Gaza: Israeli attack kills 9, including children, in Khan Younis

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The US military said it carried out a strike in Syria on Friday that killed a senior leader of an Al Qaeda aligned group.

The strike targeted Abu-’Abd al-Rahman al-Makki, a senior leader of the Al Qaeda-aligned Hurras al-Din, the U.S. Central Command said in a post on X.

(Reuters)

Hezbollah said it fired "Katyusha rockets" at the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona on Friday in response to Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon which killed eight people.

In a statement on Telegram, the Lebanese Shia militant group said it was responding to "the Israeli enemy's attacks on steadfast southern villages and safe houses and targeting civilians".

Cross-border fire has increased over the past day with tensions high between the two warring parties as ceasefire talks for Gaza stumble.

The military wing of Hamas Al-Qassam Brigades announced that it shelled  Israeli military vehicles in al-Zeitoun in Gaza City, reports The New Arab’s sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

"As soon as a foot force advanced towards one of the houses that had been previously booby-trapped with a number of anti-personnel bombs, they were detonated on them and our fighters killed and wounded them, and a helicopter landed to evacuate them,” Al-Qassam said in a statement.

A war monitor said Israeli air strikes on Syria targeting positions of the army and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah killed three Iran-backed fighters on Friday.

"Israeli strikes have so far killed three pro-Iranian fighters and wounded about 10 others," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britain-based war monitor said the strikes targeted "makeshift petrol stations affiliated to Hezbollah in the Homs countryside, and struck weapons depots belonging to the group as well as two Syrian army sites in the Hama countryside".

The Syrian defence ministry said the attacks "wounded seven civilians".

"At approximately 7:35 pm (1635 GMT), the Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of northern Lebanon, targeting a number of sites in the central region," it said.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and US President Joe Biden, in a phone call, emphasized the importance of Israel and Hamas showing flexibility in negotiations over a Gaza ceasefire-for-hostages deal, the Egyptian presidency said on Friday.

(Reuters)

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court stressed the court had jurisdiction to investigate Israeli nationals and asked judges to urgently decide on arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister Yoav Gallant.

In court filings made public Friday, prosecutor Karim Khan urged judges weighing the arrest warrants sought against Israeli officials and Hamas leaders to not delay. "Any unjustified delay in these proceedings detrimentally affects the rights of victims," he said.

Khan stressed that the court had jurisdiction over Israeli nationals who commit atrocity crimes in the Palestinian territories and asked the judges to dismiss legal challenges filed by several dozen governments and other parties.

"It is settled law that the court has jurisdiction in this situation," the filing said, dismissing legal arguments based on provisions in the Oslo accords and assertions by Israel that it is carrying out its own investigations into alleged war crimes.

ICC prosecutors say there are reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant, as well as Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, military chief Mohammed Al-Masri, and another Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, bear criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

(Reuters)

Israeli airstrikes across southern Lebanon on Friday killed at least eight fighters and one child, according to security sources, as armed group Hezbollah responded with artillery rounds and rockets across the border.

Israeli strikes killed six Hezbollah fighters in various towns across the south, according to the party's death notices and a security source.

Another fighter was killed in a separate strike outside Aitarun, according to the security source. It was not immediately clear if the combatant was a Hezbollah member.

A separate Israeli strike on the village of Aita, approximately 14 km (nine miles) north of the border with Israel, killed a Hezbollah fighter and a child, the security source told Reuters. Hezbollah identified the fighter killed in Aita as Mohammad Najem.

More than 600 people in Lebanon have been killed since the start of the clashes last October, including more than 400 Hezbollah combatants and over 130 civilians, according to a Reuters toll. 

Seven civilians were wounded in Israeli strikes on Syria's central region on Friday, the Syrian state news agency said.

The strikes reportedly hit Iranian militia assets near the cities of Hama and Homs, according to early reports.

This is a developing story. We will bring you more when we have it.

The Israeli army said dozens of projectiles from Lebanon landed in the upper Galilee area of northern Israel in the past few hours.

No injuries were reported and it said some of the missiles were intercepted.

Israeli jets struck a Hezbollah member near the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on Friday, the statement added.

Saeed Mahmoud Daeb was a member of the group’s rocket and missile unit, according to Israel.

Lebanon's Hezbollah group and Israel have been engaged in frequent cross border fire throughout the day.

The Israeli army announced on Friday the death of a 24-year-old soldier from the ‘6310th Reconnaissance Battalion’ who was killed "during combat in Gaza".

A further seven soldiers were injured in the incident, the army said. It did not give details on the whereabouts of the incident or what killed and injured the troops.

Israel has lost 696 soldiers since the war with Hamas militants began on 7 October, according to its own military tally.

