Live: Hamas agrees to release 10 Israeli captives
Live Updates
Rescue teams from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) evacuated a family of six from Abasan, east of Khan Younis, after they had been trapped for 37 days under severe humanitarian conditions.
The operation, carried out on Saturday, followed days of coordination amid ongoing Israeli military activity that had made access unsafe.
The family was transferred to the PRCS-run Al-Mawasi Field Hospital, west of Khan Younis, where they are receiving full medical and psychological care.
The group had endured intense physical and emotional hardship during their isolation, as movement in the area remained highly dangerous due to Israeli targeting of civilians, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
Internet and landline services are gradually resuming across Gaza City and the north of the Strip following a recent blackout, according to the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC), reported Wafa.
Connectivity has also returned to central and southern areas after a three-day disruption caused by repeated Israeli attacks that severely damaged vital infrastructure.
In a statement on Saturday evening, the TRC praised the work of telecom company crews, who managed to carry out repairs despite dangerous and complex conditions on the ground.
The authority warned that Gaza’s communications sector remains in crisis, with outages heavily affecting key services including healthcare, humanitarian relief, and education.
The TRC urged protection for technicians and called for safe conditions that would allow service continuity, especially given the worsening humanitarian situation in the besieged enclave.
An Israeli air raid in Iran has killed Hussein Khalil, a former bodyguard of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, a senior official from the Iran-backed group confirmed on Saturday.
Khalil, widely known as Abu Ali and nicknamed Nasrallah’s “shield,” was reportedly killed near the Iranian-Iraqi border after crossing into Iran, according to the official, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.
An Iraqi armed group also stated that one of its commanders had died in the same strike, and confirmed the deaths of both Khalil and his son.
Israeli settlers, accompanied by occupation forces, attacked the village of Deir Jarir, east of Ramallah, on Saturday evening, according to local sources cited by the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Residents say settlers stormed the Wadi al-Hamadna area on the village's outskirts, prompting villagers to confront them. In response, Israeli forces fired live rounds and sound bombs. No injuries were reported.
Deir Jarir, like many towns across the occupied West Bank, faces repeated settler violence and military raids. Local officials say the frequency and scale of these attacks have intensified in recent weeks.
The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission recorded 1,691 incidents of violence and land seizure by Israeli forces and settlers in May alone.
Its latest report notes that the Israeli army was responsible for 1,276 of those incidents, while settlers carried out 415. The most affected areas included Ramallah and al-Bireh (283 attacks), Hebron (271), and Nablus (265)
At least 41 Palestinians have been killed across the Gaza Strip since dawn today, according to hospital sources in the enclave speaking to Al Jazeera Arabic.
The casualties resulted from Israeli shelling and live fire in multiple areas, as the military campaign continues to intensify across the besieged territory.
Five Palestinians were killed on Saturday in Israeli shelling targeting the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood, east of Gaza City, according to medical staff at the Baptist Hospital speaking to Al Jazeera Arabic.
The area has come under frequent fire as Israeli forces continue their military operations across the besieged territory.
Internet and landline services remain disrupted across several parts of Gaza, including Gaza City and the northern governorates, according to Wafa, citing the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority.
The outage has persisted for more than three days in the southern and central areas of the territory, leaving many residents cut off from communication.
Technical teams are working to restore services, but repeated Israeli attacks on critical infrastructure have severely hampered repair efforts.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza says the death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks has reached 55,908 since 7 October 2023, with 131,138 people wounded.
In the past 48 hours alone, hospitals across the enclave have received over 200 bodies and treated 1,037 injured, as Israeli bombardment continues to devastate the territory.
The United Nations' Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA will open an office in Ankara, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday, urging Muslim countries to give the agency more support after Israel banned it.
Israel last year banned UNRWA, saying it had employed members of Palestinian militant group Hamas who took part in the October 2023 attacks on Israel that triggered the Gaza war.
Addressing foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul, Erdogan said opening an Ankara UNRWA office would deepen Turkey's support for the agency.
"We must not allow UNRWA, which plays an irreplaceable role in terms of taking care of Palestinian refugees, to be paralysed by Israel. We expect our organisation and each member state to provide financial and moral support to UNRWA to thwart Israel's games," Erdogan said.
Israeli strikes have killed 202 people in Gaza within the last 48 hours, the Palestinian health ministry said, adding that 1,037 were wounded.
According to health officials, 450 Palestinians have been killed so far near aid distribution sites and at least 3,466 were wounded.
The number of casualties since the end of the ceasefire in March has risen to 5,599 dead and 19,097 wounded.
Since the beginning of the war on October 7, 2023, the death toll in Gaza has reached 55,908 and 131,138 Palestinians have been wounded.
Israeli forces killed at least 21 Palestinians inside the Gaza Strip, medical sources have told Al Jazeera.
Eleven of the Palestinians killed in Gaza on Saturday were seeking aid, while three Palestinians were reportedly killed in the Zeitoun neighbourhood in southern Gaza.
Good morning Middle East Eye readers,
Here are the latest updates on the Israeli war on Gaza, now ongoing for over one year and eight months:
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Israeli forces killed at least six Palestinians on Saturday morning, including three near a US-operated aid distribution centre, according to local media reports.
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On Friday, the European Union’s diplomatic service stated that there were indications Israel may have breached its human rights obligations under the terms of its association agreement with the bloc, in relation to its conduct in Gaza. This is according to a document seen by Reuters.
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The United Nations children’s agency, Unicef, warned on Friday that a fuel shortage in Gaza is threatening the operation of wells and desalination plants, placing the enclave at risk of a “man-made drought.”
The Israeli army raided on Friday the village of al-Lubban Asharqiya, near Nablus in the north of the occupied West Bank six times, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Israeli forces detained a number of young Palestinian men, while Israeli soldiers fired live ammunition and stun grenades, Wafa said quoting local sources..
Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have been experiencing a surge in Israeli military and settler violence amid the war in Gaza.
Israeli forces prevented thousands of Palestinians from performing Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, tightening their week-long shutdown on the religious site amid hostilities with Iran.
Israeli soldiers were stationed around the outer gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the gates of the Old City of Jerusalem early on Friday, where they stopped thousands of Palestinians from entering, sources told Middle East Eye.
They said that less than 500 people managed to make it through to the prayer areas and courtyard within Al-Aqsa, a fraction of the number that usually attend the holy site.
Despite heavy restrictions on their daily lives, tens of thousands of Palestinians normally attend Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa each week.
But since 13 July, the mosque has been completely closed off, in the largest shutdown since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Read more: Israel blocks thousands of Palestinians from performing Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque
The British government will move to ban the activist group Palestine Action and proscribe it as a terrorist organisation, after two activists broke into the UK's largest airbase on Friday on electric scooters and damaged two Royal Air Force (RAF) planes.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will submit a statement before parliament on Monday which if passed will make it illegal to be a member of the group, the BBC reported.
Footage shared by Palestine Action purported to show two protesters riding scooters towards the RAF planes on the runway at the Brize Norton airbase, where they used "repurposed fire extinguishers to spray red paint into the turbine engines" and "caused further damage using crowbars". The activists then evaded security and escaped the base.
The group announced on its website on Friday that the airbase was targeted because flights leave daily from there "for RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, a base used for military operations in Gaza and across the Middle East".
