Updates: Hamas-Israel ceasefire holds

Israeli attacks across several areas of the Gaza Strip killed at least three Palestinians and wounded several others, the Wafa News Agency reported, citing medical sources.

An Israeli drone struck the Bani Suheila roundabout of Khan Younis, where one Palestinian was killed and another injured, while two others were killed by Israeli military gunfire east of the Zeitoun neighborhood.

Multiple casualties were reported in an Israeli airstrike on the entrance to the Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

Israel's occupation forces stormed the village of Bilein, west of Ramallah in West Bank, establishing a checkpoint to intercept Palestinian vehicles.

A Hamas official said Friday that Israeli strikes on Gaza "cannot happen without American cover", the day after Israeli attacks killed at least 13 people according to the Palestinian territory's civil defence agency.

Since October 10, a fragile US-sponsored truce in Gaza has largely halted the fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas, but both sides have alleged frequent violations.

Gaza's civil defence agency — which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authority — said Israeli attacks across the territory on Thursday killed at least 13 people, including five children.

"Just yesterday, 13 people were killed in different areas of the Strip on fabricated pretexts, in addition to the hundreds of killed and wounded who preceded them after the ceasefire," Hamas political bureau member, Bassem Naim, wrote on Telegram.

"This cannot happen without American cover or a green light."

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".