Israel-Hamas war: ‘Arm Palestinians’, Iran President Ebrahim Raisi says at Islamic-Arab summit

“The side that can stop this aggression, is the side that is managing this aggression. It is America,” Hezbollah chief Syed Nasrallah said, adding that his militant group would be introducing new weapons in the ongoing battles with Israeli troops. Notably, Hezbollah is yet to formally join the war.

“Muslim countries should aid the Palestinian people by arming them” against Israel, Iran President Ebrahim Raisi said, according to news agency Bloomberg. He added that “the first and most important action must be an end to the killing of the people of Gaza and blind attacks on civilians, hospitals and schools.”

"Israel is taking revenge...on Gazan babies, children and women," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, as he called for an international conference to address the issue. “What is urgent in Gaza is not pauses for few hours, rather we need a permanent ceasefire,” he added, while addressing the joint Islamic-Arab summit in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh.

Iran President Ebrahim Raisi called upon the Muslim countries attending the special Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh to designate the Israel army as a “terrorist group” for targeting civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Israel is waging an “unmatched genocidal war” in Gaza, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said, while addressing the joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh. He added that the United States should exert pressure on Israel to agree to a ceasefire.

Despite mounting pressure on Islamic countries to act diplomatically against Israel over the latter's bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has planned to maintain its diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv, Reuters reported, citing sources linked to the Emirati government's policy. The UAE is hopeful of using its diplomatic network to push for a de-escalation of the war in Gaza, the report added.

Israel-Hamas War Live: "Gaza is not an arena for words. It should be for action," news agency Reuters quoted Iran President Ebrahim Raisi as saying in Tehran. "Today, the unity of the Islamic countries is very important," he added.

Operations were suspended at the Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip, after Israeli soldiers encircled it, reports said, citing a statement issued by the Gaza health ministry. “As a result, one newborn baby died inside the incubator, where there are 45 babies,” news agency Reuters quoted Ashraf Al-Qidra, the spokesman for the health ministry, as saying.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said the responsibility for any harm to civilians lies with Hamas.

He said that while Israel has urged civilians to leave combat zones, “Hamas is doing everything it can to prevent them from leaving.”

A further 30,000 people left areas in northern Gaza for the south on Friday while only 30 more aid trucks managed to cross the border from Egypt, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

Israel announced on Friday that it has revised the death toll from the October 7 Hamas attack on Israeli communities and military bases in southern Israel. The revised figure, down from around 1,400 to roughly 1,200 people, was provided by Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat, The Times of Israel reported.

• Gaza's main hospital, Al Shifa was surrounded by Israel's tanks. Doctors and patients are desperately seeking help. However, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has said that Hamas is embedding itself in civilian infrastructure and that it will strike Hamas “wherever necessary.”
• Saudi Arabia will host a Joint Arab Islamic Extraordinary Summit on Saturday.
• French President Emmanuel Macron has said that ceasefire is "the only solution" and told BBC "There is no justification to attack civilians".
• Israel has said around 1,200 people were killed by Hamas in a series of brutal attacks on Israeli communities and gatherings near Gaza on October 7. Earlier, they claimed that 1,400 people were killed in the bloody attack.

Thunder-like sound of explosions rang through the night in heavy fighting between Hamas and Israeli forces near Gaza's biggest hospital, Al-Shifa on Friday night. Israeli forces have encircled the main Gaza hospital now and an aid agency told AFP news agency that the situation has become 'catastrophic'.

Aid agency Doctors Without Borders said it was "extremely concerned" about the safety of patients and medical staff at Al-Shifa hospital.

Over the last few hours, the attacks against Al-Shifa have dramatically intensified, a hospital person told AFP.

Maher Sharif, a nurse heading to the Al-Shifa hospital when it was struck on Friday, described how people threw themselves to the ground.

"I saw dead bodies, including women and children," she said, according to a statement by Doctors Without Borders.

As Israel has cut off water in north Gaza following the Hamas attack on 7th October, the sufferings of civilians have worsened.

According to the AP news agency, those who can't find or afford bottled water rely on salty, unfiltered well water, which doctors say causes diarrhea and serious gastrointestinal infections.

At shelters, the lack of water makes it hard to maintain even basic hygiene, said Dr. Ali al-Uhisi to the news agency. The doctor said that lice and chicken pox are also spreading in the region. This week, the doctor said he treated four cases of meningitis and 20 cases of the liver infection hepatitis A.

