More civilians killed in Israeli raids in Gaza as Netanyahu visits US

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While media attention is on Prime Minister Netanyahu's visit to Washington, the humanitarian situation in Gaza "is in a nosedive," Mercy Corps has warned.

"No humanitarian goods are crossing into Gaza via Kerem Shalom [Karem Abu Salem] because the unloading zone has been full for weeks. High insecurity, lawlessness, and bombardments in areas under Israeli military operation make collection and distribution impossible," said Kate Phillips-Barrasso, Vice President of Global Policy and Advocacy, in a statement.

"We have been warning for months about a looming famine and secondary diseases taking hold, and now we face the threat of a polio outbreak, with the virus detected in sewage samples, putting countless lives at risk to this crippling disease. While Netanyahu speaks to Congress, the slow-motion trainwreck in Gaza continues," she added.

The Israeli army has seized 1,300 square meters of land at an archaeological site in the town of Sebastia, northwest of Nablus, according to the town's mayor, Muhammad Azem, who spoke to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Mayor Azem reported that the Israeli army entered Sebastia and delivered an order to construct military barracks on the site.

Azem emphasised that establishing a military facility within the archaeological site violates UNESCO regulations and poses a threat to tourism in Sebastia.

He further stated that this plan is part of Israel’s broader effort to permanently extend its control over Palestinian territory.

The Palestinian Health Ministry has released an updated and comprehensive list of Palestinians killed in Israel’s nine-month conflict, as reported by Al Jazeera.

While the ministry provides daily updates on the overall death toll, this is the fifth instance of releasing a detailed list that identifies the deceased by name, age, and gender.

The document, dated June 30, reported a total of 37,900 deaths. This figure includes 28,185 identified individuals and 9,715 who remain unidentified.

The high number of unidentified deaths has led to accusations from Israel that the ministry has inflated the death toll.

However, Palestinian health officials argue that the identification process takes time due to the health system being overwhelmed by the war, with some bodies badly disfigured or not immediately claimed by families.

They also believe the true death toll is likely higher, as thousands of bodies are thought to be trapped under rubble from buildings destroyed in Israeli strikes.

Hamas said in a statement on Wednesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks on intensified efforts to release hostages from Gaza are "pure lies and misleading to the Israeli, U.S., and global public opinion".

Netanyahu told U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday that his government was actively engaged in seeking the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza.

"He was the one who thwarted all efforts to end the war and reach a deal to release hostages despite ongoing efforts by mediators from brothers in Egypt and Qatar," the statement added.

Hamas senior official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters on Wednesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech addressing the U.S. Congress shows he does not want to conclude a ceasefire deal.

"Netanyahu's speech was full of lies and it will not succeed in covering up for the failure and defeat in the face of the resistance to cover up for the crimes of the war of genocide his army is committing against the people of Gaza," Abu Zuhri said.

The New Arab's Washington correspondent Brooke Anderson reports that the police are continuing to use pepper spray on demonstrators protesting against Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to the US capitol. 

"Crowd dispersed, spray used, more people collapsed. I’ve just managed to leave because I was feeling it in my skin and throat. Everyone started coughing suddenly."

Though anti-Netanyahu protests ae ongoing elsewhere in the Capitol, our correspondent on the ground Brooke Anderson has noted a major thinning the amount of protesters (pictured below) since police began using tear gas and flashbangs.

There was also the noise of what sounded like shots fired, but police later told The New Arab that it was fireworks coming from a nearby Union Station.  

Despite police claiming protesters crossed their designated safety line, eyewitnesses speaking to The New Arab refuted this;

"All I saw was a blast, I thought it was spraying people with water, and I was feeling things in the air and thinking it feels quite spicy," a protester called Harper Asher told The New Arab.

"Someone then walks over and and says: 'Beware, they're spraying people with pepper spray'. And you could feel it. This girl beside was just crying saying she needed help," she added.

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller defended the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees during a press briefing.

“First, UNRWA is not a terrorist organization, and we urge the Israeli government and the Knesset to halt the movement of this legislation,” Miller stated.

Earlier this week, the Israeli parliament, known as the Knesset, advanced several anti-UNRWA bills. One of these bills would effectively label the UN body, which major aid organizations and foreign governments recognize as the only entity capable of providing aid to Palestinians in Gaza on the necessary scale, as a terrorist organization.

“We have been clear about the important role that UNRWA plays in delivering humanitarian assistance and other critical support to Palestinians in Gaza and throughout the region,” Miller added.

“The attacks that the Israeli government has leveled on UNRWA are incredibly unhelpful,” he concluded.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Wednesday for a "demilitarised and deradicalised post-war Gaza", laying out his vision for the narrow coastal territory devastated by nine months of war.

"Following our victory, with the help of regional partners, the demilitarization and deradicalization of Gaza can also lead to a future of security, prosperity and peace. That's my vision for Gaza," Netanyahu told US lawmakers

Brooke Anderson, The New Arab's Washington correspondent, is reporting that police are using pepper spray on peaceful protesters. 

