Gaza live: Gaza death toll rises to 35,80

The second day of hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has begun, with Israel presenting its defence to South Africa's request for additional provisional measures due to Israel's operations in Rafah.

Israel's co-agent Gilad Noam is opening the defence, calling South Africa's genocide case "completely divorced from facts and circumstances".

Noam said that Israel did not have enough time to prepare a proper defence, and that some representatives were unable to make it to The Hague.

The representative insisted that 278 rockets were fired by Hamas towards Israel in the past week, and that Rafah stands as a "focal point for ongoing terrorist activity".

Noam repeated Israel's claim of Hamas using Palestinians as human shields.

The unspeakable horrors in Gaza - the ongoing bombings, the devastating famine, the mass graves being uncovered, and the complete destruction of all infrastructure - are unparalleled in the history of apartheid Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.

The rationale behind the genocide is clear when looking beyond the devastated enclave of Gaza. Israel’s policies across historic Palestine continue to be aimed at one goal: emptying the land of its indigenous Palestinian population.

Across the occupied West Bank, over the last weeks, Israeli settler militias and military forces have carried out attacks in 120 villages and wreaked large-scale destruction in most refugee camps, killing, maiming, and arresting thousands.

Since 7 October, 806 buildings in the West Bank have been demolished, displacing 1,758 people and affecting almost 519,000 Palestinians. Around 25 Palestinian communities have been ethnically cleansed, 492 Palestinians killed and 8,088 illegally detained.

READ MORE: Darkness before the dawn in Palestine, opinion by Jamal Juma

Spain will not authorise ships carrying weapons to Israel to call at its ports, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Friday, after the country refused to let a ship call at the southeastern port of Cartagena.

The ship was the first to be denied access to a Spanish port, Albares said, adding the refusal was consistent with the government's decision not to grant weapon export licences to Israel since 7 October, as Spain doesn't "want to contribute to war".

Reporting by Reuters

Gaza's health ministry said that 35,303 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on the enclave since 7 October, 31 of them in the past 24 hours.

Additionally, 79,261 people have been wounded since the start of the war.

The US military said it has begun distributing aid to Gaza through its newly built floating pier, as trucks carrying aid have rolled across it reaching the besieged enclave.

The pier could bring up to 150 truckloads a day to Palestinians, US officials say, which is no substitute for land deliveries, where over 500 trucks entered Gaza on a daily basis prior to the war.

"This is an ongoing, multinational effort to deliver additional aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza via a maritime corridor that is entirely humanitarian in nature, and will involve aid commodities donated by a number of countries and humanitarian organisations," the US military’s Central Command said in a statement.

The Israeli military said that several drones were launched from Lebanon towards the western Galilee region on Friday morning.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it fired a group of drones at Israeli military positions in retaliation for yesterday’s assassination of one of its members.

Meanwhile, Israel's legal team is expected to speak at the International Court of Justice today, as the court is holding hearings over South Africa's request for additional provisional measures in its genocide case against Israel, citing the situation in Rafah.

Fifa, football’s world governing body, is also set to hear arguments from the Palestinian Football Association calling for the suspension of the Israeli Football Association of any football activity in its annual congress on Friday.

READ MORE: Hezbollah launches drones at Israel following Thursday assassination

Hello MEE readers.

On Thursday, South Africa presented a new submission at the International Court of Justice calling on the court to halt Israel's military offensive on Rafah, as well as to order Israel to fully and immediately withdraw from the Gaza Strip.

You can read more about Thursday's trial here.

Also on Thursday, the Arab League called for a UN peacekeeping force in the occupied Palestinian territories. The move marked the first time Arab states have officially endorsed an internationalisation of the Israel-Palestine conflict since Israel’s war on Gaza erupted. Read more about that news here.

Meanwhile, inside Gaza famine and hunger continues to loom over the Palestinian population, with aid trucks continue to pile up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, which Israel seized last week during its offensive on the area.

Here's what else you need to know about today's developments:

• The US House of Representatives passed a bill that would force President Joe Biden to send additional weapons to Israel, despite the Biden administration already pushing through an additional $1bn in aid to the country.

