Live: Palestinian death toll in Gaza nears 26,000

The Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis is functioning with only 10 per cent of its personnel and the conditions are "inhumane", said the Palestinian health ministry on Thursday. 

The hospital has been besieged by Israel for several days and is currently running low on anaesthetics, painkillers and other basic medical supplies.

There is also a severe shortage of food and fuel for the electricity supply, which is expected to run out within five days, the health ministry said. 

Immediate action is required to prevent a complete shutdown of medical services in Gaza, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned on Thursday. 

“Every functioning hospital in the Gaza Strip is overcrowded and short on medical supplies, fuel, food and water. Many are housing thousands of displaced families. And now two more facilities risk being lost due to the fighting,” said William Schomburg, head of the ICRC’s office in Gaza.

“The cumulative impact on the health system is devastating and urgent action must be taken.”

The Nasser Medical Complex and the European Hospital are the primary referral hospitals in the south of Gaza, now serving about two million people. 

France told Israel it opposes the establishment of a buffer zone along the Gaza Strip border, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported. 

"France opposes any attempt to threaten Gaza's territorial integrity or reduce its size," a French official said.

"The Palestinian Authority must be able to exercise its full authority in Gaza. Neither Israel nor anyone else can decide for the Palestinians the scope of their sovereignty or the way they will govern tomorrow," it added. 

Israel has razed nearly 40 percent of the 2,824 buildings in Gaza located within a kilometre of the border, according to a Hebrew University study cited by The Wall Street Journal.

According to the report, much of the land has now been turned into a military zone which Israel intends to turn into a buffer. 

Israeli forces killed Wissam Waleed Mohammad Khashan, 24, during a violent military incursion in the village of Bir al-Basha in southern Jenin, said the Palestinian health ministry. 

They also arrested his brother Ahmed during the raid.

At least 372 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in the occupied West Bank since 7 October.

Palestinian Christian pastor Munther Isaac from the occupied West Bank posted footage of the complete destruction inflicted by Israel on Gaza.

The United Nations has now confirmed that at least 12 people have been killed and more than 75 wounded, 15 critically, following an Israeli strike around a UN centre sheltering thousands of civilians in southern Gaza.

“Persistent attacks on civilian sites in Khan Younis are utterly unacceptable and must stop immediately,” said Thomas White, an official with the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

“The situation in Khan Younis underscores a consistent failure to uphold the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law: distinction, proportionality and precautions in carrying out attacks. This is unacceptable and abhorrent and must stop,” said White.

Following a violent Israeli assault in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli forces also destroyed monuments to deceased Palestinians, and footage shared by local media showed streets in the city torn up by Israeli military bulldozers. 

A London youth club for vulnerable Jewish boys runs a project in Jerusalem which assists young British men it has supported to join the Israeli army.

The Boys Clubhouse, in Hendon, is currently being investigated by the Charity Commission after it organised an event last week for excluded schoolboys to mark the return to the UK of a British man, Levi Simon, who was recently fighting for Israel in Gaza.

Middle East Eye can reveal that the Boys Clubhouse also has a Jerusalem venue called the Cave Club, which provides guidance and support for British nationals joining the Israeli military’s Lone Soldiers programme.

Some of those helped by the Cave Club appear to have been signposted there from the Boys Clubhouse.

The Cave Club’s website says: “Boys who have progressed from the UK program and wish to come to Israel to find their path here, have a center that helps them on their new journey.”

Read more: London Jewish youth club helps 'teenagers in crisis' join Israeli army

Three Palestinians, including two children, were killed on Thursday morning in an Israeli strike of the Al-Satar Al-Gharbi area, north of Khan Younis. 

Israel has cut off Khan Younis from the rest of Gaza making it the focus of its assault on the Strip. 

Israel is also laying siege to Al-Amal Hospital shelling and bombing the surroundings of the medical facility and now allowing anyone to enter or leave.

At least one person was killed following an Israeli strike in Rafah on Thursday morning the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, adding that many more were wounded.

The bombing took place in the Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood, to the west of Rafah, which has become home to over 1.3 million Palestinians living in dangerously overcrowded conditions.

Israel has razed nearly 40 percent of the 2,824 buildings in Gaza located within a kilometre of the border, according to a Hebrew University study cited by The Wall Street Journal.

According to the report much of the land that has now been turned into a military zone, was agricultural land.

This marks another deliberate attempt by Israel to fulfil its stated aim of making the Strip uninhabitable by preventing Palestinians from growing their own food. 

The demolition moves appear to be part of a plan to build a kilometer-wide buffer zone inside the Strip.

The Israeli military appears to have demolished 1,072 out of 2,824 structures located one kilometre or less from the border. Most of the buildings were residential, according to the Hebrew University study.

"Shaul Arieli, a former Israeli colonel who served in Israel’s Gaza division told the WSJ that "the creation of a permanent buffer zone inside Gaza likely would be illegal under international law because Israel would be assuming control of land beyond its recognised territory and, as an occupying power, would be prohibited from altering boundaries."

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has reiterated his call for “rapid, safe, unhindered, expanded & sustained humanitarian access throughout Gaza”, in a post on X.

Israel claims that it has placed no limits on how much humanitarian aid can get into Gaza, but in practice it has deliberately throttled aid access in a bid to starve Gaza into submission. 

Palestinian groups are putting up a “deliberate defence against Israeli offensive operations” in southern Khan Younis and are battling Israeli forces in the west, south and east of the city, war monitors report.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) reported that Israeli forces were also vulnerable in the north of Gaza where Hamas could re-establish itself. 

Palestinians are reporting that the Israeli army entered into Jenin on Thursday morning.

Heavy gunfire and explosions can be heard in the city according to reports. The Jenin Brigades, announced that its men are conducting resistance operations against the army with heavy exchanges of fire with the use of explosives.

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has taken aim at Qatar in a social media post.

“Qatar is a country that supports terrorism and finances terrorism. She is the patron of Hamas and is largely responsible for the massacre committed by Hamas of Israeli citizens,” Smotrich wrote on X.

Smotrich was responding to comments made by Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Dr Majed Al Ansari, who said Doha was “appalled” by alleged remarks made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticising Qatari mediation efforts to secure the return of Israeli captives from Gaza.

Smotrich, one of the most extremist members of the most extremist Israeli government coalition to date, showed open and frank support for Hamas in a 2015 interview.

“The Palestinian Authority is a burden, and Hamas is an asset,” Smotrich said at the time. “It’s a terrorist organisation, no one will recognise it, no one will give it status at the [International Criminal Court], no one will let it put forth a resolution at the UN Security Council.”