Iran says Hezbollah’s attack shows Israel losing deterrent power

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani says Israel has lost its deterrent power as it was unable to anticipate the time and place of Hezbollah’s “limited and managed attack” on Sunday morning.

Iran says its retaliation against Israel will be ‘precise and calculated’

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has again pledged that his country will respond to the assassination of Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

“Iran’s reaction to Israeli terrorist attack in Tehran is definitive, and will be measured & well calculated,” Araghchi wrote on X. “We do not fear escalation, yet do not seek it – unlike Israel.”

The minister said he made the remark in a phone conversation with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.

Drone strike in southern Lebanon

غارة إسرائيلية تستهدف مركبة في منطقة عبرا بمدينة صيدا جنوبي لبنان#الجزيرة #فيديو pic.twitter.com/ifewmIRBBr

— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) August 26, 2024

Hamas say Israel targeted one of its members in Lebanon

Hamas’s media office told our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic that the target of today’s Israeli strike in Sidon, southern Lebanon, was one of their members, adding that he survived the attack.

Hezbollah claims drone attack on Israeli equipment

Hezbollah has claimed its first attack since Sunday’s large-scale rocket and drone assaults on several Israeli positions.

The armed Lebanese group said on its Telegram channel that it targeted surveillance equipment at the Ramyah site along the border with an assault drone in the early afternoon and “hit it directly”.

Sirens were sounded in the Israeli communities along the border.

US envoy urges UNSC to condemn ‘brazen’ Houthi attack on oil tanker

Linda Thomas-Greenfield says “brazen” Houthi attacks have left a Greek-flagged oil tanker in flames in the Red Sea, threatening “to create an ecological disaster with devastating consequences”.

She called on the UN Security Council, which has previously demanded the Houthis stop their attacks, to condemn the new assault.

As we reported earlier, the Sounion’s 25 crew members were rescued by an EU warship on Thursday, a day after the Houthi attack set the oil tanker on fire. The ship is reportedly carrying 150,000 metric tonnes of crude oil.

Instead of condemning it, maybe use all your military stationed there to extinguish the fire? Another UNSC resolution isn't going to stop an ecological disaster. Is anyone trying to salvage the ship or is the only goal to condemn the Houthis?

And why no condemnation for the very real, already here and present, ecological disaster of the entirety of Gaza... It's the clear the US doesn't care about what's happening in Gaza at all. The current ceasefire push is only to prevent getting dragged into a wider war and to fool voters

What leverage does Biden have over Israel?

More from Slim at the Middle East Institute.

The analyst said the US appears to be the only negotiating party who seemed optimistic about the progress of ceasefire talks.

“I haven’t heard such optimism being expressed by either the Israelis or by Hamas. In fact, the mistrust between them, the enmity between them continues to grow. I did not hear the same optimism expressed by the other mediators – meaning Qatar and Egypt. When we have only mostly US officials continuously trying to be optimistic, [it makes me] wonder whether this has to do with our own election cycle and with what’s going on domestically,” Slim said.

She added that every US president will have leverage over Israel and that former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W Bush had not been afraid to condition military aid to get concessions from Israel.

But Biden, “from the beginning, espousing this unconditional support of Israel” has “robbed” himself of the ability “to put the relationship on the line and force Netanyahu himself to change his cost-benefit calculus”, Slim said.

Israel’s new conditions aimed at delaying a truce in Gaza

Rami Khouri, a distinguished fellow at the American University of Beirut, told Al Jazeera that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is constantly adding new conditions to a ceasefire in Gaza as a “delaying tactic”.

“The Arab world has gone through a critical phase in the last couple of years, which is to recognise that constantly going into meetings to discuss new ideas, new compromises and new ceasefires” is not going to get them anywhere, Khouri said.

The 1993 Oslo Accords epitomised this, he said, when “Palestinians made all kinds of sacrifices and concessions and got nothing in return”.