US President Joe Biden asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to move Israeli troops back from Gaza's border with Egypt as part of an initial phase of a ceasefire deal so that talks could continue, Axios reported on Friday.

Netanyahu partially accepted Biden's request made in their call on Wednesday and agreed to give up an Israeli troop position along one part of the Egypt-Gaza border, three Israeli officials told Axios.

(Reuters)

According to various media and Palestinian medical staff, the Israeli army has killed 18 Palestinians on Friday in the central and southern areas of since this morning.

This comes as Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee has ordered residents to exacuate several neighbourhoods in northern and western Gaza.

Iran's newly appointed Foreign Minister, Abbas Araqchi, held phone conversations with his French and British counterparts on Friday, asserting that Iran has the right to retaliate against Israel for the recent assassination of a Hamas official in Tehran.

According to the official IRNA news agency, Araqchi conveyed Iran’s stance following the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on July 31, an act for which Iran holds Israel responsible.

Araqchi described the assassination as an "unforgivable violation of Iran's security and sovereignty" and stated that Iran is justified in "punishing the aggressor."

While Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in Haniyeh's death, Araqchi's remarks highlight the escalating tensions between the two nations.

The discussions with France's Stephane Sejourne and Britain's David Lammy occurred as they reached out to congratulate Araqchi on his recent appointment as Iran's foreign minister.

The sirens have been sounding in areas which border with Lebanon such as Safed, Biriyeh, Kadita Dalton, Kerem Ben Zimra and Jish.

This follows a series of Israeli military attacks on Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon.

German airline giant Lufthansa said Friday it was extending a suspension of flights to Beirut until September 30 and to Tel Aviv and Tehran until September 2 with regional tensions still high.

Previously suspended services to Amman in Jordan and Erbil in Iraq will however resume on August 27, with flights to the latter crossing a "northern corridor" of Iraqi airspace.

The airline previously said it was avoiding all Iraqi and Iranian airspace.

This comes after Delta Airlines said Wednesday it will extend its suspension of flights to Israel by another month, through Oct. 31, after there is no show of signs of ending the war in Gaza .

“Delta is continuously monitoring the evolving security environment and assessing our operations based on security guidance and intelligence reports,” the airline said in a travel advisory.

The announcement by Delta came after American Airlines extended its halt of flights between the United States and Tel Aviv through March 29 of next year. American updated an advisory on its website over the weekend.

Talks in Cairo on a reaching Gaza truce have made progress, the White House said Friday, also confirming that CIA chief William Burns was taking part.

"There has been progress made. We need now for both sides to come together and work towards implementation," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, describing talks Thursday as preliminary in nature ahead of more in-depth discussions.

 Israeli airstrikes across southern Lebanon on Friday killed at least six fighters and one child, according to security sources, as armed group Hezbollah responded with artillery rounds and rockets across the border.

Israeli strikes on the southern Lebanese towns of Mays al-Jabal and Tayr Harfa on Friday killed four Hezbollah fighters, according to the party's death notices and a security source.

Another fighter was killed in a separate strike outside Aitarun, according to the security source. It was not immediately clear if the combatant was a Hezbollah member.

A separate Israeli strike on the village of Aita, approximately 14 km (nine miles) north of the border with Israel, killed a Hezbollah fighter and a child, the security source told news agency Reuters. Hezbollah identified the fighter killed in Aita as Mohammad Najem.

The Israeli military, in a statement posted online, said it had targeted Najem in Aita because he was a member of Hezbollah's rocket and missile unit. It said it had targeted two other Hezbollah fighters across the south.

Its statement said "a number of projectiles fired from Lebanese territory" had crossed into northern Israel but that no injuries were reported.

Hezbollah's press office said the group had fired rockets and artillery fire onto various Israeli military positions throughout the day.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday said he had spoken with his Israeli counterpart to discuss a range of issues in the region, including the ongoing exchanges of fire on the Israel-Lebanon border and the need to finalise a ceasefire deal.

In a post on X, Austin said he also discussed the risk of escalation from Iran and Iran-backed groups in the call on Thursday and told Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant that the United States is well postured across the region. 

Lebanon's health ministry said Friday Israeli strikes killed seven people including a child in different parts of the south, with Hezbollah saying three of its fighters were among the dead.

The health ministry said an "Israeli enemy drone strike" killed two people including a "seven-year-old" in Aita al-Shaab, and two other "Israeli" strikes killed five people in three other locations in the south.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said a "hostile drone" targeted a house in Aita al-Shaab with "two guided missiles".

The health ministry said Israeli strikes included a raid "on the village of Tayr Harfa that killed three people", with Hezbollah later mourning three fighters killed by Israeli fire, including a man from that same village.

A source close to the group, requesting anonymity, told news agency AFP that the three fighters were killed in the Tayr Harfa strike.

