Israel-Hamas war latest: Oct. 7 mastermind thanks Hezbollah leader for his help attacking Israel

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar thanked Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah for his support in the ongoing war with Israel in a letter released Friday by Hezbollah’s media office.

In the letter, dated Monday, Sinwar thanks Nasrallah for the “blessed acts” of Iran-backed groups in their support for Hamas since Oct. 7, when Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted another 250. Sinwar called the war “one of the most honorable battles for the Palestinian people.”

On Oct. 8, Hezbollah started attacking Israeli military posts along the border, triggering an ongoing exchange of fire that has left hundreds dead.

Gaza's Health Ministry says more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since the Israel-Hamas war began. It does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count.

The war has caused vast destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, and the United Nations reported the Palestinian economy is in a free fall. The report from the U.N. Trade and Development also warned of “rapid and alarming economic decline” in the West Bank, citing expanded Israeli settlements, land confiscations, demolition of Palestinian buildings and violence by settlers as dampening economic prospects.

Here's the latest:

UN agency says a staffer was killed in an Israeli raid in the West Bank

JERUSALEM — The U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees says that one of its staffers was shot and killed during an Israeli military raid in the West Bank, the first such shooting of an agency staffer in the occupied territory in more than a decade.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency said Friday that a sniper fatally shot one of the agency’s sanitation workers on the roof of his home in the Faraa urban refugee camp in the northern West Bank during an Israeli military operation early Thursday. The UNRWA identified the worker as Sufyan Jawwad.

Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani confirmed that Israeli forces had killed the UNRWA employee in Faraa, saying that he had been throwing explosive devices at Israeli troops when he was shot. Shoshani also alleged that Jawwad had a past record of militant activity, without providing evidence.

“This is yet another example of an UNRWA employee taking active part in terrorist activities against Israel,” Shoshani said.

UNRWA did not immediately respond to the Israeli army allegations.

UNRWA was thrown into crisis earlier this year when Israel accused a dozen UNRWA employees of participating in Hamas’ devastating Oct. 7 attacks.

The relationship between UNRWA and Israel has long been tense because of the agency’s mission to care for Palestinian refugees and their descendants — now estimated at 6 million spread across the Middle East — who fled or were pushed from their homes during the 1948 war over Israel’s creation.

More Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza

CAIRO — Israeli airstrikes continued to hit Gaza overnight and early Friday, killing at least 12 people in their homes, the Palestinian territory's Civil Defense said.

The strikes hit homes in Deir al Balah’s Nuseirat Camp as well as in Rafah, it said. In Nuseirat, three people died, including a woman and a child, and eleven others were injured by the strikes. In Rafah, strikes killed five people, including two children, Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal said.

Israeli strikes resumed Friday afternoon, killing another person in Nuseirat and three people in Gaza City.

Bassal said a day earlier that 16 people were killed by airstrikes on Gaza City on Thursday.

The strikes come nearly a day after health workers wrapped up the first round of the polio vaccination campaign during which hundreds of thousands of children were vaccinated. The second dose of the vaccine is expected to be provided in the coming weeks, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

Gaza’s health ministry said Thursday that 41,119 Palestinians were killed, and 95,125 others were injured since the Israel-Hamas war broke out last October.

Hamas leader Sinwar thanks Hezbollah chief for help fighting Israel

BEIRUT — The leader of the Palestinian Hamas group thanked Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief for his support in the ongoing war with Israel in a letter released Friday by Hezbollah’s media office.

Yahya Sinwar’s letter came in response to a message sent earlier by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in which he paid his condolence for the July killing of top Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh during a visit to Iran.

In the letter, dated Monday, Sinwar thanks Nasrallah for the “blessed acts” of Iran-backed groups in their support for Hamas since the Israel-Hamas war started Oct. 7, calling the war “one of the most honorable battles for the Palestinian people.”

A day after the militants' bloody incursion into Israel that started the war, Hezbollah started attacking Israeli military posts along the border, triggering an ongoing exchange of fire. More than 500 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli strikes since Oct. 8, most of them fighters with Hezbollah and other armed groups, but also more than 100 civilians. In northern Israel, 23 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed by strikes from Lebanon.

Officials in Istanbul hold a ceremony for slain Turkish American activist as her body is transported for burial

ISTANBUL — Turkish officials held a brief ceremony Friday at Istanbul International Airport where the body of a Turkish American activist killed by Israeli gunfire arrived ahead of her funeral and burial in a town on the Aegean coast.

Istanbul Gov. Davut Gul and other officials held prayers in front of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi’s coffin, which was draped in the Turkish flag, before helping carry it to another plane for the city of Izmir. Her funeral is expected to be held Saturday in the town of Didim, near Izmir.

The 26-year-od activist from Seattle was killed Sept. 6 following a demonstration against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to an Israeli protester who witnessed the shooting.

The Israeli military said Tuesday that Eygi was likely shot “indirectly and unintentionally” by Israeli forces. Turkey announced it will conduct its own investigation into her death.