Israel bombs Khan Younis despite affirming ceasefire commitment

The live blog has now ended and will be back tomorrow at 9 am GMT. You can read more of The New Arab's coverage of Israel's war on Gaza here.

Israeli forces are demolishing houses east of Gaza City's Tuffah neighbourhood, according to Al Jazeera.

More than 24,000 tons of UN aid has reached Gaza since the start of a ceasefire earlier this month, a UN official said on Thursday while calling for NGOs to be allowed to assist in its distribution.

While aid volumes are significantly up compared to the period before the ceasefire, humanitarians still face funding shortfalls, the UN says, as well as issues coordinating with Israeli authorities.

"Starting from the ceasefire, we brought over 24,000 metric tonnes of aid through all the crossings, and we have restarted both community- and household-based (aid) distributions," said the UN Resident Coordinator Office's deputy special coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Ramiz Alakbarov.

The World Food Programme's Middle East regional director Samer AbdelJaber said in 20 days of scale-up following the ceasefire they "have collected about 20,000 metric tons of food inside Gaza."

Looting in the coastal strip was also considerably down, Alakbarov added, easing the distribution of aid.

Israel said its security forces in the Gaza Strip had received the remains of two captives from the Red Cross returned on Thursday as part of a US-brokered ceasefire deal.

"Israel has received, through the Red Cross, the bodies of two hostages that were handed over to [military] and Shin Bet forces inside the Gaza Strip," a statement from the prime minister's office said, adding the remains would be transferred to a forensic medical centre for identification.

Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jewish protesters streamed to Jerusalem on Thursday in a show of force against military conscription, a hot-button issue placing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition under increasing political strain.

The debate over mandatory military service, and those who are exempt from it, has long caused tensions within Israel's deeply divided society.

Packed crowds, mostly men clad in traditional black ultra-Orthodox suits and hats, clogged the roads at the main entrance to Jerusalem, paralysing traffic. Israeli media estimated that around 200,000 people flocked to the demonstration.

"Right now, people who refuse to go to the army are taken to military prison," said Shmuel Orbach, a protester, "It's not so bad. But we are a Jewish country. You cannot fight against Judaism in a Jewish country, it does not work."

Ultra-Orthodox seminary students have long been exempt from mandatory military service. Many Israelis fume at what they see as an unfair burden carried by the mainstream who serve.

The Israeli military said the remains of two captives were transferred to the Red Cross in Gaza on Thursday, after Hamas announced it would hand over the bodies.

"According to information provided by the Red Cross, two coffins of deceased hostages have been transferred into their custody and are on their way to [army] troops in the Gaza Strip," a statement from the Israeli military and security agency said.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan slammed Germany over what he said was its ignorance of Israel's "genocide", famine and attacks in Gaza, at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Ankara on Thursday.

Erdogan said Israel had nuclear and other weapons with which it was using and threatening Gaza, adding Palestinian militant group Hamas had none of those. He said Israel had once again attacked Gaza in recent days despite a ceasefire in the enclave.

"Does Germany not see these?" he said, adding it was Turkey, Germany and other countries' humanitarian duty to end the famine and massacres in Gaza.

UNRWA has said that it continues to provide schooling to the 48,000 Palestinian children who use its schools in the occupied West Bank, saying that in response to Israeli operation 'Iron Wall', "UNRWA launched an adapted education programme in February 2025."

"UNRWA has provided a continuity of learning for its students, including through distribution of self-learning materials, online teaching, and temporary use of Palestinian Authority's schools," it added.

Hamas's armed wing said it would hand over the remains of two more captives on Thursday as demanded under the US-brokered ceasefire agreement in Gaza.

The Iz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades "will hand over the bodies of two Israeli prisoners at 4:00 pm Gaza time (1400 GMT)," the group said on its Telegram channel.

Militants have so far handed back the remains of 15 of the 28 bodies Hamas had agreed to return under the deal.

Israel is preparing to receive the bodies of two Israeli captives from Hamas in Gaza at 2 pm GMT, according to Haaretz.

Israeli settlers have burnt Palestinian vehicles after infiltrating the village of Burqa, east of Ramallah, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The actions come after Israeli forces raided the village, arresting 18-year-old Mohammad Yousef Ma'tan.

An Israeli Hermes 450 drone is flying over Beirut, according to Al Jazeera, which reports that residents can hear it flying over the city.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah welcomed the president's orders for the army to confront Israeli incursions after a cross-border raid that killed one person earlier on Thursday, saying it urged full support for the army.

Israel has conducted new strikes on areas around Mahmoudiyeh and Jarmak in south Lebanon, according to the country's National News Agency.

Israel said it was targeting Hezbollah infrastructure.

 Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Thursday instructed the commander of the army to confront any Israeli incursion into southern Lebanon, after Israeli forces crossed the border earlier in the day and killed one person in Blida.

A Turkish disaster response team is still waiting by the Gaza border for Israeli approval to enter the Palestinian territory to help with search and rescue operations, a defence ministry source said Thursday.

"AFAD is still waiting at the border. Israel still did not issue any authorisation" for the team to enter, the source said, referring to Turkey's disaster relief agency which is waiting on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with a team of 81 specialists.

Israeli troops killed a Lebanese municipal worker on Thursday during a raid on a border village in the south, state media reported.

"In a grave and unprecedented attack, an Israeli enemy force penetrated the village of Blida at nearly 1:30 am (1130 GMT), more than one kilometre (0.6 miles) from the border, supported by a number of vehicles," Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) reported.

"The force stormed the Blida municipality building, where employee Ibrahim Salameh was sleeping, and enemy soldiers proceeded to kill him," it said.

Village residents cited by NNA said the raid lasted several hours, and that Israeli forces withdrew at dawn.

In the nearby border village of Adaisseh, NNA reported that Israeli forces blew up a hall for religious ceremonies at dawn.

Over the past days, Israel has stepped up its strikes on Lebanon, often saying it is targeting Hezbollah positions.