Closing summary
It is approaching 6pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. This blog will be closing shortly but you can find all the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here.
Here is a summary of the developments on today’s blog:
Several Palestinians and Israeli soldiers have told the Associated Press (AP) that troops are systematically forcing Palestinians to act as human shields in Gaza, sending them into buildings and tunnels to check for bombs and gunmen. They told the AP that the practice has become ubiquitous over 19 months of war. In response to the allegations, Israel’s military said it strictly prohibits using civilians as shields – a practice it has long accused Hamas of using in Gaza.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said that Israeli strikes killed at least 15 people on Saturday across the Palestinian territory. Civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told Agence France-Presse (AFP) the dead included a couple who were killed with their two young children in a pre-dawn strike on a house in the Amal quarter of the southern city of Khan Younis. To the west of the city, at least five people were killed by a drone strike on a crowd of people that had gathered to wait for aid trucks, he said. The Israeli military said it was unable to comment on individual strikes without their “precise geographical coordinates”.
In a statement, the Israeli military said that over the past day the air force had struck more than 100 targets across the territory, including members of “terrorist organisations in the Gaza Strip, military structures, underground routes and additional terrorist infrastructure”.
In its latest humanitarian update on Friday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) called for more aid in Gaza to meet the “massive needs” of the territory. Ocha said “the small amounts of supplies being allowed into the Gaza Strip are nowhere near enough to roll back the extreme deprivation that Gaza’s population is facing”.
It also pointed to a statement by the World Health Organization (WHO) who warned on Thursday that the intensification of hostilities had “brought Gaza’s already weakened health system to a breaking point”. Ocha said the WHO’s warning followed an attack on al-Awda hospital, in northern Gaza, where patient triage tents – including one provided by WHO – caught fire. All medical supplies in the warehouse were burnt and vehicles in the basement had been left destroyed, it added.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it killed a Palestinian, who it claimed was trying to stab soldiers at a military checkpoint near Hebron in the West Bank, on Saturday afternoon. There were no casualties reported among IDF troops. The incident happened around the Tamar checkpoint, according to Israeli newspaper Maariv.
Israelis will hold rallies around the country tonight to call for a deal for the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, according to the Times of Israel. An anti-government rally will begin at 7pm local time at Habima Square in Tel Aviv. A protest led by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum is expected to be held outside the city’s Kirya military headquarters.
The United Nations secretary general said on Friday that Palestinians were enduring “the cruelest phase” of the war in Gaza, where more than a dozen food trucks were looted after the partial easing of a lengthy Israeli blockade. The UN’s António Guterres said “Palestinians in Gaza are enduring what may be the cruelest phase of this cruel conflict”, adding that Israel “must agree to allow and facilitate” humanitarian deliveries.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday that 15 of its “trucks were looted late last night in southern Gaza, while en route to WFP-supported bakeries”.“Hunger, desperation, and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming, is contributing to rising insecurity,” the UN body said in a statement, calling on Israeli authorities “to get far greater volumes of food assistance into Gaza faster”.
Gaza civil defence agency official Mohammed al-Mughayyir told Agence France-Presse (AFP) at least 71 people were killed, while “dozens of injuries, and a large number of missing persons under the rubble have been reported as a result of Israeli airstrikes” on Friday.
Syria on Saturday hailed the Trump administration’s lifting of US sanctions, as Washington hopes to open a new chapter in its relations with Damascus. “The Syrian Arab Republic welcomes the decision from the American government to lift the sanctions imposed on Syria and its people for long years,” a foreign ministry statement said.
Five al-Qaida members have been killed in a strike blamed on the United States in southern Yemen, two Yemeni security sources told AFP on Saturday. One of the security source added that, though the names of those killed in the strike were not known, it was believed one of al-Qaida’s local leaders was among the dead.
UK ministers are under pressure from inside and outside Labour to recognise Palestinian statehood at a UN conference next month, with party grandees arguing it would bolster prospects for peace and demonstrate moral leadership amid escalating tensions.
Conservative MPs privately support calls by prime minister Keir Starmer and the UK’s allies for Israel to cease its war in Gaza, one Tory has claimed. Mark Pritchard, Conservative MP for the Wrekin, also said he believed that the prime minister was on the “right side of history” and humanity, in an interview with broadcaster LBC.
The African Union (AU) called for a permanent ceasefire in Libya on Saturday after deadly clashes in the capital earlier this month and demonstrations demanding the prime minister’s resignation. On Saturday, the AU’s peace and security council condemned the recent violence, calling for an “unconditional and permanent ceasefire”. Egypt said on Saturday it had flown 71 nationals home from the Libyan capital Tripoli.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was holding talks with Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa in Istanbul on Saturday, broadcaster CNN Turk and state media said. State broadcaster TRT Haber published photos of al-Sharaa shaking hands in Erdoğan’s offices at the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul.
Updated
Conservative MPs privately support calls by prime minister Keir Starmer and the UK’s allies for Israel to cease its war in Gaza, one Tory has claimed, according to the PA news agency.
Mark Pritchard, Conservative MP for the Wrekin, also said he believed that the prime minister was on the “right side of history” and humanity, in an interview with broadcaster LBC.
Pritchard would not be drawn into attacking his party leader Kemi Badenoch, who has criticised the prime minister’s sanctions on Israeli settlers, as well as his joint statement made earlier this week with the leaders of France and Canada on the Gaza conflict.
Speaking to LBC, Pritchard said:
Half the population of Gaza are children. They are being literally bombed to bits every single day. They are being slowly starved.
It’s absolutely right the UK prime minister, who so happens to be a Labour prime minister right now, would stand up on the right side.
I push it back to the Israeli prime minister. I think Keir Starmer and those standing up for the children of Gaza are on the right side of history, the right side of humanity and are making the right moral judgment.
According to the PA news agency, Pritchard, who self-describes as strongly pro-Israel, said he had “changed to a position where I think we need to recognise a Palestinian state” immediately, having previously thought detailed groundwork was needed before this step was taken.
He said:
It may be symbolic, but I think it will be a huge symbol of support both for the Israelis that want to see that and also for the Palestinians. But the key point at the moment is the Israeli government need to be held to account.
I support the UK prime minister and many more, by the way, in the British Conservative party are coming up to me privately at the moment.
On Friday, Badenoch told broadcasters she was “not surprised” Starmer had been criticised by his Israeli counterpart. She suggested that breaking off trade deal talks with Israel over the conflict in Gaza and settler violence in the West Bank were not the “right way” to send a message to Netanyahu’s government.
Pritchard told LBC he was “not coming here to attack” his party leader. He added:
I’m coming on to support Kemi on the comments on antisemitism, supporting the prime minister on his strong stand, finally, on what’s going on in Gaza.
Updated
