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The Israeli military says, after 10 hours of fighting, it has taken over a Hamas outpost in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli planes had bombed and destroyed a house in the area. Meanwhile in the south of Gaza, the Hamas-run Palestinian interior ministry says six people were killed in a bombing in Khan Younis.
Israel announced on 28 October that its ground forces would “expand operations” in Gaza. It entered northern Gaza and since then and its military says it has “encircled Gaza City”.
While the Rafah border crossing (from Gaza into Egypt) is today closed, the Israeli military has reopened an evacuation road that allows civilians to move from northern Gaza to the south.
Volker Türk, the UN commissioner for human rights, last night said both Israel and Hamas have committed war crimes. He cited Hamas’s continued holding of hostages and Israel’s “collective punishment” of Palestinians as examples.
Meanwhile another warning of a wider Middle East war came from Hezbollah. The second in command of Hezbollah the powerful Iranian backed militia based in Lebanon has again warned that Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza risks causing the conflict to spill over into surrounding countries.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 10,500 people have now been killed since Israel began its retaliatory strikes. Israel began its campaign after a Hamas attack last month, which saw 1,400 people killed and more than 200 taken hostage.