Israeli strikes on school and camp kill at least 48 in Gaza

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Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks has praised Donald Trump’s record on Israel, stating that he believes the presidential hopeful will provide a “blank cheque to Israel” to “finish the job quickly” in Gaza.

“If you need to carpet bomb the area, do it. Just get it done. Rip the band-aid off. Finish the job because Hamas needs to be destroyed,” Brooks said at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.

“This is just taking months and months. All [Trump] is saying is that time is not Israel’s ally. The longer this continues, the more public support erodes, the more international support erodes, and Trump’s point [is] do what you have to do, get it done and get out,” he added.

Brooks also mentioned that Trump will “rebuild the US-Israel relationship after four disastrous years under President Biden.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that Palestinian property had been demolished in the Farsh al-Hawa area of Hebron in the occupied West Bank but provided no further details.

Since 2009, 11,061 Palestinian-owned structures have been demolished, displacing 17,030 people due to Israeli policies in the occupied territory.

Demolitions occur because Palestinians are unable to obtain Israeli-issued building permits, which the UN describes as “impossible to attain,” or as a result of punitive measures against Palestinians and military operations by Israeli forces.

16 July 2024: Demolition reported today in Farsh Al Hawa, the West Bank, occupied Palestinian territory. https://t.co/hG9VUlBsMN pic.twitter.com/si0sjYPOZA

— OCHA oPt (Palestine) (@ochaopt) July 16, 2024

Local media is reporting that Israel has bombed a home in the az-Zawayda area of central Gaza, killing at least seven people and injuring many more, according to Al Jazeera.

The house, which belonged to the Diab family, was reportedly sheltering as many as 70 people.

The Wafa news agency reported that Israeli military vehicles entered several neighborhoods of Qalqilya.

Israeli forces then raided a residential building amid “violent confrontations.”

Raids in the occupied West Bank have surged throughout the war, with the Palestinian death toll nearing 600

Hakan Fidan, Turkey’s foreign minister, and Hamas political head Ismail Haniyeh discussed the latest ceasefire negotiations and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Anadolu Agency reported.

This call follows a meeting in April where Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosted Haniyeh in Istanbul.

Two armed drones on Tuesday targeted Iraq's Ain al-Asad airbase, which hosts U.S forces and other international forces in western Iraq, two Iraqi military sources told Reuters.

It was the first attack against U.S. forces in Iraq since early February when Iranian-backed groups in Iraq stopped their attacks against U.S. troops.

No casualties have been reported, said the sources.

An Iraqi military official said defence systems downed one drone near the base perimeter.

The attack came less than a week before an expected visit by a high level Iraqi military delegation to Washington to continue talks on ending the U.S.-led military coalition in the country.

Washington and Baghdad in January initiated talks to reassess the draw-down of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, formed in 2014 to help fight Islamic State after the extremist Sunni Muslim militant group overran large parts of the country.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a projectile appears to have targeted the base, but without causing casualties.

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke on Tuesday with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Qatar's Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa to discuss the conflict between Israel and Hamas, said Macron's office.

France is a United Nations Security Council permanent member and the country has both large Jewish and Muslim populations. 

Qatar has also played an increasingly important role as a mediator - in January, Qatar and France brokered a deal with Israel and Hamas to deliver urgent medication to Israeli hostages.

"The President condemned recent Israeli air strikes that have targeted UN schools as well as displaced citizens in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp which have left a large number of civilian victims," Macron's office said in a statement.

"He also reaffirmed France's insistence that Hamas immediately release the hostages," it added.

Reports are coming in about two deadly Israeli air strikes in central Gaza this evening, leaving casualties, according to Al Jazeera.

In the first attack, two Palestinians were killed and others were injured by an Israeli raid on a house in the Nuseirat camp.

In the second, seven Palestinians were killed and others were injured by an Israeli air strike on a house in the az-Zawayda area.

A lawyer for the Palestinian Commission for Detainees’ Affairs has reported that a prisoner provided eyewitness testimony of other detainees being sodomised or sexually assaulted, Al Jazeera is reporting.

According to the commission and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, Khaled Mahajna spoke with journalist Mohammed Arab, who was detained in Gaza, taken from Sde Teiman in the Negev Desert, and later transferred to Ofer prison near Ramallah.

