Israel’s war on Gaza updates: ‘This horrific violence must stop’ – UN chief

For more on the global reaction to Israel’s deadly attack on the al-Jaouni school in Gaza’s Nuseirat, read our story here.

Al Jazeera’s verification agency Sanad revealed that US-made MK-84 bombs may have been used by Israeli warplanes on displaced people’s tents in southern Gaza’s al-Mawasi area. Read more about it here.

And you can always find all our latest coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.

We’ll be closing this live page soon. Here’s a recap of the day’s main developments:

• At least 40 Palestinians have been killed in various attacks across the Gaza Strip, according to medical sources.
• Israeli forces pulled out from the northern West Bank city of Tubas and the nearby Far’a refugee camp following a large-scale military raid that killed four Palestinians.
• UN chief Antonio Guterres reiterated calls for a ceasefire in Gaza after another deadly attack on a UN shelter for thousands of displaced Palestinians.
• Three people, including a child, have been killed in an Israeli drone attack on the village of Kfar Jouz in southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh area.
• The World Health Organization said more than 22,000 people wounded in Gaza during Israel’s war have “life-changing” injuries, many of them Palestinian children.

Two Israeli air strikes on a school in Gaza killed at least 18 Palestinians, including six people working for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

UNRWA has been repeatedly attacked by Israel during its war. So why is the agency so important to Palestinians – and why does Israel want to destroy it?

Israel’s war on Gaza has devastated the Palestinian enclave’s economy, reducing it to less than one-sixth of its 2022 size. There has also been a “significant downturn” in the occupied West Bank, according to a United Nations report.

“Production processes have been disrupted or decimated, income sources have disappeared, poverty has intensified and expanded, neighbourhoods have been eradicated, and communities and towns have been ruined,” the report by the UN Trade and Development agency said.

Read the full story here.

Foreign ministers of several Muslim and European countries will meet in Madrid on Friday to discuss how to implement a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares will host the meeting, which will be attended by his European counterparts, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, and members of the Arab-Islamic Contact Group for Gaza.

In May, Spain, Norway and Ireland formally recognised a unified Palestinian state ruled by the Palestinian Authority comprising the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with East Jerusalem as its capital. With them, 146 of the 193 member states of the United Nations now recognise Palestinian statehood.

The Gaza Contact Group – an initiative of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation – includes countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa has outlined a vision of a united Gaza and West Bank after Israel ends its war.

“This suffering, a consequence of both war and prolonged occupation, must end for peace and stability to be achieved,” Mustafa writes in an opinion piece in The Washington Post.

He said with a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority “stands ready to resume responsibility for the Gaza Strip, leading efforts to fully integrate governance across both it and the West Bank”.

“Our ‘One Palestine’ vision, rooted in the unity of the Palestinian people and our shared identity, is central to this effort. As we steadfastly pursue an end to the Israeli military occupation and the realization of our right to self-determination, these principles will guide the rebuilding and governance of Gaza, addressing the unprecedented humanitarian crisis and laying the foundation for lasting peace and stability.”

The White House says it is in touch with Israeli officials for more information on Israel’s air strikes that killed workers of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency.

Six UNRWA staffers were killed after two air strikes hit a school in central Gaza on Wednesday, the agency said, marking what it said was the highest death toll among its staff in a single incident.

At least another 12 Palestinians were killed in the attack on the UN-run school sheltering 12,000 war-displaced people. Witnesses said the Israeli strikes tore women and children to pieces.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says its emergency teams have been distributing “vegetables, water, and essential supplies” to families in the occupied West Bank’s Jenin.

Israeli forces launched a large-scale incursion into Jenin and its refugee camp on August 28. The raid and siege that accompanied it left residents trapped in their homes and caused widespread destruction to much of the city’s infrastructure.

Four people were killed and eight others injured when a car exploded in central Israel, an incident under investigation but initially described as gang-related.

Israel’s emergency medical service Magen David Adom said the vehicle “exploded while parked on the sidewalk near a store and residential building” in Ramla. Located east of Tel Aviv, Ramla is a mixed city that is home to both Jews and Arabs.

“As a result of the explosion, several passersby were injured by the blast and shrapnel,” rescue worker Benny Cohen said in a statement. Liat Cohen, another paramedic at the scene, said the unconscious victims included a month-old infant and a 50-year-old woman.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the site of the explosion and said police would “continue to fight this crime with all the tools at its disposal”.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid criticised Ben-Gvir. “There have been incompetent ministers before him, but he’s the first to turn failure into a profession,” he wrote on X.

UN experts have condemned rising violence, intimidation and obstruction of journalists working in the occupied West Bank.

“We strongly denounce the attacks and harassment of journalists in the illegally occupied West Bank, which are nothing but crude attempts by the Israeli army to block independent reporting on potential war crimes,” the experts said.

The experts include Irene Khan, special rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and Francesca Albanese, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967.

