Live: Hamas agrees to release 10 Israeli captives

The Israeli military said on Saturday it detected a missile launched from Yemen towards Israeli territory, and that the air defence systems are currently working to intercept it.

Shortly after, the Israeli radio reported an explosion in the Arad area, east of Beersheba, after air raid sirens were activated in the area and several other locations in southern Israel.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates on Israel's war on Gaza:

- At least four Palestinian were killed early Saturday by an Israeli airstrike that targeted a tent sheltering displaced people in al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis, located in southern Gaza, according to medical sources

-  Another two Palestinians were killed and several injured early Saturday morning in an Israeli bombing on Adnan al-Alami school sheltering displaced people northwest of Gaza City

- Israeli gunboats opened fire on the Gaza City shore early Saturday, injuring many Palestinians 

- Palestinian media outlets reported that Israeli troops raided the cities of Nablus and Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, in the early hours of Saturday, carrying out multiple arrests

- Doctors Without Borders have denounced the killing of the people in Gaza while they await food distribution in sites administered by the US-Israeli led Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, calling for  an end to ‘these atrocities’.

Our live blog will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are the day's key developments:

- US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he believes it is possible that a ceasefire in Gaza will be reached within a week. He did not elaborate on how this will be achieved.

- Israeli troops have admitted to deliberately shooting and killing unarmed Palestinians waiting for aid in the Gaza Strip, following direct orders from their superiors. This is according to soldiers and officers who spoke to the Haaretz newspaper. 

- The Gaza government media office condemned the discovery of oxycodone pills in flour bags distributed by the US-Israeli aid scheme, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). 

- The head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said that 50 team members have now been killed in Gaza. 

- The Quds Brigades, working alongside the Qassam Brigades, said on Friday that they ambushed a group of Israeli soldiers using heavy mortar shells near the Halima Mosque, south of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. The Israeli military has yet to confirm any losses. 

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he believes it is possible that a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict will be reached within a week.

Trump, at an Oval Office event celebrating a Congo-Rwanda accord, told reporters that he believes a ceasefire is close. He said he had just been talking to some of the people involved in trying to reach a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

- Reporting by Reuters

The head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Friday that 50 team members have now been killed in Gaza. 

"In Gaza, we have just passed a very sad milestone. I was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) nurse Haitham Bassam Abu Issa," Jagan Chapagain wrote on X.

"Worse is that his death brings to 50 the number of PRCS staff and volunteers killed - both on and off duty - since the escalation of hostilities in October 2023," he added.

"This is intolerable."

The Gaza government media office on Friday condemned the discovery of oxycodone pills reportedly discovered in flour bags distributed by “American-Israeli” aid centres.

“We have so far documented four testimonies from citizens who found these pills inside the flour bags,” it said in a statement, warning of the “possibility that some of these narcotic substances were deliberately ground or dissolved in the flour itself”.

Oxycodone is an opioid meant to treat severe and long-term pain, often prescribed to cancer patients.

The drug is highly addictive and can have life-threatening effects, including breathing complications and hallucinations. 

Read more: Several social media posts shared images of pills purportedly discovered in flour bags in Gaza

Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer will be at the White House on Monday for discussions on Iran and Gaza, Axios has reported.

He will also lay the groundwork for another visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington later this summer, according to Axios. 

The Quds Brigades, working alongside the Qassam Brigades, said on Friday that they ambushed a group of Israeli soldiers using heavy mortar shells near the Halima Mosque, south of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. 

The Quds Brigades is the military wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Qassam is the military wing of Hamas. 

There is no known casualty figure, and the Israeli military has not so far confirmed any losses. 

This appears to be the second major ambush in a week.

A previous attack on two Israeli armoured vehicles killed seven soldiers and wounded some 15 others in Khan Younis. The attack was filmed and shared online by the Qassam Brigades. 

Israeli forces are continuing house raids and detention operations in Tulkarm and Nour Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, Wafa news agency reported. 

Wafa said that Israeli forces have demolished at least 50 buildings in Tulkarm camp in the last two weeks. 

Today’s raids mark 152 consecutive days of the Israeli military’s offensive on Tulkarm, and 139 days of raids on Nour Shams, according to the same report.

Israeli troops have admitted to deliberately shooting and killing unarmed Palestinians waiting for aid in the Gaza Strip, following direct orders from their superiors.

According to soldiers and officers who spoke to Haaretz, commanders instructed them to open fire on people seeking food at aid distribution points despite knowing they posed no threat.

One soldier described the distribution centres as a "killing field".

"Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day," the soldier told Haaretz.

Read more: Gaza: Israeli soldiers admit to deliberately killing unarmed aid seekers

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has called for a controversial US-Israeli aid scheme in Gaza to be halted, saying it is "slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid".

In a statement today, MSF said that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which was launched last month, was "degrading Palestinians by design, forcing them to choose between starvation or risking their lives for minimal supplies". 

The group also demanded that the scheme be "immediately dismantled".

Two infants have died in Gaza under Israeli siege due to malnutrition and a lack of essential medical and nutritional supplies compounded by the shortage of baby formula.

On Thursday, the two infants were announced dead at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, where lead doctors have been making demands to key figures, organisations and authorities to let in essential types of baby formula and other medical necessities to ensure the wellbeing of mothers and their children. 

Mohammad al-Hams, father of 10-day-old Kinda al-Hams, told Middle East Eye that his daughter was admitted into an incubator soon after her caesarean birth.

Not more than two weeks later, she died from a lack of medicine and nutrition, especially baby formula. 

"If there were treatments and medication available, our daughter would be with us right now, and we would've been joyful… but God is sufficient,” the father said tearfully. 

Read more: Two Gaza infants die under Israeli siege amid baby formula shortage

Lebanon's health ministry has said one woman was killed and 20 people were wounded after an Israeli air strike on a residential compound in southern Lebanon's Nabatieh on Friday.

Seven others were wounded in air raids on the outskirts of the city, officials said.

A legal group announced on Friday that it has taken France's banking giant BNP Paribas to court for "failure to fulfil its duty of vigilance," accusing the banking group of failing to define activities supporting Israel, particularly in the context of its military offensive in Gaza.

The law requires large French companies to publish a vigilance plan to prevent, among other things, environmental risks and human rights violations related to their activities.

"However, far from respecting these obligations, BNP Paribas, in its 2024 vigilance plan, did not deign to define the very existence of its activities in support of the State of Israel or companies arming the State of Israel," the association Jurists for Respect for International Law (Jurdi) said in a press release.

"Indeed, the guarantee provided by BNP Paribas for the successful completion of an $8bn bond subscription for the benefit of the Israeli government is not included. Nor is its support for Elbit Systems, the main arms supplier to the State of Israel," it clarified.

The association, which brings together lawyers and magistrates, claims to have formally notified BNP Paribas in December 2024 to amend its vigilance plan, and said the banking group refused to do so in March. 

Twenty-six Palestinians have been killed in strikes across Gaza since dawn, Al Jazeera Arabic reported, citing sources in Gaza.

The victims include six people killed by Israeli fire near a US-Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid point north of Rafah and eight killed in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City.

Two people were also killed in a strike on a tent housing displaced Palestinians in al-Mawasi in the south.