Israel-Hamas war latest: Israeli airstrikes on Palestinian territories kill dozens more

Israeli strikes on Palestinian territories have killed more than two-dozen Palestinians on Wednesday, according to local officials. They say an Israeli airstrike killed five Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, and at least 20 people, including 16 women and children, were killed in the Gaza Strip.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says Tuesday's strike on a tent camp in an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone killed at least 19 people.

The Health Ministry says over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began. It does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count. The war has caused vast destruction and displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in their Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war. They abducted another 250 and are still holding around 100. Around a third of them are believed to be dead.

Here's the latest:

Israeli president condemns fuel-truck attack in the West Bank

BELGRADE, Serbia – Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said that “this has been a very painful and difficult morning for the people of Israel” because of an attack in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and a helicopter crash in Gaza.

Speaking in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, Herzog described Wednesday's attack as a “horrific, criminal terror attack” and expressed “sorrow for the pain it has inflicted.” He did not elaborate but was apparently referring to the incident when a fuel tanker crashed into a West Bank bus stop, seriously injuring one person. Israeli officials said it was an attack.

The Israeli military said the driver was “neutralized” at the scene. It did not immediately identify the driver or provide evidence that the crash was an attack. Violence in the West Bank has escalated since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack ignited the war in Gaza.

Herzog also said at a joint news conference with Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic that “my heart also goes out to the fighters who were killed last night in a helicopter crash in Gaza and I wish those wounded a full and swift recovery.”

The Israeli military said that two Israeli soldiers died and seven were injured when their helicopter crashed in the southern Gaza Strip overnight in a non-combat-related incident.

Biden is ‘outraged and deeply saddened’ by death of American activist shot by Israeli forces in the West Bank

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden says he is “outraged and deeply saddened” by the death of an American activist who was shot by Israeli forces while protesting settlements in the occupied West Bank, calling it “totally unacceptable.”

“There must be full accountability," Biden said in a statement released early on Wednesday. "And Israel must do more to ensure that incidents like this never happen again.”

The Israeli military said on Tuesday that Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old activist from Seattle, was likely shot “indirectly and unintentionally” by its soldiers, and that it had launched a criminal investigation.

That drew a strong rebuke from her family members, who said in a statement that they were “deeply offended by the suggestion that her killing by a trained sniper was in any way unintentional.” They said “the disregard shown for human life in the inquiry is appalling.”

During Friday’s demonstration, clashes broke out between Palestinians throwing stones and Israeli troops firing tear gas and ammunition, according to Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli protester who was there. He said the violence had subsided about a half hour before Eygi was shot.

The military said its forces appear to have aimed at the “key instigator of the riot” and hit Eygi by mistake. Eygi also had Turkish citizenship.

A statement by Vice President Kamala Harris followed shortly after Biden’s, with Harris saying that the U.S. will “continue to hold accountable anyone in the West Bank — Israelis and Palestinians — who stokes violence and undermines peace and stability.”

Fuel tanker crashes into a bus stop in West Bank, injuring a man in what Israeli officials say was an attack

JERUSALEM — A fuel tanker crashed into a bus stop in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, seriously injuring one person in what Israeli officials said was an attack.

The Israeli military said the driver was “neutralized” at the scene after the incident on Wednesday. It did not immediately identify the driver or provide evidence that the crash was an attack.

The Magen David Adom rescue service said it was treating the man who was injured, saying he is in critical condition.

Palestinians have carried out a number of stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks against Israelis in recent years. The army carries out near-daily raids into Palestinian communities in the West Bank that it says are aimed at dismantling militant groups and preventing attacks.

The violence has escalated since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack ignited the war in Gaza.

Gaza polio vaccination campaign has reached over 82% of targeted children, Palestinian health officials say

RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian Health Ministry in the West Bank says an ongoing polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip has reached 82.5% of targeted children.

The ministry said on Wednesday that 527,776 children under the age of 10 have received the first dose of the vaccine across the war-ravaged enclave.

The campaign began earlier this month after the detection of the first confirmed polio case in Gaza in 25 years. It aims at vaccinating about 640,000 children there.

