Live: UK halts trade deal talks with Israel, summons ambassador over Gaza

A Palestinian man was shot and killed, and dozens were injured during an Israeli military raid in the Old City of Nablus in the West Bank, Wafa news agency reported on Thursday.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed that Rami Sami al-Kakhn, 30, died of gunshot wounds during the raid. His body is being held by Israeli forces and has not been released to his family.

In the two-pronged raid, undercover Israeli units are said to have infiltrated the city around midday, while soldiers raided through the Huwwara and al-Tur.

Ten Palestinians were injured during the raid. Kakhn and another young man, who were both injured during the raid, were detained before Kakhn died. 

Rafidia Government Hospital treated nine injured people, including two in critical condition. 

The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that at least 35 civilians had been exposed to tear gas during the raid. All were treated on site.

Jordanian authorities have profited significantly from overseeing the delivery of international aid to Gaza during Israel's ongoing war on the besieged Palestinian enclave, Middle East Eye reported on Thursday.

Sources say the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization (JHCO), an official body overseeing humanitarian aid going to Gaza, has coordinated with Israeli authorities to act as the sole conduit for aid passing through Jordan.

MEE spoke with sources from international aid organisations and people with direct knowledge of JHCO’s operations.

One source said much of the aid attributed to JHCO originates from foreign governments and NGOs, both Jordanian and international, while direct contributions from the Jordanian state are negligible.

Jordanian authorities have demanded $2,200 for every aid truck entering Gaza, according to two NGO sources and two others familiar with the scheme.

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Hamas said "individual" actors were responsible for firing rockets towards Israel from Lebanon after it handed over several people, saying it was committed to the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel.

"The rocket launching incident was an individual act carried out by a number of young people... in reaction to the genocidal war and massacres committed by the Zionist enemy in Gaza," a statement from Hamas representative in Lebanon Ahmad Abdulhadi said.

"Hamas did not know about this in advance and did not decide to do this."

The Red Cross has denounced Israel's "unacceptable" blockade on aid entering the Gaza Strip on Thursday warning of a growing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

"It is unacceptable that humanitarian aid is not allowed into the Gaza Strip," Pierre Krahenbuhl, director general of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told reporters in Geneva, adding that the enclave was on a "razor's edge".

"That's just fundamentally against anything that international humanitarian law provides.

"There's a moment where we will also run out of anything that's left in terms of medical supplies and other."

"I am proud that the UK is offering lifesaving medical care to these Ukrainian children, who have been forced out of their home country by the Russian invasion while undergoing medical treatment,” Sajid Javid, then the UK health secretary, said in March 2022.

Within weeks of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the UK government had facilitated the evacuation of 21 Ukrainian children with cancer, and coordinated their treatment through the National Health Service (NHS).

In contrast, last week - after 17 months of persistent lobbying - only two children from Gaza were finally permitted to enter the UK for medical treatment.

They were chosen not because they are among those most severely injured by Israel’s onslaught in Gaza; quite the opposite. Their diagnoses appear more politically neutral, involving congenital conditions not directly related to Israel’s ongoing violence in Gaza.

Behind what some might frame as a triumph of British humanitarianism lies a much darker reality. These are the only two Palestinian children in need of medical care that the UK government has agreed to receive since Israel accelerated its assault on Gaza in October 2023.

Read more: Shamefully, the UK has denied Gaza's injured children treatment in Britain

The Palestinian Red Crescent confirmed that Israeli occupation wounded 41 people during a raid on the Old City of Nablus, including six who were shot with live ammunition.

This is a developing story.

The Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education has condemned the Israeli closure of Unrwa schools in occupied Jerusalem on Thursday.

The ministry described the closure as a direct attack on education, calling it part of an ongoing campaign against education in the city.

“This act is a violation of international norms, particularly the right to education and the Convention on the Rights of the Child,” the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry also renewed its call for international bodies, especially Unesco and Unicef, to take action and protect refugee children’s right to education. It warned that if the occupation is not held accountable, further attacks on schools in Jerusalem are likely.

Israeli police forces surrounded the schools after issuing evacuation and closure orders leaving around 800 students without access to eduction.

Israel carried out 14 air strikes in the Nabatieh region of southern Lebanon on Thursday, marking one of the most intense bombardments since the US-brokered ceasefire in November, Reuters reported.

According to Lebanese security sources, at least one person was killed and eight others were injured, as confirmed by the health ministry.

The Israel army later claimed the strikes targeted a Hezbollah  infrastructure site, including weapons, tunnels, and terrorists. This could not be independently verified.

Lebanese Prime Minister Salam condemned the attack, labelling it a breach of UN Resolution 1701, which calls for the cessation of hostilities in the region. 

