Live: Six more Palestinians die of famine as Israel blocks Gaza aid

Israeli media has reported that a senior official in the Israel National Cyber Directorate was arrested in Las Vegas on suspicion of online paedophilia.

According to a report on the Israeli news website Ynet, Tom Alexandrovich, 38, was arrested for questioning by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department during a conference he had attended on behalf of the cyber directorate last week.

He was arrested along with seven other suspects as part of "a multi-agency operation targeting child sex predators [which] led to the arrest of eight individuals over the past two weeks", Las Vegas police said in a statement.

The suspects, according to local police, "face felony charges of Luring a Child with Computer for Sex Act".

The Israel National Cyber Directorate, which is supervised by the Prime Minister's Office, said in response: "The employee informed the Directorate that during his trip to the United States he was questioned by the US authorities on matters not related to work matters, and returned to Israel on the scheduled date of return.

Read more: Senior Israel National Cyber Directorate official arrested on suspicion of paedophilia

Israel's military downed missiles from Yemen on Sunday afternoon, according to Haaretz. 

Thousands of protesters demanding a ceasefire deal to release Israeli captives sought shelter after air raid sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and elsewhere in central Israel.

Earlier on Sunday, Israel launched strikes on the Haziz power station near the Yemeni capital.

The Israeli military said it had targeted an energy infrastructure site used by the Houthis, south of Sanaa. 

Israeli protestors blocked a highway in Tel Aviv during an anti-government protest opposing the invasion of Gaza City and demanding a deal to release Israeli captives held in Gaza by Hamas. pic.twitter.com/OQotjUp2nj

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) August 17, 2025

The toll of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip since October 2023 has risen to 61,944, the majority of whom are children and women.

At least 155,886 others have been wounded during that time. 

The increase comes after Israeli forces killed 47 people over the past day, of whom nine were recovered from rubble. At least 226 others were wounded in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours.

Israelis who were formerly held captive in Gaza, as well as relatives of current captives, took part in mass demonstrations across Israel calling for a ceasefire deal. 

Arbel Yehud and Yarden Bibas were amongst the former captives to take part, as well as Sharon Aloni-Kunyo and Eitan Kunyo - siblings of David and Ariel, who are still held in Gaza. 

"I know first-hand what it is like to be in captivity, I know that military pressure does not return kidnapped people, it only kills them. The only way to return them is in a one-shot deal, without games," said Yehud. 

"This day of shutdown is important, but it must not remain one day, we must have continuity - we must stop the routine again and again until those who are in captivity return."

The Hostages' Families Forum called on Israeli politicians and ministers to "set aside politics" and join them in protests. 

It said: "This day will be etched in Israel's national memory - who chose to stand with the families, and who turned their back on them. No more excuses. Bring them all home now, or you will be remembered in infamy forever."

Netanyahu condemned the protests, accusing demonstrators of boosting Hamas’ position in negotiations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned nationwide protests demanding an end to the war in Gaza, accusing demonstrators of boosting Hamas’ position in negotiations.

"Those calling today for an end to the war without the defeat of Hamas not only harden Hamas's position and draw out the release of our hostages, but also ensure that the horrors of October 7 will reoccur," Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting, according to a statement from his office.

Israeli police have arrested at least 22 protesters during the demonstrations and strikes, which called for an end to the war and the immediate release of all captives held in Gaza.

Speaking outside the Egyptian embassy in London, Maha Azzam, head of the Egyptian Revolutionary Council, said the Rabaa massacre remains an open wound twelve years later and its legacy is directly tied to what is happening in Gaza today.

She described Rabaa as a systematic… pic.twitter.com/iO1GhV6Rae

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) August 17, 2025

Hamas said on Sunday that Israel's plan to concentrate hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into one confined location in southern Gaza constituted a "new wave of genocide and displacement".

The group said the planned deployment of tents and other shelter equipment by Israel in southern Gaza Strip was a "blatant deception".

Last month, Israel Katz, the Israeli defence minister, announced plans that would initially involve the ejection of 600,000 displaced Palestinians currently living in camps and makeshift homes in the al-Mawasi area of southern Gaza to an area in the ruins of Rafah city. 

