Israel, Hezbollah trade fire as Gaza truce talks end in Cairo without agreement

This live blog has now wrapped up. The New Arab will be back again at 9am with live coverage of events on Gaza.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has announced that it is considering suspending some services at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital after an explosion near the facility “triggered panic” and led many people to flee the area.

“This situation is unacceptable,” MSF stated in a post on X. “Al Aqsa has been operating well beyond capacity for weeks due to the lack of alternatives for patients. All warring parties must respect the hospital, as well as patients’ access to medical care.”

The organisation also highlighted that Israel’s evacuation orders for the area have left “hundreds of thousands [of] displaced people with a so-called ‘humanitarian zone’ of just 41 square kilometres [16sq miles] in which to seek shelter."

As a result, MSF is considering whether to suspend wound care for the time being, while trying to maintain life-saving treatment. From around 650 patients, only 100 remain in the hospital, with 7 in intensive care unit according to the Ministry of Health. 2/4

— Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (@MSF_canada) August 25, 2024

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday the United States is still working in Cairo toward reaching a ceasefire deal in Gaza and added the United States is concerned about the Middle East conflict escalating to a broader war.

Sullivan also said at a news conference in Halifax the Biden administration is in consistent communication with Israel about the current situation with Hezbollah.

Israeli airstrikes killed at least five Palestinians in Gaza City early on Monday, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, which also reported multiple injuries in the attack.

The strike targeted a house near the Patient's Friends Hospital in the western part of Gaza City, Wafa said, citing medical sources.

Israeli military officials did not immediately comment on the strikes.

Hamas said on Sunday that it rejects new Israeli conditions put forward in Gaza ceasefire talks, casting further doubt on the chances of a breakthrough in the latest U.S.-backed effort to end the 10-month-old war.

Months of on-off talks have failed to produce an agreement to end Israel's devastating military campaign in Gaza or free the remaining hostages seized by Hamas.

Key sticking points in ongoing talks mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar include an Israeli presence in the so-called Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow 14.5 km-long (nine-mile) stretch of land along Gaza's southern border with Egypt.

Hamas said Israel has backtracked on a commitment to withdraw troops from the Corridor and put forward other new conditions, including the screening of displaced Palestinians as they return to the enclave's more heavily populated north when the ceasefire begins.

"We will not accept discussions about retractions from what we agreed to on July 2 or new conditions," Hamas official Osama Hamdan told the group's Al-Aqsa TV on Sunday.

Talks over a possible Gaza deal ended without agreement in Cairo, with neither Hamas nor Israel agreeing to several comprises presented by mediators, two Egyptian security sources said on Sunday.

This evening, the General Authority of Civil Affairs announced that two Palestinian men were killed by Israeli gunfire near Salfit, as confirmed by the Palestine Ministry of Health, as reported by Al Jazeera.

The men were identified as Adi Nizar Nimr Abu Naasa and Musab Hassan Ali Maqsas, according to information shared by the authority on the ministry’s Telegram channel.

Israel’s military on Sunday said polio vaccines for more than 1 million people had been delivered to Gaza, after the first confirmed case of the disease in the territory in a quarter-century.

It was not immediately clear how, or how quickly, the more than 25,000 vials of vaccine would be distributed in Gaza, where ongoing fighting and unrest have challenged humanitarian efforts during more than 10 months of war.

Other polio cases are suspected across the largely devastated territory after the virus was detected in wastewater in six different locations in July.

Aid groups plan to vaccinate more than 600,000 children under age 10 and have called for an urgent pause in the war to increase vaccinations. The World Health Organization and the United Nations children’s agency have said that, at a minimum, a seven-day pause is needed.

The U.N. has aimed to bring 1.6 million doses of polio vaccine into Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are crowded into tent camps lacking clean water or proper disposal of sewage and garbage. Families sometimes use wastewater to drink or clean dishes.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the exchange of fire between Hezbollah and Israel endangers both Lebanese and Israeli populations and jeopardizes “regional security and stability.”

He urged, “I call for immediate de-escalation and appeal to the parties to return to a cessation of hostilities,” in a post on X.

I'm deeply concerned by the increase in exchanges of fire across the Blue
Line.

These actions put the Lebanese & Israeli populations at risk & they threaten regional security & stability.

