This blog has now closed. You can read our full report on the US and EU's twin diplomatic push in the region here and all our coverage of the Israel-Gaza war here.
Summary
Here is where things stand:
Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, met a political official of Hezbollah on Saturday in attempts to help avoid Lebanon’s entanglement in the ongoing Israel-Gaza war. According to Lebanese media, Borrell held talks with Mohammad Raad, the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, Agence France-Presse reports.
Médecins Sans Frontières has evacuated its staff and families from Gaza’s middle area following evacuation orders issued by Israeli forces for neighborhoods surrounding al-Aqsa hospital. “It is with heavy conscience that we have to evacuate while patients, hospital staff and many people seeking safety remain in the hospital premises,” Carolina Lopez, the emergency coordinator at al-Aqsa hospital, said.
An Israeli airstrike on a house belonging to the Al-Nabris family in Khan Younis killed several Palestinians while wounding dozens on Saturday, Palestinian health officials said, according to Reuters. Videos on social media of what appeared to be the aftermath of the strike showed Palestinians rushing injured victims, including bloodied children, to the hospital.
The US is working alongside its allies to see what can be done to protect civilians in Gaza amid Israel’s ongoing war in the strip, Reuters reports the US secretary of state Antony Blinken as saying on Saturday. Blinken’s comments come as Israeli forces have killed more than 22,700 Palestinians across the strip since 7 October.
Iran and its associates “must immediately stop their destabilizing actions”, France’s foreign minister Catherine Colonna said in a tweet on Saturday. Following a call with her Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Colonna wrote: “I called Iranian Minister A Abdollahian and gave him a very clear message: the risk of regional conflagration has never been so significant; #Iran and its associates must immediately stop their destabilizing actions. No one would gain from escalation.”
Almost 90% of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been “forcibly displaced and lack everything”, UNRWA said. According to UNRWA, 1.9 million Palestinians have been displaced across Gaza, with 1.88 million Palestinians sheltering in and in the vicinity of 155 UNRWA installations. Meanwhile, 131 UNRWA installations have been damaged as a result of Israel’s deadly strikes across Gaza.
European foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned on Saturday that it is “absolutely necessary” that Lebanon not be dragged into a regional conflict as a result of Israel’s war in Gaza. Speaking at a press conference with Lebanon’s foreign minister, Borrell said: “It is imperative to avoid regional escalation in the Middle East. It is absolutely necessary to avoid Lebanon being dragged into a regional conflict,” Agence France-Presse reports.
Here are some images coming through the newswires from Gaza, where Israeli forces have killed more than 22,700 Palestinians since 7 October, while survivors grapple with severe shortages in food, water, medical supplies and fuel:
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Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, met a political official of Hezbollah on Saturday in attempts to help avoid Lebanon’s entanglement in the ongoing Israel-Gaza war.
According to Lebanese media, Borrell held talks with Mohammad Raad, the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, Agence France-Presse reports.
An EU source confirmed the meeting, telling AFP that the EU is “engaging in diplomatic dialogue with all relevant political representatives who have influence on the situation on the ground or have a stake in it”.
Borrell’s meeting with Raad came hours after Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets at an Israeli military base on Saturday in response to the killing of Saleh al-Arouri, a senior Hamas official, earlier this week. Israel has not claimed responsibility.
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Here are some images coming through the newswires from Tel Aviv this evening, where thousands of demonstrators, including families of hostages held by Hamas, rallied against the Israeli government over its handling of the hostage crisis and its ongoing war in Gaza:
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The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has landed in Jordan, according to the US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller.
“Jordan is a vital partner in helping to prevent the conflict in the region from spreading, and we are grateful for their leadership in facilitating aid to civilians in Gaza,” he added.
Blinken is currently on a weeklong diplomacy tour of the region, where he is scheduled to meet various leaders in attempts to prevent Israel’s war in Gaza from further escalating.
.@SecBlinken has landed in Amman. Jordan is a vital partner in helping to prevent the conflict in the region from spreading, and we are grateful for their leadership in facilitating aid to civilians in Gaza.
— Matthew Miller (@StateDeptSpox) January 6, 2024
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Médecins Sans Frontières evacuates Gaza's middle area following Israeli evacuation orders
Médecins Sans Frontières has evacuated its staff and families from Gaza’s middle area following evacuation orders issued by Israeli forces for neighborhoods surrounding al-Aqsa hospital.
