Gaza City's Shejaiya neighbourhood comes under Israeli siege, Lebanon clashes intensify

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Israeli forces displaced at least 60,000 people from Gaza City on Thursday, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Friday.

"Humanitarian partners are reporting new displacement … Yesterday, the Israeli military ordered people living in 28 residential blocks in areas east of Gaza City to immediately evacuate … at least 60,000 people were displaced from this area, which spans over seven square kilometres [2.7 square miles]," Dujarric told reporters.

Yemen's Houthi militant group said they have targeted four vessels in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean on Friday in a joint operation with the 'Islamic Resistance' in Iraq.

#معركة_الفتح_الموعود_والجهاد_المقدس pic.twitter.com/X3cgvMFYqt

— أمين حيان Ameen Hayyan (@ameenhayan) June 28, 2024

Four Israeli soldiers were killed and five others were wounded in Gaza City's Shejaiya neighbourhood during armed battles with Palestinian groups, Israeli media reported

At least three Israeli soldiers were wounded, one critically, in a drone attack Friday launched by Hezbollah from south Lebanon, media reports said.

The drones targeted the towns of Nahariyya and Shlomi.

The amphibious assault ship USS Wasp entered the eastern Mediterranean Sea this week as the U.S. positions warships to try to keep fighting between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah from escalating into a wider war in the Middle East.

While the Wasp has the capability to assist in the evacuation of civilians if full-scale war breaks out between Israel and the Iranian-backed militant group along the Lebanon border, that’s not the primary reason it was rotated in, a U.S. official said. “It’s about deterrence,” the official said.

Gazans are forced to live in bombed-out buildings or camp next to giant piles of trash, a United Nations spokeswoman said Friday, denouncing the "unbearable" conditions in the besieged territory.

Louise Wateridge from UNRWA, the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees, described the "extremely dire" living conditions in the Gaza Strip.

"It's really unbearable," she told reporters in Geneva, via video-link from central Gaza.

Wateridge, who returned Wednesday after four weeks outside the territory, said that even in that time the situation had "significantly deteriorated".

"Today, it has to be the worst it's ever been. I don't doubt that tomorrow again will be the worst it's ever been," she said.

The pier built by the U.S. military to bring aid to Gaza is being removed due to weather to protect it, and the U.S. is considering not re-installing it unless aid begins flowing out into the population again, several U.S. officials said Friday.

The U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military movements.

While the military has helped deliver desperately needed food through the pier, the vast majority of it is still sitting in the adjacent storage yard because of the difficulty that agencies have had moving it to areas in Gaza where it is most needed, and that storage area is almost full.

Israel says projectiles were seen crossing from Lebanon and heading towards the west Galilee area.

Israeli soldiers also "identified terrorists operating within a Hezbollah military structure" in Kfar Kila and the air force "swiftly struck the structure and terrorists", according to the army.

The military said a Hezbollah base was hit in southern Lebanon's Chihine and its artillery targeted the area of Naqoura to remove a "threat".

Hamas has criticised Israel’s decision to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank by stating that it was a "declaration by the fascist occupation government of the enforcement of the extremist [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich’s plans to control the West Bank."

“This requires a unified Palestinian stance to reject and confront these fascist measures; to counter the policies of the extremist Zionist government, escalating their aggression against our Palestinian people through killings, destruction, land confiscation, and desecration of holy sites,” the group said in a statement.

It added that plans to take control of the occupied territory will "fail and shall be dashed at the Palestinians’ rock-solid will."

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Friday urged Iran to avoid escalating the Middle East conflict as the country goes to the polls against a backdrop of heightened regional tensions.

Baerbock told acting foreign minister Ali Bagheri in a phone call that "further escalation must be prevented at all costs and Iran must also contribute to this", her ministry wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

The European Council has imposed sanctions on six individuals and three entities for their involvement in financing Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

Among those sanctioned are Jamil Yusuf Ahmad Aliyan, a leader of the Muhjat AlQuds Foundation within PIJ, and Ahmed Sharif Abdallah Odeh, responsible for Hamas’s foreign investments.

Also listed are Zuheir Shamlakh, identified as a financial facilitator, and Ismail Barhoum, a member of Hamas's Political Bureau.

Ali Morshed Shirazi from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – Quds Force and Maher Rebhi Obeid from Hamas's political bureau were also sanctioned.

The Council identified the entities as Zawaya Group for Development and Investment Co Ltd, Larrycom for Investment Ltd, and Al Zawaya Group for Development and Investment Sociedad Limitada, linking them to Hamas's financial activities as front companies.

US news outlet The Washington Post reports that Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant discussed with senior US officials on a joint plan on postwar Gaza- including bringing on a 'Palestinian force'.

According to the Washington Post, Gallant's proposal would reportedly pushed into action even if the US-backed ceasefire and hostage deal is rejected.

