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Hospitals in Gaza said Israeli strikes killed at least 23 Palestinians Saturday, one of the highest tolls since the October ceasefire aimed at stopping the fighting.

A day after Israel accused Hamas of new ceasefire violations, strikes hit locations throughout Gaza, including lethal ones on an apartment building in Gaza City and a tent camp in Khan Younis, officials at hospitals that received the bodies said. The casualties included two women and six children from two different families. An airstrike also hit a police station in Gaza City, killing at least 11 and wounding others, Shifa Hospital director Mohamed Abu Selmiya said.

The series of strikes also came a day before the Rafah crossing along the border with Egypt is set to open in Gaza's southernmost city. All of the territory's border crossings have been closed throughout almost the entire war. Palestinians see Rafah as a lifeline for the tens of thousands in need of treatment outside the territory, where the majority of medical infrastructure has been destroyed.

The crossing's opening, limited at first, marks the first major step in the second phase of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire. Reopening borders is among the challenging issues on the agenda for the phase now underway, which also include demilitarizing the strip after nearly two decades of Hamas rule and installing a new government to oversee reconstruction.

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Hundreds of protesters gathered in a central square in Milan on Saturday, demanding that U.S. ICE agents assisting with security at the Winter Olympics leave Italy.

Many of the Italians who chanted and blew whistles near the grand stone arch in the Piazza XXV Aprile said they had been horrified and angered by images and videos on social media showing ICE agents operating violently in Minneapolis.

"All the videos are public and everyone can see what's happening," said Bruna Scanziani, age 18, who held up a sign with photographs of Renee Macklin Good and Alex Pretti, two American citizens killed by ICE agents. "The perception of America has changed."

With the opening ceremony taking place next Friday, Italy's government has scrambled to contain the growing political scandal over ICE's role at the Winter Games, holding high level cabinet meetings and offering public assurances that the role of ICE agents would be limited.

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Senior U.S. military officials have informed the leadership of a key U.S. ally in the Middle East that President Donald Trump could authorize a U.S. attack on Iran this weekend, multiple sources have confirmed to Drop Site News. Strikes could commence as early as Sunday, the ally was informed, if the U.S. decides to move forward.

“This isn’t about the nukes or the missile program. This is about regime change,” said a former senior U.S. intelligence official who consults for Arab governments and is an informal advisor to the Trump administration on Middle East policy. He told Drop Site that U.S. war planners envision attacks that target nuclear, ballistic, and other military sites around Iran, but will also aim to decapitate the Iranian government, and in particular the leadership and capabilities of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The IRGC is a branch of the Iranian armed forces created after the country’s 1979 revolution whose leadership now plays a major role in the country’s politics and economy.

The thinking in the Trump administration, according to the source, is that a successful strike on Iranian leadership would be followed by Iranians returning to the streets to protest, leading to the overthrow of the government. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is hoping for an attack,” the former senior intelligence official said, “and assuring Trump that Israel can help put in place a new government that is friendly with the West.”

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Israel said Friday that it will reopen the pedestrian border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt over the weekend, marking an important step forward for U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan.

COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of coordinating aid to Gaza, said in a statement that starting on Sunday a “limited movement of people only” would be allowed through the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s main gateway to the outside world.

The announcement followed statements from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ali Shaath, newly appointed to head the Palestinian administrative committee governing Gaza’s daily affairs, that it would likely open soon.

While COGAT said the passage will open in both directions on Sunday, Shaath said the first day will be a trial for operations and that travel both ways will start Monday.

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President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia did not strike energy facilities overnight but that Ukraine is seeing a shift toward attacks on logistics infrastructure.

Zelensky reported he held a special coordination meeting on the situation and restoration efforts.

“Last night, there were no strikes on energy facilities, but yesterday afternoon, there were strikes on energy infrastructure in several regions. We are now recording the reorientation of the Russian army to strikes on logistics,” he said on Telegram.

He added that Russian drone strikes on residential buildings in cities continue.

“A ballistic missile was also used against the Kharkiv region – warehouses of ordinary civilian production were damaged, and this is an American company,” Zelensky said.

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A human rights group has warned New York state and local officials that investment of public funds in bonds issued by Israel violates both international law and fiduciary duties and may expose officials and beneficiaries alike to “substantial legal, ethical and financial risks”.

The warning, from the human rights group Dawn, was sent on Friday along with a 26-page memo to the New York governor, Kathy Hochul; the state’s attorney general, Letitia James; New York City’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani; and the state and city comptrollers, Tom DiNapoli and Mark Levine, respectively. It calls on them to immediately cease new purchases and divest any current holdings in Israeli bonds, arguing the investments violate “legal obligations not to aid and abet Israeli crimes and their fiduciary duties to taxpayers”, Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Dawn, said in a statement.

The letter, which threatens litigation, comes as calls for divestment from Israel have grown in the US following the war in Gaza, and as some elected officials have moved away from once-reflexive support of Israel.

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