Live: At least 75 killed in Israeli strikes on second day of Eid al-Adha

We reported earlier that 14 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since dawn on Saturday.

Wafa news agency is reporting, citing local sources, that seven Palestinians, including an entire family, in Israeli air strikes targeting Gaza City and Khan Younis.

According to the report, Arafat Deeb was killed along with his wife and three children in an Israeli attack on their tent near the Omar Mosque in the Al-Shanti area of Gaza City.

Israel has blocked the entry of a delegation of Arab foreign ministers planning to hold a meeting in the Palestinian administrative capital of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, Israeli media is reporting.

The Israeli authorities refused entry to the delegation, which included ministers from Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, on the grounds that they intended to participate in “a provocative meeting” to discuss promoting the establishment of a Palestinian state.

“Such a state would undoubtedly become a terrorist state in the heart of the land of Israel,” an Israeli official said. “Israel will not cooperate with such moves aimed at harming it and its security.”

Israeli strikes killed at least 14 Palestinian since dawn on Saturday, according to media report. 

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates from the Israeli war on Gaza, now in its 603rd day: 

• Israeli forces have once again opened fire on Palestinians seeking aid at the US-run distribution point in central Gaza.

• On Saturday, an Israeli airstrike killed an entire family in Gaza City, including two parents and their three children.

• Meanwhile, Israeli media reported that Israel intends to bar the entry of Arab foreign ministers who plan to hold a meeting on Palestinian statehood in the occupied West Bank.

Good evening Middle East Eye readers,

The UN said on Friday that 100 percent of Gaza is at risk of famine, as the head of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, Unrwa, said the level of aid being allowed into Gaza is a "mockery to the mass tragedy unfolding" there. 

We will be pausing our coverage for the evening. Here is everything you need to know: 

• Israel in an escalation has decided to block a delegation of Middle Eastern foreign ministers led by Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat to the occupied West Bank on Sunday, several Israeli media outlets reported
• US President Donald Trump said he believes his administration is close to a Gaza ceasefire and may have an announcement later today “or maybe tomorrow”
• Hamas's armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, said it carried out a joint military operation against Israeli forces with the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the al-Quds Brigades
• A new poll found that 82 percent of Israeli Jews support the forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, while an additional 56 percent support expelling Palestinian citizens of Israel

Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, told Al Jazeera that it was "safe to say" there is famine in Gaza, noting that it's impossible to reach a formal conclusion because Israel has totally besieged the enclave, with experts unable to access the population.  

He also said that Israel and the US were using the trickle of aid entering the enclave “as bait to corral people” into military zones. 

“It’s about humiliating people, and it’s about controlling the population. This has nothing to do with stopping starvation,” he said.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office said on Friday that 700 people in Gaza were detained by Israeli forces in May.

The total number of Palestinians detained at some point since the start of the war on 7 October 2023 is above 12,000.

More than 3,500 Palestinians from Gaza are still detained.

At least 44 people have died in prison, the office added. 

Israel in an escalation has decided to block a delegation of Middle Eastern foreign ministers led by Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat to the occupied West Bank on Sunday, a senior Israeli official told to The Times of Israel.

The foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and Turkey were slated to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Sunday.

The visit would have been the most high level to the territory since Israel conquered the West Bank from Jordan in 1967. 

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz vowed on Friday to build a "Jewish Israeli state" in the occupied West Bank, a day after the government announced the creation of 22 new settlements in the Palestinian territory.

"This is a decisive response to the terrorist organisations that are trying to harm and weaken our hold on this land," Katz said in a video published by his office. 

Israel's settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law. Advocates of a two-state solution earmark the territory as the heartland of a feature Palestinian state. 

The head of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, Unrwa, said the level of aid being allowed into Gaza is a "mockey" as the enclave stands on the brink of mass starvation. 

"We are back to the blaming game while the people of #Gaza are starving + trying to survive heavy bombardments," Philippe Lazzarini, the Unrwa chief said.

"There are reports that 900 trucks were sent in the past two weeks. That’s just over 10 percent of the daily needs of people in Gaza. The aid that’s being sent now makes a mockery to the mass tragedy unfolding under our watch," he added. 

Saudi Arabia's Prince Faisal bin Farhan will become the first Saudi foreign minister to visit the occupied West Bank on Sunday, a diplomatic source told AFP. 

The visit comes as Israel escalates its attacks across the occupied territory, even as it pummels the Gaza Strip. 

Farhan will lead a delegation to Ramallah, a Palestinian embassy source told the AFP, in the first such trip since Israel conquered the territory from Jordan in 1967.

Prince Faisal's trip was revealed as Israel vowed to build a "Jewish Israeli state" in the West Bank, with a large expansion of illegal settlements announced earlier this week. 

US President Donald Trump said he believes his administration is close to a Gaza ceasefire and may have an announcement later today “or maybe tomorrow”.

“We have a chance of that,” Trump told reporters on Friday. 

Hamas says it is reviewing the proposal to pause Israel's war on Gaza. 

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, said on Friday that Israel was using aid as a figleaf to carry out "crimes in Gaza”.

“Israel pretends to promote humanitarian solutions in order to continue its control of Gaza and sustain its systematic denial of life-saving humanitarian aid to the starving population in the besieged strip,” Albanese said. 

She said Israel's war on Gaza was being “camouflaged behind the language of aid, to divert international attention from legal accountability, in Israel’s attempt to dismantle the very principles upon which humanitarian law was built”.

Hamas said on Friday it was mulling a phased ceasefire proposal sent by US envoy Steve Witkoff with other Palestinian factions. 

Hamas has demanded a permanent end to Israel's war on Gaza in return for releasing captives, but according to reports, the US proposal does not guarantee a permanent end to fighting. 

A January ceasefire backed by the US collapsed in March after Israel unilaterally resumed attacking Gaza. 

Israeli far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir mocked French President Emmanuel Macron for apparently being slapped by his wife.

Ben-Gvir's criticism comes as Macron says he could impose sanctions on Israeli settlers over the risk of widespread famine in Gaza.

Ben-Gvir said “Macron plays into the hands of Islamic terrorism," adding, "His flattery of Hamas will not end with a simple slap upon exiting the plane, and even a helmet will not help,” he wrote on X.

Macron has been mocked on social media after a video showed his wife, Brigitte Macron, appearing to slap him on the face upon arrival in Vietnam earlier this week.

Ben-Gvir posted an AI-generated image of Macron wearing a helmet and standing next to his wife.