More than 4,000 killed as Israel-Gaza war enters day 11

Lemma Shehadi reports from London:

The UK’s Labour party has repeated its opposition to an Israeli operation in Rafah, after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders on Monday.

“An Israeli offensive in Rafah would be catastrophic. It must not go ahead,” said David Lammy, the UK’s shadow foreign secretary.

“We need an immediate ceasefire, the immediate release of hostages, and immediate unimpeded aid to Gaza,” he wrote on social media.

The Labour party has faced criticism for its support of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, and local election results last week showed a widespread backlash over its position.

The party is seeking to restore ties with its Muslim voters ahead of the general election this year, after dozens of pro-Palestinian activists were elected to councils across the UK.

This page is now closed. Please find our live coverage of the second week of the Israel-Gaza war here.

Kyle Fitzgerald reports from Washington:

The US has imposed sanctions on two groups for establishing fundraising campaigns on the behalf of two violent extremists previously sanctioned by Washington, the Treasury Department announced on Friday.

Mount Hebron Fund and Shlom Asiraich are alleged to have helped raise funds for Yinon Levi and David Chai, who were sanctioned for promoting violence in the West Bank.

In a separate measure, the State Department sanctioned the founder and leader of an organisation whose members engaged in violence, "including assaults on Palestinian civilians", the Treasury Department said.

The EU has sanctioned four Israeli settlers and two hardline Jewish groups over what it alleged were "serious human rights abuses against Palestinians".

Radical group Lehava - which opposes assimilation between Jews and non-Jews - and settler movement Hilltop Youth are added to an "extremist settlers" sanctions list.

Meir Ettinger and Elisha Yered, two Hilltop Youth members accused of involvement in deadly attacks against Palestinians, are the subject of individual sanctions.

Also listed are settlers Neria Ben Pazi, accused of repeatedly attacking Palestinians, and Yinon Levi, allegedly involved in several violent acts from a farm outpost.

Sanctions mean people in the EU are banned from funding those concerned, any assets they have in the EU are frozen and they cannot travel there.

Adla Massoud reports from the United Nations:

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that "it is high time to stop the dangerous cycle of retaliation in the Middle East”.

"The Secretary-General condemns any act of retaliation and appeals to the international community to work together to prevent any further development that could lead to devastating consequences for the entire region and beyond," his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

Violence in south Lebanon has shut 58 schools that normally educate 20,000 children.

For six-year-old Maher, normal days have become a fading memory since conflict erupted on the Lebanon-Israel border, just a couple of kilometres from his home in Qlayaa, a village in south Lebanon.

His school, like many others in south Lebanon, has been closed for more than five months.

Most schools in the south have switched to online teaching to maintain some lessons but even that depends on the faltering internet connection.

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US President Joe Biden said on Friday that the views of Senator Chuck Schumer, who called for elections in Israel and said that Benjamin Netanyahu had lost his way, were “shared by many’’.

Speaking at the White House, Mr Biden said that the Majority Leader of the US Senate had made a ‘’good speech’’.

In an hour-long speech the highest-ranking Jewish member of Congress said the Israeli Prime Minister had “has lost his way” and suggested his government's actions on Gaza have turned Israel into a “pariah opposed by the rest of the world”.

An Israeli delegation is set to travel to Doha, Qatar, to discuss the government's position on a potential ceasefire agreement in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Friday.

The latest proposals for a deal on Israeli hostages by Hamas as “unrealistic”, said the statement.

Thomas Helms reports from Jerusalem:

Sheikh Ekrima Sa'id Sabri, his voice booming around the vast Al Aqsa mosque complex, dedicated much of his sermon during the first Friday prayers of Ramadan to the catastrophe unfolding in Gaza, only about 80km away from where he sat in Jerusalem.

“Oh God, shower your mercy upon our people in Gaza, alleviate their suffering, and restore their shattered spirits,” he told the roughly 40,000 Muslims who came to the compound.

“Oh God, their children are hungry; provide them with sustenance. Oh God, their children are thirsty; quench their thirst with water.”

Worshippers listened in calm silence. There has been huge concern that the symbolic day might erupt in anger, but, so far, there has been barely any animosity.

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Israel's military said it arrested more than 200 Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives in the Gaza Strip over the last week and they were taken for questioning in Israel.

It said in a statement that some of the operatives voluntarily turned themselves in.

It added that more than 700 operatives from armed groups in the Gaza Strip have been taken for questioning so far.

The Israeli military has called on the residents of Jabalia, Al Shuja’iya, Al Zaytoun, and the Old City in Gaza to evacuate their places through the two roads of Khalil Al-Wazir and Al-Wahda towards shelters west of Gaza City.

In a statement, the Israeli army said that the fighting and advance of the troops in the Khan Younis do not allow the movement of civilians through the Salah Al Din axis in the sections north and east of the city of Khan Yunis.

It said that Salah Al Din road is a battlefield and it is dangerous to reach it.

It added that movement from Rafah and Khan Younis towards Deir Al Balah will be available through two main roads.

The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees condemned strikes on UN-run schools in Gaza.

