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Israel's military said on Saturday it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen and Houthi forces claimed responsibility for the attack, the third of its kind by the group in 24 hours.
The Israeli military said sirens were activated in a number of areas in Israel after the missile was launched. No casualties or serious damage have been reported from the missile salvoes.
The claim of responsibility, announced by the Houthis' military spokesperson, came amid an intensification of U.S. airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.
In March, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered large-scale strikes against the Houthis to reduce their capabilities and deter them from targeting commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
Reporting by Reuters
A baby girl has died of malnutrition and dehydration in al-Rantisi hospital, west of Gaza City, Al Jazeera is reporting.
The child, identified as Janan Saleh al-Sakafi, is among at least 51 Palestinians who have died of malnutrition in Gaza, according to its government media office.
Israel has imposed a total blockade on the strip since 2 March, halting the entry of all food, water and medical supplies.
Unicef has warned that around 335,000 children under the age of five are at risk of dying from acute malnutrition.
Wafa news agency is reporting that another 13 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli attack on Gaza City and Khan Younis this morning.
According to the report, 10 Palestinians were killed and others injured in an Israeli attack on a house east of Gaza City.
According to local sources, rescue teams recovered the bodies of 10 Palestinians after an Israeli strike on the Ghattas family home on Nazir Street in the Shujaiya neighbourhood.
Another two people were killed and others injured in an Israeli attack on the Daraj neighbourhood of Gaza City.
In Rafah, one person was killed in an Israeli attack on Qizan Abu Rashwan, south of Khan Younis.
Gaza's civil defence reported that an overnight Israeli strike on a family home in Khan Younis' refugee camp killed 11 people, including three babies under the age of one.
Civil defence spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal said that eight of the victims had been identified - all members of al-Baryam family - including two one-year-old children and a one-month-old baby.
Wafa reported that a total of 19 people have been killed in attacks on Khan Younis this morning. In addition to al-Baryam family, it reported that another person was killed after his tent was targeted on the complex's street, while another was killed in his tent in the al-Mahatta area.
A four-month-old child, Hassan Abd Toman, was killed in an attack on a tent for displaced people in the Asdaa area in the north.
Meanwhile, a pregnant woman, Nadine Abu Lahia, was killed when an Israeli drone targeted the Abu Hajiras family home in Khan Younis.
The report added that the death toll from a previous attack on the Zarab family home in al-Batn al-Sameen area has climbed to four, while rescue teams are still searching the rubble.
In Rafah, rescue teams recovered a decomposing body from the beach.
Good morning Middle East Eye readers,
Here are the latest updates:
- Wafa news agency reports that 19 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on Khan Younis this morning. It said that 11 of them were killed in an air strike on al-Baryam family's home in the Khan Younis refugee camp. Gaza's civil defence reported that the toll included three babies under the age of one.
- Wafa also reported that 10 more people were killed in an Israeli attack on a house east of Gaza City.
- The International Court of Justice has concluded hearings on Israel’s legal obligations regarding the entry of UN agencies into the occupied Palestinian territories.
- The US and Israel say they are close to a deal on aid delivery to Gaza, Axios reported.
- Syrian state media said an Israeli air strike hit near a village in Syria’s Hama countryside.
- Sirens were activated across parts of Israel following the launch of a projectile from Yemen, the Israeli military reported on Saturday.
- Israel has called up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers as it expands the offensive on Gaza.
- Hamas sent a delegation to Cairo, saying it is “determined to achieve an agreement” on Saturday.
The Iraqi Foreign Ministry has weighed in on an Israeli airstrikes on Syria, saying, “We strongly condemn the Israeli airstrike that targeted the vicinity of the presidential palace in the Syrian capital, Al Jazeera Arabic reported on Friday.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the international community was faced with two choices when it came to Gaza – either to act or remain voyeurs.
During a press briefing, OCHA spokesperson Olga Cherevko, who has spent nearly five years working in Gaza said: “The decision makers have watched in silence the endless scenes of bloodied children, of severed limbs, of grieving parents move swiftly across their screens – month, after month, after month.
“The international community has a choice – to keep scrolling through the grisly images of Gaza being suffocated and starved or muster the courage and the moral fiber to make decisions that can break this merciless blockade. The people in Gaza had no such choice: their fate hangs in the balance of our collective responsibility to act. How much more blood has to be spilled before enough became enough?”
A child and a young man were killed in Israeli air strikes in Gaza City on Friday evening, Wafa news agency reported.
During a strike on Al-Sikka Street in the Shujaiyya neighbourhood, a child was killed and his grandfather was injured.
