Israel-Hamas War News Live Updates: First flight carrying 212 Indian nationals from Israel, lands at Delhi airport

Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar was present at the airport to welcome them. With folded hands, Chandrasekhar greeted the returning Indians. He then interacted with the students. The union minister reassured the passengers, saying India's commitment to the safety of every Indian is unwavering. Prime Minister Modi is determined to protect them, he added.

The flight took off from Israel's Ben Gurion Airport on Thursday, amid the country's raging war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The Indians departed on a "first-come-first-serve" basis.

At the Delhi airport, Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar interacted with people who arrived from Israel on Friday morning.

First charter flight carrying 212 Indians arrived at the Delhi airport from Israel. This was an initiative by the government of India under the recently launched Operation Ajay.

Israeli lawmakers on Thursday endorsed an expanded "emergency government", parliament said, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a war-time partnership with a rival.

The first charter flight carrying 212 Indians, including an infant, wishing to leave Israel departed from the Ben Gurion Airport on Thursday, amid the country's raging war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said in a speech on Thursday that Egypt is exerting every effort to contain the escalation in the Israel-Hamas conflict and is trying to reach a ceasefire. "We are trying to alleviate suffering of Palestinian people in Gaza and our calls do not end. We are speaking to all the leaders and officials," he said in the speech.

Israel and the White House on Thursday condemned remarks by Donald Trump in which he praised the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah and criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over an attack by Palestinian Hamas militants that killed more than 1,300 people in Israel. Trump, a former Republican president who is the frontrunner to become the party's 2024 presidential nominee, called the Lebanese Hezbollah, a sworn enemy of Israel, "very smart" and accused Netanyahu of being "not prepared" for the Hamas attack, which also killed 22 Americans.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is deploying two Royal Navy ships, helicopters and surveillance aircraft to the eastern Mediterranean to support Israel and reinforce regional stability, his office said on Thursday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday said Washington has strict oversight of $6 billion in Iranian funds transferred from South Korean to Qatari accounts as part of a prisoner deal earlier this year. Blinken, speaking at a news conference in Tel Aviv, said that none of the funds have been spent or accessed.

"It's simply depravity in the worst imaginable way," Blinken told a news briefing in Tel Aviv, where he traveled after hundreds of Hamas gunmen poured across the barrier fence and rampaged through Israeli towns on Saturday.

Israel's parliamentary finance committee approved a plan to provide a state guarantee of $6 billion to cover insurance against war risks to Israeli airlines, the Finance Ministry said on Thursday. The guarantee framework will grant Israeli airlines insurance policies against war risks, thereby ensuring the continuity of air operations in Israel.

"Closing all access to the Gaza Strip and preventing aid is a mass killing of our people in Gaza," Mohammad Shtayyeh said in a statement, as Israel pressed a siege of the enclave following a devastating Hamas attack on Israel from Gaza.

China's top diplomat and foreign minister Wang Yi said on Thursday the Palestinian issue is the core of the Middle East conflict, and that crux of the matter was that "justice" had been denied to the Palestinian people. Wang made the remarks in a phone call with Celso Amorim, the top adviser to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Warning sirens sounded in northern Israel on Thursday, on the sixth day of an unprecedented war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The military said it "launched an interceptor following an aerial identification" and was investigating the cause.

"We have not placed any conditions on the provision of this equipment," Austin said, after a meeting of NATO ministers in Brussels. "This is a professional military, led by professional leadership, and we would hope and expect that they would do the right things in the prosecution of their campaign."

Israeli air strikes have made major cemeteries in Gaza dangerous to reach so mourning families are burying their dead in informal graveyards dug in empty lots amid an intensifying siege that has pushed the tiny enclave towards a humanitarian catastrophe. Gaza has been under Israeli bombardment since Saturday when the Islamist militant group Hamas sent hundreds of fighters through frontier fences and into Israel on a bloody rampage that left more than 1,200 dead and scores held as hostages.

