Live: Israel and Hamas claim victory as fragile ceasefire holds

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said reports of a move towards a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza are encouraging.

"We have seen reports of a move toward a potential ceasefire. That's clearly encouraging," Psaki told a regular news briefing.

"We believe the Israelis have achieved significant military objectives that they laid out to achieve, in relation to protecting their people and to responding to the thousands of rocket attacks from Hamas," Psaki said. 

"So that's why in part that we feel they're in a position to start winding their operation down," she said.

Diplomatic moves towards a ceasefire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict gained momentum on Thursday, but Israel threatened to step up strikes on Gaza as Hamas rocket fire resumed after a pause. 
 

A fundraiser to rebuild Gaza's largest bookshop has raised over $129,000, hitting its target in one day.

“I stopped eating so that I could afford to open the shop,” Shaban Aslim said after his shop was reduce to rubble by an Israeli airstrike, in a video widely-shared online.

The organisers of the page have said they will use the money to help rebuil Alsim's shop, and any other bookshops that have been destroyed.

Israel's cabinet will vote on a unilateral ceasefire decision on Friday, Kann news reported, adding that they therefore have no intention to use Egytian mediators.

The messages Israel broadcasts in Arabic, Hebrew and English tell a different, and sometimes opposing, story about what's going on in Gaza.

Middle East Eye's Mohamed Hassan explains how they do it:

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres described Gaza as "hell on earth" for children on Thursday, appealing to Israel for rapid and unhindered aid access and telling the UN's General Assembly he would launch an appeal for humanitarian funding, Reuters reported.

The 193-member UN General Assembly met on Thursday to discuss the renewed violence, but no action was expected.

"If there is a hell on earth, it is the lives of children in Gaza today," said Guterres, adding that he would launch a full humanitarian appeal for funding as soon as possible.

"The hostilities have caused serious damage to vital civilian infrastructure in Gaza, including roads and electricity lines, contributing to a humanitarian emergency. Crossings into Gaza have been closed and power shortages are affecting water supplies," Guterres added.

Guterres called for an immediate ceasefire, urged Israel's military to exercise maximum restraint and Hamas to stop indiscriminate rocket fire.

The Israeli government has formally told the Egyptian mediator in indirect ceasefire talks with Hamas that it plans to halt operations, Al Jazeera reported, citing unnamed sources, who didn't give further details as to how or when it might happen.

Israel's security cabinet will convene on Thursday to discuss a possible cease-fire.

Palestinians in Israel's Umm al-Fahm neighbourhood have gathered to march in the funeral procession of 17-year-old Muhammad Kiwan.

The teenager was pronounced dead yesterday after being in a coma for the past week. Israeli forces shot the teenager in the head during a protest, where many had taken to the streets to denounce Israeli police aggression and the heavy bombardment of Gaza. 

Tweet reads: Video | This was the funeral procession of the martyr Muhammad Kiwan from his home in Umm al-Fahm.

The city has announced a day of mourning today, where many shops and businesses have remained closed after a week of attacks targeted at Palestinians amid a heavy Israeli police crackdown.

Many Palestinian protesters have vowed to keep resisting, and came out to the funeral waving flags and chanting protest songs. 

Tweet reads: Thousands of people in Umm al-Fahm honour martyr Muhammad Kiwan with chants of victory.

Israel is coming closer to agreeing to a ceasefire, recent reports continue to show, as pressure from the US and European Union mounts. 

Yossi Melman, an Israeli security and intelligence commentator who has written extensively on the situation for MEE, said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could announce a ceasefire as early as Thursday evening, local time. Such a measure, however, would rely on the Hamas movement also agreeing to freeze its missile launches, Israeli military, and diplomatic sources told him. 

Earlier on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal, citing people involved in the discussions, said a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was expected to be announced by at least Friday.  

A rocket fell on a house in Ashkelon on Thursday afternoon during the latest rocket fire from Gaza at the Israeli city and its surroundings, Haaretz reported.

The family living there entered their fortified safe room and were not wounded, the Israeli newpaper said.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, has decided to remove two companies involved in the development of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, citing concerns about potential human rights violations.

The $1.3tn oil fund said late on Wednesday that it had sold out of Shapir Engineering and Industry and Mivne Real Estate. The fund has also barred them from its portfolio “due to unacceptable risk that the companies contribute to systematic violations of individuals’ rights in situations or war or conflict”.

Images shared on social media show Iraqis heading towards the Jordanian border to show solidarity with Palestinians, in response to the heavy-handed crackdown from Israeli forces and continuing bombardment of Gaza. 

People posted photos online of Iraqis getting on buses ahead of large protests expected on Friday. 

According to local media, people from various governorates across Iraq are travelling to the border following an initiative launched by activists online. 

A number of hashtags have been used, asking for the borders to be opened to allow people to peacefully protest. 

Over the past week, Iraq has witnessed mass protests in Baghdad in support of Palestinians. 

Thousands of people gathered in Tahrir Square in the centre of the capital to denounce Israel's actions. 

Senior World Health Organisation (WHO) officials called on Thursday for a humanitarian pause in bombardment of the Gaza Strip to allow access for aid as the health system in the besieged territory faces critical shortages.

"The closure of entry and exit points for patients and humanitarian health assistance and the severe restrictions on the entry of medical supplies is exacerbating this public health crisis," said Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO's regional director.

The organisation also issued an urgent appeal for $7m in response to the health crisis.

The funds were required to "enable a comprehensive emergency response in the next six months," it said.

In a speech to the House of Lords about the ongoing violence in Israel-Palestine, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, a former co-chairwoman of the Conservative Party, has condemned what she said was the UK government's failure to uphold its own policy on Palestine.

Palestinian Muntaser Mahmoud Zidane, 29, was pronounced dead on Thursday, following wounds sustained two days ago from Israeli gunfire in the village of Tura al-Gharbiya, near Jenin. 

Zidane came from the village of Umm Dar. He was married and the father of one girl.

The Palestinian ministry of health said the death brought the number of people killed in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem since 7 May to 29, including four children, with 6,301 injured.

The UN Human Rights Council will hold a special session on 27 May on the "grave human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem," the UN body has said. 

"The special session is being convened per an official request submitted late yesterday jointly by Pakistan, as Coordinator of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and the State of Palestine," it added in a statement.