Israel’s defence minister seeks probe into Ben-Gvir’s role in Sde Teiman ordeal

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to investigate whether the country’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir prevented or delayed police from stopping protesters who stormed the Sde Teiman military facility yesterday.

The members of Ben-Gvir’s party took part in the incident that started in protest of the detention of nine Israeli soldiers suspected of severely abusing a Palestinian detainee. Later, the protesters also tried to breach the Beit Lid military base, where the suspects were transported.

In an open letter, Gallant called on Netanyahu to examine “if the minister of national security prevented or delayed the police from responding to the violent incidents that members of his party took part in”.

The participation of elected officials in riots at army bases is a “dangerous and serious” issue which must be dealt with, the minister said.

Israeli High Court to hold new hearing on Sde Teiman prison

The Times of Israel reports the High Court of Justice will hold a second hearing on August 7 to discuss a petition by human rights groups to shut down the Sde Teiman detention facility.

The prison in southern Israel has come under increasing scrutiny over reports of abuses committed against Palestinian detainees.

_{Israeli soldiers protest at the gate to the Sde Teiman detention site in support of soldiers questioned over allegations of detainee abuse}

Sde Teiman violations are systematic: Gaza ministry of detainees

The ministry has said that the violations at the detention camp are systematic, calculated and carried out with orders from Israeli authorities.

It also said that the clashes that took place at military bases with Israeli police over the detention of nine Israeli soldiers accused of “substantial abuse” of a Palestinian prisoner were a “charade intended to show that these violations are individual ones carried out by a few bad apples”.

“The truth is that what is happening is systematic torture that has led to several deaths of detainees,” the ministry said, adding that this is a war crime, and that the detention centre has to be shut down.

“The prisoners are being subject to torture, assault and humiliation not because they are suspected of any wrong-doing but as a form of revenge for the October 7 attacks.”

Wars a setback to polio eradication programme: WHO

Margaret Harris, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization (WHO), says wars have eliminated past efforts made to eradicate polio.

“We were on the point of eliminating it,” Harris told Al Jazeera. “But with conflicts breaking out around the world, all that work, all those millions of dollars … have been wasted because we have just gone backwards,” Harris said.

Cases of polio have declined by 99 percent worldwide since 1988, thanks to mass vaccination campaigns, and efforts continue to eradicate it everywhere.

“Most of polio, 75 percent, may well be asymptomatic – it’s like many viruses. The problem is that if you are one of those getting a severe form you could be paralysed for life or you can die,” she said.

Her comments came as a polio outbreak has been declared inside the Gaza Strip where more than nine months of war have destroyed sewage and water systems. On Friday, the WHO said it was sending about a million vaccines to the Strip.

However, Harris said “we need a ceasefire” to get children vaccinated.

Solid waste management system in Gaza has collapsed: UN

The United Nations Development Programme has concluded the waste management system in Gaza is no longer functioning.

In its latest report, it said there is no access to major landfills and waste is accumulating “at more than 140 temporary dumping sites which causes serious health and environmental risks, including a spike in diarrheal illness and in acute respiratory infections”.

Since October 7, it noted there have been the following recorded cases, noting the statistics are “likely far higher”:

Lice, scabies, rashes plague Palestinian children in Gaza

Skin diseases are running rampant in Gaza, health officials say, from appalling conditions in overcrowded tent camps housing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians driven from their homes by Israel’s war now entering its 10th month.

Palestinians have no soap to wash themselves, their children or their clothes during the summer heat, a report by the AP said. According to the UN, the sanitation system has collapsed amid Israel’s bombardment and offensives.

The World Health Organization has reported more than 160,00 cases of lice, scabies and skin rashes. At one hospital, doctors report hundreds of skin disease cases a day, including a steady stream of children, covered in spots, scabs, rashes and lesions that turn into worse infections.

Cleanliness is impossible in the ramshackle tents, basically wood frames hung with blankets or plastic sheets, crammed side by side over wide stretches.

People have to wear the same clothes day after day until they’re able to wash them, then they wear them again immediately. Flies are everywhere. Children play in garbage-strewn sand.

