Israel-Hamas War News Live Updates: 50 dead in Israeli strikes on Gaza hospitals, school

A spokesperson for Israel's foreign ministry said on Friday that the death toll from the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israeli communities had been revised down to around 1,200 against a previous government estimate of 1,400. "Around 1,200 is the official number of victims of the October 7 massacre," spokesperson Lior Haiat said in a written statement, adding that the figure had been updated on Thursday.

Palestinian ambassador to the UN in Geneva Ibrahim Khraishi was speaking alongside more than 40 ambassadors to observe a minute of silence for thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza since the start of Israeli bombardments more than a month ago. The Israeli attacks by air, land and sea were triggered by deadly Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7 that killed 1,400.

Thousands of Palestinians sheltering from the Israel-Hamas war at Gaza City's main hospital fled south Friday after several reported strikes in and around the compound overnight. They joined a growing exodus of people escaping intense urban fighting in the north -- including near other hospitals -- as Gaza officials said the territory's death toll surpassed 11,000.

Israel has been heavily bombarding Gaza and is leading a ground offensive that has killed more than 11,000 Palestinians. The result is the deadliest round of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in decades.

In response, Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, relentlessly bombing the Gaza Strip and sending in ground troops. More than 11,000 people, also mostly civilians, have been killed, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that its teams in recent days had distributed critical supplies to medical structures across Gaza, and had seen "horrendous images that have now gotten worse due to sharpened hostilities".

"About 50 martyrs were recovered from inside Al-Buraq school... in the Al-Nasr neighbourhood in Gaza after missile and artillery strikes that targeted the school this morning," hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya said.

The Jordan River is a winding, 200-plus-mile run on the eastern flank of Israel and the occupied West Bank. The sea is the glittering Mediterranean to its west. But a phrase about the space in between has become a battle cry with new power to roil Jews and pro-Palestinian activists. "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," pro-Palestinian activists from London to Rome and Washington chanted in the volatile aftermath of Israel's bloodiest day. Adopting or defending it can be costly for public figures, such as US Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who was censured by the House.

"About 50 martyrs were recovered from inside Al-Buraq school... in the Al-Nasr neighbourhood in Gaza after missile and artillery strikes that targeted the school this morning," hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya said.

Thousands of Palestinians streamed onto Gaza’s only highway Friday, fleeing the combat zone in the north after Israel announced a window for safe passage. But the search for safety in the besieged enclave has grown increasingly desperate. The tens of thousands who fled south in the past few days face the prospect of ongoing bombardment and dire conditions. The overnight strikes in northern Gaza underscored the danger for tens of thousands more who have crowded in and around hospitals, believing they will be safe.

Palestinians have reported that Gaza's largest hospital compound was hit by a deadly strike, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas intensifies. The director of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City blamed Israeli forces for the strike, which reportedly hit the maternity ward. The Israeli army has accused Hamas of using hospitals to coordinate attacks and as hideouts for its commanders. The United Nations has called for an end to the violence and a ceasefire to protect civilians and allow in humanitarian aid. The conflict has resulted in the displacement of almost 1.6 million people.

More than 1,000 officials in the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have signed an open letter urging the Biden administration to call for an immediate ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, according to a copy of the letter seen by Reuters. The letter is latest sign of unease within the US government over President Joe Biden's unwavering support for Israel in its response to the Oct. 7 attacks by Palestinian Hamas militants that killed 1,400 Israelis, mostly civilians.

The leaders of Qatar and Egypt, both hoping to mediate a de-escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip, the provision of humanitarian aid and the release of Israeli hostages, met in Cairo on Friday. The meeting between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani will cover ways to calm the situation in Gaza and provide humanitarian relief for the enclave's 2.3 million besieged residents, a statement from Sisi's office said.

Thousands of Palestinians streamed onto Gaza's only highway, fleeing the combat zone in the north after Israel announced a window for safe passage and following Israeli strikes near hospitals. Amid an intensifying campaign of airstrikes and ground battles, the search for safety in Gaza has grown increasingly desperate. Tens of thousands have walked south, where they face the prospect of ongoing bombardment and dire conditions.

On other campuses, long-simmering tensions are erupting in violence and shattering the sense of safety that makes colleges hubs of free discourse. Students on both sides are witnessing acts of hate, leaving many fearing for their safety even as they walk to classrooms.

About 500 aid trucks have been allowed into the territory from Egypt over the past month, a number that had been the daily average before the war.

The stench of death still pervades charred homes, littered with blood-soaked sofas, broken guitars and bullet-riddled appliances, more than a month after Kfar Aza in southern Israel was stormed by Palestinian gunmen. Sixty-two of them were killed in Kfar Aza and 18 other kibbutz residents were abducted and believed to be held in Gaza, according to a toll provided by an Israeli military official during a media tour, one of many organised in recent weeks in the face of global criticism over mounting deaths in Gaza.

The biggest hospital in the Gaza Strip was coming under bombardment on Friday, the World Health Organization said, adding that 20 hospitals in Gaza were now out of action entirely. Gaza families have been sheltering at the hospital, the territory's largest, which is inside Gaza City encircled by Israeli troops. Israel says militants have headquarters in the area and has told residents to leave and go south.

Israeli strikes hit near several hospitals in Gaza City early Friday as the military pushed deeper into dense urban neighborhoods in its battle with Hamas militants, prompting increasing numbers of civilians to flee toward the south of the besieged territory.

