Israel's reinvasion of Shujaiya continues while released Al-Shifa director details prison abuse

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Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians in the village of Asira al-Qibliya, south of Nablus, injuring three, according to sources from the Palestinian Red Crescent.

One Palestinian was injured after being severely beaten, while two others has stones thrown at them.

The Israeli army on Monday issued a new evacuation order for parts of Khan Yunis and Rafah in southern Gaza, with witnesses reporting that many were fleeing.

Hundreds of thousands had already left Rafah ahead of and during a ground offensive launched by Israeli troops on the southernmost city since early May.

The warning for Al-Qarara, Bani Suhaila and other towns in the two governorates, made on social media and in an official statement, came hours after Israel said 20 "projectiles" were fired into Israel from the Khan Yunis region.

The attack was claimed by the armed wing of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad. Israel had already staged air strikes in Rafah on Monday.

Israel is almost finished with eliminating Hamas' military capabilities in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.

"We are advancing to the end of the phase of eliminating the terrorist army of Hamas, and there will be a continuation to strike its remnants," Netanyahu said, according to a statement from his office.

(Reuters)

A group of pro-Palestine protesters are rallying outside Wimbledon against its sponsor, Barclays Bank, which has ties to Israel's ongoing war on Gaza.

The protest, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, had protesters gather outside the stadium with a giant tennis ball with "Barclays sponsors Wimbledon and genocide" written on it, along with plates of strawberries covered in red sauce to represent Palestinian blood.

Barclays Bank has long had financial ties with Israel, having increased investments and its its financing of arms companies supplying Israel.

We're outside @Wimbledon to tell their sponsor @barclays that they cannot sportswash their brand. Barclays has £billions invested in 9 arms companies supplying Israel's genocide in Gaza. Wimbledon needs to drop this toxic brand. #BoycottBarclays pic.twitter.com/YvjiSHcREr

— PSC (@PSCupdates) July 1, 2024

Quds News Network reports Palestinians are facing widespread incidents of skin diseases and rashes among the displaced residents in camps.

This is because of overcrowding and the accumulation of sewage and waste between the tents.

A pharmacist in a displacement camp in Gaza’s Deir el-Balah said skin infections are rising among children “because of the hot weather and lack of clean water” - Al Jazeera reports.

Palestinians face a widespread occurrence of skin diseases and rashes among the displaced residents in camps due to overcrowding and the accumulation of sewage and waste between the tents. pic.twitter.com/i0uP4UBzOD

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) July 1, 2024

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said it is "nearly impossible" to deliver humanitarian aid in Gaza due to restrictions from Israeli authorities.

Speaking to the BBC World Service, the organisation's Louise Wateridge said: "With these access restrictions from the Israeli authorities, it is incredibly difficult, if not nearly impossible, for us to deliver a humanitarian response."

"We are struggling to obtain the approval of the Israeli authorities to enter and deliver aid, with the aim of ensuring the safety of our teams and the safety of the aid at the same time."

Israel has been preventing life-saving humanitarian aid from reaching Palestinians in need with severe restrictions and red tape.

Israeli warplanes launched two airstrikes in the Kafr Kela village in southern Lebanon. The aircraft also targeted a residential block in Aita al-Shaab.

Lebanon's Civil Defence can be seen clearing up debris left by the airstrike.

Tensions between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah have been escalating since Israel's war on Gaza erupted in October.

Lebanon's Civil Defense clears debris left by an Israeli airstrike targeting the village of Kafr Kela in southern Lebanon early this morning. pic.twitter.com/ds6Xf3eiq6

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) July 1, 2024

An Israeli soldier was killed in Rafah, south of Gaza, on Monday, the military has said.

Sergent Ori Itzchak Hadad, 21, of the Nahal Brigade’s 931st Battalion from Beersheba, was killed, while another militant of the same brigade was severely wounded in the same incident.

Hadad's death brings the number of Israeli soldiers killed since 7 October to 319.

Israeli troops carried out an airstrike in the northern West Bank on Sunday, killing a "Palestinian militant" and wounding five other people, Palestinian health officials said.

The strike took place in Nur Shams, an urban refugee camp that has been a frequent target of the Israeli military. The state-run Palestinian news agency Wafa said an Israeli drone fired three missiles and struck a house.

Islamic Jihad identified the dead man as Saeed al-Jaber, one of its local commanders. Wafa said he had escaped a previous drone strike on 20 June. There were no details on the identities of the wounded. Health officials said two were in critical condition.

The Israeli military confirmed an attack on the home, saying that militants inside, including al-Jaber, were responsible for recent attacks on Israeli targets.

On Monday, Israeli tanks deepened their incursions into the Shujaya suburb in eastern Gaza City for a fifth day, and tanks advanced further in western and central Rafah, in southern Gaza near the border with Egypt, residents said.

The Israeli military said it had killed a number of militants in combat in Shujaya on Monday and found large amounts of weapons there.

Israeli forces detained at least 16 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, according to the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Commission and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.

The detained include a female student at Birzeit University, children, and former prisoners, in addition to five civilians from Gaza.

Over 9,465 Palestinians in the West Bank have been detained since 7 October.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has announced that Spain has filed to intervene in South Africa's genocide case against Israel.

Spain, along with Norway and Ireland also announced their decision to formally recognise Palestine as a state.

