Israel signals widening ground offensive in Gaza as death toll crosses 20,000

Ahead of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) aid vote, Israel signals broadening of ground offensive in Gaza.

Israeli military on Friday ordered residents of Al-Bureij, in central Gaza, to move south immediately, indicating another phase of the ground assault.

With Qatar’s hostage negotiations not finding any fruitful results, the situation has become more concerning. 

According to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a US national, who also held an Israeli citizenship, has died in the captivity in the Gaza Strip.

Gadi Haggai, 73, along with his wife was shot and captured during the October 7 attacks.

According to the Forum, Hamas still holds his body. Haggai was among the 240 hostages captured by Hamas. About 129 people are still held as hostages by Hamas in Gaza, said the Forum.

The forum also added that there are 5 to 10 hostages that hold US citizenship.

Earlier, amid the war intensifying, Hamas had warned that the "time is running out " for the hostages. Israeli government said that 22 people are dead among those in captivity.

Meanwhile, the UNSC is expected to vote on a resolution to increase humanitarian aid amid famine threat looms in the war-torn Gaza. 

US has declared it is ready to support the resolution intended to boost the flow of humantiarian supplies into Gaza after a week of negotiations and substantial amendments, including the removal of a call for an “urgent suspension of hostilities”.

However, amid intensified Yemen's Houthi attack in the Red Sea, the US is assembling a multinational naval coalition to help safeguard commercial traffic from attacks.

According to Gaza Health Ministry, over 20,000 people have been killed in the war. Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said on Friday that it has documented 20,057 deaths in the fighting. 

Nearly 400 Palestinians killed in the last 48 hours, said Hamas.

Palestinian Red Crescent says Israel troops are holding eight of its medical staff who were arrested during an overnight raid in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.