Israel intensifies Gaza strikes following deadly weekend attack

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

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on all parties involved in the Gaza conflict to demonstrate political courage and determination to reach an agreement to end the war.

"The extreme level of fighting and devastation in Gaza is incomprehensible and inexcusable," Guterres wrote in a post on X. "Nowhere is safe. Everywhere is a potential killing zone."

This statement comes amidst reports of potential progress towards an agreement. Israel is reportedly preparing to send another negotiating team, with mediation efforts being led by Qatar and Egypt.

The extreme level of fighting and devastation in Gaza is incomprehensible and inexcusable.

Nowhere is safe. Everywhere is a potential killing zone.

It is high time for the parties to show the political courage and political will to finally reach a deal.

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) July 15, 2024

The Israeli army reported on X that approximately 20 rockets were fired from Lebanon in two salvos at 11:30 and 11:39pm local time (20:30 and 20:39 GMT).

Most of these rockets were intercepted, and there were no casualties in either incident.

Earlier, Hezbollah, which has been engaged in cross-border exchanges with Israel during the conflict in Gaza, announced the death of one of its fighters.

This fighter hailed from a town targeted by the Israeli army that evening. Although Hezbollah did not specify the time and location of the fighter's death, it often retaliates with rocket launches following such incidents.

Israeli soldiers mistakenly fired upon a vehicle in the occupied West Bank, believing it to be carrying Palestinians, resulting in injuries to two Israeli citizens.

In a brief statement, the Israeli military reported that security forces, while operating in the area, identified a vehicle as "suspicious" and opened fire.

The incident left two Israelis with minor injuries, both of whom were subsequently transported to a hospital for treatment.

In an interview with the US entertainment news outlet Complex on Monday, President Joe Biden addressed Israel's ongoing conflict with Gaza.

The interview, conducted by Complex journalist Speedy Morman, featured Biden clarifying his administration's stance on military support to Israel. He emphasized that the US had only supplied "defensive" weapons rather than "offensive" ones.

"I made it very clear that they cannot use what we provide them to target civilian areas," Biden stated, although he did not provide evidence to support this claim.

The situation in Gaza has reached a critical point, with the United Nations describing Israel's bombing campaign as unprecedented.

Reports indicate that the vast majority of homes in Gaza have been destroyed, causing severe economic repercussions. In the last quarter of 2023, Gaza's economy contracted by 81 percent.

Further UN reports reveal extensive damage to housing in Gaza, with at least 370,000 housing units affected, including 79,000 that have been completely destroyed. Much of this destruction is attributed to weapons supplied by the United States.

During the interview, Biden also highlighted his contributions to the Palestinian community. "By the way, I’m the guy who did more for the Palestinian community than anybody. I’m the one who opened up all the assets. I ensured the Egyptians opened up the border to let goods through,” he asserted.

The Palestinian Authority's prisoners affairs minister on Monday accused Israel of waging an abusive "war of revenge" against Palestinian detainees since the start of the Gaza war.

Accounts of alleged mistreatment including torture, rape and other sexual abuses in Israeli jails have all been denied by Israeli authorities.

"Israel has been waging a war of revenge against prisoners within the walls of prisons and detention centres since the first day of the decision to go to war against Gaza," said the PA's Prisoners' Affairs Authority head Qadura Fares.

Speaking at a press conference in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, he added that Palestinian prisoners were treated as "hostages" and the mistreatment was part of the "pressure".

The authority's lawyer Khaled Mahajna denounced abuses which he said he had been told of when he visited detained Gaza journalists Mohammed Arab and Tariq Abed at the Ofer detention centre near Ramallah.

Mahajna said he was told how guards forced one prisoner to "lay on his stomach naked and then a fire extinguisher tube was inserted into his buttocks and the fire extinguisher was turned on".

He said he was told how other inmates had "electric prods" used on their bodies.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has issued a post on X that its crews have found the bodies of six people following an Israeli attack on a house central Gaza's Camp 1 in Nuseirat.

"The ongoing nightmare of more than 9 months of relentless night bombings and explosions continues," the PRCS wrote.

