Hamas official says no progress in Gaza ceasefire talks, PRCS evacuates HQ in Mawasi Khan Younis area

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Confrontations ongoing between Palestinian fighters and Israeli forces in the Tel Al-Sultan and Saudi neighbourhoods in Rafah in southern Gaza, Palestinian media report.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society is working to restore relief and medical services in north Gaza.

"As part of ongoing efforts to prepare the PRCS headquarters in northern #Gaza and reactivate the ambulance and emergency centre, PRCS volunteers and staff, who arrived a week ago, are working to restore relief and medical services in the area," the humanitarian group posts on X.

As part of ongoing efforts to prepare the PRCS headquarters in northern #Gaza and reactivate the ambulance and emergency center, PRCS volunteers and staff, who arrived a week ago, are working to restore relief and medical services in the area.#HumantarianHeroes pic.twitter.com/UnaHhqCpcO

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) June 29, 2024

Israeli artillery continues shelling the Shejaiya neighbourhood in Gaza City, Palestinian media report.

Media said Israeli army vehicles were besieging a number of families in the area around Al-Shuhada Mosque in the neighbourhood.

Sirens sounded in the Holit and Sufa kibbutzes in southern Israel near Gaza, the Israeli army says.

Israeli aircraft launched a violent raid on Rafah's Tel Al-Sultan neighbourhood, alongside the demolition of homes in the area, The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.

A Serbian police officer on Saturday killed a man who shot him in the neck with a crossbow in front of the Israeli embassy in Belgrade, in what the prime minister called a "terrorist act".

Police identified the assailant as being a "convert" to Islam, who was born in 1999 in the town of Mladenovac, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Belgrade.

The attack happened around 11am (9am GMT) on Saturday in the Serbian capital, when the attacker shot the officer who was on duty outside the Israeli embassy.

The policeman in self-defence opened fire from his gun at the attacker "who died as a result of his injuries", said Interior Minister Ivica Dacic.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday that Iran's message of an "obliterating war" made it worthy of destruction.

⁠"A regime that threatens destruction deserves to be destroyed," Katz said in a post on X.

He also said Israel will act with full force against Iran-backed Hezbollah if it does not stop firing at Israel from Lebanon and move away from the border.

Iran's UN mission said on Friday that if Israel embarks on a "full-scale military aggression" in Lebanon, "an obliterating war will ensue."

The Iranian mission also said in the post on X that in such an event "all options, incl. the full involvement of all resistance fronts, are on the table".

(Reuters)

The Israeli army has announced that two soldiers were killed in northern Gaza.

There have been more than 40 confrontations between the Israeli army and Palestinian fighters in Gaza City's Shejaiya neighbourhood since Thursday, Israel's public broadcaster reports.

Hamas says Ismail Haniyeh, the head of its political bureau, spoke on Saturday with Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel.

They discussed ongoing negotiations seeking to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.

Hamas's armed wing says it continues to fight Israeli forces in Gaza City's Shejaiya neighbourhood.

Al-Qassam Brigades say Israeli soldiers have been killed and wounded and that more than one aircraft has landed to evacuate them.

Palestinian fighters say they have attacked two Israeli personnel carriers and a military bulldozer in southern Gaza's Rafah.

Hamas's armed wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, says that, working with Palestinian Islamic Jihad's Al-Quds Brigades, it successfully targeted the vehicles with Al-Yassin 105 and RPG rockets.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society says it has completely evacuated its temporary administrative headquarters in the Mawasi Khan Younis area.

The humanitarian group adds that the move was made because of "shrapnel falling on the building and direct shelling, which posed a danger to the staff working inside".

🚨The Palestine Red Crescent Society fully evacuated its temporary administrative headquarters in the Mawasi Khan Younis area due to shrapnel falling on the building and direct shelling, which posed a danger to the staff working inside.#NotATarget #Gaza

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) June 29, 2024

The armed wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine says it has attacked Israeli forces in the area around the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

The Omar Al-Qasem Forces say they used rockets.

The armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad says it attacked an Israeli military vehicle in Gaza City's Shejaiya neighbourhood.

Al-Quds Brigades say the crew of the vehicle were killed or injured.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said on Saturday there has been no progress in ceasefire talks with Israel over the Gaza war.

The Palestinian group is still ready to "deal positively" with any ceasefire proposal that ends the war, Hamdan told a news conference in Beirut.

(Reuters)

Protests are expected to take place across Israel protesting against the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and calling for a hostage deal.

At Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, an address from Noa Argamani is expected to be played, her first since being released from captivity in Gaza, according to Israeli publication Haaretz. 

Family members of hostages are also expected to make speeches outside Israel's defence ministry complex, with protests calling for elections planned in Kaplan Junction in Tel Aviv. 

Protests will also occur outside Netanyahu's residences in Jerusalem and Caesarea. 

An Israeli strike on Gaza's southern city of Rafah has killed three people, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA. The three were taken to the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, according to the report.

An Israeli strike on the Bureij refugee camp killed four people, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA, adding that others were injured in the strike that hit a house. 

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that medical crews were able to take wounded to a hospital east of Bureij refugee camp.

🚨The Palestine Red Crescent crews provided first aid to one of the injured and transported him to the hospital following an artillery strike east of Al-Bureij camp in the central #Gaza Strip.
📷Filmed by volunteer: Musa Al-Qatawi. pic.twitter.com/01Auqbu2cr

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) June 29, 2024

Three anti-tank missiles were fired into Israel from Lebanon, with Israeli publication Haaretz reporting that the missiles struck the border communities of Misgav Am and Tel-Hai. The army has stated that it is conducting artillery fire at the sites of where the attacks were launched in southern Lebanon. 

Mustafa Barghouti, the leader of the Palestinian National Initiative, has said the recent decisions made by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the occupied West Bank were "a declaration of Israeli annexation of the West Bank, which is the most dangerous challenge facing the Palestinian people since the Nakba."

"Netanyahu and his fascist fundamentalist allies are implementing Netanyahu’s dreams to eliminate all possibilities for an independent Palestinian state, liquidate the entire Palestinian national rights, and to complete the implementation of the colonial settler project in all of historic Palestine," Barghouti said in a post on X. 

Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, the leader of the Palestinian National Initiative (PNI) said that the recent decisions of the Israeli cabinet are a declaration of Israeli annexation of the West Bank, which is the most dangerous challenge facing the Palestinian people since the Nakba.
Dr.…

— Mustafa Barghouti @Mustafa_Barghouti (@MustafaBarghou1) June 29, 2024

The Israeli army has said it is continuing to operate in Gaza City's Shejaiya neighbourhood, adding that the army had "eliminated a large number of terrorists" in the past days, and that the air force had struck targets in the area. 

Gaza's Ministry of Health has announced that 40 Palestinians have been killed and 224 others have been wounded in the past 24 hours.

The health ministry raised the death toll to 37,834 people killed and 86,858 wounded.

An Israeli strike on a park on central Gaza City have killed five Palestinians, according to Al Jazeera, with the report noting that the five were gathered in a municipal park.

Iran's mission to the UN has warned against an Israeli invasion of Lebanon, saying if such an invasion occurred "an obliterating war will ensue".

The mission added that "all options, incl. the full involvement of all Resistance Fronts, are on the table."

Albeit Iran deems as psychological warfare the Zionist regime’s propaganda about intending to attack Lebanon, should it embark on full-scale military aggression, an obliterating war will ensue. All options, incl. the full involvement of all Resistance Fronts, are on the table.

— I.R.IRAN Mission to UN, NY (@Iran_UN) June 28, 2024