Israel war on Gaza updates: Israeli forces kill seven in occupied West Bank

This live page is now closed.

To read more about the latest on the indirect ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, read this story.

And to follow all our coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, go here.

We will be closing this live page soon. Here is a recap of today’s events:

• Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on various areas across Gaza, including Gaza City and the Maghazi and Nuseirat refugee camps.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that Israel’s Mossad chief left Doha after meeting with mediators over Gaza ceasefire talks and that negotiations will resume next week.
• At least seven Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, as Israeli soldiers step up incursions into several West Bank towns and cities.
• UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini has called for a halt to the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza following new evacuation orders by Israel in Khan Younis and Rafah, adding that they were the largest issued since October.
• Hamas has claimed an attack with a “large number” of fighters against an Israeli position in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
• The Lebanese group Hezbollah has fired dozens of rockets at Israel, lightly injuring two Israeli soldiers in the northern town of Kiryat Shmona, the Israeli army said.

The Palestinian Health Ministry has said that the body of Mohamad Suleiman, 22, arrived at a medical centre near Ramallah, describing him as a “martyr”, without providing further details.

Local Palestinian sources said he was shot earlier by Israeli forces.

The killing of Suleiman brings the death toll from Israeli attacks in the West Bank on Friday to at least eight.

An elderly man and his wife were killed in Israeli bombardment at the Freedom School in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul has reported.

Israeli attacks have been targeting areas across northern and southern Gaza as rights advocates stress that there is nowhere safe in the territory.

Biden, who has been facing calls to end his re-election bid after a disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump last week, has stressed that he is staying in the race.

“I’m not going anywhere,” the 81-year-old president said, arguing that the disastrous 90-minute debate with Trump does not erase his achievements over the past years.

A self-described Zionist, Biden has offered unconditional support for Israel in its war on Gaza despite growing anger among progressives, young people and Arab and Muslim Americans.

You can read here about where Biden’s possible replacements for the Democratic nomination stand on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Four people have been lightly injured following repeated Israeli strikes on Lebanon’s southern municipality of Bint Jbeil, the National News Agency has said.

The agency said two of them were firefighters who had intervened following a first strike on Yaroun to extinguish a fire. They were injured in a second raid that took place less than half an hour later targeting the Al-Wadi area.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), an influential pro-Israel lobby group in the US, has cited Hezbollah’s attacks in Israel to call for more US weapons to the country.

“Hezbollah has fired more than 5,000 rockets, explosive drones, and missiles at Israeli communities nearly every day since October, dragging Israel and Lebanon closer toward a devastating war,” AIPAC said in an email to supporters.

“America must continue to ensure that Israel has the weapons it needs to protect its people.”

Netanyahu sparked a row in Washington last month when he complained about a “dramatic drop” in US weapons deliveries. The Biden administration expressed bewilderment at his comments, stressing that only a single shipment of heavy bombs to Israel had been suspended out of concern for civilian harm.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has denounced Republican Senator Lindsey Graham for saying that Palestinians in Gaza are “the most radicalized population on the planet”.

Graham, a close ally of former President Donald Trump, had said in a social media post that he supports Israel “wholly and completely” in response to a pro-Palestinian protest outside his home.

CAIR said his remarks about Palestinians were “racist, hateful and absurd”.

“Contrary to Senator Graham’s claim that Palestinians in Gaza are radicalized people raised to hate Jews, anyone who has ever visited Gaza – including Jewish activists – report that the Palestinian people are incredibly warm and welcoming people despite the decades of injustice they have experienced,” the group said in a statement.

As Palestinians in Gaza continue to face forced displacement by Israeli forces, the Associated Press news agency captured photos of streets flooded with sewage in the southern city of Khan Younis.

Rights groups and health advocates have been warning that unsanitary conditions due to displacement and Israeli bombardment could contribute to the spread of diseases in Gaza.

The UN says the increased intensity of clashes between Hezbollah and Israel “heightens the risk of a full-scale war”.

The Lebanese group and Israel have been engaged in near daily exchanges of fire, which escalated in recent days after the Israeli military assassinated a top Hezbollah commander.

The UN called on both parties to “immediately return to a cessation of hostilities”.

Abu Hamza, the spokesman of the al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, has said that Israel’s military setbacks in Gaza are what will force the Israeli government to agree to a deal to end the war.

