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NABLUS, Palestinian Territories — Five fighters in the armed wing of the Fateh Party were killed early on Saturday in a rare Israeli air strike on the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent and Fateh sources said.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said the Israeli occupation forces killed five people in Balata refugee camp in Nablus, home to some 24,000 according to the United Nations which manages it.

Witnesses told AFP the strike appeared to have come from a drone, and Fateh sources confirmed the dead were members of the movement founded by Yasser Arafat.

Witnesses said Israeli forces entered the camp on foot after the air strike and destroyed an empty house without causing further casualties.

The air strike came a day after Israel's army said it had killed at least seven people in two separate confrontations in the West Bank.

Until now Jenin, considered the main militant hotspot in the West Bank,  was the only location in the occupied territory to witness air strikes since the Hamas-Israel war started.

The Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah says since the war started more than 200 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, with a spike in army raids and Israeli settler violence.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week urged Israel to act to confront "rising levels of settler extremist violence".

BEIRUT — Israel on Saturday struck an aluminium factory deep in Lebanon, state media said, a week after its furthest strike since border skirmishes began last month.

"An enemy [Israeli] drone fired two missiles at an aluminium factory on the road between Toul and Kfour, setting it on fire," Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) said, without specifying whether there were casualties.

But Kfour Mayor Khodr Saad told AFP two wounded civilians were transported to a hospital in the village.

The factory is about 15 kilometres from the northern borders.

NNA said it was the first strike in the Nabatiyeh region of Lebanon's south since the 2006 war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hizbollah movement.

It also reported Israeli artillery strikes and air raids against several areas in Lebanon's south.

The factory bombardment comes after Israel on November 11 struck a pickup truck on a farm in the Zahrani area on Lebanon's coast, about 45 kilometres  from the Israeli border, NNA said at the time, without reporting casualties.

Hizbollah on Saturday said its fighters shot down an Israeli Hermes 450 drone “using a surface-to-air missile”, in addition to launching five other attacks on Israel’s northern border.

While war continues in Gaza, “all resistance forces... will continue to put pressure on Israel”, senior Hizbollah official Hashem Safieddine said during a speech.

“There is no question today of talking about a ceasefire on one front and not the other,” he added.

At least 90 people have been killed on the Lebanese side in cross-border skirmishes since last month, according to an AFP tally.

GAZA STRIP, Occupied Palestine — Israel renewed its attack on Thursday on Gaza's largest hospital, targeting what it claimed was a Hamas command centre hidden beneath thousands of patients, medics and displaced people.

Both Israel and its top ally the United States say Hamas has built in tunnels below the Al Shifa complex, which has become a focal point in the war.

The Palestinian resistance group and directors at the hospital have denied the charge.

Gaza's health ministry said on Thursday that Israeli armoured bulldozers had "destroyed parts of the southern entrance" of the hospital.

Before Israel first sent troops into the hospital complex on Wednesday, UN agencies estimated that 2,300 patients, staff and displaced civilians were sheltering at Al Shifa.

But with the Hamas-run health ministry saying the death toll from the offensive has now topped 11,500, including thousands of children, calls for a truce are mounting.

Israeli forces claimed an initial raid in Al Shifa had uncovered military equipment, weapons and what spokesman Daniel Hagari described as "an operational headquarters with comms equipment".

The health ministry in Gaza said on Wednesday the Israeli military did not find any weapons when it raided the hospital.

Witnesses have described conditions inside the hospital as horrific, with medical procedures performed without anaesthetic, families with scant food or water living in corridors, and the stench of decomposing corpses filling the air.

"The protection of newborns, patients, medical staff and all civilians must override all other concerns," UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said. "Hospitals are not battlegrounds."

A journalist in contact with AFP, trapped inside Al Shifa, said that Israeli soldiers, some wearing face masks, shot in the air and ordered young men to surrender when they first entered the facility.

About 1,000 male Palestinians, hands above their heads, were led into the courtyard, some in  their underwear, by Israeli soldiers checking them for weapons or explosives, the journalist said.

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s parliament opened debate Thursday on Sweden’s NATO aspirations as it neared meeting a major Western defence alliance objective despite its fury at Israel’s war with Hamas.

The discussions in parliament’s foreign affairs committee represent an important moment for both European security and Turkey’s relations with the West.

