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Aftermath of Israeli strikes on the Old City market in Gaza City


Palestinians gather as rescuers search for casualties at the site of Israeli attacks that hit a residential building and destroyed shops at Gaza’s Old City market

Qassam Brigades reports ambush on Israeli soldiers in Shujayea

The armed wing of Hamas has claimed multiple attacks on Israeli troops and vehicles in the past few hours in northern Gaza, specifically the Gaza City neighbourhood of Shujayea that was invaded last week.

The Qassam Brigades said its fighters lured Israeli soldiers into a “tight ambush” and engaged in a firefight, killing and wounding several. It said its fighters “monitored the helicopter landing to evacuate them”.

The group also said it fired a SAM 7 missile toward an Israeli-operated Apache helicopter in the skies of Shujayea, without reporting a hit.

It also claimed to fire rockets at Israeli positions near Gaza city, and to successfully hit three Merkava tanks with anti-armour explosives.

 

Casualties as Israel bombs UN schools

Multiple casualties are reported after the Israeli military directed air raids against a UN-run school housing displaced in northern Gaza. The Israeli military confirmed the attack on this school, along with another also in Gaza City, claiming they were used by Hamas as “hideouts and operational bases”.

Displaced Palestinians running out of space to shelter: UN

As bombing continued overnight into Thursday in Gaza, some of the tens of thousands of Palestinians uprooted as a result of the Israeli military invasion have had to turn back after finding nowhere to shelter, according to the UN.

Many thousands are sheltering in UNRWA schools and government buildings, but others “are already beginning to turn back, telling us of lack of spaces in other areas”, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said.

UNRWA also reiterated warnings that living conditions are “beyond unbearable”, because of the mountains of waste and rubbish piled high alongside roads and near makeshift shelters.

The UN says an estimated 85,000 have left Shujayea district in the last week, while by Tuesday, at least 66,700 more had been displaced from eastern Khan Younis and Rafah in the south following new Israeli evacuation orders issued on Monday evening.



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Israel to send negotiators to ceasefire talks with Hamas

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will send a delegation to take part in talks for a captives in return for ceasefire deal, an Israeli official has said, according to Reuters and The Associated Press. It’s unclear where the talks will take place.

Netanyahu is reported to have stressed to his negotiators “that the war will end only after achieving all of its goals, and not one moment earlier”.

The prime minister has repeatedly said that these goals include the full defeat of Hamas, which arguably contradicts any move towards a ceasefire.

However, Netanyahu’s office last night announced that Israel had received Hamas’s latest response to a ceasefire proposal being negotiated, adding that it would study it.

Norway says Israel must reverse largest settlement land grab since 1993 Oslo Accord

The Norwegian Foreign Ministry has called on Israel to reverse the largest illegal confiscation of Palestinian lands since the 1993 Oslo Accord.

Israel has approved the appropriation of 12.7sq km (4.9sq miles) of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank where about 6,000 housing units for Israeli settlers are to be constructed.

“Israel’s long-held policy of dispossession, land confiscation and establishing illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, undermines our collective efforts to realise a two-state solution and a peaceful resolution to the conflict,” Norway’s Foreign Ministry said.

“Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, and they pose a significant threat to peace and security in the region.”

The Oslo Accords of 1993 and 1995 were negotiated in the Norwegian capital and agreed between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization. They led to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority and a degree of self-government in the West Bank and Gaza.





Hezbollah rockets kill reservist soldier in northern Israel

The Israeli military has confirmed that Major Itay Galea, a 38-year-old reservist, has been killed in the Hezbollah rocket barrage on northern Israel and Golan Heights that the group says was launched to avenge its assassinated commander, Muhammad Nimah Nasser.

Galea was a deputy company commander in the Yiftah Reserve Armoured Brigade’s Unit 8679. The Israeli military said that Galea was killed “fighting in the north”, although some reports had earlier indicated he was killed in the Golan Heights, the illegally occupied Syrian land that Israel has unilaterally annexed.

Hezbollah launched some 200 rockets and 20 drones at northern Israel in response to the killing of its third senior commander since the start of the war on Gaza.


