Live: Israeli soldiers kill unarmed Palestinians as they surrender in Jenin

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticised Germany over what he said was its ignorance of Israel's genocide, famine and attacks in Gaza, at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Ankara on Thursday.

Erdogan said Israel had nuclear and other weapons which it was using and threatening against Gaza, adding that Hamas had none of those. He said Israel had once again attacked Gaza in recent days despite a ceasefire in the enclave.

"Does Germany not see these?" he said, adding that it was Turkey, Germany and other countries' humanitarian duty to end the famine and massacres in Gaza.

Reporting by Reuters

Israel is set to launch a criminal investigation to determine who leaked footage from the infamous Sde Teiman detention centre, which showed the alleged rape of a Palestinian detainee. 

The decision, made by Attorney General of Israel Gali Baharav-Miara, was announced on Wednesday and will include a probe into individuals who distributed the video aired by the Israeli Channel 12 in early August last year. 

Several lawmakers and ministers - including three who joined a storming of the prison after soldiers suspected of raping a prisoner were detained - have praised Baharav-Miara's decision. 

Defense Minister Israel Katz said he "welcomes and supports" the launch of the criminal probe, calling it a "serious affair that created a blood libel" against Israeli soldiers.

Previously, a number of Israeli officials – including far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir – called for a probe to be opened to look into individuals who captured the video and leaked it. 

Read more: Israel launches probe into leak of video showing troops raping Palestinian prisoner

Hamas has handed over two coffins containing the remains of Israeli captives to the Red Cross, which is now taking them to the Israeli army, the military has confirmed.

More than 1,000 Palestinians in need of medical treatment have died since the war began due to Israel's ongoing restrictions on essential supplies entering the Gaza Strip, the director of al-Shifa Hospital has said, amid an “already collapsing health system.”

Dr Mohammed Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that since the start of the ceasefire on 11 October, only 10 percent of needed medical supplies have reached the besieged enclave.

He said more than 350,000 patients with chronic health conditions are in urgent need of medication.

Hospitals receive the bodies of patients succumbing to their illnesses as a result of lacking medicine on a daily basis, he warned.

Without treatment, "their fate is death," he added. 

Read more: Gaza patients dying as medical supplies remain low, hospital chief warns

Normally, Moaz Abo Rokba waited a few days after a ceasefire in Gaza before returning home to inspect the damage.

But when a truce was announced earlier this month to end the war, the Palestinian veterinarian could not wait.

He immediately travelled back to Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip to see what had become of his neighbourhood.

His brother, Abdelrahman Abo Rokba, tried calling several times to make sure he had arrived safely, but the phone network was down. Much of northern Gaza’s infrastructure had been destroyed during Israel’s two-year genocidal war. 

The next morning, as the family prepared breakfast in their shelter in southern Gaza, Abdelrahman received a phone call from his cousin, Iyad Abo Rokba. 

“He asked if we had heard from Moaz,” Abdelrahman told Middle East Eye. 

“Then he told us that witnesses had seen him killed after an Israeli air strike in Jabalia.”

Read more: 'He wanted to help animals': Israel kills Gaza veterinarian after the ceasefire

Al Jazeera Arabic is reporting that Israeli forces have raided the town of Beita, south of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli army and Shin Bet security agency have issued a joint statement confirming that the Red Cross is currently en route to Gaza to collect the bodies of Israeli captives.

Israeli settlers have seized more Palestinian-owned land in al-Farsiya in the northern Jordan Valley, Wafa news agency is reporting, citing local sources.

According to the report, settlers had fenced off around 500 dunams in the same area a few days ago, and had begun fencing off over 1,500 dunams in nearby Umm al-Jamal before Palestinian authorities intervened.

Hamas's armed wing, Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said on Thursday that it would hand over the remains of two more Israeli captives as per the US-brokered ceasefire agreement in Gaza, AFP reported. 

The bridades "will hand over the bodies of two Israeli prisoners at 4.00pm Gaza time [2pm GMT]," the group said on its Telegram channel.

