Closing summary
It has gone 4pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv. We will be closing this blog soon, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Israel-Gaza war coverage here and on the Middle East here. You can also read our latest report below:
Here is a recap of the latest developments:
Turkish officials held a brief ceremony on Friday at Istanbul International airport where the body of a Turkish-American activist killed by Israeli gunfire arrived ahead of her funeral and burial in a town on the Aegean coast. The Israeli military said on Tuesday that Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi was likely shot “indirectly and unintentionally” by Israeli forces. Turkey announced it will conduct its own investigation into her death.
Israeli security forces mischaracterised the events that led up to the fatal shooting of Eygi, according to an investigation by the Washington Post. The Israel Defense Forces claimed that their soldiers were targeting the leader of a violent protest when they shot Eygi, a 26-year-old member of the International Solidarity Movement who had come from her native Washington state to Israel to protest against settlements in the West Bank.
The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) has hailed the success of the first phase of a giant polio vaccination campaign in Gaza after more than 560,000 children received a first dose. “This is a massive success amidst a tragic daily reality of life across the Gaza Strip,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote in a post on X. A fresh campaign to provide a needed second dose is due to begin in about four weeks in Gaza.
The families of Palestinians killed in an airstrike in the occupied West Bank city of Tubas held funerals on Friday after Israeli forces withdrew after their latest raid in the territory. The four men buried in Tubas on Friday were killed in an airstrike at dawn on Wednesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said. A fifth fatality from the same strike was buried on Friday in Tamoun, also in the northern West Bank.
Relatives of hostages in Gaza and their supporters blocked a main road in Tel Aviv, demanding a deal to release captives held by Hamas, the Times of Israel reported on Friday. Demonstrators painted yellow ribbons along Namir Road in Tel Aviv, chanted “why are they still in Gaza?” and vowed not to abandon hostages held by Hamas, according to a report by the Israeli online newspaper.
Relief groups have said more than 1 million people in Gaza will not have enough food this month, while trucks loaded with fresh vegetables or meat spoil waiting to cross Israeli checkpoints, and thousands of aid packages of food, medical supplies and even toothbrushes and shampoo remain stuck in a backlog of lorries unable to enter from Egypt.
Israel has bombed a UN school sheltering displaced people in central Gaza, killing at least 18 people, including the shelter manager and five other Unrwa staff. The al-Jaouni school in Nuseirat is home to about 12,000 displaced people, mostly women and children, the UN said. It has been hit five times since the start of the war in Gaza.
The commander of Israel’s military surveillance agency, Unit 8200, has announced his resignation, publicly accepting responsibility for failings that contributed to the deadly 7 October attacks. Yossi Sariel said on Tuesday that he had informed his superiors of his intention to step down after the completion of an initial investigation into Unit 8200’s role in failures surrounding the Hamas-led assault last year.
US president Joe Biden and UK prime minister Keir Starmer will meet on Friday to discuss the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Starmer’s government last week announced restrictions on some weapons to Israel, voicing concern that they could be used to violate international humanitarian law. The White House has declined to criticise the UK’s decision, but Politico reported that Washington had asked London what it would take to change its decision – with the answer being a ceasefire in Gaza.
A pro-Israel rally in a Boston suburb turned violent on Thursday evening when a passerby was shot during a scuffle after confronting a group of demonstrators, authorities said. Police were called at 6.40pm, local time, to the scene of what they described as a small rally in Newton. Words were exchanged before a passerby rapidly crossed the street and tackled one of the demonstrators, Middlesex county district attorney Marian Ryan said.
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar thanked Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah for his support in the ongoing war with Israel in a letter released on Friday by Hezbollah’s media office. In the letter, dated Monday, Sinwar thanks Nasrallah for the “blessed acts” of Iran-backed groups in their support for Hamas since 7 October, when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted another 250. Sinwar called the war “one of the most honorable battles for the Palestinian people”.
An opinion poll on Friday showed Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rightwing Likud party would form the largest single party in parliament if an election were held now, underlining a gradual recovery since the 7 October attacks last year. The poll, published in the left wing Ma’ariv daily, showed Likud winning 24 seats, against 32 at present, its highest score in the Ma’ariv poll since 7 October.
WHO director general hails 'massive success' of first phase of polio vaccination campaign in Gaza
The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) has hailed the success of the first phase of a giant polio vaccination campaign in Gaza after more than 560,000 children received a first dose.
