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Israeli troops and tanks launched an hourslong ground raid into northern Gaza overnight into Thursday, the military said, striking several terrorist targets in order to prepare the battlefield ahead of a widely expected ground invasion after more than two weeks of devastating air raids.

The raid came after the UN warned it is on the verge of running out of fuel in the Gaza Strip, forcing it to sharply curtail relief efforts in the territory, which has also been under a complete siege since Hamas bloody rampage across southern Israel ignited the war earlier this month.

The rising death tolls in Gaza are unprecedented in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Even greater loss of life could come if Israel launches an expected ground offensive aimed at crushing Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and survived four previous wars with Israel.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said Wednesday that more than 750 people were killed over the past 24 hours, higher than the 704 killed the previous day.

The Associated Press could not independently verify the death toll, and the ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

By comparison, 2,251 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed in the entire six-week-long war in 2014, according to UN figures.

In preparation for the next stages of combat, the IDF operated in northern Gaza.

IDF tanks & infantry struck numerous terrorist cells, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts.

The soldiers have since exited the area and returned to Israeli territory. pic.twitter.com/oMdSDR84rU— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 26, 2023

On Wednesday, the wife, son, daughter and grandson of Wael Dahdouh, a veteran Al-Jazeera correspondent in Gaza, were killed in an Israeli strike.

The Qatar-based network showed footage of his grief upon entering a hospital and seeing his dead son. Dahdouh and other mourners attended the funerals on Thursday wearing the blue flak jackets used by reporters in the Palestinian territories.

The Israeli military says it only strikes terrorist targets and accuses Hamas of operating among civilians in densely-populated Gaza. Hamas terrorists have fired rocket barrages into Israel since the war began. 7 Israeli troops and tanks launched an hourslong ground raid into northern Gaza overnight into Thursday, the military said, striking several terrorist targets in order to prepare the battlefield. IDF/X 7 The raid came after the UN warned it is on the verge of running out of fuel in the Gaza Strip.IDF/X

During the overnight raid, soldiers killed fighters and destroyed terrorists infrastructure and anti-tank missile launching positions, the military said.

It said no Israeli were wounded.

There was no immediate confirmation of any Palestinian casualties.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a military spokesman, said the limited incursion was part of our preparations for the next stages of the war.

Israel also said it had also carried out some 250 airstrikes across Gaza in the last 24 hours, targeting tunnel shafts, rocket launchers and other terrorist infrastructure. 7 A portion of a building is destroyed during Israel’s raid overnight on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023.IDF/X

An airstrike on the southern town of Khan Younis hit a residential building where 75 people were staying, according to family members, including 25 who had fled other parts of Gaza.

Ambulances streamed into the nearby Nasser Hospital, but there was no official word on casualties.

The Gaza Health Ministry says more than 6,500 Palestinians have been killed in the war.

That figure includes the disputed toll from an explosion at a hospital last week.

The fighting has killed more than 1,400 people in Israel, mostly civilians slain during the initial Hamas attack, according to the Israeli government.

Hamas also holds at least 224 hostages in Gaza. 7 Smoke billows in the air over the northern Gaza Strip on the morning of Thursday, Oct. 26, after a “column of tanks and infantry” launched an overnight raid into Hamas-controlled Gaza.AFP via Getty Images

The warning by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, over depleting fuel supplies raised alarm that the humanitarian crisis could quickly worsen.

Gazas population has also been running out of food, water and medicine.

About 1.4 million of Gazas 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowded into UN shelters.

Hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza, despite Israel ordering them to evacuate to the south, saying those who remain might be considered accomplices of Hamas. 7 People search for survivors and the bodies of victims through the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli forces in the southern Gaza strip on Oct. 26, 2023. AFP via Getty Images

In recent days, Israel let more than 60 trucks with aid enter from Egypt, which aid workers say is insufficient and only a tiny fraction of what was being brought in before the war.

Israel is still barring deliveries of fuel needed to power generators saying it believes Hamas will take it.

An official with the International Committee of the Red Cross said it hopes to bring in eight trucks filled with vital medical supplies.

This is a small amount of what is required, a drop in the ocean, said William Schomburg, head of the sub-delegation in Gaza. We are trying to establish a pipeline.

UNRWA has been sharing its own fuel supplies so that trucks can distribute aid, bakeries can feed people in shelters, water can be desalinated, and hospitals can keep incubators, life support machines and other vital equipment working. 7 Smoke rises from the an Israeli attack in Khan Yunis on Thursday, Oct. 26.AFP via Getty Images

If it continues doing all of that, fuel will run out by Thursday, so the agency is deciding how to ration its supply, UNRWA spokeswoman Tamara Alrifai told The Associated Press.

Do we give for the incubators or the bakeries? she said. It is an excruciating decision.

More than half of Gazas primary health care facilities and roughly a third of its hospitals have stopped functioning, the World Health Organization said.

At Gaza Citys al-Shifa Hospital, the lack of medicine and clean water have led to alarming infection rates, the group Doctors Without Borders said.

Amputations are often required to prevent infection from spreading in the wounded, it said. see also Israel war 2023 Israel agrees to delay Gaza offensive to allow US missile defense placement

One surgeon with the group described amputating half the foot of a 9-year-old boy with only slight sedation on a hallway floor as his mother and sister watched.

The conflict has also threatened to spread across the region.

The Israeli military said Wednesday it struck military sites in Syria in response to rocket launches from the country.

Syrian state media said eight soldiers were killed and seven wounded.

