Israel-Hamas war: Israeli troops push further into Gaza City

The Republican-led US House of Representatives has passed a bill to provide $14.3  billion (€13.4 billion) in aid to Israel as it wages war against Hamas militants in Gaza.

The 226-196 vote was largely along party lines, with only a dozen Democrats voting in favor of the bill. 

The legislation was put forward by new House Speaker Mike Johnson and requires that the emergency aid be offset with cuts in government spending elsewhere.

While it gained favor among conservatives, that approach also turned what would typically be a bipartisan vote into one dividing Democrats and Republicans.

The bill now heads to the Senate, where it is likely to fail. 

President Joe Biden has also threatened to veto the bill. 

Senate Democrats are backing broader legislation that would include assistance for both Israel and Ukraine.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says his talks with Israeli leaders on Friday will include "concrete steps that can and should be taken minimize harm" to civilians in Gaza.

"When I see a Palestinian child … pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building, that hits me in the gut as much as seeing a child in Israel or anywhere else," Blinken said.

"This is something that we have an obligation to respond to, and we will."

Blinken spoke to reporters as he departed Washington on Thursday for his second trip to the Middle East since the Hamas terror attacks on October 7.

Israel has responded with a relentless bombing campaign and ground offensive in Gaza, which international aid organizations say is unleashing a humanitarian crisis.

The US has promised its full support to Israel, while at the same time calling for humanitarian "pauses" to let through aid and allow evacuations.

"What we're trying to do is explore the idea of as many pauses as might be necessary to continue to get aid out and to continue to work to get people out safely, including hostages," national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.

The calls for pauses, however, differ from that of an overall cease-fire, which the US continues to oppose, saying it would only allow Hamas time to strengthen and regroup.

On Saturday, Blinken is expected to meet with officials in Jordan. The Jordanian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Thursday that Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi will "stress" to Blinken the "need to move immediately to stop the Israeli war on Gaza."

Following days of an expanded ground operation in northern Gaza, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari said Thursday evening that Israeli troops have "completed the encirclement of the city of Gaza."

The IDF said it had also destroyed Hamas military installations and infrastructure as it advanced on Gaza City from several directions. Military analysts have assessed that completely rooting out Hamas militants in a thickly settled urban area will be a long and arduous process.

"Terrorist infrastructure" had also been targeted in civilian areas, the army said. Hundreds of thousands of civilians remain in northern Gaza. Israel has repeatedly claimed Hamas forces and military assets are embedded in civilian infrastructure.

Israel, as well as the US, Germany, the EU and others, have designated Hamas a terrorist organization.

The UN has called for a humanitarian cease-fire to allow aid to reach civilians. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said that four shelters had been damaged in the past 24 hours. It also said that 20 people were reported killed at a UN school in the Jabaliya refugee camp. 

Hagari told journalists that "the concept of a cease-fire is not currently on the table at all."

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israeli forces had "passed the outskirts of Gaza City" and are "advancing."

"We're at the height of the battle. We've had impressive successes," Netanyahu said in a brief statement.

Since last week, Israel has ramped up a ground offensive in northern Gaza targeting Hamas militants concentrated in Gaza City.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, said in a statement Thursday that Israeli forces are encircling Gaza City from several directions and are "fighting in a built-up, dense, complex area."

"We have advanced another significant stage in the war. The forces are in the heart of northern Gaza," he said.

Halevi added ground forces were being supported by "fire from the air and sea." 

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians remain in the path of the fighting, despite Israel's repeated calls for them to evacuate to southern Gaza, which is also being hit by air strikes.

The armed wing of the militant group Hamas said Thursday it fired a dozen rockets from Lebanon toward the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona near the Lebanese border.

Israel's Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency medical service said two people were wounded.

Separately, the Lebanon-based Shiite party Hezbollah said it had fired on 19 "military positions" in Israel near the border of the two countries.