At Sde Teiman, Arab reported witnessing prisoners “being raped, including a detainee who was completely stripped and had a fire extinguisher hose inserted into his rectum, and the extinguisher was discharged inside him. The detainee is in a very serious physical and psychological condition.”

“Another detainee was completely stripped and electrocuted, his genitals were yanked, in addition to other methods of sexual abuse that are difficult to describe,” Arab told Mahajna, according to the organizations’ statement

Human Rights Watch has signed a letter criticizing the EU’s failure to jointly condemn Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza due to the persistent refusal of some member states.

The letter stated that the EU has “yet to collectively acknowledge, denounce, and adopt appropriate measures to address the Israeli authorities’ war crimes and other international humanitarian law (IHL) violations, some of which have led to the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.”

The group asserted that the EU faces “growing and well-grounded” accusations of double standards on Israel and Palestine, “which are harming the EU’s reputation as a global champion of human rights and international law.”

These double standards, attributed to some countries and civil rights groups, refer to the EU’s use of slogans and generic statements of concern instead of condemning war crimes and other IHL violations, “and adopting effective and persuasive measures to address them.”

9 months into the #Gaza conflict, the #EU has yet to collectively acknowledge, condemn and adopt measures to address #Israel's war crimes & other IHL violations

Inaction, double standards are costing lives - along with the bloc's credibility@hrw letter: https://t.co/gnLqIkUQuh pic.twitter.com/a28aWGnbjE

— Claudio Francavilla (@ClaFrancavilla) July 16, 2024

The civil defence agency in Gaza said three Israeli air strikes killed more than 40 people within an hour across the Palestinian territory.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said at least 44 people were killed and dozens more wounded in the three strikes, described as "massacres".

The Gaza health ministry said at least 17 people died and 26 were wounded close to a petrol station near the southern city of Khan Younis.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said five died at the UN-run Al-Razi School in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

The third strike was on a gathering of people near a roundabout in northern Gaza, according to the civil defence agency, which did not give a precise toll breakdown.

A video posted on X by a correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz shows police removing a child from Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community from a busy road.

Israeli Army Radio reported that the protest involved dozens of people, and the Haaretz journalist noted that police are making arrests.

Earlier, we reported that the Israeli army will begin sending out conscription orders this Sunday to members of this community, who have long been given a religious exemption from military service.

עשרות חרדים חוסמים כעת את כביש 4 לכיוון דרום. כוחות משטרה מבצעים מעצרים מהירים, גם של הילד הזה pic.twitter.com/FYYgDP1Jrp

— Ran Shimoni (@ran_shimoni) July 16, 2024

Three Syrian children were killed on Tuesday in an Israeli strike on the village of Umm al-Tut in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel, Lebanese state news agency NNA said.

Earlier on Tuesday, NNA reported that two Syrians were killed in an Israeli strike which hit a bicycle crossing the Kfar Tebnit-Khardali road in southern Lebanon, making a total of five Syrians killed in one day.

Reuters says it is seeking comment from Israel on the incidents.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Tuesday to step up pressure on Hamas in war-torn Gaza.

Netanyahu, in remarks during a state commemorative event, defended Israel's approach during the more than nine-month war, saying "Hamas is under pressure".

"They are under increasing pressure because we are hurting them, eliminating their top commanders and thousands of terrorists.

"They are under pressure because we are remaining firm in our demands, despite all the pressure," he added, in an apparent reference to a chorus of international concern over the toll in the war.

"This is exactly the time to increase the pressure even more, to bring home all the hostages -- the living and the dead -- and to achieve all the war objectives," Netanyahu said.

The Israeli army claimed on Tuesday that it had killed "half of the leadership" of Hamas' military wing and that some 14,000 militants had been killed or detained.

It said that "precise intelligence and operational efforts" had led to the killing of half of the Hamas military leadership which amounted to seven individuals, according to the Israeli army report.

It named Marwan Issa the deputy commander of Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigades and Rafa Salama, a Khan Younis commander as among those killed.

The army has so far failed to successfully target any of the Palestinian group's senior leaders, most of whom have been on Israel's hit list for decades.

