Dozens dead as Israel bombs another Gaza school; two killed in Tel Aviv stabbing

TNA’s live coverage of the latest from the war on Gaza concludes for today. Join us again tomorrow at 0800 GMT for updates from the besieged Palestinian enclave.

France's Emmanuel Macron and Jordan's King Abdullah II on Sunday said a military escalation in the Middle East must be avoided "at all costs" during a telephone call, the French presidency said.

The leaders "expressed their utmost concern" and "underlined the need to avoid a regional military escalation at all costs", according to a readout of their call, as Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah have vowed to avenge deadly strikes blamed on Israel.

Nebal Farsakh, a representative of the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), recounted to news channel Al Jazeera English the aftermath of Israeli strikes on two schools in Gaza City.

She detailed how PRCS ambulance teams were able to evacuate several wounded Palestinians, but many remained trapped under the debris.

Farsakh described the scene as "horrific," with women screaming as they desperately searched for their children amid the rubble. Farsakh emphasized that the attack demonstrated once again that there is no safe haven in Gaza.

The two schools targeted were shelters for displaced civilians who had already been forced to relocate multiple times. Following the strikes, these individuals were compelled to flee yet again. She asserted that Israel has been systematically targeting civilians, underscoring the dire and perilous conditions faced by residents in Gaza amid the ongoing conflict.

"This attack is again another proof that there is no safe place in Gaza. These two schools are housing displaced civilians who have been forced to leave multiple times, and now even they have been forced to flee another time after this attack," she told Al Jazeera.

Gaza's civil defence has announced that at least 30 bodies have been found under the rubble on Sunday, while 16 displaced are still missing.

This comes after the attacks on the Al-Nasr and Hassan Salama schools by Israeli airstrikes. 

Hamas announced that it has begun consultations to select a new leader following the assassination of its political chief, Ismail Haniyeh.

The group stated that after Haniyeh's "martyrdom," the leadership has initiated a comprehensive consultation process within its ranks and advisory bodies to choose his successor.

This statement, published on Hamas's social media accounts on Sunday, emphasized that Haniyeh's death would only strengthen the resolve of Hamas and the Palestinian resistance to continue his mission.

The group assured that the outcome of these consultations would be announced once the process is complete.

Gaza's civil defence agency said an Israeli strike hit two schools in Gaza City on Sunday, killing at least 25 people.

"The bodies of 25 martyrs, mostly children and women, and 50 other wounded, also mostly children and women, were taken to Baptist hospital after an Israeli strike targeted Hassan Salameh and Al-Nasr schools in Gaza City," agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told news agency AFP.

The strike was confirmed by Israel's army.

Israeli forces have raided the house of the man said to be the suspect in the stabbing attack in Israel's Holon.

The raid took place in northern occupied West Bank's Salfit, where reports say over 10 military vehicles have arrived at the house and are preventing residents and journalists from approaching the site.

Saudi Arabia on Sunday called on its citizens to leave Lebanon without delay, as regional tensions soar following high-profile killings in Tehran and Beirut blamed on Israel amid the Gaza war.

The Saudi embassy in Beirut said in a statement posted on social media platform X that it was "following closely the developments in south Lebanon", near the border with Israel, and "reiterating its call for Saudi nationals to leave Lebanon's territory immediately".

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement said on Sunday that it targeted MV Groton vessel in the Gulf of Aden and also confirmed that it had downed a US drone "MQ-9" over Yemen’s northern Saada province.

The attacks are the first to be claimed by the Houthis since Israel carried out an airstrike against the group in the port of Hodeidah on July 20.

Urgent calls for foreign nationals to leave Lebanon grew on Sunday with France warning of "a highly volatile" situation as Iran and its allies ready their response to the killings of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr.

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, which has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces since the Gaza war broke out in October, announced its fighters had fired a barrage of rockets at Israel's north overnight.

Israeli forces kept bombarding the Gaza Strip, killing dozens of people at a school on Saturday, with no end in sight to its indiscriminate 10-month war on the territory. 

France, Canada and Jordan were among the latest governments to call for their citizens to leave Lebanon.

"In a highly volatile security context", French nationals were "urgently asked" to avoid travelling to Lebanon, and those already in the country "to make their arrangements now to leave... as soon as possible", the foreign ministry in Paris said.

The United States and Britain have issued similar warnings.

France on Sunday also urged its nationals living in Iran to "temporarily leave", warning Iranian airspace and airports could close.

Several Western airlines have suspended flights to Lebanon and other airports in the region.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Israeli forces will maintain their presence in the Philadelphi Corridor and at the Rafah border crossing near the Gaza-Egypt border.

In a video posted on his X account, Netanyahu claimed that Hamas is unwilling to accept any measures that would prevent the smuggling of weapons and fighters into northern Gaza.

He also accused Hamas of obstructing efforts to secure the release of Israeli captives by rejecting key proposals.

Netanyahu says that continued pressure should be placed on Hamas rather than the Israeli government, stating, "Anyone who, like me, wants to release the abductees should continue to put pressure on Hamas."

He emphasised that Israel will persist with its military actions against Hamas until all captives are freed and the objectives of the conflict are achieved.

An Israeli airstrike hit a tent inside a hospital compound in central Gaza, killing at least five people, bringing the total of Palestinians killed on Sunday to 19, Gaza health officials said, after another round of talks ended without result.

