"Families Concerned: Potential Gaza Conflict Escalation Might Endanger Hostages"

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Several thousand Israelis demonstrated outside the country’s defence ministry in Tel Aviv, urging their government to take decisive steps to facilitate the release of hostages held in Gaza.

On Saturday, reports from Israeli media indicated that the government was summoning tens of thousands of reservists in anticipation of a broader offensive in Gaza.

According to Israel’s public broadcaster, the security cabinet is set to convene on Sunday to discuss and likely endorse the planned expansion of military operations in Gaza.

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Protesters brandished placards and Israeli flags during a rally against the government, demanding action to free Israeli hostages captured since the attacks on October 7. Source: AFP / Jack Guez

Israel resumed amid deadlock over how to proceed with a two-month ceasefire that had largely halted the war.

The Israeli government said its renewed offensive in Gaza is aimed at forcing Hamas to free its remaining captives, although critics charge that it puts them in mortal danger.

A statement from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum argued that “any escalation in the fighting will put the hostages … in immediate danger”.

It added: “The vast majority of the Israeli public views the return of the hostages as the nation’s highest moral priority.

“There is still a critical window to reach an agreement that saves lives and prevents further loss,” it said.

One protester in Tel Aviv, 64-year-old Arona Maskil, expressed to Agence France-Presse: “We’re here because we want the hostages home. We’re here because we don’t believe that the war in Gaza today, currently, is justified at all.”

Three babies killed in Israeli strike in Gaza

Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Saturday that an overnight Israeli strike on the Khan Younis refugee camp killed at least 11 people, including three infants aged one or less.

Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal say they were killed in the “bombardment of the Al-Bayram family home in Khan Younis camp” at around 3am local time.

A group of tightly packed people hold pots in their hands for food

The UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA says over a million people across the Gaza Strip are experiencing ‘high levels’ of acute food insecurity, with acute malnutrition several times higher than before the war. Source: EPA / Haitham Imad

An Israeli army spokesperson confirmed the strike, saying it targeted a “Hamas member”.

Israel has , prompting warnings from UN agencies of impending humanitarian disaster.

Israel carries out strikes on two Syrian cities

Israeli strikes targeted the vicinity of Syria’s Damascus, Hama and Daraa countryside late on Friday, Syrian state news agency SANA reported.

The strikes on Damascus countryside killed one civilian and injured four others in Hama, SANA added.

Israel’s repeated strikes on Syria act as a warning to the new Islamist rulers in Damascus, which Israel views as a potential threat on its border.

Three women with their backs to the camera wave past a gate

Druze families wave to their relatives fleeing sectarian violence in Damascus, Syria, upon arrival in the buffer zone across the ceasefire line near the village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights. Source: EPA / Atef Safadi

The Israeli army confirmed the strikes on Syria on Friday, saying it targeted “a military site, anti-aircraft cannons, and surface-to-air missile infrastructure”.

The Israeli army has previously said it targeted Syria’s military infrastructure, including headquarters and sites containing weapons and equipment, since mainly Sunni Muslim Islamist fighters toppled president Bashar al-Assad in December.

Earlier on Friday, Israel bombed an area near the presidential palace in Damascus, in its clearest warning yet to Syria’s new Islamist-led authorities of its readiness to ramp up military action, which has included strikes it said were in support of the country’s Druze minority.

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