The report added that the potential plan. headed by the US and countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and the UAE, would be implemented in stages starting from the north of Gaza.

The postwar plan was suggested to additionally include a Palestinian force to take responsibility for local security in the besieged territory.

The report says that Gallant and US officials agreed the Palestinian force would likely need training under an existing program for the Palestinian Authority, despite Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu opposing the PA managing Gaza post-war.

US officials allegedly support Gallant's plan but worry allied Arab governments will not support the proposal due to the PA's direct involvement.

Israel would become "uninhabitable" after 72 hours if a full-scale war was to break out with Hezbollah, a senior Israeli electricity official has said.

The official, who is the head of the company that plans Israel's electrical systems, issued the warning on Thursday, but later backtracked, according to The Times of Israel.

"We are not in a good situation, and we are not prepared for a real war. We are living in a fantasy," Shaul Goldstein, head of the Independent System Operator Ltd said.

He added that they would not be able to promise electricity if there was a war.

"After 72 hours without electricity, it will be impossible to live here. We are not prepared for real war," he reiterated during a conference in the city of Sderot near the Gaza Strip.

To read the full report, please click here.

Mounds of trash rotting in the heat are piling up close to where displaced people are sheltering in Gaza, a UN official said on Friday, raising fears about the further spread of disease.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who had fled to southern Gaza earlier in the more than 8-month conflict have been uprooted again since Israel expanded its military operations to the southern city of Rafah in early May.

Louise Wateridge, an aid worker with United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), said that a pile of waste weighing an estimated 100,000 tonnes was building up near people's tents in central Gaza.

"It's among the population and it's building up without anywhere to go. It just keeps getting worse. And with the temperatures rising, it's really adding misery to the living conditions here," she told journalists via video link from Gaza.

Israel has refused repeated requests to allow UNRWA to empty the main landfill sites, she said, meaning temporary ones are emerging, she added.

Even if permission is granted, Wateridge said UNRWA's humanitarian missions such as trash collection have all but halted due to Israeli refusals to allow fuel imports.

A Palestinian woman was injured by live ammunition shrapnel following an attack by armed Israeli settlers in the south Nablus village of Madama, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

According to security sources that spoke to Wafa, the settlers assaulted residents in Madama by firing live ammunition, while also physically assaulting another civilian amid attacks.

Wafa also reports that Israeli forces physically assaulted three civilians in the Fatayer neighbourhood- which has since caused injuries.

One of Israel's most recognisable Palestinian politicians, Ahmad Tibi, says that Palestinian citizens of Israel face escalating hate crimes and unjust police action, following the October 7 attacks.

"After October 7, hundreds of Arab citizens were hunted down, chased by the Israeli police for writing a post or a story empathising with the children of Gaza or saying no to the war," Tibi, the 65-year-old leader of an Arab-majority party, told news agency AFP.

"It was, and still is, tough days for Palestinian citizens of Israel."

Tibi says he and other Palestinian citizens of Israel were against the October 7 civilian deaths.

"We said here and everywhere that we are against targeting civilians... in the south of Israel -- any child, any woman," he said.

"Meanwhile, we are talking about more than 15,000 Palestinian children killed in Gaza."

The UN agency announced in a post on X that over 625,000 Palestinian have not attended school for over 8 months, due to Israel's devastating war on Gaza.

UNRWA added that "300,000 of them were UNRWA students before the war."

More than 625,000 children in #Gaza have been out of school for over 8 months – 300,000 of them were @UNRWA students before the war

Play and learning activities provided by @UNRWA teams are critical in preparing children to get back to school and restore their right to education pic.twitter.com/lRTbSFpYFW

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) June 28, 2024

The military wing of Hamas, The Al-Qassam Brigades, announced that an Israeli Merkava 4 tank was targeted using a "Yasin 105" shell in Gaza City's Shujayea neighborhood.

A senior Palestinian official rejected on Friday a move by Israel's finance minister intended to promote new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying it was aimed at pursuing a "war of genocide" against Palestinians.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Thursday the Israeli government would also take punitive steps against the Palestinian Authority in response to Palestinian moves against Israel internationally.

Asked about Smotrich's statement, which was not confirmed by the government, Wasel Abu Youssef, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said the settlements were "illegal colonies that violate all international resolutions".

"The decisions by the occupation government aim to pursue the war of genocide against our Palestinian people," he told news agency Reuters.

He said the PLO and the Palestinian Authority would continue to press for Israel to be taken before international courts and punished for "crimes against our people, and in particular in the Gaza Strip."

A trio of rights groups is suing the Dutch government, claiming it still supplies F-35 jet parts to Israel despite a court ban due to humanitarian law concerns.

"Unfortunately, everything indicates that these parts end up in Israel from the Netherlands via other routes," said Oxfam Novib, one of the groups involved in the case.

