Israeli military claims Lebanon strike targeted ‘munitions warehouse’

The Israeli military has released aerial footage that it claims shows its air strike earlier on southern Lebanon.

Three civilians were killed and three were wounded in the strike on a building in Bint Jbeil that Lebanese media said was a house, but the Israeli military said its attack on the area hit a “munitions warehouse” belonging to Hezbollah.

Reuters news agency and Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that three civilians were killed in the attack on Bint Jbeil.

The Israeli military also confirmed a strike on Kfar Kila, claiming it was targeting a military building of the Lebanese armed group there as well.

Ship attacked multiple times off Yemen’s Hodeidah

The Houthis in Yemen appear to have attacked one of their targets today multiple times, but the ship and its crew are reportedly safe.

We reported earlier how the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said an unnamed vessel was targeted with two manned small boats and an unmanned boat some 70 nautical miles (130km) off Yemen’s Hodeidah.

According to the organisation, the ship then reported a missile “exploding in close proximity”, followed by two further missiles also detonating near the ship.

After about seven hours, the ship again reported “sighting an unknown projectile exploding in close proximity” but reported no damage or casualties.

UKMTO reported attacks on two other vessels as well today, but the Houthi military has not commented.

Yemen’s Houthis claim attacks on three vessels

The Houthi military spokesman has claimed three operations on vessels, one in cooperation with fighters in Iraq.

Yahya Saree said during a televised address that the Bentley I ship was targeted with several small boats, drones and ballistic missiles in the Red Sea. He did not discuss inflicting damage on the ship.

According to the military spokesman, the Yemeni group also directly hit the “CHIOS Lion” oil tanker using an unmanned boat, also in the Red Sea.

“The two ships were targeted because the companies that own them violated the decision to ban entry into the ports of occupied Palestine,” he said.

Saree said the Houthis carried out a joint operation with the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, targeting the Olvia ship in the Mediterranean Sea. He said the operation “achieved its goal” without elaborating.

Protesters oppose Israeli participation in Tour de France

The annual multi-stage bicycle race is ongoing until July 21 and has seen pro-Palestinian demonstrations like other major international events.

Turkey condemns Israeli attacks on Gaza cancer hospital

The Turkish Foreign Ministry says in a short statement that the fact that Israeli soldiers posed for a photo in front of the destroyed Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital in Gaza “is further evidence of Israel’s violation of international law and international humanitarian law”.

“The Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital is the only centre for cancer patients in Gaza. The damage caused to the hospital by the Israeli forces and its use as a military base is part of Israel’s systematic policy aimed at the annihilation of the Palestinian people,” it said.

“We will continue to work to ensure that those responsible for these attacks are brought to justice in international courts.”

Israeli military bombs house near Khan Younis, killing four: Report

The Israeli military has bombed a home in the town of Abasan, east of the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to local media reports.

Four people have been killed in the attack and three people have been injured.

Prominent relief organisations accuse Israel of blocking aid to Gaza

Thirteen leading NGOs have accused the Israeli military of increasingly blocking access to humanitarian groups that deliver lifesaving aid to Palestinians in Gaza.

They said in a press release outlining their views that Israel’s adoption of a “systematic obstruction of aid and its ongoing attacks on aid operations” meant that only 53 of 115 relief missions they had planned recently were greenlit.

The charities – which include Oxfam, MSF, Save the Children and the Norwegian Refugee Council – criticised Israeli attacks on UN schools where displaced Palestinians shelter after at least six schools were hit over the past nine days.

The NGOs pointed out that the Israeli military takeover of the Rafah crossing and the border with Egypt at the beginning of May had brought aid deliveries to a “complete halt”.

In the north of Gaza, which has been isolated from the south and has been under intense siege, aid delivery is “very limited”, they said.

Biden says he has done ‘more for the Palestinian community than anybody’

US President Joe Biden said that he has been “very supportive of the Palestinians” and has done “more for the Palestinian community than anybody”, in an interview in which he also labelled himself a “Zionist”.

“I’m the guy that opened up all the assets [defunded UNWRA], I’m the guy that made sure that I got the Egyptians to open the border to let goods through [let Israel destroy the Rafah crossing], [like] medicine and food,” he told journalist Speedy Morman on YouTube talk show, 360 With Speedy.

When asked about his support for Israel, including the supply of weapons and military aid, Biden said he has “denied them offensive weapons”. [One small shipment of 2,000 pound bombs, which Israel still had in stock and used in the recent Al-Mawasi massacre]

“I made it real clear, [Israel] cannot use weapons that we provide them, to use in civilian areas,” he said. [clear, how? At many massacres parts from US bombs have been found]

Biden’s claimed support for Palestinians was quickly rebuked online.

“You’d think someone who had 38,000 Palestinian killed under his tenure would have a bit more humility,” one commentator wrote on social media in a repost of Biden’s interview.

US protest movement rebukes Biden for saying he helps Palestinians

The Uncommitted National Movement, a grassroots collective that has urged US Democrats to vote “uncommitted” in US state primaries, has criticised Biden for claiming he is an ally of Palestinians.

"Biden claiming he’s done the most for Palestinians is like an arsonist taking credit for tossing a splash of water on the fire he’s still fueling,” the group said in a post on X.

We reported earlier how Biden claimed in an interview that he had been “very supportive of the Palestinians” and done “more for the Palestinian community than anybody”. Biden also labelled himself a “Zionist” in the interview.