“It is with heavy conscience that we have to evacuate while patients, hospital staff and many people seeking safety remain in the hospital premises,” Carolina Lopez, the emergency coordinator, at al-Aqsa hospital said.
“It is with heavy conscience that we have to evacuate while patients, hospital staff and many people seeking safety remain in the hospital premises,” says Carolina Lopez, emergency coordinator at Al-Aqsa hospital.
— MSF International (@MSF) January 6, 2024
The humanitarian organization went on to report that a bullet heavily penetrated a wall in the hospital’s ICU unit on Friday.
“Over the last couple of days, drone attacks and snipers fire were just a few hundred metres from the hospital,” Lopez said, adding: “The situation became so dangerous that some staff living in the neighbouring areas were not able to leave their houses because of the constant threats of drones and snipers.”
Lopez went on to urge Israel to abide by international humanitarian law amid its war on Gaza, which has destroyed numerous health facilities, saying:
We reiterate that Israel has an obligation under international humanitarian law to protect patients and staff who are still working in the only functioning hospital in Gaza’s middle area.
“We reiterate that Israel has an obligation under International Humanitarian Law to protect patients and staff who are still working in the only functioning hospital in Gaza’s Middle Area,” Lopez added.
— MSF International (@MSF) January 6, 2024
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An Israeli airstrike on a house belonging to the Al-Nabris family in Khan Younis killed several Palestinians while wounding dozens on Saturday, Palestinian health officials said, according to Reuters.
Videos on social media of what appeared to be the aftermath of the strike showed Palestinians rushing injured victims, including bloodied children, to the hospital.
Since 7 October, Israeli strikes have killed more than 22,700 Palestinians across Gaza while internally displacing nearly 2 million survivors.
Here are some images coming through the newswires of global pro-Palestine protests over the weekend in which thousands of demonstrators called for a ceasefire in Gaza, where Israeli forces have killed more than 22,700 Palestinians:
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Israeli TV coverage omitting the suffering of Palestinians amid Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza is leaving the Israeli public dangerously disconnected from the rest of the world, according to critical journalists.
The Guardian’s Emma Graham-Harrison and Quique Kierszenbaum report:
The TikTok videos feature Israeli soldiers, standing under the concrete blast barriers of a military base, in front of a rolling green landscape or beside armoured vehicles. Most are in full military gear, in settings that make clear these are men at war, with one message to their country’s journalists: “If you don’t have something unifying to say, just shut your mouth.”
To someone who made a cursory scan of the country’s TV channels and newspapers after 7 October, the reservists’ anger might be confusing – the Israeli media have rarely presented their audiences with such a uniformly patriotic vision of reality as they have over the past three months.
A “united we will win” slogan sits on the screen for most TV news and talk shows. Politicians face heavy criticism, but interrogations of the military, its strategies, its generals and ordinary troops are muted. The suffering of Gazan civilians barely features, veteran journalists say, three months into an Israeli offensive that has killed more than 22,000 people, displaced nearly 2 million, and left nearly half the population on the brink of famine and stalked by disease.
“In general, the Israeli media is drafted to the main goal of winning the war, or what looks like trying to win the war. If you want to try to find some similarities, it’s along the lines of the American media after 9/11,” said Raviv Drucker, one of Israel’s leading investigative journalists.
For the full story, click here:
Updated
The US secretary of state Antony Blinken has also spoken with his Algerian counterpart, Ahmed Attaf, as part of his week-long diplomacy tour in the Middle East.
In a tweet on Saturday, a US state department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, said the two discussed “multilateral cooperation on threats to international security and increasing humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza”.
.@SecBlinken spoke with Algerian Foreign Minister @AhmedAttaf_Dz to welcome Algeria to the @UN Security Council and to discuss multilateral cooperation on threats to international security and increasing humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
— Matthew Miller (@StateDeptSpox) January 6, 2024
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US secretary of state: US working alongside allies to see what can be done to protect Gaza civilians
The US is working alongside its allies to see what can be done to protect civilians in Gaza amid Israel’s ongoing war in the strip, Reuters reports the US secretary of state Antony Blinken as saying on Saturday.
Blinken’s comments come as Israeli forces have killed more than 22,700 Palestinians across the strip since 7 October.
He added that the US wants to make sure that countries in the region are using their ties and relationships to make sure that there is no further escalation in violence.
