Summary
It’s 6pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv. Thanks for following our liveblog today.
Israeli airstrikes across southern Lebanon on Friday killed at least six Hezbollah fighters and one child as Hezbollah fired artillery rounds and rockets over the border, Reuters is reporting. According to the party’s death notices and a Reuters security source, the Israeli strikes on the southern Lebanese towns of Mays al-Jabal and Tayr Harfa on Friday killed four Hezbollah fighters. Another fighter was killed in a separate strike outside Aitarun, but it was not immediately clear if the combatant was a Hezbollah member.
The child was killed in a separate Israeli strike on the village of Aita in which, the IDF confirmed, Hezbollah member Muhammad Mahmoud Najam was also killed. The Israeli military, in a statement posted online, said it had targeted Najam in Aita because he was a member of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile unit. It said it had targeted two other Hezbollah fighters across the south. More than 600 people in Lebanon have been killed since the conflict began in October – including more than 400 Hezbollah combatants and more than 130 civilians, according to a Reuters toll.
With the UNRWA readying to launch two rounds of a polio vaccination campaign at the end of the month, the ministry of health in Gaza emphasised on Friday that a ceasefire was necessary for a success in inoculating Palestinians against the virus. “The vaccination campaign will not be successful alone in the absence of sanitary water, personal hygiene supplies and sewage water spread among the tents of the displaced, and in the absence of a healthy environment,” the ministry posted on Facebook.
Earlier, the UNRWA announced that a 10-month-old baby in Gaza was paralysed by polio, the first case of polio in Gaza in 25 years. The polio virus was detected last month in waste water samples in Deir al-Baleh and Khan Younis. Aid workers and health experts have attributed the return of polio to the lack of clean water, untreated sewage and poor sanitation of the overcrowded living conditions that Palestinian refugees have been forced into in camps throughout Gaza.
Ceasefire talks continued in Cairo on Friday, with Israeli negotiators participating “to advance a hostage (release) agreement”, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesperson Omer Dostri told AFP late on Thursday. A main sticking point remains Hamas’s longstanding demand for a “complete” Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, which Netanyahu has opposed. White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Friday that the talks have been “constructive”, but said Hamas should participate. “We’re in Cairo. They’re in Cairo. We need Hamas to participate, and we need to get down to the brass tacks of locking in these details. And that’s what we’re focused on here in the next, coming days here over the course of the weekend,” Kirby said.
Meanwhile, a Hamas official on Friday accused Netanyahu of refusing to agree to a final truce accord for Gaza. Osama Badran, told AFP on Friday that Netanyahu’s insistence that troops remain on the Philadelphi border strip reflects “his refusal to reach a final agreement”.
Thirty UK-based doctors, nurses and medical staff who volunteered in Gaza have written an open letter to UK prime minister Keir Starmer, calling for a total end to arms sales to Israel. “We demand that the UK government acts immediately to bring an end to the continued Israeli military escalation of catastrophe in Gaza,” the letter states.
Successive Israeli evacuation orders in Gaza, including 12 just this month, have displaced 90% of its 2.1 million residents since the Israel-Hamas war began last October, often multiple times, the top United Nations humanitarian official for the Palestinian territory says. Muhannad Hadi said the evacuation orders are endangering civilians instead of protecting them. “They are forcing families to flee again, often under fire and with the few belongings they can carry with them, into an ever-shrinking area” that is crowded and unsafe.
Netanyahu met today with six hostages who were released from Hamas captivity in November, Haaretz is reporting. All six of the released hostages still have family being held by Hamas: Elena Trupanov, whose 28-year-old son Sasha is still in Gaza; IIlana Grichevsky, whose partner, Matan Zangauker, 24, remains a hostage; Raz Ben Ami, wife of 55-year-old hostage Ohad Ben Ami; Aviva Siegel, wife of hostage Keith Siegel, 65; Yocheved Lifshitz, wife of hostage Oded Lifshitz, 84; and Adi Shoham, wife of hostage Tal Shoham, 39. A family member of a hostage told Haaretz after the meeting: “I left with a bad feeling that [the deal] is not going to happen soon.”
White House: Some progress made in ceasefire talks
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Friday that the talks in Cairo aimed at reaching a Gaza ceasefire have been “constructive”, Reuters is reporting.
