Gaza live: Israel strike kills 30 Palestinians, mostly children

Hezbollah's secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, is expected to speak later today at the funeral of senior commander Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli air strike on Tuesday.

The procession will begin in the southern suburbs of Beirut, with Shukr's family and Hezbollah members in attendance. 

At least two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood north of Gaza City, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported footage of Israeli settlers storming the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, under the protection of Israeli police.

Top Iranian officials will meet with representatives of regional allies from Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen on Thursday to discuss potential retaliation against Israel following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, several sources told Reuters.

In killing Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’ political bureau in Tehran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sent the clearest message yet to Iran and the resistance movements that he wants a regional war.

In denying any involvement or foreknowledge of the drone strike that killed Haniyeh, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken further damaged Washington’s battered credibility.

US security officials were briefing journalists within an hour of the attack taking place that a senior member of the Axis of Resistance had been killed. They did not specify where or whom, and at first it was thought to be a second strike in Lebanon after the targeting of Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah’s most senior military commander and right-hand man to leader Hassan Nasrallah. 

But it is certain that US security officials knew about the drone strike on Haniyeh within minutes of it happening. To cast Netanyahu as a leader in the grip of Jewish messianic fascists in ordering this strike is only half of the story. 

When I met him two decades ago as a political outcast dubbed an extremist by my liberal Zionist hosts, Netanyahu had only one idea to impart: Iran was the mothership. Hamas and Hezbollah were only its aircraft carriers. 

Read more: Netanyahu's only goal is to set the region on fire

An Israeli military attack has killed at least four Palestinians in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, reported Al Jazeera Arabic.

This attack follows an earlier strike on a home within the camp, which killed three people.

Thousands of Palestinian administrative detainees – those being held without charge or trial – are subject to ill-treatment including dire physical conditions, torture and sexual violence, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

The report detailing the “prolonged secret and incommunicado detention” of Palestinians by Israeli authorities states that dozens have also died in Israeli custody.

The report also notes detentions carried out by armed groups and the Palestinian Authority.

Since Israel’s war on Gaza began on 7 October, the Israeli parliament has increased the period allowed for administrative detention under the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law.

The Israeli military has taken into custody thousands of Palestinians in Gaza and over 10,000 Palestinians who were legally present in Israel, the report says.

Read more: UN probe finds Palestinians subjected to beatings, electric shocks and sexual violence in Israeli detention

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who is facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for potential war crimes committed in Gaza, claimed that Mohammad Deif, the commander of Hamas’s military wing, was killed in an Israeli air strike in the southern Gaza Strip last month.

Last month, Israel targeted a refugee camp in a strike, stating that the attack was aimed at Deif.

The Israeli assault killed at least 88 Palestinians and wounded 289 others.

Israeli forces conducted a series of raids across Hebron in the occupied West Bank, detaining nine Palestinians, according to the Wafa news agency.

The raids took place in Hebron city, as well as the towns of Beit Kahil and Dura, Wafa reported.

The latest arrests come after an earlier detention campaign in Nablus, where at least six people were taken into custody by the Israeli military.

Israel frequently arrests Palestinians without justification, and many are held without charge for months or even years.

At least 39,480 Palestinians have been killed and 91,128 wounded since the Israeli military offensive on Gaza began on October 7, according to a statement from the Palestinian health ministry.

In the last 24 hours alone, at least 35 Palestinians were killed and more than 55 people were wounded, the ministry added. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called on all parties in the Middle East to halt any "escalatory actions" and work towards achieving a ceasefire in Gaza following the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, an act Iran has attributed to Israel.

Achieving peace “starts with a ceasefire, and to get there, it also first requires all parties to talk [and] to stop taking any escalatory actions,” Blinken told reporters while on a visit to Mongolia.

The killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran has thrust the US into the thorny position of scrambling to prevent a regional war from erupting after an assassination exposed the vulnerability of its most potent Middle Eastern foe: Iran.

Iran and Hamas blamed Israel for Wednesday's brazen assassination of Haniyeh, who was in Tehran for the swearing-in of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian. The strike came hours after Israel said it killed senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut.

After ten months of Israel's war on Gaza, Biden administration officials are now seasoned at the diplomatic cleanups necessitated by Israeli missile and drone strikes in Middle Eastern capitals. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken quickly distanced the US from the strike, saying: "This is something we were not aware of or involved in.”

Israel has ramped up its shadow war with Iran since 7 October when the war in Gaza broke out, with many analysts and diplomats saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be openly courting a wider war.

Read more: 'A US win': Haniyeh killing plunges Biden diplomacy into chaos but shows Iran's vulnerability

On Thursday, Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, under the protection of Israeli police, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Eyewitnesses reported that the settlers entered the mosque in multiple groups. The Israeli police turned the Old City of Jerusalem into a virtual military zone, deploying hundreds of officers, particularly around the gates of the Al-Aqsa mosque.

They also tightened security measures at the entrances to both the mosque and the Old City, imposing restrictions on Palestinian worshippers entering the area.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has condemned the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, calling it an act of "murder."

"This was an act of violence, a murder that is intolerable, and it occurred within the sovereign territory of Iran," he stated during a speech at the Jakarta Convention Centre.

"I believe everyone, including Indonesia, strongly condemns such violence and murder," he added.

Hamas has accused Israel of being responsible for the attack on Haniyeh’s residence in Tehran, although Israel has not claimed responsibility.