For the first time since the Israeli military began ground operations in Gaza in October, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has sent out messages to people’s phones and on social media saying that the residents of some areas can return to their neighborhoods.

The IDF posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday that people who had been ordered to leave three neighborhoods of Deir Al Balah in central Gaza could go home.

One man, Abdulfattah Al Bourdaini, said: “We came home and found nothing, no power, no gas, no house, and we cannot change our clothes.”

All he had been able to salvage was a teddy bear for the son he hoped one day to have.

“I am penniless like the day I was born,” Al Bourdaini said. “I have nothing. I came to check on my house, didn’t find a house or anything, nothing is left… There is nothing left to cry about.”

He said he had come home with a key to his own, neighboring building – but had found no house for it. “Now we will bring a tent, that is if we find a tent, and put it next to our house,” he added.

Several people said they had been displaced from the neighborhood about 10 days ago, when the Israeli military posted on X and dropped leaflets telling people to evacuate the area for their own security. Many Gaza residents have been displaced multiple times since October, worsening the ongoing humanitarian crisis; experts also warn that evacuation orders have complicated aid efforts.

In its post on X on Thursday, the IDF said that “following the operations against terror organizations in the (Deir Al Balah) area, the IDF is enabling the return to these blocks which are part of the designated Humanitarian Area.”

On Friday, the IDF announced that people in three more blocks in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza could also return home, saying on X: “‎After the IDF’s activities against terrorist organizations in the area, you can return to these blocks. In the meantime, the humanitarian zone will be adapted and those areas will from now on be classified as part of the humanitarian zone.”

In a statement Friday detailing its operations in recent weeks, the Israeli military said “troops of the 98th Division have completed their divisional operation in the Khan Younis and Deir Al Balah area, after about a month of simultaneous above and underground operational activity.”

Israeli forces had “eliminated over 250 terrorists,” and destroyed terrorist infrastructure including six underground tunnel routes in the course of the operation, the statement said. “In some of the tunnel routes the troops eliminated terrorists and located terrorist hideouts and weapons.”

Abdul Raouf Radwan said that he and his family had moved into a tent closer to the coast to escape the bombardment. They had returned hoping to reoccupy their home, “hoping to find a life, find something, find a room to live in,” he said. “We found nothing but destruction. Our dreams were destroyed, our memories were destroyed… The house that our ancestors built was all gone.”

His brother, Muhammad Ramzi Radwan, said he had already lost a son as a result of the Israeli military’s operations. “A young man of 30, who built himself up from scratch, education, marriage, a son. All is gone, nothing is left.”

“My message is to stop the war,” Radwan said. “There is no time left to rebuild ourselves… We have endured this. This is beyond our capacity.”

Yamen al Tabi’s house was also destroyed. He said the family had left the neighborhood out of fear and returned to find their home completely ruined.

Raouf Ayesh said he and his children had taken refuge in tents. “And we said, ‘Oh God, let us return to our homes and find our belongings, our clothes, our winter clothes.” But they returned to nothing but debris.

Ayesh appeared to place some of the blame on Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. “Let Sinwar be satisfied,” he said. “Can you hear? They ruined us. We were not like this.”

Hanan Al-Arabeed, a widow who had returned to her home with her children, found it in ruins. “Should I go to a tent I am now in the street, I have two disabled children. I did not take anything with me from my house, there is total destruction as you can see,” she said.

Al-Arabeed had harsh words for Arab governments, saying: “We demand that the Arab countries stand with us, they make us feel that we are not Muslims…. The negotiations are at whose expense? At the expense of the martyrs, at the expense of the blood of children that is wasted.”

Her sister, Umm Kareem Al-Arabeed, said she was collecting whatever she could from the ruins of her apartment.

“Unfortunately, Israel has made its decision to eliminate the Gaza Strip. Indeed, it wants to eliminate the Palestinian people so that they do not raise their heads from here for 100 years. But you know, we are a steadfast people, coping people,” she said.

“We will start from the beginning and anew. We will start over,” she added.

Nearly 84% of the enclave has been placed under evacuation orders since the start of the war, according to the United Nations’ main agency for Palestinian humanitarian relief, UNRWA.

A bitter dispute about the conditions for a hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza erupted between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at a meeting of the Israeli security cabinet on Thursday night, according to multiple reports in Israeli media.

