Middle East conflict live updates: Blinken to warn Israel on Rafah plan; U.S. presents cease-fire resolution

Blinken told reporters that there had been progress in the cease-fire talks happening indirectly between Israel and Hamas. Gaps “are narrowing,” he said, standing alongside Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, said the agency had lost contact with health personnel at al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza during Israeli raids this week. “Accessing Al-Shifa is now impossible, and there are reports of health workers being arrested and detained,” he said on social media. “We repeat once again: hospitals are not battlegrounds. They must be protected in line with international humanitarian law.”

European Union leaders issued a statement Thursday that calls for an “immediate humanitarian pause leading to a sustainable ceasefire.” Britain and Australia on Friday used similar wording in a joint statement, calling for an “immediate cessation of fighting in Gaza to allow aid to flow and hostages to be released as a crucial step toward a permanent, sustainable ceasefire.”

At least 31,988 people have been killed and 74,188 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack and says 251 soldiers have been killed since the start of its military operation in Gaza.