Evening recap

Our live blog is now closed until tomorrow morning.

Here are the day’s key developments:

– Hamas spokesperson Basem Naim on Friday said the “deliberate and brutal massacre” by Israel of killing more than a dozen first responders and aid workers in Gaza “will not weaken the resolve of the Palestinian people, nor will they deter us from our legitimate struggle for self-determination.” Medics were only able to retrieve one intact body from the scene, and have called off the search for the remains of others as Israel continued firing on the area. 

– At the same time, Naim indicated that there may be progress on the Gaza ceasefire talks as Eid al-Fitr approaches, adding that the proposal now on the table is intended to renew “negotiations on the second phase, which must lead to a complete end to the war and the withdrawal of occupation forces”.

– Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, has been tasked with approaching multiple African nations to ask them to take Palestinians from Gaza, Axios reported on Friday. Talks have already taken place with Somalia and South Sudan on the orders of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the report said. 

– The US has said that responsibility falls on Lebanese forces to “disarm Hezbollah”. The comments by the State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce followed the Israeli bombardment of southern Lebanon earlier in the day, after Israel said it intercepted a rocket fired from the vicinity. 

– US bombs continued to pound parts of Yemen for a second week, with air strikes hitting al-Sawad, south of the capital Sanaa on Friday. There were eight bombing raids on the area, the spokesperson for the health ministry said. 

– Award-winning Palestinian poet and author Mosab Abu Toha said on Friday that he has cancelled all his US speaking events because he “felt unsafe traveling, especially after watching students and university professors abducted on the street just in front of other people”. Abu Toha is the founder of the Edward Said Library in Gaza and has been interviewed by major US news outlets.