On Saturday, Blinken, who is on a weeklong diplomacy tour of the region, spoke with leaders of Greece and Turkey on regional security amid Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.
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Iran and its associates “must immediately stop their destabilizing actions”, France’s foreign minister Catherine Colonna said in a tweet on Saturday.
Following a call with her Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Colonna wrote:
I called Iranian Minister A Abdollahian and gave him a very clear message: the risk of regional conflagration has never been so significant; #Iran and its associates must immediately stop their destabilizing actions. No one would gain from escalation.
J’ai appelé le ministre iranien A. Abdollahian et lui ai fait passer un message très clair : le risque d’embrasement régional n’a jamais été aussi important; l'#Iran et ses affidés doivent immédiatement cesser leurs actions déstabilisatrices. Personne ne gagnerait à une escalade.
— Catherine Colonna (@MinColonna) January 6, 2024
In an earlier post, Colonna wrote that she had spoken with her Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry, and said that “Egypt and France are on the front line for humanitarian aid access to Gaza and the evacuation of the most seriously injured”.
#Proche-Orient | Conversation importante ce matin avec mon homologue égyptien Sameh Shoukry. L’#Egypte et la France sont en première ligne pour l’accès de l’aide humanitaire à #Gaza et l’évacuation des blessés les plus graves. https://t.co/BDUbfBZLt5
— Catherine Colonna (@MinColonna) January 6, 2024
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In a new post on Saturday, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, who is on a weeklong tour in the region, said that he met with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to discuss the war in Gaza.
Turkish President @RTErdogan and I discussed the conflict in Gaza, shared security priorities as NATO Allies, and desire to expand our bilateral trade and investment. pic.twitter.com/0CgLT5IBa8
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) January 6, 2024
Blinken is scheduled to host talks with leaders from Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
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UNRWA: Almost 90% of Gaza's population "forcibly displaced and lack everything"
Almost 90% of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been “forcibly displaced and lack everything”, UNRWA said.
Amid Israel’s deadly bombardment of Gaza, which has reduced most of the strip to rubble while killing more than 22,700 Palestinians, survivors are grappling with severe shortages in food, water, medical supplies and fuel.
According to UNRWA, 1.9 million Palestinians have been displaced across Gaza, with 1.88 million Palestinians sheltering in and in the vicinity of 155 UNRWA installations.
Meanwhile, 131 UNRWA installations have been damaged as a result of Israel’s deadly strikes across Gaza.
📍#Gaza 1.4 million people are sheltered in @UNRWA facilities, with hundreds of thousands more in the vicinity
— UNRWA Partners (@UNRWAPartners) January 6, 2024
Devastatingly, at least 319 people sheltering in @UNRWA shelters have been killed & 1,135 injured in direct hits or collateral damage of @UNRWA premises since war began pic.twitter.com/0lZVX48WVN
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Hundreds of people in London have blocked off Westminster Bridge in calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, where Israeli strikes have killed more than 22,700 Palestinians since 7 October.
The Guardian’s Mabel Banfield-Nwachi writes:
Hundreds of protesters in London have staged a sit-in on Westminster Bridge, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in the first big demonstration of the year.
Protesters blocked off the bridge and the surrounding roads after a march from St James’s Park in central London on Saturday.
The demonstration, organised by the Free Palestine Coalition, renewed calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. It also called for the UK to stop arms sales to Israel and an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
The group announced a meeting location – a drinking fountain in St James’s Park – at 10am on Saturday and protesters began to gather around midday.
The Metropolitan police made several arrests at the park, before protesters marched through Westminster and were then stopped by officers in Parliament Square, next to Big Ben.
For the full story, click here:
Updated
European foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned on Saturday that it is “absolutely necessary” that Lebanon not be dragged into a regional conflict as a result of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Speaking at a press conference with Lebanon’s foreign minister, Borrell said: “It is imperative to avoid regional escalation in the Middle East. It is absolutely necessary to avoid Lebanon being dragged into a regional conflict,” Agence France-Presse reports.
“I am sending this message to Israel, too: nobody will win from a regional conflict,” he said, adding: “I think that the war can be prevented, has to be avoided and diplomacy can prevail.”
Since 7 October, Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah has exchanged frequent cross-border fire with Israeli forces. On Tuesday, a strike in a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut killed Hamas’s deputy leader, Saleh al-Arouri.
