Here are the latest updates from day 259 of the war:
■ Qatar says gaps remain despite some progress in Gaza cease-fire talks.
■ UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that he is profoundly concerned by escalating tensions between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and that UN peacekeepers are working to calm the situation and prevent miscalculation.
■ Hamas-run Health Ministry says 25 Palestinians killed, 50 wounded, in Israeli strike on displaced people’s tents in Rafah.
■ Israeli security forces kill two Palestinians in the West Bank town of Qalqilya
■ Armenia has officially recognized a Palestinian state, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.
■ The director of Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, Dr. Fadel Naim, said on Friday that about 30 people killed by Israeli forces in several locations throughout the city had been brought to the hospital.
■ Iran’s mission to the UN said on Friday that Hezbollah has the capability to defend itself and Lebanon against Israel, warning that “perhaps the time for the self-annihilation of this illegitimate regime has come.”
■ The Israeli military announced Friday morning that two reservists were killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip on Thursday. The soldiers were named as Sergeant First Class (Res.) Omer Smadga, 25, from Ganot Hadar and Sergeant First Class (Res.) Saadia Yaakov Dery, 27, from Tel Aviv. Both served in the 9203rd Infantry Battalion of the Alexandroni Brigade.