Israel-Gaza war latest updates: Blinken says Israel must do more to reduce civilian deaths
Israeli soldiers rounded up dozens of Palestinian men and stripped them down to their underwear, according to a video apparently filmed in the Beit Lahia area of northern Gaza on Thursday. The U.N. humanitarian affairs office said the men were “stripped, tied, and transferred to an unknown location.” Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the U.N. secretary general, said the pictures were “very concerning.” The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the footage, which was posted on social media by Israeli news outlets and viewed by The Washington Post.
A Thai national who was held hostage in Gaza described being physically abused and kept in bleak conditions during his 50 days in captivity, in a video interview with Reuters.
The city of Rafah in southern Gaza, to which increasing numbers of residents are fleeing, was hit by airstrikes Wednesday night and Thursday morning, according to witnesses.
Aid distribution has largely stopped outside Rafah due to the intensity of fighting in Khan Younis in the south, the U.N. humanitarian affairs office said. It added that Israeli forces were restricting movement from the Middle Area, where aid trucks are stranded, and that access to the north had been cut off for more than a week.
On Thursday, 69 trucks carrying humanitarian supplies and 61,000 liters of fuel entered from Egypt into Gaza, the United Nations said.
The son of Israel’s war cabinet minister, Gadi Eisenkot, was killed while fighting in northern Gaza on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces said. Eisenkot, a retired general, served as the IDF’s chief of staff from 2015 to 2019.
A man fired a shotgun and made “threatening statements” outside an Albany synagogue shortly before Hanukkah began Thursday, leading to a brief lockdown, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said. No one was injured, and the shooter was taken into custody, Hochul said at a news conference. Federal authorities are leading the investigation, which involves a hate-crimes task force.
At least 17,177 people have been killed in Gaza and 46,000 have been wounded since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. At least 1,200 people were killed in Israel during Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.