Israel war on Gaza live: Drone strike on Jenin kills one amid Israeli raid
- An intense Israeli raid of the occupied West Bank’s Jenin is ongoing, with an army drone strike killing one and clashes between Palestinian fighters and the Isralei army raging.
- Gaza’s Health Ministry reports that at least 40 people were killed and 71 injured in Israeli attack over the past 24 hours.
Reports of torture in Israel’s Sde Teiman ‘only represent the tip of iceberg’
A group of 10 UN human rights experts have decried the world’s “silence” on reports of Israeli forces torturing Palestinian detainees, warning that the allegations of maltreatment and sexual violence at Israel’s Sde Teiman prison “only represent the tip of the iceberg”.
The independent experts said they have received “substantiated reports of widespread abuse, torture, sexual assault and rape” of Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prisons.
“Countless testimonies by men and women speak of detainees in cage-like enclosures, tied to beds blindfolded and in diapers, stripped naked, deprived of adequate healthcare, food, water and sleep, electrocutions including on their genitals, blackmail and cigarette burns,” they said in a statement. “In addition, victims spoke of loud music played until their ears bled, attacks by dogs, waterboarding, suspension from ceilings and severe sexual and gender-based violence.”
The experts called on the international community to ramp up pressure on Israel, stating that the “allegations of gang rape of a Palestinian detainee – now shockingly supported by voices in the Israeli political establishment and society – provide irrefutable evidence that the moral compass is lost”. They also urged the UN Human Rights Council, in particular, to urgently launch an inquiry into Israeli facilities holding Palestinians.
Israeli drone strike kills one in Jenin
The Palestinian Ministry of Health reports that one person was killed in the eastern area of the city in the occupied West Bank, after being bombed from the air by an Israeli army drone.
Clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters went on all night in the city as a raid by the army unfolded.
We will bring you more updates on the situation in Jenin as we get more information.
Israeli military claims to kill 45 fighters, including Hamas commander, in last day
Israeli forces killed 20 of the fighters in combat and via air strikes on central Gaza said the military, while killing 25 more in Rafah.
The military identified one of the fighters killed as Hamas commander Mohammed Mahasneh, who it said was responsible for weapons smuggling.
As we’ve been reporting, recent Israeli attacks across Gaza have also killed numerous civilians. On Sunday, attacks on two UN-run schools in the enclave killed dozens of people, the majority children, according to Gaza’s Civil Defence.
Gaza’s Health Ministry also said that at least 40 Palestinians were killed and 71 injured in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours.
Displaced Palestinians live in fear of another wave of forcible displacement: NGO
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has sent an update about the humanitarian situation in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, where aid teams and a significant number of displaced people are concentrated.
“People are living in a constant state of unpredictability, not knowing what is going to come next, be it more displacements, more relocations, or a regional escalation,” Hassan Morajea, regional access advisor for the Norwegian Refugee Council, says from Gaza’s Deir el-Balah.
NRC estimates that recent relocation orders have reduced the size of Israel’s unilaterally designated “humanitarian zones” in Gaza from 20 percent to 14.5 percent, displacing more than 200,000 people from Khan Younis and Deir el-Balah between July 22 and 28.
“The streets are uninhabitable, crowded with people using anything that will offer some semblance of a roof over their heads, even if that is in a damaged building scarred with holes, and destruction around them. It’s shocking to see people living in ruins, but that’s what’s happening here in Gaza, because there is no other option. There aren’t open fields to even set up a tent. There aren’t even tents for them to set up,” Morajea said.
At least five people were killed and 16 wounded on Sunday in an Israeli drone attack on tents at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, with a separate attack on a house nearby in the same area killing three.
Israeli bulldozers destroy infrastructure in Jenin
An Israeli raid has been continuing in the occupied West Bank City since yesterday, with local media outlets reporting damage to roads and buildings.
This video, verified by our fact-checking unit, shows one of the Israeli military bulldozers destroying a road in Jenin:
Why is a pro-Israel lobby targeting US Congress member Cori Bush?
On Tuesday, a progressive Democrat will fight to save her seat in the United States Congress – against a threat from within her own party.
That Democrat, Cori Bush, faces a punishing primary challenge from county prosecutor Wesley Bell, as they both compete to represent Missouri in the House of Representatives.
But experts say their battle boils down to one central issue: how to approach Israel’s war in Gaza.
Middle East on ‘brink of war of unknown proportions’: EU’s Borrell
Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, has issued a new plea to end the war in Gaza, which he warns has brought the region to “the brink of a war of unknown proportions”.
“All those standing the way of de-escalation shall be held accountable,” said Borrell in a post on X.
Borrell’s comments echo growing fears among policymakers of conflagration in the Middle East, as Iran and its allies threaten to strike Israel in response to its alleged assassination of several high-level Hamas and Hezbollah leaders last week.
Abbas calls for Gaza to be handed over to ‘legitimate Palestinian authorities’
More from the Palestinian president’s interview with the RIA Novosti news agency.
“Gaza must be governed under the auspices of the PLO [Palestine Liberation Organization] and the legitimate Palestinian government,” Abbas told the Russian state news agency.
“We strongly oppose Israeli plans that provide for some temporary solutions,” he added.
48% of Israelis support preemptive strike against Iran, Hezbollah: Poll
A poll by Israel’s 103FM radio has found that close to half of the public (48 percent) are in favour of a preemptive strike against Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Some 34 percent of Israelis, however, support a strike only if Israel is attacked first, according to the poll.
