Israel-Gaza war latest updates: U.N. head urges Security Council to act on Gaza; Israel’s military enters Khan Younis

The Biden administration said it will impose visa restrictions on people believed to have engaged in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank after it had called for Israel to do more to stop extremist attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinians.

Israel’s security cabinet agreed Wednesday to allow a “minimal supplement of fuel” into southern Gaza to prevent a humanitarian collapse. The move came after the U.S. State Department called on Tel Aviv to allow more aid into the Strip.

The United States would object to any establishment of a buffer zone inside the Gaza Strip, as well as any reduction in the size of Gaza, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a briefing Wednesday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a stern warning to Israel after the head of the Israeli domestic security agency, Shin Bet, vowed to eliminate Hamas officials in neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Turkey and Qatar. “If they dare to take such a step against Turkey and Turkish people, they will be doomed to pay a price which they cannot recover from,” Erdogan said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “Gaza must be demilitarized” after the war, and that only the Israel Defense Forces can accomplish that. He also reiterated his stance that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas would not control Gaza.

The United Nations is struggling to receive incoming aid for Gaza due to a shortage of trucks within the Strip, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. Some trucks are stranded in the Strip’s Middle Area, which has been cut off from southern Gaza, while telecommunications blackouts and “hostilities” near the Rafah crossing have also hindered U.N. staff.

At least 15,899 people have been killed in Gaza, and 42,000 have been wounded since the war began, the Gaza Health Ministry said. At least 1,200 people were killed in Israel during Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.