Israel has not claimed responsibility while a US official told AFP that Israel was behind the strike.
Earlier on Saturday, Hezbollah said that it launched a barrage of rockets at northern Israel as a “preliminary response” to al-Arouri’s killing.
Updated
Summary
If you’re just joining us, here’s a quick rundown of all the latest from the crisis in the Middle East.
Northern Israel was hit by a barrage of rockets fired from southern Lebanon on early Saturday. Hezbollah later said it had launched the attack as a “preliminary response” to the killing of Hamas’s deputy chief in a Beirut suburb last week.
Israel later carried out a series of retaliatory strikes on Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military said its fighter jets had attacked targets in the towns of Aita al-Sha’ab, Yaron, and Ramya, hitting a launch site and military buildings.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said during a visit to Lebanon that a Palestinian state was the “only way” to achieve peace in the region. He also warned against an escalation of the conflict in Gaza, saying that “nobody will win” if other countries in the region are dragged in.
The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has begun a week-long tour of talks with regional leaders. Visits to Turkey and Greece on Saturday will be followed by stops in Israel and the West Bank as well as Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.
The leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, called on Blinken to use the tour to end what he called Israel’s “aggression”. He said US support for Israel’s operation in Gaza had “caused unprecedented massacres and war crimes against our people” and that he hoped Blinken had “learned the lessons of the last three months”.
Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health said at least 122 Palestinians have been killed and 256 injured over the past 24 hours. The latest figures brought the overall toll since the start of Israel’s operation in Gaza to 22,722 killed and 58,166 injured.
Hundreds have attended a pro-Palestinian protest outside the Houses of Parliament in London. Pictures from the event showed rows of police standing in front of crowds, with many protesters waving Palestinian flags.
The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, said attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the Red Sea could impact the British economy. Asked by the BBC whether the attacks could push inflation back towards the high levels seen in recent years, he said: “We obviously have to monitor what’s happening in the Red Sea. It may have an impact and we’ll watch it very, very carefully.”
Updated
Coalition forces are assisting a merchant vessel in the Red Sea after six small craft were seen approaching it, according to UK Marine Trade Operations.
A statement from the body, which reports security information on behalf of the Royal Navy, said the craft had come within one nautical mile (1.15 miles) of the vessel as it sailed around 50 nautical miles off the coast of Yemen.
It added that no weapons had been sighted but that authorities were investigating.
Since the beginning of the conflict in Gaza, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have been targeting commercial shipping in the Red Sea, which is a major route for global maritime trade.
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Assassination is a two-edged sword. Last week’s targeted killing in Beirut of Hamas’s deputy leader is but the latest of many covert attacks on individuals in Iran and the Arab sphere attributed to agents of Israel.
Do prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials in Jerusalem ever consider the possibility they may be paid back in kind?
Hamas may not have the expertise and reach, although a booby-trap bomb requires no particular skill. But Iran does and maybe Hezbollah, too.
Israel’s assassination in December of a top Iranian general in Syria, plus last week’s atrocity in southern Iran – claimed by Islamic State terrorists but officially blamed on Israel – could goad Tehran’s more rabid hardliners into seeking an eye for an eye.
Like Netanyahu, Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, is not averse to disposing of foes with chilling finality. The trail of bodies since he became president in 2000 is a long one, stretching from the gates of the Kremlin to Salisbury and back again to Siberia.
Putin tried to kill Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, when he invaded in 2022. He may yet try again.
Read Simon Tisdall’s full piece on how brute force threatens to triumph in 2024 here:
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Only way to peace is Palestinian state, says EU foreign policy chief
More now from the visit to Lebanon by Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, which comes amid wider diplomatic efforts to stop the conflict in Gaza spreading to elsewhere in the Middle East.
Speaking at a news conference held with the Lebanese prime minister, Najib Mikati, Borrell said he wanted to start a European-Arab initiative to revive a peace process, with the ultimate aim being a two-state solution.
“The only way is the creation of a Palestinian state,” he said, adding that the prospect of a state would offer a “horizon of hope” to the Palestinians.
He said he would also visit Saudi Arabia on Sunday to discuss steps to secure peace across the region.
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Hundreds attend pro-Palestine demonstration outside parliament in London
Hundreds of people have gathered outside the Houses of Parliament in London calling for an end to the conflict in Gaza.