“This is a massive success amidst a tragic daily reality of life across the Gaza Strip,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote in a post on X.
Over 560,000 children aged below ten years of age were vaccinated against #polio during the first round of an emergency vaccination campaign in #Gaza, which was completed yesterday.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) September 13, 2024
We admire all the health teams, who conducted this complex operation.
We are deeply grateful to… pic.twitter.com/QyYjSJg2Gp
Disease has spread with Gaza lying in ruins and the majority of its 2.4 million residents forced to flee their homes due to Israel’s military assault – often taking refuge in cramped and unsanitary conditions.
After the first confirmed polio case in 25 years, a massive vaccination effort began on 1 September targeting at least 90% of children under 10, aided by localised “humanitarian pauses” in fighting.
The first phase of the campaign, which first brought vaccines to children in central Gaza, then the south, and finally to the hardest-to reach north of the territory, wrapped up on Thursday, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP). A fresh campaign to provide a needed second dose is due to begin in about four weeks in Gaza.
“We admire all the health teams, who conducted this complex operation,” Tedros said, also voicing gratitude to the families for turning out in droves to get their children vaccinated against polio.
Poliovirus, most often spread through sewage and contaminated water, is highly infectious. It can cause deformities and paralysis, and is potentially fatal. It mainly affects children under the age of five.
WHO has hailed that area-specific humanitarian pauses were respected, allowing the campaign to go ahead, and has urged a broader halt in fighting to help establish humanitarian corridors and the delivery of desperately needed throughout the war-torn territory.
“Imagine what could be achieved with a ceasefire!” Tedros wrote.
The families of Palestinians killed in an airstrike in the occupied West Bank city of Tubas held funerals on Friday after Israeli forces withdrew after their latest raid in the territory.
According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the Israeli military said in a statement on Wednesday that its forces were engaged in a “counter-terrorism operation” in the area of Tubas, in the northern West Bank.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said the military withdrew Thursday evening, allowing the funerals to go ahead.
The four men buried in Tubas on Friday were killed in an airstrike at dawn on Wednesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said.
A fifth fatality from the same strike was buried on Friday in Tamoun, also in the northern West Bank.
The Israeli military said in a statement on Wednesday that Israeli aircraft had “struck and eliminated a terrorist cell consisting of five terrorists armed with explosives who posed a threat to (Israeli) forces”.
AFP reports that on Friday morning, hundreds of people walked through the streets of Tubas alongside the four bodies hoisted on stretchers and wrapped in white cloth.
Some in the crowd waved the green flag of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and gunfire punctuated the chants of the mourners.
“I woke up in the morning to the sound of an explosion,” Ahmed Sawafta, father of one of the dead men, told AFP, describing the strike on Wednesday. “My brothers came and told me that Yassin had been martyred,” he said, referring to his son.
Osaid Kharaz, who identified himself as a Hamas activist, told AFP at the funeral that Israel “is attempting to impose a new reality and undermine the popular support for the resistance [to Israeli occupation] in the West Bank”.
The military will use its “full strength” to strike Palestinian militants in the West Bank, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said on 4 September, amid a large-scale operation in the north of the territory that killed dozens.
Unrwa said that “the first round of the polio vaccination campaign in Gaza ended yesterday,” noting that “our next challenge will be providing the second dose, needed in the coming weeks.
The first round of the #polio vaccination campaign in #Gaza ended yesterday.@UNRWA and partners have vaccinated hundreds of thousands of children, successfully reaching 90% vaccination coverage.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) September 13, 2024
Our next challenge will be providing the second dose, needed in the coming weeks. pic.twitter.com/cm5SGLaeoS
Updated
Palestinian advocacy groups pressure Harris as election looms
In the days leading up to last month’s Democratic national convention (DNC), some pro-Palestinian groups and individuals expressed cautious excitement about Kamala Harris’s ascendence to the candidacy. Representative Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said that there was “a sense that there’s an opening” with the vice-president, referring to a possible shift in US policy on Israel’s war on Gaza, while others voiced more measured optimism.
However, following the convention, during which party officials refused to allow a Palestinian to speak on the main stage, and where Harris hawkishly affirmed her support for arming Israel, many of those groups’ initial hope has turned into a belief that Harris will remain in-line with Joe Biden’s Israel policies. The result has been a splintering of sorts: some organisations are still attempting to push Harris toward a more anti-war stance; others have decided to support Harris through the election regardless, citing the risk of a Donald Trump presidency.
