Israel-Hamas war update

GAZA – Israeli airstrikes hit a United Nations school sheltering displaced Palestinian families on Wednesday, killing at least 34 people, including 19 women and children. U.N. officials said six staffers died in the attack.

The war in Gaza has reached the 11-month mark, and the Health Ministry says over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

After the airstrike on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a news conference that the U.S. will continue to urge Israel to do more to spare humanitarian sites in the Gaza Strip.

Turkey also announced its investigation into the death of a Turkish American activist who was shot and killed by Israeli forces last week in the West Bank.

On Thursday, the Israeli military said its warplanes struck and killed two Hezbollah militants in southern Syria. This is another in a series of attacks on the Iran-backed Shiite group after it said it would be backing its ally Hamas.

The military identified one of those killed as Ahmed al-Jabr, accusing al-Jabr of conducting militant operations in a Syrian province.

While Hezbollah has not yet announced the deaths of any militants, a Syrian pro-government radio reported that an Israeli strike hit a car in southern Syria and killed two people. An opposition war monitor also reported it, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

According to the Israeli military, a top Israeli intelligence commander announced his resignation. Brig. Gen. Yossi Sariel, leader of Israel’s military intelligence Unit 8200, is the second senior figure to step down amid fallout from last year’s Oct. 7 attack.

The Israeli military also said Thursday that Hamas’ brigade in the city of Rafah has been destroyed. In a statement, the military said that Israel has killed 2,000 militants and destroyed 13 kilometers of underground tunnel routes.

Israel’s operation in Rafah began in early May and forced over a million Palestinian civilians to flee the city, which is the southernmost city of Gaza.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry says a Thursday airstrike on the southern village of Kfar Joz killed three people, including a child, and wounded three others.

The Lebanon-Israel border has been witnessing exchanges such as this airstrike for nearly a year. Over 500 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon since Oct. 8, 2023, over 100 of which have been civilians.

Also on Thursday, a car exploded in central Israel, and medics say four people were killed and eight others were injured. The incident comes with a surge of gang violence in Israel’s Arab communities.

Israeli police pledged to take the explosion, which took place in the city of Ramle, seriously. Residents of Israel are accusing Israeli security forces of failing to combat the gang wars and gun violence affecting the area.

Two other residents were killed in the same city on Wednesday, though it is unclear if the two incidents are related.

Palestinian citizens of Israel are accusing authorities of prioritizing fighting crime in Jewish areas and not in Palestinian areas.

Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, claimed that the country’s attorney general refused his request to place suspects in pre-trial detention. Critics say that Ben-Gvir has done little to fulfill his campaign promises of fighting violent crime in Arab communities.

Isabelle Charboneau is a fourth-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her, email ijc5186@psu.edu.