The Philadelphi corridor is currently controlled by the IDF. The deployment of Israeli troops along the corridor during the first phase of a ceasefire agreement has been a major point of contention between Israel and Hamas, with Hamas saying Israeli troops must withdraw from the border zone.

According to multiple accounts, Netanyahu produced maps showing how the IDF should remain in the corridor during the first phase of the deal – in which hostages are also meant to be released – so as to prevent Hamas from resuming arms smuggling through tunnels under the corridor.

“I would like to bring the decision on the IDF troops remaining in the Philadelphi Corridor for the Cabinet’s approval,” Netanyahu is reported to have said.

Gallant interjected, according to the accounts of the meeting, saying: “The significance of this is that Hamas won’t agree to it, so there won’t be an agreement and there won’t be any hostages released.”

He also alleged that Netanyahu had drawn up different maps to those preferred by Israeli negotiators in Cairo, adding: “You imposed these maps on them.”

Netanyahu angrily rejected the claim, but Gallant persisted. “Of course you forced (it). You’re running the negotiations on your own. Since you disbanded the War Cabinet, we hear everything after the fact.”

Gallant appeared to receive support from the Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi, who was at the meeting. He is reported to have said that the IDF could withdraw from the corridor and return “at the end of six weeks of ceasefire. There are enough constraints for negotiations, there’s no need to add another one.”

According to published accounts, Gallant said at one point that “the prime minister can indeed make all the decisions, and he can also decide to kill all the hostages,” provoking rebukes from other ministers. He added that “30 lives are at stake.”

Gallant added that “in the end Sinwar will dictate to you and you’ll retract,” a reference to the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who is thought to be in hiding in Gaza. Netanyahu in response reportedly insisted that no one dictated to him, saying that “only determined negotiation will make him (Sinwar) fold.”

The cabinet proceeded to vote on the maps that Netanyahu presented, approving them by eight to one, the only dissenter being Gallant. The right-wing National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir abstained from the vote. Israeli media cited sources close to him as saying he opposed any gradual decrease in the number of soldiers in the corridor.

The Hostage and Missing Families Forum responded to the media reports of the meeting with a statement that they “should cause every Israeli citizen to lose sleep.”

West Bank incidents

Reports of the dispute between top Israeli officials emerged as violence continues to rock the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Two security incidents happened overnight on Friday, in which two men were shot dead and a vehicle exploded, according to the IDF.

The IDF said that a vehicle caught fire and exploded late Friday at a gas station at the Gush Etzion intersection. “Forces that arrived at the point shot and killed the terrorist who got out of the vehicle and tried to attack them.”

The IDF said that nearby, “terrorists tried to run over a security guard at the entrance to the settlement of Karmei Tzur,” a settlement north of the city of Hebron. One of them was killed.

The IDF said there had been several casualties in the two incidents.

The Israeli emergency services (MDA) said that shortly before midnight it received a report of two gunshot victims near the gas station. The victims were moderately injured with gunshot wounds.

The MDA said that a vehicle apparently breached the entrance to the Karmei Tzur community. The head of security at the settlement received minor injuries when pursuing the vehicle, according to the IDF, and “during the confrontation, an explosive device in the terrorist’s car detonated.”

The Palestine Islamic Jihad movement said its fighters were responsible for the attacks and claimed without offering evidence that a number of Israeli soldiers had been killed.

The IDF said Saturday that security forces continue searches for additional suspects near Karmei Tzur community.

“The initial examination of the vehicle explosion at the Gush Etzion gas station indicated that the incident was an attempted car bombing by a terrorist,” it said.

Several soldiers had received light or moderate injuries, it said.

The incidents come amid a substantial Israeli operation in the West Bank over the past few days which the IDF has said is targeting militants preparing attacks on Israel.

In the north of the West Bank, Israel’s military is continuing its offensive in Jenin city and refugee camp for a fourth consecutive day, Palestinian news agency WAFA reported Saturday, citing local sources.

It said eyewitnesses claimed Israeli military reinforcements had been deployed to the Jenin refugee camp and raided several homes.

“Israeli military bulldozers have been destroying streets and infrastructure in both the city and the refugee camp, causing significant damage to electricity and water networks,” WAFA reported.

A Russian helicopter carrying 22 people has gone missing near a volcano in the Kamchatka peninsula in the country’s Far East, according to the local governor.