“Our resistance in Gaza has defied the Israeli enemy’s calculations and prevented it from achieving any of its goals – not giving it an opportunity to take position in any area without having its vehicles and troops targeted,” Abu Hamza told Al Mayadeen TV in a statement.

The Islamic Jihad is a separate faction from Hamas, but the two groups share a similar ideology and their armed wings have been conducting joint military operations against Israeli forces.

Abu Hamza said ties between all Palestinian armed groups in Gaza – especially between the al-Quds Brigades and the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing – were “strong”.

The Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis risks being overwhelmed with mass casualties and wounded patients, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said.

The European Hospital shut down earlier this week due to a new evacuation order in Khan Younis issued by Israeli forces.

Nasser Hospital has been dealing with the inflow of patients from the facility amid ongoing Israeli strikes and supply shortages.

“Nasser hospital is receiving an increase in patients every day, putting all departments in the hospital above bed capacity, while our teams are running on emergency medical stocks,” the organisation said in a statement.

“MSF teams working in Nasser hospital are seeing acute shortages of medical supplies, leaving people at risk of losing vital healthcare.”

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin discussed regional security challenges and “the continued threats to the region from Iranian-backed groups” in a phone call with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant, the Pentagon has said.

“Secretary Austin reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security and Israel’s right to self-defense, while also urging de-escalation and support for ongoing diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict in Gaza,” the Pentagon said in a statement.

“The Secretary also expressed strong support for ongoing efforts to finalize a ceasefire and hostage deal, as the most promising opportunity to bring all of the hostages home safely.”

International Criminal Court prosecutors are seeking an arrest warrant for Gallant for alleged war crimes committed by Israeli forces in Gaza.

The UN says families in central Gaza’s ravaged Nuseirat refugee camp are sheltering in makeshift tents near the water’s edge amid a lack of space as displacement continues.

“Many families rely on seawater for washing, cleaning and even drinking,” it said.

Earlier, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini called for a halt to the displacement of Palestinians following new evacuation orders by the Israeli army parts of Gaza’s south.

Many of those who had fled northern and central Gaza during the beginning of the assault had sought shelter in Khan Younis and Rafah. Tens of thousands are now being forced to flee once again, mostly to Gaza’s overcrowded middle areas.

It’s 11:30pm (20:30 GMT) in the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel. Let’s bring you up to speed with the significant developments of the past few hours:

• At least five people, including two journalists, have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza City.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has said Israel’s Mossad chief left Doha after meeting with mediators over Gaza ceasefire talks, adding that negotiations will resume next week.
• Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, said a “large number” of its fighters have carried out an assault on an Israeli base in the Tal as-Sultan area of Rafah with grenades, sniping operations and machineguns.
• The death toll from an Israeli raid into Jenin in the West Bank has risen to seven, as Israeli incursions into towns and cities in the area continue.
• A Palestinian man has died of wounds sustained after being shot by Israeli forces during a raid on Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank last week.

The Israeli military has said it targeted Hezbollah observation positions and a rocket launch site in south Lebanon.

The Lebanese group had fired dozens of rockets at Israel today. One of the attacks lightly injured two soldiers in the northern town of Kiryat Shmona, the Israeli army said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has held a phone call with his newly appointed British counterpart David Lammy.

“Secretary Blinken and Foreign Secretary Lammy emphasized the enduring and essential importance of the US-UK special relationship in addressing the most pressing global challenges, including reaching an immediate and enduring ceasefire in Gaza, and supporting Ukraine against Russia’s brutal aggression,” the US State Department said in a statement.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini has called for a halt to the displacement of Gaza residents following new evacuation orders by Israel in Khan Younis and Rafah.

“This continuous cycle of displacement, constant being on ‘survival mode’ & despair must stop,” Lazzarini wrote on X.

The UN official said the latest evacuation orders were the largest issued since October, impacting nearly a quarter of a million people, most of whom had already been displaced multiple times.

“People have no where to go. They desperately search for nonexistent safety, setting up makeshift structures often in the rubble of bombed out buildings,” he said, stressing that the risks for children were especially high.

The Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza says its crews have retrieved the bodies of two people killed in an Israeli attack on a home belonging to the Abu al-Shaar family in the Nafaq neighbourhood of Gaza City.