Live: 54 Palestinians killed, 831 wounded in 24 hours

Hello Middle East Eye readers.

Here are some of the key developments this morning:

 - 14 Palestinians have been killed since dawn in Gaza, including nine people seeking aid, according to Al Jazeera.

 - The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned Israel's plan to take over Gaza City. His spokesperson said the move marks a "dangerous escalation and risks deepening the already catastrophic consequences for millions of Palestinians", and will lead to more "forced displacement, killings and massive destruction".

 - The Israeli army's chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, was reportedly "furious" with the government's plan to take control of Gaza City, according to the Israeli Broadcasting Authority. 

 - The Irish government said it would advance legislation banning trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Our live blog will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are the day's key developments:

- Canada, the UK, Europe, and Arab nations condemned on Friday the Israeli decision to mount a full military occupation of the Gaza Strip.

- Vice President JD Vance has reiterated that the US has "no plans to recognise the Palestinian state" in a joint press conference with UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy during an official visit.

- The number of Palestinians who have starved to death as a result of Israel's siege on Gaza has risen to 201, with 98 of them being children.

- A joint statement by all Palestinian political factions has called on the United Nations and the international community to immediately intervene to support the healthcare system in Gaza.

- Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour said that only pressure by the international community can stop Israel's full military takeover of Gaza, and end the war.

- An Israeli strike killed one person in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese health ministry said. 

Yemen's Houthis announced they carried out "three qualitative operations" against targets in Israel on Friday.

A drone was launched toward Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, and another two were launched toward "two vital targets" in Ashkelon and Beersheba, the Houthis said in a statement. 

It remains unclear whether there was any damage. 

Qatar on Friday condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to fully occupy the Gaza Strip, saying it is "a dangerous escalation that threatens to exacerbate the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the territory, multiply its catastrophic consequences, and undermine efforts aimed at achieving a permanent ceasefire".

It added that there is an "urgent need for the international community to uphold its legal and moral responsibilities and to take immediate action to prevent the Israeli occupation authorities from implementing this decision".

Qatar further urged the international community to ensure Israel "allows the safe, sustained, and unobstructed entry of humanitarian aid".

"The Ministry reiterates the State of Qatar's firm and unwavering position in support of the Palestinian cause and the resilience of the brotherly Palestinian people, in accordance with international legitimacy and the two-state solution, which guarantees the establishment of an independent Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital," the statement concluded. 

The number of Palestinians who have starved to death as a result of Israel's siege on Gaza has risen to 201, with most being children, Dr. Muneer Alboursh, director general of the Gaza health ministry, told Aljazeera on Friday. 

A joint statement by all Palestinian political factions on Friday has called on the United Nations and the international community to immediately intervene to support the healthcare system in Gaza.

"The Gaza Strip currently needs no less than 1,000 aid trucks per day as a first emergency phase," they wrote. 

"We demand that the United Nations and its Secretary-General assume responsibility and declare that the Gaza Strip has entered a state of famine," the statement read. 

"We demand that international institutions intervene to address the collapse of the health sector and provide medical supplies".

The scandal-plagued, US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, they added, "is a death trap, killing and wounding thousands of civilians".

"We call on the peoples of the world to demonstrate in front of the Israeli and American embassies to pressure for an end to the aggression and famine," the statement said.

The union for European football, UEFA, paid a brief tribute on Friday to Palestinian footballer from Gaza, Suleiman al-Obeid.

Obeid was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza while attempting to collect food aid for his family earlier this week.

Uefa did not name his killers or say how he was killed.

"Farewell to Suleiman al-Obeid, the 'Palestinian Pelé'. A talent who gave hope to countless children, even in the darkest of times," Uefa wrote on X. 

Data released Thursday by the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds three-in-five Canadians say their country should recognise a Palestinian state (61 percent), with the same number agreeing that Hamas must be removed from Gaza for this to be a realistic path forward (63 percent).

Amid widespread reports of starvation, two-thirds (64 percent) say that this is a "moral outrage", rather than merely overblown (18 percent) or something they’re unsure about (18 percent).

Three-in-five Canadians (61 percent) agree that it's Israel that is obstructing the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Right after the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, Israel (28 percent) and “both sides equally” (31 percent) garnered the most responses in terms of who Canadians sympathise with the most.

At the time, only 18 percent chose Palestinians as a response.

Now, that figure has doubled with 37 percent choosing Palestinians, 27 percent saying both sides, and one-in-five saying Israel (19 percent).

People online have taken to social media to express outrage over a record $35bn gas deal between Egypt and Israel, accusing Israel of economic complicity in Israel's war on Gaza. 

Marking the largest export deal in Israel’s history, the agreement, announced on Thursday by Israeli energy company NewMed, will see a tripling of Egyptian gas imports from the Israeli Leviathan gas fields, accounting for 130 billion cubic metres (bcm) worth of gas that will be piped from the Israeli offshore field to Egypt through to 2040.

Amid the war on Gaza, which several countries, as well as many international rights groups and experts now qualify as an act of genocide, Egypt's decision to import Israeli gas was termed "shameful" online.  

