Pro-Israel US congressman calls Netanyahu ‘worst leader in Jewish history’

Jerry Nadler, a high-ranking Democrat who has described himself as the “most senior Jewish member of the House of Representatives”, did not mince words in condemning Netanyahu ahead of his planned speech tomorrow.

“Benjamin Netanyahu is the worst leader in Jewish history since the Maccabean king who invited the Romans into Jerusalem over 2100 years ago,” Nadler said in a post on X.

“Tomorrow’s address is the next step in a long line of manipulative bad-faith efforts by Republicans to further politicise the US-Israel relationship for partisan gain and is a cynical stunt by Netanyahu aimed at aiding his own desperate political standing at home,” said Nadler, a self-proclaimed Zionist.

He said he respects the cadre of lawmakers who have said they will boycott the event, but added he would not join them. He would attend, he said, out of “respect for the state of Israel and the office of the prime minister”.

Benjamin Netanyahu is the worst leader in Jewish history since the Maccabean king who invited the Romans into Jerusalem over 2100 years ago. The Prime Minister is putting the security of Israel, the lives of the hostages, the stability of the region, and longstanding Israeli… pic.twitter.com/76gE5JePj8

— Rep. Nadler (@RepJerryNadler) July 23, 2024

‘Standing up for human rights is not just a talking point,’ lawmaker says

A growing number of US Democrats have said they will not attend Netanyahu’s speech tomorrow.

Those include Senator Bernie Sanders, the chamber’s second-highest-ranking Democrat Senator Patty Murray, Senator Tim Kaine, Senator Chris Van Hollen and Representative James Clyburn.

In a statement today, Representative Rashida Tlaib called the speech “a celebration of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians”.

“It is a sad day for our democracy when my colleagues will smile for a photo op with a man who is actively committing genocide,” she said.

Representative Cori Bush, meanwhile, said in a post on X that “standing up for human rights is not just a talking point”.

“For lawmakers who genuinely care about democracy and freedom, standing up for human rights is not just a talking point."

Read my statement on my decision to boycott Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s joint address to Congress ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/psOnvwGPKx

— Congresswoman Cori Bush (@RepCori) July 23, 2024

Bernie Sanders says he will not attend speech of ‘war criminal’ Netanyahu

US Senator Bernie Sanders has issued a statement detailing why he will not attend Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on Wednesday.

“I agree with both the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the United Nations independent commission that both Benjamin Netanyahu and Yahya Sinwar are war criminals,” said Sanders, referring to the Israeli and Hamas leaders.

Sanders also said he believed Netanyahu’s “right-wing, extremist government should not receive another nickel of US taxpayer support to continue the inhumane destruction of Gaza”.

Protesters march in Tel Aviv demanding release of captives

As Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu continues his trip to the US capital, demonstrators in Israel are seeking to put extra pressure on him to reach a deal with Hamas that will put a ceasefire in place in Gaza and achieve the release of captives held by the Palestinian group.

Photos and videos posted on social media show a large crowd marching through the streets of Tel Aviv this evening.

Last night, a group of protesters met Netanyahu at Ben Gurion airport as he left Israel for the US. Several demonstrators were arrested.

צעדת משפחות החטופים ומחאת הנשים מגיעה לבגין.
את כולם - עכשיו!
בעסקה - עכשיו!
🎗️🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/GRvDNrHnTZ

— Yoav Groweiss 🎗️يوآف غروفايس (@yoav_gro) July 23, 2024

Hundreds of Jewish activists arrested during Gaza war protest in US Congress building

US Capitol Police arrested Jewish activists protesting against US military support for Israel inside a congressional building on Tuesday, a day before Netanyahu is scheduled to deliver a speech to Congress.

Sonya Meyerson-Knox, the communications director of the Jewish Voice for Peace, spoke to Al Jazeera from Washington, DC:

Israeli soldier hospitalised after missile attack from Lebanon

The Israeli military has announced that a soldier has been “seriously injured” after “several missiles” were fired from southern Lebanon into the Mount Dov region of northern Israel.

The soldier has been taken to hospital for treatment and his family has been informed, the Israeli military said in a post on X.

Israeli army says it struck Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon

The military says it hit infrastructure in the area of Chihine from where rockets were fired on Tuesday.

It also targeted a military warehouse in the southern village of Kfarhamam where the armed group likely stored weapons, the army said.

Hezbollah releases video of Ramat David airbase deep inside Israel

Hezbollah has shown nine minutes of aerial footage of Israel’s Ramat David Air Force base, 20km (12 miles) southeast of Haifa city.

“The footage, captured by one of the group’s drones on July 23, shows the base housing fighter jets, combat helicopters, transport and rescue helicopters, naval reconnaissance helicopters, and offensive electronic warfare systems,” Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem wrote.

