Closing summary
It is has just gone 5pm in Cairo, Rafah and Tel Aviv. We will be closing this blog shortly, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here.
Here is a recap of the latest developments:
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has presented a “day after” plan for Gaza, his first official proposal for when the war in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory ends. According to the document, presented to members of Israel’s security cabinet on Thursday and seen by Reuters on Friday, Israel would maintain security control over all land west of Jordan, including the occupied West Bank and Gaza – territories where the Palestinians want to create an independent state. In the long-term goals listed, Netanayhu rejected the “unilateral recognition” of a Palestinian state, while in the medium term, he outlined demilitarisation and deradicalisation in Gaza as goals.
Netanyahu also called for shutting down the UN Palestinian refugees agency (UNRWA) and replacing it with other international aid groups, in his “day after” plan seen by Reuters on Friday.
The spokesperson for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, told Reuters that Netanyahu’s “day after” proposal was doomed to fail, as were any Israeli plans to change the geographic and demographic realities in Gaza. “If the world is genuinely interested in having security and stability in the region, it must end Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and recognise an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital,” he said.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) secretary general Chris Lockyear said “there is no health system to speak of left in Gaza” and that “the humanitarian response in Gaza today is an illusion” as he briefed the UN security council on Thursday. Lockyear said it was “a convenient illusion that perpetuates a narrative that this war is being waged in line with international laws”. He added: “‘We are scared. Our teams are beyond exhausted.”
UN experts warned on Friday that any transfer of weapons or ammunition to Israel that would be used in Gaza is likely to violate international humanitarian law and must cease immediately. “State officials involved in arms exports may be individually criminally liable for aiding and abetting any war crimes, crimes against humanity or acts of genocide,” the experts said. They also noted that arms transfers to Hamas and other armed groups are also prohibited by international law due to their grave violations of international humanitarian law on 7 October 2023.
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), warned on Thursday evening that humanitarian organisation had “reached a breaking point”. In a post on X, he wrote that it was “with profound regret” that he announced the situation and shared a letter to the president of the UN general assembly. Referring to Israeli accusations that 12 staff members of UNRWA were involved in the Hamas 7 October attack, Lazzarini said “to date, no evidence has been shared by Israel with UNRWA”.
Israeli airstrikes targeted homes in the southern Gaza Strip, witnesses told AFP on Friday. More than 100 people were killed over the previous day, said the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. Israeli bombardment obliterated one house and left a gaping hole in the earth east of Rafah, on the border with Egypt. An AFP reporter described heavy airstrikes overnight in the city of Khan Younis several kilometres to the north, as well as in Rafah itself.
An Israeli delegation led by the head of the country’s overseas intelligence agency is heading to Paris to “unblock” talks for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli media reports. The Mossad director David Barnea will be joined in the French capital by his counterpart at the domestic Shin Bet security agency, Ronen Bar.
Hamas said on Friday that its political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, had left Egypt after holding talks with Egyptian officials about a possible ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and an exchange of hostages held by the militants for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
Two Egyptian security sources confirmed that Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel would head on Friday to Paris for the talks with the Israelis, after wrapping up talks with Hamas chief Haniyeh on Thursday. Israel has not publicly commented on the Paris talks.
Israel’s army said on Friday a Palestinian militant on his way to carry out a shooting attack was killed in a drone strike in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin a day earlier. Yasser Hanun from the Islamic Jihad group had previously been detained for his involvement in the “terrorist organisation’s military activities,” the army said in a statement. Palestinian news agency Wafa said two people were killed and four others wounded in the strike. AFP footage showed a car severely burned from the hit.
UN experts say they have seen “credible allegations” that Palestinian women and girls have been subjected to sexual assaults, including rape, while in Israeli detention, and are calling for a full investigation. The panel of experts said there was evidence of a least two cases of rape, alongside other cases of sexual humiliation and threats of rape. Reem Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, said the true extent of sexual violence could be significantly higher.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said on Friday that one of its paramedics, Fayez As’ad Mohammad Muammar, had been killed after his family’s house was bombed in the eastern part of Rafah.
