Israel-Palestine live: US and Israel air differences over Gaza strategy

Video footage from Gaza’s Deir al Balah on Thursday showed hundreds of Palestinians queuing up in an attempt to find food.

Most supermarket shelves have been cleared of goods amid the Israeli siege, which has been in place since 9 October, and aid is trickling in very slowly. 

The United Nations has previously warned about starvation in Gaza, while fuel shortages have also in effect shut down water treatment and sewage systems, leading health authorities to warn about the spread of infectious diseases.

Access Now, a digital rights organisation, issued a statement on Wednesday calling on Meta to end its “long history of censoring Palestinian voices and overhaul the content moderation practices and policies that continue to restrict content about Palestine.”

“Meta must consider the disproportionate and negative impact of its policies and content moderation practices on Palestinians. The company has a responsibility to take serious action to mitigate contributing to the commission of serious crimes and human rights abuses in the current conflict,” the statement read. 
 

The Palestinian Red Crescent announced on Thursday that its operations in northern Gaza have now come to a halt. 

This is due to the depletion of fuel for ambulances and vehicles, as well as the closure of hospitals as a result of Israeli bombing. 

The organisation said this has made it “impossible to evacuate the wounded and martyrs”. 

Israeli forces on Thursday targeted the al-Awda mosque in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, according to Al Jazeera.

The mosque was located close to facilities where Palestinian civilians were sheltering from air strikes. 

A video verified by Al Jazeera showed thick plumes of smoke billowing above the mosque, as people flocked to the site to rescue survivors. 
 

The total number of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks since 7 October is now 17,177, Gaza’s health ministry said on Thursday, with the majority of those killed women and children.

More than 46,000 Palestinians have been wounded. 

Only in the last 24 hours at least 350 have been killed by Israeli strikes. 
 

Austria said on Thursday it was ending a suspension of aid to Palestinians that it announced two days after Hamas suprise assault in Israel on October 7, since a review had found no indication funds were being used to "fund or promote terrorism."

"There is no indication that Austrian development projects funded by the ADA (Austrian Development Agency) were misused to fund or promote terrorism or to spread anti-Semitic content," Austria's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Russia and Saudi Arabia "expressed their deep concern about the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza," and called for the establishment of a Palestinian state on 1967 borders, reported the Saudi state news agency SPA. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin was in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday for a short one-day visit which included the United Arab Emirates. The joint communique was released on Thursday.

The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, and President Putin “stressed the need to stop military operations in the Palestinian territories, and the need to protect civilians in accordance with international law and international humanitarian law,” a joint statement read. 

They agreed that it was necessary “to enable the Palestinian people to achieve their legitimate rights to establish an independent, sovereign Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital”.

Israeli soldiers transformed a home in northern Gaza into “the first Chabad House in Gaza,” according to a report by The Times of Israel on Wednesday.

The soldiers, followers of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement of Judaism, took the pictures in the city of Beit Hanoun and the image has now become a viral post on social media.

Chabad is considered a conservative Orthodox sect of Judaism whose leaders in Israel have long opposed the formation of a Palestinian state, or territorial concessions to Palestinians.

The sect has a complicated relationship with Zionism, opposing the celebration of Israel’s independence day, the singing of the national anthem and the raising of the flag, while strongly supporting the Israeli army.

Read more: Israeli soldiers set up Chabad House in damaged Gaza homes

Hundreds of workers and protesters have shut down four arms factories across the UK, which supply components for the F-35 stealth fighter jet used by Israel to bomb Gaza.

The four arms factories include Eaton Mission Systems in Bournemouth, BAE Systems at Samlesbury Aerodrome in Lancashire, L3Harris factory in Brighton, and the BAE Systems Govan site in Glasgow. 

Each of the four arms factories supply components that are necessary for building the F-35 stealth fighter jet. 

According to its company website, L3-Harris’ systems are integral to several US combat aircraft including the F-22, F/A-18 and F-35. It also manufactures bomb-release mechanisms for the F-35 combat aircraft and Reaper drone, both of which are deployed by Israel in Gaza. 

Footage posted online showed activists blockading the entrances to the four factories since the early morning and preventing workers from the arms factory from entering the sites. 

Read more: Protesters blockade UK factories building F-35 warplane parts used by Israel

Israeli strikes on a group of seven journalists in south Lebanon on 13 October should be investigated as a "war crime", Amnesty International said on Thursday. 

The Israeli strike killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah and injured six others, and was "likely a direct attack on civilians" said Amnesty International, adding that its findings "indicate that the group was visibly identifiable as journalists and that the Israeli military knew or should have known that they were civilians yet attacked them anyway in two separate strikes 37 seconds apart.

“Those responsible for Issam Abdallah’s unlawful killing and the injuring of six other journalists must be held accountable. No journalist should ever be targeted or killed simply for carrying out their work. Israel must not be allowed to kill and attack journalists with impunity. There must be an independent and impartial investigation into this deadly attack,” added Amnesty International.

A shocking new report by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has found that at least 97 percent of households in northern Gaza have “inadequate food” to meet their needs. 

At least nine out of 10 people are going one full day and night without food.

In the south of Gaza, more than one-third of households are suffering from high levels of hunger or very severe hunger, the WFP reported. 

More than 83 percent of Palestinians in the south have “inadequate food” to meet their needs. 

The US told Israel not to respond to missile and drone attacks from the Houthis in Yemen, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.

Houthi forces have been firing drones and ballistic missiles at Israel for weeks. Israel and the US have shot down most of these. 

The US has told Israel to let the American military respond to the Houthis, instead of risking an Israeli response that could expand the conflict, US and other government officials said, according to the WSJ.

Earlier this morning, the Israeli military announced that two soldiers were killed in Gaza. 

This brings the total number of soldiers killed during the ground offensive against Hamas since late October to 86.

US energy envoy Amos Hochstein said on Thursday he did not think hope should be lost with regards to normalisation of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, and it remains a goal for his country despite the ongoing war in Gaza, Reuters reported. 

Saudi Arabia put US-backed plans to normalise ties with Israel on ice nearly two months ago, at the start of Israel's war on Gaza. 

"I think that not every road is a straight road and sometimes it goes in different directions first. But the goal is still the same," Hochstein said, speaking on the sidelines of an industry event in the United Arab Emirates.

"And we remain as committed to that goal of regional integration; and it's not just about Saudi Arabia and Israel, it has to be much broader than that."

The United States and Israel oppose a ceasefire in Gaza. Since 7 October, more than 16,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel, mostly women and children.

At least 42 Palestinians have been detained in overnight and pre-dawn raids across the occupied West Bank by Israel, according to reports by Wafa, the Palestinian news agency.

Half of those detained were Palestinian workers from Gaza. Here is a breakdown of the Israeli raids across the West Bank. 

• From Hebron, the occupation forces detained 13 
• From Tulkarm, Israeli forces arrested 19 workers from Gaza residing in the town of Faroun
• In Nablus another five Palestinians were detained, including two from Gaza 
• From Bethlehem another five Palestinians were detained, including three from Gaza

Since 7 October, Israel has detained more than 3,640 Palestinians, Wafa reported.