Sweden and Finland dropped decades of military non-alignment and sought the nuclear protection afforded by the US-led organisation in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

Their bids won fast-track approval by all other NATO members except for Turkey and Hungary.

The two ultimately relented and accepted Finland into the bloc this year.

The step roughly doubled the length of NATO’s border with Russia and strengthened the security of three tiny Baltic nations that joined the bloc after the Soviet Union’s collapse.

But Turkey has vented fury at Sweden — a liberal Nordic nation that opened its doors to migrants in past decades — for refusing to crack down on Kurdish support groups that Ankara views as “terrorists”.

Hungary has been following Turkey’s lead in the 18-month saga.

Western allies worry that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is using his close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin to undermine NATO and sow divisions in Europe.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan formally signed off on Sweden’s application at a raucous NATO summit in July.

But NATO hopes that Turkey would finally ratify the bid when parliament returned from summer recess receded as war returned to the Middle East.

‘Balancing act’

The Hamas-run health ministry says the death toll from Israel’s Gaza offensive has now topped 11,500 and includes thousands of children.

Erdogan continues to voice occasional displeasure at Sweden for allowing Kurdish groups that Ankara has outlawed to march in Stockholm.

But he has focused most of his anger at Israel and the West for the scale of the civilian toll of the Gaza war.

Erdogan has called Israel a “terror state” that was being used as a “pawn” to project the interests of the United States in the Middle East.

He has also warned that a broader war between “the cross and the crescent” was breaking out between Israel’s mostly Christian Western allies and the Muslim world.

His impassioned speeches are replayed throughout the day on Turkish television and feed bubbling anger at Israel across the mostly Muslim but officially secular nation.

Erdogan led a Palestinian support rally in October that he claimed brought 1.5 million people out on the streets of Istanbul.

Yet, Turkey has developed a reputation for pragmatism in its foreign relations during Erdogan’s two-decade rule.

Eurasia Group analyst Emre Peker predicted that “Erdogan’s outbursts will not derail [Turkey’s] foreign policy balancing act”.

Turkey is keen to win approval from the US Congress for a major F-16 fighter jet package that Washington has made conditional on Sweden’s NATO bid.

Erdogan’s decision to submit Sweden’s application for parliamentary approval “was intended to showcase Turkey’s key role in — and commitment to — the alliance”, Peker wrote in a report.

Erdogan controls parliament through an alliance with a far-right group.

The full chamber is expected to vote through the application shortly after its approval by the foreign affairs committee this month.

GAZA STRIP, Occupied Palestine — Israeli troops on Wednesday raided and then combed through Gaza's main hospital, raising fears for thousands of patients and other civilians trapped inside.

Both Israel and its top ally the United States say the Palestinian fighters have a command centre below the Al Shifa complex, a charge denied by Hamas and leaders of the hospital that has become a focal point in the 40-day-old war.

Israeli soldiers, some wearing face masks and shooting in the air, ordered young men to surrender, a journalist in contact with AFP reported, as the army said it conducted a "precise and targeted" operation at the facility.

About 1,000 male Palestinians, their hands above their heads, were in the vast hospital courtyard, some of them stripped naked by Israeli soldiers checking them for weapons or explosives, the journalist said.

The United Nations has said it estimates that at least 2,300 people, patients, staff and displaced civilians, are inside and may be unable to escape because of fierce fighting.

Witnesses have described conditions inside the hospital as horrific, with medical procedures taking place without anaesthetic, families with scant food or water living in corridors and the stench of decomposing corpses filling the air.

The health ministry in Gaza says Israel’s ensuing aerial bombardment and ground offensive have killed 11,320 people, mostly civilians, including thousands of children.

International concern over the fate of the people inside the hospital has The situation in Gaza’s other hospitals is also dire, with the World Health Organisation saying 22 of 36 are not functional due to a lack of generator fuel, damage or combat.

Patients, the wounded, their families, and the medical teams trapped in Al Quds hospital were evacuated Tuesday, said the Palestinian Red Crescent, adding the facility had been under “siege” for 10 days.

The head of the UN children’s agency described on Wednesday the “devastating” scenes she witnessed during a visit to Gaza, urging the parties to the conflict to “stop this horror”.

The humanitarian crisis also includes 1.5 million people who, according to the UN, have fled southwards after Israel told them to leave the northern half of the territory.

Even though Gazans have been urged to flee south, strikes there have steadily claimed lives and destroyed homes.

