Netanyahu is leading Israel to all-out regional war: Retired Israeli general

Retired Israeli General Itzhak Brik has called on Israelis to wake up before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi embroiled the country in an all-out regional war that would wreak havoc on Israel.

Brik said in an opinion article in Israel’s Maariv newspaper that “the leadership of the country is in a state of madness, and such a decisive decision regarding its fate – that is, to fight a war against Hezbollah by air, land and sea – is in the hands of the three who have completely lost their decision-making ability and responsibility for what is happening around them”.

“During the eight months of the war in Gaza, the three have already made decisions that could set the entire Middle East on fire and destroy Israel,” he said. “We should not keep the decision to decide the fate of the country in their hands if we want to live, because they will not lead us to a safe shore.”

Logically, he said, Netanyahu, Gallant and Halevi should be denied a war driver’s licence, just as a drunken driver is denied a driver’s licence after crossing a red light several times and causing a fatal accident is only a matter of time.

The retired Israeli general referred to the decisions the three have made since the beginning of the war, including their “decision to attack the Iranian consulate in Syria, an attack that led to the launch of more than 300 ballistic missiles, as well as drones and cruise missiles. A direct confrontation with Iran could have led to a regional war and even a world war.”

‘We have nothing to lose now,’ Khan Younis resident says

‘No rest in this barbaric war’: Khan Younis resident

People who have stayed in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis despite the Israeli army warning that part of it needed to be evacuated say they are tired of being displaced over nine months of war.

Bakri Bakri, 39, lay on the ground among hundreds of other people on a scrap of land in the city. He told the AFP news agency: “There is no room for us or any of the displaced. … We just hope a solution can be found.”

Abdullah Muhareb said his family had already fled their home in the al-Fokhari district once because of a previous Israeli warning of an impending assault.

“We suffered a lot and lived for a long time in the tent city in al-Mawasi” on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast until the army withdrew from Khan Younis, the 25-year-old told to AFP.

“Then we went home again,” he said. “There was a lot of damage because of the bombing, but we arranged it like a home, and we could rest. But there is no rest in this barbaric war.”

He added: “We have left again, and we do not know where to go. We went back to our place in al-Mawasi, but we could not find it because there are so many displaced.” “We slept in the street without shelter, without food, without water.”

_{Displaced Palestinians leave an area in eastern Khan Younis}

Palestinians in Gaza ‘plunged into an abyss of suffering’

Sigrid Kaag, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Gaza, has told the world body’s Security Council the number of displaced people in the Gaza Strip had now reached 1.9 million.

As we previously reported, the UN estimated that up to 250,000 people have been impacted by the Israeli military order for people to leave al-Qarara, Bani Suhaila and other localities near the southern city of Khan Younis.

“Over one million people have been displaced once again, desperately seeking shelter and safety, [and] 1.9 million people are now displaced across Gaza,” Kaag told the 15-nation council, expressing deep concern about the latest evacuation orders in the area of Khan Younis.

“Palestinian civilians in Gaza have been plunged into an abyss of suffering. Their home life shattered, their lives upended. The war has not merely created the most profound of humanitarian crises. It has unleashed a maelstrom of human misery,” Kaag added.

She said that not enough aid was reaching the war-ravaged territory and the opening of new crossings, particularly to southern Gaza, was necessary to avert a humanitarian disaster.

Kaag said the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt should be reopened, and she also pleaded with the international community to do more to fund relief efforts.

For aid to flow into Gaza, there needs to be a ‘full and permanent ceasefire’

Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo, reporting from UN headquarters in New York, said Kaag stressed that until there is a full and permanent ceasefire, getting aid into Gaza is like “running up a hill. It’s very, very difficult.” “She said among other things they need a better deconfliction mechanism to get aid into Gaza,” Elizondo said.

“They also needed more assurances that they could get basic supplies in to not only people in Gaza … but also to UN staff and personnel,” he said. They include doctors who still lack basic supplies to help the wounded.

Elizondo explained that Kaag focused on the need for UN teams to have more “diversified routes coming into Gaza” and said she is engaged in talks with Israeli officials to potentially reopen the vital Rafah border crossing. “She talked about if they could get these aid mechanisms in place and working to their full capacity. She sees that as part of the reconstruction efforts,” he added.

WHO official says current aid efforts ‘insufficient and unsustainable’

Hanan Balkhy, the World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) regional director for the eastern Mediterranean, has raised an alarm about the lack of aid entering the Gaza Strip, saying the operating environment for aid groups is becoming “increasingly volatile”. “The safety and security of our teams, and the dignity and rights of Gazans must be restored and protected at all costs,” Balkhy said in a social media post.

