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

A UN agency has warned that Gaza is buried under more than 61m tonnes of debris, with three-quarters of buildings in the besieged enclave destroyed after two years of war.  

An assessment made by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has determined that nearly two-thirds of the debris in Gaza was made in the first five months of the war. 

The destruction of buildings also accelerated in the months leading up to the current ceasefire. 

From April to July 2025, 8m tonnes of debris were generated mostly in the southern part of the territory between Rafah and Khan Younis. 

A preliminary analysis of UNEP also noted that 2.9m tonnes of debris could be contaminated with "hazardous waste from known industrial sites".

Satellite analysis by the United Nations Satellite Centre programme also found that the Israeli army destroyed nearly 193,000 buildings in Gaza, representing about 78 percent of existing structures before the war began on 7 October 2023. 

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said that Israel has killed a total of 93 Palestinians since the ceasefire came into effect on 11 October.

Health officials noted that 324 Palestinians have been injured since the ceasefire.

They added that, in the past 48 hours, Israel has killed 19 people and injured a further seven.

According to the ministry, the death toll from Israel’s genocide in Gaza has now risen to 68,519 Palestinians, with another 170,382 injured since October 2023.

The Palestinian Civil Defence have carried out approximately 38 rescue operations over the last 24 hours across the Gaza Strip. 

A statement by the civil defence on Telegram said it had conducted 11 rescue missions, 21 ambulance missions and six other missions. 

Good morning Middle East Eye readers.

Here are the latest updates from Palestine, as Palestinians in Gaza slowly return to what remains of their homes, searching through the rubble for loved ones and personal belongings.

• Palestinian health officials report that medical services in the Gaza Strip continue to deteriorate, with primary care facilities struggling due to an ongoing shortage of essential resources.

• The UN Environment Programme has warned that the massive quantities of debris present in Gaza pose a severe public health risk, estimating that at least 4.9 million tonnes of rubble may be contaminated with asbestos from older buildings.

• Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, settler violence is disrupting the annual olive harvest, threatening the livelihoods of Palestinian farmers across the territory.

Good evening Middle East Eye readers, 

At least two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone strike east of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Friday, Al Jazeera Arabic reported, citing the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. 

Meanwhile, in a meeting in Cairo with other Palestinian factions, Hamas said it agreed to turn governance in Gaza over to a technocratic committee. 

Here is what else you need to know:

• Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza are on the verge of becoming a "lost generation" unless school is quickly restarted, the United Nations warned on Friday 
• Israeli soldiers launched a fresh raid on the town of Beita south of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, according to Arabic media reports
• Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that settlers vandalised the contents of a mosque in Khirbet Tana, a hamlet located near the town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus
• The US is operating surveillance drones over Gaza to monitor the ceasefire in the enclave, according to a report by the New York Times

The chief of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees said that Israel's genocide in Gaza revealed "an utter disregard for international humanitarian law" in a post on X.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of Unrwa, said that Israel was carrying out a weaponisation of aid in the enclave. 

Despite a ceasefire going into effect earlier this month, Israel continues to refuse to open the Rafah border crossing and is limiting aid into Gaza. 

The US is operating surveillance drones over Gaza to monitor the ceasefire in the enclave, according to a report by the New York Times. 

Israel has agreed to the US drones' involvement, with the unmanned aerial vehicles being operated by the new Civil-Military Coordination Centre in southern Israel. 

The US previously used drones to locate Hamas officials and captives during the early stages of the war, according to media reports. 

Israeli soldiers have escalated their attacks across the occupied West Bank, according to Arabic media reports.

Israeli soldiers stormed the town of Tuqu, southeast of Bethlehem, on Friday. Palestinians resisted the attack, and Israeli soldiers fired live ammunition and tear gas at Palestinians. 

Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers raided the home of Issa Amro, a prominent Palestinian human rights activist, near Hebron in the occupied West Bank. 

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) is the "backbone" of aid work in Gaza and has no link to Hamas, a deputy spokesperson for UN chief Antonio Guterres said on Friday.

The comment came after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US was willing to work with the UN on aid in Gaza, but not Unrwa.

“Unrwa is not linked to Hamas. Unrwa is the backbone of our humanitarian operations in Gaza,” Farhan Haq, a UN spokesperson, said. 

“There were a small number of staff members of Unrwa who were credibly linked to Hamas, and we have handled that situation and fired those personnel. Others were not found to have any links, or there was no evidence provided to back up any allegations,” he added. 

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz told US Vice President JD Vance during his visit earlier this week that 60 percent of Hamas’s tunnels across Gaza have not been destroyed, Channel 12 reported. 

The report said that half of the existing tunnels are located on territory still occupied by Israeli troops. 

Israeli settlers attacked and vandalised a mosque in the occupied West Bank, in the latest string of escalating attacks on Palestinians in the occupied territories. 

Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that settlers on Friday vandalised the contents of a mosque in Khirbet Tana, a hamlet located near the town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus.

Thaer Hanani, a member of the Defence of Tana Lands, said that settlers stormed the Bayt al-Sheikh Mosque and vandalised the inside. 

Palestinians in Gaza are using rice and flour sacks to create tents, with about 90 percent of the population displaced and most homes destroyed by Israel, the United Nations' International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said.

“Shelter needs remain dire”, the UN said, noting that at least 1.5 million Palestinians are in need of emergency shelter as winter approaches. 

The agency said only 2,500 tents have been sent to Gaza since the ceasefire was announced earlier this month. Tens of thousands more tents are waiting for delivery in Jordan that could provide temporary shelter to as many as 168,000 people.

“With very few tents or tarpaulins available, some are using flour and rice sacks to shield themselves from the elements,” IOM said.

At least two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone strike east of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Friday, Al Jazeera Arabic reported, citing the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. 

The attack is the latest in Israel's serial violations of the Gaza ceasefire. 

Israel has continued to strike Gaza and curtail the amount of aid entering the enclave. 

Hamas said on Friday that it agreed with other Palestinian factions to hand over governance of Gaza to a committee of Palestinian technocrats.

The statement also said the factions agreed to "establishing an international committee to oversee the financing and implementation of the reconstruction of the Strip” and to take "all necessary measures to maintain security and stability throughout the Strip”.

The statement followed a meeting in Cairo, Egypt. 

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza are on the verge of becoming a "lost generation" unless school is quickly restarted, the United Nations warned on Friday. 

“This is the third year that there has been no school,” Edouard Beigbeder, regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, at the UN International Children's Emergency Fund (Unicef), told AFP. 

He added that Unicef has only been able to facilitate schooling for one-sixth of children in Gaza in temporary “learning centres".

Israel destroyed about 85 percent of Gaza's schools or made them unusable in its genocide against the Palestinians. 

“If we don’t start a real transition for all children in February, we will enter a fourth year. And then we can talk about a lost generation," he added.