Israel-Palestine live: Thousands in state of panic as Israel continues to strike hospitals

More than 600 academics have signed a letter calling on universities in Ireland to cut ties with Israeli institutions, citing Israel's ongoing bombing campaign in Gaza, in addition to its ongoing occupation of the West Bank.

"We call on all universities in Ireland to immediately sever any existing institutional partnerships or affiliations with Israeli institutions," said the letter, published in the Irish Times.

"Those ties should be suspended until the occupation of Palestinian territory is ended, the Palestinian rights to equality and self-determination are vindicated, and the right of Palestinian refugees to return is facilitated."

The letter added that anything less than cutting ties "at this point amounts to tacit support for crimes against humanity".

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society received 30 trucks loaded with aid on Saturday.

This brings the total number of aid trucks that have entered Gaza on Saturday since 21 October to 451 trucks.

Israeli forces have stormed the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on early Sunday morning and raided several homes, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Over the past few weeks, Israeli forces have launched near-nightly raids throughout the West Bank, arresting dozens of Palestinians.

At least 51 Palestinians, mostly women and children, were killed and scores of others were wounded in an Israeli bombardment of Gaza's Maghazi camp on Saturday night, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The bombing is the latest mass killing of Palestinians to take place in recent days. Earlier this week, Israeli air strikes killed hundreds of Palestinians in the Jabalia refugee camp.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the majority of those killed and wounded on Saturday night were women and children.

Good evening MEE readers, 

At the end of the 29th day of the war, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli bombardment in Gaza now stands at 9,572. At least 26,000 others are injured, and over 1,600 missing - feared dead under the rubble. 

A Palestinian has been killed every four minutes in Gaza since the start of the war, according to the health ministry. 

Here's what you may have missed from the last few hours: 

• Several Palestinians were killed and wounded after an Israeli air strike once again hit the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Saturday evening.
   
• Hamas' armed wing said that 60 Israeli captives were missing due to Israeli bombardment, adding that 23 bodies of captives were under the rubble. MEE could not verify the claim. 
   
• Tens of thousands of demonstrators from all corners of the US came to Freedom Plaza in Washington DC on Saturday afternoon to demonstrate in support of Palestine and call for a ceasefire.
   
• Huge protests took place in London too, for the fourth week in a row. Tens of thousands gathered in Trafalgar Square, while protesters staged a sit-in in Oxford Circus.
   
• Israeli demonstrators gathered outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem. Scores of them chanted "Bibi is a murderer" and clashed with Israeli police.
   
•  Antony Blinken rejected calls for a ceasefire during a meeting with his Arab counterparts in Amman. He said it would leave Hamas in a position to regroup and launch attacks similar to the one on 7 October. 
   
• Jordan's foreign minister said Israel was committing war crimes and that Blinken had a leading role to play in ending the war. Meanwhile, Egypt's foreign minister said Israel's actions in Gaza could not be considered "self-defence".
   
• Israel bombed Al-Azhar University in Gaza on Saturday afternoon, adding to several other universities it has struck in the enclave since the war began.
   
• Turkey recalled its ambassador to Israel for consultations due to ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza.

We will continue providing you with live updates throughout the night. For up-to-date information around the clock, follow MEE's live blog and our social media platforms on Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube.

When asked on Saturday whether progress had been made on "humanitarian pauses" in the conflict, Joe Biden replied "Yes" and gave reporters a thumbs up.  

The president did not provide any further details, as he left a church in Delaware. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken rejected the idea of a permanent ceasefire during a meeting with his Arab counterparts in Amman earlier today, reiterating Washington's desire for "pauses". 

The UK government is seeking to broaden the definition of extremism to include anyone who “undermines” the country’s institutions and its values, according to a report in the Observer newspaper.

Leaked internal documents from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities state that the definition could “frame a new, unified response to extremism”.

It lists several organisations which it considers would be “captured” by the definition, including the Muslim Council of Britain and Palestine Action. 

Civil rights groups have warned the move would “criminalise dissent”, and would significantly suppress freedom of expression.

