Morning recap: Day 20

Good morning MEE readers.

It is now the 20th day since the start of the war between Israel and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza. 

It appears that in recent days, less news has been coming out of Gaza overnight, as internet and telecommunications infrastructure has been severely damaged.

If you are just tuning into our live blog coverage, here is what you may have missed over the past several hours:

Israel said it conducted a ground operation in Gaza, attacked several sites, and then withdrew. Hamas has not yet commented on the Israeli military's statement.

• Biden's remarks casting doubt on the Palestinian death toll have been widely condemned as dehumanising, with the largest US Muslim rights group demanding he apologise.

• More countries are joining calls for a humanitarian pause in the fighting, in order to allow aid to enter Gaza.

• Biden and Netanyahu spoke on Wednesday afternoon, and they discussed efforts at locating and securing the release of Americans held captive in Gaza.

• An exclusive from MEE: US officials are preparing dissent cables to voice their opposition to Biden's full-fledged support of Israel's bombing of Gaza.

• Dozens more Palestinians have been arrested across the West Bank on Thursday morning.

We're working hard to provide you with up-to-date information around the clock, and are going to continue doing that throughout the day. You can also find our coverage across Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube.