Live: Major clashes break out near Bethlehem after Israeli raid

Egypt has pushed back against Israel’s announcement that it will open the Rafah border crossing only for Palestinians leaving the Gaza Strip, according to the Egyptian State Information Service, which cited an official source.

The unnamed source said that if an agreement is reached to resume operations at the crossing, it must function in both directions, in line with the ceasefire framework, not as a one-way exit controlled by Israel.

The official also said they “deny” any coordination with Israel regarding the reopening of Rafah.

Israel had earlier claimed it would open the crossing in the coming days solely for Palestinians seeking to travel into Egypt, a move widely viewed as part of a broader effort to ethnically cleanse the besieged enclave.

A diverse group of western celebrities, including Benedict Cumberbatch, Delia Smith, Ian McKellen and Annie Ernaux, have called on Israel to release jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti.

Barghouti, who is often referred to as the Palestinian Mandela, has been imprisoned by Israel since 2002, and is currently serving five life sentences. 

Repeated polling has shown the former leader of Fatah's paramilitary Al-Aqsa Brigades is the most popular Palestinian politician in the occupied territories and a potential future president.

The celebrities are signatories to a letter calling on the international community to pressure Israel to release Barghouti, citing the "violent mistreatment and denial of legal rights" he has experienced while in prison.

More than 200 people from different industries have currently signed the letter.

Read more: Celebrities including Benedict Cumberbatch and Annie Ernaux call for Marwan Barghouti release

The Palestinian Prisoners and Freed Prisoners Affairs Authority says Israel continues to use starvation and systematic medical neglect against detainees in its prisons, according to the Wafa news agency.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the authority said testimonies from prisoners across different Israeli detention facilities reveal the same pattern of abuse. Detainees reported severe shortages of clothing, the rapid spread of scabies, chronic hunger, significant weight loss and consistently poor, insufficient food.

The authority said these conditions form part of a wider system of punishment under Israel’s incarceration regime, where neglect and deprivation replace basic standards of care and dignity.

The Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, announced on Wednesday that its teams had discovered the body of an Israeli prisoner during search operations in northern Gaza.

The group said they will hand over the body at 5pm local time later today.

At least 70,117 people have been killed in the Gaza genocide since Israel launched its war on the besieged enclave in October 2023, with an additional 170,999 wounded, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

In the past 48 hours, hospitals across the territory received five bodies, including four new fatalities and one recovered body, and 13 wounded patients.

Since the ceasefire on 11 October, at least 360 people have been killed by Israeli, 922 wounded, and 617 bodies recovered, underscoring the continued human cost of Israel’s war.

Israeli occupation soldiers allowed 375 settlers to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Wednesday, reported the Palestinian news agency.

The settlers arrived in successive groups from the Mughrabi Gate, carrying out provocative tours and performing rituals in the mosque’s courtyards.

Since 7 October, 2023, Israeli forces have tightened access procedures at Al-Aqsa gates and the entrances to the Old City, restricting Palestinian worshippers and escalating tensions in the occupied East Jerusalem site.

Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli occupation soldiers in Gaza’s Zaytoun neighbourhood on Wednesday.

A source at the Baptist Hospital confirmed to Al Jazeera Arabic that the victims were shot outside the so-called yellow line, highlighting ongoing violations of the ceasefire by Israel.

Around 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza now live with severe, life-changing injuries, almost double the figure recorded a year ago, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, citing World Health Organization estimates.

• 22,500 cases had already been documented by July 2024, a number that has continued to climb as Israeli attacks persist.

• The most common injuries include complex limb trauma, amputations, burns, spinal cord and brain damage, many of them resulting in permanent loss of movement or sensation.

• The report recorded more than 5,000 amputations, with around 75 percent affecting the lower limbs.

Children remain among the hardest hit:

• More than 10,000 children now live with injuries causing long-term disability. One in four of those seriously wounded is a child

• Doctors Without Borders says 70 percent of burn patients requiring surgery were children, most of them under five, highlighting the brutality of injuries and the lack of supplies.

Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian in the Zaytoun neighbourhood, southeast of Gaza City, on Wednesday, in another breach of the fragile ceasefire, reported the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Despite the truce announced on 11 October, Israeli gunfire and shelling have continued across the enclave, with roughly 360 Palestinians killed since the agreement came into effect.

Israel has said it will open the Rafah crossing on the Egypt–Gaza border in the coming days, but “exclusively” for Palestinians who want to leave the besieged enclave.

The move underscores growing fears that Israel is attempting to depopulate Gaza rather than restore Palestinians’ right to move freely across their own land.

In a post on X, Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said departures would take place in coordination with Egypt, but only after Palestinians receive so-called security clearance from Israel and pass through procedures overseen by a European Union mission.

Hamas has said that Israel is continuing to breach the ceasefire and attack Palestinians forced from their homes.

In a statement, the group said that “the occupation continues its violations of the ceasefire agreement and is targeting displaced people outside the yellow line.”

It added that Israel’s actions are worsening the suffering of families already living under siege and in constant fear of renewed attacks.

Hamas urged mediators and the states acting as guarantors of the agreement to take decisive steps to halt Israel’s systematic violations and to force it to comply fully with the ceasefire terms.

A group aligned with Hamas said its fighters were working alongside a Red Cross team in northern Gaza to locate the body of a captive.

The statement came one day after Hamas transferred remains that the Red Cross believed belonged to one of the last two deceased captives still in Gaza. Israel’s forensic authorities later said that the remains did not match those of any of the captives.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed that the National Centre of Forensic Medicine examined the material transferred from Gaza and found it did not belong to any of the remaining captives whose bodies are still being held in the besieged enclave.

Israeli occupation forces carried out a sweeping raid across Hebron in the occupied West Bank, arresting at least three Palestinians and detaining dozens more during aggressive door-to-door operations, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The arrests form part of Israel’s ongoing campaign of mass detention, often carried out without warrants or due process, as the occupation tightens its grip on Palestinian communities