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

The aid trucks that Israel has allowed into the Gaza Strip this week are "too little, too late," a spokesperson for the German government said on Friday.

"This is far too little, too late and too slow," the spokesperson said.

"Now it's a matter of increasing it significantly ... and ensuring that these aid supplies reach the people so that the suffering in the Gaza Strip comes to an end," he added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that his pick for the next domestic intelligence chief should be appointed "as soon as possible", but would have no hand in an ongoing investigation into his associates.

Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to make army Major General David Zini the head of Shin Bet, which follows months of legal and political wrangling over his attempt to sack incumbent head Ronen Bar, has already sparked threats of a legal challenge.

“It is imperative to name a permanent head of the Shin Bet as soon as possible,” said a statement from Netanyahu’s office, which noted the probe into alleged Qatari influence involving the premier’s advisers.

“The appointed head of the Shin Bet will not be involved at all in these investigations.”

More than 50 Palestinians were killed or remain missing after an Israeli air raid on a residential building in the Jabalia al-Balad area of northern Gaza, Al Jazeera reported, citing Palestinian Civil Defence sources.

Civil Defence crews said they recovered the bodies of four victims and rescued six others from the rubble after what they described as a "horrific massacre". More than 50 people are still believed to be trapped under the debris.

Donald Trump's administration on Thursday revoked Harvard's ability to enroll foreign nationals, putting the future of thousands of students at risk and threatening the prestigious university with a huge financial loss.

Trump is furious at Harvard, which has produced 162 Nobel laureates, for rejecting his demand for oversight of its admissions and hiring, after he accused the school of antisemitism over pro-Palestinian protests.

"Effective immediately, Harvard University's Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification is revoked," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote in a letter to the Ivy League institution, referring to the main system by which foreign students are permitted to study in the United States.

Harvard, which has sued the government over a separate raft of punitive measures, fired back, calling the move "unlawful".

"We are fully committed to maintaining Harvard's ability to host our international students and scholars," it said in a statement, adding that it was working to offer students guidance and support. 

"This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvard's academic and research mission."

The death toll from Israeli attacks across Gaza since dawn has risen to 28, Al Jazeera reported, citing medical sources.

A total of 107 aid trucks belonging to the United Nations and other aid groups carrying flour, food, medical equipment and pharmaceutical drugs were transferred on Thursday into the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said.

Director Nadav Lapid said his new film "Yes" about a musician asked to re-write the Israeli national anthem is a response to his country's "blindness" to suffering in Gaza.

Lapid has previously dissected his country's ills in "Synonyms", which won the Golden Bear in Berlin in 2019, and "Ahed's Knee" (2021). 

In "Yes", he portrays a society buried under its own "dark side" since 7 October, 2023.

"Blindness in Israel is unfortunately a fairly collective illness," the 50-year-old director told AFP at the Cannes festival where "Yes" premiered on Thursday.

Over nearly two and a half hours, it follows a musician named Y, who is commissioned by the authorities to rewrite the Israeli national anthem into a propaganda piece calling for the eradication of Palestinians.

At least 16 people have been killed in early morning attacks by Israel on the Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera reported.

An earlier report said at least 85 people were killed since the early hours of Thursday morning.

Good morning, Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates on Israel’s war on Gaza, now in its 594th day, and its assault on the occupied West Bank: 

• Fighting back tears, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization on Thursday urged Israel to have "mercy" in the Gaza war and insisted peace would be in Israel's own interests.

• Elias Rodriguez, the suspect accused of gunning down two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington, was charged Thursday with murder.

• Microsoft said it fired one pro-Palestine employee, Joe Lopez, who interrupted Microsoft’s annual Build developer conference in Seattle this week over the company’s provision of artificial intelligence services to the Israeli military. 

• Alon-Lee Green, the co-director of Jewish-Palestinian grassroots activist group Standing Together, has said Israeli police showed up at his home in the early hours of this morning “to ask me questions and demand that I identify myself”.

• An estimated 81 percent of Gaza’s entire territory is now within Israeli-declared “militarised zones” or is subject to forced displacement orders by Israeli forces, the latest UN situation report said.

• The Israeli military's bombardment of Gaza killed at least 85 and wounded dozens of people across the territory since midnight on Thursday, according to Al Jazeera.

Good evening Middle East Eye readers, 

We will be taking a short break from the blog.

In the meantime, here are the developments in Gaza:

• At least 80 Palestinians were killed by Israeli strikes across the enclave on Thursday
• Republican Congressman Randy Fine suggested on Fox News that Gaza should be “nuked" like Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II
• The UN agency for Palestinian children said the trickle of aid that reached its warehouse in Gaza  is “vastly insufficient”
• Detained American green card holder and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil was allowed to hold his one-month-old son for the first time on Thursday
• The Gaza Government Media Office said at least six security officers guarding humanitarian aid from looting in the Gaza Strip were killed in Israeli strikes

Elias Rodriguez, the alleged shooter who killed two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC, on Wednesday night cited Israel's war on Gaza as his motivation according to court documents. 

 “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,”Rodriguez said after the shooting, according to court documents.

Rodriguez was charged on Thursday with murder and other federal crimes that carry the possibility of the death penalty. 

The Gaza Government Media Office said at least six security officers guarding humanitarian aid from looting in the Gaza Strip were killed in Israeli strikes on Thursday. 

According to the office, Israel launched eight strikes on the security guards protecting the aid. 

“It has become clear that the occupation army is operating in a systematic way to enable looting the aid and medicine trucks to ensure that they do not reach those who need them,” the office said in a statement.

The death toll from an Israeli strike on Deir el-Balah in central Gaza has risen to four people, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.

Israeli strikes have killed at least 80 Palestinians across the enclave since Thursday morning, according to medical sources.

Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar was killed by an Israeli strike that targeted him during a rare meeting of senior Hamas officials to discuss their approach to ceasefire talks, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The meeting of senior Hamas officials in Gaza went against the group's wartime security protocols, the WSJ reported. 

At least one Palestinian was killed and 30 others wounded in an Israeli strike targeting a displaced persons' tent northwest of al-Mawasi in Khan Younis on Thursday, Al Jazeera Arabic reported. 

The strikes came after medical sources said 72 Palestinians were killed by Israeli strikes throughout Thursday.