Read the full story here, by Melissa Hellmann, Gloria Oladipo and Adria R Walker.
Updated
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of Unrwa, told the BBC that “there are deliberate attempts to dismantle Unrwa that have nothing to do with neutrality.”
“These attempts aim at striping the Palestinians of their refugee status and at undermining the aspirations of the Palestinians for self determination,” he said.
Told @stephensackur @BBCHARDTALK there are deliberate attempts to dismantle @UNRWA that have nothing to do with neutrality.
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) September 13, 2024
These attempts aim at striping the Palestinians of their refugee status & at undermining the aspirations of the Palestinians for self determination.… pic.twitter.com/dJdxGK9rEe
Updated
Ten people accused of breaking into an Israeli-based defence firm’s site in South Gloucestershire as part of a pro-Palestinian protest will stand trial next year, reports the Press Association (PA).
Elbit Systems UK’s site near Patchway, Bristol, was allegedly attacked by members of Palestine Action in the early hours of 6 August, the Old Bailey heard on Friday.
The PA reports that a previous court hearing was told a vehicle was driven into the building’s doors during the protest and two responding police officers and a security guard had been injured.
Mr Justice Baker set a 10-week trial date for 17 November of next year at Woolwich crown court. They will next appear at the Old Bailey for a plea hearing on 17 January of next year.
Chinese defence minister says 'negotiation' is the only way to 'resolve' Israel-Gaza war
Chinese defence minister Dong Jun said on Friday that “negotiation” was the only solution to conflicts such as the wars in Gaza and Ukraine as he addressed a global gathering of military officials in Beijing, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Top military representatives from Russia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Singapore, Iran and Germany are among more than 500 delegates in Beijing for the Xiangshan forum, dubbed China’s answer to the annual Shangri-La meeting in Singapore.
AFP reports that the three-day forum comes as Beijing increasingly presents itself as a mediator in global conflicts, including by sending envoys to the Middle East, brokering a temporary ceasefire in north Myanmar and last year, facilitating a historic rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran. On Ukraine and Israel-Palestine, China presents itself as a more neutral actor than the US.
Dong told the opening ceremony:
To resolve hotspot issues such as the crisis in Ukraine and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, promoting peace and negotiation is the only way out.
There is no winner in war and conflict, and confrontation leads nowhere.
The more acute the conflict, the more we cannot give up dialogue and consultation. The end of any conflict is reconciliation.”
He called on all countries to promote “peaceful development and inclusive governance”.
Updated
US president Joe Biden and UK prime minister Keir Starmer will meet on Friday to discuss the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
Starmer is scheduled to meet Biden in the Oval Office at 4.30pm (8.30pm GMT) but has no scheduled meetings at this stage with Donald Trump or Kamala Harris, both of whom will be on the campaign trail on Friday.
Starmer’s visit is his second to Washington since his Labour party stormed to victory in July after 14 years.
His government last week announced restrictions on some weapons to Israel, voicing concern that they could be used to violate international humanitarian law.
According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the White House has declined to criticise the UK’s decision, but Politico reported that Washington had asked London what it would take to change its decision – with the answer being a ceasefire in Gaza.
Here are some of the latest images on the newswires:
An opinion poll on Friday showed Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rightwing Likud party would form the largest single party in parliament if an election were held now, underlining a gradual recovery since the 7 October attacks last year, reports the Reuters news agency.
The poll, published in the left wing Ma’ariv daily, showed Likud winning 24 seats, against 32 at present, its highest score in the Ma’ariv poll since 7 October. It put the National Unity party led by centrist former general Benny Gantz on 21.
Netanyahu’s rightwing coalition with a clutch of nationalist-religious and ultra-Orthodox parties would lose any election held now, with 53 seats in the 120-seat parliament, against 58 for the main opposition bloc, according to the poll.
But Likud’s advance shows how far Netanyahu has moved since last year when his standing was hit by public fury at the security failures when Hamas gunmen stormed into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages.
According to Reuters, earlier in the war against Hamas in Gaza, opinion polls regularly showed Likud gaining no more than 16-18 seats in parliament.
The survey also showed Netanyahu’s personal standing as prime minister recovering, with respondents favouring him over any alternative potential candidate apart from former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who is now out of politics.
Despite coalition tensions between Netanyahu and several ministers, and regular protests by Israelis demanding a deal to bring home the Gaza hostages, the government has held together for almost two years. An election is not due until 2026.