Israeli soldiers storm al-Ein refugee camp in occupied West Bank

Heavy gunfire has been reported as Israeli forces storm the al-Ein refugee camp, located to the west of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

The Wafa news agency reports that a large force of Israelis entered the camp early this morning, sealing entrances and surrounding a house. Snipers were deployed to surrounding rooftops.

Israeli forces demolish homes in West Bank’s Duma, Beit Awwa

Israeli demolition vehicles are demolishing Palestinian homes in the town of Beit Awwa, southwest of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian media.

⭕️الاحتلال ينفذ عمليات هدم في بلدة بيت عوا جنوب غرب الخليل. pic.twitter.com/6d39Jn5lbZ

— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) July 30, 2024

Translation: The occupation carries out demolition operations in the town of Beit Awwa, southwest of Hebron.

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic also reported that Israeli forces, accompanied by demolition vehicles, have stormed the village of Duma, southeast of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, to demolish a house under the pretext of not having a permit.

Israeli forces arrest at least 15 people in occupied West Bank

The arrests have been carried out mainly in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Qalqilya, Nablus and Tulkarem.

Among those detained are children and former prisoners, according to the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.

Since the war began, Israeli forces have detained about 9,870 Palestinians, a statement added.

Detained Palestinian describes family ordeal under Israeli arrest

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Ramallah in the West Bank, former detainee Fadia Barghouti says about half of those she was incarcerated with had been detained by Israeli authorities for posts on social media. Many of those were held under “administrative detention” with no clear charges.

Barghouti said her husband has been held for 23 months under an ambiguous security law and her son since October. Then the Shin Bet intelligence agency ordered her detention.

“I was told I was arrested because of participating in a demonstration asking for the freedom of my husband and son or better conditions for them. And then I lived in such conditions,” she said.

“Palestinian prisoners are in total isolation from the outside world. Real action against the Israelis by the international community is needed to stop what they’re doing.”

Rockets target Israeli forces in northern Gaza, Palestinian snipers hit in south: Monitors

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fighters attacked Israeli forces operating in neighbourhoods to the south of Gaza City with rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, and fired rockets at troops deployed on the Netzarim Corridor further to the south, war monitors report.

In southern Gaza’s Rafah city, Hamas fired a “Red Arrow” guided missile at an Israeli armoured vehicle on Monday, according to US-based defence think tanks the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP).

A combined Hamas-PIJ sniper attack also targeted an Israeli soldier in eastern Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip and another joint Hamas-PIJ sniper team fired on an Israeli soldier in the Bani Suheila area of the city, according to the latest ISW-CTP battlefield report.

Palestinians return to areas east of Khan Younis after Israeli withdrawal

Palestinian journalists have shared videos on Instagram showing displaced Palestinians returning on foot to areas east of Khan Younis following the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Last week, the Israeli military issued an evacuation order for eastern parts of Khan Younis and began a new ground invasion months after launching an offensive there.

The invasion displaced at least 180,000 Palestinians in the first four days, with many having to move without their belongings, according to the United Nations.

_{Israel’s army said soldiers destroyed tunnels and other ‘terrorist’ infrastructure}

UN concerned over Palestinian families in East Jerusalem facing eviction

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights says it’s concerned that more than 80 Palestinian families face eviction from their homes in Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem due to “unlawful” and “discriminatory Israeli laws against Palestinians”.

In a statement, it said 87 Palestinian families, totalling 600 to 680 individuals, are facing legal proceedings initiated by Israeli settlers to evict them from their homes in the Batn al-Hawa neighbourhood.

It said the “systematic settlers’ campaign” aims to “uproot Palestinians from their homes, take over their property and implant Israeli settlers in the heart of Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem”.

“International humanitarian law prohibits Israel from imposing its own laws in occupied territory, which includes the application of Israeli laws to evict Palestinians from their homes,” the UN said.

Palestine NOC president once again pushes IOC to ban Israel

The Palestinian National Olympic Committee (NOC) sent a reminder to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) about Israel’s breach of the Olympic truce, the NOC’s President Jibril Rajoub has said, speaking to journalists at a press conference at the Mission of the State of Palestine building on the sidelines of the Paris Olympics.

“We posed a specific question and asked the IOC to clarify whether the breach of the Olympic truce, implementation of the apartheid regime, annexation of the Palestinian territory, and Israeli athletes being members of the occupying forces will bring a change in the IOC policy towards Israeli participation in international sports,” added Rajoub.

