Israel-Hamas war LIVE updates: Internet, phone networks collapse in Gaza

The wreckage continues block after destroyed block. The smell is nauseating. Every day, hundreds of people claw through tons of rubble with shovels and iron bars and their bare hands.

They are looking for their children’s bodies. Their parents. Their neighbors. All were killed in Israeli missile strikes. The bodies are there, somewhere in the endless acres of destruction.

Israeli troops conducted building-by-building searches at Gaza’s main hospital, as a new communications breakdown in the territory on Friday exacerbated fears for Palestinian civilians trapped in the facility.

The Al-Shifa hospital has become a focal point for Israeli operations in northern Gaza since soldiers raided the complex on Wednesday, looking for a command center they say the militant group Hamas operates there.

Internet and telephone services collapsed across the Gaza Strip on Thursday due to a lack of fuel, the main Palestinian provider said, causing a potentially prolonged communications blackout as Israel signaled that its offensive against Hamas could next target the south, where most of the population have taken refuge.

Israel released images and a short video of what a spokesman said was a tunnel shaft at the Shifa hospital in Gaza City, as pressure mounted on the armed forces to prove Hamas’ presence at the site of an Israeli raid in recent days.

Hamas and Israel are reportedly engaged in preliminary discussions aimed at reaching an agreement on the release of the hostages. The proposed deal specifically focuses on the potential release of about 50 women and children among the 240 hostages currently held by Hamas in Gaza, The Washington Post reported, citing an Arab diplomat familiar with the negotiations.

Israel is said to be evaluating the proposal, which involves a three- to five-day pause in fighting, increased humanitarian aid to Gaza and the release of an unspecified number of women and children held in Israeli prisons.

Israeli forces on November 15 stormed Al Shifa Hospital, the main medical facility in the besieged Gaza Strip, claiming it was partly used by the Palestinian militant group Hamas as a hideout and for storing weapons.

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German leaders host Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks on Friday, in a highly controversial visit made more explosive by Erdogan’s branding of Israel as a “terrorist state”.

Erdogan has been increasingly critical of Israel’s war against Gaza rulers Hamas, which was triggered after the Islamist gunmen’s deadly attack on October 7 that Israel said killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have said that a Hamas terrorist tunnel was discovered in Shifa Hospital in Gaza.

According to the IDF, IDF troops found another terrorist tunnel at Rantisi Hospital. It further said that a large quantity of weapons and ammunition was found in Al-Quds Hospital.

Israeli airstrikes struck near the Syrian capital Damascus early Friday, causing material damage, the Syrian state news agency reported.

Israel has targeted Syria several times in recent weeks as regional tensions simmer over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

Dozens of the hundreds of police gathered moved from car to car to search for and arrest anti-Israel protesters Thursday as authorities slowly opened the key Bay Bridge heading into San Francisco as the city hosts the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)- the forum.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the shift in focus to the Israel-Hamas war has slowed supplies of artillery shells to Kiev, undermining the war effort as the counteroffensive against Russia stalls.

Combatants in the Middle East have been seeking 155-millimeter grenades, a key component of weapons supplies Ukraine needs to push back Russia’s invasion, the president said. The sudden demand comes at a sensitive moment, as the EU signals it is unlikely to fulfill a pledge to deliver one million rounds of artillery by March.

Israel released images and a short video of what a spokesman said was a tunnel shaft at the Shifa hospital in Gaza City, as pressure mounted on the armed forces to prove Hamas’ presence at the site of an Israeli raid in recent days.

Israeli soldiers found a tunnel shaft used by Hamas militants at Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital, the army said. Following this, the UN expressed concern that no aid would be delivered to Palestinians on Friday via the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

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Israeli soldiers walk by the Al Shifa hospital complex, amid their ground operation against the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, during what they say is a delivery of humanitarian aid to the facility in Gaza City.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz and discussed efforts to increase and expedite the transit of critical humanitarian aid to Gaza, the State Department said Thursday.

The two men discussed efforts to prevent the conflict from expanding and to secure the release of the hostages. Blinken also emphasized the urgent need for affirmative action to reduce tensions in the West Bank, including by confronting rising levels of extremist settler violence, the department said in a statement.

Hamas and Israel are reportedly engaged in preliminary discussions aimed at reaching an agreement on the release of the hostages. The proposed deal specifically focuses on the potential release of about 50 women and children among the 240 hostages currently held by Hamas in Gaza, The Washington Post reported, citing an Arab diplomat familiar with the negotiations.

Israel is said to be evaluating the proposal, which involves a three- to five-day pause in fighting, increased humanitarian aid to Gaza and the release of an unspecified number of women and children held in Israeli prisons.

Israeli troops conducted building-by-building searches at Gaza’s main hospital, as a new communications breakdown in the territory on Friday exacerbated fears for Palestinian civilians trapped in the facility.

The Al-Shifa hospital has become a focal point for Israeli operations in northern Gaza since soldiers raided the complex on Wednesday, looking for a command center they say the militant group Hamas operates there.

Internet and telephone services collapsed across the Gaza Strip on Thursday due to a lack of fuel, the main Palestinian provider said, causing a potentially prolonged communications blackout as Israel signaled that its offensive against Hamas could next target the south, where most of the population have taken refuge.

Israel’s invasion of Gaza has destroyed decades of work to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has set “the entire region on fire,” Jordan’s foreign minister told CNN on Thursday.

“Israel is not producing security for itself by killing innocent Palestinians,” said Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, adding: “It is setting the whole region on fire again, and it has destroyed the hard work that many have done over the decades to ensure that we will come to a peaceful end to this conflict.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz at the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 28, 2023.

Israel is doing everything it can to get civilians out of the way as it battles Hamas in Gaza, including dropping leaflets warning them to flee, but its efforts to minimize casualties were “not successful”, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday called on Israel to take “urgent” action to end settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.