Israel orders evacuation of Bureij, Nuseirat in Gaza, prepares for strikes in Lebanon

The live blog has now ended and will be back at 9am BST tomorrow. You can read more of The New Arab's coverage of Israel's war on Gaza here.

Palestinian news agency Wafa is reporting that three people were killed, and others wounded, in Israeli shelling of the Al-Nasr neighbourhood of Gaza City.

Ever since the 1948 Nakba, the end of July was a small but important moment to celebrate in Gaza. It is the time in which exam results for high school students are released, and for many of them, their journey into adult life begins. This year, with Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, there is no joy in the besieged coastal enclave.  

Despite not being able to take the high school exams, Baraa Wadi, a Palestinian from Gaza City, listened into a press conference held by the education ministry via radio.

"On this day, I was supposed to wait for my high school results like the rest of my colleagues in the West Bank (…) but Israel killed our joy in everything in life, not just significant times like these for us," Wadi remarked to The New Arab, his voice filled with regret. 

Before this current Israeli war on Gaza, Wafaa dreamed of graduating from high school and enrolling in one of the Palestinian universities to begin her journey toward her dream of becoming an architect. 

"I always planned to achieve my future goals and be a good citizen for my community and contribute to building resorts and homes and restoring archaeological sites […] Unfortunately, everything is over. There are no longer homes, mosques, or archaeological landmarks that I might one day contribute to restoring," the 19-year-old said.

Read more from TNA's Gaza correspondent Sally Ibrahim here.

Lebanon was holding its breath on Monday in anticipation of a major Israeli response to a deadly air strike blamed on Hezbollah that killed 12 children from a Druze community in the Israeli occupied Golan Heights.

Western diplomats have been urging Israel to show restraint, while the UN peacekeeping force that mans the Israel-Lebanon border, known as the 'Blue Line', has called on all parties to exercise "maximum restraint" to avert a wider conflagration.

Throughout Monday, there was a flurry of urgent diplomatic activity aimed at defusing tensions. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy spoke with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati to renew the call for all parties to exercise restraint and prevent escalation.

According to local media, Lebanese foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib held meetings with Hezbollah official Ammar Moussawi, while it was reported that top US envoy Amos Hochstein had also been on the phone to Beirut.

International officials are eager to ensure the nearly ten-month tit-for-tat attacks that have characterised fighting between Israel and the Iran-aligned Hezbollah does not spiral into an all-out-war.

Read more from this article by TNA Journalist Rosabel Crean here.

The White House said Monday it is "confident" that a wider war between Israel and Hezbollah can be avoided despite a deadly rocket attack in the Israeli annexed Golan Heights that killed 12 children.

"Nobody wants a broader war, and I'm confident that we'll be able to avoid such an outcome," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in a call with reporters.

Any possible Israeli attack on Lebanon will have serious consequences, Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a phone call with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, Iran's state media reported on Monday.

(Reuters)

Gaza's health ministry declared a polio epidemic across the Palestinian enclave, blaming Israel's military offensive.

Polio had been discovered in Gaza earlier in July, with the Israeli army launching a vaccination campaign to its soldiers operating in the enclave.

(Reuters & The New Arab Staff)

Hamas said in a statement on Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had added new conditions and demands to a US ceasefire proposal.

The group said the Israeli ceasefire response showed that Netanyahu was stalling to avoid reaching an agreement.

(Reuters)

Israeli demonstrators have broken into the Sde Teiman base in protest at the arrest of nine soldiers by the military police over the abuse of a Palestinian detainee in the base. 

Alongside demonstrators was lawmaker Zvi Sukkot of the ultranationalist Religious Zionism party, who also entered the base. 

Israeli military chief Herzi Halevi labelled the incident as "extremely dangerous and against the law", adding that "We are at war, and actions of this kind endanger the security of the country."

Jordan's flag carrier Royal Jordanian has suspended flights to Beirut on Monday and Tuesday, Jordanian Television reported, citing a statement from the airline on Monday.

The airline said evaluation was ongoing regarding flights scheduled for Tuesday.

(Reuters)

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Monday visited the site of a deadly attack in the annexed Golan Heights, vowed Israel would deliver a "severe response" to the rocket fire that killed 12 children.

"These children are our children ... The State of Israel will not, and cannot, let this pass. Our response will come and it will be severe," Netanyahu said at the site of the attack, according to a statement issued by his office.

An Israeli airstrike that targeted a school west of Rafah has killed five people, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa. The report added the Palestinian Red Crescent Society recovered the bodies.

Israeli military policy have raided the Sde Teiman detention facility that is housing Palestinian detainees from Gaza and arrested a number of soldiers over abuse of detainees in the facility. 

