Majdal Shams residents angered by arrival of Israeli ministers for funerals: Reports

The visit of Israeli ministers to the town of Majdal Shams in the occupied Syrian Golan has angered the residents, according to the Israeli media. Channel 13 reported angry protesters shouted at Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, asking him to leave.

“Get out of here, criminal, we don’t want you in the Golan,” one person said, according to the broadcaster. “We want calm and we didn’t get it. We are tired of your promises,” another person was quoted as shouting.

‘No offensive deployments by Israeli army’ on Lebanon’s border

Military analyst Elias Farhat says people are afraid of the repercussions if Netanyahu and his war cabinet decide to attack Beirut and Lebanon’s key southern cities after their emergency meeting this afternoon.

“Then Hezbollah will strike in Tel Aviv and Haifa and we’ll get a wide-scale war, not only between Lebanon and Israel but the whole region,” Farhat told Al Jazeera from Beirut.

However, Farhat said he doesn’t believe the situation will escalate that far because “Israeli isn’t prepared for it”.

“On the border, there are no offensive deployments by the Israeli army that would indicate a ground attack against Lebanon, as was the case in 2006, 1982, and 1978. So the ground forces are not prepared. But the air forces are always prepared, and we expect strikes in Lebanon and responses by Hezbollah on targets in Israel.”

Netanyahu on his way to emergency meeting to discuss Golan attack

Norway’s top diplomat warns against Israeli response to Majdal Shams attack

Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide has said in a statement condemning the Majdal Shams attack that “an escalation of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah could represent a turning point” in the region.

“A great responsibility rests on the leaders in the entire region. I repeat our strong call to all parties, including those who support the various sides in this conflict, to do what they can to exercise restraint and avoid this developing into a major regional war,” he said.

“An escalation now of retaliatory attacks could have consequences for the security situation in the entire Middle East,” he added.

He called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, saying that the Israeli-Hamas truce would help reduce the level of tension in the region.

Norway urges citizens to leave Lebanon

The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Beirut has warned on Facebook that “the conflict between Hezbollah in Lebanon and Israel has escalated”. “Norwegian authorities remind you of travel tips that encourage all Norwegian citizens to leave the country,” the announcement said.

“In case the situation worsens, travel options outside Lebanon may become limited. In such a situation, the Norwegian Embassy will have very limited resources to assist Norwegian citizens to leave the country.”

Hezbollah claims attack on Israeli soldiers in Manara settlement

The Lebanese group has said in a statement that its fighters targeted Israeli soldiers in the Manara settlement, in northern Israel.

The group claimed the attack carried out in support of Gaza “with appropriate weapons” injured an unidentified number of Israeli troops.

Israel-Hezbollah war fears widen

Ex-general warns against ‘setting entire Middle East on fire’

Retired Israeli Major-General Itzhak Brik says potential escalation with Lebanon’s Hezbollah in the north of the country may lead to “a full-scale regional war and the destruction of our country”.

He told the Maariv newspaper those who seek revenge after the attack on the occupied Golan Heights may drag Israel further into the war with Hezbollah, with rockets targeting residences, power plants, gas platforms, army bases and factories.

“As a result, Israel will suffer very heavy losses and the country will be destroyed. We need an immediate end to the war in Gaza, which in no way leads to the end of Hamas,” said Brik.

“As long as the war in Gaza continues, it is only a matter of time before a full-scale regional war breaks out. We can respond to Hezbollah without setting the entire Middle East on fire.”

Blinken: ‘We are in conversations with the government of Israel’

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he doesn’t want to see an escalation of war after Israel accused Hezbollah of killing 12 children in a rocket attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Blinken added he’s saddened by the loss of life and said reaching a ceasefire deal for the war on Gaza can help to calm the situation on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.

“We are in conversations with the government of Israel and, again, I emphasise its right to defend its citizens and our determination to make sure that they’re able to do that,” Blinken told a news conference in Japan.