Once they arrive in this new zone, security screenings would take place. They won’t be allowed to leave once they’ve entered, Katz said. 

Eventually, the entire civilian population of over two million in Gaza would be confined to this small “city”. 

Israeli forces have killed two Palestinians in an attack east of Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, according to an Al-Jazeera Arabic report citing medical sources at al-Aqsa hospital.

Israel has killed at least 21 Palestinians in Gaza since the early hours of Sunday morning.

Israeli protesters took to the streets on Sunday calling for an end to the war in Gaza and a deal to release captives held there.

The demonstrations came days after Israel's security cabinet approved plans to fully occupy Gaza City.

Forty-nine Israeli captives remain in Gaza, including 27 whom the Israeli military says are dead.

A large Israeli flag covered with portraits of the remaining captives was unfurled in Tel Aviv's so-called "Hostage Square", which has been a focal point for protests.

Demonstrators blocked several roads in the city, including the highway connecting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where demonstrators set tyres on fire and caused traffic jams.

Protest organisers and the main campaign group representing the families of captives called for a general strike on Sunday, the first day of the week in Israel.

In Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, many businesses were shut.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement that protesters would "shut down the country today (Sunday) with one clear call: Bring back the 50 hostages, end the war".

Israeli government ministers condemned the demonstrations.

Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich decried "a perverse and harmful campaign that plays into the hands of Hamas".

He stated that public pressure to secure a ceasefire agreement effectively "buries the hostages in tunnels and seeks to push the State of Israel to surrender to its enemies and jeopardise its security and future".

Culture Minister Miki Zohar, of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, said that blocking roads and disrupting daily life "is a serious mistake and a reward to the enemy".

Israeli police beefed up forces, saying no "public order disturbances" would be tolerated.

Footage from AFP showed protesters at a rally in Beeri, a kibbutz near the Gaza boundary that was one of the hardest-hit communities in the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023.

Reporting by AFP

At least seven Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes and gunfire in Gaza in the last few hours.

Four civilians were killed and others wounded when an Israeli air strike hit a tent sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Elsewhere in the south, three Palestinians waiting to collect aid were killed and others wounded by Israeli gunfire in Rafah. 

Since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed at least 61,897 people in Gaza, most of them women and children. A further 155,660 have been wounded.

The Israeli military launched strikes on the Haziz power station near the Yemeni capital early on Sunday.

It said it targeted an energy infrastructure site used by the Houthis, south of Sanaa, in response to repeated drone and missile attacks against Israel.

Al-Masirah TV, run by the Houthis, said the power station was hit by an "aggression", knocking some of its generators out of service. The broadcaster did not specify the source of the attack, but added that teams were able to contain the resulting fire.

Residents reported hearing at least two explosions earlier in Sanaa.

Since late 2023, the Houthis have fired missiles towards Israel, most of which have been intercepted, in support of Palestinians under Israeli bombardment. Israel has carried out frequent bombing campaigns on Yemen since then.

The US and the UK have also previously launched attacks in Yemen.

In May, the US announced a deal with the Houthis in which it agreed to halt air strikes in return for an end to Houthi attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea. The Yemeni group said the deal did not include sparing Israel.

Our live blog will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are the day's key developments:

• Hamas condemned the Israeli military’s “systematic destruction" of Gaza City amid intensified assaults over the past week on the eastern and southern neighbourhoods of Gaza City, particularly Zeitoun.

• An 18-year-old Palestinian teenager was shot to death by Israeli forces in the al-Mughayyir village north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

• The Palestinian health ministry said on Saturday that 61,897 people have been killed and 155,660 wounded since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza.

• A young Palestinian woman flown from Gaza to an Italian hospital in a severely emaciated state for treatment has died, the hospital said Saturday.

• France's foreign ministry has called on Israel to drop a plan to build thousands of new illegal settlements in the West Bank, calling the project "a serious violation of international law".

• The US State Department said on Saturday that it will halt all visitor visas for people from Gaza.

• Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, has said she is considering sanctions and other forms of pressure against Israel over its actions in Gaza and the West Bank.

• The death toll from Israeli-imposed starvation in the Gaza Strip has risen to 251, including 108 children, according to the Palestinian health officials.