In a separate post, Balkhy said current efforts are “insufficient and unsustainable”. “Member States must do more to initiate solutions for this political crisis. We need peace, and we need sustained humanitarian access,” she said.

Balkhy’s comments came as she concluded meetings with the UN’s Middle East envoy, Tor Wennesland, and Muhannad Hadi, the world body’s regional humanitarian coordinator.

It was a pleasure to meet with Tor Wennesland, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. I appreciated his acknowledgment of WHO’s operational response in #Gaza. We agreed that while the humanitarian community has the capacity and resources needed to save lives,… pic.twitter.com/SOKc3RMnk5

— HananBalkhyحنان بلخي (@HananBalkhy) July 2, 2024

Gaza pier remains in Ashdod port, Pentagon says

The Pentagon says the US-built pier installed to transfer aid to Gaza has not been reanchored yet. The pier will remain in the Israeli port of Ashdod, where it was moved to last week, US Defence Department spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters.

On Friday, US Central Command once again removed the temporary pier from its anchored position off the coast of Gaza and towed it back to Ashdod. “We’re still assessing when it can be reanchored when sea states calm a bit,” Singh said.

“In terms of the distribution, you did see that some distribution did start back up over the weekend. It is going to take a few days to move some of that aid out of the marshalling area that had built up over time.”

Operation of the $230m pier, meant to boost deliveries of desperately needed humanitarian assistance to Gaza, has been paused several times since it was built in May.

Hezbollah says it strikes Israeli army site

The Lebanese group says on Telegram that it has “achieved a direct hit” on a location it called the ‘Jal al-Allam’ military site on the Israeli-Lebanese border, striking it with mortar shells. It also said it has struck the Kiryat Shmona barracks.

Israeli state comptroller seeks to investigate release of al-Shifa Hospital chief

Matanyahu Englman says his office will examine the circumstances that led to the release of Muhammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital.

“His release was accompanied by exchanges of accusations among ministers and between them and senior defence officials,” Englman, whose duties include reviewing and auditing the government, was quoted as saying by Israeli media.

“There is a concern that not all aspects of the release were thoroughly examined,” he reportedly said. “I intend to request from the prime minister the investigations that will be placed on his desk regarding the issue.”

US says it does not want Hamas in Gaza after conflict ends

State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel says the US does not want to see Hamas being the “governing authority” in Gaza. “We have been pretty clear also that we do not want to see Hamas in charge of Gaza any more,” Patel said, speaking to reporters.

This is something that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken “laid out last fall when talking about certain principles that the United States views as nonstarters when we’re talking about the day after this conflict ends”, Patel said.

Israeli attacks kill 31 Palestinians across Gaza Strip

At least 31 Palestinians have been killed across the Gaza Strip since the early hours of Tuesday, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.

Three were killed in a drone attack that hit the Mansoura area in eastern Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood. Israeli forces also destroyed an entire residential block in the area, Wafa said.

Another three Palestinians were killed in an attack on eastern Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Family killed as Israel’s latest evacuation order triggers panic

The Hamdan family – around a dozen people from three generations – fled their home in the middle of the night after the Israeli military ordered an evacuation from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

They found refuge with extended relatives in a building further north, inside a so-called “safe zone”. But hours after they arrived, an Israeli air raid hit the building in the town of Deir el-Balah, killing nine members of the family and three others, The Associated Press reported.

In all, five children and three women were among the dead, according to hospital records and a relative who survived.

Israel’s order for people to leave the eastern half of Khan Younis has triggered the third mass flight of Palestinians in as many months, throwing the population deeper into confusion, chaos and misery as they scramble once again to find safety.

About 250,000 people live in the area covered by the order, according to the United Nations. Many of them had just returned to their homes there after fleeing Israel’s invasion of Khan Younis earlier this year – or had just taken refuge there after escaping Israel’s offensive in the city of Rafah, further south.

Four killed in attack on home in Sheikh Radwan

Gaza’s Civil Defence says it has retrieved the bodies of four slain Palestinians, killed in an Israeli attack on the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, northwest of Gaza City. At least seven others were wounded in the attack on a residential home in the al-Zarqa area, it said, adding that the home belonged to the Muqat family.

More people are believed to be trapped under the rubble.