Former President Donald Trump has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of betraying him just before the US killed a top Iranian general in 2020 and is questioning the country's intelligence prowess as it responds to Hamas' deadly attack. Trump's comments at a West Palm Beach, Florida, rally on Wednesday were quickly denounced by one of Netanyahu's allies, the White House and by several Republican presidential rivals, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

State news agency SANA quoted an unnamed military official as saying that no one was hurt in the attacks. They would be the first Israeli strikes on Syria since the militant Palestinian group Hamas carried out its deadly attacks in southern Israel.

"Just as ISIS was crushed, so too will Hamas be crushed. And Hamas should be treated exactly the way ISIS was treated," Netanyahu said as he met visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Syria's state television said an Israeli attack targeted the main airports in the capital Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo on Thursday. Local media channel Sham FM said Syrian air defences were launched in response to the attack.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken on Thursday reassured Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu of Washington's support, during a trip to the Middle East that aims to prevent the conflict with Palestinian Hamas militants from spreading. An hour after landing in Tel Aviv, Blinken shook hands with Netanyahu and told the prime minister: "We're here, we're not going anywhere," footage from Netanyahu's office showed.

The International Committee of the Red Cross is in contact with Hamas and Israel to try to facilitate the release of hostages taken into Gaza, the organisation said Thursday. The ICRC also believes that the humanitarian situation inside the Gaza Strip will very quickly become "unmanageable" without a way to get supplies into the besieged territory and distribute them.

Israel and Hamas traded more heavy fire Thursday in the Gaza war that has killed thousands as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited to stress strong solidarity and support but also urge restraint to protect Palestinian civilians. Israel's army has hammered Hamas with thousands of strikes ahead of what is widely expected to be a ground invasion of the crowded territory, after Hamas gunmen killed 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, and took about 150 hostages.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar chaired a meeting today to review preparations for "Operation Ajay", to bring back Indian citizens stuck in Israel.The registration for Indian citizens has begun on Thursday, according to sources. India on Wednesday launched 'Operation Ajay' to bring back its citizens stuck in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

Israel's military spokesperson announced on Thursday that they have successfully identified 97 individuals who were abducted and taken into Gaza during a Hamas attack on Saturday. Daniel Hagari, speaking during a televised press briefing, emphasized that Israel's recent offensive on the blockaded Palestinian enclave was intended to disrupt the Islamist militant group's governance capabilities.

Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz stated on Thursday that his country will withhold essential resources and humanitarian assistance from Gaza until Hamas releases the individuals it kidnapped during their unexpected weekend offensive.

During his visit to Israel on Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to engage in discussions with Palestinian and Jordanian leaders in Amman. A US official traveling with Blinken disclosed that on Friday in Amman, Secretary Blinken will meet with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and Jordanian King Abdullah II. This visit comes in the aftermath of the unexpected weekend attack by Hamas in Israel.

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv as part of his broader Middle East tour. The purpose of the visit is to demonstrate Washington's support for Israel in the wake of the attack by Palestinian Hamas militants and to work towards de-escalating the conflict.

Israel's Consulate General to Midwest India, Kobbi Shoshani on Thursday congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for launching 'Operation Ajay', under which India is planning to bring back around 18,000 Indian in Israel. He emphasized that Israel loved and respected the Indian business community in Israel as it contributed a lot to their economy. "The Indian business community that we love and respect so much contribute to our economy in a big way," he added. Additionally, Israel's Consulate General stressed that the Israeli government is doing its best to assist the Indian embassy in Tel Aviv in Operation Ajay.

On Thursday, Hamas insurgents unleashed a volley of rockets towards Tel Aviv as a response to Israeli airstrikes reportedly aimed at "civilians" in two Gaza refugee camps, according to the Palestinian faction.

Israel's military indicated on Thursday that it would not publish the number of interceptions of Palestinian rockets that it has carried out in the Gaza war, citing concern that such information would help Hamas.