Israeli military shoots teenager in Hebron, arrests in occupied West Bank

A 17-year-old Palestinian has been shot after the Israeli military stormed the occupied West Bank town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron, the Wafa news agency reports.

Wafa also reports that a Palestinian man was shot by Israeli forces in the nearby Arroub refugee camp, north of Hebron, while Israeli forces have arrested a man during their storming of the town of as-Samu, south of Hebron.

Local media is also reporting that Israeli forces have arrested a second man in the Balata camp in Nablus, where violent clashes have been reported with Palestinian resistance groups. Israeli forces have arrested a third man during their storming of the town of al-Fandaqumiya in Jenin.

Military raids have been reported in other locations across the occupied West Bank, including:

Costs of Houthi Red Sea attacks becoming ‘deeply engrained’, says Maersk

The coming months are set to be challenging for businesses and shipping companies due to ongoing Houthi attacks on shipping lanes in the Red Sea, according to Danish shipping company Maersk MAERSKb.CO.

“The longer that this lasts, the more our costs will get deeply ingrained,” Maersk said in a statement, citing comments made by CEO Vincent Clerc. “We don’t know yet exactly how much of these costs we will recover and for how long. The higher rates we are seeing right now are of a temporary nature.”

Maersk and other shipping companies have chosen to divert vessels around southern Africa since December to avoid Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, causing significantly longer shipping times and rising costs.

The Iran-backed group says it has been carrying out the attacks to protest Israel’s war on Gaza.

_{Smoke rises after an explosion on the Greek-owned MV Tutor, that the Houthis say was the target of their attack in the Red Sea on June 12}

Israel appoints new judge to ICJ who slammed court as ‘intellectually dishonest’

Israel has chosen to appoint a law professor – who has publicly accused the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of bias – as its new appointee, as an ad hoc judge, to the ICJ for South Africa’s genocide case at the UN court.

Ron Shapira, who is the rector of the Peres Academic Center in Israel’s Rehovot city and a law lecturer at Bar-Ilan University and Tel Aviv University, said in January that the ICJ court “falsely poses as neutral”.

“The consensus in Israel is that this entity embodies and takes to the extreme all the flaws of legal discourse in existence: intellectual dishonesty, manipulative use of ambiguous definitions, overly cumbersome tools for fact-checking and lie-debunking, and concealment of ulterior motives of the judges themselves via wording that falsely poses as neutral,” he wrote.

Shapira is set to replace Aharon Barak, a more experienced former Israeli chief justice who stepped down as a member of the UN court’s 15-judge panel last month, citing “personal family reasons”.

UN rapporteur praises Spain for joining ICJ genocide case against Israel

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, has welcomed Spain’s decision to join South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of carrying out genocide in Gaza.

Albanese said she hoped the move by Spain was the beginning of more Western countries “taking similar actions” to “stand on the right side of history”.

“Words of condemnation are meaningless without action. In fact, decades of mere words have allowed Israel to escalate its lawlessness towards the Palestinians into #genocide,” she wrote on social media.

Kudos to #Spain for joining #SouthAfrica's genocide case against Israel at the @CIJ_ICJ. I hope this marks the beginning of more Western countries taking similar actions. It’s not too late to stand on the right side of history.
Words of condemnation are meaningless without…

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) July 1, 2024

Malaysia PM say country ready to join Indonesia in UN peacekeeping force for Palestine: Report

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has conveyed Malaysia’s willingness to cooperate with Indonesia in deploying UN peacekeepers to Palestine, should the UN mandate such an operation, Malaysia’s Bernama national news agency reports.

The topic of Malaysian and Indonesian participation in a UN peacekeeping force for Palestine was a key point of discussion during a telephone call between Anwar and Indonesia’s president-elect and Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto on Monday, Bernama reports.

Anwar also spoke of the potential for the Palestine peacekeeping collaboration “to be extended to the ASEAN region”, the news agency said.

UN says unknown number of prisoners from Gaza held in Israeli jails

The UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, has said that the number of “Palestinians from Gaza who have been detained by the Israeli military” since October 7, 2023 “remains unknown”.

OCHA said that data released by the Israel Prison Service (IPS) to Hamoked, an Israeli human rights organisation, did not include Palestinian prisoners from Gaza.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in December that it had been unable to visit any Palestinians held in Israeli prisons since October 7, a violation of Israel’s obligations under the Geneva Conventions to provide access to the ICRC.

