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

The president of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald Lauder, has said that Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's comments are inciteful and that they damage the security of the Jewish people.

“Smotrich and his partner National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir have repeatedly made statements that massively damage Israel as well as the security of the Jewish people. It has to stop," Lauder said. 

“These men do not represent the sentiments of the vast majority of Jews worldwide, who rightfully view these two as extremists not fit to serve in public office," he added.

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, declared on Thursday that he will proceed with the E1 settlement project that “buries the idea of a Palestinian state” by building more than 3,000 housing units for Israeli settlers separating the south of the West Bank from the middle and the north.

A sudden panic has gripped supporters of Israel across the world. Western neo-colonial regimes, including the white settler-colonies of Australia, Canada and New Zealand, are most anxious about the fate of the last European settler-colony in Asia. 

Even pro-Israel British and American Jewish organisations have joined the new chorus of the anxious. 

While fully defending Israel's ongoing crimes before and since 7 October 2023, its western supporters have suddenly developed moral compunctions about the more recent phase of the genocide, where the continued outright bombing and incineration of Gaza in a holocaust is now compounded by the deliberate mass starvation of the Palestinian survivors. 

Unlike anti-Zionist and other leftist Jewish groups, who have condemned and protested against Israel's genocide since its onset, major British and American pro-Israel Jewish organisations have in their majority remained fully supportive of Israeli actions. 

That changed in the last two weeks, with the appearance of seemingly coordinated, simultaneous declarations of concern about the famine in Gaza. 

Read more: Are Israel's allies abandoning a sinking ship?

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem has warned that the group will not disarm while Israel continues its attacks and occupation of Lebanon.

Speaking on Friday, Qassem said the Lebanese government would bear responsibility if the country’s internal situation deteriorates, Reuters reported.

There would be "no life" in Lebanon if the government tries to confront the group said Qassem, emphasising the potential for widespread instability if the government continues to attempt to disarm it, as the US and Israel have demanded.

Germany has urged Israel to halt settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank after the country’s far-right finance minister announced the start of a project for thousands of new homes in a development that would cut the Palestinian territory in two.

“We firmly reject the Israeli government’s announcements regarding the approval of thousands of new housing units in Israeli settlements in the West Bank,” a German foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday.

Berlin warned that the planned “E1” settlement, along with the expansion of Maale Adumim, would divide the West Bank, limit Palestinian movement, and sever the area from East Jerusalem.

On Thursday, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said work would begin on the long-delayed project, a move his office described as one that would “bury” the possibility of a Palestinian state. His spokesperson said the plan would see 3,401 homes built for settlers between Maale Adumim and Jerusalem.

Germany has repeatedly said settlement construction violates international law and United Nations Security Council resolutions. Such actions, the foreign ministry stressed, make it harder to reach a negotiated two-state solution and end the occupation of the West Bank.

Two Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike on Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood, a medical source has told Al Jazeera Arabic.

A spokesperson from the Baptist Hospital reported the casualties following the bombing on Friday.

US President Donald Trump has voiced support for allowing journalists into Gaza, saying they should be able to see humanitarian operations on the ground.

Since the war began in October 2023, Israel has barred foreign media from entering Gaza except under military escort.

“I'd like to see that happen. Sure,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office on Thursday. “I would be very fine with journalists going. And it's a very dangerous position to be in, as you know, if you're a journalist, but I would like to see it.”

The United Nations has warned Israel that its military could be added to a global list of forces suspected of committing sexual violence during conflict, citing credible evidence of violations.

In his annual report, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said both Israel and Russia risked joining a roster that includes Myanmar’s military and Sudan’s army. The list identifies parties believed to have carried out acts such as rape during wartime.

“Due to significant concerns regarding patterns of certain forms of sexual violence perpetrated by Israeli armed and security forces and Russian armed and security forces and affiliated armed groups, these parties have been put on notice for potential listing in the next reporting period,” the report said.

