Live: Gaza death toll nears 50,700

Unicef has sounded the alarm: more than a million children in Gaza have been cut off from life-saving aid for over a month.

The UN agency slammed Israel’s blockade on humanitarian relief as a blatant violation of international law, warning that the consequences are catastrophic.

Malnutrition is spiralling, disease is spreading, and child mortality is set to rise unless the siege on aid is lifted, Unicef warned. Thousands of aid parcels sit waiting, but Israeli restrictions keep them from reaching desperate families.

In a chilling revelation, Unicef said Gaza has run out of complementary foods for infants, and there’s only enough baby formula left for 400 children—for just one month.

Children already weakened by malnutrition are now at extreme risk, trapped in a warzone where even basic survival is slipping out of reach.

Israeli forces have killed at least 29 Palestinians in fresh attacks on Gaza since dawn, medical sources told Al Jazeera.

Israel reignited its war on the besieged enclave on 18 March, tearing apart a fragile two-month truce with an onslaught of airstrikes and shelling.

Since October 2023, more than 50,600 Palestinians—mostly women, children, and the elderly—have been killed in Israel’s relentless bombardment

Egyptian officials have accused Israel of stoking tensions by falsely claiming that troop movements in northern Sinai are in breach of the peace treaty between the countries.

One senior diplomatic source in Cairo told MEE that relations between Egypt and Israel were at their lowest point since the beginning of the war in Gaza as fears grow that Israel’s renewed assault is a prelude to the forced displacement of Palestinians from the enclave.

Israeli and Palestinian analysts also warned that Israel’s government may be seeking to incite conflict as part of a plan to sway public opinion against Egypt, both to facilitate ethnic cleansing in Gaza and to advance Israel’s broader regional strategic ambitions.

Assaf David, director of the Israel in the Middle East programme at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and a professor at the Hebrew University, told MEE: “The incitement is clear. I think Netanyahu’s administration is really insisting on the plan of ethnic cleansing.

“If Israeli public opinion changes on Egypt then that will be easier. So a confrontation with Egypt prepares the ground.”

Read more: Israel accused of incitement against Egypt over Sinai troop buildup claims

Hamas' military wing, the Qassam Brigades has released a two-minute video showing one of two Israeli captives with bandages on his right cheek and hand.

Speaking directly to the camera, they recount surviving an Israeli raid.

Hamas warned on Friday that Israel’s relentless assault on Gaza is putting captives in grave danger, claiming that half of those still alive are in areas targeted by forced evacuations and heavy bombardment.

A Palestinian paramedic who witnessed an Israeli attack that killed 15 of his colleagues says soldiers fired directly at emergency vehicles, leaving them riddled with bullets and stained with blood.

Munther Abed, a volunteer with the Palestine Red Crescent, had been responding to an emergency call near Rafah in southern Gaza on March 23 when Israeli troops detained him. Moments later, he saw them unleash gunfire on a convoy of ambulances, Al Jazeera reported.

“I could see the vehicle of the civil emergency. The soldiers began shooting at the vehicles, they fired heavily,” Abed recalled. “It was dark and I couldn’t see what happened to the people there.”

According to the Palestine Red Crescent, Abed is the “lone survivor” of the assault. The fate of one missing paramedic remains unknown.

Martin Griffiths, the former UN humanitarian chief and current executive director of Mediation Group International, has condemned Israel’s killing of 15 aid workers in Gaza as “almost certainly a war crime”.

“It’s almost inhuman,” he told Al Jazeera in a rebuke. “I don’t understand the culture within the [Israeli military] and those platoons for them to be able to do this. It’s a complete inhumane horror.”

Griffiths, who once led the UN’s emergency relief operations, didn’t mince words. In his view, a this ws moment that demanded global reckoning. “It’s something to grieve, to observe, to record and to remind,” he said.

Griffiths is now pushing for action, calling on countries bound by the Geneva Conventions to demand an independent investigation.

“This must go through the UN Security Council,” he insisted, “and then presumably to the International Criminal Court.”

Six Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli attack in the Qizan Abu Rashwan neighbourhood in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.

The deaths bring the death toll since dawn to 27, according to medical sources.

New video evidence relating to the killing of 15 Palestinian rescue workers by Israeli forces has emerged, contradicting the Israeli account of the attack on a medical convoy in Rafah last week. 

The footage, which was retrieved from a phone belonging to one of the medics who was killed, shows the Israeli army attacking clearly marked Red Crescent ambulances that had their emergency signal lights on, and emergency medical workers wearing reflective vests.

