Live: Five Palestinian journalists killed, Gaza media office says
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The Israeli military has maintained a communications blackout in northern Gaza, where its forces have besieged the area, cutting it off from the rest of Gaza and stopping aid from entering.
Despite this, Palestinian journalists and doctors have been trying to continue to report on the situation in the area.
Journalist Anas al-Sharif said on Friday that there are likely thousands of families "trapped between tanks, their gunfire, and heavy artillery shelling".
Dr Muneer al-Barsh, the director of Gaza's health ministry, said that the communications blackout has coincided "with the heaviest bombardment" by Israel, and the lack of ability to communicate is preventing ambulances from being able to reach Palestinians who have been wounded.
Al Jazeera reported that there have been at least 450 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in northern Gaza since the siege began two weeks ago.
The Palestinian Liberation Organisation and Fatah both released statements on Friday mourning the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
"We mourn the martyr Yahya Sinwar, head of the political bureau of Hamas, and offer our condolences to our people, Hamas, and his family," Fatah said in its statement.
Fatah also urged Palestinians to "unite and support each other in this difficult and delicate phase" and to reject "conspiracies to liquidate our cause".
The PLO, which holds power over the Palestinian Authority and governs parts of the West Bank not under Israeli control, referred to Sinwar as a "great national leader".
It further called "for strengthening our national unity within the framework of the sole legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organisation, so that we may be one line to thwart the Israeli plan".
The Palestinian Authority, led by Mahmoud Abbas, is widely unpopular among Palestinians, in part due to its security coordination with Israel and its inability to prevent increasing Israeli settler incursions on Palestinian land.
MEE reported in May that Hamas was planning to call for the release of Marwan Barghouti, one of the most popular Fatah figures in the West Bank and Gaza who has been in Israeli prison since 2002, as a part of a prisoner swap between Hamas and Israel.
However, a source told MEE that senior PA officials requested Barghouti be excluded from any potential prisoner swap, citing fears that his release would threaten the leadership of Abbas.
Al Jazeera is reporting that Israeli air strikes have killed at least 34 Palestinians on Friday.
Fifteen of those Palestinians killed were in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, where Israel's military is maintaining a siege.
Following the announcement of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar's killing on Thursday, social media exploded with a mix of sympathy, mourning, admiration and criticism. The hashtag #Sinwar went viral on X, formerly Twitter, with over two million shares as users discussed his legacy and his final moments.
Thousands of people also shared drone footage released by the Israeli military appearing to show Sinwar's final moments.
The video shows what appears to be an injured Sinwar in military fatigues, with an amputated arm, throwing a piece of debris towards the drone camera, which many users praised as "a last act of defiance" and as symbolic of his dedication to the Palestinian cause.
Hamas is proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK, US and European Union. Sinwar is widely ascribed to be the architect of the 7 October Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel, in which more than 1100 people were killed and around 250 taken captive by Palestinian fighters.
"He died an honorable death. A warrior's death, among his men, one with his people, in defense of his land against a genocidal intruder, occupier, and colonizer," one user wrote.
"The last episode of Sinwar's life could not have been better written by the most gifted playwright: not in a tunnel, a secret bunker, or a far-off palace, and not while engaging in some unworthy act. He died resisting," they continued.
"[H]e threw a stick at the drone filming him – a final act of defiance... In his death, he became a legend," commented an X user in a post that gained over 27,000 reshares at the time of publication.
To read the full story, click below.
'Resistance never dies': Social media reacts to killing of Yahya Sinwar
Dr Feroze Sidhwa, the author of the recent New York Times guest essay chronicling what 65 doctors, nurses and paramedics witnessed while working on the frontlines of Israel's war on Gaza, was a volunteer with one of the medical groups now banned by Israel from entering Gaza.
Sidhwa was a volunteer with the Palestinian American Medical Association (Pama), according to a Facebook post by the organisation in September. Pama said Sidhwa had volunteered at the European Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza.
Pama confirmed to The Washington Post on Friday that it was one of the organisations Israel has banned from entering Gaza. The medical organisation had worked in Gaza for years before the current war.
The Washington Post also received confirmation that Glia, an organisation that has been operating a medical clinic in Gaza, was also banned by Israel.
Israel launched a series of air raids on the neighbourhoods of Tal al-Zaatar, al-Alami and Sheikh Zayed in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Friday evening, local time.
Israel has cut off communications in the area amid its current military siege of north Gaza, making it difficult for Palestinian journalists to report from the ground.
Israel has banned six medical aid groups from entering Gaza to help Palestinian patients in the enclave, according to an announcement on Friday from the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians.
The six groups have collectively treated over 15,000 patients since October 2023.
“This is a death sentence for thousands of patients in Gaza,” ICJP’s statement said.
They groups received a notice about the ban from the World Health Organisation, which received the order from Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (Cogat).
“The reasons behind Israel’s order remain unclear; no information has been provided on the reason or process behind the order to halt life-saving medical missions to Gaza,” the groups said in a statement.
In addition to obstructing the operation of field hospitals throughout Gaza, banning the medical groups will also hinder efforts at getting medical supplies into the Strip, as they helped coordinate the deliveries of these supplies.
Belgian authorities announced on Friday that they have launched an investigation into whether a Belgian-Israeli man committed possible war crimes when fighting for Israel in Gaza.
The federal prosecutor's office said the probe focuses on a Belgian member of an elite unit of the Israeli military.
"We have opened a file on possible war crimes," a spokesperson for the prosecutor's office told AFP.
