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

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, which is banned by Israel, said on X that since 7 October 2023, the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has seen a sharp rise in Israeli and settler violence.

According to the UN humanitarian office, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in attacks by Israeli forces and settlers since the war on Gaza began, with children making up around one-fifth of the deaths.

Unrwa warned that “the increasing annexation of the West Bank is happening steadily in a gross violation of international law”, citing the expansion and formal recognition of illegal Israeli settlements.

Israeli  forces arrested four Palestinians in Hebron in the occupied West Bank on Friday after raiding and searching multiple homes, according to local and security sources cited by Wafa.

Those detained were identified as Qusay Munjed Al-Qasrawi Al-Tamimi, Mu’min Munqidh Al-Qasrawi Al-Tamimi, Bassam Al-Atrash and Ataf Al-Atrash.

Troops also searched several other homes belonging to the Al-Atrash and Al-Rajabi families, among others.

Military checkpoints were set up across the entrances to Hebron’s towns, villages and camps, with several main and side roads sealed off using iron gates, concrete blocks and earth mounds.

Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, told Al Jazeera that Israel has not permitted 600 UN aid trucks to enter Gaza on any single day since the ceasefire began.

“We want the Israeli authorities to allow in more trucks at more crossing points, we’ve made that clear,” he said.

Haq noted that while the post-ceasefire period has seen an increase in both UN and commercial trucks reaching Gaza, the scale of aid during Israel’s assault was so limited that a UN-backed panel formally declared famine in parts of the besieged enclave.

“I felt like I was dying,” said Afaf Abu Alia, recalling the moment Israeli settlers took turns to beat her with sticks as she and her family harvested olives in a village near Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.

Pointing to her exhausted body and speaking in a barely audible voice, the 53-year-old Palestinian added: “I was alone among more than 20 settlers… They beat me on my head and hands… here, and here.”

Afaf and her family had headed out early on Sunday morning to pick olives in Turmus Ayya. After about three hours, a small group of settlers - coming from nearby settlements including Maale Levona, Shilo, Givat Harel and Eli - attacked them.

Along with her husband, sons and brothers-in-law and their wives, Afaf fled to a distant, safer area, leaving behind their tools, vehicle, and the olives they had already harvested.

About half an hour later, when the settlers left, the family returned to find their vehicle smashed and their harvest stolen. They decided to move to a safer plot of land, but on the way an Israeli military patrol, sent to protect the settlers, intercepted them and fired a gas canister in their direction. Afaf, who suffers from a respiratory allergy, was overcome by the gas.

Read more: Olive groves under siege: Palestinian families face Israeli violence during harvest

Humanity & Inclusion’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal specialist Nick Orr has described Gaza as an “open minefield”, warning it could take at least two to three decades to clear the enclave of unexploded Israeli munitions.

A UN database has recorded more than 53 deaths and hundreds of injuries linked to explosives left behind during the ongoing two-year war, though aid groups insist the real figure is significantly higher.

“If you're looking to completely remove the rubble, that's never going to happen. It's underground. We'll still be finding it for generations to come,” Orr said.

He added that removing unexploded devices from the surface could be possible “within a generation, I think 20 to 30 years”.

Even then, he cautioned, “it would be a solution to a very small part of a very big problem.”

Good morning Middle East Eye readers.

Here are the latest updates from Israel's war on Gaza:

• The death toll from Israel's onslaught on the Gaza Strip has risen to 68,234, and 170,373 wounded

• Al Jazeera’s reports that Israeli settlers torched a vehicle during an attack in the Al-Tall area of Deir Dibwan, east of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

• Israeli forces and settlers across the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, have killed more than 1,057 Palestinians and wounded close to 10,000 since 7 October 2023.

• More than 20,000 Palestinians, among them at least 1,600 children, have been arrested during Israeli raids.

• Al Jazeera’s correspondent says Israeli troops detained freed prisoner Malek Al-Jallad after storming his home in Tulkarm, in the northern West Bank.

• A new US poll shows 59 percent of Americans support recognising a Palestinian state, including 41 percent of Republicans and 80 percent of Democrats.

Israel killed at least four people in Lebanon after conducting air strikes in the east and south of the country, according to the country’s Ministry of Health on Thursday.

The ministry said two people were killed during strikes in the mountainous areas in the east, and two others were killed in a separate strike in Arabsalim in southern Lebanon.

An elderly woman was among those killed, according to the official National News Agency (NNA).

The attacks are Israel's latest violation of its ceasefire agreement signed last November.

Israel also continues to violate its ceasefire with Gaza and has killed more than 100 people since 10 October. 

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In a joint statement relayed by the Saudi press agency on Thursday, fifteen countries and two organisations condemned a preliminary vote in Israel's Knesset on two bills that would extend Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank.

