Middle East crisis: Israeli military says it has killed Hezbollah deputy commander – as it happened

It has approaching 6pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv. Here is a recap of the latest developments from today:

• The Israeli military said it had killed Ali Abed Akhsan Naim, deputy commander of Hezbollah’s rocket and missiles unit, in an airstrike in the area of Bazouriye in Lebanon.

• Israeli strikes on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo early on Friday killed dozens of people, including five members of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, two security sources have told Reuters news agency. The Israeli attack targeted an area “near rockets depots belonging to Lebanese group Hezbollah”, said the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has an extensive network of sources in Syria.

• Russia has condemned Israeli strikes on Syria and considers them a flagrant violation of that country’s sovereignty, foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Friday.

• At least 32,623 Palestinians have been killed and 75,092 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October the Gaza health ministry said.

• Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to send delegations to Egypt and Qatar, where negotiators have been trying to secure the release of Israeli hostages as part of a possible Gaza ceasefire deal, his office said. Netanyahu’s office said he spoke with the heads of Israeli intelligence agencies Shin Bet and the Mossad and “approved that delegations on their behalf go in the coming days to Doha and Cairo,” with a mandate to push forward with negotiations, Reuters reports.

• David Cameron, the British foreign secretary, has said that “we’re talking to our regional partners to keep the pressure on and keep the profile of hostages [taken by Hamas on 7 October] high.” He added: “We want to see the safe release of all hostages unconditionally.”

• Famine is both a risk and “quite possibly” present in at least some areas in northern Gaza, a senior state department official told Reuters, while adding that the scarcity of trucks was a key obstacle for more humanitarian aid in the densely populated enclave that has been under Israel siege.

That’s it for our live updates today. You can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here. Check back tomorrow for more updates.

Russia condemns Israeli strikes on Syria and considers them a flagrant violation of that country’s sovereignty, foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Friday.

Israel carried out its deadliest strikes in months on northern Syria’s Aleppo province early on Friday and said it had killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon, stepping up its campaign against Iran’s proxies in parallel with its war in Gaza, Reuters reports.

Zakharova said such actions were “fraught with extremely dangerous consequences” in the light of a sharp escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Famine is both a risk and “quite possibly” present in at least some areas in northern Gaza, a senior state department official told Reuters, while adding that the scarcity of trucks was a key obstacle for more humanitarian aid in the densely populated enclave that has been under Israel siege.

Speaking with Reuters on the condition of anonymity, the senior state department official said:

While we can say with confidence, that famine is a significant risk in the south and center but not present, in the north, it is both a risk and quite possibly is present in at least some areas, which accounts for the urgency with which we need to move goods, food at scale into the north.

David Cameron, the British foreign secretary, has said that “we’re talking to our regional partners to keep the pressure on and keep the profile of hostages high.”

“We want to see the safe release of all hostages unconditionally,” he added.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to send delegations to Egypt and Qatar, where negotiators have been trying to secure the release of Israeli hostages as part of a possible Gaza ceasefire deal, his office said.

Netanyahu’s office said he spoke with the heads of Israeli intelligence agencies Shin Bet and the Mossad and “approved that delegations on their behalf go in the coming days to Doha and Cairo,” with a mandate to push forward with negotiations, Reuters reports.

The Guardian’s Kaamil Ahmed, Damien Gayle and Aseel Mousa have been investigating the scale of environmental destruction in Gaza.

Satellite analysis revealed exclusively to the Guardian shows farms devastated and nearly half of the territory’s trees razed. Alongside mounting air and water pollution, experts says Israel’s onslaught on Gaza’s ecosystems has made the area unlivable.

The scale and long-term impact of the destruction have led to calls for it to be investigated as a potential war crime, and to be classed as ecocide, which covers damage done to the environment by deliberate or negligent actions.

Read the full story here.

The Israeli military said it had killed Ali Abed Akhsan Naim, deputy commander of Hezbollah’s rocket and missiles unit, in an airstrike in the area of Bazouriye in Lebanon.

More information to come …

Vivien Sansour, founder of the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library, believes saving Palestinian heirloom seeds could benefit not just Palestinians, but could help feed an entire planet in crisis.

Sansour is the founder of the seed library, a project that began in 2016 to conserve Palestinian heritage and culture by saving heirloom seed varieties and telling the stories and history from which they emerged.

The project feels particularly urgent against the backdrop of Israel’s continuing bombing of Gaza, the “man-made” famine that aid groups warn is imminent there and the knowledge that last year was the hottest ever recorded. “The mission of the seed library is to revitalise and conserve a living archive of our heirloom seeds,” said Sansour. “Not just for Palestine, but also for the world. The world is in a hospice state and we need all the different tools and biodiversity we can in order to adapt.”

Read more about Sansour’s story here.

The European Jewish Congress has said two people suspected of providing financial support to a news agency that promotes the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist groups will be sanctioned by the UK government.

