Israel-Palestine live: Israel bombs Unrwa building in Gaza

At least 28,775 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in Gaza since 7 October, according to the health ministry, including more than 12,300 children and 8,400 women.

More than 68,552 others have also been wounded, the health ministry added.

The latest toll includes 112 people killed over the past 24 hours, the ministry statement said, while another 157 have been wounded.

Major energy companies awarded licences 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 licences.

The organisations contend that over half of the zone for which the companies were awarded licences lies within Palestine's maritime boundaries.

Read more: Energy firms face legal threat over Israeli licences to drill for gas off Gaza

The health ministry in Gaza has confirmed that a fourth patient has died at Nasser hospital as a result of Israeli cutting power to the facility, resulting in oxygen supplies being restricted. 

Overnight a further three patients died as a result of the Israeli hospital incursion. All of Gaza's medical facilities have been attacked by Israel over the past five months. 

Israel’s interior minister, Moshe Arbel, said on Thursday that he had withdrawn the permanent residency status of a Palestinian man in Jerusalem, according to local media.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

At least three patients died in the intensive care unit of the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis as a result of the power outage and restriction of oxygen supplies.

“We hold the Israeli occupation forces responsible for the lives of patients and staff, considering that the complex is now under their full control,” Gaza’s health ministry said in a statement.

“We appeal to all international institutions to quickly intervene to save patients and staff at Nasser Medical Complex before it is too late.”

Two women gave birth in “inhumane” conditions without electricity, water and heating, it added.

Construction is underway to create a security zone along Gaza's border with Egypt that could receive Palestinian refugees fleeing an expected Israeli assault on Rafah, according to an Egyptian rights group.

The Sinai Foundation for Human Rights spoke to local contractors, who said that the aim was to create an area in the Sinai peninsula that is surrounded by seven-metre-high walls.

The plan, detailed in a report published on Wednesday, would also pave over the destroyed homes of indigenous groups in the area.

Footage shared by the organisation showed officials in four-wheel-drive vehicles in the area, as well as a large number of equipment and bulldozers.

Earlier this month, Egyptian journalist Ahmed El-Madhoun posted a video online that showed workers strengthening the security wall separating Egypt and Gaza.

Read more: Egypt building buffer zone to receive Palestinian refugees, rights group says

Hundreds of Palestinian labourers from the occupied West Bank are working in Israel to help build a new barrier along the border with Gaza, the Times of Israel reported on Friday.

This comes despite a ban on Palestinian workers working in Israel. 

Responding to the report, the defence ministry says it employs contractors "in accordance with security guidelines, classification and the sensitivity of the work", and that the labourers were from a pool of workers "approved for work on essential projects".

Israel sharply restricted Palestinian entry to Israel after the Hamas attacks of 7 October. 

Yaki Lopez, a diplomat at Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has claimed that Israel is “facilitating the delivery of aid to Gaza faster than the UN can deliver it.”

“For the last 3 days, 500 trucks with aid inspected by Israel has been waiting on the Gaza side to be distributed by UN agencies,” he wrote on X. “Hey, @UN get your act together and pick it up already!”

Yesterday, John Kirby, spokesman for the White House, said that Israel is preventing flour from reaching Gaza, where people are facing an imminent risk of famine.

“I wish I could tell you that that flour was moving in, but I can’t do that right now. And all I can tell you is that it is absolutely critical as a staple for the Palestinian people,” Kirby told reporters.

Israeli protestors have also staged several sit-ins and blocked trucks entering Gaza at the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) border crossing in recent week.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers, 

Here are the latest developments from Israel's war on Gaza, which enters day 132 today: 

• The United Nations human rights office has said that it is “deeply worried” about the Israeli raid carried out on Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza

• Benjamin Netanyahu has said that “Israel outright rejects international dictates” and a peace deal will only be reached “through direct negotiations” between Israel and the parties 

• Netanyahu’s comments came after a call with Joe Biden, where the US president reiterated his warning that Israel should not go ahead with its assault on Rafah without a credible plan to ensure the safety of Palestinian civilians

• The Israel Defense Forces announces a soldier was killed fighting in southern Gaza, raising the death toll in the ground offensive against Hamas to 234

• Fearing mass exodus from Gaza, Egypt building massive Sinai enclosure for fleeing Palestinians

Hello MEE readers. Israel has again made the claim that a hospital is being used by Hamas, laying down justification for a raid on the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis. And just as in previous occasions, Israel has provided insufficient evidence to back those claims.

Israeli tanks rolled into the hospital on Thursday, and the few people who remained in the hospital, were ordered to gather in one building.

Hamas denied the accusation it was using the hospital for military operations, calling them a “new episode in the series of lies” Israel uses to commit war crimes.

After attacking an Al Jazeera news crew with an armed drone this week, leaving the reporter and cameraman injured, Israel claimed the reporter was a Hamas deputy commander - a claim that Al Jazeera vehemently rejected.

Here is what you need to know from today:

• US President Joe Biden reportedly spoke on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The call lasted around 40 minutes.

• US naval forces conducted a cyber attack on an Iranian spy ship in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea.

• After a rights group reported that Egypt was creating a buffer zone to possibly take in Palestinian refugees en masse, the Washington Post reported using satellite images that land was being cleared off in an area in the Sinai Peninsula near Gaza.

• Hezbollah said it fired several rockets at a northern Israeli town, in response to Israel's killing of 10 civilians in Lebanon. This week marks the most serious escalation in cross border attacks between Hezbollah and Israel.

• The UN is now estimating the cost of rebuilding Gaza to be around $20bn.

Mahmoud, a young boy from Gaza who lost both of his arms in an Israeli air strike, spoke to Palestinian journalist Ismail Al Ghoul about how the bombing changed his life.

While he faces new challenges each day, Mahmoud says he wants to remain positive about his future.

“I appeal to the Prince of Qatar to help me get prosthetic hands,” said Mahmoud.

“I can continue my education when I get prosthetic hands.”

Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of Unrwa, said the four months of war in Gaza has had an "unimaginable toll" on the enclave's civilian population.

"Already 5% of Gaza's population has suffered death, injury, or separation," Lazzarini said.

In addition to the more than 28,000 Palestinians killed by Israel, another 17,000 children have been separated from their parents.

"Urgent action is crucial to halt this deepening humanitarian disaster," the Unrwa chief said.

Axios reported that US President Joe Biden held a phone call with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that lasted around 40 minutes.

The news site did not provide further details.

NBC News is reporting that the US conducted a cyberattack against an Iranian military ship in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The ship had been collecting intelligence on cargo vessels, the news network reported, citing three officials. The cyberattack took place last week in response to the drone attack that killed American troops in Jordan.