(MENAFN- Live Mint) "Israel-Hamas War: The war which was triggered by Hamas after the October 7 attack in southern Israel has now reached its 45th day. Israel has now vowed to destroy Hamas after the militant group's October 7 rampage killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted some 240 men, women and children. Fifty-two Israeli soldiers have been killed. Speaking of the Palestinians, more than 11,500 people have been killed, according to Palestinian health authorities. Apart from this, another 2,700 have been reported missing, believed buried under rubble. In the latest development, Israel, the United States and Hamas are close to an agreement to free dozens of women and children held hostage in Gaza.
Here are the Top 10 points to know1. Israel, the United States and Hamas are close to an agreement to free dozens of women and children held hostage in Gaza, in exchange for a five-day pause in fighting, the Washington Post reported on Saturday citing people familiar with the provisions.2. Israel Defence Forces in a recorded conversation with the medical center's director confirmed on Saturday that most patients and staff of Gaza's Shifa Hospital have already been evacuated. However, only the patients left are too sick to evacuate. The officer told the hospital director,“When there is the opportunity and the possibility from a medical point of view, we will coordinate.” The IDF also said it had transferred 6,000 litres of water and over 2,300 kg of food, including fish, canned food, bread, spreads, and dates, to the hospital.3. Israel prepared on Sunday to expand its offensive against Hamas militants to southern Gaza after air strikes killed dozens of Palestinians, including civilians reported to be sheltering at two schools. Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini of UNRWA, the U.N. aid organization for Palestinian refugees, said on social media platform X that Israel bombarded two agency schools in the north where more than 4,000 civilians were sheltered at one of the schools.
4. A spokesperson for Gaza's Hamas authorities said 200 people had been killed or injured at the school. The Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose government controls parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on Saturday said, \"Hundreds of forcibly displaced people were killed\" at the two schools in Gaza.5. The death toll from Hamas' October 7 attack at the Nova Music Festival was raised from 260 to 350, with officials stressing the number could rise more as new information surfaces.6. In an op-ed published in The Washington Post on Saturday, US President Joe Biden dismissed increasing ceasefire calls for Gaza, asserting that it won't bring about peace. He wrote, \"As long as Hamas clings to its ideology of destruction, a cease-fire is not peace. To Hamas's members, every cease-fire is time they exploit to rebuild their stockpile of rockets, reposition fighters and restart the killing by attacking innocents again.\" Further adding, the President said, \"Our goal should not be simply to stop the war for today -- it should be to end the war forever, break the cycle of unceasing violence, and build something stronger in Gaza and across the Middle East so that history does not keep repeating itself.\"7. He also said that Gaza and the West Bank should eventually be \"reunited\" under a new Palestinian Authority, US President Joe Biden. \"As we strive for peace, Gaza and the West Bank should be reunited under a single governance structure, ultimately under a revitalized Palestinian Authority, as we all work toward a two-state solution,\" Biden wrote in the piece published in The Washington Post.8. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not reject Biden's plan, but said the Palestinian Authority \"in its current form is not capable of receiving responsibility for Gaza.\" Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has not condemned the Hamas attack and his senior ministers are celebrating it, the Israeli Prime Minister added.
9. The World Health Organization said Sunday it had led an assessment mission to Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City and determined it was a \"death zone\", urging a full evacuation. \"WHO and partners are urgently developing plans for the immediate evacuation of the remaining patients, staff and their families,\" the United Nations health agency said in a statement, adding that 291 patients and 25 health workers remained inside the hospital.10. According to a survey by the Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD) research firm, slightly more than three in four Palestinians have a positive view of Hamas in the wake of its October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel. The Ramallah-based institute polled 668 Palestinian adults in the southern Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria between October 31 and November 7. The Palestinian poll--the first of its kind since the October 7 attacks--found that 48.2 per cent of respondents characterise Hamas's role as \"very positive,\" while 27.8 per cent view Hamas as \"somewhat positive.\" Almost 80 per cent regard the role of Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigade's \"military\" wing as positive.(With inputs from agencies)
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