Nine killed in Gaza; protest at US Democratic National Convention

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Israeli air raids have injured nine people in the Bekaa in eastern Lebanon and two people in the village of Al-Mansouri in the country's south, The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.

Israeli forces demolished residential buildings west of Rafah city in southern Gaza, The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.

Five displaced people were injured by gunfire from an Israeli tank in the town of Al-Qarara in the Al-Mawasi area in southern Gaza, The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.

Israeli vehicles advanced towards displaced people's tens in the Al-Shakoush area in Rafah's Al-Mawasi in southern Gaza, The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.

The Israeli army has carried out violent artillery shelling targeting the vicinity of Hamad City in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.

Protesters against Israel's war on Gaza briefly breached the outer security fence of the Democratic convention in Chicago, hours before US President Joe Biden was set to pass the torch to new nominee Kamala Harris.

A small group of around 100 demonstrators broke off from a larger march involving thousands of people and targeted the metal barriers surrounding the United Center on the first day of the party gathering.

Police in blue helmets with shields and carrying black batons prevented them from getting to the inner cordon.

One demonstrator clad in black was carried out by their arms and legs by several officers, an AFP correspondent saw.

Protest groups have called for mass demonstrations throughout the week against the Biden-Harris administration's support for Israel's war on Gaza.

Chicago police said in a statement that protesters "breached a portion of anti-scale fencing along the Democratic National Convention's outer perimeter".

"Law enforcement personnel were immediately on-scene and contained the situation. At no point was the inner perimeter breached, and there was no threat to any protectees," police said.

Police later advanced on a park near the convention center to clear it of demonstrators.

Chants of "Free Palestine" and "Let's March" continued as about half a dozen holdout activists, one wearing a pink gas mask, began to leave.

The bodies of five people who had been killed were recovered after an Israeli bombing on a home in Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.

Four killed people arrived at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis after a car was targeted in the vicinity of Al-Hashasheen Street north of Rafah in southern Gaza, Palestinian media report.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan criticised US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's statement on Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted an updated proposal, saying it "raises many ambiguities" because it is "not what was presented to us nor what we agreed on".

Hamdan told Reuters that Hamas has already confirmed to mediators that "we don't need new Gaza ceasefire negotiations, we need to agree on an implementation mechanism".

(Reuters)

Israel struck Hezbollah weapons depots on Monday deep in Lebanon's east, a source close to the group told AFP, after an Israeli soldier was killed.

The source close to Hezbollah said "Israeli strikes in the [eastern] Bekaa region targeted Hezbollah weapons depots", requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Lebanon's official National News Agency said three locations in Lebanon's east witnessed "enemy Israeli raids this evening".

Lebanon's health ministry said the strikes in east Lebanon "injured eight people, including six Lebanese citizens, a five-year-old Syrian girl, and a fifteen-year-old Syrian girl".

Hamas's new chief Yahya Sinwar has always been part of the decision making process in the Gaza ceasefire talks, the group's senior official Osama Hamdan said on Monday.

"Due to security conditions, communication with Sinwar has tools and mechanisms in place yet they are operating smoothly," Hamdan added in an interview with Reuters.

(Reuters)

US presidential hopeful Kamala Harris needs the votes of people demanding a ceasefire in Gaza to win, an activist says.

Social worker Elena Gormley speaks with The New Arab's correspondent Brooke Anderson, who is covering a protest as the Democratic National Convention takes place in the major US city of Chicago.

"We are here to be part of this mass movement all demanding Kamala Harris immediately commit to an embargo on weapons sales to Israel, commit to an immediate ceasefire, and to really show we know that this election is going to be close and that she needs to really win votes of people demanding [a] ceasefire in order to win," says Gormley, co-chair of the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America.

Two Palestinians were killed and others injured after Israeli aerial bombing on a home west of Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.

Israeli forces demolished homes west of the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.

At least 289 aid workers have been killed in 10 months of Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, the Palestine Red Crescent Society says.

"One life lost is far too many. On this #WorldHumanitarianDay, Gaza needs aid workers more than ever," the humanitarian group adds on social media platform X.

World Humanitarian Day is observed on 19 August each year.

Within 10 months of the war on the Gaza Strip, at least 289 aid workers have been killed. One life lost is far too many. On this #WorldHumanitarianDay, Gaza needs aid workers more than ever. #ActForHumanity #ProtectHumanity pic.twitter.com/bscFcynPlE

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) August 19, 2024

A journalist was killed by Israeli fire on Sunday in south Gaza, the coastal enclave's health ministry and a Palestinian news site said on Monday.

"Ibrahim Muharab's body was taken to Nasser Hospital", in the southern city of Khan Yunis Monday, the ministry said.

