Live updates on Israel's war against Hamas

Israeli forces continued raiding Palestinian homes across the occupied West Bank on Thursday and carried out a fresh wave of arrests, Al Jazeera reported, citing the Palestinian Wafa news agency.

According to the report, five people were arrested in the city of Nablus after several homes were raided at dawn, while 11 others were detained in the town of Idhna, west of Hebron.

A young man was also arrested in Aqqaba, north of Tubas, while three young men from Qalqilya were detained after Israeli forces stormed the city. Four more people were arrested in the Ramallah and el-Bireh governorates.

The report added that troops stormed the towns of Rummanah and Zububa, west of Jenin, and set up a military checkpoint at the entrance to the western countryside of Bethlehem Governorate.

In a separate incident, a Palestinian man and his son were wounded in an attack by settlers in the northern Jordan Valley.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territory, condemned Israel's seizure of Global Sumud Flotilla vessels in international waters, describing it as "apartheid without borders", Al Jazeera reported.

In a post on X, Albanese questioned how Israel was being allowed to assault and seize vessels in international waters off Greece and Europe.

She said the incident should send shock waves across Europe, regardless of people's views on what she described as "Apartheid Israel and its genocidal leaders".

Albanese concluded her post by calling the flotilla seizures "apartheid without borders".

Global Sumud Flotilla has accused Israeli naval forces of intercepting, boarding and disabling several of its boats in international waters, saying civilians were left stranded at sea as a major storm approached.

In a post on X, the group alleged that engines were smashed, navigation systems were destroyed and communications with multiple vessels were jammed, leaving participants unable to coordinate or call for help.

The organisation said the vessels had been deliberately abandoned in dangerous conditions. It described the episode as part of a broader pattern of what it called “engineered abandonment”.

Israel's foreign ministry said Thursday that Israeli forces had arrested about 175 activists aboard 20 ships from an aid-laden flotilla bound for Gaza.

"Approximately 175 activists from more than 20 boats... are now making their way peacefully to Israel," the ministry said in a statement, including a video of the activists aboard an Israeli navy ship.

Israel controls all entry points to Gaza, and has been accused by the United Nations and foreign NGOs of strangling the flow of goods into the territory, causing shortages since the start of the war in October 2023.

The organisers of a flotilla carrying pro-Palestinian activists aiming to break through an Israeli blockade in Gaza said Thursday their boats were surrounded by Israeli "military boats".

The flotilla, made up of more than 50 boats, set sail in recent weeks from Marseille in France, Barcelona in Spain and Syracuse in Italy.

In a post to X overnight, the Global Sumud Flotilla said that Israeli military boats had "illegally surrounded the flotilla in international waters and threatened kidnapping and violence".

"Communications with 11 vessels have been lost," the organisation added.

The flotilla is currently off the coast of Greece, near Crete, according to the organisation´s live tracking on its website.

"Our boats were approached by military speedboats, self-identified as 'israel', pointing lasers and semi-automatic assault weapons ordering participants to the front of the boats and to get on their hands and knees," the organisation added.

"Boat communications are being jammed and a SOS was issued."

At least five people have been killed and seven wounded by Israeli attacks across Gaza in the last 24 hours, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

It added that since the start of the “ceasefire” in October, 823 people have been killed and 2,308 wounded.

Since Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, 72,599 people have been killed and 172,411 wounded across the besieged enclave.

A Palestinian-Jordanian mountaineer is undertaking a symbolic mission to raise global awareness of the situation in Gaza by carrying children's messages to the world’s highest peak.

Mostafa Salameh is on an expedition to Mount Everest, where he plans to deliver handwritten letters from children in Gaza to the summit.

Israeli strikes killed five Palestinians, including a 9-year-old boy, in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, health officials said.

Medics said an Israeli drone killed the child, Adel Al‑Najjar, in eastern Khan Younis in the south of the enclave, while an Israeli airstrike targeted a vehicle in Gaza City, killing four people.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on either incident.

Israeli strikes killed three Palestinians, including a 9-year-old boy, in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, health officials said.

Medics said an Israeli drone killed the child, Adel Al‑Najjar, in eastern Khan Younis in the south of the enclave, while an Israeli airstrike targeted a vehicle in Gaza City, killing two people and wounding several others.