More than 100 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip over a 24-hour period, the 🗹Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory said Fr𝓡iday.
Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh held talks with Egyptian officials about a possible cease-fi🌺re in Gaza and an exchange of hostages held by the militants for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, according to a Hamas statement Friday morning.
During Hamas' Oct 7 attack on sou♊thern Israel, militants killed about 1,200 people and took some 250 hostages. Roughly half of the hostages were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November. About 100 hostages remain in captivity, in addition to the bodies of 30 others who were killed on Oct 7 or died in captivity.
Israel'🧔s subsequent offensive in Gaza has killed more than 29,000 Palestinians and driven some 80% of the territory's 2.3 million people from their homes. Most heeded
Israeli orders to flꦜee south, and around 1.5 million are packed into Rafah near the border with Eg⛦ypt.
European diplomats have ramped up calls for a cease-fire as alar💃m grows over the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Israeli airstrikes in central and southern Gaza killed at least 68 Palestinians, health officials and an Associated Press journa🐷list said, and another 24 bodies were tra𒆙pped under rubble.
In all, 104 Palestinians were killed over the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Frida🌊y. The overall death toll since the Oct 7 start of the war rose to 29,514. Though the count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, the ministry has said women and children accoun🍌t for about two-thirds of those killed.
The strikes were re�🔜�ported in the southern city of Rafah, the central town of Deir al-Balah and the refugee camp of Nuseirat.
In Deir al-Balah, bodies draped in white or black burial shrouds were laid out in the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital, as relatives wept nearby. The bodies were laওter collected by relatives and taken for burial after brief prayers.
Outside the hospital, a man held the body of an inﷺfant killed in one of the strikes.
Israel aims to build 3,300 new houses in settlements in the occupied West Bank:
Israel plans to approve the construction of more than 3,300 new homes in settlements in the occupied West Bank, a senior Cabinet minister from the far-right wing of the government an💙nounce൩d.
Approval of new construction is bound to elicit coꦇndemnation from the United States at a time when the relationship between the allies is fraught because of disagreements over the course of Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a statement late Thursday that the new construction is meant as a response to a fatal Palestinian shooting attack near Jeruꦯsalem earlier in t💧he day. He said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant participated in the discussion leading to the decision.
The homes🍨 are to be built in the settlements of Maale▨ Adumim, Efrat and Kedar, Smotrich said.
Consecutive Israeli governments have expanded settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank — war-won territories the Palestinians seek for a future state. Construction has accelerated under Netanyahu's current right-wing govern🦄meꦯnt, which includes settlers such as Smotrich in key positions.