I call for immediate de-escalation & appeal to the parties to return to a cessation of…

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) August 25, 2024

Several people were injured and others arrested during an attack by Israeli settlers and forces on the village of al-Buwaib in Masafer Yatta, according to the Wafa news agency.

The head of the Birin village council reported that armed settlers, backed by Israeli forces, attempted to steal sheep from the village. When residents confronted them, the settlers responded by attacking with "stones and clubs," Wafa added

The armed wing of Hamas said on Sunday that it fired an "M90" rocket at Tel Aviv in response to what it said the "Israeli massacres against civilians".

A Hamas official said on Sunday the group's delegation left Cairo after meeting with Egyptian and Qatari mediators trying to negotiate a ceasefire in the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

"The Hamas delegation left Cairo tonight, after meeting with Egyptian and Qatari mediators who briefed them on the results of the latest negotiations," Izzat al-Rishq, said in a statement.

Diplomatic efforts to reach a Gaza ceasefire and avert a wider war intensified following the killings of two senior Iran-backed militants last month that sparked threats of reprisals from Tehran and its allies, who blamed Israel.

The basis of the talks has been a framework that US President Joe Biden outlined in late May, which he described as an Israeli proposal.

"Hamas reiterates its readiness to implement" the Biden plan, Rishq said on Sunday. This includes a permanent ceasefire, which Israel rejects.

Gaza Civil Defence reports that at least 11 bodies have been recovered from a house in the Hamad area, west of Khan Younis, following a recent bombing by Israeli forces.

According to Gaza Civil Defence, Israeli shelling in the Dawlat area of Gaza City's Zeitoun neighborhood has resulted in the deaths of three people.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Iran's new Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi discussed the situation in Gaza and developments in the region in a call, a Turkish diplomatic source said on Sunday.

Jordan on Sunday warned that heightened escalation between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah could lead to a "regional war" that would threaten stability.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Sufain Qudah said that Israel's relentless "aggression" in Gaza and the failure to reach a ceasefire was exposing the region to the dangers of an expansion of the conflict, Jordanian state media reported.

Top US military official General C.Q. Brown arrived on Sunday in Israel, hours after major cross-border clashes between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah.

Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is expected to hold meetings with senior Israeli military officials.

The Israeli army said Hezbollah failed to strike a military intelligence base near Tel Aviv that the Lebanese armed group's leader said was the target of a rocket and drone barrage on Sunday.

"I can confirm that there were no hits at the Glilot base," a spokesperson for the Israeli military told news agency AFP.

Meanwhile, the United States helped track the barrage of rockets and drones launched by Hezbollah against Israel, but was not involved in strikes in Lebanon or in shooting down incoming projectiles, a US defense official also told the French news agency.

"The US was not involved in Israel's preemptive strikes last night. We did provide some ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) support in terms of tracking incoming Lebanese Hezbollah attacks, but did not conduct any kinetic operations as they were not required," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"We continue to closely monitor the situation and remain well-postured and ready to support the defense of Israel from attacks by Iran and any of its proxies," the official added.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah denied Sunday that the Israeli military destroyed thousands of the group's rocket launchers.

"Talk about how the resistance (Hezbollah) was going to launch 8,000 or 6,000 rockets and drones and that (Israel) thwarted this... are false claims", Nasrallah said in a televised speech, adding that only "dozens of rocket launchers" were destroyed.

Israeli soldiers have shot two Palestinians near an army outpost in the occupied West Bank, resulting in one fatality and one injury.

The Israeli military claimed that the Palestinians were attempting to ram a vehicle into army outposts near the illegal Ariel settlement, though no further details were provided.

The incident also left a 39-year-old Israeli man with a superficial abdominal injury. According to the Israeli ambulance service, Magen David Adom, his condition is described as "very mild."

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah stated that the group's retaliatory attack against Israel was postponed due to various factors, including the extensive military mobilisation by both Israeli and US forces.

Nasrallah clarified that, in response to Israel’s assassination of senior commander Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah deliberately avoided targeting civilian areas or infrastructure.

Instead, the group focused on military targets near Tel Aviv, specifically aiming at a critical military intelligence base from which Israel conducts its surveillance operations.

Nasrallah further explained that Hezbollah launched Katyusha rockets as a diversion tactic to overwhelm Israel's Iron Dome and other defence systems.

