Live updates | Israel predicts a difficult ground offensive in Gaza to dismantle Hamas tunnels

Israeli forces conducted another ground raid in Gaza in advance of an expected invasion of the Hamas-ruled territory that the country's defense minister said would come soon. U.S. warplanes, meanwhile, struck targets in eastern Syria after attacks on U.S. forces by Iran-backed fighters, adding to regional tensions fueled by the 3-week-old Gaza war.

The Palestinian death toll passed 7,300 as Israel launched waves of airstrikes in response to the bloody Hamas rampage in southern Israel on Oct. 7. The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, which tracks the toll, released a detailed list, including names and ID numbers on Thursday. In the occupied West Bank, more than 110 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids since Oct. 7.

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly civilians slain during the initial Hamas attack. In addition, 229 people — including foreigners, children and older adults — were taken by Hamas during the incursion and remain in captivity in Gaza. Four hostages were released earlier.

Currently:

1. U.S. strikes Iran-linked sites in Syria in retaliation for attacks on U.S. troops

2. How did they get it wrong: Israel-Hamas war has upended years of conventional wisdom

3. Data from the Gaza Health Ministry, questioned after the hospital explosion, has withstood past scrutiny

4. Parts of Gaza look like a wasteland from space. Look for the misshapen buildings and swaths of gray

5. Palestinians plead “stop the bombs” at U.N. meeting, but Israel insists Hamas must be “obliterated.”

6. Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.

Here’s what’s happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war:

NEW YORK — The American humanitarian organization, Project HOPE, says it has had primary health care, surgical and emergency medical supplies positioned in Egypt near the Rafah border crossing for over a week. Those now include emergency surgical equipment designed to support 700 interventions and basic medical supplies to support some 60,000 people for three months.

Arlan Fuller, head of the nonprofit’s emergency response, said the organization is also ready to send Arabic-speaking medical teams from partner organizations in Morocco and Jordan, as soon as they would be allowed to enter the Gaza Strip or treat people coming out of Gaza.

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan appealed to Israel on Friday to “heed Turkey’s call for peace,” warning that the country could find itself in a growing spiral of violence.

Speaking during a joint news conference with Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Fidan said: “Humanity is at a crossroads. Either there will be a great war that will spread all over the world, or a great peace will emerge.”

Fidan continued: “Ignoring the existence of the Palestinians, ignoring the rights of the Palestinians, and applying pressure and cruelty to the Palestinians have not — and will not — bring peace to Israel. If Israel wants to be in peace and security, it must respect the right of the Palestinians to live their own state on their own land.”

Rasmussen defined Hamas as a terrorist organization in an apparent rebuke of Turkish President Recep Tayyip who earlier this week described the militant group as “liberation fighters.”

Fidan said Turkey regards Hamas as a political party “that is part of the Palestinian state system,” but added that this did not mean that Ankara “accepts the killing of civilians.”

BEIRUT — Social media messaging app Telegram has closed down several accounts for the militant Hamas group and its military wing that have been used to release messages and videos related to the Israel-Hamas war.

When clicking on the account of Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, which has nearly 693,000 followers, the page displays a message that reads: “Unfortunately, this channel couldn’t be displayed on your device.” The same message appears when opening the page of Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obeida that has 584,000 followers.

Telegram did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press.

A Google spokesperson, who was not authorized to speak publicly to the media and spoke on the condition of anonymity, confirmed reports that Telegram closed the Hamas pages and said, “the reporting has been accurate.”

The spokesperson said Google Play’s policies require all apps that feature user-generated content to effectively moderate egregious content, including content that promotes terrorist acts, incites violence, or celebrates terrorist attacks.

“When violations are found we take appropriate action,” the spokesperson said.

During the early days of the war, Hamas released graphic images and videos of its attack on southern Israel that left more than 1,400 Israeli civilians and troops dead as well more than 220 who were taken hostages.

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — An early morning airstrike killed at least two people in a Gaza neighborhood where several homes were damaged or destroyed.

The blast rocked Khan Younis hours before dawn, said Yasser Abu al-Arraj, who ran next door to pull a mother, daughter and a son, who was one of those killed, from the wreckage.

“May God avenge us from (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu,” Abu al-Arraj said.

Chunks of concrete, clothing and broken furniture littered the street outside a home where the first floor remained standing.

A woman who survived the attack gestured toward a pile of cinderblocks that had toppled, saying she and the 19 others who survived had to search for each other through a cloud of dust. Nine children huddled on cushions on the other side of the room.

“People of Gaza are being shattered,” she said. “I can’t believe that my kids came out of this alive.”