Here are some of the latest images from the news wires:

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At least 32,623 Palestinians have been killed and 75,092 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October the Gaza health ministry said.

Israeli strikes on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo early on Friday killed dozens of people, including five members of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, two security sources have told Reuters news agency.

The Israeli attack targeted an area “near rockets depots belonging to Lebanese group Hezbollah”, said the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has an extensive network of sources in Syria.

“At least 36 soldiers were killed and dozens wounded,” it said, according to Agence France-Presse.

Reuters is reporting a total death toll of 38.

The Syrian defence ministry said earlier on Friday that a number of civilians and military personnel were killed after Israel and militant groups launched attacks against Aleppo.

The Israeli airstrikes targeted several areas in Aleppo’s countryside at about 1:45am local time (2245 GMT), the ministry said a statement.

The airstrikes coincided with drone attacks carried out from Idlib and western rural Aleppo that the ministry described as having been conducted by “terrorist organisations” targeting civilians in Aleppo and its surroundings.

However, the ministry did not mention a specific death toll or clarify whether the casualties were caused by the Israeli airstrikes or the attacks by militant groups, Reuters reports.

The Israeli military declined to comment.

Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes on targets in Syria since the civil war began there in 2011, as it seeks to cut off Hezbollah supply routes to Lebanon. The frequency of these strikes has increased since Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza began on 7 October. Israel has exchanged near-daily, cross-border fire with Hamas ally Hezbollah since the Gaza war began, sparking fears of a wider regional conflict.

It’s 11am in Gaza and Tel Aviv and welcome to our latest live blog on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis. I’m Mabel Banfield-Nwachi and I’ll be with you for the next while.

There are reports that Israeli strikes on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo early on Friday has killed dozens of people.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is saying at least 36 soldiers were killed in the strikes, whereas the Reuters news agency is reporting a total death toll of 38, including five members of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, citing security sources.

The Syrian defence ministry said earlier on Friday that a number of civilians and military personnel were killed after Israel and militant groups launched attacks against Aleppo.

Contacted by Agence France-Presse from Jerusalem, the Israeli military said it would “not comment on reports in the foreign media”.

More on that in a moment but first, here’s a summary of the latest developments:

• The international court of justice has ordered Israel to allow unimpeded access of food aid into Gaza, where sections of the population are facing imminent starvation, in a significant legal rebuke to Israel’s claim it is not blocking aid deliveries. A panel of judges at the UN’s top court, which is already considering a complaint from South Africa that Israel is committing genocide in the Palestinian territory, issued the ruling after an emergency measure in January obliging Israel to admit emergency aid.

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• Heavy fighting took place around two key hospitals in Gaza on Thursday, while a third was reportedly under Israeli siege, amid mounting international concern for the safety of patients, civilians and remaining medical staff in the facilities. The most intense fighting once again appeared to be focused on the al-Shifa complex, Gaza City’s main hospital before the war, where the Israeli army said it continued to operate around the site after storming it more than a week ago.

• Israel and the US revived talks on an official, high-level visit to Washington to discuss the planned offensive on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, after they had been cancelled when Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted angrily to the US decision to abstain in a UN security council vote on a ceasefire.

• A gunman in military uniform opened fire on vehicles in the occupied West Bank, wounding at least three people, including a 13-year-old boy, emergency services said.

• Japan is preparing to resume funding to the UN’s crisis-hit Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa), which coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza, the government said according to Agence France-Presse. Once the sixth-largest contributor to the agency, Japan joined more than a dozen countries in pausing funding after Israel claimed that 12 of the agency’s 13,000 Gaza employees were involved in the deadly 7 October Hamas attack. Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa met UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini in Tokyo on Thursday to discuss measures taken by the agency to strengthen governance and transparency. A foreign ministry statement said: “Japan and the UNRWA confirmed that they will advance final coordination about necessary efforts to resume Japan’s contribution.”

• Australian officials scrambled to “understand what the allegations are” against Unrwa staff and complained of “precious nothing in the public domain” hours before the government suspended funding to the “vital” aid agency.

• France will provide over 30 million euros to United Nations Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA this year to support its operations amid the devastating war in Gaza, said the foreign ministry in Paris.

• Bayan Abusultan, a Gaza city-based journalist, has not been heard from since 19 March when she tweeted that her only brother had been killed by Israeli forces “in front of [her] eyes”. There has been no activity on her social media accounts since, sparking concerns about her safety.

• The Palestinian Authority announced the formation of a new Cabinet as it faces international pressure to reform.

• Israel’s supreme court has ordered an end to government subsidies for many ultra-Orthodox men who do not serve in the army – a blockbuster ruling that could have far-reaching consequences for the government and the tens of thousands of religious men who refuse to take part in mandatory military service, according to Associated Press.

• Thousands of Jordanians rallied near the Israeli embassy on Thursday in a fifth day of large protests against Israel, calling for an end to Jordan’s unpopular peace treaty with its neighbour to the west, Reuters reports.