Gaza live: Israeli protesters demand ceasefire as war enters 10th month

Hezbollah said on Sunday that it struck Israel’s Birkat Risha military site near the Lebanese border with guided missiles, killing and wounding Israeli soldiers.

Around 60 rockets have been fired towards northern Israel from Lebanon over the past few hours, according to Israel's army radio station. 

It came after Israeli forces reportedly launched artillery attacks near Yaroun and Maroun al-Ras in southern Lebanon.

Al-Jazeera reported that Hezbollah claimed hits on Israel's al-Baghdadi, Nimra and Mount Meron military bases, in retaliation for the killing of one of its fighters.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that "positive steps" had been taken towards a truce in Gaza.

"Some positive steps were taken in the talks in Doha that foresaw a permanent ceasefire," he told journalists on his way back from Berlin, where he had been watching Turkey's Euro 2024 quarter final.

"Now they are saying a ceasefire could be reached in any moment. In other words, appropriate news can come from there in any moment."

The Israeli military widely employed a directive allowing forces to kill their own citizens during the Hamas-led attack on October 7, Haaretz reported on Sunday. 

The Israeli Air Force bombed at least three military bases and outposts during the attack.

Additionally, the military heavily fired at the fenced area separating Gaza and Israel as Palestinian fighters returned to the strip with captured Israelis.

The area was intended to become a “killing zone”, a source in the Israeli army's Southern Command told Haaretz. 

An order was also issued hours after the Hamas attack stating that “not a single vehicle can return to Gaza”, which was understood as potentially causing the death of kidnapped Israeli civilians or soldiers. 

These orders, part of what is known in the Israeli military as the “‘Hannibal Directive”, were “widespread” on the day, according to Haaretz.

The directive, when active, mandates that the Israeli army use any means necessary to prevent the capture of Israeli soldiers, even if it involves killing them.

Read more: Israeli army ‘widely employed’ Hannibal Directive to target its citizens on 7 October

 At least 38,153 Palestinians have been killed by Israel's war on Gaza, the Palestinian health ministry said on Sunday.

More than 87,828 others have been wounded in the enclave since 7 October, the ministry added.

Israeli forces stormed the town of Silwad, northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Sunday morning, arresting at least 16 Palestinians, according to a report by Wafa news agency.

Israeli troops raided and searched a number of homes in the town, reportedly damaging the properties in the process. It conducted several interrogations, physically assaulted some Palestinians and smashed the windows of several vehicles, the report stated. 

Elsewhere in the West Bank, arrests were carried out in Hebron, Tubas, Bethlehem and Jerusalem. 

Meanwhile in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, armed Israeli settlers placed a mobile home on Palestinian land. The move was part of a reported attempt to expand an existing illegal Israeli settlement outpost in Masafer Yatta.

The EU naval mission protecting ships in the Red Sea said on Sunday its frigate Psara destroyed two unmanned aerial vehicles in the Gulf of Aden. 

The mission - known as 'Aspides' - began in February in response to drone and missile attacks on vessels by Yemen's Houthis.

The Houthis have launched attacks on global shipping since last year as an act of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza under Israeli bombardment.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers, 

Here are the latest updates from the Israeli war on Gaza, which entered its 10th month today: 

• Israeli air and ground forces pummelled several areas across the Gaza Strip overnight, including Gaza, Bureij refugee camp, Maghazi refugee camp, Khan Younis and Rafah. Several Palestinians were killed and wounded in the attacks, according to the Wafa news agency. 

• Lebanon fired dozens of rockets towards northern Israel following the killing of a senior Hezbollah operative. At least one Israeli was wounded, according to initial Israeli reports. 

• Anti-government protesters have blocked roads across Israel on Sunday morning, calling for a ceasefire and prisoner swap deal. 

• Citing an unnamed source, the newspaper Haaretz said Israel had presented new demands in the ongoing ceasefire talks after Hamas agreed to the last terms presented by Israel. The new Israeli demands could delay the agreement, the newspaper said. 