The suspect hasn't been named, but AFP is reporting that he is a man in his 20s from Brussels' upmarket suburb of Uccle.
The official probe is a result of the work of Palestinian journalist Younis Tirawi, who went on X to report on an Israeli sniper unit called "Refaim", or "Ghosts" in Hebrew. Tirawi reported on the unit's "brutal executions of unarmed civilians".
🧵1/19 EXCLUSIVE
— Younis Tirawi | يونس (@ytirawi) October 4, 2024
In an unprecedented & biggest investigation into war crimes in Gaza, we expose the elite & secretive IDF sniper team, the Ghost Unit "Refaim" & their brutal executions of unarmed civilians
Soldiers from Paris, Munich, Illinois, Brussel, Johannesburg, Italy-> pic.twitter.com/0N2asIubvV
Israeli forces have killed at least 450 Palestinians in its current operation in northern Gaza over the past two weeks, Al Jazeera is reporting citing a medical source.
The Lebanese movement said in a statement on Telegram on Friday that it used a surface-to-air missile against an "Israeli march", forcing it to retreat from Lebanese air space.
It's unclear what Hezbollah means by "march" and the group did not say what exactly it was targeting, whether it was an Israeli fighter jet or a drone. The Israeli military hasn't commented on the incident.
The use of the surface-to-air missiles and Israel's retreat is notable, given that Israel's military has a clear advantage against Hezbollah in the air.
Hezbollah does, however, have a number of defensive weapons designed to destroy Israeli armoury, including anti-aircraft, anti-tank and anti-ship missiles.
The group's fighters have used surface-to-air munitions several times since October to shoot down Israeli drones.
The Qassam Brigades, Hamas's armed wing, has released a statement confirming the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
The group said "it is a source of pride for our movement to put leaders before soldiers", echoing what the group's spokesperson, Abu Obeida, said during a video statement released on 7 October.
"This criminal enemy is delusional if he thinks that by assassinating the great leaders of the resistance such as Sinwar, Haniyeh, Nasrallah, al-Arouri and others, he can extinguish the flame of the resistance or force it to retreat," the statement said.
Qassam praised Sinwar as "a leader to be martyred among his fellow mujahideen, a hero engaged in combat with the invaders who thought that Gaza could be an easy prey for their cowardly army".
The group also vowed to continue fighting, framing the ongoing war as "a struggle of victory or martyrdom".
Amid the Israeli military's current siege of northern Gaza, Human Rights Watch programme director Sari Bashi released a statement saying that the forced displacement and starvation of Palestinian civilians in Gaza can amount to a war crime.
"Forced displacement can amount to a war crime. So can using starvation as a weapon of war," Bashi said in the statement.
"Since October 1 the Israeli military has ordered some 400,000 people in northern Gaza to leave their homes and blocked aid from reaching them - risking both crimes again and again."
Israel has blocked food aid from entering Gaza for two weeks, and the US earlier this week warned that Israel must boost aid to Gaza or risk a reassessment of military aid.
"It’s time for the US to take concrete action and suspend military assistance to Israel, to avoid complicity in the spiralling abuses against civilians in Gaza, most urgently in the north," Bashi said in the statement.
Forced displacement and using starvation as a weapon of war can amount to war crimes.
— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) October 18, 2024
Since Oct. 1, the Israeli military has ordered 400,000 people in northern Gaza to leave their homes and blocked aid from them—risking both crimes again and again. https://t.co/pcMT5iimAw pic.twitter.com/xWvjQ0HVAQ
Following the announcement of Sinwar's killing, social media has exploded with a mix of sympathy, mourning, admiration and criticism.
The hashtag #Sinwar has gone viral on X, formerly Twitter, with over two million shares.
"He died an honorable death. A warrior's death, among his men, one with his people, in defense of his land against a genocidal intruder, occupier, and colonizer," one user wrote.
"In his death, he became a legend. A defiant throw, even in his last moments, symbolises resistance," commented an X user in a post that gained over 27,000 reshares at the time of publication.
Several users also stated that the footage appeared to contradict the Israeli army's and western officials' narratives that the movement's leader was hiding in tunnels with Israeli hostages nearby as human shields.
Hamas is proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK, US and European Union.
Read more: 'Resistance never dies': Social media reacts to killing of Yahya Sinwar
Israeli forces have cut off communication and internet networks in northern Gaza, according to Al Jazeera.
Israeli media has reported evidence that a plan to ethnically cleanse northern Gaza and kill any Palestinians who remain is underway.
Over the past 10 days, as Israeli forces ordered hundreds of thousands of people to flee northern Gaza before launching a new offensive, Israeli media and analysts have suggested that the military is implementing the controversial "Generals' Plan".
According to the health ministry in Gaza, since dawn at least 20 Palestinians have been killed - including 11 in Jabalia refugee camp in the north.
The Islamic Action Front, Jordan's largest opposition party, has congratulated Jordanian gunmen who wounded at least two Israeli soldiers on Friday.
The incident on Friday took place in Neot HaKikar in the south Dead Sea area, close to the border with Jordan.
The gunmen had entered Israeli territory from Jordan. The Israeli army said it had killed two of the attackers and was looking for a third.
"We congratulate the heroic operation carried out by the martyrs Amer Qawas and Hussam Abu Ghazaleh," the Islamic Action Front said.
Unconfirmed images purporting to be of the slain attackers show them in military attire.
Jordanian officials, however, have put out a statement saying that the attackers did not belong to the country's armed forces and that the uniforms were not Jordanian military issue.
