Israel-Hamas war latest: Israeli strikes kill 6 in occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials say

Palestinian health officials say Israeli strikes in the occupied West Bank killed six people, including the son of a prominent jailed militant.

Israel said all of those killed were militants who had been involved in attacks.

Israel has been carrying out large-scale raids in the territory over the past week that it says are aimed at dismantling militant groups and preventing attacks. The Palestinians fear a widening of the war in Gaza.

A strike overnight in the northern West Bank town of Tubas killed five people, including Mohammed Zubeidi, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Thursday, without saying whether they were civilians or combatants.

His father, Zakaria Zubeidi, was a well-known militant commander during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s and took part in a rare jail break in 2021 before being arrested and returned to prison days later.

The military said the younger Zubeidi had taken part in attacks against Israeli forces in the West Bank and that he was with a militant cell when he was targeted.

It said another fighter was killed in an airstrike in the built-up Al-Faraa refugee camp after hurling a firebomb at Israeli forces. The military released a video that it said showed the exchange. It said forces also uncovered roadside bombs in the camp, which dates back to the 1948 Mideast war surrounding Israel’s creation.

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TEL AVIV — Hundreds of people marched silently through the streets of Tel Aviv carrying 27 mock coffins to represent the 27 hostages who were captured alive on Oct. 7 and whose bodies were recovered by the Israeli military during the past nearly 11 months of fighting in Gaza.

The protesters marched through major streets in Tel Aviv on Thursday night, solemnly striking a bell as the flag-draped coffins were slowly brought through the streets. The country is reeling from the discovery of the bodies of six Israeli hostages, who Israel says were killed by Hamas just before they were discovered by Israeli troops.

“Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister, sentenced Carmel, my cousin, to death, her and all the hostages,” said Gil Dickmann, the cousin of Carmel Gat, one of six hostages killed and whose body was recovered. “She was abandoned to her death by the government could have brought her back, 327 days she was there, in Gaza, in captivity, there were 327 opportunities to bring her back and every single one was missed."

In angry public statements, hostage families have accused Netanyahu of blocking a deal and potentially sacrificing their loved ones’ lives for the sake of holding the border strip.

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets in recent days, calling for a deal and saying time is running out to bring home the hostages alive.

BEIRUT — Senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday of deliberately stalling cease-fire negotiations, and urged the U.S. and the international community to put more pressure on Israel.

In a recorded speech released on Hamas’ official accounts, al-Hayya — who has been heading the militant group’s delegation to the cease-fire talks — reiterated the group’s stance that it will not consider any proposed deal that does not entail a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, and particularly from the Philadelphi corridor, a key area along Gaza’s border with Egypt.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has in recent weeks insisted that Israel will maintain forces in the corridor, saying it is necessary to halt weapons smuggling. The condition was not included in previous versions of the cease-fire proposal before the current round of talks.

Egypt, which along with the U.S. and Qatar is mediating the talks, has also been strongly opposed to Israel maintaining a military presence on the border.

Al-Hayya said Hamas “will not allow any agreement that legitimizes an Israeli presence on any part of Gaza or fails to secure our people’s rights.”

“We reject going back to square one or getting caught in a vicious cycle that serves Netanyahu’s goals,” he said.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian health officials say an Israeli strike on a tent camp killed four men and wounded two children.

The strike early Thursday hit an encampment near the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah. Hospital officials confirmed the toll and an Associated Press reporter saw the bodies.

The Israeli military said it carried out a precise strike on a command and control center operated by Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group that was embedded in a humanitarian zone.

The nearly 11-month-long war has displaced about 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, often multiple times. Israel has ordered mass evacuations into so-called humanitarian zones but occasionally carries out strikes there as well.

A woman who identified herself as Umm Mohammed Wadi said she was staying in a tent close to where the strike occurred.

“What did they do to be struck while sleeping?” she said. “No hospital is safe, nor any school or home.”

Israel says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians.

The Gaza Health Ministry says at least 40,861 Palestinians have been killed and more than 94,000 wounded since the start of the war. It does not differentiate between civilians and fighters in its toll.

The war began after Hamas launched a wide-scale attack into Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead, after most of the rest were released during a cease-fire in November.