Summary of the day so far …
It has just gone 5pm in Gaza, Tel Aviv and Beirut, 6pm in Damascus. Here are the headlines …
Germany and France have joined widespread condemnation of the deaths of over 100 Palestinians yesterday while they were gathered to receive humanitarian aid in Gaza during an incident in which Israeli troops opened fire. Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock demanded Israel’s army “fully explain how the mass panic and shooting could have happened”, while her French counterpart, Stéphane Séjourné said “there will have to be an independent probe to determine what happened”. Earlier French president Emmanuel Macron said he felt “deep indignation at the images coming from Gaza where civilians have been targeted by Israeli soldiers.”
There were starkly different accounts of how victims died in the chaos on Thursday. Israel’s military denied shooting into large crowds of hungry people and said most were killed in a crush or run over by trucks trying to escape. Lebanon’s foreign ministry echoed the call for an investigation, condemning what it said was the “deliberate killing of dozens of defenseless Palestinian civilians and the wounding of hundreds” while in the US, the White House called the deaths “tremendously alarming”.
Brazil’s government said the killing shows that Israel’s military action in Gaza has no “ethical or legal limits”. Israel recently declared Brazil’s president Lula “persona non grata” and banned him from the country.
At least 30,228 Palestinians have been killed and 71,377 have been injured in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement. The ministry gave the total casualties in the past 24 hours as 193 Palestinians killed and 920 injured, which included those killed or hurt in the aid convoy incident.
In its latest operational briefing, Israel’s military says it continues to operate in Khan Younis, where it claims to have “located a weapon storage facility containing numerous AK-47 rifles and ammunition”. It also claims to have targeted “a pit in which rocket launchers were concealed” and to have killed several fighters. The claims have not been independently verified.
Egypt’s foreign minister Sameh Shoukry said he is still hopeful that talks initiated by Qatar can agree a cessation of hostilities before the start of Ramadan.
A demonstration has taken place outside the US embassy in Tel Aviv calling for Joe Biden’s administration to do more to help free the 134 hostages still beleived held in Gaza by Hamas. A separate march calling for the release of the hostages has entered its third day. The march, featuring family and friends of those being held, is heading for Jerusalem.
Nearly 20,000 worshipers were able to reach the al-Aqsa mosque for Friday prayers despite significant restrictions on the entry of worshipers imposed by Israeli security forces. There were arrests, and some worshippers were denied entry and forced to pray outside the compound.
World Health Organization spokesperson Christian Lindmeier has said that the health system in Gaza is “more than on its knees”, and he also cautioned people not to forget that food supplies to the territory had been “cut off deliberately”. Jordan’s air force has been airdropping humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip today.
The EU has said it will resume funding the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) next week, after the two parties came to an agreement to allow EU-appointed experts to audit the way it screens staff to identify extremists. Israel has accused 12 UNRWA employees of taking part in the Hamas attack inside Israel on 7 October. A month after the Israeli allegations, UN investigators have yet to receive any evidence from Israel to support the claims.
A member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards navy serving as a military adviser in Syria was killed in a suspected strike by Israel on Friday. Israel also launched air raids over Lebanon.
More than 200 MPs from 12 countries have committed themselves to trying to persuade their governments to impose a ban on arms sales to Israel, arguing they will not be complicit in “Israel’s grave violation of international law” in its assault on Gaza.
In the UK, veteran political agitator George Galloway has been elected to parliament after running a byelection campaign in Rochdale chiefly about Gaza. He said established political parties in the UK “will pay a high price for the role that you have played in enabling, encouraging and covering for the catastrophe presently going on in occupied Gaza.”
We are pausing our live coverage of the crisis in the Middle East for now, and the live blog will be back tomorrow. Here is Harriet Sherwood’s latest report on events in the region …
Here are some further quotes from Egypt’s foreign minister Sameh Shoukry about the prospects for a peace deal.
Reuters reports he said:
I can say that we have reached a point of understanding, we will still exert every effort with our brothers in Qatar and the US and others close to the negotiations.
We will continue to strive in collaboration with the UN, with our partners to relieve the suffering of the Gazan people and to increase the level (of aid). Practically, this cannot happen without the cessation of hostilities.
Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Malki was speaking at the same panel at the event in Turkey, and he said Israel would not announce a ceasefire unless international pressure is imposed on Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. He said:
If we are not able to reach a ceasefire in the next two or three weeks, is clear we will see another round of attacks on Rafah and the continuation of a genocide.
