Israeli aircraft have bombed the vicinity of Al Shifa Hospital and Al Nasr Children’s Hospital in Gaza.
According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, Al Shifa Hospital, which houses thousands of patients and refugees, was targeted by missiles intermittently fired from Israeli aircraft.
The simultaneous use of illumination flares during the attacks resulted in shrapnel damage to the hospital’s surroundings.
An airstrike near Al Nasr Children’s Hospital in the western part of the city killed three Palestinians and left dozens more wounded.
Meanwhile, Israeli artillery fired rounds towards the eastern part of the city of Rafah.
0449 GMT — 187 humanitarian aid trucks reach Gaza amid blockade
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has said that 187 more aid trucks have entered besieged Gaza through the Rafah border crossing.
In a statement, it noted that its teams received a total of 187 humanitarian aid trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent, with 81 on Wednesday and 106 on Thursday, along with five ambulances sent from Kuwait.
It said that despite fuel restrictions, the trucks carried medicines, medical supplies, food, water and relief materials.
0438 GMT — Palestinian president rejects Israel’s move to divide Gaza into 2 sections
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said that any move by the Israeli occupation forces to divide Gaza into two sections is unacceptable and emphasised that the enclave is an integral part of Palestine.
Abbas held separate phone calls with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.
During his conversation with Rutte, he said the Israeli military’s recent statement that its forces have divided Gaza into two as it reaches a “significant stage” in its war against Hamas is unacceptable and there is no separate political or security solution for Gaza as it is an inseparable part of the Palestinian state.
0354 GMT — Palestinian minister urges IAEA chief to take measures to neutralise Israel’s nuclear threat to Gaza
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki has urged the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to take measures to neutralise threats made by Israel to use nuclear weapons in Gaza.
Al-Maliki sent a message to IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi about recent remarks made by Israel’s far-right Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu that dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza was “one of the possibilities” the government was considering to deal with the threat from the Palestinian group Hamas.
He called for international condemnation of Eliyahu’s remarks and the implementation of all necessary measures to neutralise this clear threat to the lives of Palestinians and neighbouring countries.
0323 GMT — Moroccans stage rally to protest Western countries’ support for Israel
Scores of Moroccans have taken part in a rally in the capital Rabat to protest Western countries’ support for Israel and to show sympathy with Palestinians in Gaza.
The rally was organised by local pro-Palestinian groups including the Moroccan Initiative for Support and Victory and the Action Group for Palestine.
During the rally, the participants raised banners that called for ending normalisation between Morocco and Israel and closing the Israeli liaison office in Rabat.
0310 GMT — British lawmaker says children in Gaza shouldn’t be asking if they’re being taken to graveyards
Children in Gaza “should be asking if they are being taken to playgrounds and planning for their futures, not asking if they are being taken to graveyards and planning to die,” a British lawmaker has said.
Speaking in House of Commons, Naz Shah, the Labour Party MP for Bradford West, said she watched a video of a small girl being pulled out of the rubble asking her uncle if she was dead and whether he was taking her to a graveyard.
She said another video showed a girl who was barely five years old and was stuck under a collapsed building praying her final prayers in preparation for her death.
0246 GMT — Amnesty International calls on Israel to end ‘inhumane’ measures against Palestinians in occupied West Bank
Israeli authorities have dramatically increased their use of administrative detention of Palestinians across the occupied West Bank and failed to investigate incidents of torture and death in custody, rights group Amnesty International said.
While the Israeli military’s relentless attacks on Gaza continue, Amnesty International said Palestinian prisoners are subjected to torture, arbitrary detention and other violations of their rights.
“They have also extended a set of ‘emergency’ prison measures giving them unchecked powers to intensify cruel and inhuman treatment of Palestinian detainees and prisoners,” it said on X.
0007 GMT — US senator says Gaza civilian toll ‘too high’
A US senator has said that it is “vital” for Israel to carry out more targeted strikes in Gaza to limit civilian casualties.
“I think that the civilian death toll has been too high and a more surgical approach would be important and vital,” Chris Murphy, a Democratic member of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the AFP news agency.
“I am concerned that if Israel’s strategy and end goal is to defeat Hamas, then this pace of civilian casualties, which certainly comes with a moral cost, also comes with a strategic cost.”
The Israeli military’s relentless bombing and ground invasion of Gaza has killed more than 10,600 people, also mostly civilians, the Palestinian territory’s Health Ministry has said.
2300 GMT — More than 100 Democrats seek protected status for Palestinians in US
A group of Democratic lawmakers have urged US President Joe Biden to allow Palestinian tourists, students and workers in the United States to remain in light of Israel’s war on Gaza and violence in the occupied West Bank, mainly by illegal Jewish settlers.
In a letter to Biden on Wednesday, more than 100 Democrats led by US Senator Dick Durbin called on Biden to grant residents of Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories deportation relief and access to work permits through US programmes for people whose homelands are affected by conflicts, natural disasters or other extraordinary circumstances.
“In light of ongoing armed conflict, Palestinians already in the United States should not be forced to return to the Palestinian territories, consistent with President Biden’s stated commitment to protecting Palestinian civilians,” the lawmakers wrote.
