Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 166?

More than 31,988 Palestinians have been killed and 74,188 injured in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, the Gaza health ministry, governed by Hamas, said on Thursday.

Some 65 Palestinians were killed and 92 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added in a statement.

The numbers cannot be independently verified and do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The IDF estimated in late February that it had killed some 12,000 Hamas and allied terrorists, suggesting a combatant-to-civilian ratio of about 1:2. The typical ratio in urban warfare can be as high as 1:9, according to the UN.

IDF troops are operating in the town of Nur al-Shams near the city of Tulkarm in the West Bank, according to an IDF statement on Wednesday night.

During the operation, Israeli aircraft attacked two terrorists who were posing an immediate danger to Israeli troops.

This is the second operation in the West Bank during the month of Ramadan, after an operation in the Dehaishe refugee camp outside Bethlehem on Monday.

The group We Are Tov (the Hebrew word for good) launched a petition on Wednesday, calling for the reinstatement of the suspended Government Spokesperson Eylon Levy. 

The petition, made on Change.org, has a goal of 10,000 signatories and has already accumulated over 8,000. 

We Are Tov, addressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, wrote, “We, the undersigned, urge the Prime Minister's Office to lift the suspension imposed on Eylon Levy, the Israeli Government's spokesman. 

Nearly 70 former US officials, diplomats and military officers on Wednesday urged President Joe Biden to warn Israel of serious consequences if it denies civil rights and basic necessities to Palestinians and expands settlement activity in the West Bank.

"The United States must be willing to take concrete action to oppose" such practices, the group said in an open letter to Biden, "including restrictions on provision of (US) assistance (to Israel) consistent with US law and policy."

Among the signatories were more than a dozen former ambassadors, as well as other retired State Department officials and former Pentagon, intelligence and White House officials, including Anthony Lake, a national security adviser to former President Bill Clinton.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview with the Saudi Al-Hadath channel early Thursday morning that an agreement on a deal to release hostages in exchange for a ceasefire is getting closer.

"I think that the differences are narrowing and that an agreement is certainly possible," Blinken said.

"We put a good offer on the table, but Hamas did not accept it and presented additional demands. The negotiation teams are working now, and I think it can be done and is very necessary. If Hamas cares about the residents of Gaza, it will reach an agreement."

According to recent polling, the proportion of Gazans who support a two-state solution has nearly doubled since December, from 35% to 62%.

The polling, conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR), was conducted between March 5 and 10 in the West Bank and areas of the Gaza Strip where there was "no ongoing daily fighting."

The PCPSR conducted previous surveys in September and December 2023, during which the change in support for a two-state solution by Gazans was minimal, 34% to 35%, respectively. 

“When adults remain silent, children’s voices will plead, and if the political scale tips, people’s justice will lead.”

These words open the four-minute ad for Ramadan of the Zain Group, a telecommunication company based in Kuwait. In the video, one sees Handala—a character created in 1969 by political cartoonist Naji al-Alid who has become a personification of the Palestinian people—guiding Palestinian children to the UN Security Council. Handala characterizes the suffering of the Palestinian people through music, images of flour bags covered in blood, and a display of empty children’s shoes meant to represent the young victims of the current war.

The US military and coalition forces destroyed an unmanned aerial vehicle and an unmanned surface vessel launched by Yemen's Houthis in the Red Sea on Wednesday, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement.

"There were no injuries or damage reported to US or coalition ships," the statement read.