Live: Israel and Hamas claim victory as fragile ceasefire holds
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The Israeli military fatally shot a Palestinian near al-Fawwar refugee camp south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.
Several Palestinians have been shot and killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since Friday amid ongoing protests.
Palestinian news agency Wafa identified the victim as Wajdy Walid Jaarfa, saying that his vehicle had come under heavy Israeli fire from a nearby military tower.
According to Wafa, Israeli forces had blocked medics from reaching Jaarfa after he was hit, and he subsequently died on the scene.
More than 360 Palestinians were injured in the West Bank on Saturday, including 63 by live ammunition, as Israel cracked down on protesters, Arab48 news website reported, citing health authorities.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel's war on Gaza will "take time" and continue "as long as necessary", Israeli media outlets have reported.
During a press conference on Saturday, Netanyahu delivered remarks in Hebrew and English, justifying Israel's attacks on civilian infrastructure in Gaza.
He referred to Saturday's bombing of a building in Gaza known for housing international media organisations, saying "Israel is doing everything possible" to avoid killing civilians.
"We demonstrated this yet again today when we warned civilians to vacate the building used by the Hamas terror intelligence," he said, referring to the building housing the Associated Press, Middle East Eye and Al Jazeera offices.
"They vacated the premises before the target was destroyed. And that's why you don't hear of casualties from these collapsing terror towers."
Israel has not provided any evidence to back its claim that the building was being used by Hamas.
Israeli bombs have killed at least 139 Palestinians, including dozens of children and in some instances entire families.
On Saturday, Netanyahu also thanked US President Joe Biden for his "clear and unequivocal support".
In his first conversation with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas since taking office, US President Joe Biden on Saturday expressed what he called Washington’s commitment to strengthening the US-Palestinian partnership and asked for Hamas to stop the firing rockets towards Israel.
"President Biden updated President Abbas on U.S. diplomatic engagement on the ongoing conflict and stressed the need for Hamas to cease firing rockets into Israel," said a White House statement.
"They expressed their shared concern that innocent civilians, including children, have tragically lost their lives amidst the ongoing violence."
The call for Hamas to end rocket attacks comes amid refusal from the US administration to explicitly call for an immediate ceasefire from both sides. Biden has also failed to criticise Israel's heaving bombardment of Gaza, including the targeting of building housing media offices on Saturday.
Biden highlighted the recent US decision to resume economic and humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, voicing support for steps to "enable the Palestinian people to enjoy the dignity, security, freedom and economy opportunity that they deserve."
Abbas’ spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina confirmed the conversation had taken place, telling AFP that it was "important" without elaborating on the details of the exchange.
The White House issued another statement of uncritical support for Israel on Saturday after a call between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"The president reaffirmed his strong support for Israel’s right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza," the White House said in a statement describing the call.
"He condemned these indiscriminate attacks against towns and cities across Israel."
It was the second time Biden had spoken to Netanyahu since the crisis began. The call came hours after Israel bombed a building housing the offices of several media outlets in Gaza, including the Associated Press and Middle East Eye.
Biden, who had vowed to pursue a foreign policy centring human rights, failed to condemn the attack. Instead, he merely expressed "concern" for the safety of journalists.
The administration has been using the word "concern" when it comes to Israel's action in an apparent effort to avoid explicitly criticising the Israeli government.
"The President noted that this current period of conflict has tragically claimed the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians, including children," the statement said. "He raised concerns about the safety and security of journalists and reinforced the need to ensure their protection."
Thousands of Palestinians have come out in the city of Sakhnin this afternoon, in order to mark the anniversary of the Nakba, or Catastrophe - the expulsion of more 800,000 Palestinians from their homes to make way for the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.
Demonstrators gathered in front of the al-Nour Mosque in central Sakhnin, and marched through the city.
In Jaffa, hundreds of people also protested against the wave of attacks from settlers in recent days, where groups of Israeli nationalists marched through the city and caused damage to Arab-owned businesses.
Protesters waved Palestinian flags and chanted songs about Palestinian resistance, condemning Israeli aggression.
Tanslation - Sakhnin: A large march against against the aggression of the occupation [Israeli forces] and settlers, and to mark the anniversary of Nakba.
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been left in a state of shock and devastation after Israeli air strikes claimed the lives of 11 people, including eight children, in the early hours of Saturday.
10-year-old Nadine Abdel-Taif is one of the many Palestinians who lost their homes to the overnight Israeli raid.
Breaking down, she questions why her, her family, and others in Gaza are being targeted.
On Saturday afternoon, Israeli forces entered the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, assaulted residents and forcibly broke up groups of protesters.
Police forces were seen beating women with batons and storming property in an attempt to get people to leave their homes.
Translation: Occupation forces break into the home of Al-Kurd family in Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in Jerusalem.
Residents of Sheikh Jarrah have been protesting for over a week against an Israeli court's decision to imminently evacuate a number of families.
According to Palestinian news agency Wafa, police forces attacked demonstraters who gathered to show support for the families facing forced expulsion.
The neighbourhood has been a flashpoint of violence in recent days, where Israeli forces came in on horseback, heavily armed, to disperse people.
A number of Lebanese protesters in southern Lebanon have tried to scale the border wall with Israel in Adaisseh to voice their opposition to the ongoing Israeli onslaught on Gaza, according to Middle East Eye correspondent in Lebanon Kareem Chehayeb.
