Live updates | Deluge of Israeli airstrikes destroy apartments in Gaza refugee camp

A deluge of Israeli airstrikes Tuesday on a refugee camp near Gaza City demolished apartment buildings, leaving gaping holes where they once stood, while ground troops battled Hamas militants across northern Gaza. Buoyed by the first successful rescue of a captive held by Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected calls for a cease-fire and again vowed to crush the militant group’s ability to govern Gaza or threaten Israel.

Though more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians have fled their homes, several hundred thousand remain in the north, where Israeli troops and tanks have reportedly advanced on multiple sides of Gaza City.

The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has reached 8,525, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, more than 122 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids.

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them civilians slain in the initial Hamas rampage that started the fighting Oct. 7. In addition, around 240 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by the militant group. One of the captives, a female Israeli soldier, was rescued in a special forces operation.

Currently:

Here’s what is happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war:

THREE ARAB STATES DENOUNCE ISRAEL'S AIRSTRIKES ON REFUGEE CAMP

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Three Arab states have strongly criticized Israel’s airstrikes on a refugee camp near Gaza City as its war on Hamas rages.

Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates each issued statements denouncing the strikes on the Jabaliya camp. The exact number of casualties was not immediately clear in the strikes, though one doctor said hundreds were killed and wounded.

Qatar, which as been mediating talks with Hamas over the more than 200 hostages it holds from its Oct. 7 attack on Israel, described the strike as “a new massacre against the defenseless Palestinian people, especially women and children.”

The country warned that "the expansion of Israeli attacks in (the) Gaza Strip ... is a dangerous escalation in the course of confrontations, which would undermine mediation and de-escalation efforts.”

Saudi Arabia, which had been weighing a diplomatic recognition deal with Israel, said it “condemned in the strongest terms the inhumane Israeli occupation forces’ targeting of Jabaliya camp.”

“The dangerous humanitarian conditions resulting from the continuous escalation cannot be justified at all, and that sparing blood, protecting civilians, and stopping military operations are urgent priorities,” the kingdom said.

The UAE, which diplomatically recognized Israel in 2020, warned that “indiscriminate attacks will result in irreparable ramifications in the region.”