Israel said on Sunday that it would strike hard against Hezbollah, which denied any responsibility for the Golan attack.

‘My baby girl was born on the street’: A traumatic birth in Gaza

Every morning, Alaa al-Nimer wakes up to bathe her six-month-old daughter, Nimah. There is no running water – there hasn’t been for many months – and the water she uses sparingly is collected from distribution points close to a relative’s house in Gaza City’s northern Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood. Despite the hardships Alaa and her family now endure, she is determined to treat her green-eyed daughter to a daily bath.

The 34-year-old mother of three says her daughter’s smile is a “balm for her soul” during a time of “darkness”. But her birth was more traumatic than Alaa could ever have anticipated.

“My baby girl was born on the street,” she explains shyly. She describes it as the most difficult day of her life.

Stealing, burning houses: Reservists recount Israeli conduct in Gaza

Three Israeli reserve soldiers, Yuval Green, Tal Vardi and Michael Ofer Ziv, who fought in Gaza have told Britain’s The Observer newspaper why they no longer want to be part of the army.

Green, who spent 50 days in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis earlier this year with his paratrooper unit, said he saw “soldiers graffitiing houses or stealing all the time. They would go into a house for a military reason, looking for weapons, but it was more fun to look for souvenirs. They had a thing for necklaces with Arabic writing that they collected”.

Then, early this year: “We were given an order. We were inside a house and our commander ordered us to burn it down.”

Civics teacher Vardi, who trained reserve tank operators in northern Israel, told the newspaper he “can’t justify this military operation any more”.

“Any reasonable person can see that the military presence is not helping to bring the hostages back. If anything, some of these operations have endangered the hostages, and the army has also killed some by mistake,” he said, pointing to an incident last December when Israeli forces shot dead three captives in Gaza who approached them waving white flags.

“It was bound to happen,” said reservist Ziv, who said the incident provoked in him a powerful sense that once he finished his service he wouldn’t return.

Video shows wounded victims after Israeli attack on al-Mawasi

Journalist Feras Abu Sharkh shared footage on Instagram documenting the arrival of bodies and the injured following an Israeli attack on tents of displaced people in al-Mawasi, southern Gaza.

Earlier, we reported the shelling killed at least three Palestinians. A photo shared on Telegram and verified by Dataminr agency showed two dead children – a teenager and a baby.

The video was also verified by Sanad, Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency.

IDF Just Destroyed a Key Rafah Water Facility Rachel Corrie Spent Her Last Month of Life Defending

By Younis Tirawi, with contributed reporting by Ryan Grim and Hind Khoudary

On Friday, I discovered a video posted on Instagram by an Israeli soldier from the 601st Combat Engineering Battalion, showing the calculated demolition of a chief water facility in Rafah. The video, in three parts, shows Israeli soldiers planting explosives inside and around the water pumps of a facility in the occupied city. The video—which is captioned in Hebrew, “Destruction of the Tal Sultan water reservoir in honor of Shabbat”—ends with footage of the water facility being blown up. The soundtrack is a song produced by soldiers of the 51st Golani Brigade with lyrics like, “We will burn Gaza… shake all of Gaza… for every house you destroy we will destroy ten.”

Rafah | Rafah’s water reservoir blown up

Israeli soldier from the combat engineering corps sharing footage on his personal account blowing Rafah’s water reservoir in Tel Sultan neighborhood “in honor of Shabbat” as he describes it. pic.twitter.com/bpCghkOWeQ

— Younis Tirawi | يونس (@ytirawi) July 26, 2024

The water facility, also known as the Canada Well, is situated in Tel Sultan Neighborhood, in the western part of Rafah city. U.S. human rights activist Rachel Corrie, who was crushed to death in 2003 by an Israeli military bulldozer while attempting to prevent demolitions in the city, spent much of her time during the last month of her life helping to protect the municipality workers at the Canada Well. The workers were repairing damage done to the well due to the Israeli military bulldozers in the area, according to Gordon Murray, one of her fellow activists.