Hamas and Hezbollah are both aware of this and so are not “playing games created by American mediators who are at the same time the funders and the military providers and diplomatic protectors of Israel, which is carrying out the genocide”, he explained.

“You can’t be a credible negotiator or mediator while you’re also one party to the genocide,” he added.

Israel receives 500th US military supply plane since October 7

“The 500th aircraft in the joint airlift operation has landed in Israel,” says the Israeli Defence Ministry in a statement. It said the new supply plane was “part of a large-scale logistical effort that began with the outbreak of the recent war”.

“Through this operation, over 50,000 tons of military equipment have been delivered to Israel via 500 flights and 107 sea shipments,” it said.

“The equipment procured and transported includes armored vehicles, munitions, ammunition, personal protection gear, and medical equipment, which are crucial for sustaining the IDF [Israeli army’s] operational capabilities during the ongoing war,” the ministry added.

Netanyahu wants to ‘pull the Americans in directly’ in case of regional conflict

Israel wants to claw back some of the deterrents that it has lost and recalibrate the shift in the balance of power in the region back towards itself, according to Daniel Levy, president of the US/Middle East Project.

“If it can do that without full-blown war, that would be the preference because for Netanyahu, the dangers of full-blown war are significant, including that they can turn to a real push to de-escalate and lead to a ceasefire while Netanyahu wants an open-ended war, especially in Gaza,” he told Al Jazeera.

According to Levy, if there is a major escalation, then the key for the Israeli prime minister would be “to pull the Americans in directly”.

Levy said the Iran-led “axis of resistance” is trying not to “fall into this trap” while maintaining its credibility by using “relatively calibrated responses”. He said this was evident in Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s emphasis that the group is targeting military installations even as Israel kills civilians in Lebanon and Gaza.

“This further sends the message to the rest of the region that it is Israel that is ready to destroy everything,” he said, adding that the axis is allowing Israel – as the superior military power – to make the mistakes and also suffer an economic downturn.

Iran supports any Gaza deal approved by Hamas: Araghchi

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has received Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, in Tehran, where the two leaders discussed the Gaza ceasefire talks.

Iran welcomed Qatar’s efforts to establish a ceasefire and “will support any agreement that our friends in the Palestinian resistance and Hamas approve”, Araghchi said, according to the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

The Qatari prime minister reportedly delivered a report of the latest developments and efforts towards achieving a deal and ensuring regional stability. He is scheduled to meet with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian soon.

Iran’s Pezeshkian says world must unite to stop Gaza ‘genocide’

In a meeting with Qatar’s prime minister in Tehran, Iran’s president has said that human rights and international laws are being violated in the Gaza Strip every hour.

Masoud Pezeshkian said countries that claim to defend human rights “are not only staying silent against these crimes but also support the perpetrator of these crimes and genocide”, according to his website.

He expressed hope that “all Islamic countries and all other countries who are committed to international laws and frameworks will stand together and are able to take united action to force the backers of the Zionist regime to contain its crimes and genocide in Gaza”.

White House says continuing progress in Gaza talks

The United States says Gaza ceasefire talks in Cairo made progress and were expected to continue at a working level for several days despite an exchange of attacks between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

“There continues to be progress, and our team on the ground continues to describe the talks as constructive,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters. The exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah over the weekend has not had an impact on the talks in Cairo, he added.

Central issues in talks mediated by the US, Egypt and Qatar include an Israeli presence in the Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow 14.5km-long (9-mile) stretch of land along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt.

Last week in Cairo, Hamas’s delegation demanded that Israel be bound by what was agreed upon on July 2, in accordance with a plan laid out by US President Joe Biden and a UN Security Council resolution.

Hamas has stressed the need for any agreement to include a permanent ceasefire and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

What is the progress the US keeps alluding to. Nobody seems to know.