Relatives of hostages in Gaza and their supporters have blocked a main road in Tel Aviv, demanding a deal to release captives held by Hamas, the Times of Israel reports.
Demonstrators painted yellow ribbons along Namir Road in Tel Aviv, chanted “why are they still in Gaza?” and vowed not to abandon hostages held by Hamas, according to a report by the Israeli online newspaper.
The Times of Israel reports that border police officers arrived and attempted to clear the demonstrators from the road.
Aid not reaching Gaza, say relief groups as ‘more than a million go without food’
Relief groups have said more than 1 million people in Gaza will not have enough food this month, while trucks loaded with fresh vegetables or meat spoil waiting to cross Israeli checkpoints, and thousands of aid packages of food, medical supplies and even toothbrushes and shampoo remain stuck in a backlog of lorries unable to enter from Egypt.
“We estimate that over a million Gazans will go without food in September,” said Sam Rose, a senior deputy director of UN’s relief agency for Palestinians (Unrwa), in Gaza. “Over half the medicines in our health centres are running low, as is chlorine for water purification and other basic supplies.”
He added that Unrwa had resorted to trying to import single items such as soap, because kits containing a range of items such as washing powder alongside it have been blocked from entering.
“We believe we’re better served by bringing in bars of soap than trying for anything more complicated,” he said. “This shows how desperate the situation has become – we’re reduced to aiming for the absolute bare minimum to improve hygiene conditions, which is an atrocious state of affairs in a situation where there is a growing risk of infectious disease.”
“So little aid is getting in that we can’t meet basic needs,” he said.
Amed Khan, the founder of the Elpida relief organisation, said his group had unsuccessfully attempted to bring medical supplies into the territory for several months.
The amount of aid entering, he said, “is the absolute minimum needed to ensure that people don’t die immediately from starvation. They could die three years from now from extended malnutrition, but this is the minimum amount of trucks needed to ensure people don’t die immediately, and avoid international outrage.”
You can read the full piece here:
Turkish officials held a brief ceremony on Friday at Istanbul International airport where the body of a Turkish-American activist killed by Israeli gunfire arrived ahead of her funeral and burial in a town on the Aegean coast.
Istanbul governor Davut Gul and other officials held prayers in front of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi’s coffin, which was draped in the Turkish flag, before helping carry it to another plane for the city of Izmir, the Associated Press (AP) reports. Her funeral is expected to be held Saturday in the town of Didim, near Izmir.
İşgal altındaki Batı Şeria'da İsrail askerlerince katledilen Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi'nin naaşı, Azerbaycan'dan İstanbul'a getirildi
— EKRAN HABER (@ekranhabercom) September 13, 2024
🔻İstanbul Havalimanı'na getirilen Eygi'nin cenazesi, Dışişleri Bakanlığı İstanbul Temsilcisi Büyükelçi Ayşe Sözen Usluer tarafından karşılandı.… pic.twitter.com/abP3SPe0zU
The 26-year-od activist from Seattle was killed on 6 September after a demonstration against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to an Israeli protester who witnessed the shooting.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday that Eygi was likely shot “indirectly and unintentionally” by Israeli forces. Turkey announced it will conduct its own investigation into her death.
Updated
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar thanked Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah for his support in the ongoing war with Israel in a letter released on Friday by Hezbollah’s media office, reports the Associated Press (AP).
Sinwar’s letter came in response to a message sent earlier by Nasrallah in which he paid his condolence for the July killing of top Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh during a visit to Iran.
In the letter, dated Monday, Sinwar thanks Nasrallah for the “blessed acts” of Iran-backed groups in their support for Hamas since 7 October, when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted another 250. Sinwar called the war “one of the most honorable battles for the Palestinian people”.
On 8 October, Hezbollah started attacking Israeli military posts along the border, triggering an ongoing exchange of fire that has left hundreds dead.
According to the AP, more than 500 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli strikes since 8 October, most of them fighters with Hezbollah and other armed groups, but also more than 100 civilians. In northern Israel, 23 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed by strikes from Lebanon.
Six UN aid workers among 18 killed in Israeli strike on Gaza school
Israel has bombed a UN school sheltering displaced people in central Gaza, killing at least 18 people, including the shelter manager and five other Unrwa staff.
