Key events
The Palestinian Authority estimates that 115,000 Gazans have crossed into Egypt since October.
The Washington Post reports that thousands have come to Egypt for medical treatment, but most have arrived via embassies. Once in Egypt non-medical evacuees have to fend for themselves.
Batoul, 15, told the Post that people in Egypt are “so kind to us. When they know that we are from Palestine, specifically from Gaza, sometimes they won’t let us pay” for coffee, taxis, treats, she said. But it’s a “new life – it’s hard”.
Her mother, who elected to remain anonymous, said: “We are very connected to [Egyptians], and we love them. “But they need to do much, much more.”
Israeli man attacked in West Bank
The Times of Israel reports that an Israeli man, who mistakenly entered Qalandiya, a town in the West Bank, was attacked by local residents on Saturday night.
Videos posted on social media show crowds chasing a car on a busy road along with still images allegedly showing the man’s car on fire.
The vehicle reportedly crashed near a military checkpoint where the man was rushed to hospital by Israeli soldiers. He is currently being treated for minor injuries.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and wider Middle East crisis. Here’s a snapshot of the latest news.
Explosions, air strikes and gunfire rattled northern Gaza on Saturday, the third day of an Israeli military operation that has uprooted tens of thousands of Palestinians and compounded what the UN called “unbearable” living conditions in the territory.
Agence France-Presse reported explosions in the Shujaiya area near Gaza City and a resident saying bodies were seen on the streets.
The armed wings of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups said they were engaged in ongoing fighting with Israeli forces there.
Israel’s military said its operations were continuing in Shujaiya, where fighting “above and below the ground” had left a “large number” of militants dead. “Dozens of terrorists” were killed and weapons, drones and observation posts were found, as well as a long-range rocket launcher and tunnel shafts, it said.
The resurgence of fighting in the area comes months after Israel declared Hamas’s command structure in northern Gaza dismantled.
In other developments:
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Israel’s foreign minister said Iran’s message of an “obliterating war” made it worthy of destruction. “A regime that threatens destruction deserves to be destroyed,” Israel Katz said in a post on X on Saturday. He also said Israel would act with full force against Iran-backed Hezbollah if it did not stop firing at Israel from Lebanon and move away from the border. Iran’s UN mission said on Friday that if Israel embarked on a “full-scale military aggression” in Lebanon, “an obliterating war will ensue”.
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Four bodies were pulled from an apartment after an Israeli strike in central Gaza, the territory’s civil defence agency said on Saturday. Further south, in the Rafah area, witnesses reported dead and wounded after a new Israeli incursion. Tarek Qandeel, director of the medical centre in al-Maghazi, central Gaza, said it was seriously damaged when a neighbouring house was bombed, making it the latest Gaza medical facility affected by the war.
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A UN spokesperson said she had just returned to central Gaza after four weeks outside the territory and “it’s really unbearable”. Louise Wateridge said by video link that the situation had “significantly deteriorated”. “There’s no water there, there’s no sanitation, there’s no food,” and people were returning to live in “empty shells” of buildings. In the absence of toilets they were “relieving themselves anywhere they can”.
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At least 37,834 Palestinians have been killed and 86,858 wounded in Israel’s offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said on Saturday.
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Hamas said there had been no progress in ceasefire talks with Israel. A senior official of the militant group, Osama Hamdan, also told a news conference in Beirut on Saturday that it was still ready to “deal positively” with any ceasefire proposal that ended the war. Hamas and Israel have both blamed each other for the impasse. Axios reported on Friday that the US had proposed new language for parts of the hostage and ceasefire proposal in an effort to secure a deal.
Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has extended a waiver that allows Israeli banks and Palestinian banks to continue to cooperate.
The waiver allows shekel payments for salaries and services linked to the Palestinian Authority.
Janet Yellen, U.S. Treasury Secretary said it was important to maintain Israel-Palestinian banking relationships to allow the economy to function and help security.
The Palestinian economy depends on this relationship to process transactions made in Israeli shekels.
