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

Families of Israeli soldiers held captive in Gaza held a press conference Thursday ahead of their first meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since the start of the war in October. 

“At the request of the state and the security forces we stayed silent until today. They scared us,” said Anat Angrest, mother of Matan Angrest, who was captured by Hamas on 7 October. 

“Today we understand that as the number of days of silence grows, the number of boys who return home alive decreases.”

Orna Neutra, the mother of another soldier held in Gaza, Omer Neutra, said: “Prime Minister Netanyahu, the responsibility to bring our sons home is yours. 

“For six months, we’ve known that our children are suffering and we have no way to help them,” she said. “We don’t even know if they’re still alive if they’re surviving hell.”

Israeli forces have killed at least 62 Palestinians and wounded 91 more over the past 24 hours in six "massacres", according to the Palestinian health ministry. 

This brings the Palestinian death toll in over five months to more than 32,552, with over 74,980 wounded and an estimated 8,000 missing and presumed dead.

More than 70 percent of the victims are children and women, according to health officials.

The Israeli military released 102 Palestinians who were detained from across the Gaza Strip in recent months, the general authority for crossings has said. 

Since the war started in October, Israeli forces have arrested hundreds of people from Gaza without disclosing information about their whereabouts.  

Israeli forces released seven members of the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), including the director of ambulance and emergency services in Gaza, Mohammed Abu Musabeh, the aid group said on Thursday. 

The paramedics were detained in February and held in custody for 47 days. 

According to the PRCS, eight more staff members remain detained by Israeli forces.  

Air strikes were reported near al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Thursday morning, as the Israeli assault on the health facility enters its 11th day. 

The UN's humanitarian office (Ocha) has warned that time is running out for over 1.1 million people in Gaza who face an extreme level of food insecurity as impediments to access to aid convoys persist. 

"There is no alternative to the large-scale delivery of aid by land to have enough aid to save lives, [especially] in the north," Ocha said on X. 

At least three Israeli settlers were wounded in a shooting on Thursday morning in the occupied West Bank according to Israeli emergency services. 

The suspected attack took place on Route 90 near the Palestinian town of Al-Auja. 

Hello MEE readers. On Wednesday, Israeli forces continued their raid on al-Shifa hospital for the 10th consecutive day.

Israel said it killed "dozens" of Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters, but Hamas denies having any of its fighters inside the hospital.

One of the journalists who was inside the hospital, Bayan Abulsultan, has not been seen since 19 March, and Reporters Without Borders is calling on Israel's military to share any information about the reporter.

The cross-border attacks between Hezbollah and Israel escalated on Wednesday, with Hezbollah launching a barrage of rockets at the largely evacuated town of Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel. The attack was in retaliation for Israel's overnight strike on an emergency health centre in al-Habbariyeh, south Lebanon, that killed seven rescuers.

Israel responded again with two strikes in southern Lebanon that killed at least eight people.

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

• Thousands of Jordanians took to the streets of Amman for another night, protesting against the ongoing war in Gaza.

• A State Department official has resigned from her position, citing US support for Israel's war. Annelle Sheline became the most significant Biden official to resign from their position since Josh Paul, who oversaw arms transfers at the State Department, resigned in October.

• Al Jazeera Arabic aired footage showing Israeli forces killing two unarmed Palestinians attempting to return to northern Gaza, and then burying them afterwards.

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been working to reschedule a meeting with the White House regarding the planning military invasion of Rafah. This comes after he cancelled the meeting in anger over the US abstention on a UN Security Council vote calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

• Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the State Department, accused UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese of having a history of antisemitic comments. Albanese released a report this week stating there are reasonable grounds to believe Israel is committing genocide.

• The White House expressed condolences to the people who drowned while trying to retrieve aid that was airdropped into the water off a beach in Gaza.

Reporters Without Borders has posted on X that Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan has not been seen since 19 March.

The journalist was last seen in al-Shifa hospital during Israel's raid on the health facility. RSF is demanding the Israeli military share information regarding her disappearance.

The US military said that it destroyed four long-range drones from the Houthi movement in Yemen, reporting no injuries to its personnel.

US Central Command said the drones were targeting a US warship.

Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the State Department, was asked a question on Wednesday about whether the Biden administration saw the report of UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, in which she said Israel's actions in Gaza constituted genocide.

Miller responded by accusing Albanese of having a history of antisemitic comments.

Phil Murphy, governor of the US state of New Jersey, has called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, joining the likes of California governor Gavin Newsom.

"A ceasefire by all parties will advance a two-state solution and long-term peace and security in the region," Murphy said.

The Biden administration has reportedly raised concerns about Israel’s treatment of imprisoned Palestinian leader, Marwan Barghouti.

The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the State Department raised allegations of Barghouti’s abuse with Israel, asking them to “thoroughly and transparently investigate credible allegations”, and that Palestinian prisoners must be held in “dignified conditions and in accordance with international law”.

Members of Barghouti's family allege that since the 7 October Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel and the subsequent war on Gaza, he has been subjected to physical and psychological mistreatment, including being placed in complete darkness in solitary confinement for 12 days. Barghouti's lawyers are cited in the Post story as saying that Barghouti had several bruises on his body. 

The Israeli Prison Service told the Post it has "no knowledge of these claims".

Read the full story here.

Jordanians took to the streets of Amman on Wednesday night to protest the ongoing war in Gaza. On Tuesday, security forces used tear gas and arrested several people after Jordanians protested outside the Israeli embassy.

Security sources are telling Reuters that at least eight people including Hezbollah fighters have been killed in two Israeli air strikes in southern Lebanon.

Five people were killed in a strike in Tair Harfa, a border village, and a strike shortly afterward hit a restaurant in the border town of Naqoura, killing at least another three people, the security sources and official Lebanese media said.

Hezbollah said it had launched dozens of rockets over the border at Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel early on Wednesday in response to deadly Israeli air strikes on the village of Hebbariyeh in southern Lebanon a day earlier.

Those air strikes near two towns in northeast Lebanon killed three Hezbollah fighters, the armed group said.

Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire across the border since Israel's war on Gaza began in October.