On Friday, Israel reopened the Gaza humanitarian crossing while a close US ally called for greater moderation in its all-out assault on Hamas. For the first time since late October, Jerusalem came under rocket fire from Gaza, and the Israeli army said that its forces had mistaken the three hostages for a "threat" and shot and killed them.
1) To highlight the intensity of Israel's continuous assault, Israeli forces fatally murdered three hostages on Friday in a Gaza City neighborhood ravaged by fighting. Additionally, an Israeli strike killed a Palestinian journalist south of the besieged area.
2) The hostages were slain in the Shijaiyah neighborhood of Gaza City, where forces and Hamas terrorists have been fighting fiercely in previous days. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the army spokesman, stated that the soldiers incorrectly believed the three Israelis to be a threat and started shooting at them.
3) In the October 7 attack that started the war, more than 240 individuals were kidnapped by Hamas and other militants, and the suffering of the hostages has dominated Israeli public discourse ever since. A strong public movement spearheaded by their relatives has urged the government to take further action to bring them home.
4) Yotam Haim, 28, Samer Al-Talalka, and the other two hostages were recognized as young males who had been kidnapped from Israeli communities close to the Gaza border.
5) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to carry out "a supreme effort to return all the hostages home safely" and referred to their deaths as a "unbearable tragedy."
6) According to the Qatari network, an Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip on Friday left one Al Jazeera journalist dead and his colleague injured. At first, the AFP said that "shrapnel from an Israeli missile attack" had injured cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa and Gaza bureau chief Wael Al-Dahdouh in a Khan Yunis school.
7) John Kirby, the spokesperson for the US National Security Council, stated at a press briefing that "we still don't have any indications" that Israel is "deliberately going after journalists trying to cover this war".
8) The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that since the conflict between Hamas and Israel began on October 7, over 60 journalists and media personnel have perished.
9) According to Israeli officials, the war started on October 7 when Hamas launched an unprecedented offensive on Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing almost 1,200 persons, the most of them were civilians.
10) The Hamas administration claimed that at least 18,800 individuals, primarily women and children, had died in the conflict.