The ongoing nightmare of more than 9 months of relentless night bombings and explosions continues, with more civilian casualties in the #Gaza Strip each night. 🚨Just a short while ago, Palestine Red Crescent Society teams transported six martyrs after a house was targeted in… pic.twitter.com/ICIz5yHbdI

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) July 15, 2024

Access to war-torn Gaza has become increasingly difficult for humanitarian groups, 13 leading NGOs warned on Monday, accusing Israel's military of blocking much-needed aid from reaching the besieged Palestinian territory.

Denouncing "Israel's systematic obstruction of aid and its ongoing attacks on aid operations", the humanitarian organisations said that Israel had facilitated only 53 -- less than half -- of the 115 relief missions they had planned.

The aid groups slammed what it called Israel's "siege tactics" in its military offensive on Gaza.

It said the so-called "humanitarian zone" where most of the strip's population of 2.4 million people now reside had become "an active combat zone" and "extremely unsafe".

The charities also criticised the bombing of United Nations schools used as shelters by displaced Palestinians.

At least six schools have been hit over the past nine days.

"These recent events are exacerbating the humanitarian catastrophe at a time when NGOs continue to come up against the obstacles imposed by the continuation of Israeli military operations on the ground," a press release summarising the 13 NGOs' views warned.

Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children and the Norwegian Refugee Council were among the charities to contribute to the document.

An Israeli air strike on Monday killed a Hezbollah fighter and his sister in south Lebanon, the National News Agency (NNA) and the movement said.

Israel's military said it had targeted an arms depot and a military installation belonging to the powerful Iran-backed group.

"The Israeli enemy committed a massacre of civilians in the town of Bint Jbeil, with one brother and a sister in the Dagher family killed," the NNA reported.

It said another sister was gravely wounded when Israeli aircraft hit the family's house twice, destroying it.

Hezbollah in a statement later on Monday announced the death of one of its fighters from the Dagher family in Bint Jbeil, confirming the NNA's report.

An Israeli military statement said that aircraft "struck a Hezbollah weapons storage facility in the area of Bint Jbeil and a Hezbollah military structure... in southern Lebanon" near the border village of Kfar Kila.

The NNA also reported an Israeli strike hitting Kfar Kila.

 Yemen's Houthis said on Monday they targeted three vessels, including an oil tanker, in the Red and Mediterranean seas with ballistic missiles and drones. 

The European Union announced sanctions on Monday against five Israeli individuals and three entities, describing them as responsible for "serious and systematic human rights abuses" against Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The list included Tzav 9, a group which it said had regularly blocked humanitarian aid trucks delivering food, water and fuel to the Gaza Strip.

Also on the list were Ben-Zion Gopstein, founder and leader of the Lehava organisation, and Isaschar Manne, whom the EU described as the founder of an unauthorised outpost in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Both have also been sanctioned by the United States, as has Tzav 9, which Washington said last week opposes Jewish assimilation with non-Jews and agitates against Arabs in the name of religion and national security.

There was no immediate comment by those sanctioned.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel, a proponent of settlements, called the sanctions an "inappropriate and unacceptable step between friendships" and an undemocratic intervention in Israeli democracy that harms freedom of expression and protest among Israeli citizens.

"Imposing sanctions on Israeli citizens in settlements or among right-wing organizations is crossing a red line," said Smotrich, who seeks to have these sanctions cancelled.

 Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior economic officials held their first high level meeting on the 2025 state budget on Monday that they seek to be approved by parliament by the end of 2024.

Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the director general of the finance ministry and Netanyahu's economic adviser participated in the meeting, according to a joint statement that offered no details of the discussions.

In the wake of credit rating cuts by S&P and Moody's, the budget deficit has swelled due to Israel's war in Gaza, now in its 10th month.

Spending on the war has topped 80 billion shekels ($22 billion).

The civil defence agency in Gaza said on Monday that an Israeli strike on a school in Gaza City killed at least one person.

The strike on Salah al-Din School in Gaza City's Al-Rimal neighbourhood was the latest to hit schools, many of which have been turned into shelters for people displaced by the war in the Palestinian territory.

At least six schools have been hit over the past nine days.

A civil defence spokesman reported the death, which a medic at Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City confirmed. The medic added that four others were wounded at Salah al-Din School.

