Trust in Israeli gov’t almost non-existent: Ex-Egyptian diplomat

Hussein Haridy, a former Egyptian assistant foreign minister, says he expects the deadly Israeli attack on the Gaza school earlier today to affect the talks that the mediating countries have proposed to take place on August 15 either in Cairo or Doha.

Speaking on a personal capacity, he told Al Jazeera that his “trust and confidence in the Israeli government is almost non-existent”, further noting that it was unclear what level of authority the delegation that Israel was planning to send to the negotiations would have.

“Is this delegation empowered to sign the deal proposed by the mediators, as their communique stated, or [is Israel] just sending a delegation to just listen to what the mediators have to say?” Haridy asked.

Netanyahu has shown ‘relentless insistence’ that war will continue

Former Israeli government adviser Daniel Levy told Al Jazeera that Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu has shown “relentless insistence” that the war will continue whether there is a ceasefire deal or not.

He said that Netanyahu is “putting down conditions across many issues, whether it’s the refusal on where Israel would withdraw from” or where Palestinians can move in Gaza.

He said he has also been placing conditions on “what kind of Palestinian prisoners are often being held without trial” in Israeli military courts” and what the conditions on those releases will be”.

“I can literally fill a day with Israeli named and unnamed military officials and commentators telling us that Netanyahu does not want a deal and therefore the onus shifts to the country [the US] that has the leverage right now with Israel” Levy said.

Houthis say new ceasefire proposal ‘provides political cover’ for Israel

The political office of Houthis, or Ansar Allah, in Yemen condemned the “new Zionist massacre” on the school in the Daraj neighbourhood of northern Gaza.

It says in a statement that the new proposal by the US, Qatar and Egypt as mediators for Israel and Hamas to negotiate once again for a ceasefire agreement “provides the leaders of the Israeli enemy entity with political cover” for more military action across the region.

“We renew our covenant and loyalty with Palestine, its people and its resistance, that Yemen continues in its solidarity and popular support and in the military escalation,” the group’s political office said.

Five people injured by Israeli fire in occupied West Bank: PRCS

Four of the Palestinians, two of them children, were injured in Beit Furik, east of Nablus, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says. The PRCS said two teenagers, ages 14 and 16, and two men were hit by live fire as Israeli soldiers raided the town.

During the raid, Israeli forces used live ammunition, tear gas and stun grenades on Palestinians.

A fifth Palestinian was also injured by Israeli live fire near the village of Rummanah, west of Jenin, the official news agency Wafa reported. The man from the town of Silat al-Harithiy near Jenin was shot in the left leg and taken to hospital, Wafa reported.

Hezbollah confirms ‘squadrons of attack drones’ used on northern Israel

A short while ago, we reported that Hezbollah fired multiple rockets and drones at Israel. The Lebanese group now says the attack drones were in response to the assassination of a Hamas official in the coastal city of Sidon on Friday.

It said it hit the Michve Alon air base, adding that the drones inflicted “confirmed casualties”.

Israeli forces raid several towns across occupied West Bank

Here are some of the latest developments from occupied West Bank:

Civilians continue to bear brunt of this conflict: UN expert

The UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process has said that civilians in Gaza are experiencing “horror, displacement and endless suffering”.

“The cost in lives of this war is evident with every passing day as we have witnessed yet another devastating strike on a school sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians, with dozens of fatalities,” he said in a post on X.

‘Too many’ civilians killed in Israeli school strike, says Harris

Speaking to reporters during a campaign stop in Phoenix, US presidential nominee Kamala Harris has reiterated calls for a “hostage deal and a ceasefire” in Gaza.

When asked for her reaction to Israel’s attack on a school compound in Gaza City, which has killed more than 100 people, the US vice president said, “Yet again, far too many civilians have been killed.”

At least “11 children and six women” are confirmed as being among the dead, according to Palestinian Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal.

Israel has claimed, without providing evidence, that it killed 19 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters in Saturday’s attack, and that the death toll has been inflated.

I dare any reporter to ask here what an acceptable number of dead civilians is... Is up to 30 (August 4th Nassan and Hassan Salameh schools massacre) an acceptable number to the US? Or is that just too common now to be concerned about.