All sides need to come together to work toward implementation of a proposed agreement, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said. Kirby said Hamas militants should participate in the negotiations, which on Thursday included negotiators from Israel, the United States, Egypt and Qatar.
“We’re in Cairo. They’re in Cairo. We need Hamas to participate, and we need to get down to the brass tacks of locking in these details. And that’s what we’re focused on here in the next, coming days here over the course of the weekend,” Kirby said.
Israeli airstrikes kill six fighters, one child in southern Lebanon
As Hezbollah fired artillery rounds and rockets into Israel, Israeli airstrikes across southern Lebanon on Friday killed at least six fighters and one child, Reuters is reporting.
According to the party’s death notices and a Reuters security source, the Israeli strikes on the southern Lebanese towns of Mays al-Jabal and Tayr Harfa on Friday killed four Hezbollah fighters. Another fighter was killed in a separate strike outside Aitarun, but it was not immediately clear if the combatant was a Hezbollah member.
The child was killed in a separate Israeli strike on the village of Aita. This strike, which the IDF confirmed, also killed Hezbollah member Muhammad Mahmoud Najam. The Israeli military, in a statement posted online, said it had targeted Najam in Aita because he was a member of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile unit. It said it had targeted two other Hezbollah fighters across the south.
Since the start of the conflict in October, more than 600 people in Lebanon have been killed – including more than 400 Hezbollah combatants and more than 130 civilians, according to a Reuters toll.
US secretary of defence Lloyd Austin posted on X about the conversation he had with Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant:
“I confirmed the United States commitment to Israel’s security and shared that the United States is well postured across the region to defend Israel and protect US personnel and facilities,” Austin said. “Minister Gallant and I also discussed progress towards securing a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all hostages, and I underscored the importance of finalising a deal.”
I called Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant yesterday to discuss continued exchanges of fire on the Israel-Lebanon border and the risk of escalation from Iran, Lebanese Hizballah, and Iran-backed terrorist groups across the Middle East. I confirmed the United States…
— Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III (@SecDef) August 23, 2024
The ministry of health in Gaza emphasised on Friday that a ceasefire was necessary for a successful polio vaccination campaign.
“The vaccination campaign will not be successful alone in the absence of sanitary water, personal hygiene supplies and sewage water spread among the tents of the displaced, and in the absence of a healthy environment,” the ministry posted on Facebook.
Authorities announced today that a 10-month-old baby was paralysed from polio – the first case in Gaza in 25 years. The UNRWA was readying on Friday to launch two rounds of the campaign at the end of the month.
IDF confirms attack on Lebanon's Ayta al-Jabal
The IDF said Friday that Israeli forces, using an airforce aircraft, attacked the area of Eita al-Zut in southern Lebanon and killed a prominent Hezbollah member Muhammad Mahmoud Najam.
צה"ל תקף במרחב עייתא א-זוט, באמצעות כלי טיס של חיל האוויר, וחיסל את המחבל מחמד מחמוד נג'ם, מחבל מרכזי ביחידת הרקטות והטילים של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בדרום לבנון>> pic.twitter.com/0x89WUAflk
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) August 23, 2024
Earlier today, Hezbollah operatives were launching rockets into northern Israel from near a military structure of in the Mis Al Jabal area, the IDF said. Israeli forces took out another Hezbollah operative in the Aitaroun region who had launched rockets into the Malkia area of Israel.
Thirty UK-based doctors, nurses and medical staff who volunteered in Gaza have written an open letter to UK prime minister Keir Starmer, calling for a total end to arms sales to Israel.
“We demand that the UK government acts immediately to bring an end to the continued Israeli military escalation of catastrophe in Gaza,” the letter states. “The United Kingdom must ensure that its policies are ones that result in a ceasefire by withholding military support to Israel and ending arms trade with Israel. We believe our government is obligated to do this, both under British law and International Humanitarian Law (IHL), and that it is the morally as well as legally right thing to do.”
🚨BREAKING🚨
— ICJP (@ICJPalestine) August 22, 2024
30 UK-based doctors and medical staff who volunteered in Gaza have written an open letter to Prime Minister @Keir_Starmer demanding a total end to arms sales to Israel.