The new school strike came as the health ministry in Gaza announced the death toll from an attack the previous day on the UN-run Abu Oreiban school had risen from 15 to 22.

Civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said "thousands of displaced" were sheltering at the school in Nuseirat camp when it was bombed on Sunday, and that most of the dead were women and children.

Updated:
One martyr and 6 injured were recovered after an Israeli bombing targeted the UNRWA “Salah al-Din School,” which shelters displaced people in the Al-Rimal neighborhood in central Gaza City. pic.twitter.com/NwOKiGemlW

— shameen suleman (@shameensuleman) July 15, 2024

Senior officials from the rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah have agreed to meet in Beijing this month in a renewed bid for reconciliation, officials said Monday.

The Hamas delegation is to be headed by its Qatar-based political chief Ismail Haniyeh, while the Fatah representation will be led by deputy head Mahmud Alul, Fatah sources said.

Hamas had no immediate comment.

The two groups have been bitter rivals since Hamas fighters ejected Fatah from the Gaza Strip after deadly clashes that followed Hamas's resounding victory in a 2006 election.

Several reconciliation bids have failed, but calls have grown since the Hamas October 7 attacks on Israel, with violence also soaring in the West Bank where Fatah is based.

China hosted Fatah and Hamas in April but a meeting scheduled for June was postponed.

The representatives are to meet with Chinese officials in Beijing on July 20 and July 21, according to Fatah's central committee deputy secretary general Sabri Saidam.

Before that, a meeting of the two groups could take place, he added.

The goal, said Saidam, "is to end the state of division with a commitment to past agreements and agreeing on a relationship between the Palestinian groups in the next stage."

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that following Israeli airstrikes on the Al-Salam neighbourhood of Deri el-Balah its ambulance teams transported one killed and 11 wounded people to hospital.

🚨 Palestine Red Crescent Society teams transported a martyr and 11 injured individuals after the Israeli occupation targeted a house this afternoon in Al-Salam neighborhood, west of Deir al-Balah in the central #Gaza Strip.
📷 Filmed by volunteer: Mousa Al-Qatawi pic.twitter.com/SlPcVxbyPZ

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) July 15, 2024

Prominent Syrian pro-regime businessman Baraa Katerji was killed in an Israeli air strike near the Lebanese-Syrian border on Monday, three security sources told Reuters.

(Reuters)

The EU on Monday announced sanctions on five Israelis - including those termed "extremist settlers" - and three organisations for abuses against Palestinians in the Israeli occupied West Bank and blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza.

The asset freezes and visa bans are the second round of sanctions from the 27-nation bloc targeting violent Israeli settlers, taking the total number of listings to 14.

A vessel located 97 nautical miles northwest of Yemen's Hodeidah reported being attacked by an uncrewed surface vessel which impacted on the port side and caused some damage, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on Monday.

UKMTO said the vessel and its crew were reported to be safe and were proceeding to their next port of call.

(Reuters)

The municipal authorities of Deir el-Balah have said that the wells and water tanks in the city have stopped working as there is no fuel to operate them, according to The New Arab's sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed. 

The chief of the UN Palestine relief agency (UNRWA) has said that the agency's headquarters has been "flattened" in a post on X.

"Another episode in the blatant disregard of international humanitarian law," Philippe Lazzarini said, adding "United Nations facilities must be protected at all times. They must never be used for military or fighting purposes."

Shocking.@UNRWA headquarters in #Gaza, turned into a battlefield & now flattened 👇

Another episode in the blatant disregard of international humanitarian law.

United Nations facilities must be protected at all times. They must never be used for military or fighting… pic.twitter.com/XVOm5UjJeM

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) July 15, 2024

Palestinian group Hamas has blamed the US administration for causing immense suffering in Gaza through its continued weapons trade with Israel and support of its offensive.

"We strongly condemn the US disregard for the blood of our Palestinian children and women the lives of civilians and displaced persons by providing all types of banned weapons to the Israeli occupation to kill Palestinians," the group said in a statement on Monday.

It said the US government under the administration of President Biden has caused "profound damage to our Palestinian people by engaging in the crime of genocide and supplying the occupation with internationally banned weapons".