Israel, too, recognises its attack on Gaza school is a war crime

Kenneth Roth, a visiting professor at Princeton University, said Harris – the US vice president – did not “quite state international law correctly” when she emphasised Israel’s right to go after Hamas fighters in her response to the Israeli military’s latest deadly attack on a Gaza school.

“She’s partly right in that Israel has a presumptive right to attack Hamas fighters,” Roth said from New York, “but it is supposed to refrain from an attack if the foreseeable civilian harm will be disproportionate”.

“She said, ‘Oh too many civilian casualties’, but she doesn’t put two and two together. She doesn’t explain that it is wrong, it is a war crime to attack Hamas fighters in a way that is endangering so many civilians,” he said.

Roth, a former executive director of Human Rights Watch, added that he believes Israel, too, knows the attack “went wrong because they’ve now claimed to have killed 19 fighters from Hamas and Islamic Jihad”.

“Those 19 fighters were again presumptively legitimate military targets but not if many, many civilians also died. And when Israel received reports that 80, maybe 100, civilians were killed, they suddenly said, ‘Oh no, no, that was too many, our precision weapons wouldn’t have caused that many’ – as if to admit that if the number is that large this was a disproportionate attack.

“So this leads me to believe that even Israel recognises that this was a war crime. They’re just trying to cover it up and pretend it didn’t happen.”

Canada’s development minister condemns Israeli school attack

Canada’s Minister of International Development Ahmed Hussen has condemned Israel’s latest attack on a Gaza City school.

“International humanitarian law must be upheld to protect civilians,” he wrote in a post on X. “An immediate ceasefire and the release of hostages is desperately needed.”

Israeli military confirms ‘damage’ after Hezbollah drone attacks

The Israeli military confirms in a statement that almost all of the explosive-laden drones launched earlier by Hezbollah punched through its defence systems but inflicted no casualties.

One of the unspecified number of drones was intercepted, while others impacted areas in northern Israel causing damage, it said without elaborating.

The Israeli military also released aerial footage to report a series of air raids across southern Lebanon today, purportedly to hit Hezbollah structures and operatives.

Aita al-Shaab, Khiam and Bilda along the border were some of the areas targeted by the Israeli military.

Hezbollah says second drone swarm targeted Israeli soldiers

The armed Lebanese group says it launched two “squadrons of attack drones” on northern Israel earlier today, with the second targeting a gathering of Israeli soldiers “in the vicinity of the Birkat Risha site” and achieving a hit.

The first batch of the drones had targeted the Michve Alon military base.

Hezbollah has claimed a total of 10 attacks today, with earlier strikes also using a barrage of rockets and a guided missile.

Israelis rally against Netanyahu’s gov’t, call for deal to release captives

Hundreds of Israeli protesters have gathered in Tel Aviv demanding a deal to release all captives held in Gaza, and against Netanyahu’s government.

Many waved the Israeli flag and chanted as they called for a Hamas-Israel deal to be finalised.

Protesters criticised the government’s handling of the war in Gaza and the increasing tension with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Egypt, the US and Qatar have scheduled a new round of ceasefire negotiations for August 15, as fears grow of a broader conflict involving Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.

‘Arms embargo now’, says Uncommitted Movement after Harris speech

The Uncommitted Movement in the US that has been refusing to vote to show displeasure with Washington’s handling of the war on Gaza believes an arms embargo is the only way to show support for Palestinian civilians.

“Being pro-ceasefire must mean committing to not send another bomb dropped on Palestinians in Gaza,” the movement said in a post on X.

This comes after Kamala Harris told pro-Palestinian demonstrators in a rally speech that “now is the time” to achieve a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement amid the latest US push, as the administration prepares to send more funds to Israel to purchase weapons.

Israel will never ‘negotiate in good faith’

The Palestine mission to the UN wrote in a letter to the Security Council that the Israeli military has committed “another massacre of displaced civilians” following the attack on a school in Gaza.

“The Security Council cannot remain paralysed waiting for Israel to suddenly decide to respect international law when it is loudly telling and showing the world that it does not respect the Charter,” reads the letter.

Ambassador Riyad Mansour wrote that by now it should be clear that “Israel does not want a ceasefire and will never negotiate in good faith”.

“Stop this Israeli genocide on the Palestinian people. Stop this illegal, immoral, criminal occupation and its savage attempts to exterminate our people.”