More than 80 Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes since ceasefire announcement, says Gaza’s civil defence agency
An Israeli airstrike killed five Palestinians to the west of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
Since Qatar announced on Wednesday that a ceasefire deal had been reached – but which has not yet been formally agreed – Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that Israel had “escalated” its strikes across the territory.
Israeli strikes have killed 81 people and injured 188 others, according to Wafa. A civil defence spokesperson said its teams had recovered the bodies of five children after a strike on the northern city of Jabalia.
The Israeli military said it had conducted strikes on “approximately 50 terror targets across the Gaza Strip” since late Wednesday.
Key events
Egypt said on Thursday that the implementation of the ceasefire deal must “start without delay”, Agence France-Presse reports.
On Thursday, the Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty had a call with US secretary of state Antony Blinken during which Abdelatty stressed “the need for the parties to adhere to its provisions and work to implement its stages on the specified dates”.
Separately, the Egyptian foreign ministry said that Egypt was ready to host an international conference on reconstruction of Gaza.
According to the United Nations, Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has caused such extensive destruction that will take more than a decade to rebuild civilian infrastructure.
The White House has released the following readout of Vice-President Kamala Harris’s latest call with Israeli president Isaac Herzog:
“The Vice President reaffirmed her unwavering commitment to the security of Israel. The Vice President and President Herzog discussed the ceasefire and hostage deal that has been reached between Israel and Hamas thanks to the efforts of President Biden, and she expressed that we expect it to be implemented fully and on schedule.
The Vice President welcomed that the deal would return hostages to their families, bring immediate relief to the people of Gaza through a surge in humanitarian aid, and form the basis for a lasting end to the war and security for Israel.
The Vice President also expressed her belief that the ceasefire and hostage deal can be the foundation on which we build to create a more peaceful future for Israeli and Palestinian people, and her intent to continue working to achieve a future of greater peace, dignity, and security for all people in the region.”
Patrick Wintour
The Houthi leadership in Yemen suspended their military attacks on western commercial shipping in the Red Sea but will monitor the implementation of the Gaza ceasefire and continue their attacks if Israel backtracks on the ceasefire or causes further “massacres”.
The announcement was made by Abdul-Malik Badr al-Din al-Houthi in a lengthy speech hailing Palestinian steadfastness, and attacking Arab leaders for not doing more to show solidarity with the Palestinians. The Houthis started the attacks on shipping in November 2003, as well as firing some missiles into Israel.
The attacks have damaged as many as 30 ships and caused a diversion of commercial shipping to South Africa and the Cape of Good Hope. Reprisals by the US, Israel and the UK have damaged key Yemen ports and led to multiple deaths. Al-Houthi claimed more than 1,200 attacks had been mounted on shipping or Israel in various forms
Al-Houthi vowed: “We will continue to monitor and follow up on the developments in Palestine after the ceasefire agreement. Therefore, at any stage in which the Israeli enemy returns to aggression and escalation, we will be ready to support”.
He added: “We will confront any attempts at revenge, whether from the Israelis, the Americans, or those who orbit around them, or any attempts to distance our country from its liberating jihadist orientation.”
He claimed that 106 Yemenis had been killed and 328 wounded as a result of western reprisals.
He explained: “This is one round of confrontation with the Israeli enemy, but the issue remains and the injustice of the Palestinian people is permanent until they enjoy freedom and independence.”
He added: “The pressures on our country and the threats have never stopped, and the messages of those advising us to retreat or stop were many, but they did not affect our position.”
He claimed the Houthi government had in mounting the attacks surprised the world by their inventiveness, and ability to challenge American battleships.
Some major shipping companies said they will not immediately be recommencing operations along the Red Sea route until they have greater clarity.
The children’s charity Plan International UK said it was “utterly appalled” after reports that Israeli bombings have killed more than 20 children in Gaza on Thursday.
“It is critical that the ceasefire announced yesterday is immediately ratified and implemented by all parties,” said the organisation’s director of influencing and external affairs, Kathleen Spencer Chapman.
The children of Gaza are in dire need of food, water, and shelter – and we are in a race against time to reach them. Hunger, dehydration, and disease kill just as surely as bullets and bombs, and every hour wasted places more children’s lives at risk.
After 15 months of unimaginable violence, the children of Gaza finally have a moment of hope. It is time to put an end to this horror and support Gaza’s families to rebuild their lives and homes. There must be no further delays.
We reported earlier that Israeli media said the cabinet would meet tomorrow to approve the Gaza ceasefire deal.
An Israeli official has confirmed to Agence-France-Presse that the cabinet is scheduled to meet on Friday to vote on a hostage release and ceasefire deal in Gaza.
Israeli authorities have denied United Nations aid agencies access to Rafah as they prepare to scale up aid delivery to Gaza under the ceasefire deal, according to a UN official.
“We would have liked to go to Rafah – we’ve been asking for months to go to Rafah to access our logistics base and fuel depots,” Georgios Petropoulos, head of the Gaza section of the UN’s office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs, told the Washington Post on Thursday.
But the Israeli military denied the UN’s requests on Thursday to travel there, he said.
“We understand the Israeli military must be preparing for whatever moves they do” to withdraw some forces under the deal, Petropoulos said, “but we are completely in the dark here.”
Jason Burke
The ceasefire that is due to come into force on Sunday – barring a major last-minute problem – will cement massive and rapid changes across the Middle East and may seal a significant defeat for the Islamist militant groups which have been powerful actors in the region for years.
Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and assorted Shia Muslim militia in Iraq and Syria will all emerge from the conflict considerably weakened. Only the Houthis in Yemen are stronger – though this may not last. The Islamic State remains a shadow of its former self.
