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

On 19 October, an Israeli air strike hit the oldest church in the Gaza Strip.

The Church of Saint Porphyrius, which was originally built in 425 CE, was sheltering hundreds of Palestinian Christians and Muslims. 

Watch below for a first-hand account of one man's search for his family that night. 

The US House of Representatives has passed a plan to provide $14.3bn in aid to Israel, despite Democrats in the Senate saying it had no chance of passing, and the White House promising to veto it.

The plan passed by 226 to 196, with mostly Republicans voting in favour and Democrats voting against. It was the first major legislation to be brought forward under new Republican Speaker Mike Johnson.

President Joe Biden has asked Congress to approve a wider $106bn emergency package including funding for Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine, as well as humanitarian aid. However, Republican lawmakers were keen to separate the issue of aid to Israel.

Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, majority leader of the Senate, said he would not bring the bill up for a vote.

The $14.3bn in funds include billions for Israel's military, including $4bn for procurement of Israel's Iron Dome and David's Sling defence systems to counter short-range rocket threats.

Palestinian journalist Salman al-Bashir made emotional remarks live on television shortly after the death of his colleague, Mohammad Abu Hattab, in southern Gaza.

"I never thought for a moment that I would be announcing the martyrdom of [Abu Hattab], who stood next to me here 30 minutes ago," said Bashir. 

"We can’t take it anymore. We are exhausted. We are victims. The only difference between us is the time of death. We are killed one after another."

An Israeli air strike killed Abu Hattab and eleven members of his family, including his wife, son and brother, in Khan Younis on Thursday. 

"This gear and helmet do not protect any journalist. They are just empty slogans," said Bashir, as he took off his press vest and helmet.

"We are victims, live on air. We are victims awaiting our turn to be killed." 

At least 36 journalists have been killed since the war began on 7 October, of whom 31 are Palestinian, four are Israeli and one Lebanese.

Israeli forces have killed a Palestinian man during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Suleiman Mohammad Steiti, 31, was killed by Israeli gunfire on Thursday. Two others were wounded, one critically, and taken to the nearby Ibn Sina hospital. 

At least 135 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since 7 October.  

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi will tell US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Israel must end its war on Gaza where he said it was committing war crimes by bombing civilians.

In a foreign ministry statement ahead of Blinken’s visit to the region on Friday, Safadi said Israel’s war was pushing the region into a regional war threatening world peace.

Blinken is set to arrive in Israel on Friday and will visit Jordan followed by Turkey, according to the US State Department.

Vice President Kamala Harris has said that the US will not impose any conditions on the support it gives to Israel in the war. 

"We are not going to create any conditions on the support that we are giving Israel to defend itself," Harris told a news conference on Thursday during her visit to the UK. 

"We are going to continue to stand with Israel's right to defend itself and, let's be clear and never forget what happened on 7 October where hundreds, thousands, 1,400, innocent people were killed, slaughtered. Young people who were simply attending a concert."

An Israeli air strike has killed a Palestinian journalist along with several members of his family in southern Gaza, according to local media. 

Mohammad Abu Hattab, a reporter for Palestine TV, was killed by a strike on his home in Khan Younis on Thursday, Wafa news agency reported. 

Eleven members of Abu Hattab's family were killed too, including his wife, son and brother, the report added.

Just an hour before he was killed, the journalist had produced his latest report from outside the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

A second French helicopter will be sent near the coast of the beseiged Gaza Strip, as part of Paris's efforts to help facilitate the provision of medical assistance to Palestinians under Israeli bombardment. 

Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu made the announcement Thursday on France Info radio while in Lebanon, where he was visiting the French unit of the UN mission in the country.

He said that France had passed messages to both Hezbollah and Israel urging them not to do anything that would jeopardise the mission's ability to carry out its work in Lebanon.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said in a statement that it had received 102 humanitarian aid trucks via the Rafah crossing on Thursday.

It said the trucks "were loaded with provisions such as food, water, relief supplies, medicines, and medical equipment". 

"As of now, a total of 374 trucks have been received, but there hasn't been permission to bring in fuel yet," it added.

Palestinians in Gaza are running out of clean water and are at risk of disease from pollution and poor sanitation, as a result of Israel's bombardment and siege. 

In Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, nine-year-old Rafif Abu Ziyada told Reuters she was drinking dirty water and getting stomach pains and headaches. 