‘Determined to restore security to the north’: Netanyahu



Survivors of Lebanon’s Qana massacre remain defiant as wider war with Israel looms

As tensions between Hezbollah and the Israeli army grow, there are fears the war may spill over the Lebanon-Israel border. In the southern Lebanese village of Qana, survivors recall earlier deadly Israeli attacks that took place in 1996 and 2006.

In 1996, 106 civilians were killed while seeking refuge in a UN peacekeepers compound, and another Israeli air strike in 2006 claimed the lives of 56 people, most of whom were children.



Houthi leader claims six ships targeted in last week

Houthi leader Abdel-Malik al-Houthi says in his latest televised address that the group used 20 ballistic and cruise missiles and drones, along with an unmanned boat, in its military operations in the past week.

He said six vessels were targeted, bringing the total number of military and commercial ships targeted since the start of the war on Gaza to 162.

Al-Houthi said unnamed Arab militaries are trying to intercept Yemeni missiles and aircraft “in service of the enemy [Israel]”, while some Arab media take care in selecting their words “as not to hurt the feelings of the Zionist enemies”.

“Presidential candidates in the US compete in their election campaigns over who is the most loyal to Zionism and the biggest supporter of the enemy,” he said.


Houthi media claims US-British air raids on Yemen’s Hodeidah

The Houthis’ Al Masirah TV said that the air raids hit the districts of al-Lahiyah and Bait al-Faqih, on Yemen’s west coast. The attacks would be the latest to target the Houthis, who have continued their attacks on shipping in the seas around Yemen, ostensibly in support of Gaza.


US military destroys two Houthi uncrewed surface vessels

The US military’s Central Command has said that it has destroyed two Houthi “uncrewed surface vessels” (USV) in the Red Sea.

It also destroyed one radar site in a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen, saying that both the seaborne drones and the radar presented an “imminent threat” to US, coalition forces and merchant vessels in the area.



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Israeli police attack Gaza solidarity protesters in Haifa

Video footage shows Israeli police attacking peaceful demonstrators and violently dispersing them. A throng of officers ripped the protesters’ signs, and handcuffed others before marching them away.

The demonstrators in the mixed Arab-Jewish city were calling for an end to the Israeli war on Gaza.

PA slams expansion of West Bank settlements

We’ve been reporting on a decision by Israel to approve the largest West Bank land seizure in more than three decades as the rate of land grabs in the occupied Palestinian territory peaks.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for the Palestinian Authority (PA) presidency, slammed the move, saying expanding illegal settlements aims to prevent Palestinians from establishing an independent and contiguous state.

He was quoted as saying by the Palestinian Wafa news agency that expanding illegal settlements and outposts will not bring about peace and security. Abu Rudeineh added that the Palestinian people will not remain idle in the face of measures imposed by Israel’s far-right government.

He blamed the US for allowing such measures to take place and urged the US administration to intervene.


Hamas decries settlement land grab in occupied West Bank

Hamas has slammed a decision by Israel to approve the largest land seizure in more than three decades in the occupied West Bank.

In a statement, Hamas said the move shows the Israeli government’s “blatant disregard for international laws and decisions that criminalise settlements”, while still allowing settlers to continue attacking Palestinians in the West Bank.

These “fascist” decisions, Hamas said, will only strengthen the Palestinian people’s, their steadfastness towards their land, and their “resistance against occupation on all fronts”.

The group called on the UN and the international community to take immediate steps to stop Israel from “changing the reality on the ground”.



Israeli settlers attack Palestinians near Hebron in occupied West Bank: Report

Israeli settlers have opened fire on Palestinian families in towns and villages near the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported. Settlers living in illegal outposts have also attacked the tents of families in the villages of Dura and Berin, Wafa said.

No casualties have been reported.


Israeli forces arrest father of wanted man in Qalqilya

Israeli forces have re-arrested the father of a wanted Palestinian man after storming his house in the Jaidi neighbourhood of the occupied West Bank city of Qalqilya, according to local media.

The arrest is reportedly to be an attempt by the Israeli military to pressure the son to surrender himself, local media reports.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades has also said that its fighters have fired on Israeli troops in the city. There have been no casualties reported.


Israeli rights group documents settler attack on Palestinian village

Israeli human rights group Yesh Din has shared a video clip and photos showing the aftermath of an attack by Jewish settlers on the Palestinian village of al-Fandaqumiya in the occupied West Bank’s Jenin governorate.

