Israel rejected the idea of "humanitarian breaks" claimed by the United States in the Gaza Strip, and continues its offensive begun almost a month ago against Hamas, with an “intensified ground operation” ; and strikes, one of which targeted an ambulance. After his meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday in Tel Aviv, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the idea of ”a temporary truce” without releasing the hostages at the hands of of Hamas, numbering at least 240. If the United States is against a ceasefire, it has repeatedly called for pauses in fighting in the face of the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, subject to Israeli bombardments since the Hamas attack on October 7 and a total siege declared two days later. For a senior White House official, the release of the hostages “would require a very significant pause in the conflict”. He spoke on Friday evening of “very serious discussions” underway. The statement came as the Israeli army admitted hitting an ambulance outside Gaza's main hospital, al-Chifa, because the vehicle it said was carrying Hamas members. This assertion was denied by the Palestinian Islamist movement, classified as a “terrorist organization” by Israel, the United States and the European Union. – “Heartbreaking images” – 
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health and the Palestinian Red Crescent, the strike left 15 dead and 60 injured, including civilians in front of the hospital entrance. They said the ambulance was part of a convoy transporting several injured people to Egypt.
An AFP correspondent saw several bodies and injured people next to a damaged ambulance.
The UN chief said he was “horrified” by the strike, adding that the conflict between Israel and Hamas must “stop”. “The images of bodies scattered in the street in front of the hospital are heartbreaking,” added Antonio Guterres in a statement.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said he was “deeply shocked”, recalling that “patients, caregivers, establishments and ambulances must be protected at all times”.
© AFP – Mahmud HAMS
Another strike “targeting” a school transformed into a makeshift camp for displaced people in the northern Gaza Strip killed 20 people and injured dozens more, according to the Hamas health ministry.
Israeli troops have “intensified the ground operation in Gaza City, following the completion of the encirclement of the area,” said spokesperson Daniel Hagari on Friday evening.
The bombings razed entire neighborhoods of the city.
“No warning” –
“There was no warning, the house was targeted by a direct strike. It is completely destroyed,” Hamad Hamada, a 28-year-old resident, told AFP. “Three children from the same family were taken out, the damage is enormous and all the other inhabitants are still under the rubble.”
For almost a month, the 2.4 million inhabitants of the besieged Gaza Strip live under bombardment by Israel, which has also suspended supplies of water, food and electricity.
Since October 21, and the very partial reopening of the Rafah crossing with Egypt, some 420 trucks of humanitarian aid have arrived, according to the UN on Friday.
The territory was already subject to a blockade Israeli land, air and sea since 2007.
Ground operations of the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip © AFP – Simon MALFATTO, Maxence D'AVERSA, Olivia BUGAULT, Sabrina BLANCHARD, Anibal MAIZ CACERES
According to a report published Friday by Hamas, in power in this territory of 362 km2 since 2007, 9,227 people, including 3,826 children, have been killed in Israeli strikes which mainly hit the north of the Gaza Strip, where Israel has promised to annihilate Hamas and its command. But they were also directed to the south of the territory.
“The reality is that we cannot even provide them (the Palestinians) with security under the UN flag,” Thomas White, head of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, lamented by video from Gaza ( UNRWA).
In France, President Emmanuel Macron announced a “humanitarian conference” on November 9 in Paris, also calling for a humanitarian truce, “because the fight against terrorism does not justify sacrifice civilians.
Adding to concerns about the fate of civilians, Israel on Friday began sending back to the Gaza Strip, despite the bombings, thousands of Palestinian workers who had been stuck on its soil for almost a month.
The flow of these exhausted workers – 3,026 according to the UN count, which reports mistreatment during their detention – began to cross the Karem Abou Salem border post (called Kerem Shalom on the Israeli side), between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
“We have been in prison for 25 days and today they brought us here, we have no idea what is happening in Gaza,” Nidal Abed told AFP.
On Friday, 17 wounded and 448 foreigners, including 96 children, were able to leave Gaza towards Egypt via the Rafah border crossing, the only window on the world for the territory, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Health.
The day before, sixty injured Palestinians and some 400 foreigners had left Gaza via this crossing point.
In Israel, at least 1,400 people have been killed according to the authorities since the start of the war, the majority of them civilians massacred on the day of the Hamas attack, of a violence and scale unprecedented since the creation of Israel. in 1948.
The Israeli army has reported 341 soldiers killed since October 7.
– “They are on task” –
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People search for survivors in the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardments in the Bureig refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip on November 2, 2023 © AFP – Mahmud HAMS
In the north, near the Lebanese border, the Israeli army “struck anti-tank firing positions of Hezbollah and a military post of Hezbollah”, ally of Hamas and supported by Iran, in response “to the firing of an anti-tank missile ” Friday from Lebanese territory, said Daniel Hagari.
The leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, accused the United States of being “entirely responsible” for this war, in his first speech since the start of the conflict. He also warned Israel against the “stupidity” of an attack on Lebanon, adding that stopping the “aggression against Gaza” would prevent a regional conflict.
Faced with daily exchanges of fire on the Israeli-Lebanese border, Nahor Duani, a resident of Kiryat Shmona, said he had confidence in his government and his army. “They're hard at work, I just hope it calms down soon.”
Palestinians gathered at the funeral of several men killed in a nighttime raid by the Israeli army on an acmp of refugees near Jenin, in the occupied West Bank on November 3, 2023 © AFP – Aris MESSINIS
These clashes have left 72 dead in southern Lebanon since October 7, according to an AFP count, including 54 combatants of Hezbollah. Six soldiers and a civilian were killed on the Israeli side, according to authorities.
The war has also exacerbated tensions in the occupied West Bank, where more than 140 Palestinians have been killed since October 7 by gunfire. Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to the Palestinian Authority.
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