Our live coverage from Gaza will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are some of the day's key developments:

• The number of Palestinians killed by Israel's war on Gaza has climbed to 38,098, the Palestinian health ministry said on Saturday

• The Gaza government's media office announced the killing of five Palestinian journalists in the past 24 hours

• Gaza's health ministry warned in a statement that the lack of fuel is still affected the work of the remaining functional hospitals in the besieged Palestinian enclave, particularly their use of generators, oxygen stations and refrigerators for storing medicines

• The AP reports that Hamas has given initial approval for a US-backed ceasefire deal in Gaza, dropping a key demand that Israel commits to a permanent ceasefire

• CIA Director William Burns is expected to meet with his counterparts from Israel, Egypt, and Qatar ahead of renewed talks on the release of captives and a ceasefire in Gaza

• Israel has made new demands that are likely to prolong ceasefire talks, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported, citing an unnamed foreign source

• The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, said that children in Gaza are spending six to eight hours a day searching for food and water, carrying heavy weights and walking long distance

• Sixteen Palestinians, primarily women and children, lost their lives when Israeli aircraft targeted a central Gaza school, where displaced individuals had sought refuge, as reported by the Palestinian news agency Wafa

• According to footage from a Yesh Din investigation, around 20 settlers threw stones at homes in the village of Madama, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, and set an olive trees on fire

On 22 September 2023, two weeks before the 7 October al-Aqsa Flood attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the UN General Assembly about "a new Middle East". He bragged about Israel's power and status as the enforcer of regional security.

He held up a map showing a line going from India through the Persian Gulf, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, then to the Israeli port city of Haifa, and eventually ending in Europe.

This grand project was dubbed the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor (Imec), a US-sponsored initiative to counter the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). 

For at least a decade, the US has been seeking to reorient its global national security strategy in order to focus on its most significant geopolitical challenges, namely a rising China and a re-assertive Russia. 

But in the Middle East, which is one of the most vital regions for US interests, it has opted to reduce its military presence and assign the role of securing its interests and maintaining stability to two of its most trusted allies - Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Read more: How Israel's disastrous response to 7 October destroyed its aura of invincibility

The Gaza Civil Defence is now reporting that it has recovered three people from the rubble of a house in Gaza City following Israeli strikes. 

At least 15 people who were also wounded in the attack. 

Egypt’s state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV said the country will host the Israeli and US delegations to discuss “outstanding issues” in a possible Gaza ceasefire agreement.

Citing a senior official, Al Qahera News says Egypt is conducting talks with Hamas to conclude ceasefire deal.

Israel has made new demands that are likely to prolong ceasefire talks, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported, citing an unnamed foreign source.

"Hamas had already given its approval to the latest stance presented by Israel. But in the meeting on Friday, Israel presented new issues," the source is quoted as saying.

The outlet quotes an unnamed Israeli source familiar with the negotiations as saying Israel has displayed a "tough stance" in the talks.

Several outlets have reported that Israeli sources estimate the talks are expected to go on for approximately three weeks.

The Israeli army confirmed that it carried out an airstrike against a United Nations-run school in the central Gaza Strip earlier on Saturday. 

Israel said, without offering any evidence, that the school was used by Hamas operatives as a command centre.

The number of people killed by an Israeli strike on the al-Jaouni School, a shelter for those displaced by Israel’s war on Gaza run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), has risen to 16, according to the Government Media Office in Gaza.

More than 75 people were also wounded in the attack on the school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, which houses approximately 7,000 people.

The Lebanese group confirmed on X that Maitham Mustafa al-Attar, also known as “Hadi”, was killed on Saturday following an Israeli strike. 

Hezbollah made no mention of where and when this fighter was killed, but his home town is near the city of Baalbek.

Earlier on Saturday an Israeli drone raid on a car killed one person, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.

The UK's new foreign minister David Lammy told Reuters that he wants a balanced position on the war in the Middle East and will use diplomatic efforts to ensure a ceasefire is reached. 

“The time has come for the United Kingdom to reconnect with the outside world,” Lammy said in an interview in Berlin where he is visiting. 

“I want to get back to a balanced position on Israel and Gaza. We’ve been very clear that we want to see a ceasefire… We want to see those hostages out.”

He adds: “The fighting has to stop, the aid has got to get in, and I will use all diplomatic efforts to ensure that we get to that ceasefire.”