Live: Hamas agrees to release 10 Israeli captives

Israeli military vehicles carried out bulldozing operations on Friday near the eastern entrance of Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, according to local sources.

Sources told Wafa news agency that Israeli bulldozers uprooted olive trees, levelled roads and demolished part of a house wall east of the camp.

On Thursday, the Israeli army deployed military vehicles and bulldozers to Jenin camp in preparation for the demolition of around 100 homes, which had previously been slated for demolition last Monday.

Israel has completely blocked access to Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Local sources told the Palestinian Wafa news agency that Israeli forces stormed the mosque after dawn prayers on Friday to clear the area of any worshippers. 

The Israeli military then sealed the doors to Al-Aqsa and banned worshippers from entering the mosque before sealing its gates, according to eyewitnesses who spoke to Wafa.

This shutdown means Muslim worshippers will be unable to conduct Friday prayers at the mosque, revered as the third holiest site in Islam.

The closure comes as Israel issues a complete lockdown across the occupied West Bank following the wave of attacks it launched on Iran. 

Read more: Israel blocks access to Al-Aqsa mosque after Iran strike

Local media reported Friday that two Palestinians were killed and others injured, as Israeli jets bombed a group of Palestinians, in the south of Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, Wafa Palestinian news agency reported that Israeli troops targeted various locations across the Strip, resulting in numerous casualties.

An Israeli jet has also targeted a residential home in Camp 2, located south of Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza.

Israeli forces forced Muslim worshippers out of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in  occupied Jerusalem on Friday, banning them from being inside before sealing its gates, Wafa Palestinian news agency reported.

Israeli police officers stormed the mosque compound after the dawn prayer.

Local sources told Wafa that this is first time the mosque has been emptied and closed by Israeli forces since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The closure of al-Aqsa Mosque comes while Israel announces a full lockdown across the occupied West Bank, following the Israeli launch of a wave of attacks on Iran.

Adalah, the legal centre representing those who were forcibly detained on the aid flotilla Madleen, says three members of the Madleen remain in custody at Israeli Givon Prison.

A statement by Adalah said the scheduled deportation flights for the three activists:  Marco van Rennes, Pascal Maurieras, and Yanis Mhamdi, were abruptly cancelled due to the Israeli attacks against Iran.

It added that  lawyers are working to arrange visits, but it is still unclear whether access will be granted.

Israeli forces closed off the entrances leading to the city of Jericho and the King Hussein Bridge crossing with Jordan in the eastern West Bank in the early hours of Friday, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Local sources told Wafa that Israeli troops closed all roads leading to Jericho and the Karama crossing in both directions, using iron gates and military checkpoints.

The move comes as Israel launched a wave of military attacks on Iran.

Here are the latest updates from Israel's war on Gaza and developments in the occupied West Bank:

- The Israeli army said that lockdown has been imposed on Palestinian cities in the occupied West Bank until further notice

- The Dutch Foreign Minister called upon Israel to lift the blockade on Gaza and ensure safe access for aid from the United Nations and its partners.

- Eastern Libyan security forces have stopped the Gaza-bound activist convoy at the entrance to Sirte, saying it was awaiting approval from Benghazi

- Hamas praises the UN General Assembly resolution calling for  ceasefire in Gaza and authorising humanitarian corridors and aid deliveries.

A Brazilian DJ, who played at the Nova concert hours before the 7 October attacks, has horrified Israelis after he expressed support for Palestine on social media.

Juarez Petrillo, known as DJ Swarup, shared a post wearing a t-shirt with a Palestinian flag saying “Free Palestine,” which garnered backlash in Israel.

In response, he posted an explanation on Thursday for his post, saying he supported the “freedom of the  Palestinian people” and “the end of occupation”.

He admitted he had cried over what had happened on 7 October and “no life lost that day should be forgotten”.

But he said that he “can’t and won’t close my eyes to what’s happening now. Thousands of Palestinians killed. Children. Women….”

He called the war on Gaza a fight “between barbarism and humanity. And out of humanity, I refuse to believe that loving Palestine means hating Israel. Or the other way around…Stop killing innocent people. Stop normalizing horror”.

One person was killed a village in southern Lebanonon in an Israeli strike on Wednesday, according to the country's health ministry and Israel's military, reported the AFP.

"The raid carried out by an enemy Israeli drone on the town of Beit Lif, in the Bint Jbeil district, resulted in one martyr and three people injured," read a statement from the healthy ministry. 

The official National News Agency said the strike targeted the courtyard of a house in Beit Lif, adding that a missile hit the homeowner's car. It also reported other air strikes were carried out, according to the Times of Israel.

The United Nations General Assembly will vote Thursday for “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire" in Gaza, a week after the United States used its veto to stop a similar push in the Security Council.

It also said that Israel, "the occupying Power, immediately end the blockade... and ensure that aid reaches the Palestinian civilian population throughout the Gaza Strip," which, after more than 20 months of war, is facing a catastrophic humanitarian situation.