Video shows Palestinians sleeping on the ground outside a hospital

Footage authenticated by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking unit Sanad shows Palestinians sleeping on the ground in the open air outside a hospital in southern Gaza after being forced to evacuate Khan Younis.

Hundreds of patients have been forced to flee the European Hospital, and tent camps in Khan Younis have emptied, after the Israeli army ordered an evacuation of eastern areas of the southern city in preparation for intensified military operations.

Gaza’s Media Office that the evacuation order has deepened an already dire “humanitarian catastrophe” and will exacerbate the healthcare situation in an “unprecedented way”.

نازحون يفترشون الأرض بعد إجبارهم على إخلاء مناطق في خان يونس#فيديو #حرب_غزة pic.twitter.com/xP2rjoX4Dk

— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) July 3, 2024

Families ‘still trapped’ in Shujayea: Video report captures immense destruction

With the sound of Israeli military drones flying low overhead, Palestinian journalist Ibrahim al-Khalili recorded a video report from the destroyed streets around the Shujayea neighbourhood in Gaza City.

Subjected to days of merciless air strikes, tanks blasts and artillery attacks amid an incursion by Israeli ground forces, much of Shujayea is now little but rubble and bombed out ruins of buildings, according to al-Khalili’s report.

“As you can see, relentless bombardment on the neighbourhood,” al-Khalili says in his video report. “From the early morning, Israeli ground forces entered the neighbourhood from multiple directions forcing civilians to displace and the situation remains dire,” he said, stepping over rubble as he recorded his report, explaining “this is as close as we can get”.

“Families [are] still trapped in Shujayea neighbourhood with unknown destiny,” he adds.

_{Smoke rises from the Beit Hanoon area of northern Gaza on Tuesday}

Four killed in occupied West Bank’s Nur Shams refugee camp

Israeli forces have killed at least four Palestinians in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank’s Tulkarem, the Palestinian Health Ministry says.

Nur Shams attack carried out by Israeli air strike

Both the Wafa news agency and the Israeli army have said the attack on the camp was an air strike, with Wafa saying a drone was used.

Wafa named the dead as 22-year-old Yazid Saed Adil Shafi, 25-year-old Namir Anwar Ahmed Hamarishah, 20-year-old Muhammed Yasir Raja Shahadah, and 22-year-old Muhammed Hassan Ghanim Kanouh.

The Israeli military said that an “aircraft struck a terrorist cell in the area of Nur Shams while they planted an explosive device”.

The deaths bring the number of Palestinians killed in Nur Shams to six in the past 24 hours, including a woman and a child on Monday. An Israeli soldier was also killed in Nur Shams on Monday.

Israeli fire wounds three near Nablus, West Bank

Three Palestinians have been shot and wounded by Israeli gunfire during confrontations that broke out in the town of Beita just south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, Wafa has reported. A child is among those injured, it added.

Israeli settlers attack Palestinian cars in Nablus

Israelis living in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank have conducted another attack on Palestinians, throwing stones at vehicles, according to local news reports and verified social media posts. The attacks took place near the Israeli settlement of Eli, in southern Nablus.

Several Palestinians were injured in the attacks.

Israeli military carries out arrests, raids across the occupied West Bank

The Israeli military has stormed Yatta, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, and arrested a Palestinian man.

Israeli forces have also arrested a man after raiding his house in the town of as-Samu, south of Hebron, while a third man from the Jenin refugee camp was arrested as he passed through the Hamra military checkpoint in the northern Jordan Valley.

Israeli military raids have been reported elsewhere in the occupied West Bank, including:

Israeli prosecutor seeking criminal investigation of Ben-Gvir seen as show for ICJ: Report

Israel’s state prosecutor Amit Aisman is reportedly seeking to open a criminal investigation into National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir over his alleged incitement of violence against Palestinians in Gaza, The Times of Israel is reporting.

The investigation is reportedly symbolic, in part to demonstrate to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Israeli courts are taking action over alleged crimes since the World Court is required to step in only where national justice systems have not.

However, the newspaper points out that “none of the officials involved believe an investigation would result in an indictment, much less a conviction” of Ben-Gvir, who has parliamentary immunity

Before becoming one of the most powerful people in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, Ben-Gvir had already been convicted of incitement to racism, supporting a “terror” organisation (the Kach group), possessing a “terror” organisation’s propaganda material and destroying property.

More recently he has overseen the deterioration of conditions for thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, with widespread allegations of torture and degrading treatment as well as a complete ban on outside visits, including from family and the Red Cross.

