Gaza live: Fresh Israeli order forces over 170,000 Palestinians to leave their homes

Israeli strikes on the Tabin school in the Daraj neighbourhood in Gaza have killed over 100 displaced Palestinians.

Gaza’s government media office described the strikes as a massacre and said: “The occupation army directly bombed the displaced people while they were performing the dawn prayer, and this caused the number of martyrs to rise rapidly.”

It added: “Due to the horror of the massacre and the large number of martyrs, medical teams, civil defence, and relief and emergency teams have not been able to recover the bodies of all the martyrs so far.”

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

Here are some of the day's key developments:

• The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) reports that an estimated 60,000 to 70,000 people have fled the southern Gaza city toward al-Mawasi since yesterday, following Israeli orders

• The Government Media Office has announced that the number of journalists killed since the start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip has risen to 168

• The US is preparing to release $3.5bn in military aid to Israel, earmarked for the purchase of American weapons and military equipment, sources told CNN

• Palestinian citizens of Israel were attacked and their car was set on fire after accidentally entering an illegal West Bank outpost, according to police reports

• The International Federation of Medical Student Associations (IFMSA) has voted by a two-thirds majority to suspend its Israeli student association for two years, according to report by Ynet news, an Israeli media outlet

• At least 12 Palestinians have been killed and others injured in Israeli strikes on Khan Younis, Wafa news agency is reporting

• The United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) estimates that 63 percent of all structures in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed during Israel's war on the enclave

• In its latest report, Human Rights Watch documented an incident on 21 December in which Israeli forces stormed a home in Gaza City, "throwing grenades inside and opening fire on a room where a civilian family was sheltering"

• Lebanon's Economy Minister Amin Salam told Emirati outlet The National that the country's economy was in a "very dangerous spot" as it prepares for a potential wider war with Israel

• Jordan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned on Friday Israel's decision to revoke the diplomatic status of Norwegian envoys serving in the occupied Palestinian territories

• David Lammy released a statement supporting the mediators' efforts to renew talks next week aimed at securing a ceasefire agreement for the war on Gaza

• The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) has called for the resignation of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, accusing him of violating US law by reversing plans to sanction Israel's Netzah Yehuda battalion over allegations of human rights abuses

The Biden administration has ended its probe of an Israeli military unit accused of gross human rights violations, including the death of an 80-year-old Palestinian-American man, and concluded that it will continue to provide security assistance to the unit.

The US State Department made the determination, according to several reports, after reviewing new information about the Netzah Yehuda battalion from the Israeli government.

That information showed Washington that Israel "remediated the behaviour of the battalion and addressed US concerns", a senior US official told Axios.

Earlier this year, Axios reported that the US was planning to sanction the Israeli unit under a 1997 law named after former Senator Patrick Leahy. The law denies US aid or training to foreign military or security units found to have committed “gross violations of human rights”.

Read more: US to continue aid to Israeli military unit involved in Palestinian American's death

UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) says it’s deeply concerned by Israel’s decision to revoke the diplomatic status of eight Norwegian diplomats dealing with the Palestinian Authority.

“Norway has long played a unique and valued role in supporting peace for Israelis and Palestinians. We urge Israel to reconsider,” the FCDO says in a statement.

Gaza’s civil defense has reported that its teams recovered four bodies and a number of wounded individuals from the scene.

The attack targeted a residential home belonging to the Hamada family, according to the civil defense.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) has called for the resignation of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, accusing him of violating US law by reversing plans to sanction Israel's Netzah Yehuda battalion over allegations of human rights abuses.

“The Israeli military unit has clearly committed gross human rights violations using US weapons,” said Cair deputy director Edward Ahmed Mitchell in a statement. He condemned Blinken’s decision, calling it “cowardly, morally reprehensible, and blatantly illegal”, and accused Blinken of ignoring the conclusions of career diplomats and legal experts.

Mitchell went on to say, “Secretary Blinken is now as much of a war criminal as the war criminal he will continue to arm, Israeli Defense Minister Gallant, and he should resign his office in disgrace.”

Earlier reports indicated that the State Department had decided to continue providing US security assistance to Netzah Yehuda, based on information from Israel suggesting that alleged violations by the unit had been “effectively remediated".

Palestinian citizens of Israel were attacked and their car was set on fire after accidentally entering an illegal West Bank outpost, according to police reports.

The incident took place at Givat Ronen, a hilltop outpost near the village of Burin in the northern occupied West Bank, an area known for attacks by extremist settlers on Palestinians.

Hebrew media reports state that the car was carrying two women and two children from a Palestinian family. The passengers suffered head and hand injuries from stones thrown at them before they reached Israeli troops who ensured their safety.

Police said that the injured received first aid at the scene before being taken to a hospital. An investigation has been launched, with authorities taking the incident "extremely seriously".

The US is preparing to release $3.5bn in military aid to Israel, earmarked for the purchase of American weapons and military equipment, sources told CNN.

The State Department informed lawmakers on Thursday night about the Biden administration's decision to unlock these funds, which are part of a $14.1 billion supplemental funding bill passed by Congress in April.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby sharply criticised Israeli officials on Friday for opposing a potential ceasefire deal.

Kirby said that such criticism, especially from figures like the far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, jeopardises the lives of captives and contradicts Israel's national security interests.

He rebuked Smotrich's argument that a deal with Hamas would be a surrender, insisting that continuing the war without concern for the hostages is "dead wrong" and misleading to the Israeli public and "would sacrifice the lives of Israeli and American" captives. 

Kirby emphasised that President Joe Biden will not let extremists derail the peace talks.

It’s been a bad week for the massed battalions of politicians and journalists who have made common cause with fascists about the threat that Muslims pose to Britain.

They should be named: Nigel Farage, who said with no evidence that three-quarters of Muslims pose no threat to Britain - meaning that one-quarter do.

Suella Braverman did more as home secretary to legitimise Islamophobia than anyone else, and was sacked for questioning the impartiality of the police force over which she as minister had responsibility.

Douglas Murray, the weirdly acceptable face of the hard right, said that Britain needed a “toolbox approach to dealing with the enemy of Islamist extremism”, and that this would involve “people who you and I don’t like” but needed to deal with.

Read more: How an unholy alliance between fascists and far-right Zionists fuelled UK riots

Al Jazeera Arabic reports that three children were among the victims of an Israeli attack on a house west of Deir el-Balah. 

The Government Media Office has announced that the number of journalists killed since the start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip has risen to 168.

This increase follows the deaths of Tamim Ahmed Abu Muammar, a journalist for Palestine TV, and Abdullah Maher al-Soussi, a journalist for Al-Aqsa satellite channel.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has backed efforts by Qatar, Egypt and the US to get Israel and Hamas to hold ceasefire talks next week.

“Canada fully supports their efforts to release the hostages, end the humanitarian crisis, and return to a path of peace,” Trudeau wrote on X. 

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) reports that an estimated 60,000 to 70,000 people have fled the southern Gaza city toward al-Mawasi since yesterday, following Israeli orders. 

“Displacement continues for thousands of families across Gaza,” Unrwa said in a post on X.

“People in Gaza are exhausted, and they have nowhere to go.”

A masked Israeli soldier, accused of participating in the rape of a Palestinian prisoner, revealed his identity in a video, appealing for support from the Israeli public.