister since the founding of the country in 1948, Netanyahu has always been a self-proclaimed "Mr Security," but the Hamas military operation shows the failure of the Israeli security apparatus under Netanyahu's leadership. The conflict is bound to put a serious dent in Netanyahu's political popularity in Israel, and a special commission of inquiry is likely to be set up after the conflict to investigate the Netanyahu government's failures. Already impacted by the corruption scandal and judicial reform storm, I am afraid that it will be difficult for Netanyahu to survive a new round of political turmoil in the future. But this conflict, as in the case of the war 50 years ago, is likely to push public opinion in Israel to reflect.

Years ago, I attended the annual meeting of the Israel Institute for National Security Studies, where the famous Israeli left-wing writer David Grossman said that "Israel is now very strong and secure, but philosophically speaking, no party can always be strong, and security is bound to have loopholes." The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is likely to prompt Israeli society to rethink its policy on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, and it may also bring new opportunities for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com. Follow @thouse_opinions on Twitter to discover the latest commentaries in the CGTN Opinion Section.)

Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), said it had launched a barrage of over 100 rockets on the Israeli city of Sderot, local media reported.

The death toll from Israeli retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza has risen to 313, with nearly 2,000 people injured, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry on Sunday.

Israel has killed more than 400 Hamas fighters, an Israeli army spokesperson said on Sunday.

Hamas has not yet responded to this claim.

A new round of Palestine-Israel conflict has broken out after a surprise attack by the Gaza-based Palestinian armed movement Hamas on Israel on Saturday. With Israel launching strikes on Gaza in response, this fresh round of violence has already resulted in the deaths of at least 500 people across both sides.

This confrontation, the largest one between the two sides since May 2021, has aroused concerns from different parties around the world, including China, which has urged all relevant parties to remain "calm."

Read more:

Reactions from global leaders pour in after attacks on Israel

The reasons behind the recurrence of lengthy clashes in the Middle East region lie both in problems that have been left over from history and in the recent changing situations in the region, according to experts.

What happened?

Hamas fired thousands of rockets and sent dozens of fighters into Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip in an unprecedented surprise attack at dawn on Saturday during the Jewish high holiday of Simchat Torah.

At least 300 Israelis were killed by the attack, Israeli media reported.

"We are in a war," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address, declaring a mass army mobilization.

Mohammed al-Deif, a leader from Hamas, announced on Saturday the beginning of a new military operation, "Al-Aqsa Flood," against Israel via a brief recorded statement.

As retaliation, Israel launched an offensive called "Swords of Iron," and Netanyahu told residents of the besieged enclave to "leave now" as Israel's forces "will turn all Hamas hideouts into rubble."

Dozens of Israeli warplanes flew into various areas of Gaza and targeted 17 sites and four headquarters of the Hamas, killing over 232 and injuring nearly 1,700 in the area, according to an update from the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza.

'Growing despair'

The attack by Hamas follows a period of heavy fighting in the West Bank, with stepped-up Israeli raids, Palestinian street attacks and assaults by Jewish settlers on Palestinian villages.

Nearly 200 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military raids this year, according to UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland.

"The assault, launched at a time when the interests of the Palestinian people in the West Bank are constantly being encroached on by Israel, serves to strengthen the cohesion of its grass-roots organization in the Gaza Strip," Dong Manyuan, a researcher on Middle East issues at the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS), told CGTN.

"Meanwhile, by inflicting losses on Israel, the attack can divert the discontent of the people in Gaza who have suffered the repeated aerial bombardments and give them hope," Dong added.

Hamas said in a statement on Saturday that the offensive is a response to the desecration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and increased settler violence.

Conditions for Palestinians have worsened under the hard-right government of Benjamin Netanyahu. Peacemaking has been stalled for years.

"For a very long time, Israel constantly violated the rights of Palestinians, and the Palestinian people felt that their Arab brothers have no interest in their survival, which has bred growing despair in their minds," said Li Guofu, another expert on Middle East issues from CIIS.

Palestine question 'far from being resolved'

Saturday's assault also comes at a crucial moment, as Israel and Saudi Arabia were moving closer to what they called a "historic" normalization of relations. In late September, Israeli Tourism Minister Haim Katz landed in Saudi Arabia for a UN event, becoming the first Israeli minister to lead a delegation to the kingdom.

"If Saudi-Israeli diplomatic relations were realized, this would undoubtedly have an impact on the restoration of the rights of the Palestinian people, given the influence of Saudi Arabia in the Middle East," Li told CGTN.

"Hamas has demonstrated in a shocking way that the Palestinian question is far from being resolved and that the Palestinian people's demands for a homeland of their own have not yet been fulfilled," he noted.

Echoing Li, Dong said that Hamas intends to prevent countries like Saudi Arabia from getting closer to Israel, lest the Palestinian question become even more marginalized. "Hamas now wants to highlight the importance of the Palestinian question and draw international attention to it," he said.

The surprise Hamas offensive also comes 50 years and a day after Israel's Arab neighbors launched a coordinated surprise attack that began the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

(Cover: Palestinians inspect the rubble of a building after it was struck by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, October 7, 2023. /CFP)

The death toll from Israeli retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza has risen to 256, with around 1,800 others injured, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry on Sunday.

The health department of the Palestinian Gaza Strip said on October 7 that the Israeli army's attack on the Gaza Strip had killed 232 people that day, and 1,697 others were sent to hospital for treatment.

Footage sent by a CGTN stringer shows that on the evening of October 7, an apartment in the center of Khan Younis in Gaza was bombed by an Israeli air strike. The production bank, located in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, was also bombed by Israelis at around 2:30 a.m., October 8. This bank is affiliated with Hamas, and has several branches in the Gaza Strip.

Lebanon's Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a rocket and artillery attack on the occupied Shebaa Farms on Sunday, saying it was "in solidarity" with the Palestinian people, the group said in a written statement.

The Israeli army said it fired artillery on southern Lebanon on Sunday in response to a shot from the area.

A huge barrage of rockets was fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel while a number of Palestinian fighters initiated a ground raid into Israel from Gaza, the Israeli military said Saturday as it hit back. This footage shows damage from rocket fire in several scenes. Accusing Hamas, the Israeli military said in a statement that the Palestinian movement "will bear the results and responsibility for the events." CGTN Stringer captured the scenes as rockets were fired from Khan Younis with thick smoke billowing.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Sunday said it was "deeply concerned" by the escalation of violence between Israel and the Palestinians, urging all relevant parties to remain "calm."

The recurrence of the conflict shows that "the protracted standstill of the peace process cannot last" and emphasizes the need for "implementing the two-state solution" and establishing an independent State of Palestine, the spokesperson said.

More than 200 Israelis died in a surprise large-scale attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Saturday, the Israeli army said. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to reduce the group's Gaza hideouts to "rubble," with intense Israeli air strikes on the coastal enclave killing at least 232 Palestinians, Gaza officials said.  

Speaking on Saturday, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was "appalled" by reports that civilians have been attacked and abducted from their homes.

On the same day, in a phone call between Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan, the two foreign ministers highlighted the necessity for respecting the Palestinian people's rights while evaluating the latest developments in the Arab state.

According to a statement released by the Iranian Foreign Ministry, the Iranian foreign minister described the Hamas move as "a consequence of Israel's constant crimes against Palestine" and said the military operation was a "spontaneous move of Palestinians in defense of their inalienable and undeniable rights, as well as their natural reaction to the warmongering and provocative policies of Israel."

After a call with Netanyahu, U.S. President Joe Biden said in a written statement that he is ready to "offer all appropriate means of support to the government and people of Israel."

"Israel has a right to defend itself and its people – full stop," Biden said later in a televised speech. "This is not a moment for any party hostile to Israel to exploit these attacks to seek advantage. The world is watching."

The two leaders have had strained relations but met in New York last month in a show of solidarity, Reuters said.

Soon after Biden's phone call with Netanyahu, Saleh al-Arouri, deputy chief of Hamas, criticized the "biased position" of the U.S., saying that "the hypocritical position of the U.S. is known to the world, and we do not count on it."

Earlier in the day, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry said Sudan "renews its support for the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people in their independent state." 

Also on Saturday, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron held phone talks discussing regional and international efforts to contain the ongoing conflict.

"The call touched on consultation and coordination regarding efforts to stop the current escalation in the Gaza Strip between the Palestinians and Israelis," said the Egyptian presidency in a statement.

Slamming Israel's violent policies against the Palestinians as "a time bomb," Arab League (AL) Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit urged an immediate cease-fire.

(With input from agencies)

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) retaliated with artillery fire, attacking the area in Lebanon where mortar shells were fired from into Israeli territory a few minutes ago, an IDF spokesperson said in a statement after Israel's army radio reported mortar fire from Lebanon into northern Israel.

China is deeply concerned about the current escalation of tensions and violence between the Palestinians and the Israelis and calls on relevant parties to remain calm and exercise restraint, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Sunday.

The spokesperson made the remarks in response to the fierce conflicts between Israel and Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip that have caused massive casualties on both sides.

In a statement, the unnamed spokesperson urged an immediate end to the hostilities to protect civilians and avoid further deterioration of the situation.

The recurrence of the conflict shows once again that the protracted standstill of the peace process cannot last, said the spokesperson, adding that the fundamental way out of the conflict lies in implementing the two-state solution and establishing an independent State of Palestine.