The Dutch government "has continued delivering (parts) to other countries, including the United States. And that contravenes the order of the court," Liesbeth Zegveld, a lawyer representing the rights groups, told the court.

Israeli forces detained at least eight Palestinians, including four brothers, during raids in the West Bank cities of Tulkarm, Hebron, and Nablus, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

In Tulkarm, Ahmad, Mohammad, Ali, and Hamza Ghazzawi were arrested at their home.

In Hebron, a youth was detained in Yatta and another resident in Idhna. In Nablus, early morning raids in Burqa led to two more arrests, with snipers positioned on rooftops and houses searched.

Israeli forces has confirmed that it has begun its military operation in the Shujayea neighbourhood according to its intelligence which claimed it detected "terrorists and terrorist infrastructure."

“The troops began their targeted activity in the area of Shujayea during the day. Overnight, they started to conduct targeted raids in the area,” the Israeli army wrote on Telegram.

It added that the airforce also hit "dozens of Hamas terrorist infrastructure sites" in the area.

News publication Al Jazeera English reports that fighting has continued in Gaza City's Shujayea between fighters and Israeli troops.

According to the outlet, civil defence teams have not been unable to reach the injured in the neighbourhood due to continued Israeli bombardments.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on Friday a ship captain reported that five missiles had landed close to his vessel in the Red Sea 150 nautical miles (172 miles) northwest of Yemen's port city of Hodeidah.

UKMTO said the ship reported no damage from the incident and was heading northward.

UKMTO WARNING

INCIDENT 094 ATTACK UPDATE 001https://t.co/6mNrG6W5iO#MarSec #maritimesecurity pic.twitter.com/9tn61lIHYd

— United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) (@UK_MTO) June 28, 2024

The United Nations children's fund said Thursday that Israel had agreed to restore power to a key desalination plant in southern Gaza, which could provide much-needed water to a million displaced people.

"UNICEF confirms an agreement (with Israel) was reached to re-establish the medium voltage feeder power line for the Southern Gaza Desalination Plant," said Jonathan Crickx, the agency's spokesman in the Palestinian territories.

The plant in Khan Yunis, once resupplied with electricity, should produce enough water to "meet what humanitarian standards define as a minimum intake of 15 litres per day of drinking water per person, for nearly a million displaced people" in southern Gaza, Crickx said.

"This is an important milestone, and we are very much looking forward to seeing it implemented."

Israel's coordinator for civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, known as COGAT, did not immediately respond.

The plant should be able to produce 15,000 cubic metres, or 15 million litres, of water per day at full capacity, according to UNICEF.

Water has become scarce for the Palestinian territory's 2.4 million residents since war broke out nearly nine months ago.

More than two thirds of Gaza's sanitation and water facilities have been destroyed or damaged, according to data cited by UN agencies, and only an intermittent supply of bottled water has been allowed in since Israel imposed a punishing siege on the territory.

The United States is discussing with Israel the release of a shipment of 500-pound bombs that was suspended in May over worries about the military operation in Rafah, a US official told news agency Reuters.

The matter was discussed this week during a visit to Washington by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the official said.

Axios, citing a US and an Israeli official, earlier said the United States was preparing to deliver the bombs.

Top aides to President Joe Biden told Gallant that Washington was maintaining a pause on a shipment of heavy bombs for Israel while the issue is under review, a senior US official said on Wednesday.

Biden paused the single shipment in May over concerns they could cause more Palestinian civilian deaths in Gaza. 

Israel's hard-line finance minister said on Thursday that the government would promote occupied West Bank settlements and punitive measures against the Palestinian Authority in response to Palestinian moves against Israel on the international stage.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who heads a pro-settler party, said in a statement that the government supported his proposal.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, which usually announces cabinet-level decisions, did not issue any statements and was not reachable for immediate comment.

Among the steps Smotrich said he was advancing was the revoking of "various approvals and benefits" for senior officials in the Palestinian Authority, approving new settlement buildings, and retroactively sanctioning some Jewish settlements. 

Donald Trump on Thursday accused US President Joe Biden of siding with Palestinians in the brutal Gaza conflict for allegedly refusing to help Israel "finish the job" in the war on the devastated territory.

"He doesn't want to do it. He's become like a Palestinian -- but they don't like him because he's a very bad Palestinian, he's a weak one," Trump said during their presidential debate at CNN headquarters in Atlanta.

The United States has invited the foreign ministers of Israel and several Arab countries to a NATO summit in Washington next month, the Financial Times said on Friday.

"Secretary-General Stoltenberg has invited heads of state and government of all 32 allies, plus the leaders of our Indo-Pacific partners," the paper said, citing a statement by a NATO official.

It listed Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea as Indo-Pacific partners.