Live: Palestinian death toll in Gaza nears 26,000

A group of 60 lawmakers sent a letter to the Biden administration on Friday, calling on the president to reaffirm that Washington strongly opposes "the forced and permanent displacement" of Palestinians from Gaza.

The letter expressed the deep concern of some Democratic lawmakers over the rising toll on Palestinian civilians in Israel's military campaign in Gaza.

"We urge you to continue to reiterate the United States’ firm commitment to this position and ask that you provide clarification regarding certain provisions of the administration's supplemental humanitarian and security funding request," the letter said.

White House national security council spokesperson John Kirby said that the US had conducted three additional strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen on Friday.

This was the fourth strike in the past week by Washington against Houthi targets, and Kirby described the attacks as defensive in nature.

The Iran-aligned Houthi movement launched two anti-ship ballistic missiles at a US-owned tanker ship late on Thursday, according to the US military. It caused no damage or injuries.

The Houthis also successfully targeted and hit a US-owned tanker ship this week, damaging the ship but resulting in no injuries.

Biden on Thursday said the strikes on the Houthis were not working in the sense of stopping the Houthis, but added that the strikes would continue nonetheless.

John Kirby, the White House national spokesperson, made additional remarks to the press on Friday.

He said that the US continues to oppose a general ceasefire in Gaza, believing it will help Hamas.

"I think it's important to remember that there was a ceasefire in place on the sixth of October," he said.

At the same time, Kirby said that President Biden still believes in the viability of a two-state solution with separate Israeli and Palestinian states.

Israeli bombings targeting a house in Nuseirat and a neighbourhood in Khan Younis killed at least seven Palestinians on Friday evening, according to the news agency Wafa.

Another bombing in Nuseirat killed five more Palestinians.

John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson, made the remarks on Friday afternoon after President Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Paltel, a telecommunications service provider in Gaza, announced just a few minutes ago they were able to restore some “basic services” to its customers.

“We announce the gradual return of communications services in various areas of the Gaza Strip, as our technical teams worked over the past days to repair many of the major malfunctions caused by the ongoing aggression against the Strip,” Paltel said on X, formerly Twitter.

The enclave has faced a more than weeklong internet blackout, the longest since the war in Gaza began.

CMA CGM, a French-based shipping container group, said on Friday it was going to reroute a weekly service between Europe and Australia to avoid attacks in the Red Sea

The company was expecting a disruption in its regular route that would last months.

Rather than going through the Red Sea and Suez Canal, it would go through the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.

Despite US efforts to attack Houthi positions in Yemen and impose sanctions on them, the armed group continues to attack vessels and has said it would continue to target any vessel headed towards Israel.

While Yoav Gallant was visiting soldiers on that border, he said that "as long as the fighting continues in the south, there will be fighting in the north".

Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah have been exchanging fire along the two countries' border at a near daily rate since early October.

Gallant told his American counterpart Lloyd Austin on Thursday that Israel has a duty to restore security to its border region, and was "prepared to do this through military force".

Hani Wadi, a volunteer with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PCRS) working in central Gaza, was released from Israeli detention on Friday, the relief group said.

The Red Crescent Society says that Israel continues to keep five other volunteers in detention: Mohammed Abu Rukbeh; Saeed al-Jarjir; Hudhaifa Abu Atiyya; Mohammed Abu Foul; and Suleiman Abu Sharee'a.

Earlier, we reported that Israeli forces had shot dead a 17-year-old Palestinian teenager northeast of Ramallah.

Reuters has reported, citing the teenager's uncle and Palestinian officials, that the boy was born in the US, which would make him an American citizen.

US President Joe Biden was asked by a reporter whether or not he was concerned by the comments from many Muslim and Arab community leaders, who said they would not vote for the president in this year's election.

Biden responded by saying: "Well, look, the former president [Donald Trump] wants to put a ban on Arabs coming into the country.

"Let's make sure he understands who cares about the Arab population, number one. Number two, we've got a long way to go in terms of settling the situation in Gaza."

The comments appear to downplay the lack of support for Biden among Arab Americans, who have a substantial voting bloc in the swing state of Michigan, which analysts have said could help make or break Biden's reelection chances.

The brother of Mohammed al-Durra, a child who became an icon of the second Intifada, has reportedly been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, Al Jazeera English reported, citing local media.

Ahmad al-Durra was killed on Thursday in the Bureij refugee camp, the reports state.

Mohammed al-Durra, was 12 when he was killed on live television, becoming a symbol for the second Intifada, where over 3,000 Palestinians were killed across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In October, Israeli forces also killed two of Jamal al-Durra’s brothers, a sister-in-law and a niece.

Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the UN refugee agency for Palestinians, said on Friday that the occupied West Bank is witnessing its highest levels of violence yet, in what he said was as “a tragic cycle of pain and suffering”.

In a post on social media platform X, he added that increased Israeli settler violence is causing people to flee their homes in search of safety.

Israeli forces shot dead a 17-year-old Palestinian in the occupied West Bank village of al-Mazra’a al-Sharqiyah, northeast of Ramallah on Friday.

Another Palestinian was also wounded in the thigh by a live bullet fired by an Israeli soldier in the village of Kafr Nima, west of Ramallah.
 

Gaza remains under the longest telecommunications blackout since the start of the war on 7 October, with the blackout now lasting eight days. 

On Friday, hundreds of Palestinians went to the seashore to try and get phone signal.