China tells UNSC: Gaza an ‘open-air prison’, US floating pier no alternative to roads

More than 2 million people are “living in an open-air prison” in Gaza with “water, electricity, food, medication, and fuel” supplies cut off, China’s Ambassador Fu Cong has told the UN Security Council.

Gaza “has been under blockade for nine months” while the “most important Rafah crossing has been forced to close for two months because of Israeli military operations”, Fu said.

The Chinese ambassador pointedly criticised a temporary pier built as an alternative route for humanitarian deliveries, referring indirectly to the US, whose military built the pier, as “some country”, in an English translation provided by China’s UN mission.

“The huge investment in the floating dock by some country and the many twists and turns in its use once again show that land transport routes are the key to the expansion of humanitarian access at scale and their role is irreplaceable,” he said.

Remarks by Ambassador Fu Cong at the UN Security Council Briefing on the Situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian Questionhttps://t.co/G6RlSTjCv2 pic.twitter.com/OSE1WYHmiq

— Chinese Mission to UN (@Chinamission2un) July 2, 2024

Saudi Arabia urges end to Gaza aggression: Local media

Saudi Arabia has reiterated it is making “vigorous efforts” on the political and humanitarian fronts to end the Israeli aggression against the Palestinians in Gaza, local media reports say.

According to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the statement was made following a council of ministers meeting, headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the western city of Jeddah.

The meeting also reviewed “the Kingdom’s international efforts to support initiatives aimed at gaining further global recognition of the State of Palestine”.

It also stressed Saudi Arabia’s “ongoing provision of relief aid to civilians in the Gaza Strip” amid international warnings of growing famine risks as the entry of humanitarian aid trucks fell significantly after the Israeli army attacked Rafah and seized control of the Rafah crossing on May 6.

Far-right Israeli minister retweets post promoting Sinai occupation

Israel’s far-right Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu has retweeted a post promoting merchandise that calls for the occupation of Egypt’s Sinai peninsula.

Israel returned the region following a peace agreement signed with Egypt in 1979.

The tweet calls for the purchasing of a shirt showing a map of Israel which includes the occupied West Bank, Gaza and Sinai. “Take it on trips, dress all the children in it [soon there will also be sizes for little ones], put it on the car, let’s create awareness: The people demand an occupation! Occupation now!” read the original tweet promoted by Eliyahu.

Clear one to pretend to comply with international law?

Israeli forces clearing illegal Oz Zion outpost: Army Radio

Israeli settlers have climbed on top of an Israeli bulldozer and burned tyres as they tried to stop Israeli forces from clearing the illegal Oz Zion outpost near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank this morning, Israeli Army Radio reports.

Oz Zion, or “Zion’s might”, has been repeatedly demolished, and repeatedly rebuilt, since young Israeli settlers first constructed makeshift buildings there on privately owned Palestinian land about 13 years ago.

The latest developments in Oz Zion come as Israel’s Higher Planning Committee meets today and tomorrow to discuss approving or advancing the construction of more than 6,000 new housing units in dozens of illegal settlements and outposts across the occupied West Bank.

According to Israeli monitoring organisation Peace Now, there are 191 Israeli outposts, mostly resembling camps, and 146 settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli settlers throw Molotov cocktails at security, civil administration at illegal outpost

قوات الاحتلال الإسرائيلي تهدم فجر اليوم منزل الأسير الفلسطيني أحمد دوابشة في بلدة دوما جنوب شرقي مدينة #نابلس بالضفة الغربية#حرب_غزة #فيديو pic.twitter.com/sT0JHaXa23

— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) July 3, 2024

Authorities announce strike in Tulkarem, occupied West Bank

Local authorities have announced a strike in the Tulkarem governorate in the occupied West Bank to mourn the Palestinians killed in an Israeli raid.

As we have previously reported, the Israeli army conducted an air strike in the Nur Shams camp, bringing to six the number of Palestinians killed in the area in the past 24 hours, including a woman and a child.

Israeli raids and mass arrests have become a near daily occurrence across the Palestinian territories since the start of the war in Gaza. Prisoners’ watchdog groups say the Israeli army has arrested more than 9,500 Palestinians since October 7, 20 in the last two days. According to the UN, at least 513 people have been killed since the war started.

Israel arrests 20 in occupied West Bank: Palestinian Prisoner’s Society

Since Tuesday evening, Israeli forces have arrested at least 20 people in the occupied West Bank, including former prisoners, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society says in a statement.