Djibouti; Gambia; Saudi Arabia; Jordan; Indonesia; Pakistan; Turkey; Oman; Palestine; Qatar; Kuwait; Libya; Malaysia; Egypt; Nigeria; the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in a joint statement said they "condemn in the strongest terms such proposals and said it was a "flagrant violation of international law".

In addition, the United Arab Emirates denounced the plans as "a dangerous escalation" and said it expressed "categorical rejection" of annexation, while the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman denounced "a new stage in the colonial and criminal expansionism of the Zionist regime." 

The Knesset voted on Wednesday to consider two bills aimed at extending Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.  

Vice-President JD Vance, who was in Israel when the vote took place, told reporters that if it was a "political stunt, then it is a very stupid political stunt.

"I personally take some insult to it," he said. "The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel".

In an interview with Time magazine conducted on 15 October and broadcast on Thursday, US President Donald Trump stated that Israel would lose "the support of the United States" if it annexed the West Bank.  

"It won't happen. It won't happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries," he said in the ceasefire negotiations.  

Palestinians are struggling to attend to their basic needs amid the widespread destruction of homes and infrastructure wrought by Israel's genocide on Gaza, AFP reported on Thursday. 

"I am tired of displacement, very tired. I prefer to die, just like my son. It is better for the dead," Riyad Abu Anza told AFP

Abu Alaa Skeik, from Gaza City, said his house was completely destroyed by Israel. The 52-year-old said that his family now lived in a tent next to what was left of his home.

"At first, our struggle was with the war - we were escaping death and bombardment. But today, our struggle is with life itself," he said. "We want to provide food, get water, rebuild our home and send our children back to school. We are exhausted," he added.

Abu Rafiq Zaqout, 47, from the Safatawi area in the northern Gaza Strip, described the territory as a "disaster-stricken area."

"The rubble still blocks the streets, and there isn't enough water reaching us," he added, calling for crossings to be opened so equipment could be brought in.

"There are no basic means to live here," said 26-year-old Ali al-Ajrami, describing "extremely harsh conditions" in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City.

A legal group has applied for a court summons to prosecute a British-Israeli who allegedly served in the Israeli military, with an initial hearing expected in the coming weeks.

The case is the first such application since Britain recognised the state of Palestine in September, which makes Palestine a "friendly state" in legal terms.

Court documents submitted on Monday by the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP), seen by Middle East Eye, detail alleged violations of the Foreign Enlistment Act (FEA).

According to the act, it is a crime for a UK national to serve in the military of a foreign state at war with a friendly state.

The British-Israeli dual national allegedly served in the Israeli military's Lebanese border unit and in the occupied West Bank.

You can read more here.

The US is exploring multiple options for humanitarian aid delivery in Gaza, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing a US official and a humanitarian official familiar with the plan.
The proposed plan would see 12 to 16 humanitarian hubs positioned along the line that Israeli forces have withdrawn within Gaza, and would serve people on both sides of the line.
The United Nations and NGOs in Gaza would be mandated to use the hubs and distribute food and aid from them. The proposals seek that all aid in Gaza be delivered via the hubs within three months.
The UN and international aid groups would likely be resistant to the plan, which uses armed escorts to transport aid and does not have sufficient hubs to serve people in Gaza. Prior to Israel's war, Unwra ran 400 hubs for food across Gaza. During the war, the US and Israel set up an unsuccessful and controversial food distribution mechanism at four hubs, which led to the deaths of more than 2,000 people and injured thousands of others. 

Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday walked back racist comments about Saudi Arabia following condemnation.

"My statement regarding Saudi Arabia was unfortunate, and I regret any offence it may have caused," Smotrich said in a video statement he posted on X.

He had earlier told Saudi Arabia it could "keep riding camels on the sand in the Saudi desert" while Israel would "keep truly developing - with an economy, a society, a state and all the great and wonderful things we know how to do," if it tried to demand an independent Palestinian state in return for normalising relations with Israel.

Smotrich has made outrageous remarks about Palestinians previously, saying they have no language and history, and has said it could be "justified and moral" for them to starve. He lives in an illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank and has called for settlement expansion and the annexation of the West Bank in violation of international law.

Discussions are underway regarding the Turkish army's participation in a peacekeeping mission in the Gaza Strip, AFP reported on Thursday, citing  a source within the Turkish defence ministry.

"We are in contact with our counterparts regarding our participation in the mission that will be created in Gaza," the official said, adding that "a military-civilian coordination centre has been created with a view to establishing an operational force in Gaza".

"Within this structure, it is planned to create an International Stabilisation Force responsible for security patrols, protection of civilian infrastructure, humanitarian aid, border security, training of local security forces and monitoring the ceasefire," he added.

"The level of Turkey's participation in these structures remains to be determined," the official noted, adding that details could be communicated next week.

Israel is said to be opposed to the presence of Turkey in a peacekeeping force. Asked about Israeli opposition to a Turkish military presence in Gaza, the official replied: "A ceasefire agreement exists and Turkey is one of its guarantors."