They say it is 'the morally as well as legally right thing to do.'https://t.co/IPSf5bqSgM
The medical staff wrote that in their time in Gaza, they found that everybody was sick, injured or both – “with only marginal exceptions”. “While working in Gaza we saw widespread malnutrition in our patients and our Palestinian healthcare colleagues,” they said. “Many of us lost weight rapidly in Gaza despite having privileged access to food and having taken our own supplementary nutrient-dense food with us. We have photographic evidence of life-threatening malnutrition in our patients, from babies to the elderly, that we are willing or have already shared with you.”
Virtually every child under the age of five whom we encountered, both inside and outside of the hospital, had both a cough and watery diarrhoea. Jaundice and hepatitis A infection were widespread in the hospitals in which we worked, while the surgical complication rate was near 100%. Surgical incisions were almost certain to become infected, due to the hospitals’ impossible operating conditions – including a lack of supplies, water, and medications including antibiotics – overcrowding, and due to patients’ malnutrition. We were forced to use household supplies including vinegar for antiseptic purposes, or went without. Due to the lack of painkillers, antibiotics, and hospital beds, patients exhibited a high rate of pressure necrosis.
Pregnant women gave birth in unsanitary and overcrowded conditions, as there is simply nowhere left which is not unsanitary and overcrowded. These women face serious risk of complications, ill health, and death. Those of us who worked with pregnant women regularly saw still-births and maternal deaths that would be easily preventable in any functioning healthcare system. The rate of infection in C-section incisions was astonishing, and these were often delivered to women going without anaesthesia or painkillers. Their infants were born underweight, while mothers are likely to be unable to breastfeed due to malnutrition. Potable water is unavailable across Gaza. Very few babies born under these conditions are likely to survive, and those who do will have their health permanently impaired.
Read more here.
A Hamas official on Friday accused Israel’s prime minister of refusing to agree to a final truce accord for Gaza, where the presence of Israeli troops on the Egyptian border remained a major sticking point.
An Israeli team was in Cairo “negotiating to advance a hostage (release) agreement”, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesperson Omer Dostri told AFP late on Thursday.
But Hamas representatives were not taking part and an official from the Islamist movement, Osama Badran, told AFP on Friday that Netanyahu’s insistence that troops remain on the Philadelphi border strip reflects “his refusal to reach a final agreement”.
Today so far
US vice-president and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said in her Democratic national convention speech on Thursday that now was the time for a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Israel’s war in Gaza. “I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself,” Harris said while adding “what has happened in Gaza is devastating” and “heartbreaking.”
Ahead of Harris taking the stage and accepting the Democratic nomination for president, uncommitted delegates staged a sit-in in protest of the convention’s denial of speaking slot for a Palestinian American on the main stage. “The scandal is that there are forces within Democratic party leadership who do not want us to talk about Palestinian human rights,” said Abbas Alawieh, a leader of the uncommitted movement and an uncommitted delegate from Michigan. “They’re out of step with the majority of the Democratic base, the majority of Democratic voters who believe that Palestinian human rights are a priority.”
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet today with six hostages who were released from Hamas captivity in November, Haaretz is reporting. All six of the released hostages still have family being held by Hamas: Elena Trupanov, whose 28-year-old son Sasha is still in Gaza; IIlana Grichevsky, whose partner, Matan Zangauker, 24, remains a hostage; Raz Ben Ami, wife of 55-year-old hostage Ohad Ben Ami; Aviva Siegel, wife of hostage Keith Siegel, 65; Yocheved Lifshitz, wife of hostage Oded Lifshitz, 84; and Adi Shoham, wife of hostage Tal Shoham, 39.
Meanwhile, Israeli negotiators are taking part in talks on Gaza in Cairo, a government spokesperson said, according to Agence France-Presse. A main sticking point remains Hamas’s longstanding demand for a “complete” Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, which prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has opposed.
Successive Israeli evacuation orders in Gaza, including 12 just this month, have displaced 90% of its 2.1 million residents since the Israel-Hamas war began last October, often multiple times, the top United Nations humanitarian official for the Palestinian territory says. Muhannad Hadi said the evacuation orders are endangering civilians instead of protecting them. “They are forcing families to flee again, often under fire and with the few belongings they can carry with them, into an ever-shrinking area” that is crowded and unsafe.