The arrests were mostly in the Hebron governorate, while the rest were in the governorates of Jenin, Qalqilya, Nablus, Ramallah, Jericho and Jerusalem, it said. The arrests were accompanied by widespread raids, abuse, severe beatings, as well as the destruction of homes.

The total number of arrests since October 7 has climbed to about 9,510. The total includes those who were arrested from homes and military checkpoints, those who were forced to surrender themselves under pressure, and those who were held hostage.

Israeli forces kill man in raid on Jenin

A short while ago, soldiers began a raid on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, where gunfire was reported. Wafa news agency reports, citing the Palestinian Ministry of Health, that Israeli special forces have shot and killed one man during the raid, 23-year-old Nidal Ziyad al-Amer.

Medical and security sources told Wafa said that a unit of the army, in a civilian car with a Palestinian licence plate, entered the industrial zone of the city, where they opened fire towards al-Amer, killing him.

Two injured in attack in Israeli mall: Police

Two people have been wounded in a stabbing attack in a shopping mall in northern Israel’s Karmiel area, Israeli police said. Police called it a suspected terror attack and said the attacker was “neutralised”.

Israeli medics said they were treating two men in their 20s, one in a serious condition and the other fully conscious.

‘Impossible to separate attack in Israel from occupation’

Israeli police arrest alleged mall attacker’s family members

Israeli police say they have identified the attacker, who they earlier reported was “neutralised”, as an Arab citizen of Israel from the town of Nahf.

Israeli media quoted the Karmiel police chief Yitzhak Abuhatzira as saying the members of the accused’s family have been arrested, including his mother, brother and sister.

The family members arrived at the scene of the attack and were blindfolded and arrested.

Palestinians do not trust Israeli evacuation orders any more

Israeli military kills Palestinian doctor in air strike: Reports

The Israeli military has carried out an air strike on a home in the city of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, killing a Palestinian doctor, according to local media reports.

Hassan Hamdan, who was the head of the Burns and Plastic Surgery Department at Nasser Hospital, was reported killed along with his family. The final death toll has not been confirmed.

Thermobaric rockets used in complex ambush of Israeli soldiers in Shujayea, monitors report

Palestinian fighters in Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood conducted a “complex and multi-stage attack” on Israeli forces on Tuesday, which involved an ambush and the use of “thermobaric rockets”, war monitors report.

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) forces first targeted a unit of Israeli soldiers in a building in Shujayea with a powerful thermobaric rocket but then redirected their attack at an Israeli rapid reaction force that was deployed to the firefight.

Palestinian fighters used “an explosively formed penetrator, rocket-propelled grenades, and additional thermobaric rockets” against the reaction force, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) said in their latest Gaza field report.

The combined ambush and attack by Hamas and PIJ was one of at least 10 attacks on Tuesday against Israeli forces currently operating in Shujayea, and indicates that Hamas has “at least partially reconstituted” its forces since Israeli ground troops were last in the area in April, the US-based defence think tanks report.

Israeli bombing kills two in Maghazi refugee camp

At least two people have been killed in an Israeli bombardment that hit a group of Palestinians in eastern Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, an Al Jazeera correspondent reports.

They added that the northwest part of Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza was also subjected to Israeli artillery shelling.

An Al Jazeera correspondent now reports that three bodies have arrived at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah following the Israeli bombing of a car in eastern Maghazi.


Israeli bombing kills four, injures 17 in Shujayea

At least four people have been killed and 17 injured in an Israeli bombardment in Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood, an Al Jazeera correspondent reports. They added that the attack happened as people at a gathering tried to return to their homes in the neighbourhood.

_{People run for cover as smoke billows over Shujayea following an Israeli bombardment}

The Israeli army says it has destroyed 50 sites belonging to Hamas in the Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood. The eastern neighbourhood has seen intense attacks after the Israeli army last week issued an evacuation order requiring the residents to move southwards.

The offensive has forced at last 85,000 residents to flee, but many have remained behind, Sam Rose, the UNRWA’s director of planning, told Al Jazeera. “The expectation when it [the military operation] started is that it would have been over quite quickly but it’s carrying on – we are now, I believe, in day six,” Rose said.

“As it’s always the case in these operations – there are people who stay behind, or are unable to move because they are elderly or sick or unwilling to move because they had enough and prefer to die where they are rather than facing another round of uncertainty,” he added.


Israeli bombing kills two in Rafah

Two people have been killed in an Israeli bombing of the Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood in Rafah, an Al Jazeera correspondent reports.