This manoeuvre allowed drones to penetrate Israeli airspace from the Bekaa region in Lebanon for the first time. He noted that the targeted Israeli military base, identified as the Glilot base, was situated approximately 100 kilometres (62 miles) from the Israel-Lebanon border.

Nasrallah also mentioned that the Israeli military had begun striking locations in Lebanon 30 minutes before Hezbollah initiated its operations, targeting areas unrelated to Hezbollah's planned attack.

Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah explains delay in Hezbollah retaliation:

America, Israel and all their supporters were on alert and waiting for Hezbollah's response. We were waiting and wanted to give time to the Gaza ceasefire negotiations. Because all our actions are for the sake of… pic.twitter.com/NYY287Pv7f

— Arya - آریا (@AryJeay) August 25, 2024

Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) has released a statement on its Telegram channel to praise Lebanese group Hezbollah for "succeeding to launch courageous and bold attacks" on Israel "that confirm its adherence to its stated positions and its fulfillment of its promises."

"These attacks have confirmed that the enemy only understands the language of power and cannot be deterred except by the resistance and its fighters," the PIJ added.

Israel's cabinet on Sunday approved an expansion of 3.4 billion shekels ($923 million) in the 2024 state budget to help fund evacuees until the end of the year, the Finance Ministry said.

Tens of thousands of Israelis in the north have been displaced into hotels in the wake of daily rocket attacks by Hezbollah since Oct. 7.

Those from Gaza border communities are also included in what the cabinet called "conflict zones".

The ministry also said that 525 million shekels of the total budget was returned to state coffers after prior spending cuts, while another 200 million shekels would finance army reservists.

The ministry said it was working to bring the budget adjustments for a vote in parliament as soon as possible.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the additional funds would not add to the budget deficit and that the deficit would reach its 2024 target of 6.6% of gross domestic target.

Due to a spike in military spending, the deficit hit 8.1% of GDP in July over the prior 12 months. ($1 = 3.6844 shekels)

Key Tel Aviv share indices closed about 2% higher on Sunday, with the blue-chip index touching a record high, after an Israeli pre-emptive strike against Hezbollah curbed a potential rocket barrage by the group against key targets in Israel.

The blue-chip Tel Aviv 35 index ended 2% higher at 2091.6 points, after hitting an intraday peak of 2091.91, while the broader TA-125 rose 2.1%.

"The trading day began after the publication of the extensive pre-emptive strike launched by the Air Force early in the morning, which prevented the launch of missiles towards strategic targets in Israel," said Yuval Tzuk, an economist in the bourse's research department.

He said share gains were also helped by growing expectations of U.S. interest rate cuts.

Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel early on Sunday, as Israel's military said it struck Lebanon with around 100 jets to thwart a larger attack, in one of the biggest clashes in more than 10 months of border warfare.

Israel's foreign minister said the country did not seek a full-scale war but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned: "This is not the end of the story."

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned America's top general during a meeting on Sunday of the dangers of a major conflict in Lebanon.

U.S. Air Force General C.Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in Egypt hours after a significant missile exchange between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah.

In a statement, Sisi's office said the Egyptian leader told Brown that the international community needed to "exert all efforts and intensify pressures to defuse tension and stop the state of escalation that threatens the security and stability of the entire region."

"(Sisi warned) in this regard of the dangers of opening a new front in Lebanon, and stressing the need to preserve Lebanon's stability and sovereignty," the statement read.

Brown did not make public remarks during his visit, on which he also met the defence minister and the country's chief of defense.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has announced plans to launch a comprehensive polio vaccination campaign in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO), UNICEF, and other partners.

The initiative, set to begin in the coming days, aims to vaccinate over 600,000 children under the age of 10 in Gaza.

This large-scale effort is part of ongoing efforts to prevent the spread of polio and ensure the health and well-being of young children in the region, particularly amidst the challenging conditions currently faced by the population amid Israel's war on Gaza.

For the first time in 25 years, polio has been recorded in the #GazaStrip

Given the high risk of the spread of the deadly disease, @WHO, @UNICEF, @UNRWA & partners are launching a vaccination campaign in the coming days for over 600K children who are under 10 years of age. https://t.co/EDS14tU8Ja

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) August 25, 2024

A Hezbollah official said on Sunday that the group's rocket and drone attack against Israel on Sunday in retaliation for a top commander's killing last month had been delayed by "political considerations," chiefly among them the ongoing talks on a ceasefire and hostage release deal for the Gaza Strip.