It said it had struck "37,000 targets" from the air and that its forces continue to map and "dismantle" the underground tunnel network.

The Gaza government media office said journalist Mohamed Abdul Allah Mesmesh was killed on Tuesday, bringing the total number of media workers slain since the start of the war to 160.

Meshmesh worked for Arabic language outlet Sawt Al-Aqsa radio station.

Iyad Ahmed Al-Rawag another reporter and presenter at Sawt Al-Aqsa Radio was killed by an Israeli strike alongside his family in January.

The Israeli military says it will begin sending draft notices to Jewish ultra-Orthodox men on Sunday.

The announcement follows a landmark Supreme Court order for young religious men to begin enlisting for military services. Under long-standing political arrangements, ultra-Orthodox men had been exempt from the draft, which is compulsory for most Jewish men.

The system created widespread resentment among the general public in Israel, especially after more than nine months of war against Hamas militants in Gaza. The court ruled that the system of exemptions was discriminatory.

Tuesday's announcement could rattle Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, which relies on the support of ultra-Orthodox parties that opposed any changes to the system.

The Israeli army said it struck an UNRWA school in Nuseirat in central Gaza on Tuesday  "based on precise intelligence".

In a statement, the army said its air force struck "terrorists" who planned attacks against troops in Gaza.

Palestinian health authorities said at least 23 people were killed in the strike, including children and women. 

Gaza's Government media office stated that the death toll stands at 23, with 73 people also injured in the bombing of the UNRWA Al-Razi School in the camp.

Dozens of people have been killed by air strikes to schools which have become makeshift shelters for the thousand of displaced throughout the war.

Israel said it is "looking into the reports" which state that civilians "were injured" by the attack.

The death toll from an Israeli strike that hit the UNRWA-run al-Razi school in central Gaza's Nuseirat Refugee Camp has risen to 23 people killed, according to Gaza's government media office.

The office added that 73 people were also injured in the strike. 

Lebanese media is reporting that two people were killed in a drone strike targeting a motorbike in the Nabatieh region of south Lebanon.

The identities of the victims are not yet known.

Israeli shelling was also reported in the town of Ait al-Shaab near the Israeli border, Lebanese newspaper L'Orient Today reported.

We will bring you more details when we have them.

A pro-Palestinian rights group has warned the UK government against pursuing a challenge to International Criminal Court (ICC) applications for arrest warrants for top Israeli leaders.

On Monday the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) said they were disappointed about reports that the UK would retain its objections to arrest warrants being issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

Last May, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said he was seeking arrest warrants for the two Israeli leaders, as well as Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed al-Deif following an investigation into the Gaza war earlier this year.

Read more here.

At least eight Palestinians were killed and several were wounded in an Israeli air strike on a school in central Gaza on Tuesday, Gaza health officials said.

The strike hit Al-Awda school in Al-Nuseirat camp, the ministry said.

It comes as reports emerge of a separate attack on Al-Attar street near Khan Younis which killed 17 people.

Several Palestinians were killed and wounded in an Israeli air strike which was targeting a car in Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Tuesday, Gaza health officials said.

The air strike hit near a tented area housing displaced families in Attar Street, the ministry said.

A statement from the health ministry said 17 people were dead and more than 26 wounded in the attack.

Casualties were reportedly taken to nearby Nasser Hospital.

The occupation is committing a new massacre...
There are dead and injured Palestinian civilians as a result of Israeli bombardment on the Khan Younis Mawasi region pic.twitter.com/SJ3wdkP7MQ

— Gaza Notifications (@gazanotice) July 16, 2024

Lebanese group Hezbollah said its fighters fired "dozens" of rockets at an Israeli town on Tuesday in response to an attack which killed two Lebanese a day earlier.

In a statement on the group's Telegram channel, Hezbollah said the "mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance shelled Kiryat Shmnona with dozens of Falaq missiles and katyusha rockets," referring to Iranian-made missiles.

Yesterday an Israeli air strikes killed a Hezbollah fighter and his sister in Bint Jbeil in south Lebanon, state media and the group said.

The two warring parties have been trading fire since 8 October, a day after Israel's invasion of Gaza.