Pictures from the event showed rows of police standing in front of crowds, with many protesters waving Palestinian flags.
People could also be seen holding placards reading “Stop arming Israel” and “Ceasefire now”.
Footage on social media showed dozens of other people lying down in front of Westminster Bridge as part of an apparent die-in demonstration, in which participants simulate being dead.
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Dissent over Biden's Gaza policy growing inside White House
Dissent inside the Biden administration over the president’s Gaza policy is growing, with a public resignation this week of a Department of Education official, and a letter signed by more than a dozen Biden campaign staffers calling for a ceasefire and the conditioning of aid to Israel.
“It’s pretty extraordinary levels of dissent,” said Josh Paul, a career official working on arms sales at the state department who resigned in protest in October, of the mounting signs of discontent.
“I am hearing in recent weeks from people who are thinking more seriously about resigning.”
Tariq Habash, the Department of Education official, also said he had heard from many more officials than he had anticipated who were contemplating their own exits.
“I hope it resonates with the president and the people who are making policy decisions on this issue that is affecting millions of lives,” he said.
Read Jonathan Guyer’s full story here:
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Lebanon’s Sunni Islamist Jama’a Islamiya faction said in a statement on Saturday it had fired two volleys of rockets at Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel.
The attack comes after Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said earlier it had fired at least 62 rockets towards Israel on Saturday morning, Reuters reports.
The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, sounded the alarm on Saturday about Lebanon being dragged into a regional conflict in a spillover from Israel’s war with Hamas.
Borrell, speaking during a visit to Lebanon, said it was imperative to avoid a regional escalation in the Middle East, and warned Israel that “nobody will win from a regional conflict”, Reuters reports.
He was commenting at a new conference with the Lebanese prime minister, Najib Mikati, following talks with top government officials to discuss events in and around Gaza, including the impact of the war and the situation at the Israeli-Lebanese border.
“We are seeing a worrying intensification of exchange of fire across the Blue Line,” Borrell said. The demarcation between the two countries was mapped by the UN to mark the line to which Israeli forces withdrew when they left south Lebanon in 2000.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images from the news wires:
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The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, says he will visit Saudi Arabia on Sunday to discuss steps towards peace in the region, Reuters reports.
Updated
The leader of Hamas has called on the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, to use his week-long Middle East tour to end what he called Israel’s “aggression”.
In a video message, Ismail Haniyeh, who is based in Qatar, said US support for Israel’s operation in Gaza had “caused unprecedented massacres and war crimes against our people” and that he hoped Blinken had “learned the lessons of the last three months”.
“We ... hope that he will be more focused this time on ending the aggression [and] the occupation of all Palestinian lands,” Haniyeh said.
Haniyeh also called on the leaders due to meet with Blinken throughout the week to tell him that stability in the Middle East was “closely linked to our Palestinian cause”.
Blinken is visiting Turkey and Greece today and is also set to hold talks in Israel and the West Bank as well as Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.
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The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has met with the Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, at the start of a week-long trip for talks on the situation in the Middle East.
In a statement, Fidan said the pair had discussed the conflict and humanitarian crisis in Gaza as well as Swedish accession to Nato.
Turkey initially blocked Sweden’s bid for Nato membership, accusing it off harbouring members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which it considers a terrorist group, but last year agreed to back the country’s accession.
Minister of Foreign Affairs @HakanFidan met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at Vahdettin Mansion in Istanbul.
— Turkish MFA (@MFATurkiye) January 6, 2024
At the meeting, Ministers discussed the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Sweden's NATO accession process, bilateral & regional issues. 🇹🇷🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/UvHbV5YoDs
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In the 91 days since Gal Dalal fled the Nova festival, winter rains have seen grass and flowers flourish in the fields nearby, but his life has stayed stuck on a dusty October morning.
When Hamas closed in on 7 October, Dalal managed to escape across the fields but was separated from his younger brother. Guy – 22 years old, talented, goofy and, above all, his best friend – was kidnapped and taken to Gaza. All Gal can think about is getting him home.
“It looks different, you can see much more green around here. It makes me think how much time has passed, but for me, it’s like time has stopped,” he said on his first trip back to the Nova site, standing in eucalyptus groves that were a campsite last time he was here.
“I’m reliving that day, thinking my brother has been held [in Gaza] so long. I love him and miss him so much.”
