Live updates | Palestinians stay in dire situations in Gaza regardless of Israel’s protected zone

Israel has designated a protected zone in southern Gaza, however its widening air and floor offensive has left Palestinians packed collectively in dire humanitarian situations.

United Nations displays mentioned Thursday {that a} hospital within the southern city of Khan Younis obtained its first supply of provides since Nov. 29. Aid teams are severely restricted by combating and restrictions positioned by the navy. The United Nations estimates 1.9 million folks have been displaced and new navy evacuation orders are squeezing folks into ever-smaller areas. Most lack meals, water and drugs.

Around 1,200 folks have died on the Israeli aspect, primarily civilians killed throughout Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault that triggered the battle. The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza mentioned the loss of life toll within the territory has surpassed 17,100, with greater than 46,000 wounded. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths, however mentioned 70% of the useless had been ladies and kids.

Currently:

– Palestinians attempt to survive battle’s new chapter in southern Gaza.

– Israel designates a protected zone in Gaza. Palestinians and assist teams say it gives little reduction.

– Israel’s battle with Hamas claims extra journalists than any battle in over 30 years, a journalists’ rights group says.

– Find extra of AP’s protection at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.

Here’s what’s taking place within the battle:

JERUSALEM – The Israeli navy mentioned Friday that it discovered weapons and a tunnel beneath the campus of Al-Azhar University in Gaza.

The navy mentioned the tunnel stretched one kilometer (0.6 mile) from the college to a close-by college. It didn’t present video or photograph proof of the tunnel, however launched photographs of weapons it mentioned troopers discovered on the college, together with explosives and rocket components.

The navy mentioned it additionally discovered a Hamas management room with cameras, telephones, walkie-talkies and weapons close to a hospital in northern Gaza, in addition to an extra tunnel entrance. A photograph launched by the navy confirmed a gap to an underground passageway with a ladder stretching downward.

Israel mentioned the discoveries present that Hamas is embedded in civilian zones – a declare central to Israel’s justification for closely hanging civilian areas in Gaza and calling for mass evacuations. Israel says the militants use an in depth tunnel community working beneath civilian infrastructure akin to faculties and hospitals to conduct navy operations.

DAMASCUS, Syria — An Israeli drone strike hit a automotive in southern Syria on Friday, killing 4 folks immediately, two Syrian pro-government media shops reported.

The assault got here a day after the Israeli navy mentioned shells had been fired from Syria towards areas managed by Israeli troops within the Golan Heights.

There was no remark from Israel on the drone strike. Israeli authorities spokesperson Eylon Levy mentioned Friday that the Israeli navy struck quite a few targets in Syria in response to 2 launches on Thursday that fell in open areas.

The newspaper Al-Watan mentioned the strike focused a automotive within the southern city of Baath, and that the our bodies had been taken to a hospital within the Syrian city of Quneitra on the sting of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Sham FM, a pro-government radio station, additionally reported the strike in Baath.

Israel captured the Golan Heights throughout the 1967 Arab-Israeli battle. It annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, a transfer not acknowledged by a lot of the worldwide group.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip – Friends and colleagues of a regionally celebrated poet, editor and professor of English literature in Gaza say he has been killed by an Israeli strike on Gaza City.

Refaat Alareer, a 45-year-old English-language author and activist identified for poems of protest in opposition to Israel’s navy campaigns, was killed Thursday.

Alareer’s loss of life was confirmed by his colleagues at “We Are Not Numbers,” a Palestinian group he helped set up in 2015 that seeks to “tell the stories behind the numbers of Palestinians in the news.”

He was killed alongside along with his brother, sister and her 4 kids in a strike on their home in Gaza City the place they’d stayed regardless of Israeli navy calls for that the inhabitants evacuate south.

On Monday, Alareer wrote on X, previously often called Twitter, that his partitions had been shaking with the thunder of bombing, shelling and gunfire that was getting nearer and nearer. The final poem he wrote and shared on social media learn, “If I must die/let it bring hope/let it be a tale.”

Alareer taught English literature with a deal with Shakespeare at Gaza’s Islamic University and wrote and edited a number of books of poetry and brief tales, together with “Gaza Unsilenced” and “Gaza Writes Back,” that includes the work of younger Palestinian writers from the blockaded enclave.

Alareer drew fierce criticism for his rhetorical assaults on Israel, notably his reward of Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 folks, largely civilians, and kidnapped about 240 others, together with ladies and kids. In an interview with the BBC, he described the rampage as “legitimate and moral.”

“For Refaat, English was a tool of liberation, a way to break free from Gaza’s prolonged siege, a teleportation device that defied Israel’s fences and the intellectual, academic, and cultural blockade of Gaza,” Jehad Abusalim, a Palestinian author and former pupil, wrote on social media.

BAGHDAD – A rocket assault on the sprawling United States Embassy in Baghdad set off alarms Friday morning and triggered minor materials harm however no casualties, U.S. and Iraqi officers mentioned.

It’s the primary confirmed assault on the U.S. Embassy for the reason that starting of the Israel–Hamas battle, hitting Baghdad’s closely fortified Green Zone, which homes Iraqi authorities buildings and embassies on the west financial institution of the Tigris River.

Iran-backed militias in Iraq have claimed duty for dozens of assaults that focused bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria for the reason that Israel–Hamas battle started two months in the past. The U.S. navy says a complete of 78 assaults have been carried out in opposition to U.S. services over the previous weeks of which 37 had been in Iraq and 41 in Syria.

Later Friday morning no particular group had claimed duty, however a U.S. official talking on situation of anonymity consistent with rules mentioned indications are the assaults had been from Iran-aligned militias.

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Associated Press writers Abby Sewell and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.