Live: At least 137 people killed by Israel recovered from rubble in Rafah

At his final press conference on Thursday as secretary of state, Antony Blinken told reporters he wished the Gaza ceasefire deal could have been secured sooner but made no mention of how the incoming Trump administration pushed Israel in a way that President Joe Biden chose not to, or was unable to. 

"Do I wish we could have gotten the ceasefire agreement months ago? Of course, the suffering, the lives lost since could have been could have been avoided if we had gotten this over the line sooner," he told reporters.

The process was "complex," he added. 

 "Every one of those days of setback and struggle is necessary to get you to the day of success." 

Ongoing Israeli attack could endanger captives held in Gaza, Hamas warned on Thursday.

"Any aggression and shelling at this stage by the enemy could turn the freedom of a prisoner into a tragedy," the al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, said on Telegram.

Donald Trump's incoming national security advisor has said the US would support Israel if the army decides to re-enter Gaza after withdrawing.

Speaking to Fox News, Mike Waltz said that the incoming president would stand behind the Israeli army.

"Trump knows how to make big deals. Israel needs to know that if the [Israeli army] is required to enter Gaza again, we are with them," he said.

"Hamas will not continue to serve as a terrorist organisation and will not rule Gaza. That is our message to the citizens of Israel."

At least 81 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the health ministry announced on Thursday.

These new losses bring the death toll from more than 15 months of war to 46,788, the ministry said in a statement.

Twelve critically ill patients from Gaza have arrived in Albania, France, Norway, and Romania for specialised treatment, according to World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

He stressed that the ceasefire agreement provides a vital chance to speed up medical evacuations for more than 12,000 people in desperate need of life-saving care outside Gaza, many of them children.

“We hope the deal will be sustained, because lives depend on it,” he wrote on X.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been criticised after publishing a statement on Wednesday night which welcomed the ceasefire in Gaza but recalled the "massacre of Jewish people" while saying that Palestinians "lost their lives".

The contrasting language used to describe Israelis and Palestinians killed in the conflict has been a constant source of scrutiny with activists arguing that the deaths of Palestinians are downplayed by media outlets and government.

Points of contention have been not mentioning the perpetrators of Palestinian deaths, which is invariably Israel, and also using the passive voice when talking about those killed.

Middle East Eye has contacted Downing Street to ask how the prime minister believed the Palestinians he referred to had died. At the the time of publication, Downing Street had not responded.

MEE also asked the Foreign Office whether it considered any party responsible for the death of Palestinians but has not received a response.

Read more: Outrage after Keir Starmer says Israelis were 'massacred' but Palestinians 'lost their lives'

White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby told NBC that reports suggesting the ceasefire agreement could fall apart are false.

While acknowledging that some details still need to be finalised, he expressed confidence that the issues raised by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be resolved, allowing the agreement to take effect on Sunday.

Kirby also stated that both President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump share the same objective: ending the war and securing the release of captives.

Joel Samuels, a 38-year-old Jewish actor, writer and activist, says he believes a "reckoning" is taking place among Jewish communities in Britain.

“There is a reason the language around October 7 was linked to the Holocaust,” Samuels explains, referring to the Hamas attack in southern Israel that left more than 1,100 people dead.

“If you consistently root things in our major collective trauma… then the only solution and the only way we will be safe is by having this outpost of western imperialism.

“The abuse of the Holocaust… to keep us in fear to maintain Israel is not something that I think is understood by Jews."

Samuels is one of a growing number of British Jews who have become increasingly disillusioned with Israel and the promise of Zionism, as well as increasingly involved in the pro-Palestinian movement.

Read more: 'Zionism is anti-Jewish': British Jews explain their turn away from Israel

At least 20 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli assault on Jabalia in northern Gaza, with many still trapped beneath the rubble and others suffering critical injuries.

Since the ceasefire was announced, Israeli attacks have claimed the lives of at least 72 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

As Palestinians took to the streets to celebrate the deal, Israel continued its bombardment, shattering hopes for an end to the bloodshed.

Mossad chief David Barnea and Israeli negotiators are still in Doha, working to finalise the ceasefire agreement, despite public reports from Qatar and the United States that a deal has already been reached, The Times of Israel reports.

Israel’s cabinet has yet to vote on the agreement, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has claimed without evidence that Hamas is making "last-minute attempts at blackmail" by allegedly reneging on certain terms.

Despite Israel's accusations, Hamas has reiterated its commitment to the ceasefire deal announced by the mediators yesterday, urging Israel to uphold its part of the agreement.

Axios has reported that Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Trump is serious about the Gaza deal and urged him not to derail it.

Axios has reported that Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Trump is serious about the Gaza deal and urged him not to derail it.

According to an Israeli official cited by the outlet, Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, played a key role in the negotiations, applying pressure on Netanyahu under direct orders from the president-elect.

Witkoff told Netanyahu: "Trump is serious about this deal, don't ruin this." 

A US official also told Axios that both Israel and Hamas were more inclined to finalise the agreement once it became clear they would be dealing with Trump rather than outgoing President Joe Biden.

When push came to shove, it was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who blinked first.

For months, Netanyahu had become the main obstacle to a Gaza ceasefire, to the considerable frustration of his own negotiators. 

That much was made explicit more than two months ago by the departure of his defence minister, Yoav Gallant. The chief architect of the 15-month war, Gallant said plainly that there was nothing left for the army to do in Gaza.

Still Netanyahu persisted. Last spring, he rejected a deal signed by Hamas in the presence of CIA director William Burns, in favour of an offensive on Rafah. 

In the autumn, Netanyahu turned for salvation to the Generals’ Plan, aiming to empty northern Gaza in preparation for resettlement by Israelis. The plan was to starve and bomb the population out of northern Gaza by declaring that anyone who did not leave voluntarily would be treated as a terrorist.

Read more: Gaza ceasefire: After 15 months of brutality, Israel has failed on every front

The European Commission has announced it will allocate $123m in humanitarian aid for Gaza, as the enclave continues to suffer from Israel’s devastating assault.

Israeli air strikes and attacks on Gaza have killed at least 81 people and wounded 188 in the past 24 hours, according to the territory’s health ministry.

The latest wave of violence even after a ceasefire agreement was reached adds to the staggering toll of Israel’s  assault, with the confirmed number of Palestinians killed now reaching 46,788, while 110,453 have been wounded. More than 11,000 are missing and presumed dead, according to the health ministry.

An Israeli air strike on a school housing displaced people in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood killed two children and injured 20 others.