Biden claiming he’s done the most for Palestinians is like an arsonist taking credit for tossing a splash of water on the fire he's still fueling. https://t.co/xQoixXwEUF

— Uncommitted National Movement 🌺 (@uncommittedmvmt) July 15, 2024

 

US-made munitions used in Israeli strike on Gaza school that killed 22, experts say

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/15/middleeast/us-munitions-israeli-strike-gaza-school-intl-latam/index.html

Weapons experts have identified the remnants of two US-made munitions used in an Israeli missile strike Sunday on a school in central Gaza that according to local authorities killed at least 22 people. Hundreds were taking refuge at the former school in Nuseirat when it was struck by two missiles.

CNN video from the scene Sunday showed an ambulance at the school, as people frantically searched through the rubble and destroyed makeshift shelters in the schoolyard.

Patrick Senft, a research coordinator at Armament Research Services (ARES), cautioned that “Many pieces are too damaged to allow for a positive ID.”

But one image, he said, featured “distinctive screw housings, fin slots, and the internal mechanism of a GBU-39’s tail section.” The GBU-39 is a 250lb small-diameter guided air-to-surface munition made by Boeing.

Trevor Ball, who was a senior explosive ordnance disposal team member in the US Army, agreed that the images likely showed part of the fin of a small-diameter bomb.

Ball told CNN there were also fragments of a US-made Hellfire missile at the site, including the top of the guidance system.

Gaza, abortion and migrant rights protests outside RNC in US

Hundreds of demonstrators have converged on downtown Milwaukee to protest at the Republican National Convention (RNC), saying the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump will not affect their longstanding plans to demonstrate outside the site.

Among the causes being highlighted by protesters are Israel’s war on Gaza, as well as abortion and migrant rights.

Al Jazeera’s Heidi Zhou-Castro reports at the demonstration in Milwaukee, Wisconsin:

Trump’s running mate calls for Israel to end Gaza war ‘as quickly as possible’: Report

JD Vance, the new Republican vice presidential nominee, has told the Fox News broadcaster that US President Joe Biden allowed Israel’s war on Gaza to continue too long.

“Number one, you want Israel to get this war over and as quickly as possible because the longer it goes on, the harder their situation becomes. But second, after the war you want to reinvigorate that peace process between Israel, Saudi Arabia, the Jordanians and so forth,” the self-identified Zionist said in his first interview since being named Donald Trump’s running mate.

In November last year, Vance, the Ohio senator, wrote a letter to Biden, urging him to not implement special immigration protections for Palestinians, calling them “a population of potentially radicalised individuals”.

He has also rejected any limits on military aid to Israel.

Congratulations to @JDVance1 on his selection as President Trump’s running mate. A powerful and inspiring ticket if ever there was one. On to victory in November! pic.twitter.com/M99uAP039E

— David M Friedman (@DavidM_Friedman) July 15, 2024

All he wants is to let Israel occupy Gaza indefinitely while annexing the West Bank, back to slow erasure of Palestinians. It's only relations with Saudi Arabia that he's interested in. Back to the Abraham accords that put a Palestinian state out of reach and further divide the ME against Iran, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq.

As he said, he wants Israel to get this war 'over' (out of the news) because the longer it goes on, the harder their [Israel's] situation becomes.

US tells top Israeli officials Gaza civilian toll ‘unacceptably high’

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has told two top Israeli officials of the “unacceptably high” civilian casualties in Israel’s bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip, his spokesman said.

The Israeli military has intensified deadly attacks in recent days including on a refugee camp and multiple UN-run schools where civilians were sheltering.

Blinken received two influential Israeli officials – Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi – “to express our serious concern about the recent civilian casualties in Gaza”.

Casualties “still remain unacceptably high. We continue to see far too many civilians killed in this conflict,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

On Saturday, Israeli strikes killed more than 90 people in the al-Mawasi camp near Khan Younis, which has been designated as a safe zone.

Yet you continue to accept it by sending more bombs, more money, more pressure to stop the ICC arrest warrants.

Far-right groups that block aid to Gaza receive donations from US and Israel

Three far-right groups that have prevented humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza – including one accused of looting or destroying supplies – have raised more than $200,000 from donors in the US and Israel, The Associated Press and the Israeli investigative site Shomrim have found in an examination of crowdfunding websites and other public records.

Incentivising these donations by making them tax-deductible runs counter to America’s and Israel’s stated commitments to allow food, water and medicine into Gaza, say groups working to get more aid into the territory.

Donations have continued even after the US imposed sanctions against one of these groups.

By not cracking down on these groups, Israel is showing a “lack of coherence” in its Gaza aid policy, said Tania Hary, executive director of Gisha, an Israeli nonprofit that has long called on Israel to improve conditions in the territory.

“If you’re on the one hand saying you’re allowing aid in but then also facilitating the actions of groups that are blocking it, can you really say you’re facilitating aid?” she said.

Three Israeli settlers reported wounded following gunfire near Nablus

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report that Israeli forces have closed the Deir Sharaf checkpoint near Nablus in the occupied West Bank following gunfire in which three Israeli settlers were believed to have been slightly wounded.

Israeli military says ‘terrorists’ shot at vehicle in the West Bank

The Israeli military has said that “terrorists” were responsible for a shooting incident near the Ramin junction in the occupied West Bank. Earlier, we reported that Israeli forces had closed the Deir Sharaf checkpoint near Nablus following gunfire in which three Israeli settlers were wounded.

“Several civilians were slightly injured and evacuated for medical treatment. [Israeli] forces began a pursuit of the terrorists,” the Israeli military has said in a post on X.

Israeli forces storm village east of Tulkarem

Israeli forces have stormed the village of Ramin, east of Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank, after three settlers were injured in a shooting near the village, an Al Jazeera correspondent reports.