al jazeera

By Alastair Mccready and Mersiha Gadzo
     UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the new Israeli ground offensive in Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood forced the displacement of “at least 60,000” residents, while Israel’s military operations in the al-Mawasi area of southern Gaza resulted in 5,000 people displaced and many casualties.

      Six people, including four children, have been killed and at least 15 others wounded in Israeli military strikes on residential homes in Gaza City overnight. Casualties were also reported in an attack on central Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp, Palestinian Wafa news reports.

      Four Israeli soldiers were reported killed and five wounded in the Shujayea neighbourhood, as Palestinian armed groups say they are engaged in close-quarter battles with Israeli forces in the area.

      The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said that people in Gaza are living in bombed-out buildings and in tent camps situated beside giant piles of putrid waste, conditions described as “unbearable” as starvation intensifies and fears of disease increase.

      At least 37,765 people have been killed and 86,429 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from the Hamas-led attacks is estimated at 1,139, with dozens of people still held captive in Gaza.

      US military’s Gaza aid pier towed to Israel as Pentagon probes its ‘effectiveness’

      The $230m, problem-prone Gaza aid pier that has been removed once again from the Palestinian territory’s coastline due to poor weather conditions and as the US Department of Defense (DoD) investigates its effectiveness.

      The pier’s removal on Friday “due to high seas” marks the third time it has been detached from the shore since its initial installation in mid-May, and its facilitation of a modest 6,800 tonnes of food aid reaching Gaza since then.

      Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told journalists on Friday the pier has been towed back to Ashdod in Israel, and she did not have a date for the pier’s reinstallation.

      The Defense Department’s Office of the Inspector General and USAID have launched “coordinated, independent oversight projects” on the delivery and distribution of US humanitarian aid via the “Gaza maritime corridor”, the Pentagon said in a statement on Thursday.

      The “review will assess the effectiveness of DoD’s efforts to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza through the maritime corridor,” the statement added.

      International aid groups had warned before its launch that the US pier would be an ineffective way to deliver aid to Gaza, and that it could not substitute for opening land routes for aid, which had been blocked or severely restricted by Israeli military forces.

      Israeli military carries out raids, arrests man in the occupied West Bank

      The Israeli military has stormed the city of Nablus and arrested a Palestinian man, the Wafa news agency reports.

      The Israeli forces have also stormed the town of Silat ad-Dhahr, and the villages of al-Fandaqumiya and Umm Dar, in Jenin Governorate.