The proposals were revealed after a week in which UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman described pro-Palestinian demonstrations in London as “hate marches”. 

Read more: UK seeks to brand anyone who ‘undermines’ country as extremist

Police were hunting for a man who stabbed and wounded a Jewish woman in the French city of Lyon on Saturday, according to police and the city's mayor. A swastika was found graffitied to her home.

"Such an act of violence is unthinkable. I offer all my support to the victim and her relatives," Gregory Doucet, the mayor of Lyon, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

A police spokesperson said he could not confirm whether it was being treated as an anti-Semitic hate crime attack.

Police forces around the world have reported an uptick in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents since the war began on 7 October. 

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said that the beseiged Gaza enclave must be part of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state once the war is over, and that Ankara would not support any plans "gradually erasing Palestinians" from history.

"Once all of this that is happening is finished, we want to see Gaza as a peaceful region that is a part of an independent Palestinian state, in line with 1967 borders, with territorial integrity, and with East Jerusalem as its capital," Erdogan said on Saturday, according to Turkish media.

"We will support formulas that will bring peace and calm to the region. We will not be supportive of plans that will further darken the lives of Palestinians, that will gradually erase them from the scene of history."

Erdogan made the remarks a day before US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to arrive in the Turkish capital.

Turkey has called for an immediate ceasefire and has offered to set up a system to guarantee it.

Earlier on Saturday, Ankara said it had recalled its ambassador to Israel for consultations, after Israel recalled its envoys to Turkey last month to reassess their ties following Erdogan's description of Hamas as freedom fighters.

On Saturday, Israel's foreign ministry said Ankara's move to recall its ambassador was "another step to side with terrorist organisation Hamas".

He said Turkey would support any initiatives to ensure that Israel is held accountable for what he described as war crimes and human rights violations, and that a failure to do so would erode trust in the global system.

A video posted on social media on Saturday shows the moment a girl screams out to be rescued from under the rubble in the beseiged Gaza Strip. 

More than 1,600 are missing in the enclave, most of them trapped under the rubble following Israel's relentless bombing campaign.

Over 350 protesters staged a sit-in at Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus on Saturday, demanding Israel halt its bombing campaign and siege of the Gaza Strip.

The protest brought the capital’s busiest shopping district to a standstill for over an hour.

Demonstrators, many waving Palestinian flags, chanted "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, and held banners calling for a “ceasefire” and “no business as usual”.

“I am here because I have family in Gaza,” Ahmed Masoud, a Palestinian writer who grew up in the Gaza Strip, told Middle East Eye.

“My mum, my siblings… all of them live there. They’re really struggling, it’s like Russian roulette at the moment.”

You can read MEE reporter Katherine Hearst's full report from London below. 

Read more: Pro-Palestine protesters 'shut-down' Oxford Circus

More than 60 captives are missing because of Israeli air strikes on Gaza, according to Hamas' armed wing on its official Telegram channel.

Al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson Abu Ubaida added that 23 bodies of Israeli captives were trapped under the rubble.

"It seems that we will never be able to reach them due to the continued brutal aggression of the occupation against Gaza," he said.

Middle East Eye could not independently verify the claims. 

Ahmed Mokhallalati, a British-born plastic surgeon who works in Gaza's al-Shifa hospital, has spoken to Al Jazeera on the dire health situation in the beseiged enclave.

He told the broadcaster he was seeing more and more patients with worms in their wounds because of the lack of antiseptic or bacterial products available. 

Palestinians in Gaza are at high risk of disease from pollution and poor sanitation, as a result of Israel's total siege which has restricted access to water, food and medical provisions in the enclave.

While some humanitarian aid has arrived via the Rafah crossing in Egypt, medics have warned that it was merely a fraction of what was needed.  

At least seven Palestinians were killed and many others were wounded from an Israeli air strike on a house in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, according to Wafa news agency. 

Israel has repeatedly bombarded the camp - home to over 100,000 people - in recent days. 

The Palestinian health ministry said earlier today that 9,572 had been killed by Israeli bombardment in Gaza, and over 26,000 injured. More than 1,600 others were unaccounted for, and feared dead under the rubble.