The Palestinian team for the Games consists of six athletes who will be competing in boxing, judo, taekwondo, shooting and swimming, with slim hopes of a medal.

Palestinian sports officials have said that since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza in October 2023, more than 300 athletes, referees and sports officials have been killed and all sports facilities in Gaza demolished.

At every Olympics, the IOC calls on all countries participating to observe a truce for the duration of the games.

Israel’s Smotrich calls for war and re-occupation of southern Lebanon

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for Israel to “reoccupy southern Lebanon” and for “a war that will destroy Hezbollah”.

The ultra-nationalist minister and leader of the National Religious Party-Religious Zionism, said that “the people of Israel are ready for this”. “There is no way to restore security to the residents of the north without a war that will destroy Hezbollah,” he said in a post on social media. As well as reoccupying southern Lebanon, Israel must create “a security strip” within Lebanese territory, he said.

Israel claims killing Hezbollah fighter, hitting 10 targets in Lebanon

At least one Hezbollah fighter has been killed in Israeli attacks on seven different areas in southern Lebanon, according to Israel’s army.

It said the Israeli aircraft, fighter jets and artillery have hit about 10 Hezbollah targets there since yesterday evening.

The fighter was killed in Beit Lif, a village in Lebanon’s Nabatieh governorate, the military’s announcement said on X, adding that a warehouse and a rocket launcher were among the other destroyed targets.

Earlier, we reported that Hezbollah announced the killing of its 29-year-old fighter from Beit Lif, Hassan Hussein Malik.

Blast reported in Lebanon’s capital Beirut

A loud blast has been reported and a plume of smoke could be seen rising in al-Dahieh, the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut.

The city has been on edge for days ahead of an anticipated Israeli attack in retaliation for an attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that killed a dozen youngsters.

Hezbollah sources saying targeted commander survived attack

We are in the southern suburbs of Beirut just a few metres from where the building was hit in the attack. As you can imagine, the situation is quite tense.

Now, Hezbollah sources are saying that Muhsin Shukr has survived this assassination attempt earlier. Israeli messaging is that this was their promised response, their response to the rocket attack on Saturday in the town of Majdal Shams that killed civilians.

What will Hezbollah do? The very fact that there are reports that this high-ranking commander has survived could mean that there could be a different response. It could be a very different situation, for example, if he was killed.

This was in a densely populated area. And we’re getting reports that a woman was killed. So the dust needs to settle before we can give you all the details. But this was a military target, which means that Israel is trying to stay within the unwritten rules of engagement of their ongoing confrontation with Hezbollah.

Still, earlier today, a high-ranking Hezbollah source told us that no matter what the strike, no matter if it’s limited in nature, it will be considered an act of aggression, and that Hezbollah will respond.

So we are at a tipping point in this conflict and we still do not know the trajectory of this conflict.

Lebanon condemns Israeli attack

Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib has on Tuesday that his government condemned the Israeli attack that hit the southern suburbs of the capital and planned to file a complaint to the United Nations.

He told the Reuters news agency he hoped any response by Hezbollah, whose heartland is in those southern suburbs, would not trigger an escalation.

State media in Lebanon: One killed in Israeli strike on Beirut

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) says that a female civilian was killed when Israel bombed a building in Haret Hreik, in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital.

“Sixty-eight civilians were injured, five of whom were critically injured, while the rest suffered moderate to minor injuries. Most of them were treated in emergency departments and were discharged from hospitals,” the NNA added.

The hospitals that treated the patients were named as “Bahman Hospital, Al-Sahel Hospital, Al-Rasoul Al-Aazam Hospital, Al-Zahraa Hospital, Al-Jeitaoui University Hospital”.

US was offering $5m for info on target of Israeli strike

The US State Department had been offering $5m for information on Muhsin Shukr, also known as Fuad Shukr, prior to Israel’s attack today.

Hezbollah sources say Shukr survived the attack, although his fate remains unclear.

The US, in a listing explaining the reward, described Shukr as a senior advisor on military affairs to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. It also said he “played a central role” in the 1983 bombing of a US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut that killed 241 US soldiers.