Live: Five Palestinian journalists killed, Gaza media office says

Two patients in the intensive care unit of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza have died after Israeli forces laid siege to the facility and destroyed its generator, according to Al Jazeera reporters.

The Israeli military has besieged all major hospitals in northern Gaza.

Hezbollah said it fired a "large rocket salvo" towards an Israeli military base north of Haifa in retaliation for Israeli attacks on villages in south Lebanon.

According to Israeli Army Radio, the rocket attacks have injured at least 13 people.

James Elder, a spokesperson for the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), described the situation for children in Gaza as "hell on earth".

"Gaza is the true embodiment of hell on earth for the 1 million children there. The situation is getting worse by the day. Estimates indicate that the death toll among children in Gaza has exceeded 14,100, which means that between 35 and 40 girls and boys are being killed every day in Gaza," Elder said. 

He also warned that there are "many, many more under the rubble".

Elder highlighted that children in Gaza have been repeatedly displaced, asking: "Where do the children and their families go? They are not safe in schools and shelters. They are not safe in hospitals. And they are certainly not safe in overcrowded camps."

Malaysia's prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, has condemned the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

"Once again, the international community has failed to uphold and ensure peace and justice, further worsening the conflict," he said on Facebook on Saturday. 

He urged the international community to demand an immediate halt to Israel's killing of Palestinians in Gaza.

Ibrahim also mourned Sinwar's death, describing him on social media platform X as a "fighter and defender of the Palestinian people" who was "brutally murdered by the barbaric Zionist regime".

A drone launched from Lebanon flew 70km to strike Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's house in Caesarea in northern Israel.

However, Netanyahu and his family were not in Caesarea, according to his office.

The Israeli army reported that there were no casualties.

Two other drones launched at the same time were reportedly intercepted.

Good morning, Middle East Eye readers.

A drone strike hit Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence, although he was elsewhere. Meanwhile, in Gaza, the Israeli military has besieged al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, as well as the Kamal Adwan Hospital and the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia. This means all three major hospitals in northern Gaza are under attack. 

•  Israeli fighter jets killed at least four people in Jabalia by bombing a house in al-Tawbah area, while the Israeli military killed at least 33 in the Jabalia refugee camp.
• Protesters stormed the offices of a Saudi television channel in Baghdad after it labelled Hamas, Hezbollah and the Popular Mobilisation as "terrorists".
• An Israeli drone shot a Palestinian child dead on al-Nafaq Street in central Gaza, according to Al Jazeera. 
• Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, said that "Hamas is alive and will remain alive" following the killing of its leader, Yahya Sinwar.

At least two Israeli soldiers were wounded in an attack by gunmen who entered Israeli territory from Jordan, according to Israeli media reports on Friday.

The incident took place on Friday in Neot HaKikar in the south Dead Sea area, close to the border with Jordan.

Israeli media sources said that Israeli soldiers were searching the area for another possible attacker, while the Israeli army said it had killed two of the attackers and was looking for a third who fled the scene.

Earlier, the army said that its observers had noticed a group of men trying to infiltrate the border and had sent soldiers to confront them.

Jordan's Islamic Action Front, a major political party in Jordan that is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, lauded the attack.

In a statement, it said: "We celebrate the heroic attack carried out by the Amer Qawwas and Hossam Abu Ghazala in the Dead Sea region.

"We call on the government to reconsider its agreements with the Zionist enemy."

To read the full story, click below.

Fighters 'from Jordan' wound Israeli soldiers in shooting at border

In further comments to Al Jazeera, a Gaza health ministry official said that several Palestinian civilians have died of hunger and thirst inside their homes in Jabalia as a result of Israel's siege of northern Gaza.

A Gaza health ministry official told Al Jazeera that the bodies of dozens of dead Palestinians are currently scattered across the streets of Jabalia in northern Gaza.

Earlier on Friday, an Israeli strike on the Jabalia refugee camp killed at least 30 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and wounded another 70.

The US has dubbed the late Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar as an “insurmountable obstacle” to a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, but Sinwar’s killing is likely to lift the veil on Israel’s ambitions to continue its war on Gaza.

US officials told Middle East Eye on Thursday that Sinwar’s death in a firefight with Israeli troops could energise ceasefire talks, and that the US had already reached out to Qatar and Egypt to see if negotiations could be rekindled. 

But analysts say Sinwar’s death is unlikely to have a major impact on the talks because it does little to change Israel’s motivations to keep pummelling the besieged enclave, in fact, it may bolster those efforts. 

“Sinwar was certainly an obstacle to a deal, but the main obstacle has been Netanyahu, who has assassinated, and escalated this war, at every opportunity,” Khaled Elgindy, the Middle East Institute’s director of Israel-Palestine affairs, told Middle East Eye. 

“If Sinwar was the main reason we didn’t have a deal, it begs the question, with him out of the picture, why isn’t the path clear?” 

To read the full story, click below.

Was Yahya Sinwar the obstacle to peace the US made him out to be?

The communications blackout Israel imposed in northern Gaza has made it difficult for information about Israeli attacks to leave the area.

Palestinian journalists have described the scenes inside the Jabalia refugee camp, an area currently being sieged by Israel, as apocalyptic.

Journalist Hossam Shabat said that on Friday it felt like "judgement day", adding that Israel's military was undertaking "a rapid extermination mission".

Earlier on Friday, journalist Anas al-Sharif said thousands of families were "trapped between tanks, their gunfire, and heavy artillery shelling".

The death toll has risen once more from Israel's latest attack on Friday in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

Palestinian journalists are now reporting that at least 30 people, mostly women and children, have been killed while at least a further 70 people were wounded.

Video footage shared online shows dozens of dead bodies covered in blankets and sheets covering the floor of a building.

Palestinian journalist Anas al-Sharif posted on X late on Friday that Israeli forces have killed at least five Palestinians near the Nassar junction in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

Sharif added that several others were wounded in the attack.

Sharif has remained in northern Gaza to continue reporting from the ground, despite the Israeli military ordering Palestinians to leave northern Gaza several weeks ago.

1199SEIU, a healthcare union in the United States that comprises around 450,000 members, has issued a statement calling for a ceasefire in both Lebanon and Gaza, as well as an arms embargo on Israel.

The union joins others who have called for an arms embargo on Israel, like the Association of Flight Attendants; the American Postal Workers Union; the International Union of Painters; the Service Employees International Union; United Auto Workers; United Electrical Workers; and the National Education Association.

The 1199SEIU union endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president in the upcoming election. However, Harris has repeatedly stated she would not condition aid to Israel.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Friday spoke with Hamas representatives and expressed his condolences over the killing of the Palestinian group's leader, Yahya Sinwar.

Fidan said that Ankara will "use all diplomatic means to mobilise the international community against the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza," according to a statement from the Turkish foreign ministry.