Hundreds of protesters, marching and driving their cars, waved Palestinian, Lebanese and Hezbollah flags and chanted against the Israeli air strikes on Gaza and the crackdown on Palestinian citizens of Israel. Many chanted "Palestine will survive" and condemning the Israeli occupation.
Lebanese soldiers and troops from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) surrounded the protesters to make sure they did not march to the borders.
Some protesters hit the wall or threw rocks and molotov cocktails at it in a symbolic protest, but the Lebanese army later stopped them.
Al Jazeera has condemned an Israeli air strike that destroyed a building housing their offices in Gaza, promising to "pursue every available route to hold the Israeli government responsible for its actions".
In a statement released on the Al Jazeera English website, the Qatar-owned media company said the attack was an attempt to silence journalism.
Mostefa Souag, acting director general of Al Jazeera Media Network, said the bombing of al-Jalaa building was a "heinous crime".
"We call on the international community to condemn such barbaric actions and targeting of journalists and we demand an immediate international action to hold Israel accountable for its deliberate targeting of journalists and the media institutions," he said
"The destruction of Al Jazeera offices and that of other media organizations in al-Jalaa tower in Gaza is a blatant violation of human rights and is internationally considered a war crime. We call on all media and human rights institutions in denouncing this heinous crime, and to stand with Al Jazeera and other media organisations targeted by the Israeli army, despite knowing their use of the building as their headquarters for many years."
The owner of al-Jalaa tower pleads with an Israeli officer on live TV to let journalists collect their gear before the building is bombed by Israeli air strikes.
Moments later, Israeli air strikes demolish the Gaza building that housed several international media offices used by Al Jazeera and Middle East Eye.
Thousands of people took to the streets of London on Saturday, to protest over the recent week of assaults on Palestinians and airstrikes in Gaza.
People marched in from Hyde Park, making their way to the Israeli embassy.
Shouting slogans, the protesters denounced the Israeli army’s recent attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and the imminent eviction of a number of families in the occupied east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
Speaking to Middle East Eye, a number of protesters expressed their anger at the injustice many Palestinians have faced, and called on governments to take action on the escalating situation on the ground.
“Today we are here to protest the atrocities that are taking place in Palestine by the Israeli government and the terrorism that is being comitted,” one protester said.
“We want them to stop illegally evicting people from places like Sheikh Jarrah and stop terrorising Palestinians at al-Aqsa, where people are just trying to worship.”
“We’re watching a massacre and no one is doing anything...it’s awful,” another protester told MEE.
At least 139 people have been killed in Gaza since Monday, and over ten in the West Bank.
The mass protest comes on the anniversary of the Nakba in 1948, or the Catastrophe, where at least 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes to make way for the creation of the state of Israel.
This week, protests in solidarity with Palestine have taken place around the world, including in New Zealand, Italy, Iraq, Germany, Syria.
Meanwhile, in France, planned protests were banned.
Earlier this afternoon, Israel bombed a 12-storey building in Gaza used by a number of news outlets including Middle East Eye, Al Jazeera and the Associated Press.
The bombing of the building came after Israel gave people a one hour ultimatum to leave, with many people being forced to leave behind their belongings and equipment.
Mohammed al-Hajjar, a photojournalist for MEE, was among those who left the building.
Watch Middle East Eye's live stream from Paris as police forces violently disperse protesters who defied the government's ban on demonstrations showing solidarity with Palestinians.
Israel on Saturday launched air strikes on the Al-Jalaa Tower in Gaza, a 12-storey residential building also used by Middle East Eye, Al Jazeera, the Associated Press and other international and local media.
The Israeli army had given the media outlets one hour ultimatum to evacuate the building in the besieged Gaza Strip ahead of a possible air strike, MEE correspondent said.
Al Jazeera correspondent said the offices have been used by the channel for the past 15 years, and that the staff has not been able to empty the offices of important archives and equipment.
Follow Middle East Eye's live stream from Gaza here.
Al Jazeera has aired a phone call between the building's owner and an Israeli intelligence officer, asking to be given more time to evacuate equipment from the offices, but the officer has declined the request.
Several journalists are posting live tweets expressing outrage at the Israeli bombardment and the short notice.
Middle East Eye's photojournalist Muhammed Hajjar has also been forced to evacuate the building.
The chairman of the High Follow-up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel has called on the UK to intervene in Israel to protect Palestinian citizens, as violence continues to the flare up across the country between Jewish and Arab communities.
In a letter addressed to UK Ambassador to Israel Desmond Patrick Neil Wigan, Mohammed Barakeh, who is also former leader of the left-wing Hadash party, said the international community needed to "intervene immediately to protect the safety and human rights of our community".
"In recent days, Palestinian citizens of Israel (PCI) have been victims of intense violence at the hands of the Israeli police and extreme right-wing Israeli citizens, vigilante groups, including settlers," he wrote in the letter, shared with Middle East Eye.
Israel's ambulance authority said one Israeli citizen was killed on Saturday in a rocket attack from Gaza.
The new fatality raises the death toll caused by Gaza rockets over the past week to 10 Israelis.
Earlier on Saturday, the armed wing of the Palestinian movement Hamas, the de facto ruler of the Gaza Strip, announced that dozens of rockets were fired towards Tel Aviv in retaliation for the bombing of a residential building in the al-Shati refugee camp in the early hours of Saturday. The air strike killed eight children and two women from the same family, according to Gaza’s health officials.
Gaza's death toll from Israeli air strikes, ongoing since Monday, has reached 140 civilians, including 39 children and 22 women, according to the health ministry.
