Gaza live: Israel strike kills 30 Palestinians, mostly children

The Palestinian health ministry reported that Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed 39,550 Palestinians and injured 91,280 since the conflict began on 7 October 2023.

Our live coverage from Gaza will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are some of the day's key developments:

• The Israeli delegation on Gaza ceasefire talks will head to Cairo on Saturday night or Sunday, Netanyahu’s office said.
• US Pentagon said it plans to boost military assets in the Middle East and deploy ‘additional land-based ballistic missile defense’.
• The representative of Hamas in Tehran has refuted reports that Ismail Haniyeh was killed by a bomb planted in his room long before his arrival to the Iranian capital.
• Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan called his Israeli counterpart Israel Katz a “monument to insolence”, in response to Katz’s statements in which he slammed Turkey.
• Israel releases Al-Aqsa Mosque imam Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, after arresting him for ‘incitement’ as he described Hamas chief Ismail Hanyieh as ‘martyr’ in Friday prayer sermon.
• US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a ‘tough’ phone call not to rely on Washington’s support in case a regional escalation occurred, according to Axios , citing unnamed US officials.
• The Israeli army said it destroyed launchers that fired rockets at southern Israeli towns, after it was earlier reported that 18 rockets were launched from Gaza in the span of one hour, with one intercepted and all others falling in open fields.

The Pentagon says additional fighters and Navy warships will be deployed to the Middle East, amidst rising tensions in the region, and a possible Iranian response to the assassination of Ismail Hanyieh.

In a statement, the Pentagon said it is adjusting its force posture to “increase support for the defense of Israel and to ensure the United States is prepared to respond to various contingencies”.

It added that the secretary of defense Lloyd Austin has also ordered “the deployment of an additional fighter squadron to the Middle East, reinforcing our defensive air support capability.”

“The Department is also taking steps to increase our readiness to deploy additional land-based ballistic missile defense,” the statement said.

The representative of Hamas in Tehran  Khaled Qaddoumi has refuted claims that Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed by a bomb planted in his room long before his arrival to Tehran.

Qaddoumi was quoted as saying by al-Araby al-Jaded news outlet that he was in the building where Hanyieh was assassinated on the fourth floor.

“It was clear from the appearance of the place after the attack and from the body of the martyr leader Ismail Haniyeh that the targeting was carried out by an airborne projectile,” he said.

Qaddoumi added the wall and the ceiling of Hanyieh’s room Haniyeh had shattered collapsed due to the severity of the rocket.

Earlier, The New York Times had reported, citing unnamed Middle East officials, that Haniyeh was killed by a bomb, which was implanted in his usual residence in the Iranian capital two months before his assassination.

Turkish Airlines delayed its scheduled flights to Iran tonight due to tensions between Israel and Iran, Turkey’s state-owned Anadolu news agency reported.

Flights scheduled to different Iranian cities shall resume on Saturday morning

Russian military intelligence officers are believed to have been deployed to Yemen to assist the Iran-backed Houthis with targeting commercial vessels in the Red Sea, Middle East Eye can reveal.

Members of Russia’s GRU military intelligence are operating in the Houthi-controlled territory of Yemen in an advisory role, a senior US official told MEE, speaking on condition of anonymity and citing US intelligence.

The exact nature of the Russians’ role is murky, but the US official said that GRU officers have been operating in Yemen for “several months” to assist the Houthis in their targeting of commercial shipping, which the Houthis say is in solidarity with besieged Palestinians in Gaza.

Read more: Exclusive: US intelligence suggests Russian military is advising Houthis inside Yemen

Israel's Channel 12 has reported that the website of Israeli Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv is down because of immense pressure from travellers, amid the current tensions and cancellation of several countries’ airline flights to Israel.

Several airlines have suspended their flights from and to Israel due to the ongoing tensions in the region

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan called his Israeli counterpart Israel Katz a “monument to insolence”, in response to Katz’s statements in which he slammed Turkey.

“It is a complete sickness that Israel Katz, instead of serving as the minister of foreign affairs, constantly makes our country and our president the subject of his own delusions,” wrote Fidan in a post on X.

This comes after Katz has written a scathing post on X in which he accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of “turning Turkey into a dictatorship just because of his support for the murderers and rapists of Hamas, against the stance of the entire free world”.

He said that Erdogan is “threatening to invade a democratic country [Israel] with which Turkey has no military conflict, and cutting trade relations, harming Turkish exporters to the tune of $6 billion a year”.

Israeli army says it destroyed launchers that fired rockets at southern Israeli towns.

Earlier, the Israeli army said 18 rockets were launched from Gaza in one hour, with one intercepted and all others falling in open fields.

Lawyer Khalid Zabarqa was quoted as telling al-Jazeera that Israeli police had decided to release Al-Aqsa Mosque imam, Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, after interrogation.

The former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was earlier arrested by Israeli police for delivering a sermon mourning and praising Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s political leader.

An Israeli delegation on Gaza ceasefire talks will head to Cairo on Saturday night or Sunday, office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant that the US forces in the Middle East will be adjusted but didn’t specify which additional capabilities would be sent.

"[Austin] informed the minister of additional measures to include ongoing and future defensive force posture changes that the department will take to support the defence of Israel," Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters, following a call between Austin and Gallant.

She added that the move might include deploying additional troops to the region, but a decision has not been made.

US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to rely on Washington’s support in case a regional escalation occurred, Axios has reported, citing unnamed US officials.

In a “tough” phone call, the US president said his country would only help Israel against an expected Iranian attack, following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, but there should be no more escalation from Israel and progress towards a Gaza ceasefire.

However, the White House has issued an official statement stating that Biden has “reaffirmed his commitment to Israel’s security against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis”.

The Axios story also cited three anonymous Israeli officials as saying there was tension during Biden’s meeting with Netanyahu in the Oval Office last week, in which Biden “raised his voice and said he wants a deal reached within a week to two weeks”.

Around two-thirds of the buildings in the besieged Gaza Strip have been damaged or destroyed since the war broke out in Gaza on 7 October, said the UN.

“UNOSAT’s latest damage building assessment, based on satellite imagery … reveals that 151,265 structures have been affected in the Gaza Strip,” the UN satellite centre said.

It added: “of these, 30 percent were destroyed, 12 percent severely damaged, 36 percent moderately damaged, and 20 percent possibly damaged, representing approximately 63 percent of the total structures in the region.”

The Israeli media is reporting that ten rockets have been fired at southern Israeli towns, while one has been intercepted and the rest have fallen in open areas.

Earlier, Haaretz reported that rocket sirens were activated in southern Israel's Kibbutz Sufa.