Israeli authorities have reportedly failed to even notify family members when their loved ones have been killed – with the death of Dr Iyad al-Rantisi, 53, the head of a women’s hospital in Beit Lahiya in an Israeli interrogation facility last November, only reported last week.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that over-crowding and the need to free up space in packed Israeli prisons were behind the release of 55 Palestinians, including the director of al-Shifa Hospital Mohammed Abu Salmiya, on Monday.

Many of the Palestinians released from Israeli prisons recount torture, psychological abuse and being kept in inhumane and degrading conditions.

Overcrowding Israeli prisons with Palestinian detainees ‘is a good thing’: Ben-Gvir

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has called for the Sde Teiman prison to keep its doors open to Palestinian detainees, despite overcrowding.

“We are overcrowded in prisons, and it is a good thing,” Ben-Gvir was quoted as saying by Israeli media outlets. “This is not a reason to release [Palestinian detainees], that is how they are supposed to be. These are terrorists, I give them what is required by law – the minimum,” he said.

Ben-Gvir said on X that the problem was not overcrowding in the prison but the fact that the Shin Bet – Israel’s internal security service – wants “to improve the conditions of the terrorists we reduced, and if not – to release them”. “And I say: It will not arise and will not be,” he said.

The dispute comes after reports that more than 50 Palestinian detainees, including the director of Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital Muhammad Abu Salmiya, were released by Israel yesterday due to overcrowding in the country’s prisons.

Israel’s Prison Service said that the Sde Teiman prison took in 500 Palestinian detainees last month at the request of the army.

‘Nothing but utter torture’: Testimonies of Palestinian prisoners

Faraj al-Samouni, among the 55 Palestinians to be released on Monday from months-long Israeli detention, has described what detainees inside Israeli prisons endure.

“I wish none of the detainees had to go through interrogation,” he said, struggling to describe his experience.

“It is nothing but utter torture; total torment. May God help those detainees being interrogated by Israel’s internal security service. Tortured, battered and our genitals beaten. Verbally and physically abused; only God knows. For God’s sake, set them free and release them from that hell.”

Al-Samouni said conditions inside the prison cells were “unimaginable”.

“Diseases broke out among the detainees. About 30 are kept in one cell. Our bodies are plagued with abscesses, mange, gangrene. We were given only one cup of rice per day, a piece of tomato and a piece of cucumber, with a small loaf of bread.”

Israel says it abides by international law in its treatment of detainees but other recently released Palestinians gave similar accounts to that of al-Samouni.

“Even those who have been detained for more than 10 years have been deprived of their rights and many were killed under interrogation,” al-Shifa Hospital Director Muhammad Abu Salmiya said at a news conference after his release.

“Many of the medical staff arrested have been denied food, water and medicine. The Israelis have no red lines. They deal with detainees like they’re objects, not human beings. Even the Israeli medics are involved in the beatings.”

This broke through to CNN, at least some Western reporting

Senior Gaza doctor alleges ‘severe torture’ following release from Israeli detention as politicians clash over decision

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/02/middleeast/al-shifa-hospital-director-released-israel-detention-intl-hnk/index.html

The head of Gaza’s largest hospital has claimed he was repeatedly tortured during his seven months in Israeli detention, following his sudden release Monday, in a move that highlighted growing rifts in the Israeli establishment.

Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the director of the Al-Shifa medical complex, who was arrested in late November during the first of two Israeli raids on the facility in Gaza City, was released along with 50 other Palestinian detainees.

Their release has sparked outcry in Israel and was criticized across the political spectrum, as well as by families of the Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas during its deadly October 7 attack.

...

Families of October 7 attack victims file lawsuit in US against Iran, Syria, North Korea: Report

Relatives of victims of the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7 have filed a case in a US court against Iran, Syria and North Korea, claiming their support for the Palestinian armed group facilitated the attack that harmed their loved ones.

Iran, Syria and North Korea “provided material support and resources” that enabled Hamas to carry out the attack, according to the complaint filed in a federal court in Washington on Monday, Germany’s DPA news service reports.

Plaintiffs in the case, which was filed by the pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League on behalf of 125 victims and their families, are demanding compensation of at least $4bn for the kidnapping and killing of their relatives.

If the lawsuit is successful, DPA reports, the families could be compensated from a US fund set up by Congress for victims of terrorism.

The money to fund such cases comes from confiscated assets and fines from companies found to have carried out illegal business with states that have been classified and sanctioned by the US under anti-terror laws.