Palestinian Daily News, a website for which Muharab worked, announced his death "following shelling from the Israeli occupation on him and a group of journalists".

It added that Muharab's body was found on Monday morning in Hamad City, a large apartment complex built by Qatar and now in ruins.

Two other journalists who were with Muharab at the time were wounded and sent to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, an AFP journalist on the ground reported.

A Jewish American says supporting Palestinians as a Jew shows freedom for Palestinians means freedom for everyone.

Arielle Rebekah talks with The New Arab's correspondent Brooke Anderson, who is covering a protest as the Democratic National Convention takes place in the major US city of Chicago.

"By being in solidarity with Palestinians as a Jewish person, we make it known that Palestinian liberation is liberation for all, that liberation for Jewish people cannot exist without liberation for Palestinian people, without liberation for all people, no matter their race, class, or gender," says Rebekah, a spokesperson for Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago.

"The Israeli state claims that their actions represent all Jews, when we know that this is a bold-faced lie.

"And by standing here, talking with reporters, showing up as an anti-Zionist Jewish contingent, we make it known that the Israeli state does not represent us as Jewish people."

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken on Monday said Israel had accepted a US "bridging proposal" for a Gaza truce deal and pressured Hamas to do the same, having earlier said the talks may be the "last opportunity" for a ceasefire.

Blinken, on his ninth visit to the Middle East since the Gaza war started, said he had "a very constructive meeting" with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who "confirmed to me that Israel supports the bridging proposal".

"He supports it. It's now incumbent on Hamas to do the same," Blinken told reporters in Tel Aviv.

Washington put forward the proposal last week after the most recent round of talks in Qatar.

Ahead of those talks, Hamas called on mediators to implement a framework outlined in late May by US President Joe Biden, rather than hold more negotiations.

The movement on Sunday said the bridging proposal "responds to Netanyahu's conditions" and leaves him "fully responsible for thwarting the efforts of the mediators."

Blinken said Netanyahu had "committed to sending his senior expert team" to further negotiations, "but we look to Hamas, first and foremost, to get behind the bridging proposal" which, he said, incorporates the May framework.

Earlier on Monday, the US secretary of state had said: "This is a decisive moment – probably the best, maybe the last, opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a ceasefire and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security."

Months of on-off negotiations with US, Qatari, and Egyptian mediators have failed to produce an agreement.

Blinken is due to travel on Tuesday to Egypt where ceasefire talks are expected to resume this week. He said he will then go on to Qatar.

Several people were injured after an Israeli drone attacked a car in southern Lebanon, the official Lebanese National News Agency reports.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday he sought to free a "maximum number" of living captives held in Gaza in the first stage of a proposed ceasefire deal with Hamas.

"I would like to emphasise: The efforts to release a maximum number of living hostages – already in the first stage of the deal", he said in a video statement released by his office after meeting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group, which has previously accused the Israeli side of "sabotage", thanked Blinken "for his unwavering support" alongside US President Joe Biden's administration "to finalise the hostage deal".

In a statement released Monday evening the group representing many families of hostages still held in Gaza urged "all parties involved to sign an agreement as soon as possible", because "time is running out for the hostages".

"We cannot afford to waste this critical opportunity, which may be the last opportunity," it said.

The Israeli army announces the death of an officer from the Paratroopers Brigade in fighting in southern Gaza.

In the US, the Democratic National Convention (DNC) is taking place in Chicago amid discontent over the party's handling of Israel's war on Gaza.

A demonstration has begun and there is set to be a march.

Nazek Sankari, co-chair of the Coalition to March on the DNC, speaks with The New Arab's correspondent Brooke Anderson.

"It's absolutely important to be here in this beautiful, broad coalition of organisations and people of all different ages and generations and statuses to rise up and demand an end to the genocide in Gaza and demand an end to the US aid to Israel as they are waging genocide against the Palestinian people," Sankari says.

"Kamala Harris is the VP of this administration. She is the presumptive nominee as well, soon to be the nominee, and she is just as complicit as [US President] genocide Joe Biden.

"There's no difference for us – different face, different person, but they are both part of the same administration, both complicit and both have had multiple opportunities to stop the carnage and stop their support for the Israeli massacres against the Palestinian people."

Israel has agreed to support efforts to vaccinate Palestinians in Gaza for polio after the besieged enclave reported its first case of the disease in 25 years, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says.

"We're working with the Israeli government on that, and I believe that we'll be able to move forward with a plan to do that in the coming weeks. It is urgent. It is vital," Blinken tells reporters in Tel Aviv.

The body of an unknown child has arrived at Gaza's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital from the vicinity of the Netzarim area.

The Netzarim corridor splits the Gaza Strip in two.

Nine civilians, including children, were killed after an Israeli attack targeted a group of Palestinians in the UNRWA-run al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City.

