Live: 54 Palestinians killed, 831 wounded in 24 hours

International relief organisation Oxfam has reported an alarming rise in waterborne diseases across Gaza, adding that if urgent interventions are not made, the health conditions could develop into a deadly catastrophe. 

Oxfam in a statement has said that the spike in disease is a result of the continued Israeli blockade, which has severely restricted the flow of humanitarian aid into the territory.

"Israel has put Gaza under a near total blockade since March 2 of this year stopping all but a trickle of aid. There are no longer any humanitarian aid reserves held by international agencies inside of Gaza," the statement said.  

As a result, international humanitarian donors and agencies have been forced to accumulate more than 420,000 pallets of aid that now sit in limbo inside warehouses across regions. This covers an area of around 75 hectares, or enough to cover 101 football fields. 

Oxfam stated that the recorded data may not fully capture the scale of the crisis. With most of Gaza's nearly two million residents cut off from functioning health services, many cases go unreported and untreated. 

Brazil’s foreign ministry confirmed on Friday its intentions to join South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which seeks to secure a verdict of genocide against Israel.

Brazil’s foreign ministry said it was in the “final stages” of submitting its official application to the court.

It accused the Israeli military of committing “atrocities” in Gaza.

"The Brazilian government announces that it is in the final stages of submitting a formal intervention in the ongoing case at the International Court of Justice, brought by South Africa under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” read the statement.

It added: "The Brazilian government expresses deep indignation at the recurring episodes of violence against the civilian population in the State of Palestine, not limited to the Gaza Strip but extending to the West Bank."

At least two Palestinians were killed on Friday in an Israeli shelling on a tent sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis and a separate Israeli attack in northern Gaza, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Meanwhile, civil defence teams in Gaza said they have been dispatched to evacuate casualties in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.

In a short statement on Telegram, it said resume teams headed to al-NOOR Mosque near Qizan al-Najjar after coordination with the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha).

A US governmental analysis found that there was no evidence of theft carried out by Hamas of US-funded aid, according to Reuters.

The findings challenge the justification Israel and US provide to reason their backing of aid operations in Gaza.

According to Reuters, an office affiliated with the US Agency for International Development has conducted the analysis and completed it in late June.

The study examined 156 incidents of theft or loss of US funded aid reported by US aid partner organisations between October 2023 and May 2025.

The UK's health, justice, and culture secretaries called on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to swiftly act to recognise the State of Palestine, according to Bloomberg.

Bloomberg reported that the ministers expressed their dismay at Starmer's refusal to fulfil his pledge to support a Palestinian state.

On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that his country will recognise Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly in September. Macron had been seeking to convince Starmer to jointly recognise Palestine over recent months.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates on the Israeli war on Gaza and developments in the occupied West Bank:

• More than 60 Palestinians, including 24 aid workers, were killed and dozens wounded  in the past 24 hours in several Israeli attacks on Gaza.

• The Freedom Flotilla Coalition said early Friday morning that it had re-established contact with the ship "Handala," confirming that all of its crew members were safe after a communication outage that lasted for nearly two hours.

• Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Friday his country is calling for Israel's control over aid distribution to be replaced with comprehensive humanitarian assistance, urging all parties to negotiate for an immediate ceasefire, according to Reuters.

• Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the situation in Gaza as a "humanitarian catastrophe," stressing on the need to make every effort to protect innocent lives and end the suffering and starvation of the population.

• Israeli forces stormed in the early hours of Friday the town of Anabta, located east of Tulkarm, in the northern occupied West Bank. Local sources said Israeli troops stormed a building in the town, and soldiers climbed onto the roofs of several nearby homes, while military vehicles were heavily deployed in the area.

Our live blog will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are the day's key developments:

- US Special Envoy for Peace Missions, Steve Witkoff, announced on X on Thursday that the Trump administration is recalling its Gaza ceasefire negotiation team from Doha, Qatar after what he described as a "selfish" response from Hamas.

- Meanwhile Hamas said it was "surprised by the negative statements... at a time when the mediators expressed their welcome and satisfaction with this constructive and positive stance." Neither side detailed what exactly that stance was, but a longtime sticking point has been about allowing UN aid distribution in Gaza, which remains under a crippling Israeli siege.

- Gaza's government media office said that the number of journalists killed by Israel in the enclave since 7 October 2023 has risen to 232.

- French President Emmanuel Macron announced that his country will recognise the State of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

- US State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott told reporters that the Trump administration will not attend a two-day United Nations conference on establishing a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine later this month. 