A 10-month-old baby in Gaza was paralysed by polio, the first case of polio in Gaza in 25 years. The polio virus was detected last month in waste water samples in Deir al-Baleh and Khan Younis. The 10-month-old baby was the first polio case in Gaza in 25 years. Aid workers and health experts have attributed the return of polio to the lack of clean water, untreated sewage and poor sanitation of the overcrowded living conditions that Palestinian refugees have been forced into in camps throughout Gaza.
US officials have expressed optimism that a ceasefire deal in the war in Gaza “is in sight”, despite growing indications from Israel and Hamas that a breakthrough is not imminent and as renewed fighting rages in parts of the Palestinian territory.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday denied reports suggesting Israel is considering agreeing to the deployment of an international force along a narrow border strip between Gaza and Egypt known as the Philadelphi Corridor.
“Prime minister Netanyahu insists on the principle that Israel will control the Philadelphi Corridor to prevent the rearmament of Hamas, which would allow them to repeat the atrocities of Oct. 7,” his office said in a statement.In the central Gaza town of Deir Al-Balah, which houses about 1 million residents and displaced Palestinians, according to the municipal council, residents said tanks advanced further from the east and blocked some roads connecting the city with the nearby Khan Younis in the south.
Palestinian health officials say Israeli strikes have killed at least 16 people in the Gaza Strip. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital received the bodies, including the remains of a woman and three children, after strikes overnight and into Thursday. An Associated Press reporter at the hospital counted the bodies.
Israel’s military court has extended the house arrest of soldiers accused of sexually abusing a Palestinian detainee until 4 Sept but will allow the defence to hold a hearing on Sunday to request an alternative to detention, the military said on Thursday. The soldiers have been accused of sexually abusing a member of an elite Hamas unit at the Sde Teiman detention facility in the Negev desert in southern Israel, according to Israeli press reports.
Palestinians said Thursday they are planning to introduce a UN general assembly resolution in September enshrining the recent sweeping ruling by the UN’s top court that declared Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territories unlawful – and setting a time frame for it to end. Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, told the UN security council that the resolution, which would not be legally binding, is essential to spur the end of Israel’s occupation. “We are sick and tired of waiting,” he said. “The time for waiting is over.”
Israeli attacks on Palestinian water supplies in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip accounted for a quarter of all water-related violence in 2023, as armed conflicts over dwindling resources surged globally, according to new research.
More than 40,265 Palestinians have been killed and 93,144 have been injured in Israeli military offensive on Gaza since 7 Oct, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
The Lebanon Health Ministry said one adult and one child were killed in an Israeli strike on southern Lebanon, Haaretz is reporting.
Lufthansa will resume flights to Amman in Jordan and Erbil in Iraq starting 27 August, Reuters is reporting.
Germany’s Lufthansa Group, which includes carriers Swiss International Air Lines, Austrian Airlines and Eurowings, extended its suspension of flights to Tel Aviv and Tehran through 2 September, and flights to Beirut through 30 September.
The Times of Israel is reporting that Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant spoke overnight with US secretary of defence Lloyd Austin.
A readout issued by Israel’s defence ministry stated that Gallant and Austin “conducted a joint situation assessment and exchanged views on regional developments and threats.”
“Their discussion focused primarily on joint preparation, as well as maintaining readiness and interoperability of Israeli and US forces and capabilities in the face of ongoing threats posed by Iran and Hezbollah against Israel,” Gallant’s office said.
During this chat, Gallant briefed Austin on Gaza, “detailing the IDF’s achievements in defeating the Hamas Rafah brigade and destroying over 150 tunnels in the area”, and discussed efforts to reach a deal to release the hostages.
“Gallant reiterated his steadfast commitment to achieving an agreement, and highlighted the critical timing as it relates to ensuring this framework,” his office adds.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke overnight with his American counterpart, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) August 23, 2024
According to a readout issued by the Defense Ministry, Gallant and Austin "conducted a joint situation assessment and exchanged views on regional developments and…
Baby paralysed in first polio case in Gaza in 25 years
Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, is reporting that a 10-month-old baby in Gaza was paralysed by polio.
The polio virus was detected last month in waste water samples in Deir al-Baleh and Khan Younis. The 10-month-old baby was the first polio case in Gaza in 25 years.