Hamas has so far handed back the remains of 15 of the 28 bodies it agreed to return under the deal.

Imagine you are a farmer living in a village in the occupied West Bank.

You wake up one morning and notice a couple of caravans on a nearby hill: an illegal settlement. 

The settlers move down the hill. They are armed. Many wear military uniforms. 

At first, they harass and threaten you. They fire warning shots if you go out to cultivate your fields.

More caravans turn up, and the settlers invade your village. They destroy your agricultural equipment, steal your livestock, and shoot holes in the water tank. 

Then they beat you with iron bars. They might beat your wife, too, and intimidate your children.

They enter your home. They rummage through your possessions. They steal your money, papers, jewellery and household appliances.

If you have a car, they burn it. They steal your water.

If you call the police, nobody comes. If you resist, settlers call in the Israeli army. The soldiers arrest you, and treat the settlers as victims.

Why the UK allows Israeli settlers to terrorise the West Bank Opinion by Peter Oborne

A Red Cross spokesperson said on Thursday that Israel must allow access to all Palestinian prisoners in its custody, Al Jazeera reported. 

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz has officially barred the International Committee of the Red Cross from visiting Palestinians held under Israel’s so-called “unlawful combatants” law, a legal category that does not exist under international law and allows indefinite detention without charge, trial or oversight.

Katz claimed in a decree that allowing ICRC access would “seriously harm national security”, effectively ensuring that Palestinian detainees held under this exceptional measure remain entirely hidden from international monitoring.

Under the Unlawful Combatants Law, Israel can label any Palestinian an “unlawful combatant” and lock them up indefinitely without due process, blocking access to lawyers, outside observers and even keeping them in facilities beyond the standard judicial system.

Israel is currently holding at least 2,673 Palestinians under this system as of October 2023, according to figures from the Israel Prison Service obtained by the Israeli rights group HaMoked.

Rights organisations and UN experts have repeatedly condemned the practice as a tool of enforced disappearance and collective punishment.

Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews protested in West Jerusalem on Thursday against compulsory military service, local media reported.

The protest was called by Haredi rabbis and Torah student councils against what they describe as "an attack on the identity of religious society and an infringement on the freedom to study religion", according to Israel’s public broadcaster KAN. 

Anadolu reported that police estimate that hundreds of thousands of people are taking part. KAN said it is one of the largest religious demonstrations in the country’s history.

According to The Times of Israel, 6,975 Haredi Jews have been declared to have evaded the draft in recent months, 870 of whom were arrested.

Israeli forces isolated three villages northwest of the city of Jerusalem, in preparation for annexing them and displacing their residents, Al Jazeera reported, quoting the Jerusalem Governorate. 

Earlier, the governorate said that Israeli forces and settlers stormed the Al-Hathroura community east of Jerusalem, where soldiers arrested 18 young men. 

The Israelis are nervous and suspicious because they have lost control and no longer have any cards to play, a senior official told US media organisation Axios. 

US officials are desperate to avoid a resumption of the war in Gaza and see the security forces as an essential part of the solution, the report said. 

"It is better to move slow and get it right because we are not gonna have a second chance," the senior official said. 

"The Turks were very helpful in getting the Gaza deal, and Netanyahu's bashing Turkey has been very counterproductive," the US official said.

Israel had received initial indications that Hamas might hand over the bodies of two captives this afternoon, Israeli Channel 12 reported. 

On Monday, Egypt sent over a dozen engineering vehicles into Gaza via the Kerem Abu Salem crossing to assist with the recovery of the bodies of the remaining 13 Israeli captives, Al-Araby is reporting, citing an Egyptian official.

The official said that the move was part of "ongoing Egyptian-Israeli coordination to facilitate search and rescue operations in areas that witnessed heavy fighting in recent weeks".

Israeli media reported that the entry of the vehicles was "officially approved by the Israeli army" and conducted under "joint technical supervision".

Gaza's Civil Defence has slammed the "double standards" of these efforts, given emergency teams lack the necessary equipment to recover the bodies of some 10,000 Palestinians who remain trapped beneath the rubble.