Strikes in Syria also hit the airports of Aleppo and Damascus, in an apparent attempt to prevent arms shipments from Iran to terrorist groups, including Lebanons Hezbollah.

Israel has been exchanging near daily fire with Iranian-backed Hezbollah across the Lebanese border.

Israeli airstrikes and drone attacks early Thursday caused fires in open land in the southern Lebanon border town of Aita al Shaab, where clashes have intensified, Lebanons state-run news agency said.

It reported strikes late Wednesday on towns in the Tyre district, saying a mattress factory was hit. 7 A tank fires a round after crossing the border into the Gaza Strip during an overnight raid by Israeli forces.IDF/X

Hamas surprise rampage on Oct. 7 in southern Israel stunned the country with its brutality, its unprecedented toll and the failure of intelligence agencies to know it was coming.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a peech Wednesday night that he will be held accountable, but only after Hamas was defeated.

We will get to the bottom of what happened, he said. This debacle will be investigated. Everyone will have to give answers, including me.

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MLB: Iassogna crew chief, plate umpire for ASG

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MLB: Iassogna crew chief, plate umpire for ASG

NEW YORK — Dan Iassogna will be the umpire crew chief and work the plate during Tuesday night’s All-Star Game at Atlanta’s Truist Park.

His crew will include Marvin Hudson at first, Chris Segal at second, Jansen Visconti at third, Jeremie Rehak in left and Erich Bacchus in right, Major League Baseball said Thursday.

Iassogna, 56, will work his second All-Star Game. He was at third base for the 2011 game at Arizona.

He worked his first big league game in 1999, was hired to the major league staff in 2004 and appointed a crew chief ahead of the 2020 season. Iassogna umpired the World Series in 2012, ’17 and ’22 along with eight League Championship Series and seven Division Series.

Segal, Visconti, Rehak and Bacchus will work their first All-Star Games and Hudson his second after being in left field in 2004 at Houston.

Tony Randazzo will be the replay umpire in New York.

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A’s Rooker joins list of HR Derby participants

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A's Rooker joins list of HR Derby participants

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Athletics slugger Brent Rooker is adding his name to the list of Home Run Derby participants.

Rooker announced Thursday that he’s participating in the event, which takes place Monday in Atlanta. He will become the first Athletics player in the Home Run Derby since Matt Olson in 2021.

“Competing in the Home Run Derby has always been a dream of mine,” Rooker said in an Instagram post. “Can’t wait to make it happen next week in Atlanta! See ya there!”

Rooker, 30, entered Thursday with a .270 batting average, 19 homers and 50 RBIs, putting him on pace for a third straight season of at least 30 homers. He went deep 30 times in 2023 and had 39 homers in 2024.

His 58 homers since the start of the 2024 season rank him third among all American League players.

The only A’s to win the Derby were Mark McGwire in 1992 and Yoenis Céspedes in 2013 and 2014.

Other announced participants include Atlanta’s Ronald Acuña Jr., Minnesota’s Byron Buxton, Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero, Pittsburgh’s Oneil Cruz, Seattle’s Cal Raleigh and Washington’s James Wood.

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O’s trade reliever Baker to Rays for draft pick

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O's trade reliever Baker to Rays for draft pick

BALTIMORE — The Orioles traded right-handed reliever Bryan Baker to AL East rival Tampa Bay on Thursday in exchange for the 37th overall pick in the 2025 MLB amateur draft, a sign that one of baseball’s most disappointing clubs could be sellers at the upcoming trade deadline.

Orioles general manager Mike Elias wouldn’t completely commit to that idea. Speaking to reporters before Thursday’s split doubleheader against the New York Mets, he cited the 2024 Detroit Tigers, who traded players off their major league roster but held on to ace Tarik Skubal and then surged into a playoff spot.

Elias did, however, acknowledge the possibility of selling on a day that began with last-place Baltimore (40-50) sitting 12½ games behind the division-leading Toronto Blue Jays and seven out of the final AL wild-card spot.

“I think it’s a step in that direction,” said Elias three weeks before the July 31 deadline. “There’s no way around that. The timing of the draft, and when you have draft picks involved in the trades, kind of front-loads these decisions, and it’s earlier than my comfort level. But we thought it was a really good return and a good trade for everyone. So, we did it.”

The draft begins Sunday. In a corresponding move, the Orioles selected the contract of catcher David Bañuelos from Triple-A Norfolk.

After a dreadful start that brought the May dismissal of manager Brandon Hyde, the Orioles have steadied under interim skipper Tony Mansolino, playing to a 21-14 record since a loss to St. Louis on May 28.

Baker was a solid part of that, posting a 3.52 ERA, striking out 49 batters and posting a 1.096 WHIP in 38⅓ innings as the setup man for closer Felix Bautista.

“This is a team that is moving in the right direction, and we still have a lot of time left before the deadline, but this was a trade with the draft coming up in a couple days that we had to make a decision on,” Elias said. “We didn’t want to pass up on the opportunity. Hopefully, we can use the pick wisely, bring a lot of value back, and Bryan’s going to a good place.”

Mansolino is also hoping his team will get replenishments in the form of players eventually returning from the injured list. That sizable group includes several possible starting pitchers: Grayson Rodriguez (shoulder), Albert Suarez (shoulder), Tyler Wells (elbow) and Kyle Bradish (Tommy John surgery).

Meanwhile, Baltimore will now have four of the first 37 and seven of the first 93 draft picks.

“All the drafts are important, but when you have this amount of picks, it becomes more important, there’s no question about it,” Elias said. “There’s just a much bigger opportunity ahead of us, and the draft is a lifeblood for our franchise.”

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