“All of a sudden, all we could see was flames. We were all buried under the rubble, no one could see anyone else,” said Ali Abu Jazar, who survived a strike in Rafah, in the far south of Gaza.

“We started yelling to let them know ‘we’re here, underneath you,’ so they began clearing the rubble to rescue us,” he added.

A trickle of aid has made it into the besieged territory in the five weeks of war, and crucially fuel for generators has been in short supply.

Just hours after receiving its first delivery of fuel since the Hamas-Israel war began on October 7, the UN warned Wednesday its operations in Gaza were on the brink of collapse.

CAIRO — A fuel truck entered Gaza through the Rafah border crossing from Egypt on Wednesday, state-aligned Al Qahera News reported, in the first such delivery since the Hamas-Israel war began on October 7.

An Egyptian source said the fuel would be delivered to the United Nations "to facilitate the delivery of aid after trucks on the Palestinian side stopped operating for lack of fuel".

Witnesses at the Egyptian border said two more trucks were waiting to pass through the crossing.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said it was unable to confirm the reported delivery.

"No fuel has come to Gaza since October 7," the agency's director of communications Juliette Touma told AFP, adding that "if there is any change, UNRWA will provide an update".

COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body that handles Palestinian civil affairs, had said earlier that "UN trucks transporting humanitarian aid through the Rafah crossing will be refuelled at the Rafah crossing, per US request".

The UN had warned on Monday that its operations would "grind to a halt in the next 48 hours" unless it could refuel trucks that have been transporting aid to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by Israel's unrelenting bombardment.

"It is unbelievable that humanitarian agencies have to beg for fuel and operate on life support," UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement Tuesday.

“Since the beginning of the war, fuel has been used as a weapon of war and this should stop immediately.”

Israel’s attacks by air and land have killed 11,320 people, mostly civilians, including thousands of children, according to the health ministry in Gaza.

Aid agencies have repeatedly underlined the desperate need for fuel, used to power hospital generators and purify drinking water.

The health ministry has said that fuel shortages have forced the shutdown of all hospitals in northern Gaza.

At the Al Shifa hospital, which Israeli forces raided on Wednesday, dozens of intensive care patients have died since the hospital ran out of fuel, according to health officials.

GENEVA — The UN humanitarian chief demanded on Wednesday immediate action to "rein in the carnage" in Gaza, presenting a plan to help ease the crisis in the Palestinian territory.

"As the carnage in Gaza reaches new levels of horror every day, the world continues to watch in shock as hospitals come under fire, premature babies die, and an entire population is deprived of the basic means of survival," Martin Griffiths said in a statement.

"This cannot be allowed to continue."

He put forward a 10-point plan to help ease the humanitarian catastrophe, calling in particular for a ceasefire.

His comments came after Israeli forces entered Al Shifa hospital on Wednesday, targeting what they say is a Hamas command centre in tunnels beneath the patients and the civilians seeking refuge there from the fighting.

Earlier on Wednesday, Griffiths said on X, formerly Twitter, that he was "appalled by reports of military raids in Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza".

"Hospitals are not battlegrounds."

The health ministry in Gaza says Israel's ensuing air and ground offensive has killed 11,320 people, mostly civilians, including thousands of children.

The United Nations estimates that at least 2,300 people, patients, staff and displaced civilians, are inside the hospital and may be unable to escape because of fierce fighting.

In his statement, Griffiths stressed that the UN and its partners in Gaza were “committed to responding to the mounting humanitarian needs, guided, as always, by the principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence”.

“We have the expertise, know-how and most certainly the will,” he said.

He urged the parties and those with influence over them to implement his plan.

 ‘Act before too late’ 

The plan also urges the release of the hostages held by Hamas, and calls on the international community to fully fund a $1.2 billion appeal to address the towering needs in Gaza.

Griffiths stressed the need to “facilitate aid agencies’ efforts to bring in a continuous flow of aid convoys and to do so safely”.

He asked that additional crossing points be opened for aid and commercial trucks, and for the UN and other humanitarian organisations to be allowed to access sufficient quantities of fuel to deliver aid and provide basic services.

Humanitarian organisations needed to be able to “deliver aid throughout Gaza without impediment or interference”, he said.

Griffiths also called for an improved humanitarian notification system to help ensure civilians and civilian infrastructure are spared in the hostilities.

“These are the actions required to rein in the carnage,” he said.

“The world must act before it is too late.”