Ten months since Israel's war on Gaza sees destruction continue, devastation in Khan Younis

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.

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement said on Wednesday that it had targeted a ship identified as the Contship Ono with ballistic missiles in the Red Sea, as well as two US destroyers heading northwards in the waterway.

(Reuters)

Israel's army chief vowed to pursue and eliminate Yahya Sinwar on Wednesday after he was named leader of Hamas following the killing of his predecessor in Tehran last week.

"We will strive to find him, attack him, and replace the head of the political bureau again," Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi told soldiers, according to a statement issued by his spokesman.

Egypt instructed all of its airlines to avoid Iranian air space for a three-hour period in the early morning on Thursday amid tension between Israel and Iran.

The NOTAM, a safety notice provided to pilots on Wednesday, said the instruction would be in effect from 0100-0400 GMT.

"All Egyptian carriers shall avoid overflying Tehran (Flight information Region) FIR. No flight plan will be accepted overflying such territory," the notice said, referring to the three-hour period provided.

On Sunday, Jordanian authorities asked all airlines landing at its airports to carry 45 minutes worth of extra fuel.

Many airlines are revising their schedules to avoid Iranian and Lebanese air space while also calling off flights to Israel and Lebanon as many fear a possible broader conflict after the killing of senior members of militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

Countries in the region, including Jordan, closed their airspace earlier this year amidst aerial attacks on Israel.

(Reuters)

Iran's response to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran will take place "at the right time and in the appropriate shape", Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani said in a statement on Wednesday.

Iran and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas accuse Israel of carrying out Haniyeh's assassination on 31 July. Israel has not claimed or denied responsibility.

(Reuters)

The World Health Organization on Wednesday said it will send more than one million polio vaccines to war-torn Gaza after the virus was detected in wastewater there.

"WHO is sending more than 1 million polio vaccines which will be administered in the coming weeks," the UN agency's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference.

Israel's official X account has posted a video message to Lebanon telling Lebanese people to demand the government get rid of Hezbollah, and claimed that Lebanon had been taken hostage by Hezbollah.

In a message to addressed to Lebanese people Israel said "there is no land dispute between us in Israel and you in Lebanon. Israel wants peace with you. The problem is Hezbollah and the expansionist Iranian agenda, which has been destroying your country for decades." 

"Imagine you life without Hezbollah. Imagine your future without war. We the people of Israel can no longer allow Hezbollah to threaten us. It is time to rid the region of Hezbollah," the video added. 

"It is time for you in Lebanon to demand from your government that it get rid of Hezbollah and Nasrallah." 

To our neighbors in Lebanon:

Your country has been taken hostage by Hezbollah, a terrorist organization which has wreaked destruction, terror and instability across Lebanon.

Hezbollah is not only a threat to us in Israel, but a threat to the safety and security of the people of… pic.twitter.com/fScxmYNa6u

— Israel ישראל (@Israel) August 7, 2024

Iran will not stay quiet over aggression, President Masoud Pezeshkian told French counterpart Emmanuel Macron according to state media on Wednesday, amid fears of more regional conflict after the killing in Tehran last week of Hamas' leader.

"Iran will never remain silent in the face of aggression against its interests and security", Pezeshkian told Macron in a phone call, criticising Israel over the 10-month Gaza war.

"If the United States and the Western countries are truly seeking to prevent war in the region, they must force this regime (Israel) to stop the genocide and attacks on Gaza and accept a ceasefire," he said, according to the media.

An emergency meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation was being held on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia at Iran's request to discuss the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, the former leader of Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Tehran and Iran-aligned groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah have accused Israel of killing Haniyeh on 31 July. His death was one in a series of killings of senior Hamas figures during the war.

Israeli officials have not claimed responsibility for Haniyeh's death.

(Reuters)

Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told reservist soldiers in northern Israel that the situation on the Israel Lebanon border could "deteriorate into a state of war."

"This is not theoretical, it is real" he was quoted by Haaretz as saying.

In a threat to Lebanon he said that "they can't imagine what could happen", but that "if they take a picture of Gaza, they will understand." 

Israeli airstrikes on Khan Younis have killed six people, according to reports from Al Jazeera, with one airstrike on a home in the western parts of the city killing two, and another in a market in the same area killing four. 

Another strike on the town of Abasan east of Khan Younis has caused additional casualties, the report said.

Rumours of a possible evacuation operation from Lebanon have given German citizens there a false sense of security, a German foreign ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday, urging them to leave the country immediately.

"The time now has come to leave Lebanon," the spokesperson said, calling on citizens to organise their own exit even if this means travelling via Turkey or paying high prices for flights.

A spokesperson for the defence ministry declined to give details on preparations for possible evacuations in the event of an escalation in the Middle East conflict.

(Reuters)

One person was killed and four were injured in an Israeli airstrike on the town of Jouaiya in southern Lebanon according to the country's health ministry.

Israeli forces on Wednesday issued new evacuation orders to Palestinians in areas of north Gaza that were among the first to be hit at the start of the war with Hamas in October, after militants fired a fresh volley of rockets into Israel.

Army spokesperson Avichay Adraee posted the evacuation orders for several districts in Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, two now largely demolished towns into which Israeli tanks swept at the outset of Israel's ground invasion.

