Fighting continues more than five weeks after the terror attack on Israel by Hamas. which sparked a retaliatory bombing and ground offensive by Israel. 

In Gaza, more than 11,500 people, mostly civilians, have been killed, officials in the Hamas-run territory said. 

About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Israel during the attack and around 240 people were taken hostage. 

The Israeli army on Thursday announced the deaths of three more soldiers in Gaza, raising the number of troops killed in the Palestinian territory to 51 since the start of the war with Hamas.

Here are the latest developments: 

IDF claims it has gained control of Gaza Harbour

The Israeli army said its troops had taken “operational control” of Gaza port, a key piece of infrastructure in the Palestinian territory, where Israel is waging war with Hamas militants.

“In the past few days, in a joint operation, soldiers… took operational control of the Gaza harbour, which was controlled by the Hamas terrorist organisation,” the Israeli army said in a statement.

“All buildings in the harbour area were cleared.”

On X, it posted that the harbour was “used by Hamas as a training facility for their naval commando forces to plan and execute terrorist attacks.”

The IDF released a video said to show soldiers of the 188th Brigade and Shayetet 13 engaging with Hamas militants in the port of Gaza. 

Reuters was able to confirm locations in parts of the video from the buildings, pier and layout of the harbour which matched satellite and file imagery of the area.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the date when the video and photos was taken.

Israel turns down visit from UN human rights chief

Israel has dismissed a request from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk to access the country, amid growing concerns about the spiralling violence in its war with Hamas. 

“Israel is not aware of any added benefit of the high commissioners’ visit at this time,” the country’s mission to the UN in Geneva told AFP. 

It comes after the High Commissioner delivered his report about a visit to Egypt and Jordan, voicing his concerns over the situation of civilians in Gaza. 

“I have also heard from a number of Israelis about their anguish, including families of the children and adults abducted by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups.

Rarely have I heard such disturbing testimony about the catastrophic harm that ordinary people have endured, and which continues to mount.

“And never in my career of working in many crisis situations around the world have I met such an outpouring of fear, anger and despair.”

Gunmen killed in Jerusalem

Three gunmen who attacked a checkpoint near Jerusalem on Thursday, wounding six security forces, were killed as Israeli police fended them off, police said.

National police chief Kobi Shabtai told reporters the attackers carried pistols, axes and ammunition for “a major attack or a massacre in Israel”.

Four members of the security services suffered gunshot wounds, including one who was critically injured, said the emergency medical service Magen David Adom in a statement, adding that two more were lightly wounded.

The checkpoint guards road tunnels linking the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.

The West Bank has seen a dramatic rise in tension and violence since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

Israel orders civilians to leave Southern Gaza towns 

Leaflets telling civilians to leave were dropped from aircraft in the towns of Bani Shuhaila, Khuzaa, Abassan and Qarara east of Khan Younis. 

The towns, collectively home to more than 100,000 people in peacetime, are now sheltering tens of thousands more who fled other areas.

“The acts of Hamas terrorist group require the defence forces to act against them in the areas of your residence,” the leaflets said.

“For your safety, you need to evacuate your places of residence immediately and head to known shelters.”

Residents said the area came under heavy bombardment Thursday night, local time.

Israel has already ordered the evacuation of the entire northern half of Gaza before sending its ground forces  there at the end of October.

Long processions of people clutching just a few possessions have made their way south each day under the eyes of Israeli soldiers during six-hour “tactical pauses” to allow residents to leave.

The UN says around two-thirds of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been made homeless, most of them sheltering in towns in the south, since Israel began retaliation against Hamas for a deadly rampage in southern Israeli towns.

‘One horror doesn’t justify another’: Borrell

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged Israel not to be consumed by rage in its response to last month’s terror attack, declaring that “one horror does not justify another”.

Mr Borrell made his remarks on a visit to Israel, speaking alongside Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen after the two men had visited Kibbutz Be’eri, a focal point of the October 7 assault.

“I understand your rage but let me ask you not to be consumed by rage. I think that’s what the best friends of Israel can tell you,” he said.

Speaking at a regional council building a short drive from the kibbutz, Borrell stressed the EU’s solidarity with Israel and its support for the country’s right to defend itself in line with international law.

WHO: Options for evacuating Al-Shifa hospital are limited

The United Nations is looking for ways to evacuate Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza but options are limited by security and logistical constraints, a senior World Health Organization official said. 

One obstacle is that the Palestinian Red Crescent lacks sufficient fuel for its ambulances within Gaza to evacuate patients, WHO regional emergencies director Rick Brennan told Reuters.

Egypt was open to having its ambulances cross into Gaza to help evacuate people as long as security guarantees and safe passage could be provided, he said.

UN chief says predicts widespread disease in Gaza

The UN’s human rights chief said widespread outbreaks of disease and hunger seemed “inevitable” in Gaza after weeks of Israeli assault on the densely populated Palestinian enclave.

Speaking at an informal briefing to states in Geneva after visiting the Middle East, Volker Turk said the depletion of fuel would have a “catastrophic” impact across Gaza.

He said it will lead to the collapse of sewage systems, healthcare and end the scarce humanitarian aid being supplied.

“Massive outbreaks of infectious disease, and hunger, seem inevitable,” Mr Turk said.

The World Health Organization has warned of “worrying trends” in disease spread in Gaza, saying there had been an unusually large number of cases of diarrhoeal disease in the enclave, where bombardments and a ground operation have disrupted the health system, access to clean water and caused people to crowd into shelters.

In comments to the media after his briefing to UN member states, Mr Turk said lasting peace was impossible without an end to longstanding violations of human rights.

“Warnings by my office and others about human rights violations over many years have been ignored, not only in Israel and in the occupied Palestinian territory, but also by states with influence on the parties to this crisis,” he said.

“This needs to change for this conflict to be enduringly resolved.”

Mr Turk, who described the bombardment by Israel as “of an intensity rarely experienced in this century,” also expressed concern about increasing violence and discrimination against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

“In my view, this creates a potentially explosive situation, and I want to be clear: we are well beyond the level of early warning,” Mr Turk said.