Fuel Trucks Reach Gaza, 26 Killed in Khan Younis: Israel-Hamas War Enters Week 6 | Updates – News18

The war between Israel and Hamas entered its sixth week on Saturday. The Hamas-led attacks launched on October 7 led to the deaths of more than 1,200 people, mostly Israeli citizens and the Israeli retaliation with airstrikes and siege of Gaza killed 12,000 people, including 5,000 children, according to Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007.

The Israeli ground operation is now concentrated in the north of the blockaded coastal enclave with focus on Al-Shifa hospital which Israel claims is a Hamas control and command centre.

Here are the latest updates from Day 42 of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza:

1. Israeli official Mark Regev, an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israeli officials made a mistake with its estimates of those dead in the Hamas attack. “We had the number at 1,400 casualties, and now we’ve revised that down to 1,200 because we understood that we had overestimated: we made a mistake. There were actually bodies that were so badly burnt, we thought they were ours. In the end, apparently, they were Hamas terrorists,” Regev was quoted as saying by MSNBC.
2. The director of Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis said they received bodies of over 26 people, out of which 23 suffered serious injuries, following an airstrike on a residential building in the southern region’s Hamad city.
3. UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said in an address to the UN General Assembly that asking for a ceasefire is not akin to asking for the moon. “Call it what you will, but the requirement, from a humanitarian point of view, is simple. Stop the fighting to allow civilians to move safely. We are not asking for the moon. We are asking for the basic measures required to meet the essential needs of the civilian population and stem the course of this crisis,” Griffiths was quoted as saying by news agency AFP.
4. Israeli national security advisor Tzachi Hanegbi said that the decision to allow 140,000 litres of fuel in every 48 hours was taken to allow “running of wastewater treatment facilities… which are facing collapse due to the lack of electricity”. Hanegbi said that Israel does not want an epidemic to spread among soldiers and civilians.
5. 140,000 litres (37,000 gallons) of fuel will be allowed in every 48 hours, of which 20,000 litres will be earmarked for generators to restore the phone network, as part of the deal announced by the Israeli cabinet. Communications have been down for two days after fuel ran out, and a first consignment of some 17,000 litres was earmarked for telecommunications company Paltel.
6. Violence has spilled to the West Bank following the war in Gaza. The Israeli army said Friday it had killed at least seven militants in two separate confrontations in the West Bank. The Red Crescent said five people were killed in a strike on the headquarters of Palestinian group Fatah in the West Bank’s Balata refugee camp.