A group of Israeli settlers, who came from the direction of the illegal settler “outpost” of Homesh, set fire to a car in the village, according to a video clip shared by the rights group.

The attack follows violence on Wednesday during the clearing of another illegal settler outpost – Oz Zion – near Ramallah in the West Bank. Molotov cocktails and stones were reported thrown at Israeli security forces and passing Palestinian motorists by the settlers.

There are estimated to be 191 settler outposts, mostly resembling makeshift camps, and 146 illegal housing settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to Israeli monitoring organisation Peace Now.



Israeli cabinet meets on ceasefire negotiations: Report

Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 reports that members of the cabinet will are discussing the deal, the hope of which were revived yesterday after Hamas said it presented new “ideas” to Qatari, Egyptian and Turkish mediators on how to reach a ceasefire.

Israel confirmed it is “evaluating” Hamas’s “comments”, which it did not detail.

Israeli media is also reporting that the country will send a delegation to continue negotiations, with the head of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, leading talks.


Netanyahu tells Biden hostage deal talks will resume

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Joe Biden in a call that Israel had decided to send a delegation to negotiate a captive release with Hamas, but would end the war in Gaza only after “achieving all its objectives”, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

Netanyahu’s comments confirm the earlier reports that a delegation would be sent by Israel. In a White House statement, US President Joe Biden welcomed Netanyahu’s decision.

Israel’s Channel 12 says that the head of Mossad will lead the delegation.


Israeli official: ‘Significant breakthrough’ in Hamas proposal

More noises are coming from the Israelis indicating that there is potential for a ceasefire to be reached with Hamas.

An official from Israel’s negotiating team has told Reuters that Hamas’s latest ceasefire proposal included a “significant breakthrough” without specifying what it was.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, was quoted as saying there is a “real chance” a deal will be agreed but it depends on Netanyahu. “It can serve to advance negotiations,” the official said. “There’s a deal with a real chance of implementation. Though the clauses are not easy, they shouldn’t scupper the deal.”

How much the official’s point of view reflects Netanyahu’s remains to be seen. There appears to be a growing rift between the military and others within Israel’s security and political establishment willing to secure a deal on one side and Netanyahu and his far-right allies on the other, who have consistently reiterated their desire to prioritise the total military defeat of Hamas.

Breakthrough on Hamas-Israel deal, US official says

There’s increasingly positive news on the potential for a deal being struck between Israel and Hamas, this time from the US.

A senior US official told reporters that Biden and Netanyahu had walked through the draft agreement during the call they had today and there had been a “breakthrough”, Reuters reported.

Other details from the official include:

  • There are still outstanding issues related to the implementation of the agreement, but Hamas’s response has moved the process forward and may provide a basis for closing a deal on the release of captives held in Gaza and a ceasefire in the enclave.
  • The US believes there is a significant opening for a deal, and Hamas has made a significant adjustment in its position regarding a deal.
  • The next Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks are likely to take place in Doha.
  • A US delegation will take part in the Israel-Hamas talks.



Overnight attacks on Gaza continue despite reports of revived ceasefire talks

Israeli air strikes and artillery barrages continued to pound the Gaza Strip overnight killing and wounding civilians amid reports that ceasefire talks were set to be revived on ending Israel’s war on the Palestinian territory.

The Palestinian state news agency, Wafa, reports that five people were killed, including three children, in an Israel bombardment in the Jabalia al-Balad area of northern Gaza.

One person was also killed and three wounded in an Israeli air attack that targeted as-Sikka Street, located to the east of the Jabalia refugee camp, which is also in northern Gaza, the Palestine Red Crescent Society reported.

Al Jazeera Arabic reports that Israeli artillery shelling has struck al-Nasr town, located northeast of Rafah city, while armoured military vehicles have entered the area.

Wafa also reports several casualties following an Israeli attack on the Daraj neighbourhood in Gaza City as well as artillery strikes on areas in Beit Lahiya city in north Gaza, and the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central region.

Protesters rally outside Israeli PM Netanyahu’s Jerusalem home

Protesters demonstrate against Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and demand a deal is reached for the immediate release of captives from Gaza, outside the Israeli Prime Minister’s private residence in Jerusalem on July 4