Aid workers and health experts have attributed the return of polio to the lack of clean water, untreated sewage and poor sanitation of the overcrowded living conditions that Palestinian refugees have been forced into in camps throughout Gaza.
Very sad. @WHO confirms that a 10-month-old baby in #Gaza is now paralysed due to #Polio. The first case in more than 25 years.
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) August 23, 2024
Polio will not make the distinction between Palestinian & Israeli children.
Delaying a humanitarian pause will increase the risk of spread among…
Two people were killed in an Israeli strike on the southern village of Tayr Harfa in Lebanon, Haaretz reports.
This comes after three rockets fired from southern Lebanon into northern Israel were intercepted. Another rocket fell on the Meron military airbase.
The fighting continues in central Gaza, the Associated Press reports, with heavy weapons and machine guns firing at daybreak near east Deir al-Balah and four people killed in an early Israeli strike on a vehicle in Khan Younis.
Palestinian civil defence spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal said late Thursday that 24 people were killed the day before in multiple strikes across Gaza by the Israeli military, including in Gaza City in the north. The strikes also caused multiple injuries, but Bassal did not specify how many.
Meanwhile, Israel’s military said early Friday that it had killed “dozens” of militants during close-quarters fighting yesterday in the central and southern Gaza Strip, with the air force striking about 30 targets throughout the area. In Khan Younis, the fighting included strikes against areas from which projectiles were launched at southern Israel over the past week, the military said.
UN: 90% of Gaza residents have been displaced by Israel's evacuation orders
The top United Nations humanitarian official for the Palestinian territory is warning that Israeli evacuation orders are endangering civilians rather than protecting them.
Since the start of the conflict in October, Israeli evacuation orders in Gaza have displaced 90% of its 2.1m residents. There were 12 evacuation orders in August alone that forced as many as 250,000 people to move yet again, said Muhannad Hadi, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory.
“They are forcing families to flee again, often under fire and with the few belongings they can carry with them, into an ever-shrinking area that is overcrowded, polluted, with limited services and – like the rest of Gaza – unsafe,” he said in a statement. “People are being deprived of access to services essential for their survival, including medical facilities, shelters, water wells and humanitarian supplies.”
He continued:
The water supply in Deir al Balah has decreased by at least 70% due to the shutdown of pumps and desalination plants located within evacuation zones. A severe chlorine shortage for water disinfection, with reserves expected to last only one more month, is fuelling disease, skin infections, hepatitis A and now polio.
Civilians are exhausted and terrified, running from one destroyed place to another, with no end in sight.
This cannot continue.
International humanitarian law requires the protection of civilians,” Hadi said. “The way forward is as clear as it is urgent: Protect civilians, release the hostages, facilitate humanitarian access, agree on a cease-fire.”
Haaretz is reporting that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet today with six hostages who were released from Hamas captivity in November.
All six of the released hostages still have family being held by Hamas: Elena Trupanov, whose 28-year-old son Sasha is still in Gaza; IIlana Grichevsky, whose partner, Matan Zangauker, 24, remains a hostage; Raz Ben Ami, wife of 55-year-old hostage Ohad Ben Ami; Aviva Siegel, wife of hostage Keith Siegel, 65; Yocheved Lifshitz, wife of hostage Oded Lifshitz, 84; and Adi Shoham, wife of hostage Tal Shoham, 39.
More from the Democratic National Convention: ahead of Kamala Harris taking the stage and accepting the Democratic nomination for president, uncommitted delegates staged a sit-in in protest of the convention’s denial of speaking slot for a Palestinian American on the main stage.
The uncommitted delegates had set a 6pm CT deadline for the convention. When it went unmet, they entered the United Center to take their seats among their state delegations.
“The scandal is that there are forces within Democratic party leadership who do not want us to talk about Palestinian human rights,” said Abbas Alawieh, a leader of the uncommitted movement and an uncommitted delegate from Michigan. “They’re out of step with the majority of the Democratic base, the majority of Democratic voters who believe that Palestinian human rights are a priority.”
Read more here:
Israeli negotiators in Cairo for ceasefire and hostage talks as Kamala Harris urges peace
It’s just past 10am in Gaza and Tel Aviv, welcome to our latest live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis. I’m Vivian Ho and I’ll be with you for the next while.
