Gaza live: Concerns about all-out regional war rise following Golan Heights deadly attack

 Al-Salah Club in Deir al-Balah is one of very few sporting facilities in Gaza still standing.

“The club is now a sanctuary… displaced people come to take shelter inside it,” Sobhi Mabrook, the second tier football club’s coach, tells Middle East Eye. 

“We thought of resuming sports activities, but we couldn’t. It’s unfeasible. This is a symptom of Israel’s war on Gaza, particularly on sports.”

Al-Salah, once a training facility for hundreds of athletes, was an incubator of different sports, including judo, karate, handball and wrestling. But all that changed when Israel’s onslaught on Gaza began on 7 October. 

Israeli bombs have killed many of the club’s talented stars. 

READ MORE: Olympics begins under shadow of Israeli obliteration of Palestinian sport

Former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump criticised US Vice President Kamala Harris’s recent comments about the Gaza war, calling them “disrespectful” to Israel, during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Florida.

“I think her remarks were disrespectful. They weren’t very nice regarding Israel. I actually don’t know how a person who’s Jewish can vote for her, but that’s up to them. In my opinion, she was certainly disrespectful to Israel,” said Trump.

Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, stated yesterday that she would not be “silent” on the suffering in Gaza, shortly after meeting Netanyahu at the White House.

Her comments sparked strong Israeli complaints.

“If we win, it’ll be very simple. Everything will work out quickly. If we don’t, then you’ll see major wars in the Middle East and possibly a third world war. We’re closer to a third world war now than at any time since the Second World War. We’ve never been so close because we have incompetent people running our country,” Trump said before reporters were ushered out.

Riyad Mansour criticised the UN Security Council for its inability to secure a ceasefire and end Israel’s onslaught on the Gaza Strip.

“We have collectively failed. This council has failed,” the Palestinian envoy said during a special session on Gaza’s humanitarian response.

“We can keep counting aid trucks and discussing routes, but the true measure of success is our ability to alleviate human suffering. Israel’s goal is the suffering of Palestinians,” Mansour said.

“Whatever solutions are proposed, Israel will ensure they fail unless it is forced to change course. The first and essential step is an immediate ceasefire."

Kamala Harris signalled on Thursday she could take a tougher line against Israel, telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that she would not be "silent" on the suffering of besieged Palestinians in Gaza.

In a meeting that is likely to be scrutinised in Israeli and US foreign policy circles, Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, took a more public approach to chastise Netanyahu over the devastating Palestinian death toll in Gaza than her boss, Joe Biden.

"What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating. The images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time," Harris told reporters after the meeting.

"We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent,” she said, emphasising the need to reach a ceasefire.

Read more: Harris talks tough on Israel, but pro-Palestine activists aren't swayed yet

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented former US President Donald Trump with a hat inscribed with "Total Victory," referencing Israel’s ongoing onslaught on Gaza.

Trump described his relationship with Netanyahu as consistently positive. Speaking at the end of a meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister at his Florida resort on Friday, Trump said he has "always had a very good relationship" with Netanyahu.

Seated across from Trump at a table with their advisors, Netanyahu announced that Israel would likely send a negotiating team to Rome for Gaza ceasefire talks at the beginning of the week. 

"Come on in, come on in," former US President Donald Trump said to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

"We’ve missed you," said Sara, as she and Trump exchanged awkward kisses.

"This was the best dinner I've ever had," Trump remarked to Netanyahu, likely referring to a previous dinner they had shared during Trump's presidency.

Trump pulled Netanyahu in and the two men, who have had an icy relationship in recent years, clasped hands as Trump said, "Let's get a great, beautiful picture."

The Netanyahus stood on either side of Trump, who smiled and gave a thumbs-up to the photographers.

Tensions have escalated sharply between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli team negotiating both the release of hostages in Gaza and a ceasefire with Hamas in recent days.

A senior negotiator informed Haaretz, "Netanyahu is deliberately pushing the negotiations into a crisis, believing he can secure better terms. He has implied this in recent discussions, which poses a significant and reckless risk to the hostages' lives."

Netanyahu has been adding incresingly new demands to the negotations which could effectively kill any ceasefire, warned the negotiators. 

Thousands of Yemenis rallied in Yemen’s capital to show solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Demonstrators waved Palestinian and Yemeni flags while chanting slogans opposing the United States and Israel.

