<p><strong>Israel-Hamas War Live</strong>: Hello and welcome to the live blog on the Israel-Hamas War. Follow this space for all the live and latest updates. The war between Israel and Hamas entered its 20th day on Thursday as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his country was preparing for a ground offensive on Gaza. </p>
<p>In an address on Wednesday, Netanyahu said that the two main aim of the war were "to eliminate Hamas by destroying its military and governance capabilities, and to do everything possible to get our captives home".</p>
<p>He said that a ground incursion on Gaza was coming but won’t tell the details of it.</p>
<p>"We are preparing for a ground incursion. I won’t specify when, how, how many. I also won’t detail the range of considerations, most of which the public is not aware of. And that’s the way it is supposed to be. This is the way, so that we protect our soldiers’ lives," Netanyahu said.</p>
<p>Gaza’s health ministry on Wednesday said that the death toll from Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip has soared to 6,546. “The fatalities included 2,704 children, 1,584 women, and 364 elders,” the ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told a press conference in Gaza City, as per an Anadolu report. </p>
<p>The pan-Arab Al Jazeera TV said in a statement that family members of one of its correspondents were killed in the Israeli airstrikes. </p>
<p>According to Reuters, the channel aired a live video of its reporter Wael Al Dahdouh sobbing as he saw his family members lying lifeless in a hospital.</p>
<p>United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday came under fire after he said that the attacks by Hamas “did not happen in a vacuum” irking Israel as it called for the UN chief’s resignation and apology. </p>
<p>The UN chief said it is "important to also recognise the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation".</p>
