Israel-Palestine live: Israel bombs Unrwa building in Gaza
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The Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing satellite imagery, that Egypt is clearing land next to Gaza.
The newspaper also received videos, taken by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights, showing trucks and bulldozers "clearing debris from a rectangular plot of land adjacent to the border with Gaza, measuring about eight square miles".
Earlier this week, the foundation reported that Egypt was building a security zone near Gaza that could be used to take in Palestinians ahead of a planned Israeli military invasion of the southern city of Rafah.
Al Jazeera Media Network has issued a statement responding to Israel's claim that it targeted and severely injured journalist Ismail Abu Omar because he is a Hamas deputy commander.
“The Network condemns the accusations against its journalists and recalls Israel’s long record of lies and fabrication of evidence through which it seeks to hide its heinous crimes,” Al Jazeera said in a statement.
Abu Omar, a reporter with Al Jazeera Arabic, was wounded on Tuesday in an Israeli drone attack along with cameraman Ahmad Matar.
On numerous occasions, Israel has attacked civilian infrastructure and targeted Palestinians on claims that they are a part of Hamas while providing insufficient evidence to back the claims.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a deal on the release of hostages held by Hamas remains possible but there remain "very hard" issues to be resolved.
Blinken made the remarks days after talks involving the US, Egypt, Israel, and Qatar on a deal that would see a pause in fighting in Gaza end without a breakthrough.
Reporting by Reuters
The Israeli military identified another soldier killed in Gaza. The soldier, Rotem Sahar Hadar, was killed in battle in southern Gaza, the military said. His family was notified of the death.
The Lebanese group said the rockets were fired towards Israel's Kiryat Shmona, a city in northern Israel, and that the action was a "preliminary response" to the killing of 10 civilians in southern Lebanon.
Israel’s interior minister, Moshe Arbel, said on Thursday that he had withdrawn the permanent residency status of a Palestinian man in Jerusalem, according to local media.
Arbel said Majed al-Jubeh was part of Hamas and that the decision was taken after examining “security materials” and an interrogation session.
The decision was approved by the attorney general, Gali Baharav Miara, Kan reported.
According to Kan, Israeli authorities are now considering other requests to withdraw residencies from Jerusalem residents.
Since the start of the war on 7 October, three other Palestinians in Jerusalem have had their residencies revoked.
Read more: Israel withdraws residency of Palestinian man in Jerusalem
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva said on Thursday that the United Nations has failed to resolve international conflicts and harshly criticised Israeli actions in Gaza.
"Israel's behaviour has no explanation: with the pretext of fighting Hamas, it is killing women and children," he said after a meeting in Cairo with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
Speaking later to the Arab League, Lula said Brazil had condemned the Hamas attack on Israeli civilians on 7 October, but he added that Israel's response was "disproportional and indiscriminate" and unacceptable.
Lula said there would not be peace without the establishment of a Palestinian state and called for an immediate ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
"The killing must be stopped," he said.
The Brazilian leader said Palestine should be recognised as a sovereign state and admitted to the United Nations as a full member, and he called for reform of the UN Security Council.
"The multilateral institutions that were created to help solve these problems do not work, which is why Brazil is committed to making the necessary changes in global governance bodies, and we hope to count on Egypt's support," he said to reporters alongside Sisi.
Lula said the permanent five members of the Security Council should be expanded and their veto powers abolished. "It is the permanent members of the Security Council that foment wars," he said.
Reporting by Reuters
Major energy companies awarded licenses by Israel to explore for gas off Gaza's coast have been warned that they could face legal action for possible breaches of Palestinian maritime sovereignty and war pillaging.
Israel's Ministry of Energy granted exploration rights to three companies - Italian energy giant Eni, UK-based Dana Energy and Israel's Ratio Petroleum - three weeks after the war on Gaza began in October.
Lawyers working on behalf of three Palestinian NGOs - Al Haq, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights - notified the companies in letters this month that they would use "all legal mechanisms to the fullest extent" if they proceeded and called on them to desist from any activities relating to the licenses.
The organisations contend that over half of the zone for which the companies were awarded licenses lies within Palestine's maritime boundaries.
Read more: Energy firms face legal threat over Israeli licenses to drill for gas off Gaza
A Palestinian surgeon in Khan Younis' Nasser Hospital, which is currently being raided by Israeli forces, told Middle East Eye that tanks are now inside the medical complex.
Hundreds of displaced families and patients were forced out of the hospital over the last two days at gunpoint.
The few people who remain in the hospital, including 14 medical staff tending to 120 patients, were ordered to gather in one building, the surgeon, Dr Khaled Alserr, said.
"The Israeli army entered Nasser Hospital with soldiers and tanks," he told MEE.
"We saw them digging outside the hospital with bulldozers for the last few days. They have displaced the medical staff and forced us to put all the patients in one building.
"The corridors inside this building are full of patients, crowded together, as they have nowhere else to go."
Gaza will need a new "Marshall Plan" to recover from Israel's devastating aggression on the besieged strip, a UN trade body official said on Thursday, adding that the damage from the conflict so far amounted to around $20bn.
Speaking on the sidelines of a UN meeting in Geneva, Richard Kozul-Wright, a director at the trade body UNCTAD, said the damage was already four times that endured in Gaza during the seven-week war in 2014.
"We are talking about around $20 billion if it stops now," he said.
Kozul-Wright said the estimate was based on satellite images and other information, and that a more precise estimate would require researchers to enter Gaza.
Reporting by Reuters
Israeli troops raided the maternity ward in Nasser Hospital, the Palestinian health ministry said.
Troops stormed the medical complex, the biggest remaining hospital in the Gaza Strip, on Thursday morning, hours after shelling it.
Israeli settlers established a record number of wildcat outposts in the occupied West Bank in 2023, a watchdog said on Thursday.
Twenty-six settlements not recognised by the Israeli government were established last year, including around 10 since the war on the Gaza Strip broke out on 7 October, the Israeli group Peace Now said in a report.
The report linked the spike to the arrival in government of far-right figures. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in December 2022 in a coalition with far-right and ultra-orthodox parties.
Since then, Israeli authorities have allowed "settlers to establish outposts unhindered", Peace Now said.
"Under the Netanyahu government, we have witnessed unprecedented support for settlements."
Peace Now said 2023 saw the highest number of wildcat outposts - those established without the approval of the Israeli authorities - since the phenomenon began in 1996.
The previous record, 23, was in 2002 during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, it said.
Reporting by AFP
The British minister of state for the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, condemned the demolition of Palestinian activist Fakhri Abu Diab's home in occupied East Jerusalem.
"Israel must halt this policy now," Tariq Ahmad said in a post on X, referring to the widespread Israeli practice of demolishing Palestinian homes.
Diab's family was forcefully evicted from the home they lived in for 38 years.
"If they demolish our homes, they will not destroy our resolve. We will remain steadfast in our land," Abu Diab said.
