Israel's prime minister pushed back Saturday against growing calls from Western allies to do more to protect Palestinian civilians, as troops closed in on Gaza's largest hospital that Israel claims is Hamas' main command post but still hosts thousands of patients and people seeking shelter.

Benjamin Netanyahu said the responsibility for any harm to civilians lies with Hamas, repeating long-standing allegations that the militant group uses civilians in Gaza as human shields. He said that while Israel has urged civilians to leave combat zones, "Hamas is doing everything it can to prevent them from leaving."

“Consensus” has been reached on the release of a number of Palestinian women and child prisoners in return for 100 women and a child held captive by Hamas, the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television reported on Friday.

Complicating Israel's military push inside the Gaza Strip is the fate of around 240 hostages abducted on October 7.

Hezbollah said Friday that seven of its fighters have been killed, but didn't specify where they died other than to say that they were “martyred on the road to Jerusalem.”

A Hezbollah official and a Lebanese security official said the seven fighters were killed in neighboring Syria Friday morning. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Israel's military said Friday it struck an organization in Syria that was behind a drone crash into a school in southern Israel a day earlier.

"In response to a UAV (drone) from Syria that hit a school in Eilat, the IDF (Israeli army) struck the organization that carried out the attack," the Israeli army said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Israel’s labor minister says Benjamin Netanyahu will have to call early elections right after the war.

Labor Minister Yoav Bentzur made the unusually public suggestion in remarks quoted Thursday by the Maariv daily.

Israel said it used one of its most advanced air and missile defense systems for the first time Thursday to intercept a missile launched toward Israel in the Red Sea region.

The system, known as the Arrow 3, is designed to intercept long-range missiles outside the atmosphere, according to a joint statement from Israel's military and Ministry of Defense.

The Israeli army on Friday bombed the outpatient and maternity building of Gaza's al-Shifa Hospital, causing deaths and injuries.

Israel has agreed pauses in its offensive in northern Gaza that will allow some civilians to flee heavy fighting, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out any broader ceasefire as a "surrender" to Hamas.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators occupied the lobby of The New York Times on Thursday, accusing the media of betraying a bias toward Israel in its coverage of the war and demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.

Hundreds of protesters led by a group of media workers calling themselves “Writers Bloc” gathered outside the publication’s Manhattan headquarters, with many of them entering the building’s atrium for a sit-in and vigil that lasted more than an hour.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war in Gaza will continue until Hamas is defeated but asserted that Israel has no intention to conquer or govern the blockaded territory after the fighting ends.

In an interview with Fox News that aired Thursday evening, Netanyahu made clear that though Israel had no intention of occupying Gaza, it did envision a radically reshaped territory free of Hamas.

Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, described Israel’s decision to allow a four-hour humanitarian pause each day in combat operations in northern Gaza to allow civilians to flee to the south as “very cynical and cruel.”

“There has been continuous bombings, 6,000 bombs every week on the Gaza Strip, on this tiny piece of land where people are trapped and the destruction is massive. There won’t be any way back after what Israel is doing to the Gaza Strip,” Albanese told reporters in Adelaide, Australia, on Friday.