Middle East crisis live: Israeli troops kill five Palestinians in West Bank mosque, IDF reports | Israel-Gaza war

Israeli troops killed five Palestinians in the West Bank after “exchanges of fire during counterterrorism operations in Tulkarm,” the IDF said on Thursday.

Thursday’s violence comes after Israeli forces killed at least 10 Palestinians in the West Bank in overnight raids and airstrikes on Wednesday. The army said those operations were intended to contain attacks on Israelis using Iranian-supplied arms.

The IDF said that one of those killed was involved in a shooting attack on an Israeli civilian in June. The military described the four others who reportedly his inside a mosque as “terrorists”.

On Wednesday, the chief spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said the escalation of Israeli military operations on the West Bank, at the same time as the war in Gaza, would “lead to dire and dangerous results”.

UN secretary general, António Guterres said Israel’s launch of a large-scale military operations in the West Bank was “deeply concerning.” Guterres said he strongly condemned the “loss of lives, including of children, and I call for an immediate cessation of these operations.”

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.

Israeli troops have killed five Palestinians who were hiding inside a mosque in the occupied West Bank, after launching a huge operation across the region on Wednesday, the military reported early on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Israeli forces killed at least 10 Palestinians in the West Bank in overnight raids and airstrikes that they said were intended to contain attacks on Israelis using Iranian-supplied arms.

Thursday’s raid occurred in Tulkarm – one of the areas targeted by the IDF over the previous 24 hours.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the West Bank operations, some of the most extensive in recent years, were likely to go on for some days, in what it described as a preventive campaign to forestall attacks on Israelis.

More on that in a moment – first here’s a summary of the day’s other main news.

• Palestinian health authorities said 10 people were killed in the Jenin and Tubas areas of the West Bank, and gun battles were reported to be continuing on Wednesday morning. The chief spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said the escalation of Israeli military operations on the West Bank, at the same time as the war in Gaza, would “lead to dire and dangerous results”.

• The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, cut short his visit to Saudi Arabia to return to Ramallah after the launch of the large scale Israeli military operation in the West Bank. Abbas began an official visit to Saudi Arabia on Monday where he held talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh.

• UN secretary general, António Guterres said Israel’s launch of a large-scale military operations in the West Bank was “deeply concerning.” Guterres said he strongly condemned the “loss of lives, including of children, and I call for an immediate cessation of these operations.”

• The US has announced new sanctions against extremist settlers in the West Bank who are funded by the Israeli government, as Washington steps up its attempt to rein in worsening settler violence. The sanctions target one organisation and one individual with long involvement in the intimidation of Palestinians with the aim of seizing their land. The targeted group was Hashomer Yosh, which provides security for illegal settler outposts, including some which have already been sanctioned by the US.

• The new measures drew a sharp response from the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, whose office said it viewed them “with utmost severity” and that the issue was under “pointed discussion” with Washington.

• At least 34 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday as Israeli forces sent tanks deeper into Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip and launched strikes, according to medics. Residents of Khan Younis said Israeli tanks made a surprise advance into the centre of the city, and the military ordered evacuations in the east, forcing many families to run for safety, while others were trapped at home.

• An official investigation into the ill-fated aid pier off the coast of Gaza has found that Joe Biden declared the US intention to build the pier as a means of delivering food despite advice to the contrary from aid experts in his administration. The new report by the inspector general of the US Agency for International Development (USAid), which was responsible for delivering food to Gaza by the pier, paints a scathing picture of a failed project, in which political and security imperatives outweighed humanitarian considerations.

• Israeli, American, Egyptian and Qatari negotiators met in Doha on Wednesday for “technical/working level” talks on a ceasefire in Gaza. The deputy CIA director, David Cohen, said the fate of a ceasefire deal is “largely a question that is going to be answered” by the leader of the Palestinian militant group, but he did not refer to Hamas’ leader, Yahya Sinwar, by name.

• Yemen’s Houthi group has agreed to allow tugboats and rescue ships to access a damaged crude oil tanker in the Red Sea, Iran’s mission to the United Nations said, after the Iranian-aligned militants attacked the Greek-flagged vessel last week. The Sounion tanker is carrying 150,000 tonnes, or 1m barrels, of crude oil and poses an environmental hazard, shipping officials said. Any spill has the potential to be among the largest from a ship in recorded history.