Israeli strike on ambulance kills 15; Netanyahu rejects US push for ceasefire | Top points

 Israeli strike on ambulance kills 15; Netanyahu rejects US push for ceasefire | Top points

Israel-Hamas war: US State Secretary urged Israel to consider a ceasefire in Gaza to provide aid for citizens in the besieged region. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the idea and stressed on the release of all hostages before any pause in military action.

   

As the war between Israel and Hamas nears its one month with no ceasefire in sight, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the US's call for a ceasefire and stated that his country is "going full steam ahead" unless the hostages held by Palestinian groups are released.

The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who met Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on his third visit since the beginning of the war, said he discussed a humanitarian pause to provide aid to Gaza. However, it was rejected by Israel.

The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) continued its operations in Gaza overnight, and the army reported targeting several Hamas centres and killing numerous operatives.

The health ministry in Gaza said an Israeli air strike on an ambulance being used to evacuate the wounded from besieged northern Gaza on Friday killed 15 and injured 60.

Click here to get latest updates of Israel-Hamas war

Israeli strikes on Gaza have so far resulted in the deaths of at least 9,227 Palestinians, including 3,826 children, since October 7, following the Hamas' attacks on Israel, killing 1,400 people.

LATEST UPDATES ON ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR

• US State Secretary Antony Blinken said he pushed for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, which is under heavy bombardment of Israel.

  The top US diplomat said, "A number of legitimate questions were raised in our discussions today, including how to use any period of pause to maximise the flow of humanitarian assistance, how to connect the pause to the release of hostages, how to ensure that Hamas doesn’t use these pauses or arrangements to its own advantage".

• Israseli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Blinken's call for a pause in Gaza operation and said it will continue untill all hostages held by Hamas area released.

• "I made clear that we are continuing full force and that Israel refuses a temporary ceasefire which does not include the release of our hostages."

• The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said the Israel army has struck an ambulance outside Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital, transporting wounded people from besieged northern Gaza, killing at least 15 and injuring 60. Meanwhile, Israel said its military had identified and hit an ambulance “being used by a Hamas terrorist cell”.

In a statement on the incident, Israel's military said "We emphasize that this area is a battle zone. Civilians in the area are repeatedly called upon to evacuate southwards for their own safety". The statement also said the army is intended to release additional information regarding Hamas' use of ambulance for terror acts.

• The World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was "utterly shocked by reports of attacks on ambulances evacuating patients close to Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, leading to deaths, injuries and damage".

  "We reiterate: patients, health workers, facilities and ambulances must be protected at all times. Always," he wrote on X.

• The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has said they are unable to continue operations in Gaza as the agency is "practically out of business". Over 50 United Nations facilities have been “impacted” by the conflict, including “five direct hits” and 38 people have died in UN shelters. Director of UNRWA, Thomas White, warned that they cannot provide safety to the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians “sheltering under a UN flag”.

• US State Secretary Blinken will meet the Saudi, Qatari, Emirati and Egyptian foreign ministers as well as Palestinian representatives in Amman on Saturday, the Jordanian foreign ministry said.

• The Arab leaders will stress the "Arab stance calling for an immediate ceasefire, delivering humanitarian aid and ways of ending the dangerous deterioration that threatens the security of the region", the ministry said in a statement.
  

• During Blinken's visit to Israel, Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah's chief Hassan Nasarallah warned the United States that the conflict could widen into a regional war if Israel did not stop its assault on Gaza. He also stated his Iran-backed paramilitary group was ready to confront American warships in the Mediterranean.

  "You, the American

• • can stop the aggression against Gaza because it is your aggression. Whoever wants to prevent a regional war, and I am talking to the Americans, must quickly halt the aggression on Gaza," the Hezbollah chief said in his first public address on Friday.

    Meanwhile, the White House said Nasrallah’s speech did not appear to signal the Lebanese terror group is poised to broaden its conflict with Israel.

  • Thousands of Palestinian workers in Israel were deported to the besieged Gaza Strip on Friday as the war with Hamas intensifies. According to the news agency Associated Press, some workers told of violent mistreatment by Israeli authorities in detention centres.

  • 
    

• The Israeli military has not made any formal comment on the release or the allegations by the workers. Israel had announced it was revoking the workers’ permits and would deport them. There are approximately 18,000 Palestinian workers in Israel.

• The French Foreign Ministry has said that the Israeli authorities informed France that a French Institute of Gaza was targeted in an Israeli strike. However, there were no casualties. The ministry said they have "asked Israeli authorities to communicate to us without delay by appropriate (channels) the tangible elements that motivated this decision."

• The Gaza health ministry added a school in the Saftawi area in north of Gaza City hosting displaced civilians and people evacuating south were also hit by Israel, killing at least 20 and 14 people respectively.

  According to Palestinian news outlets, air raids have taken place in western Gaza, north, and Gaza City and Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

•