Antigovernment protesters in Tel Aviv call for Gaza ceasefire

Israeli protesters have taken to the streets on Tel Aviv calling for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to step down.

In Tel Aviv, where Netanyahu still controls a stable majority in parliament, many protesters waved Israeli flags while others carried signs criticising his handling of pivotal issues such as bringing captives back from Gaza and agreeing to a ceasefire.

The weekly protests have grown more frequent as the war in Gaza rages on.

_{Demonstrators clash with security forces during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in Tel Aviv}

Netanyahu to bring forward return from US to convene security cabinet

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is cutting short his trip to Washington to return to Israel following the attack on the Druze village of Majdal Shams, his office has said.

In a post on X, it said Netanyahu would immediately enter consultations with the security cabinet.

Victims of Majdal Shams attack Syrians, not Israelis

The Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari has condemned the air attack on Majdal Shams, saying that the victims were Israeli citizens.

Mouin Rabbani, an analyst at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies in Montreal, said the statement was incorrect.

“The victims were not Israelis, they were Syrians,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that the Golan Heights were occupied by Israel in 1967 but that the Druze population there does not hold Israeli citizenship.

Israel claimed that the attack was carried out by Hezbollah, which the group has denied. “Israel has for months been threatening a major offensive in Lebanon and the Israeli public also feels strongly that the government should deal with the threat of Hezbollah before a new school year begins in September,” Rabbani said.

It is “entirely plausible”, the analyst added, that the attack will trigger an escalation, for which Netanyahu may have gotten a green light from the US during his trip to Washington, DC.

Israel’s Ben-Gvir says ‘red line’ crossed in Majdal Shams

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has said that a “red line” has been crossed in the Majdal Shams attack, adding that this should be allowed “no more”. The far-right minister referred to the bond between the Druze and Jewish communities, which he said was commonly referred to as a “covenant of blood” and a “life covenant”.

He extended his condolences to the families of the victims for the “severe disaster that befell us all”.

Iranian ambassador says Tehran does not expect wider war in Lebanon

Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, has said that Tehran “does not expect” a wider war in Lebanon, amid fears of a possible escalation after the attack on the occupied Golan Heights which Israel blamed on Hezbollah.

Amani also said that Iran does “not want” but does “not fear” an escalation, and that its enemies know what it can do to protect the “resistance” in the region.

Israel deliberately shooting children in Gaza, trauma surgeon says

Feroze Sidhwa, a trauma surgeon who spent two weeks at the European Hospital in Khan Younis in March, told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces were deliberately targeting children.

“We regularly saw, on a daily basis, children shot in the head and chest – often more than one at the same time,” he said, speaking from French Camp, California.

“It’s hard to believe that’s just a consequence of war. I can’t imagine how that’s not deliberate.”

He also said that Israel’s direct attacks on the healthcare system have been devastating. “It’s impossible for the healthcare system to function in this environment, with hospitals being destroyed and even deprived of clean water at this point,” he said.

“[Then there are the] direct attacks on healthcare workers themselves – the healthcare workers in Gaza are extremely dispirited – they know they’re being targeted by the Israelis.”

Israeli forces shoot boy, obstruct medics as Balata raids continue

Israeli forces shot and wounded a 17-year-old Palestinian boy in the Balata refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, before also firing on ambulance crews that tried to help him, according to the Wafa news agency.

The ongoing raid is the fourth Israeli operation in the refugee camp in the past 24 hours, Wafa reported. In the latest attack, Israeli forces bulldozed parts of the Al-Araishi Mall, the agency said.

In an earlier incursion, Israeli forces killed two Palestinians, including a 17-year-old boy. Israeli shelling also wounded a medic who was trying to evacuate those injured in the earlier attacks, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS).

Urgent: A field volunteer EMT with the Palestine Red Crescent Society was injured while evacuating the wounded due to the occupation's shelling of citizens in Balata Refugee Camp, east of #Nablus. #NotATarget #IHL #WestBank pic.twitter.com/WreEuWl5HO

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) July 27, 2024

WHO chief worried about civilians, patients in Deir el-Bala

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus took to X to express concern over the deadly Israeli attack on the Khadija School, which was being used as a field hospital and shelter.