Israeli military launches air strikes on southern Lebanon

The Israeli military has released aerial footage of air strikes in southern Lebanon, saying it has targeted “military buildings” operated by Hezbollah in Kfar Kila and Tayr Harfa.

It added that its forces also launched artillery strikes on Shebaa and Aita al-Shaab.

The state-run National News Agency in Lebanon cited its correspondent in Tyre as reporting that the outskirts of the towns of Chamaa and Naqoura were subjected to enemy artillery shelling.

UN aid operations paused amid evacuation orders

The United Nations’ humanitarian aid operations in Gaza have been halted after Israel issued new evacuation orders for Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip late on Sunday, Reuters news agency reported, citing a senior UN official.

“We’re unable to deliver today with the conditions that we’re in,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We’re not leaving [Gaza] because the people need us there. We’re trying to balance the need of the population with the need for safety and security of the UN personnel.”

The official said the UN had relocated its main command operations for the Gaza Strip and most UN personnel to Deir el-Balah after Israel ordered the evacuation of Rafah in the south of Gaza.

“Where do we move now?” said the official, adding that UN staff had to be moved so quickly that equipment was left behind.

_{Patients flee Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital after the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of nearby areas}

Israeli military confirms expanding into Deir el-Balah

The Israeli military has confirmed that it is expanding a ground invasion of the outskirts of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

It released footage of its soldiers and armoured vehicles pushing deeper amid increasing evacuation orders, reporting that it has launched over 100 air strikes in the enclave in the past two weeks.

The Israeli army also said its forces destroyed a 700-metre (2,300-foot) tunnel and claim to have found weapons, including anti-tank shells.

Gaza-based journalist killed in Israeli attack

A Palestinian journalist, Ali Nayef Ta’ima, has been killed in Gaza, according to the Government Media Office. This brings the total number of journalists killed since the conflict began to 171.

Several people killed in Tulkarem during Israeli raid

The Palestine Health Ministry says five people have been killed in an attack by Israeli forces at the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem governorate in the occupied West Bank. Wafa news agency says four loud explosions were heard after an Israeli drone targeted a house in the camp.

The bodies were transported to the Tulkarm Governmental Hospital, the ministry added in a statement on its Telegram channel.

Videos shared online and verified by Al Jazeera show smoke billowing from the area.

Uncovering Settler Terrorism In West Bank

Jasper Nathaniel, writer of the Infinite Jaz newsletter on SubStack, to discuss his recent reporting from the West Bank.

Jasper Nathaniel joins, diving right into how the complete appropriation of the Genocide in Gaza for domestic culture war purposes in the US pushed him to go to the West Bank for a more grounded approach to covering this one-sided conflict, tackling his level of understanding about Israeli apartheid and settler violence before his arrival, and how that was sharply upended when he was met with a constant and totalistic pervasion of cruelty and terror, be it from soldier or settler, enacted upon the Palestinian populations in the West Bank.

Expanding on this, Nathaniel contextualizes his time in Masafer Yatta within the villages’ history as a supposed “military training zone,” something Israel enacted in the 1980s with the explicit intention to eventually claim said land themselves, something they advanced with decades of allowing settler gangs to roam uninhibited by law and unaccountable for their violence, culminating in Netanyahu’s recent decision to completely hand over West Bank rule to settler rule under Smotrich.

Next, Jasper walks Sam and Emma through a devastating, first-hand recounting of the violence he witnessed in Masafer Yatta, with a settler’s shooting of unarmed teenager Zakaria al-Adra, and the active obstruction and inaction from the Israeli regime in charge of holding said settler accountable, before wrapping up the interview by emphasizing the pervasiveness and extremity of the settler terror regime.

Blinken in panic mode after Houthis stun US, UK with military power in Red Sea

Yemeni fighters Ansar Allah also known as Houthis have stunned the US and the UK with their surprise attack on a British commercial ship. Rifat Jawaid says that the development didn’t receive the attention that it deserved and exposes the tall claims made by the UK and the US in January.