Sadeia Abu Harbeid, 44, said she missed a chemotherapy treatment for her breast cancer during the second week of the war and can’t find painkillers. Without regular treatments, she says, her chances of survival are dim.

The nightmare in Gaza has become more than a humanitarian crisis.

Supermarket shelves are nearly empty. Bakeries have shut down because of a lack of flour and fuel for the ovens. Gaza’s farmland is mostly inaccessible, and there's little in produce markets beyond onions and oranges. Families cook lentils over small fires in the streets.

Many people say they’ve gone weeks without meat, eggs, or milk and now live on one meal a day.

Famed Gazan dishes like jazar ahmar — juicy red carrots stuffed with ground lamb and rice — are a distant memory, replaced by dates and packaged biscuits. Even those are hard to find.

Each day families send their most assertive relatives off before dawn to one of the few bakeries still functioning. Some take knives and sticks — they say they must prepare to defend themselves if attacked, with riots sporadically breaking out in bread and water lines.

“I send my sons to the bakeries and eight hours later, they’ve come back with bruises and sometimes not even bread,” said 59-year-old Etaf Jamala, who fled Gaza City for the southern town of Deir al-Balah, where she sleeps in the packed halls of a hospital with 15 family members.

(AP news agency reported)

With the Israel-Hamas war in its second month and more than 10,000 people killed in Gaza, trapped civilians are struggling to survive without electricity or running water. Palestinians who managed to flee Israel’s ground invasion in northern Gaza now encounter scarcity of food and medicine in the south.

Over half a million displaced people have crammed into hospitals and U.N. schools-turned-shelters in the south. The schools — overcrowded, strewn with trash, swarmed by flies — have become a breeding ground for infectious diseases. Scabies, diarrhea and respiratory infections rip through overcrowded shelters. And some families have to choose who eats.

Israel and Hamas are currently negotiating two hostage release proposals, one involving a small number of people to be released, and the other involves the release of 100 or more civilians held in Gaza, as per officials, The New York Times reported.

According to the first proposal, Hamas would have to release 10 to 20 civilian hostages, including Israeli women and children as well as foreigners, including Americans, and in exchange, Israel will put a brief pause in hostilities, according to one of the officials. It would be followed by a larger release of about 100 civilians if both of them agreed.

On Shifa hospital bombardment, Israel government has said the Hamas headquarters was in Shifa hospital's basement, which meant the facility could lose its protected status and become a legitimate target.

Israel says Hamas hides weapons in tunnels under hospitals, charges Hamas denies.

Health officials in Gaza have reported intense bombardment and presence of military vehicles in the vicinity of a number of hospitals.

Fighting intensified overnight into Saturday near Gaza City's overcrowded hospitals, which Palestinian officials said were hit by explosions and gunfire.

Gaza officials said missiles landed in a courtyard of Al Shifa, the enclave's biggest hospital, in the early hours of Friday, damaged the Indonesian Hospital and reportedly set fire to the Nasser Rantissi paediatric cancer hospital.

Israel's military said later that a misfired projectile launched by Palestinian militants in Gaza had hit Shifa.

Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy said the Hamas headquarters was in Shifa hospital's basement, which meant the facility could lose its protected status and become a legitimate target.

Israel says Hamas hides weapons in tunnels under hospitals, charges Hamas denies.

Arab leaders and Iran's President are in Saudi capital for a summit meeting expected to underscore demands that Israel's war in Gaza end before the violence draws in other countries.

The Arab League and the OIC were originally meant to meet separately, but the Saudi foreign ministry announced early Saturday that the blocs' summits would be combined.

The Arab League aims to demonstrate "how the Arabs will move on the international scene to stop the aggression, support Palestine and its people, condemn the Israeli occupation, and hold it accountable for its crimes", the bloc's assistant secretary-genera said.

Iran backs Hamas as well as Lebanon's Hezbollah and Yemen's Huthi rebels, placing it at the centre of concerns the war could expand.

The conflict has already fuelled cross-border exchanges between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, and the Huthis have claimed responsibility for "ballistic missiles" the rebels said targeted southern Israel.

Analysts say Saudi Arabia feels vulnerable to potential attacks because of its close ties with Washington and the fact that it was considering normalising ties with Israel before the war broke out.

Israel Defense Forces on Saturday claimed that it has eliminated 150 terrorists in Gaza and has gained control over strongholds of Hamas militants in the region.

