US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Turkey on Friday as part of a Middle East tour amid mounting fears the war in Gaza will become a larger regional conflict. Lebanon filed a complaint to the UN Security Council over Israel's suspected assassination of Hamas deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut, while Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the group must respond to Arouri's assassination on Lebanese soil. Read our liveblog to see how the day's events unfolded.
Summary:
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Turkey on Friday as part of his fourth Middle East tour since the Israel-Hamas war began and amid mounting fears the Israel-Hamas conflict will become a regional war. Over the next week Blinken will travel to Istanbul, Crete, Amman, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Tel Aviv, the West Bank, Cairo and Al-'Ula in Saudi Arabia.
- UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said Gaza has become “uninhabitable” and reiterated warnings that “a public health disaster is unfolding” in the enclave. "Gaza has simply become uninhabitable. Its people are witnessing daily threats to their very existence – while the world watches on," Griffiths said in a statement.
- Lebanon has filed a complaint to the UN Security Council over Israel's suspected assassination of Hamas deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut as well as Israel's use of Lebanese airspace to bomb Syria. While Israel has not admitted to the killing, the head of Mossad this week vowed the intelligence service would track down every Hamas member behind the October 7 attack.
- In a televised address on Friday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Lebanon's security was at stake if the Shiite militia group failed to respond to Arouri's assassination and called a response "inevitable".
- Israeli officials say 1,139 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks in southern Israel, among them 695 Israeli civilians including 36 children. At least 22,600 people have been killed and 57,910 wounded in Israel's ensuing assault on the Gaza Strip, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave.
Yesterday's key developments
- At least 14 Palestinians were killed on Thursday in an Israeli strike on a home in Al-Mawasi evacuation zone, to the west of Khan Younis, Palestinian hospital officials said. The blast reportedly killed a man and his wife, seven of their children and three other children ranging in age from five to 14.
- In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces searched houses in the Nour al-Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm city in a second day of raids there. Residents said troops detained at least 120 people and demolished three houses, including one belonging to a member of the Tulkarm Brigades, a militant group linked to the Palestinian faction Fatah.
- The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for two explosions that killed at least 84 people at a ceremony in Iran to commemorate the late general Qassem Soleimani.
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”.
The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Hamas-run health ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.
In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records. The UN's counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza health ministry’s, with small discrepancies.
For more on the Gaza health ministry’s tolls, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP, Reuters)
