Closing summary
It has just gone 5pm in Gaza and in Tel Aviv. We will be closing this blog soon, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here.
Here is a recap of the latest developments:
Israel on Friday defended the military necessity of its Gaza offensive at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) after South Africa asked judges to order it to halt operations in Rafah and completely withdraw from the Palestinian territory. Israeli justice ministry official Gilad Noam called South Africa’s case, which accuses Israel of violating the genocide convention, “completely divorced from facts and circumstances”. On Friday Noam told the ICJ that “this war, like all wars, is tragic … it has exacted a terrible human price but it is not genocide”. This week’s hearings focused only on issuing emergency measures and decision on the request is expected next week.
Noam told the ICJ hearing that South Africa’s charge of genocide was “an obscene exploitation of the most sacred convention,” referring to the international treaty banning genocide, agreed after the Holocaust in the second world war. Noam said that Israel’s military operations were not aimed at civilians, but at Hamas terrorists using Rafah as a stronghold, who have tunnel systems which could be used to smuggle hostages and militants out of Gaza.
Hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) were briefly interrupted on Friday by a protester who called out “liars” as an Israeli official was presenting arguments. Reuters reported that a woman was seen being removed by court security guards.
Before Israel’s presentation at the ICJ, several dozen pro-Israeli protesters gathered outside, displaying photographs of hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October and demanding their release.
Israel must comply with international law in Gaza and address the devastating humanitarian crisis there, a group of western nations wrote in a letter to the Israeli government seen by Reuters on Friday. All countries belonging to the G7, apart from the US, signed the letter, along with Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.
Israeli forces battled Hamas fighters in the narrow alleyways of Jabalia in northern Gaza on Friday in some of the fiercest engagements since they returned to the area a week ago, while in the south militants attacked tanks massing around Rafah. Residents told Reuters that Israeli armour had thrust as far as the market at the heart of Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, and that bulldozers were demolishing homes and shops in the path of the advance.
The US military said trucks carrying humanitarian assistance had started moving ashore from a temporary pier in Gaza on Friday morning. The US Central Command (Centcom) said no US troops went ashore in Gaza.
Israeli settlers attacked and burned a truck in the occupied West Bank overnight on Thursday, injuring the driver, the Israeli military said. Troops who arrived to separate the settlers from the Israeli driver were attacked and three soldiers were slightly hurt, the military said. Israel’s Kan public radio reported that the protesters believed the truck was carrying aid supplies to Gaza but the military said the truck was not.
At least 35,303 Palestinians have been killed and 79,261 have been injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Friday. The Hamas-run health ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
Spain has refused permission for a ship carrying arms to Israel to dock at a Spanish port, its foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, said on Thursday. “This is the first time we have done this because it is the first time we have detected a ship carrying a shipment of arms to Israel that wants to call at a Spanish port,” he told reporters in Brussels.
Deir al-Balah is “now unbearably crowded” as Palestinians seek refuge from Rafah, said the UN agency for Palestine refugees (Unrwa) on Friday. In a social media post on X, Unrwa said more than 630,000 people have been forced to flee Rafah since Israel’s military offensive on the area started on the 6 May. It said that many Palestinians had “sought refuge” in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, and warned of “dire conditions”.
Israeli airstrikes on Friday hit an area of southern Lebanon far from the border killing an adult and two children, according to Lebanese official media. Hezbollah announced a fighter from Najjariyeh had died, while Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said two Syrian children were killed in the Najjariyeh strike, identifying them as Osama and Hani al-Khaled.
Staff at the Kuwaiti Speciality hospital in Rafah said they fear a full-scale advance into the southern Gaza city by Israel would produce a crush of new patients that would overwhelm exhausted doctors, who already complain of shortages of medicine and proper equipment.
Thailand’s prime minister Srettha Thavisin said he was “deeply saddened” by the deaths of two Thai nationals who were killed in the 7 October attack on Israel. It had previously been believed the men, named as Sonthaya Oakkharasri and Sudthisak Rinthalak, were alive and being held among hostages in the Gaza Strip.
Belgium’s University of Ghent is severing ties with three Israeli educational or research institutions which it says no longer align with its human rights policy. The university’s rector Rik Van de Walle, said in a statement that ties were being cut with Holon Institute of Technology, MIGAL Galilee Research Institute, and the Volcani Center, which carries out agricultural research.
Yemen’s Houthis said they downed a US MQ9 drone on Thursday evening over the south-eastern province of Maareb, the group’s military spokesperson said on Friday. The Iran-aligned group said they would release images and videos to support their claim and added that they had targeted the drone using a locally made surface to air missile.
Pro-Palestine protesters and University of Melbourne administrators remain in a deadlock despite a warning that police could be called to enter the campus at any time. After a meeting held between a handful of University of Melbourne student protesters and two university executives on Friday afternoon, the activists said no resolution was reached.
Monash University on Friday said the student encampment on its Clayton campus, in Melbourne’s south-east, had ended, while the University of Queensland has signalled it aims for its pro-Palestine camps to end.
The Palestine Football Association (PFA) has called for the “immediate” suspension of Israel from Fifa, according to the Times of Israel. The Israeli online newspaper reported that Jibril Rajoub, the head of the PFA, told Fifa president Gianni Infantino at a meeting in Bangkok that “the ball is in your court”. The publication said Israel rejected the call as “cynical.”
Police dismantled a pro-Palestinian encampment at DePaul University in Chicago on Thursday, less than a week after the school’s president said public safety was at risk. All the protesters at the encampment “voluntarily left” the area when police arrived early on Thursday, said Jon Hein, chief of patrol for the Chicago police department. Hein said two people were arrested outside the encampment “for obstruction of traffic”.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images from the newswires:
