Fighting raged Saturday in Gaza, six weeks after a shock Hamas attack sparked an air and ground offensive by Israel, which has vowed to destroy the Palestinian militant group.
About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Israel during the October 7 attack and around 240 taken hostage, according to Israeli officials.
In Gaza, around 12,300 people, more than 5,000 of them children, have been killed in the conflict, officials in the Hamas-run territory have said.
Here are five key developments from the past 24 hours:
– Refugee camp hit twice –
A health ministry official in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said more than 80 people were killed in two separate Israeli strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp.
“At least 50 people” were killed in an Israeli strike on the UN-run Al-Fakhura school, which had been converted into a shelter for displaced Palestinians, the official told AFP.
A separate strike on another building killed 32 people from the same family, 19 of them children, the official added.
The Israeli army did not specifically comment on the strikes but said its troops were expanding operations in Gaza, including in parts of Jabalia, to “target terrorists and strike Hamas infrastructure”.
– Hundreds flee hospital –
Hundreds of people left Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital on foot, an AFP journalist at the scene saw, after the hospital director said the Israeli army ordered the facility’s evacuation.
Hamas health officials said 120 wounded were still at the facility, along with an unspecified number of premature babies.
Israel’s army denied ordering the evacuation, saying it “acceded” to a request from hospital directors to allow people to leave.
Al-Shifa hospital — Gaza’s biggest — has become a focal point of the war. Israel alleges Hamas operates a base underneath the complex, a charge the Islamists deny.
– Fuel enters Gaza under Israel-US deal –
The first deliveries of fuel entered Gaza from Egypt after Israel agreed to a US request to allow limited deliveries to end a communications blackout that has halted aid convoys for two days.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said Israel agreed to allow in 60,000 litres (16,000 gallons) of fuel a day from Egypt, but warned it was little more than a third of what is needed to keep hospitals, water and sanitation facilities running.
– West Bank militants killed –
Five fighters in the armed wing of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party were killed overnight in a rare Israeli air strike on the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent and Fatah sources said.
The Israeli army said it had killed “a number of terrorists” in a strike on the Balata refugee camp in Nablus.
– Israel march for hostages –
Thousands of Israelis including friends and relatives of hostages taken by Hamas arrived in Jerusalem, capping a four-day march to pressure the government to secure the captives’ release.
Since Hamas militants surged out of Gaza six weeks ago and, according to Israel, seized some 240 hostages, their loved ones have waged a determined campaign for their freedom.
A column of thousands of demonstrators draped in white and blue Israeli flags reached Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office chanting: “Bring them home now.”