"The international community needs to act with greater urgency, step up input into the Palestine question, facilitate the early resumption of peace talks between Palestine and Israel, and find a way to bring about enduring peace," said the spokesperson. China will continue to work relentlessly with the international community toward achieving that end, added the spokesperson.

Read more:

Live updates over the Palestinian-Israeli clash

The security cabinet made a "series of operational decisions aimed at bringing about the destruction of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on early Sunday.

Israel's response will take away "their ability and desire to threaten and harm the citizens of Israel for many years," it said.

The death toll from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza has risen to 232, with 1,697 others injured, according to an update from the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza on Saturday.

The Israeli military was still engaged in fighting with Hamas in some parts of southern Israel as of 1:30 a.m. local time and the situation in the country was not totally under control, an Israeli army spokesperson said, as at least 300 Israelis were killed, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Israel ordered its state-run electricity company to halt supply to the Gaza Strip on Saturday after Hamas launched an attack on Israel, the energy minister said.

"I have signed an order instructing (Israel) Electric Company to stop the electricity supply to Gaza," Energy Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "condemns in the strongest terms the attack by Hamas against Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip and central Israel," Guterres' spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement on Saturday.

"The Secretary-General is deeply concerned for the civilian population and urges maximum restraint," the statement said, adding that Guterres urges all diplomatic efforts to "avoid a wider conflagration."

The Israel Defense Forces' top spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, said that Hamas has taken Israelis as hostages to the Gaza Strip, according to a Times of Israel report on Saturday.

In a briefing with reporters, Hagari said Israeli soldiers have also been killed in the fighting.

No numbers were given on the number of hostages taken or soldiers killed.

At least 198 Palestinians were killed and over 1,600 others were wounded in Gaza on Saturday after Israel's air strikes, the Health Ministry in Gaza said.

U.S. President Joe Biden called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday and emphasized that "the U.S. stands alongside Israel and fully supports Israel's right to self-defense," Netanyahu's office said on social media.

In the early hours of October 7, a barrage of rockets was launched from Gaza into Israel. The Israeli army sounded sirens across the country's south for over an hour, urging the public to stay near bomb shelters. 

At least 100 Israelis have been killed and 800 injured in Hamas attack, Israeli media reported.

The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched the biggest attack on Israel in years on Saturday in a surprise assault that combined gunmen crossing into several Israeli towns with a heavy barrage of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.

Israel said it was "at war" and began its own strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza, with reports of gunbattles between bands of Palestinian fighters and security forces in southern Israel.

Here is how some of Europe's countries have reacted:

BELGIUM

Belgian foreign affairs minister Hadja Lahbib: "Belgium strongly condemns the massive rocket attacks against Israeli civilians. Violence and terror only perpetuates suffering and hinders the path to dialogue. Our thoughts are with all those affected. We are monitoring the situation closely."

EUROPEAN COMMISSION

President Ursula von der Leyen: "I unequivocally condemn the attack carried out by Hamas terrorists against Israel. It is terrorism in its most despicable form. Israel has the right to defend itself against such heinous attacks."

EUROPEAN UNION 

Foreign policy chief Josep Borrell: "We follow with anguish the news coming from Israel. We unequivocally condemn the attacks by Hamas. This horrific violence must stop immediately. Terrorism and violence solve nothing."

CZECHIA

President Petr Pavel said: "The attack conducted from the Gaza Strip is a deplorable act of terrorism against the State of Israel and the civilian population," Pavel said in a statement.

"The rocket attacks and the infiltration of Hamas commandos into Israel will block any efforts for a peaceful solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict for a long time."

FRANCE

French President Emmanuel Macron: "I strongly condemn the terrorist attacks. I express my full solidarity with the victims, and their families and those close to them."

GERMANY

German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock: "Violence and rockets against innocent civilians must stop now. We stand in full solidarity with Israel and its right under international law to defend itself against terror."

GREECE

Greek foreign ministry: "Greece strongly condemns today's launch of heavy rocket attacks from Gaza against Israel. Greece stands with Israel and is deeply concerned by this unacceptable escalation of violence."

IRELAND

Irish deputy premier and foreign affairs minister Micheal Martin condemned the attack by Hamas militants on Israeli citizens, and said it was "vital that the voice of moderation comes to the fore." Martin said he could "see tensions rising" during a recent trip to the region, and that the scale of Saturday’s attack was "quite shocking."

He said Ireland’s stance to support a two-state solution had not changed. "We believe a two-state solution remains the only sensible and rational solution to this issue and it needs political momentum behind it," he said. My sense is that the hardliners are growing in influence, and that’s why I believe the need to have moderate voices in the center is key."