Officials from the Palestine Red Crescent Society said in a news conference on Friday at the United Nations headquarters that they had presented the nearly seven-minute recording to the UN Security Council.

Last week, the humanitarian workers went missing  after responding to a distress call from civilians wounded in an Israeli attack in Rafah. All contact was lost with them and the medics were found days later in a mass grave, two to three metres deep, with their bodies riddled with gunshots, according the Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza. 

'They were killed in their uniforms. Driving their clearly marked vehicles. Wearing their gloves. On their way to save lives," said Jonathan Whittall, head of then UN's humanitarian affairs office in Palestine.

Read more: New video evidence disputes Israeli army's account of medic killings

The "lone survivor" of the Israeli attack that killed 15 medics and civil defence workers , Palestine Red Crescent volunteer Munther Abed was detained shortly before soldiers opened fire. He said he witnessed the attack, but did not see what happened to his colleagues until dawn broke.

"I could see the vehicle of the Civil Emergency. The soldiers began shooting at the vehicles, they fired heavily," he said. "It was dark and I couldn't see what happened to the people there, but they (the soldiers) fired heavily. They asked me to duck down and they were firing heavily. I felt as if the bullets were hitting me personally."

“With the first light of day things become clearer. I saw the vehicles of the civil emergency and the Red Crescent. The doors of all the vehicles were open and there was blood on the vehicles,” he said.

He watched as a bulldozer dug four holes and crushed the vehicles into the sand. 

“At that time I had no clue about the fate of my colleagues,” he said.

Munther was detained for around 15 hours, during which he was interrogated and beaten.

He said he saw the aid worker who is still missing, detained by Israeli soldiers.

"They asked me where I had been on October 7, they were saying Palestinians are terrorists, and that we are all terrorists. They asked many personal questions too about me and my family," he said. "I felt I was about to die."

Six Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli attack on northern Gaza's Beit Hanoun, Al Jazeera is reporting, citing medical sources.

According to the sources, 21 Palestinians have been killed since dawn, with Israeli attacks concentrated on Gaza City in the north, and Khan Younis in the south.

A father and his son were killed in an Israeli air strike targeting civilians in central Gaza's Deir al-Balah, Wafa news agency is reporting, citing local sources.

According to the sources, Salman Mahmoud Abed and his son Mahmoud Salman Abed were killed when Israeli forces bombed a group of civilians at the entrance of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.

Hamas has said in a statement that the new footage that has emerged showing Israeli forces attacking Palestinian medics is "irrefutable visual evidence" that  proves the "systematic targeting of humanitarian personnel" by the army and constitutes "a premeditated murder under international law".

The group called for "international justice for the victims of this heinous crime".

Hamas's comments came as new video evidence relating to the Israeli forces' killing of 15 Palestine Red Crescent and civil defence workers emerged on Saturday.

The footage, which was retrieved from a phone belonging to one of the medics who was killed and buried in a mass gave, shows the Israeli military attacking clearly marked Red Crescent ambulances with lights flashing, and emergency medical workers wearing reflective vests.

The new evidence contradicts the Israeli army's account of the incident which claimed that the emergency vehicles “were identified advancing suspiciously toward [Israeli] troops without headlights or emergency signals”.

A Palestinian man has been injured in an attack by Israeli settlers in southern Hebron, Wafa news agency is reporting.

Hudhayfah Ghaith was assaulted by a group of settlers while he was ploughing the family's land in Wadi al-A'war, his brother, Mudar, told Wafa. He reported that they unleashed dogs on him, and smashed the windows of his vehicle.

Ghaith was subsequently rushed to hospital for treatment.

According to Mudar, the settlers had set up a caravan about a month ago in order to establish a new illegal outpost.

Al Jazeera is also reporting settler attacks against Palestinians in the Masafar Yatta area, south of Hebron and in the al-Dhubat neighbourhood of Beit Furik, east of Nablus.

Local sources reported that settlers attacked Palestinian homes and property under Israeli military protection, which fired tear gas and sounds grenades.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun met with Deputy US Envoy to the Middle East Morgan Ortagus to discuss the situation in southern Lebanon,

The Lebanese Presidency said in a statement that the two also discussed the international monitoring committee working to maintain the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, and the Israeli withdrawal from the country.

At least three people, including a woman, have been killed in an Israeli attack on Gaza City's Shujayea neighbourhood, Al Jazeera is reporting.