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza stated that 49 people were killed and 69 others injured in Israeli attacks in the past 24 hours in the besieged enclave.

The victims reached hospitals but many more are still under rubble and out of reach of emergency workers, the health ministry said.

It brings the total number of dead to 38,713 and wounded to 89,166 since the war broke out in October.

Access to war-torn Gaza has become increasingly difficult for humanitarian groups, 13 leading NGOs warned on Monday, accusing Israel's military of blocking much-needed aid from reaching the besieged Palestinian territory.

Denouncing "Israel's systematic obstruction of aid and its ongoing attacks on aid operations", the humanitarian organisations said that Israel had facilitated only 53 -- less than half -- of the 115 relief missions they had planned.

The aid groups slammed what it called Israel's "siege tactics" in its struggle against Palestinian militant group Hamas.

It said the so-called "humanitarian zone" where most of the strip's population of 2.4 million people now reside had become "an active combat zone" and "extremely unsafe".

"These recent events are exacerbating the humanitarian catastrophe at a time when NGOs continue to come up against the obstacles imposed by the continuation of Israeli military operations on the ground," a press release summarising the 13 NGOs' views warned.

Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children and the Norwegian Refugee Council were among the charities to contribute to the document.

Read more here.

The European Union announced sanctions on Monday against five Israeli individuals and three entities, describing them as responsible for "serious and systematic human rights abuses" against Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The list included Tzav 9, a group which it said had regularly blocked humanitarian aid trucks delivering food, water and fuel to the Gaza Strip.

Also on the list were Ben-Zion Gopstein, founder and leader of the Lehava organisation, and Isaschar Manne, whom the EU described as the founder of an unauthorised outpost in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Both have also been sanctioned by the United States, as has Tzav 9, which Washington said last week opposes Jewish assimilation with non-Jews and agitates against Arabs in the name of religion and national security.

(Reuters)

The Israeli military said troops continued "intelligence-based" activities in Rafah on Tuesday, killing many Palestinian gunmen over the past 24 hours. It said air strikes had targeted militants, tunnels, and other Hamas military infrastructure.

It added that the Israeli air force had struck around 40 targets across the enclave, including sniping and observation posts, military structures, and buildings rigged with explosives.

The armed wings of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said in separate statements their fighters attacked Israeli forces in several locations with anti-tank rockets and mortar fire.

(Reuters)

Relatives of the captives in Gaza blocked a central high way near Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning to call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to secure a release deal, in the latest sign of discontent among the Israeli public.

Footage shared online showed dozens of people holding images of the captives and holding a banner across the road.

Dozens of students also staged a protest on Tuesday outside the Netanyahu's office in occupied Jerusalem to demand a deal to release the hostages in Gaza, local media reported.

For months, Netanyahu has been facing calls to resign over his failure to return the 130 captives who have been held in Gaza since October.

משפחות חטופים ומפגינים חסמו את איילון דרום סמוך למחלף השלום, לקראת פגישת רה״מ עם משפחות התצפיתניות מנחל עוז@OrRavid pic.twitter.com/OgZ0Tr0eOR

— החדשות - N12 (@N12News) July 16, 2024

Israeli police said officers shot and killed a Palestinian after he stabbed a police officer Tuesday in the occupied West Bank.

Police said the officer was lightly wounded in the attack and identified the Palestinian as a 19-year-old from the Gaza Strip. It wasn’t immediately clear what he was doing in the West Bank.

Earlier Tuesday, the Israeli military said Palestinians opened fire on a car in the West Bank, lightly injuring a number of Israeli civilians.

In a separate event in the territory, the military said forces opened fire on a "suspicious vehicle" that turned out to belong to an Israeli. Two Israeli civilians were lightly wounded as a result of the apparent mistaken fire, the military said.

Read more here.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told two top Israeli officials Monday of the "unacceptably high" civilian casualties in Israel's bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip, his spokesman said.

The Israeli military has launched several deadly attacks in recent days including on a refugee camp and multiple UN-run schools where civilians were sheltering.

In response, Hamas said it was pulling out of ceasefire negotiations, causing prospects for a truce and hostage release deal to dwindle further.

Blinken received two influential Israeli officials -- Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi -- "to express our serious concern about the recent civilian casualties in Gaza."