Live: Israel kills at least 58 Palestinians in 24 hours

At least 45,129 Palestinians have been killed and 107,338 injured in Israel’s war on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Thursday.

The deaths of 32 people were recorded in the last 24 hours.

Hundreds of Palestinians, including children, have been indiscriminately shot dead by Israeli soldiers in a "kill zone" established in central Gaza, according to a new investigation.

Soldiers told Haaretz that arbitrarily defined boundaries around the Netzarim Corridor - a military occupation zone established by Israel in the middle of Gaza - were being used to kill Palestinians seemingly at random and without authorisation needed.

Those killed are posthumously branded "terrorists" even if they are children. A senior officer in Division 252 said it was more than a simple exclusion zone.

"The division commander designated this area as a 'kill zone'," he explained. "Anyone who enters is shot."

Another member of the division told Haaretz that the boundaries of the zone were largely arbitrary and extended "as far as a sniper can see".

Read more: Hundreds of Palestinians indiscriminately shot dead by Israeli soldiers in Gaza 'kill zone'

Israel's military has killed at least 10 more people across Gaza, according to various media reports.

Israeli artillery fire on al-Nuzha Street in Jabalia al-Balad killed at least six people in northern Gaza, while Israeli attacks on a group of civilians in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, southeast of Gaza City, killed one, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.

At least three people were killed in an Israeli attack on the Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, the Wafa news agency said.

Israeli forces have detained at least 14 Palestinians from various areas of the occupied West Bank since Wednesday evening, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

According to the Palestinian Authority’s Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoners Society, the detentions took place in the governorates of Nablus, Hebron, Jenin, Tulkarm and Ramallah.

Among the detainees was a woman from Gaza who was in the West Bank for treatment, in addition to children and former detainees. 

The raids were accompanied by assaults, threats against detainees and their families, and widespread destruction of property, including damage to homes, the agency reported.

More than 12,100 Palestinians have been detained from the West Bank and Jerusalem, according to local authorities.

Palestinian group Hamas said on Thursday that Israel's strikes in Yemen after Houthi rebels fired a missile at the country were a "dangerous development", while its armed wing called for more attacks on Israel.

"We regard this escalation as a dangerous development and an extension of the aggression against our Palestinian people, Syria and the Arab region," Hamas said in a statement as Israel struck ports and energy infrastructure in Yemen after intercepting a missile attack by the Houthis.

Israeli forces shot a 65-year-old Palestinian man in the back during their raid into Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, said the Wafa news agency, citing Palestinian Red Crescent sources.

The injured man was taken to hospital, the report said.

Local sources told Wafa that Israeli soldiers stormed the camp, and fired live bullets, gas and sound bombs. The raid resulted in violent clashes. 

The Israeli forces deployed their snipers on the roofs of some buildings around the camp, the agency said.

The Israeli Haaretz newspaper published a report quoting Israeli soldiers who described how they arbitrarily killed dozens of Palestinian civilians in the so-called Netzarim Corridor in Gaza, counting every Palestinian casualty as a terrorist, including children.

The Netzarim Corridor is a 7km-wide strip of land from south of Gaza City running east to west from the Israeli border to the Mediterranean Sea.

"We're killing civilians there who are then counted as terrorists," said a recently discharged Division 252 officer. "The IDF spokesperson's announcements about casualty numbers have turned this into a competition between units. If Division 99 kills 150 [people], the next unit aims for 200."

An officer in Division 252's command recalled when the Israeli spokesperson announced their forces had killed over 200 militants. “Of those 200 casualties, only 10 were confirmed as known Hamas operatives. Yet no one questioned the public announcement about killing hundreds of militants," he said.

Iran said the latest Israeli attacks in Yemen constitute “a gross violation of the principles and norms of international law and the UN charter”.

Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said “the crimes of the Zionist regime are being carried out under the unconditional support of the United States, and Washington is an accomplice in the lawlessness and crimes of the criminal gang ruling Tel Aviv”.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday accused Israel of committing "acts of genocide" in the Gaza Strip by damaging water infrastructure and cutting off supplies to civilians, calling on the international community to impose targeted sanctions.

In a new report, which focused specifically on water, the New York-based rights group detailed what it said were deliberate efforts by Israeli authorities "of a systematic nature" to deprive Palestinians of water, which had "likely caused thousands of deaths ... and will likely continue to cause deaths".

"Since October 2023, Israeli authorities have deliberately obstructed Palestinians' access to the adequate amount of water required for survival in the Gaza Strip," the report said.

The report concluded that in doing so, "Israeli authorities intentionally inflicted on the Palestinian population in Gaza 'conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part'."

This, it said, amounted to the war crime of "extermination" and to "acts of genocide".

Israel reacted to the HRW report by saying it is "full of lies".

Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the political bureau of the Houthi administration in Yemen, claims the US is part of the recent Israeli attacks on his country, Al Jazeera reported.

“The US-Israeli bombing of civilian facilities in Yemen [power stations and ports] reveals the truth about the West’s hypocrisy and refutes all its humanitarian claims,” he said adding that the attacks will not stop the group from supporting Gaza.

Israel’s military confirmed the attacks and claimed the “ports and energy infrastructure” in Yemen were being used by the Houthis for military purposes.

A large piece of debris from an Israeli-intercepted ballistic missile launched from Yemen has damaged a school building in central Israel, the Times of Israel reported, after a building at the school in Ramat Gan collapsed.

Good morning Middle East Eye,

Here are the latest updates from the Israeli war on Gaza, now in its 439th day:

• Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that Israel has killed thousands of Palestinians in Gaza by denying them clean water, which it says legally amounts to acts of genocide and extermination.

• Israel’s latest attacks have killed seven people in the port of Salif and two others at the Ras Issa oil facility in Yemen, Al Masirah TV reported.

• Israeli attacks on Jabalia in northern Gaza killed and injured several people and the bombing of the Maghazi refugee camp killed at least two people. At least 16 others were killed in Israeli bombings in the north, and three in the south, Al Jazeera reported.

• Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, said Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has made clear “his answer to the Palestinian problem is mass forced deportation, from both Gaza and the West Bank”.

• There have been 2,038 incidents of violence against or obstruction of access to healthcare in the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel since 7 October 2023, said Insecurity Insight, a Swiss NGO.

Good evening Middle East Eye readers,

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

Here are some of the day's key developments:

• Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 45,097 Palestinians and injured 107,244 since 7 October 2023, the Palestinian health ministry said on Wednesday

• At least 15 Palestinians have been detained by Israeli forces across the West Bank in the last 24 hours, prisoner advocacy groups are reporting

• Fourteen Palestinians, the majority women and children, were killed in two Israeli air strikes targeting residential homes in northern Gaza, Al Jazeera Arabic reported

• An Israeli air strike on a residential house in Jabalia, northern Gaza, has left at least 10 Palestinians dead, according to local reports. The victims included civilians, with initial accounts indicating that families were caught in the bombardment

• Israel has once again refused a United Nations request to deliver aid to the beleaguered northern Gaza, the UN secretary-general's spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, said

• Hamas' military wing, the Qassam Brigades, has reported the killing of six Israeli soldiers during operations in northern Gaza, marking a significant escalation in the conflict, Al Jazeera Arabic is reporting

• Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has voiced opposition to the proposed ceasefire-hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, describing it as a “serious error," Israeli media reported

• The US Department of Defense shipped over a thousand tons of ammunition to Israel on a vessel that stopped at a US naval base in Spain, potentially violating Spain’s embargo on military cargo bound for Israel, The Intercept reported

• Germany's foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said that Israel's occupation of the Golan Heights is a violation of international law during a speech in parliament on Wednesday

• The Palestinian Authority (PA) has intensified its operations in the Jenin refugee camp, engaging in armed confrontations with Palestinian resistance fighters over several days. The raids have left at least three Palestinians dead, including a senior commander from the Jenin Brigades and a child, further heightening tensions in the occupied West Bank

• Germany has significantly reduced its arms exports to Israel this year, approving just $168.6m worth of military equipment, according to data from the economy ministry. This marks a sharp decline from the $341.9m approved in 2023

The Israeli army has launched a new set of attacks on the Kamal Adwan hospital, sparking a fire that rendered the last functioning intensive care unit (ICU) in northern Gaza out of service. 

Overnight on Tuesday, the hospital endured Israeli shelling, as well as the use of exploding robots near its grounds, Al Jazeera reporter Moath al-Kahlout reported. 

Local media reported that Kahlout has since been detained by the Israeli army in Jabalia.

Kamal Adwan has been the focus of military efforts by Israel since its war on Gaza began in October 2023.

The hospital is an obstacle to Israel's plan to ethnically cleanse the northern half of the besieged strip, as it is where around 65,000 to 75,000 people have sought refuge.

Read more: Israeli attacks on hospital knock last intensive care unit in northern Gaza out of service

An Israeli air strike on a residential house in Jabalia, northern Gaza, has left at least 10 Palestinians dead, according to local reports. The victims included civilians, with initial accounts indicating that families were caught in the bombardment.

This attack comes amidst Israel's ongoing military campaign in Gaza, which has faced widespread condemnation for the high number of civilian casualties and destruction of vital infrastructure. Critics have accused Israel of disproportionately targeting densely populated areas, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the blockaded territory.

Jabalia, one of Gaza’s most overcrowded regions, has seen repeated strikes, leaving residents in a constant state of fear and forcing many to flee their homes.