Israel-Hamas War: Israel has moved to 'new phase' of war against Hamas, says defence minister

The Telegram account of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas, said it had shelled Israeli vehicles in north-west Gaza, BBC reported.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan calls on Israel to emerge from what he describes as its “state of insanity” and end military actions.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says Israel has “moved to a new phase” in the war against Hamas, after ground forces pushed into Gaza and the military bombarded terror targets in the Strip overnight, reported the Times of Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces says mortars and anti-tank guided missiles were launched from Lebanon at military positions and Israeli towns on the border, setting off sirens, reports the Times of Israel.

As an Israeli ground offensive in the Gaza Strip looms in its most devastating war yet with Hamas, one of the greatest threats to both its troops and the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped inside the seaside enclave is buried deep underground, AP reports.

Lt. Gen. James Glynn – the US Marine Corps three-star general who went to Israel to counsel the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) – has returned home, according to Marine Corps commandant Gen. Eric Smith, in comments to reporters in DC on Friday, CNN reports. 

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant will meet tomorrow with representatives of the families of those held hostage in Gaza amid concerns for their well-being amid the intensifying operation, the Times of Israel reported.

The World Health Organization has lost contact with its staff in Gaza, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Saturday, CNN reports.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on Saturday said it has killed Rateb Abu Sahiban, the commander of Hamas' naval forces within the Gaza City Brigade in a targeted overnight airstrike, news agency ANI reported.

A Palestinian man was shot dead by a settler as he harvested olives near the village of As-Sawiya, the Times of Israel reported.

Israeli ground forces are inside Gaza having entered the enclave overnight from the north, army spokesman Daniel Hagari said Saturday morning, reports CNN.

Antisemitic and Islamophobic hate crimes have continued to rise dramatically in London since the Israel-Hamas conflict intensified earlier this month, with Scotland Yard gearing up for another set of protests on the streets of London on Saturday.

People gathered at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza on Saturday morning to mourn loved ones lost in a night of intense Israeli airstrikes, CNN reported.

The Israel Defense Forces says its air defenses intercepted a surface-to-air missile fired from Lebanon aimed at an Israeli military drone, reported the Times of Israel.

Calling for unconditional release of hostages, India abstained from a UN General Assembly resolution on the Israel-Palestine conflict as all elements of its approach were not covered in the final text, according to sources

(Report by Vijay Lakshmi)

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Rocket alert sirens sound in Nahal Oz, close to the border with the Gaza Strip, reported The Times of Israel.

Police issue a “clarification” after reports that they would not allow a protest over the failures that led to the October 7 Hamas onslaught to take place this evening outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Caesarea, The Times of Israel reported.

Israel struck targets in the Gaza Strip with stepped-up bombardment and artillery fire overnight into Saturday, knocking out communications and creating a near-blackout of information by largely cutting off the besieged enclave's 2.3 million people from contact with the outside world.

French Jewish groups have set up a helpline to provide support to people in the community traumatized by the latest Israel-Hamas war — from families who have lost loved ones in the Middle East to parents anxious about their children's reaction to the conflict and Holocaust survivors.

The Israel Defense Forces says it carried out an overnight airstrike against a Hezbollah site in southern Lebanon, in response to rocket fire toward Israel yesterday, reported the Times of Israel.

"In the attack flight tonight, about a hundred fighter jets dropped hundreds of weapons and destroyed hundreds of targets of the Hamas terrorist organization," said Israel's Air Force Operations Brigadier General Gilad Keinan.

More than 3,000 protesters marched to the heavily guarded US Embassy in Indonesia’s capital on Saturday to demand an end to the war and bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli Force said that in one of the most intensive nights of bombing so far, it had hit 150 underground targets in northern parts of Gaza, including what it called “terror tunnels, underground combat spaces and additional infrastructure”, BBC reported.

Several United Nations agencies report they have lost contact with their local staff in Gaza, as most of the communication capabilities of the enclave appear to have been interrupted, reported CNN.

Terrorism is a "malignancy" and knows no borders, nationality or race and the world should not buy into any justification of terror acts, India has told the UN General Assembly as it abstained on a resolution on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

US President Joe Biden sends a letter to congressional leaders after ordering strikes on a pair of sites in Syria linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, following a series of attacks on American forces in the Middle East, reported the Times of Israel.

"Overnight, IDF fighter jets struck Asem Abu Rakaba, the Head of Hamas' Aerial Array. Abu Rakaba was responsible for Hamas' UAVs, drones, paragliders, aerial detection and defense. He took part in planning the October 7 massacre and commanded the terrorists who infiltrated Israel on paragliders and was responsible for the drone attacks on IDF posts," said Israel Defence Forces on X.

The Palestinian death toll passed 7,300 as Israel launched waves of airstrikes in response to the bloody Hamas rampage in southern Israel on October 7. The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, which tracks the toll, released a detailed list, including names and ID numbers on Thursday.

In the occupied West Bank, more than 110 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids since the war's start three weeks ago.

"The UN Security Council has to take the General Assembly resolution in order to maximise the political pressure on Israel to stop this war and to save Palestinian civilians. We are grateful to a great majority of European countries who either voted in favour of the resolution or abstained from voting," said Riyad Mansour, Palestinian Ambassador to the UN, after the UN General Assembly approved a resolution calling for a 'humanitarian truce' in Gaza.

India has abstained from UN vote on Israel which didn't mention Hamas attack. The resolution called for an immediate humanitarian truce in the Israel-Hamas conflict leading to a cessation of hostilities. 

Ambassador of Israel to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan says, "We will not sit idly by to let them rearm and commit such atrocities again. We want, just as every single other member state in this room wouldn't. Israel has the right to defend itself, and the realization of this right is to ensure that such atrocities are never repeated. The only way to ensure this is the eradication of Hamas's terror capability."

Explosions seen in Gaza skyline as Israel intensifies ground operations.

Israel begins limited ground raids in Gaza