Updates: Two killed by Israeli army in West Bank; Gaza demolition continues

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We will close this live page shortly. But before we do, here’s a look at the day’s major developments:

• An Israeli drone attack in Khan Younis has killed Palestinian photojournalist Mahmoud Wadi and wounded journalist Muhammad Abdel Fattah Aslih.
• Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says authorities have received “findings” from Gaza, which could be the remains of two captives who have not yet been transferred from the enclave.
• Qatar says it hopes Israel and Hamas could be brought to a new phase of negotiations for a continued peace deal in the Palestinian territory “very soon”.
• Healthcare workers in Gaza say they are still facing critical shortages of medication and equipment despite a ceasefire having been in place for seven weeks.
• Hamas has praised the “heroic stabbing operation” carried out earlier near the illegal Israeli settlement of Ateret, in the occupied West Bank.
• Two Palestinian teenagers have been killed by Israeli forces in separate incidents in Hebron and Ramallah.

Video verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad unit shows loved ones mourning photojournalist Mahmoud Wadi.

Colleagues said Wadi, who was killed by Israeli forces in central Khan Younis, had used a drone to document the destruction in Gaza.

Many condemned the killing as a grave violation of the ceasefire.

German book retailer Hugendubel has removed a colouring book for children that narrates the Palestinian story from its shelves, as the country continues to face criticism that it is stifling Palestinian voices.

The book, From the River to the Sea, by South African illustrator and author Nathi Ngubane, was removed “immediately after” Hugendubel became “aware of its existence”, the retailer said.

Germany has shut down pro-Palestinian events and cracked down on activists and human rights experts denouncing Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza that has killed more than 70,000 people since October 2023.

US envoy Tom Barrack is meeting Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani.

The meeting comes a day after President Trump heaped praise on the Syrian government under Ahmed al-Sharaa, while calling on Israel to enter into a “strong and true dialogue” with the neighbouring country.

The statement came just days after Israel conducted the latest incursion into Syria and subsequent air strikes that killed 13 people.

Ahmed Mokhallalati, the former head of the burn unit at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, has described the challenges of rebuilding the enclave’s medical system amid the ongoing ceasefire.

Many of Gaza’s main hospitals had been methodically destroyed by Israeli forces throughout the war, he noted. That includes al-Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital, which Mokhallalati described as being targeted “the same way they target a military system”.

The first time they targeted the hospital in November 2023… they targeted every critical station or facility from the hospital: the oxygen station, the generators, the telecommunication room, the electricity control room. So they kept the hospital out of service,” he told Al Jazeera.

“The second attack in March 2024, they realised that they want the hospital to be out of service forever, because they destroyed the buildings of the surgery hospital and the medicine hospital,” he said.

Rehabilitation has focused on the women’s hospital, he said, which was left partially intact. Still, progress has been slow going. They now have a 350-bed capacity, 20 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds and 10 operating theatres.

“It was a lot of effort to reach that point, but to tell you, we have been recycling the instruments and the equipment from within Gaza’s system,” he said. “There was nothing coming in Gaza for more than two years with hundreds of thousands of casualties, with a lot of burden on the health system.”

The Israeli prime minister has commented on a possible path forward on talks with Syria, as recent Israeli incursions and airstrikes have left the prospect of reaching a security agreement in doubt.

Netanyahu said he wants Syria to create a “demilitarised zone” from Damascus to the Syrian territory occupied by Israel and that it was still possible to reach an agreement.

“What we expect Syria to do is, of course, to establish a demilitarised buffer zone from Damascus to the buffer area, including the approaches to Mount Hermon and the Hermon peak,” Netanyahu said while visiting a hospital in central Israel.

“We hold these areas in order to ensure the security of Israel’s citizens, and that is what obligates us,” he said.

The statement came a day after US President Donald Trump appeared to chide Israel for its actions in Gaza, and for a recent incursion and airstrikes in the countryside outside of Damascus that killed 13 people.

US Deputy Middle East Envoy Morgan Ortagus has met Netanyahu ahead of a visit to Lebanon, The Times of Israel reported, as the Israeli military ramps up attacks on Lebanon as Hezbollah disarmament fails.

Foreign Minister Gideon Saar posted a picture with Ortagus on X after what he described as “a good discussion on the situation in Lebanon”.

Hamas has issued a brief statement on Telegram praising the “heroic stabbing operation” carried out earlier near Ateret, an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.

Earlier, we reported on a statement from the Israeli army saying that it had killed one Palestinian who had begun to stab soldiers near the settlement.

According to the Magen David Adom ambulance service, two Israelis were lightly injured during the stabbing attack.

Hamas said that the attack “is a natural response to the crimes of the [Israeli] occupation, and a clear message that its attempts to break the will of our people through military operations, daily killings, arrests, and field executions will not succeed.”

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty has called for coordinated international efforts to consolidate the Gaza ceasefire agreement and have it reach the second phase, which includes an international stabilisation force to be deployed in the Strip.

Abdelatty stressed the need to ensure the flow of humanitarian and medical aid to Gaza’s population and to preserve the Strip’s territorial integrity, according to a statement released during his visit to the German capital, Berlin.

We now have more lines from Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, who said, “We should be pushing the parties to stage two very, very soon.”

“That includes, of course, the issues that are complicating the situation, like the fighters in the tunnels behind the Yellow Line, like the incidents that take place every couple of days,” Majed al-Ansari said.

All but the bodies of two captives remain in Gaza, but Israel has accused the Palestinian groups of dragging their feet on handing over the remains.

Hamas has said the process of retrieving the bodies has been slow because the bodies have been under the vast piles of rubble left by two years of war.

“As we have always said, the logistical situation in Gaza would certainly make it difficult to reach this result,” Ansari said, referring to the return of the bodies. He added that the return of the remains should not be a hindrance to reaching stage two.

Israeli forces have demolished two apartments in al-Walaja village, west of Bethlehem.

Elsewhere, settlers set fire to a tractor in Burqa after attacking the village northwest of Nablus. They also attempted to set a vehicle on fire and to spray graffiti on a house.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that settlers in Khirbet al-Deir, southwest of Bethlehem, paved a dirt road to facilitate their access to the area’s freshwater spring.

Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem are illegal under international law. The ICJ reaffirmed that position last year, saying Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful and must end.

Qatar says it hopes Israel and Hamas could be brought to a new phase of negotiations for a continued peace deal in the Palestinian territory.

“We think that we should be pushing the parties to stage two very, very soon,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari.

He added that the talks would include issues such as Hamas fighters still in tunnels in Israeli-controlled areas of the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society says Israeli authorities continue to escalate a campaign of mass arbitrary arrests following the start of the genocidal war on Gaza, with nearly 21,000 Palestinians arrested in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem in addition to thousands in Gaza.

The group said the arrests were part of a “decades-long occupation policy targeting Palestinian presence” that has only accelerated since October 7, 2023.