The concerns, it added, “relate primarily to violations recorded in detention settings.”

For Israel, the report cites “credible information” that its military and security forces engaged in repeated sexual violence, including “genital violence, prolonged forced nudity and repeated strip searches conducted in an abusive and degrading manner.”

Turkey has sharply criticised Israel’s latest move to expand settlements across the occupied West Bank, warning it would deal a heavy blow to Palestinian territorial rights.

In a statement on Thursday, the Turkish foreign ministry said creating a sovereign Palestinian state remained the only route to lasting peace in the region.

“This step … totally disregards international law and United Nations resolutions; targets the State of Palestine’s territorial integrity, the basis for a two-state solution, and hopes for peace,” the ministry said.

Fadwa Barghouti, the wife of jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, has responded to a rare video showing her husband in detention, saying the footage laid bare the toll and absue of his decades in Israeli custody.

"I didn’t recognize you or your features, and maybe part of me doesn’t want to admit everything your face and body express about what you and the prisoners have endured," she wrote in a message addressed directly to Marwan.

"They are still, Marwan, chasing you and pursuing you even after 23 years in prison and in the solitary cell you’ve been living in for two years."

She added: "I know that the only thing that hurts you is the inability to protect Palestinian children."

Barghouti, a senior Fatah figure, was arrested in April 2002 when Israeli forces disguised as medics seized him from Ramallah and transferred him to Israel, a move rights groups say violated the Geneva Conventions. He was convicted in a trial widely denounced as politically motivated, with the Inter-Parliamentary Union citing “numerous breaches of international law” and saying it was “impossible to say that Mr Barghouti received a fair trial.”

Since October 2023, Barghouti has been held almost entirely in solitary confinement and repeatedly moved between prisons. His family and lawyers say he has endured multiple assaults, including beatings, forced kneeling, dislocated joints, and untreated injuries, while being denied regular visits.

Rights groups describe the transfers and solitary confinement as punitive measures linked to Israel's genocidal war in Gaza, with some warning that the pattern of abuse could be an attempt to “eliminate” him.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has been filmed visiting Marwan Barghouti, the most prominent Palestinian prisoner, and threatening him that Israel will "obliterate" anyone who opposes it.

It is the first time that Barghouti has been seen publicly in years. Aged and gaunt, wearing a white undershirt, he is almost unrecognisable.

In the video, which circulated on social media on Thursday night, Ben Gvir is seen telling Barghouti: "Whoever messes with the people of Israel, whoever murders our children, whoever murders our women, we will obliterate them. You will not defeat us."

Barghouti has been in prison since 2004. A senior figure in Fatah, the party that dominates the Palestinian Authority (PA), he was targeted by Israel due to his leading role in the 2000-2005 Second Intifada and popularity among the public.

Read more: Israel's Ben Gvir seen threatening Marwan Barghouti in prison in new video

Good morning Middle East Eye readers, 

Here are the latest updates from the Israeli genocide in Gaza, now in its 678th day: 

• Gaza deaths mount: Israeli attacks killed at least 32 people on Thursday, including 13 seeking aid, Palestinian health officials say. Four more died from malnutrition as starvation spreads in the Israeli besieged enclave.

• Israeli aid obstruction: Over 100 humanitarian groups accused Israel of blocking critical aid, leaving supplies stranded in Jordan and Egypt while Gaza faces famine.

• Protests in Israel: Demonstrators blocked Tel Aviv’s Ayalon North highway, demanding captive returns and opposing expanded military action in Gaza

• West Bank settlement plan sparks outcry: Israel’s government is set to approve new settlements in the E1 area next week, a move that would sever the northern and southern West Bank.

• Bury idea of a Palestinian state: Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stated the plan "buries the idea of a Palestinian state, because there's nothing to recognise and no one to recognise it."

• Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told Newsmax: Granting Palestinians a state with border control, airspace access, and regional ties would be "suicidal from the point of view of Israel."