Live: Major clashes break out near Bethlehem after Israeli raid

Israel killed at least six people, including children and women, in multiple air strikes across the Gaza Strip on Thursday as it continues to violate the ceasefire agreement on a near-daily basis.

In one strike, Israeli military  incinerated a father Fathi Abu Hussein and his eight-year-old son Bilal and ten-year-old son Mohammed in their tent after they targeted the Al-Mawasi tent camp in a 'safe' zone as people slept and then struck the vicinity of a nearby hospital a short while later, Al Jazeera reported. 

The strikes also wounded 16 others.

Gaza's healthcare system is decimated from two years of war, making it difficult for Palestinians to obtain the medical care they might need fot a full recovery. 

The Israeli military fired several artillery shells into southern Syria, Syria's Sana news agency reported on Thursday.

A Sana reporter in Quneitra said that three Israeli military vehicles set up a checkpoint at the entrance of the village of al‑Samdaniyah al‑Gharbiyah to search passers‑by on the road leading to the village of al‑Rawadhi and connecting to al‑Ajraf.

The reporter added that another patrol, also made up of three military vehicles, advanced along the road to al‑Manitra dam in the Quneitra countryside.

The news agency said Israeli forces attacked the outskirts of Kuwaya, a town in western Deraa, and Tal Ahmar Sharqi in Quneitra.

Israel currently has troops illegally stationed in Syria, Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian territories. 

The Green Party leadership has called on the government to "act before it's too late" after the party’s deputy leader became the first political figure to visit activists affiliated with Palestine Action who are on hunger strike.

Mothin Ali told Middle East Eye he was "horrified" by the conditions endured by two activists, Amu Gib and Jon Cink, whom he visited in HMP Bronsfield in West London.

They are among 24 Palestine Action activists in jail awaiting trial for actions against weapons factories and offices linked to Israel in protest over the genocide in Gaza.

Both prisoners, he said, are on their "last legs" and subjected to what he described as "inhumane" treatment that is "an affront to human decency".

"These young activists are only holding on because of their youth. Both look extremely weak and are struggling with multiple health issues as they continue their hunger strike to oppose the government's treatment of them and the UK's ongoing complicity in genocide," Ali said.

"This is the biggest hunger strike since Bobby Sands and Irish prisoners went on hunger strike in the 1980s."

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Ireland, Spain, Slovenia, and the Netherlands will boycott the 2026 Eurovision song contest after the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) gave Israel the green light to compete on Thursday.

The countries were among several participating broadcasters who called for Israel's exclusion over accusations of Israel employing unfair voting practices and due to Israel's war on Gaza.

While the EBU's semi-annual General Assembly did not vote on Israel’s participation in Eurovision, they did vote to reduce government influence on voting results after the Israeli government was said to have unfairly promoted the song of the Israeli participant. 

“A large majority of members agreed that there was no need for a further vote on participation and that the Eurovision song contest 2026 should proceed as planned, with the additional safeguards in place,” the EBU said in a statement.

Russia was banned from Eurovision after it invaded Ukraine in 2022. 

Israeli soldiers assaulted a garbage collection driver near Bethlehem on Thursday and left him badly wounded, Wafa news agency reported. 

Jihad Zawahra, 37, was stopped and removed from his work vehicle in the village of al-Maniya, and assaulted by soldiers, resulting in him sustaining multiple bruises, contusions and wounds. 

The United Nations chief spokesperson told reporters on Thursday in New York City that there is still not enough aid being allowed to enter Gaza, Al Jazeera reported. 

“There needs to be full respect for the ceasefire to ensure the safety of all civilians, including aid workers,” Stephane Dujarric said during a briefing.

“In addition, more crossings must open, more volume of aid needs to go, and more volume of diverse aid supplies needs to enter Gaza through multiple routes and without delays and other impediments.”

Israel said it would open up the Rafah crossing one-way for Palestinians to leave Gaza, but not for aid to enter.

The Palestinian football team tied 2-2 with Tunisia in the Arab Cup football tournament in Doha, Qatar, on Thursday.

Players Hamed Hamdan and Zaid Qunbar scored in the last 30 minutes of the nail-biting match to tie with Tunisia.

Palestine will play Syria next on Sunday.

A Palestinian woman was killed, and dozens were injured after the Israeli army opened fire on residents in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood in the northeast of Gaza City on Thursday, Wafa news agency reported.

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) filed a complaint on Thursday against Microsoft to the Data Protection Commission (DPC) for conducting unlawful data processing on behalf of the Israeli army in Gaza. 

The ICCL said the complaint concerns data processing by Microsoft Ireland that facilitated the killing of civilians in Gaza by the Israeli army; continues to enable mass surveillance of individuals in occupied Palestine, and enables the illegal Israeli occupation in Palestine.

ICCL has asked the DPC to urgently investigate Microsoft Ireland's data processing, which continues to enable human rights violations. The human rights organisation has also asked the DPC to exercise its powers to stop this unlawful data processing.

"When EU infrastructure is used to enable surveillance and targeting, the Irish Data Protection Commission must step in, and it must use its full powers to hold Microsoft to account," executive director of ICCL Joe O’Brien said.

A 12-year-old Palestinian boy was severely wounded on Thursday afternoon after Israeli soldiers opened fire in the city of Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said he suffered a critical head injury while near the northern checkpoint and was taken to hospital for urgent treatment.

Israeli forces had targeted several neighbourhoods, particularly Kafr Saba, firing live rounds and rubber-coated bullets.

Israel’s military said it has killed Muhammad Jawad Muhammad al-Bawab, who it described as the commander of Hamas’s Eastern Rafah Battalion, in a strike on Sunday. It said it also killed three others, including his deputy Ismail Kanaan Abd al-Hay Abu Labdeh.

The army said Bawab was targeted as he emerged from underground infrastructure in eastern Rafah. It named the other men killed as security guard Abdullah Azi Ahmed Hama and regional platoon leader Tawfiq Khaled Tawfiq Salem.

Hamas has not commented on the Israeli claims. 

Israeli has carried out strikes in the southern Lebanese towns of al-Majadel and Braashit shortly after issuing a warning.

The escalation comes one day after a notable shift in talks between Israel and Lebanon.

Beirut agreed to appoint civilian representatives to the US-led ceasefire monitoring committee, with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam signalling readiness to discuss issues that extend beyond security.

The Commission of Detainees and Ex Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society have confirmed the deaths of three Gaza detainees held by Israel.

In a joint statement, the groups identified them as Taysir Saeed al Abd Sababa, 60, Khamis Shukri Mar’i Ashour, 44, and Khalil Ahmad Khalil Haniyeh, 35.

Palestinians are continuing to die in Israeli custody as a result of torture, starvation, medical neglect, sexual assault and other systematic abuses.

Israel’s military has carried out its threatened strike on the southern Lebanese town of Jbaa, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported. The attack targeted a building in a crowded residential area, flattening it and causing heavy damage to surrounding homes.

The military has also warned it will soon strike another two towns in the south, al-Majadel and Braashit. On X, its Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee shared maps highlighting several buildings marked as targets.

Israel launched strike on the Lebanese town of Mahrouna, shortly after warning of an upcoming attack there, according to the country’s National News Agency.

Israel’s Arabic-language military spokesman confirmed on X that operations are underway in southern Lebanon.