UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Friday that fighting between Israel and Hezbollah must not turn Lebanon into “another Gaza”, citing “bellicose rhetoric” and the exchange of fire in parallel with the fighting in the Gaza Strip, potentially triggering a wider regional war. Read our blog to see how the day's events unfolded.
This blog is no longer being updated. For more coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, please click here.
Summary
- The "pause" the Israeli military had declared in Gaza to facilitate aid flows has not improved the flow of humanitarian aid, the UN's health agency said on Friday.
- Armenia has officially recognised a Palestinian state, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday, defying Israel which is opposed to such moves
- Israel and Hezbollah traded fresh cross-border fire late Thursday, as fears of a regional conflict grew after Israel revealed it had approved plans for a Lebanon offensive and Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement said none of Israel would be spared in a full-blown conflict..
- At least 37,431 Palestinians have been killed and 85,653 injured in Israel's war in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave. Some 1,170 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks and 250 people were taken hostage, with about 120 remaining in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Many have been declared dead by Israeli authorities.
Yesterday’s key developments:
- Israeli authorities on Thursday freed 33 Palestinians who had been detained during the past months by Israeli forces in different areas of the Gaza Strip. The freed detainees were admitted into Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza's Deir Al-Balah.
- The US military-built pier in Gaza is up and running again after being detached for a second time last week because of rough seas, according to Cyprus officials Thursday.
- Hezbollah said it fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel in retaliation for a deadly air strike in south Lebanon that Israel said killed a Hezbollah operative. Israel said it had approved plans for a Lebanon offensive, fuelling fears that the conflict in Gaza would widen into a regional war.
- Israel's military forces pounded areas in the central Gaza Strip overnight, killing three people and wounding more than a dozen others, according to health officials and medics, while tanks deepened their invasion into Rafah in the south, residents said.
About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent. For more on the health ministry’s casualty figures, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP and Reuters)
