Live blog: Gaza under attack

As things now stand, it’s clear that declarations by Israeli ministers and generals on “a new reality” in the south disguise a different, opposite goal for this war: Protective Edge was carried out in order to restore things to way they were before June 2014. In other words, to maintain the status quo.

Israel has "nothing against the people of Gaza" and wants to help them deal with the "tyranny" of Hamas rule, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News on Thursday.

"I'm not sure the battle is over," he told the cable network's "Hannity" program, a month after the start of the Israel offensive that has claimed nearly 2,000 mostly Palestinian lives.

"I think we've degraded their (Hamas) capabilities significantly," he said, adding there may still remain tunnels dug by Hamas under the Gaza-Israel border that have yet to be found.

"It really depends on whether they want to continue this battle. I think we have to find a peaceful solution, if we can," he added.

He added: "We have nothing against the people of Gaza. In fact, we want to help the people of Gaza who are suffering under this terror tyranny."

Four Palestinians were killed in an explosion in northern Gaza Strip late Thursday, a Health Ministry spokesman said.

"The four were killed in an accidental explosion in northern Gaza Strip," ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qodra told Anadolu Agency.

No details are yet available about the cause of the blast.

Interior Ministry officials could not be reached for comment.

Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah meets with France Consul General in Jerusalem Herve Magro in Ramallah, Westbank.

A group of NGOs and individuals have lodged a complaint with the African Union's human rights body against Egypt's closure of the Rafah border crossing with the embattled Gaza Strip, the target of a recent devastating Israeli military offensive.

"We are seeking expeditious means of getting parties talking about access of immediate relief to the defenseless people of the Gaza Strip," New-York based lawyer and activist Stanley Cohen, who represents Egyptian-American writer Mona Eltahawy as a plaintiff, told Anadolu Agency on Thursday.

The plaintiffs, including the UK-based International Coalition for Freedoms and Rights and Organization for Human Rights as well as the South Africa-based Palestine Solidarity Alliance, submitted their complaint Wednesday to the Gambia-based African Union's Commission on Human and People's Rights.

They accuse Egypt of "creating, contributing to or intentionally compounding an enormous humanitarian crisis" in the embattled coastal enclave – home to some 1.8 million Palestinians.

Hamas leader and former spokesman Ayman Taha has been killed said al-Quds News. 

His body which was found three days ago is at al-Shifa Hospital.

A Hamas official has told Aljazeera that it will commence launching rockets into Israel tomorrow morning at 8 am if the blockade on Gaza is not lifted. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to help retrieve the bodies of two soldiers killed in the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu met ICRC President Peter Maurer on Thursday and asked him to assist in recovering the bodies of Staff Sergeant Oron Shaul and 2nd Lt.Hadar Goldin.

The two soldiers had been killed in battles with Palestinian resistance fighters in the Gaza Strip, which reeled under a month of Israeli attacks since July 7.

The Ezzeddin al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian resistance faction Hamas, have vowed to resume fire on Friday if Israel failed to lift the years-long blockade on the Gaza Strip.

"If the enemy failed to fulfill conditions of the resistance and lift the Gaza siege, we will resume the battle at 08:00am on Friday after the end of the 72-hour ceasefire," a leader of the Qassam Brigades told Anadolu Agency on Thursday.

"Our mujahedeen (fighters) are still ready to carry out their missions," he said.