The group named the seven fighters in a statement stating they were "martyred on the road to Jerusalem" -- the phrase Hezbollah uses to mourn members -- now numbering 68 -- killed since border clashes with Israel began last month.

In a significant development, Israel's Arrow 3 missile interceptor was successfully utilized for the first time to neutralize an incoming missile headed for the country. The interception took place over the Red Sea, following an announcement by Iran-backed Huthi rebels from Yemen, claiming to have launched a barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel.

"A total of 51 containers of medical supplies, generators and 20 ambulances, with necessary permissions, were loaded onto a ship from Izmir's Alsancak port and sent to Egypt," Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said. "As part of the aid, a fully equipped heavy-climate type field hospital with operating rooms and intensive-care units and inflatable type field hospitals were sent," he said.

"Far too many Palestinians have been killed," Blinken said in New Delhi, his last stop before heading home, where he repeated US support for ally Israel but was firm that more aid had to reach civilians in Gaza.

"Thirteen martyrs and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike on Al-Shifa compound today" in central Gaza City, a government statement said, giving a toll AFP was not immediately able to independently verify.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on Friday said that it had launched an attack on an organization in response to the launch of an unmanned aerial vehicle towards Eilat. The IDF said that it holds the Syrian government fully responsible for all the terror activity emanating from its territory. Taking to X, the IDF stated, "In response to a UAV from Syria that hit a school in Eilat, the IDF struck the organization that carried out the attack a short while ago. The IDF holds the Syrian regime fully responsible for every terror activity emanating from its territory. We will respond to every aggression against Israel."

The IDF said ground forces killed several Hamas operatives, including members of the terror group's elite Nukhba forces who were part of the attack on Israel on October 7, The Times of Israel reported. The IDF said that the operations were conducted after the Shin Bet Security Agency provided intelligence information to the soldiers.

Zusha Pletnyov left his home in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk in 2014, when Russian-backed rebels seized large swaths of eastern Ukraine. After living some years in the capital, Kyiv, he fled again to Israel when Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February of last year.

An observant Jew, Pletnyov moved with his wife and five children to Ashkelon, just miles from the Gaza Strip, in the hopes of building a new life. But when Hamas militants from Gaza launched their attacks last month, a new war forced him to take flight for a third time, now to a camp for Jewish refugees in rural Hungary.

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Friday that expansion of the Israel-Hamas war has become "inevitable", amid widespread concern in the region and beyond that the conflict could spread.

On October 7, Hamas gunmen stormed across the heavily militarised border from the Gaza Strip to kill more than 1,400 people in southern Israel. Most were civilians. The militants also seized around 240 hostages, according to Israeli officials.

Israel said it struck back at an organization from Syria that targeted a school in the southern city of Eilat with a drone. Earlier, the Pentagon said military personnel in Syria and Iraq had come under attack four times since a US airstrike this week on an arms depot that had been intended as a deterrent.

Israel is providing “quick humanitarian windows” to allow people to flee northern Gaza while the military fights Hamas militants, IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus said. The IDF estimates between 50,000 and 100,000 people have exited northern Gaza in the last few days and a total of 850,000-900,000 have fled the area, Conricus said.

The Pentagon said its military personnel in Syria and Iraq have come under attack four times since an overnight US airstrike on an arms depot, which was intended as a deterrent.

Israel’s military said it’s enacting pauses in the fighting that will enable more Palestinians in north Gaza, where the army is pushing deeper into Hamas strongholds, to escape to the south. More than 50,000 people fled in that direction Thursday, Israel said. The White House said the pauses will last four hours every day.

The Israel Public Defense, which generally provides legal assistance to those who cannot afford to engage a lawyer, has categorically stated that no lawyer or law firm will represent any Hamas terrorist who was arrested after the October 7 mayhem and massacre.

The decision of the Israel Public Defense was welcomed by the Justice Minister Yariv Lenin.

"I welcome and support the decision of the Public Defense refusal to represent Hamas murders who had carried out murder and mayhem on October 7 in Israel.”

US President Joe Biden has said that there is "no possibility" of a ceasefire in Gaza. Biden said that the US government will not stop until it gets the hostages out.Speaking to reporters about the chances of a Gaza ceasefire, Biden said, "None, No possibility."

The Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen has claimed responsibility of launching a batch of long-range ballistic missiles on the southern Israeli city of Eilat in retaliation to the continued bombardment in the Gaza Strip.

In a televised statement on Thursday, Houthi military spokesman Yehya Sarea said the missiles targeted various sensitive targets, including the military bases in Eilat, reports Xinhua news agency.

Israel's Ministry of Defense reported that a cargo ship carrying approximately 2,500 tons of equipment for IDF use was received in Israel on Thursday. 123 cargo planes and 7 ships carrying more than 7,000 tons of military equipment arrived in Israel since the beginning of the war in Gaza to ensure the IDF has the resources to achieve its objectives.

Biden also told reporters he had asked the Israelis for a “pause longer than three days” during negotiations over the release of some hostages held by Hamas, although he ruled out the chances of a general cease-fire.

Nearly half of Democrats disapprove of how President Joe Biden is handling the Israel-Hamas conflict, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research — showing a deep divide within his party over the war.

The poll found 50% of Democrats approve of how Biden has navigated the conflict while 46% disapprove — and the two groups diverge substantially in their views of U.S. support for Israel. Biden's support on the issue among Democrats is down slightly from August, as an AP-NORC poll conducted then found that 57% of Democrats approved of his handling of the conflict and 40% disapproved.