Several protesters began to collapse, with some rubbing their eyes. The police at first blamed the heat, but The New Arab has spoken to witnesses confirming the police sprayed protesters, despite no acts of violence. 

Rep. Rashida Tlaib is holding up a sign in the chamber reading "Guilty of Genocide" and "War Criminal" as Netanyahu speaks to US Congress.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib holds up a "war criminal" sign during Benjamin Netanyahu's speech. pic.twitter.com/8qCMzL5ZH3

— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) July 24, 2024

Israel, the United States and the Arab world are under threat from Iran's "axis of terror," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told lawmakers in a landmark speech before the US Congress on Wednesday.

"Our world is in upheaval. In the Middle East, Iran's axis of terror confronts America, Israel and our Arab friends. This is not a clash of civilizations. It's a clash between barbarism and civilization," Netanyahu said.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) health ministry has said that 589 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank since 7 October.

The ministry also said that among them were 142 children.

"A group of more than 50 protestors forced Israeli Prime Minister and war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu’s motorcade to reroute while en route to the U.S. Capitol to address Congress as they blocked the road between 14th & 7th St. SW and Independence Ave. SW.

Among the protestors were anti-war veterans, youth and students who are demanding an immediate ceasefire and an end to U.S. military support to Israel. The protestors linked themselves arm and arm in front of an effigy of Netanyahu, holding a banner reading: “STOP ARMING ISRAEL.”

The blockade was one of numerous disseminated actions across the city, and took place as tens of thousands of people mobilized in DC in opposition to Netanyahu’s visit, for whom the International Criminal Court has requested an arrest warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity."

The New Arab's correspondent Brooke Anderson reports that the march against Netanyahu in Washington D.C. has now started.

The New Arab's Washington correspondent Brooke Anderson is reporting live from the protests against Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to a joint session of Congress. She has been speaking to Miriam Osman of the Palestinian Youth Movement. 

"I think what we're seeing, in terms of organising and movement is that there's been a massive shift when it comes to Israel. To me, this is the most significant thing we should be thinking about." Osman said.

"This is a historic shift with more than 100 organisations convening. We have built a strong coalition to mobilise against the war in Gaza.

Early on, we knew that justice was on the side of the Palestinian people. Now, you'd have to be delusional to deny the fact that the majority of Americans don't support this genocide. Instead, what we're seeing is that the American political leaders continue to be complicit in genocide. This is one of the biggest contradictions we're seeing. Democrats are really suffering for it, and they've really brought it upon themselves."

The United Nations' Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaer said on Wednesday that a miscalculation along the Lebanon and Israel border could lead to a war that would 'engulf the entire region', adding that solutions to hostilities along the blue line 'do not only lie in Lebanon'.

Thousands gathered in Washington on Wednesday to protest Benjamin Netanyahu and call for a ceasefire in the Gaza war, as the Israeli premier prepared to address the US Congress.

Crowds carrying Palestinian flags and signs ranging from left-wing slogans to Bible verses gathered outside the Capitol calling for a ceasefire and the arrest of Netanyahu, as prosecutors seek a warrant for him at the International Criminal Court.

BREAKING: MAJOR PROTESTS IN WASHINGTON D.C. AGAINST ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU’S ADDRESS TO CONGRESS pic.twitter.com/aLrV5BJvQR

— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) July 24, 2024

The departure of the Israeli team negotiating a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United States has been pushed from Thursday to next week, an Israeli official said on Wednesday.

The official said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden were going to discuss ways to advance the deal in their meeting in Washington on Thursday and therefore the delegation's departure has been delayed.

British police on Wednesday arrested nine people during a protest against arms exports to Israel that briefly blocked the street outside the foreign ministry, highlighting pressure on the new Labour government over its stance on the Gaza war.

London's Metropolitan Police said protesters arrived outside Britain's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and blocked pedestrian and vehicle access. Police then said the protest could only continue if it left the central arch of the street clear.

"When the group failed to comply with the conditions, officers intervened and made nine arrests, quickly restoring access," a Met Police spokesperson said.

HAPPENING NOW: Palestine activists have blocked the entrance to the Foreign Office to protest the new Labour government’s refusal to suspend the sale of UK arms to Israel pic.twitter.com/GMqQOt2kUS

— Polly Smythe (@pollysmythe) July 24, 2024

Two container ships have docked in Yemen's Hodeida harbour, the first since a deadly Israeli strike hit fuel storage tanks at the rebel-held port, according to Houthi media and ship trackers.

The strikes destroyed some cranes and dozens of oil tanks, according to experts. Another tank exploded overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday, reigniting some flames at the harbour, a critical gateway for fuel imports and humanitarian aid into Houthi-held areas.

Despite the ongoing threat, "the port of Hodeida is working normally around the clock" to receive commercial ships, Ahmed al-Murtada, the deputy director of the container terminal, told the Houthi-run Saba news agency on Tuesday.

The port's director of maritime operations, Mohamed al-Sais, told Saba that two ships had docked at the harbour on Tuesday.