A US intelligence assessment of Israel’s claims that UN aid agency staff members participated in the Hamas attack on 7 October said some of the accusations were credible, though could not be independently verified, while also casting doubt on claims of wider links to militant groups. According to the Wall Street Journal, the intelligence report, released last week, assessed with “low confidence” that a handful of staff had participated in the attack, indicating that it considered the accusations to be credible though it could not independently confirm their veracity.
Israel plans to approve the construction of more than 3,300 new homes in settlements in the occupied West Bank, a senior cabinet minister from the far-right wing of the government announced. Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a statement late on Thursday that the new construction is meant as a response to a fatal Palestinian shooting attack near Jerusalem earlier in the day. He said prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant participated in the discussion leading to the decision.
At least 29,514 Palestinians have been killed and 69,616 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Thursday. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
The paramedics arm of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group says two of its members were killed in an Israeli strike on a southern border village early on Friday. The Islamic Health Society identified the two as Hussein Khalil and Mohammed Ismail, saying they were killed when the group’s office in the village of Blida was directly hit, a day after an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Rumman killed two members of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force.
Hezbollah later said it retaliated the attack on Blida by launching two explosive drones at an Israeli army post in the northern town of Kiryat Shmona, claiming it scored direct hits.
A Danish court has sentenced a 26-year-old man for content he posted on Snapchat to his more than 80,000 followers after finding him guilty of expressing approval of the deadly Hamas attack that killed 250 people in Israel on 7 October. In the first case of its kind, the city court of Copenhagen on Thursday sentenced the influencer to four months probation with the condition of 100 hours of community service.
The White House Middle East envoy Brett McGurk held talks with Israeli leaders on Thursday. “The initial indications we’re getting from Brett are these discussions are going well,” said White House spokesperson John Kirby.
Attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on commercial ships in the Red Sea have sent insurance premiums surging. The Houthis have carried out relentless attacks since November on shipping transiting the Red Sea, a maritime hub through which 12% of global trade usually passes.
Downing Street has briefed that it was “wrong” for a controversial pro-Palestinian message to be projected on to the UK parliament building but stopped short of saying police should have intervened, the Press Association (PA) reports. The phrase “from the river to the sea” was reportedly beamed on to the building on Wednesday as Gaza protesters descended on Westminster.
Israeli counter protesters demonstrated in New York on Thursday as pro-Palestine supporters marched through the streets in opposition to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) involvement in the war prosecuted against Hamas.
The organisers of the Eurovision song contest have said they are “scrutinising” the lyrics of Israel’s entry after it was claimed it makes reference to the Hamas attacks on 7 October. The lyrics from Israel’s entry, October Rain, sung by Eden Golan, were leaked to the media. According to the Israel Hayom newspaper, lines in the song include, “There’s no air left to breathe”, and “They were all good children, each one of them”. The song also refers to “flowers”, which the newspaper reported is a military code for war fatalities.
Egypt has built more than 3km (1.9 miles) of wall in the past week, according to BBC Verify. It also said there had been “further clearance of a large area next to its [Egypt’s] border with Gaza”. Egypt has denied making any such preparations.
Updated
The organisers of the Eurovision song contest have said they are “scrutinising” the lyrics of Israel’s entry after it was claimed it makes reference to the Hamas attacks on 7 October.
The lyrics from Israel’s entry, October Rain, sung by Eden Golan, were leaked to the media. According to the Israel Hayom newspaper, lines in the song include, “There’s no air left to breathe”, and “They were all good children, each one of them”. The song also refers to “flowers”, which the newspaper reported is a military code for war fatalities.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which runs the competition – to be held in Malmö, Sweden, in May – describes the song contest as a non-political event. Contestants can be disqualified if they break this rule.
Petitions have been circulating calling for Israel to be removed from the event over the war in Gaza, but the EBU said last week that it had conducted a review and decided Israel could participate.
Organisers in Malmö have said the city’s security preparations are factoring in the Gaza conflict, the war in Ukraine, Sweden’s Nato application and cybersecurity threats.