The General Assembly "strongly (condemn) any use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and the unlawful denial of humanitarian access".

It also calls for "the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages" seized during the Hamas attack inside Israel on 7 October 2023 that sparked the war in Gaza.

Israel is facing mounting pressure to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, where, according to the UN, the entire population is at risk of famine.

More than 55,000 Palestinians have been killed as a result of Israel’s war on Gaza, which several countries, as well as many international rights groups and experts, now qualify as an act of genocide.

The UN said on Thursday that the Gaza Strip has experienced a "complete collapse" of digital infrastructure.

Deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told a news conference that there is "a complete collapse of internet and data services that is paralysing aid operations across the Gaza Strip".

"Lifelines to emergency services, humanitarian coordination, and critical information for civilians have all been cut. There is a full internet blackout, and mobile networks are barely functioning.” 

Haq added that partners working on telecommunications said that it was due to damage to the last fibre cable route serving Central and Southern Gaza, likely caused during heavy (Israeli) military activity. 

Haq stressed that "this is not a routine outage, but a total failure of Gaza's digital infrastructure".

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Telecommunications Regulatory Authority said that internet and phone services collapsed across the Gaza Strip because of "systemic targeting" by Israel. It accused Israel of deliberately targeting key telecom networks and main fibre-optic routes,

The Authority said it had made repeated efforts to repair damaged infrastructure. 

It had tried to restore services on Wednesday after Gaza City and northern Gaza lost internet connectivity on Tuesday. However, it had said that the south and central areas of the Strip also faced a total communications blackout.

It warned that the telecom blackout threatened to disconnect Gaza from the outside world and cut off access to critical services such as emergency aid, healthcare, media coverage, and education.

The Israeli military has ordered people in and around the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, in the south of Gaza, to leave the area, reported Wafa news agency on Thursday.

According to medical sources, Israeli forces directly contacted people in the area surrounding the Nasser Medical Complex, declaring it a "military operation zone" and ordering them to evacuate.

This has raised concerns that the complex may be targeted and put out of operation, especially as surrounding residential blocks are also being threatened.

Eyewitnesses told Wafa that civilians, including journalists, began to leave the vicinity amidst fear and widespread panic of a possible Israeli air strike.

Nasser Medical Complex is the only facility in southern Gaza that provides specialised services, including dialysis, neonatal intensive care, and surgery.

Its shutdown would endanger the lives of hundreds of patients and trigger a major humanitarian disaster.

There is concern that after disabling medical infrastructure in northern Gaza, the Israeli military is now systematically targeting healthcare in the south of the strip, and this could lead to a complete collapse of healthcare services in the region.

The development comes amid a near-total blackout of communications and internet services in the Gaza Strip.

US District judge Michael Farbiarz of New Jersey on Wednesday granted Palestinian activist - and Columbia University graduate student - Mahmoud Khalil’s request for a preliminary injunction after concluding that he would continue to suffer irreparable harm if he remained detained.

The decision comes after the court decided last week that Khalil was likely to succeed on the merits of his constitutional challenge to the government's detention and attempted deportation on foreign policy grounds. 

The court also ruled that it was unconstitutional to detain and seek to deport someone purely for their advocacy, in his case on behalf of Palestinian human rights.

The government has until Friday morning to appeal the decision before Khalil must be released. 

The preliminary injunction blocks the Trump administration from using the provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act that Secretary of State Marco Rubio invoked to detain and attempt to deport Mahmoud and other students and scholars for their speech in support of Palestinian rights.

This is the first federal court to rule that Khalil and other noncitizens cannot be deported based solely on the so-called “foreign policy ground” of the Immigration and Nationality Act, a blow to the Trump administration’s attempt to suppress the speech of those who protest and speak out in support of Palestinian rights. 

On 8 March, the Trump administration and the Department of Homeland Security arrested and detained Khalil for his advocacy for Palestinian rights at Columbia University and transferred him 1,300 miles away to a Louisiana detention facility.

Thousands of Palestinians protested against Israel’s policy of home demolitions and colonial expansion in the Negev in southern Israel on Thursday, Wafa news agency reported.

Thousands took to the streets in front of the Israeli government offices in Beersheba, carrying placards calling for the end of home demolitions and forced expulsion of Palestinians, as well as for the resignation of former Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli’s plans to forcibly displace Palestinians from the Negev.

The Swiss University of Lausanne (UNIL) has ended part of its partnership with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI), its rector announced Thursday, AFP reported.

The move came following demands from the pro-Palestinian movement within the institution.

"The position of the authorities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem regarding the legal and ethical issues raised by the current war in Gaza diverges from UNIL's commitment," explained Frédéric Herman in an interview with the Swiss daily newspaper 24 heures.

"We note these divergences on three levels: respect for international law, UNIL's civic commitment, defined by its charter, and due diligence in providing assistance in the face of serious human rights violations," explained the head of the institution, which welcomes more than 17,000 students.

UNIL said it wishes to "maintain collaboration" between researchers from the two institutions.