Live blog: Israel kills 51, wounds scores in Gaza camp strike — Palestine

Blurred image shows bodies of children, who were killed by Israel in air strikes on Maghazi refugee camp, at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza on November 05, 2023.

 Israel kills and wounds dozens in strike on Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, says Palestinian WAFA agency, as Tel Aviv ignores pleas for ceasefire and signals its aggression in Gaza — now in its 30th day — will continue unabated.

Sunday, November 5, 2023

2300 GMT — Israeli military has killed at least 51 Palestinians and wounded dozens others in an air strike on Al Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, Palestinian WAFA agency reported.

A spokesperson for the Health Ministry in Gaza, Ashraf al-Qidra, said a large number of people were killed without giving an exact figure, adding scores of people with severe wounds were laying on the ground of a hospital's emergency ward.

Maghazi is located in the Deir al-Balah Governorate in the central Gaza.

An eyewitness told the AFP news agency that multiple houses had been impacted by an air strike.

"An Israeli air strike targeted my neighbours' house in Al-Maghazi camp, my house next door partially collapsed," said Mohammed Alaloul, 37, a journalist working for the Turkish Anadolu Agency.

Alaloul told AFP his 13-year-old son, Ahmed, and his four-year-old son, Qais, were killed in the bombing, along with his brother. His wife, mother, and two other children were wounded.

0100 GMT — Hezbollah says targeted Israeli soldiers in northern settlement

Hezbollah has said that it targeted several Israeli soldiers inside a home in the settlement of Metula in northern Israel.

The Lebanese group said it inflicted direct casualties among Israeli soldiers.

It added that the attack was in response to the Israeli killing of Lebanese civilians in recent days.

The Israeli army claimed no injuries to its soldiers from the attack by Hezbollah and said fighter jets struck a number of sites belonging to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

0057 GMT — Israel says 345 soldiers killed since October 7

The Israeli army has said it has lost 345 soldiers since the outbreak of fighting in Gaza.

Spokesman Daniel Hagari said at a news conference that four soldiers were killed in Gaza, bringing the death toll to 345.

The Israeli army said 29 soldiers were killed in Gaza since last Tuesday when it started a ground invasion in Gaza.

Hagari said fighting is ongoing across the territory, and the army aims to dismantle the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas.

“The death toll as a result of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip since October 7 is 9,500, including 3,900 children and 2,509 women,” Salama Marouf, the head of the Gaza Media Office, said at a news conference.

Nearly 1,540 Israelis have been killed.                                       

2100 GMT — Biden says progress made on humanitarian pause

President Joe Biden has suggested there have been some advances in US attempts to persuade Israel to pause military strikes on Gaza for humanitarian reasons.

In a brief exchange with reporters as he left St. Edmond Roman Catholic Church in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Biden was asked if there was progress, and he responded, "Yes," but did not share specifics.

This comes after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with his Arab counterparts.

He disagreed with them on the need for an immediate ceasefire and made clear the furthest he would go was backing a pause for aid to reach civilians in Gaza where Israeli strikes continue to take lives of Palestinians, including innocent children and women.