Israel agreed to limited humanitarian pauses to facilitate the campaign, according to the World Health Organization, and there have been no major disruptions from the ongoing war.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is part of the Palestinian Authority, whose forces were driven out of Gaza when Hamas seized power there in 2007 and set up its own government.

The two Palestinian health ministries coordinate with one another and exchange information.

Israeli military helicopter crashes in a non-combat-related incident overnight in Gaza, killing 2 soldiers

TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli military says two Israeli soldiers died and seven were injured when their helicopter crashed in the southern Gaza Strip.

The military said Wednesday that the overnight helicopter crash was not the result of enemy fire and is under investigation. The helicopter was on a mission to evacuate wounded soldiers from Gaza for treatment in Israeli hospitals.

There have been 340 Israeli soldiers killed since the ground operation began in Gaza in late October, at least 50 of whom have been killed in accidents within Gaza — not as a result of combat with Palestinian militants, according to the military.

Dozens of Palestinian patients expected to leave Gaza through an Israeli crossing, heading to the UAE for medical care

JERUSALEM — An Israeli official says dozens of Palestinian patients were expected to leave the Gaza Strip on Wednesday by way of an Israeli crossing, in order to travel to the United Arab Emirates for medical care.

The official says over 200 people, mostly children, are expected to leave, along with relatives to accompany them. It is the biggest exit of medical patients through Israel since the war erupted nearly a year ago.

Gaza has been completely sealed off since May, when Israeli forces captured the Gaza side of the border with Egypt, including the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the coastal strip, leading to its closure. Rafah had been the only entry or exit point for Palestinians, including medical patients, since the start of the war.

Since then, Israel has only allowed a small number of children and accompanying relatives to leave for medical treatment.

Israel’s military offensive, launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, has gutted Gaza’s already fragile health system. With few exceptions, Israel has barred Gaza’s Palestinians from entering Israel throughout the war.

The official says the patients are leaving through the Kerem Shalom crossing and heading to the Ramon airport in southern Israel, where they will board a flight to the UAE.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity pending a formal announcement by Israeli authorities.

— By Josef Federman in Jerusalem;

In his first statement as Hamas’ top leader, Yahya Sinwar thanks Algeria for its support

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Hamas released the first public statement from Yahya Sinwar since he was appointed its overall leader in August.

In the written statement late Tuesday, Sinwar congratulated Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on his reelection and thanked the country for its support for the Palestinian cause. Algeria, the Arab representative on the United Nations Security Council, circulated a draft resolution in May demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and a halt to Israel’s military operation in the southern city of Rafah.

A hard-liner within Hamas, Sinwar would have to approve any potential agreement for a cease-fire and hostage release. The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent most of the year trying to broker such a deal but the negotiations have repeatedly stalled.

Sinwar was one of the architects of the Oct. 7 attack into Israel that ignited the war in Gaza. He has not been seen since the start of the war and is believed to be alive and hiding inside the territory. Israel has vowed to kill him.

Israeli strike kills 5 Palestinians in the West Bank, officials say

RAMALLAH, West Bank — An Israeli airstrike has killed five Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials say.

The Israeli military said it targeted a group of militants in the northern city of Tubas early Wednesday.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in the West Bank confirmed the toll but does not say whether those killed by Israeli fire are militants or civilians.

Israel has stepped up its military raids across the territory in recent weeks and says it is working to dismantle militant groups and prevent attacks. Palestinians say such operations are aimed at cementing Israel’s seemingly open-ended military rule over the territory.

Israel captured the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state. The West Bank has seen a surge in violence since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza ignited the war there.

Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip add at least 20 to the death toll, authorities say

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian officials say Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip have killed at least 20 people, including 16 women and children.

An airstrike early Wednesday killed 11 people, including six siblings ranging from 21 months to 21 years old, according to the European Hospital, which received the casualties. The dead from the strike near the southern city of Khan Younis included three other women, a child and a man, according to the hospital.

A strike late Tuesday on a home in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza killed nine people, including six women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and the Civil Defense first responders. The Civil Defense says the home belonged to Akram al-Najjar, a professor at the al-Quds Open University, who survived the strike.

Israel says it only targets militants, claiming 17,000 militant deaths without providing evidence. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because its fighters are embedded in dense residential neighborhoods. The military rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children.