Hezbollah’s third episode of “The Hoopoe” features approximately 9 minutes of aerial footage of the Ramat David Air Force base, located 20 km southeast of Haifa. The footage, captured by one of the group’s drones on July 23rd, shows the base housing fighter jets, combat… pic.twitter.com/uh52HiHlEE

— Ali Hashem علي هاشم (@alihashem_tv) July 24, 2024

Israeli military demolishes slain Palestinian man’s home

Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency is now reporting that the Israeli military has blown up the late Muhammad Manasra’s home there. Footage verified by Sanad shows fire and smoke as Israeli forces detonated explosives at the site.

Israeli forces shot and killed Manasra on February 29 near the town of al-Lubban Asharqiya, south of Nablus. He was accused of killing two Israelis in an attack at a gas station near the illegal settlement of Eli.

Earlier, we reported that Israeli forces shot two Palestinian men and ran over another as they raided the camp and prepared Manasra’s house for demolition.

لحظة تفجير الاحتلال منزل الشهيد محمد مناصرة في مخيم قلنديا بالقدس #فيديو pic.twitter.com/tcNKKbpC3I

— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) July 24, 2024

Translation: The moment the occupation bombed the house of the martyr Muhammad Manasra in Qalandiya camp in Jerusalem.

Israel kills 3 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank

Israeli forces arrest 25 Palestinians from West Bank

Since yesterday, Israeli forces have arrested at least 25 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said in a statement.

Among the detainees are two wounded people, two female students, a journalist, a child and former prisoners, it said. The arrests took place in the governorates of Tulkarem, Hebron, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Tubas, Nablus, and Jerusalem.

Killing of Palestinian officer under investigation: Israeli army

We reported earlier that Israeli soldiers killed a customs officer in Tubas, occupied West Bank.

The military released a statement saying it’s investigating the circumstances around the incident. The army said the Palestinian officer was killed as Israeli troops carried out a raid to arrest two members of an armed group.

Investigations that lead nowhere

150,000 Palestinians fled Khan Younis in one day, UN says

Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the UN chief, has detailed the scale of the displacement from Khan Younis following Israel’s evacuation orders.

“Yesterday, about 150,000 people fled areas in Khan Younis, as assessed by humanitarian colleagues monitoring population movements in the area,” Dujarric told reporters in New York on Tuesday.

“OCHA has expressed our concern about the short interval between the dropping of the leaflets telling people to leave and the escalation of military operations, which posed significant risks to those fleeing. That delay was about an hour. Many have been observed on the move without any belongings. The immediate escalation of hostilities in the area also resulted in many people being trapped in the evacuation area. These included people with reduced mobility and family members supporting them,” he said.

Dujarric said Palestinians told to evacuate eastern Khan Younis into al-Mawasi are moving to an area with very little services.

“Each evacuation order profoundly disrupts people’s lives. People have been forced to move into areas with little or no infrastructure – where there is very limited access to shelter, health, sanitation or other life-saving humanitarian assistance,” he said.

“Also, the area designated for evacuation yesterday included two primary health centres and two medical points, as well as a dozen food distribution points and eight cooked meal provision points. These have all ceased operations, with only one community kitchen still operational for those who have remained behind.”

Israeli forces launch attacks across Gaza

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that Israeli forces are shelling the central Nuseirat refugee camp, and have launched air attacks on the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood in northern Gaza City, as well as on the central Bureij refugee camp and southern Rafah City.

And as we’ve been reporting, fierce clashes are ongoing between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters in Khan Younis, while at least five Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli attack on Jabalia in northern Gaza.

Heavy Israeli air, artillery attacks reported in Khan Younis

The Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV is also reporting fierce clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters in Khan Younis in conjunction with heavy aerial and artillery bombardment on the area.

Khan Younis witnesses one of the bloodiest days yet, rights monitor says

Israel’s assault on Khan Younis that killed at least 89 Palestinians, most of whom are women and children, is one of its bloodiest attacks yet as “Israel’s crime of genocide continues to unfold”, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has said in a statement.

The monitor noted that every time there is talk that a truce will be reached, “the Israeli army purposefully increases the number of massacres and mass killings of Palestinian civilians”.

“This raises concerns that Israel is engaging in political blackmail by using the killing and displacement of civilians as a tool of pressure, as it has done repeatedly in recent weeks,” it said.

It noted that during the latest attack on Khan Younis, entire families were taken off the civil registry, including the Jabour and Harb families.

The monitor urged all nations to enact strong sanctions against Israel and end all political, financial and military support.

UK charity ‘outraged’ by Israel’s killing of Palestinian children

At least 24 children are among the more than 80 people that Israeli forces killed in a day in Khan Younis, according to Save the Children.

“We are outraged by the relentless and disproportionate violence against Palestinian children,” said Jeremy Stoner, the British charity’s regional director for the Middle East.

“We cannot allow this to become normalised. Those who have survived are living through inhumane conditions and extreme stress,” Stoner said.