He travelled back with relatives of other hostages and one teenager who had been kidnapped at the festival, enduring nearly two months captive in Gaza. The group wanted to remember their loved ones in the last place they were happy, and call for their return at a press conference there.
Read Emma Graham-Harrison’s full piece here:
Israel carries out strikes in Lebanon following rocket attacks
Israel has carried out a series of strikes in southern Lebanon after around 40 rockets were fired into northern Israel early on Saturday.
The Israel Defence Forces said its fighter jets had attacked a number of sites run by Hezbollah in the areas of Aita al-Sha’ab, Yaron and Ramya.
It said that among the targets were a launch site and military buildings.
Aerial footage posted to X showed strikes being carried out on a number structures.
חוליית מחבלים, עמדת שיגור, מבנים צבאיים ותשתיות טרור; צה"ל השלים שורת תקיפות בשטח לבנון>> pic.twitter.com/MH0HY5JRR6
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) January 6, 2024
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At least 122 Palestinians killed in last 24 hours, says Hamas-run ministry
At least 122 Palestinians have been killed and 256 injured over the past 24 hours, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
The latest figures bring the overall toll since the start of Israel’s operation in Gaza to 22,722 killed and 58,166 injured.
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The World Health Organization and the United Nations have made a new delivery of medical supplies to southern Gaza, the WHO director-general has said.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the shipment included eight refrigerators, eight solar panels, and clean delivery kits to supports 66 births as well as medicines and supplies to enable surgeries. He added that it would support 142,000 people requiring care.
The supplies were sent to a drug storage facility operated by the Hamas-run Palestinian Ministry of Health in the city of Khan Younis and will be distributed to hospitals from there, Ghebreyesus said.
He said 15 intensive care unit beds and 15 regular hospital beds were also sent to a UN-run field hospital in the area.
Ghebreyesus said the supplies offered a “glimmer of hope” to people in the south but were “only a small percentage of what is needed”.
He said the WHO had been unable to send supplies to northern Gaza since 26 December and that it was “imperative” it be allowed to do so.
Analysis has shown that Israel’s operation in Gaza has done extensive damage to hospitals and health facilities in Gaza and left many of them no longer functional.
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Pictures from a pro-Palestine rally in Indonesia on Saturday show protesters gathering to call for an end to the Israeli operation in Gaza.
Hundreds of people attended the event, held in the city of Depok, with some seen carrying placards that read “end the siege of Gaza” and “stop killing Palestine”.
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The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has vowed to continue to target “the enemy” amid tensions over attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.
Speaking at a ceremony to unveil a new naval ship in the city of Bandar Abbas, Hossein Salami said: “Today, we are facing an all-out battle with the enemy.
“We need to defend our national interests to wherever they extend.
“It will be harmful for the enemy to be found near. They should stay away from this area.”
Salami didn’t specify who he meant by “the enemy”, but more than 20 countries are now participating in a US-led operation to protect Red Sea shipping from attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
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Red Sea attacks may impact economy, says Hunt
Attacks by Houthi rebels on shipping in the Red Sea may impact the UK economy, the chancellor has said.
Speaking to the BBC’s Today programme, Jeremy Hunt was asked whether the attacks could push inflation back towards the high levels seen in recent years.
“We obviously have to monitor what’s happening in the Red Sea,” he said. “It may have an impact and we’ll watch it very, very carefully.”
Since the outbreak of the conflict in Gaza, Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen have been targeting commercial ships moving through the Red Sea, forcing a number of major shipping companies to reroute their vessels.
Hunt added that the government had been “very clear to the Houthis… that there will be consequences and we will not just sit back and accept [the attacks], because [the Red Sea is] so vital for global trade”.
In a joint statement issued on Wednesday, the UK, US, and 12 other countries described the attacks as “illegal, unacceptable, and profoundly destabilizing”.
They added that the Houthis would “bear the responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, and free flow of commerce in the region’s critical waterways”.
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The dramatic first week of 2024 has tipped the scale towards those who say the daily diet of drone strikes, assassinations and maritime assaults will at some point combust into a major war across the Middle East.
But the likelihood of a regional conflagration turns on the unclear intentions of Iran and the contested degree of control it exercises over the numerous linked but autonomous groups it has nurtured over the past decade in five sovereign countries.