_{Israeli far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was already convicted of eight charges by Israeli courts, including racism towards Palestinians, before rising to become the security minister}

The Israeli lobby has no shame

UN rapporteur says monitoring group’s allegation ‘beyond the pale’

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, has accused a monitoring group of going “beyond the pale” for falsely claiming the UN has opened an investigation into her conduct.

UN Watch is an NGO with the stated purpose of monitoring the performance of the UN, and has accused the world body of having an anti-Israel bias.

“They use an email from the UN which simply acknowledged the receipt of their complaint to falsely claim that the UN ‘has opened an investigation’ against me,” Albanese said of the organisation’s claims.

The special rapporteur was responding to a post by Canadian lawyer and UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer, in which he alleged that she “improperly took external funds from pro-Hamas groups to pay for her $20,000 lobbying trip to Australia”.

Neuer added that his organisation had filed papers to the UN to “terminate her mandate”.

Albanese said she welcomed a review of her mandate as she “never had, and will never have, anything to hide”.

I welcome any review of my mandate & all documents are available to the UN because I have never had, and will never have, anything to hide.

But the latest #UNWatch move is beyond the pale. They use an email from the UN which simply acknowledged the receipt of their complaint to… pic.twitter.com/5lxfsuSnzh

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) July 2, 2024

US calls again on Israel to investigate use of Palestinians as ‘human shields’

US State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel has described reports and video of Israel using Palestinians as human shields as “disturbing” and “a clear violation” of Israel’s “orders and procedures”.

“We call again Israel to swiftly investigate and ensure accountability for any abuses and violations,” Patel added, in response to a question from a reporter about recently reported videos showing Israeli forces using Palestinians as human shields in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

_{Israeli soldiers tied an innocent Palestinian man, Mujahid Abadi, 24, to the front of their moving vehicle while he bled from gunshot wounds in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on June 22}

Israel: "We're sorry, our voicemail inbox is full. Try again at our next war crime"

Seriously, none of these "investigations" have led to anything.

Israel plans 6,000 new settler homes in occupied West Bank, monitor says

Israeli advocacy group Peace Now says authorities in Israel are scheduled to approve or advance the construction of more than 6,000 new housing units in dozens of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Two days of talks on the huge expansion plan are scheduled for today and Thursday by Israel’s Higher Planning Committee, the defence body responsible for settlement planning, after which approval is expected, Peace Now said.

“It is clear that the primary goal of the current government, from its decisions to its actions, is the dismantling of any possibility for a political solution between Israelis and Palestinians,” the advocacy group said.

“Since the start of the war, the Israeli government has focused all its efforts on building, developing, and investing in construction across the West Bank,” it said.

“Ongoing settlement construction, along with the decision to establish new settlements deep in the West Bank and the transfer of planning powers from the army to [far-right Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich’s officials, will lead to disaster for Israel and the region,” the group added.

“This is a government without any public support, and it must be ousted in order to save us from total destruction and perpetual war.”

The government of total annexation and destruction does not stop.

🧵👇🏽 pic.twitter.com/MwHysrY97h

— Peace Now (@peacenowisrael) July 2, 2024

Israeli settlers invade Palestinian village again as security forces look on

Israeli settlers descended on the Palestinian village of Umm al-Khair in the south of the occupied West Bank for a second consecutive day on Tuesday, as Israeli police and military again looked on, the Associated Press new agency reports.

On Monday, settler armed with tear gas and sticks attacked the Palestinian village injuring six residents, including four women and a 5-year-old girl. Police and soldiers were also present during the attack but did nothing, AP reported.

Eid Suleman, a well-known Palestinian artist who lives in the village and had his home demolished last week by Israeli authorities, said Israeli soldiers were present and simply watched as a group of settlers set up a tent in the village.

The settlers spent about two hours in the tent, playing loud music and letting their sheep graze on the Palestinian village land. Later a group of 40 settlers arrived to stand and pray in the middle of the Palestinian village, said Awdah Hathaleen, a 29-year-old teacher and lifelong resident of the village, which was founded in 1948.

Last week, Israeli bulldozers demolished several houses in the village, leaving a quarter of its 200 people homeless, including 31 children.

UPDATE: From a resident of Umm Al Khair -->
The biggest assault was carried out by the settlers on the people of Umm Al-Khair yesterday. This attack resulted in 6 injuries with tear gas and wooden sticks. The settlers also opened fire directly towards the residents. pic.twitter.com/QBKUjJJSoh

— CJNV #SaveMasaferYatta (@CJNVtweets) July 2, 2024