World News | Live Updates | Israeli Forces Raid a West Bank Refugee Camp as Troops Expand the Gaza Offensive

Jerusalem, Dec 27 (AP) Israeli forces raided a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, killing at least six Palestinians, Palestinian health authorities said Wednesday. The Israeli military also expanded its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip to the densely populated urban refugee camps in the central part of the territory.

Residents reported shelling and airstrikes in the tiny, cramped enclave, including the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, the southern city of Khan Younis and the southern town of Rafah, where tens of thousands have sought refuge in recent weeks. Much of northern Gaza was pounded to rubble weeks ago.

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More than 20,900 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children, have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants among the dead.

About 1,200 people were killed after Hamas raided southern Israel on October 7, with around 240 people taken hostage. Israel says it aims to free the more than 100 hostages who remain in captivity in Gaza.

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Currently:

— The UN appoints a former Dutch deputy premier and Mideast expert as its Gaza humanitarian coordinator.

— An Israeli airstrike in Syria kills a high-ranking Iranian general.

— Biden orders strikes on an Iranian-aligned group after three US troops are wounded in drone attack in Iraq.

Here's what's happening in the war:

ONE HEZBOLLAH FIGHTER, 2 CIVILIANS REPORTED DEAD IN ISRAELI STRIKE

BEIRUT — One Hezbollah fighter and two civilians, a newlywed couple, were killed in an overnight Israeli strike on a family-owned residential building in south Lebanon, residents and state media said Wednesday.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported that an Israeli airstrike hit the building in the centre of Bint Jbeil, about 3 kilometres (1.8 miles) from the border, late Tuesday night. Rescue teams pulled the bodies of Ibrahim Bazzi, his wife, Shorouk Hammoud, and Ibrahim's brother, Ali Bazzi, from the rubble, the agency reported. Another member of the family was wounded.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has been clashing with Israeli forces on the border near-daily since October 8, announced Ali Bazzi's death as a “martyr on the road to Jerusalem,” as it typically does when one of its fighters is killed. The group did not claim Ibrahim Bazzi. Family members in the village told The Associated Press that he was a civilian.

A cousin of the brothers, Hashem Bazzi, said Ibrahim had been living in Australia for the past three years and had returned to Lebanon a few days earlier to bring Shorouk back with him. The couple married a year ago, he said. Afaf Bazzi, the mother of the brothers, said Ibrahim had come after his wife received the visa allowing her to travel to Australia with him.

The Israeli military did not have immediate comment on the incident. Chief military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Wednersday Hezbollah is “trying to drag” Lebanon and the entire region into an “unneccessary” war, and the Israeli military is responding to attacks by targeting Hezbollah infrastructure.

More than 150 people have been killed on the Lebanese side in the clashes, most of them fighters with Hezbollah and allied groups, but also including at least 19 civilians, according to a tally by The Associated Press.

ISRAELI FORCES KILL AT LEAST 6 PALESTINIANS IN A RAID IN THE WEST BANK

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israel's forces raided a refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank, killing at least six Palestinians, Palestinian health authorities said early Wednesday.

According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, an Israeli drone strike hit a group of Palestinians in the Nur Shams refugee camp next to the town of Tulkarem.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said six bodies have been brought to the Thabet Thabet hospital. The Palestinian Red Crescent accused Israeli forces of disrupting ambulances transporting the dead and wounded.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Violence has surged in the West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war started October 7. At least 310 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7, according to the health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)