THE Israelis killed at least six people, including three young siblings, in an air strike today on a home in northern Gaza, Palestinian medics said.

This came the same day as six people were killed and 15 wounded when an Israeli strike on block of flats south of Beirut, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.

On Tuesday, the outgoing United States administration of President Joe Biden said that it did not intend to limit weapons transfers to Israel because it has made limited progress in increasing the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza. 

This followed eight international aid groups earlier demonstrating that Israel had failed to meet US demands for greater humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip, where hunger experts say the north may already be experiencing famine.

According to Palestinian health officials, Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 people. The officials do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but say more than half of those killed were women and children.

The Israel-Hamas war began after Palestinian resistance fighters staged a surprise attack on Israel on October 7 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage. 

Lebanon’s Hezbollah group began firing into Israel on October 8 2023, in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.

Since then, more than 3,200 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 14,200 wounded, the country’s Health Ministry reported. In Israel, 76 people have reportedly been killed.

Meanwhile, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has been one of Israel’s staunches supporters, today urged Israel to allow displaced Palestinians and aid back into Gaza and says that it should end the war against Hamas now that it’s achieved its main security aims.

He told reporters in Brussels: “The situation is so difficult and so dramatic that to fully redress it, to fully answer the needs of people, the best way to do that is to end the war.”

Mr Blinken claimed, without evidence, that Israel “by the standards it set itself, has accomplished the strategic goals it set for itself. 

“So this should be a time to end the war.”

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group has released a new video showing an Israeli hostage who has been held in Gaza for over a year.

The video shows Sasha Troufanov, likely speaking under duress, describing the harsh conditions inside Gaza, warning against military operations to free him and calling on Israelis to protest for his release.

It was not clear when it was filmed.