Closing summary
It has just gone 4.30pm in Gaza and Israel. This blog will be closing shortly but you can access all the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here.
Here is a summary of today’s main developments:
US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said that Hamas “cannot be involved in governing Gaza in the future”. Speaking during a press conference while on a visit to Israel, Rubio also said that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) “cannot play a role in Gaza”, describing it as a “subsidiary of Hamas”.
Rubio said on Friday that Israel had to be at ease with the nations contributing to a future international security force in Gaza, after reports that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposed Turkish involvement. “We haven’t formed that force yet, so there’s still work going on,” Rubio told reporters at a military coordination centre in southwestern Israel.
Rubio also added that more countries are ready to normalise relations with Israel but the decision would await a broader regional agreement. The US secretary of state said that a sustained end to the war would encourage more countries to join the Abraham accords, under which the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco normalised ties with Israel in 2020.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the US and others must do more to push Israel to stop violating the Gaza ceasefire agreement, including the possible use of sanctions or halting arms sales. According to an official readout of his remarks to reporters on board a return flight from Oman, Erdoğan said Hamas was abiding by the agreement. In comments made before Rubio’s press conference, Erdoğan said that Turkey remains ready to support the planned Gaza taskforce in any way needed.
Netanyahu has ordered a halt to the advancement of parliamentary bills linked to the annexation of the West Bank after the US vice-president, JD Vance, described a vote on two bills in the Knesset as an “insult”. The bills applying Israeli law to the occupied West Bank, which would be tantamount to the annexation of land Palestinians want for a state, won preliminary approval from Israel’s parliament on Wednesday, barely a week after Donald Trump pushed through a deal aimed at ending a two-year Israeli offensive in Gaza.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that there has been little improvement in the amount of aid going into Gaza since the ceasefire took hold – and no observable reduction in hunger. Speaking on Thursday, WHO’s director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters that the aid situation in Gaza “remains catastrophic” and “there is not enough food” for those in the territory.
Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said that an estimated one million people in Gaza need access to mental health care. He said that the “destruction has been physical but also psychological”. While he welcomed the Gaza ceasefire, he warned that “the crisis is far from over and the needs are immense”.
Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO’s representative in the Palestinian territories, called for all crossings out of Gaza into Israel and Egypt to be opened up during the ceasefire – not only for the entry of aid but for medical evacuations too. “All medical corridors need to be opened,” he said, particularly to hospitals in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as happened routinely before the war. He said opening the route would be a “gamechanger”.
West Bank residents fear they may be Israel’s next target after Gaza. Eager to avoid incurring the same wrath that Gaza suffered, voices of resistance have kept silent, even as the number of daily settler attacks and restrictions in the West Bank rises sharply.
Israeli settler violence targeting the Palestinian olive harvest in the occupied West Bank has continued unabated, according to Palestinian and UN officials. Since the harvest began in the first week of October, there have been at least 158 attacks across the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to figures made public by the Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC). Villagers told Reuters that a combination of military orders and settler violence had left them unable to access most of their olive crops.
After two years of war, Gaza is buried under more than 61m tonnes of debris and three-quarters of buildings have been destroyed, according to UN data analysed by Agence France-Presse (AFP). A preliminary analysis published by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in August warned the debris poses a serious health risk to the exposed population.
A human rights group has launched an attempt to mount a private prosecution alleging British citizens unlawfully went to fight for Israel. An application to a magistrates court for a summons against a named individual was lodged on Monday.
Delegations from Hamas and its rival Fatah met in Egypt to discuss postwar arrangements for Gaza, Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera News reported on Thursday. Under Trump’s 20-point plan, an international security force drawn from Arab and Muslim allies would oversee Gaza’s transition as Israeli troops withdraw.
The wife of high profile Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti, Fadwa Barghouti, called on Donald Trump to help secure her husband’s release from his Israeli jail, her son Arab told AFP. Marwan Barghouti, from Hamas’s historic rivals Fatah, was among the Palestinian prisoners Hamas had wanted to see released as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal, according to Egyptian state-linked media.
At least 14 migrants died when their inflatable dinghy capsized in the Aegean Sea off the Turkish resort of Bodrum, the governor’s office said on Friday, raising an earlier toll of seven dead. “The lifeless bodies of 14 irregular migrants were recovered,” the office of the Mugla governorate said on X, quoting one of the two survivors as saying that 18 people had been on board when the dinghy went down. The fate of the other two remained unclear.