Fears of central Gaza invasion after new Israeli evacuation order

Since this morning, medical sources say, 18 bodies have now arrived at Nasser Hospital. There are ongoing artillery and air strikes as Israel’s army continues to target different areas of southern Khan Younis city, and not just those designated a “red combat zone”.

In the past hour, people in the central areas of Gaza – Nuseirat and Bureij – started receiving calls from Israeli forces telling them to evacuate. This area had already been designated as “safe” as the army told people from southern Rafah and Khan Younis and northern Gaza City to go there.

No attacks have occurred in central Gaza so far, but people are currently evacuating once again. Usually they drop leaflets, but this time it was phone calls. The central area is completely overcrowded with people who have no place to go and some have vowed to stay.

‘Doomed to certain death’: Israel denies people healthcare abroad

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) says Israel continues to bar Gaza patients from travelling abroad for treatment, effectively imposing a death sentence. It warned of the “catastrophic repercussions” of the continued closure of all Gaza crossings, which is stopping patients and the wounded from getting the medical care they desperately need.

The Rafah border crossing to Egypt has been closed since Israel captured it in early May, blocking what was the only route out of the besieged coastal enclave after Israel’s devastating war on Gaza began.

“This is a grave violation that confirms the genocide being perpetrated against the residents of the Gaza Strip. Whomever is spared death by the war machine will succumb due to the siege imposed,” PCHR said. “Thousands of wounded and sick people are doomed to certain death because Israel has destroyed the medical system in the Gaza Strip,” the group said.

Baby girl among 15 killed in 2 Israeli air strikes in Khan Younis

Two separate Israeli air strikes on Khan Younis have killed at least 15 Palestinians, including a four-month-old girl, medics said.

One air strike on an area containing tents housing displaced people in the al-Mawasi zone killed five people including a baby girl named Maria Abu Ziada. Al-Mawasi in western Khan Younis is a humanitarian-designated area where the Israeli army has been ordering Palestinians from other places to go.

Another air strike on a house at the centre of the city of Khan Younis killed 10 people, health officials said.

استشهاد الرضيعة ماريا أبو زيادة بعد 4 أشهر من ولادتها بقصف إسرائيلي استهدف خيام النازحين بمواصي خانيونس #حرب_غزة #فيديو pic.twitter.com/EZ01NhmNm6

— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) July 28, 2024

Lebanon urges international probe into deadly Golan strike

The country’s foreign minister called for an international investigation into the attack that killed 12 youths in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, warning against a large-scale response. In a statement on X, Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib pressed for an independent probe “to know the truth” about who is responsible.

Israel says Hezbollah carried out Saturday’s rocket attack that hit a football field where Druze youths were playing in the town of Majdal Shams, while the Lebanese group rejected the allegation.

Middle East Airlines delays return of some flights

Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines says it postponed the return of some flights from Sunday night to Monday morning without stating an official reason. However, Al Jazeera’s Assed Baig reports a source at the airline says the reason for the delays is fear of attacks by Israel against targets in Lebanon.

US diplomacy crucial to preventing Israel-Lebanon escalation

US officials say they don’t want the outbreak of a new conflict after Israel accused Hezbollah of killing 12 youths in a rocket attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Heiko Wimmen, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the United States is the only party that has leverage on Israel. “If this escalates and blows up into a full-fledged war, Israel will need support from the US in terms of a resupply of weapons,” Wimmen told Al Jazeera.

Yet, the rocket that killed 12 in Majdal Shams could be the accident that Wimmen feared would ignite a wider war that not even Washington is able to contain.

The analyst said the key to defusing tensions is to reach a ceasefire in Gaza as Hezbollah repeatedly said it will stop its attacks if Israel halts its nearly 10-month assault.

“The US administration has not done enough to [reach a ceasefire] in Gaza. The incident in Majdal Shams is a potent reminder of why it is necessary to bring this unending conflict to an end,” Wimmen said.