Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended an Israeli raid on Al Shifa hospital, saying troops uncovered a Hamas command center beneath the facility in Gaza City. His government distributed photos and a video of what it said was a tunnel shaft, amid international pressure to restrain the offensive because plenty of patients and people seeking shelter are still at the site.
Israel now controls Gaza’s harbor, the military said. In the southern city of Khan Younis, people reported that Israel had dropped leaflets telling them to flee to “known shelters.” That’s raising concerns the military may expand its battle against Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the US, outside the north of Gaza, where’s its focused its ground assault so far.
The US and European allies are working on a plan to deploy an international peacekeeping force in Gaza after the war. Meanwhile, the UN said no aid trucks were able to deliver supplies to the besieged enclave on Thursday for the second consecutive day, and none were expected on Friday.
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UN Says No Aid Trucks Entered Gaza for Second Day (5:19 a.m.)
No aid trucks entered Gaza for a second consecutive day on Thursday, the UN said in a daily update. A lack of fuel for trucks is hindering the UN Relief and Works Agency’s ability to receive and distribute goods, it said, adding that no vehicles were expected on Friday either because of a continuing communications shutdown in Gaza.
Blinken Calls Jordanian Official Over Field Hospital Injuries (3:20 a.m.)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called his counterpart in Jordan, Ayman Safadi, to “share his deep concern” about Jordanian medical personnel injured outside the Jordanian Field Hospital in Gaza, the State Department said.
“The secretary reiterated that civilians and medical personnel at hospitals must be protected,” according to a statement.
Netanyahu Says Command Center Was Under Hospital (3 a.m.)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country’s forces had discovered a command center under Al Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip, along with bombs and weapons. The country has faced criticism from leaders in the Middle East and even the West for the raid, given that many patients are still there.
In an interview on the CBS Evening News on Thursday, Netanyahu said “terrorist chieftains and terrorists” had fled the hospital grounds as the Israeli military approached.
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“We’re doing this very gingerly, because we’re trying to do the moral thing, the right thing,” the prime minister said. “To deprive Hamas of having this safe zone in the hospital but at the same time to neutralize its use as a command center for terrorists.”
Blinken Urges Israel to Address ‘Settler Extremist Violence’ (2:15 a.m.)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday discussed clashes between Palestinians and Israeli settlers in the West Bank with Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, according to a State Department statement. Blinken, the department said, “stressed the urgent need for affirmative steps to de-escalate tensions in the West Bank, including by confronting rising levels of settler extremist violence.”
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Early this month, the West Bank Health Authority said eight Palestinians had been killed by settlers since Oct. 7. According to the Israeli military, at least 17 Israelis had been killed by Palestinians in the West Bank since the beginning of the year, many of them settlers. In their call, Blinken and Gantz also spoke about efforts to speed up and enhance the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
Zelenskiy Says Israel-Hamas War Slowing Ukraine Shell Supply (11:44 p.m.)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the shift in focus to the Israel-Hamas war has slowed deliveries of artillery shells to Kyiv, undermining the war effort against Russia.
“Our supplies have decreased,” Zelenskiy told a group of journalists in his office in Kyiv Thursday. “It is life. And it is normal, as everyone is fighting for survival and we should defend ourselves as well.”
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Combatants in the Middle East have sought 155-millimeter shells, a key weapon Ukraine needs to press back Russia’s invasion, the president said. The sudden demand comes at a sensitive moment, as the European Union signals it’s unlikely to fulfill a promise to deliver a million rounds of artillery by March.
US, EU Back UN Force in Postwar Gaza, Adding Pressure on Israel (10:23 p.m.)
The US and its European allies are working on a plan to deploy an international peacekeeping force in the Gaza Strip after the war, according to people familiar with the matter, raising pressure on Israel to bring its military operation to an end as civilian casualties mount.
The people said US and European officials concede big questions remain about whether such an operation would be workable in Gaza, and recognize that Israel remains highly skeptical of such a plan. But they said even discussing the idea may help push Israel to think more about wrapping up the campaign and consider what might come next.
Israeli Troops Uncover Tunnel Shaft at Shifa Hospital (9:27 p.m.)
Israeli forces found an operational tunnel shaft at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Israel Defense Forces Spokesman Daniel Hagari said. In addition, a vehicle containing a large amount of weapons and ammunition was discovered at the hospital. Hagari said the vehicle had been prepared for the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, but had not been used in it.
Israel distributed a 27-second video of what it said was an entrance to the tunnel.
US State Department Defends Israel’s Al Shifa Operation (9 p.m.)
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller pushed back on reporters who questioned Israel’s evidence about the presence of Hamas fighters at Al Shifa hospital, saying the pictures of ammunition and guns that Israeli forces had provided should be sufficient.
“I didn’t know that there was a sort of acceptable threshold level of rifles to be held in hospitals,” Miller said, when asked about images released by Israel showing a small amount of weapons seized during the unfolding military operation at the hospital. “I’m from Texas. Even in Texas, we don’t keep assault rifles in hospitals.”
On Wednesday, fuel was transported into Gaza for the first time via the Rafah crossing from Egypt, Miller said. Before the delivery, the trucks were not able to deliver aid across Gaza, and the warehouses storing aid brought in from Egypt had filled up, leading to a halt in aid deliveries across the border, he said.
Israel Drops Leaflets Telling Gazans to Flee From Around Southern Town (7:30 p.m.)
Residents of the eastern areas of Khan Younis town in southern Gaza shared pictures of flyers in Arabic asking them to evacuate to “known shelters.”
The leaflets raised fears that Israel was preparing to push its military campaign against Hamas farther south to areas it had previously suggested would be safe for civilians.