Israel's military said its aircraft "eliminated" members of "a terrorist cell that was planning to fire projectiles from the area of Tayr Harfa".

On Friday morning, Hezbollah said it had targeted the northern Israel base of Meron "in response to the enemy's attacks on... southern villages and homes".

A Hamas official on Friday accused Israel's prime minister of refusing to agree to a final truce accord for Gaza, where the presence of Israeli troops on the Egyptian border remained a major sticking point.

An Israeli team was in Cairo "negotiating to advance a hostage (release) agreement", Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman Omer Dostri told AFP late on Thursday.

But Hamas representatives were not taking part and an official from the Islamist movement, Osama Badran, told news agency AFP on Friday that Netanyahu's insistence that troops remain on the Philadelphi border strip reflects "his refusal to reach a final agreement".

Egypt with fellow mediators Qatar and the United States have for months tried to reach a deal to end more than 10 months of war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza.

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken visited the region this week to emphasise the urgency of an agreement.

In Lebanon's biggest public hospital, nurses are busy honing their life-saving skills as the spectre of all-out war looms, 10 months into intensifying clashes between Hezbollah and Israel over the Gaza war.

"We are in a state of readying for war," nurse Basima Khashfi said as she gave emergency training to young nurses and other staff at the hospital in Beirut.

"We are currently training employees -- not just nurses, but also administrative and security staff.

"With our current capabilities, we're almost prepared" in case of a wider war, she told news agency AFP.

Lebanon has been setting in motion public health emergency plans since hostilities began, relying mostly on donor funds after five years of gruelling economic crisis.

The threat of full-blown war grew after Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement vowed to avenge the killings last month, blamed on Israel, of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in south Beirut.

"We're training to handle mass casualty incidents and to prepare for disasters or war," said Lamis Dayekh, a 37-year-old nurse undergoing training. "If war breaks out, we'll give everything we have."

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir criticised Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on X, following Gallant's public condemnation of him on the same platform.

Ben-Gvir had earlier called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dismiss Shin Bet security service chief Ronen Bar.

"You promised to return Lebanon to the Stone Age, but in the meantime, you're bringing Israel's northern region back to the Stone Age," Ben-Gvir wrote.

"Instead of attacking me on Twitter, start attacking Hezbollah in Lebanon."

Earlier on Friday, Gallant's office issued a statement rebuking Ben-Gvir's actions, labelling them as "reckless".

The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed the first case of polio in Gaza in over 25 years, as the war-torn region faces a new health crisis.

A ten-month-old baby has been paralysed by the virus, marking the first confirmed polio case in Gaza in more than two decades.

Last month, the WHO warned that polio had been detected in Gaza and cautioned that children in the area were at imminent risk of infection unless urgent preventive measures were taken.

Poliomyelitis, commonly known as polio, is a highly contagious virus primarily transmitted through the faecal-oral route. It can severely damage the nervous system, leading to paralysis and even death, particularly in young children.

UN Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed deep concern over the development, noting that genomic sequencing has linked the virus to a variant of poliovirus type 2 found in environmental samples collected from Gaza's wastewater in June.

The child, who has been left paralysed in the lower left leg, is reported to be in stable condition. Dr Tedros, in a post on X, highlighted the urgent need to prevent the spread of poliovirus in Gaza and the wider region.

He announced that the Palestinian Ministry of Health, in collaboration with WHO and UNICEF, is preparing to launch two rounds of polio vaccinations in the coming weeks to halt the virus's transmission.

The threat of polio comes as repeated evacuation orders continue to displace thousands in #Gaza’s cities of Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah, adding to the physical and mental strain on an already suffering population.

No one is safe, nowhere is safe. People have barely any… pic.twitter.com/rYgjNepbeg

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) August 22, 2024

Thirty UK-based doctors and medical professionals who have worked in the Gaza Strip have written to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, urging him to impose a ban on arms sales to Israel.

In their letter, they describe the harrowing experiences they faced while providing medical care in Gaza, expressing their deep concern that the injuries they treated may have been caused by weapons or components supplied by Britain.

The letter, cited by the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, emphasises that according to British law, International Humanitarian Law (IHL), and the UK's own Strategic Export Licensing Criteria, it is both a moral and legal imperative to halt arms sales to Israel.

🚨BREAKING🚨

30 UK-based doctors and medical staff who volunteered in Gaza have written an open letter to Prime Minister @Keir_Starmer demanding a total end to arms sales to Israel.

They say it is 'the morally as well as legally right thing to do.'https://t.co/IPSf5bqSgM

— ICJP (@ICJPalestine) August 22, 2024

According to Arabic-language media, 12 people have already been killed on Friday morning, as reports in and around the areas of Khan Younis, Nuseirat and Deir el-Balah have stated/

In Gaza City's Zeitoun neighbourhood, one person was killed in an Israeli air strike, while four people have been killed and others injured in an attack on a residential home in Nuseirat refugee camp.