With so many variables, what looks like being a long war in Gaza increases the risk of miscalculation, accident or that one of the many players loses patience and lights the touch paper.
It is already hard to continue to describe the level of violence around US bases in Iraq, on the Lebanese border or the Red Sea as low intensity.
Iran, led by a combination of the ageing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards, is at the centre of all that happens in the Middle East.
Read Patrick Wintour’s full piece here:
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This morning’s rocket attacks in northern Israel come a day after the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, warned that his group’s response to the killing of Hamas’s deputy chief last week would be “decided on the battlefield”.
Speaking on Friday, Nasrallah said: “We cannot keep silent about a violation of this seriousness, because this means that all of our people will be exposed [to targeting].
“All of our cities, villages and public figures will be exposed.”
He added that the repercussions of silence would be “far greater” than the risks of retaliation.
Saleh al-Arouri, a senior figure in Hamas, was killed on 2 January in an Israeli strike on a suburb of the Lebanese capital, Beirut. He was living in Lebanon at the time of his death.
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Rocket attack on Israel a 'preliminary response' to killing, says Hezbollah
Hezbollah says it hit an Israeli observation post early on Saturday with 62 rockets as a “preliminary response” to the killing of Hamas’s deputy chief last week, Reuters reports.
Senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri was killed on 2 January in an Israeli drone strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs of Dahiyeh.
Hezbollah’s chief, Hassan Nasrallah, has said the assassination changed the nature of the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, warning that a response was “inevitable” and heightening fears of a regional escalation in fighting.
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Blinken to discuss Gaza with Erdoğan
Washington’s top diplomat will discuss the Gaza war with Turkey’s mercurial leader on Saturday, Agence France-Presse reports.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, arrived in Istanbul late on Friday for the first leg of a trip that includes visits to Israel and the West Bank, along with five Arab states.
Blinken’s fourth crisis tour since the start of the Israel-Hamas war three months ago comes with fears mounting that the conflict will engulf swathes of the Middle East.
Istanbul served as a base for Hamas political leaders until Hamas fighters raided Israel on 7 October, triggering the war. Turkey asked the Hamas chiefs to leave after some were captured on video celebrating the attack.
But the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has since turned into one of the Muslim world’s harshest critics of the scale of death and destruction in Gaza – and of Washington’s support for Israel.
Erdoğan has compared the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to Adolf Hitler and accused the US of sponsoring the “genocide” of Palestinians. He has also rebuffed US pressure to cut off the suspected flow of funding through Turkey to Hamas and defended the group as legitimately elected “liberators” fighting for their land.
The US State Department on Friday announced $10m rewards for information about five alleged Hamas foreign operatives – three of them believed to be based in Turkey – thought to be helping finance the Iran-backed group.
Turkey this week countered by detaining 34 people suspected of planning attacks against Palestinians and spying for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency.
Blinken will travel to the Greek island of Crete on Saturday evening for talks with the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, to address Greek concerns about the looming sale of US F-16 fighter jets to Turkey.
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Rocket barrage fired at northern Israel from Lebanon, says IDF
About 40 rockets were fired from Lebanon at northern Israel on Saturday, the Israeli military said.
Sirens sounded in the north and the rockets later crossed into the Meron area, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said.
There were no reports of injuries. No rockets or drones were fired at other parts of northern Israel.
The IDF said it attacked a “terrorist squad” in Lebanese territory that took part in the launches.
בהמשך להתרעות שהופעלו במרחב הצפון, זוהו כ-40 שיגורים משטח לבנון שחצו לשטח ישראל במרחב מירון. לא זוהו שיגורים או כלי טיס עוין שחצה לשטח ישראל במרחבים אחרים בצפון הארץ.
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) January 6, 2024
צה"ל תקף לאחר זמן קצר בשטח לבנון חוליית מחבלים שלקחה חלק בשיגורים pic.twitter.com/vtqyF960hk
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Opening summary
Welcome to our continuing live coverage of the Middle East crisis. I’m Adam Fulton and here’s a rundown on the latest news as it turns 9am in Gaza City, Tel Aviv and Beirut.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is to discuss the war in Gaza with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on Saturday amid mounting fears the conflict could widen to engulf other parts of the Middle East.
Washington’s top diplomat arrived in Istanbul late on Friday for the first leg of a week-long trip that includes visits to Israel and the occupied West Bank as well as five Arab countries.
