Israel says it has conducted targeted raids in the central area of the Gaza Strip and struck dozens of Hamas targets
- The Israel Defense Forces said Shadi Barud, the deputy head of Hamas's intelligence arm, was killed in a targeted operation
- The UN's top humanitarian official Martin Griffiths says aid is "barely trickling" into Gaza, after days of warnings over rapidly depleting fuel supplies.
- EU leaders have called for "pauses" in fighting between Israel and Hamas to allow aid to reach civilians
- More than 1,400 people were killed in the initial attacks on Israel by Hamas on 7 October, and Israel says more than 220 are still being held hostage in Gaza
- The Hamas-run health ministry says 7,000 people have been killed since Israeli air strikes on Gaza began.
There has been another incursion into Gaza by the Israeli army overnight.
For the past hour, where we are based in southern Israel - around 10km from Gaza, we have been able to hear heavy sounds of war, thundering across the sea.
The noise of heavy artillery or tank fire, Israeli war planes in the sky and a great pall of smoke drifting from Gaza's direction is a testimony to what is going on there this morning.
Historically, the impulse of the Israelis - their military philosophy - is to dive in, deal with things as they arise, move fast and break things.
But this time there is hesitation. That’s partly down to the character of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who, despite his tough rhetoric, has never led Israel into war.
He has always been very cautious and worried about fallout - and he fears he might face political oblivion, especially if military action goes badly wrong.
Netanyahu is already on trial for serious corruption charges, which could even land him in jail, so there is a self-preservation factor in his head, and that will feed into his habitual sense of self-preservation.
In addition, there are the 229 hostages complicating matters.
Israelis have had time to think about it - and with very strong voices from the families and others saying troops shouldn’t be going into Gaza and putting them at risk, that is undoubtedly a factor in delaying the ground offensive.
I’ve just been at the news conference, held by UNRWA (the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees) boss Philippe Lazzarini, which we covered in our last few posts.
Among other things, he said the UN desperately wants to see fuel flowing into Gaza to power basic services. Israel, though, has claimed that Hamas has stolen fuel from UNRWA and holds up to 500,000 litres of supplies. The Israeli army said earlier this week that UNRWA should “ask Hamas if you can have some".
I pushed Lazzarini on whether this is true. He said he had read media reports about Hamas having up to six weeks' worth of fuel but said he had "absolutely no idea" about it. "I don't know what Hamas has or doesn't have in Gaza," he told me.
He said that, within Gaza, there are fuel reserves of up to 400,000 litres in a depot that remains from a previous deal between Qatar and Israel to bring fuel into the territory (from before this conflict began on 7 October).
Lazzarini said to get access to the fuel, UNRWA needs “deconfliction” agreements with Israel - meaning the UN needs a guarantee from the Israelis that the area is safe for its staff and would not be bombed. He said over the last few days, UNRWA was able to retrieve “some fuel” from this store following such an agreement. But he suggested more remained and it was up to Israel to agree access.
Asked again if Hamas had stolen UN fuel, Lazzarini simply said “no”.
FULL ARTICLE AT: Israel Gaza live news: Israel conducts fresh raids inside Gaza as aid 'barely trickles in' - BBC News
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