In the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City, a young man was killed and several others were wounded during strikes.
Israeli military sealed off all entrances to the city of Jericho in the West Bank on Friday, reported the Wafa news agency.
The Israeli military closed the gates at the entrances to the city in both directions, forcing Palestinians to wait in lengthy queues.
A group of Israeli settlers blockaded the northern entrance to Jericho by parking their vehicles along the width of the road, forcing Palestinian vehicles to turn back.
The Israeli military has started isolating cities and governorates from one another using gates, barriers, and concrete blocks since the first batch of Palestinian prisoners was released in January as part of a ceasefire deal that collapsed in March.
The Irish government said that the continued Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip is “unconscionable” and demanded it be removed in a statement released on Friday.
“No humanitarian or commercial supplies have entered Gaza in over eight weeks as a result of the Israeli blockade. Children are starving. Hospitals are running out of basic painkillers. The World Food Programme has said that its food stocks are now depleted. Life-saving aid is available and urgently needed, but trucks cannot cross into Gaza.
“It is unconscionable that the current suffering is continuing.
“The situation is unacceptable. In the circumstances, obstructing life-saving aid is a violation of Israel’s international obligations.”
Dozens of Israeli police officers raided a wedding being held in the town of Laqia in the Negev, Haaretz reported on Thursday.
The police defended their raid by saying they were concerned weapons were being held in the location. The Palestinian citizens of Israel said no shooting or stone throwing had occurred at the wedding and that officers threw stun grenades in various directions, including at children.
There are almost 300,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel living in the Negev region, the majority of whom belong to Bedouin clans.
Some 100,00 of them are currently living in 35 unrecognised villages that Israel considers illegal, and it refuses to provide them with electricity, water, education, health, and transportation.
Amnesty International called for Israel to terminate its siege on Gaza in a press release issued on Friday.
It said Israel “must immediately end its devastating siege on the occupied Gaza Strip which constitutes a genocidal act, a blatant form of unlawful collective punishment, and the war crime of using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare”.
Erika Guevara Rosas, senior director for research, advocacy, policy, and campaigns at Amnesty International, condemned Israel's war on Gaza, saying: “The extent of human suffering in Gaza for the past 19 months has been unimaginable... Apart from a brief respite during the temporary truce, Israel has relentlessly and mercilessly turned Gaza into an inferno of death and destruction.
Rosas called on the international community to “act now and take concrete measures to pressure Israel into immediately lifting its total siege and allow the unhindered entry of humanitarian aid and its safe distribution across all of Gaza”. She added that a sustained ceasefire was “essential” to this happening.
The report highlighted Israel’s cutting of power to Gaza’s main desalination plant on 9 March has crippled access to clean water. “The plant was the only facility in Gaza reconnected to Israel’s electricity grid in November 2024, after a full electricity blackout had been imposed since October 11, 2023.”
It has been two months since Israel reimposed a ban on the entry of aid and commercial goods into the Strip on 2 March.
A coalition of workers and activists has launched a campaign targeting online travel agency Booking.com, which they accuse of profiting from Israeli war crimes.
The “Stop Booking Apartheid” campaign, led by Palestinian and left-wing organisations including Progressive International and BDS Netherlands, is targeting Booking.com’s 55 listings in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The travel site, which is headquartered in the Netherlands and has a parent company in the US, also lists sites in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land are considered illegal under international law.
Read more: 'Stop Booking Apartheid' targets Booking.com's Israeli settlement profits
The search for casualties is ongoing in Jabalia, northern Gaza, following an Israeli air strike on a house there.
Palestinians were pictured on Friday carrying dead bodies, injured children and digging through the rubble in the aftermath of Israeli air strikes.
Unconfirmed reports on social media on Friday afternoon said that the death toll from the strike had already risen to eight people. The search for bodies continues.
Yemen's Houthi group launched two missiles north on Friday morning, targeting Israel's Ramat David air base and the Tel Aviv area, according to Reuters and other monitors.
The Israeli military has since said that it intercepted the first missile and launched an interceptor towards the second missile fired from Yemen, as the US intensifies its attacks on the Iran-aligned Houthis.
There were reports from open source military monitors that the missile launched at the the Israeli air base had hit its target, but they have not been confirmed.
Israel's military said that after the launch of both missiles, alarms were activated in several areas, but there were no reports of damage or casualties.
In March, US President Donald Trump ordered large-scale strikes against the Houthis, who have been targeting ships connected to Israel or its allies in the Red Sea in solidarity with the Palestinians.