Haaretz reported that soldiers and military police clashed, with soldiers barricading themselves in a section of the facility and using pepper spray against the police.

Haaretz quoted one soldier as saying "The military police came to arrest us because we are responsible for Nukhba terrorists. To everyone, the nation of Israel, go out into the streets for us, I am not ready for this shame that they are arresting me - I gave my life for you, for my country."

The Israeli military said that the military police opened an investigation after reports of abuse of a detainee at the facility. Numerous Israeli and Palestinian rights groups, and Palestinian lawyers, have spoken of systematic abuse of detainees at the facility since the start of Israel's war on Gaza.

Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani has discussed preventing a new war in the Middle East with his Israeli and Lebanese counterparts, Israel Katz and Bou Habib, he said on Monday.

"Breaking the spiral of violence is possible", he wrote on social media platform X.

He said the Italian government was committed to peace and stability, including through Italy's presence in the United Nations' UNIFIL contingent.

(Reuters)

The German government calls on all parties to the Middle East conflict, in particular Iran, to prevent an escalation after a rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights killed 12 children and teenagers last week, a spokesperson said on Monday.

The German government has also called on its citizens to "urgently" leave the Lebanon.

(Reuters & The New Arab Staff)

Air France and low-cost carrier Transavia France have suspended their flights between Paris and Beirut due to the "security situation" in Lebanon, a spokesman for the companies said Monday.

The announcement, which follows a similar decision by Germany's Lufthansa, came a day after Israel vowed to retaliate following rocket fire from Lebanon that killed 12 people in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

The UK's Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in a post on X that he spoke with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati where they discussed the ongoing tension in south Lebanon.

"I spoke with Prime Minister Najib Mikati today to express my concern at escalating tension and welcomed the Government of Lebanon's statement urging for cessation of all violence," the post on X read.

"We both agreed that widening of conflict in the region is in nobody's interest," it added.

I spoke to Prime Minister @Najib_Mikati today to express my concern at escalating tension and welcomed the Government of Lebanon’s statement urging for cessation of all violence. We both agreed that widening of conflict in the region is in nobody’s interest.

— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) July 29, 2024

Gaza's health ministry has said that 39 people have been killed and 93 have been injured in the last 24 hours of fighting in Gaza.

The ministry added that the total death toll from Israel's war on the enclave stood at 39,363 people killed and 90,923 wounded.

German airline group Lufthansa said Monday it had suspend its services to Beirut until 5 August after Israel threatened reprisals for a deadly rocket strike launched from Lebanon.

The group's flights to Lebanon were cancelled as a result of "current developments in the Middle East", a Lufthansa spokesman told AFP.

The Lufthansa group, which includes SWISS and Austrian Airlines, has repeatedly paused travel to the region since the conflict began.

According a report from the Washington Post, at least 13 Palestinians from the Israeli occupied West Bank and Israel have died in Israeli detention, according to accounts that were verified by eyewitnesses and the Physicians for Human Rights Israel.

The report also cited accounts from former detainees and lawyers revealing that how Palestinians in detention are victim to violence by prion guards. 

Israel wants to hurt Hezbollah but does not want to drag the region into an all out war, a senior Israeli defence official said, while two other officials said the country was preparing for the possibility of a few days of fighting.

The officials spoke as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened security assessments and his security cabinet late on Sunday, a day after a strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights killed 12 children and teenagers. 

(Reuters)

The foreign ministers of Autralia, Japan, India and the US, who are currently in Tokyo, issued a joint statement urging for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages held in the enclave.

"We affirm the imperative of securing the release of all hostages held by Hamas, and emphasize that the deal to release hostages would bring an immediate and prolonged ceasefire in Gaza," the statement read. 

They four also reaffirmed their commitment to a two-state solution, and reiterated a need to avoid any escalation or spillover of the conflict into the wider region.

An Israeli drone strike outside the southern Lebanese town of Shaqra on Monday killed two people and wounded three, including a child, Lebanese civil defense said.

The rescue service did not say whether the dead were fighters or civilians.

This was the first deadly Israeli strike on Lebanon since what Israel said was a Hezbollah rocket attack on Saturday that killed 12 in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Hezbollah has denied involvement in that strike. 

(Reuters)

Airline group Lufthansa has suspended flights to the Lebanese capital Beirut up to and including 30 July because of the current situation in the Middle East, the carrier said in a statement on Monday.

Flights by the group's carriers Swiss International Air Lines, Eurowings and Lufthansa have been suspended "in an abundance of caution", it said. 

(Reuters)