The Mi-8T helicopter had 19 passengers and three crew members on board before it disappeared on Saturday, Kamchatka Krai governor Vladimir Solodov said in a video statement. It had set off from a site near the region’s Vachkazhets volcano and was travelling to the village of Nikolaevka.

Low visibility, drizzle, and fog were observed in the Kamchatka region where the helicopter was flying, Russian state media TASS reported. The crew did not report any malfunctions to the aircraft, operational services said.

After the helicopter went missing, a search helicopter flew over the area that it was last in, Solodov said. A ground rescue team was also deployed to look for the aircraft, searching along the Bystraya River valley over which the helicopter would have flown.

On Saturday evening local time, Solodov said that the search party was continuing to look for the helicopter and its passengers in the dark and in poor weather conditions.

Kamchatka’s investigative department for transport is conducting an investigation into possible violations of rules related to traffic safety and air transport operation, it said in a Telegram post.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

A day of mourning has been declared in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Saturday, as rescuers and emergency teams wrap up their operations following a Russian bomb attack that killed at least six civilians, including a child in a playground.

At least 97 people were injured, including 24 children, when Moscow struck the city with five guided aerial bombs, according to Ukrainian authorities, in one of the most impactful Russian attacks on the region over the summer.

Among the dead was 14-year-old Sofia, who was in a playground when she was killed on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

“These horrific, cowardly Russian strikes targeted ordinary homes and a city park. Russia will be held accountable for all its evil deeds,” Zelensky said, again pressing Western allies to step up their military support.

“We need decisions – decisions that our partners can make, decisions from those countries that have the power to ensure we have the capability to destroy Russian military aircraft at their bases, where eliminating these terrorists and their aircraft will be most effective,” he said on Friday.

Russian forces conducted the “massive bombardment” of the city using Su-34 fight jets that were deployed from the border Belgorod region, according to the head of the Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office, Oleksandr Filchakov.

The 500 kilogram (1,100 lb) guided aerial bombs were launched from Russian territory and are very difficult to intercept, according to Ukrainian officials.

“This is a bomb with a control module, which means that the enemy was specifically targeting residential infrastructure,” the head of the Kharkiv regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov, said Saturday.

Striking the airplanes that carry those bombs is the most effective way to prevent such attacks, Zelensky has argued, as he continues to urge the United States and Western partners to lift restrictions on using long-range weapons to hit military targets on Russian territory.

The guided aerial bombs hit civilian infrastructure in four districts of the city in the Friday afternoon attack, Filchakov said, adding that 82 apartment buildings, 11 private houses, three administrative buildings, two educational establishments, 47 shopping facilities, 57 cars, two warehouses, 10 garages and an enterprise facility were damaged.

Ukraine strikes Russia’s Belgorod

Meanwhile, Ukrainian attacks across the border into Russia continued on Saturday.

At least five people were killed and more than 50 injured across Russia’s Belgorod region over the last 24 hours, the regional governor said Saturday.

Most of the casualties occurred in the city of Belgorod, where three people were killed and 31 civilians, including three children, were injured. More than 20 people remained hospitalized on Saturday, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

Civilian infrastructure across the region was damaged, he said.

Ukrainian attacks in Russia’s Kursk region also continued, Moscow said Saturday. Kyiv’s forces have made further advancements in their incursion into the border region, Ukraine’s army chief said Friday.

Kyiv’s troops have advanced up to 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) further in some areas over the past 24 hours, taking control of an additional 5 square kilometers of the territory, Ukraine’s top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said Friday.

In addition to the casualties in Kharkiv, Russian attacks on Ukrainian territory have killed at least three people and injured 16 over the past 24 hours, according to officials.

The Ukrainian Air Force said Saturday that Russian forces had attacked Ukraine overnight with an Iskander-M ballistic missile launched from Voronezh region, four S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles launched from occupied parts of the Donetsk region, and 52 Shahed drones launched from Kursk region.

A first group of babies received polio vaccinations in Gaza on Saturday ahead of the official start of a much-anticipated United Nations-led campaign on Sunday.

Babies in the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, central Gaza, were among the first to receive the vital vaccines on Saturday, according to footage filmed by news agency Reuters.

The main UN agency in Gaza, UNRWA, plans to immunize over 640,000 children in the war-torn enclave, facilitated by a series of pauses in fighting agreed to by Israel.