100 IDF Jets BOMB Lebanon In Biggest Incident Since 2006

Israeli attack on TRT journalists an ‘attempt to conceal the truth’, Turkey says

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry has said that an Israeli attack on journalists from Turkish public broadcaster TRT is an “effort by bloodstained Israel to conceal the truth”. “We stand in solidarity with all journalists who are tirelessly working to expose Israel’s oppression to the world,” the ministry wrote in a statement on X.

A cameraman for TRT Arabi was wounded on Monday in Israeli shelling in the southern Gaza Strip.

Mohammad al-Zeineen sustained an eye injury from a piece of shrapnel after the Israeli army targeted a car beside a tent for journalists near Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

Evacuation orders in Deir el-Balah ‘final blow’ to aid operations

Alexandra Saieh of Save the Children says it has become “practically impossible” to operate in Gaza.

“The so-called evacuation orders that Israel has issued this month in Deir el-Balah may be the final blow to the aid operations in Gaza,” Saieh told Al Jazeera. “It is the only area with any sort of infrastructure intact, and these evacuation orders have completely upended the aid hub that was set up in there.”

Saieh said setting up aid operations was not like “turning an on and off button”.

“You have to set up predictable supply lines. You have to find a location that has some semblance of security. Of course, nowhere in Gaza is safe, but this is why these operations are just collapsing,” she said.

“Our staff has been displaced. The staff of other aid organisations has been displaced. Warehouses that are storing critical aid supplies are now inaccessible.”

Who is lying?

Blinken says Israel has agreed to Gaza withdrawal terms in ‘bridging proposal,’ despite reported comments from Netanyahu

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/20/politics/blinken-qatar-cease-fire-trip/index.html

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that despite reported comments from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel has agreed to withdrawals of IDF forces from Gaza that are laid out in the recent mediators’ proposal to get closer to a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

“The agreement is very clear on the schedule and the locations of IDF withdrawals from Gaza, and Israel has agreed to that,” said Blinken in remarks to reporters before departing Qatar.

Blinken was responding to Israeli media reports that Netanyahu told a group of families of terror victims and hostages that he conveyed to Blinken that Israel will not leave the Philadelphi corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border and the Netzarim corridor, which bisects Gaza, “regardless of the pressure to do so.” They are “strategic military and political assets,” Netanyahu added, according to the reports.

UN’s halt to aid operations in Gaza will ‘affect the people deeply’

It’s miserable for everyone: Humanitarians, UN workers, people, journalists, everyone is in a state of panic and frustration. There has been zero protection for [UN aid workers] and that is why they have been unable to continue their operations.

Their warehouses are in the red zone and not only their warehouses, but also their guest houses and operations offices were based in Deir el-Balah. We’re talking about different organisations like the World Food Programme (WFP), UNICEF, UNRWA and a lot of other UN agencies.

This is going to affect the people deeply. Not only were they displaced a couple of times – or for some people seven or eight times – but also they were completely relying on [UN] food aid.

Uncertainty over when UN can resume aid operations in Gaza

We are seeing troubling scenes in Deir el-Balah as desperate Palestinians are once again forcibly displaced after the most recent evacuation orders by the Israeli military over the weekend. For most, this is one of the numerous times they have been displaced. The sick and tired have not been spared.

According to a senior UN official, Israel has also ordered UN personnel running an operations centre in Deir el-Balah to evacuate immediately. Some UN staff have now moved to a safe house in al-Mawasi. Because of the evacuation orders, the UN aid operations on Monday were brought to a halt and it’s unclear when they might be able to resume.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees – UNRWA – on Monday continued to keep their shelters and health clinics open, albeit under difficult circumstances, while the rest of the UN system in Gaza is paused. It all comes as the UN was planning to roll out its polio vaccine in Gaza later this week.

