At least 22,185 people have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, the Gaza Health Ministry said today, as Israel continues its military campaign in the besieged Palestinian enclave.

Another 57,035 people have been injured, the Health Ministry added.

Israeli soldiers operating in the Gaza Strip in a photo released today.

Israel will challenge at the United Nations’ highest court a case filed by South Africa accusing it of genocide against the Palestinians, a government spokesman has said.

Eylon Levy said that Israel would defend itself at the International Court of Justice, in the Dutch city of The Hague, against South Africa’s filing, which he called “an absurd blood libel” — referring to the ancient antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jews use the blood of non-Jews for rituals.

South Africa, a staunch Israel critic, launched its case Friday, alleging that Israel’s actions after Oct. 7 were “genocidal in character” and asking for a court order to halt its military campaign in Gaza.

In response, Levy said South Africa was “criminally complicit,” that it has “openly aligned itself with the Hamas rapist regime,” and was “aiding and abetting that machinery of genocide.”

As hundreds of thousands people cram into already overwhelmed shelters in southern Gaza, the main United Nations agency for the Palestinian territories said today that the population is suffering from fatal diseases.

"Gazans can die very easily now because of the diseases spreading," the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees said in a post on X.

According to the agency's estimates, more than a million people have been displaced into Rafah, a southern city that originally had a quarter of that population.

The IDF said this morning it struck Syrian military targets in response to yesterday’s launches.

IDF fighter jets also hit Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon, it said in a post on X.

“The IDF will continue to operate against any threat to Israel’s sovereignty,” said the post.  

TEL AVIV — Israel’s military launched new strikes against Gaza while also announcing it will begin withdrawing troops in the coming days. This comes amid growing tensions between the United States and Iran in the Red Sea. 

The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group will return to its home port in Norfolk, Virginia, the U.S. 6th Fleet said in a statement yesterday.

The ship was one of two groups deployed to the eastern Mediterranean Sea, days after the Hamas attacks Oct. 7.

The strike group was “ordered to the eastern Mediterranean to contribute to our regional deterrence and defense posture,” the statement said.

It will return to its home port and prepare for any future deployments, the statement added.

The IDF said today its forces had struck a number of militants planning to denotate explosives on its troops, as its naval, ground and aerial forces step up its assault in the Gaza Strip.

"IDF troops identified three terrorists in southern Gaza City entering a terrorist compound," it said in a statement, adding a fighter jet then struck the location.

IDF forces also conducted a raid in the southern city of Khan Younis and located weaponry, it said, in addition to killing dozens of militants around Jabalia.

NBC News has not verified the claims.

Turkish authorities have detained 33 people suspected of carrying out espionage for Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported today, adding that 13 others were being sought by police.

Anadolu said police had carried out simultaneous raids in 57 locations across eight provinces as part of an investigation that the counterterrorism bureau of the Istanbul prosecutor’s office had launched.

Without citing sources, it said the suspects were believed to be aiming to identify, monitor, assault and kidnap foreign nationals living in Turkey as part of “international espionage” operations.