Middle East crisis live: Israeli strikes kill 61 Palestinians in Gaza, medics say; ‘thousands’ trapped in Jabalia

Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 30 people have been killed by Israeli strikes throughout the day in northern Gaza’s Jabalia town and refugee camp on Friday.

At least 12 people were killed, including women and children, by a strike that occurred before 9.40pm local time (1840 GMT), according to the agency, AFP reported.

A least 61 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip on Friday, medics told Reuters. They warned that the death toll from the latest strikes on Friday would probably rise.

As we reported earlier, Médecins Sans Frontières said thousands of Palestinians are trapped in Jabalia camp, including five of its staff who are “fearing for their lives”.

It’s 11.30pm in Beirut, Gaza and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:

• At least 61 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza on Friday, nearly half of who were killed in Jabalia, the northern district which is the largest of Gaza’s refugee camps. At least 15 of the fatalities in Jabalia since Friday dawn were due to Israeli strikes targeting various areas, including a school sheltering displaced individuals, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. Dozens of Palestinians were reported to have been injured when an IDF quadcopter drone opened fire on a school sheltering displaced people in the Jabalia refugee camp.

• At least 42,126 Palestinians had been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza since the war started a year ago, according to the latest figures from the health ministry on Friday. The figures were released prior to the latest Israeli strikes on Friday, including in Jabalia in northern Gaza.

• Thousands of Palestinians are trapped in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, the charity Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières said, including five of its staff who are “fearing for their lives”. “Nobody is allowed to get in or out – anyone who tries is getting shot,” MSF project coordinator Sarah Vuylsteke said. The charity called on Israeli forces to stop forced displacements and to stop the “all-out war on the people of Gaza”.

• Two UN peacekeepers were wounded after the Israeli military fired on the UN mission’s headquarters in Lebanon on Friday for the second time in as many days. Two Sri Lankan members of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) were injured when the IDF opened fire near the peacekeeper’s base in Naqoura. Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry “strongly” condemned the attack. The Israeli army said that its soldiers had targeted what they believed to be a threat near the base. Two Indonesian Unifil peacekeepers were lightly wounded on Thursday when they were thrown from an observation tower that was hit by an Israeli tank round, and two other Unifil outposts had come under fire. Unifil said on Friday that an IDF bulldozer knocked over barriers at UN position 1-31 near the blue line in Labbouneh.

• The incidents at Unifil positions drew outrage from countries who contribute soldiers to serve as peacekeepers in its ranks. Downing Street said that the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, was “appalled” to hear reports that Israel deliberately fired on peacekeepers in Lebanon. A joint statement by the leaders of France, Italy and Spain said the attacks were “unjustifiable” and constitute a “serious violation of the obligations of Israel” under humanitarian international law. Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, called on the international community to stop selling weapons to Israel. Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, condemned the firing as “unacceptable”. The French foreign ministry summoned Israel’s ambassador over an incident in which Israeli troops opened fire at three positions held by UN peacekeepers.

• An Israeli airstrike killed two Lebanese soldiers and wounded three others in the southern Bint Jbeil province on Friday, prompting futher concern over Israel’s escalating campaign. Lebanon’s army has not been involved in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, and it withdrew its forces from the border between the two countries when Israel launched its invasion last month.

• At least 60 people were killed and 168 wounded in the past 24 hours in Lebanon, the country’s crisis response unit said on Friday. The latest figure takes the total number of people killed in Lebanon over the past year to 2,229 killed and 10,380 wounded, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. The crisis response unit also reported 57 airstrikes and incidents of shelling in the past day, mostly concentrated in southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs of Beirut and the Bekaa Valley. The UN human rights office said more than 100 medics and emergency workers had been killed in Lebanon since a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah began a year ago.

• Israeli airstrikes on central Beirut killed 22 people and wounded 117 when they hit a densely populated residential neighbourhood in the heart of the Lebanese capital overnight on Thursday. It was the deadliest strike on Lebanon’s capital city since fighting between Hezbollah and Israel started a year ago. A US-made munition was used in the strike, according to an analysis of shrapnel found by the Guardian at the scene of the attack. The Lebanese Red Cross said it deployed ambulances and volunteers “within minutes to treat and transport the injured, and search and rescue teams worked throughout the night” in Beirut on Thursday evening.

• Joe Biden, the US president, said he was asking Israel to not hit UN peacekeepers in its conflict with Hezbollah. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said there was deep concern in Asia about the prospect of conflict spreading in the Middle East, US defense secretary Lloyd Austin said he spoke to his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, and urged “ensuring the safety of Unifil forces.” Austin reaffirmed ironclad support for Israel’s right to defend itself during the call on Thursday night, the Pentagon said.