Updated
WHO pleads for thousands of Palestinians in need of medical care to be allowed to leave Gaza
The UN’s health agency pleaded on Friday for thousands of people in desperate need of medical care to be allowed to leave Gaza, in what it said would be a “gamechanger”, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The World Health Organization (WHO) has supported the medical evacuation of nearly 7,800 patients out of the Gaza Strip since the war with Israel began two years ago – and estimates there are 15,000 people currently needing treatment outside the Palestinian territory. But a US-brokered ceasefire that came into effect on 10 October has not sped up the process – the WHO has been able to evacuate only 41 critical patients since then.
Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO’s representative in the Palestinian territories, called for all crossings out of Gaza into Israel and Egypt to be opened up during the ceasefire – not only for the entry of aid but for medical evacuations too.
“All medical corridors need to be opened,” he said, particularly to hospitals in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as happened routinely before the war. He added:
It is vital and is the most cost-effective route. If that route opened, it would really be a … gamechanger.
Speaking via video link from Jerusalem, he told journalists in Geneva that two evacuations were planned for next week, but he wanted them every day and said the WHO was ready to take “a minimum of 50 patients per day”.
At the current rate, he said evacuating the 15,000 people needing treatment – including 4,000 children – would drag on for a decade or so.
The WHO says more than 700 people have died waiting for medical evacuation since the war began. The UN health agency has called for more countries to step up and accept Palestinian patients from Gaza. While more than 20 countries have taken patients, only a handful have done so in large numbers.
Peeperkorn said only a fraction of Gaza’s health system remained in service – just 14 of 36 hospitals are even partially functional for a population topping two million.
Updated
At least one million people in Gaza need access to mental health care, says WHO
In a media briefing on global health issues that took place on Thursday the World Health Organization’s (WHO) director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that an estimated one million people in Gaza need access to mental health care. He said during the war, for those in Gaza the “destruction has been physical but also psychological”.
Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in his opening remarks:
The ceasefire announced in Gaza two weeks ago is fragile and has been violated, but continues to hold, which is great news for everyone. We welcome the return of hostages, the release of prisoners, the cessation in violence and the increase in aid flows.
But, the crisis is far from over and the needs are immense. More than 170,000 people have injuries in Gaza, including more than 5,000 amputees and 3,600 people with major burns. At least 42,000 people have injuries that require long term rehabilitation and every month 4,000 women give birth in unsafe conditions. Hunger and disease have not stopped and children’s lives are still at risk.
He added:
The destruction has been physical but also psychological. An estimated one million people need access to mental health care. The demands on the health systems are huge but significant parts of the system have been destroyed or badly degraded. There are no fully functioning hospitals in Gaza and only 14 out of 36 are functioning at all. There are critical shortages of essential medicines, equipment and health workers.
Since the ceasefire took effect, the UN agency has been sending “more medical supplies to hospitals, deploying additional emergency medical teams and scaling up medical evacuations”, said Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
After two years of war, Gaza is buried under more than 61m tonnes of debris and three-quarters of buildings have been destroyed, according to UN data analysed by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The fragile ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, which came into effect on 10 October under pressure from US president Donald Trump, opens the way for the reconstruction of the devastated territory. This will require managing the immense amount of rubble.
As of 8 July 2025, the Israeli army had damaged or destroyed nearly 193,000 buildings in the densely populated territory, representing about 78% of existing structures before the conflict began on 7 October 2023, according to satellite analysis by the United Nations’ UNOSAT programme.
In an assessment of images from 22-23 September of Gaza City, the UN agency estimated that an even higher proportion – 83% – of buildings there had been damaged or destroyed.
Nearly two-thirds of the debris was made in the first five months of the war, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
The destruction of buildings also accelerated in the months leading up to the current ceasefire.
Eight million tonnes of debris were generated from April to July 2025, mostly in the southern part of the territory between Rafah and Khan Younis, reports AFP.
A preliminary analysis published by UNEP in August warned the debris poses a serious health risk to the exposed population.
The UN agency suggests that at least 4.9m tonnes of debris could be contaminated with asbestos from old buildings, particularly near refugee camps such as those in Jabaliya in the north, Nuseirat and al-Maghazi in the centre, and Rafah and Khan Younis in the south.
UNEP also reports at least 2.9m tonnes of debris could be contaminated with “hazardous waste from known industrial sites”.
Updated
The wife of high profile Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti, Fadwa Barghouti, called on Donald Trump to help secure her husband’s release from his Israeli jail, her son Arab told AFP.
Marwan Barghouti, from Hamas’s historic rivals Fatah, was among the Palestinian prisoners Hamas had wanted to see released as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal, according to Egyptian state-linked media.
