Gaza update

Israel Bombed Areas Where It Ordered Gaza Civilians to Go, Evidence Shows   Israel’s military campaign in Gaza is among the most destructive in history, experts say   Israel signaled it could agree to the Palestinian Authority governing Gaza after the war. Doing so would require “a fundamental reform” of the group that currently governs the West Bank, the head of Israel’s National Security Council wrote in an opinion piece on the news site Elaph. Without a civil administration ready to assume responsibility in Gaza, the dire humanitarian conditions could worsen, creating new security risks. Israel says it doesn’t want a role in administering Gaza postwar. The Palestinian Authority didn’t respond to a request for comment following the opinion piece’s publication.

Gazans Are Starting to Blame Hamas for Wartime Suffering (Read) What TikTok Is Showing America’s Youth About the War in Gaza (Read)

Israel has killed more than half of the top Hamas commanders in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces said yesterday, calling on the rest to surrender.

United Nations Reports 1 in 4 Gazans Are Starving

Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general for UNRWA — the U.N. relief agency that aids Palestinians — says each time he visits Gaza, "it gets more desperate." He gives All Things Considered an inside account of what it's like to deliver aid to Gaza and what the U.N. needs to get more food and medicine in. 

Guardian

• The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, held a telephone call with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, on Friday to discuss ways to de-escalate the conflict in Gaza as well as humanitarian relief efforts, the Kremlin said.It said the two men agreed that Abbas would visit Russia at a date to be agreed, Reuters reports.
  

• Israeli forces signalled they were widening their ground offensive with a new push into central Gaza on Friday, as the UN security council was expected to vote on a resolution to increase humanitarian aid to stave off the threat of famine. As hopes faded for an imminent breakthrough in talks this week in Egypt aimed at getting warring Israel and Hamas to agree a new truce, air strikes, artillery bombardments and fighting were reported across the Palestinian territory.
  

• The US is assembling a multinational naval coalition to help safeguard commercial traffic from attacks by Yemen’s Houthi movement. On Thursday, the Pentagon said more than 20 countries had now agreed to participate in the group, known as Operation Prosperity Guardian. Some countries have not confirmed their participation, however, while others have said their efforts to help protect Red Sea commercial traffic will be as part of existing naval agreements rather than the new US-led operation.

• The vote is now delayed until Friday, it’s understood. The Reuters news agency says the vote was delayed after Russia (also a veto power in the UN security council) and some other council members complained during closed-door talks about the amendments made to appease the US, according to diplomats.