The official, in written comments shared with media outlets, said the group had "worked" to make sure its response to the killing of Fuad Shukr on July 30 would not trigger a full-scale war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Sunday's strikes in Lebanon were "not the final word" in his country's military campaign against Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

"We are striking Hezbollah with surprising, crushing blows... This is another step towards changing the situation in the north and safely returning our residents to their homes. And, I repeat, this is not the final word," Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting.

He said the military destroyed thousands of "short-range rockets, all of which were intended to harm our civilians and forces in the Galilee".

"Additionally, the [Israeli military] intercepted all the drones that Hezbollah launched at a strategic target in central Israel," he said, without identifying what the target was.

Israeli media however reported the target Hezbollah aimed to strike was the headquarters of the Israeli Mossad spy agency near Tel Aviv.

An Israeli naval soldier was killed in northern Israel in clashes with the Lebanese group Hezbollah, a Hebrew media outlet reports.

An Israeli army spokesperson said the state of emergency in central Israel had been lifted while the restrictions imposed in the border area with Lebanon remain, The New Arab's Arabic sister service Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.

Zaher Tahseen Raddad, a 19-year-old from the occupied West Bank, has died in Israel’s Meir Hospital after sustaining serious injuries in an attack on Tulkarem on July 23.

Raddad was among four young men taken by Israeli forces following a drone strike on the house where they were located.

His death was confirmed by the Wafa news agency and other Palestinian sources.

According to a joint statement from the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society and the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, Raddad was shot by Israeli forces during the raid and was reportedly used as a human shield in front of an Israeli military vehicle.

BREAKING: Zaher Tahseen Raddad, a Palestinian prisoner from Tulkarm, has died from injuries sustained in Tulkarm weeks ago, due to medical neglect at an Israeli hospital, according to his family. pic.twitter.com/bYeaIdDmaO

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) August 25, 2024

Hamas on Sunday hailed strikes by Lebanon's Hezbollah against Israel, calling it a "strong and focused response".

"We emphasize that this strong and focused response, which struck deep inside the Zionist entity, is a slap in the face" for the Israeli government, Hamas said in a statement after Hezbollah said it launched a large-scale operation using rockets and drones.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has lauded the military’s strikes against Hezbollah this morning, arguing that the actions represent Israel's "right and duty to defend itself and its citizens."

In a post on X, Herzog took the opportunity to express gratitude and support for the Israeli forces, referring to them as Israel's "daughters and sons."

He also extended his appreciation to the security, emergency, and rescue services for their efforts across all battlefronts amid Israel's devastating offensive on Gaza.

At least 40,405 people have been killed and 93,468 injured in Israeli attacks on the Palestinian enclave since October of last year.

At least 71 Palestinians have been killed and 112 wounded in the last 24 hours, according to Gaza's health ministry.

The health ministry in Gaza said Sunday that at least 40,405 people have been killed in the war on the devastated territory, now in its 11th month.

The toll includes 71 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to ministry figures, which also list 93,468 people as wounded in the Gaza Strip since October 7.

Lebanon's prime minister Najib Mikati has said following a ministerial meeting that efforts are underway to "stop the escalation" in order to "stop the Israeli aggression first."

Mikati's statement comes after ongoing developments in Lebanon's south as Hezbollah have exchanged attacks.

Air France is suspending flights to Tel Aviv and Beirut scheduled for Sunday and Monday after Israel launched air strikes into Lebanon, the airline said.

"Flights today and tomorrow are suspended," a spokesman for the French carrier said, adding that the suspension could be extended depending on the situation in the Middle East.

Air France, which usually runs a daily service to both cities, had already halted flights to Beirut between July 29 and August 15, but has kept flying to Tel Aviv.

Air France did not say whether its budget subsidiary Transavia, which also serves both destinations, would suspend its flights.

German airline Lufthansa on Friday extended its Beirut flight suspension to the end of September, and said it would not fly to Tel Aviv and Tehran until September 2.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis praised attacks by Lebanon's Hezbollah on Israel Sunday and renewed threats to launch their own attack in response to Israeli strikes on a port in Yemen.

