Live updates: Israel-Hamas war

Israel’s military has announced two more soldiers killed in the war, including the son of Gadi Eizenkot, who currently serves as a minister without portfolio and as an observer member of the five-person Israeli war cabinet, Al Jazeera reported. 

A total of 90 Israeli soldiers have been killed since Israel’s major ground offensive in Gaza began.

UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said Thursday he saw promising signs that the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel into the Gaza Strip might be opened soon to allow aid in.

"We're still negotiating, and with some promising signs at the moment, access through Kerem Shalom... that that may be able to open soon," Griffiths told a press conference in Geneva.

The Kerem Shalom checkpoint between Israel and the Gaza Strip was responsible for 60 percent of goods getting into the besieged territory before the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Currently only the Rafah border crossing with Egypt is open.

"We have been arguing for the opening of Kerem Shalom — and not just as an opening to allow trucks to go through Rafah and then up into Gaza, but to go straight through Kerem Shalom up into the northern parts of Gaza, or where the need is greatest," Griffiths said.

"If we get that — the first miracle we've seen for some weeks, but it will be a huge boost to the logistical process... it will change the nature of humanitarian access."

Mass civilian casualties in the war have sparked global concern, heightened by dire shortages caused by an Israeli siege that has seen only limited supplies of food, water, fuel and medicines enter Gaza.

Griffiths added that there were also discussions going on over the possibility of driving aid to the Gaza Strip from Jordan, which borders Israel and the occupied West Bank.

"I have a representative, as we speak, in Jordan, already lining up the potential deliveries of aid by land from Jordan which could come straight through from Jordan over the Allenby Bridge, straight to Kerem Shalom," he said.

Israeli PM Bejamin Netanyahu threatened Lebanon's Hezbollah in a video message posted on microblogging site X.

“If Hezbollah makes a mistake, it will turn Beirut and South Lebanon into Gaza and Khan Yunis,” the post read.

The threat came after the Israeli army said that anti-tank fire from Lebanon hit an Israeli civilian.

The army said it “attacked the sources of the fire using helicopter gunships, tanks and artillery fire”.

A short while ago, Hezbollah claimed a strike on the area of al-Jardah in Israel. It is unclear if this is the strike Israel blames for the civilian casualty, Al Jazeera reported.

UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health Tlaleng Mofokeng said that the “practice of medicine is under attack” in Gaza.

“As a practising medical doctor, I cannot fathom what my Gazan colleagues are enduring. They are working while their colleagues and loved ones are under attack. Many have been killed while treating their patients,” Mofokeng said in a statement.

The UN expert also reiterated her calls for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the occupation of Palestinian territory.

“We bear witness to a shameful war on healthcare workers. This war is raging because of a lack of political leadership. End the war on Gaza, and end it now”.

The health ministry in Gaza says the total number of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks since October 7 is now 17,177, with more than 46,000 others wounded.

In the past 24 hours, 350 Palestinians have been killed, the ministry added.

Heavy urban combat raged in and around Gaza's biggest cities Thursday as the bloodiest-ever war between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas entered its third month since the October 7 attacks.

Vast areas of the besieged territory have been reduced to a rubble-strewn wasteland of bombed-out or bullet-scarred buildings as the death toll has soared above 16,200 according to the Gaza health ministry.

Israeli forces have tightened the noose around major urban centres in their hunt for Hamas over the surprise attack that officials say killed 1,200 in Israel, and to search for 138 remaining hostages.

Israeli forces backed by air power, tanks, and armoured bulldozers were fighting Hamas in Khan Yunis, the biggest city in southern Gaza, as well as in Gaza City and the nearby Jabalia district in the north.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said troops had closed in on the Khan Yunis house of Hamas's Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, 61, and vowed that, although he could flee, "it is only a matter of time until we find him".

US energy envoy Amos Hochstein says he did not think hope should be lost about the normalisation of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel and it remains a goal for his country, despite the continuing war in Gaza.

“I think that not every road is a straight road and sometimes it goes in different directions first. But the goal is still the same,” Hochstein said, speaking on the sidelines of an industry event in the United Arab Emirates.

“I don’t think we are changing directions, I don’t think this conflict should do that. In fact, this conflict should be a doubling down on reminding us that if we don’t go towards regional integration, peace and security – this is the alternative,” Hochstein said.

Before the start of the war, Riyadh and Tel Aviv had signalled they were moving steadily towards a deal to normalise ties, a move that could have reshaped the Middle East. Such efforts were put on ice since October 7.