Israel-Hamas LIVE: Gaza locked in 'total communication blackout' as IDF continue to search Al-Shifa hospital

Israeli forces were searching building to building at Gaza's main hospital Thursday as Hamas said the military had 'destroyed' parts of the compound where deep concern has mounted for the up to thousands of Palestinians trapped inside.

• Soldiers raided the Al-Shifa a day ago in the hunt for a command centre they say the militants built below the complex, a charge denied by Hamas and leaders of the hospital that has become a focal point of the war.
• The Israeli military said it found rifles, ammunition and explosives at the Gaza City complex, as well as computers and equipment containing 'information and footage pertaining to the hostages' taken in Hamas's shock October 7 attack on Israel.
• 'The soldiers are proceeding one building at a time, searching each floor, all while hundreds of patients and medical staff remain in the complex,' an Israeli army official said.
• Ashraf Al-Qudra, spokesman for the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, told AFP Israeli troops 'destroyed the radiology service, and bombed the burns and dialysis departments'.
• 'Thousands of women, children, sick and wounded are in danger of death,' he said.

The Red Crescent said Israeli tanks were laying siege to Gaza's Al-Ahli hospital in a 'violent attack' on Thursday, as Israel accuses Hamas of using health facilities as bases.

'Teams are unable to move and reach those who are injured,' the organisation said on X, formerly Twitter.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said on Thursday it was time to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and that there would be broad support to form a unity government led by Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party.

Centrist Lapid, who served briefly as prime minister last year, said he believed a large majority of the 120 lawmakers in the Knesset, or parliament, would sign on to such a coalition.

He made his comments as Israel pressed on with its military offensive in Gaza following Hamas' deadly Oct. 7 rampage through southern Israel.

'The time has come - we need to establish a national reconstruction government. Likud will lead it, Netanyahu and the extremists will be replaced, over 90 members of the Knesset will be partners in the coalition for healing and reconnection,' Lapid wrote on social media platform X.

The heads of nearly 20 U.N. agencies and international humanitarian groups are speaking out against the creation of a possible 'safe zone' in Gaza unless all sides agree and the right conditions for one are established.

• The call comes as the Israeli army has presented an area in southern Gaza called Muwasi, which is only a couple of square kilometres in size, as a safe zone. It would not be targeted by airstrikes and could be a destination for humanitarian aid.
• 'Under the prevalent conditions, proposals to unilaterally create 'safe zones' in Gaza risk creating harm for civilians, including large-scale loss of life, and must be rejected,' said the heads of the U.N. health, migration, refugee, humanitarian aid and children's agencies, and groups including Mercy Corps, Save the Children and Care International.
• The army has not provided details about how some 2 million people in Gaza would fit into such a small area, and agencies have pushed back against the idea. Meanwhile, army leaflets dropped in southern Gaza have urged people to move.
• 'Without the right conditions, concentrating civilians in such zones in the context of active hostilities can raise the risk of attack and additional harm,' the signatories said. 'No `safe zone' is truly safe when it is declared unilaterally or enforced by the presence of armed forces.'
• The 18 organizations noted the 'mass displacement' already of some 1.6 million people in Gaza.

The Hamas terrorist who paraded festivalgoer Shani Louk's body through Gaza has been killed by Israel, a rabbi has claimed.

The mother of Shani, 23, who was shot dead by Hamas terrorists on October 7, reportedly told a leading rabbi that the terrorist who paraded her body through Gaza on the back of a truck was killed by Israeli forces.

Read the full report by clicking the link below...

The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said a new communications blackout hit the Gaza Strip on Thursday due to a lack of fuel.

'Gaza is again in a total communication blackout, and... it is because there is no fuel,' UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told a press conference in Geneva.

The United States is 'deeply concerned that Jordanian medical personnel in Gaza were wounded in an attack near their field hospital,' White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Thursday.

'Their essential role in conflict must be protected,' Sullivan wrote in a post on X, calling Jordan 'a critical ally.' Jordan said seven staffers were wounded in shelling on Wednesday, according to reports.

South Africa's ruling party said on Thursday it will support a parliamentary motion to suspend diplomatic relations with Israel until it agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza.

• The African National Congress (ANC) said it also backs calls to close the Israeli embassy in Pretoria in protest over the war raging in the Palestinian territory.
• 'We cannot sit back and watch the genocidal actions of the Israeli regime,' said ANC spokeswoman Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri.
• 'The African National Congress will agree to a parliamentary motion which calls upon the government to close the Israel embassy in South Africa and suspend all diplomatic relations with Israel.'
• South Africa recalled all its diplomats from Israel earlier this month.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Thursday called for Gaza hostages to be immediately freed, but asked Israel 'not to be consumed by rage' in its battle with Hamas militants in the Palestinian territory.

