Closing summary
It has just gone 5pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv. We will be closing this blog soon, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Israel-Gaza war coverage here and on the Middle East here.
Here is a recap of the latest developments:
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) has said that one of its employees was killed during an Israeli operation in the occupied West Bank, where raids have escalated since last month. Unrwa identified the employee as Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad, who worked as a sanitation labourer. It said he was “shot and killed on the roof of his home by a sniper” in Faraa refugee camp. The Israeli military called the UN worker a “terrorist” who posed a threat to troops.
Mourners gathered in the Aegean town of Didim, south-west Turkey, on Saturday for the funeral of a US-Turkish activist, who was shot dead while protesting Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The killing last week of 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi has sparked international condemnation and angered Turkey, further escalating tensions over the war in Gaza. A large crowd gathered during the prayers including Eygi’s family, members of president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Islamic-rooted AKP party, and activists advocating the Palestinian cause. Erdoğan has vowed to ensure “that Aysenur Ezgi’s death does not go unpunished”. The Israeli military has said it was likely Eygi was hit “unintentionally” by forces while they were responding to a “violent riot”, and said it is looking into the case.
Initial findings from an autopsy in Izmir, Turkey, revealed a bullet hit Aysenur Ezgi Eygi in the head state-run TRT television reported. The cause of Eygi’s death was defined as “skull fracture, brain haemorrhage and brain tissue damage”. The report overlapped with an initial autopsy carried out by three Palestinian doctors, which concluded that a bullet passed directly through the victim’s skull. Her mother, Rabia Birden, on Friday urged Turkish officials to pursue justice. “The only thing I ask of our state is to seek justice for my daughter,” she was quoted as saying by Anadolu news agency.
A campaign is under way to drive Unrwa out of existence, its commissioner general has said, days after 18 people were killed when Israeli jets bombed an Unrwa school in Gaza.
Israeli airstrikes hit central and southern Gaza overnight into Saturday, killing at least 14 people, Gaza’s civil defence agency said.“We have recovered the bodies of 11 martyrs, including four children and three women, after an Israeli airstrike hit the house of the Bustan family in eastern Gaza City,” agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told Agence France-Presse (AFP). The strike took place near the Shujaiya school in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City, he said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strike.
Bassal said Israeli forces carried out similar strikes in some other parts of the territory overnight, killing at least 10 people. Five people were killed in northwestern Gaza City when an airstrike hit a group of people near Dar Al-Arqam school, he said. Three others were killed in a strike in the al-Mawasi area of the southern Khan Younis governorate, where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge, Bassal added.
At least 41,182 Palestinians have been killed and 95,280 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday. The toll includes 64 deaths in the previous 48 hours, according to the ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its count.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) disaster risk management teams, in cooperation with the Palestine Ministry of Social Development, distributed food parcels to 11,000 families in Gaza and North Gaza governates, the humanitarian organisation shared on X.
Iran launched a satellite into space on Saturday with a rocket built by the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), according to state-run media. There was no immediate independent confirmation of the launch’s success, nor did Iranian authorities immediately provide footage or other details.
Richard Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) representative in Gaza and the West Bank, said in a statement on Saturday that he is “hopeful these pauses will hold” as the UN agency prepare for the next round of polio vaccinations in Gaza in four week’s time. About 559,000 children under the age of 10 have recovered from their first dose, the WHO said, as part of a campaign to inoculate children in Gaza. The second doses are expected to begin later this month as part of an effort in which the WHO said parties had already agreed to.
A new attempt has begun to try to salvage an oil tanker burning in the Red Sea after attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, an EU naval mission said on Saturday. The EU’s Operation Aspides published images dated Saturday of its vessels escorting ships heading to the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion.
Syrian president Bashar al-Assad issued a decree naming former communications minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali to form a new cabinet, state media said on Saturday. The new cabinet will replace an outgoing administration which has been serving in a caretaker role since parliamentary elections in mid-July.
A man was shot and sustained life-threatening injuries on Thursday in Newton, Massachusetts, after he tackled a pro-Israel demonstrator. During a news conference on Thursday evening, Marian Ryan, the Middlesex district attorney, said that the incident took place at about 6.40pm on Thursday evening. The individual sustained life-threatening injuries, and is being treated at a local hospital, she said.
Updated
Richard Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) representative in Gaza and the West Bank, said in a statement on Saturday that he is “hopeful these pauses will hold” as the UN agency prepare for the next round of polio vaccinations in Gaza in four week’s time.
About 559,000 children under the age of 10 have recovered from their first dose, the WHO said, as part of a campaign to inoculate children in Gaza. According to the Associated Press (AP), the second doses are expected to begin later this month as part of an effort in which the WHO said parties had already agreed to.
“As we prepare for the next round in four weeks, we’re hopeful these pauses will hold, because this campaign has clearly shown the world what’s possible when peace is given a chance,” Peeperkorn said.
Updated