Since the killing last week of several Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, including Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Israel has been bracing for an expected retaliatory attack from Iran and its allies.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has promised that Iran will deliver “harsh punishment”.
Hezbollah claims attack on Israel’s Avivim
The Lebanese group said it targeted a building used by Israeli soldiers in the village of Avivim near Lebanon’s Blue Line border with Israel.
The announcement came after the Israeli military said it intercepted a projectile over Kerem Ben Zimra and Gush Halav, towns that are near Avivim in the Upper Galilee.
Israel say Hamas officials killed in Gaza; Palestinians hit Israelis in north, south: Monitors
Israel’s military claims to have killed two Hamas officials in recent strikes on the Gaza Strip while Palestinian fighters have targeted Israeli troops and armour with anti-personnel mines and rocket-propelled grenades in the north and south of the enclave, monitors report.
According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP), Israel claimed it killed the commander of Hamas’s Sheikh Radwan Battalion and the group’s minister of economy in attacks on Sunday.
On Monday, Palestinian fighters targeted an Israeli armoured personnel carrier with a mine in Gaza City Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood and fired mortars at Israeli troops deployed on the Netzarim Corridor, located south of Gaza City, the US-based think tanks report.
Hamas fighters carried out three attacks in eastern Khan Younis on Monday, including detonating an antipersonnel mine that targeted Israeli soldiers stationed inside a building in the city. In nearby Rafah, three improvised explosive devices were detonated targeting Israeli soldiers, the ISW-CTP reports, and at least 15 rockets were fired from southern Gaza towards Israel.
Israeli protesters block Tel Aviv highway
The group of Israeli activists, which includes relatives of captives held in Gaza, is demanding that PM Netanyahu’s government reach a prisoner swap deal with Hamas.
Footage posted by Israeli journalists on social media, verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency, shows at least a dozen protesters on the city’s Ayalon freeway, with several holding up banners condemning Netanyahu.
For months, Israeli protesters, joined by family members of Israeli captives, have staged demonstrations calling for an immediate captive release deal and for Netanyahu to step down.
Key takeaways from B’Tselem’s report on Israel’s ‘torture camps’
The Israeli human rights group collected testimonies from 55 Palestinians, including 21 from the Gaza Strip, who had been held in Israeli prisons since October 7.
The detainees spoke to B’Tselem following their release – here are some details:
- The B’Tselem report reveals that more than a dozen Israeli prison facilities were converted into a network of camps “dedicated to the abuse of inmates” following October 7.
- “Such spaces, in which every inmate is intentionally condemned to severe, relentless pain and suffering, operate in fact as torture camps,” it said.
- The violations include “frequent acts of severe, arbitrary violence; sexual assault; humiliation and degradation; deliberate starvation; forced unhygienic conditions; sleep deprivation; prohibition on, and punitive measures for, religious worship; confiscation of all communal and personal belongings; and denial of adequate medical treatment”.
- B’Tselem said at least 60 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody since October 7. Some 48 of them were from Gaza.
- The report said that detainee testimonies demonstrate “a systemic, institutional policy focused on the continual abuse and torture of all Palestinian prisoners”. This policy, it said, is implemented under the direction of Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, with the full support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
- B’Tselem also noted that the number of Palestinians held in Israeli jails has doubled to 9,623 since the war on Gaza began.
Israeli military raid on Jenin continues, arrests carried out across West Bank
Israeli forces continued their military raid on Jenin city and Jenin refugee camp in the early hours of this morning, destroying civilian infrastructure as reconnaissance aircraft overflew the occupied West Bank city.
The Wafa news agency reports that the raid, which began on Monday, involves Israeli military bulldozers causing “severe material damage” to public infrastructure and private property in the city and refugee camp. Power outages have been reported as a result of damage to electrical transformers, the news agency reports.
Raids and arrests have been reported elsewhere in the occupied territory, including:
- Two young Palestinians arrested in the Jalazone refugee camp, located to the north of Ramallah.
- Three Palestinians, including a teenager, arrested in raids in the Bethlehem area during which clashes broke out with local people resisting the Israeli military incursion in the village of Artas.
- A wounded Palestinian man was arrested in the town of Kafr Dan, west of Jenin, after Israeli forces stormed his family home.
Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic verified footage of damage to Palestinian vehicles during the Israeli raid on Jenin on Monday.
Abbas to visit Russia on August 12-14: Report
Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency, citing a diplomatic source, said the Palestinian president is expected to visit the country from August 12 to 14 and meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 13.
Abbas told RIA the main goal of his visit was to “hold consultations and exchange opinions on the latest developments in the Palestinian and international arenas, and to coordinate positions and strengthen bilateral relations in all areas”.
If you’re just joining us
These are the main developments from overnight:
- Israeli forces killed a Palestinian motorcyclist in Gaza’s as-Zawayda area, as well as six Palestinians in Tal al-Hawa in northern Gaza City and a street in southern Khan Younis.
- The UN said child malnutrition in the Gaza Strip jumped almost 50 percent in July compared with June, with more than 650 Palestinian children now suffering from “acute malnutrition” in the enclave.
- In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces killed four Palestinians – including two 19-year-olds and a 14-year-old boy – during a raid on the town of Aqqaba near the city of Tubas, the Wafa news agency reports.
- Air raid sirens sounded in northern Israel as the Israeli military intercepted a “suspicious aerial target” launched from Lebanon.
- US President Joe Biden said he received a briefing from his national security team on the “threats posed by Iran and its proxies” as well as “preparations to support Israel should it be attacked again”.
- Meta Platforms has apologised for removing content from Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Facebook and Instagram accounts related to the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh last week.