To mark World Humanitarian Day, the Palestinian Civil Defence (PCD) in Gaza says 82 of its workers have been killed since 7 October, while 270 have been wounded, adding that over 75 percent of civil protection centres have been destroyed.

"Today the world celebrates the sanctity of humanitarian work, while international humanitarian organisations remain silent in the face of the Israeli occupation's violations of international humanitarian law," PCD said in a statement.

Several Palestinians were killed after Israeli forces targeted west of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Medical sources reveal five civilians were killed, and many were injured after an Israeli warplane targeted citizens near an Internet distribution point.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said 21 of its members have been killed in the West Bank and Gaza since 7 October. This comes as many aid organisations mark World Humanitarian Day.

"This #WorldHumanitarianDay, we must #ActForHumanity to safeguard those who risk everything to protect others," PRCS said on X.

Since 7 October 2023, 21 PRCS members have tragically lost their lives while on duty in the #WestBank and the #Gaza Strip. This #WorldHumanitarianDay, we must #ActForHumanity to safeguard those who risk everything to protect others. #ProtectHumanity #NotATarget pic.twitter.com/Dys2aiMp3f

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) August 19, 2024

The Scottish government has announced it will no longer hold meetings with Israel's ambassadors until "real progress" is made over Gaza ceasefire talks.

This comes after Angus Robertson, Scotland's external affairs secretary, held a secret meeting with Daniela Grudsky Ekstein, Israel's deputy ambassador to the UK. The meeting was met with backlash, leading to his apologising.

Al Jazeera reports a source in the Palestinian Joint Operations Room told its reporters they have "clear evidence that the UK is contributing to the intelligence effort in Gaza for the benefit of the occupation", adding that it is done in partnership with the United States.

The source also calls on Britain to stop its intelligence cooperation with Israel and stop its participation in the genocide.

عاجل | مصدر بغرفة عمليات المقاومة للجزيرة: نملك أدلة واضحة أن بريطانيا تساهم في الجهد الاستخباري بغزة لصالح الاحتلال

— الجزيرة - عاجل (@AJABreaking) August 19, 2024

A group of lawyers in London have submitted an order to prevent the UK government from granting arms export licenses to British companies selling arms to Israel - The Guardian reports.

The claim details Palestinians being tortured, left untreated in hospitals and unable to escape Israel's assaults. There are also 14 witness statements from Palestinian and Western medical doctors working in Gaza covering over 100 pages. 

An alliance of NGOs, including Al-Haq, Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), Amnesty International, Oxfam, and Human Rights Watch, has brought the case.

A British diplomat based in Ireland resigned over arms sales to Israel with his email circulated online saying the UK's foreign office "may be complicit in war crimes", it emerged Monday.

Images of his resignation email sent to colleagues were posted online. Mark Smith, who was based in the British embassy in Dublin, wrote there was "no justification for the UK's continued arms sales to Israel".

Smith, who describes himself as an expert in arms sales policy, was a second secretary dealing with "counter-terror," a relatively junior position in the Foreign Office (FCDO).

Issuing a follow-up statement, Smith said he had "written to the foreign secretary informing him of my resignation and urging him to urgently review the UK approach to the situation in Gaza", according to the BBC on Monday.

"Each day we witness clear and unquestionable examples of war crimes and breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza perpetrated by the State of Israel," Smith wrote in the resignation email.

He said concerns regarding the legality of arms sales that he raised "at every level" of the FCDO were "disregarded" and accused the UK government of failing to have a "robust and transparent" arms exports licensing regime.

The Israeli military said a soldier was killed on Monday and another severely wounded in northern Israel, a region that has come under near-daily rocket and drone attacks from Hezbollah militants based in Lebanon.

The military said it had successfully intercepted multiple drone strikes on Israel's north near the border with Lebanon but that some of the drones had landed in the northern region of Ya'ara.

(Reuters)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's three-hour meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was "positive and conducted in a good spirit", according to a statement from his office.

"The prime minister reiterated Israel's commitment to the latest American proposal regarding the release of our hostages —taking into account Israel's security needs, which he insists on firmly," Netanyahu's office said.

(Reuters)

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said a total of 207 of its members have been killed since 7 October in the line of duty.

"They were engineers, teachers, medical staff. They were humanitarian workers," the organisation wrote on X, noting that today is World Humanitarian Day.

207 @UNRWA team members have been killed in #Gaza since the war began – including in the line of duty.

They were engineers, teachers, medical staff. They were humanitarian workers. On #WorldHumanitarianDay and every day we remember and pay tribute to them all.#ActForHumanity pic.twitter.com/NsPA98am88

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) August 19, 2024

Lebanese group Hezbollah said Monday two of its fighters were killed and claimed attacks on northern Israel, including with drones, the latest cross-border violence amid fears of full-blown war.