For an organisation like Hamas simply to survive a major conflict is an achievement, and means Israel has failed to achieve one of its primary war aims. But the concessions made by Hamas since coming close to a ceasefire last May underline its enfeebled state.
Though no reliable statistics exist and Hamas has undoubtedly recruited many new fighters, its military arm has been badly degraded by the Israeli onslaught, with most senior and middle-ranking commanders killed.
Read the full analysis: Islamist groups in Middle East will emerge from Gaza war weakened
More than 80 Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes since ceasefire announcement, says Gaza’s civil defence agency
An Israeli airstrike killed five Palestinians to the west of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
Since Qatar announced on Wednesday that a ceasefire deal had been reached – but which has not yet been formally agreed – Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that Israel had “escalated” its strikes across the territory.
Israeli strikes have killed 81 people and injured 188 others, according to Wafa. A civil defence spokesperson said its teams had recovered the bodies of five children after a strike on the northern city of Jabalia.
The Israeli military said it had conducted strikes on “approximately 50 terror targets across the Gaza Strip” since late Wednesday.
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has expressed concern that Israeli airstrikes were still killing Palestinians in Gaza despite a ceasefire deal announced a day earlier.
“The Israeli government should not be allowed to violate and exploit the ceasefire,” Erdoğan said at a news conference.
The international community should fulfil its legal and moral responsibility toward the people of Gaza.
Israeli cabinet to vote on ceasefire deal on Friday – report
As we reported earlier, Israeli media is reporting that the remaining disputes over the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal have been resolved.
The Israeli cabinet is now expected to convene on Friday morning to ratify the deal, Axios is reporting, citing an Israeli official.
Blinken says he is ‘confident’ in ceasefire and expects it will go into effect on Sunday
US secretary of state Antony Blinken, at the briefing, is asked how confident he feels that the ceasefire will actually happen.
“On the ceasefire, I am confident,” he replied. “I fully expect that implementation will begin … on Sunday.”
He noted that the process of negotiations has been “challenging” and that “you may get a loose end.”
We’re tying up that loose end as we speak. I’ve been on the phone in one way or another all morning with [White House Middle East adviser’] Brett McGurk, with our Qatari friends, and I’m very confident that we will [see this] moving forward, and that we’ll see the start of the implementation of the agreement on Sunday.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken, during his news conference, was interrupted several times by anti-war protesters seated in the state department briefing room.
“How does it feel to have your legacy be genocide?” A man shouted at Blinken.
A little while later, the US secretary was asked “why aren’t you in The Hague?”
There are reports that the remaining disputes over the ceasefire deal have been resolved.
Aryeh Deri, the head of Shas, announced that the obstacles preventing the implementation of the ceasefire deal with Hamas have been dealt with, the Times of Israel reported.
“A few minutes ago I received a final announcement that all obstacles have been overcome and the deal is underway,” the paper quotes him saying.
“Now they are busy with the final technical wording. I want to congratulate prime minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu, he is responsible for the agreement.”
Israeli officials have told the Jerusalem Post that “all divisions have been solved.”
Axios, citing a US sources, also reports that the agreement is now “done”.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is holding a news conference where he said he expected the ceasefire agreement to go into effect on Sunday.
“As President Biden said yesterday, after more than 400 days of struggle, a day of success has arrived,” he said, describing it as a “moment of tremendous relief for Israelis and Palestinians alike”.
Blinken said it would take “tremendous effort, political courage, compromise” to ensure that the deal endures.
Summary of the day so far
It’s nearly 6.30pm in Tel Aviv and Gaza. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
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Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has delayed a cabinet meeting on Thursday to vote on and ratify a ceasefire and hostage release deal announced by the leaders of Qatar and the US a day before. Netanyahu’s office accused Hamas of having “reneged on parts of the agreement” which had created a “last-minute crisis”, and said cabinet would not convene until “Hamas accepts all elements of the agreement”.
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Fighting has continued in Gaza despite expectations of a ceasefire, with at least 80 Palestinians killed and hundreds more injured by Israeli airstrikes since the ceasefire announcement, according to the civil defence agency. The Israeli military said that it had conducted strikes on “approximately 50 terror targets” across Gaza since late Wednesday. A civil defence spokesperson said its teams had recovered the bodies of five children after a strike on the northern city of Jabalia.
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More than 46,788 Palestinians have been killed and a further 110,453 wounded by Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, according to the latest figures by the territory’s health ministry on Thursday. They include 81 killed and 188 injured in the past 24 hours. Among them was Fatin Shaqoura-Salha, the chief of nursing staff at Al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat, ActionAid said.
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A senior Hamas official, Izzat el-Reshiq, said after Netanyahu’s announcement that the group remained committed to the ceasefire deal, without giving further details. The White House’s national security spokesperson John Kirby said the US is “confident” that issues holding up the ratification of the deal would be resolved. US representatives are still believed to be actively involved with talks in Doha on the final details needed to get the deal over the line.
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The ceasefire agreement, announced on Wednesday but which has not been formally agreed, is supposed to come into effect on Sunday. In the first phase, to last 42 days, Hamas agreed to release 33 hostages and in exchange, Israel would release 50 Palestinian prisoners for every female Israeli soldier released by Hamas, and 30 for other hostages. Palestinians displaced from their homes would be allowed to move freely around Gaza, wounded people would be vacuated for treatment abroad, and aid to the territory should increase to 600 trucks a day. A second phase would include Israel completely withdrawing from Gaza.
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The EU announced it would deliver €120m ($123m) in new aid for Gaza, bringing the bloc’s humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian territory to more than €450m since 2023. The package will include food, healthcare and shelter assistance and support to allow access to clean water, the European Commission said.