The Israeli government is considering shutting down the activities of the Hezbollah-affiliated, Beirut-based Al Mayadeen TV news channel in the country, according to Hebrew media reports.

This week, the Israeli government approved emergency regulations allowing foreign channels hostile to the Jewish state, such as Al Jazeera and Al Mayadeen, to be prevented from operating in the country during the war.

A spokesman for the Hamas-run Health Ministry said a main children’s hospital is being repeatedly targeted putting the lives of children, staff, and displaced people in danger.

The Hamas spokesman told the AP news agency that ambulances are unable to reach Nasr Children’s Hospital because it is being targeted.

The spokesman appealed for Arab and Muslim countries “and the free people of the world” to take immediate action to bring medical supplies and fuel into hospitals before “the major disaster occurs.”

Israel said it has opened second humanitarian corridor for Palestinians to leave the northern Gaza Strip and head south.

Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said the “Rashid” coastal road was opened on Friday, although he said it was not widely used. He said the hours for the corridors were expanded Friday, from 9 am to 4 pm.

Israel estimates that more than 850,000 in northern Gaza have fled towards south. On Friday, over 100,000 Palestinians have gone south in the past two days.

Hospitals have special protections from combatants under international humanitarian law.

Hospitals can lose their protections if, for example, one side uses it to hide combatants or store weapons, the International Committee of the Red Cross says.

Even then, the other side must give ample evidence and warning before any attack, allowing for the safe evacuation of patients and medical workers if possible.

When evacuation isn’t possible, any attacker must weigh the proportionate harm before attacking, and do the utmost to minimize the toll among noncombatants.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has verified more than 250 attacks on hospitals, clinics, patients and ambulances in Gaza since Hamas’ incursion into Israel on October 7 — as well as 25 attacks on health care in Israel.

The WHO chief said half of the Gaza Strip’s 36 hospitals and two-thirds of its primary health care centers are not functioning.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza killed several terrorists from Hamas' Nakba unit who participated in the October 7 massacre.

Among the terrorists eliminated was Ahmed Musa, commander of the Nakba unit.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson Lt Col Richard Hecht has said that the Israeli military was maintaining its focus on Hamas in Gaza despite sporadic attacks on Israel from Lebanon and Syria involving drones.

At least 50 killed after Israeli missiles and artillery hit Gaza school sheltering internally displaced people. People fleeing on the main road towards southern Gaza also come under attack, witnesses say.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society has said that at least one person has been killed and 20 wounded in shooting by Israeli snipers targeting al-Quds Hospital.

Two of the wounded were in critical condition, it added.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip says the Palestinian death toll in Israel-Hamas war has passed 11,000, reports AP

Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra has said Israel has bombed Al-Shifa Hospital buildings five times since Thursday night.

“They shelled the maternity department and the outpatient clinics building. One Palestinian was killed and several were wounded in the early morning attack,” he said.

In the wake of the attacks, witnesses said many people were starting to leave the grounds of the facility fearing further attacks.

Israel has warned people to evacuate but al-Qudra said that was impossible.

“We are talking about 45 babies in incubators, 52 children in intensive care units, hundreds of wounded and patients, and tens of thousands of displaced people,” he said.

Sirens have sounded in Tel Aviv and surrounding areas as Hamas said it fired rockets deep into Israel, reports Reuters.

Medics reported two women in Tel Aviv suffered shrapnel wounds from the salvo, which followed a relative lull in rocket fire as Israeli forces press a ground offensive in Gaza in the fifth week of the war.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says there have been some “issues” getting aid into Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

At a briefing, the agency said the crossing had been designed for pedestrians, not trucks.

Only 65 trucks carrying food, medicine, hygiene supplies and water, and seven ambulances, crossed from Egypt into Gaza on Wednesday, it said, adding that none of that aid can reach northern Gaza.

“If there is a hell on Earth today, its name is northern Gaza,” he said. “It is a life of fear by day and darkness at night and what do you tell your children in such a situation, it’s almost unimaginable — that the fire they see in the sky is out to kill them?” he said.

Gaza resident Motei Ibrahim told Al Jazeera the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, is “totally overwhelmed by people who have evacuated their homes”.

“People are living inside the corridors,” he told Al Jazeera from the hospital. “The situation is so dire and so difficult,” Ibrahim said.

“The repetitive scene here is the people who are targeted by the Israeli air strikes frequent the road to the hospital and their relatives and beloved ones come to bid a farewell to them and carry them to their last destination,” he added.

