Israel’s war on Gaza live: Victims burn as tents bombed in Khan Younis
- Al Jazeera’s correspondent on the ground reports intense Israeli attacks on Khan Younis in southern Gaza with tents for displaced people engulfed in flames after missile strikes that also targeted residential buildings.
- Residents and displaced Palestinians have been ordered by the Israeli military to immediately evacuate the Beit Hanoon and Beit Lahiya areas of northern Gaza, ahead of an expected “large scale” army operation.
Witnesses recount Israeli attack on Deir el-Balah ‘safe zone’
We’ve been reporting on an Israeli attack on Deir el-Balah that killed at least three Palestinians and wounded dozens more.
Eyewitnesses told Al Jazeera in video testimony that the missiles attack on Wednesday came with little warning and “ripped apart” the bodies of victims.
“The Israeli forces called some residents and ordered us to leave,” one man said. “They fired a warning missile and we ran for our lives. Three missiles were fired at this area in a matter of minutes.”
Another man said the Israelis “warned people to leave but before anyone could move, Israeli planes fired missiles at us”. The attack left people “dismembered, their bodies ripped apart”, he said.
A third said the targeted site was in a so called “safe zone”.
“Most of the people here have been displaced numerous times – from Rafah, Khan Younis and central Gaza – now they’re all crammed into Deir el-Balah,” he said. “The Israelis claim it is a safe zone, why are they shelling the area now? This is all false propaganda.”
US ‘appalled’ by Smotrich’s remarks on starving entire population of Gaza: Report
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s comments earlier this week suggesting that starving the entire population of Gaza could be justified in order to secure the release of the Israeli captives has “appalled” the US administration, according the Times of Israel.
“We are appalled by these comments and reiterate that this rhetoric is harmful and disturbing,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement to the Israeli newspaper.
The statement added that US President Joe Biden and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken have repeatedly stressed “the need to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, remove any obstacles to the flow of aid and restore basic services for those in need”.
Israeli warplanes strike Hezbollah targets overnight, says military
Israel’s military claims its air force carried out strikes on numerous Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon overnight.
It said air strikes hit sites in the Lebanese towns of Bint Jbeil, Doueir and Majdal Zoun, without reporting casualties.
There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.
We’ll keep you updated as more information emerges.
Israeli raids continue on occupied West Bank villages
Palestinian news agency Wafa is reporting a number of operations by Israeli security forces around the West Bank.
Here is an overview of the recent Israeli army raids:
- Israeli forces arrested a young man from the Sateh Marhaba neighbourhood in el-Bireh, near Ramallah.
- Also near Ramallah, soldiers stormed the town of Turmus Aya, but no arrests were reported.
- Near the Jenin refugee camp, Israeli forces stormed the villages of Silat al-Harithiya, Rummanah, Zabuba, Ti’innik, Taybeh, and Anin and Jalbun.
- Wafa reported that in the Jenin governorate raids, soldiers carried out extensive search operations, driving their vehicles through the streets of the villages and deploying soldiers. No arrests were reported, however.
Water infrastructure in Khan Younis heavily damaged: Municipality
Israeli attacks have destroyed more than 70 percent of water pipes and more than 25 water wells in Gaza’s southern region of Khan Younis, according to the municipal authority as cited by Palestinian media.
It also said that more than 1.2 million displaced people were stranded on agricultural land without access to water and that the municipality was trying to deliver water to them.
Death toll from northern Gaza attacks rises to 7
As we’ve been reporting, Israeli forces bombed a home in Gaza City as well as the Jabalia camp early this morning.
According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, the number of people killed in the Gaza City home attack now stands at five.
Further north in Jabalia camp, an attack on a separate home killed another person, it added.
Wafa also noted that Palestinian rescuers recovered the body of a Palestinian killed in an attack last night on a third home in Gaza City’s Tuffah neighbourhood.
Elsewhere in the north, Israeli warplanes targeted homes near Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood and the town of Beit Lahiya, Wafa said, without reporting casualties there.
‘Uncommitted’ campaign wants Harris to clarify stance on Gaza war
Leaders of the “Uncommitted” protest-vote movement in Michigan have said they will not endorse Harris – who replaced Biden atop the Democratic presidential ticket – until she clarifies her stance on a ceasefire in Gaza as well as weapons transfers to Israel.
