Israeli forces bombarded several areas of the southern Gaza Strip yesterday and thousands of Palestinians fled their homes in what could be part of a final push of Israel’s intensive military operations in nine months of offensive.

The head of the Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital said yesterday after being freed from more than seven months of detention that he had been “tortured” by Israel.

Turkish police were holding 67 people yesterday after a mob went on the rampage in a central Anatolian city after a Syrian man was accused of harassing a child.

Gaza’s few functional hospitals and health facilities could lose power in 48 hours if they don’t receive fuel, causing life-saving medical equipment to stop working.

Iran’s sole reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian and ultraconservative Saeed Jalili have qualified for a runoff presidential election after leading in the first round, an official said yesterday.

Gazan civilians are forced to live in bombed-out buildings or camp next to giant piles of trash, a United Nations spokeswoman said Friday, denouncing the “unbearable” conditions in the besieged territory.

Iran yesterday warned that “all Resistance Fronts”, a grouping of Iran and its regional allies, would confront Israel if it attacks Lebanon.

Explosions, air strikes and gunfire rattled northern Gaza yesterday, the third day of an Israeli military operation that has uprooted tens of thousands of Palestinians and compounded what the UN called “unbearable” living conditions in the territory.

Two hardline candidates dropped out of Iran’s presidential election yesterday, a day ahead of the landmark vote, and called for unity among forces supporting the country’s Islamic revolution, state media reported.

Israeli forces pounded several areas in north and south Gaza yesterday, and residents reported fierce fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters in Rafah in the south of the Palestinian enclave.

A UN humanitarian worker described the suffering she witnessed first-hand in Gaza, where she saw children mutilated and families bombed out of their homes, in an emotional testimony Tuesday.

Britain’s Conservative Party said yesterday it had withdrawn support from two parliamentary candidates who are being investigated over alleged bets placed on the timing of next month’s national election.

A high risk of famine persists across the whole of the Gaza Strip as long as Israeli offensive in the Palestinian enclave continues and humanitarian access is restricted, according to an assessment by a global hunger monitor.

A collaborative investigation by international media outlets yesterday shed light on the circumstances behind more than 100 Palestinian journalists and media workers being killed in the Gaza offensive, some while wearing a press vest.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday called for “high participation” in Friday’s presidential election to replace Ebrahim Raisi, who died last month in a helicopter crash.

An Israeli air strike at a medical clinic in Gaza City killed the director of Gaza’s Ambulance and Emergency Department, the enclave’s health ministry said yesterday, while Israel’s military said the strike had killed a senior Hamas armed commander.

Teenagers across the Gaza Strip should have been taking their final exams this month, a last hurdle before university and lifelong dreams, but the Israeli offensive in the Palestinian territory has crushed those hopes.

Israeli forces bombed across the Gaza Strip yesterday, and tanks advanced to the edge of the Mawasi displaced persons’ camp in the northwest of the southern Gaza city of Rafah in fierce fighting with Hamas-led fighters, residents said.

A merchant ship was damaged by a drone attack in the Red Sea near Yemen early yesterday morning, though no injuries were reported, according to a British maritime security agency.

President Ferdinand Marcos said yesterday the Philippines “will not be intimidated” by anyone after a violent clash between the Filipino navy and the Chinese coast guard in the South China Sea.