"We congratulate Hezbollah and its Secretary-General on the great and courageous attack carried out by the resistance this morning against the Israeli enemy," said a Huthi statement, adding that a response to July 20 strikes by Israel on the rebel-run Hodeida port "is definitely coming".

Israel's military said it carried out further attacks against Hezbollah rocket launchers in southern Lebanon on Sunday, hours after it announced a pre-emptive strike against the Iran-backed Lebanese group.

"In the last hour, the [Israeli forces] struck Hezbollah launchers in several areas in southern Lebanon to remove threats," the military said in a statement.

The United Nations special coordinator's office in Lebanon and peacekeepers on Sunday urged all parties "to ceasefire", after Israel struck Lebanon and Hezbollah said it launched attacks on Israeli positions.

The office of the special coordinator and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) "call on all to cease fire and refrain from further escalatory action", a joint statement said.

 Israel's spy chief David Barnea will head an Israeli delegation to the Gaza ceasefire talks in Cairo on Sunday, Israel's Army Radio reported, citing diplomatic officials.

Israel's Civil Aviation Authority announced Sunday the resumption of flights to and from the country's main international airport after a brief suspension as the Israeli military struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

Operations at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv resumed at 7:00 am (0400 GMT), spokesman Roy Steinmetz said, adding that "planes diverted to other airports will also take off from Ben Gurion again."

Lebanon's health ministry said three people were killed Sunday in Israeli raids in the country's south, after Israel launched strikes against Hezbollah, which announced a wide-scale attack on Israel.

An "Israeli drone strike on a car in the village of Khiam" killed one person, the health ministry said in a statement.

The Amal movement, a Hezbollah ally, later announced a fighter from Khiam had been killed.

The health ministry said that "the Israeli occupation attack on the village of Tiri" killed two people, without saying whether they were fighters or civilians.

It had earlier also reported two people including a Syrian man were wounded in "a series of Israeli raids" in the south.

Hezbollah said its chief Hassan Nasrallah will speak later Sunday after the Lebanese group announced it had launched a large-scale attack on Israel, and Israeli forces struck Lebanon.

Nasrallah will speak at 6:00 pm (1500 GMT), addressing "the latest developments", a statement from the group said.

Jordan's flag carrier Royal Jordanian suspended flights to Beirut on Sunday "due to the current situation", the state news agency reported without giving an exact time frame for the suspension.

Officials told news agency Reuters there was no disruption to Jordanian airspace.

Lebanon's Iran-aligned Hezbollah movement launched hundreds of rockets and drones against Israel early on Sunday in retaliation for the assassination of its senior commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli strike in Beirut on July 30.

The Israeli military said its jets hit targets in Lebanon shortly before the military assessed Hezbollah was preparing to launch the attacks.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Iran's new Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi discussed the situation in Gaza and developments in the region in a call, a Turkish diplomatic source told news agency Reuters on Sunday. 

Israel launched air strikes into Lebanon on Sunday, saying it had thwarted a large-scale Hezbollah attack while the Lebanese group said it had carried out its own raid to avenge a top commander's killing.

The Israeli military said its fighter jets had destroyed thousands of Hezbollah rocket launchers "aimed toward northern Israel and some were aimed toward central Israel."

The powerful Iran-backed Lebanese group countered that Israel was making "empty claims" of having thwarted an attack, and said its own operation for Sunday "was completed and accomplished".

Hezbollah said its fighters "began an air attack with a large number of drones" sent across the border, followed with "more than 320" Katyusha rockets launched at "enemy positions".

The Lebanese movement said its attack was an "initial response" to Shukr's killing, adding that it had "ended with total success", although the extent of the damage on the Israeli side was not immediately clear.

An Israeli military spokesman, Nadav Shoshani, said the fire from Hezbollah was "part of a larger attack that was planned and we were able to thwart a big part of it this morning".

The government declared a 48-hour state of emergency. By 7:00 am (0400 GMT) flights had resumed at Israel's main international airport after a brief suspension, the aviation authority said.

Military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told a media briefing that the Israeli strikes were meant "to remove the threats aimed at the citizens of Israel".

Lebanon's health ministry reported at least one dead in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the country's south. No casualties were immediately reported in Israel.

Footage of #Israel's IDF beginning to preemptively strike #Hezbollah targets in #Lebanon amid indications of preparations to attack Israel. pic.twitter.com/QVz0jn5l3h

— Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) August 25, 2024