Israel-Hamas war updates and latest news on Gaza conflict

Israeli shelling of the Gaza Strip has killed 50 of the hostages abducted by Hamas during its terror attacks of Oct. 7, a representative of the Palestinian militant group told Russian news outlet Kommersant, according to a Google translation.

Captives will not be released until a ceasefire is agreed with Israel, Hamas representative Abu Hamid said, as a delegation of the group visited Moscow.

Al-Qassem, the armed wing of Hamas, also posted on its Telegram account that it estimates 50 “prisoners” have been killed in Israeli bombardment.

CNBC could not independently verify the figures, and the Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The IDF has previously said that Hamas captured roughly 224 people, of which only four have been released to date.

Some questions have risen over the accuracy of numbers reported by Hamas and Hamas-controlled facilities, such as the death toll supplied by the Gaza Health Ministry.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Oct. 25 said he has “no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using” for the death toll reported in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, according to Reuters, without disclosing why.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Israeli ground troops, fighter jets and drones struck anti-tank missile launch sites, command and control centers and operatives of Palestinian militant group Hamas over the past 24 hours, the Israel Defense Forces said on social media.

“The troops exited the area and no injuries were reported,” it said, in a likely reference to the Gaza Strip.

CNBC could not independently verify the report.

On Thursday, the IDF said they carried out an overnight raid in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, “as part of preparations for the next stages of combat.”

An Israeli ground incursion has been anticipated in the past three weeks, after Israel ordered civilians in the northern Gaza City to evacuate southward of the Wadi Gaza wetlands. Human rights groups have warned against such an offensive, citing the worsening humanitarian crisis in the resource-deprived and blockaded Gaza Strip.

Israel says it only seeks to demilitarize Hamas and does not target civilians.

— Ruxandra Iordache

The U.S. hopes further humanitarian aid supplies will enter the Gaza Strip soon, but there is a multitude of logistical “moving parts” at play in getting truck deliveries, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said.

Speaking Thursday in a MSNBC interview, he expressed hopes that more aid would be coming in by truck during the day through the Rafah Crossing — the only land passageway to the blockaded Gaza Strip that isn’t controlled by Israel, leading instead to Egypt.

Since last weekend, nations and international humanitarian groups have been organizing deliveries that first arrive in Egypt, then continue through the Rafah Crossing to Palestinian civilians by truck.

“There is an inspection regime that has to be done before the trucks go in,” Kirby said of the logistics, “So that Israel can understand there’s no contraband in those trucks. And then, of course, Hamas needs to allow for the free movement of these vehicles inside Gaza to get to the aid organizations, to get to the people. So there’s an awful lot of moving parts here.”

Human rights groups have previously called for a humanitarian pause to the conflict between Israel and Hamas to allow the safe distribution of aid supplies, as the Gaza Strip slowly exhausts its water and food resources and already faces a fuel and electricity crisis.

— Ruxandra Iordache

The U.S. launched strikes on two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in retaliation for attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups.

“These narrowly tailored strikes in self-defense were intended solely to protect and defend U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin said in a statement Thursday.

“They are separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and do not constitute a shift in our approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict,” he added.

Austin said these “precision self-defense strikes” began on Oct. 17. As a result, a U.S. citizen contractor died from a cardiac incident while sheltering in place, while 21 other U.S. forces suffered minor injuries.

“The United States does not seek conflict and has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities, but these Iranian-backed attacks against U.S. forces are unacceptable and must stop,” Austin said. “Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces.”

“If attacks by Iran’s proxies against U.S. forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people,” the Defense Secretary said.

— Clement Tan

EU leaders called on Thursday for pauses in Israeli bombing and Hamas rocket attacks to get humanitarian aid into Gaza after days of wrangling that highlighted divisions within the bloc over the broader Israel-Palestinian conflict.

In a declaration agreed at a summit in Brussels, the leaders of the Union’s 27 nations expressed the “gravest concern for the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza”.

They called for “continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and aid to reach those in need through all necessary measures including humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs”.

The summit was the leaders’ first in-person meeting since the deadly Oct. 7 assault on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas, which prompted Israel to bombard and blockade Hamas-run Gaza.

— Reuters

The White House pressed for supplemental funding for Ukraine and Israel and said it was unclear when funding for Israel as well as Ukraine would run out.

“It’s difficult to know because it’s driven by the pace of operations and the security assistance that’s flowing and their expenditure,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said during a press briefing.

“I just know that time is not on our side. The runway is getting shorter with every passing week. We need this supplemental funding,” he added.

Last week, President Joe Biden requested more than $105 billion from Congress to support Ukraine, Israel, as well as other U.S. national security matters. Of the $105 billion, the package calls for $61 billion for Ukraine and an additional $14.3 billion for Israel.

— Amanda Macias

Editor’s note: The following post contains a photograph with graphic content.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health released a spreadsheet with the names, ages, sex and ID numbers of the total number of people killed in Gaza so far, NBC News reported.

CNBC and NBC News has not independently verified the details of the documents.

The list includes over 6,700 names, of which more than 2.500 are that of children, NBC News reported.

The list, which is in Arabic, was provided to NBC News journalists.