Oxfam and 54 other organisations have called on the international community to take action against Israel’s new registration rules for international NGOs. The organisations argue that the rules, which impose vague and politically motivated criteria, threaten to silence humanitarian efforts and further entrench Israeli control over Palestinian territories.

“These rules appear designed to assert control over independent humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding operations,” Oxfam said in a statement.

The new regulations, which could lead to the de-registration of existing INGOs, make it harder for organisations to operate by introducing politically charged disqualifiers, such as supporting accountability for Israeli violations of international law. Oxfam warns that these measures are not routine but signal a dangerous escalation in restrictions on humanitarian work, potentially forcing organisations to choose between delivering aid or advocating for international law.

“Humanitarian and human rights advocacy is being framed as a threat to the state,” Oxfam added, highlighting the risk to organisations simply for speaking out against violations they witness.

Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz issued a warning to Yemen’s ruling Houthi group, vowing severe retaliation if it persists in attacking Israel.

“The Houthis will suffer heavy blows from Israel if they continue to fire at us. The IDF [Israel army] is prepared for any mission,” Katz declared on X, asserting, “Israel must be able to defend itself on its own against any threat and any enemy.”

The Houthis, undeterred by a US-brokered ceasefire announced by President Donald Trump on Tuesday to halt attacks on US ships, confirmed their truce excludes Israel.

Katz accused Iran of arming the Houthis, warning Tehran of consequences akin to Israel’s actions against Hezbollah, Hamas, Assad, and the Houthis.

Israeli forces have killed 14 Palestinians in relentless air strikes across Gaza since dawn on Thursday. 

Israeli police forcibly closed schools operated by the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (Unrwa) in occupied East Jerusalem on Thursday morning, escalating tensions and sparking fears of attacks on students and teachers.

The Palestinian Ministry of Education condemned the closures as “a crime against education and is part of a systematic and ongoing assault on education in Jerusalem”.

Deploying forces around school premises, Israel issued evacuation and closure orders, actions the ministry decried as violating international laws, including the right to education and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The order was issued by the Israeli Ministry of Education, which claimed the schools were operating without licences.

This means around 800 children will receive no education, only weeks before the end of the school year. Instead, they will be set adrift in the East Jerusalem school system, which is already plagued by classroom shortages and funding cuts. 

Since the 1950s, Unrwa has run schools and medical clinics in East Jerusalem, which Israel seized during the Arab-Israeli war of 1967.

Israel’s refusal to allow international medical teams into Gaza has deepened the enclave’s healthcare crisis, aid workers told The Associated Press.

Doctors Without Borders highlighted a dire shortage of plastic surgeons, stating, “a large number of people in Gaza need reconstructive surgery,” while burn cases in Khan Younis have surged fivefold since Israel intensified air strikes in March.

Medical sources reported that burn victims struggle to recover due to dwindling medicine supplies, exacerbated by Israel’s blockade, with hospitals and clinics depleting their stocks.

The blockade has also driven a sharp rise in child malnutrition, as Israel restricts food imports, sources confirmed.

Israeli air strikes have claimed the lives of 10 Palestinians in Gaza since dawn on Thursday, medical sources reported to Al Jazeera Arabic. 

Israel’s closure of Gaza’s border crossings since early March has crippled World Central Kitchen’s (WCK) ability to feed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, pushing the region deeper into a humanitarian catastrophe.

WCK reports that its food stocks have dwindled, forcing kitchens to shut down and leaving families without sustenance. Critics condemn Israel’s restrictions as a deliberate tactic to exacerbate hunger in Gaza.

• WCK’s two field kitchens, previously serving 133,000 meals daily, have exhausted all ingredients and fuel, halting operations.

• Gaza’s last operational bakery, run by WCK, has no flour left, ending production of 80,000 daily loaves.

• Over 80 percent of community kitchens reliant on WCK supplies can no longer function, leaving countless families hungry.

• WCK continues distributing potable water to Palestinian families where feasible, but this is insufficient to meet soaring needs.

• Trucks loaded with food and fuel remain stranded at Gaza’s borders, with additional supplies ready in Jordan and Egypt, blocked by Israel’s refusal to grant access.

WCK founder Jose Andres vowed to persist, stating, “Our pots may be empty, our cooking fires snuffed out—but World Central Kitchen will keep serving.”

WCK Gaza response director Wadhah Hubaishi added: “The borders need to open for World Central Kitchen to be able to feed people in need. If given full access to our infrastructure, partnerships, and incoming supplies, we are capable of providing hungry families in Gaza with 500,000 meals a day.”