Death toll nears 21,000 in Gaza
- According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, 241 people were killed in the past 24 hours and 382 injured.
- The Israeli military says the air force hit 100 targets in the south of the Gaza Strip in 24 hours.
Houthi’s claim attacks on ship, Israel
A spokesman for the Yemeni group’s armed forces says that a commercial ship, the MSC United, was “targeted with appropriate naval missiles after it rejected three warning calls”.
The spokesman also said that drone attacks were also carried out against the southern Isreali town of Eliat and “other areas in occupied Palestine”.
‘How far can Netanyahu go in pushing the limits?’
Luciano Zaccara, an associate professor at Qatar University, says Israel’s non-stop attacks in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East risk starting a wider war.
“So far, the war has been going on for three months, and Israel’s military objectives of ‘eliminating’ Hamas haven’t been achieved. No one knows if it can be done militarily on the ground without the extermination of the population of Gaza,” he told Al Jazeera.
“Every day, we are seeing this become much more complicated and volatile with a greater chance of expanding the conflict. If there is a direct confrontation between Israel and Iran, the trigger can explode.
“Right now, we are seeing how different governments and states are making their calculations. If Israel is attacked by Iran, the United States cannot avoid entering into a direct confrontation. How far can Netanyahu go in pushing the limits?”
Israeli veterans group calls for reckoning over military’s rules of engagement
In a thread on X, the group, called Breaking the Silence, responded to the shooting of three Israeli captives – who were shirtless and waving a white flag – by Israeli forces in Gaza earlier this month.
The shooting, the group said, underscores a longstanding Israeli military norm, with one soldier who fought in Gaza in 2014 describing instructions to shoot any “man 15 years or older”.
“Of course, it’s necessary to talk about the clear deviation from any basic norm that is embodied in the shooting of someone surrendering while waving a white flag,” Breaking the Silence said. “But this is being done while deliberately evading a public discussion of the instructions and policies themselves.”
“If as a society, we continue to evade questions on how we are fighting, then innocent Palestinians will continue to be killed again and again,” the group said. “And yes, the lives of the hostages will also be put on the line. Nothing should be more important than protecting innocent civilian lives.”
American hands ‘stained with blood of Gaza’s children’: Hamas
Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official based in Beirut, Lebanon, has given a press conference about the war on Gaza. Here’s what he said:
- What is happening confirms Netanyahu is moving without a goal or a vision from failure to failure.
- Hamas warns all countries against dealing with Netanyahu’s plans regarding so-called voluntary immigration.
- The US administration talks about saving the lives of civilians in Gaza and then it supplies Israel with weapons. Its hands are stained with the blood of Gaza’s children.
- Our people are not waiting for a temporary truce but rather for a comprehensive cessation of aggression.
- Hamas praises the position of Ansar Allah (the Houthis) in Yemen to support Gaza.
- The Israeli occupation left no weapon behind but used it sadistically against our people.
- The Israeli war trio – Netanyahu, Yoav Gallant, and Benny Gantz – is in a state of confusion because it has not achieved any of its declared goals.
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Homes, agricultural facilities demolished by Israeli forces in West Bank
- Arif Daraghmeh, an expert on settlement affairs and Israeli conduct in the Jordan Valley, tells Al Jazeera that 50 Palestinians are now homeless after Israeli forces carried out a series of demolitions in the village of Furush Beit Dajan in the occupied West Bank.
A large number of Israeli military vehicles and at least four bulldozers raided the village in the Jordan Valley in the morning.
“The occupation forces demolished three water collection ponds used for agriculture and also demolished 15 homes inhabited by eight Palestinian families,” he said.“This means that 50 Palestinians have become homeless in this area and have been displaced,” Daraghmeh said. “Some of them went to their relatives, and some of them now live with their friends.”
Netanyahu: Israeli forces ‘deepening the fighting’ in southern Gaza
Israel’s prime minister says the intensity of the fighting in Gaza would not soften any time soon.
“We see you, and we will come to you,” Netanyahu said to Hamas in a video posted on X. “We are continuing the war, deepening the fighting in the southern Gaza Strip and elsewhere. We fight to the end.”
The latest message comes as pressure grows on Israel – including from allies – to do more to prevent civilian casualties, particularly in southern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled.
For its part, the United States says it wants Israel to move to a “lower intensity” phase of fighting, but American officials reiterate they won’t impose terms or timelines on Israel.