"Hamas and terrorist organisations are firing rockets from your area towards the State of Israel. The IDF will act forcefully and immediately against them," Adraee said in the message sent by text or social media to Palestinian residents.

"For your own safety, evacuate immediately to the known shelters in the center of Gaza City," the army spokesman said.

In a nearby Gaza City neighbourhood, Al-Tuffah, an Israeli airstrike on a house killed three Palestinians, medics said.

(Reuters)

Arab leaders are due to hold talks today for an extraordinary meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in the wake of the regional instability following the assassinations of Palestinian leader Ismail Haniyeh and a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut.

Foreign ministers from OIC member states will discuss the "continued crimes of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people," it said in a statement.

"In response to the ongoing atrocities committed by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people, particularly in the Gaza Strip, this meeting has been convened".

The OIC is a collective body of 48 majority Muslim countries, including Oman, Lebanon, Yemen, Nigeria, and Qatar among others.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant announced on X that he had called German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius to talk about the "threats posed by Iran and its proxies against Israel and the wider region." 

"Thank you Minister, for standing with Israel," Gallant said, adding that "the free world must come together against the biggest destabilizer and exporter of terrorism - Iran". 

Held an important discussion with my friend, German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius. Briefed the Minister on security developments and threats posed by Iran and its proxies against Israel and the wider region.

Thank you Minister, for standing with Israel. The free world…

— יואב גלנט - Yoav Gallant (@yoavgallant) August 7, 2024

Israeli jets flying over Beirut have caused sonic booms in what is becoming a near daily occurrence for the city. Sonic booms were also heard yesterday prior to a speech made by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who mentioned them in his speech.

Two loud sonic booms by Israeli jets over Beirut just now, no one pauses their conversations at the cafe I’m at.

How quickly this becomes normalised.

— Will Christou (@will_christou) August 7, 2024

Gaza's ministry of health has announced that at least 24 people have been killed and 110 wounded by Israel in the last 24 hours.

The ministry added that at least 39,677 Palestinians have been killed and 91,645 have been injured in Israel's war on Gaza.

German airline giant Lufthansa said Wednesday it will avoid using Iranian and Iraqi airspace until 13 August, extending an earlier decision not to fly over the countries, with Middle East tensions high.

It also extended a suspension of services to Tel Aviv, Tehran, Beirut, Amman and Erbil to the same date, the group said in a statement.

Over 1,000 British soldiers are currently on standby at in the UK and at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus to prepare for an evacuation of British citizens in Lebanon according to The Times. 

The military are reported to be planning for an evacuation at the same scale as the UK's evacuation of British and Afghan citizens in Kabul in 2021. 

The Times quoted government sources who expect Israel will strike targets across Lebanon rather than just the south.

The official spokesperson Yemen's Houthis has congratulated the appointment of Yahya Sinwar as leader of Hamas.

Mohammed Abdulsalam said in a statement that "we ask God Almighty to grant the leader Sinwar support and guidance to carry out this responsibility in this historic phase of the confrontation with the Israeli enemy."

Turkey will submit on Wednesday a declaration of intervention in South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague, a diplomatic source said.

The declaration will happen at 1330 GMT, the source added, after Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said this week that Turkey would make the declaration on Wednesday.

"Turkey's intervention pushes the international community to recognise and address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza," the source said.

In May, Turkey said it had decided to join the case launched by South Africa as it stepped up measures against Israel over the assault on Gaza, adding that its bid would follow the necessary legal preparations.

(Reuters)

US President Joe Biden has discussed ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza in separate phone calls with the Egyptian president and Qatari emir.

Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi and Biden discussed joint efforts between the three countries to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and contain the ongoing escalation, the Egyptian presidency website reported on Tuesday.

The statement said he had emphasised that reaching a ceasefire in Gaza was key to restoring calm and stability in the region.

Biden also discussed developments in Gaza and mediation efforts to end the war with Qatari Emir Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, the Qatari news agency QNA reported.

In a separate call, Sisi and Jordanian King Abdullah II discussed tensions in the region and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the Egyptian presidency website reported.

Lebanon's Hezbollah released a statement on Tuesday welcoming Sinwar's appointment.

The group praised the appointment as a "strong message" to Israel that Hamas was "united in its decision, firm in its principles, steadfast in its key choices, and determined to continue on the path of resistance and jihad".

The group added that the appointment of Sinwar during "this sensitive time" had increased "the people of the region's faith and determination to unify efforts and continue the jihad and resistance until complete liberation".

Hamas has named the mastermind behind the 7 October attack on Israel, Yahya Sinwar, as its new group leader to succeed Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran on 31 July.

"After in-depth and extensive consultations and deliberations in the movement's leadership institutions, Hamas decided to choose the brother, the leader and mujahid Yahya Sinwar, as head of the movement's political bureau," Hamas said in a statement late on Tuesday.

Sinwar is also the head of Hamas's Gaza-based political bureau. His exact location in Gaza remains unknown.

Hamas expressed its confidence in Sinwar, also referred to as Abu Ibrahim, as the group's leader "in a sensitive phase and complex local, regional and international circumstances and asks God Almighty to grant him success and guide his steps", the statement said.