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

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are some of the latest updates from Israel's war on Gaza:

• Khalil al-Degran, a spokesperson for the Palestinian health ministry, warned that “the effects of starvation are becoming apparent on the bodies” of Palestinians in the besieged enclave.

• Israel launched operation "Gideon's Chariots" on Friday, carrying out deadly strikes across Gaza.

• Several areas in the occupied West Bank have been subject to overnight and morning attacks from Israeli settlers, with cars, agricultural land and infrastructure left damaged.

Our live blog will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning. 

Here are the day's key developments:

- The Quds News Network is reporting that northern Gaza is coming under heavy bombardment overnight into Saturday, with air strikes focused on targets in Beit Lahia and Jabalia. The Israeli army had earlier told residents of those areas to leave, but residents have repeatedly said that nowhere in Gaza is safe. 

- NBC News, citing five unnamed US officials, reported on Friday that the Trump administration plans to permanently "relocate" up to one million Palestinians to Libya. Hamas said it has no knowledge of such a plan. 

- Drop Site News revealed that Hamas was promised by US President Donald Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, that the crippling Israeli blockade of Gaza would be lifted 48 hours after the release of US-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander. It was not. 

- Trump admitted to reporters in Abu Dhabi that "a lot of people are starving" in Gaza. "We're looking at Gaza. And we're going to get that taken care of," he said. 

- Israel blasted the United Nations aid chief for asking the Security Council if it would act to "prevent genocide" in the Gaza Strip, calling him "inappropriate" and "irresponsible."

- Ceasefire and hostage deal negotiations between Israel and Hamas remain deadlocked, an Israeli source told the Israeli media outlet Haaretz.

The Quds News Network is reporting that northern Gaza is coming under heavy bombardment overnight into Saturday, with air strikes focused on targets in Beit Lahia and Jabalia. 

Earlier in the day, residents were told by the Israeli army to leave Jabalia ahead of a renewed and intensified attack.

Israeli soldiers are also blowing up residential buildings from the ground in addition to the air raids, the Quds News Network said. 

The numbers of dead are expected to become clearer by morning. 

Israel on Friday blasted the United Nations aid chief for asking the Security Council if it would act to "prevent genocide" in the Gaza Strip, where experts say famine looms after Israel blocked aid deliveries to the Palestinian enclave 75 days ago.

While briefing the 15-member body earlier this week, UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said: "Will you act - decisively - to prevent genocide and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law?"

In a letter to Fletcher on Friday, Israel's UN ambassador Danny Danon accused him of delivering "a political sermon" and weaponising the word genocide against Israel, questioning under what authority he made what Israel viewed as an accusation. 

"You had the audacity, in your capacity as a senior UN official, to stand before the Security Council and invoke the charge of genocide without evidence, mandate, or restraint," he wrote.

"It was an utterly inappropriate and deeply irresponsible statement that shattered any notion of neutrality."

- Reporting by Reuters

NBC News, citing five unnamed US officials, reported on Friday that the Trump administration plans to permanently "relocate" up to one million Palestinians to Libya.

In exchange, the US would potentially release to Libya billions of dollars of funds that were frozen more than a decade ago, NBC said. 

Hamas representative Basem Naim told NBC News he has no knowledge of such a plan. 

The US State Department's own Bureau of Consular Affairs has a "Level 4 - Do Not Travel" warning on its website about Libya.

This is due to "crime, terrorism, unexploded landmines, civil unrest, kidnapping, and armed conflict", the State Department said. 

French President Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed on Friday that he felt the humanitarian crisis in Gaza was unacceptable, and added he hoped to discuss the matter soon with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump.

- Reporting by Reuters

Social media users have accused several of the panellists that featured on Thursday's episode of BBC Question Time of a pro-Israel bias, following their responses to a question about Israel's war on Gaza.

The debate programme included a question from a member of the audience who asked whether the "UK government (is) ignoring genocide in Gaza."

Social media users underlined that the panellists, which included Labour Cabinet minister Peter Kyle, Conservative MP Nigel Huddleston, tech entrepreneur Alex Depledge, and columnist and broadcaster Sonia Sodha, echoed variations of the view that Israel has a "right to defend itself."

