Israel-Palestine live: Thousands in state of panic as Israel continues to strike hospitals

Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank after a suspected Palestinian killed an Israeli man in a shooting earlier on Thursday.

According to Israeli and Palestinian reports, shops and cars in the Deir Sharaf village near Nablus were set ablaze by settlers. 

Israeli forces scuffled with settlers at the scene to contain the assaults, fearing it would lead to more violence, Palestinian media reported. 

Shortly after fires were reported, gunshots were heard in the village, according to Palestinian outlets. The source of the gunshots was not immediately clear.

Translation: [Israeli] occupation army suppresses settlers during their attack on the village of Deir Sharaf near Nablus, for fear of escalation.

It's the same story in nearly every village in the south Hebron Hills.

Israeli settlers seize livestock, wreck agricultural equipment and destroy the olive groves upon which Palestinian farmers depend for their livelihood.

They arrive armed with M16 machine guns and beat up villagers with their fists, sticks, iron bars, or the butts of their rifles.

Homes are repeatedly ransacked and whatever valuables the Palestinians own are seized.

Women and the elderly are not spared from the violence.

In the 300-strong farming community of She'b Al Butom in the occupied West Bank, the fear of what could possibly come next is etched on the faces of nearly everyone here, young and old.

As they watch and read the latest reports coming out of Gaza - in which more than 9,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli air strikes - attacks here are also on the rise. 

Read more: Israeli settlers promise another Nakba as Palestinians flee West Bank villages

Israeli bombs raining down on Gaza have not spared any area, north or south, nor anyone, be they displaced people sheltering in schools or patients receiving treatment in hospitals.  

On Thursday morning, an air strike hit the crowded Zawaida area in Deir al-Balah, in the central region of the Gaza Strip. One of the wounded was an elderly woman. 

"We were baking bread when Israeli warplanes bombed us," the Palestinian woman, covered in blood from her injuries, told a local journalist.

Since Israel imposed a total blockade on the Gaza Strip early in the war, many bakeries have been bombed and others forced to close due to fuel shortages.

Residents have to queue for up to 10 hours for one pack of bread, in front of the few bakeries that are still running.

An Israeli soldier was seriously wounded in an "incident" on the Egyptian border, Israeli media said, citing the army. 

The exact location and circumstances of the incident were not provided by the military. It was not immediately clear whether if was near the boundary with Gaza or further south. 

The Palestinian Ministry of Health has released updated casualty figures from the ongoing Israeli bombardment of Gaza.

At least 9,061 people have been killed since 7 October, including 3,760 children and 2,326 women, according to officials. At least 32,000 people have been wounded.

The ministry said 256 people were killed in the past 24 hours alone in 15 different "massacres", a word Palestinian officials use to refer to attacks that cause mass deaths at once. 

Around 2,000 people are still missing in Gaza, including 1,100 children. The vast majority of these people are believed to be dead and buried under rubble.

Additionally, Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 131 Palestinians in the West Bank in the same period - a sharp rise from the monthly death toll in the occupied territory.

According to the health ministry, the October deaths take the total number of Palestinians killed this year in the West Bank to over 343.

Palestinian fighters killed an Israeli commander of an armoured brigade's battalion in Gaza, the Israeli army said on Thursday.  

Lt Col Salman Habaka became the 18th soldier to be killed in Gaza in two days of heavy fighting. He is the most senior Israeli soldier to be killed since the ground offensive escalated on Tuesday. 

Reports of close combat continued to emerge since Tuesday in at least four fronts along the outskirts of Gaza's eastern and northern towns and cities.

The Israeli army radio said that "prolonged" and intense fighting took place overnight after Israeli infantry troops were ambushed by Palestinian fighters. The report said 20 Hamas fighters died while the army said it killed "dozens of operatives" without providing further details.

Middle East Eye could not independently verify these claims.  

Hamas has not commented on the reported number of casualties.

Israeli forces killed two Palestinians on Thursday in the West Bank, taking the death toll in the occupied territory to 131 in 27 days of escalating attacks. 

The Palestinian health ministry said Ayham al-Shafi, 14, and Qusai Qaraan, 19, were killed in Al-Bireh and Qalqilya on Thursday morning, respectively. 

A third person, 14-year-old boy Hamdan Hamdan, also died on Thursday from wounds he sustained from Israeli gunfire earlier in the week. 

At least 131 Palestinians, including 33 children, have been killed in the West Bank since 7 October - a sharp rise from the monthly Palestinian death toll in the territory. 

According to the health ministry, the October deaths take the total number of Palestinians killed this year in the West Bank to over 343.

An Israeli settler has been killed in a shooting that targeted the car he was driving in the occupied West Bank, Israeli media said, citing Israeli emergency services. 

 An emotional Ons Jabeur fought back tears in a post-match interview on Wednesday, saying the videos of "children and babies" killed every day have been tough, presumably referring to Palestinians affected by Israeli air strikes in Gaza. 

"I am very happy with the win but I haven't been very happy lately," the Tunisian star said after her first win in the WTA Finals in Mexico's Cancun. 

“It’s very tough seeing children and babies dying every day. It’s heartbreaking," she added.

The three-time grand slam finalist said she would donate part of her prize money to help the Palestinians.

"I can't be happy with this win," she added. "This is not a political message, it is humanity. I want peace in this world. That’s it." 

The Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital in Gaza had ceased operations as a result of the ongoing attacks by Israel and fuel shortages, Turkey’s health minister has said. 

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Fahrettin Koca said the hospital shut down on Wednesday despite repeated warnings.

“The international community has to make a choice between knowingly letting patients die and saving their lives,” said Koca.

“Unfortunately, the international community and relevant institutions have not taken sufficient action to prevent the attacks on the hospital."

Israeli forces dropped munition containing white phosphorus on a UN school sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians in Gaza on Thursday, Al Jazeera said. 

A video shared by Ahmed Hijazee, a Gaza-based video blogger, showed the moment the alleged munition was fired at the school, located in the Beach refugee camp. 

Two Israeli attacks in Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp have left 1,000 people killed, wounded or missing, the Palestinian health ministry said.

At least 195 people were killed in the air strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Another 777 were wounded and 120 are missing, presumed trapped under the rubble of the flattened residential buildings.

The Israeli army said another soldier has been killed by Palestinian fighters in Gaza, raising the number of troops killed in the besieged strip to 17 since the ground attacks expanded on Tuesday. 

The soldier, a commander in the 7007th infantry battalion, died on Wednesday, the army said.  

Good morning MEE readers.

Israeli air strikes intensified early on Thursday morning, as Israel's military continued to try to advance into northern Gaza. Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said that it has hit multiple military vehicles, including Israeli tanks, with rocket fire.

In case you haven't been following our live coverage overnight, here is what you missed over the past few hours:

• US President Joe Biden rolls out a strategy to combat Islamophobia after a poll was released showing support from Arab Americans dropping by more than 40 percent

• Israeli forces launched more overnight raids on West Bank cities

• Several countries in Latin America - Peru, Mexico, and Argentina - issued condemnations of Israel's attacks on the densely populated refugee camp of Jabalia in northern Gaza.

• In response to a protester's demand for a ceasefire, Biden says there should be a 'humanitarian pause' to get captives in Gaza released

• The main generator in Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital has stopped

We're not going anywhere and will continue providing you with live updates throughout the day. For up-to-date information around the clock, follow MEE's live blog and our social media platforms on Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube.

Egypt's foreign ministry has said that it planned to receive 7,000 foreign nationals from Gaza, after it began allowing people to cross into Egypt via the Rafah border on Wednesday.