Rubio also added that more countries are ready to normalise relations with Israel but the decision would await a broader regional agreement.
The US secretary of state said that a sustained end to the war would encourage more countries to join the so-called Abraham Accords, under which the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco normalised ties with Israel in 2020.
Gaza security force to include countries Israel 'comfortable with,' Rubio says
Under the ceasefire agreement an international stabilisation force, with robust powers to control security inside Gaza, is to be put in place.
Following reports that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposed Turkish involvement, Marco Rubio said the force will have to be made up of countries that Israel is ‘comfortable with’.
"We haven’t formed that force yet, so there’s still work going on,” Rubio told reporters at a military coordination centre in southwestern Israel.
“There’s a lot of countries that have offered to do it. Obviously as you put together this force, it will have to be people that Israel is comfortable or countries that Israel is comfortable with as well.”
Hamas 'cannot be involved in governing Gaza in the future' says Rubio, as he rules out Unrwa having a role in the territory
US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said that Hamas “cannot be involved in governing Gaza in the future”.
Speaking during a press conference while on a visit to Israel, Rubio also said that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) “cannot play a role in Gaza”, describing it as a “subsidiary of Hamas”.
Rubio added that Israel must be “comfortable” with members of an international Gaza force as he spoke from the building housing the US-Israel ceasefire coordination centre in Kiryat Gat.
Updated
US secretary of state Marco Rubio is giving a press conference during his visit to Israel, reports the Times of Israel.
The publication, which is live streaming the press conference and question and answer session with journalists, says that Rubio is speaking from the building housing the US-Israel ceasefire coordination centre in Kiryat Gat.
We will bring updates from this as soon as possible.
Delegations from Hamas and its rival Fatah met in Egypt to discuss postwar arrangements for Gaza, Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera News reported on Thursday.
Under US president Donald Trump’s 20-point plan, an international security force drawn from Arab and Muslim allies would oversee Gaza’s transition as Israeli troops withdraw.
At least 14 migrants died when their inflatable dinghy capsized in the Aegean Sea off the Turkish resort of Bodrum, the governor’s office said on Friday, raising an earlier toll of seven dead.
“The lifeless bodies of 14 irregular migrants were recovered,” the office of the Mugla governorate said on X, quoting one of the two survivors as saying that 18 people had been on board when the dinghy went down. The fate of the other two remained unclear, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
West Bank residents fear they may be Israel’s next target after Gaza
To the residents of the West Bank, the war in Gaza came as a warning. As they watched Israeli bombs destroy as much as 88% of the Gaza Strip over the last two years, they realised that there was no limit to what Israel would do to crush Palestinian militants.
Now that the war in Gaza is drawing down, Palestinians fear that Israel will turn its focus on the West Bank.
Eager to avoid incurring the same wrath that Gaza suffered, voices of resistance have kept silent, even as the number of daily settler attacks and restrictions in the West Bank rises sharply. Wednesday’s preliminary approval in the Knesset of bills applying Israeli law to the occupied West Bank – a process halted on Thursday after Trump administration figures voiced strong disapproval – barely registered among Palestinians. Only two years ago it would have provoked mass protests.
In Jenin, the boundaries of the military occupation are slowly expanding; soldiers pay daily visits to residents who live near the camp and bulldozers tear up their roads.
“When we used to hear shooting, we used to think there was a fight in the camp. Now we know it was the Israelis – not one bullet comes from the Palestinians. There’s no one left,” said Hiba Jarar as she cleaned her house after it was searched by an Israeli soldier a few days earlier.
Jarar lives in Jabria, a wealthy neighbourhood that sits on a hill overlooking the Jenin camp. From her living room window she can see Israeli troops moving to and from their makeshift barracks, a repurposed apartment building.
She is one of the last remaining people in the neighbourhood. One by one, residents have been raided by the Israeli military and told to vacate. The row of luxury villas lies deserted, the torn-up road stopping at a mound of dirt heaped high by Israeli bulldozers.
Jarar said:
The Israelis know they have nothing to fear any more. They raid houses with just a single soldier now. The soldier that searched my house was respectful, I was lucky. But who knows what will happen next time?
Updated
Here are some of the latest images coming in via the newswires:
Vance says Knesset votes on annexing West Bank are an ‘insult’ as Netanyahu halts progress
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has ordered a halt to the advancement of parliamentary bills linked to the annexation of the West Bank after the US vice-president, JD Vance, described a vote on two bills in the Knesset as an “insult”.