The al-Jaouni school in Nuseirat is home to about 12,000 displaced people, mostly women and children, the UN said. It has been hit five times since the start of the war in Gaza.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, called the attack “totally unacceptable” and said it broke international laws that protect civilians in war. “These dramatic violations of international humanitarian law need to stop now.”
The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said he was “outraged” by the bombing. “The disregard of the basic principles of international humanitarian law, especially protection of civilians, cannot and should not be accepted by the international community.”
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said Washington would continue to urge Israel to do more to spare humanitarian sites. “We need to see humanitarian sites protected,” he told reporters while on a visit to Poland. “That’s something we continue to raise with Israel.”
Germany’s foreign ministry also condemned the attack and called on Israel to protect UN staff and aid workers.
The UN Palestinian relief agency, Unrwa, has turned its schools across Gaza into shelters as Israeli airstrikes and ground operations forced most residents to flee their homes. An estimated 90% of people in Gaza are displaced, many moving to try to stay alive.
You can read the full story here:
A pro-Israel rally in a Boston suburb turned violent on Thursday evening when a passerby was shot during a scuffle after confronting a group of demonstrators, authorities said.
The Associated Press (AP) reports that police were called at 6.40pm, local time, to the scene of what they described as a small rally in Newton. Words were exchanged before a passerby rapidly crossed the street and tackled one of the demonstrators, Middlesex county district attorney Marian Ryan said.
“A scuffle ensued. During that scuffle, the individual who had come across the street was shot by a member of the demonstrating group,” Ryan said during a news conference late on Thursday.
Scott Hayes, 47, of Framingham, was arrested on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and violation of a constitutional right causing injury, reports the AP. He is scheduled to be arraigned in district court Friday, Ryan said.
The shooting victim, who was not identified, was being treated at a hospital for life-threatening injuries, Ryan said.
Acting Newton police chief George McMains asked witnesses to provide investigators with photos or videos of the confrontation. He said police would provide extra patrols at “houses of worship” over the next several days.
Head of Israeli spy agency Unit 8200 resigns over 7 October failings
The commander of Israel’s military surveillance agency, Unit 8200, has announced his resignation, publicly accepting responsibility for failings that contributed to the deadly 7 October attacks.
Yossi Sariel said on Tuesday that he had informed his superiors of his intention to step down after the completion of an initial investigation into Unit 8200’s role in failures surrounding the Hamas-led assault last year.
In an emotional four-page letter to staff, Sariel said: “I did not fulfil the task I expected of myself, as expected of me by my subordinates and commanders and as expected of me by the citizens of the country that I love so much.”
He added: “The responsibility for 8200’s part in the intelligence and operational failure falls squarely on me.”
Sariel is the latest Israeli senior defence and security official to announce their resignation over failures relating to the attacks last year on southern Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed nearly 1,200 people and kidnapped about 240.
After the assault, Unit 8200 – and Sariel’s leadership of the once vaunted military unit – came under intense scrutiny over its role in what is widely considered to have been one of the Israeli intelligence community’s biggest failures.
Sariel’s identity as the commander of Unit 8200 – which is comparable to the US National Security Agency or GCHQ in the UK – was previously a closely guarded secret in Israel. However, in April the Guardian revealed how the spy chief had left his identity exposed online for several years.
You can read the full piece here:
Israeli forces mischaracterised events leading to fatal shooting of US activist, says Washington Post
Israeli security forces mischaracterised the events that led up to the fatal shooting of a Turkish-American protester in the West Bank, according to an investigation by the Washington Post.
The Israel Defense Forces claimed that their soldiers were targeting the leader of a violent protest when they shot Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old member of the International Solidarity Movement who had come from her native Washington state to Israel to protest against settlements in the West Bank.
In a statement, Joe Biden cited evidence provided in the IDF’s initial inquiry, saying the “preliminary investigation has indicated that it was the result of a tragic error resulting from an unnecessary escalation”. The US president also told reporters that Eygi was killed probably as the result of a bullet ricochet, and “apparently it was an accident”.
But a Washington Post report said that protests had subsided before Israeli forces opened fire, indicating that there was no immediate threat to the soldiers and little justification to target Eygi or any other protesters with live fire.
According to the investigation, Eygi was “shot more than a half-hour after the height of confrontations in Beita, and some 20 minutes after protesters had moved down the main road – more than 200 yards (183 metres) away from Israeli forces”.
The potential target, a Palestinian teenager who was wounded by Israeli fire, was standing about 18 metres away from Eygi, witnesses told the Post.