“Deeply worried about the safety of civilians and patients in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, following the latest reports of airstrikes in areas where many displaced people are sheltering,” he wrote.

“Such attacks also strain fragile health facilities and put them at risk of closure,” he added, calling for a ceasefire and for civilians and health workers to be protected.

Deeply worried about the safety of civilians and patients in Deir al-Balah, #Gaza, following the latest reports of airstrikes in areas where many displaced people are sheltering. Such attacks also strain fragile health facilities and put them at risk of closure.

We call for an…

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) July 27, 2024

Multiple Israeli air attacks reported in Lebanon

We have just received reports of Israeli air attacks on several locations across southern Lebanon.

Explosions have been heard in the southern city of Tyre and surrounding areas.

Three villages close to the border have also been hit. These “frontline villages” have been repeatedly hit during the course of the ongoing confrontations between the Israeli military and Hezbollah.

UN officials in Lebanon call for ‘maximum restraint’

The UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and the head of the UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Aroldo Lazaro, have issued a joint statement on the rocket attack on Majdal Shams in occupied Golan Heights.

“We deplore the death of civilians – young children and teenagers – in Majdal Shams,” Hennis-Plasschaer and Lazaro said.

They also urged all parties to “exercise maximum restraint and to put a stop to the ongoing intensified exchanges of fire”, saying that escalation could “engulf the entire region in a catastrophe beyond belief”.

UNIFIL and the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon are “in contact with both Lebanon and Israel”, they added.

What is the Golan Heights?

The Golan Heights is a strategic plateau bordering Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. While it is internationally recognised as part of Syria, two-thirds of the area has been occupied by Israel since it was captured in the 1967 Six-Day War. Syria attempted to retake the area in 1973, but failed.

A UN observer force has been supervising the ceasefire line ever since.

Israel has built dozens of illegal settlements in the occupied Golan Heights – and in 1981, declared that it was annexing the territory. About 20,000 illegal Israeli settlers now live there, alongside approximately 20,000 Druze Arabs.

Australia should press Israel not to invade Lebanon, says Greens leader

Adam Bandt, the leader of the Australian Greens, has called for the Australian government to pressure Israel not to invade Lebanon in the wake of the deadly attack on Majdal Shams.

“Labor must pressure the extremist Israeli government to end its genocide in Gaza and not escalate war by invading Lebanon,” Bandt said in a post on social media.

 
Death toll from Golan Heights attack rises to 12

The Israeli military says at least 12 people have been killed in the rocket attack on Majdal Shams. All the victims were aged between 10 and 20.

Earlier, the military also said that the rocket that struck the football pitch was an Iranian-made Falaq-1 and that a Hezbollah commander named Ali Muhammad Yahya had directed the attack from a launching site in Shebaa in southern Lebanon.

As we’ve been reporting, Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the attack, with Axios, a US news outlet, reporting that the armed group told the UN that the incident was the result of an Israeli anti-rocket interceptor hitting the football pitch.

Ireland, Iraq, Arab League condemn school attack

Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris condemned the bombing, saying it was a “further demonstration of brutal, unconscionable violence”. He added that targeting an area populated with displaced families is “inhumane and despicable”.

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry also denounced the attack and called for global action, saying that “this massacre is a continuation of the hostile acts and crimes committed by the Zionist entity against defenceless civilians”.

The Arab League, meanwhile, criticised the international community’s silence on the Israeli military’s “heinous massacre” and called on the UN Security Council to pressure Israel to end the “genocide”.

_{Palestinians inspect a destroyed school building following an Israeli attack in Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, July 27}

Islamic Relief ‘appalled’ as school ‘massacre’ displaces families again

The humanitarian group released a statement expressing concern at the deteriorating situation in Gaza after “yet another deadly massacre at a school” where Palestinians were sheltering.

“Israel’s policy of constantly forcing civilians to move from one place to another, and then attacking the schools and camps where they are told to go, is making the humanitarian crisis even more catastrophic by the day,” Islamic Relief said in the statement.