During a press conference organized by the Ministry of Health in Gaza to officially launch the campaign, Deputy Health Minister Yousef Abu Al-Reesh said that if “the international community wants the campaign to succeed,” it should call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

The return of polio to Gaza is a measure of the destruction wrought by more than 10 months of Israeli bombardment. The UN’s campaign comes after the highly infectious virus was found in sewage samples in the strip in June. A baby has since become the first person in Gaza in 25 years to be diagnosed with polio.

Before the war, Gaza had near-universal polio vaccine coverage, but it has since dropped below 90%. Polio mostly affects children under 5 years old, and can cause irreversible paralysis and even death. It’s highly infectious and there is no cure. It can only be prevented by immunization, according to the World Health Organization.

The vaccination drive comes as aid agencies reported Israeli attacks on their convoys. One charity said an Israeli strike on a humanitarian vehicle in Gaza killed several employees of a transportation company. The Israeli military said it targeted “armed men” who had taken over the convoy.

Israeli authorities say they have “located a number of bodies” during combat in the Gaza Strip.

“At this time, the troops are still operating in the area and are carrying out a process to extract and identify the bodies that will last several hours. We ask to refrain from spreading rumors,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement Saturday.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The Chinese and Philippine Coast Guards traded blame over the latest collisions involving their vessels in the disputed South China Sea on Saturday.

The Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) said a Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) ship had “deliberately collided” with one of its vessels near the disputed Sabina Shoal, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

“At 12:06, the Philippine ship No. 9701 deliberately collided with the Chinese ship No. 5205, which was normally enforcing rights and law enforcement, in an unprofessional and dangerous manner, resulting in a collision. The responsibility lies entirely with the Philippines,” CCG spokesman Liu Dejun said on Saturday.

PCG spokesperson Jay Tarriela said the Chinese side had “deliberately rammed” a Philippines vessel.

“This afternoon, the Chinese Coast Guard vessel deliberately rammed and collided with the BRP Teresa Magbanua three times, despite no provocation from the Philippine Coast Guard,” he wrote in a post on X.

The dueling accounts come as Chinese and Philippine vessels have engaged in multiple collisions and face-offs over the past week near Sabina Shoal, also known as Xianbin Reef.

The disputed atoll lies just 86 miles from the Philippines’ west coast and 745 miles from China.

A spokesperson for the US State Department said it condemned China for “deliberately colliding three times” with the Philippine vessel.

“On multiple occasions throughout August 2024, (China) has aggressively disrupted lawful Philippine aerial and maritime operations in the South China Sea, including at Sabina Shoal,” said the spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

Miller added that the US called on China to comply with international law and “desist from dangerous and destabilizing conduct.”

China claims almost all of the South China Sea as its sovereign territory despite an international ruling to the contrary.

The escalation in tensions comes just weeks after Beijing and Manila struck a temporary deal to lower tensions that had been rising all summer at another nearby reef, where China’s increasingly aggressive tactics had raised alarm across the region as well as in Washington, a mutual defense ally of the Philippines.

With reporting by Nectar Gan and Brad Lendon.

Malaysian authorities have stopped a nine-day effort to find and rescue a woman who fell into a sinkhole in Kuala Lumpur, officials said Saturday.

The operation will now shift into a search and recovery phase, local media reported, citing Zaliha Mustafa, a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in the Federal Territories.

Mustafa said several factors went into the decision, including concerns over the safety and health of the rescue personnel, Singaporean newspaper the Straits Times reported.

Vijaya Lakshmi Gali, an Indian national, fell into the sinkhole on the morning of Aug. 23, according to the High Commission of India in Kuala Lumpur.

Surveillance footage shows the woman walking on a pavement along a busy road when the sinkhole suddenly opened beneath her. She plunged into the eight-meter gap while people around her scrambled for safety.

Malaysian authorities mounted an extensive, multi-agency rescue effort involving the Royal Malaysian Police, the Fire and Rescue Department and the Civil Defense Force, among others.

They tried a variety of tools and techniques to locate her, including excavations, flushing portions of the drain system, sending divers to search the city’s sewage line, using high-pressure water jets to remove obstacles, and mapping inaccessible areas with remote cameras and ground-penetrating radar, according to the High Commission of India in Kuala Lumpur.

Authorities found no trace of her apart from a pair of slippers, the Associated Press reported.