You can read the full piece here:
Body of US-Turkish citizen killed by Israeli troops in occupied West Bank due to arrive in Turkey
It has gone 9am in Gaza and Tel Aviv. This is our latest live blog on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis.
The body of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, the US-Turkish citizen who was killed by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank last week, is due to arrive in Turkey on Friday, the foreign ministry has said, a day after Ankara said it would open an investigation into her killing and request international arrest warrants.
Her father said the funeral was set for Saturday in the Turkish Aegean coastal city of Didim.
Israel has said it was highly likely its troops had fired the shot that killed Ezgi Eygi, who was killed last Friday while taking part in a protest against Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank, but said it was an accident.
Justice minister Yilmaz Tunç said the Ankara chief prosecutor’s office is investigating “those responsible for the martyrdom and murder of our sister Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi”.
He told reporters that Turkey had evidence regarding the killing and would make international arrest requests.
The foreign ministry said she “was deliberately targeted and killed by Israeli soldiers during a peaceful demonstration in solidarity with Palestinians”.“We will make every effort to ensure that this crime does not go unpunished,” it said.
US president Joe Biden and vice-president Kamala Harris said on Wednesday that her killing was unacceptable and Israel must do more to make sure such an event never happens again. However, they have not ordered an independent investigation despite requests from her family.
Mehmet Suat Eygi, Ezgi Eygi’s father, told reporters he welcomed Turkey’s investigation into the murder and said he expected the same from the US government.
“When there is an injustice against one of its own, or a murder of its own citizens, America, like the eagle on its emblem, swoops down. But when it comes to Israel, there is an effort to evade it,” Turkish media cited him as saying. Eygi added that his daughter was 10 months old when she moved to the US.
In other developments:
The US Department of State has said it will unconditionally release $1.3bn in military aid to Egypt, despite criticising its government in the past over alleged human rights abuses. Last year, the US had made the release of part of this annual aid conditional on progress being made on respecting human rights in Egypt, a country where ruler Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has been accused of suppressing dissent. This year, however, the state department said Egypt had made “progress” in certain areas of human rights. It also explicitly mentioned Cairo’s help in mediating between Israel and Hamas on the war in Gaza.
Relief groups have said more than 1 million people in Gaza will not have enough food this month, while trucks loaded with fresh vegetables or meat spoil waiting to cross Israeli checkpoints, and thousands of aid packages of food, medical supplies and even toothbrushes and shampoo remain stuck in a backlog of lorries unable to enter from Egypt. A report published in late August by more than two dozen NGOs, including Mercy Corps, Oxfam and Anera, said that among the most “significant obstacles” were the delays imposed by the Israeli authorities in approving cargo to enter Gaza.
Israeli security forces mischaracterised the events that led up to the fatal shooting of a Turkish-American protester in the West Bank, according to an investigation by the Washington Post. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed that their soldiers were targeting the leader of a violent protest when they shot Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi. But a Washington Post report said that protests had subsided before Israeli forces opened fire, indicating that there was no immediate threat to the soldiers and little justification to target Eygi or any other protesters with live fire.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said at least one quarter, or about 22,500, of those Palestinians injured by Israel’s bombardment in the Gaza conflict had suffered life-changing injuries, such as missing limbs that would require rehabilitation services for years to come. WHO said that on Wednesday it evacuated nearly 100 people from Gaza to the UAE for medical reasons, the largest such operation so far of the war.
Israel has bombed a UN school sheltering displaced people in central Gaza, killing at least 18 people, including the shelter manager and five other Unrwa staff. The al-Jaouni school in Nuseirat is home to about 12,000 displaced people, mostly women and children, the UN said. It has been hit five times since the start of the war in Gaza.
Israel’s government press office (GPO) has announced it is revoking the press cards of all Al Jazeera journalists working in Israel. Nitzan Chen, the director of the GPO, claimed the network constitutes “a threat to IDF soldiers”.
Yossi Sarel, the head of the IDF’s unit 8200, a prestigious IDF intelligence unit, has announced that he is to resign. In his statement he said on 7 October last year “I failed my mission”. In April this year the Guardian revealed that Sariel left his identity exposed online when he secretly authored a book published in 2021.
The IDF have launched an investigation into claims in the Israeli media that the London-based Jewish Chronicle published stories based on “fabricated intelligence” relating to Hamas, amid claims that they may have been planted as part of a disinformation campaign.