• The UN secretary general, António Guterres, told Israel that attacks on the peacekeeping force were intolerable. “I have never seen in my time as secretary general any example of death and destruction as dramatic as what we are witnessing here,” Guterres said on Friday. “We see an enormous tragedy in Lebanon. And we must do everything to avoid an all-out war.” The Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, declared Guterres persona non grata earlier this month, accusing him of “lending support to terrorists” after the secretary general’s calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.

• Abbas Araqchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said Tehran will not hesitate to take “stronger defensive actions” if Israel retaliates for last week’s missile attack. Araqchi said Iran’s missile attack on Israel had been in accordance with its right to self-defence under international law and followed much restraint as it sought a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

• Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN relief organisation for Palestinian refugees across the region (Unrwa), said people in Gaza had become accustomed to being moved about “like pinballs” by IDF operations. He feared that the people of southern Lebanon were facing the same plight. “One of the fears is that we replicate a situation similar to the one we have seen until now in Gaza,” he said on Friday.

• UN officials voiced concerns that an Israeli offensive and evacuation orders in northern Gaza could affect the second phase of its polio vaccination campaign, scheduled to start next week. In Gaza’s north, the Israeli military has been pursuing an offensive in recent days, sending its troops into Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, and the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya.

Joe Biden said he is asking Israel to stop firing at UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, after two incidents in which Blue Helmets were wounded by Israeli forces.

Asked by a reporter at the White House if he was asking Israel to stop, the US president replied on Friday:

Absolutely, positively.

Sirens have been heard in several areas in central Israel on Friday night.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said sirens sounded regarding a “hostile aircraft infiltration” on Friday.

It added that details are under review.

The leaders of France, Italy and Spain have released a joint statement condemning the recent targeting of UN peacekeepers in Lebanon by the Israeli military.

These attacks were “unjustifiable” and constitute a “serious violation of the obligations of Israel” under humanitarian international law, the statement said. It went on to say:

We recall that all peacekeepers must be protected and reiterate our praise for the continued and indispensable commitment of Unifil troops/personnel in this very challenging context.

France, Italy and Spain make up the largest European contributors to Unifil in terms of personnel.

In the joint statement, they called for an immediate ceasefire and said they counted on “Israel’s commitment to the security of UN and bilateral peacekeeping missions in Lebanon as well as international organisations active in the region”.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières has said that thousands of Palestinians are trapped in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, including five of its staff who are “fearing for their lives”.

Israeli forces issued evacuation orders for Jabalia camp on earlier this week “while carrying out attacks at the same time, preventing people from leaving the area safely,” the medical charity said on Friday.

“Nobody is allowed to get in or out – anyone who tries is getting shot,” MSF project coordinator Sarah Vuylsteke said.

Haydar, an MSF driver trapped in Jabalia camp, said:

We were staying at the Al-Yemen Al-Saeed Hospital, but they bombed it. About 20 people were killed. I don’t know what to do, at any moment we could die. People are starving. I am afraid to stay, and I am also afraid to leave.

The charity called on Israeli forces to stop forced displacements and to stop the “all-out war on the people of Gaza”.

Unrwa chief Philippe Lazzarini said the UN relief agency “has never, ever been as much under assault and attack”. He told Reuters:

A year ago, it was primarily a financial existential threat, but today it’s a combination of a political and financial threat. 2025 will be, again, a difficult year

Unrwa, one of the UN’s largest agencies, has 13,000 staff working in Gaza and more than 30,000 in the region providing health and educational facilities to Palestinian refugees.

In July, the Israeli parliament gave preliminary approval to a bill that would declare Unrwa a “terrorist organisation”. Israeli leaders have accused Unrwa staff of collaborating with Hamas in Gaza, leading to many western donors to suspend funding.

Lazzarini has previously accused Israel’s government of campaigning to drive Unrwa out of existence, warning that it would “devastating consequences” for the UN and the Palestinian cause.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has confirmed it was responsible for wounding two UN peacekeepers in Lebanon on Friday.

The UN peacekeepers were injured by an Israeli strike near their observation tower in south Lebanon, after Israeli forces “identified an immediate threat” and “responded with fire toward the threat”, according to the IDF. Their statement continues:

An initial examination indicates that during the incident, a hit was identified on a Unifil post, located approximately 50 meters (yards) from the source of the threat, resulting in the injury of two Unifil personnel.

The watchtower that came under Israeli fire on Friday is located at the mission’s main base in Naqoura.

As we reported earlier, Unifil said an Israeli bulldozer had also knocked over barriers at UN positions near the Blue Line denoting the frontier between Lebanon and Israel, while tanks had moved into the vicinity.

The IDF said it had instructed Unifil “to enter into protected spaces and remain there” hours before the incident.

The IDF statement came shortly after the military said it was “conducting a thorough review” to determine details of attacks on UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, after the four mission members were injured.