al jazeera

By Alastair Mccready

    Israeli officials dismiss concerns over settler violence against Palestinians in occupied West Bank after US sanctions four Israeli settlers for their role in undermining ‘peace, security, and stability’.
   Qatar says Hamas has responded positively to receiving proposal to halt the war in Gaza, but that final deal is “weeks” away.
   Israeli Defence Minister Gallant says Rafah, where tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled to escape violence, is Israeli army’s next target for ground assault.
   Palestinians released after being detained by Israeli forces in Gaza share harrowing accounts of suffering and torture while being held in Israel.
   At least 27,019 people have been killed and 66,139 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The revised death toll in Israel from the October 7 Hamas attacks stands at 1,139.

    Attacks on Israel’s north, south as Israeli military plans Rafah operation: Monitors

    Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon carried out six cross-border attacks against Israeli forces in the north of the country on Thursday, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) report.

    Also on Thursday, Palestinian fighters in Gaza – while battling Israeli forces in northern, central and southern areas of the territory – launched rockets and fired mortars into southern Israel.

    In their latest battlefield assessment of the Gaza war, the two US–based think tanks further report that Israeli and Egyptian intelligence officials were said to have met in Cairo for talks on Israel’s operation in southern Gaza, which is reported to target Rafah next.

    Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have crowded into Rafah in recent weeks in the hopes of being spared the intensity of attacks Israel is launching elsewhere in Palestinian territory.

    “Egypt has expressed concern that an operation could create a flow of Palestinian refugees into the Sinai Peninsula,” the ISW/CTP said.

    “Israel has not decided where it will evacuate the civilian population,” the think tanks said, citing an Israeli army radio correspondent.

    A dozen bodies recovered from rubble in Khan Younis: Report

    The bodies of 12 people have been found under the rubble of a house destroyed by an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis, according to local news agency, the Palestinian Information Center.

    The agency said the house was bombed “weeks ago” in the al-Sika area of the city in southern Gaza, but the bodies were only just retrieved.