150 people are killed in Gaza in 24 hours, Health Ministry says
Gaza’s Health Ministry said 150 people were killed in the territory in 24 hours and an additional 313 were wounded as Israeli forces continued to battle militants on Wednesday, even in the northern part of the territory.
The north, where entire neighborhoods have been flattened, was the initial target of Israel’s ground offensive in late October.
Israel’s military said Wednesday that its forces killed more than 15 Hamas militants in northern Gaza over the past day and targeted militant infrastructure in a school.
The latest deaths bring the Palestinian death toll from Israel’s offensive to 26,900, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry. It does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths but says most of those killed were women and children.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres reiterated his call for a cease-fire in Gaza.
Hamas sparked the war on Oct. 7 when it killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel and took about 250 people hostage, according to Israeli authorities.
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
U.S. blames Islamic Resistance in Iraq for drone attack: The United States has attributed the drone attack that killed three U.S. service members in Jordan to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias that includes the militant group Kataib Hezbollah.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. believes the attack was planned, resourced and facilitated by the group.
The Sunday drone attack on a military base in Jordan killed the three troops and injured at least 40 others.
Netanyahu meets ambassadors: Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a group of ambassadors to the United Nations from primarily European countries that Hamas has “infiltrated” the main aid provider to Palestinians in Gaza and that it must be shut down.
Netanyahu’s remarks on Wednesday follow Israel’s allegations that 12 employees with the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, participated in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in Israel/
Those allegations prompted several countries to freeze funding to the agency, which fired nine of the workers. UNRWA said the agency, which employs 13,000 workers in Gaza, should not be punished for the alleged actions of a dozen employees.
Netanyahu told the group
WHO says Gaza health system is using donkey carts to transport patients: The head of the World Health Organization said the destroyed health system in Gaza has resorted to using donkey carts to transport injured patients, and that one major hospital has only one functional ambulance.
At a press briefing, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said more than 100,000 Gaza residents are either dead, injured, missing or presumed dead.
Tedros added that the risk of famine is high, with many medical staff and patients receiving only one meal per day.