Philippe Lazzarini said he had seen "horrifying images and footage of scores of people killed and injured" in one of his agency's schools "sheltering thousands of displaced".

"These attacks cannot become commonplace, they must stop," he posted.

Mina Aldroubi in Manama

The Palestinian Authority will "need a lot" of support to regain control in the Gaza Strip and restore order once the war ends, a senior EU official said.

For more than a decade the PA has been absent from the Gaza Strip after Hamas's win in the 2006 legislative elections and its subsequent victory in the Battle of Gaza, which saw the Islamist group take complete control of the enclave in 2007.

But as Israel continues its air and ground campaign in the Strip, which has so far killed at least 12,000 Palestinians including 5,000 children, some Arab and western leaders have suggested only the PA can run Gaza after Israel-Hamas war is over.

"They say they are ready," the senior European official told The National, on the sidelines of the the IISS Manama Dialogue 2023 in Bahrain.

"The PA is ready to retake their role as the Palestinian authority in Gaza, they showed clearly their will to retake their political duty in Gaza."

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Turkey will launch efforts to rebuild damaged infrastructure, hospitals and schools in Gaza if a ceasefire is achieved there, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

“If a ceasefire is reached, we will do whatever is necessary to compensate for the destruction caused by Israel,” Mr Erdogan said after a trip to Berlin, where he held talks with German leaders.

“We will make efforts to rebuild the damaged infrastructure in Gaza and rebuild the destroyed schools, hospitals, water and energy facilities,” he said.

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Efforts are intensifying to secure a key hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, in what is now considered the only way to put the brakes on the killing machine in the ravaged Gaza Strip.

Western and Arab officials attending the IISS Manama Dialogue conference in Bahrain, have hinted that a first landmark agreement is on the horizon, as indirect talks gain momentum.

The primary challenge, however, lies in reaching consensus on three key aspects: the number of Israeli hostages to be released, what Hamas wants in return, and whether a humanitarian "pause" precedes the deal or vice versa.

Nevertheless, there is increasing pressure on both sides to "bite the bullet" and reach an agreement that could alleviate the pressure in western and Arab capitals.

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UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke to Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim in Riyadh on Friday morning, Downing Street said.

The two leaders agreed that civilian deaths in the Gaza conflict were "shocking and tragic" and on the "urgent need" to provide humanitarian aid, according to Mr Sunak's office.

They urged world leaders to "do everything possible" to prevent an "escalation of violence across the region".

Mr Sunak said the UK would "use all the tools at our disposal" to help Qatar negotiate the release of hostages.

Palestinians in Gaza reported heavy airstrikes in Khan Younis in the south on Friday, a Israel continued bombing the area.

Ambulances carrying men, women and children streamed into the town's Nasser Hospital, Gaza's second largest, which is already overflowing with patients and people seeking shelter.

The death toll from a raid by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank rose to 13, Palestinian health officials said Friday, as casualties mounted in the territory while war rages in Gaza.

At least 81 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops or settlers in the West Bank since the Gaza conflict erupted on October 7, according to figures from the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah.

One member of the Israeli security forces has also been killed in the territory.

"The Israeli occupation army committed a massacre from Nur Shams camp in Tulkarem during its attack yesterday, with the death toll reaching 13 martyrs, among them five children," the ministry said in a statement.

Rishi Sunak will travel to Egypt today as part of an intensive diplomatic effort to prevent the Israel-Hamas war spiralling into a wider regional conflict.

The UK Prime Minister has already held talks with Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Downing Street said he would hold further meetings with counterparts from the region in Egypt.

“In all these conversations the Prime Minister has stressed the imperative of avoiding regional escalation and preventing the further unnecessary loss of civilian life,” a No 10 spokesman said.

On Thursday, the Prime Minister visited Tel Aviv – where he said he wanted Israel to win the war with Hamas – before heading to Saudi Arabia for talks with the crown prince.

The Prime Minister said: “We agreed on co-ordinated action to prevent further escalation in the region, provide vital humanitarian aid in Gaza and support stability, both now and in the long-term.”

Downing Street said the pair agreed that the “loss of innocent lives in Israel and Gaza over the last two weeks has been horrific” and “underscored the need to avoid any further escalation in the region”.

Mr Sunak “encouraged the crown prince to use Saudi’s leadership in the region to support stability, both now and in the long-term”, No 10 said.

No 10 is yet to confirm whether Mr Sunak will visit another Middle East capital before wrapping up his two-day trip on Friday.



Drones and rockets targeted two military bases housing US forces in Iraq on Thursday, sources and officials said, the latest in a series of attacks after Iraqi militants warned Washington against intervening to support Israel against Hamas in Gaza.

Rockets and drones were fired at Ain Al Asad air base, which hosts US and other international forces in western Iraq, and multiple blasts were heard inside the base, two security sources said.

The Iraqi military said it closed the area around the base and started a search operation. It was not clear yet whether the attacks caused casualties or damage, said the sources.

Rockets hit another military base hosting US forces near Baghdad's international airport, Iraqi police said on Thursday, without providing further details.

-Reuters