Hamas killed 1,200 people and abducted 253 others in its Oct 7 assault on Israel, according to Israeli tallies. The hostages are mostly Israeli but include some foreign nationals.
In response, Israel has overrun Gaza, killing more than 34,000 Palestinians, local health authorities say, in a bombardment that has reduced much of the enclave to a wasteland. More than one million people face famine after six months of war, the United Nations has said.
On Wednesday, Palestinian medics said Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed 15 Palestinians, including four in Rafah.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday there had been incremental progress towards averting “an entirely preventable, human-made famine” in the northern Gaza Strip, but called on Israel to do more.
The first shipments of aid directly from Jordan to northern Gaza’s newly opened Erez crossing were to start on Tuesday, goods were also arriving via the port of Ashdod, and a new maritime corridor would be ready in about a week, Blinken said.