The Israeli military said its "warplanes and helicopters attacked" Hezbollah positions "in response to fire from Lebanese territory."

Frequent tit-for-tat exchanges of fire have occurred in several locations along the Israel-Lebanon border since the conflict began, mainly between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Hezbollah is considered a terrorist organization by the US, Germany and several Sunni Arab countries, while the EU lists its armed wing as a terrorist group. 

DW spoke with Christopher Resch, press officer at Reporters Without Borders (RSF), about the difficulties of reporting from the Gaza Strip. 

Entry for journalists into the Gaza Strip used to require Israeli authorization, but since the October 7 terror attacks by the militant group Hamas, "Israeli authorities don't allow journalists to enter the Gaza Strip at all," said Resch. 

"Hybrid reporting helps ensure respect for international human rights and humanitarian law," while preventing further violations. "It can be essential and lifesaving in times of conflict," he added. 

"We need independent reporting from inside the strip," said Resch. 

The RSF spokesperson said Israel has a responsibility to not target civilians in Gaza, including journalists. 

"This is why we just filed a complaint two days ago before the International Criminal Court (ICC) detailing possible, I repeat, possible, war crimes while targeting civilian areas," and with this, also "targeting eventually killing Palestinian journalists."

He added that journalists in Gaza are willing to take the risk: "We need the reporting, because otherwise Gaza will turn into an informational black hole."

Resch added that, although the death toll for journalists so far in Gaza is hard to pin down, "12 journalists are confirmed to be killed in connection to their work… There's one in Lebanon, one in Israel and 10 in Gaza."

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff Herzi Halevi said on Thursday that fuel would be allowed into Gaza for hospitals that run out, but under supervision.

"We will watch for when that day arrives. Fuel will be transferred, with monitoring, to the hospitals. We will do everything needed to ensure that it will not reach Hamas infrastructures, that it will not end up serving war aims but the real needs of treating the sick," Halevi said during a televised appearance.

Hospitals and aid organizations in the Palestinian territory have been warning of an impending catastrophe in the event of hospitals running out of fuel, needed for power generation.

Israel has banned fuel delivieries into Gaza as part of its blockade of the strip. Its military argues that the Islamist Hamas, which rules Gaza, is stockpiling fuel and that deliveries could fall into the hands of the group.

The IDF says Hamas — which is designated as a terrorist organization by Israel, Germany, and the US among others — uses fuel to ventilate its tunnel network and also for rockets.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday said Gaza City's Turkish-Palestinian Friendship hospital, which treats cancer patients, was no longer operation after having run out of fuel. 

Israel's military on Thursday said its forces were pressing on toward Gaza City and were engaged in fierce fighting with the Islamist Hamas militant group.

"IDF fighters continue to advance in the Gaza City area and conduct face-to-face battles with Hamas terrorists and deepen the fighting," military spokesman Daniel Hagari told journalists.

"During the night the forces fought against many terrorists who tried to ambush them. At the end of a battle that lasted several hours and included ground fighting and fire support from aircraft and a missile ship, many terrorists were killed," Hagari said.

Meanwhile, another Israeli military spokesperson, Brigadier General Itzik Cohen, said, "We are at the gates of Gaza City," according to the Reuters news agency.

Israel vowed to defeat Hamas after the militant group launched large-scale terror attacks on southern Israel on October 7.

Hamas — designated as a terrorist organization by the US, the EU and other governments —  is headquartered in Gaza City, in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Israel's military has been warning people to make their way south, as it targets the group's leadership and infrastructure.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza on Thursday said that more than 9,000 people had been killed since the beginning of the war with Israel and Hamas.

Doctor Ashraf al-Qudra, a ministry spokesman, said 9,061 people had been killed, including 3,760 children, while 32,000 people had been injured.

The ministry did not provide a breakdown between civilians and fighters in the numbers provided.

Israel has been bombarding targets in the territory since declaring war on the Islamist Hamas militant group after it launched terror attacks on southern Israel on October 7.

