The Israeli navy on Friday mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages throughout its floor operation within the Gaza Strip, navy officers stated.

The military’s chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, stated Israeli troops discovered the hostages and erroneously recognized them as a menace. He stated it was not clear if that they had escaped their captors or been deserted.

The deaths occurred within the Gaza City space of Shijaiyah, the place troops have engaged in fierce battles towards Hamas militants in current days.

He stated the military expressed “deep sorrow” and was investigating.

The deaths have been introduced as a U.S. envoy stated the U.S. and Israel have been discussing a timetable for scaling again intense fight operations within the conflict towards Hamas, despite the fact that they agree the general combat will take months.

U.S. nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan additionally met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to debate the besieged enclave’s postwar future, which, in response to a senior U.S. official, might embrace bringing again Palestinian safety forces pushed from their jobs in Gaza by Hamas in its 2007 takeover.

American and Israeli officers have been imprecise in public about how Gaza might be run if Israel achieves its objective of ending Hamas management. The notion that Palestinian safety forces might return was floated as one in every of a number of concepts. It seemed to be the primary time Washington provided particulars on its imaginative and prescient for safety preparations within the enclave.

Any position for Palestinian safety forces in Gaza is certain to elicit sturdy opposition from Israel, which seeks to keep up an open-ended safety presence there and says it will not permit a postwar foothold for the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority, which administers components of the Israeli-occupied West Bank however is deeply unpopular with Palestinians.

In conferences with Israeli leaders on Thursday and Friday, Sullivan mentioned a timetable for winding down the extreme fight section of the conflict.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant advised Sullivan that it might take months to destroy Hamas, however he didn’t say whether or not his estimate referred to the present section of heavy airstrikes and floor battles.

Sullivan stated Friday that “there is no contradiction between saying the fight is going to take months and also saying that different phases will take place at different times over those months, including the transition from the high-intensity operations to more targeted operations.”

He stated he mentioned a timeline with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s War Cabinet, and that such conversations would proceed throughout an upcoming go to by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

The offensive, triggered by the unprecedented Oct. 7 Hamas assault on Israel, has flattened a lot of northern Gaza and pushed 80% of Gaza’s inhabitants of two.3 million from their properties. Displaced individuals have squeezed into shelters primarily within the south in a spiraling humanitarian disaster.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has expressed unease over Israel’s failure to cut back civilian casualties and its plans for the way forward for Gaza, however the White House continues to supply wholehearted assist for Israel with weapons shipments and diplomatic backing.

“I want them to be focused on how to save civilian lives,” Biden stated Thursday when requested if he desires Israel to scale down its operations by the tip of the month. “Not stop going after Hamas, but be more careful.”

While battered by the Israeli onslaught, Hamas has continued its assaults. On Friday, it fired rockets from Gaza towards central Israel, setting off sirens in Jerusalem for the primary time in weeks however inflicting no accidents. The group’s resilience referred to as into query whether or not Israel can defeat it with out wiping out the complete territory.

Israelis stay strongly supportive of the conflict and see it as needed to forestall a repeat of Oct. 7, when Palestinian militants attacked communities throughout southern Israel, killing round 1,200 individuals, principally civilians, and taking some 240 hostage. A complete of 116 troopers have been killed within the floor offensive, which started Oct. 27.

Israeli authorities spokesman Eylon Levy stated militants have fired 12,500 rockets since Oct. 7, together with greater than 2,000 that fell brief and landed in Gaza.

Israel’s air and floor assault over the previous 10 weeks has killed greater than 18,700 Palestinians, in response to the Health Ministry in Gaza. Thousands extra are lacking and feared useless beneath the rubble.

The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. Its newest depend didn’t specify what number of have been ladies and minors, however they’ve persistently made up round two-thirds of the useless in earlier tallies.

Communications companies nonetheless seemed to be down throughout Gaza on Friday, 24 hours after telecommunications supplier Paltel stated they have been minimize because of ongoing combating.

Israeli airstrikes and tank shelling continued Friday, together with within the southern metropolis of Rafah, a part of the shrinking areas of tiny, densely populated Gaza to which Palestinian civilians had been advised by Israel to evacuate. At least one particular person was killed, in response to an Associated Press journalist who noticed the physique arriving at a neighborhood hospital.

The Qatar-based tv community Al Jazeera stated Friday that an Israeli strike killed one in every of its journalists in Gaza, Palestinian cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa. The strike additionally wounded the community’s chief correspondent in Gaza, Wael Dahdouh. The two have been reporting on the grounds of a faculty within the southern Gaza metropolis of Khan Younis when the strike hit, the community stated.

Before Abu Daqqa’s dying, at the very least 63 journalists have been killed because the battle erupted between Hamas and Israel on Oct. 7, in response to the media freedom group, The Committee to Protect Journalists. They embrace 56 Palestinians, 4 Israelis and three Lebanese.

Dahdouh, a veteran of overlaying Israel-Gaza wars, was wounded by shrapnel in his proper arm.

In the West Bank, Sullivan met Friday with Abbas, who misplaced management of Gaza when Hamas drove out his safety forces in 2007. The takeover got here a 12 months after Hamas defeated Abbas’ Fatah get together in parliament elections and the rivals didn’t kind a unity authorities.

A senior U.S. official stated that Sullivan and others have mentioned the prospect of getting these related to the Palestinian Authority safety forces earlier than the Hamas takeover function the “nucleus” of postwar peacekeeping in Gaza.

It was one concept of many being thought-about for establishing safety in Gaza, stated the official, who spoke on situation of anonymity consistent with White House floor guidelines. He stated such talks have been happening with Israel, the Palestinian Authority and regional companions.

The U.S. has stated it will definitely desires to see the West Bank and Gaza underneath a unified Palestinian authorities as a precursor to a Palestinian state — an concept soundly rejected by Netanyahu, who leads a right-wing authorities that’s against Palestinian statehood.

Palestinian officers have stated they may solely think about a postwar position in Gaza within the context of concrete U.S.-backed steps towards Palestinian statehood.

In the assembly, Abbas referred to as for a right away cease-fire and ramped-up help to Gaza, and emphasised that Gaza is an integral a part of the Palestinian state, in response to a press release from his workplace. It made no point out of conversations about postwar eventualities.

As a part of these eventualities, Washington has referred to as for revitalizing the Palestinian Authority, with out letting on whether or not such reforms would require personnel modifications or common elections, which final came about 17 years in the past.

The 88-year-old Abbas is deeply unpopular, with a ballot revealed Wednesday indicating near 90% of Palestinians need him to resign. Meanwhile, Palestinian assist for Hamas has tripled within the West Bank, with a small uptick in Gaza, in response to the ballot. Still, a majority of Palestinians don’t again Hamas, in response to the survey.