The statement highlighted that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have again been displaced by Israeli orders in recent weeks, with “some families now displaced nine or 10 times since the crisis escalated” and called on international governments to demand an immediate ceasefire and “an end to the constant forced displacement”.

_{An injured Palestinian woman is carried to an ambulance following an Israeli strike on the Khadija school housing displaced people in Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday}

Another Israeli soldier dies of wounds from Gaza war

The Israeli military says a 21-year-old soldier has died about one week after he was seriously wounded in fighting in southern Gaza. According to The Times of Israel, 331 Israeli soldiers have been killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip and along Israel’s borders, since October.

_{More than 300 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the ground operation inside the Strip}

Wounded patients dying at Al-Aqsa Hospital due to lack of medication

Doctors are watching the wounded people die on the floor of the emergency department at Al-Aqsa Hospital of Deir el-Balah.

There is a lack of medicine and medical supplies, leaving the doctors with no capacity to intervene and save lives.

This is the result of yesterday’s attacks on the school in western Deir-el Balah. A field hospital was set up inside the school, in coordination with the ICRC [Red Cross], used before transferring patients and injuries from Al-Aqsa Hospital. It worked as a supporting facility to reduce the pressure on the hospital. It came under attack yesterday.

About 120 critically injured people arrived at Al-Aqsa Hospital from there. At least 36 people were pronounced dead; this number is confirmed by the Health Ministry and management of the hospital. At least 15 children are among those killed.

Some arrived in pieces in plastic bags, they arrived shredded because of the intensity of the bombs and shrapnel.

Gaza death toll rises

At least 39,324 Palestinians have been killed and 90,830 others injured in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

At least 66 Palestinians were killed in the past day alone, the statement added.

Anger in Tel Aviv as Netanyahu leaves US without deal

_{Israelis rallying in Tel Aviv, expressed anger as the Israeli prime minister ended a visit to Washington, DC without announcing a deal to bring home Israeli captives held in Gaza}

Israel refusing treatment to Palestinian detainee with partial paralysis: Report

Wafa is reporting that Israeli authorities have refused to provide medical treatment to 23-year-old Ibrahim Ammar Abbas, who is imprisoned at the Naqab (Negev) prison and is suffering from partial paralysis.

Abbas was arrested from a checkpoint in Jenin on April 23 of last year, and his family told Wafa he became partially paralysed on July 15 of this year. They appealed to human rights organisations to intervene and help save his life, the agency reported.

Abbas is currently being held in administrative detention, without charges or trial.

Israel wants a status quo in which Palestinian death is treated as normal

Israeli warning sirens in Majdal Shams came too late: Report

The Times of Israel is reporting that Israel sounded warning sirens before the deadly rocket attack in Majdal Shams, but it was too short of a notice for the victims to flee.

The newspaper quoted Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, as saying that initial investigations show rocket sirens sounded in the town “but this is an immediate alert – too short”.


Israel military says it attacked Hezbollah sites overnight

The Israeli military has just issued a statement confirming the air attacks in Lebanon.

It said its fighter jets targeted weapons depots and other Hezbollah infrastructure in Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, in Shabriha and Burj el-Shemali near the southern city of Tyre, and the villages of Kafr Lila, Rab al-Thalathine, Khiam and Tayr Harfa.

Iran warns Israel against ‘new adventure’ in Lebanon

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani says in a statement that “any ignorant action of the Zionist regime can lead to the broadening of the scope of instability, insecurity and war in the region”.

Kanaani warned that Israel would be held responsible for “the unforeseen consequences and reactions to such stupid behaviour”.


Israel says Hezbollah ‘crossed all red lines’

Hezbollah has “crossed all red lines” in Majdal Shams, the Israeli Foreign Ministry says, despite the Iran-backed armed group’s denial of its involvement in the attack that killed at least 12 youths in the Druze town in the occupied Golan Heights.

“Saturday’s massacre constitutes the crossing of all red lines by Hezbollah,” the ministry said in a statement. “This is not an army fighting another army, rather it is a terrorist organisation deliberately shooting at civilians.”