Health officials in the Gaza Strip say that more than 64,000 have been killed in the nearly two-year war. Hamas and Israel meanwhile reiterated their incompatible demands for ending the fighting sparked by the militant group's attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Local hospitals said Thursday that Israeli strikes killed 28 people overnight. Israel is pressing ahead with its planned offensive in famine-stricken Gaza City. In the occupied West Bank, Israelis established a new settlement in a Palestinian city, according to an anti-settlement monitoring group.

Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip 20 years ago, dismantling 21 Jewish settlements and pulling out its forces. The Friday anniversary of the start of the landmark disengagement comes as Israel is mired in a nearly two-year war with Hamas. The conflict has devastated the Palestinian territory and is likely to keep troops there long into the future. Israel's disengagement included removing four settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and was then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's controversial attempt to jump-start negotiations with the Palestinians. But it bitterly divided Israeli society and led to the empowerment of Hamas, with implications that continue to reverberate today.

Israel's far-right finance minister says a contentious new settlement construction in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is going ahead, a project that Palestinians and rights groups worry will scuttle plans for a future Palestinian state by effectively cutting the West Bank into two separate parts. The announcement on Thursday comes as many countries said they would recognize a Palestinian state in September at the United Nations General Assembly. Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says the "reality finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize."

Health officials and witnesses say Israeli gunfire killed at least 25 people while seeking aid. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will "allow" Palestinians to leave during an upcoming military offensive in some of the territory's most populated areas. Netanyahu wants to realize U.S. President Donald Trump's vision of relocating much of Gaza's population of over 2 million people through what he refers to as "voluntary migration" — and what critics have warned could be ethnic cleansing. Efforts to revive ceasefire talks have resumed after apparently breaking down last month. Hamas and Egyptian officials met Wednesday in Cairo.

Europe and Israel have reached a new deal to allow more food and fuel into Gaza. The European Union's foreign policy chief said on Thursday that the plan could result in "more crossings open, aid and food trucks entering Gaza, repair of vital infrastructure and protection of aid workers." The announcement came as an Israeli airstrike killed 10 children and five adults outside a medical clinic to receive critical nutritional supplements and other care. The Israeli military says it was targeting a militant when it struck near the clinic. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel continues to pursue a deal for a 60-day pause in the fighting and the release of half of the hostages still held in Gaza.

Dozens of international charities and humanitarian groups are calling for disbanding a controversial Israeli- and U.S.-backed system to distribute aid in Gaza. That's because of recurring chaos and violence against Palestinians seeking food at sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The call by groups including Oxfam, Save the Children and Amnesty International was made Tuesday as at least 13 Palestinians were killed while seeking aid in southern and central Gaza. Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 37 people, and Israel's defense minister warned that his country would respond forcefully to the firing of a missile from Yemen.

Israeli settlers have attacked a military base in the occupied West Bank, setting fires, vandalizing vehicles and clashing with soldiers. The unrest on Sunday followed recent settler violence and arrests by Israeli security forces. Last week, settlers entered a Palestinian town, setting property ablaze and firing guns. Three Palestinians were killed after military intervention. Far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir condemned Sunday's attacks on soldiers, calling them a "red line." Opposition leader Yair Lapid labeled the settlers "Jewish terrorists." Violence by extremist settlers has risen alongside growing tensions in the region, with Palestinians in the west Bank reporting increased checkpoints and delays.