• A new report from the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights (SFHR) says that Egypt's military has in recent days been deploying additional reinforcements near the Rafah crossing with Gaza. Read the full story here. 

• Spain denied a request from an Israel-bound ship carrying arms to dock at the southeastern port of Cartagena.

• Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is submitting a plan to the cabinet that would end Israel's free trade agreement with Turkey. The move is in reaction to Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan decision to halt exports to Israel.

• Israel's Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories agency announced a confirmation of the US military's statement that the long-anticipated and much-criticised floating pier it was building off the coast of Gaza has been connected.

• Fighting between Israel and Palestinian armed groups was tense in northern Gaza on Thursday. Palestinian groups claimed to have targeted an Israeli artillery site, a command headquarters, several tanks, and an observation site.

The US House of Representatives has passed a bill that would force President Joe Biden to send additional weapons to Israel.

The Israel Security Assistance Support Act was approved 224 to 187, largely along party lines. Sixteen Democrats joined most Republicans in voting yes, and three Republicans joined most Democrats in opposing the measure.

The bill serves as a rebuke to Biden for halting a single shipment of arms to Israel.

Israel will still get billions of dollars of US weaponry from the Biden administration, with Biden most recently pushing forward a package of more than $1bn worth of weapons aid for Israel.

A new report from the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights (SFHR) says that Egypt's military has in recent days been deploying additional reinforcements near the Rafah crossing with Gaza.

The rights group published photos and videos showing tanks and armoured vehicles in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

SFHR further reported, citing eyewitnesses, that around 15 armoured vehicles passed through the town of Sheikh Zuweid, which is located about 15km (nine miles) from Rafah.

Eyewitnesses told the organisation that it was the largest mobilisation of Egyptian troops towards the Rafah crossing since Israel's war on Gaza began in October.

To read the full story, click below.

Egypt deploys military convoys to Gaza border as tensions with Israel flare

Spain has denied a request from an Israel-bound ship carrying arms to dock at the southeastern port of Cartagena.

Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares confirmed the news on Thursday, saying the refusal was consistent with Spain's policy to ban the exports of all arms to Israel since the war on Gaza began.

"We have detected this ship, we have refused to allow it to dock, and I can tell you that this will be a consistent policy with any ship carrying Israeli arms and arms cargo that wants to dock in Spanish ports," Albares told reporters.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the country would end its free trade agreement with Turkey, after Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan moved to halt exports to Israel in protest against the war on Gaza.

Smotrich also said the plan, which will be proposed to the cabinet for approval, would also impose a 100 percent tariff on other imports from Turkey.

In the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups claimed a series of new attacks on Israeli troops.

So far, the groups have claimed to have targeted an Israeli artillery site, a command headquarters, several tanks, and an observation site.

The US State Department said the humanitarian situation in Gaza is continuing to deteriorate and urged Israel to do more to allow sustained humanitarian access to the Strip.

State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said Washington remained concerned that the flow of fuel into Gaza via Rafah crossing has "come to a complete halt."

Reporting by Reuters

Calls to boycott the popular chain PureGym have gained traction on social media after the company's CEO appeared to support continued UK arms exports to Israel.

Speaking on the BBC's Question Time programme, Humphrey Cobbold said: "We should support, in general, the Israeli government in being able to defend themselves," seven months into Israel's devastating military offensive on Gaza.

Discussing the question, "should we be selling arms to Israel", Cobbold said that the UK "sends very little" in terms of weaponry to Israel, before adding that he was "deeply concerned" about what is happening in the war-battered enclave.

Social media users were quick to call for PureGym members to cancel their subscriptions, with many posting screenshots of their cancellation reason online, citing Cobbold's remarks.

To read the full story, click below.

PureGym faces boycott calls after CEO's perceived pro-Israel remarks

Israel's Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (Cogat) agency announced a confirmation of the US military's statement that the long-anticipated and much-criticised floating pier it was building off the coast of Gaza has been connected.

“In the upcoming days, trucks will begin entering,” Cogat said.