Live: Israeli forces withdraw from Netzarim Corridor

Israeli air strikes on Gaza on Thursday night could be heard more than 64km away in southern and central Israel.

In a statement, the Israeli army linked the explosions to military activity in northern Gaza but did not specify the nature or exact target of the strikes.

The army assured Israelis that there were no security incidents affecting them.

Israel's extensive campaign on the Gaza Strip since October 2023 - denounced as genocidal by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and UN experts - has killed over 45,400 Palestinians, the majority of them women and children.

The Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor estimated that Israel dropped approximately 63,500 tonnes of bombs on Gaza between 7 October and 24 April 2024, surpassing the total bombs dropped on Dresden, Hamburg and London combined during World War Two.

Read more: Explosions heard in Tel Aviv linked to intense Gaza bombardment 64km away

The Palestinian health ministry said on Friday that 37 people were killed in Gaza over the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll from the war to 45,436.

The ministry also reported that at least 108,038 people have been wounded in Israel's war on Gaza since 7 October 2023.

Israeli forces set fire to Kamal Adwan Hospital, the largest medical facility in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, which serves over 400,000 residents, Wafa news agency reported on Friday.

Witnesses said the Israeli military forcibly removed patients, the injured, medical staff and journalists from the hospital.

Before the fire, the hospital was the only functioning medical centre in northern Gaza, providing essential services to the community.

The blaze caused extensive damage, destroying critical departments, including operating rooms, the laboratory, the emergency unit and ambulance services.

Communication with those inside the hospital was cut off after Israeli forces surrounded the building.

Reports indicate that approximately 350 people, including 170 medical staff, were ordered by the military to gather in the courtyard ahead of the planned raid. The fate of those individuals remains unknown.

The Israeli military reported it conducted air strikes on Friday targeting "infrastructure" on the Syrian-Lebanese border near the village of Janta.

"Earlier today, the IAF [Israeli air force] struck infrastructure that was used to smuggle weapons via Syria to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation in Lebanon at the Janta crossing on the Syrian-Lebanese border," the military said in a statement.

It did not specify whether the strikes were on the Syrian or Lebanese side, but they came a day after Lebanon's army accused Israel of "violation of the ceasefire agreement by attacking Lebanese sovereignty and destroying southern towns and villages".

Yemen's Houthis on Friday said they fired a missile at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport, following reports from the Israeli military that a missile had been intercepted.

The Houthi movement's new claim came a day after Israeli air strikes targeted Sanaa International Airport and other locations in rebel-controlled areas of Yemen.

In a statement, the Houthis said they also launched drones at Tel Aviv and a ship in the Arabian Sea, saying that Israeli "aggression will only increase the determination and resolve of the great Yemeni people to continue supporting the Palestinian people".

A UN aircrew member injured in an Israeli air strike on Yemen's main international airport on Thursday sustained serious injuries but is now recovering in a hospital, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was at the Sanaa International Airport waiting to depart when the aerial bombardment took place and confirmed that a member of his plane's crew was injured.

The injured man, who worked for the UN Humanitarian Air Service, had to undergo surgery but is now recovering satisfactorily, the spokesperson added.

Tedros, who was in Yemen to negotiate the release of detained UN staff and to assess the humanitarian situation, will continue to work in the country until his flight can depart, the WHO spokesperson said.

A worker at Gaza's European Hospital, al-Hakim Ahmed al-Zaharneh, has died due to "severe" weather conditions, according to a statement from the Palestinian health ministry.

His body was found inside his tent in al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

“This tragedy highlights the harsh humanitarian conditions faced by displaced residents in Gaza, as plummeting temperatures and the lack of adequate heating in tents worsen their suffering,” the ministry said.

Israeli forces imposed a siege on Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, on Friday morning, ordering medical staff, patients and all those inside to leave to allow troops to storm the facility, Wafa news agency reported.

The hospital remains under tight blockade, with 91 patients still inside. Urgent appeals have been made for intervention to provide critical medical supplies, food and other essential resources to support the patients and staff.

The hospital has been under relentless Israeli bombardment, including drone strikes targeting its grounds and roof.

