Israel-Hamas War highlights: No prisoner exchange with Israel until war ends, Hamas announces

The Israeli military, IDF said Saturday it had attacked more than 400 "terrorist targets" in the Gaza Strip since a pause in the fighting with Hamas ended the day before.

Air, naval and ground forces were involved, it said, adding that fighter jets hit "more than 50 targets in an extensive attack in the Khan Yunis area" in the south of the territory.

Israel Defense Forces have reiterated their vow to ensure the release of hostages held under Hamas captivity in Gaza.

Israel has shared a video clip of Hamas leader's answer to a question about the number of hostages under captivity in Gaza.

Israel pounded targets in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, intensifying a renewed offensive that followed a weeklong truce with Hamas and giving rise to renewed concerns about civilian casualties.

“This is going to be very important going forward," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday after meetings with Arab foreign ministers in Dubai, wrapping up his third Middle East tour since the war started. "It’s something we’re going to be looking at very closely.”

"Two Syrian fighters working for Hezbollah were killed and seven other fighters working for the group were wounded in Israeli air strikes on Hezbollah sites near Sayyida Zeinab," said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Israeli military said Saturday it had attacked more than 400 "terrorist targets" in the Gaza Strip since a pause in the fighting with Hamas ended the day before.

Belgium's Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said on Saturday that it is unfortunate that violence in Gaza has started again.

"It's unfortunate that the violence has started again. We hope that as soon as possible, more hostages can be liberated. We hope that the humanitarian access could be a permanent humanitarian access," he told reporters at the COP28 Summit in Dubai.

The Hamas said on Saturday that 240 people had been killed in the Gaza strip since a pause in the fighting expired on Friday.

Another 650 people had been injured in "hundreds of air strikes, artillery and navy bombardments, everywhere in the Gaza Strip", it said in a statement, adding that Israeli forces had "particularly targeted Khan Yunis, where dozens of houses were destroyed with their inhabitants inside".

The US on Friday blamed the end of the temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on Hamas, as the Palestinian terror group bombarded central and southern Israel with rocket fire and the Israeli military carried out airstrikes in the coastal enclave.

US Vice President Kamala Harris will lay out key objectives for when the Israel-Hamas war ends and stress that the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank should ultimately be reunified under one governing entity.

The White House said Harris will carry a message about post-conflict Gaza as the region grapples with the fallout from a war that has upended the Middle East.

Pope Francis engaged in a "fraught" conversation with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in late October, addressing the Israel-Hamas war.

According to a Washington Post report, the call was described as tense by a senior Israeli official. Herzog conveyed the profound shock in Israel after the October 7 Hamas attack, to which the Pope responded, stating unequivocally that it is "forbidden to respond to terror with terror," according to the Israeli official.

Blinken’s evolving message has reflected President Joe Biden’s own change in stance as his administration responds to pressure from Arab allies, human-rights activists and Americans back home — especially the left flank of his own party — who believe the civilian death toll has gotten too high.

“I made clear that after the pause it was imperative that Israel put in place clear protections for civilians and for sustaining humanitarian assistance going forward,” Blinken said on the tarmac in Dubai, moments before getting on the plane that would take him home to Washington after another whirlwind trip. “It’s very, very important.”

Within hours of the lapse of a week-old truce between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas which runs Gaza, the enclave's health ministry reported that 54 people had already been killed in Israeli air strikes.

Aid groups and the United Nations say a small fraction of health facilities in the devastated enclave are still functioning and those are in no shape to handle a new wave of casualties.

"Hospitals across Gaza lack the basic supplies, staff and fuel to deliver primary health care at the scale needed, let alone safely treat urgent cases," U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday.

The US and Israel issued a warning over a malicious cyber activity linked to Iran that could affect several industries, including US-based water systems as well as energy and food, Bloomberg reported.

Over the course of the past week Hamas released 80 Israeli women, children and teenagers as part of a truce agreement in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

The Israeli army said Friday that five more hostages had died, bringing the total number to seven, and 136 were still being held.

The government said 125 Israelis, eight Thais, one Nepali, one Tanzanian and a French-Mexican identified as Orion Hernandez-Radoux, 32, by his family.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, confirmed the deaths of several hostages held by the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip, as reported by The Times of Israel on Saturday.

He said, “We are continuing to invest many intelligence and operational efforts, to bring information on the conditions of the hostages.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday that the pause in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict ended due to Hamas, claiming the terror group 'reneged' on commitments.

While speaking to the media at Dubai airport, he said, "I made clear that after the pause it was imperative that Israel put in place clear protections for civilians and for sustaining humanitarian assistance going forward. And as we've seen just today, Israel has already moved out on parts of that, including sending out information, making it clear where people can be in safe areas in Gaza. And we'll be looking at that going forward. It's very, very important."

A protester with a Palestinian flag set herself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta, The Times of Israel reported citing the local police.

The protester remains in critical condition after being intervened by a security guard at the scene. The guard also sustained burn injuries while trying to save the protestor, and his condition remains uncertain, police said.

"We believe that was an act of extreme political protest," Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said during a press conference.

Israel carried out deadly bombardments in Gaza for a second day on Saturday after a week-long truce with Hamas collapsed despite international calls for an extension.

"What we're doing now is striking Hamas military targets all over the Gaza Strip," Israel Defense Forces spokesman Jonathan Conricus told reporters on Saturday.

Israel’s war with Hamas erupted again Friday, as airstrikes hit houses and buildings in the Gaza Strip after a weeklong truce expired. Health authorities reported dozens of Palestinians killed and Israel dropped leaflets over Gaza City and southern parts of the enclave, urging civilians to flee to avoid the fighting.

Israel has informed several Arab states that it wants to carve out a buffer zone on the Palestinian side of Gaza's border to prevent future attacks as part of proposals for the enclave after war ends, Reuters reported citing the regional sources.

According to three regional sources, Israel related its plans to its neighbours Egypt and Jordan, along with the United Arab Emirates, which normalised ties with Israel in 2020.

Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday met relatives of three people seized by Hamas in Israel and now held in Gaza, lending his celebrity to support those whose loved ones are still unaccounted for following the Oct. 7 attack.

Declaring himself "a big friend of the Jewish people and Israel," Schwarzenegger said he wanted to amplify the message not to abandon those who remain captive.

Israeli strikes have killed at least 184 people throughout the Gaza Strip after a weeklong truce collapsed Friday, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Israel said it struck more than 200 Hamas targets.

Militants in Gaza resumed firing rockets into Israel, and fighting broke out between Israel and Hezbollah militants operating along Israel's northern border with Lebanon.