Live: Hamas agrees to release 10 Israeli captives

The United Nations has sounded the alarm over what it calls an “unprecedented” rise in violence against children caught in conflict zones, with Gaza topping a grim global list.

In its annual report, the UN confirmed more than 8,500 grave violations against Palestinian children in 2024, most carried out by Israeli forces. More than 4,800 of those violations were recorded in the Gaza Strip alone.

The UN said it had verified the deaths of 1,259 Palestinian children in Gaza, while information on another 4,470 reported child fatalities is still under review. The devastating numbers stem largely from Israel’s ongoing military assault on Gaza.

Israeli forces remain on the UN’s so-called “list of shame” for grave violations, including killings, recruitment, and obstruction of aid.

The occupied West Bank has also witnessed a surge in violence, with rights groups reporting increased military raids, home demolitions and settler attacks since the war on Gaza began.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) has drawn a stark comparison between the current mass forced displacement in Gaza and the 1948 Nakba (Catastrophe), when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were ethnically cleansed during the creation of Israel.

“77 years later, Palestinians continue to be forcibly displaced,” the agency said in a post on X to mark World Refugee Day.

Unrwa’s statement highlights the enduring nature of Palestinian displacement, linking today’s crisis in Gaza to what Palestinians remember as the “catastrophe” - when more than 700,000 were driven from their homes by Zionist force.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers, 

Here are the latest updates from the Israeli war on Gaza, now in its 622nd day: 

• In the Gaza Strip, at least 34 Palestinians have been killed since midnight in Israeli attacks, including at least 23 who were killed when Israeli forces opened fire on people seeking aid near the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza.

• Israel's strikes on Gaza on Thursday killed 92 people, including 64 in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip, and 22 people waiting for humanitarian aid in the central Gaza Strip, according to medical sources. 

• The Israeli military has raided the town of Tubas, northeast of Nablus in the north of the West Bank, the Palestinian news agency Wafa is reporting.

Israel's strikes on Gaza on Thursday killed 92 people, including 64 in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip, and 22 people waiting for humanitarian aid in the central Gaza Strip, according to medical sources, AFP reported.

Armed Israeli settlers opened fire on Palestinians in the town of Surif, northwest of Hebron, killing one man and injuring seven others, Wafa news agency reported on Thursday. 

Mohammad Ahmad Mahmoud al-Hur, 48, succumbed to his injuries and passed away, while another person remains in critical condition. 

The mayor of Surif, Hazem Ghneimat, described the incident, saying that armed settlers, protected by the military, fired live gunshots at civilians in the al-Qreinbat area who were attempting to put out a fire started by the settlers, leading to eight civilians being shot, including Hur.

Ghneimat said that some of the casualties were rushed to nearby hospitals, while the others were evacuated to a local medical centre.

The Israeli military installed an iron gate at the main entrance to the town of Beit Lid, east of Tulkarm, fully sealing off the access point, Wafa news agency reported on Thursday.

Local residents told Wafa that the Israeli military replaced the earth mounds that had previously blocked the entrance and replaced them with a metal gate, a move seen as tightening the siege imposed on the town.

The Israeli military originally closed the main entrance to Beit Lid in November 2023 by erecting earth mounds to isolate the town from surrounding areas. Since then, residents have been forced to use dangerous and rugged alternative routes to reach Tulkarm and other destinations.

In a related development, the Israeli military also recently sealed off the main entrance to the neighbouring town of Ramin, also located east of Tulkarm, with an iron gate. That entrance had likewise been blocked by earth mounds since November 2023.

Nine European Union countries have asked the European Commission to brainstorm proposals on how to discontinue EU trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Thursday.

Foreign ministers in Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden signed the letter, which is addressed to EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.

Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza take a dangerous, miles-long journey every day to attempt to get food. One such person is Hind al-Nawajha, a mother of four whom Reuters spoke to on Thursday.

"You either come back carrying (food) for your children and they will be happy, or you come back in a shroud, or you go back upset (without food) and your children will cry," said Nawajha, 38, a resident of Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza.

"This is life, we are being slaughtered, we can't do it anymore."

Israeli shelling has killed over 75 people, including children, across the Gaza Strip since Thursday morning, local media reported. 

Dozens of injuries were recorded, some of them critical, with aid workers amongst the victims of the Israeli attacks.

Israeli authorities order closures for most cities in the West Bank, Al Jazeera's correspondent report. 

Israeli forces have also been conducting raids and demolitions across the occupied territory, wounding several Palestinians since dawn, and have even stolen money and gold during house searches, according to local media. 

Additionally, several homes in the West Bank were turned into military posts, after residents were forcibly removed from them.

Israeli strikes in Jabalia, north Gaza Strip, have resulted in the killing of more than 14 Palestinians, including two children and a woman.

Several others were wounded in the attacks, with local reports noting rescue teams facing difficulty in retrieving bodies from under the rubble and saving the wounded.

The Al Udeid Air Base near Doha, a key US military hub in the Middle East, appears to have cleared out many of its aircraft, according to The Associated Press.

A satellite image taken on Wednesday by Planet Labs PBC and reviewed by AP shows an unusually empty tarmac where transport planes, fighter jets, and drones are normally stationed.

The US military has not issued any official comment on the situation. However, the move follows a similar dispersal of naval vessels from the US Navy’s 5th Fleet base in Bahrain. Such redeployments are often used as a precaution to reduce vulnerability in the event of an attack

The total number of Palestinians killed since 7 October 2023 has now reached 55,706, with 130,101 wounded, said the Palestinian health ministry on Thursday. This does not include at least 10,000 missing and presumed dead.

From 18 March, when Israeli broke the ceasefire and resumed its bombing campaign in Gaza, at least 5,401 have been killed and more than 18,060 wounded.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said on Thursday that at least 69 people were killed and 221 wounded in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours.

Among the dead were two bodies recovered from under rubble. The ministry added that many victims remain trapped beneath debris and in the streets, with emergency teams unable to reach them due to ongoing bombardment.

Gaza’s health ministry said on Thursday that at least 12 people who had gathered to receive aid were killed and more than 172 others wounded since this morning.

The ministry has warned that repeated attacks on aid distribution points are worsening the already dire humanitarian situation in the besieged enclave.