PRESS RELEASE: #Spain filed in the #ICJ Registry a declaration of intervention in the case concerning Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (#SouthAfrica v. #Israel) https://t.co/If4vvMg0Tq pic.twitter.com/F3l9SxopQq

— CIJ_ICJ (@CIJ_ICJ) July 1, 2024

The Gaza Health Ministry said on Monday that at least 37,900 people have been killed during nearly nine months of Israel's war on Gaza.

The toll includes at least 23 deaths over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 87,060 people had been wounded in the Gaza Strip since 7 October.

Israel's National Unity chairman, Benny Gantz, is calling for the government to resign after the director of Al Shifa Hospital, Muhammad Abu Salmiya, was released on Monday.

"A government that frees those who sheltered the murderers of October 7 and helped to hide our hostages made a moral and ethical operational error and thus is not fit to lead our existential war and needs to go home," he said in a statement.

"Mr. Prime Minister, if you shut down some government ministries, I am sure that space and budgets will be freed up for prisons. You cannot continue waging war this way," he added.

Tensions have been high between Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu and Gantz over the war on Gaza.

The Financial Times reports Israel's post-war Gaza plans, which involve preparing to test Hamas-free "bubbles" in a bid to replace Hamas rule in the enclave.

The Israeli army would send aid from the Western Erez crossing to local Palestinians, who would then distribute aid and eventually take on further responsibility to take over the area. 

According to people aware of the plan, these bubbles will be launched in Atatra, Beit Hanoun, and Beir Lahia, in the northern Gaza neighbourhoods.

Humanitarian workers have started moving tons of aid piled up at a United States-built pier off the Gaza coast to warehouses in the besieged territory, the United Nations said Saturday. This is an important step as the US considers whether to resume pier operations after another pause due to heavy seas.

It was not clear when the aid might reach Palestinians in Gaza, where experts have warned of the high risk of famine as the war on Gaza is in its ninth month. This is the first time trucks have moved aid from the pier since the UN’s World Food Program suspended operations due to security concerns on 9 June.

Millions of pounds of aid have piled up. In just the last week, more than 10 million pounds were moved ashore, according to the US military.

Israel released the director of Gaza's main hospital on Monday, seven months after the military raided the facility over allegations it was being used as a Hamas command center.

The release of Mohammed Abu Selmia without charge or trial raised further questions about Israel's allegations regarding Al Shifa Hospital, which its forces have raided on two occasions since the start of its nearly nine-month war on Gaza. 

Abu Selmia said he and other prisoners had been tortured and held under harsh conditions, allegations that could not be independently confirmed but matched other accounts of Palestinian detainees who have been released back into Gaza.

“Our detainees have been subjected to all kinds of torture behind bars,” he said. “There was almost daily torture. Cells are broken into and prisoners are beaten.” He said guards broke his finger and caused his head to bleed during beatings, in which they used batons and dogs.

He said the medical staff at different facilities where he was held had also taken part in the abuse “in violation of all laws.” He said some detainees had limbs amputated because of poor medical care.

Israeli officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment about why he had been released or his allegations of mistreatment. Prison authorities have previously denied such mistreating detainees.

Director of Al Shifa Hospital, Dr Mohammad abu Silmiyeh, after his release:

🗣️ Prisoners are experiencing tragic conditions due to humiliation, as well as the lack of food, water and medical care.

🗣️Hundreds of medical staff have been targeted by the occupation, and several… pic.twitter.com/YbaGp4z0Pb

— Motasem A Dalloul (@AbujomaaGaza) July 1, 2024

Israel's military said on Sunday that 18 of its soldiers were injured, one of them seriously, when a drone struck their position in the occupied Golan Heights, which borders Lebanon.

The Israeli army said in a statement the strike happened earlier on Sunday. It said since then, it had struck Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon with air strikes and artillery fire.

Fighting between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah has been escalating after the war on Gaza.

(Reuters)

Israel's military said Palestinian militants fired on Monday a barrage of some "20 projectiles" from Gaza's main southern city, Khan Yunis, and that forces were striking the suspected launch site.

"Approximately 20 projectiles were identified crossing from the area of Khan Yunis. A number of the projectiles were intercepted and some of the projectiles fell inside southern Israel," the military said, reporting no casualties.

The armed wing of Islamic Jihad said it had fired the salvo that targeted several southern Israel communities along the border with Gaza.

"We bombed ... the settlements along the Gaza Strip with a missile barrage in response to the crimes of the Zionist enemy against our Palestinian people," the Al-Quds Brigades said in a statement.

Thousands of Jewish ultra-Orthodox men clashed with Israeli police in central Jerusalem on Sunday during a protest against a Supreme Court order for them to begin enlisting for military service.

The landmark decision on 25 June ordering the government to begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men could lead to the collapse of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition as Israel assaults Gaza.

Tens of thousands of men rallied in an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood to protest the order. But after nightfall, the crowd made its way toward central Jerusalem and turned violent, with protesters throwing rocks and police using skunk-scented water cannons to disperse the crowd. The demonstration was still not under control late Sunday.

A Palestinian health official says Israel released 55 Palestinians on Monday whom it had detained from Gaza, including the director of the territory's main hospital.

Mohammed Abu Selmia was detained in November when Israeli forces raided Al Shifa Hospital. In video comments aired by Palestinian media following his release, Abu Selmia accused Israeli authorities of subjecting Palestinian detainees to "daily physical and psychological humiliation." Israeli authorities have denied such allegations.