Netanyahu thanks Biden for support amid no let up on Gaza attacks

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A Hamas leader in the West Bank died in Israeli custody after a deterioration in his health condition, a Palestinian governmental body said early on Friday.

Mustafa Muhammad Abu Ara, 63, died after being transferred to a hospital from the Ramon jail in southern Israel, the Palestinian Commission of Detainees Affairs said in a statement.

"Before his arrest, he was suffering from serious health problems and needed intensive medical follow-up. However, from the moment of his arrest, Sheikh Abu Ara, like all prisoners, has faced unprecedented crimes ... since the beginning of the war of extermination."

Abu Ara, who was arrested in October last year, was subjected to torture and deprived of medical treatment, the Palestinian body said. There was no immediate comment from Israel.

At least 18 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody since the start of the Gaza war on Oct. 7, the Palestinian Prisoners Association said last month.

(Reuters)

US Vice President Kamala Harris signalled a major shift in Gaza policy on Thursday, telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu she had "serious concern" over casualties and telling him to get a peace deal done.

"We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent," said Harris, now the presumptive Democratic nominee after President Joe Biden bowed out of the 2024 US election.

Vice President Kamala Harris has just finished the meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington DC today.

Speaking to reporters after, Harris said she told the premier that she had "serious concern" over the number of casualties in Gaza, which is close to topping 40,000 in nine months of fighting.

The vice president said she had a "frank and constructive meeting" with Netanyahu.

All eyes have been on how Harris, now the front runner for Democrat presidential nominee, would navigate meeting Netanyahu amid tensions with Israel's brutal offensive and as an indicator on how foreign policy might play under a Harris administration.

Israel is seeking changes to a plan for a Gaza truce and the release of hostages by Hamas, complicating a final deal to halt nine months of combat that have devastated the enclave, according to a Western official and a Palestinian and two Egyptian sources.

Israel says that displaced Palestinians should be screened as they return to the enclave's north when the ceasefire begins, retreating from an agreement to allow civilians who fled south to freely return home, the four sources told Reuters.

Israeli negotiators "want a vetting mechanism for civilian populations returning to the north of Gaza, where they fear these populations could support” Hamas fighters who remain entrenched there, said the Western official.

The Palestinian militant group rejected the new Israeli demand, according to the Palestinian and Egyptian sources.

More here.

(Reuters)

Four Katyusha rockets were launched at Iraq's Ain al-Asad airbase that houses US-led coalition forces late on Thursday, two security sources said, with no immediate confirmation of any casualties or damage.

The sources said two rockets hit inside the base and two struck its perimeter. A coalition spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The attack came two days after a military summit in Washington where Iraqi and US officials discussed winding down the coalition's work a decade after it was formed to fight Islamic State as it stormed across Iraq and Syria.

(Reuters)

The US Central Command in its daily update said its forces "successfully destroyed" an uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) launcher in a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen.

"It was determined this launcher presented an imminent threat to US, coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region. These actions were taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure," CENTCOM said.

The Houthi group has been launching attacks in the Red Sea international shipping lane. It says it is targeting Israeli, US or UK-linked vessels in response to Israel's invasion of Gaza.

Fifteen children and one woman from Gaza arried in Spain on Wednesday for specialist medical treatment having been treated in Egypt after evacuated from the war-torn territory months ago.

The World Health Organisation said that sixteen people with "complicated medical conditions" had been in an Egyptian hospital and are a "small portion" of the thousands of other children and adults who need access to specialized medical care outside of Gaza. 

Thirteen of the children have complex medical conditions including cancer and a heart condition, the WHO said.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO said: "We encourage other countries who have the capacity and medical facilities to welcome people who, through no fault of their own, are caught in the grips of this war."

The United Arab Emirates called Thursday for a "temporary international mission" for post-war Gaza to restore order and address the humanitarian crisis in the devastated territory.

