Five Israeli soldiers killed in friendly fire incident

A man sits in front of a burnt car afer an Israeli raid in the town of Burqah near Ramallah on Thursday. Pic/AFP

The Israel Defence Forces confirmed on Thursday morning it is investigating a friendly fire incident in northern Gaza on Wednesday which killed five soldiers and injured another seven in northern Gaza. The incident took place in the Jabalya refugee camp where Hamas has been trying to regroup. An initial probe found that a tank fired two shells at a building where soldiers from the Paratroopers Brigade's 202nd Battalion were gathered.

The soldiers had notified the tanks that they were establishing a post in the building. Later in the evening, the tank crews spotted a gun barrel from one of the building's windows and fired two shells, erroneously believing they belonged to armed terrorists. Killed in the incident were Cpt. Roy Beit Yaakov, 22, Staff Sgt. Gilad Arye Boim, 22, Sgt. Daniel Chemu, 20, Sgt. Ilan Cohen, 20, and Staff Sgt. Betzalel David Shashuah, 21. Another seven soldiers were injured, including three seriously. The IDF said its probe of the incident is continuing.

Gaza Strip pier completed, aid to soon flow

Washington: The US military finished installing a floating pier for the Gaza Strip on Thursday, with officials poised to begin ferrying badly needed humanitarian aid into the enclave besieged over seven months of intense fighting in the Israel-Hamas war.

The final, overnight construction sets up a complicated delivery process more than two months after US President Joe Biden ordered it to help Palestinians facing starvation as food and other supplies fail to make it in as Israel recently seized the key Rafah border crossing in its push on that southern city on the Egyptian border.

Fraught with logistical, weather and security challenges, the maritime route is designed to bolster the amount of aid getting into the Gaza Strip, but it is not considered a substitute for far cheaper land-based deliveries that aid agencies say are much more sustainable.

Israel to conscript orthodox men

Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced that he will advance contentious legislation for conscripting members of the Orthodox Jewish community into army service. "In order to bridge disagreements and bring about a broad consensus, it has been decided to advance the conscription law," the Prime Minister's Office said.

‘Iran plotting to destabilise Jordan'

Israel's Foreign Minister revealed that Jordanian authorities uncovered an Iranian terror network composed of Muslim Brotherhood activists and Hamas terrorists, which, he said, aimed to smuggle weapons into Jordan to destabilize the Jordanian regime. Additionally, the network planned to smuggle weapons into the areas of the Palestinian Authority in order to build a new Hamas terror infrastructure and open another front.

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