Israel\u2019s military conducted a \u201ctargeted raid\u201d overnight in northern Gaza and vowed on Thursday to continue ground raids in the coming days, as the United Nations General Assembly met to discuss a proposed resolution for a humanitarian ceasefire. <\/p>\n
Video published by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Thursday showed tanks and armored vehicles, including a bulldozer, moving on a road near a fence in northern Gaza. The tanks fired artillery, and some destruction could be seen nearby. <\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s military will continue raids in Gaza over the coming days, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told a televised press conference later on Thursday. The ground incursions are intended to kill Hamas militants, lay the foundations for an all-out invasion and neutralize explosive devices and reconnaissance posts, he said. <\/p>\n
The raid came as the humanitarian crisis deepens in Gaza, hastened by daily airstrikes and an Israeli blockade on life-saving fuel. Health services have been crippled by power shortages and hundreds of thousands of civilians have been forced to flee their homes amid the bombing campaign. <\/p>\n
Israeli strikes have killed more than 6,850 people in Gaza, including thousands of children, since October 7, according to figures released Thursday by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, drawn from sources in the Hamas-controlled enclave. <\/p>\n
Pressure is building on the international community to persuade Israel to allow\u00a0desperately needed aid into Gaza; the United Nations and several countries in the region have called for an immediate ceasefire, while others advocate for a \u201chumanitarian pause\u201d in fighting. But the world has so far failed to unite around the crisis, nearly three weeks since the outbreak of violence, sparked by Hamas\u2019 gruesome October 7 terror attacks that killed over 1,400 people in Israel and saw over 200 people kidnapped. <\/p>\n
Riyad Mansour, head of the Palestinian Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations, posed a blunt question to UN diplomats on Thursday as he recounted stories of Palestinians killed in Gaza. <\/p>\n
\u201cAlmost all killed are civilians,\u201d Mansour said. \u201cIs this the war some of you are defending?\u201d <\/p>\n
UN member states are now preparing to vote on a draft resolution \u2013 put forward by Jordan on behalf of Arab states \u2013 after repeated failures to find consensus by the organization\u2019s powerful UN Security Council. <\/p>\n
The resolution calls for a \u201ccessation of hostilities,\u201d the release of hostages, and the rejection of \u201cany attempts at forced transfer of the Palestinian civilian population.\u201d But while General Assembly resolutions have political weight, they are non-binding. <\/p>\n
Jordan\u2019s Foreign Minister\u00a0Ayman Safadi told diplomats gathered at the Assembly Hall that \u201ccollective punishment is not self-defense.\u201d He also garnered rare applause inside the chamber as he said, \u201cWe care about all life, about all civilians: Muslim, Christian, Palestinians, Jews, Israelis \u2013 all life.\u201d <\/p>\n
Gilad Erdan, the UN\u2019s Israeli ambassador, offered sharp criticism of the resolution being debated by the Assembly, describing requests for a ceasefire as \u201can attempt to tie Israel\u2019s hands, preventing us from eliminating a huge threat to our citizens.\u201d <\/p>\n
The United States has also rejected proposals for a ceasefire, calling instead for \u201chumanitarian pauses\u201d to allow the desperately needed aid into Gaza. The US has also emphasized its full support for what it calls Israel\u2019s \u201cimperative\u201d to defend itself. <\/p>\n
The European Union on Thursday also called for humanitarian \u201cpauses\u201d in Gaza after a meeting in Brussels, but stopped short of calling for a ceasefire. <\/p>\n
Israel has vowed to wipe out\u00a0Hamas, the militant group which controls Gaza, and has repeatedly said that its current siege of the enclave will be followed by a ground operation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that the decision on when such action would be taken would be decided by Israel\u2019s War Cabinet. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are raining down hellfire on Hamas,\u201d <\/strong>Netanyahu said in a televised address, while claiming Israel has \u201calready eliminated thousands of terrorists \u2013 and this is only the beginning.\u201d <\/p>\n The prime minister also acknowledged for the first time that he will \u201chave to give answers\u201d for the intelligence failures that allowed the worst terror attack in Israeli history, saying it will be \u201cexamined fully\u201d after the war. <\/p>\n Israeli forces said they killed the deputy head of Hamas\u2019 Intelligence Directorate Shadi Barud \u2013 one of the Hamas officials they allege is partially responsible for planning the October 7 attacks \u2013 in a joint statement Thursday from the IDF and Shin Bet, the Israeli Security Agency. The Israeli military later said intelligence reports suggest air strikes have killed a Hamas rocket commander, Hassan Al-Abdullah, who the army says commanded rocket units in the Khan Younis area of Gaza. <\/p>\n The IDF and ISA released footage they claim shows the strikes that killed Barud, showing at least two damaged buildings in Gaza appearing to collapse. Hamas has not commented on the claim. <\/p>\n Israel\u2019s retaliatory air assault on what Israel calls Hamas \u201cterror infrastructure\u201d has since devastated the densely-populated 140-square-mile\u00a0enclave, which had been described by rights groups as an \u201copen-air prison\u201d long before the current war began. <\/p>\n Flattened neighborhoods<\/h2>\n