The death toll in Israel’s military operation in Gaza has now passed at least 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The bombardment has laid waste to the coastal enclave and caused a deep humanitarian crisis.

The war was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 in which some 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 people taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel says 620 soldiers have been killed in the fighting, more than half of them during the initial Hamas assault.

Jabalia is the biggest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps and is home to more than 100,000 people, most of whom were descendants of Palestinians who were driven from towns and villages in what is now Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that led to the creation the state of Israel.

US says working to keep Israel, Hamas engaged in Gaza truce efforts

Washington said it was trying to keep Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas engaged "if only virtually" in Gaza truce efforts as a U.N. agency warned that humanitarian aid stocks in the devastated enclave have hit "the bottom of the barrel."

Hamas said on Friday it would consult with other militant Palestinian factions on its strategy to negotiate a halt to the war triggered by its Oct. 7 onslaught into Israel.

The United Nations warned that aid for Gaza could grind to a halt within days after Israel seized control of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, closing the vital route on which the enclave of 2.3 million Palestinians depends.

Talks on a ceasefire and a release of hostages held by Hamas ended in Cairo on Thursday without agreement after Israel said a proposal by Qatari and Egyptian mediators included elements that were unacceptable.

Hamas, which said it had accepted the proposal, said in a statement that Israel’s "rejection ... returned things to the first square."