Updates: Hamas-Israel ceasefire holds

Israeli military strikes in Gaza have killed 71,409 and injured 171,304 since October 2023, Wafa News Agency reported, citing medical sources.

According to sources, over the past 24 hours, 14 Palestinians were killed and 17 others injured in the continued Israeli attacks, while a number of victims remain trapped under rubble or on the streets, with medical and rescue teams still unable to reach them.

Israel’s military said it struck Hezbollah targets in several areas of Lebanon, a day after the Lebanese army said it had completed the first phase of its plan to disarm the group in the south.

In a statement on Friday, the Israeli military said it struck "several areas in Lebanon", targeting "weapons storage facilities and a weapons production site that were used for the rehabilitation and military build-up of the Hezbollah".

"Additionally, several launch sites and rocket launchers, along with military structures, were struck," it added.

Lebanese official news agency NNA reported strikes on southern Lebanon in areas far from the border, as well as in the eastern Bekaa area where Hezbollah has a strong presence.

"The targets that were struck, and Hezbollah´s re-establishment activity in these sites, constitute a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon, and pose a threat to the State of Israel," the military statement said.

The former UN envoy expected to help lead Donald Trump's so-called Board of Peace for Gaza met a top Palestinian Authority official on Friday as the US president pushes ahead with his plan for the enclave's future.

Trump is expected to announce the composition of the board this month, possibly as early as next week, a US official said. Portrayed as part of a transitional government, the board is an important component of Trump's phased plan to halt the war between Israel and Hamas.

Pope Leo XIV on Friday lamented rising violence in the occupied West Bank and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying Palestinians had the right to live peacefully in their "own land".

"Sadly, there has been an increase in violence in the West Bank against the Palestinian civilian population, which has the right to live in peace in its own land," said the US pope, adding that civilians in Gaza also should be assured "a future of lasting peace and justice in their own land".

Israeli occupation forces have escalated their military operations across the Gaza Strip, unleashing a wave of airstrikes, artillery fire, flares, and live bullets.

Since Thursday morning, at least 14 Palestinians have been killed, with many more injured in the relentless bombardment.

Witnesses report widespread destruction and fear as families struggle to find safety amid the ongoing attacks. 

Thousands of tents supplied to displaced Palestinians in Gaza have been found to fall short of minimum United Nations winter standards, according to a new assessment by the Palestine Shelter Cluster coordinated by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The Guardian reported that severe rain and wind in recent weeks damaged or destroyed thousands of tents, leaving at least 235,000 people exposed to the elements.

Shelter specialists concluded that tents donated by China, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia were often not waterproof, structurally weak, poorly stitched, and lacked flooring. Many of these shelters will “likely need to be replaced,” the assessment warned. By contrast, tents supplied by Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and the UN were found to meet minimum specifications, offering better protection against harsh winter conditions.

Despite these efforts, the scale of need remains overwhelming. Since the October ceasefire, only 20,000 of the 90,000 tents that entered Gaza came from the UN or major international NGOs, aid officials said. With 2.3 million people displaced, families continue to face flooding, cold, and collapsing shelters as winter deepens.

Recent deliveries coordinated by UN OCHA reached more than 16,000 households with shelter supplies, including 3,300 tents, 8,700 tarpaulins, 300 sealing kits, and 700 reinforcement kits. Winter items such as 7,000 blankets, 3,900 mattresses, over 1,000 bedding kits, and clothing for 880 households were also distributed. However, these efforts barely scratch the surface of the total need.

Aid agencies estimate that around 1.3 million people in Gaza still urgently require shelter assistance. Only about 50,000 tents have entered the territory since the ceasefire, enough for roughly 270,000 people. Israel continues to block mobile homes and other forms of serious shelter support, leaving humanitarian organizations struggling to provide adequate protection as winter conditions worsen.

Israeli forces killed at least seven Palestinians in separate strikes in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, medics said, hours after the military said it had hit the site of a failed militant rocket launch, the latest violence to jeopardise the ceasefire.

Medics said an Israeli airstrike killed at least four people and wounded three others, including children, in a tent in the western area of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Another strike killed a person east of the city, near where Israeli forces operate.

Later on Thursday, medics said a man was killed in an Israeli strike at a school, which also housed displaced families in Jabalia north of the enclave, while another strike killed another person in a tent near Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, taking Thursday's death toll to at least seven.

There was no immediate Israeli comment on the reported deaths.

Earlier, the military said it had struck a launch site shortly after the firing of a rocket that had failed to reach Israeli territory. It accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire twice in the past 24 hours. A source from the Palestinian group told Reuters it was checking the allegation.

Israel said it had barred entry to Gaza of foreign medical and humanitarian staff whose organisations were ordered to cease operations unless they register employee details with Israeli authorities and meet other new rules.

Fearing a renewed humanitarian crisis if medical and aid services can suddenly no longer access war-shattered Gaza, some of the 37 international nongovernmental organisations that were ordered to halt work are weighing whether to submit staff names to Israeli authorities, two aid sources told Reuters.