US vice-president and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said in her Democratic national convention speech on Thursday that now was the time for a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Israel’s war in Gaza.
“I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself,” Harris said while adding “what has happened in Gaza is devastating” and “heartbreaking.”
Harris said:
President Biden and I are working to end this war such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination
It came as Israeli negotiators were taking part in talks on Gaza in Cairo, a government spokesperson said, according to Agence France-Presse.
Hopes for a deal are low. A main sticking point remains Hamas’s longstanding demand for a “complete” Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, which prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has opposed.
Netanyahu’s spokesperson Omer Dostri told AFP that the Mossad spy agency chief David Barnea and Ronen Bar, head of Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security service, were in the Egyptian capital and “negotiating to advance a hostage (release) agreement”.
First, a summary of the latest developments:
Successive Israeli evacuation orders in Gaza, including 12 just this month, have displaced 90% of its 2.1 million residents since the Israel-Hamas war began last October, often multiple times, the top United Nations humanitarian official for the Palestinian territory says. Muhannad Hadi said the evacuation orders are endangering civilians instead of protecting them. “They are forcing families to flee again, often under fire and with the few belongings they can carry with them, into an ever-shrinking area” that is crowded and unsafe.
US officials have expressed optimism that a ceasefire deal in the war in Gaza “is in sight”, despite growing indications from Israel and Hamas that a breakthrough is not imminent and as renewed fighting rages in parts of the Palestinian territory.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday denied reports suggesting Israel is considering agreeing to the deployment of an international force along a narrow border strip between Gaza and Egypt known as the Philadelphi Corridor.
“Prime minister Netanyahu insists on the principle that Israel will control the Philadelphi Corridor to prevent the rearmament of Hamas, which would allow them to repeat the atrocities of Oct. 7,” his office said in a statement.Rights groups on Thursday expressed renewed concerns about the humanitarian situation in Gaza after Israel’s latest evacuation orders in parts of the overcrowded central city of Deir al-Balah.
In the central Gaza town of Deir Al-Balah, which houses about 1 million residents and displaced Palestinians, according to the municipal council, residents said tanks advanced further from the east and blocked some roads connecting the city with the nearby Khan Younis in the south.
Palestinian health officials say Israeli strikes have killed at least 16 people in the Gaza Strip. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital received the bodies, including the remains of a woman and three children, after strikes overnight and into Thursday. An Associated Press reporter at the hospital counted the bodies.
Israel’s military court has extended the house arrest of soldiers accused of sexually abusing a Palestinian detainee until 4 Sept but will allow the defence to hold a hearing on Sunday to request an alternative to detention, the military said on Thursday. The soldiers have been accused of sexually abusing a member of an elite Hamas unit at the Sde Teiman detention facility in the Negev desert in southern Israel, according to Israeli press reports.
Palestinians said Thursday they are planning to introduce a UN general assembly resolution in September enshrining the recent sweeping ruling by the UN’s top court that declared Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territories unlawful – and setting a time frame for it to end. Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, told the UN security council that the resolution, which would not be legally binding, is essential to spur the end of Israel’s occupation. “We are sick and tired of waiting,” he said. “The time for waiting is over.”
The Israeli police and internal security service said Thursday they arrested four suspects for “terrorist” acts against Palestinians during a deadly settler attack last week on an occupied West Bank village.
Israeli attacks on Palestinian water supplies in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip accounted for a quarter of all water-related violence in 2023, as armed conflicts over dwindling resources surged globally, according to new research.
More than 40,265 Palestinians have been killed and 93,144 have been injured in Israeli military offensive on Gaza since 7 Oct, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
A Greek-flagged oil tanker carrying 150,000 tonnes of crude that was evacuated by its crew after being attacked in the Red Sea now poses an environmental hazard, the EU’s Red Sea naval mission “Aspides” said on Thursday.
Hezbollah has provided a glimpse of its secret tunnels housing weapons – a move experts say is a warning to Israel as the underground facilities could prove vital to the group should wider war erupt.
On the third night of the Democratic national convention, the group Muslim Women for Harris released a statement announcing that it was disbanding in response to the Harris-Walz campaign’s refusal to allow a Palestinian person to speak on the main stage. The Uncommitted movement, which won 30 delegates, also began a sit in over the same issue.
Updated
