Live: Israeli soldiers kill unarmed Palestinians as they surrender in Jenin
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Sani Ibrahim Azar, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, has condemned Israel for committing genocide in Gaza during a Reformation Day service at Jerusalem’s Church of the Redeemer.
“What does Reformation look like after two years of genocide? What does Reformation mean when we look at a world, a country, that is so broken?” Azar asked during his sermon in the Old City on Friday.
His remarks drew immediate backlash from a German delegation representing the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament, which attended the service as part of an official visit to Israel.
“We expressly distance ourselves – especially as a German delegation – from the one-sidedness of what was said during the service,” the delegation said in a statement issued from Dusseldorf on Saturday.
Gaza’s Government Media Office (GMO) says Israel continues to choke the flow of aid into the besieged enclave, accusing it of breaching the ceasefire agreement.
Since the truce took effect on 10 October, an average of just 145 commercial and aid trucks have entered Gaza daily, only 24 percent of the 600 trucks agreed upon in the deal. Between 10 and 31 October, a total of 3,203 trucks crossed into Gaza, including 639 commercial vehicles, 2,564 carrying aid, 84 loaded with diesel fuel, and 31 with cooking gas.
“We strongly condemn the Israeli occupation’s obstruction of aid and commercial trucks and hold it fully responsible for the worsening and deteriorating humanitarian situation faced by more than 2.4 million people in the Gaza Strip as a result of the ongoing siege and arbitrary measures that impede the flow of essential goods,” the GMO said in a statement.
It urged US President Donald Trump, the guarantor states, and mediators “to take immediate action to compel the Israeli occupation to implement what was signed, particularly the clause regarding the entry of humanitarian and relief aid without restrictions or conditions, in order to alleviate the escalating suffering of our people in the Gaza Strip.”
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has warned that Tehran “is ready for any scenario against Israel and prepared for any aggression on its part,” in comments to Al Jazeera.
Araghchi accused Israel of trying to widen the conflict by targeting Iran’s oil facilities, saying it “would not have dared to attack the Islamic Republic without US approval.”
He also condemned US President Donald Trump’s decision to resume nuclear testing, describing it as a “regressive and irresponsible” move.
“Having rebranded its ‘Department of Defense’ as the ‘Department of War,’ a nuclear-armed bully is resuming testing of atomic weapons,” Araghchi wrote on X late Thursday.
Since the Gaza ceasefire was signed last month, Israel has continued to violate the agreement.
From air strikes and shootings to arrests and incursions beyond the deployment lines, most of the violations appear unprovoked.
Israel has cited alleged breaches by Hamas and other Palestinian groups to justify its actions.
Hamas, however, has denied the accusations, insisting it has fully complied with the terms of the ceasefire.
Many of the violations targeting civilians, meanwhile, have occurred without justification.
Read more: Full list of Israel's ceasefire violations in Gaza
Jordan and Germany said on Saturday that an international force touted to support a future Palestinian police in Gaza under US President Donald Trump's post-war governance plan should have a United Nations mandate.
Under the US-brokered ceasefire, a coalition of mainly Arab and Muslim nations was expected to deploy forces in the Palestinian territory.
While Hamas did agree to pause hostilities, it did not say it agreed with large parts of Trump's 2o point plan, including the presence of international forces.
The so-called international stabilisation force is supposed to train and support "vetted" Palestinian police in the Strip, with backing from Egypt and Jordan, as well as secure border areas and prevent weapons smuggling.
"We all agree that in order for that stabilisation force to be able to be effective in getting the job done, it has to have a Security Council mandate," Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said.
Jordan, however, will not be sending its own forces to the Strip.
"We're too close to the issue and we cannot deploy troops in Gaza," Safadi said, adding his country was nonetheless ready to cooperate with the international force.
Safadi was speaking at the IISS Manama Dialogue conference in Bahrain alongside his German counterpart Johann Wadephul, who also supported a UN mandate for the force, saying it would "need a clear basis in international law".
"We understand that this is of utmost importance to those countries who might be willing to send troops to Gaza and for the Palestinians. Germany would also want to see a clear mandate for this mission," Wadephul said.
The idea of the stabilisation force has drawn criticism, with UN experts last month warning it would "replace Israeli occupation with a US-led occupation, contrary to Palestinian self-determination".
Reporting by AFP
Three Palestinians were wounded by gunfire from Israeli settlers on Saturday during an attack on the village of al-Minya, in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem.
The head of the al-Minya village council, Zayed Kawazba, told Wafa news agency that a group of armed settlers, protected by Israeli security forces, attacked residents near the village.
He said they opened fire on residents, wounding three people who were subsequently taken to hospital.
Kawazba added that settlers also grazed their livestock among Palestinian olive trees - a provocative act aimed at seizing Palestinian lands.
He said Israeli forces were present at the scene and provided protection for the settlers.
The the death toll from Israel's genocide on Gaza since October 2023 has risen to 68,858 Palestinians, with a further 170,664 wounded, the Palestinian health ministry said.
Hospitals in Gaza received the bodies of 22 Palestinians over the past day, including five killed in recent attacks and 17 recovered from under the rubble.
Since the ceasefire began on 11 October, Israeli forces have killed 226 Palestinians, with 594 others wounded. Rescue teams in Gaza have also recovered the bodies of 499 Palestinians.
Naim Abu Amra's land in central Gaza's Deir al-Balah used to be covered with greenhouses.
