Live updates | Israeli warplanes hit a refugee camp in Gaza Strip, killing dozens

Israeli airstrikes hit a refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip early Sunday, killing dozens of people, health officials said.The strikes came as the US is urging Israel to take a humanitarian pause from its relentless bombardment of Gaza and rising civilian deaths.US Secretary of State Antony Blinken travelled to Ramallah in the West Bank for a previously unannounced meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.Blinken on Saturday met with Arab foreign ministers in Jordan, after holding talks in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insisted there could be no temporary cease-fire until all hostages held by Hamas are released.

Israeli airstrikes hit a refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip early Sunday, killing dozens of people, health officials said.

The strikes came as the US is urging Israel to take a humanitarian pause from its relentless bombardment of Gaza and rising civilian deaths.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken travelled to Ramallah in the West Bank for a previously unannounced meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Blinken on Saturday met with Arab foreign ministers in Jordan, after holding talks in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insisted there could be no temporary cease-fire until all hostages held by Hamas are released. President Joe Biden suggested Saturday that progress was being made on the humanitarian pause.

The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war reached 9,448, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, more than 140 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids.

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them in the October 7 Hamas attack that started the fighting, and 242 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by the militant group.

Roughly 1,100 people have left the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing since Wednesday under an apparent agreement among the United States, Egypt, Israel and Qatar, which mediates with Hamas.

Here's what is happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war: WFP CHIEF MAKES URGENT PLEA FOR EXPANDED ACCESS TO GAZA CAIRO — The head of the UN food agency has pleaded for expanded humanitarian access to the besieged Gaza Strip as food supplies are running low.

"Right now, parents in Gaza do not know whether they can feed their children today and whether they will even survive to see tomorrow," said Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Program. She called for scaling up the delivery of aid to Gaza to align with "the catastrophic conditions facing families there." "The crisis in Gaza is not just a local tragedy, it's a stark reminder that our global food crisis is worsening. Not only does this crisis threaten regional peace and stability, it undermines our collective efforts to combat hunger worldwide," she said.

McCain visited Saturday the Egyptian side of Rafah crossing point, the sole entry of aid to Gaza, and met with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo.

LEBANESE OFFICIALS SAY ISRAELI DRONE STRIKE WOUNDS PARAMEDICS BEIRUT — An Israeli drone struck near two ambulance on their way to pick up casualties from overnight strikes in southern Lebanon, wounding four paramedics, local officials told The Associated Press.

The civil defence unit of a scouts group affiliated with Lebanon's Amal Movement, a political party allied with Hezbollah, said that the drone "directly targeted" their two ambulances. They were heading south to save several people wounded in an Israeli strike that hit a house overnight.

Local and medical officials told AP that the Lebanese army and the Red Cross transported the wounded paramedics to a hospital in Tyre, as Israeli strikes reportedly did not stop. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.

There were reports that the paramedics were on their way to collect two slain Hezbollah militants.

Israeli army Arabic language spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that Israeli forces had launched strikes on a "terrorist cell" that was attempting to fire missiles toward Israel from the Ras Naqoura area in south Lebanon. He said two cars had arrived at the scene during the strikes but that the cars were not the intended target.

Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants and their allies along the tense Lebanon-Israel border have been clashing for almost a month since the start of the Hamas-Israel war. While clashes remain largely contained to areas near the border, they have increased in intensity as Israel continues its ground incursion into Gaza.

NETANYAHU CRITICISES ISRAELI MINISTER'S ATOMIC BOMB COMMENT JERUSALEM — Israel's minister of Jewish heritage, Amihai Eliyahu, said that dropping an atomic bomb on the Gaza Strip is a possibility. His comments were immediately denounced by other Cabinet members.

Eliyahu, a junior minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhau's Cabinet, made the comment in an interview with Kol Beramah radio. He later tried to walk it back, saying, "Anyone reasonable would understand that the comment was metaphorical. But we definitely need to respond powerfully and disproportionately to terrorism.'' Army Radio cited Netanyahu as saying that the remark was "divorced from reality." "Israel and the IDF operate according to the highest standards of international law to avoid hurting non-combatants — and will continue to do so until we achieve victory," he was quoted as saying.

The radio said Netanyahu suspended Eliyahu from Cabinet meetings until further notice, a move that has no practical effect.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant also criticised Eliyahu, saying, "It's a good thing that people like this are not in charge of Israel's security." Meanwhile, Giora Eiland, an adviser to Gallant, said Israel is far from vanquishing Hamas.

"We don't see hundreds of people starting to surrender," Eiland, a reserves general and former head of the National Security Council, told Army Radio. "You see very, very sophisticated attacks from the other side involving the successful coordinated use of paragliders, antitank missile fire and mortar fire. This requires a high degree of coordination among forces and they do it well." ISRAELI WARPLANES HIT MAGHAZI REFUGEE CAMP, KILLING AT LEAST 40 KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israeli warplanes struck the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza early Sunday, killing at least 40 people, according to health officials.

The camp is located in the evacuation zone where Israel's military had urged Palestinian civilians in Gaza to seek refuge as it focuses its military offensive in the northern areas. Despite such appeals, Israel has continued its bombardment across Gaza, saying it is targeting Hamas fighters and assets everywhere in the besieged enclave. It has accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields.

Critics say Israel's strikes are often disproportionate, considering the large number of women and children killed in such attacks.