The bills applying Israeli law to the occupied West Bank, which would be tantamount to the annexation of land Palestinians want for a state, won preliminary approval from Israel’s parliament on Wednesday, barely a week after Donald Trump pushed through a deal aimed at ending a two-year Israeli offensive in Gaza.
Asked by reporters about the vote at the end of a two-day visit to Israel, Vance said:
If it was a political stunt, it is a very stupid one, and I personally take some insult to it.
The West Bank is not going to be annexed by Israel. The policy of President Trump is that the West Bank will not be annexed. This will always be our policy.
On Thursday afternoon, Ofir Katz, the chair of Israel’s coalition government, said Netanyahu had instructed him not to advance bills pertaining to annexation, and Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday’s vote had been a “deliberate political provocation” that aimed to sow division during Vance’s visit.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, landed in Israel on Thursday, becoming the latest in a string of US officials to visit the country to shore up the Gaza ceasefire. He described any plan to extend Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territory as “potentially threatening for the peace deal”.
“They’re a democracy, they’re going to have their votes, and people are going to take these positions,” Rubio said. “But at this time, it’s something that we … think might be counterproductive.”
Home to 2.7 million Palestinians, the West Bank has long been at the heart of plans for a future nation existing alongside Israel, but settlements have expanded rapidly, fragmenting the land, reports Reuters.
Palestinians and most nations regard settlements as illegal under international law, but Israel disputes this.
Olives are the backbone of Palestinian agriculture, a sector which accounts for about 8% of GDP and more than 60,000 jobs, according to the Palestinian Authority’s agriculture ministry.
A few kilometres from Turmus Ayya lies the village of al-Mughayyir, where 55-year-old Afaf Abu Alia from. Abu Alia and her family came to Turmus Ayya because settlers cut down their orchard of about 500 olive trees near al-Mughayyir a few weeks earlier, according to a relative. In return for harvesting the olives, the family would receive a share of the crop, reports Reuters.
The Israeli military said they cut down over 3,000 trees in the area “to improve defences”, although locals say the real number is higher.
A combination of military orders and settler violence has left villagers unable to access most of their crops. Marzook Abu Naem, a local council member, told Reuters that settlers and military orders had almost totally blocked access to olive groves. The economic impact meant some young people were delaying university and meat had become a luxury for many, he said.
The agriculture ministry recorded a 17% increase in financial losses for West Bank farmers from the start of 2025 until mid-October, compared with the same period last year.
The Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC) says more than 15,000 trees have been attacked since October 2024.
Updated
At least 158 Israeli settler attacks recorded since start of olive harvest in occupied West Bank, says CWRC
While mediators try to bolster a fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, intensified Israeli settler violence targeting the Palestinian olive harvest in the occupied West Bank has continued unabated, according to Palestinian and UN officials.
Since the harvest began in the first week of October, there have been at least 158 attacks across the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to figures made public by the Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC).
There was a 13% rise in settler attacks in the first two weeks of the 2025 harvest compared with the same period in 2024, said Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN’s human rights office in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Activists and farmers say the violence has intensified since the Hamas-led attacks that triggered the war in Gaza two years ago, reports Reuters. They say settlers target olive trees because Palestinians see them as a symbol of their connection to the land. Adham al-Rabia, a Palestinian activist, said:
The olive tree is a symbol of Palestinian steadfastness.
The UN’s Sunghay said that this season settlers had burned groves, chain-sawed olive trees, and destroyed homes and agricultural infrastructure. According to Reuters, in a regular update on the olive harvest season on Tuesday, Sunghay said:
Settler violence has skyrocketed in scale and frequency, with the acquiescence, support, and in many cases participation, of Israeli security forces – and always with impunity.
The Mateh Binyamin Regional Council, which governs Israeli West Bank settlements in the region of Turmus Ayya, said it condemned “every instance of violence that occurs” in the area. It said that settlers carried weapons “intended solely for self-defence”.
Many Palestinians, as well as Israeli human rights groups, believe the army has abetted settler attacks. The Israeli military did not respond to Reuter’s request for comment on the claim.
Turkey's Erdoğan says US and others must press Israel to abide by Gaza ceasefire
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the United States and others must do more to push Israel to stop violating the Gaza ceasefire agreement, including the possible use of sanctions or halting arms sales.
According to an official readout of his remarks to reporters on board a return flight from Oman, Erdoğan said the Palestinian militant group Hamas was abiding by the agreement. He added that Turkey remains ready to support the planned Gaza taskforce in any way needed.
