UNRWA calls Gaza situation 'hell' as Israel kills 44 Palestinians

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has voiced alarm over the latest escalation between Israel and Yemen’s Houthi movement, cautioning that the violence risks further destabilising the region and putting civilian lives at greater risk.

In a statement late Thursday, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said Guterres “reminds all parties of their obligations to ensure that civilians are respected and protected at all times, in accordance with international law.”

The comments came after a Houthi drone attack struck the southern Israeli city of Eilat, reportedly injuring 20 people, followed by Israeli airstrikes on Yemen’s capital, Sanaa. =

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, has condemned the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, warning that the crisis has reached the level of a famine in breach of international law.

“The suffering of the Palestinian people, and the unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Gaza that has officially been classified as a famine by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), runs counter to the principles of the [UN] Charter and international humanitarian law,” Prince Faisal told the UN General Assembly on Thursday.

He accused Israeli forces of carrying out “brutal and unchecked practices” against Palestinians, including starvation, forced displacement and systematic killings, saying these acts reflect a “blatant disregard” for international norms and Palestinian rights.

“This is done in complete disregard of the historic and legal rights of the Palestinian people, with an aim to erase their legitimate rights,” he added.

Organisers of the Giro dell’Emilia cycling race have excluded Israel-Premier Tech from this year’s competition, citing public safety risks.

Adriano Amici, president of GS Emilia – which runs the one-day race – confirmed the decision to AFP on Thursday.

“The team will unfortunately not be present at our race,” Amici said. “We had to make this decision for reasons of public security. There’s too much danger for both the Israel Tech riders and others. The race’s final circuit is run five times, so the possibility of disruption is very high.”

He added that while the decision was regrettable from a sporting perspective, public safety had to take priority.

The Giro dell’Emilia, scheduled for 4 October, will cover a 199km (124-mile) course from Mirandola to Bologna in northern Italy. Last year’s edition was won by Slovenian cycling champion Tadej Pogacar.

President Tayyip Erdogan told Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez that Turkey will continue efforts to stop Israeli attacks in Gaza and ensure the uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, Erdogan's office said on Saturday.

"Our president expressed satisfaction with Prime Minister Sanchez's sensitivity regarding the Sumud aid flotilla and said Turkey is closely monitoring the situation," it said, referring to the international aid flotilla aiming to break an Israeli naval embargo on Gaza.

Palestinian women wept and wailed Saturday as they mourned a family killed in an Israeli strike on Gaza City, expressing anger at Israel and Hamas for the bloodshed engulfing the city.

Seven members of the Bakr family were killed overnight in the strike on Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, where Israeli forces have stepped up a ground and air assault.

The dead included children and women, according to the Gaza civil defence agency, a rescue force operating under Hamas authority, which said several others were also wounded in the Israeli strike.

"What is happening are massacres, massacres that are condemned internationally," said Umm Khaleel, who survived when the family home was hit. AFP footage showed women in black abayas crying out in grief, one clutching the small body of her child tightly to her chest.

"We cannot sleep because of the bombing and shelling on Al-Shati... the children were sleeping when suddenly a missile landed on us," said Salwa Subhi Bakr. "What does the world want from us? What does (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu want? What does Hamas want?".

The bodies, wrapped in white shrouds, some stained with blood, were then taken for burial. Gaza's main Al-Shifa hospital confirmed receiving six bodies of victims killed in the strike.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Israel on Saturday of seeking to "blow up" the whole Middle East as he criticised Israel's attacks in Iran and Qatar and opposed calls to annex the West Bank.

"Israel's illegal use of force against the Palestinians and aggressive actions against Iran, Qatar, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq today threaten to blow up the entire Middle East," Lavrov said in a speech to the UN General Assembly.

More than 3,000 people marched through Cape Town Saturday, calling for South Africa to cut trade and diplomatic ties with Israel, including by shutting its embassy, over the war in Gaza.

Pretoria has been a leading critic of Israel's actions in Gaza, bringing a case before the UN's top court in December 2023 that argues Israel's war on the Palestinian territory amounts to genocide.

Saturday's demonstration brought together several pro-Palestinian organisations, political parties, and Muslim and Christian groups in one of the biggest such turnouts in months.

Waving Palestinian flags and slogans such as "Don't just feel bad, do something", the procession handed over a petition of demands at parliament.

South Africa must "boycott, divest and sanction Israel, the same way as the world did for us," said Palestine Solidarity Campaign coordinator, Usuf Chikte, referring to international measures used to pressure South Africa's apartheid regime.

The government has to take action on the "kicking out of Israel's ambassador and embassy from South Africa now" and the country should be excluded from international sporting bodies such as FIFA, he told the crowd.

Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed 82 Palestinians, including 45 in Gaza City, since dawn, according to Al Jazeera.

Israel Premier Tech have been excluded from the Giro dell'Emilia cycling race on 4 October in Italy for safety reasons, the organisers told AFP on Saturday.

Adriano Amici, president of GS Emilia which organises the one-day race, said the team "will unfortunately not be present at our race. We had to make this decision for reasons of public security".

Hamas has not received US President Donald Trump's Gaza ceasefire plan, the Palestinian group which runs the enclave said on Saturday as Israeli forces expanded their assault on Gaza City.

The comments came after Israeli newspaper Haaretz cited sources saying Hamas had agreed in principle to release all the Israeli hostages it holds in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and the gradual withdrawal of Israeli troops under Trump's plan.

Also included in the proposal were the end of Hamas rule in Gaza, and Israel agreeing not to annex the territory and drive out Palestinians living there, Haaretz reported.