Many injured in bombing of residential apartment in central Gaza City

Many people have been injured in the Israeli bombing of a residential apartment near the Tabaeen Mosque on al-Sahaba Street in central Gaza City, an Al Jazeera correspondent reports.

Two women killed in Israeli attack on Nuseirat

Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that two women were killed after the Israeli army bombed the central Gaza Strip refugee camp. Local sources told Wafa that the killings occurred after army warplanes attacked a residential apartment in the camp.

37,953 Palestinians killed in Gaza since October 7: Health Ministry

The Strip’s Health Ministry says at least 37,953 Palestinians have been killed and 87,266 injured in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7.

The ministry added that 28 Palestinians have been killed and 125 injured by Israeli forces in the past 24 hours, and that a number of victims are still trapped under rubble or are located on roads where ambulance and civil defence crews cannot reach them.

Israel claims several strikes on villages in southern Lebanon

Israeli fighter jets bombed several villages in southern Lebanon overnight, including Yaroun, Tayr Harfa and Aitaroun, the Israeli military said in a post on X.

The strikes targeted sites belonging to Hezbollah, the post added.

Since October 7, Israel has launched at least 6,142 attacks on Lebanon, about 83 percent of the total of 7,400 attacks launched from either side of the Israel-Lebanon border, by Israel, Hezbollah and others, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

At least 543 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon, while at least 21 Israelis have been killed by strikes by Hezbollah and others, during that same period.


Israeli attack targets car in Lebanese city

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reports the Israeli army attacked a car in south Lebanon’s largest city, Tyre. It said ambulances rushed two people injured in the attack, which took place in the al-Hawsh area of Tyre, to hospital.

Social media video, verified by Al Jazeera, shows the scene of the attack:

اغار الطيران المسير المعا دي قبل قليل مستهدفا سيارة في منطقة الحوش جنوب شرق مدينة صور وعلى الفور تحركت سيارات الاسعاف باتجاه المكان pic.twitter.com/ATxjQRGD0O

— مصدر مسؤول (@fouadkhreiss) July 3, 2024

Translation: The enemy drones raided a short while ago, targeting a car in al-Hawsh area, southeast of the city of Tyre, and ambulances immediately moved towards the location.

Hezbollah commander killed in Israeli raid in Tyre, sources say

An Al Jazeera correspondent has quoted a security source as saying that a Hezbollah military commander has been killed in the Israeli raid on the Hosh area in Tyre, southern Lebanon.

Reuters and AFP news agencies have also quoted sources saying that a senior commander from Hezbollah had been killed.

“A Hezbollah commander responsible for one of three sectors in south Lebanon was killed” in an “Israeli strike on a car in Tyre”, the source told AFP, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Hezbollah confirms death of commander

On its official Telegram channel, the group says that Commander Muhammad Nimah Nasser, also known as “Hajj Abu Nimah,” had been killed. It said that he was born in 1965 and was from the town of Hadada in southern Lebanon.

Lebanon calls for ending Israeli ‘genocide’ in Gaza

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has called for ending Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip.

“We are concerned with the ongoing genocide against the Palestinians, namely in Gaza, based on our Arab identity and national and humanitarian considerations,” Mikati said at an event in the capital, Beirut.

The Lebanese premier said the key to peace is resolving the Palestinian cause. “The essence of peace is that the Palestinian people live on its land under a free and independent state,” he said. “It is in Palestine that the history of this region begins.”

Soldiers exhausted after nine months of war, Israeli commanders say

Quoting commanders of four military brigades operating in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority has reported the following:

Reporter Grills State Dept Spokesperson: ‘Do You Have Any Evidence That The Israelis Listen To’ You?

Journalist confronts German gov. over foreign minister's claim she saw nonexistent 7 Oct. rape video

That's because they aren't any investigations. They just announce investigations to pacify the press and proceed to do little if anything unless they are pressed further on the issue.

Exactly, hence I put Investigations in quotes. However they still do nothing when pressed further on the issue.

Investigation into the murder of Hind Rajab (Jan 29th) is still being pressed by The Intercept

Red Crescent Says Israel Never Reached Out About Hind Rajab’s Death, Despite State Department Claim That Israel Said Otherwise

https://theintercept.com/2024/06/25/israel-hind-rajab-child-killing/


It's the standard reply from the US when asked about any war crime, wait for the Israeli "investigation". And thus Israeli impunity is maintained.

Hind's case is going to be a repeat of Shireen Abu Akleh. They are going to release some tacit admission a couple of years from now when the firestorm has completely died down.