U.S. President Joe Biden will host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Thursday to discuss progress towards a ceasefire in Gaza and a hostage release, the White House said.

Vice President Kamala Harris will meet separately with Netanyahu, it said on Wednesday. The Israeli leader is addressing the U.S. Congress later on Wednesday amid protests and discontent among some U.S. lawmakers over the conduct of the war in Gaza.

A far-right Israeli minister said Wednesday he had prayed at Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound, yet again defying longstanding rules that permit Jewish visits but forbid prayer.

"I'm the political leadership and the political leadership authorises prayers on the Temple Mount," National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir told a symposium in the Israeli parliament.

"I prayed on the Temple Mount last week and Jews pray on the Temple Mount... There is no reason why parts of the Temple Mount should be off-limits for Jews," said Ben Gvir, who is known for provocative gestures.

The comments drew sharp criticism from across the political spectrum.

Lebanese armed group Hezbollah broadcast drone footage on Wednesday that it said showed airplanes and fuel storage facilities at Israel's Ramat David airbase, nearly 50km (30 miles) into Israeli territory.

The footage, which Hezbollah said was filmed on Tuesday, was the third in a series of videos shot by a surveillance drone that Hezbollah has nicknamed "Hoopoe." The first video showed the Israeli port city of Haifa.

#هدهد #حزب_الله يتوغّل في عمق قاعدة "رامات دافيد" الجوية الإسرائيلية.. شاهد: هذا ما عاد به أمس الثلاثاء pic.twitter.com/8Xxs13wCrx

— LebanonOn (@LebanonOnNews) July 24, 2024

An investigation by the UK-based watchdog suggests that Gaza's health ministry death toll data is "largely reliable."

Airwars used open-source monitoring to independently identify nearly 3,000 names of civilians killed in the first 17 days of the war, which began on October 7.

While evidence suggests that the ministry’s figures have become less accurate after the Israeli army decimated the enclave's health infrastructure, it adds to the growing consensus that the ministry’s figures are broadly reliable, Mike Spagat, a professor specialised in casualty figures at Royal Holloway, University of London, told Airwars.

"This painstaking research provides strong validation for both the first Ministry of Health list of the dead and the reliability of social media posts from Palestinians collected by Airwars covering the same period," Spagat said. "Neither list is complete but the 75 percent matching rate demonstrates convincingly that both capture a large fraction of the underlying reality."

Palestinian officials said Israeli troops killed two men, including a customs officer, in separate raids in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.

The raids were carried out before dawn in Qalandiya refugee camp and the town of Tubas, residents and officials said.

Palestinian sources identified the men killed as Ahmad Nidal Aslan, 19, from Qalandiya, and Abdul Nasser Muhannad Sarhan, 23, from Tubas.

Iraq's 'Islamic Resistance' said it launched a drone attack north of Eilat in southern Israel in the early hours of Wednesday "in response to the massacres against Palestinians in Gaza."

🇮🇶 JUST IN: The Islamic Resistance in Iraq announces:

Attacking a vital target in the north of Eilat with kamikaze drones. pic.twitter.com/5MWRz2jNCE

— Arya - آریا 🇮🇷🏴 (@AryJeay) July 23, 2024

Gaza's health ministry said Wednesday at least 39,145 people have been killed in more than nine months of Israel's offensive.

The toll includes 55 deaths in 24 hours, according to ministry figures, which also list 90,257 people as having been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began on October 7.

Germany on Wednesday banned the Hamburg Islamic Centre, an association that has been under investigation for several months over its alleged support for Lebanon's Hezbollah group and its links to Iran.

The Interior Ministry accused the centre of presenting itself as a purely religious organisation with no political agenda, but said its probe has found the contrary to be true.

In a statement, the ministry said that it "banned the Hamburg Islamic Centre and its affiliated organisations throughout Germany to date, as it is an Islamist extremist organisation pursuing anti-constitutional objectives".

Investigators raided 53 properties allegedly linked to the centre across Germany on Wednesday, and the ban will also be imposed on several organisations related to the Hamburg centre - including four Shia mosques.

U.S. Capitol Police arrested Jewish activists protesting against U.S. military support for Israel inside a congressional building on Tuesday, a day before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to deliver a speech to Congress.

The protesters, organised by activist group Jewish Voice for Peace, wore red T-shirts bearing the phrases "not in our name" and "Jews say stop arming Israel." Some carried banners reading "ceasefire now" and "let Gaza live."

We are here in the building where for the past nine and a half months members of Congress have decided again and again to send the bombs used to commit genocide. pic.twitter.com/EdOj4J4wCp

— Jewish Voice for Peace (@jvplive) July 23, 2024

SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said that his Starlink satellite internet service has been activated in a hospital in Gaza, where many medical facilities have been destroyed by Israel.

The United Arab Emirate's foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, thanked the billionaire entrepreneur for supporting the UAE field hospital in Gaza, where many medical facilities have been demolished and medicines are scarce.

The announcement came more than five months after the Israeli government gave approval for Starlink's use in the hospital in Rafah, a flashpoint city in southern Gaza.