Bodies of hostages recovered by IDF, IDF responds to Hezbollah drone footage showing IDF base

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry stated on Wednesday that the death toll in Gaza has reached 39,145 since the war started on October 7 of last year.

A further 90,257 have thus far been wounded in the conflict, the Gazan ministry added.

The number has not been independently verified, and the ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its toll.

The Hamas-run ministry has also been repeatedly criticized for distorting casualty figures.

In May, departing from Hamas’s reported figures, the UN halved the number of women and children it had previously reported had been killed thus far in the war.

"Positive progress" has been made in talks between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir over the formation of a "small security forum," as there "appears" to be "compliance" to Ben-Gvir's demand that it take part in "setting policy and setting strategic principles regarding the war," the national security minister said in a statement on Wednesday morning.

According to the statement, final agreements had yet to be reached, and only if they were reached would Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit party support a bill important to a key Netanyahu ally, Shas chairman Aryeh Deri, known as the "Rabbis Bill."

Several politicians from the opposition and even from the coalition criticized the fact that the prime minister intended to form a new security body as a political payoff to Ben-Gvir. Soon after the statement, coalition whip MK Ofir Katz (Likud) countered by removing the Rabbi's Bill from Wednesday's agenda.

After more than 1,000 miles and almost three hours of flight times, the squadron of Israeli F-15s and F35s launched their missiles on Yemen's Hudaydah port, leaving in their wake a raging blaze and renewed fears of a Middle East engulfed by wider war.

Israel's retaliatory attack was meant as a fiery message to a terrorist group that hit Tel Aviv with a deadly drone strike the day before. But, experts say, Israel may have given the Houthi rebels the legitimacy they have long sought, leading them to escalate attacks on Israel and ships in the region.

Israel's attack Saturday evening, which killed six dockworkers and injured dozens, was the country's first strike on Yemeni territory. The drone strike from the Iran-backed Houthi militia, which controls wide swaths of Yemen and is allied with Hamas, managed to get through Israel's defenses and kill one civilian and wound at least 10.

The Israel Air Force struck overnight a Hezbollah military structure in the Chihine area of southern Lebanon, the military said on Wednesday. 

The strike came as a response to the projectiles that were fired at Israeli territory from that area on Tuesday, the IDF added. 

In the Kfarhamam area, the IAF struck a weapons storage facility, after which secondary explosions were triggered, the IDF said, showing weapons were located within it. 

A masked individual threatened the 2024 Paris Olympics "with rivers of blood" in a video published on social media earlier this week. 

The man, clad in a shirt adorned with a Palestinian flag, stated, "In the name of God, our struggle against the Zionist regime continues." 

Addressing "the people of France" and "French president Macron," the masked individual said, "You supported the Zionist regime in its criminal war against the people of Palestine. You provided Zionists with weapons; you helped murder our brothers and sisters, our children."

An interceptor was launched at a suspicious aerial target on Wednesday morning after alert sounded in Western Galilee, the military said. 

The target turned out to be a false alarm, and the alert sounded for fear of falling shrapnel, the IDF added. 

Israeli security forces operated in Kalandiya on Wednesday morning, according to the Palestinian state-run WAFA news agency. 

Later on Wednesday, Israeli state broadcaster KAN news reported that a military vehicle in Bethlehem had been burnt after individuals had thrown Molotov cocktails at the vehicle. No injuries were reported.

In a separate incident in Tubas, KAN added that an officer of the Palestinian Authority customs Police was killed by the IDF after he had tried to flee with a wanted person and opened fire at the forces.   

Former US President Donald Trump posted a letter he received from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Wednesday.

The letter suggests that the Palestinian President wants to open a new chapter with the Republican presidential candidate seven years after their fallout due to Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move the US Embassy to the city in December 2017.

The fact that Trump published the letter at this time indicates he has not abandoned his aspiration to achieve a historic peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Trump's move frames his upcoming meeting with Netanyahu not only as a photo opportunity desired by the Israeli Prime Minister but as a more substantial meeting on advancing peace against the backdrop of the war in Gaza.

Israel informed Egypt on Tuesday that a security delegation would arrive in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss several points in the hostage deal negotiations with the Egyptians, according to local Egyptian media.

According to the report, Israel told Cairo it agreed to the conditions regarding the Philadelphi Corridor and Rafah. The Egyptian newspaper did not specify what the conditions were. Still, it emphasized that the most important aspect of completing negotiations was Hamas's demand that what was built in the area be dismantled.

It was also reported that an Egyptian security delegation would travel to Doha on Thursday to participate in meetings for a deal and a temporary ceasefire for a period of six weeks.

Israel Air Force jets successfully intercepted two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that approached Israel from the East, the military said on Wednesday. 

The UAVs did not enter Israeli territory.