They cited at least three incidents in September in Jenin and Tulkarem, in which Israeli forces fired live ammunition at journalists or their vehicles while reporting on military raids and civilian casualties.

At least four journalists were wounded as a result, even though several wore clearly marked “press” jackets.

“It is deeply disturbing to see Israeli soldiers in the West Bank replicating the same disdain for the safety of journalists as in Gaza in blatant violation of international law. Foreign media continue to be denied access to Gaza, and now their safety in the West Bank is also being seriously threatened, gravely hindering their journalistic work,” the UN experts said.

We earlier reported the World Health Organization said about one-quarter of people wounded in Gaza during Israel’s assault – more than 22,000 people – have “life-changing” injuries.

Dr Thaer Ahmad, an emergency physician who worked in Gaza earlier this year, says the actual figure is “likely to be astronomically higher”.

“These are very conservative estimates – they’re doing so in a way to let you know that there is something urgent happening here,” Ahmad told Al Jazeera. “This is something that should scare everyone. These are people who need round-the-clock care.”

Among the most common injuries are spinal cord and brain injuries, major burns and limb amputations.

An Israeli air strike on a school in Gaza killed six people working for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, along with at least a dozen others.

UNRWA has been repeatedly attacked by Israel during its war. So why is the agency so important to Palestinians – and why does Israel want to destroy it?

Among the five wounded in the town of ad-Dhahiriya is a Palestinian child.

Israeli forces and army vehicles had raided the town, south of Hebron, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports. Israeli soldiers also launched tear gas towards residents.

Israeli forces have stepped up large-scale incursions across the occupied West Bank in recent weeks – killing, wounding, and arresting Palestinians in numerous towns and villages.

Maha Bedu, a resident of Tulkarem refugee camp, said the Israeli army demolished her house during a days-long offensive in the northern occupied West Bank.

“It was completely destroyed along with my dreams and hopes,” she said.

“I want to bring a tent, my mattress and cover and put them on the sand. I will not leave my camp. I will not leave my country. What happened to my parents and ancestors, I will not accept. They were displaced. I will not get displaced.”

As we’ve been reporting, Israel’s military withdrew from the city of Tulkarem and its refugee camp earlier today after inflicting widespread damage to homes, road and infrastructure in the area.

Israeli forces have been conducting a series of incursions in the northern West Bank for two weeks with extended raids in Tubas, Jenin and Tulkarem. All three cities have a heavy presence of armed Palestinian groups resisting Israel’s decades-old occupation. Heavy clashes have been reported.

At least six people have now been killed in a string of attacks on several homes across central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.

Several others have been injured, it said.

This brings the total number of Palestinians killed across the enclave today to 40, Wafa said, citing medical sources.

Gaza’s Civil Defence says its teams have retrieved the bodies of two Palestinians after an Israeli attack targeted a home in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp.

At least seven people have been wounded in the strike on the Shaheen family home. They were transported to al-Awda Hospital, it said in a statement.

Rescue teams also rushed to another location in the camp, which was struck a short while ago. “It’s been a harsh and difficult night in the middle area as the occupation continues bombarding residential homes,” the agency said.

At least 18 people, including six UN staff, were killed on Wednesday after Israel targeted a UN shelter in Nuseirat.

Maritime experts this week will resume a risky operation to salvage the Sounion tanker, which was repeatedly attacked by Yemen’s Houthis in the Red Sea last month and holds about 1 million barrels of crude oil, Reuters news agency reports.

Any spill could be one of the largest from a ship, risking catastrophic environmental damage in an area that is particularly dangerous to enter.

The Houthis, who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians caught in Israel’s war on Gaza, have damaged more than 80 “Israeli-linked” ships in missile and drone attacks since November, sinking two vessels, seizing another and killing at least three crew members.

The Israeli military says it has completed the destruction of Hamas’s brigade in Rafah, the southernmost city of Gaza.

Israeli forces killed 2,000 fighters and destroyed 13km (8 miles) of underground tunnels dug under the area, it said in a statement.

About 250 fighters in Rafah’s western Tal as-Sultan district were killed in recent weeks, including the commander of the battalion and most of the chain of command, the army said.

It wasn’t possible to verify the Israeli claim, and there was no immediate response from Hamas. Israel began its attack on Rafah in early May, forcing more than one million Palestinian civilians to flee the city.

Illegal Israeli settlers have burned olive trees and Palestinian property in Yatma, a village south of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank.

“A group of illegal settlers from the Rehelim settlement near Yatma set fire to olive trees, a vehicle, and a scrap yard in the village and they immediately withdrew,” said Ahmed Sanobar, head of the Yatma village council.

According to the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, Israeli settlers have killed 19 Palestinians, injured more than 785 others, and displaced 28 Bedouin communities since October 7 of last year.

Estimates suggest about 720,000 settlers live in illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.