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

After reporting that Israel launched an air attack on Damascus, Syrian state media is now reporting that the country's air defences repelled the Israeli rocket attack.

The reports added that defences shot down most of the missiles, and there were only material damages.

"The Israeli enemy carried out an air aggression from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting some points in the vicinity of the city of Damascus," the Syrian state news agency said, citing a military source.

The State Department said late on Friday that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had a call with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, in which Blinken urged him to protect installations in Iraq hosting American personnel.

Blinken spoke with Sudani after a series of attacks on American forces in Iraq that US officials have blamed on Iran-aligned groups.

Washington has concerns that the return of fighting in Gaza between Israel and Hamas may lead to a wider conflict in the region, including a possible war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement.

Syrian state media reported a short while ago that Israel had launched an air attack in the vicinity of the country's capital Damascus.

In a State Department readout, Blinken stressed "the need to prevent the conflict from spreading" during the call with Sudani.

A doctor who worked at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza during the Israeli siege and bombardment of the complex described how Israeli troops used Palestinian doctors as “hostages” as they invaded the hospital.

Following weeks of intense bombardment of the hospital, the Israeli military approved an evacuation request for the staff and patients to the southern enclave, submitted in coordination with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations.

When a UN-led convoy of ambulances arrived at a checkpoint set up by Israeli forces on the road connecting the northern Gaza Strip to southern areas, they were stopped, searched, and interrogated for seven hours, before the head of al-Shifa medical complex, Dr Mohammed Abu Silmiya, was detained along with around five other doctors.

Marwan Abu Saada, a doctor who was interrogated with him, spoke to Middle East Eye about the "horrifying hours" when Israeli soldiers held them and used them as human shields inside the hospital.

To read the full story, click below.

Gaza doctors seized by Israel say they were used as 'human shields'

Syrian state media is reporting that Israel launched an air attack on the vicinity of Damascus late on Friday.

Good evening MEE readers,

Israel’s bombing recommenced on Friday, following the end of a week-long truce, leaving at least 178 people dead, including three more Palestinian journalists.

Although US officials have said they are trying to work with Israel to minimise civilian casualties, many in Gaza feel they are running out of areas to flee to in the besieged enclave after being told to move again by Israel.

Other key points from the past few hours:

• Three people were killed in Israeli air strikes in southern Lebanon following the end of the Gaza truce

• Israel tells regional allies it wants a buffer zone in Gaza to prevent Hamas from reasserting power

• US says it believes Israel will allow reduced aid convoys to continue into Gaza

• UN calls for “humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza

The US says it is working with Israel to minimise civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip, an official told Reuters on Friday.

The official said that entire neighbourhoods of southern Gaza would be designated as zones that are safe for civilians - but that some would still have to leave their homes if they were in areas where Hamas fighters were embedded.

They added that the US expected there would be no full-scale assault on Khan Younis and Rafah such as the one targeting Gaza City.

A person self-immolated outside the Israeli consulate in the US city of Atlanta on Friday, in what police have deemed an "extreme" act of political protest.

The protester, whom officials did not identify, set fire to themself while holding a Palestinian flag and is now in critical condition, police chief Darin Schierbaum said at a news conference.

A security guard who attempted to intervene was also injured.

"We believe this building remains safe, and we do not see any threat here," the chief said.

"We believe that was an act of extreme political protest."

An Israeli attack has killed another Palestinian journalist in Gaza, the third to die since the truce ended on Friday.

Adham Hassouna, a journalist and university professor, was killed along with a number of family members after their home was struck by Israeli bombing.

He is the third Palestinian journalist killed on Friday, following Montaser Mustafa al-Sawaf and Abdallah Darwish.

Israel has told its Arab allies that it wants to create a buffer zone in the Gaza Strip after the current round of fighting ends, in order to prevent Hamas from reasserting control in the enclave.

Three regional sources told Haaretz that the Israeli government had relayed the plan to Egypt, Jordan, and the UAE and compared it to the "security zone" that Israel had maintained in southern Lebanon between 1985 and 2000.

"Israel wants this buffer zone between Gaza and Israel from the north to the south to prevent any Hamas or other militants from infiltrating or attacking Israel," said one senior regional security official, who did not want his nationality identified.

Turkey and Saudi Arabia, which does not have relations with Israel officially, were also informed of the plan.

The US has said it believes Israel will allow aid convoys into the Gaza Strip to continue, albeit in a reduced capacity, despite the ending of the truce.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Israel had made promises to that effect at the urging of the US, but said truck deliveries would likely be reduced to dozens a day rather than the hundreds that took place during the truce.

Kirby added that Israel's promise to allow the aid deliveries "looks like a good sign going forward".

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) has hit back at "unsubstantiated" accusations, after Israeli media claimed a captive had been held in the home of an employee of the organisation.

In a statement, the Unrwa called for the journalist who made the original claim to provide evidence.

“UNRWA requests that the journalist provides an immediate clarification of the claims, and that whoever may be able to assist us in determining the facts comes forward," said the organisation.

“In the absence of credible information to support this claim, UNRWA requests that the journalist immediately deletes the post. Making serious allegations in the public domain, unsupported by any evidence or verifiable facts in support thereof may amount to misinformation."

The Palestinian Ministry of Health has announced that 178 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza since the truce expired on Friday.

The enclave's health ministry said another 589 had also been injured.

The Hamas leadership in Gaza was aware of Israeli attempts to surveil them and took steps to keep their communication covert, a new report in the Jerusalem Post has suggested.

Security sources told the Israeli outlet that "no-one understood" in Israeli intelligence that Hamas was able to circumvent their monitoring and attributed the failure to anticipate the 7 October attack to this.

"Otherwise, they wouldn't have left the border unguarded, with no basic response from the ground or air," said the source.

Another report in the New York Times on Thursday suggested that the Israeli military was aware of Hamas's plans to attack southern Israel for over a year.

The Israeli army said it had recovered the body of Ofir Tzarfati, one of the captives taken by Hamas on 7 October.

The Times of Israel, quoted the military as saying that Tzarfati’s body had been recovered a few days ago and was “brought back to Israel this morning for burial”.

Tzarfati was one of the people taken from the Supernova music festival, just over 5km from the separation fence between Gaza and Israel.