Israel-Hamas war latest: Israeli military says it killed 5 more militants in West Bank operation

The Israeli military says it has killed five more militants in a large-scale operation in the occupied West Bank, including a well-known local commander.

There was no immediate Palestinian confirmation on Thursday of the death of Mohammed Jaber, known as Abu Shujaa, a commander in the Islamic Jihad militant group in the Nur Shams refugee camp on the outskirts of the city of Tulkarem.

He became a hero for many Palestinians earlier this year when he was reported killed in an Israeli operation, only to make a surprise appearance at the funeral of other militants, where he was hoisted onto the shoulders of a cheering crowd.

Israel launched a large-scale operation in the West Bank overnight into Wednesday. Hamas said 10 of its fighters were killed in different locations, and the Palestinian Health Ministry reported an 11th casualty, without saying whether he was a fighter or a civilian.

Violence has surged in the West Bank since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza ignited the war there.

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Here's the latest:

US rebukes Israel over attacks on UN vehicles in Gaza

UNITED NATIONS — In a rare rebuke, the United States has sharply criticized Israel’s attacks on U.N. vehicles and called for an end to assaults and threatening rhetoric against the United Nations and humanitarian organizations.

U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood told a U.N. Security Council meeting on the humanitarian situation in Gaza that “The rhetoric has placed — and continues to place — humanitarian actors under increased risk both in Gaza and globally.”

He singled out the Israeli military’s repeated firing at a clearly marked vehicle of the U.N. food agency which was hit by at least 10 bullets as it was moving toward an Israeli military checkpoint at the central Wadi Gaza bridge despite having received multiple clearances from Israeli authorities.

In response, the World Food Program announced Wednesday it is “pausing” the movement of all staff in Gaza until further notice. U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Thursday that all WFP convoys and staff remain on hold, though the staff was in contact with some humanitarian partners who deliver aid in Gaza.

Wood expressed alarm at the WFP incident and said Israel has told the U.S. their initial review said it was “a result of a communication error” between Israeli military units.

Almost 11 months into the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza, Wood said, incidents like the shooting at a WFP vehicle “remain all too common.”

He said the United States is also concerned about the Israeli military firing at a vehicle belonging to the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF.

On July 23, UNICEF said two of its vehicles were hit with live ammunition while waiting at a designated holding point near the Wada Gaza checkpoint, waiting to reunite five children including a baby with their father. It was the second shooting involving a UNICEF car in 12 weeks.

Israeli airstrike kills 9 members of same family in central Gaza

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian medics say that an Israeli airstrike that hit an apartment building in the central Gaza Strip killed nine members of the same family, including five infants and two women.

Members of the al-Taweel family on Thursday lifted up the bodies of five dead babies wrapped in bloodstained shrouds, showing their pale gray faces to journalists gathered outside the hospital morgue.

“These are Israel’s goals!” shouted Osama al-Taweel, as he wept over his grandchildren’s swaddled remains. Medics at the al-Awda Hospital said that one of the women killed in the strike on the nearby Nuseirat refugee camp was pregnant, and her fetus was killed too.

The Israeli military, which has come under mounting international criticism for the thousands of children that have been killed in Gaza, did not immediately offer comment on the target of its attack in Nuseirat. The Israel-Hamas war, now in its 10th month, has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians so far, according to the enclave’s health authorities that don’t distinguish between militants and civilians.

Israel's public health physicians association calls on U.N. to include Israeli hostages in polio vaccination campaign

JERUSALEM — The head of Israel’s association of public health physicians is calling on the United Nations to make sure that Israeli hostages held in Gaza are included in a polio vaccination campaign.

In a letter to the directors of the World Health Organization and UNICEF, Dr. Hagai Levine noted that two young brothers, Kfir Bibas, 1, and Ariel Bibas, 5, are among the hostages. He also said many of the adult hostages are overdue for booster shots.

“Given their vulnerable position and the lack of essential vaccinations, the hostages are at severe risk,” Levine, who also serves as head of the health division for the grassroots forum representing hostage families, wrote in a letter.

WHO announced that it will begin a campaign on Sunday to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of children after a baby contracted the first confirmed case of polio in Gaza in 25 years.

The war erupted after Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage in an Oct. 7 attack.

Over 100 hostages remain in Hamas captivity, though Israel believes about one third of them have died. Hamas has not allowed aid workers access to the hostages.

Israel opposition leader says Netanyahu ignored warning signs ahead of Hamas' October attack

JERUSALEM — Israel’s opposition leader says that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ignored warning signs ahead of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.

Yair Lapid, a former prime minister, said Thursday that he attended a joint security briefing with Netanyahu in August 2023 in which the prime minister’s military secretary warned that things were “heating up” on Israel’s various fronts.

“I can tell you that the danger appeared in the intelligence materials,” Lapid said, accusing Netanyahu of being “bored and indifferent” and ignoring warnings that divisions over his right-wing coalition’s controversial judicial overhaul plan were hurting Israel’s deterrence capabilities.

Netanyahu’s Likud party called Lapid a “liar.”

“The prime minister did not receive any warning of war in Gaza,” it said.

Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, has so far refused to take personal responsibility for Israel’s policy and intelligence failures leading up to Oct. 7. Netanyahu’s rivals have accused him of putting his own political survival ahead of national security.

Israeli military says it has made significant progress in southern city of Rafah

JERUSALEM — An Israeli military official says that Israeli troops have made significant progress in the southern city of Rafah, overpowering Hamas’ battalions and destroying most militant infrastructure.

Speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media, the official told reporters on Thursday that Hamas’ Rafah brigade “has been mostly dismantled and can no longer operate as a military structure.” The official also said Israeli forces destroyed 80% of Hamas’ tunnels dug deep under the surface of Rafah.

The official added that the 52-year-old Israeli Bedouin hostage rescued by Israeli commandos on Wednesday was found in the Hamas tunnel network under Rafah.

The Israeli military estimates that it has killed at least 17,000 fighters – the majority of Hamas’ forces. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant sought to highlight the military’s achievements after meeting with senior military officials Thursday.

“In Gaza, most of the Hamas brigades and battalions have been defeated,” Gallant said.

Some 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes, fleeing multiple times across the territory to escape ground offensives. The Israeli offensive has killed 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the enclave’s health authorities that don’t distinguish between civilians and militants.