Live updates on Israel's war against Hamas

Police in London said they had arrested more than 500 pro-Palestinian protesters at a demonstration in support of the banned group Palestine Action on Saturday.

Officers carried away activists to cheers and clapping from other demonstrators who gathered for the sit-down demonstration in the capital's Trafalgar Square.

The protesters held placards in support of the banned group Palestine Action, making them liable for arrest.

London's Metropolitan Police said on social media platform X just before midnight that they had arrested 523 people aged between 18 and 87.

A delegation from Hamas is set to hold talks with Egyptian mediators in Cairo on Sunday to address alleged Israeli violations of the Gaza ceasefire, according to two officials from the Palestinian group.

"The delegation will meet Egyptian officials on Sunday morning to discuss halting Israeli violations and implementing the remaining provisions of the first phase of the agreement," a Hamas official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak publicly.

According to the official, Hamas will emphasise the need for Israel to cease all violations of the truce, dismantle its military positions in Gaza, fully reopen border crossings, increase the flow of travellers, and allow greater volumes of humanitarian aid into the territory.

The group is also expected to press for a US-established Gaza administrative body of Palestinian technocrats to enter the enclave and assume its governing responsibilities.

UN rights chief Volker Turk on Friday condemned the ongoing killings of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, six months into the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

"The unrelenting pattern of killings reflects continuing disregard for Palestinian lives, enabled by sweeping impunity," Turk said in a statement, adding that there was no blueprint for survival in the territory, regardless of where people might seek safety.

Donald Trump's Board of Peace has received only a tiny fraction of the $17 billion pledged for Gaza, preventing the US president from pushing ahead with his plan for the shattered Palestinian enclave's future, sources told Reuters.

One of the sources, a person with direct knowledge of the peace board's operations, said that out of ten countries who pledged funds, only three — the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and the US itself — had contributed funding.

The source said funding so far was under $1 billion, but did not give more details. The Iran war "has affected everything," exacerbating previous funding difficulties, the source said.

The second source, a Palestinian official familiar with the matter, said the board informed Hamas and other Palestinian factions that the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) is unable to enter Gaza right now due to a lack of funding.

"No money is currently available," the official cited board envoy Nickolay Mladenovas as informing Palestinian groups.

Israel said on Friday it had blocked Spain from participating in the work of a US-led centre established to help stabilise post-war Gaza following the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

The Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) in Kiryat Gat was set up after the ceasefire took effect on October 10, with the goal of monitoring the truce and facilitating the flow of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory.

Representatives of Spain were also participating in the work of CMCC until now.

But on Friday, Israel’s foreign ministry announced it was preventing Spain from attending CMCC meetings.

"The Sanchez government’s anti-Israel bias is so egregious that it has lost all capability to serve as a constructive actor in implementing President Trump’s peace plan in the CMCC," Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said in a statement.

"Spain will not be permitted to participate in the CMCC in Kiryat Gat."

Months after a tenuous ceasefire began on October 10, 2025, Israeli authorities are still blocking lifesaving medical and humanitarian aid from reaching Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera reported citing aid organisation Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP).

The London-based aid organisation said that Israel’s blockade means that hospitals and other health care clinics in Gaza are operating with diminished supplies: more than half essential medicines are fully out of stock and 64 percent of cancer medications are unavailable.

The MAP highlighted the absence of hospital services in Gaza, saying that around half of the hospitals in the besieged enclave have yet to restore services or are not fully functioning.

It said that dding 90 hospital generators are out of service due to spare parts and oil being blocked.

“More than 18,500 critically-ill patients, including around 4,000 children, still require urgent medical evacuation which remains severely restricted,” MAP added.

Israeli forces shot and killed a young female student on Thursday while she was attending a class held in a tent in the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, health and education officials said.

The education ministry said third-grade student Ritaj Rihan was hit by a bullet in front of her classmates, causing them "a strong psychological shock".

Later on Thursday, health officials said three other Palestinians were killed in two separate airstrikes in northern and southern Gaza Strip, bringing Thursday's death toll to at least four.

Medics said an Israeli airstrike near a hospital in Jabalia, in the north of the enclave, killed at least two people, while another strike killed one person in Khan Younis, in the south.

Israel has approved the establishment of dozens of new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, an Israeli watchdog group said on Thursday, amid a rise in settler attacks on Palestinians across the occupied territory.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has not formally announced the establishment of the 34 new settlements, many of them outposts in far-flung areas of the mountainous territory, the Peace Now watchdog group said in a statement.

The Palestinian Presidency's office condemned the plan as a "flagrant violation of international law".

Netanyahu's government has overseen a historic settlement construction push that his far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says is aimed at burying the idea of Palestinian statehood in the West Bank.

Qatar based news outlet Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Wishah was killed on Wednesday in a drone strike west of Gaza City.

Wishah is the 12th journalist affiliated with Al Jazeera to have been killed by Israel in Gaza since the military offensive began in October 2023.

According to available figures, at least 262 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the onset of the war. Reports also indicate that more than 700 Palestinians have been killed in the besieged enclave since the “ceasefire” agreed in October 2025.