They should sue Netanyahu and the IDF. Netanyahu for funding Hamas and the IDF for ignoring all the warning signs and making a mess of Oct 7. But of course the ADL is going after more American money. Much easier and bigger pot to tap into.

Victims of rights violations in Palestine and Israel owed ‘reparation’: HRW

Victims of gross human rights violations in Palestine and Israel have a right to compensation, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said, as under international law, governments who are guilty of abuses are responsible for “effective remedies”, including paying compensation alongside ensuring truth and justice.

HRW said it submitted recommendations last week to the UN’s special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, including on the right to compensation for victims of abuse in both countries.

“Governments supporting Israel and Palestinian armed groups should not only use their leverage to stop further abuses, but also to ensure that victims and survivors receive meaningful reparations,” Clive Baldwin, a senior legal adviser at HRW, said in a statement.

Gaza littered with unexploded bombs, putting children at risk, says UN

Palestinian children are facing death and serious injuries from unexploded bombs scattered throughout the Gaza Strip, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA has said in its latest update.

In the most recent incident on June 29, a nine-year-old girl was reportedly killed, and three others injured, by an unexploded bomb south of Khan Younis, OCHA said. Eight other children have been injured in two other recent incidents involving unexploded bombs, OCHA added.

According to the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS), at least 10 percent of ammunition potentially fails to function, meaning many of the hundreds of thousands of tonnes of war debris in Gaza contain explosives.

The Government Media Office in Gaza has estimated that at least 75,000 tonnes of explosives have been dropped on Gaza since October.

_{An unexploded bomb dropped by an Israeli aircraft lies among the rubble in the northern Gaza Strip on May 14}

Israel’s far-right officials wants settlement in Gaza, and Lebanon too: Advocacy group

Breaking the Silence, an Israeli organisation of military veterans working to raise awareness of Israel’s abuses in the occupied Palestinian territory, said “victory” in Gaza for Israel’s far-right government involves the expansion of settlement into the war-torn territory.

Posting a series of quotes from Israeli government officials and minister regarding future settlements in Gaza, Breaking the Silence said that “settling in Gaza isn’t enough” for the far-right, “they want Lebanon as well”.

“The Israeli settler movement has always disregarded human rights and lives, especially when it comes to Palestinians,” the advocacy group said.

“Sacrificing lives, even Israeli hostages, has, to them, always been an acceptable price to pay to further their ultimate agenda: More land with less Palestinians,” it added.

“The decisive victory will be in settlement. [...] our kids will play in the streets of Gaza.”

These aren't just messianic dreams. This is policy being pushed by elected officials and government ministers. This is what ‘victory’ looks like for Israel’s far-right government. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/VUNtivkvIh

— Breaking the Silence (@BtSIsrael) July 1, 2024

Smotrich slams decision to supply electricity to desalination plant in Gaza

Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has criticised the Israeli government decision to supply electricity to a sewage and water desalination plant in Gaza.

Earlier this morning, Israeli media reported that the decision came on humanitarian grounds to prevent the outbreak of disease in the besieged Palestinian enclave which could pose a threat to Israel.

“We are restoring Gaza with our own hands … I call on Netanyahu to stop this folly,” Smotrich said on X.

Lieberman protests against Israel’s resumption of electricity to Gaza water plant

We have reported earlier that Israel had resumed supplying electricity to Gaza’s desalination plant, prompting some angry reaction from some Israeli politicians. Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, is among them.

He said Israel continues to supply Gaza with electricity, water, fuel and goods “contrary to all common sense”, although the captives are still being held there.

“The time has come to put an end to these omissions and disengage from Gaza completely,” he wrote on X.

Netanyahu renews pledge to return captives, achieve ‘other goals’ of war

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made the remarks in a post on X as part of condolences for the passing of Liora Argamani,  the mother of former Israeli captive Noa Argamani.

“We will continue to do everything in our power to return our abductees – the living and the dead to their families, and achieve the other goals of the war,” he said.

Netanyahu’s government has come under intense criticism by families of captives who allege it is not doing enough to secure their release.

Israeli army ‘determined’ to continue Gaza war, dismisses NYT report

The Israeli forces say in a statement on X that they “will continue to fight Hamas everywhere in the Gaza Strip” and prepare for a war with Lebanon’s Hezbollah armed group in the north.

The army said the Gaza war would continue until all Israeli captives are free, and the residents of northern and southern Israel can return safely to their homes.

