Evening recap

Our live blog is now closed for the evening.

Here are the day's key developments:

- Israel has killed at least 23 Palestinians across Gaza on Friday.

- The Gaza Media Office called on the United Nations to "urgently intervene to end the blockade and the policy of starvation" by Israel in the strip, and to send in independent investigation committees. 

- Israel will not be involved in Gaza aid distribution but will take part in providing security, US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said. Israel has been imposing an aid blockade on the enclave since early March.

- Haaretz reported that the White House has been pressuring Israel to seal a ceasefire and captive-swap deal with Hamas - before US President Donald Trump heads out on his first working foreign trip to three Gulf countries next week. 

- This also comes as Arab sources speaking to al-Arabi al-Jadeed have said Washington is likely to consider waiving the demand for Hamas to disarm in order to arrive at a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

- The Israeli military on Friday said it had killed Nour Abdel Karim al-Bitawi, the commander of the Jenin battalion in the West Bank.

- A US federal judge has ordered the release of Turkish Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, who has spent six weeks in immigration detention in a remote part of Louisiana, after she wrote an op-ed critical of Israel's war on Gaza.

- Israeli forces say they successfully intercepted a ballistic missile launched by the Houthi group in Yemen. The attack triggered sirens across central Israel.