Israeli authorities said over 1,400 people, mainly civilians, were killed in the Hamas attacks.

German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck has spoken out about antisemitism in Germany — and in particular an uptick in hate crimes since the Israel-Hamas war began.

In a video posted online, he said Germany's responsibility for the Holocaust meant it was essential that Jews should be able to live "freely and safely in Germany, that they never have to be afraid again to show, their religion, their culture, but this exact fear is now back."

Habeck also said there should be severe consequences for "Israel haters," namely supporters of the radical Islamist militant group Hamas in Germany. In some cases, for non-Germans, he said this could mean deportation.

Read more about Habeck's speech here.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Thursday said at least 242 hostages were being held by the Hamas militant group in Gaza.

Most of the hostages are believed to be alive, according to a statement from IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari.

The hostages were captured by Hamas militants when they launched a large-scale terror attack in southern Israel, during which they killed more than 1,400 people, according to Israeli authorities.

On Monday night, Israel announced that an IDF soldier who was being held hostage was rescued during a military operation. Hamas has released four additional hostages in recent days.

Around 400 foreign passport holders and dozens of injured Palestinians left the Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing to Egypt, according to news agency reports on Thursday. 

They form part of a second group of foreigners and Palestinians with dual citizenship who have been allowed to cross into Egypt from the besieged Palestinian territory.

An Egyptian Red Crescent official told the German DPA news agency that 400 people left the Gaza Strip and gathered on the Egyptian side of the border on Thursday. The French AFP news agency added that between 60 and 100 sick and wounded people would also cross into Egypt. 

Hundreds of foreign nationals and dozens of seriously injured Palestinians were allowed to leave Gaza on Wednesday — the first to be permitted to do so since the start of the current Israel-Hamas war on October 7.

A Qatar-mediated deal between Egypt, Israel and Hamas will allow around 7,000 foreign passport holders from 60 countries to leave Gaza.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced the German government's decision to ban activity by or in support of the Hamas militant group and Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network in Germany.

"With Hamas, I have today completely banned the activities of a terrorist organization whose aim is to destroy the state of Israel," Faeser said on Thursday in a statement.

Faeser said Samidoun's German wing is part of an international network that spreads anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda under the guise of solidarity for Palestinian prisoners. 

Samidoun was behind an action on October 7 in which a group of people handed out pastries in a Berlin street in celebration of Hamas' attack on Israel.

"Holding spontaneous 'jubilant celebrations' here in Germany in response to Hamas' terrible terrorist attacks against Israel demonstrates Samidoun's antisemitic, inhuman worldview in a particularly sickening way," Faeser said, adding that the bans would "put an end to these activities in Germany."

"There is no place for antisemitism in Germany, and we will fight it with all our might," she added.

Germany, the European Union, the United States and several other nations classify Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Hamas' media office said at least 195 Palestinians were killed in two Israeli airstrikes on the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip in the last two days.

At least 777 people were wounded, and 120 were missing, according to the statement.

The refugee camp on the outskirts of the city of Jabaliya is the Palestinian enclave's largest.

Israel's military said the attacks killed two Hamas commanders and other "terror infrastructure under, around and within civilian buildings, intentionally endangering Gazan civilians."

Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by Germany, the United States, the European Union and other nations.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said it will help evacuate around 7,000 foreigners and dual citizens from the Gaza Strip.

The ministry said people from more than 60 nations will be evacuated from Gaza.

Assistant Foreign Minister Ismail Khairat said Egypt was preparing "to facilitate the reception and evacuation of foreign citizens from Gaza through the Rafah crossing."

The statement did not provide further details on when the evacuations would take place.

An unnamed Egyptian official told the AFP news agency that 400 people holding foreign passports and 60 wounded people were expected to cross into Egypt on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Palestinian enclave opened to let people out for the first time since Hamas launched terror attacks on southern Israel on October 7.