“The grief is overwhelming.

According to Al Jazeera report, gunshots have been heard and tanks have been seen closing in on Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital. Doctors have informed that air strikes in front of Gaza’s main medical complex have not stopped since last night.

“You can hear a lot of gunshots and then you know that the tanks are getting near to al-Shifa Hospital,” he said.

Speaking in New Delhi, Blinken has said the US “appreciates” Israel’s steps to minimise civilian casualties but that it is not enough, the Associated Press reports.

He said the US has proposed additional ideas to the Israelis, including longer “humanitarian pauses” and expanding the amount of assistance getting into Gaza.

The spokesperson for the Gaza  health ministry has said there are only a “few hours” remaining until the hospitals in Gaza and northern Gaza stop providing services, according to the Associated Press.

In a statement Ashraf al-Qidra of the health ministry said ambulances cannot reach Al-Nasr children’s hospital to evacuate casualties because it is being targeted.

He said authorities in Gaza have made all attempts to keep health services running, but A-Qidra appealed for Arab and Muslim countries “and the free people of the world” to take immediate action to bring medical supplies and fuel into hospitals before “the major disaster occurs”.

The Israeli bombardment has caused damage to more than 50 percent of housing units across Gaza, according to officials.

Israel-Gaza war: The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Friday that Israel must take immediate measures to protect Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as they find themselves targeted by more violence since the Israeli-Hamas war erupted last month.

Volker Turk said at least 176 Palestinians, including 43 children and one woman, had been killed in incidents involving Israeli security forces since the beginning of October. At least eight Palestinians had been killed by Israeli settlers.

Humanitarian aid entering does not meet the needs in Gaza Strip, UNRWA said in post on the X platform.

According to Egyptian border official, around 699 foreign nationals arrived in Egypt on Thursday via Rafah border crossing, CNN report mentioned. Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said 80,000 people fled northern Gaza via corridor on Thursday.

The gross domestic product shrank 4% in the West Bank and Gaza in the war’s first month, according to a UN report. If the war continues for a second month, the UN projects that the Palestinian GDP, which was $20.4 billion before the war began, will drop by 8.4% — a loss of $1.7 billion. And if the conflict lasts a third month, Palestinian GDP will drop by 12%, with losses of $2.5 billion and more than 660,000 people pushed into poverty.

Internet access across the war-torn nation of Yemen collapsed early Friday without explanation, web monitors said.

The outage saw all traffic halt at YemenNet, the country’s main provider to some 10 million users which is now controlled by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.

Both NetBlocks, a group tracking internet outages, and the internet services company CloudFlare reported the outage, but they did not offer a cause.

A previous outage occurred in January 2022 when the Saudi-led coalition battling the Houthis in Yemen bombed a telecommunications building in the Red City port city of Hodeida.

UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, described Israel’s decision to allow a four-hour humanitarian pause each day to allow civilians to flee to the south of Gaza as "very cynical and cruel".

"There has been continuous bombings, 6,000 bombs every week on the Gaza Strip, on this tiny piece of land where people are trapped and the destruction is massive. So four hours cease-fire, yes, to let people breathe and to remember what is the sound of life without bombing before starting bombing them again. It’s very cynical and cruel".

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Friday that Israel must take immediate measures to protect Palestinians in the West Bank.

"I also appeal, as a matter of urgency, for Israeli authorities to take immediate measures, to take steps to ensure the protection of Palestinians in the West Bank, who are being on a daily basis subjected to violence from Israeli forces and settlers, ill treatment, arrests, evictions, intimidation and humiliation," Volker Turk said as per Reuters news agency.

A humanitarian organisation has said that aid workers trapped in besieged Gaza are living with the fear of Israeli bombardment. There's shortage of water, food, fuel, medicines, electricity, Mercy Corps vice president told CNN.

"What you guys are seeing on social media and on TV is actually 2% of reality. So we know that we are dying here. If we are not dead physically, we are dead inside," a Palestinian woman told Mercy Corps

According to UN Agency for Palestine Refugees, around 4,600 displaced pregnant women and 380 newborns living in severe conditions that requires medical attention in Gaza.

US President Joe Biden spoke on the tentative pause at the Gaza border on Friday. Speaking to media before Air Force One departure at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, Biden said, "These pauses will help get civilians to safer areas away from active fighting. They are a step in the right direction. You have my word: I will continue to advocate for civilian safety and focus on increasing aid to alleviate the suffering of the people of Gaza."