Yesterday, five hospital staff members were killed in an Israeli air strike that hit the facility.

At least nine Palestinians, including women and children, were killed early Friday morning in Israeli air strikes targeting Gaza City and Rafah.

Local sources reported that four people were killed when Israeli forces bombed a house belonging to the Abu Beid family in the Shujaiya neighbourhood, east of Gaza City.

In another attack in the Sedra area of Gaza City, a young girl was killed when her family’s home was struck. In Rafah, a woman succumbed to injuries sustained during an air strike on her home in the Nasser neighbourhood, east of the city.

Meanwhile, three Palestinians were killed and several others injured when an Israeli air strike hit a house belonging to the Harara family near al-Istijabah Mosque in Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood.

First Lieutenant Ibrahim Jumaa al-Qaddoumi of the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) security forces was killed in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, Wafa news agency reported.

The officer died while “performing his national duty defending the security and stability of his people”, Brigadier-General Anwar Rajab, spokesperson for the PA security forces, said.

The PA's security forces have been engaged in weeks of armed confrontations with Palestinian resistance fighters in Jenin.

Good morning, Middle East Eye readers, 

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

• Israel’s military announced it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen before it breached the country’s airspace.

• Israeli settlers have converged on an archaeological site in the Palestinian town of Halhul, located north of Hebron in the occupied West Bank. According to Wafa news agency, the settlers chanted slogans against Arab and Palestinian communities while conducting prayer ceremonies.

• Egypt’s foreign ministry has criticised the visit of Israel’s far-right minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, to Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, describing it as dangerously provocative and “extremist”.

• The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has raised concerns over a marked escalation in Israeli military violence throughout the occupied West Bank, where at least 10 Palestinians have been killed over the past two weeks.

• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned Israeli air strikes in Yemen, which endangered the chief of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who was present at Sanaa airport during the attack.

Our liveblog will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are the day's key developments:

-Five members of staff at northern Gaza's besieged Kamal Adwan Hospital were killed in Israeli air raids on Thursday, the hospital's director Dr Hussam Abu Safiyyah said. They were among a total of 50 people killed onsite, he added. 

-The director of field hospitals in Gaza has told Aljazeera that Israel has bombed Al-Awda hospital again on Thursday, this time wounding the medical director there as well as six members of staff.  Israel had targeted a clearly marked press vehicle in the early hours of Thursday just outside Al-Awda, killing five Palestinian journalists. 

-Separately, Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have claimed the lives of 34 Palestinians since Thursday morning, medical sources in Gaza have reported.

-The director of the WHO and other UN staff are safe after Israel carried out a series of air strikes on Yemen’s capital, Sana'a, targeting Sana'a International Airport, Red Sea ports, power stations and oil refineries. The UN team had been at the airport when the bombings occurred. Six people are confirmed dead across Yemen, and the Houthis have vowed retaliation. 

-The Israeli parliament, the Knesset, has given preliminary approval to a draft law granting the Israeli Ministry of Education the authority to deny teaching licenses to individuals holding university degrees from Palestinian academic institutions, the Wafa news agency reported. The draft passed with 40 votes in favour and nine against.

After announcing that five members on staff at Kamal Adwan Hospital were killed earlier on Thursday, the facility's medical director now says 50 people were killed in total from Israeli attacks there on Thursday.

That figure could raise the 26 December death toll in Gaza to more than 100. 

The director of field hospitals in Gaza has told Aljazeera that Israel has bombed Al-Awda hospital again on Thursday, this time wounding the medical director there as well as six members of staff. 

Israel targeted a clearly marked press vehicle in the early hours of Thursday just outside Al-Awda, killing five Palestinian journalists. 

Israel insists they are "combat propagandists". 

Aljazeera is reporting that at least 14 more Palestinians are dead and 50 others have been wounded in Israeli air strikes on Gaza City on Thursday.

Five Palestinians were also killed in an Israeli air strike on an area sheltering forcibly displaced families in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in northern Gaza, Aljazeera also said. 

Those figures are in addition to 34 Palestinians killed by Israel earlier in the day.