It came after Arab heads of state called at a summit in May for the deployment of UN peacekeepers across the occupied Palestinian territories, an idea strongly opposed by Israel.

"Consolidating peace and security and ending the humanitarian suffering should begin by the deployment of a temporary international mission in Gaza with a formal invitation from the Palestinian government," UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation Reem al-Hashimy told the official WAM news agency.

"This international mission will be responsible for efficiently responding to the humanitarian crisis... establishing law and order... and paving the way to reunite Gaza and the West Bank under a single, legitimate Palestinian Authority," she said.

Gaps in a Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas militants can be overcome, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday.

Kirby spoke as US President Joe Biden met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss prospects for a ceasefire.

"We need to get there soon," Kirby said.

 (Reuters)

US President Joe Biden will tell Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu a ceasefire in Gaza is needed "soon," the White House said Thursday, as the leaders met to discuss the country's nine-month war with Hamas militants.

"We believe that... we can achieve a deal, but it's going to require, as it always does, some leadership, some compromise and an effort to get there. The president will be reaffirming for Prime Minister Netanyahu that he believes we need to get there, and we need to get there soon," White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Thursday urged Israel to revoke its decision to outlaw the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), calling it nonsense.

"Outlawing UNRWA – and labelling it as terrorist, which it is not – amounts to targeting regional stability and human dignity of all those benefiting from the UN agency work", he said on social media platform X.

"We join many partners in urging the Israeli government to halt this nonsense."

On Monday, the Israeli parliament preliminarily approved a bill declaring UNRWA, the main UN relief organization for Palestinians, a terrorist organization and proposing to sever relations.

"It's another attempt in a wider campaign to dismantle the agency," UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma had previously said of the bill. "Such steps are unheard of in the history of the United Nations."

(Reuters)

The White House does not consider Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be a war criminal, despite the charges against the leader at two international courts.

In response to a question from reporters during a press briefing on Thursday over why the US was hosting the leader considering the charges against him at the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said that the US did not recognise Netanyahu as a war criminal.

The US does not recognise the jurisdiction of the ICC - a judicial offshoot of the UN and has rejected its case against Netanyahu and his defence minister for war crimes.

"We don't find the ICC's finding to be relevant or appropriate in this case," Kirby said.

The White House distanced itself from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remark that protesters on Capitol Hill yesterday were “Iran’s useful idiots”.

White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said that it was “not something we would say” in response to a reporter’s question during a press briefing on Thursday.

The briefing followed a meeting between US President Biden and Netanyahu in which it was expected that Biden would press the Israeli leader to end the war in Gaza, nearing its tenth month.

Netanyahu addressed US Congress on Wednesday and claimed that his military had taken efforts to protest civilians in Gaza and repeated falsities about the 7 October attack.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he would work with Joe Biden for his remaining time in office, after the US president's stunning decision to drop his re-election bid.

"I want to thank you for the 50 years of public service and 50 years of support for the state of Israel, and I look forward to discussing with you today and working with you in the months ahead," Netanyahu said as he met Biden for the first time at the White House to discuss a Gaza ceasefire deal.

Benjamin Netanyahu arrived at the White House on Thursday to meet with US President Joe Biden, the Israeli prime minister's first visit during the veteran Democrat's presidency.

Netanyahu arrived in a black SUV with Israeli and US flags and was then escorted into the West Wing, where he and Biden were expected to discuss ongoing negotiations over a Gaza ceasefire deal.

A top US general said on Thursday Israel still has not shared much of its "day after" planning for Gaza once the war with Hamas ends.

The remarks by Air Force General C.Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, followed a speech to Congress on Wednesday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that sketched only a vague outline for a "deradicalized" post-war Gaza.

"There's not a lot of detail that I've been able to see from a plan from them," Brown told a Pentagon press conference. "This is something that we'll continue to work with them on."

For months, Washington has repeatedly urged Israel to craft a realistic post-war plan for Gaza and warned that the absence of it could trigger lawlessness and chaos as well as a comeback by Hamas in the Palestinian territory.