Erdoğan has been one of the Muslim world’s harshest critics of the scale of death and destruction in the Gaza Strip and of US support for Israel.
Meanwhile, the European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, travelled to Lebanon on Friday for talks about the situation in Gaza and on the Israeli-Lebanese border and the importance of avoiding a regional escalation.
Israel continued to bomb Gaza on Saturday, with strikes reported in the southern city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of people have sought shelter.
More on those stories shortly. In other key developments:
Israeli officials are scrambling to head off mounting frustration in Washington in the run-up to a potentially difficult meeting between Blinken and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, by offering a series of policy proposals on Gaza that critics say lack detail or commitment. The US has staunchly supported Israel in its war against Hamas but is keen to secure concessions from Netanyahu to lower regional tensions and help avert a wider conflict.
The UN humanitarian chief says has described Gaza as now “uninhabitable” after relentless bombing by Israeli forces. Martin Griffiths said a “public health disaster is unfolding” in the territory as people faced “the highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded”, adding: “Famine is around the corner.”
The head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said the assassination of senior Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut has changed the nature of the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. In a second nationally televised address within three days, Nasrallah warned that a response was “inevitable”, heightening fears of a dangerous escalation in the conflict. His comments came as Lebanon issued a formal complaint to the UN security council over al-Arouri’s killing and over Israeli incursions into Lebanon’s airspace to attack targets in Syria.
Israel’s defence minister has warned that time is running out on diplomatic efforts to end tensions between Israel and Hezbollah. Yoav Gallant said that Israel would soon be left with no choice but to launch a military offensive against Hezbollah.
Israel carried out an airstrike on a Hezbollah command centre in the southern Lebanese village of Blida on Friday in response to attacks on the border, the Israel Defence Forces said. It said Israeli tanks and artillery also shelled a number of areas along the Israel-Lebanon border, reportedly to foil planned Hezbollah attacks.
At least 22,600 Palestinians have been killed and 57,910 wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Friday. About 162 Palestinians were killed and 296 wounded over the previous 24 hours, the ministry added. At least six people have been killed in an apparent Israeli airstrike on a home in the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight to Friday.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it was “appalled” by what it called the continuous shelling of al-Amal hospital and the Palestine Red Crescent Society headquarters in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. The federation said the strikes had resulted in the loss of innocent civilian lives, including a five-day-old infant, and that one of its medics had been injured.
The head of Unicef said time was running out for children in Gaza, who are “caught in a nightmare that worsens with every passing day”. Children in the territory face a “deadly triple threat” to their lives from the spread of diseases, plummeting nutrition and the escalation in fighting, Catherine Russell said.
The governments of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda have denied a report they have been in talks with Israel over taking in thousands of Palestinians from Gaza. According to the report, the Israeli government has been conducting secret talks with multiple countries regarding a “voluntary” migration scheme for Palestinians. The report came as two far-right Israeli ministers earlier this week called for the resettlement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
Jewish settlers have quietly carried out an “unprecedented surge” of unauthorised moves in the occupied West Bank while the world’s attention has been focused on war in Gaza, an Israeli watchdog group has warned. The result has been “not only physical harm to Palestinians and their lands but also a significant political shift in the West Bank”, the report said.
Germany’s foreign minister warned against an Israeli occupation of Gaza as she called for more humanitarian pauses in the war. Israel “must do more for the protection of the civilian population” in its war against Hamas in Gaza, said Annalena Baerbock, who is expected to travel to Israel on Sunday for her fourth visit since the war broke out.
Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf, has urged the UK government to demand an end to Israel’s “indiscriminate attacks” that have killed thousands of children in Gaza. Yousaf said it was time the UK made clear to Israel that its actions in Gaza had gone “way beyond a legitimate response” to the 7 October Hamas attacks.
The commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said at the funeral on Friday for the victims of twin bombings claimed by Islamic State that their deaths would be avenged. More than 84 people were killed at a memorial in the city of Kerman on Wednesday for former top commander Qassem Suleimani, who was assassinated in Iraq in 2020 by a US drone. Iranian security forces had detained 11 people suspected of links to Wednesday’s attack, Iran’s intelligence ministry said.
A Turkish court has decided to formally arrest 15 people and deport eight others suspected of being linked to Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency. Turkey warned Israel last month of “serious consequences” if it tried to hunt down members of Hamas on Turkish soil.
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