Gaza live: Palestinian death toll passes 37,000 after brutal Israeli attack on Nuseirat

South Africans are still trying to make sense of a horrific attack on a Muslim family that left one woman dead and two others in intensive care last week, as speculation that the deadly assault may be linked to the family's pro-Palestine views continues to spiral.

The murder made international news earlier this week - and spiked racial and religious tensions in the country - after a video showed a 44-year-old man from a prominent Jewish family admitting that he had attacked the family because they had allegedly made light of the troubles faced by his cousins in Israel.

Grayson Beare, the adopted but estranged son of Julian Beare, chairperson of South African Holocaust and Genocide Foundation, stabbed Halima Hoosen-Preston to death. She was 49.

He went on to stab her husband Sean and their 18-year-old son Adam, in view of their 13-year-old daughter Sophia, who managed to escape unscathed.

Beare has been since charged with murder and two counts of attempted murder. 

Read more: Muslims in South Africa still reeling after fatal attack on pro-Palestine family

Iyad al-Maghari, mayor of the Nuseirat municipality in central Gaza, was visiting a water management facility on Thursday when an air strike hit at around 10:30pm local time, killing Maghari, spokesman for the Nuseirat municipality Muhammad al-Salhi told AFP."

We were surprised by a treacherous and cowardly attack on the mayor inside the plant, which led to the martyrdom of the mayor Dr Iyad Al-Maghari and four members of his family," Salhi said.

The largest civil rights organisation in the United States has issued a call for President Joe Biden's administration to suspend arms transfers to Israel over its conduct in the war on Gaza, a surprise move from the group that adds increased pressure for the US president as he tries to fortify his support among Black voters.

The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) made the announcement on Thursday with a statement from its president, Derrick Johnson.

"The NAACP calls on President Biden to draw the red line and indefinitely end the shipment of weapons and artillery to the state of Israel and other states that supply weapons to Hamas and other terrorist organisations," Johnson said.

"It is imperative that the violence that has claimed so many civilian lives immediately stop."

The call from the NAACP comes as Biden is trying to shore up his support among Black voters ahead of a contentious election against former US President Donald Trump, who is leading in several polls.

Read more: Largest civil rights group calls on Biden to end arms transfers to Israel 

Yemen's Houthis have targeted "vessel Elbella and vessel AAL GENOA” in the Red Sea, the group’s military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a televised speech on Friday.

At least 18 aid workers were kidnapped by Yemen's Houthi rebels in four rebel-held parts in Yemen, the Yemeni Mayyun Organisation for Human Rights said.

Ten workers were reportedly from UN agencies.

Yemen's internationally-recognised government condemned the "massive abduction campaign", saying it targeted "dozens of employees of the United Nations agencies, the office of the UN envoy Hans Grundberg and several international organisations working" in the capital Sanaa and other Houthi-run areas.

Demonstrators  gathered in front of Germany’s embassy in Tel Aviv On Friday afternoon, urging the German government to halt arms exports to Israel, Anadolu news agency reported.

Protestors held signs reading  “Stop arming Israel”, “Don’t you have enough blood on your hands?” and “For once, be on the right side of history.”

They reportedly also chanted, “Germany, you can’t hide, you’re complicit in genocide.”

Israeli police detained five individuals.
 

Protesters hold a demonstration in front of the German Embassy in Tel Aviv to demand Berlin cut arms exports to Israel ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/6pqcaDUVmR

— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) June 7, 2024

The Israeli army has taken control of the so-called Philadelphi corridor that runs along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, isolating the enclave from its southern neighbour.

According to Israel's Channel 12, the military reached the coast of southern Gaza’s Rafah, completing its control over the territory.

The US said it re-established the temporary aid pier in Gaza after it was forced to halt operations due to bad weather damage last month.

Central Command confirmed earlier reports in Israeli media that the pier was expected to resume aid deliveries later on Friday.

"In coming days, CENTCOM will facilitate the movement of vital food and other emergency supplies, in support of the US Agency for International Development," it said in a statement.

A university in London has taken its students to court to forcibly remove them from an encampment they launched to protest Israel's mass killings of Palestiniansin Gaza. 

Queen Mary University in East London presented its case to the High Court on Friday morning after handing its students a possession order on Thursday evening. 

Students launched the encampment last month in response to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza and opposition to the university’s ongoing partnerships with the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University.

Court documents shown to Middle East Eye showed the university had used pictures of Muslim students praying Friday prayers and whiteboards advertising Yoga sessions on the front lawn as examples of “unauthorised events” that justify removing the encampment. 

READ MORE: London's Queen Mary university takes students to court to disperse Gaza encampment

The Saudi minister of Hajj said that political slogans have no place during the pilgrimage as he announced that 1.2 million Muslims arrived in Mecca this week to perform the annual event.

"Hajj is for worship, not for any political slogans," Tawfiq Al-Rabiah said on Thursday, in response to a question by a reporter about the rules and punitive measures governing "political and sectarian slogans".

"This is what the Kingdom's leadership, may God preserve it, is working on, ensuring that Hajj truly embodies the highest levels of devotion, tranquility, and spirituality," he added.

Al-Rabiah said in previous years there has been "a high level of compliance" with these rules.

READ MORE: Saudi Arabia says no place for 'political slogans' in Hajj in apparent reference to Gaza

Gaza's health ministry said that 77 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on the enclave in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 36,731 Palestinians killed since 7 October.

The US, Egypt and Israel failed to make progress in a meeting last Sunday discussing the reopening of the Rafah crossing after the Israeli side refused to allow the Palestinian Authority to administer the Palestinian side, Axios reports.

Eight months of war in Gaza have caused unemployment in the Palestinian enclave to reach a "staggering" 79.1 percent, the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) said in a new report.

This figure brings the average unemployment in the State of Palestine to 50.8 percent, as unemployment in the West Bank has also risen to 32 percent.

Additionally, the Gaza Strip's GDP has contracted by an "astounding" 83.5 percent and by 22.7 percent in the West Bank ove the past eight months, meaning that the GDP in the Occupied Palestinian Territories has shrunk by an average of 32.8 percent.

The ILO also said that 51 percent of West Bank workers who are still employed have faced reduced working hours, while 62.8 percent experienced reduced wages.

As "almost all private sector establishments have either completely ceased or significantly reduced production" in Gaza, the Palestinian territories have experienced daily private sector production losses equivalent to USD $19 million during the first four months of the war.

A NPR investigation has found that Israel used a US-made bomb in its deadly strike on an Unrwa school in central Gaza that killed at least 40 displaced Palestinians.

Quoting current and former US defence officials who analysed an image of the bomb remnants, NPR says the munition used was a GBU-39 small-diameter bomb, reportedly the same bomb Israel used in a widely reported deadly bombing of Rafah in May.

Rocket sirens went off on Friday in several kibbutzim near the Gaza border.

The Eshkol Regional Council then said it had found a rocket that landed in an open area.