The US is the largest supplier of weapons to Israel and has continued to do so throughout the war, despite concerns that Israel is breaching international law in its brutal offensive which has killed more than 38,500 Palestinians and injured over 88,800.

Lebanon's National News Agency is reporting that Israeli airstrikes hit the Lebanese border town of Marwahin. The strikes come after Hezbollah announced it targeted the Al-Raheb military site in northern Israel. 

The leader of Israel's new opposition party The Democrats has called on for protests for a hostage deal that he said would "dismantle Netanyahu's government" at a protest camp outside the Israeli Knesset.

The Democrats, led by former deputy chief of the Israeli military Yair Golan, is a merger between left-wing parties the Labor Party and Meretz

"Every Israeli citizen already understands that [Netanyahu] prefers Ben-Gvir and Smotrich to the hostages" he was quotes as saying by Israeli publication Haaretz.

"If we don't take to the streets with all force right now, the abandonment of our sisters and brothers will continue. Now is the time to intensify the protest," he added.

15 Palestinians were arrested by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, including a woman and former prisoners, according to the Palestinian Prisoner's Society. 

The arrests occurred across the occupied West Bank, including around Hebron, Nablus, Ramallah, Jenin and Tulkarm. 

More than 38,664 Palestinians have been killed and 89,097 have been injured in the Israeli military offensive in Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Monday.

Some 80 Palestinians were killed and 216 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.

(Reuters)

Three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Shujaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City according to Palestinian news agency WAFA, which also reported that others were wounded in the strike.

UK Foreign Minister David Lammy reiterated his support for a ceasefire and a "pathway towards a two-state solution" after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa.

"Our message is clear: we need an immediate ceasefire, the immediate release of all hostages, the protection of civilians, unfettered access to aid in Gaza, and a pathway towards a two-state solution," Lammy said in a post on X. 

Today I met with Israeli PM @netanyahu, and Palestinian Authority PM Mustafa.

Our message is clear: we need an immediate ceasefire, the immediate release of all hostages, the protection of civilians, unfettered access to aid in Gaza, and a pathway towards a two-state solution. pic.twitter.com/kmmIBsHgov

— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) July 14, 2024

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on Monday it had received a report of a merchant vessel being attacked by three small craft 70 nautical miles southwest of Yemen's Hodeidah city.

An unmanned small craft collided with the vessel twice and two manned small craft fired at it, according to UKMTO.

The vessel and crew were reported safe, and it was proceeding to the next port of call after it conducted "self protection measures", UKMTO said.

UKMTO WARNING
INCIDENT 099 - ATTACK - UPDATE 001https://t.co/fX3hWupi7g#MaritimeSecurity #MarSec pic.twitter.com/Ldv2NuAe3X

— United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) (@UK_MTO) July 15, 2024

(Reuters)

A military drill is set to take place in northern Israel's Emek HaYarden, the Israeli army announced, adding that although explosions will be heard there is no security concern.

The exercise comes as tension with Hezbollah, which has been engaged with the Israeli army in tit-for-tat border clashes since October 2023, continues to rise.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has announced that its teams have distributed aid to 400 families in Gaza City alongside Gaza's Ministry of Social Development, which includes "blankets, mattresses, food parcels, and personal hygiene kits."

"This effort is part of the Palestine Red Crescent Society's ongoing work to alleviate the suffering of families affected by the continuous Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip," the statement on X added.

The PRCS team in #Gaza City distributed relief aid to approximately 400 families whose homes were completely destroyed, in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Development in Gaza. The aid included blankets, mattresses, food parcels, and personal hygiene kits. This effort is… pic.twitter.com/xcy9xNZUat

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) July 15, 2024

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on Monday it had received a report of an incident 70 nautical miles southwest of Yemen's Hodeidah.

The agency said authorities were investigating the incident but didn't provide any details.

UKMTO WARNING
INCIDENT 099 - ATTACKhttps://t.co/fX3hWupi7g#MaritimeSecurity #MarSec pic.twitter.com/3v2whMRvO4

— United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) (@UK_MTO) July 15, 2024

(Reuters)