Israel-Palestine live: Biden urges Egypt, Qatar to press Hamas for hostage deal

How do you humanise people facing unimaginable odds?

That was the task Plestia Alaqad gave herself when she first put on her press vest on 7 October. Freshly graduated from journalism school and dreaming of a bright future, she suddenly found herself in the middle of a war zone, with the eyes of the world watching.

Armed with her phone and internet access, she began documenting the lives of her family and the people around her - finding stories of hope and resilience amid the rubble.

Overnight, she became one of the most followed people on the internet, as each day, millions tuned in to watch the war unfold through her eyes. It was a kind of journalism we hadn’t witnessed before, immediate, empathetic, and told through the voices of young Palestinians facing the unimaginable.

Click on the link below to watch this episode of The Big Picture Podcast, where Mohamed Hassan meets with Plestia in Melbourne, the Australian city where she and her family fled after leaving Gaza, reluctant and tearful, praying for the day they would return but knowing that day may not come.

Plestia Alaqad on finding her voice, leaving Gaza, and humanising Palestine

World Health Organisation director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said around 9,000 patients urgently need to be evacuated from Gaza for lifesaving treatment abroad.

These patients are in need of treatment for wounds suffered in Israeli bombing, cancer treatment, kidneys dialysis, and treatments of other chronic conditions, Tedros wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

"With only 10 hospitals minimally functional across the whole of Gaza, thousands of patients continue to be deprived of health care," he said.

"So far, over 3,400 patients have been referred abroad through Rafah, including 2,198 wounded and 1,215 ill. But many more need to be evacuated.

"We urge Israel to speed up approvals for evacuations, so that critical patients can be treated. Every moment matters."

Palestinians this year mark the 48th anniversary of Land Day amid a brutal Israeli war on Gaza, near daily raids in the occupied West Bank, and an increase in land confiscation and settlement building.

On 30 March 1976, six Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces as thousands of Palestinian in Israel's northern Galilee region rose up in protest against the Israeli expropriation and occupation of Palestinian lands.

The event became known as Land Day and a symbol of national struggle that unites Palestinians around the world.

On Saturday afternoon, under the banner of "stop the war on Gaza", thousands of Palestinians marched through the Palestinian town of Deir Hanna, one of the towns in Israel where the most violent crackdown on protesters took place that day in 1976.

Land Day is also seen as significant because it is deemed to mark the first time that Palestinian citizens of Israel organised collectively against Israeli policies.

 Click on the link below to read more:

For Palestinians, Land Day comes amid war, death and land theft

At least five people were killed and dozens were injured by gunfire and a rush of people that occurred during an aid delivery in Gaza, the Palestine Red Crescent (PRC) said.

The incident happened after thousands of people gathered in the Kuwait roundabout in northern Gaza, awaiting the arrival of 15 food aid trucks.

On 23 March, a similar chaotic scene occurred amid a deadly distribution of aid, killing at least 21 people.

The PRC said three of the five killed early on Saturday had been shot.

Thousands of pro-Palestine demonstrators have taken to the streets in the European cities of London, Paris, Berlin, Copenhagen and Amsterdam, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and calling upon their governments to stop supporting Israel with weapons.

In Paris, the march started in the Place de la Republique and is planned to end in the Place de la Bastille. 

In Amesterdam, demonstrators urged their government to push for holding Israel accountable for its massacres in Gaza. Other marches are planned in other Dutch cities, including Rotterdam.

Marches in major US cities are also planned for later today.

Thousands of pro-Palestine protesters have taken to the streets in London, demanding a ceasefire in Gaza in the 48th commemoration of Land Day. Protests in Galilee in 1976, marked by six deaths, have been seen as the first time that Palestinian citizens of Israel organised collectively against Israeli land expropriation policies.

The London march started in Russell Square around midday and is planned to end at Trafalgar Square.

Former labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is taking part in the march. The Crown  actor Khalid Abdalla and comedian Alexei Sayle are expected to give speeches.

The Israeli army said it is investigating the "circumstances" of an incident in which a 13-year-old Palestinian was killed in the city of Qabatiya in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli Haaretz reported.

The Palestinian News Agency Wafa reports that Israeli forces killed the teenager, identified as Moatsem Nabil Abu Abed, and wounded two others during an early morning raid on Qabatiya town, south of the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank,.

The Israeli army said its forces were shot at and they responded with fire, hitting some of their attackers.

Al Jazeera Arabic has reported that Israel has intensified its shelling on the eastern parts of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. 

The air strikes have targeted the area of al-Mughraqa in the north of Khan Younis.

Earlier, the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said it hit an Israeli tank with an explosive device, killing and wounding several soldiers, before they were evacuated by military helicopters.

The UN peacekeeping mission Unifil has confirmed that four of its personnel have been injured in an explosion in the southern Lebanese border town of Rmeish.

It said it is "investigating the origin of the explosion", adding that the "safety and security of UN personnel must be granted".

"All actors have a responsibility under international humanitarian law to ensure protection to non-combatants, including peacekeepers, journalists, medical personnel, and civilians," said the Unifil statement.