Hezbollah said two of its fighters were "martyred on the road to Jerusalem", the phrase it has used to refer to members killed by Israeli fire since October.

The Israeli military said air forces struck "Hezbollah terrorists" in the Hula area and "Hezbollah military structures" elsewhere in south Lebanon.

German airline group Lufthansa said Monday it was extending the suspension of flights to five Middle East destinations through 26 August because of continued tensions in the region.

"All flights to Tel Aviv, Tehran, Beirut, Amman and Erbil are suspended up to and including August 26," the company said in a statement, adding that it would continue to avoid Iranian and Iraqi airspace until the same date.

Hamas' armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, has taken responsibility for the explosion that hit Tel Aviv on Sunday, saying it was in coordination with the Islamic Jihad.

"The Brigades confirm that martyrdom operations inside the occupied territories will return to the forefront as long as the occupation's massacres, displacement of civilians, and the continuation of the assassination policy continue," the Qassam Brigades said in a statement.

A man was carrying a bomb inside his backpack, which then exploded, killing him and injuring a passerby.

At least 40,139 Palestinians have been killed and 92,743 injured in Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip since 7 October, the enclave's health ministry said in a statement on Monday. 

(Reuters)

Ibrahim Muharab, a Palestinian journalist, was killed by Israeli forces north of Khan Younis.

Wafa reports occupation tanks targeted a group of journalists who were on their way to Hamad City before communication with Muharab was cut off. The ambulance crews found his body Monday morning.

Muharab worked as a freelance journalist and was a member of the Journalists Syndicate.

169 journalists have been killed in Gaza since 7 October.

Israeli police said Monday that a "powerful" explosion the night before in Tel Aviv was a "terror attack" that wounded one person, amid heightened tensions as Gaza mediators push for a truce.

"This was a terror attack involving the explosion of a powerful explosive," the police force said in a statement. On Sunday authorities reported that the blast had killed one person, who Israeli media said was the suspected assailant.

Lebanon's health ministry said an Israeli strike killed two people in south Lebanon on Monday, while Hezbollah claimed attacks on troops and military positions in northern Israel, including with drones.

An "Israeli enemy strike" on the border village of Hula killed two people, Lebanon's health ministry said, without specifying if they were fighters or civilians.

Lebanon's official National News Agency reported Israeli shelling and raids on several southern areas, saying "enemy drone strikes" killed two people in Hula.

Hezbollah on Monday claimed attacks on troops and military positions in northern Israel, including a drone strike on a base and an assault on soldiers allegedly "infiltrating" near the Lebanese border.

The Iran-backed group has exchanged regular cross-border fire with the Israeli army in support of ally Hamas since 7 October.

Fears of a major escalation skyrocketed after an Israeli strike last month on Beirut's southern suburbs killed Fuad Shukr, one of Hezbollah's top commanders, hours before an attack in Tehran, blamed on Israel, killed Hamas's political leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Iran and Hezbollah have vowed to respond.

Hezbollah said Monday it launched a "simultaneous air attack" with "explosive-laden drones" on two Israeli military positions - a barracks near the border and a base near the coastal town of Acre, around 15 kilometres (10 miles) from the frontier.

It said it came "in response" to an Israeli "attack and assassination" in south Lebanon's Tyre area.

Israeli airstrikes on Yemen's Hodeidah port last month appeared to be an indiscriminate or disproportionate attack on civilians, which may amount to a war crime, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday.

Israel said on 20 July that its warplanes struck Houthi military targets near Hodeidah.

The attack targeted oil facilities and a power station, and HRW said it killed at least six people and wounded at least 80.

It took place a day after a Houthi drone hit Israel's economic hub, Tel Aviv, killing one person, which HRW said also may constitute a war crime.

The retaliatory Israeli airstrikes on Hodeidah hit more than two dozen oil storage tanks and two shipping cranes in the port, as well as a power plant in the province's Salif district, Human Rights Watch said.

"The attacks appeared to cause disproportionate harm to civilians and civilian objects. Serious violations of the laws of war committed willfully, that is deliberately or recklessly, are war crimes."

(Reuters)

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken on Monday urged Israel and Hamas not to derail negotiations that he said may be a "last opportunity" to secure a Gaza truce and captive release deal.

Blinken, on his ninth regional tour since 7 October, said he was back in Tel Aviv "to get this agreement to the line and ultimately over the line".

"This is a decisive moment -- probably the best, maybe the last, opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a ceasefire and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security," Blinken said as he met Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

The US secretary of state was due to meet later on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials before travelling to Cairo, where ceasefire talks are expected to resume this week.