Israel-Hamas war: Live updates and latest news

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected U.S. calls for a humanitarian pause in the Israel-Hamas war, telling U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday “we are going full steam ahead,” unless the hostages held by Hamas are released.

Blinken is on his third visit to Israel since the war erupted last month and is set to meet with leaders in Jordan on Saturday.

Amid fears that the conflict will regionalize, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group, said in a public speech that his group was undeterred by U.S. warnings to stay out of the war. However, he stopped short of saying Hezbollah would engage fully in the war.

Israeli troops also further closed in on Gaza City, launching targeted attacks within the city on militant cells on Friday.

The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has reached 9,227, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, more than 140 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids.

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that started the fighting, and 242 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by the militant group.

Roughly 1,100 people have left the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing since Wednesday under an apparent agreement among the U.S., Egypt, Israel and Qatar, which mediates with Hamas.

Currently:

1. As more Palestinians with foreign citizenship leave Gaza, some families are left in the lurch.

2. Stay in Israel, or flee? Thai workers caught up in Hamas attack and war are faced with a dilemma.

3. Trapped in hell: Palestinian civilians try to survive in northern Gaza, focus of Israel’s offensive.

4. Israel-Hamas war misinformation is everywhere. Here are the facts.

5. Emotional outburst on live TV from Gaza over death of reporter encapsulates collective grief.

6. Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.

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

WASHINGTON — Israel and the U.S. appear to be taking divergent approaches to securing the release of the more than 200 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

A senior Biden administration