The announcement comes hours after a New York Times report, quoting security sources, claimed the army leadership wants a Gaza truce even if it keeps the Palestinian group in power for the time being.

The report also said senior military officers believe that a ceasefire is the “swiftest way” to free the remaining Israeli captives in Gaza.

“At least some tanks in Gaza are not loaded with the full capacity of the shells that they usually carry, as the military tries to conserve its stocks in case a bigger war with Hezbollah does break out, according to two officers,” the report said, with sources adding the army needs to restock ahead of a potential war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Netanyahu slams report saying army wants Gaza truce

The Israeli prime minister, in response to a report by the New York Times, says his country will end the war only after achieving all of its goals. The report quoted anonymous security sources as saying that the Israeli army’s leadership wants a Gaza truce even if it keeps Hamas in power for the time being.

“I don’t know who those unnamed parties are, but I am here to make it unequivocally clear: It won’t happen,” Netanyahu said in a statement released by his office. “We will end the war only after we have achieved all of goals, including the elimination of Hamas and the release of all our hostages.”

The Times report also said senior military officers believe that a ceasefire is the “swiftest way” to free the remaining Israeli captives held in Gaza.

Hours after ordering European Hospital evacuation, Israeli army claims it didn’t

The Israeli army has shared a post on X giving further details of an evacuation order for the east of Khan Younis city issued by the military’s Arabic language spokesperson 13 hours earlier.

In the new post, the Israeli army claims the evacuation order does not apply to the European Hospital in Khan Younis.

However, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported more than seven hours ago that patients were being transferred to nearby hospitals from the European Hospital after Israel ordered the evacuation of the east of the city, in what many sees as preparation for a ground assault on the area.

Jeremy Hickey, an anaesthesiologist with Fajr Scientific who was working at the European Hospital, told Al Jazeera that staff were notified the hospital needed to evacuate.

Videos verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking unit Sanad showed entire departments in the hospital were being emptied, including areas housing patients and tents for the displaced.

Israel’s military has attacked and destroyed hospitals across Gaza amid its months of bombardment of the Palestinian territory.

PRCS Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis is now overcrowded with injuries following the Israeli occupation's warning to evacuate the Al-Fukhari area, where the European Gaza Hospital is located. Ambulance crews transported the injured from Nasser Hospital after it also became… pic.twitter.com/VtPPwnloQp

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) July 1, 2024

In a new post, the Israeli army now says people fleeing Khan Younis should head to the “al-Mawasi humanitarian zone”, almost 13 hours after an earlier post which simply said “you must evacuate immediately to the humanitarian zone”, without specifying where.

Though described as a “humanitarian zone”, Palestinians recently fled the area after Israeli tank fire and air strikes on al-Mawasi, including the Palestine Red Crescent Society, which evacuated its temporary headquarters from al-Mawasi on June 29.

At least 25 people were killed in two Israeli strikes on the al-Mawasi camp on June 21, while at least 21 people were killed there in another attack on May 28, according to Gaza officials.

_{A Palestinian man holds his children as he walks next to buildings destroyed in an Israeli strike in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on June 30}

Israeli evacuation order puts patients at great risk: Doctor

Following Israel’s evacuation order from parts of Khan Younis, doctors have been forced to abandon European Gaza Hospital, one of the last functioning medical facilities in the city. That has put patients and displaced Palestinians sheltering there at great risk, Jeremy Hickey, an anaesthesiologist, has told Al Jazeera.

“Moving them out is extremely difficult because access to transport is extraordinarily expensive given the lack of fuel due to access issues, but also because of the sustained and long-term nature of many patients’ injuries,” Hickey said.

“Mobilising [them] is nearly impossible and transporting these patients via ambulances is nearly impossible as well,” he added.

_{Wounded Palestinians lie down at Nasser Hospital}

Only three patients left in Khan Younis European Hospital: WHO

Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization’s representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, says the European Hospital in Khan Younis is virtually empty with staff and patients fleeing the facility after Israel’s latest evacuation order.

“The hospital staff and the patients decided to already evacuate themselves,” Peeperkorn said, adding that just three patients remained.“We plea the European Gaza hospital will be spared, will be non-damaged,” he told a UN press briefing, speaking by videolink from Jerusalem.

Israeli shelling of residential house kills three, injures six east of Khan Younis

Video footage verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad news agency shows the arrival of the three bodies and six injured people at Nasser Hospital in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis.

