Israel's large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, which killed nine Palestinians in various locations, "risks seriously deepening the already catastrophic situation" in the Palestinian territory, UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said. Officials in Jenin said Israeli forces had surrounded the town, blocking access to hospitals and destroying infrastructure. Read our blog to see how the day's events unfolded.
This blog is no longer being updated. For more coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, please click here.
Summary:
- The Israeli army on Wednesday launched a major operation in the north of the occupied West Bank, killing nine Palestinians in several West Bank towns, according to the Israeli military.
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Israel's large-scale military operation Wednesday in the occupied West Bank "risks seriously deepening the already catastrophic situation" in the Palestinian territory, the United Nations said.
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The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday unanimously voted to extend a long-running peacekeeping mission in Lebanon for another year. The vote came just days after the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the Israeli military engaged in one of the most intense exchanges of fire between them over the last 10 months amid fears that Israel's war in Gaza would become a wider regional conflict.
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An Israeli drone strike on a car crossing through a Syrian checkpoint near the border with Lebanon on Wednesday killed three Palestinian fighters and one member of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, two security sources told Reuters.
- At least 40,534 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 93,778 wounded in Israel's war in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave. The Hamas-led October 7 attacks resulted in the deaths of more than 1,190 people, mostly civilians, according to official Israeli figures. Some 250 people were taken hostage, with about 120 remaining in Gaza. Many have been declared dead by Israeli authorities.
Yesterday's key developments:
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Israeli forces rescued a hostage found alone underground in Gaza on Tuesday, freeing a living captive from Hamas’s vast tunnel network for the first time since the October 7 attack that ignited the war.
- US Air Force General C.Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the near-term risk of a broader war in the Middle East has eased somewhat after Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah exchanged fire without further escalation but Iran still poses a significant danger as it weighs a strike on Israel.
About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent. For more on the health ministry’s casualty figures, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