The chief of the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees says that it is imperative that all children under 10 must access a polio vaccine.

Amid its upcoming mass vaccination campaign across the devastated territory, Philippe Lazzarini says "it is not enough to bring the vaccines into Gaza and protect the cold chain."

The UNRWA head added that polio could spread among children beyond Gaza, if there is not a swift humanitarian response.

"Polio will not make the distinction between Palestinian and Israeli children," he continued.

This comes after the Palestinian health ministry in the occupied West Bank said last week that tests in Jordan had confirmed polio in an unvaccinated 10-month-old baby from central Gaza.

Very sad. @WHO confirms that a 10-month-old baby in #Gaza is now paralysed due to #Polio. The first case in more than 25 years.

Polio will not make the distinction between Palestinian & Israeli children.
Delaying a humanitarian pause will increase the risk of spread among…

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) August 23, 2024

Israel's military court has extended the house arrest of soldiers who were accused of sexually abusing a Palestinian detainee until September 4.

However, the defence is able to hold a hearing on Sunday to request an alternative to detention, according to the military on Thursday.

The military added that an alternative could consist of "a place of work and suitable supervisors".

The soldiers were arrested after accusations of sexually abusing a Palestinian at the Sde Teiman detention facility in southern Israel, Israeli media report.

The UN special rapporteur on torture regarded the alleged case as "particularly gruesome" and called on Israeli civilian courts to investigate and hold the perpetrators accountable.

Bullets were found in the bodies of the six Israeli hostages retrieved from Gaza this week, the Hostage Families Forum campaign group said on Thursday, citing recent autopsy reports.

The comments came a day after US President Joe Biden pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the urgency of sealing a deal for a truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and release of hostages held by Hamas there.

A total of 109 hostages are believed to remain in Gaza. About a third of them are thought to be dead, with the fate of the others unknown.

"In every minute that the deal is not completed, another hostage could lose their life. It is clear to all that the return of the hostages is only possible through a deal," the campaign group said.

It said the recovery of six hostage bodies was no achievement but rather a testament to the government's failure to reach a deal on time and return the hostages alive.

Successive Israeli evacuation orders in Gaza, including 12 just in August, have displaced 90% of its 2.1 million residents since the war on Gaza began in October, the top United Nations humanitarian official for the Palestinian territory says.

Muhannad Hadi said the evacuation orders are endangering civilians instead of protecting them. "They are forcing families to flee again, often under fire and with the few belongings they can carry with them, into an ever-shrinking area" that is crowded and unsafe.

Civilians are being deprived of medical care, shelter, water wells and humanitarian supplies, "running from one destroyed place to another, with no end in sight," he said.

Hadi said in the statement Thursday that international humanitarian law requires the protection of civilians. "The way forward is as clear as it is urgent: Protect civilians, release the hostages, facilitate humanitarian access, agree on a cease-fire."

The evacuations are also the latest threat to UN personnel working in Gaza and affect humanitarian facilities, according to UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric. He cited as an example that the UN World Food Program lost access to its warehouse in central Deir al-Balah.

"This was the third and last operational warehouse in Gaza’s middle area," Dujarric said. “Five community kitchens operated by WFP have also been evacuated, as the agency seeks new locations for them."

The heads of Israel's Mossad spy agency and Shin Bet security service were taking part in talks on Gaza in Cairo on Thursday, a government spokesman said.

Mossad chief David Barnea and Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, who have been involved in truce talks in the war on Gaza, were currently "negotiating to advance a hostage (release) agreement" in the Egyptian capital, said Omer Dostri, spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

An Israeli attack has struck a car in southern Gaza's Khan Younis, that has led to the killing of four people, the Palestinian civil defence in Gaza reports.

The civil defence added that people were wounded from artillery strikes in northern Nuseirat.

Vice President Kamala Harris sealed the Democratic presidential nomination with a muscular speech, laying down broad foreign policy principles and sharp contrasts with Republican rival Donald Trump with 11 weeks left in the race for the White House.

On the final night of the four-day Democratic National Convention, Harris, 59, promised to be a "realistic," "practical" president for all Americans, as she battles Trump, 78, in a razor-close campaign.

After days of protests from Palestinian supporters who were disappointed at not getting a speaking spot at the convention, Harris delivered a pledge to secure Israel, bring the hostages home from Gaza and end the war in the Palestinian enclave.

"Now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done," she said to cheers. "And let me be clear, I will always stand up for Israel's right to defend itself and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself."

She said she wanted to end the war in a way that provides for Israel security and allows the Palestinian people to realize their right to self-determination.