US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed on Friday his appreciation for Israel’s commitment to daily humanitarian pauses in its offensive in northern Gaza. However, he emphasized that more actions are required to address the ongoing situation. Blinken stated, “Far too many Palestinians have been killed. Far too many have suffered in these past weeks, and we want to do everything possible to prevent harm to them and to maximize the assistance that gets to them.” He made these remarks while speaking in New Delhi, underlining the urgent need for further measures to mitigate the impact on the affected population and enhance humanitarian aid efforts.
Fighting has raged in northern Gaza since gunmen from the Islamist group Hamas poured over the border into Israel and, according to Israeli officials, killed at least 1,200 people and seizing about 240 hostages in the worst attack in the country’s history. US Secretary of State
Lior Haiat, a spokesperson for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told CBS News Friday that the death toll from the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants has been revised to 1,200, down from the previously reported approximation of at least 1,400. Haitat said that the other 200 people killed were “probably terrorists.”
Israel retaliated with an aerial bombing and ground offensive that the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip says has killed more than 10,800 people, many of them children.
The Hamas government said Friday that an Israeli strike on the territory’s largest hospital killed 13 people. A World Health Organization spokesperson said the hospital had been “coming under bombardment” and that 20 hospitals in Gaza weren’t able to treat patients at all, according to the Reuters news agency.
“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 couldn’t immediately verify.
Al-Shifa hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya said “Israeli tanks fired on Al-Shifa hospital,” while the Israeli military didn’t offer any immediate comment.