Troops have been combing through the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City since Monday
It has just gone 11am in Gaza and Tel Aviv. This is our latest Guardian live blog on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis.
Israeli forces fighting in Gaza have killed more than 170 gunmen during their days-long raid at Gaza’s main hospital, the military said on Saturday, according to a Reuters report.
A US resolution urging a ceasefire in Gaza linked to a hostage deal has been vetoed by Russia and China in the UN security council. Eleven council members voted for the resolution on Friday morning; Russia, China and Algeria voted against it and Guyana abstained. As permanent security council members the Russian and Chinese votes counted as vetoes.
A vote at the UN security council on a new text calling for an “immediate” ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war was postponed to Monday, diplomatic sources told AFP.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres is expected to visit Egypt’s border with Gaza on Saturday, after Israel vowed to send its troops to fight Hamas in the nearby city of Rafah, even without US support. During his visit, Guterres plans to reiterate his call for a humanitarian ceasefire.
The shadow UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, has urged David Cameron to publish the Foreign Office formal legal advice on whether Israel is breaching international humanitarian law in Gaza. Lammy’s move comes as two human rights groups have been given permission for an oral hearing to seek a judicial review of the government’s refusal to ban arms exports to Israel.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said an Israeli offensive into the southern Gaza town of Rafah would risk “further isolating” Israel and damage its long-term security. Speaking as he left Israel on a short visit during his sixth Middle East trip since the start of the war, Blinken told reporters he had “candid conversations” with officials including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior ministers.
People living in Gaza are facing exorbitant food prices as more than one million residents of the Palestinian territory face famine. Aid officials have referred to Israel’s siege of Gaza as “man-made starvation”, with the territory facing the threat of mass deaths from famine in the coming weeks. Children are already dying from hunger. But an Israeli official on Friday denied that people in Gaza are suffering from starvation.