'I ask for their immediate and unconditional release,' Borrell said on a visit to a kibbutz targeted by Hamas in the October 7 attacks. 'I understand your fears and pain... I understand your rage. But let me ask you not to be consumed by rage.'

The United Nations human rights chief said on Thursday widespread outbreaks of disease and hunger seemed 'inevitable' in Gaza after weeks of Israeli assault on the densely populated Palestinian enclave.

• Speaking at an informal briefing to states at the United Nations in Geneva after visiting the Middle East, Volker Turk said the depletion of fuel would have a 'catastrophic' impact across Gaza. It would lead to the collapse of sewage systems, healthcare and end the scarce humanitarian aid being supplied.
• 'Massive outbreaks of infectious disease, and hunger, seem inevitable,' Turk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said.
• The World Health Organization has warned of 'worrying trends' in disease spread in Gaza, saying there had been an unusually large number of cases of diarrhoeal disease in the enclave, where bombardments and a ground operation have disrupted the health system, access to clean water and caused people to crowd into shelters.

Israel ordered civilians to leave four towns in the southern part of the Gaza Strip on Thursday, raising fears its war against Hamas could spread to areas it had told people were safe.

• Leaflets dropped overnight from aircraft told civilians to leave the towns of Bani Shuhaila, Khuzaa, Abassan and Qarara, on the eastern edge of Khan Younis, the main southern city. The towns, collectively home to more than 100,000 people in peacetime, are now sheltering tens of thousands more who fled other areas.
• 'The acts of Hamas terrorist group require the defence forces to act against them in the areas of your residence,' the leaflets said. 'For your safety, you need to evacuate your places of residence immediately and head to known shelters.'
• Residents said the area came under heavy bombardment overnight.
• Israel has already ordered the evacuation of the entire northern half of Gaza before sending in its ground forces at the end of October. Long processions of people clutching just a few possessions have made their way south each day under the eyes of Israeli soldiers during six-hour 'tactical pauses' to allow residents to leave.

Saudi Arabia condemned Israel's raid on Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, calling it a 'blatant violation of international law' in a statement Thursday from the Foreign Ministry. It also condemned what it said was shelling near another hospital and called on international bodies to hold Israel accountable.

• Israel says its troops are carrying out a targeted operation in Shifa, where it has long accused Hamas of maintaining an underground command center. Hamas and hospital staff have denied the allegations.
• Israeli forces searching the medical compound since early Wednesday say they have found guns and other indications that Hamas militants were inside, but have not shown any evidence regarding the alleged command center.
• Hospitals can lose their protections under international law if combatants use them for military purposes. Even then, civilians must be given ample time and opportunity to flee and any action must be proportional to the military objective.
• Before the war, Saudi Arabia was in talks with the United States over potentially normalizing relations with Israel.

The UN human rights chief decried Thursday serious allegations of violations of international law in the Israel-Hamas war, suggesting an international investigation was needed.

'Extremely serious allegations of multiple and profound breaches of international humanitarian law, whoever commits them, demand rigorous investigation and full accountability,' Volker Turk said in a briefing on the situation to UN member states, adding 'international investigation is called for'.

The Israeli army on Thursday announced the deaths of two more soldiers in Gaza, raising the number of troops killed in the Palestinian territory to 50 since the war with Hamas militants began.

An army spokesman confirmed the new overall toll to AFP, after announcing two soldiers were killed in combat in northern Gaza on Wednesday.

German police raided 54 locations across the country on Thursday in an investigation of a Hamburg-based center suspected of promoting Iranian ideology and supporting the activities of Hezbollah, the government said.

• The Interior Ministry said the Islamic Center Hamburg, or IZH, has long been under observation by Germany's domestic intelligence agency. It said the activities of the group are aimed at spreading the 'revolutionary concept' of Iran's supreme leader.
• Authorities are also looking into suspicions that it supports banned activities in Germany by Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group, which has repeatedly traded fire with Israel across the Israel-Lebanon border since Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza last month.
• The IZH runs a mosque in Hamburg. The Interior Ministry said German intelligence believes it exerts significant influence or full control over some other mosques and groups, and that they often promote a 'clearly antisemitic and anti-Israel attitude.' It said authorities are examining whether it can be banned, and material seized during the searches will be evaluated.
• Wednesday's raids were carried out in Hamburg and six other German states - Baden-Wuerttemberg and Bavaria in the south, Berlin, and Hesse, North-Rhine Westphalia and Lower Saxony in the west and northwest. In addition to IZH, the investigation is also targeting five other groups suspected of being sub-organizations of it.
• 'We have the Islamist scene in our sights,' Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement. 'Now in particular, at a time when many Jews feel particularly threatened, we tolerate no Islamist propaganda and no antisemitic and anti-Israel agitation.'

