Closing summary
Hamas official Basem Naim told Al Jazeera that Benjamin Netanyahu is “intentionally sabotaging” the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which looks more fragile than ever after Israel indefinitely delayed the release of over 600 Palestinian prisoners. Netanyahu is “preparing the atmosphere for returning back to the war”, Naim said.
The UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, said he was “gravely concerned” about “rising violence” in the occupied West Bank after the Israeli military sent tanks into the West Bank for the first time in more than two decades.
The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, said the latest raid across the West Bank was expanding, and that troops would remain in the area’s urban hotspots “for the coming year”, meaning approximately 40,000 people displaced by the assault will not be able to return to their homes.
Friedrich Merz, the Conservative leader who is expected to be Germany’s next chancellor, said Benjamin Netanyahu “can visit” his country despite an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister issued by the international criminal court (ICC) for alleged war crimes relating to Israel’s assault on Gaza.
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Updated
Long-term effects of Gaza war could quadruple Palestinian death toll, warn UK doctors
Mark Townsend is a senior global development reporter at the Guardian
British doctors who worked in Gaza during the war have issued dire predictions over the long-term health of Palestinian civillians, warning that large numbers will continue to die.
The prevalence of infectious disease and multiple health problems linked to malnutrition, alongside the destruction of hospitals and killing of medical experts, meant mortality rates among Palestinians in Gaza would remain high after the cessation of Israeli shelling.
British-Palestinian reconstructive surgeon, Prof Ghassan Abu-Sittah, who worked in al-Shifa and al-Ahli Arab hospitals in Gaza City shortly after the war began, said levels of malnutrition there were so acute that many children would “never recover”.
Scientists have estimated that the total deaths from Israel’s war on Gaza could ultimately be as high as 186,000. The figure is almost four times higher than the 46,700 deaths that Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry have reported.
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