Live: Trump envoy urges Netanyahu to reach ceasefire deal

The death toll in Gaza on Thursday has now risen to at least 22 Palestinians, medical sources told Al Jazeera.

Out of the 22, thirteen Palestinians were killed in the northern Gaza Strip.

Joseph Aoun, Lebanon's former army chief who was elected president on Thursday, said he would defend the “state’s right to exclusively carry weapons”.

“I promise to call for discussing a comprehensive defence strategy, as part of a national security strategy, on the diplomatic, economic and military levels to enable the Lebanese state - I repeat, the Lebanese state - to remove the Israeli occupation and deter its aggression,” Aoun said, in what appeared to a statement aimed at Hezbollah.

Hezbollah and Israel came to a ceasefire agreement in November after over a year of fighting.

Hezbollah, which deterred Israel's invasion in 2006, argues its military wing is necessary to protect the country from Israel.

Lebanon's army has avoided direct conflict with Israel throughout its history.

Musa Abu Marzouk, a senior member of Hamas, told the Quds News Network that the group has long sought for Gaza to be governed by a unity coalition made up of various Palestinian factions.

⁠"Hamas is not keen on ruling the Gaza Strip, and this position is known to the factions, and it preceded the Battle of the Flood of Al-Aqsa, and we tried to overcome the obstacles to national unity, but we did not succeed," Abu Marzouk said.

At least 16 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza on Thursday, Al Jazeera Arabic is reporting, citing medical sources.

Three Palestinians, including a woman and child, have been killed in an Israeli attack on the Erbakan school in northern Gaza's Jabalia, the Palestinian Civil Defence is reporting on Thursday.

It added that 25 others have been injured.

Wafa news agency is reporting that two young Palestinian men were assaulted by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.

Citing local sources, the agency said that Israeli soldiers stationed at a military checkpoint stopped the two young men as they were attempting to reach the Ibrahimi Mosque in the Old City.

The men were then taken inside the check point and severely beaten.

They were then transferred by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) to a local hospital for treatment.

Al Jazeera Arabic is reporting that three Palestinians were killed in two separate attacks in Gaza City.

It said that at least one Palestinian has been killed and others injured in an Israeli strike on al-Nasr Street, west of Gaza City.

This was also reported by the Palestinian Information Centre (PIC), which said the attack targeted a group of civilians.

According to PIC, two more people were killed in a separate attack on a house west of Al-Qawqa roundabout, west of Gaza City.

Meanwhile Wafa news agency reported that "multiple civilians" were killed and others injured in air strikes near the Barbari Station at the Jalaa and Sahaba junction in the city.

It also said that a 43-year-old woman succumbed to her wounds after  an Israeli strike targeting tents in Khan Younis, adding that her children were killed in the same attack.

Local media reported on Thursday that at least four people were killed and several others injured as a result of an Israeli air strike targeting the al-Rafai School, where displaced Palestinians in northern Gaza have sought shelter.

Palestinian Authority security forces have handed over a rocket-propelled grenade launcher to Israel after seizing it during its ongoing operations in Jenin. 

This comes days after Palestinian fighters in the occupied West Bank showed footage of a launcher belonging to the PA.

The Polish president has asked his government to protect the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from potential arrest during the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Bloomberg has reported. 

According to a letter dated 8 January, Andrzej Duda requests of Prime Minister Donald Tusk that Netanyahu's visit remain “unhindered”. 

A woman was killed after she was shot during a Palestinian Authority attack on the Jenin refugee camp.

PA security forces are cracking down on armed groups in the northern West Bank city, a campaign that has been ongoing since 5 December and has led to the death of several civilians in the area. 

A Palestinian man has been killed, and several others wounded in an Israeli air strike targeting the Al-Nasr Street area, west of Gaza City, according to reports from Al Jazeera Arabic.

Students at the London School of Economics who staged a protest to draw attention to the university’s investments in Israel were described as being "dressed as terrorists" in emails between senior staff seen by Middle East Eye.

The comment was made in messages between management staff discussing the university's response to the protest, which took place during a registration event for a summer school at the central London campus on 7 July 2024.

In one email on the same day as the protest, Elizabeth Aitken, who heads the LSE's summer school programme, wrote that "staff and students thought that it was a terrorist attack as the protestors [sic] were wearing full face masks and carrying rucksacks".

Other staff members in the email thread, including LSE's president, Larry Kramer, sympathised with Aitken without questioning her recollection of events and recommended possible expulsion and involving police to stop student activists from disrupting future events.

In a subsequent email Aitken suggested that "it may be possible to identify these particular 'protestors' [sic], whilst they were dressed as terrorists with balaclavas".

Read more: London university described pro-Palestine protesters as 'dressed as terrorists'

The Israeli army has announced new measures to conceal the identities of soldiers of all ranks, amid arrest warrants and investigations of suspected war crimes in Gaza. 

According to the Israeli broadcaster Channel 13, concerns about soldiers being arrested abroad has prompted the army to change procedures regarding the exposure of soldiers to the media. 

The army said in a statement on Wednesday that troops in all combat sectors and of all ranks will now have their faces blurred in pictures and their full names concealed. 

Previously, the practice of blurring soldiers' faces was reserved only for those within special units and the Israeli Air Force. Today, only those of the rank of brigadier general and above will be shown without hiding their faces and full names. 

Soldiers in lower ranks will only be presented by the first letter of their given name. Photographs will be taken from behind or edited, and will be subject to approval by the military before publishing.

Read more: Israeli army to hide soldiers' identities from media

The Gaza health ministry has reported that 46,006 people have been killed and 109,378 wounded since Israel started its war on Gaza in October 2023.

The ministry estimates that more than 10,000 individuals remain trapped beneath the rubble of destroyed buildings, underscoring the catastrophic toll of Israel's relentless bombardment.