Some of the injured suffered delays in being brought to hospital because the European Hospital – which was closest to them – was unable to treat patients due to an Israeli evacuation order issued for the east of Khan Younis.

Intense Israeli attacks continue across Gaza

Israeli army needs four weeks to complete operation in Rafah: Report

The Israeli army estimates that an additional four weeks are needed to complete its military operation in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, according to Israel’s Channel 12 broadcaster.

The report claims the military needs several more weeks in order to eliminate the remaining tunnels in the city.

Al-Quds Brigades says it attacked Israeli forces in Gaza

The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group has said on Telegram that its fighters struck Israeli soldiers and vehicles with a barrage of mortar shells in the Shujayea neighbourhood in the east of Gaza City.

In a separate statement, the group said it attacked the Israeli “command and control headquarters” in the Abu Oreiban area in the so-called Netzarim Corridor with heavy-calibre mortar shells.

The corridor, named after the Netzarim Jewish settlement in Gaza that was dismantled in 2005, was built by the Israeli army to separate northern Gaza from its southern part earlier in the war.

Qassam Brigades claims it killed Israeli troops in Shujayea

The armed wing of Hamas says its fighters have clashed with Israeli forces in the Shujayea neighbourhood in the east of Gaza City. A statement on Telegram claimed that a number of Israeli troops were killed and wounded in the clashes.

The group also said it targeted two Israeli Merkava 4 tanks with al-Yassin 105 rockets in Rafah city before an evacuation helicopter landed in the area.

Battles raging in Shujayea

There’s been no respite in the fighting on the ground as we continue to get statements from the military wing of Hamas saying they managed to ambush multiple Israeli forces who are trying to carry out a deep military incursion into the central areas of the Shujayea neighbourhood.

Different videos have been emerging from the battlezone there showing the Israeli military tanks being targeted as the Israeli forces are still operating till now inside that neighbourhood.

They are seeking to control that area despite their previous announcement that they managed to dismantle all sorts of military infrastructure in that area.

What we see is that battles are raging as the Israeli fighter jets continue to shell and hammer different residential buildings.

‘Fear and extreme anxiety’ grip Khan Younis as Israel orders more mass displacement

The AFP news agency is reporting a wave of Israeli strikes in southern Gaza as Palestinians flee areas of Khan Younis city and Rafah following the Israeli order to evacuate immediately.

Witnesses told the AFP news agency of multiple strikes in and around Khan Younis city, where at least eight people were killed and more than 30 were wounded overnight, according to a medical source and the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

Ahmad Najjar, a resident of the Bani Suheila area of Khan Younis, said “a large displacement of residents” is under way.

“Fear and extreme anxiety have gripped people after the evacuation order,” he said.

Evacuation orders a ‘death sentence’ when no safe place to go in Gaza

Israel wants to exhaust Palestinians with evacuation orders

Israel’s evacuation order from the east of Khan Younis shows its inability to achieve its goal of eliminating Hamas and its intent to exhaust the population, says Luciano Zaccara, a professor of Gulf politics at Qatar University’s Gulf Studies Center.

“This demonstrates that they cannot win the war because they wanted to eliminate Hamas physically and politically but so far the group is still there, this is why they need to move people, in order to chase them,” Zaccara told Al Jazeera.

“It also proves that Israel wants to win this war by exhausting the people,” he said, referring to several previous evacuation orders from different locations in the past nine months of war.

“In this way, it creates much more trouble and harm for Palestinians who cannot stay for more than one month or 15 days in one place,” he added. The idea that there are safe places to move people to, Zaccara said, “is not true because every time there has been a displacement there were also attacks”.

UNRWA condemns Israel’s ‘forced displacement’ order for 250,000 people in Khan Younis

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has condemned the latest Israeli evacuation order, saying about 250,000 people will have to flee Khan Younis “even though nowhere is safe in Gaza”.

“Just weeks after people were forced to return to a devastated Khan Younis, Israeli authorities have issued new evacuation orders for the area. Yet again, families face forced displacement,” Gaza’s main humanitarian agency said on X.

Just weeks after people were forced to return to a devastated Khan Younis, Israeli authorities have issued new evacuation orders for the area.

Yet again, families face forced displacement. We estimate 250,000 people will have to flee. Even though nowhere is safe in #Gaza. pic.twitter.com/OReO4D5E0d

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 2, 2024

How Israel destroyed Gaza’s ability to feed itself