The Bottom Line
- France on Thursday "strongly" condemned the strike that hit the Jordanian military hospital in Gaza, wounding 7 people, and recalled that international humanitarian law was binding "on all".
- On Thursday, for the second day in a row, the Israeli army searched Gaza's main hospital: Al-Shifa. The IDF released images of Hamas weapons found at the site (according to the IDF) and said it had found the body of a hostage near the site.
- The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says communications with the Gaza Strip are once again "totally cut off" due to a lack of fuel. There will be no delivery of humanitarian aid on Friday for the same reason, she said.
- At least 11,500 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip since the start of the war, according to the latest Hamas government tally. The attack on the latter killed about 1,200 Israelis. The Israeli military estimates that about 240 people were taken hostage.
06:08
Communications cut off in Gaza
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said Thursday in Geneva that communications were again "totally cut off" with the Gaza Strip due to a lack of fuel.
"All telecommunications services in the Gaza Strip are now out of service as the energy sources feeding the grid are exhausted and fuel is not allowed in," Palestinian telecoms operator Paltel said in a statement late Thursday.
Early Friday, AFP was unable to get in touch with members of its team it was trying to reach in the Gaza Strip, where the UN says 1.65 million of its 2.4 million residents have been displaced by the war.
05:58
IDF says it found body of Hamas hostage near Al-Shifa
Late Thursday night, the Israeli military announced that it had discovered the body of Yehudit Weiss, a hostage "murdered by terrorists in the Gaza Strip" after being kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 in Kibbutz Beeri in southern Israel, near Al-Shifa Hospital.
05:45
Blinken calls on Israel to take 'urgent' action against settler violence
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken "underscored the urgent need to take concrete steps to de-escalate tensions in the West Bank, including by addressing rising levels of violence by extremist settlers" against Palestinians.
That message to Israel came in a phone conversation with Benny Gantz, an Israeli opposition leader who joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war cabinet.
>> Read our article The West Bank, the other Palestinian powder keg
05:30
Hello and welcome to this live stream
Together, we will follow the latest developments in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.