Sirens that sounded in communities near Gaza early on Friday were determined to be a false identification, the Israeli military said in a statement, reports Reuters.
Earlier, the military had said that “details were under review” after the sirens sounded.
Palestine rights group seeks prosecution of UK citizens who fought for Israel
A human rights group has launched an attempt to mount a private prosecution alleging British citizens unlawfully went to fight for Israel.
An application to a magistrates court for a summons against a named individual was lodged on Monday.
The highly unusual prosecution is being brought by the International Centre for Justice for Palestinians (ICJP). The human rights group intends to argue in court that named Britons joined a foreign army at war with a state, Palestine, which the b was not fighting.
It claims that waging war with a foreign force is a breach of section 4 of the Foreign Enlistment Act 1870. The act makes it an offence for any person to accept or agree a commission or engagement in the military service of any foreign state at war with another foreign state that is at peace with the UK government.
The ICJP has named one individual in the attempted prosecution but has gathered evidence against more than 10 British citizens.
To enhance the prospects of a successful prosecution and prevent the case being prejudiced, the ICJP is not naming the individuals they want to be arrested.
The ICJP accuses the Israel Defense Forces of conducting a war that is not confined to Hamas but is against all Palestinians and Palestine itself, a state now recognised by the UK.
The group says it needs to prove the defendant is a British subject, accepted a commission or engagement in the Israeli armed forces, that Israel was at war with Palestine, that Palestine is a foreign state and finally that Palestine was at peace with the UK.
Aid situation 'remains catastrophic' - WHO says little improvement in amount going into Gaza since ceasefire
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that there has been little improvement in the amount of aid going into Gaza since the ceasefire took hold – and no observable reduction in hunger.
Speaking on Thursday, WHO’s director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters that the aid situation in Gaza “remains catastrophic” and “there is not enough food” for those in the territory. He said:
The situation still remains catastrophic because what’s entering is not enough … there is no dent in hunger because there is not enough food.
On Wednesday, the UN’s top court said that Israel must allow aid into Gaza, and found that its restrictions on doing so over the past two years had put it in breach of its obligations.
In the advisory opinion by the international court of justice in The Hague, aid levels were found to have remained inadequate.
A week ago, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said that it had brought about 560 tonnes of food a day on average into Gaza since the ceasefire began, but it was still below what was needed. Its spokesperson Abeer Etefa said:
We’re still below what we need, but we’re getting there … The ceasefire has opened a narrow window of opportunity, and WFP is moving very quickly and swiftly to scale up food assistance.
During the war, Israel shut down entry and exit routes, largely blocking off food and medicine, which in turn caused a famine in parts of Gaza.
The UN said it would take time to reverse the famine in Gaza and urged the opening of all crossing points.
More on this story in a moment, but first here are some other main developments:
In a joint statement carried by Saudi state media on Thursday, more than a dozen such states including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey condemned the Israeli parliament’s vote on West Bank annexation. Arab and Muslim countries, which the US has been courting to provide troops and money for a stabilisation force in Gaza – a key element of Trump’s ceasefire plan – have warned that annexation of the West Bank is a red line.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has ordered a halt to the advancement of parliamentary bills linked to the annexation of the West Bank after the US vice-president, JD Vance, described a vote on two bills in the Knesset as an “insult”. Seperately, when asked on Thursday if he was concerned by the votes, US president Donald Trump told reporters at the White House: “Don’t worry about the West Bank. Israel’s not going to do anything with the West Bank.”
US secretary of state Marco Rubio, one of a string of top US officials to visit Israel in recent days, had warned before his arrival that the annexation moves were “threatening” to the fragile ceasefire in Gaza, but he expressed confidence in the truce after meeting with Netanyahu on Thursday. “We feel confident and positive about the progress that’s being made. We’re clear-eyed about the challenges, too,” said Rubio.
Netanyahu, standing next to Rubio after their meeting on Thursday, was quick to avoid any suggestion of tension with Washington, calling the secretary an “extraordinary friend of Israel” and saying that the back-to-back visits were part of a “circle of trust and partnership”.
Gaza’s Nasser hospital said that one person was killed in an Israeli drone strike on Thursday in the Khan Younis area. Residents reported almost constant heavy gunfire and tank shelling in eastern areas of Khan Younis and also east of Gaza City in the north of the Palestinian territory overnight into Thursday, reported Reuters.
A human rights group has launched an attempt to mount a private prosecution alleging British citizens unlawfully went to fight for Israel. An application to a magistrates court for a summons against a named individual was lodged on Monday.
