Israel-Palestine live: Unicef says over 13,000 children killed in Gaza

Hezbollah released a message on its Telegram channel, warning Israel that it is ready for an escalation of their cross-border conflict.

“If you expand, we will expand,” the Lebanese armed group said in a post on its Telegram channel.

The comment comes amid increased cross-border attacks between the two sides, with Israel's military claiming several attacks on southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah facilities. Israel has also hit areas deep inside eastern Lebanon.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said a ceasefire proposal from Hamas is within the bounds of what is possible and expressed cautious optimism.

Hamas has presented a Gaza ceasefire proposal to mediators and the US that includes the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for freedom for Palestinian prisoners, 100 of whom are serving life sentences, according to a proposal seen by Reuters.

Kirby said the proposal was "certainly within the bounds in broad brush strokes ... of the deal we've been working on now for several months."

"We're cautiously optimistic that things are moving in the right direction but that doesn't mean that it's done," Kirby told reporters.

Reporting by Reuters

Axios reporter Barak Ravid has said that Israel's negotiating team, led by Mossad director David Barnea, is expected to leave for Doha as early as Sunday, where they will discuss the current iteration of a potential truce agreement with Hamas.

Ravid further reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to hold consultations on whether to expand the negotiating team before it leaves for Qatar.

Ziyaad Zeineldine was walking past The People's Forum in New York City one afternoon in November when he spotted a Palestinian flag in a window.

Unaccustomed to seeing Palestinian symbols in midtown Manhattan, he stepped into the sprawling office on 37th Street and discovered one of the city's key hubs for mobilisation and action on Palestine.

The organisers inside invited him to join what they called a "volunteers meeting" the following Monday. 

Aggrieved by the devastating loss of life in the war on Gaza - by early November around 10,000 Palestinians, including more than 4,000 children and 2,700 women had already been killed by Israel in the besieged Strip, today it is over 31,000 dead - Zeineldine agreed to return. 

In doing so, Zeineldine became part of an army of hundreds of volunteers across the five boroughs in New York as well as across the Hudson River in New Jersey, where Zeineldine lives, making their way each Monday evening to Manhattan to discuss, plan actions, and mobilise others to bring an end to what they say is a "genocide" in Gaza.

Read the full story by clicking below.

How a disparate group of volunteers galvanised pro-Palestine advocacy in NYC

Multiple Palestinian news outlets are reporting that Israeli forces bombed a family residence in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City, killing five people and wounding dozens of others.

Hamas' military wing, the Qassam Brigades, said in a post on Telegram that it intercepted a group of four Israeli soldiers transporting explosives in al-Zahra in central Gaza.

The group said that it killed all four soldiers.

An aid ship has docked off the coast of Gaza City, the first such nautical aid delivery since the war began. 

Open Arms, named after the Spanish charity which transported the supplies, set sail from Cyprus earlier this week, carrying flour, rice and protein. 

US President Joe Biden has condemned "the ugly resurgence" of Islamophobia since the war in Gaza broke out on 7 October. 

"We recognise the violence and hate that Muslims worldwide too often face because of their religious beliefs - and the ugly resurgence of Islamophobia in the wake of the devastating war in Gaza," he said in a statement on Friday.

"Islamophobia has no place in our nation. Yet Muslims in the United States frequently endure baseless fearmongering, blatant discrimination, harassment, and violence in the course of their everyday lives."

The comments were made on the International Day to Combat Islamophobia.

The day was established two years ago by the UN to be held on 15 March, the anniversary of the 2019 Christchurch mosque shooting in New Zealand, in which 51 people were killed during Friday prayers.

US President Joe Biden will host Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar on Friday at the White House's annual St. Patrick's Day reception.

Earlier this week, Varadkar said he would use the reception to tell Biden "how Irish people feel, and that is that we want to see a ceasefire immediately, for the killing to stop, the hostages to be released without condition, food and medicine to get into Gaza."

The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), a nationalist party in Northern Ireland, is boycotting the event over Washington's response to the war in Gaza. 

Ireland is one of Europe's strongest critics of Israeli policies towards Palestinians. Last month it announced over $21m in funding for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa). 

Biden has often spoken of his Irish heritage, and visited the country last year to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

Israeli forces killed 56 Palestinians seeking aid and wounded 300 more over the past 48 hours, the government media office in Gaza said on Friday. 

The media office said five "massacres" were carried out at aid distribution centres across the enclave, in "flagrant... violation of the sanctity of the blessed month of Ramadan". 

Attacks took place in Rafah, Nuseirat refugee camp, an aid centre near the Kuwait roundabout in Gaza City, and two other locations in central Gaza. 

"We hold the American administration and the international community, in addition to the Israeli occupation, fully responsible for the crime of genocide, and we hold them responsible for the war of starvation and famine," the media office said. 

"Before it is too late, we call on them to open the land crossings and bring in hundreds of thousands of tons of aid." 

Meta has suspended the Facebook account of prominent Palestinian journalist Motaz Azaiza. 

Azaiza documented the war on Gaza for 108 days, before being evacuated to Qatar in January. 

"Facebook is messing with me," he said on Friday, accompanied by a screenshot of a note from Facebook about his suspension. 

The note stated that Azaiza had 180 days to appeal his suspension, before his account would be permanently disabled. 

Four Palestinian political parties have written a joint statement condemning the Palestinian Authority's unilateral appointment of a new government. 

On Thursday, President Mahmoud Abbas appointed a new prime minister, Mohammed Mustafa, after pressure from Washington to reform the administration. 

The joint statement, published on Friday, was signed by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Palestinian National Initiative. 

They said that forming a new government without national consensus was a "reinforcement of the policy of exclusivity and a deepening of division, at a pivotal historical moment, when our people and their national cause are in dire need of consensus and unity". 

"These steps indicate the depth of the crisis within the [PA's] leadership, its separation from reality, and the large gap between it and our people... which is confirmed by the opinions of the vast majority of our people who have expressed their loss of confidence."

The statement added that Palestinians needed a "unified national leadership", in preparation of free and fair elections with the participation of "all components of the Palestinian people". 

"We also call on all national forces and factions, especially the brothers in the Fatah movement, to take serious and effective action, in order to agree on managing this historical and pivotal stage," it said.

"In a way that serves our national cause, and fulfills the aspirations of our people to seize their legitimate rights, liberate their land and sanctities, and establish their independent, fully sovereign state with Jerusalem as its capital."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected Hamas' latest proposal for a ceasefire, describing the group's demands as "still absurd". 

He said he would still send a delegation to negotiations in Qatar to discuss Israel's position.

Netanyahu added that he had approved of a military operation to enter Rafah, the southern city where over 1 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering. He said that Israeli forces were preparing to "evacuate the population" in the city. 

Hostages tortured to death. Parents executed in front of their children. Doctors beaten. Babies murdered. Sexual assault weaponised.

No, not Hamas crimes. This is part of an ever-growing list of documented atrocities committed by Israel in the five months since 7 October - quite separate from the carpet bombing of 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza and a famine induced by Israel’s obstruction of aid. 

Last week, an investigation by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz disclosed that some 27 Palestinians seized off Gaza’s streets over the past five months are known to have died during interrogations inside Israel.

Some were denied medical treatment. But most are likely to have been tortured to death.

Three months ago, a Haaretz editorial warned that Israeli jails “must not become execution facilities for Palestinians”.

Opinion by Jonathan Cook.

READ MORE: Torture, executions, babies left to die, sexual abuse… These are Israel’s crimes