ITALY

Italian government: "We are closely following the brutal attack taking place in Israel. It condemns in the strongest terms the ongoing terror and violence against innocent civilians. Terror will never prevail. We support Israel's right to defend itself."

NETHERLANDS

Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte: "Just spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israel. I told him that the Netherlands unequivocally condemns this terrorist violence and fully supports Israel's right to defend itself."

POLAND

Polish foreign minister Zbigniew Rau: "I strongly condemn Hamas's ongoing attacks on Israel. This baseless aggression and acts of violence, especially against civilians, are unacceptable. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by these terrible events."

RUSSIA

Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov: "Russia is in contact with Israel, the Palestinians and Arab countries in connection with the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It goes without saying that we always call for restraint."

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SPAIN 

Spanish foreign minister Jose Manuel Albares: "We strongly condemn the extremely serious terrorist attacks from Gaza against Israel. We are shocked by this indiscriminate violence."

TÜRKIYE

Turkish president Tayip Erdogan: "We call for restraint from all parties. They must refrain from aggressive acts."

UNITED KINGDOM

UK foreign minister James Cleverly: "The UK unequivocally condemns the horrific attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians. The UK will always support Israel's right to defend itself."

UKRAINE

Ukrainian foreign ministry: "Ukraine strongly condemns the ongoing terrorist attacks against Israel, including rocket attacks against the civilian population in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. We express our support for Israel in its right to defend itself and its people."

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At least 161 Palestinians were killed on Saturday by Israeli airstrikes on a neighborhood to the east of Gaza City, Al Arabiya reported, citing the Palestinian health ministry.

At least one person was killed and many others were injured on Saturday in Israeli airstrikes on a neighborhood to the east of Gaza City, Palestine's WAFA news agency reported.

"We are at war," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address on Saturday as Hamas, a Palestinian armed movement, carried out a surprise attack from its Gaza base.

At least 100 Israelis have been killed and 900 injured in the Hamas attack, Israeli media reported. Israel's Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, declared a state of national emergency throughout the country.

Over 2,500 rockets were fired into Israel by Hamas since the early hours of Saturday, said the Israeli military. It added that, in response, airstrikes against over 20 Hamas targets have been carried out in recent hours. 

The Israeli military said in a statement that the Palestinian movement "will bear the results and responsibility for the events."

Mohammed al-Deif, a leader from Hamas, announced on Saturday the beginning of a new military operation, "Al-Aqsa Flood," against Israel via a brief recorded statement.

Hamas said the attack was driven by Israel's escalated attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem, as well as those against Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

The Israeli army announced that it had targeted 17 sites and four headquarters of the Hamas with dozens of warplanes in various areas of the coastal enclave.  

At least 198 people were killed and over 1,600 others were wounded in Gaza on Saturday, the Health Ministry in the Palestinian enclave said, after Israel's air strikes.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday that the Palestinian people have the right to defend themselves against "Israeli violations."

During an emergency leadership meeting held in Ramallah, Abbas instructed the concerned Palestinian authorities to provide everything necessary "to strengthen the steadfastness of the Palestinians in the face of crimes committed by the Israeli occupation and settler gangs," Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported. 

(With input from agencies)

Israel's Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir declared a state of national emergency throughout the country on Saturday, after more than 20 people were killed in an attack launched by Hamas, Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported.

At least 22 people have been killed in the attack launched by Hamas, Israeli emergency service Magen David Adom (MDA) said on Saturday.

The Israeli Health Ministry later said 545 people have been hospitalized since the start of the attack, which began at around 6:30 a.m. local time on Saturday morning, according to The Times of Israel.

Over 70 people were seriously injured, a spokesperson for the MDA said, adding that the death toll is expected to rise.

(With input from agencies)

The Israeli military has announced "war footing" after a barrage of rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel on Saturday morning.

A woman in her 60s was killed "due to a direct hit" and 15 others were injured in southern Israel, the Magen David Adom emergency medical services said, after dozens of rockets were fired from the blockaded enclave. The Times of Israel reported that at least five people are thought to have been killed and at least 100 people have been injured.

"The Hamas will bear consequences of the attack on Israel," said the Israeli military.

Mohammed al-Deif, a leader from Hamas, announced on Saturday the beginning of a new military operation, the "Al-Aqsa Flood," against Israel. He made the declaration through a brief recorded statement.

Sirens are sounding in central Israel, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement. 

The Israeli army warned of sirens across the country's south for more than an hour, urging the public to stay near bomb shelters.

Hours later, the IDF said on social media that it carried out strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip "in response to the barrages of rockets launched by Hamas from Gaza at Israel."

(With input from agencies)