The airstrike hit a tent area inside the Al-Aqsa Hospital compound, starting a fire, and wounding at least 18 people in addition to the five killed, medical authorities said.

The hospital compound is in the Deir Al-Balah area, which is crowded with thousands of people displaced by fighting in other parts of the enclave.

Elsewhere in Deir Al-Balah, three Palestinians were killed when an Israeli missile struck a house, while eight other people were killed inside their home in Jabalia camp in northern Gaza City and three inside a car in separate Israeli strikes.

Online footage, filmed by news agency Reuters, showed Palestinians trying to tackle the fire that broke out in the tent encampment with water and small fire extinguishers.

The health ministry in Gaza said Sunday that at least 39,583 people have been killed in nearly 10 months of war.

The toll includes 33 deaths in the past 24 hours, according to ministry figures, which also list 91,398 people as having been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began on October 7.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reports that an Israeli drone targeted a motorcycle in the Lebanese town of Rab el-Thalathine.

The attack resulted in no injuries as the drone missed its target, according to the agency.

Since the onset of the Gaza conflict, the Israeli military has escalated its operations in southern Lebanon, including drone strikes on vehicles.

After visiting the scene of the stabbing attack in Holon, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir urged citizens to arm themselves, according to Israeli media.

"Our war is not only against Iran, but also here," Ben-Gvir stated.

"We have distributed thousands of weapons to citizens in order to use them," he added, calling on the populace to actively bear arms.

This call to action follows the earlier attack in which two people were killed by a man from the occupied West Bank, highlighting the growing domestic tensions and the government's response to perceived security threats.

Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi will travel to Iran on Sunday in a rare visit to discuss regional developments with his Iranian counterpart following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Iranian state media reported.

Regional tensions have spiked following the assassination of Haniyeh on Wednesday, which came a day after an Israeli strike in Beirut which killed Fuad Shukr, a senior military commander from the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah.

Hamas and Iran have both accused Israel of carrying out the assassination of Haniyeh and have pledged to retaliate. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the death nor denied it.

Safadi's visit to Iran follows continued diplomatic contacts by the United States and its partners including France, Britain, Italy, and Egypt on Saturday to prevent further regional escalation.

Iran and Jordan are seeking to improve their relations following recent tensions related to Amman accusing pro-Iranian groups in Syria of smuggling narcotics into the country and its taking part in the interception of Iran's retaliatory attack on Israel last April.

The French and US foreign ministers called on all sides in the Middle East "to exercise the utmost restraint" to prevent a regional conflict, France's foreign ministry said Saturday.

French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne discussed the rising tension in the region by telephone with his US counterpart Antony Blinken, said a ministry spokesman.

"They agreed to continue to call on all parties to exercise the utmost restraint to prevent any regional conflagration that would have devastating consequences for the countries in the region", he added.

They will also continue their joint efforts for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza, the spokesman added.

The meeting comes amid growing concern took place at a time when concerns about a possible military escalation in the Middle East, with Iran and its allies stepping up their threats against Israel.

#UnitedStates | @steph_sejourne speaks with US Secretary of State @SecBlinken.

⤵️ Full statement : https://t.co/rWkj6wWRTy pic.twitter.com/kpZuheKW5x

— France Diplomacy 🇫🇷🇪🇺 (@francediplo_EN) August 3, 2024

Two people were killed Sunday and two others wounded in a stabbing attack near Tel Aviv, Israeli medics said, with police reporting a suspect was "neutralised" and later died in hospital.

It comes at a moment of heightened tension in Israel and the wider Middle East, nearly 10 months into the war in the Gaza Strip.

The stabbing suspect, from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was "neutralised" by a police officer who arrived at the scene, the force said in a statement without elaborating.

The Shamir Medical Centre said the assailant was pronounced dead shortly after being taken to the hospital near Holon in a critical condition.

A 66-year-old woman and a man aged around 80 were badly wounded and died from their injuries shortly after the attack, the Wolfson hospital in the city said.

Israeli news website Ynet said the pair, whose ages Magen David Adom earlier gave as 70, were married.

Two other men were wounded, the emergency service said.

A 68-year-old was in serious condition and a 26-year-old was moderately wounded.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli bombardment of a school compound in Gaza City killed at least 17 people Saturday.

"There are 17 martyrs and several wounded due to Israeli shelling on Hamama school," the agency said in a statement, updating an earlier toll of 10 killed.

Earlier, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the compound was housing Palestinians displaced from their homes in the ongoing war in the devastated territory since October 7 of last year.

Israel's military campaign has killed at least 39,550 people, according to the Palestinian territory's health ministry.

France on Sunday called on its citizens in Lebanon to leave the country "as soon as possible" amid fears of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah and a broader regional conflict.

"In a highly volatile security context, we once again call the attention of French nationals, particularly those passing through, to the fact that direct commercial flights and ones with stopovers to France are still available, and we invite them to make their arrangements now to leave Lebanon as soon as possible," the foreign ministry said in its travel advice notice for Lebanon.

One woman was killed Sunday and three other people seriously wounded by stabbing in a Tel Aviv suburb, Israel's emergency medical service said, with police reporting a suspect was "neutralised".

The attack took place in several locations in Holon, on the outskirts of Israel's commercial hub of Tel Aviv, said the Magen David Adom emergency service, amid soaring regional tensions nearly 10 months into the war in Gaza.