Latest Developments:
- Hezbollah leader hosts talks with Hamas, Islamic Jihad senior leaders.
- U.S. rejects calls for immediate cease-fire, saying that would only benefit Hamas.
- More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly civilians in the initial Hamas attack on October 7.
- Palestinian death toll in Gaza had reached at least 6,546 people, the majority women and children.
The Israeli military said Wednesday it carried out airstrikes targeting Hamas militant sites in the Gaza Strip, as well as strikes against military sites in Syria.
The military said the targets of the Gaza strikes included Hamas tunnels, munitions warehouses and missile launching stations.
Syrian state media said Israeli attacks killed eight Syrian soldiers and wounded seven others in Daraa province.
Israel’s military said its jets conducted the strikes in response to rockets being launched from Syria toward Israel.
The cross-border attacks come amid worries that the Israel-Hamas war could spiral into a larger regional conflict.
Israel has warned Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon not to join the war.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah hosted senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders for talks Wednesday. A statement said the leaders discussed what to do to achieve victory “for the resistance in Gaza.”
Meanwhile, the U.N. Palestinian refugee relief agency has warned that if it does not receive urgent shipments of fuel, it could be forced to halt its operations in Gaza as early as Wednesday.
Several rounds of aid deliveries have reached Gaza from Egypt this week, but officials described the quantity as vastly insufficient to meet the needs of the Palestinians living with dire shortages of food, water, medicine. The deliveries have not included any fuel.
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said nearly 600,000 people were sheltering in 150 of its facilities in Gaza after fleeing their homes.
“Our shelters are four times over their capacities – many people are sleeping in the streets as current facilities are overwhelmed,” UNRWA said on X.
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Wednesday the death toll in Gaza from more than two weeks of conflict had reached at least 6,546 people, the majority women and children. The Israeli government says more than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel, mostly civilians killed during the October 7 attack by Hamas militants.
With the death toll mounting, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Tuesday for a cease-fire in Gaza, a stance that pushed Israel to call for his resignation.
In Washington, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby also rejected an immediate cease-fire, saying it would only benefit Hamas, which the U.S. lists as a terrorist group. However, Kirby did not rule out a humanitarian pause to allow more aid to be moved into Gaza to assist hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
With Israel planning a ground assault into Gaza, Kirby warned of more bloodshed and civilian casualties to come.
“This is war. It is combat. It is bloody. It is ugly, and it’s going to be messy,” he told reporters at the White House. “And innocent civilians are going to be hurt going forward. I wish I could tell you something different. I wish that that wasn’t going to happen.”
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
