A senior Hamas official has defended carrying out the deadly October 7 attacks on Israel, telling CNN that it created a “golden moment” for the Palestinian cause despite the tens of thousands of deaths in Gaza.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — At least 17 people were killed Thursday in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, according to local health officials, as international pressure for a ceasefire continued to grow.

Three Palestinians accused of “collaborating” with Israel were executed  by masked Hamas terrorists in front of a cheering crowd in Gaza on Sunday.

Hamas has rejected claims by US President Donald Trump that the Palestinian group has turned down several reasonable offers for a ceasefire in Gaza. "The Hamas Movement has never been an obstacle to reaching a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip,

In a wide-ranging interview, CNN’s Jeremy Diamond presses senior Hamas leader, Ghazi Hamad, on his responsibility for Palestinians suffering in Gaza and the state of the remaining hostages in the enclave.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the Israeli government is misusing the terrorist attack by Palestinian Islamist Hamas as a pretext to carry out genocide in Gaza, in comments to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.

An Israeli military spokesperson said on Thursday that it now controls about 40% of the city, where about one million people lived prior to the war.

Hamas issued its strongest messaging about the Israeli hostages in Gaza Thursday night, saying that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Gaza City ground incursion means that Israel has lost any chance of getting its hostages out of the territory – dead or alive.

Hamas-led authorities in Gaza have executed three men accused of collaborating with Israel, a Palestinian official said, as the group seeks to crush rising challenges from Palestinian militias it says are working against it with Israeli support.

Israel launched a strike targeting Hamas’ leadership in Qatar as they considered a U.S. proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

American veterans are working with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to get aid to Palestinians in need of food after facing nearly two years of war.

Some Israeli officials believe the military assault on Gaza City will deliver a decisive blow to the group, which continues to stage ambushes and guerrilla attacks.