Hamas has expressed surprise at the US withdrawal from Gaza ceasefire talks in Doha, Qatar on Thursday.

In a statement issued in the early hours of Friday morning, local time in Gaza, the group said it was "surprised by the negative statements made by US envoy Steve Witkoff regarding [our] position, at a time when the mediators expressed their welcome and satisfaction with this constructive and positive stance."

Hamas added it was "keen to reach an agreement that would halt the aggression and end the suffering of our people in the Gaza Strip," and that "since the beginning of the negotiating process, we have acted with national responsibility and high flexibility on various issues."

"We affirm our commitment to completing the negotiations and engaging in them in a way that contributes to overcoming obstacles and reaching a permanent ceasefire agreement," the group said. 

Gaza's government media office said in the early hours of Friday morning, local time, that the number of journalists killed by Israel in the enclave since 7 October 2023 has risen to 232.

The latest casualty is al-Quds al-Youm cameraman Adam Abu Harbeid, who was killed in an Israeli air strike on his family's tent in Gaza City on Thursday. 

"We call for the condemnation of these systematic crimes against Palestinian journalists and media professionals in the Gaza Strip," the media office said in a statement.

"We call on the international community and international organizations in all countries of the world to condemn the enemy's crimes and prosecute it in international courts."

Aljazeera Arabic's Gaza correspondent Anas al-Sharif revealed on Thursday that another journalist has been killed in an Israeli air strike on his family's tent in Gaza City.

Adam Abu Harbeid was a cameraman for the broadcaster al-Quds al-Youm. 

Several members of Abu Harbeid's family were critically injured, Sharif said.

"He accompanied me on much news coverage and was an example of politeness, humility, and respect," Sharif wrote on X, sharing a photograph of the two of them at work.
"May God have mercy on you, our beloved Adam, and grant you Paradise," he added.

Coordinators from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the group behind the volunteer aid boat 'Handala' sailing to Gaza, said they have lost contact with their crew late Thursday evening in the Mediterranean Sea.

"They could have been intercepted or attacked," the statement, shared on X, said. 

"ALL communications with Handala's crew have been JAMMED. We are losing contact with our crew, and there are multiple drones near the vessel." 

The Handala's trajectory can still be tracked here.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed French President Emmanuel Macron for his decision on Thursday to recognise the State of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly in September. 

"We strongly condemn President Macron’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state next to Tel Aviv in the wake of the October  7 massacre. Such a move rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became," Netanyahu said. 

"A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel — not to live in peace beside it. Let’s be clear: the Palestinians do not seek a state alongside Israel; they seek a state instead of Israel." 

The US Special Envoy for Syria and also Ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, said on Thursday that the US will support Lebanon as long as only the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) is permitted to operate within its borders, and control its arms supply. 

The statement is notable as it comes shortly after confirmation from the Israeli army that it has bombed multiple alleged weapons sites in southern Lebanon belonging to Hezbollah. 

Barrack did not name Israel in his statement.

"During my recent visit to Beirut, I stated that Hizballah is 'an issue that must be resolved by the Lebanese themselves,' reaffirming a long-standing position of the United States — that Hizballah represents a challenge which only the Lebanese government can address," Barrack wrote on X.

"Our goal in Lebanon is 'a strong Lebanese state that can take on and disarm Hizballah,'" he said, citing remarks by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

"The United States draws no distinction between Hezbollah’s political and military branches. We view the group in its entirety as what it is: a foreign terrorist organization," Barrack wrote, appearing to spell Hezbollah differently in a follow-up post. 

"By contrast, the United States recognizes the LAF as the sole legitimate national military institution and a pillar of Lebanon’s sovereignty and the key to securing a stable and prosperous future," he said. 

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday announced that his country will recognise the State of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

"True to its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognise the State of Palestine. I will make the solemn announcement at the United Nations General Assembly next September. The urgency today is to end the war in Gaza and to provide aid to the civilian population. Peace is possible," Macron wrote on X.

"It is essential to build the State of Palestine, ensure its viability, and enable it, by accepting its demilitarisation and fully recognizing Israel, to contribute to the security of all in the Middle East. There is no alternative," he added.

Macron said he wrote to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah to outline his plans. 

US State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott told reporters on Thursday that the Trump administration will not attend a two-day United Nations conference on establishing a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine. 

The conference, first conceived as a joint effort by Saudi Arabia and France, is set to take place next week in New York.