The campaign – which gained national attention by urging voters to cast “Uncommitted” ballots in a message to Biden during the Democratic Party’s primaries earlier this year – is particularly influential in the battleground state of Michigan.
More than 700,000 Americans, including 100,000 in Michigan, heeded the campaign’s call, and it is set to send 30 delegates to the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Abbas Alawieh, a co-founder of the movement, told reporters in Dearborn that the campaign wants to know how Harris’s policy “is outwardly different from the disastrous policy that we’ve seen unfold over the last nine months”.
He added that the uncommitted movement would not endorse Harris for president unless she “[tells] us where she stands on Gaza and on the issue of weapons transfers specifically, so that we know what message we can take back to the voters that we mobilise here in Michigan”.
Continuing rocket attacks on Israel prompts latest evacuation order for North Gaza: Monitors
The latest Israeli military evacuation orders for northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoon followed just hours after Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fighters fired three rockets from the area towards Israel’s cities of Ashkelon and Sderot, war monitors report.
Israel’s military said it would respond “forcefully and immediately” to Tuesday’s rocket barrage by PIJ, which also targeted Israel’s Nir Am area, according to US-based think tanks the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP).
While Israeli forces have conducted regular “low intensity clearing operations” over recent months in Beit Hanoon, there have been indications since March that Palestinian fighters had re-entered the area, according to the latest joint report from the ISW-CTP.
The Israeli Air Force also said on Wednesday that it had carried out dozens of strikes on targets across Gaza, including locations in the south that were used to fire at least 18 rockets into Israel over the past week.
Israel claims top Hamas fighter killed in Gaza
Israel’s military and its Shin Bet spy agency have announced the assassination of Hamas fighter Nael Sakhl in the Gaza Strip.
Sakhl was killed in an attack on July 24, the Israeli military said on X.
It said Sakhl directed attacks against Israelis in the occupied West Bank.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
Pro-Palestine protesters heckle Kamala Harris at Detroit rally
The Democratic presidential nominee was speaking in Detroit, Michigan, on Wednesday evening when half a dozen protesters began chanting, “Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide. We won’t vote for genocide,” according to US media.
The interruptions were the first Harris has encountered at a rally since she replaced US President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket, NBC News reported.
Harris responded to the protesters by saying, “I’m here because we believe in democracy. Everyone’s voice matters, but I am speaking now. I am speaking now.”
As the protest continued, Harris’s tone became more forceful.
“You know what? If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking,” she said.
Israeli forces blow up home of slain Palestinian in occupied West Bank
Soldiers stormed the town of Dura at dawn, located south of Hebron, and surrounded the home of the late Moamen Fayez al-Masalma, who was shot dead by Israeli forces in April, the Wafa news agency reports.
Forcing those inside the house to leave, the Israelis planted explosives on the building’s interior walls and the detonation destroyed the house. A vehicle owned by a local Palestinian was also destroyed during the raid on the town, Wafa said.
Demolishing the homes of Palestinians suspected of carrying out attacks on Israelis is a long-held practice of the military, which human rights groups say is a policy of “collective punishment” that may amount to war crimes.
According to the UN, Israel’s policy of demolishing Palestinian homes, basic infrastructure and sources of livelihood has had devastating consequences for Palestinian families and communities.
Israeli rights group releases video clips of settler attacks in occupied West Bank
Yesh Din, which works on rights issues in the occupied territory, said the footage shows Israeli settlers attacking a Palestinian home with rocks and setting fire to a seating area in front of a Palestinian home. In a second clip, cars are set alight in a car park in the Palestinian village of Yatma, located south of Nablus.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in the seven days up to Monday this week, Israeli settlers carried out 27 attacks against Palestinians in the occupied territory resulting in 17 people injured, including two children, and damage to property.
Since October 7 and this week, the UN has recorded 1,143 settler attacks on Palestinians, including 114 that led to death and injuries, and 964 cases of property damage. Settler violence has also displaced about 1,500 Palestinians, including 720 children, the UN said.