Read more: Egypt's gas deal critiqued online as 'economic complicity' in Israel's war on Gaza

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Friday told reporters that a full Israeli military occupation of Gaza is "wrong" and that it would put the lives of the remaining Israeli captives in danger.

The remarks echo those of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who released a statement on the issue earlier in the day.

"We join others, many others, in viewing that this is wrong, that this action is not going to contribute to an improvement in the humanitarian situation on the ground. It is going to put the lives of the hostages at greater risk rather than lessening it," Carney said.

"We reiterate our call for an immediate ceasefire. We reiterate our call for Hamas to immediately return all of the hostages and their remains. We reiterate that Hamas has no role going forward, and we'll continue to work with our allies to contribute what we can to achieving those outcomes," he added, not naming Palestinians at any point. 

"We are working on multiple fronts to try to bring a level of stability to the region, then security, then peace to the region. And in terms of those fronts, yes, working with allies, working with the French, working with the British, working with partners in the Middle East," Carney said.

"What we see is the erosion of the possibility of a two-state solution because of facts on the ground". 

Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour told reporters on Friday that only pressure by the international community can stop Israel's full military takeover of Gaza, and end the war.

"This escalation by the Israeli government is going in total contradiction to the will of the international community, international law and common sense, and I even dare to say against the wish of the majority of the people inside Israel, as we read opinion polls," he said.

"Therefore, it is the duty of the international community to act," he added.

"The president [of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas] is contacting all leaders in all corners of the globe for everyone to act responsibly, to avoid additional catastrophes against our people in the Gaza Strip," Mansour said.

"We are grateful for the positions declared by a number of countries, including the European Union, UK, the position of Germany, which indicated that they will not send weapons that could be used against the Gaza Strip". 

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on X on Friday that his country "strongly condemns the Israeli government's plan aimed at preparing for the complete occupation of Gaza".

"Such an operation would worsen an already catastrophic situation without enabling the release of Hamas hostages, its disarmament, or its surrender," he wrote. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told German Chancellor Friedrich Merz that Israel's goal is not to take over Gaza but to free Gaza from Hamas and enable a peaceful government to be established there, the prime minister's office said on X. 

Netanyahu expressed his disappointment with Berlin's decision to suspend weapons exports to Israel during the phone call with Merz on Friday, the office added.

- Reporting by Reuters

Eighty-five Islamic scholars and institutions from across the western world have called on Muslim-majority countries to cut all ties with Israel and use their economic leverage to pressure the US and Israel to end the war on Gaza. 

A letter released by the scholars on Thursday pleaded with "the political leaders of the world’s Muslim-majority nations" to "take greater, concrete action to stop the ongoing genocide of our brothers and sisters in Gaza".

"We wake up every morning to see new images of men, women and children in Gaza whose rib cages protrude through their skin because of starvation, whose heads have been hollowed out because of Israeli snipers, or whose bodies have been charred like charcoal because of a bombing," the letter said.

"The common regional response to Israel’s crimes—a foreign ministry issuing a statement of condemnation that calls on unnamed members of the international community to stop the genocide—has not stopped the genocide. Neither have calls for the deadlocked, ineffective and unrepresentative UN Security Council to take action," the scholars wrote.

"Business as usual in international affairs is simply not working". 

Citing "unused tools at [Muslim countries'] disposal," the letter urged leaders to:

1. End any economic, diplomatic, intelligence, and military relationships with the Israeli government, including the so-called Abraham Accords;
2. Announce consideration of an embargo on global oil and gas sales;
3. Ban the use of their country’s airspace and the use of any military bases in their country to support the Israeli government in any way;
4. Open their side of Gaza entry points like the Rafah crossing and facilitating the travel of aid trucks, medics, journalists, demonstrators and others;
5. Organise a unified diplomatic mission to a Gaza crossing with senior government officials personally leading an aid convoy and refusing to leave until Israel allows unlimited aid to enter.

Over 500 people are set to participate in a protest against the UK government’s ban on the direct action group Palestine Action, putting to the test a pledge by the Metropolitan Police to arrest anyone showing support for the proscribed organisation.

Campaign group Defend Our Juries (DOJ) is organising the protest on Saturday in Parliament Square to demand the reversal of the group’s proscription, saying that the protest would only go ahead if at least 500 people committed to joining.

As of Monday evening, the group said that as many as 1,000 people had signed up, confirming on Tuesday that it would go ahead.

The protest will involve participants holding cardboard signs reading: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”

DOJ has called similar protests over the last month since the government moved to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation on 4 July, making it a criminal offence to be a member of or show support for the group.

Falling foul of the law proscribing the group is punishable by a sentence of up to 14 years in prison.

The proscription followed an incident in which members broke into RAF Brize Norton and spray-painted two planes they said were “used for military operations in Gaza and across the Middle East". 

Since then, over 200 people have been arrested - including priests, vicars and former magistrates - after they were deemed by police officers to have expressed support for the group.

Read more: Over 500 ready to risk arrest to protest Palestine Action ban on Saturday