Closing summary
It has approaching 6pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv. Here is a recap of the latest developments from today:
The Israeli military said it had killed Ali Abed Akhsan Naim, deputy commander of Hezbollah’s rocket and missiles unit, in an airstrike in the area of Bazouriye in Lebanon.
Israeli strikes on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo early on Friday killed dozens of people, including five members of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, two security sources have told Reuters news agency. The Israeli attack targeted an area “near rockets depots belonging to Lebanese group Hezbollah”, said the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has an extensive network of sources in Syria.
Russia has condemned Israeli strikes on Syria and considers them a flagrant violation of that country’s sovereignty, foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Friday.
At least 32,623 Palestinians have been killed and 75,092 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October the Gaza health ministry said.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to send delegations to Egypt and Qatar, where negotiators have been trying to secure the release of Israeli hostages as part of a possible Gaza ceasefire deal, his office said. Netanyahu’s office said he spoke with the heads of Israeli intelligence agencies Shin Bet and the Mossad and “approved that delegations on their behalf go in the coming days to Doha and Cairo,” with a mandate to push forward with negotiations, Reuters reports.
David Cameron, the British foreign secretary, has said that “we’re talking to our regional partners to keep the pressure on and keep the profile of hostages [taken by Hamas on 7 October] high.” He added: “We want to see the safe release of all hostages unconditionally.”
Famine is both a risk and “quite possibly” present in at least some areas in northern Gaza, a senior state department official told Reuters, while adding that the scarcity of trucks was a key obstacle for more humanitarian aid in the densely populated enclave that has been under Israel siege.
That’s it for our live updates today. You can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here. Check back tomorrow for more updates.
Russia condemns Israeli strikes on Syria and considers them a flagrant violation of that country’s sovereignty, foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Friday.
Israel carried out its deadliest strikes in months on northern Syria’s Aleppo province early on Friday and said it had killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon, stepping up its campaign against Iran’s proxies in parallel with its war in Gaza, Reuters reports.
Zakharova said such actions were “fraught with extremely dangerous consequences” in the light of a sharp escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