Three gunmen attacked a checkpoint near Jerusalem on Thursday, Israeli police said, wounding several people before the attackers were 'neutralised'.

Four people suffered gunshot wounds, including one who was critically injured, said the emergency medical service Magen David Adom in a statement, with another two people lightly wounded.

All those injured were members of security services, according to police.

The attack on a checkpoint guarding access to road tunnels linking the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem came on the 41st day of the war between Israel and Gaza-based Hamas terrorists.

US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he had made it clear to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that a two-state solution was the only way to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict and that occupying Gaza would be 'a big mistake'.

Israel has claimed to have found 'concrete' evidence that Gaza's biggest hospital Al Shifa was being used as a terrorist base after hundreds of commandos raided it early yesterday.

The IDF revealed evidence of weaponry which it said proved the hospital was a terrorist base, with spokesman Lt Col Jonathan Conricus showing a duffel bag hidden behind a hospital MRI machine containing an AK47 assault rifle, grenades, ammunition and a uniform.

He also said a backpack contained 'what appeared to be very important intelligence including a laptop', and added that security cameras in one part of the hospital had been taped over.

Read the full report by clicking the link below.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said a 'very strong force' may need to remain in Gaza for the near future to prevent the Hamas militant group re-emerging after the war.

• 'If we pull back, then who will take over? We can't leave a vacuum. We have to think about what will be the mechanism; there are many ideas that are thrown in the air,' Herzog said in an interview with the FT published on Thursday.
• 'But no one will want to turn this place, Gaza, into a terror base again', he added.
• Herzog told FT that Israel's government was discussing many ideas about how Gaza would be run once the war ends and added that he assumed that the United States and 'our neighbours in the region' would have some involvement in the post-conflict order.

Police in Japan said Thursday they arrested a driver after a vehicle crashed into a temporary barricade near the Israeli Embassy in Tokyo, injuring one police officer.

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said they arrested a 53-year-old man on suspicion of obstructing official duties. The man was unemployed and a member of a right-wing group, police said.

Tokyo police said the suspect suddenly drove into the street where police officers were on duty at the barricade set up to secure the Israeli Embassy, injuring an officer in his 20s. His injury was not life-threatening, police said. Media reports said he had a hand injury.

The alleged motive and whether the embassy was targeted are not known. Demonstrators often gather to protest Israel's attacks on Gaza, and the street near the embassy has been barricaded by Japanese police.

Israeli forces dropped leaflets warning Palestinians to flee parts of southern Gaza, residents said Thursday, signalling a possible expansion of operations to areas where hundreds of thousands of people who heeded earlier evacuation orders are crowded into U.N.-run shelters and family homes.

• Broadening the offensive to the south - where Israel already carries out daily air raids - threatens to worsen an already severe humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory. Over 1.5 million people have been internally displaced in Gaza, with most having fled to the south, where food, water and electricity are increasingly scarce.
• The leaflets, dropped in areas east of the southern town of Khan Younis, warned civilians to evacuate the area and saying anyone in the vicinity of militants or their positions 'is putting his life in danger.' Similar leaflets were dropped over northern Gaza for weeks ahead of the ground invasion.
• Two local reporters who live east of Khan Younis confirmed seeing the leaflets. Others shared images of the leaflets on social media.
• Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday the ground operation will eventually 'include both the north and south. We will strike Hamas wherever it is.'

Israeli fighter jets have struck the house of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza, the Israeli military said on Thursday.

Haniyeh's house was 'used as terrorist infrastructure and often served as a meeting point for Hamas' senior leaders to direct terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF (Israel Defence Forces) soldiers,' the military said.

Israel renewed its operation at Gaza's largest hospital Thursday, targeting what it said was a Hamas command centre nestled among patients, medics and the displaced.

'Tonight we conducted a targeted operation into Shifa hospital,' said Major General Yaron Finkelman, the head of Israeli military operations in Gaza. 'We continue to move forward.'

Gaza's Hamas-controlled health ministry said Thursday that Israeli bulldozers had 'destroyed parts of the southern entrance' of the hospital.

Both Israel and its top ally the United States believe Hamas has a command centre below the Al-Shifa complex, which has become a focal point in the war.

The Palestinian militant group and directors at the hospital have denied the charge.

Before Israel first sent troops into the hospital complex on Wednesday, UN agencies estimated that 2,300 patients, staff and displaced civilians were sheltering at Al-Shifa.

Israel's army claimed an initial raid had uncovered military equipment, weapons and what spokesman Daniel Hagari described as 'an operational headquarters with comms equipment'.