"We repeat our call for all actors to cease the current heavy exchanges of fire before more people are unnecessarily hurt," it added.

Earlier, two security sources told Reuters that Israel strikes hit a vehicle carrying three UN observers and a translator.

Hezbollah-run television station Al-Manar said the strike injured three officers, from Australia, Chile and Norway, as well as a Lebanese interpreter.

Israel has rejected the claims.

Since the war broke out in Gaza on 7 October, Israel has taken hold of 27,000 dunams (27 sqkm) of land in the occupied West Bank, said a statement issued by the  Colonization & Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC)  on the 48th commemoration of Land Day and reported on X (formerly Twitter) by Palestinian news outlets and by Al Jazeera.

The CWRC, a governmental commission affiliated to the Palestine Liberation Organization, added that 1,895 settlement units have been approved by Israel,  displacing 25 Bedouin communities from the Palestinian territory.

Some 840 checkpoints and gates have been put up in the occupied West Bank.

According to the statement, Israeli military carried out 9,700 attacks against Palestinian residents and their properties, and have destroyed and uprooted thousands of olive trees, mostly olive trees.

A vehicle carrying UN observers was shelled by an Israeli air strike at the southern Lebanese border town of Rmeish, two security sources told Reuters.

The sources said the shelling resulted in the wounding of all those in the car, who included three technical observers belonging to the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon (Unifil) and a Lebanese translator.

The Israeli military's spokesman Avichay Adraee denied that the attack was carried out by Israeli forces, in a post on X.

Al Jazeera Arabic quoted Unifil as saying that an investigation is underway to know the reason behind the incident. 

On 25 November,  Unifil said Israel had struck one of its patrols in the south of Lebanon.

Since soon after the war broke out in Gaza last October, Israel has been exchanging strikes with the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, killing at least 270 Hezbollah fighters.  The air strikes have also killed civilians, including women and children, along with hitting Unifil and Lebanese army targets.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates:

• An Israeli strike hit a car carrying UN observers near south Lebanon border, security sources told Reuters
   
• The Israeli military struck the Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat and Maghazi refugee camps in central Gaza, destroying residential buildings. It also targeted northern Gaza with massive aerial attacks
   
• A 13-year-old Palestinian child was shot and killed and two youths were wounded during a dawn raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, according to  the Palestinian Wafa news agency
   
• The US said it welcomes the nomination of a new Palestinian Authority cabinet
   
• Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said that Israel will expand its offensive on the northern border and increase attacks on Hezbollah
   
• The Israeli army said that it has killed the deputy commander of Hezbollah's rocket and missile unit, Ali Abdel-Hassan Naim, in an air strike near the southern city of Tyre.

Hello MEE readers. On Friday, Israel escalated its bombardment campaign against Lebanon and Syria, with a series of air strikes in the Aleppo province that killed more than 40 people.

Israel also said that it killed a Hezbollah commander in south Lebanon. The escalatory strikes have further raised concerns about Israel's willingness to seek peace as it continues to increase attacks in the wider conflict amid its ongoing war in Gaza.

Meanwhile, countries continue to airdrop humanitarian assistance into the Gaza Strip, as the threat of famine grows for the Palestinian population.

The death toll in Gaza, according to the latest figures from the Palestinian health ministry, stands at 32,623.

Here's what else you need to know from Friday's developments:

• An Israeli strike on a sports centre in Gaza City's Shujaiya neighbourhood killed 15 people

• Two Israeli attacks in Gaza City's Shujaiya neighbourhood killed several members of the local police force in charge of securing aid convoys to the area

• A UK charity has launched a nationwide billboard campaign calling on the government to end its arms sales and trade agreements with Israel if it continues its bombardment of Gaza

• A senior US State Department official acknowledged that famine in Gaza is both a risk and "quite possibly" present in some areas in the northern part of the enclave

• Israel has destroyed more than 2,000 agricultural sites, including farms and greenhouses, in Gaza since October 2023, according to a report from Forensic Architecture

• The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said on Telegram that it destroyed a Merkava 4 Israeli tank in Tal al-Hawa in Gaza City

• The Biden administration has approved the transfer of billions of dollars worth of bombs and fighter jets to Israel in recent days, according to a report from the Washington Post

• The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement saying that the government will send a delegation back for negotiations over a truce between Hamas.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement that Washington welcomes the nomination of a new Palestinian Authority cabinet.

"A revitalized PA is essential to delivering results for the Palestinian people in both the West Bank and Gaza and establishing the conditions for stability in the broader region," Miller said.

The new cabinet was formed by Mohammad Mustafa, a long-time adviser of Mahmoud Abbas, the PA's president who is widely unpopular in the occupied West Bank.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement saying that the government will send its delegation back for negotiations over a truce between Hamas.

The director of Mossad will be heading to Doha and Cairo for those talks, according to the statement.

The Israeli delegation left the previous round of negotiations after a failure to reach a deal and blaming Hamas for the failure.