Boys outside picked through the sea of rubble, looking for anything that could be salvaged.

At another house that was damaged, Soaad Abdulahadi said she had been having breakfast with her children when the ceiling started to collapse.

“We just saw the house falling over our heads,” Abdulahadi said. “Half of them (my family) are in the hospital and the other half are displaced. This is our house, where should we go now?”

WASHINGTON — The White House national security spokesman told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that U.S. strikes on Iranian proxies in Syria were targeting storage and weapons facilities.

“These strikes were in self defense,” John Kirby said Friday.

He spoke hours after American fighter jets launched airstrikes early Friday on two locations linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Pentagon said the strikes were in retaliation for a slew of drone and missile attacks against U.S. bases and personnel in the region that began early last week.

Asked if Iran will retaliate, Kirby said, “It’s not uncommon for them to strike back. If they do, we’ll absolutely do what we have to do to protect our troops and our facilities."

"We’ll be ready for that,” he added.

Speaking about the Israel-Hamas war and the timing of a ground offensive that Israel has announced, Kirby said that “we’re not dictating terms to" the Israelis.

But he echoed President Joe Biden’s comments that if “we can take some time to get more hostages out, that’s something we all want to be looking at.”

In Israel, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Friday that the ground offensive into Gaza will be long and difficult, with the aim to destroy a vast network of tunnels used by the territory’s militant Hamas rulers.

The International Committee of the Red Cross says that 10 of its staffers, including a combat surgery team, entered Gaza on Friday, along with six trucks of medical aid and water purification tablets.

The medical supplies are enough to treat between 1,000 and 5,000 people, the ICRC said, and the water purification tablets can treat 50,000 liters of water.

This crucial humanitarian assistance is a small dose of relief, but it's not enough,” said Fabrizio Carboni, the ICRC’s regional director. “Our surgical team and medical supplies will help relieve the extreme pressure on Gaza’s doctors and nurses. But safe, sustained humanitarian access is urgently needed.”

“This humanitarian catastrophe is deepening by the hour,” he said.

Meanwhile, UNESCO said that since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, more than 200 schools have been damaged in the Gaza Strip — around 40% of all schools there.

BEIRUT — Syrian opposition activists say Iran-backed fighters fired rockets at an oil facility housing U.S. troops in eastern Syria.

The attack came hours after American fighter jets launched airstrikes early Friday on two locations linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Pentagon said the strikes were in retaliation for a slew of drone and missile attacks against U.S. bases and personnel in the region that began early last week.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said six rockets hit al-Omar oil field in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour. The Observatory said it wasn't clear if there were any casualties.

The Observatory said the U.S. strikes earlier Friday wounded seven Iraqi Iran-backed fighters.

MOSCOW — The Kremlin dismissed criticism of a visit to Moscow by a senior Hamas figure, saying that Russia considers it necessary to maintain contacts with all warring parties.

Russia has tried to maneuver carefully over the Israel-Hamas war as it seeks to expand its global clout. The Israeli Foreign Ministry criticized Moscow for hosting Moussa Abu Marzouk, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, and urged Russia to expel him.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it discussed the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip and the evacuation of Russian nationals and other foreign citizens during Thursday’s talks with Hamas.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia considers “it necessary to continue contacts with all the parties and we will certainly continue our dialogue with Israel.”

He wouldn’t comment when asked if Hamas’ visit could hurt Russia-Israeli ties.

Also in Moscow on Thursday was Iran’s deputy foreign minister for political affairs, Ali Bagheri Kani, who told Abu Marzouk that Tehran’s “priority” in negotiations “is an immediate cease-fire, providing assistance to the people and lifting the repressive blockade of Gaza.”

The Iranian official also met with Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, who serves as the Kremlin envoy for the Middle East.

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israeli forces killed four Palestinians in the occupied West Bank during a widescale overnight arrest raid, Palestinian health officials said. A militant commander was among those killed.

Since the Israel-Hamas war erupted on Oct. 7, the death toll in the West Bank has reached 110, making it one of the deadliest periods there in at least a decade.

Palestinian officials said three of the Palestinians were killed when a firefight with local gunmen erupted in the Jenin refugee camp.

The Israeli military said forces responded with live fire when assailants hurled explosive devices and shot at troops in the camp. One of the three killed was a commander for the military wing of the militant Islamic Jihad group, the group said.

Israeli forces killed a fourth Palestinian early Friday morning in the west Bank City of Qalqilya, Palestinian Health officials said.

Israeli forces arrested at least 70 Palestinians in the raid, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, which represents current and former prisoners. Since the start of the war, Israeli authorities have made more than 1,530 arrests of Palestinians in the West Bank.