"There is no cooking gas, there is no water, we don't eat well. We are getting sick," she said. "There's garbage on the ground and the whole place is polluted."

Sixty-year-old Ibrahim al-Jabalawy said: "The water is salty. In normal days you wouldn't give it to a donkey to drink. But nowadays you must drink it and let your children drink it.

There's no medicine to treat them if they get sick from the polluted water."

Jabalawy added that his daughter was getting painful rashes on her skin. 

"She is scratching all night and there is no medicine... What can we do? We have to tolerate it," he said.

Washing facilities are scarce, while toilets have been getting filthier by the day, Gaza residents told Reuters. 

Majeda Abu Rjaila, who is staying in a shelter in Khan Younis, leaves the shelter every day to sit by a road to get away from the pollution and bad smells.

"We sleep in dirt. We cover ourselves with whatever we can. We drink whatever we can, eat whatever we can," she said.

The White House is exploring the idea of "pauses" in the Israel-Palestinian conflict to help civilians in Gaza, according to national security spokesperson John Kirby.

"What we're trying to do is explore the idea of as many pauses as might be necessary to continue to get aid out and to continue to work to get people out safely, including hostages," Kirby told reporters at a press briefing on Thursday.

In a column for Middle East Eye, law professor Nadia Ahmad and activist Saleema Gul argue that Joe Biden's meeting with a select group of American Muslim leaders would not placate community members outrage over his support for Israeli actions in Gaza. 

"Biden cannot placate our communities with superficial offers of domestic policy in return for our silence or dilution of foreign policy demands vis-a-vis Muslim, Arab and Palestinian issues. As the mainstream narrative sidesteps these urgent issues, a fresh wave of activists has grown disillusioned with Biden's disregard for their demands and the party’s tokenism," they write.

"Their concerns and demands, particularly when it comes to the ongoing humanitarian disaster in Gaza, are in line with the majority of American voters, 66 percent of whom support a ceasefire, along with 80 percent of Democratic voters."

"The days of employing stock phrases to win Muslim votes are over, inshallah," they continue.

"Today, the role of some Muslim-American organisations, which are supposed to be the vanguard of community sentiments, are under the scanner. Their affiliations with the Pentagon and surveillance agencies along with the meek activism of leaders - coupled with glitzy fundraising galas and red carpet events - could never bolster Muslim empowerment but only continue their role as tokenised gatekeepers."

You can read the full column below. 

Opinion: Biden’s PR meetings will not appease Muslim Americans over Gaza genocide

A prominent Bahraini human rights campaigner and an exile has dismissed the announcement by the Bahraini parliament that the kingdom was recalling its ambassador to Israel, and severing economic ties with the country, as political theatre.

Maryam Alkhawaja, whose father Abdulhadi Alkhawaja has been jailed in Bahrain since 2011 over his pro-democracy activism, told Middle East Eye that the parliament's move was "being seen as an attempt to calm reactions inside Bahrain" and pointed out that the kingdom had already arrested a number of Bahrainis for their pro-Palestine activism in recent weeks.

"The demand of the people is for the normalisation deal to end and for the population to have a say in government and foreign policy," she said.

"Not these minuscule measures."

A spokesman for the Council of Representatives, the country's lower legislative house, said the ambassador to Israel had been withdrawn, while economic cooperation with the country would also be put on hold.

"This is a confirmation of the historic Bahraini position in support of the Palestinian cause and the legitimate rights of the fraternal Palestinian people, which has been previously declared by His Majesty the King at conferences and events," the statement read, referring to Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

On Thursday, Bahrain's government confirmed the kingdom's ambassador to Israel had returned home and the Israeli ambassador in Manama had left "a while ago".

The government statement did not, however, confirm that economic ties had been severed.

Hezbollah said that it had launched simultaneous attacks on 19 different positions in northern Israel along the border with Lebanon on Thursday, according to a senior Hezbollah source speaking to Reuters.

The source said the positions included military sites but did not elaborate further.

Earlier today, Hezbollah said two drones attacked an Israeli military position in the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms area. 

Four Palestinian cancer patients in Gaza died on Thursday as a result of the closure of a hospital, the Palestinian health ministry said. 

The patients were being treated in the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, the only hospital designated for treating cancer patients in Gaza. The facility closed down after running out of fuel.