Pentagon chief to visit Israel:
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will visit Zionist Israeli regime-controlled occupied territories on Friday and meet with Netanyahu, a US official has told reporters.
“He is looking forward to speaking in depth with Israeli leaders about their operational planning and their objectives for this conflict,” the senior US official told reporters on the condition of anonymity.
“Secretary Austin will be discussing Israel’s security assistance needs there,” he said.
Israel air strike kills at least 45 in Gaza apartment bloc:
The Israeli military bombarded a residential building in the densely populated Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, killing at least 45 people and wounding dozens of others, Al-Jazeera reported.
A late-afternoon bombing hit the centre of the Jabaliya camp, interior ministry spokesperson Eyad Bozum said.
The building was packed with dozens of people, some who fled earlier attacks, at the time of the air strike, he added.
The death toll is likely to rise as civil defence workers are still pulling bodies from the rubble and counting the dead.
Hamas frees Israeli woman, two children:
The Palestinian Hamas resistance movement has released a video showing the release of an Israeli woman and two children who were captured during the group’s surprise attack against the occupied territories on Saturday.
The video footage, released on Wednesday, shows an unidentified woman and two children released in an open area near the fence separating Gaza from the occupied territories, as Hamas fighters walk away.
The Gaza-based movement’s military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement that the woman was an Israeli settler.
“An Israeli settler and her two children were released after they were detained during the clashes,” it said, according to a report by the AFP news agency.
According to Press TV report. the latest development comes amid debunked Western media allegations that Hamas beheaded babies during its large-scale operation.
In a statement on Wednesday, Hamas categorically denied the allegations, saying the group does not attack civilians.
Israel kills dozens more Palestinians in Gaza:
Over 50 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s overnight airstrikes on the tightly besieged Gaza Strip, which has been under ceaseless bombardment by the occupying regime for the past five days, Press TV reported.
In a statement on Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry said that at least 51 people were killed and 281 others sustained injuries during the past several hours by Israeli overnight airstrikes in the densely-populated territory.
According to the ministry, the residential areas of Sabra, al-Zaytoun, al-Nafaq, and Tal al-Hawa, among others, were targeted in the Gaza Strip as hospitals are in a state of full capacity and the wounded and sick are sleeping on the ground, with medicines and fuel on the verge of running out in the coastal sliver.
‘Netanyahu is been blamed by a lot of Israelis’
Experts have told Al Jazeera that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s legal troubles at home could have played a role in Hamas’ deadly attack on Saturday.
“Netanyahu by bringing Israel into domestic turmoil just to escape conviction on bribery charges, his attempt to quash the judiciary, his attempt to quash Israeli rule of law, and his diversion from security services meant the domestic turmoil could be exploited by Hamas,” Scott Lucas, professor of American and International politics at University College Dublin, said.
“I’m not saying that is the only reason that Hamas attacked, but it is one reason why they could attack. Netanyahu is been blamed by a lot of Israelis, including Israelis who have supported him in the past. I think sooner or at least not so later, he’s going to have to go for the sake of Israel,” he added.
‘No water or fuel’ for Gaza until captives freed: Israeli minister
An Israeli minister has said that there will be no electricity, fuel or humanitarian aid supplied into Gaza until Hamas releases all captives.
Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz said no basic resources, including electricity and fuel, or humanitarian aid will be allowed into the besieged Gaza until Hamas releases all captives.
“Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electric switch will be turned on, no water tap will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli abductees are returned home,” he said on X, according to Al-jazeera.
Islamic Jihad in West Bank vows to join Al-Aqsa Storm operation:
In an audio message, Abu Hamza said, "We announce the official entry of the West Bank into the Al-Aqsa Storm Operation, and the battle may soon spill into across the occupied territories."
Addressing the Zionist temporary regime, he warned, "We are preparing for you outside of Palestine, as we are preparing in Palestine, and you will see what happened in the Gaza Strip in other areas."
The spokesperson of Saraya al-Quds further stated that the Al-Aqsa Storm Operation has also spread to the West Bank and southern Lebanon, and explained, "The point of fire is expanding and what happened in southern Lebanon is only a small sign of what awaits you."
Abu Hamza also stated about the brutal attacks of the Zionist terrorist regime on the Gaza Strip: "The enemy was not able to face the Resistance, so it targeted its anger at women and children."
After the launch of the Al-Aqsa Storm Operation by the Hamas resistance movement against the Zionist terrorist regime on Saturday, which has so far resulted in the death of at least 1,300 Zionists and the wounding of 2,500 of them, the cabinet of the occupying regime issued the order to begin large-scale attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Yoav Gallant, Tel Aviv regime's war minister, ordered an all-out blockade against the Gaza Strip, prohibiting the supply of any food, medicine, fuel, electricity and even water into the region.
MNA