On the 11-dunam (one hectare) stretch of land east of Abu Holi, the Palestinian farmer grew tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and courgettes, with some seasonal rotations of eggplants and leafy vegetables to keep the soil healthy.
But after Israel's genocidal war began in October 2023, everything changed. The entire area was declared a "no-go zone". His greenhouses were destroyed, irrigation pipes torn apart and the well filled with sand and debris.
"Military bulldozers levelled the land to bare soil; even the plastic and metal structures melted under the bombing," Abu Amra told Middle East Eye.
His once-thriving fields were left unusable, covered in rubble and littered with unexploded ordnance.
The two-year onslaught has rendered over 95 percent of Gaza's agricultural land inaccessible, according to a joint assessment in July by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT).
The data revealed that, as of May, 80 percent of Gaza's cropland was damaged, while 77.8 percent of that land is now inaccessible to farmers.
Read more: 'Almost wiped out': Israeli restrictions stifle recovery of Gaza's farmlands
Dr Munir al-Bursh, director general of the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, told Al Jazeera that Israel continues to restrict aid and medical supplies into the Strip.
He accused Israel of pursuing a "drip-feed" policy in allowing limited aid while completely blocking essential medicines and medical equipment, despite urgent needs.
Bursh warned of an unprecedented catastrophe, as Israel persists in preventing the entry of life-saving drugs and medical materials.
Although theories differ on the role of the individual in shaping history, it was Russian philosopher Georgi Plekhanov who most effectively sought to strike a balance between historical determinism and the influence of individuals on its course.
Today, the case of Marwan Barghouti provides a strong example of that balance, as US President Donald Trump publicly mulls pushing for the jailed Palestinian leader’s release.
Trump’s striking comments have drawn attention to Barghouti’s significance in shaping the contours of the future Palestinian political landscape. Yet the Palestinian people have long recognised Barghouti’s importance, envisioning his rise to a prominent political role.
Barghouti was a candidate in the presidential election won by Mahmoud Abbas two decades ago, but withdrew following advice from his Fatah colleagues. Barghouti also planned to run in the 2021 election, but the vote was cancelled; political analysts say this was largely due to fears within the Palestinian Authority that he would have won.
Trump’s statement could affect how the US engages with the Palestinian question going forward.
Barghouti is far more than a Palestinian prisoner who has spent a third of his life in Israeli jails. Scores of Palestinians have served longer sentences, yet none have occupied the same place in Palestinian political life.
Barghouti has become a symbol of Palestinian unity in a context of overwhelming internal divisions. He has earned broad popular trust through his lifelong service, immense personal sacrifice, and intellectual depth, enabling him to articulate the concept of national liberation within the complexities of the international order.
Read more: Marwan Barghouti: The one figure who could rally Palestinians for a lasting deal by Awni Almashni
The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said it was ready to recover the bodies of captives within the Israeli-controlled "Yellow Line" zone in the Gaza Strip "simultaneously".
The group called on mediators and the International Committee of the Red Cross to "provide and prepare the necessary equipment and teams to recover all the bodies simultaneously".
Munir al-Bursh, director general of the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, said the most recent bodies received were the most difficult to identify.
Most were "dissolved or skeletons crushed by tanks and buried shortly after their death".
Israel returned 30 bodies to Gaza on Friday as part of the ceasefire and prisoner swap agreement with Hamas.
A total of 225 bodies have so far been returned by Israel to Gaza, most showing signs of torture and execution.
Good morning Middle East Eye readers,
Here are the latest updates from Gaza, 21 days after a fragile ceasefire ended Israel's two-year genocidal war:
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Israeli forces continue violating the ceasefire, wounding a Palestinian man east of Bureij in the central Gaza Strip. Earlier, a citizen died from injuries sustained on Friday in Shuja’iyya, east of Gaza City on Friday.
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The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said on Friday that the Israeli genocide was ongoing, with an average of over 10 Palestinian deaths per day.
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Israeli forensic experts have determined that partial remains transferred from Hamas via the Red Cross last night do not belong to any of captives still buried in Gaza, The Times of Israel reports.
Our live blog will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.
Here are the day's key developments:
- Israeli forces have unleashed intense artillery and air strikes on eastern Khan Younis, further undermining the ceasefire deal that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists he's still a part of.
- This comes as Israeli soldiers carried out raids across the occupied West Bank, from Tubas to Nablus to Jenin and Qalqilya, arresting dozens of Palestinian men and boys.
- Hamas will be handing over the bodies of three Israeli captives on Saturday.
- Reporting from Yedioth Ahronoth shows the Israeli government has built or approved around 48,000 settlement housing units since taking office, a figure expected to rise to 50,000.
- Israel’s assaults on Palestinians have set a dangerous global precedent, a UN expert warned “What happens in Palestine does not stay in Palestine,” Reem Alsalem, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, said during a briefing on Palestinian rights.
- Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has accused Israel of responding to Lebanon's offer to negotiate by intensifying air strikes, the latest of which killed a man riding a motorbike in southern Lebanon.
The Hebron Battalion of al-Quds Brigades on Friday said it has killed at least one Israeli soldier who was part of "enemy reinforcements storming the town of Beit Ummar" in the occupied West Bank.
The Brigades announced "confirmed casualties among enemy forces" in its statement.
"Our heroes continue to confront the enemy forces storming the town, adapting to the circumstances and realities on the ground."