"Hamas has not been presented with any plan," a Hamas official who asked not to be named told Reuters.

In his comments to reporters on Friday in which he said "it's looking like we have a deal on Gaza", Trump offered no details of its contents and gave no timetable. Israel has not yet made any public response to Trump's comments.

Israeli settlers have stormed the village of Khirbet Al-Hamma in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa, with sources telling the agency that settlers attacked residential homes and threatened and assaulted people in the village.

Israel's attacks on Gaza since dawn have killed 66 Palestinians, according to Al Jazeera, citing medical sources, adding that 36 were killed in Gaza City.

The Israeli military has said that its air force has struck 120 targets in Gaza, and that soldiers from the 98th, 162nd and 36th divisions are continuing their offensive into Gaza City.

A top Iranian security official called on regional countries on Saturday to put their difference aside and cooperate closely as they face what he called "Israel's conspiracies".

Ali Larijani, head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, spoke in Beirut, where he arrived earlier Saturday to attend the anniversary of Israel's assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon.

"Today, amid Israel's conspiracies, regional states should closely cooperate and even if there were disagreements between them they should put these disagreements aside," Larjani said after a nearly one-hour meeting with Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

Asked about reports that Israel might launch new strikes against Iran, Larijani said, "We are ready to face all scenarios but I don't think that the Israelis will behave in this stupid way."

"If they do that, they will receive strong retaliation," Larijani said, without elaborating.

The United States said it would revoke Colombian President Gustavo Petro's visa after he took to New York's streets on Friday in a pro-Palestinian demonstration and urged US soldiers to disobey President Donald Trump's orders.

"We will revoke Petro's visa due to his reckless and incendiary actions," the State Department posted on X.

Petro, addressing a crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters outside the U.N. headquarters in Manhattan, called for a global armed force with the priority to liberate Palestinians, adding, "This force has to be bigger than that of the United States."

"That's why from here, from New York, I ask all the soldiers of the army of the United States not to point their guns at people. Disobey the orders of Trump. Obey the orders of humanity," Petro said in Spanish.

Reuters could not immediately confirm whether Petro was still in New York. His office and Colombia's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Gaza's Ministry of Health has said that Israeli attacks have killed 77 Palestinians and injured a further 265 in the last 24 hours, adding that the total number of dead since Israel's war began has now reached 65,926 Palestinians and wounded a further 167,783.

New Zealand will not recognise a Palestinian state at this time but remains committed to a two-state solution, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said.

"With a war raging, Hamas remaining the de facto government of Gaza, and no clarity on next steps, too many questions remain about the future state of Palestine for it to be prudent for New Zealand to announce recognition at this time," Peters said in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday.

"We are also concerned that a focus on recognition, in the current circumstances, could complicate efforts to secure a ceasefire by pushing Israel and Hamas into even more intransigent positions," Peters added.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said in Auckland on Saturday that "recognition of Palestinian statehood is a question of when, not if".

New Zealand's position is out of step with traditional partners Australia, Canada and Britain who all recognised a Palestinian state on Sunday. The move aligned them with more than 140 other countries also backing Palestinians' aspiration to forge an independent homeland from the occupied territories.

Four Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to Al Jazeera, citing sources at the al-Awda hospital.

Two of those killed were children, according to the report.

Israeli forces on Saturday blew up the house of a Palestinian accused of carrying out a shooting attack in Jerusalem that killed six people, a Palestinian official said.

The two-storey house of Muthanna Amro was blown up at dawn in the town of Al-Qubaybah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, town mayor Nafiz Hamouda told AFP.

The military, when contacted, said it was looking into the report.

AFP footage showed explosives ripping through the house, leaving two gaping holes and piles of debris inside.

Hamouda said the military had notified residents 10 days earlier of its intention to demolish the property.

"Last night they came, and at dawn today the house was blown up," he said.

The blast also caused significant damage to four or five neighbouring houses, Hamouda said.

"This is the nature of the occupation. It does not stop at harming one individual, but seeks to inflict damage on as many citizens as possible," he added.

Palestinian official news agency Wafa reported that a large military force stormed the town, surrounded the house and evacuated nearby residents before detonating the building

Hamas has agreed to a Trump-backed deal that would see a withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and an end to the war, the release of hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, and the release of Israeli captives, according to Haaretz.

Sources speaking with the publication said that Qatar was involved in pushing Hamas to accept the deal, which is set to be finalised during a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump today. 

The deal would see Israel give up its ambitions to annex the Gaza Strip, with Hamas leaving its governing role in the enclave.

Sources added that Israel's strike on Doha on 9 September indicated to the US that Israel was using the approved offensive against Gaza City to destabilise the wider Middle East.

An Israeli strike on a house in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City has killed 10 Palestinians, according to reports from Al Jazeera, citing medical sources, with civil defence teams working to retrieve people trapped under the rubble.

UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed stressed the urgent need for ending the Gaza war during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, UAE state news agency WAM reported on Saturday.

It was Netanyahu's first meeting with a senior Arab official since Israel's 9 September attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar, which the UAE condemned and protested by summoning Israel's deputy ambassador. 

Sheikh Abdullah reiterated the UAE's "unwavering commitment to supporting all initiatives aimed at achieving a comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution, in a way that fulfills the aspirations of both the Palestinian and Israeli peoples," WAM said.

The report made no mention of the Abraham Accords, which have been strained by Israeli policies in the region.

Earlier this month, the UAE warned Israel that annexation in the occupied West Bank would constitute a "red line" for Abu Dhabi that would severely undermine the spirit of the Abraham Accords that normalised UAE-Israeli relations.