Read more: Online reactions described the responses as "both-siding the genocide"

Drop Site News revealed on Friday that Hamas was promised by US President Donald Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, that the crippling Israeli blockade of Gaza would be lifted 48 hours after the release of US-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander. 

Hamas released Alexander on Monday in what was seemingly a gesture of goodwill to Trump, without receiving Palestinians from Israeli prisons in return. 

The blockade has not been lifted, and according to Haaretz, ceasefire talks have stalled. 

"It was a deal" made by "Witkoff himself," Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, told Drop Site News.

“If we release [Alexander], Trump will speak out thanking Hamas for its gesture, obliging Israel on the second day to open the borders and allow aid to come into Gaza, and [Trump would] call for an immediate ceasefire and to go for negotiations to end the war," he added. 

“[Witkoff] did nothing of this,” Naim said.

“They didn't violate the deal. They threw it in the trash.”

A statement issued by the leaders of Spain, Norway, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, and Slovenia on Friday is demanding that Israel lift its total blockade of Gaza, which was imposed in early March.

"We call on the Israeli government to immediately reverse its current policy and fully lift the blockade on Gaza," the statement read. "We will not remain silent in the face of the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding before our eyes."

The group also said it condemned "the increasing Israeli escalation in the West Bank, with increasing settler violence".

In response to Friday's Israeli air strikes on two Yemeni ports, the media office for the Houthis issued a statement calling the attack "weak", and a signal that "America has abandoned" Israel.

"Israel confirms today that it is weak and that America has abandoned it, and we will confront any aggression that attempts to halt our support for Gaza," the statement said.

"We will work to increase escalation as long as the aggression against our people in Gaza continues. The major Israeli threats are worthless, and the enemy is incapable of carrying them out."

Israel air strikes hit two ports in Yemen on Friday, in a bid to target sites controlled by the Houthis, the Associated Press has reported. 

The ports were identified as those in Hodeidah and al-Salif, according to an unnamed Israeli official cited in The Jerusalem Post.

US President Donald Trump said Friday that "a lot of people are starving" in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Trump's brief comments on Gaza came as he capped the first foreign tour of his second term, which saw him visit several Gulf countries but excluded key ally Israel.

"We're looking at Gaza. And we're going to get that taken care of. A lot of people are starving," Trump told reporters in Abu Dhabi.

Meanwhile, Hamas urged the US to press Israel to lift the Gaza blockade after the hostage release.

Reporting by AFP

The Israeli military dropped leaflets over Jabalia refugee camp, ordering residents to evacuate south as it intensifies airstrikes across Gaza, according to an Al-Jazeera reporter on the ground. 

In Khan Younis, at least 11 civilians, including three children, were killed in recent Israeli attacks. Gaza health officials say over 120 people remain missing in the north as rescue efforts continue.

Local media reported that an Israeli drone targeted tents sheltering displaced people in Tel Al-Zaatar, north of Gaza, setting them on fire.

Ceasefire and hostage deal negotiations between Israel and Hamas remain deadlocked, an Israeli source told the Israeli media outlet Haaretz.

The source added that Israel is expanding operations in Gaza, including "preparatory strikes”, and that Hamas has not compromised its position on a US proposal.

The source also said that the US has stepped back from the negotiations, and envoy Steve Witkoff is no longer actively involved.

Another Israeli source told Haaretz there is no direct or active communication channel between Hamas and the US. Instead, Hamas initiated the release of American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander through Bishara Bahbah, national chairman for Arab Americans for Trump, who then reached out to Witkoff.

A former Arsenal kit man has launched legal proceedings against the Premier League club after he was fired over comments on social media about Israel, Palestine and the war in Gaza.

Mark Bonnick, 61, worked as a member of the London club's community coaching staff for 22 years and was working as a kit man in Arsenal's academy for youth players at the time of his dismissal last year.

During his time at Arsenal, Bonnick says he worked with current and former stars such as Jack Wilshere, Bukayo Saka, and Myles Lewis-Skelly, and had intended to remain at the club until retirement.

But on 24 December last year, Bonnick was fired from his job, with the club informing him that pro-Palestine posts he had written on social media had brought the club into disrepute.

Since then, Bonnick said he has struggled to find work and is now earning what he can by doing odd jobs. He is currently working as a labourer on a construction site.