In reaction to Israel's onslaught in Gaza, the Houthis have fired missiles and drones at Israel and caused disruptions in global trade via the Red Sea.

According to Israel, the Houthis have initiated 200 attacks since the conflict began, with many of them being intercepted.

Fifteen children from Gaza arrived in Spain to receive treatment, in a new initiative launched by the Palestine Children Relief Fund (PCRF), the European Union and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The new programme will see hundreds of wounded and ill Palestinian children in Gaza evacuated and treated in European hospitals.

Spain is the first host country to receive the children, with many others expected to join soon, according to a statement by the PCRF.

“This marks a significant step in addressing the urgent healthcare needs of children, facilitating the evacuation and treatment of hundreds of injured and ailing Palestinian children in European hospitals,” it said.

The first group of children who arrived in Madrid from Cairo on Friday include 15 children, ranging in age from 3 to 17 years old, along with immediate family members.

Israeli forces have killed more than 500 operatives in Lebanon since cross-border hostilities began in October, according to Major-General Ori Gordin, the commanding officer in the north.

"We have already eliminated more than 500 terrorists in Lebanon, the great majority of them from Hezbollah, and we have destroyed thousands of infrastructures," Gordin told troops in northern Israel.

"When the moment comes and we go on the offensive, it will be a decisive offensive."

More than nine months of violence have resulted in at least 523 deaths in Lebanon, including 342 confirmed Hezbollah fighters and 104 civilians, according to AFP.

Gordin did not mention civilian casualties.

Fifteen children from Gaza arrived in Spain to receive treatment as part of a new initiative launched by the Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF), the European Union and the World Health Organization (WHO).

This programme aims to evacuate and treat hundreds of wounded and ill Palestinian children from Gaza in European hospitals.

Spain is the first host country to welcome the injured children, with many more expected to follow soon, according to a statement by the PCRF.

“This marks a significant step in addressing the urgent healthcare needs of children, facilitating the evacuation and treatment of hundreds of injured and ailing Palestinian children in European hospitals,” the statement read.

The first group of children, aged three to 17 years, arrived in Madrid from Cairo on Friday, accompanied by their immediate family members.

Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, reported that nine out of 10 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced in Gaza since the start of the war.

"Families seek shelter where they can: overcrowded schools, destroyed buildings, makeshift tents on the sand or amid piles of trash," Unrwa said on X.

"None of these places are safe. People have nowhere left to go."

Israel is seeking changes to a plan for a Gaza truce and the release of hostages by Hamas, complicating a final deal to halt nine months of combat that have devastated the enclave, according to a Western official, Palestinian and two Egyptian sources told Reuters.

Israel says that displaced Palestinians should be screened as they return to the enclave's north when the ceasefire begins, retreating from an agreement to allow civilians who fled south to freely return home, the four sources told Reuters.

Israeli negotiators "want a vetting mechanism for civilian populations returning to the north of Gaza, where they fear these populations could support” Hamas fighters who remain entrenched there, said the Western official.

Egyptian sources said there was another sticking point over Israel's demand to retain control of Gaza's border with Egypt, which Cairo dismissed as outside a framework for a final deal accepted by the two sides.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will drop the UK's objection to an arrest warrant being issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying it was a matter for the court.

The announcement, made by a spokesperson for the new prime minister on Friday, overturns the previous government's objection to the ICC prosecutor's application for a warrant for Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant.

"On the ICC submission... I can confirm the government will not be pursuing (the proposal) in line with our long-standing position that this is a matter for the court to decide on," the spokesperson told reporters.

Sources within the Labour Party told Middle East Eye about the plans on Thursday, along with intentions to restrict arms sales to Israel over its war on Gaza.

The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) said in a statment that it was a "relief" to see the objection being dropped.

Read more: UK dropping its objection to ICC arrest warrant for Israel's Netanyahu

The UK’s attorney general visited Israel this week to discuss the British government’s new policies regarding Gaza, according to The National newspaper.

The National report said Richard Hermer will notify the Israeli government that the UK, under the Labour administration, will drop the former Conservative government’s objection to an arrest warrant being issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The discussions with high-ranking Israeli officials come as the UK is also expected to introduce restrictions on arms sales to Israel, as reported by Middle East Eye.