According to the UN, the number of child casualties has increased by nearly 250 percent since the start of the war.

Israeli snipers kill child in Khan Younis: Report

Palestinian media report that a child was killed by Israeli snipers stationed behind Abu Nuwairah School, east of Abasan al-Jadida in Khan Younis.

Meanwhile, Israeli artillery shelling has targeted the area near the Wadi Gaza Bridge from the direction of Salah al-Din Street, northeast of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, our colleagues on the ground report.

More than 120 killed in Israeli assault on Khan Younis

At least 121 people, most of them women and children, have been killed since the beginning of the Israeli assault on the eastern areas of Khan Younis, Gaza’s civil defence has announced.

It said in a statement that teams are working to evacuate many people trapped in the town of Bani Suheila, in eastern Khan Younis.

Airwars investigation finds Gaza death toll ‘largely reliable’

An investigation by the UK-based watchdog suggests that the Palestinian Health Ministry death toll data is “largely reliable”.

Airwars used open-source monitoring to independently identify nearly 3,000 names of civilians killed in the first 17 days of the war.

While evidence suggests that the ministry’s figures have become less accurate after the Israeli army decimated the Strip’s health infrastructure, it adds to the growing consensus that the ministry’s figures are broadly reliable, Mike Spagat, a professor specialised in casualty figures at Royal Holloway, University of London, told Airwars.

“This painstaking research provides strong validation for both the first Ministry of Health list of the dead and the reliability of social media posts from Palestinians collected by Airwars covering the same period,” Spagat said. “Neither list is complete but the 75 percent matching rate demonstrates convincingly that both capture a large fraction of the underlying reality.”

Israeli delegation in Egypt for Qatar ceasefire talks

An Israeli delegation is heading to Cairo for negations with Egyptian officials. According to Egyptian sources, the talks will focus on the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza and the Philadelphi Corridor along the border.

On Thursday, officials from Egypt, Israel, the United States and Qatar will meet in Doha with the aim of resuming talks for a proposed three-phase ceasefire to end the war on Gaza, according to Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar newspaper, which is close to Hezbollah.

It added that Egyptian and Qatari mediators see the first phase of the deal as close, but they are concerned that Netanyahu might destroy a possible deal in the final hours.

A spokesperson for Netanyahu’s office confirmed a delegation is expected in Cairo.

1,000 French police to secure Israel-Mali Olympics football game

About 1,000 French police officers will be on duty on Wednesday to protect Israel’s football match against Mali at the Paris Olympics, where protests are also expected, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

The game involving the Israeli team at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris and the Ukraine-Iraq match in the southeastern city of Lyon have been identified by French security forces as high-risk.

“All the competitions have a security plan, but it’s true that these two matches, and particularly the match at the Parc des Princes, will have security, an anti-terror perimeter,” Darmanin told BFM television and RMC radio.

The measures come amid calls to bar Israel from the Olympics. Campaigners say Israel should be banned from the games just like Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022.

A left-wing French MP on Sunday said Israeli athletes were not welcome at the Paris Games for the devastating war on Gaza. Nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched war on Gaza in October.

French President Emmanuel Macron has rejected demands to exclude Israel from the Olympics.

Paris protesters call for Israel’s Olympic expulsion

Far-left French lawmakers have urged protests against Israel’s participation in the Games. At a small rally in Paris late on Tuesday, pro-Palestinian protesters chanted, “Free, free Palestine.”

“Israel should be expelled because it is systematically violating rights and international laws,” demonstrator Elena Guerra said.

_{An anti-Israel protest in front of the Olympic Committee in Paris last month}

Pro-Palestinian protests outside UK Foreign Office

Workers and trade unionists from Workers for a Free Palestine blockaded the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in central London.

They called on Foreign Secretary David Lammy and the new Labour government to meet their own demands on the previous government by immediately suspending the sale of arms to Israel.

Demonstrators also demanded the withdrawal of a legal bid to block the International Criminal Court from issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

_{Britain supplied 42 million pounds ($53m) of arms to Israel in 2022}

Israeli forces publishing degrading pictures of detained Palestinians, says HRW

Human Rights Watch has accused Israeli forces of publishing degrading photographs and videos of detained Palestinians, including children, in acts that amount to war crimes.

In many cases, detainees were stripped of their clothing, sometimes fully, then photographed or filmed, with the images published by Israeli soldiers, media outlets or activists, the group said.

Forced nudity followed by capturing and sharing sexualised images on social media is a form of sexual violence and also a war crime, it said.

“Israeli authorities have for months turned a blind eye as members of their military published dehumanizing fully or seminude images and videos of Palestinians in their custody,” said Balkees Jarrah, acting Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

“Senior officials and military commanders can be held criminally responsible for ordering these crimes, or for failing to prevent or punish them, including at the International Criminal Court.”