Middle East crisis live: everyone in northern Gaza at ‘imminent risk’ of death, warns Unicef chief | World news

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of Israel’s ongoing wars on Gaza and Lebanon.

The entire Palestinian population in northern Gaza is at “imminent risk” of dying from disease, famine or “ongoing bombardments”, the head of the United Nations children’s agency (Unicef), Catherine Russell, has warned.

In a statement issued yesterday, Russell said that in the past 48 hours alone, over 50 children had reportedly been killed in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historical refugee camps, where deadly Israeli airstrikes destroyed two residential buildings sheltering hundreds of people.

Israel severely restricted aid to Gaza in October, allowing in only about a third of the humanitarian assistance that entered the previous month.

Russell said:

Civilians and civilian structures, including residential buildings, as well as humanitarian workers and their vehicles, must always be protected in accordance with international humanitarian law.

Displacement or evacuation orders do not permit any party to the conflict to regard all individuals or objects in an area as military targets; nor do they exempt them from their obligations to distinguish between military and civilian objectives, be proportional and take all feasible precautions in attacks.

Yet these principles are being flaunted over and over again, leaving tens of thousands of children killed, injured, and deprived of essential services needed for survival.

Attacks on civilians, including humanitarian workers, and what remains of Gaza’s civilian facilities and infrastructure must stop.

Her comments come as Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, reported this morning that at least nine Palestinian people were killed in Israeli airstrikes targeting two homes in Jabalia and Beit Lahiya, also in northern Gaza, as well as the southern city of Rafah.

The Israeli military launched an intense assault in northern Gaza on 6 October, claiming it was trying to stop Hamas fighters from regrouping. But many civilians have been killed in the attacks, with residents saying Israeli forces besieged hospitals and shelters for displaced people and targeted residential areas.

Residents in the north, under sweeping evacuation orders, say they feel trapped as there is nowhere safe for them to flee to due to the relentless Israeli attacks there.

Here are some of the other key developments:

• American B-52 bombers have arrived in the Middle East, the US military has confirmed. “B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers from Minot Air Force Base’s 5th Bomb Wing arrived in the US Central Command area of responsibility,” the military command for the Middle East and surrounding countries said in a post on social media. The US – Israel’s biggest arms supplier and diplomatic ally – announced on Friday evening that it was sending the bombers, fighter and tanker aircraft and ballistic missile defense destroyers to the Middle East. “Should Iran, its partners, or its proxies use this moment to target American personnel or interests in the region, the United States will take every measure necessary to defend our people,” Pentagon spokesperson Maj Gen Pat Ryder said.

• The Israeli military said about 10 rockets were fired from Lebanon at northern Israel after air raid sirens were sounded in the Haifa Bay and Galilee areas. Some of the rockets were intercepted while others struck open ground. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

• The Israeli military launched a series of airstrikes on southern Lebanon overnight, including the town of Zawtar al-Sharqiya in the Nabatieh district, according to reports.

• Israeli naval forces captured a senior Hezbollah operative in north Lebanon, an Israeli military official said on Saturday. The operative appears to be a Lebanese sea captain. Earlier, Lebanese authorities said it was investigating whether Israel was behind the capture of a sea captain who was taken away by a group of armed men who had landed on the coast near the northern town of Batroun on Friday.

• Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has released the following statement on the US’s military support to Israel amid its deadly wars in Gaza and Lebanon: “Ongoing events in Lebanon & Gaza have resulted in the martyrdom of 50,000 ppl in the last year, mostly women & children… The US that claims to be an advocate of human rights, supports & is complicit in those crimes. Plans & weapons used are from the US.”