Live: Arab and Muslim countries urge Israel to allow 'permanent' shelter into Gaza as weather worsens

Israeli authorities approved the construction of 126 settler homes in the Sanur outpost in the northern West Bank, which was evacuated in 2005, local media reported.

Israeli news media Channel 7 reported that the High Planning Council approved a detailed plan allowing illegal settlers to return to Sanur.

The report said that the plan is expected to take effect within two months, enabling illegal settlers to return. 

A report by the public defender’s office of the Israeli justice ministry said that Israeli authorities denied Palestinian detainees access to drinking water for periods up to 12 hours as a form of collective punishment. 

Haaretz newspaper reported that Palestinian “security prisoners” were prevented from accessing drinking water in some cases for half a day.

The findings were based on three visits by public defender representatives to Ketziot Prison in southern Israel in May, June and September 2024.

Israeli aircraft on Thursday launched an air strike targeting the eastern part of Khan Younis city, in southern Gaza, as Israeli gunboats fired flares over the sea off the coast of city. 

Local media said that Israeli military vehicles opened fire north of the city of Rafah and reported a series of air strikes targeting the city. 

Intense firing was also reported from areas east of Gaza City, where Israeli forces detonated car bombs in the Tuffah and Sanafoura neighbourhoods. 

Good morning, Middle East Eye readers. Here are the latest updates from Gaza, where Israel continues to violate the ceasefire more than two months after it came into effect:

• Three Palestinians were wounded in Israeli army gunfire east of Maghazi camp, while two others were wounded in the Nuseirat, and Bureij refugee camp where Israeli tanks opened fire. 

• Israeli aircraft launched an air strike targeting the eastern part of Khan Younis, as Israeli gunboats fired flares over the sea off the coast of the city. Army vehicles also opened fire north of Rafah.  

• Israeli forces detonated car bombs in the Tuffah and Sanafoura neighbourhoods, east of Gaza City, as drones opened fire near the area. 

• Local press reported artillery shelling on Jabalia camp in northern Gaza. 

• The Israeli military prosecution admitted to withholding water from prisoners as "collective punishment" during the genocidal war.

Israeli UN ambassador Danny Danon and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with evangelical Christian leaders in the US, Haaretz reported on Wednesday.

Danon said in a post on X that evangelical Christians have a' "deep commitment to the State of Israel is inspiring," adding that "our shared values will fortify the bond between both our nations."

Israeli soldiers raided a town south of Hebron, shot and wounded two Palestinians and removed money from a gold shop, Wafa news agency reported on Wednesday.  

Local sources told Wafa that soldiers stormed the town of Dhahiriya, firing bullets at residents.

A school student and young man were wounded during the indiscriminate shooting. Both were transferred to a hospital in Hebron for treatment.

The soldiers also raided a gold shop belonging to the al-Hurub family, detained several Palestinians, and took money from the store.

The Israeli army has blown up the last house that was standing in a border town in southern Lebanon that they have destroyed and occupied, Al Jazeera reported on Wednesday.

Israel conducted a series of strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon until a ceasefire agreement in November 2024, which it continues to violate on an almost daily basis. 

The Palestine Center for Prisoner Studies reported that Israel arrested around 7,500 Palestinians in the West Bank in 2025, Al Jazeera reported on Wednesday. 

Of those, 600 were children and more than 200 were women and girls. 

Israeli soldiers briefly detained several staff members of Palestinian news agency Wafa near Jerusalem on Wednesday.

Wafa is one of the main sources for news in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. 

Israel is expected to reopen the Rafah Crossing in both directions after US president Donald Trump and his aided raised the issue with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, The Times of Israel reported on Wednesday, citing an unnamed US official.

Although the Rafah Crossing was supposed to reopen as part of the 10 October ceasefire agreement, Israel said it would only open the crossing one-way for Palestinians to exit the Gaza Strip.

Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told Al Jazeera in an interview published on Wednesday that he believes that Israel will forcibly displace Palestinians to Somaliland. 

Israel became the first and only country last week to formally recognise Somaliland, a breakaway region in  Somalia.

Hamas condemns Israel’s decision to ban several aid groups from operating in Gaza and urging the international community to prevent it, AFP reported on Wednesday.

“The occupation government’s decision to revoke the operating licenses of dozens of international relief organizations constitutes a dangerous escalation and a blatant disregard for the humanitarian system,” Hamas said in a statement.

“We call on the international community, and the United Nations in particular… to take urgent and effective action to condemn this criminal behavior,” it added.

More than 700 faculty members at Israeli universities and colleges have signed a petition calling for the dismissal and prosecution of far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich after he incited violence against the Supreme Court President, Haaretz reported on Wednesdsay.

Smotrich accused Supreme Court President Isaac Amit of being a "violent, ruthless, megalomaniac who is stealing Israeli democracy," and threatened to "run him over."

Israeli soldiers raided a town near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday and shot and injured a young man, as well as assaulting a teenager, Wafa news agency reported on Wednesday.

Local sources told Wafa that Israeli soldiers stormed Silwad and shot and injured a young man before detaining him. They also assaulted a 15-year-old and briefly detained him during the raid.

Silwad - which is home to many American Palestinians - has been consistently targeted by Israeli settlers and soldiers.

On 30 October, Israeli soldiers killed Yamen Hamed Yousef Hamed.

On July 31, Khamis al-Ayyad, 40, of Chicago, died of smoke inhalation after Israeli settlers in the West Bank set homes and cars on fire. 

Israeli soldiers have also carried out raids in the nearby towns of Deir Jarir and al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya.

Hamas has denounced a proposed Israeli ban on a number of aid agencies as "criminal behaviour".

"This is part of the occupation's attempt to politicise humanitarian action and use it as a tool to blackmail our Palestinian people," the group said.

It said the international community must "take urgent and effective measures to condemn this criminal behaviour".