Hamas appears to show bodies of two hostages...

since the Oct. 7 Hamas assault has turned much of the Palestinian territory into a wasteland and killed, health officials say, some 24,100 people and wounded nearly 61,000.

Health officials said 132 were killed in the past 24 hours, suggesting to Palestinians that there has been little letup in the intensity of Israel’s offensive despite its announcement of a shift to the new, more targeted phase.

Almost two million displaced people are sheltering in tents and other temporary accommodation in southern Gaza amid the fighting, and are facing increased risks of starvation and disease due to chronic shortages of food, fuel and medicines.

The more than three-month-old conflict has intensified violence in the Israelioccupied West Bank and in the wider Middle East and on Monday it reached further into Israel.

Palestinians carried out coordinated car-rammings in the central Israeli town of Raanana, killing a woman and injuring 12 other people, police and medical officials said. France said two of its nationals were among the injured.

The two suspects were from the same family in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and at least one of the vehicles used in the attacks had been stolen, police said.

Sami Abu Zuhri, head of Hamas’ political unit in exile, told Reuters the incidents were linked to Israeli “crimes” and were further evidence that the conflict was expanding.

Violence has also flared in the West Bank, run by the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority, where the health ministry says 351 people have been killed as Israel conducts raids that it says are aimed at flushing out militants.

A man and a woman were killed yesterday by Israeli gunfire in Dora near Hebron during what Palestinian official news agency WAFA said were stone-throwing clashes that erupted after Israeli forces raided the town. Separately, WAFA said a Palestinian security officer, Mahmoud Abdullah Khalifa, was killed near the West Bank town of Tulkarm.

Further afield, Houthi fighters who control much of Yemen have stepped up attacks on ships in the Red Sea it says are linked to Israel out of what they say is solidarity with the people of Gaza.

On Monday they damaged a U.S.owned vessel carrying steel products with an anti-ship ballistic missile south of the Yemeni port of Aden, saying they were expanding their targets after U.S. and British air strikes on their positions in Yemen.