TRANSCRIPT
A fierce and relentless bombing campaign continues in the Gaza Strip as Israel's ground invasion escalates.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his country will not agree to a ceasefire, as tanks begin to roll into Gaza.
Speaking from Tel Aviv during a cabinet meeting, Mr Netanyahu says the Israeli military assault on Gaza is entering its third phase.
“We are in the middle of the war, we have set a clear goal to destroy the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas. We do these things systematically. First of all the breaking phase that has ended. The second stage - crushing from the air that continues all the time. The third stage - the IDF has expanded its ground entry into the Gaza Strip, it is doing it in measured, very powerful steps, making systematic progress one step at a time."
According to the Health Ministry in Gaza, the number of Palestinians killed has reached at least 8,306.
The United Nations has reported that, based on these figures, nearly 70 per cent of those killed in Gaza have been women and children.
The World Health Organisation's regional emergencies director Rick Brennan says the situation in Gaza is a humanitarian disaster.
"It's a disaster on top of a disaster. Health needs are soaring and our ability to meet those needs is rapidly declining. A third of hospitals are non-functioning, 71 percent of clinics are non-functioning. You can't imagine what the conditions are like in those collective centers, or in the homes of the people who have been generous enough to have other families come and stay with them. The living conditions are sub-human."
The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 31 journalists have been killed in the recent violence: 26 Palestinians, 4 Israelis, and 1 Lebanese Reuters journalist.
Reporters Without Borders, an N-G-O which safeguards freedom of information, says their investigation into two strikes from Israel's border into southern Lebanon which killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah and wounded six journalists from Reuters, AFP and Al Jazeera on found that the strikes were in fact a targeted attack.
Jonathan Dagher, the Head of the Middle East Desk at Reporters Without Borders says, based on video evidence and witness testimonies, the group and their vehicles were clearly identified as 'press' and were positioned well away from the border clashes.
"We're publishing the investigation at this moment because it was able to definitely prove that the location where the journalists were standing in Alma Shaab was explicitly targeted not by one, but by two strikes, 37 to 38 seconds apart that come from the east, from the direction of the Israeli border. This is very, very important at this time because it shows that the strike that led to the killing of Issam Abdallah was not an accident. It was a targeted strike to the location where the journalists were standing. And we also have enough information to know that the journalists were clearly identifiable in this place."
Mr Dagher added that there is not enough evidence to conclude definitively that the strike was by Israel and that the group were explicitly targeted for being journalists.
This upsurge of violence follows an attack from Hamas militants, who control the Gaza Strip, where the group killed 1,400 people in Israel in a rampage on October 7th, most of whom were civilians.
The militants also took at least 239 hostages back to Gaza amid the violence.
Today, the Israeli military says it has freed one of their kidnapped soldiers from Hamas captivity during the ongoing ground offensive.
Friends and relatives of the remaining hostages have appealed for their release at a press conference in Tel Aviv.
Shahar Cohen, is a friend of one of the female captives.
"Taking civilian hostages is a crime against humanity. And to you, citizen of the world - you can help too. Stand up, speak out, demand action, appeal to our shared humanity. Remind leaders, they are not just hostages. They are beloved grandmothers, fathers, sisters, and children. Real people with beating hearts waiting to be free."
And abroad, in the United States, fears of bigotry towards Jewish and Muslim people continue in a heated political landscape which has seen some of the country's largest protest demonstrations in recent history.
Jewish students at Columbia University in New York City held a press conference calling on the university administration to better support students.
One student, Yoni Kurtz, says he's witnessed antisemitism and islamophobia on campus.
“With my own eyes. I have witnessed Columbia students resort to bigotry. I've seen them parrot foul anti-Semitic tropes. I've seen them label visibly Muslim students as terrorists. I've seen them roar in approval for calls of violence against civilians. I've seen them take to social media nearly every day of the last three weeks to call for each other's deaths.”