"As far as the day after, we have talked to the Israelis about this, how to make a transition. We've talked to them a number of times," Brown said.

Hezbollah mourned the death of one of its members, Abdullah Mohammed Faqih, from the town of Rab Thalathin in southern Lebanon.

He was killed following Israeli bombing, The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.

The bodies of five Israeli captives retrieved this week from the Gaza Strip had been held in a tunnel deep underground, Israel's military said on Thursday.

The retrieval operation was carried out using intelligence gathered and analysed in recent weeks, said military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.

It took place "in the heart" of the city of Khan Younis, where Israeli forces returned to operate this week, he said.

The captives' bodies were hidden "in a branched tunnel about 200 meters long and about 20 meters underground", Hagari said.

On Wednesday, Israeli forces recovered the bodies of five captives killed in the Hamas-led 7 October attack and then taken to Gaza where they were held since.

They included a kindergarten teacher taken from her kibbutz in southern Israel and four reserve and conscript soldiers who had tried to repel the Hamas attack.

(Reuters)

Israeli aerial and artillery bombing of southern Gaza's Khan Younis has killed 21 Palestinians since dawn today, The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.

US Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday condemned what she called "despicable acts by unpatriotic protesters" outside Union Station in Washington, where some pro-Palestinian demonstrators burned American flags a day prior to protest a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"I condemn the burning of the American flag. That flag is a symbol of our highest ideals as a nation and represents the promise of America. It should never be desecrated in that way," Harris said in a statement released by the White House.

(Reuters)

Five Palestinians have been killed by Israel in southern Gaza, The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.

Four were killed by Israeli artillery fire in Khan Younis.

Another was killed by Israeli gunfire in Rafah.

Iran on Thursday denounced the US government and Congress for welcoming the Israeli prime minister amid the deadly war on Gaza that has raged for more than nine months.

"Palestinian children are slaughtered every day by the Tel Aviv butcher, and in the face of all these crimes, the American government and Congress are welcoming this executioner with applause," said Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani in a post on X.

"The criminal prime minister of a fake regime is embraced by his supporters after nine months of genocide and infanticide," he added, referring to Benjamin Netanyahu, who addressed the US congress on Wednesday.

The remarks came after Netanyahu called for an alliance against what he described as an Iranian "axis of terror", claiming Tehran is behind almost all sectarian killing in the Middle East.

"America and Israel today can forge a security alliance in the Middle East to counter the growing Iranian threat," he told US lawmakers.

A Houthi response to Israeli airstrikes near Yemen's Hodeidah is coming, the group's leader declared in a televised speech on Thursday.

Israeli fighter jets struck Houthi military targets near Yemen's port of Hodeidah on Saturday, killing at least nine people and wounding 87, a day after a Houthi drone hit Israeli economic hub Tel Aviv.

"The response is inevitable," Abdulmalik Al-Houthi said.

The group's attacks on Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza will continue and not be deterred by the Israeli airstrikes, he added.

"Everything that happens from the side of the Israeli enemy will be more incentive for revenge," Al-Houthi said.

(Reuters)

Israeli bombing of the Sheikh Nasser neighbourhood in southern Gaza's Khan Younis killed two people and injured one other, The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says there isn't space "even for a single tent" in the so-called "humanitarian area" in Al-Mawasi in southern Gaza.

It says on social media platform X that this is "due to the overwhelming number of people desperate for safety".

Israeli forces are attacking Khan Younis province for the fourth day in a row, forcing thousands of people to flee, PRCS says.

It adds that Israel is preventing displaced people from northern Gaza from returning to their homes.

"No safe places remain for displaced individuals," PRCS says.

"Hundreds of displaced families are living on roadsides or in destroyed houses."

PRCS calls on the international community to "act urgently" to "halt the forced displacement and suffering in Gaza and to end the war".