The vaccines are in Gaza. But given the new evacuation orders and uncertainty on when the UN can again resume normal operations in Gaza, it’s unclear when or if the UN will be able to distribute them.

_{Palestinian children gather to receive food rations cooked by a charity kitchen near the ruins of houses destroyed during the Israeli offensive in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, on August 26}

Israeli forces order 5 mass displacements of civilians in 6 days: UN

Israel’s military issued five mass evacuation orders in six days last week – the largest number of orders for the forced displacement of Palestinian civilians issued in a single week since the start of the war on Gaza, the UN reports.

The five orders issued by the Israeli military between Monday and Saturday bring the total number of forced evacuations issued so far in August to 16, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says in its latest situation report.

Almost 90 percent of the entire area of the Gaza Strip has now been placed under orders to evacuate by Israel, OCHA reports, and the latest round of orders is “further worsening the humanitarian crisis affecting hundreds of thousands of people”.

_{Palestinian children and adults carry their belongings as they flee Deir el-Balah in central Gaza on Monday}

Civil defence blames Israel for violent displacement tactics

Gaza’s civil defence has accused Israel of systematically displacing civilians through violent means, including firing guns as people flee newly declared red zones. The policy, the civil defence says, has killed or wounded hundreds of Palestinians trying to reach safety and blocked emergency responders from reaching victims.


Gaza residents endure long waits for food parcels amid worsening shortages

At an aid distribution point in northern Gaza, Palestinians endure long waits for food parcels from the World Food Programme. While these parcels are crucial, they often fail to meet nutritional needs, leading to health issues, especially among children. The scarcity of fresh produce and the reliance on canned goods have worsened the situation.

‘All that is left for us is the sea’

Louise Wateridge, a spokesperson for UNRWA, says that Palestinians in Gaza are being “forced from place to place… while surrounded by tanks and bombs”. In a post on X, Wateridge who is in Gaza, shared photographs showing rows of tents set up along Gaza’s coast and said, “All that is left for us is the sea”.

"All that is left for us is the sea"

Weeks of repeated displacement orders across south & middle #Gaza

The situation is catastrophic. Day in, day out, thousands of families are forced from place to place, most on foot with few belongings. All while surrounded by tanks & bombs. pic.twitter.com/UVmJhKfLrh

— Louise Wateridge (@UNWateridge) August 26, 2024

UN operations ‘100 percent vital’ to Gaza’s hospitals

Dr Ali Elaydi, a Palestinian orthopaedic surgeon who worked in Gaza, said he was “heartbroken” by the news that the UN was having to interrupt its operations in the Palestinian enclave.

He told Al Jazeera that the UN’s operations were “100 percent vital to the functioning of hospitals in Gaza” as its staff coordinate the delivery of medical supplies as well as missions by foreign health workers.

He said the development leaves him feeling “more helpless than ever before”.

Elaydi, who worked at the European Hospital that has now been forced shut, also expressed concern over Israeli evacuation orders for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and recounted what it’s like when patients and health workers have to evacuate a medical facility.

“As an orthopaedic surgeon, I was told to enable these patients to be able to walk as soon as possible in fear that an evacuation would be coming because those patients who cannot walk, cannot leave the hospital,” Elaydi said.

“And so I literally saw patients’ family members dragging them miles from the hospital that was forced to evacuate to a different hospital because there is no capacity, there is no infrastructure to help get these patients out. So everyone relies on their patients and if they can’t walk,  they’re being dragged.”

_{Palestinian patients fearing an Israeli ground operation are helped to flee Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip August 25}

Premature babies evacuated from Al-Aqsa Hospital

_{A Palestinian premature baby is evacuated from Al-Aqsa Hospital after Israel issued evacuation orders for areas around the medical facility in Deir el-Balah, on August 26}

_{The Reuters news agency reported that the babies would be transported to the Nasser Hospital in southern Khan Younis}

_{Incubators at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital stand empty after the babies were evacuated}

WFP sounds alarm over state of Gaza’s war-scarred roads

The World Food Programme is warning that most of Gaza’s heavily damaged roads will become unusable in the coming months when rain and flooding are expected in the Palestinian enclave.

