Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar thanked Lebanon鈥檚 Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah for his support in the ongoing war with Israel in a letter released Friday by Hezbollah鈥檚 media office.
In the letter, dated Monday, Sinwar thanks Nasrallah for the 鈥渂lessed acts鈥 of Iran-backed groups in their support for Hamas since Oct. 7, when Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and . Sinwar called the war 鈥渙ne of the most honorable battles for the Palestinian people.鈥
On Oct. 8, Hezbollah started attacking Israeli military posts along the border, triggering an ongoing exchange of fire that has left hundreds dead.
Gaza's Health Ministry says more than in the territory since the began. It does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count.
The war has caused vast destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza鈥檚 population of 2.3 million, and the United Nations reported the Palestinian economy is in a free fall. The report from the U.N. Trade and Development also warned of 鈥渞apid and alarming economic decline鈥 in the West Bank, citing expanded Israeli settlements, land confiscations, demolition of Palestinian buildings and violence by settlers as dampening economic prospects.
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UN agency says a staffer was killed in an Israeli raid in the West Bank
JERUSALEM 鈥 The U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees says that one of its staffers was shot and killed during an Israeli military raid in the West Bank, the first such shooting of an agency staffer in the occupied territory in more than a decade.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency said Friday that a sniper fatally shot one of the agency鈥檚 sanitation workers on the roof of his home in the Faraa urban refugee camp in the northern West Bank during an Israeli military operation early Thursday. The UNRWA identified the worker as Sufyan Jawwad.
Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani confirmed that Israeli forces had killed the UNRWA employee in Faraa, saying that he had been throwing explosive devices at Israeli troops when he was shot. Shoshani also alleged that Jawwad had a past record of militant activity, without providing evidence.
鈥淭his is yet another example of an UNRWA employee taking active part in terrorist activities against Israel,鈥 Shoshani said.
UNRWA did not immediately respond to the Israeli army allegations.
UNRWA was thrown into crisis earlier this year when Israel accused a dozen UNRWA employees of participating in Hamas鈥 devastating Oct. 7 attacks.
The relationship between UNRWA and Israel has long been tense because of the agency鈥檚 mission to care for Palestinian refugees and their descendants 鈥 now estimated at 6 million spread across the Middle East 鈥 who fled or were pushed from their homes during the 1948 war over Israel鈥檚 creation.
More Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza
CAIRO 鈥 Israeli airstrikes continued to hit Gaza overnight and early Friday, killing at least 12 people in their homes, the Palestinian territory's Civil Defense said.
The strikes hit homes in Deir al Balah鈥檚 Nuseirat Camp as well as in Rafah, it said. In Nuseirat, three people died, including a woman and a child, and eleven others were injured by the strikes. In Rafah, strikes killed five people, including two children, Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal said.
Israeli strikes resumed Friday afternoon, killing another person in Nuseirat and three people in Gaza City.
Bassal said a day earlier that 16 people were killed by airstrikes on Gaza City on Thursday.
The strikes come nearly a day after health workers wrapped up the first round of the polio vaccination campaign during which hundreds of thousands of children were vaccinated. The second dose of the vaccine is expected to be provided in the coming weeks, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
Gaza鈥檚 health ministry said Thursday that 41,119 Palestinians were killed, and 95,125 others were injured since the Israel-Hamas war broke out last October.
Hamas leader Sinwar thanks Hezbollah chief for help fighting Israel
BEIRUT 鈥 The leader of the Palestinian Hamas group thanked Lebanon鈥檚 Hezbollah chief for his support in the ongoing war with Israel in a letter released Friday by Hezbollah鈥檚 media office.
letter came in response to a message sent earlier by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in which he paid his condolence for the July killing of top Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh during a visit to Iran.
In the letter, dated Monday, Sinwar thanks Nasrallah for the 鈥渂lessed acts鈥 of Iran-backed groups in their support for Hamas since the started Oct. 7, calling the war 鈥渙ne of the most honorable battles for the Palestinian people.鈥
A day after the militants' bloody incursion into Israel that started the war, Hezbollah started attacking Israeli military posts along the border, triggering an ongoing exchange of fire. More than 500 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli strikes since Oct. 8, most of them fighters with Hezbollah and other armed groups, but also more than 100 civilians. In northern Israel, 23 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed by strikes from Lebanon.
Officials in Istanbul hold a ceremony for slain Turkish American activist as her body is transported for burial
ISTANBUL 鈥 Turkish officials held a brief ceremony Friday at Istanbul International Airport where the body of a arrived ahead of her funeral and burial in a town on the Aegean coast.
Istanbul Gov. Davut Gul and other officials held prayers in front of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi鈥檚 coffin, which was draped in the Turkish flag, before helping carry it to another plane for the city of Izmir. Her funeral is expected to be held Saturday in the town of Didim, near Izmir.
The was against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to an Israeli protester who witnessed the shooting.
The Israeli military said Tuesday that Eygi was likely shot 鈥渋ndirectly and unintentionally鈥 by Israeli forces. Turkey announced it will conduct its own investigation into her death.
