A look at the top developments from Israel’s war on Gaza:

  • The Ministry of Health in Gaza on Friday released the names of 6,747 people said to have been killed in bombings by Tel Aviv that began after the Hamas-led raids in Israel on October 7, reported The New York Times. The ministry released the list after United President Joe Biden said on Thursday that he had “no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using”. The ministry said it did not name 281 more people who had been killed as their bodies could not be identified. The list has a total of 7,028 people, including 2,665 children. 
  • The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees has warned that “many more will die” in Gaza soon due to the shortages of medicine, food and water. The agency flagged that the besieged territory is on the brink of a massive health hazard. “The siege means that food, water and fuel – basic commodities – are being used to collectively punish more than two million people, among them, a majority of children and women,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
  • The White House on Thursday said that media reports suggesting that the October 7 attack by Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, was linked to plans for an India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor were inaccurate. Although the media reports had claimed that United States President Joe Biden made the statement during a press conference on October 25, he had not made any reference to the corridor. On Thursday, National Security Council’s Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby said that Biden’s remarks had been misunderstood. “What he said was that he believed the normalisation process and agreement we were trying to reach [between Israel and Saudi Arabia]... an important step to a two-state solution... may have motivated Hamas to conduct those attacks,” he added.  
  • At a rally organised in support of Palestine, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday referred to the October 7 assault as a terrorist attack, reported PTI. His remarks have kicked off a row as the Congress Working Committee has reaffirmed its support for the Palestinian cause. Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader M Swaraj alleged that Tharoor’s remarks were pro-Israel and that MP failed to admit that Israel was a “terrorist” nation. Following a backlash, Tharoor issued a clarification that he has “always been with the people of Palestine”.
  • The US on Friday issued a second round of sanctions on Hamas. The US Treasury Department said in a statement that it was targeting a Hamas official in Iran as well as members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. It said that measures will target Hamas’s investment portfolio and individuals who are facilitating sanctions evasion. The action means that US assets of those being targeted would be frozen and that Americans cannot deal with them. 
  • In an emotional speech on Thursday, Palestine’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, called on member countries to “stop the bombs and save lives”, reported the Associated Press. However, Israel’s Ambassador Gilad Erdan declared that his country would not rest until Hamas is obliterated. “Any call for a cease-fire is not an attempt at peace,” he added. “It is an attempt to tie Israel’s hands, preventing us from eliminating a huge threat to our citizens.”