“Alongside the desperate needs of today, we must think about what’s coming. We won’t be able to bring food to the people of Gaza unless urgent repairs are done on these roads,” said Antoine Renard, the WFP’s country director for Palestine.

“We must be able to bring in the heavy machinery that is needed and work with communities so we have the labour to fix the roads before the rain comes,” he added.

_{Palestinians make their way through a road with a puddle of wastewater as destroyed houses lie in ruins in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on August 5}

North Gaza hospital director says Israel still preventing fuel entry to Gaza

The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya says Israel wants to “destroy the health sector” by preventing fuel from reaching the Strip.

Giving an update on the situation at the hospital, he said most people who arrive wounded by Israeli attacks die due to poor conditions and lack of medical services. He also said Gaza is facing a “germ war” and demanded the institution of a vaccination programme.

Earlier this month, the Health Ministry in Gaza reported that it detected the first polio case in the besieged enclave after United Nations officials called for a pause in the fighting to enable a vaccination campaign for children against the virus.

Rights monitor says Israeli army’s ‘Netzarim Corridor’ has cut Gaza in two

Muhammed Shehada, chief of communications for rights group Euro-Med Monitor, says the Israeli army has “demolished every single building” within 4km (2.5 miles) of the “Netzarim Corridor” it created to cut the Gaza Strip “in two halves”.

“Nothing’s left,” Shehada wrote in a post on X. “Israel continues to openly turn Gaza into a wasteland and a howling wilderness”.

The Israeli army separated the north and south of the Gaza Strip after it invaded the besieged enclave in October 2023, later describing the cleared, east-west route – located just south of Gaza City – as the militarily strategic “Netzarim Corridor”.

Along with the Philadelphi Corridor, on Gaza’s border with Egypt, the Netzarim Corridor has become a sticking point in Gaza ceasefire talks as Israel insists on maintaining control over both areas into the future.

_{A satellite image shows an area the Israeli military has completely cleared to dissect the Gaza Strip and has called the ‘Netzarim Corridor’}

This is the same area from Google maps, before the war

Nine Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza City

The Palestinian Civil Defence said rescue teams have recovered the bodies of nine Palestinians after Israeli forces bombed two separate locations in northern Gaza City in the early hours of this morning.

Five of the victims were killed in an Israeli attack on the Al-Taj building on Yarmouk Street, the Civil Defence said on Telegram. Several others were also wounded in the attack on an apartment belonging to the Al-Naasan family.

The remaining four were killed in an Israeli attack on Jaffa Street in the city’s Tuffah neighbourhood, it said. The victims included children.

“The search is ongoing for missing persons,” it added.

Earlier, the Civil Defence reported retrieving the bodies of three people, including two children, after Israeli forces attacked a residential building in the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza.

Four killed in Israeli strike on Khan Younis home

Israel’s military has bombed a house in Khan Younis, killing at least four Palestinians and injuring others, our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report. The attack comes after two early-morning strikes on residential buildings in northern Gaza City, which together killed at least nine people.

Palestinian killed in Israeli attack on vehicle near Rafah

Israeli forces have bombed a vehicle near Rafah in southern Gaza, killing at least one person, our colleagues on the ground report. It is unclear if there are any other casualties from the strike, which occurred to the north of the city.

One person killed as Israel bombs central Gaza

Al Jazeera’s correspondent on the ground in the Gaza Strip reports that a woman was killed and several others were wounded in an Israeli attack on al-Musaddar area, in the east of Deir el-Balah.

Death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza rises

Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed 41 people and injured 113 in the last 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry. The latest casualties bring the total number of people killed in the war to 40,476 and 93,647 injured, the ministry said.