- Qatar will continue its role as a “trusted and impartial” mediator in the region and beyond, despite threatening statements made by Netanyahu.
Ancient Gaza City faces ‘complete obliteration’: Rights group
Amnesty International has denounced Israel’s latest forced expulsion order affecting about one million residents in Gaza City, as the Israeli military carries out its plan to capture and occupy Gaza’s main urban centre.
“Gaza City, which has an ancient heritage that dates back millennia and has already suffered devastating destruction and damage, is now facing complete obliteration,” said Heba Morayef, regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.
“It is evident that Israel is determined in pursuing its goal to physically destroy Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. It is unconscionable that states with leverage over Israel continue to provide it with arms and diplomatic support to destroy Palestinian lives,” Morayef said in a statement.
“Deplorably, companies and investors continue to profit from Israel’s genocide. States and companies that continue to arm Israel risk complicity in genocide. All those with influence over Israel must press for an immediate end to Israel’s genocidal campaign and full humanitarian access to Gaza’s civilians.”
Israeli forces arrest mayor of Palestinian town near Jenin
Israeli troops have targeted another Palestinian official in their latest raid in the occupied West Bank.
According to the Wafa news agency, Israeli forces raided the town of Silat ad-Dhahr, near Jenin, and arrested the municipal mayor, Abdel Fattah Abu Ali, along with three other people.
Soldiers also raided homes during incursions in nearby Palestinian towns.
Photos: Israeli flares light up the night sky over Gaza
Overnight, Israeli forces launched illumination flares in the skies over the Gaza Strip.
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said the flares often precede large-scale attacks and as the enclave was lit up, Israeli quadcopters began firing in the area of Gaza City from which he was reporting.
Pentagon announces $14.2m in aid to Lebanon’s military
The US Department of War has announced the US will provide $14.2m worth of aid to Lebanon’s Armed Forces (LAF) to help it “dismantle weapons caches and military infrastructure of non-state groups, including [Hezbollah]”.
The assistance will provide the LAF with “capabilities to conduct patrols and safely remove and dispose of deadly unexploded ordnance [UXO] and [Hezbollah] weapons caches, in support of the November 2024 cessation of hostilities between Lebanon and Israel”, the Pentagon said in a statement.
The aid package is aligned with the Trump administration’s “priority to counter Iranian-backed terrorist groups in the region” by assisting Lebanon’s military in “degrading” Hezbollah.
The announcement comes as Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem delivered a televised speech on Wednesday, calling on regional states to step up support for the Palestinian resistance and urging governments not to “stab the resistance in the back” by siding with Israel.
Israeli troops kill child in central Gaza
Israeli forces have opened fired in the Bureij camp in central Gaza, killing a Palestinian child, our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues report, quoting a source at al-Awda Hospital.
We will bring you more information when we have it.
WHO chief says agency will remain in Gaza City, ‘appalled’ by displacement of population
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), said his agency and partner groups will remain in Gaza City despite orders to leave issued by Israel’s military.
“WHO is appalled by the latest evacuation order, demanding that one million people move from Gaza City to a so-called ‘humanitarian zone’ in the south designated by Israel,” Tedros wrote in a statement.
“The zone has neither the size nor scale of services to support those already there, let alone new arrivals,” he said.
“Almost half the functional hospitals are in Gaza City,” he added.
Tedros also called for the international community to act, including through an immediate ceasefire and ensuring the protection of healthcare, humanitarian workers and civilians in the devastated Palestinian territory.
WATCH: Israeli strikes on Yemen aimed to deflect after Qatar attack
Rob Geist Pinfold, a lecturer in international security at King’s College London, says he believes Israel’s latest air strikes on Yemen are an attempt to deflect attention from mounting international condemnation of its attack on Qatar.
The Houthi group said multiple journalists and civilian bystanders were among those killed by Israel’s attack in the capital Sanaa on Wednesday.
Israel said it struck what it called Houthi “military camps” and a media department.
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Let’s get you up to speed on the latest developments:
- Israeli forces continue their assault on Gaza, killing at least two people, including a baby, sheltering in tents in the north of the Palestinian enclave.
- A day after an attack on a Hamas delegation in Qatar’s capital Doha, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog says it “is ready for a complete deal, the end of war, getting our hostages back and moving forward”.
- Israel’s ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, accuses Qatar of “financing and supporting terrorism by playing host to Hamas”.
- The Israeli military stormed a home in the occupied West Bank town of Kafr ad-Dik, west of Salfit, and arrested two members of the Palestinian political group Fatah.
- Israel’s air force says it intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Yemen towards the southern Negev Desert area.
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