For the fourth consecutive day, the Israeli occupation continues targeting #KhanYunis Governorate, forcing thousands to flee. #Gaza #IHL pic.twitter.com/MEM1fIRt28

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) July 25, 2024

Hamas's armed wing says it blew up two tunnels with Israeli forces inside, killing and injuring them.

Al-Qassam Brigades say the Israelis were lured to and then entered the tunnels in Yibna refugee camp in southern Gaza's Rafah.

The bodies of three people killed in Israeli bombing east of Khan Younis have been recovered, The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.

Israeli forces have demolished residential buildings in the town of Bani Suheila in southern Gaza's Khan Younis province, The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.

Hamas's armed wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, announces jointly with Palestinian Islamic Jihad's military branch, Al-Quds Brigades, that it has Israeli forces near a mosque east of the city of Khan Younis using heavy-calibre mortars.

At least 39,175 people have been killed in more than nine months of Israel's war on Gaza, the Palestinian enclave's health ministry says.

The toll includes 30 deaths in 24 hours, according to ministry figures, which also list 90,403 people as having been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began in October.

The Civil Defence in Gaza says six people were killed and a number of others injured after Israel bombed a home in Qizan Al-Najjar, a village in southern Gaza's Khan Younis province.

Three Israeli soldiers were injured in a shooting near Nabi Ilyas, a village in the occupied West Bank's Qalqilya province, according to the Israeli military.

Their conditions varied, with one injured to a moderate level, the Times of Israel news website reports.

The Israeli military said it was looking for the attackers and surrounding Palestinian towns close by.

Israeli forces advanced deeper into some towns on the eastern side of Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Thursday.

Fighting in recent days has centred around the eastern towns of Bani Suaila, Al-Zanna, and Al-Karara.

Several people were wounded in the eastern towns during Israeli tank and aerial shelling, while an airstrike east of Khan Younis killed four, Palestinian health officials said.

Israeli bombardment intensified in several areas in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, as tanks operated north, west and in the town centre, residents and medics said. Several Palestinians were also wounded in Israeli fire earlier on Thursday.

The Israeli military claimed forces operating in Khan Younis killed dozens of militants and dismantled around 50 military infrastructures, while it continued activities in Rafah, killing two militants.

(Reuters)

The Civil Defence in Gaza said four people were killed and a number of others injured after Israel attacked a home in Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood.

Artillery shelling targeted the east of the Shujaiya neighbourhood in Gaza City, The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.

An Israeli aircraft opened fire on Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.

Israeli artillery resumes its shelling of the town of Al-Qarara, north of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.

Australia on Thursday imposed financial sanctions and travel bans on seven Israeli settlers and a youth group it said had been involved in violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

The unnamed group was responsible for inciting and perpetrating violence against Palestinians, while the settlers had been involved in beatings, sexual assault and torture and in some cases death, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said.

"We call on Israel to hold perpetrators of settler violence to account and to cease its ongoing settlement activity, which only inflames tensions and further undermines stability and prospects for a two-state solution," Wong said in a statement.

The move by the Australian government comes after allies Britain, the United States, Canada and Japan sanctioned some Israeli settlers in response to the violence in the West Bank.

(Reuters)

Israeli forces retrieved the bodies of five Israelis held in the Gaza Strip after they were killed during the Hamas-led 7 October attack on southern Israel, the military said.

It said the bodies of Maya Goren as well as soldiers Tomer Ahimas and Kiril Brodski, along with Ravid Aryeh Katz and Oren Goldin – military reservists – had been returned to Israel following a rescue operation.

The five had been previously announced dead, and the military and an Israeli campaign group, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, said that they all had been killed by Palestinian militants on the day of the attack.

The military said the soldiers were killed in combat while fighting the militants on 7 October.

The bodies were recovered on Wednesday during an operation in Khan Yunis, the main city in the south of the Gaza Strip, the military said, more than nine months into Israel's war on Gaza.